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In the Land of Armadillos: Stories

par Helen Maryles Shankman

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577453,320 (4.8)4
1942. With the Nazi Party at the height of its power, the occupying army empties Poland's towns and cities of their Jewish populations. As neighbor turns on neighbor and survival often demands unthinkable choices, Poland has become a moral quagmire-a place of shifting truths and blinding ambiguities. Blending folklore and fact, Helen Maryles Shankman shows us the people of Wlodawa, a remote Polish town. We meet a cold-blooded SS officer dedicated to rescuing the Jewish creator of his son's favorite picture book; a Messiah who appears in a little boy's bedroom to announce that he is quitting; a young Jewish girl who is hidden by the town's most outspoken anti-Semite-and his talking dog. And walking among these tales are two unforgettable figures: the enigmatic and silver-tongued Willy Reinhart, commandant of the forced labor camp who has grand schemes to protect "his" Jews, and Soroka, the Jewish saddlemaker and his family, struggling to survive. Channeling the mythic magic of classic storytellers and the psychological acuity of modern-day masters, In the Land of Armadillos is a testament to the persistence of humanity in the most inhuman conditions.… (plus d'informations)
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Wow. fact meets fiction in a brilliant new style. ( )
  Starla_Aurora | Oct 29, 2018 |
What exactly is this book? One could consider it as a sort of Schindler's List written as an adult folk tale. Or one could view it as a beautifully crafted retelling of the author's family in a very complex and trying time. It markets itself as a collection of stories, but it is really a slightly disjointed novel drawn heavily on real events. And it is masterfully written. ( )
  larryerick | Apr 26, 2018 |
This collection of interconnected short stories holds considerable promise: magic realism meets WWII-era occupied Poland. I loved the architecture, how the stories looped around unexpectedly and became one tangled mess. The best stories were superb, layered tales of beauty and astonishment. These are stories where brutal reality and heartfelt magic collide against a backdrop of vivid color.

As a whole though, In the Land of Armadillos left an acidic taste in my mouth that gives me pause to honor this book with the highest praise. How can I best describe it? At their best, the stories in this collection are heartbreaking and relevant, but the stories can grow a bit maudlin, a tad overcloying in their sentimentality. If Hallmark commissioned Salman Rushdie to produce a WWII miniseries for their network, I think it would look a little like this. It wouldn't necessarily be a bad production, but it would feel off, you know what I'm saying? ( )
  chrisblocker | Jul 7, 2016 |
In the Land of Armadillos by Helen Maryles Shankman is a col­lec­tion of short sto­ries cen­tral­ized around a small town in Poland dur­ing World War II.

I’ve read and enjoyed the author’s pre­vi­ous book, The Color of Light, so when I was con­tacted to read her new novel, In the Land of Armadil­los by Helen Maryles Shankman I didn’t hes­i­tate and agreed. Before I begin, I’d like to say that I am not a “short story” per­son and usu­ally try to stay away from them.

I truly enjoyed this book and the linked sto­ries that go along with it. Sto­ries about the Holo­caust are always dif­fi­cult to pull off, but some­how the author man­aged to do it, for the sec­ond time, with grace and talent.

Some of the sto­ries use mag­i­cal real­ism, which reminded me of Latin Amer­i­can lit­er­a­ture, which some­how (and I’m not sure how) worked very well in the con­text. The Jew­ish texts used mag­i­cal real­ism many times, whether in folk­lore or reli­gious texts, to explain a ratio­nal world, but here the author uses them to explain an irra­tional world where every­one liv­ing knows it.

The author did some­thing I always wanted to do, write either a his­tory or a fic­tion­al­ized ver­sion of my family’s strug­gles in Europe dur­ing World War II. Ms. Shankman, how­ever, has some­thing I don’t – talent.

I received this book for free in exchange of an honest review

For more reviews and bookish posts please visit http://www.ManOfLaBook.com ( )
1 voter ZoharLaor | Feb 21, 2016 |
Who will live and who will die? Who will survive the Nazi occupation of the dreamy Polish hamlet of Wlodawa? Two-time Pushcart Prize nomine Helen Maryles Shankman weaves historical fact and Jewish folklore in the eight haunting tales of In the Land of Armadillos.

In the title story we meet a gifted painter and writer—the consumptive captive of a notorious SS officer—whose painted subjects become unwitting recipients of a blessing. Imbued with a kind of haunting mysticism, we are kept wondering until the final perfect sentence.

In The Partizans a werewolf fights to save his childhood love from death, and a common grave.

Next, a gangster becomes a reluctant savior in The Messiah, a story that blurs the edges between astronomical anomalies and miracles.

In They Were Like Family to Me a priest searches for his father’s humanity at the edge of a strange empty lot where the grass mysteriously stays green, even in the dead of winter.

In The Jew Hater a little copper-haired girl who can talk with animals cracks open and heals a hardened heart.

A handsome golem mysteriously appears one night in The Golem of Zukow, just where he is most needed.

Willy Reinhart, charming businessman, lover of beautiful creatures and beautiful craftsmanship, believes he can save his community of Jewish artisans and their families until the bitter-sweet end, in A Decent Man.

Though presented as a collection of short stories, all are connected by the same characters, events and places, and In the Land of Armadillos reads like a multiple viewpoint novel. Full of surprises, Shankman’s prose is clean, and disarmingly simple, until she steps from the shadows and you realize you have been under her cleverly woven spell all along. One aspect of her dialogue I particularly enjoyed, though it was deeply disturbing when I realized what she was doing, was how much like our modern-day coworkers and neighbors her Polish characters occasionally sounded; a subtle reminder that these disturbing conversations could take place here, today.

Despite being about the Holocaust, this novel is not all grim. Though there are appalling events aplenty, these share focus with the survivors and acts of heroism. The harsh reality behind the story of Wlodawa is further relieved by really excellent writing. And the novel ends, in a brief epilogue-like non-story that reveals a healed past and leaves readers hopeful.

I absolutely loved everything about this brilliant little historical novel, and will be keeping it for my shelf. Highly recommended. ( )
  CynthiaRobertson | Feb 19, 2016 |
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1942. With the Nazi Party at the height of its power, the occupying army empties Poland's towns and cities of their Jewish populations. As neighbor turns on neighbor and survival often demands unthinkable choices, Poland has become a moral quagmire-a place of shifting truths and blinding ambiguities. Blending folklore and fact, Helen Maryles Shankman shows us the people of Wlodawa, a remote Polish town. We meet a cold-blooded SS officer dedicated to rescuing the Jewish creator of his son's favorite picture book; a Messiah who appears in a little boy's bedroom to announce that he is quitting; a young Jewish girl who is hidden by the town's most outspoken anti-Semite-and his talking dog. And walking among these tales are two unforgettable figures: the enigmatic and silver-tongued Willy Reinhart, commandant of the forced labor camp who has grand schemes to protect "his" Jews, and Soroka, the Jewish saddlemaker and his family, struggling to survive. Channeling the mythic magic of classic storytellers and the psychological acuity of modern-day masters, In the Land of Armadillos is a testament to the persistence of humanity in the most inhuman conditions.

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Helen Maryles Shankman est un auteur LibraryThing, c'est-à-dire un auteur qui catalogue sa bibliothèque personnelle sur LibraryThing.

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