Every once in awhile, I find an author who awes me with the way that they can paint a picture with their words and make me want to read whole sentences aloud until they sink in and I smile with their literary genius. In the beginning of The Zookeeper's Wife, I felt that exact feeling with sentences like, "On warm spring days, the lilacs' purple cones swung like censers and a sweet narcotic amber drifted in at intervals, allowing the nose to rest awhile between fragrant reveilles." However, as the book went on, the awe lessened and the book became tedious to read in parts. It was bogged down by unnecessary information. I still enjoyed the book but it was not what I thought it would be when I began, which really is unfortunate considering how excited I was when I got that rare feeling of awe.Diane Ackerman writes the story of Jan and Antonina Zabinski. Jan and Antonina were the zookeepers of the Warsaw, Poland city zoo during World War II. When the Germans attacked Poland in 1939, many of the animals of the zoo were killed by bombs or were set loose when their cages were damaged and were later shot in the streets. It completely devastated Jan, Antonina and their son, Rys, who were all known for their uncanny ability to connect with the animal world and immerse themselves in the intricacies of animal life. This devastation fueled them to use all of their energies and means to activate themselves in the Polish Resistance.
The Zabinski's villa at the zoo became a constant hiding place for Jews, who took on alternate personas as they hid in plain sight. The Zabinskis recognized early on that hiding people in plain sight and masking them as family members visiting from elsewhere or as volunteers at the zoo helped to avoid detection. In addition to the villa's "guests", the now empty animal cages were altered to accommodate additional Jews looking for a temporary hiding place while documents were falsified and a more permanent location was established. The Zabinskis knew that they were not only risking the lives of those that they were hiding but also their own lives as well as any of their close friends who would also be killed if they were discovered. Rys lost a great deal of childhood as he was forced into a life of keeping secrets that would cause many lives to be lost if any secrets were to slip out.
Diane Ackerman has a fabulous writing style and I enjoyed hearing the true story of this brave family in Poland. However, Ackerman added a great deal of history and facts that seemed to distract from the story and caused me to get bored and skip pages to get back to the family's story. I felt like it was unnecessary to include several pages of excess information about war tactics when trying to tell a story.
I would recommend the book if you love war books, fiction or non-fiction. If you want just a war story that easily flows together, this may not be your book.
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I definitely do this in books...just skip over the parts that are boring to get back to the good stuff.
ReplyDeleteI liked this non fiction a lot. I did think at times there was a bit too too much detail. Great Review.
ReplyDeleteI am so glad to know that I'm not the only one that will skip parts in a book and still consider it a good book!
ReplyDeleteI loved this book, and found the story absolutely riveting. Without the wealth of details, there would be no way to feel and understand the texture of everyday life during that era. The writing is absolutely gorgeous.
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