Trust & Obey

A memoir written by Elie Wiesel, who as a teenager lived through the Holocaust and the concentration camps. It’s been praised over and over for it’s gritty realness and raw honesty of human suffering. It even won a Nobel Peace Prize! Well, the question remains, was it good? Like, really good. I was instructed to read this novel for a history class last year and I still think back on it. This novel is brief and to the point. Wiesel takes his time in getting the story set up but once the madness starts it doesn’t stop. Even the final sentence of this novel is haunting. I’ve read a good amount of Word War II books from The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom to Killing The SS by Bill O’Reilly but Night really takes the cake. This book bothered me, like deeply bothered me. However, I think that’s really important. Sometimes, the past isn’t as bothering because it’s the past, you know? I wasn’t there, I didn’t see any of it. My parents didn’t see any of it and neither did my grandparents so I haven’t been really effected by Word War II. It’s just another event- mind you a horrible event- in the history books. Night changes that, though. Wiesel does a great job taking you from what life used to be before his family was taken by the Nazis and what was left after the war. He brings you into his life in a way that causes you to almost experience it for yourself. Wiesel doesn’t shy away from the gruesome, despicable events he saw in the concentration camps. You hear about people eating each other, children being murdered, and the rapid decay of people who were once healthy. Honestly, I don’t know if I could read this book again if it wasn’t a couple hours long. The heaviness makes it difficult to read but it gave me a new perspective on the Holocaust and gave it a personal touch that made me feel for Wiesel. By the end of the book, he felt like a friend.

As for the downsides to this book, Wiesel begins his life searching for God and being a devout Jew. However, life deals some hard blows on Elie to the point he doubts if God even cares about him (yeah I would too). The rest of the book we see his relationship with God crumble and it’s heartbreaking to watch unfold. I think this added to the profound heaviness of the book but I didn’t like the way he talked about it. There was zero hope God would prevail that He would reign supreme like the Old Testament teaches over and over. It added to the hopelessness of Holocaust. This along with the pretty rough violence makes this a book I’d say you wouldn’t want to read as an escape or relaxing activity. It’s very well written, just a heavy read.