Ms. Hen reviews Night

 

Night 

Elie Wiesel

Hill and Wang

1958

Translation by Marion Wiesel 2006

Ms. Hen found this book at a Little Free Library near where she lives. She thought she had read it before; she meant to read it, but as she started, she realized she never had. She knew it had been in her presence before, but someone might have recommended that she shouldn't read it, because she might become upset, but Ms. Hen can't remember.

This novel is about Elie Wiesel's experience in Auschwitz when he was young. He was sent with his family, as well as all the Jewish people in his town. His entire family did not survive. He talks in the novel about the struggles of the people in the camp: how they think about food more than anything, and how everyone seems to be out for themselves. 

He describes an incident when he hurt his foot, and ended up in the infirmary. Rumors fly that the camp is going to be invaded, so he struggles to walk to save himself. He found out later that everyone in the infirmary was liberated, but nobody knew that would happen.

Ms. Hen has read many books like this before, but she understands that this was one of the first of its kind. She thinks there is a dry humor to the book, and even though the protagonist suffers immensely, he finds a reason to laugh at times. People who can joke in the face of death will never fear anything.

Ms. Hen wonders why she had never read this before. She thinks she was dissuaded because it is so well known, but there are several that she has read like this such as SURVIVAL IN AUSCHWITZ by Primo Levi, and THE LIBRARIAN OF AUSCHWITZ by Antonio Iturbe, and others. 

The stories of survival and hope never become old. Ms. Hen knows that the world is still dysfunctional, but she wants to believe that through these books and stories, the tyrants of the world have a slimmer chance of succeeding than they would have before. If only more people read books, Ms. Hen thinks the world would be a brighter place 😊