The Gates of the Forest

by Elie Wiesel

" J'ai une histoire à te raconter, une histoire juive très drôle. C'est un messager nommé Gavriel qui me l'a racontée. Je n'aime pas les histoires juives drôles. Elles sont tristes et font appel à la pitié. Je n'aime pas que les Juifs fassent appel à la pitié. Dans mon histoire, il ne s'agit pas de pitié, mais plutôt de colère. Dans ce cas, je t'écoute. Grégor se passe la main sur ses lèvres. Par où commencer ? "

Genres: Fiction, Holocaust, Historical Fiction, Jewish, Novels, World War II, Religion

223 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1964

About the author

Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel was a Romanian-born American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He authored 57 books, written mostly in French and English, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a Jewish prisoner in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps.
In his political activities Wiesel became a regular speaker on the subject of the Holocaust and remained a strong defender of human rights during his lifetime. He also advocated for many other causes like the state of Israel and against Hamas and victims of oppression including Soviet and Ethiopian Jews, the apartheid in South Africa, the Bosnian genocide, Sudan, the Kurds and the Armenian genocide, Argentina's Desaparecidos or Nicaragua's Miskito people.
He was a professor of the humanities at Boston University, which created the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies in his honor. He was involved with Jewish causes and human rights causes and helped establish the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
Wiesel was awarded various prestigious awards including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. He was a founding board member of the New York Human Rights Foundation and remained active in it throughout his life.

Reviews

[Lori Keeton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think most people are familiar with Elie Wiesel’s Night, a novel based on his own experiences in Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps. He was the author of 57 books, as well as being a professor, political activist and Nobel laureate. A man who had so much to say about the importance of humanity and the atrocities of the genocide of the Holocaust, Wiesel most definitely made a mark on the world in his lifetime.

The Gates of the Forest was written in 1964 and translated from French. In this short work, Wiesel packs in much to be pondered about survival, guilt and suffering. It is the story of a 17 year old Hungarian Jew named Gregor, who has escaped capture by the Nazis and is hiding in a cave in a Transylvanian forest. This story is told in 4 sections, Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter with each representing a period of Gregor’s life that he must learn to survive. Spring Alone and secluded, he is unaware of what has been happening to the Jewish people on the outside. An enigmatic and mysterious stranger finds him and stays with him for a few days telling stories about what is happening to the Jewish people and philosophizing his ideas about religion which are quite cynical. He often reacts with insane laughter to the cruelties he talks about. Gregor gives this nameless man his Jewish name, Gavriel and he saves his life. Summer Gregor is now in the nearby village where he is pretending to be a deaf mute living under the care of a Christian woman named Maria who used to be his family’s housekeeper. Gregor becomes a surrogate listener to the villagers’ confessions and sins while he learns many secrets. Here he is asked to play the role of Judas in a play which leads him to confess that he can speak and hear and is also a Jew. The villagers now despise him as well as fear him. Autumn Gregor runs off to the forest again where he finds a group of Jewish partisans. There he reunites with a childhood friend, Leib the Lion who acts as their leader. A plan to locate Gavriel in prison goes awry and Gregor is left guilt-ridden. Winter Following the war, Gregor is now in NYC, still reliving his time during the war and caught in an empty marriage, he finds his way back to his faith while trying to make sense of life and God and their meaning.

This has an allegorical quality to the story and in the Summer section with the Passion play, Wiesel shows an analogy between the crucifixion of Christ and the annihilation of the Jews. Not an easy novel to read as some of the language is difficult to decipher and the flow of the writing can be hard to follow. I do believe it is a worthwhile read and would enjoy reading it along with a group of others who might be able to provide insights especially into some of the specific Jewish religious aspects.

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book, but for me, it's too long for what it is. Gregor's story could be told in much less space. The writing is beautiful, as always, and the philosophical/religious musings are as layered and astute as always. I love Elie Wiesel's writing, and I really wanted to love this like I love Dawn and The Accident, two books that took me from liking Wiesel to loving him. But this book just doesn't hold up to me. Parts of the story are intense and fascinating, and other parts are too drawn out for what they are. I know if I read this in English, I would get more out of it to analyze and interpret, but French is the original language, and I can't say that it added much for me. I thought reading Wiesel the way he was "meant to be read" would make him even better, but I picked the "wrong" book to read in the original. It took me so long to read because I just couldn't get into it, and when I started to, the book shifted gears, and I lost interest again. It's well-written, and the story is interesting enough, but it's definitely not my favorite Wiesel.
I wouldn't recommend this unless someone had already read some other books by Wiesel and wanted the name of another book by him. Otherwise, I would recommend Dawn, The Accident, Night, and A Beggar in Jerusalem first!

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was confusing. Full of emotion. Pulls you in without understanding, and I think that's the point. Such sadness but it teaches the importance of laughter, love and happiness. The future is not open, but is shaped by the past. A few memorable parts of the book include the following; A chance meeting can change the whole world and bring all things into question. Nothing exists purely on its own, past and future can be conceived only as a function of the present, a present which constantly expands and exceeds itself. The simple look of a man in a crown is enough to force a new beginning.

Do you know why God demands that you love him? He doesn't need your love, he can do without it, but you can't.

The messiah isn't one man, he's all men. As long as there are men, there will be hope.

[Jericha]

I can't figure out how to grade this book. It's surprisingly clumsily written and awkwardly constructed - I don't remember Night, Dawn, or The Accident being like that at all. Its meandering weirdness reads like a poorly translated fairytale; I couldn't help feeling like it had been rushed, or left unedited, or written while half-asleep. And yet somehow it still managed to move me in the very last chapters, deeply and profoundly move me, in the way I'd been hoping to be moved when I picked it up in the first place. It's not a partisan story like If Not Now, When; it's like a sullen, moody cloudbank of a fable with a wild luminous gleam at the end. Worth it? Probably.

[William Zeng · Rating 5 out of 5]

there can be no poetry after Auschwitz - adorno

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr Wiesel had this ability to write at a very high level, morally and intellectually, using a simple story and simple words.

"The Gates of the Forest" opens with a four part parable(?) about finding salvation. The remainder of the book is told in four parts: the story of Gregor/Gavriel surviving during WW2 in Hungary.

I picked up a theme of faith compared to self determination. Gregor struggled with this throughout the book. And I never quite new if Gavriel was a real character or something else.

There is a lot going on in this book, a lot of character struggles (with each other, with the nature of man, love, God, etc.) It is very much worth reading and I will put it on the shelf with plans to read it again.

[Shaun Mackay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not a tough read lengthwise, but a profoundly deep one. There is much that the reader can ponder after each chapter, relating to one's own life. The main character, Gregor, in his attempt at escape from a holocaust-driven decimation of his village, also escapes from the "self". His existence is one of duality with the spirit apparition Gavriel.
The duality theme is one of Wiesel's repeated points in several of his works, and shares that in common with other noted writers, such as Nabokov(i.e.-Invitation to a Beheading) and Joyce(Ulysses).

[Drick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gregor/Gavriel is a Jewish young man who has escaped being sent to the death camps with his family. This story takes place in four seasons, which correspond to four different places where Gregor seeks to survive. Spring starts in the forest where he meets a young man who takes Gavriel's Jewish name and sacrifices his life to Hungarian soldiers so Gregor can escape. Summer finds Gregor masquerading as the deaf and dumb son of a long lost woman in a tiny village under the care of a compassionate Chrisitan woman, Maria, who used to work for his family. Eventually, Gregor who is asked to play the role of Judas in the Easter play declares not only can he speak and hear but is a Jew and runs off. Autumn finds him again in the woods the time with a group of Jewish partisans. He reunites with his childhood friend Leib, who is caught and killed while trying to see of Gavriel is also in a prison Gabriel is not found, Leib and Yehuda dies and Grego kills. Winter finds Grego in Brooklyn, NY after the war living with Clara Leib's ex-lover. Gregor reunites with the ghost/angel and reclaims his name, as he is trying to make sense of his life and his marriage to Clara which is empty and delusional. The story ends off with Gregor/Gavriel signing the Kaddish for his dead father, Leib, and many others. He tries to make sense of God, life and if there is meaning in any of it.

Because the story jumps back and forth between events and the inner lives of characters, at times it was difficult to follow. But it speaks to the deep trauma that those who survived the war lived with as they sought to make a "new life" in a different place than the villages and town where all of their loved ones had been slaughtered.

There are many powerful scenes but for me most powerful was when the village priest, thinking Gregor can not hear of speak, confesses that he allowed a young Jewish man to be caught because he would not confess his loyalty to Jesus Christ. For one reviewer this scene captured "a thematic analogy between the Crucifixion of Jesus and the annihilation of the Jews." To be sure Christians do not come off looking at all good in this novel, except the compassionate Maria, and the fate of the Jews in the Holocaust and the death of Jesus both bring to mind the words of Psalm 22 -"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me." For the Jewish people in this book we see the agonizing depth of that cry.

[Kendall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hard to get into, but good. This book is about faith and doubt. It is written in the form of the story of Gregor, a young Hungarian jew in hiding in the woods during the Holocaust. The story is less about his physical journey than the spiritual.

If I had the patience, I would re-read this because I think that there was some symbolism that evaded me this time.

[Nathan Albright · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book seems pretty much in the wheelhouse of Wisel's writings if you are familiar with his fictional work as a whole.  If this is your first encounter with one of his books that is not Night, there might be a lot of surprises, but if you have read some of the author's work before there is a lot here that is strikingly familiar, although the work is a beautiful one.  It is not necessary for a book to be surprising to be an enjoyable read, for even though this work presented few surprises, it was written very well and it was also the sort of book that provides for a lot of thought-provoking reflections on what it is like to not belong.  As someone who is familiar with what it is like to be an outcast, it is easy to see this book as the sort of revenge fantasy of someone who has been rejected in one's home area, and also a look at the way that the experience of trauma and abuse makes it difficult to form lasting relationships with others.  There is little surprising about either of these elements, but the book is certainly well-written all the same.

Divided into four parts based on the seasons of the year, the book begins with a boy in a cave waiting for his father to come back.  From there we see a certain degree of loss that happens over and over again, as a Hungarian town's Jews are deported and sent off to the concentration camps (a fairly common staple, albeit an understandable one, in the author's literature) and the boy is protected first by a somewhat strange Jewish partisan and then by a former Gentile maid who has him pretend to be a deaf-mute until he can no longer contain himself while he is being beaten as the Judas in a neighboring village's passion play, and then by a partisan band where he proves himself to be brave and resourceful but not particularly violent.  Finally, by the end of the novel we see the young man Gavriel struggling with a marriage in which he does not feel any longer emotionally in love, but in which there is still duty and commitment to be found, and he finds himself drawn to return to avoid abandoning his wife just as he was so often abandoned through the horrors of the Holocaust.

At some point, though, you have to wonder what the point of having yet another Elie Wiesel novel is if so many of them are so similar.  The protagonist becomes a journalist (writer) of some kind, marries but is clearly still suffering from the war and is not exactly a loyal husband to his wife.  How much of this is true of the author's own life, and how much of it is he drawing from his observations of others or his imagination?  It is hard to say without knowing a great deal about the author's own personal life, but it is clear that he returns over and over again to the same elements, the same careers, the same ineffectual service in parisan bands, the same hostility towards Christianity and towards the people of Hungary and Transylvania who turned on the Jews in their darkest hours.  The author clearly has some unresolved anti-Christian hostility to deal with, and it is striking that a writer who has written so often about anti-Semitism would feel its Christian equivalent so often in his literature and not recognize it as being the same sort of evil that he has spoken about.  It is easier to preach against evil than to overcome it, though.

[Tanya Sharma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dream-like and philosophical with symbolic episodes of action, this story is about Gregor (Gavriel), a survivor of the Holocaust. In the beginning, we find him hiding in a cave where he has a moving encounter with another Jewish survivor (whom he gives his Jewish name, Gavriel, for the name claims to have lost his name). Throughout the book, we are given snapshots of his survival and notably, the crisis of identity and faith that come with it. For example, towards the end, the reader is pushed to question the very existence of Gavriel and Gavriel's relationship to Gregor. Wiesel wrestles with these themes while playing with writing and form. The book is divided into seasons with spring, summer, and autumn happening sequentially in 1944 and winter taking place many years later on another continent.

Years pass between the end of autumn and winter and despite this, it seems like absolutely nothing has changed (this is emphasized by Gregor and the Rebbe whom he speaks with in "winter"). This literary technique (which I first came to admire in Woolf's To The Lighthouse) beautifully underscores the timelessness of some of the questions the protagonist is struggling with: where is the messiah in such darkness, how does God condone evil - how can one still believe, how does one live with grief and loss from senseless violence, how does one live with the *guilt* of survival (when those who one loved and admired have died - quite traumatically, we see two important characters become compromised/ captured following their meeting with Gregor). How does one repair and move forward? The questioning makes this text extraordinary. La Nuit, Wiesel's best known work, was an account and a powerful one. In Gates of the Forest, Wiesel moves from memory alone to the *present* (he explains the past and the future as a function of an ever expanding present) as the heritage of the Shoah.

Use of symbolism and traditional fable is embedded beautifully. The protagonist hides in a cave, in a village as a deaf-mute, and with a partisan band in the forest. Historically, these were also some of the common ways of hiding in Transylvania and Bukovina. Silence, words, and laughter also carry important meanings. For example, the man in the cave (Gavriel) laments the loss of his friend whose tongue was cut, whom he thought was Elijah (the prophet who announces the arrival of the messiah). In the next phase, Gregor plays deaf-mute to survive and commits to a full erasure of his identity through silence. Silence mutes the story. So, Wiesel emphasizes the importance of "speaking". It is through words that the man in the cave (Gavriel) gives to Gregor the truth about the Holocaust, through words that Gregor claims his identity in the village and counter-intuitively saves himself. Words save him, but they also don't. At one point, he is asked to repeat a story so many times that he internalizes suspicion and fabricates it to frame himself. Additionally, in the final section when the hassidic congregation is singing feverishly to a Hungarian song they don't know the words to, the wordlessness does not undermine the healing.

Lastly, the moving Jewish fable before the text captures not only the essence of this text but all of Wiesel's work. A story as a cry, a song, a plea, a hope... that it will be sufficient to save us.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting read. Presented as four seasons, each with a chapter of the life of a character named Gregor, whose real Jewish name is Gavriel. Gregor gives his Jewish name to a person he meets who has no name - and the book follows as the relationship in life and death between Gregor and Gavriel. So the question becomes: who is Gavriel? Intriguing and thought-provoking.

The story begins during the Holocaust. It involves key characters who present during the seasonal telling: Gregor, Gavriel, Marie, Leib, Clara.

Understanding the story and its meaning will stay with me for quite some time.

Beautiful passages about the forest and what it offers physically and spiritually.

[Sara Harvey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This took me way too long to read. It was beautiful and tragic in parts but I found myself confused more than not. There was missing context and important things I felt missing in the gaps between the seasons. I am not sure what I was expecting but I’ll say the most profound piece of this book is in the last 30 pages.

With that said, I understand that I am not ever going to understand what it was like. I am not Jewish nor have I been exposed to Judaism much in my life and perhaps that created an even deeper distance in my understanding.

[William Bookman III · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to read this beautiful book again. So much poetry in the sentences and paragraphs. In it's heart, it's a story about the conflict between Man and God. The historical setting is the Holocaust. As we question the existence of God against tragedies, there is still time to form friendships and fall in love. It is what makes life bearable. I had a paperback that I destroyed which I find quite appropriate. Definitely buying another copy.

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I read this book I found myself experiencing what was happening along with the main character. It felt like I could not escape the experience of being trapped with no way out.
I didn't enjoy this book. It wasn't a "good" read. This book was a trip to a time in history of when Jewish people were being systematically murdered. It is a lesson on how fascism and hate led to the Holocaust and the lives of those who survived and those who did not. This is a must read.

[Madelaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

“He will have no face, because he will have a thousand faces. The Messiah isn’t one man, Clara, he’s all men. As long as there are men there will be a Messiah.” pg 223
good look into identity struggles and having to change yourself to fit in while also coming to accept yourself as you are. life moves forward whether you are prepared or not.

[Kristiina · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The man that chooses solitude and its riches is on the side of those who are against man, who pay with the blood and tears of others. Anyone who describes the future as virgin is mistaken; for it is mortgaged from the first day, from the first cry.”

[Jean · Rating 5 out of 5]

While reading this, I’ve realized I’ve been wasting my time reading most of the current best sellers. The emotional depth and ethereal qualities of this work of art transcend my awareness into the realms where divinity and humanity intersect.

[Hannah Rabinstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredible writing style. So eloquent and profound. It’s an undeniably heavy read so it took me a while to finish. I tend to avoid ww2 and holocaust books/movies, but it was worth reading. I found the ending to be a bit odd/ not fully satisfying but I suppose it served its purpose.

[Diego Fleitas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, this book was a rush, a wall of words. But even using the words "wall" and "word" in reference to the sheer poetry that Wiesel writes is nothing short of apropos and in fair reference to themes that meant so much throughout the text. I found that his style invited me as a reader to feel a range of emotions, and in a very organic way -- the ways in which he shows the reaffirming quality of faith (as well as it's perceived flaws) is subtle. Similarly, human hate and love are treated in the same way. Honestly I find it hard to say much more, save that I did enjoy reading this book and would recommend it!

[Sarah Schuelke · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too confusing and emotional for my liking. Too much philosophy.

[Jim Bostjancic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Especially timely during this extreme moment, Elie Wiesel's "The Gates of the Forest" is a profound and moving story about survival filled with emotional depth.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was okay. It was a little difficult to follow with the time jumps.

[Samuel Hud Gardella · Rating 2 out of 5]

*2.5 🌟
Beautiful moments of philosophizing life’s purpose and the intention of faith and the worth of suffering
Unfortunately the plot itself is spread a little too thin over 200+ pages

[Andreea-Cristina · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://andreeajuvina.ro/noaptea-elie...

[Jerrilyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

"At the gates of the forest ... is sanctity which shames our religions, and reality which discredits our heroes,"-- Emerson, not referenced but implicit in book. This little book moved me greatly. It begins and ends almost abstractly. The middle amazed me at never having been turned to film, building in action to a scene so dramatically visual, so deeply revealing of anti-Semitic roots that I had to get out John Shelby Spong's "the Sins of Scripture" to RE-read his chapter on the subject. Although Wiesel never directly mentions the Holocaust or the death camps, this is one of the very best on the subject, right next to his Nobel winner "Night."

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was an intensely dark and psychological book, one whose hauntingly real context makes for a very tortuous read. Set against the backdrop of the Shoah, this is the story of a young man who has narrowly escaped deportation. He flees to a cave in the forest and later to other parts of the back country. The reader is then witness to his slow and most certain loss of faculties and self. Much of the dialogue feels like a page torn out of _Waiting for Godot_; but the tragic element is that this loss of sanity is all too based in reality. In the face of such horror, how could you expect anyone to maintain any kind of grip on reality? The book does have an unexpected lift near the end. The only thing that kept me going was Wiesel's use of language. He is a master storyteller, no matter what story he is relating.

[Rebecca McPhedran · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an amazing look into the life and thoughts of a survivor. Gregor is a Jewish fugitive, hiding in the forest from Hungarian soldiers. The book takes place over three seasons, during that time a man saves his life. He also hides as a deaf-mute in a village, and hides with some Jewish dissenters. This story is very dark and lonesome. It really gives the reader an in depth look at how utterly alone Gregor is. He is always on a search for the man who saved his life in the cave. They had promised to meet again after the war. But Gregor can't seem to find him. In the process of searching, he gets others involved, and looses them too. It truly is one of the most lonesome books I have read. No matter where he is, he seems to always be alone. An amazing story of survival. It isn't a happy ending, but a realistic one.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book starts off heavy and a little slow, but the story actually starts moving faster once you get a quarter of the way through it. It's a short book, but I found myself wanting to mark almost every page for the beautiful lines they had - this is a book you can read again and again and still get something new out of it.

[Seraphic · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can only say that it is very well written and Gregor's relationship with Gavriel is quite interesting. Elie Wiesel is, of course, quite poetic, to the point and understated, but sometimes what he writes can be difficult to follow. When I read this story, I really did it for the wordsmithing rather than anything else.