(Link)
Description:
"A short story taken from the collection: Tales of Loss and Guilt - 16 short stories.
Story details:
An elderly woman is haunted by memories of her escape from the holocaust.
But how reliable are painful memories that have been kept at bay for over sixty years?
And at her time of life, what exactly is she searching for?"
First of all, what's with all the spaces? Shit, man, that's super annoying when I have to press the "see more" button on Amazon to see the rest of the four fucking sentences you wrote.
Also, "Tales of Loss and Guilt"? That sounds like an amazing read. "It's summer break, so I'm gonna kick back with a glass of lemonade and an anthology about loss and guilt. You know, just really relax."
And an elderly woman escaping from the holocau- Wait, what? No. No no no no no. Shit. No, I am not about to write a humour review of a holocaust story, am I?
Am I?
Okay, fuck it, here goes. Put on your holocaust joke hat, because we're fucking doing this.
But first, a joke about ovens.
Am I?
Okay, fuck it, here goes. Put on your holocaust joke hat, because we're fucking doing this.
But first, a joke about ovens.
What did one baked potato in the oven say to the other baked potato in the oven?
"HOLOCAUST JOKES AREN'T FUNNY, YOU TASTELESS FUCK!"
Alright, moving on. Actually to sum up, this story starts with an old lady landing in Hamburg. There is some background done in flashback about how her children are baffled with why she would want to go back and visit the death camp she was in years before, but she feels it is something she needs to do because she is dying of cancer.
There are some emotional scenes that were a bit difficult to get through, like the museum guide struggling to explain that women were raped at the camp when a young girl asks all the wrong questions, etc.
In the end, the woman has a vivid flashback of the camp, and an employee comforts her knowingly as she cries. That's all there is to it. It's short and, well, I'll meet you below for the ratings.
(Insert Holocaust joke here)
In the end, the woman has a vivid flashback of the camp, and an employee comforts her knowingly as she cries. That's all there is to it. It's short and, well, I'll meet you below for the ratings.
(Insert Holocaust joke here)
Ratings:
Should it Have Been Written?: Turmoil out of 5. I think this may be my only category for today, because it has me so confused, and I can't really separate it out into three separate, snarky categories like I usually do. I guess one could be: Writing Style: 4 out of 5. But there is no joke there. It was pretty damn well written. You know how I always bitch that the background of the story is set up in like some weird triple past tense telling instead of showing format? Yeah, this guy didn't do that. He actually showed everything that happened in the story, and that was great. The emotions didn't fall flat, they were, well, emotional. And the characters were dynamic and each had their own clear personality as well.
The only thing is the set up and the ending. As the description and the beginning of the story quickly establish, this old lady is going back to find some sort of meaning or the answer to the question of why she was spared while so many others died, juxtaposed with the irony of her having cancer now and of course the misfortune of being sent to a death camp in the first place. I feel like that is a good set up, but I'm not sure this story delivers. I'm not sure it doesn't, either. It is one of those questions that doesn't have an answer, and to try to provide some neatly wrapped up ending would come across as incredibly trite. Still, this story just kind of ends. On the other hand, it did make me reflect on all of this just now, so maybe it worked?
And then there is the question of why this man wrote this story. His anthology is fucking called Tales of Loss and Guilt, as I have already poked fun at, and there is obviously a questionable motive behind writing that. I am against guilt porn. I think Upworthy-style exaggerations comparing first world problems to- well, to the fucking Holocaust are almost as immoral as the Holocaust itself. "How Many Women Are Ruthlessly Raped in YOUR Workplace? The Answer Will Make You Shit Blood!" Thanks, Upworthy, for hyperbolizing problems and making any sort of actual issues in the world seem like meaningless noise. You can click "like" and feel like you have done something great and move on to alternating between Farmville and masturbating. At least, that's how I spend my days.
Oh, oh yeah, I was talking about something serious. So, there's that, but there's also the question of whether it matters that this guy wrote this story to make guilt dollars. Isn't it good anyway if it makes us remember the pain and senselessness of genocide so we never again repeat that mistake? Is there ever such a thing as too many reminders of the Holocaust, no matter what the motive is? Isn't the most important thing the reader's reaction, rather than the author's intent? Or is authorial intent much more important than I'm giving it credit for right now? So that's my rating for this story. You can write your response down and leave it on your own blog where I will never, ever read it because I don't care what you think.
The only thing is the set up and the ending. As the description and the beginning of the story quickly establish, this old lady is going back to find some sort of meaning or the answer to the question of why she was spared while so many others died, juxtaposed with the irony of her having cancer now and of course the misfortune of being sent to a death camp in the first place. I feel like that is a good set up, but I'm not sure this story delivers. I'm not sure it doesn't, either. It is one of those questions that doesn't have an answer, and to try to provide some neatly wrapped up ending would come across as incredibly trite. Still, this story just kind of ends. On the other hand, it did make me reflect on all of this just now, so maybe it worked?
And then there is the question of why this man wrote this story. His anthology is fucking called Tales of Loss and Guilt, as I have already poked fun at, and there is obviously a questionable motive behind writing that. I am against guilt porn. I think Upworthy-style exaggerations comparing first world problems to- well, to the fucking Holocaust are almost as immoral as the Holocaust itself. "How Many Women Are Ruthlessly Raped in YOUR Workplace? The Answer Will Make You Shit Blood!" Thanks, Upworthy, for hyperbolizing problems and making any sort of actual issues in the world seem like meaningless noise. You can click "like" and feel like you have done something great and move on to alternating between Farmville and masturbating. At least, that's how I spend my days.
Oh, oh yeah, I was talking about something serious. So, there's that, but there's also the question of whether it matters that this guy wrote this story to make guilt dollars. Isn't it good anyway if it makes us remember the pain and senselessness of genocide so we never again repeat that mistake? Is there ever such a thing as too many reminders of the Holocaust, no matter what the motive is? Isn't the most important thing the reader's reaction, rather than the author's intent? Or is authorial intent much more important than I'm giving it credit for right now? So that's my rating for this story. You can write your response down and leave it on your own blog where I will never, ever read it because I don't care what you think.
One last thing. If you are disappointed with how serious this post is, you probably missed the entire point just now.
If you want more hilarious Holocaust jokes, go to amazon.com/author/a.c.blackhall.
If you want more hilarious Holocaust jokes, go to amazon.com/author/a.c.blackhall.
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