I Won't Feel Your Pain

Without Permission

The last book I gave my mother was The Help. She never got to read it.

Now, that's a pretty good line to start off an article with, isn't it? Perhaps you're wondering why my mother never got to read the book, and isn't that a very popular novel that was recently made into a movie? Now, if I said "My mother never got to read this book and you had BETTER be sad about it," you would probably be inclined to be just the opposite, maybe even dismissive. You've got to lead the reader into your story, not choke and beat them about the the neck and torso with it.


The last book I gave my mother was The Help by Kathryn Stockett, and she never got to read it because she died six weeks later. During the last of her life she was too weak to hold a book. Anyway, this is not about that. I'm actually trying to recommend three books to you: The Help, as aforementioned; Not Me by Michael Lavigne; and another book that I can't recall the title or author, but is about a woman who lives as a hermit in a house full German Jewish artifacts that her father dealt from a stolen cache. I've Googled and Googled, but I can't find it. Just try putting Jewish into any search engine and see if you're able to sort it out. I guess I should tap into my natural micro-managing talents and make a list of all the books I read for future reference. 


I normally don't like any literature dealing with civil rights or Jewish persecution because I've had it shoved down my throat my whole life, especially during my school years. My age group was taught to shoulder the guilt of eras that we couldn't comprehend. The tales were stereotypical, without detail, oversold and desensitizing.


With these books, it's as though the authors knew how to turn the crystal to show a different facet. In The Help I found characters who were very familiar to me, making me think "I know people exactly like that, mm-hmm." This story is about much more than civil rights. Just read it, I'm too full of explanation to explain it. I can't recommend the movie because I haven't seen it and probably won't see it. I'm purist about books that I like. I don't want any interference from outside sources into my own thoughts. I also think I wouldn't enjoy the movie because I would be saying "They didn't do it that way in the book" throughout the entire show.


Not Me was published in 2005, and is the only book about the Nazi occupation that has ever interested me. It was quite an eye-opener. The premise is gripping, but then the story speaks of historical data that I was unaware of, such as a civil war that was raging in Palestine and that people saved from concentration camps went on to fight in such. I may have the facts skewed, but it's a much different story from what I was taught, that victims were saved from camps and everything was hunky dory after that.


The third book, about an elderly woman who lives in a stately mansion filled with dinnerware and art stolen from Jewish families and bought by her long-dead art dealer father. Again, another perspective that I was unaware of, the scavenging of the holocaust victims homes, not always after their departure. I don't particularly like the ending, but that has something to do with my personal experience of the last actions in this book.


If you have been a jaded reader, these books will open an acceptable side-door for you to pass through. If you're not jaded, they're just plain good books.