Book Review
Nov. 28th, 2014 09:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariGretel and the Dark
by Eliza Granville
This intense and enigmatic novel weaves together two stories. The first is set in late nineteenth century Vienna and concerns Dr. Josef Breuer and his attempts to treat a new patient, Lilie, who seems to have no memories and claims to be some sort of machine. Breuer tries to discover her origins and the source of her disturbance whilst developing some rather unprofessional feelings towards her that complicate the whole situation. The other story is that of Krysta, a willful and often ill behaved little girl in Nazi Germany. Her mother has recently died and her father has taken them to a new place, where he works in the strange nearby infirmary. Defiant yet bewildered by the circumstances she finds herself in, Krysta retreats into the fairy tales she learned from her old nanny. When things inevitably go pear-shaped, these stories help Krysta cope with what is happening.
I found Gretel and the Dark very interesting, and it kept me reading, but I'm not sure how much I ultimately liked it. As a Holocaust story, it does many of the same things that Jane Yolen does much better in Briar Rose, and it also seems to cover some of the same ground as The Boy In the Striped Pyjamas, so I didn't find many real surprises. And the twist at the end, while clever, was not fully satisfying. But Granville does write beautifully, and she does have some great ideas. I just wish she's developed some things a little more, or gone a little farther. I would have liked to see more and get more detail of Krysta's change from a bratty kid to a tough and resourceful girl, and I would have liked the connection between the two stories to have been better developed. There's good stuff here, but I am not convinced it all lived up to its potential.
by Eliza Granville
This intense and enigmatic novel weaves together two stories. The first is set in late nineteenth century Vienna and concerns Dr. Josef Breuer and his attempts to treat a new patient, Lilie, who seems to have no memories and claims to be some sort of machine. Breuer tries to discover her origins and the source of her disturbance whilst developing some rather unprofessional feelings towards her that complicate the whole situation. The other story is that of Krysta, a willful and often ill behaved little girl in Nazi Germany. Her mother has recently died and her father has taken them to a new place, where he works in the strange nearby infirmary. Defiant yet bewildered by the circumstances she finds herself in, Krysta retreats into the fairy tales she learned from her old nanny. When things inevitably go pear-shaped, these stories help Krysta cope with what is happening.
I found Gretel and the Dark very interesting, and it kept me reading, but I'm not sure how much I ultimately liked it. As a Holocaust story, it does many of the same things that Jane Yolen does much better in Briar Rose, and it also seems to cover some of the same ground as The Boy In the Striped Pyjamas, so I didn't find many real surprises. And the twist at the end, while clever, was not fully satisfying. But Granville does write beautifully, and she does have some great ideas. I just wish she's developed some things a little more, or gone a little farther. I would have liked to see more and get more detail of Krysta's change from a bratty kid to a tough and resourceful girl, and I would have liked the connection between the two stories to have been better developed. There's good stuff here, but I am not convinced it all lived up to its potential.
