This is one of the weaker books of Appelfeld in my opinion. It certainly is still an interesting novel, though if you're just getting accustomed to Appelfeld's work, I would recommend Katerina, The Iron Tracks, or Badenheim 1939.

The titular Bartfuss has lived a largely underground existence since surviving the Holocaust, amassing an ever increasing fortune as a smuggler even as his alienation from those around him--particularly his estranged wife and two daughters--continues apace. As a record of a man's journey from a kind of living death, this book benefits a lot from Appelfeld's terse, simple prose, which keeps the tale rolling at a brisk pace. He's the sort of writer who knows exactly what he can state explicitly and what he can leave unsaid. It may just be me, but I was not altogether convinced by the book, partly due to the somewhat abrupt ending. I will tentatively suggest that the author was only partly successful in dramatizing Bartfuss' internal conflicts... or maybe I'm just missing the point of Appelfeld's minimalist artistry. I will still recommend the book, and suggest that who anyone likes it should also seek out Appelfeld's "Badenheim 1939."

This is a remarkable book written with words hidden and unstated. For Bartfuss, the holocaust should produce "greatness of soul" either from himself or other survivors. He is frustrated by his inability to do so and give freely. Here is a highly complex character living in Jaffa, Israel. And it should be appreciated by many thoughtful readers.

This edition of "The Stories of David Bergelson" includes 2 short stories and a novella. Bergelson is a rather unknown Russian Yiddish writer who was killed at the age of 38 victim of Stalin's mass executions. He is considered sucessor to Yiddish writers such as Peretz, Mendele, and Sholem Aleichem. He differentiates from them in many aspects: he depicted life at the shtetl when the community was declining, when its member were loosing their religious ties and had to adapt to a new way of life. Bergelson writes for an educated audience and not for the poor masses. In terms of style his use of words is precise, to the point. His many characters have a complex psychological structure, they represent people who feel lonely, alienated, confussed, and with a loss of values.

Most of the books I have read by Mr. Aharon Appelfeld have dealt with movement, the movement of an individual, or in this case, a Mother and her Son. This work differs as it is at the beginning of The Holocaust, and we read not of survivors attempting to travel and regain their previous life, but of individuals heading straight into the Genocide.

This is one of the briefer of this Author's novels, however it does not lack depth in plot, or in its characters. The story takes place in the summer of 1938, the infamous trains have been transporting the Reich's victims, and this is one of the more interesting pieces of the story to unravel. The Country that was their home was an early entrant into the Nazi Sphere, and their travels took them not away from, but rather toward the planned insanity that was taking place. The circumstances are also more complex as the Mother has left an abusive marriage to a Gentile. The only child is a Son, who though Jewish by Religious and Nazi Law, appears not to be, and their reception along the way demonstrates this. As they approach their ultimate destination the Mother also wavers from proclaiming her Son a Jew or a Christian.

The return trip without the waiting trains is still destined to be a painful conflict. This first return home after marrying outside her faith guarantees conflict with her Family at a minimum. As the trip progresses the mood darkens, however the Mother seems much more aware than her Son.

When the final approach to her hometown is all that is left after weeks of travel, the Son wakes to find he has been left, his Mother has gone on without him. And from this point on the story seems to pose the question of whether or not the Mother was having her Son deliver her to this danger she could not have been ignorant of, as she states that Jews are not well-liked as they get closer to her birthplace.

The Son pursues his Mother, and meets many others on their way to the trains, or others that wait for them. I am confident that many will interpret the story differently, but it seemed that the Mother knew what the future held, and wanted her Son to deliver her believing he would not be suspected of being Jewish.

Like all his books the storylines are not shallow or simplistic. Even when Mr. Appelfeld writes about the Holocaust that the he survived and his Mother did not; it still is not just about that instant of tragedy. Read a work of his twice and interpretations can change,

I read this book in a day- very short and very vague. This is the first I've read of this author so I don't know if this is his style or a different feel than his other books. It is basically filled with characters that hate their Jewishness. However, these characters are one dimensional, boring sketches that failed to interest me. I kept trying to ponder this book after finishing for some worthy or powerful statement of Anything! All I discovered is that I'm GLAD some books are really short.