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Title: Etty Hillesum: An Interrupted Life the Diaries, 1941-1943 and Letters from Westerbork by Eva Hoffman, Etty Hillesum ISBN: 0-8050-5087-6 Publisher: Henry Holt & Company, Inc. Pub. Date: 15 November, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.6 (10 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: This Is Difficult to Get Into, But Well Worth Staying With
Comment: I found this book very difficult to get into. Like many spiritual journals this book seemed at first overly self-centered and indulgent; one page read boringly very much like the page that went before. Her sleeping around and her bizarre therapy with Spier put one off. And Etty herself felt very deeply, vehemently, passionately; reading her can be like drinking water from a fire hose. One might feel like giving up the battle, but it will be well worth your while to push on. More and more one begins to see astonishing signs of spiritual growth and maturity and then of extraordinary achievement and grace. Emotionalism passes into selfless and self-sacrificing love. She moves speedily from her first ability to say the word God to constant prayer and even to a mystical union, all the more significant for being so unrelated to any conventional religion. In the midst of ever increasing certitude about coming annihilation, and eventually amid the horrors of the transit camp of Westerbork, this young woman not only manages to preserve her sanity and keep herself from hating her persecutors, but somehow even comes to rejoice in the beauty and meaning of life. It is truly a wonder how anyone could manage to grow to such transcendent greatness of spirit in so short a time. How fortunate for us that it happened to a woman who felt so deeply, knew herself so clearly, and wrote so aptly, and whose writings from the midst of the Holocaust has survived to our time.
Rating: 5
Summary: Transformative
Comment: In these trying times, this book is a gentle reminder that terrible events have the curious power to make us better (more caring, more open, more alive) people. I was utterly transfixed by Etty's swift transformation from a self-absorbed whiner to a spiritual and philosophical mystic who transcended the horrors of her time.
As a memoir of life and death during the Nazi Holocaust, as well as a chronicle of spiritual transformation, this ranks among the very best.
Though it has been five years since I read the book, I am still inspired by Etty's courage and love.
Rating: 2
Summary: Translation is execrable
Comment: Having read the reviews, I am amazed that Etty's spiritual growth managed to be felt by the reviewers despite the terrible translation. This translator not only leaves out the poetry of her way of expressing herself -- the continuing metaphors she employs to make her points -- but the translator completely misses the point and mistranslates almost on every page. For example, on page 211 of this edition, the translator has Etty telling us that Klaus committed suicide and that she must "make sure his name is taken off the card index." No, no, no. Klaus did not commit suicide and in any case, even if he had, Etty would not have worried bureaucratically about removing his name from a registry. What Etty really said was that a man committed suicide in the camp hospital and Klaus's reaction was to worry about taking his name off the registry. Because Klaus COULD NOT EMPATHIZE. Klaus hated the Nazis but he himself had the heart of a Nazi. This is what fascinated Etty -- that this man who could see the evil in others was oblivious to his own. This point is obscured by the erroneous translation.
A translator who does not understand the message is unable to translate the message. Etty's message is subtle. Her message is about spiritual growth. If the translator is not at the same level of understanding, the translation will be distorted by numerous tiny slightly wrong word choices and word order. If you liked the book in this translation, well, one can only hope that someone will translate it correctly some day. Or if you can read French, try the version "Une vie boulverse" by Philippe Noble, Editions du Seuil.
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Title: Lying Awake by Mark Salzman, Mark Salzman ISBN: 0375706062 Publisher: Vintage Books Pub. Date: 09 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Essential Rumi by Coleman Barks ISBN: 0062509594 Publisher: Harper SanFrancisco Pub. Date: 14 February, 1997 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Dorothy Day: Selected Writings by Robert Ellsberg, Dorothy Day ISBN: 0883448025 Publisher: Orbis Books Pub. Date: September, 1992 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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Title: I Asked for Wonder: A Spiritual Anthology by Abraham Joshua Heschel, Samuel H. Dresner ISBN: 0824505425 Publisher: Crossroad/Herder & Herder Pub. Date: September, 1983 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: In Search of Belief by Joan Chittister ISBN: 0764803379 Publisher: Liguori Publications Pub. Date: February, 1999 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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