The Forgotten

It was a good book. It took me a couple chapters to get into it but then wanted to keep reading to see what happens next.

As always with an Elie Wiesel book, the topic of the Holocaust and its aftershocks are explored in lyrical depth. "The Forgotten" is no different, as it explores the memories of Elhanan Rosenbaum, just as he struggles with losing his memory to an incurable disease. He desperately tries to pass his memories onto his son so that they will never die, even if he does. "The Forgotten", like most of Wiesel's books, weaves back and forth through time and between different narrators. At times the transitions between these various changes is a little choppy, but the stories all interconnect in the end. Elhanan's son, Malkiel, struggles with the task his father has assigned him. He cannot fathom how he is to possibly hold and retain his father's memories along with his own. And when his father asks him to take a pilgrimage to his hometown, both are unsure as to what to look for, but know that an answer must exist there that will free Elhanan's painful memories and grant him peace. Wiesel has devoted his life to searching for meaning in what has happened to the Jewish people. As a survivor of the Holocaust, he has a tremendous witness to bear. That aspect of being a witness plays a large role in "The Forgotten". As Malkiel finally realizes, he must do what his father no longer can. "I will bear witness in his place; I will speak for him. It is the son's duty not to let his father die." And it is the duty of the world not to let the past slip into oblivion. Lest we forget.

The Forgotten explores both the holocaust experiences of the aging father, and his new horror of losing his memory. Both are intensely moving, whether seen through his own eyes, or those of his son struggling to fulfill a difficult obligation. Like all of Elie Wiesel's writings, this book stays with you and influences your own thinking on many topics. A sad story, unforgettable. Professor Wiesel did me the honor of writing a blurb for my novel, The Heretic (Library of American Fiction), which describes anti-Judaism on the eve of the Spanish Inquisition. I also invite you to consider my new novel, A Good Conviction, the story of a young man in Sing Sing prison, wrongly convicted of a crime he did not commit.