Wide Awake

by Robert Bober, Carol Volk (Translator)

Coming of age in 1960s Paris, Bernard Appelbaum exists in the hazy shadow of the Holocaust and on the electric cusp of the French New Wave. We find the narrator of Wide Awake as he wanders the city streets in search of signs of his father, who was deported by the Nazis in 1942. Bernard's chance encounter with a former acquaintance who has become filmmaker François Truffaut's assistant leads to a spot as an extra on the set of Jules and Jim ―setting into motion a series of discoveries and lost memories that crack open a hidden past.

On seeing Jules and Jim, Bernard's mother is moved to divulge the secrets of her own past as a Jewish-Polish immigrant to France, which curiously mirrors that of the film's heroine. When revelations about his mother's two loves lead Bernard on a fateful journey through Paris, to Germany, and back to Poland and Auschwitz itself, he must plumb haunting depths in order to recover his own identity.

A beautiful and mysterious fictional memoir with echoes of W.G. Sebald's Austerlitz, this riveting new work by one of France's celebrated directors and writers will be a major new contribution to the literature of memory, loss, and how we grapple with the legacy of the Holocaust.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction

208 pages, Paperback

First published August 26, 2010

Reviews

[Ellen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

There was nothing significantly wrong with this book, but the fact that the plot jumped around made it hard to follow at times. An interesting plot point would surface, only to be abandoned two chapters later. Characters mentioned in the beginning would seemingly drop out of the main character's life (which is pretty realistic), and when mentioned again toward the end, it would be difficult to remember why they were important. Sometimes I wondered why some characters were even necessary.
Despite all this, the last chapter redeemed the book in my eyes. Throughout the story, Bernard is searching for his father. In the midst of everything else, this plot holds strong. The way the book resolves this was the best part of the story IMO

[Bridget · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was not a fan of this book. Granted, I needed to get it read for book club and procrastinated, so it's possible that I didn't give it due time and effort. Given that, I thought the book would be much more mysterious or adventurous. The story was non-linear, with little stories dispersed throughout that I couldn't make a connection between. There were too many references I didn't get - to movies, to works of art, to musicians, to streets in Paris. I love reading historical books that make me want to learn more about the era, but I couldn't connect with this book enough to want that. I finished and thought, "What just happened? Is that all?" Maybe it was the translation?? Anyway, bleh to this book.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn't thrilled with the disorganized plot of a man in the early 60's trying to find the story behind his father's disappearance during WWII. This is the 3rd translation I've read recently. Maybe I need a break. What was interesting was the culture detailed during that time in post-war France.

[Dawn Petersen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting to read a european account of the 60's

[Béatrice · Rating 1 out of 5]

Décevant!