Joop: A Novel of Anne Frank

I don't read that many books but I read this book for my Senior Project. This book isn't one bit boring and always makes you wonder what else is going to happen! I encourage you read it!

A great story that is wonderfully told. Richard Lourie has again done a masterful job.

Wow. This book is not about Anne Frank. She is just the excuse, the frame, the passage that leads us into another story. The story of the holocaust, the concentration camps, important though it may be, has been told. This is the story of a young man living throught WWII in an occupied Amsterdam. This is a book which is full of lessons but not the kind that are thrown in our faces. They are lessons that we don't realize are being told at all until the last page is turned. I don't want to give anything away, but if you want a fascinating read, and a few "million dollar questions" about human suffering (whose suffering is more important, mine or yours, his or hers, that nations or anothers) and human actions (how much hunger can cancel out human compassion) etc. pick up this book. Thanks to the author for giving us another slice of the onion.

A Hatred For Tulips, September 1, 2007 By gerryb (Cambridge, MA USA) - See all my reviews If Breughel were a minimalist 21st century writer this might have been one of his books. It an easy and pleasurable read, almost casual in style, bit rich in incidental detail. The profoundly horrific dilemmas of being human that it deals with emerge stealthily but potently. It turns out Anne Frank's probable betrayer was not particularly monstrous but a confused and impressionable kid named Joop from a hungry family. The money he gets for informing may help save them from starvation and the Anne Frank's fate seems much more distant. The contrast of the breezy writing style and the gravity of the material make the book all the more memorable. There are other nuances in the plot which turn out to be quite important but I will leave them for other readers to discover. I recommend this book very highly.

Richard Lourie had a way of making me think I was reading nonfiction; I kept having to remind myself that this was not a true story; everything about it fit into history perfectly. It was one of those books that was very difficult to put down!