Reading the Holocaust - Softcover

Inga Clendinnen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1875847766 ISBN 13: 9781875847761

Publisher: Text, 1998

Synopsis

Fifty years after their occurrence, the events of the Holocaust remain for some of their most dedicated students as morally and intellectually baffling, as 'unthinkable', as they were at their first rumoring. Reading the Holocaust challenges that bafflement, and the demoralization that attends it. Exploring the experience of the Holocaust from both the victims' and the perpetrators' points of view, as it appears in histories and memoirs, films and poems, Inga Clendinnen seeks to dispel what she calls the 'Gorgon effect': the sickening of imagination and curiosity and the draining of the will that afflict so many of us when we try to look squarely at the persons and processes implicated in the Holocaust. Searching, eloquent, and elegantly written, her book is an uncompromising attempt to extract the comprehensible - the practical, human reality - from the unthinkable. Reading the Holocaust has won the Premier's Award for General History in New South Wales.

About this title

Review

'... a brave, towering book which deserves to become famous ...'. The Australian Book Review 'This is a deeply humane book; one need only listen to a current news report to understand why it is a necessary one.' The Times Literary Supplement

'Beautifully written and exactly felt, Reading the Holocaust is a major contribution to collective remembering and to the register of what happens.' Clifford Geertz

'... a deeply compassionate book of extraordinary importance.' Canberra Times

'... impressively humane, open-ended and generous guide ... Clendinnen is 'an outsider writing for outsiders' ...'. The Weekend Australian

'This is an important, insightful, superbly written meditation on a sorrow beyond words, well worth the attention of outsiders and insiders alike.' New York Times Book Review

'Reading the Holocaust is a must read for teachers and scholars alike.' The Journal of Holocaust Education

'This book, which unflinchingly engages the most disturbing issues surrounding the most disturbing events of the twentieth century, should be required reading for anyone who has ever attempted to think seriously about the Holocaust.' Studies in Contemporary Jewry

Book Description

Exploring the experience of the Holocaust from both the victims' and the perpetrators' points of view, as it appears in histories, memoirs, films and poems, Inga Clendinnen seeks to dispel the sickening of imagination and curiosity and the draining of the will that afflict many who try to understand the Holocaust. Searching, eloquent, and elegantly written, the book is an uncompromising attempt to extract the comprehensible from the unthinkable.

Edition details

• Publisher: Text
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 1875847766
• ISBN 13: 9781875847761
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 250