The Beautiful Mrs. Seidenman

I just finished reading this book aloud to my wife. "Beautifully written" would be too little praise for this piece of fine literature. I found it reminiscent of Tolstoy at his best, but it stands on it's own. Andrzej Szczypiorski tells the story, not of Mrs. Seidenman, but of humanity. The only thing that I can compare this book to is the film "Decalogue" by his fellow Pole Krystof Kieslowski. It is full of, how shall I put it?, perhaps "tenderness" for the plight, and the beauty, of people with all of their humanity. Like Tolstoy, he does it without sentimentality and allows us to see beyond the surface of each character. And, also like Tolstoy, he does so with words, sentences, paragraphs, that seem to flow effortlessly. Do not be decieved that this is merely a novel "about" the holocaust, or Poland, or Catholicism. It is about people. From the sympathetic whore who gives shelter to a desperate Jewish boy to the Nazi who orders the deaths of Jews. We discover that neither the whore nor the Nazi could have done anything other than what they did.A wonderful writer. A wonderful book. Not just a good read but a great experience.

The Beautiful Mrs. Seidenman is one of the most beautifully written novels I have ever read. The author deftly weaves together several people's lives which converge during the same time period. There are no distilled characterizations of heroes or demons; rather, fairly ordinary and yet complex people who are trying to figure out how to live and survive in Nazi occupied Warsaw. To further exemplify how ordinary the characters are, Szczypiorski projects each person into their future to let the reader know what will become of him or her. This can be an artifical plot device but in this case, it is highely effecting. Moreover, it does not take the reader so much out of the present, rather it helps one to better undertand the complexity of each character--no matter how "simple" he or she may seem. This is a very full reading experience. It is thought provoking, affect laden and a really well told story. I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in the Holocaust and/or Poland.

Figaro Magazine was right: "superb and staggering." Mrs Seidenman is at the epicenter of a collapsing world. She is beautiful and cultured, yet otherwise unremarkable. A disconnected cast of mostly ordinary, yet often remarkable, men women and children swirl about her on the brink of extinction. Seemingly underwritten, this telling of a horror for the ages almost sneaks up on you and gathers momentum until the very last page. It left me dazed and a little wiser.

The book is about the human side of each of us. It is about the inner feelings, fears and desires. The catalyst is the danger of living in the wartime Poland. The holocaust that brings the worst and the greatest in people. It is also about the passage of time. Time is the great equalizer. In the end it does not matter; the horrors and the happines, the crimes and the heroism. The book is very truthfull. Author knows how to reach the depths of ones soul. One of the best books I have ever read.

I read this book a couple of years ago while I was serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Poland. It took a long time to build up to it. I thought, please not another book about the Holocaust but I found it to be a fascinating account and I can't recommend it highly enough. So many of the western treatments of the subject simplify the Holocaust into black and white (evil Germans and Poles, innocent Jewish victims). Szczypiorski writes about complex characters struggling with life, love and survival. The evil or virtue of an individual is not based naively on his or her ethnic heritage but on how well he or she manages to salvage a sense of humanity. In a sense, they're all victims of this savage war and ethnic cleansing operation. We find heroes and heels among Poles, Germans and Jews. It makes us ask ourselves how we would react in a situation few of could imagine in our most horrific nightmares. It makes Spielberg's "Schindler's List" look particularly banal, and downright insulting to his Polish hosts by portraying them only as whores and anti-Semites. The American public deserves a richer picture of Poland during the War and Szczypiorski provides it