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The True Adventures of Gidon Lev
Of the approximately 15,000 children imprisoned in the Nazi concentration camp of Térézin (Theresienstadt ) near Prague, less than 100 survived. Gidon Lev is one of those children.
Gidon’s is the story of a little boy who never really grew up. His life spans the horrors of the Holocaust, the beginnings of a fledgling country, two marriages, six children, and a late-in-life romance that made the telling of his story more than possible but also imperative during these tumultuous times.
The True Adventures of Gidon Lev offers a primer on Jewish and Israeli history, insights into the culture of the modern state of Israel, and the inspiration to carry on after hardship and loss.
From Prague to New York to California and back to Israel again, Gidon Lev and Julie Gray take us on a journey into the depths and back up into the sunshine of hope, love, laughter, and possibilities. Weaving Gidon’s invaluable memories together with the cultural and historical backstory of time and place, Julie Gray invites readers inside the process of mining memories for truths and history for lessons.
Gidon’s is the story of a little boy who never really grew up. His life spans the horrors of the Holocaust, the beginnings of a fledgling country, two marriages, six children, and a late-in-life romance that made the telling of his story more than possible but also imperative during these tumultuous times.
The True Adventures of Gidon Lev offers a primer on Jewish and Israeli history, insights into the culture of the modern state of Israel, and the inspiration to carry on after hardship and loss.
From Prague to New York to California and back to Israel again, Gidon Lev and Julie Gray take us on a journey into the depths and back up into the sunshine of hope, love, laughter, and possibilities. Weaving Gidon’s invaluable memories together with the cultural and historical backstory of time and place, Julie Gray invites readers inside the process of mining memories for truths and history for lessons.
331 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 29, 2020
77 people are currently reading
347 people want to read
About the author
Julie Gray
3 books45 followersJulie Gray is a developmental editor and native Californian living in Tel Aviv. Her book, The True Adventures of Gidon Lev was one of the Kirkus Review's Best Books of 2020. Julie appreciates a good gin and tonic and loves Middle Eastern food, which is convenient, given her location. She's currently writing "They Do Things Differently Here," a memoir about making the move from Hollywood to Israel and the hilarity that ensued. Julie's writing can be found in The Times of Israel, the Jewish Journal, Moment Magazine, the Huffington Post, the NY Post, the Sanskrit Literary Journal, and MovieMaker magazine among others.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
December 15, 2020
This book defies classification - it’s part holocaust memoir, part love story and part history of the state of Israel. But it’s so much more in the same way that Gidon’s life is “so much more”. So much more of everything - of danger, heartache, joy and love. This is the story of a man who defied the odds and learned to embrace life.
The True Adventures of Gidon Lev grabs you by the heart and doesn’t let go. Gidon’s incredible journey - from his childhood in a concentration camp to his late-in-life relationship with a talented woman 30 years his junior - is fascinating. The story of how he learned to remember and honor the past while not letting it destroy his present has lessons for all of us.
I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough and when I finished, I wanted to know, “And then what happened? What did he do next?” After all, Gidon Lev is only 85 years old now… surely, he has some more surprises up his sleeve!
This book has it all - drama, love and history. It’s well-written and engaging. Highly recommended!
The True Adventures of Gidon Lev grabs you by the heart and doesn’t let go. Gidon’s incredible journey - from his childhood in a concentration camp to his late-in-life relationship with a talented woman 30 years his junior - is fascinating. The story of how he learned to remember and honor the past while not letting it destroy his present has lessons for all of us.
I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough and when I finished, I wanted to know, “And then what happened? What did he do next?” After all, Gidon Lev is only 85 years old now… surely, he has some more surprises up his sleeve!
This book has it all - drama, love and history. It’s well-written and engaging. Highly recommended!
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November 8, 2020Should win the Goodreads Choice awards in its category ..
October 15, 2020
Julie Gray’s biography of Gidon Lev who survived the horrors of the Theresienstadt concentration camp as a young boy and whose zest for life is inspirational is a captivating, well-drawn and warmly penned narrative that’s hard to put down. The book’s structure reminds me of another and very different biography written about Orson Welles by Barbara Leaming. Both books allow you to hear both the voice of the author and the personality themselves in candid conversation with the author. This double-threaded narrative strikes me as a very effective and engaging way to construct a biography, and Julie Gray uses it to very great effect.
One cannot fail to be moved and humbled by Gidon Lev’s story and his remarkable level-headed and philosophical outlook on life and politics in general. Without wanting to spoil the story for readers, suffice it to say that there are in Lev’s life terribly sad and moving moments that sit cheek-by-jowl with other truly life-affirming and joyous incidents. And Gray has conveyed these with a lightness of touch that makes the reading all the more enjoyable.
‘The True Adventures of Gidon Lev’ is a first-class biography of a remarkable man. It is also an important work that lends a great deal of humanity and understanding to the canon of testimonies and historical treatises documenting one of the darkest episodes of human history.
Alex Pearl is author of ‘Sleeping with the Blackbirds’ and ‘The Chair Man’
One cannot fail to be moved and humbled by Gidon Lev’s story and his remarkable level-headed and philosophical outlook on life and politics in general. Without wanting to spoil the story for readers, suffice it to say that there are in Lev’s life terribly sad and moving moments that sit cheek-by-jowl with other truly life-affirming and joyous incidents. And Gray has conveyed these with a lightness of touch that makes the reading all the more enjoyable.
‘The True Adventures of Gidon Lev’ is a first-class biography of a remarkable man. It is also an important work that lends a great deal of humanity and understanding to the canon of testimonies and historical treatises documenting one of the darkest episodes of human history.
Alex Pearl is author of ‘Sleeping with the Blackbirds’ and ‘The Chair Man’
August 25, 2020
The True Adventures is an amazing book, unlike any other that I’ve read. It started out as an account of the full and unusual life of Gidon Lev, but very soon the author slotted into the story, as the two became, as Gray calls their relationship, “Loving Life Buddies.”
The subtitle for the book is: “Rascal. Holocaust Survivor. Optimist.” It tells you immediately that this read will be poignant and humorous. It might make you wonder: How can you have humour in a book about a Holocaust survivor? My answer, in the typical Jewish habit of answering a question with another question, is: How can you not have humour when the survivor is a person who always has a smile ready to burst out? In every photo I’ve seen of him, every video, that cheeky smile is what I notice first. This is a man who never wanted his Holocaust experiences to define him, and they don’t. He is so much more than that.
I love the way the book is arranged, with Gray’s voice interspersed with quotes from various people and in particular from Gidon himself. In the middle of Gidon’s and Julie’s 2019 tour of Prague, for example, Gidon tells of Prague in 1938. When Gidon disagrees with something Julie wrote, his version pops up, too.
The writing itself includes some gems, like this description of Gidon: “merry, a bit kooky, with great intentions, always headed toward adventure and sometimes tilting toward windmills.” Also: “Memory is a famously mysterious phenomenon; the more we tell our stories, the more details we add, edit, or exclude.” And: “Anybody could relate to stories about relationships or jobs with bad bosses or a fun vacation. But when you experience something very specific, such as war or the suicide of a loved one or cancer, you occupy a different space. A lonelier one.”
Gidon was adamant from the beginning: the book was to be about his whole life and not just the Holocaust. I agree with him and yet… The Holocaust parts are so important, so poignant, so inescapably, unavoidably present, that they were what made the book for me, and it was right that the topic of the Holocaust kept returning in the narrative. It had to. You can’t go through an experience like that and just move on. It has to influence everything that comes after.
The Israel parts felt closer, perhaps too close, because naturally there were sections I didn’t agree with. I found myself thinking: I’ve lived here for forty-four years; how dare this newcomer say such things! But I took myself to task, because of course she’s had time to create her own views, and living here gives her the right to express them. Still, when I read that the Snake Path leading to the top of Masada is dangerous, I shouted back, “It isn’t! I’ve climbed it and it isn’t!”
The personal parts of the book were interesting as other people’s lives often are. I couldn’t imagine being in some of the knots Gidon found himself in. I marvelled at his ability to disentangle himself, even if not always in the best way.
I learned plenty from the snippets of information dotted around. “The word holocaust,” Gray writes, “was first used to describe the Hamidian (or, in modern terms, Armenian) Massacres perpetrated by the Ottoman Turks from 1894 to 1896.”
I hardly need to add that I heartily recommend this book to everyone.
I received this book in exchange for an honest review. In no way did that affect my opinions, voiced above.
The subtitle for the book is: “Rascal. Holocaust Survivor. Optimist.” It tells you immediately that this read will be poignant and humorous. It might make you wonder: How can you have humour in a book about a Holocaust survivor? My answer, in the typical Jewish habit of answering a question with another question, is: How can you not have humour when the survivor is a person who always has a smile ready to burst out? In every photo I’ve seen of him, every video, that cheeky smile is what I notice first. This is a man who never wanted his Holocaust experiences to define him, and they don’t. He is so much more than that.
I love the way the book is arranged, with Gray’s voice interspersed with quotes from various people and in particular from Gidon himself. In the middle of Gidon’s and Julie’s 2019 tour of Prague, for example, Gidon tells of Prague in 1938. When Gidon disagrees with something Julie wrote, his version pops up, too.
The writing itself includes some gems, like this description of Gidon: “merry, a bit kooky, with great intentions, always headed toward adventure and sometimes tilting toward windmills.” Also: “Memory is a famously mysterious phenomenon; the more we tell our stories, the more details we add, edit, or exclude.” And: “Anybody could relate to stories about relationships or jobs with bad bosses or a fun vacation. But when you experience something very specific, such as war or the suicide of a loved one or cancer, you occupy a different space. A lonelier one.”
Gidon was adamant from the beginning: the book was to be about his whole life and not just the Holocaust. I agree with him and yet… The Holocaust parts are so important, so poignant, so inescapably, unavoidably present, that they were what made the book for me, and it was right that the topic of the Holocaust kept returning in the narrative. It had to. You can’t go through an experience like that and just move on. It has to influence everything that comes after.
The Israel parts felt closer, perhaps too close, because naturally there were sections I didn’t agree with. I found myself thinking: I’ve lived here for forty-four years; how dare this newcomer say such things! But I took myself to task, because of course she’s had time to create her own views, and living here gives her the right to express them. Still, when I read that the Snake Path leading to the top of Masada is dangerous, I shouted back, “It isn’t! I’ve climbed it and it isn’t!”
The personal parts of the book were interesting as other people’s lives often are. I couldn’t imagine being in some of the knots Gidon found himself in. I marvelled at his ability to disentangle himself, even if not always in the best way.
I learned plenty from the snippets of information dotted around. “The word holocaust,” Gray writes, “was first used to describe the Hamidian (or, in modern terms, Armenian) Massacres perpetrated by the Ottoman Turks from 1894 to 1896.”
I hardly need to add that I heartily recommend this book to everyone.
I received this book in exchange for an honest review. In no way did that affect my opinions, voiced above.
September 19, 2020
Writing one’s own memoir is hard enough, but to write someone else’s? How many would want to crawl into the thousands of notes and notebooks and piles of memories and dreams of another person and try to make order? Where to begin? When offered the task of helping Gidon Lev write his memoir of a childhood spent in a concentration camp during World War II and another seventy years of adventures in Brooklyn, Toronto and Israel, Julie Gray’s response was Thanks, but No Thanks. Gray eventually succumbed to the challenge—and Lev’s charms—and accepted the task. The world of Holocaust education is richer for Gray’s collaboration with Gidon Lev in The True Adventures of Gidon Lev: Rascal, Holocaust Survivor, Optimist. (self-published, 2020)
From the start Gray defines her narrative position as curator of Gidon’s memories. This enables her to offer the reader context, based on her own research, for Gidon’s experiences as a young secular boy in Prague, an inmate in Terezin for four years, a new immigrant in Brooklyn for one year and Toronto for ten, and finally a pioneer on an Israeli kibbutz in 1959. She maneuvers her way through Lev’s two marriages, his two children being kidnapped by his first wife and eventually his becoming a father of six with his second wife. Gray wisely uses Lev’s own writings to tell part of the story, but it is clear that she is in control of the narrative.
Readers who know little about the Holocaust, Israel or Modern History of the Middle East will appreciate the geographical and historical contexts Gray offers of world events that shaped Lev’s life. Informed Jewish readers will appreciate the loving relationship that evolves between Lev, a widower and Gray, a divorcee. This is a book in which the reader and the narrator learn about Lev’s life together, making the reader a buddy in their Loving Life Partnership.
After discussing the slipperiness of memory and the truth of facts Gray comes to the realization that “we are all inventions of ourselves, in the end, and curator of our narratives.” This is a feel-good read because it’s about a man who overcame severe and horrendous obstacles and remains insistent on his love for life and a woman thirty years his junior who dares to jump in to tell his remarkable story and their growing love, friendship and shared humor. You will be surprised what love can look like.
From the start Gray defines her narrative position as curator of Gidon’s memories. This enables her to offer the reader context, based on her own research, for Gidon’s experiences as a young secular boy in Prague, an inmate in Terezin for four years, a new immigrant in Brooklyn for one year and Toronto for ten, and finally a pioneer on an Israeli kibbutz in 1959. She maneuvers her way through Lev’s two marriages, his two children being kidnapped by his first wife and eventually his becoming a father of six with his second wife. Gray wisely uses Lev’s own writings to tell part of the story, but it is clear that she is in control of the narrative.
Readers who know little about the Holocaust, Israel or Modern History of the Middle East will appreciate the geographical and historical contexts Gray offers of world events that shaped Lev’s life. Informed Jewish readers will appreciate the loving relationship that evolves between Lev, a widower and Gray, a divorcee. This is a book in which the reader and the narrator learn about Lev’s life together, making the reader a buddy in their Loving Life Partnership.
After discussing the slipperiness of memory and the truth of facts Gray comes to the realization that “we are all inventions of ourselves, in the end, and curator of our narratives.” This is a feel-good read because it’s about a man who overcame severe and horrendous obstacles and remains insistent on his love for life and a woman thirty years his junior who dares to jump in to tell his remarkable story and their growing love, friendship and shared humor. You will be surprised what love can look like.
July 12, 2020
I've always sympathized with the Jewish people. But honestly, throughout my entire life (I'm 58), I have met very few of them. Two, I met in high school, but as they were not in my grade, and I had no shared classes with either. They were popular kids and I was shy. I met one other Jewish student in college, but even though we took a three-week May in England class together, we never became friends.
So I was curious when I picked up this book. Julie Gray befriends, then loves, the subject of the memoir, Gidon Lev. She promises from the beginning that he is an endearing survivor of the Holocaust, with a fascinating story to tell. She was absolutely right. I guess I was expecting a heart-breaking story from a person who went through such monstrous treatment-- imagine living in a concentration camp from the ages of six-ten! But as Gray indicates, he's a cheerful, industrious soul, who not only survived the Holocaust but helped, in his own way, with the settlement of Isreal after World War II.
Jewish history in the Middle East is touched on throughout the book. Neither Gidon Lev nor Gray is one-sided in its telling. Like all histories, the story is often colored by factors beyond the control of the people involved. Did the Jewish settlers make mistakes? Gidon acknowledges that they did and muses on what could have been done better.
But beyond the sweeping story of the Zionist movement and its aftermath, is the story of one man's life. And that life began surrounded by love and family that was tragically cut short when they were all, young and old, caught up in the Nazi attempt at a "final solution" for the Jewish "problem." Like Gray, I became enamored with Gidon, with his love of life and with his spirit. And honestly, I felt a fondness for Gray that I rarely experience for an author when reading a book. Her devotion to her octogenarian friend and lover is touching.
Gidon Lev felt that his story needed to be told. I agree. I feel enriched for having met him, if only in the pages of a book.
So I was curious when I picked up this book. Julie Gray befriends, then loves, the subject of the memoir, Gidon Lev. She promises from the beginning that he is an endearing survivor of the Holocaust, with a fascinating story to tell. She was absolutely right. I guess I was expecting a heart-breaking story from a person who went through such monstrous treatment-- imagine living in a concentration camp from the ages of six-ten! But as Gray indicates, he's a cheerful, industrious soul, who not only survived the Holocaust but helped, in his own way, with the settlement of Isreal after World War II.
Jewish history in the Middle East is touched on throughout the book. Neither Gidon Lev nor Gray is one-sided in its telling. Like all histories, the story is often colored by factors beyond the control of the people involved. Did the Jewish settlers make mistakes? Gidon acknowledges that they did and muses on what could have been done better.
But beyond the sweeping story of the Zionist movement and its aftermath, is the story of one man's life. And that life began surrounded by love and family that was tragically cut short when they were all, young and old, caught up in the Nazi attempt at a "final solution" for the Jewish "problem." Like Gray, I became enamored with Gidon, with his love of life and with his spirit. And honestly, I felt a fondness for Gray that I rarely experience for an author when reading a book. Her devotion to her octogenarian friend and lover is touching.
Gidon Lev felt that his story needed to be told. I agree. I feel enriched for having met him, if only in the pages of a book.
July 3, 2020
Julie Gray’s quest to honor the life of Gidon Lev is an ambitious attempt to capture the life and spirit of this remarkable man with a journalist’s tenacity to put names, places, and dates to his experiences. She smoothly interweaves his incomprehensible past into the man he is today – a survivor, a role model, a humorist, and a citizen of the country he loves and is proud of.
For me, the fascination of this book lies in her ability to bring Gidon to life through his own words. The insertion of many direct quotes from him added the best kind of authenticity and intensity to his account. An equally powerful aspect of Ms. Gray’s approach was to place Gidon’s personal experiences within the greater context of what was happening concurrently in the world at the same time. She maintained this perspective throughout the book, enabling the reader to have a wider understanding of eight decades of Israeli history.
Another of my favorite aspects of the book was the question and answer section at the end, a device that enabled the author to include Gidon’s opinions and insights about Israel and its place in the world today. I fully appreciated his global perspective, not only about Israel but the United States and Britain as well. His opinions were clearly expressed by a man who was an active participant in the vast and profound changes to the world in his lifetime.
Gidon Lev is a shining example of humanity at its best. Read his story.
For me, the fascination of this book lies in her ability to bring Gidon to life through his own words. The insertion of many direct quotes from him added the best kind of authenticity and intensity to his account. An equally powerful aspect of Ms. Gray’s approach was to place Gidon’s personal experiences within the greater context of what was happening concurrently in the world at the same time. She maintained this perspective throughout the book, enabling the reader to have a wider understanding of eight decades of Israeli history.
Another of my favorite aspects of the book was the question and answer section at the end, a device that enabled the author to include Gidon’s opinions and insights about Israel and its place in the world today. I fully appreciated his global perspective, not only about Israel but the United States and Britain as well. His opinions were clearly expressed by a man who was an active participant in the vast and profound changes to the world in his lifetime.
Gidon Lev is a shining example of humanity at its best. Read his story.
August 13, 2020
[Disclosure: I was gifted a copy of this book by the authors in exchange for an honest review. (I also was one of several volunteers who transcribed some of Gidon Lev’s handwritten notes.) I’m so delighted with the end result.]
It’s hard to know where to begin to describe this book, except to say it is beautiful. Simply beautiful. Julie Gray, herself a part of this story, takes an objective stance while telling the rich tale of Gidon Lev, who becomes her “Loving Life Buddy” as the project to share his life experiences takes shape. Yes, he is one of a handful of children who lived through the Holocaust in a concentration camp and was witness to its liberation. But this is not just another Holocaust story. That part of his life does not define Lev, a quirky, fun-loving renaissance man who wades his way through romance, heartache, regrets and discovery. Gray digs deep, but gently, to examine the emotions Lev has nursed in his heart, and helps bring resolution to some tough “what ifs.” Part civics lesson and history primer, Gray’s extensive research brings to life the Zionist culture and offers context to Lev’s personal narrative by explaining what was going on in the world and in the Middle East as his life unfolded. Her tongue-in-cheek humor puts Lev’s free-spirited soul in the spotlight. You’ll leave this book with a thirst for more knowledge of the Jewish people and wanting to invite Julie and Gidon over for dinner.
It’s hard to know where to begin to describe this book, except to say it is beautiful. Simply beautiful. Julie Gray, herself a part of this story, takes an objective stance while telling the rich tale of Gidon Lev, who becomes her “Loving Life Buddy” as the project to share his life experiences takes shape. Yes, he is one of a handful of children who lived through the Holocaust in a concentration camp and was witness to its liberation. But this is not just another Holocaust story. That part of his life does not define Lev, a quirky, fun-loving renaissance man who wades his way through romance, heartache, regrets and discovery. Gray digs deep, but gently, to examine the emotions Lev has nursed in his heart, and helps bring resolution to some tough “what ifs.” Part civics lesson and history primer, Gray’s extensive research brings to life the Zionist culture and offers context to Lev’s personal narrative by explaining what was going on in the world and in the Middle East as his life unfolded. Her tongue-in-cheek humor puts Lev’s free-spirited soul in the spotlight. You’ll leave this book with a thirst for more knowledge of the Jewish people and wanting to invite Julie and Gidon over for dinner.
July 20, 2020
This is no ordinary biography of a Holocaust survivor. This is a complex story told in a complex manner that makes you pay extra attention, want to learn more, and reflect on today’s world situation. Gidon’s story is told through the prism of Julie’s life-changing move to Israel. The technique of inserting his words into her narrative is interesting but I finished the book wondering what happened during some very large chunks of time. The book sometimes runs the risk of coming off as more about her than him; however, they seem to have worked so closely together on this book that surely he must have agreed to this technique. Gidon is characterized as a “rascal” in the subtitle, but my impression is that he was a very hard worker all his life, provided for his family, and did not appear to be a to be a mischief maker. The optimist in him comes through very strongly, however, and one can clearly see that he had no choice but to be optimistic to cope with the aftermath of the Holocaust and finding his place in the world. I gained much insight from the interview and his short essays on various topics at the end of the book.
January 18, 2021
Imagine agreeing to help a Holocaust survivor take a lifetime of notes and memories and turn them into a gripping memoir. Well, many have done that. But how many can actually say that they've fallen in love with their elderly protagonist? This is precisely what happened to Julie Gray and Gidon Lev, a charming couple with all the quirks and asymmetries that go along with their 30 year age gap. Yet instead of trying to eradicate or deny that gap, the two celebrate it in a memoir that defies simple categorization as a Holocaust survivor’s story. It’s that and a lot more. Their romance becomes the center of a story that leads to retracing the steps of Gidon’s life from Czechoslovakia, where he was born and imprisoned in a concentration camp when he was barely five years old. How he survives, how he loses most of his family and at the end of the war finds himself in the US, then Canada, before heading with tremendous excitement to be a kibbutznik in Israel gets to the heart of how this book was created—one memory at a time.
Julie goes beyond the call of duty of any biographer or memoir collaborator. She plays a deeply therapeutic role that comes across on every page of this book.
Gidon and Julie did plenty of traveling to create the scenes and lively dialogue for this book — back to Czechoslovakia, to the USA to retrace his younger life there, and to areas in the north of Israel where Gidon fought in the 1967 war and where he built a home and a large family with Susan, his beloved wife of 40 years. He was a widower until Julie appeared in his life to help him produce this book.
I loved the raw honesty in this memoir, and I laughed in places at Gidon's antics and the roll-your-eyes way that Julie described them. But I also took in Julie's poignant message. As not only Gidon's biographer but his friend and “Loving Life Buddy,” she writes that she sometimes felt a loss of her own identity in order to do so.
In Japanese Bunraku puppetry, the puppeteers go on stage dressed in black. You can see them move around their puppets deftly bringing their art form to life. They are meant to be seen in the way a shadow is seen—a discrete presence. I think Julie has masterfully cast herself in a role akin to these Bunraku puppeteers. You can feel her presence on every page, but she remains discrete throughout, keeping her own life story to the shadows in order to throw a spotlight on Gidon Lev. It’s an incredible accomplishment and makes me want to know Julie Gray’s own story all the more.
Julie goes beyond the call of duty of any biographer or memoir collaborator. She plays a deeply therapeutic role that comes across on every page of this book.
Gidon and Julie did plenty of traveling to create the scenes and lively dialogue for this book — back to Czechoslovakia, to the USA to retrace his younger life there, and to areas in the north of Israel where Gidon fought in the 1967 war and where he built a home and a large family with Susan, his beloved wife of 40 years. He was a widower until Julie appeared in his life to help him produce this book.
I loved the raw honesty in this memoir, and I laughed in places at Gidon's antics and the roll-your-eyes way that Julie described them. But I also took in Julie's poignant message. As not only Gidon's biographer but his friend and “Loving Life Buddy,” she writes that she sometimes felt a loss of her own identity in order to do so.
In Japanese Bunraku puppetry, the puppeteers go on stage dressed in black. You can see them move around their puppets deftly bringing their art form to life. They are meant to be seen in the way a shadow is seen—a discrete presence. I think Julie has masterfully cast herself in a role akin to these Bunraku puppeteers. You can feel her presence on every page, but she remains discrete throughout, keeping her own life story to the shadows in order to throw a spotlight on Gidon Lev. It’s an incredible accomplishment and makes me want to know Julie Gray’s own story all the more.
September 3, 2020
This is really two memoirs in one--the primary story of Gidon Lev, a Holocaust survivor with an indomitable spirit who became an ardent kibbutznik in Israel in the late 1950s, and his "accidental" ghostwriter and editor Julie Gray, who moved to Israel in 2002 as a convert to Judaism. Gray never loses the focus on Gidon Lev, yet she is on a discovery path right alongside him as the two of them retrace much of Lev's personal history, including traveling back to his home village of Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic, and to the brutal concentration camp of Terezin, where Lev and his mother were imprisoned for four years. They also travel to other places where Gidon lived some of the transformative experiences of his life.
When Lev first met Gray and asked her to help him organize and write his memoirs, long in the making, Gray begged off, explaining that she did not, as yet, know enough Jewish history to do the project justice. Yet there was chemistry between them and they became fast friends and more than that, despite their 30-year age difference. Lev was a widower, and still mourned his beloved wife of 41 years; Lev's love for his wife, Susan, as well as Gray's respect for what they had together, is deeply touching.
Gidon's wartime and post-war experiences, notably building a life in Israel, form the substance of the book. To this reader, Gray sometimes overreached in trying to share a bit more of Jewish history than many readers may be able to absorb in a memoir of this kind. Near the end of the memoir, Gray also attempts a quick sweep of Jewish history and its relationship to the land of Israel in particular. This was an incredibly ambitious task, and is marred by the startling omission of God's promise of the Land of Israel to the Jewish people as their birthright. However, her recommended reading list at the end of the book is excellent.
Gidon tells his story in his own words throughout the book, where we can really feel his personality emerge, and where his editorial instructions and corrections to Gray are both revealing and sometimes amusing. Despite his lack of higher formal education, he is extremely articulate, insightful, and in his 80's, still on a path to better understanding himself through the process of revisiting his life, helped by his loving companion.
She writes, "He had done something quite courageous and transformative, really, in the process of writing this book. He allowed me to root around in and interrogate his memories. In his willingness to do that, he was revealing himself." This sort of self-examination among Holocaust survivors is rare, and something none of us who did not survive such an experience can begin to appreciate.
In a few places Gray inserts her own politics in a way I found disruptive and offensive. In writing about the use of the phrase "concentration camp" to describe the detained immigrants on the U.S.-Mexico border, she refers to "supporters of cruel, inhuman conditions on the border" being offended by any allusion to the evils of Nazi Germany. She does not explain whom she is accusing of supporting such cruelty. In referencing another POV on this issue that shuns any equivalence between a Nazi concentration camp "and any other type of concentration camp" she writes, "We argue about semantics while the building burns down around us." This insertion of politics was a needless detour to Lev's story. In a Q & A with Lev at the end of the book, Gray also asks a leading question about whether there is anything he sees in the new president in the U.S. (meaning Trump, obviously) that alarms him.
Despite these distractions, Gray and Lev have written a wonderful memoir, one that is rich in detail, history, and emotional resonance. Through Gray's skilled interviewing, researching and writing, we get to know and adore, the irrepressible Gidon Lev. Till 120, Gidon!
Note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.
When Lev first met Gray and asked her to help him organize and write his memoirs, long in the making, Gray begged off, explaining that she did not, as yet, know enough Jewish history to do the project justice. Yet there was chemistry between them and they became fast friends and more than that, despite their 30-year age difference. Lev was a widower, and still mourned his beloved wife of 41 years; Lev's love for his wife, Susan, as well as Gray's respect for what they had together, is deeply touching.
Gidon's wartime and post-war experiences, notably building a life in Israel, form the substance of the book. To this reader, Gray sometimes overreached in trying to share a bit more of Jewish history than many readers may be able to absorb in a memoir of this kind. Near the end of the memoir, Gray also attempts a quick sweep of Jewish history and its relationship to the land of Israel in particular. This was an incredibly ambitious task, and is marred by the startling omission of God's promise of the Land of Israel to the Jewish people as their birthright. However, her recommended reading list at the end of the book is excellent.
Gidon tells his story in his own words throughout the book, where we can really feel his personality emerge, and where his editorial instructions and corrections to Gray are both revealing and sometimes amusing. Despite his lack of higher formal education, he is extremely articulate, insightful, and in his 80's, still on a path to better understanding himself through the process of revisiting his life, helped by his loving companion.
She writes, "He had done something quite courageous and transformative, really, in the process of writing this book. He allowed me to root around in and interrogate his memories. In his willingness to do that, he was revealing himself." This sort of self-examination among Holocaust survivors is rare, and something none of us who did not survive such an experience can begin to appreciate.
In a few places Gray inserts her own politics in a way I found disruptive and offensive. In writing about the use of the phrase "concentration camp" to describe the detained immigrants on the U.S.-Mexico border, she refers to "supporters of cruel, inhuman conditions on the border" being offended by any allusion to the evils of Nazi Germany. She does not explain whom she is accusing of supporting such cruelty. In referencing another POV on this issue that shuns any equivalence between a Nazi concentration camp "and any other type of concentration camp" she writes, "We argue about semantics while the building burns down around us." This insertion of politics was a needless detour to Lev's story. In a Q & A with Lev at the end of the book, Gray also asks a leading question about whether there is anything he sees in the new president in the U.S. (meaning Trump, obviously) that alarms him.
Despite these distractions, Gray and Lev have written a wonderful memoir, one that is rich in detail, history, and emotional resonance. Through Gray's skilled interviewing, researching and writing, we get to know and adore, the irrepressible Gidon Lev. Till 120, Gidon!
Note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.
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December 22, 2020"In this elegantly conceived memoir...is a remarkable tale of survival and unexpected kinship. A vitally important Holocaust story eruditely captured."
--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Inventively structured and impeccably written, THE TRUE ADVENTURES OF GIDON LEV is a must-read book for anyone interested in Holocaust narratives.”
IndieReader (five-star review)
“…the compelling biography of a Holocaust survivor who attests that human beings are capable of both incredible evil and transcendent love.”
Foreword Reviews
“Author Julie Gray gives voice to Gidon Lev’s story of resilience and hope in this uplifting portrait of Holocaust survival. …readers will find Gidon’s story an inviting, eye-opening look at an important chapter in Jewish history.
Blue Ink Review
"This is a highly recommended memoir that rises above and beyond politics, Middle East history, or autobiography alike to reveal the path one man took to move beyond an incredibly difficult childhood of cruelty and oppression."
--D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review
"...a delightful, moving, original, and yes, charming account of an extraordinary man who happens to have been a child survivor of the Theresienstadt concentration camp. With irreverent humor and deep insight, The True Adventures of Gidon Lev presents an improbable love story--of a man who had every reason to be bitter but instead fell in love with life.
--Yossi Klein Halevi, senior fellow, Shalom Hartman Institute, author of "Like Dreamers" and "Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor"
"How do we remember in order to learn, and learn in order to build a better world--while not letting the Holocaust eclipse our life-affirming purpose and values? In The True Adventures, truth--that is to say searching, love, humor, anger, despair, hope--is not shrouded in dark clouds, but aglow amidst them. Wonder of wonders, it is exactly through this tale, a tale with the Holocaust at its essence, that a new light is shed on Jewish possibility and purpose."
--Rabbi Susan Silverman, author of "Casting Lots: Creating a Family in a Beautiful, Broken World"
--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Inventively structured and impeccably written, THE TRUE ADVENTURES OF GIDON LEV is a must-read book for anyone interested in Holocaust narratives.”
IndieReader (five-star review)
“…the compelling biography of a Holocaust survivor who attests that human beings are capable of both incredible evil and transcendent love.”
Foreword Reviews
“Author Julie Gray gives voice to Gidon Lev’s story of resilience and hope in this uplifting portrait of Holocaust survival. …readers will find Gidon’s story an inviting, eye-opening look at an important chapter in Jewish history.
Blue Ink Review
"This is a highly recommended memoir that rises above and beyond politics, Middle East history, or autobiography alike to reveal the path one man took to move beyond an incredibly difficult childhood of cruelty and oppression."
--D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review
"...a delightful, moving, original, and yes, charming account of an extraordinary man who happens to have been a child survivor of the Theresienstadt concentration camp. With irreverent humor and deep insight, The True Adventures of Gidon Lev presents an improbable love story--of a man who had every reason to be bitter but instead fell in love with life.
--Yossi Klein Halevi, senior fellow, Shalom Hartman Institute, author of "Like Dreamers" and "Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor"
"How do we remember in order to learn, and learn in order to build a better world--while not letting the Holocaust eclipse our life-affirming purpose and values? In The True Adventures, truth--that is to say searching, love, humor, anger, despair, hope--is not shrouded in dark clouds, but aglow amidst them. Wonder of wonders, it is exactly through this tale, a tale with the Holocaust at its essence, that a new light is shed on Jewish possibility and purpose."
--Rabbi Susan Silverman, author of "Casting Lots: Creating a Family in a Beautiful, Broken World"
August 25, 2020
The beginnings of Gidon's story are unfortunately not unique. Millions suffered the horrors of the Holocaust, and though a much smaller number survived, he is certainly one amongst many. However, as his loving buddy and co-author Julie makes clear, his attitude to life since is one which has much to teach us. Some reacted to the Holocaust by withdrawing, some spend or spent their lives living every action as an act of defiance, "a stick in Hitler's eye", but Gidon has overcome by being a pure lover of life.
This account has him moving from the camps back to his old childhood home, to the US, Canada and then Israel, falling in love and raising a family, helping to build and defend a country, with no dimming of his youthful enthusiasm. It's not that Gidon has ignored the tragedies of his early life; he is deeply affected by them, but he has risen above them so spectacularly that they are *not* the main story of his life. He is not "just another survivor" he is one whose story can be instructive to anyone who might feel their tomorrow is constricted by their yesterday.
The book intersperses conversations between Julie and Gidon, snippets of history (of the Holocaust, European antisemitism and modern Israel) and direct quotes from Gidon's memoirs. Julie's presence is clear but unobtrusive - in fact I was left wanting to know a little more of her story!
An immensely positive attitude to life makes this memoir well worth a read. You will be educated and edified!
This account has him moving from the camps back to his old childhood home, to the US, Canada and then Israel, falling in love and raising a family, helping to build and defend a country, with no dimming of his youthful enthusiasm. It's not that Gidon has ignored the tragedies of his early life; he is deeply affected by them, but he has risen above them so spectacularly that they are *not* the main story of his life. He is not "just another survivor" he is one whose story can be instructive to anyone who might feel their tomorrow is constricted by their yesterday.
The book intersperses conversations between Julie and Gidon, snippets of history (of the Holocaust, European antisemitism and modern Israel) and direct quotes from Gidon's memoirs. Julie's presence is clear but unobtrusive - in fact I was left wanting to know a little more of her story!
An immensely positive attitude to life makes this memoir well worth a read. You will be educated and edified!
September 27, 2020
A very touching and moving book, which had me in or near tears on more than one occasion. My first thoughts upon finishing were: What an amazing man Gidon is. How incredibly lucky Julie and Gidon are to have found each other and lastly, what a most beautiful and innovative way of writing this story. It reads like a perfectly tuned piano duet.
By interspersing the past and the present, historical facts and individual anecdotes, the tragic and the comic, Julie’s version and Gidon’s version and corrections, the author makes the story even more poignant and real. Julie manages to give a true and very human picture of an amazing man with all his qualities and flaws, and the extraordinary life (one is tempted to write lives in the plural here) he has lived, without ever losing himself and his humour and the magnificent family he has built. The presence of the author is felt throughout the book but never at the expense of the narrative. On the contrary, it is a comforting and needed soothing presence in the face of so many hardships.
This book is not only a book about war and doom it is mostly a book about hope and love. About never giving up, about never losing faith in oneself, in others, in life and in the power of loving and being loved.
I highly recommend it. I have read many Holocaust stories and this book is different. It is as touching and the harshness of the past is in no way lightened or ignored, but it is also so full of love and hope and light.
By interspersing the past and the present, historical facts and individual anecdotes, the tragic and the comic, Julie’s version and Gidon’s version and corrections, the author makes the story even more poignant and real. Julie manages to give a true and very human picture of an amazing man with all his qualities and flaws, and the extraordinary life (one is tempted to write lives in the plural here) he has lived, without ever losing himself and his humour and the magnificent family he has built. The presence of the author is felt throughout the book but never at the expense of the narrative. On the contrary, it is a comforting and needed soothing presence in the face of so many hardships.
This book is not only a book about war and doom it is mostly a book about hope and love. About never giving up, about never losing faith in oneself, in others, in life and in the power of loving and being loved.
I highly recommend it. I have read many Holocaust stories and this book is different. It is as touching and the harshness of the past is in no way lightened or ignored, but it is also so full of love and hope and light.
July 25, 2020
Julie Gray successfully wears many hats as she chronicles the life and adventures of Gidon Lev, her LLB (Loving Life Buddy), as she refers to him. She is alternately Gidon's biographer, interviewer, companion, editor, writing coach, and admirer, as she both gets his incredible story down on paper and infuses the process with love and caring. The book has liberal passages in Gidon Lev's own words, as well as wonderful explanations of the difficulties inherent in the process of remembering and verifying our memories of traumatic experiences. Through it all shines Gidon's own determination and spirit, as he lived through horrific concentration camp experiences as a child, and then returned to the proverbial "promised land" of Israel, with its Kibbutzim (collective farms) and never-ending state of wartime strife. We find out how he embraced the glories, challenges, and dramas of work, nation-building, marriages, divorce, kidnapped children, and the loss of loved ones, with resilience, always remembering, as he tells Julie, that "You don't get the life you want. You get the life that you get." Julie lets us know how this emotional resilience was buoyed up (and still is) by his love for dancing, singing, and gratitude for the life he got to live.
Read it...you'll like it!
Read it...you'll like it!
September 30, 2020
I loved this book! I was fortunate enough to have the privilege of meeting both Julie (my good friend's daughter) and Gidon Lev last year and then to spend time in Europe with Julie (what enthusiasm and friendliness; a great traveling companion and bolsterer of spirits) and then to spend about a week in Israel with both of them. Gidon is most remarkable; I'm hard put to sum him up, but his spirits, enthusiasm, patience and humor seem endless. I had some trepidation about this book because a draft of a portion I had read was dull, however this work is the "real deal" for both of them. It mirrors their deep commitment to the project, their humor, pain, insights and the sharing of life together. Julie will be forever influenced by this experience and by Gidon himself; and Gidon was persistent enough to not give up on her talents to help him tell his story. The combination is unforgettable and I really valued seeing and hearing each of their voices in the telling of this incredible story. Needless to say, many people in my life who I care about are going to get copies so they, too, can meet this unusual couple and journey with them as the story unfolds (and it strikes me that this is not the end of the story at all).
August 12, 2020
I picked this book up whilst working with Gidon and Julie on a project about Gidon's life, and was pleasantly surprised at the depth of this book. While many survivors only focus on the Holocaust (which is natural, of course, it is a defining moment in their lives), Gidon's book helps frame survivors in a different light: people who despite everything went on to live full lives after the war. Gidon's lively and complex personality shines through. While his partner, Julie, shows his beautiful qualities, she doesn't shy away from discussing Gidon's trauma and anger toward members of his family--again, something many survivors don't always speak about. It is a fantastic piece for those looking for a very real portrayal of a Holocaust survivor.
-Dr. Anna Scanlon
Holocaust History University of Leicester
-Dr. Anna Scanlon
Holocaust History University of Leicester
September 1, 2020
Hello all! I just finished reading this book last night. All I can say is thank you to the authors for writing it. Being Jewish I was taught about the Holocaust in Sunday School and at the Temple. I also heard many survivors that came to talk to us about it. Not one of them approached the lasting effects that it had on them, just repeating the same things that I had read and been told. I now understand that aspect with so much more clarity. I truly feel that everyone would benefit greatly from reading this book. I know that I have! I have been told many times over the years that if we forget the past, we are doomed to repeat it. By reading this book, you will understand what happened not just then, but the long term effects that those events caused to those that lived through them. By understanding, you will be able to remember. Thank you!
August 9, 2020
The last of the survivors of the Holocaust need to tell their stories. I have read many of them and find this one to be unique. Gidon Lev's story is told by his Loving Life Buddy Julie Gray who has met him late in his life. She has woven together her research with Gidon's experience and a history lesson of the state of Israel. You will come away sharing Gidon's cathartic experience while feeling you are on a tour of Israel.
September 1, 2020
I loved the way this book is organized-Gidon remembers, and Julie explains the history around the incidents.
I found the book interesting- I don't think it's 'just another holocaust book' because of the way it's written. It's not full of sorrow, but joy at what life has brought afterwards.
I learned something new in each chapter, and when I looked at the website I learned even more about all the people who contributed to the creation of this wonderful story.
I highly recommend it
I found the book interesting- I don't think it's 'just another holocaust book' because of the way it's written. It's not full of sorrow, but joy at what life has brought afterwards.
I learned something new in each chapter, and when I looked at the website I learned even more about all the people who contributed to the creation of this wonderful story.
I highly recommend it
November 29, 2020
I just finished reading this book. All I can say is, wow! It is a memoir to be proud of. I laughed, I cried, I got mad, I got happy, it touched all the bases and at the same time never departed from its charm and its sincerity. I felt I really knew Julie Gray and Gidon.
The True Adventures of Gidon Lev proves what we all want to see in life: that love comes in many forms, it doesn't judge, and it can happen at any age.
If you have not read this book - DO.
The True Adventures of Gidon Lev proves what we all want to see in life: that love comes in many forms, it doesn't judge, and it can happen at any age.
If you have not read this book - DO.
November 11, 2020
The True, and truly inspiring, Adventures...
This book is a testament to the human spirit, to determination and to the power of love. I found Gidon’s account of Holocaust survival as a child especially moving, and his witness to the full spectrum of the post-WWII Jewish experience is one worth exploring. Couldn’t put it down!
This book is a testament to the human spirit, to determination and to the power of love. I found Gidon’s account of Holocaust survival as a child especially moving, and his witness to the full spectrum of the post-WWII Jewish experience is one worth exploring. Couldn’t put it down!
August 19, 2020
There are few stories of Holocaust survivors or freedom fighters and this one is more one to the package of them. Gidon Lev have now to conquer more than to fight but it's a good fight review by Julie. Im still finishing it but for what i have read it's something to be told louder.
September 16, 2020
I loved this book. Julie is a wonderful writer and has taken a difficult subject and added warmth and humour. Gidon's life story is a fascinating one and I enjoyed going on this journey with him, through Julie's eyes. There are many lessons to be learned from this remarkable man.
February 13, 2021
`This was not a typical memoir by any means. Gidon has been through so much, even after living through the Holocaust, and yet he still keeps a good sense of humor. I enjoyed how the story developed and there was the interaction between Gidon and Julie throughout as he would add or update aspects to his story. Told by Julie with parts quoted from Gidon made the book flow. I also appreciated the added interview at the end between the two. As a reader of many Holocaust books, this one went further and was not as focused on just the Holocaust. I am so glad I had the opportunity to read Gidon's story and I wish him the best! He seems like an amazing man to meet!
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February 12, 2021
Skillfully written with just enough explanations for those who might not be familiar with the Holocaust, historical events and chronology, Israeli culture, and Jewish traditions. Considering the tragic events that informed Gidon Lev's childhood and the relationship difficulties he experienced as an adult, Gidon lives up to the claim that he never lost his optimism and desire to live life to the fullest. Julie Gray does a great job of shaping the story and building the structure, allowing much input from Gidon while asking the right questions to ensure his story is "true"; she's definitely an important character in a story that is really only very peripherally her own.
February 6, 2021
This book is an unexpected joy. Although it’s hard to imagine that a book with a personal and tragic Holocaust story at its core could lift the heart, Julie Gray and Gidon Lev have pulled it off……and with a panache that reflects their own transparent joie de vivre. This book is a glorious Matryoshka doll of a biography, combining in an authentic way the powerful memories of Lev, Gray’s perspectives on those memories, Lev’s experience of seeing his stories through the eyes of his biographer and life partner, and Gray’s evident desire to calibrate Lev’s narrative in a way that is both clear-eyed and respectful. I learned so much in reading it……Holocaust history that I did now know, the perspective of a young and idealistic Zionist and also something harder to articulate. Something to do with the way that people who love each other oscillate continually between shared and separate worlds but in a kind of happy rhythm. I’ll definitely be going back to The True Adventures and I recommend that everyone else does too!
January 29, 2022
What an amazing, moving, and in many ways surprising book. Fresh off of reading another book on the Holocaust, I had discovered Gidon on TikTok and found him to be inspiring, relatable and endearing. When I heard that there was a book telling his story, I ordered it right away. And what a book! What a story! What a life! This cannot be put into a box. It's not just a Holocaust memoir. It's not just about Israel. It's not just about one man's tenacious optimism for life. It's all those things and more. Julie Gray is a magician with words -- a painter, revealing and illuminating Gidon's -- and her -- story in a truly remarkable way that I cannot do justice to. You simply have to read this wonderful book for yourself. I will be recommending it to everyone I know!
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January 4, 2021This book does not merely tell the story of Holocaust survivor Gidon Lev, it does far more than that. In fact, this book tells at least three stories. Firstly, it documents the devastating effects of the Holocaust on one life, in itself an astonishing piece of historical testament. Secondly, it places that life in the wider context of the Second World War, setting Lev’s heartbreaking story against the tableau of creeping Nazi anti-semitic policy and the fear and confusion it wrought on an unsuspecting European Jewry. In so doing, it reveals how Lev’s deeply personal and tragic story is the universal story of every victim of Nazism, not just of the time but of all time. And finally, as the relationship between Gray and Lev develops beyond that of writer and subject, the book touchingly portrays the delicacy of an emotional bond so deep that to label it love is to fail to comprehend its power.
As Gray and Lev return to the landmarks of Lev’s childhood, Lev takes Gray – and Gray takes us – through the milestones of his life and into the underlying emotions stirred by visits to locations such as his former homes in Prague and Karlovy Vary, the Terezin concentration camp, and most chillingly to Lidice, site of a Nazi massacre in reprisal for the killing of Reinhard Heydrich, chairman of the Wannsee Conference at which the Final Solution was formulated.
Ultimately this is an optimistic, hopeful book. Descriptions of Lev’s interactions with other visitors to sites such as Prague’s Jewish cemeteries show a man keen to talk about his experiences – perhaps rare for a Holocaust survivor – and one whose experience has shaped a keen sensibility of the good in man and the possibilities that life can hold. But in the background, Gray never lets us forget that the forces of fascism that shaped Lev’s generation are still with us today and will always need to be resisted. In remembering a trip she made to the former Yugoslavia before meeting Lev, she recalls the Srebrenica massacre of 1995 and the parallels to be drawn are obvious.
The True Adventures of Gidon Lev is a complex, multi-layered work full of detailed historical description, implied warnings for the failure to learn from history, and a promise that from the deepest adversity can spring recovery, growth and the strongest love. But it also asks a worrying question. As Gray says of Lev
“I suddenly, completely understood why people sometimes do this to Gidon: cry, ask to hug him, take his photo. Survivors are the embodiment, the proof of such things that we cannot imagine. What will happen when none are left?”
The True Adventures of Gidon Lev is a book that brings to life one of the worst atrocities ever committed by human beings. Given the age and scarcity of the survivors of those acts, it may prove to be one of the last testaments ever written. It is without doubt an important work.
As Gray and Lev return to the landmarks of Lev’s childhood, Lev takes Gray – and Gray takes us – through the milestones of his life and into the underlying emotions stirred by visits to locations such as his former homes in Prague and Karlovy Vary, the Terezin concentration camp, and most chillingly to Lidice, site of a Nazi massacre in reprisal for the killing of Reinhard Heydrich, chairman of the Wannsee Conference at which the Final Solution was formulated.
Ultimately this is an optimistic, hopeful book. Descriptions of Lev’s interactions with other visitors to sites such as Prague’s Jewish cemeteries show a man keen to talk about his experiences – perhaps rare for a Holocaust survivor – and one whose experience has shaped a keen sensibility of the good in man and the possibilities that life can hold. But in the background, Gray never lets us forget that the forces of fascism that shaped Lev’s generation are still with us today and will always need to be resisted. In remembering a trip she made to the former Yugoslavia before meeting Lev, she recalls the Srebrenica massacre of 1995 and the parallels to be drawn are obvious.
The True Adventures of Gidon Lev is a complex, multi-layered work full of detailed historical description, implied warnings for the failure to learn from history, and a promise that from the deepest adversity can spring recovery, growth and the strongest love. But it also asks a worrying question. As Gray says of Lev
“I suddenly, completely understood why people sometimes do this to Gidon: cry, ask to hug him, take his photo. Survivors are the embodiment, the proof of such things that we cannot imagine. What will happen when none are left?”
The True Adventures of Gidon Lev is a book that brings to life one of the worst atrocities ever committed by human beings. Given the age and scarcity of the survivors of those acts, it may prove to be one of the last testaments ever written. It is without doubt an important work.
January 19, 2022
I first contacted and hired a developmental editor, Julie Gray, just before finishing my first book, a memoir, because she had previously written a memoir. I never had the chance to read hers until after I published mine.
I thoroughly enjoyed the memoir and considered it much more than that. Both Julie and Gidon wrote with such sensitivity and honesty I could entirely connect to the character and life events involved. I can’t imagine how much work went into organizing notes, photos, and interviews of her loving life partner to the point of becoming an integral part of the story.
It is a wonderfully complex personal, historical, and emotional chronicle that just about anyone would enjoy and appreciate reading in their lifetime.
I thoroughly enjoyed the memoir and considered it much more than that. Both Julie and Gidon wrote with such sensitivity and honesty I could entirely connect to the character and life events involved. I can’t imagine how much work went into organizing notes, photos, and interviews of her loving life partner to the point of becoming an integral part of the story.
It is a wonderfully complex personal, historical, and emotional chronicle that just about anyone would enjoy and appreciate reading in their lifetime.
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