Aharon Appelfeld is one of the world's greatest living novelists, and this novel demonstrates his many virtues. Like his previous works "The Age of Wonders" and "The Immortal Bartfuss" it is short, it concentrates on Holocaust survivors, and its style is sparse, elliptical. Erwin Siegelbaum is in late middle age and has spent decades riding the trains in Austria. He makes his living by finding Jewish memorobillia in the now Judenrein countryside and buying them from gentiles who cannot recognize their value. It is a depressing business, since the Austrian countryside is drab, ugly, and ungenerous, even without the vicious anti-Semitism that Siegelbaum encounters. One converted Jew wishes that it could be wiped away like Sodom and Gommorah, and Siegelbaum at the end of the novel wishes that he could burn one town down to the ground. At the same time he is searching for vengeance against the Nazi officer who murdered his parents.

The legitimacy of this quest is not questioned by Siegelbaum, but by the end it is clear that it is not a sufficient or adequate solution to Siegelbaum's miserable, loveless life. What, after all is it like to avenge one parents, not in the abstract, but one's own actual parents? As in his earlier novels, there is the inevitable sickening ambiguity. His parents, Communist organizers, were not cruel to him, and they made considerable sacrifices for their cause. But they were often naive about the Ruthenians they tried to organize, they attacked Jewish capitalists, and were of course compromised by the Stalinist nature of the party. Erwin's father shortchanged his education, because he saw a normal education as an evil bourgeois plot (a view, given the nature of authoritarian Europe in the 1930s, that is not entirely inaccurate). His mother is burdened by a world-weariness that drains life from her before her death in a camp. After the war Siegelbaum encounters his parent's former Communist comrades and in his wandering he experiences the dissolution and decay of their ideals. If he is trapped by the past, others cannot be bothered to remember it (he encounters a quarter-Jew who is surprised to find out that the Old Testament did not mention Jesus.)

And so Siegelbaum rides the trains, bribing the waiter to switch the radio to the classical music station. Zionism or Orthodoxy do not bring him comfort and solace("Religious Jews frighten me"); his connection to Judaism that forced upon him by history and inertia: "My memory is a powerful machine that stores and constantly discharges lost years and faces. In the past I believed that travel would blunt my memory; I was wrong. Over the years, I must admit, it has only grown stronger. Were it not for my memory, my life would be different--better I assume." Recently however "A glass of cognac, for instance, separates me from my memory for a while. I feel relief as if after a terrible toothache."

Siegelbaum's connections to women are brief: "Love for a station or two is love without pretense and soon forgotten. Any contact beyond that pollutes the emotions and threatens to leave behind recriminations. Women, I regret to say, don't understand this. They do themselves a disservice, and me too, of course." This passage perfectly captures a certain variation of masculine bad faith. There are many other finely observed passages, whose absence of metaphor or stylistic eccentricity more sharply reveal Appelfeld's psychological acuity: "At night, before going to sleep, [my mother] would read me poems by Heine. I doubt that I understood anything. But the sounds flowed softly into my ears. I would be cut loose from the waking world and slip into deep sleep. Even in difficult times, when she grew morose, swallowing drink after drink, she would pick up a book and read, like someone preparing for better times." There is the disconcerting atmosphere of the small town of Gruendorf: "There seems to be no air like Gruendorf's, and during my first stays here I didn't even realize why. But now I know: it is the subtle fragrance that rises from the poppies. An odorless smell, a smell that has no obvious sign, but that directly works on the nervous system. In the past I used to flee from the place immediately, but I soon learned that flight was no use." But perhaps the supreme value of Appelfeld's message in his not his observation, but his restatement in a uniquely subtle and unmeretricious way of a vital truth. Sacrifice may be a sign of virtue, but suffering does not make one a better person. In few other authors work is it made clear that being a victim is not enough, one has still suffered but is not redeemed thereby. "If I had a different life, it wouldn't be happy. As in all my clear and drawn-out nightmares. I saw the sea of darkness, and I knew that my deeds had neither dedication nor beauty. I had done everything out of compulsion, clumsily, and always too late."

Bizarre, disturbing, compelling--a unique voice.

Bismark once noted that "war is diplomacy by other means" but Applefeld would phrase that a bit differently, I believe. Something like "Peace is war on smaller scale", perhaps.

Intrinsically, this book is about the underlying and ancient hatreds and grievances that have dogged central Europe for more than a century and were in essence not changed a whit by the war itself.

Erwin Siegelbaum's parents were killed in the Holocaust, a fate he himself barely managed to avoid. Erwin's makes his living traveling throughout central Europe visiting local fairs and markets looking for unrecognized treasures of Jewish iconography, which he buy's on the cheap and resells to rich Jewish collectors at a premium. This keeps him constantly on the road pursuing his real occupation-looking for the man who he believes is responsible for his parent's deaths so as to extract revenge.

The book is full of irony-Erwin exploits his religion and his fellow Jews for his living to pursue an avocation not altogether consistent with his religion's message of tolerance and forgiveness. He is constantly mistaken for a non-Jew and subjected to rabid anti-Semitic rants of his other passengers whom he also tries to exploit to fine his nemesis. And so on.

Applefeld is an Israeli citizen who writes in Hebrew. Even translated, the pace and mannerisms of the translation yield a sense of authenticity and Old World feel to the text. His prose is concise and spare-yet emotional and evocative at the same time. It all adds up to a very unique and original writing voice.

This is not a happy book-it is stressful, haunting and depressing. It is also insightful and compelling reading. You will finish exhausted and emotionally drained. If that's your cup of tea, then this is your novel.

I have read three books about the Holocaust in the last several days, 2 that are exceptional, and one that was exploitative trash. The interesting aspect is that the two works that were so emotionally effective, works that left this reader feeling the weight and oppressive horror that is genocide were both novels. They were novels by an extraordinary writer and a survivor of the camps, Mr. Aharon Appelfeld. I do not know the numbers, but I would venture to guess that the non-fiction book which is commented on somewhere on my personal page, will outsell this work 100 to one, or maybe even a higher ratio. The non-fiction work is either the appendage to a lawsuit, or the bacillus that spawned it, either way its type of history is cheap opportunism. The fact the book is full of histrionics, incompetent business documentation, and shrill sound bytes, ensures it will sell. The issue it covers is valid; it's the Author's methods I take issue with.

"The Iron Tracks", is a terribly disturbing look at one man's life to avenge the death of his parents. It is a journey he set out on alone, and one he sees through to its conclusion, again on his own. Like his main character that also survived the camps the Author writes this book because serious subjects, horrifying subjects need to be documented repeatedly. And for those who ask how many books are enough, the answer is there will never be enough, enough of this type. As to the other I refer to the answer is in its specific case, one is too many. Releasing a book within 24 hours of a lawsuit against the company the book is about is the vilest sort of marketing there is, for remember this is about the murder of millions. This is not a topic that requires marketing, Madison Avenue manipulation, and greed to drive it. The horror of Genocide is absolute the evil is absolute. To speak or write of it brings the full weight to bear no enhancements are needed.

Erwin rides the same trains endlessly for decades in search of the man and his demise that he believes will end his decades of suffering and wandering. He constantly meets with other veterans of the war who believe that the Genocide was not only correct and justified, but also actually accomplished. He traces his self described oval with his annual stops, and how the oval is chipped away at as his sharing he is a Jew is freely confided with those who have welcomed him for decades, but now turn their backs without hesitation. In his decades long hunt he also retrieves the lost objects of Judaism, be they rare illuminated Haggadah, a mezuza, or a kiddush cup.

This is only the second work I have read by Mr. Appelfeld, but based on this and, "Katerina"; I intend to continue through his published works. The subject matter he has spent his career as a writer sharing with the world's readers is the type that appropriately leaves a reader emotionally exhausted, bearing a sense of futility, and trying to summon the question why, once again.

Read both Authors' work and decide for yourself.

Aharon Appelfeld's beautiful and highly polished novel, Badenheim 1939 was originally published in Hebrew in 1975. Although the Holocaust forms both the historical backdrop of the novel as well as its imaginative focus, it does so from behind-the-scenes and, as such, is subtle and implicit in its assertions, all to its enormous credit.

Badenheim 1939 is set at an Austrian vacation resort during the spring of 1939. A seemingly unremarkable assortment of middle-class Jews on holiday have gathered at Badenheim, only to later be united by what would become history's most atrocious turning point. The "Music Festival" resort of Badenheim will, soon enough, become a place of Jewish detainment from which the only exit will be via forced transport to Poland.

The vacationers, however, for the most part, remain in blissful unawareness of what is to come. Spring is in the air and summer is about to blossom; the Jews spend their days strolling the hotel gardens, visiting the cities cafés, sampling strawberry tartes at the local pastry shops, engaging in sports and bickering, gossiping, bargaining and complaining, much as any other vacationer. The mounting horror, which every reader of this sensitive and elegant book will realize, is made all the greater by the fact that it is a horror the characters simply cannot, or will not, see.

Badenheim 1939 is written with an artistic subtlety and insight with which most modern readers remain sadly unfamiliar. Appelfeld's concern, in this book, is with the prelude to the German catastrophe and not with its actual occurrence. The author, himself a Holocaust survivor, makes virtually no mention of the Nazi atrocities and shows no interest in the graphic portrayal of the brutalities committed. Appelfeld is certainly not oblivious to the facts, he simply has chosen to place his focus elsewhere. In Badenheim 1939, the Holocaust is an incipient threat rather than a full-blown horror.

Appelfeld's prose is more akin to lyric poetry than to narrative fiction and shows a tremendous gift for rhetorical restraint that is rare among writers. This is a beautiful and quiet tale, exquisitely told with imagery, understatement and indirection. The effects of the narrative accumulate and change in much the same way the seasons do, in increments that are minimal and yet extraordinarily moving. This is history, but it is history perceived at its most mundane. In this remarkable manner, Appelfeld creates something of extraordinary beauty and yet, manages to intensify the tragedy.

In the end, Appelfeld's characters do, of course, suffer the horrors that befell all Jews, of every nation, whether directly or indirectly. The genius of Badenheim 1939 lies in its projections of a gradual, incipient menace and its portraits of Jewish reactions, which range from ready adjustment to slowly unfolding despair.

It is in the space between the reader's knowledge of what is beginning to unfold for the Jews and the latter's own blindness to it that the book registers its most powerful impact, once again doing so without any direct reference to the ovens, the gas chambers or the camps. Appelfeld's artistic beauty lies in his amazing ability to suggest rather than describe. Giorgio Bassani was able to do something similar in The Garden of the Finzi-Continis but Appelfeld is, perhaps, the more superior.

Rarely has the tragic end point of Jewish fate been invoked no clearly and disturbingly and yet so indirectly. We come away from Badenheim 1939 as though from a finely-rendered tone poem, complete with the knowledge that we have been absorbed into a special moment in time and in feeling; in this case, the moment just before the trains departed for Poland, the final pause before the end.

Applefeld exquisitly treats the decline of two cultures-one bent on destruction the other looking for salvation-but each determined to deceive the other. As a contribution to holocaust literature, Badenheim presents a stunning case for preventing a similar occurence.

At first blush, it seemed that author Appelfeld is spotlighting the ignorance of humanity to impending terror by making fun of the characters. But further analysis reveals that Appelfeld in fact was a child when this stain on humanity's history was unfolding. His elders were in fact hiding their heads in the sand, but then so was the entire world. He may in fact then be crying out and trying to understand why the children were betrayed by the only people who could have any influence in trying to save themselves and their children. If his family and friends acted as fools, then that is the way that he portrays them. And just in looking at his writing style, I think that he is outstanding with straightforward sentences, clean dialogue, and implied conclusions.

Mr. Appelfeld writes of life before and after the Holocaust had swept through Austria. "The Age Of Wonders", is the second of his works that appeared in this country following his first, "Badenheim 1939". This work like many that have followed appear to contain elements of Mr. Appelfeld's own remarkable story of survival, when he managed to survive as an 8 year old child his deportation to the labor camp in Transnistria.

The conflict is again explored amongst Jews prior to the war as to those Jews who were, "petit bourgeoisie", non-practicing, "intellectuals", and even a close friend that takes the dramatic step of circumcision as a man well into the middle of his years. The Father of the boy who's story we read is a writer of some renown that believes his Austrian Birth, education, and books published in German separate him from the other Jews he has so much contempt for. His friend that embarks on the mentioned operation is at once both ridiculed by the Father, and then is the object of a frantic effort to prevent him from allowing this act of, "disfigurement", to his person.

The primary Family all have their own issues with their religion, or what it, "should be". The Family deals not only with friends that choose their own way, but even the boys Aunt who he lives with as a child, eventually dies within the walls of a Catholic Monastery.

As he has in his other books the actual Holocaust itself is not written of. There is a single event when they are locked in a Synagogue, are packed onto a train, and then it is 30 years later and the protagonist is now a middle-aged man. Like the Author he has immigrated to Israel but comes home for reasons of his own. This final part of the work is fascinating as the Author brings the man home and it feels as though what he sees and does is real, and also that it may not be happening at all. The last comment is too extreme, for it does happen, it is just that the Author seems to give a transparency, to place a haze between his character and those he encounters, either from his life as a boy, or strangers who have inherited old ideas.

I have read many of Mr. Appelfeld's works and have found them to be some of the best literature on both the pre and post Holocaust experience. His survival was remarkable, it is little less than astonishing that he can not only write of this terrible era in History, but he can share it with all who are interested.

It may appear simplistic/extreme to say only a survivor of Genocide can write with credibility on the topic. A great Novelist can take a reader anywhere; an excellent Historian can document every detail of an event. I have read books by the latter two and they do communicate the horror of Genocide, however when a person with the talent of a great writer who also is a survivor writes on the topic, there is a difference, a great difference. Fortunately for the Historical Record Mr. Aharon Appelfeld is just such a man, and when he tells a tale he communicates feelings that are more disturbing, and that resonate longer than just a recital of facts no matter how shocking.

With his book, "For Every Sin", he again uses the form of a novel to share experiences of a survivor making his way home after the War. Very little of the emotion that his character Theo feels is what you would expect, and the same holds true for many other players in the book. Many of the emotions and the plans that people make in the book are a direct result of their wartime experiences, and they rarely are what a reader would expect. And yet every action makes sense after Mr. Appelfeld tells the story.

Some Jews converted to Christianity before the war in the hope they would not then be found by the Nazis. The step was taken to preserve life. The Author deals with the following paradox, a man survives the camp, the war, the attempt to destroy the people he is a part of. If a person were to lose all faith it would not be hard to understand, but Theo is returning home so that he may convert to Christianity after he has survived. The reactions of those other survivors he meets cover the range of reactions from understanding, to violence regarding his decision.

The remarkable effects of this book are the people that the Author brings to us, and even more interesting their behavior. Theo is determined and states to all he meets what his goal is, however he seems to walk back as often as he does forward. Violence against a fellow survivor would seem to be unthinkable, judgments about another based on religious belief, again would seem impossible based on what was survived, and why it happened.

Only the Author knows what he was attempting to portray or perhaps teach. I believe at least one subject was how little some people change, or how little some people change after the most unimaginable experiences. How people of shared experience have been so harmed that they cannot trust or sympathize with those that have had the same experience.

It may also be true that if you have not experienced the most extreme human atrocity you never can truly understand what the victims suffered. Knowing a survivor may bring you closer, but even that may not be close enough. Mr. Appelfeld makes a reader feel very uncomfortable as the work is read. And perhaps that is the best anyone can do. Bring a reader as close as they can, disturb them as much as they can, and know that still, the true horror of the experience is known only to its victims.

I have now read a good portion of this Author's novels, and while not qualified to comment on them from a theological perspective, I continue to find his work some of the finest writing on individuals or on Humanity that I have read.

Mr. Appelfeld's novel, "The Healer", contains elements that I feel were greatly expanded upon in his other works. His books, "Unto The Soul", "To The Land Of The Cattails", and "The Conversion", all came to mind during my reading. These elements were similar but not repetitive, the Author was at times giving an alternative perspective on an issue that he examined from a different viewpoint before. If you have read the other works I mention you will feel a familiarity with the circumstances and issues he deals with here.

This is not a post Holocaust Novel rather it is more akin to, "To The Land Of The Cattails" in time. Religion plays a central role as it always does and here he again is dealing with regret and guilt with several characters. This time it is not as clearly portrayed as a conversion, or a total void where faith would normally reside. The Father in the story is constantly examining what he could have done, and how those results would have allowed him to change the present. The character ruminates on the type of Jew he was as a scholar and the effects it had upon his life. This is a man who has no use for religion, or who buries his remorse for abandoning it well.

Religion splits the Family when the Wife and Daughter seek to become what they have shunned. They travel to the, "Healer", in a remote isolated locale in search of faith or perhaps what they hope faith will gain them. This spilt amongst Family members becomes much more than theological, and Mr. Appelfeld brings the complexity of his characters to the reader without making the issues clear for a simpleton, he never stoops, rather he pays tribute to his readers.

The bulk of the story takes place on an isolated mountain, and inside an inn, however as the story is brought to a close the journey the Father takes progresses, and the events that journey foreshadows with little subtlety, is as powerful as any of the other works of his I have read.

Each of the Novellas has a protagonist of unusual proportions, attempting to find something just slightly beyond himself or herself. While being a part of contemporary fiction, there is a certain historical perspective such as the disposed, wandering Jew of Aharon Appelfeld's "The Isles of St. George." Almost alone on this island, he wants to forget Europe, Israel,and his past. One of the most interesting characters in my opinion is Yani in David Grossman's "Yani on the Mountain." Here is a soldier left to oversee a mountain after the war of 1973. The mountain becomes a support, a challenge, something to be overcome, but his friend confronts him, "Hiding uphere on the mountain--armoring himself with hostility and contempt. Afraid. Afraid.." Benjamin Tammuz has one brother living his life vicariously through watching his brother's life unfold in a near-by house. "The Brother" is a thoughtful tale of envy, suppressed love, and hatred. In Yaakov Shabtai's "Uncle Peretz Takes Flight", a zany Jewish communist wants to save the world (which he doesn't even like very much), attending meetings during the day and coming home to climb up on the roof in preparation for flight. Altogether, this is a wonderful collection of stories.

"Tzili" is the third novel of Appelfeld. Born in Rumania, with 8 years of age he escaped the Nazi work camp and managed to survive on his own in the primitive wilds of Ukraine. At the age of 14 he reached Tel Aviv where he presently resides. His work echoes Kafka to the extent that it uses the language of the absurd. He considers himself a dislocated, deported, dispossessed, and uprooted writer.

"Tzili" is a powerful narrative of an experience which is too deep to be expressed, where characters are forced to participate in a historical event they are not able to understand. The war is the background of the story, but it remains an abstract for Tzili and the reader, history becomes a fairy tale. The author assumes that the reader knows the historical facts, and his purpose is to understand the victim.

Tzili is the name of the simplest child of a poor Jewish family, devoid of charm; she is an academic failure and a disgrace for the family. She remains passive, mute, despite constant punishment and ridicule, absorbing what little she is able to in her religious education. Abandoned when war breaks out, she has the wisdom to endure a world of cruelty and physical suffering. Having to face the horror she turns empty and emotionless. Tzilil finds a lover and father of her child in a refugee by the name of Mark, who is mentally disturbed, an eccentric character among many others.

But "Tzili" is not an autobriography, as Appelfeld himself said: "the reality of the Holocaust surpassed my imagination, if I remained true to the facts, no one would believe me!" He reinterprets his childhood memories and turns them into a fablelike, dreamlike, nightmarish narrative. It is certainly a tale that leaves its footprint on the mind of the reader.

"Unto The Soul", by Mr. Aharon Appelfeld is the most complex of his works I have read. I use the word less as an indicator of difficulty, rather to represent how much he includes in this story. It also differs from previous works in that the events take place almost exclusively in one place; there is none of the travel that is fundamental to many of his books. It also is not specifically a Holocaust themed book, and that may contribute to its area of confinement. The main characters are not dealing with a specific event, rather a single decision that creates all the conflict two people could handle.

When this brother and sister pledge to continue the guardianship of a cemetery of Jewish martyrs that their Grandfather has kept watch over for 60 years, they are placed in an unnatural condition that would require impregnable faith, belief in what they agreed to do, and living lives so limited they seem more appropriate to those who take the most extreme of religious vows of abstention, poverty, and isolation. And unlike many who choose such a life, they are completely alone, there is no structure to support them.

Their isolation on a mountaintop does offer some degree of security from the consequences of anti-Semitism, a barrier to disease, and during the winter these protections are nearly impregnable. The winters are also nearly endless, the Pilgrims do not support the caretakers as they did their Grandfather, and Gad is not his Grandfather's equal. He cannot stop those who do not respect what they seem to value and those that care for it, by refusing them entry when no donation is offered. And these contributions are the only income there are to have.

The book covers 8 years of their custodianship, their efforts to remain true to their pledge, and the results of living in isolation so nearly complete as to be unnatural. The challenges both mental and physical are not only immense they place this brother and sister in an environment when certain conduct can be devastating.

The Author puts every aspect of their lives under intense pressure and then we watch. Does their religion maintain them, do social mores and customs hold, does near isolation actually provide a degree of protection the idea suggests? Can these two people age 18 and 25 when they begin their task survive, maintain their sanity, and if so, how?

The Author also interjects facets that were certainly chosen with care, but as to their interpretation, the answers are not as apparent. Not far from where they watch their cemetery there is a Christian burial ground that features prominently in both the Grandfather's life, and those of his Grandchildren. The plots they care for are arranged precisely, the damage from weather is constant, and when the weather is not a foe, anti-Semitics provide the desecration.

A very fascinating book that would probably only get better with the level of understanding of Judaism the reader has. However this is not a prerequisite for enjoying this man's work.

"Katerina" by Aaron Appelfeld is an original look at The Holocaust. This is a piece of history, an event that has been written about countless times, but this writer's perspective is unique. The book is a historical novel; however the circumstances he describes could have, and probably did happen in very similar form.

The protagonist Katerina is not a Jew, she is not raised to respect Jews, and her surroundings are that of anti Semitism. However events lead to her working for a Jewish Family, and as the years pass she learns to understand their culture and their religious beliefs. As her knowledge grows so does her respect for them and with it a steady degrading of the hatred for anti-Semitism she can no longer justify.

A horrifying act of cruelty to which she reasonably responds leads to her imprisonment. And it is in this prison setting the Author creates for her decades of fear and loathing of those she came from and their hatred of Jews for which she feels such contempt. Her one consistent visitor is her Lawyer, again a Jew. She is kept in this prison where the trains that carry the Holocaust's victims pass by each day. She lives with people who happily celebrate the genocide while clothing themselves in the victim's clothes and other personal effects that were confiscated.

After half of her life is passed in prison the War ends and the prisoners walk free. Even her freedom is tainted, as she is forced to endure the celebratory attitude of her fellow prisoners that all the Jews are gone, the killers of Christ have themselves been killed. So even when she returns to her village that she left behind 63 years in her past she does so knowing the people she adopted as equals have been decimated, and people that never knew her then, now know her as the murderess, the legend she has become.

The Author portrays a scene of this very old woman coming upon what was a Temple, and the effect of the writing is as galvanizing as any thing you may read. This is a book that is unlike others books about the Genocide of WWII, all the horror is there, but it is left more to your mind's eye than placed before you in all its historical butchery. The emotional trauma this woman endures during the War combined with the balance of her suffering in life, is of a magnitude that is awesome both in its scope and depth of despair.

Katerina is a Ruthenian peasant woman (a Gentile), forced to work for a Jew. Over time, she becomes fascinated with the Jews. The story takes place in the Ukraine, before the Holocaust. Interesting insight into anti-Semitism as well as life as a peasant.

In my opinion, this is Appelfeld's best novel.

Pity poor Aharon Appelfeld for contributing to popular Jewish writers writing on the subject of Jew-loathing! Pity poor Schocken Book, which has been going down and down as a publisher of Jewish subjects, which can't seem to publish a happy book on the current Jewish status in the world and has to resort to continuing the old Jew and his terrible living conditions and self-loathsome. As a Lubavitcher Jew, I tell you "The Conversion" has no saving grace for Judaism, but gives added proof --if that's the word--to anti-Semites today that Jews remain miserable. Not true, and "The Conversion" misses any happy feeling abot Judaism. Gloria, on the contrary, is neither a Jew nor a Christian, but a reflection of Karl--indeed all the book's characters are reflections of Karl. Pity. Throughout history such books have ben written. I pray that Mr. Appelfeld, who is an a-one Zionist born to Judaism and who lives as a non-Jew, writes "happy." There's enough sadness in the world. Maybe, and I pray, that Schocken Books will get wise--there's a whole market of Jewish readers out there who want books focusing on the merits of Judaism. May I suggest to Schocken Book and Aharon Appelfeld that they get some Jewish pride in their blood--before they go the way of all misguided flesh. Yes, I am disappointed and sad that "The Conversion" has been published. I'll read no more of Appelfeld's books. What a waste of good writing.

I have been reading several works by Mr. Aharon Appelfeld. Many of his books relate the stories of Holocaust survivors before, during and after the Genocide. "The Conversion", takes place two generations prior to the Holocaust and addresses the topic the title suggests.

Theologians must debate the concept of conversion on dozens of levels, some as basic as is conversion possible as an absolute. The practice is widespread in the setting of this Austrian City, and the reasons for it are as varied as the people who make the decision. And among the converted there remains a great deal of emotion as to what their own conversion means, why theirs was justifiable and others not. What constitutes a frivolous conversion? Some would say any conversion is so classified, others that convert so as to receive a promotion feel their actions are valid. Some feel safe in their decision if a Parent gave their approval.

Mr. Appelfeld tells a complex tale that is very serious, however he exposes the hypocrisy or perhaps the lunacy that religious conversion creates. A person is denied a high government post because he or she is a Jew. This same person spends a few hours with a Priest, the bells ring, and suddenly this same person is not only considered for the job, but is rewarded with it. Who is more deluded, the person who converts, or the person who accepts them because of their conversion?

As he always does Mr. Appelfeld explores enough layers to show readers how complex a subject he is presenting, and how much more is left to be discussed. Why would a Jew become a Christian and almost immediately become the first in line to defend the people, the group, the traditions he just turned his back upon? One convert makes the transition from allowing a Priest to accept and convert him to Christianity only to see the same person see the Priest as a predator as a short time passes.

All of the writing of Mr. Appelfeld's that I have read is powerful. The end of this work is especially strong as he creates an ending that foretells the future. I don't believe many Authors could have written the ending with credibility much less with the emotion the reader has thrown over them.

I recommend this man's books to anyone. The topics may seem to be those you may have read before; however in every instance of his work even the familiar causes emotions to surface that would just be read without pause in another work. The man is truly a remarkable writer.

The Conversion is exquisitely crafted. When the message hits of the overwhelming sense of loss, and the very gradual understanding by the main characters of the hopelessness and unworthiness of "belonging", you can hardly tolerate the pain. Ithits you so hard tha t you don't want it to end like you know it will. Each of his books shows the great trauma and alienation of events unexplainable . All powerful.

Sylvia Seltzer Hougland