To the Land of Cattails

by Aharon Appelfeld, Jeffrey M. Green (Translator)

To the Land of Cattails is a haunting parable of the human spirit and an unforgettable account of the destiny of modern European Jewry.

Genres: Fiction, Jewish, Novels, Judaica

148 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

AHARON APPELFELD is the author of more than forty works of fiction and nonfiction, including Until the Dawn's Light and The Iron Tracks (both winners of the National Jewish Book Award) and The Story of a Life (winner of the Prix Médicis Étranger). Other honors he has received include the Giovanni Bocaccio Literary Prize, the Nelly Sachs Prize, the Israel Prize, the Bialik Prize, the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, and the MLA Commonwealth Award. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has received honorary degrees from the Jewish Theological Seminary, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, and Yeshiva University.

Reviews

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book that teaches empathy but a book that is not very memorable after you've read it and not that easy to feel a part of . It does not let you enter inside the story or the writer. You don't really want to know the characters or the creator. It teaches empathy-- without empathy. However, it must be worth reading, having won so many prizes and awards. I just can't see it. I'll read other books by Applefeld only to find out what all the hoopla is about and to see how wrong I am.

[☕Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ratings:

Writing 5
Story line 4
Characters 5
Impact/enjoyment 4

Overall rating 4.5

[Arnie Kahn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow, I must be the only person who hated this book. I couldn’t finish it. It’s the story of a beautiful woman and her 17 year old son traveling across Europe to her parent’s house. The mother and son are barely described and they change moods with little reason, e.g., drinking a cup of coffee can change them from despair to hope. As they travel northward anti-Semitism increases. I can't understand why my reaction to the novel is so different from other readers. I thought the writing, perhaps it's the translation, was awful.

[Hermien · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is quite a philosophical book. Rudi and his mother, as well as all the other jewish people, have no idea what is in store for them and their naivity is heartbreaking.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A devastating book. The allegories are beautiful, the mother and son’s wandering = Jews’ diaspora/wanders. The coffee addiction = being oblivious to the horrors of the camps while being wide awake. I was lucky to read it in its original Hebrew and the restrained short sentences are brilliant at conveying the tense atmosphere of this time and these places.

[Ilene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written; some of the best descriptive prose I have read this year. Both love and hate the non-USA books that seem to end before the story is over, but then, considering the setting, probably best left unsaid...

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sad novella about a Jewish woman and her adolescent son traveling together from Austria back to the woman’s birthplace and family in Bukovina (modern day Ukraine I believe). Very much a parable of the Jewish desire to “return home” but of course here they make the wrong choice, returning to a place that is not their true homeland and where instead the Holocaust is about to engulf them. Appelfeld uses the mixed blood of Rudi, the son whose father was a gentile, to contrast perceived differences between Jews and non-Jews, and to bring both separation and closeness to the relationship with his mother. Thought the book summed up her guilt well when the mother asks her son to forgive her for “this whole displacement”, meaning maybe his religious confusion, maybe the endless journey they are on together, but fundamentally, for the burden (in her mind) of being Jewish and part of a displaced people.

There is implicit criticism throughout the book of Jews being weak and sheepish, not willing to stand up for themselves but rather internalizing and accepting their dismal lot. The mother asks people on the road what they hate about Jews, assuming they have good reasons. The son fights back when antisemites insult them and it’s presented as an honorable “non Jewish” trait from his father’s side. At a hotel, the Jewish proprietress has recently been murdered but her friends response is to wait for someone else to come and provide justice for her (I.e do nothing themselves). Most poignantly, a scene of Jews huddled at a train station impatiently waiting for a train to come and take them away: they hope to catch up with relatives who have already been forcibly removed, but of course we readers know better what’s in store, that they are hurrying to their own demise. This depressing theme in the book is understandable for an author who lived through the Holocaust and perhaps never forgave his community for not fighting harder, or wishes to impress on us the need for Jewish/Israeli self-sufficiency now. But as a Jew, it makes for an uncomfortable (if captivating) read.

[Daniel Adler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written story about a young man and his Jewish mother on a journey into Ruthenia on the eve of the Holocaust. Sometimes the theme of Jewish identity feels too central for this novel to become a universal tale, but the mixed heritage of the protagonist Rudi and the subtle deft writing make for a fascinating read.

[K · Rating 3 out of 5]

To the Land of the Cattails is the story of a woman and her son as they travel "home". The woman had married out of her faith to an abusive man years before, and feels it is now time to return to her parents' village to seek reconciliation. Not terribly compelling overall, but this tale does tell of the social ills and prejudices of the lands as they travel east from Vienna.

[Harry · Rating 2 out of 5]

I so wanted to like this book, as I had heard good things about the author. I read a third of it, and I could not force myself to continue. The style does not encourage reader interest. I could not tell if it was historical fiction, a parable or psychological drama.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book will probably haunt me for a while. It ends before the story is finished, but we can fill in the ending, knowing what we know about the Holocaust. The relationship between the two main characters, a single mother and her adolescent son is loving, yet sometimes distant.