Amazon.com: Customer reviews: The Tattooist of Auschwitz: A Novel

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some good and some not so

Reviewed in the United States on February 3, 2018

I had to order ‘The Tattooist of Auschwitz’ from a bookseller in the UK, as it will not be released in the US until September. It finally arrived to my home in Washington state a few days ago. After reading such incredible reviews, I couldn’t wait to be lost in its pages, so added it to my suitcase as I packed for work (I am a flight attendant). I didn’t have a chance to read it during my layover, but started it late last night on my redeye flight across the Pacific. I read it cover to cover in the five hours it took to fly from Maui to home, only pausing to wipe my tears on my apron and to pour sodas for the few people who weren’t sleeping in their seats.
I have read so many stories of this time, some good and some not so, some acclaimed and some relatively unknown. The Tattooist of Aushwitz is by far the best. Heather’s ability to make written words come to life is a true gift. This is one of those books that I will carry in my soul forever.

935 people found this helpful

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Caryn

Another Dud

Reviewed in the United States on November 5, 2018

I have read many, many good books about the Holocaust. This was not one of them. This book does not respect the starvation, terror, and dehumanization that concentration camp victims survived. I do not understand all these glowing reviews. This book could have been set in a summer camp for all its accuracy and authenticity. Between the giggling between the campers—I mean inmates, the friendly conversations with the counselors—I mean guards, the sneaking around the bunks—I mean barracks, I had to put this book down and not finish it. If you want to read a good book about the Holocaust, read All but My Life, Hope Is the Last to Die, Five Chimneys, Treblinka, Rena's Promise, Survival in Auschwitz, Night, Escape from Sobibor, Inside the Gas Chambers: Eight Months in the Sonderkommando of Auschwitz, Alicia: My Story, or any of the many other factual memoirs out there. This book is fantasy.

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SassyPants

Mixed feelings about this book: 3.5 Stars

Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2019

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I think this book could have been much better in the hands of an experienced author. It is the true story of Lale, a Slovakian Jew, who is transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in the spring of 1942. Because of his ability to speak multiple languages, he is assigned to be the tattooist in the camp. Through observation and social skills, he is able to barter for better food and provisions for his fellow prisoners. He also meets the love of his life, Gita, and manages some private time with her. They vow to live through this experience so that they can be together after the war. Lale is eventually discovered, is imprisoned, but still manages to get out alive. He spends some time working for the Russian army before he is able to get back to his home. The book spans from 1942 to 1945. There is a nice epilogue giving some details of Lale and Gita’s life after the war.

I was very eager to read this book based on subject matter and many positive reviews. Like many other readers, I have read a fair number of books about WWII, the Holocaust, and concentration camps. This one fell short for me and I have been puzzling over the reason. It was a fast and easy read, which is a strange thing to say about a book with such difficult and horrific content. And I think that is the problem. While educational, this book did not invoke any emotion for me. The book was written with a lot of emotional distance between the characters and the story. This is Ms. Morris’ first book. She typically writes screenplays and I think this book reads a bit like a screenplay. In fact, she states that it started as a screenplay. With actors to give life and emotion to the scenes this story would probably be more powerful as a movie. I can also imagine that Mr. Lale Sokolov maintained some emotional disconnect when recounting his story to the writer. The writing itself was just okay. Though I did not look it up, I think there may have been some anachronistic words and phrases. While Mr. Sokolov’s story was compelling and amazing, I was disappointed in the author’s retelling.

11 people found this helpful

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Mr. Carver

Depends on what you want to get out of this book

Reviewed in the United States on February 29, 2020

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Interesting to see so many wildly variant reviews of this book, especially since that's exactly what I was thinking as I was reading it. Part of me was saying I like this guy, and I like this girl, and I'm pulling for them to survive and get out and live a long, happy life. The romantic in me really liked this book. So if you're looking for a romance novel about a young couple pursuing love under "harsh" conditions, then this will work for you. But it nagged at me throughout the book about how Auschwitz just didn't seem that bad. They had decent jobs (apparently with paid time off), they talked with their guards as if they were college roommates, they managed to get food, they had secret trysts. I didn't read about any starvation; I didn't really get to know anybody who was gassed or cremated. Worst we really got was "they shot this guy", "the cut my balls off"... Lale seems to get away with a lot and is lucky enough to never be harmed a whole lot, despite others getting shot for little reason. I mean, I understand it's a true story and perhaps he really was that lucky, but still, seemed unrealistic. I did feel it was kind of disrespectful to those who actually died in or survived the concentration camps.

Here comes a spoiler - Then the last thing that I didn't like, when they finally do get out of the camp, we get a really succinct retelling of their journey home and finding each other, written at about the sixth grade level with no creativity. Parts sounds like a newspaper article: this happened, then this happened, then this happened. Bam, bam, bam, book's over. I really thought the story of them refinding each other could have been stretched out a good bit, with a lot more emotion. I mean, come on - that's the part in the movie when I'd be balling like a little girl. But in the book, I was like, okay, that's that.

So not thrilled with the writing or the picture that is presented of the relatively happy life in a German concentration camp. But if all you're looking for is a standard romance novel, this one works.

3 people found this helpful

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Rabid Reader

Rather awful

Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2019

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I could believe the story line, and I could put up with mediocre writing, but this book clearly was not edited. And, if it had been edited, somebody really screwed up!

I stopped reading and decided not to finish when I read that the tattooist of the story told his typhus-striken girlfriend that he would get her penicillin PENICILLIN !!! ??? !! with which to treat her typhus. The tattooist traded jewels and gems found in dead prisoners' belongings for food from a friendly local worker. It is highly unlikely - if not totally impossible - for this man, who was sympathetic to the tattooist's plight, to locate and turn over penicillin, especially in Nazi-run Birkenau and surroundings. American-made Penicillin was used in WWII to treat infection in American/Allied troops, and it was a lifesaver. But was it available in Cracow, near where Birkenau is located? I seriously think not. Was it available in 1943 to an average individual or such? Uh Uh.

Reading this killed the book for me. It simply was too much stretch, and it was entirely unlikely.

4 people found this helpful

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Jenine

Interesting story made less interesting by the writing

Reviewed in the United States on November 27, 2018

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Based on a true story, The Tattooist of Auschwitz is a fascinating story of courage, survival, and morality. What I found missing was great writing that engaged me emotionally. Don't misunderstand; the subject cannot help but elicit a strong emotional response, but the author did not do it justice. Despite the incredible story, the character development remained flat. Nevertheless, I recommend the book--the story carries it.

11 people found this helpful

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Ga303

Great story but a huge disservice to the subject matter

Reviewed in the United States on June 4, 2019

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Three stars is for me a lukewarm review. It doesn't mean I didn't enjoy a book, find it very readable, or find it very enjoyable or deserving of accolades. All three are true in my experience reading "The Tattooist of Auschwitz." It's the missed opportunities here that take away the points for me.

I would never have the presumption to ever speak with any knowledge of the experiences of those who lived through, or those whose family members, friends or close ones lived through or were touched by, these shocking atrocities. In this era of social media and armchair experts, it seems to be in the wheelhouse of everyone to profess knowledge of topics or events which may or may not fall into the realm of their intelligent speaking. I do not agree with that wheelhouse notion and think it makes for a crazy and poorly run ship, personally.

I have, however, had the privilege of visiting Auschwitz and Birkenau, and to call it a life changing experience is a gross understatement. These are the most important places I have ever visited. Everyone in the world should visit, and it's a shame that everyone in the world does not have the ability to do so. It is impossible, anywhere on that property, not to be confronted with the unspeakable horrors that dogged every waking moment of the lives of those interned there: impossible.

With that being said, I must agree with the not insubstantial number of reviewers who criticized what seemed like a toning-down of the setting. I found the historical research to be evident and excellent (anyone who reads any of my other reviews will find my love-hate relationship with historical fiction, so this is meant as a high compliment). But there are times when it seems as if the characters are merely in some kind of sucky summer camp or coed school dorm, with Kapos depicted as little worse than college RAs. This does an incredible disservice to the subject matter.

It's a wonderful story, indeed based on real people, and is an affirming reminder of the fact that love thrives in the rockiest and most inhabitable of habitats. But based on some of the shockingly naked and eye-opening nonfiction works out there about Auschwitz -- there are so many, and all so important -- if you're going to set a novel there, then commit. And if you're afraid to "go there," then choose a different setting. Because this story and its characters could have been set in many other circumstances more in keeping with this tepid treatment.

Perhaps the author wanted the book to appeal to a more mass-market audience. Or perhaps the net was cast so as to appeal to a young adult audience as well. If so, I'd then ask, what better reasons could exist for going there, so to speak? Every book like this is an opportunity for a new person to learn about these events, whether in an engrossing fictional context or in a nonfiction context. What an important opportunity that is, and more necessary in our society than ever before. This tragic, astonishing, horrifying, inconceivable, scary-batshit crazy episode in world history deserves more than a setting that sugarcoats it or has not the confidence or the willingness to take the risks that a story centered on it deserves.

I understand that not everyone wants to read up on these subject matters. But the mere title of the book should scare away anyone who chooses not to -- leaving in its remainder an audience who might be willing to be exposed.

Again, great story that almost gets there, but it doesn't go there. And for a book that has thousands of reviews, this was an important chance that wasn't taken.

3 people found this helpful

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Stacy L Thompson

Good story, lacks character development and compelling prose

Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2019

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I have read several other books that were written infinitely better than this for free on Amazon lending library. I love historical fiction and so I gave this one a shot. While it is a great story, you get virtually no details at all. Some of it seemed rushed and it could have been so much richer. Three stars for keeping me engaged to the end. Would not have paid for this, though, had I known.

9 people found this helpful

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J-Phi

Epically romantic

Reviewed in the United States on November 28, 2018

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I really expected to LOVE this. I had very high hopes. I like WWII-era historic fiction and this seemed like it would be a tale of hope and romance within a very dark time so I was excited.

Whilst this was a good read, I have to admit I’m a little underwhelmed by the plotting. I recognize that this is (based on) Lale’s real life experience and I can tell that the author was trying to be incredibly true to what he revealed to her. Surprisingly, in spite of the heavyness of the subject matter and the depth of the context, this novel has the piece-y feel of random memories strung together. It doesn’t feel cohesive and also the style of the storytelling feels very detached and very distant so that the reader never really feels immersed in the story.

Obviously remarkable is Lale’s life and his survival at Auschwitz, and obviously a lot of destiny, luck, coincidence, divine favor and personal agency played a role in that survival. But oftentimes, Lale would get into a scrape and a lot of tension would be built as to what would happen to him, then rather anti-climactically, the resolution would just come easily. I’m not saying that’s not what happened in real life, but if this is a fictionalized account I think a little more could have been done to sustain that tension a bit- to possibly make Lale a bit more relatable, and a little less perfect and one-dimensional. It’s not for me to judge, but I think Lale did what he needed to do to survive, but I don’t doubt there was a lot more resentment and animosity towards him for his relatively privileged position in the camp than this book portrayed. I think this book makes a perfect movie because you need less depth of emotion because you have visuals to help you. But for a novel, I would have liked a bit more exploration of the personal conflicts between Lale and others and some of his failings so that this novel doesn’t feel so much like a dreamscape happening within Auschwitz. I like the idea of this book and I like the potential it had to have been deeper and more meaningful. I loved meeting Lale and I understand he told his story as he wished, but I wished there had been a deeper exploration of emotion or even of love. If I was eating this as a romance novel, it would be a 4.5-5. But in this genre that it is, I think it’s a 3 for me.

15 people found this helpful

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Mike P

Why Lale

Reviewed in the United States on May 18, 2019

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This book just did not work for me. I don’t understand why Lale was so privileged. Why would the guy who did the tattoos get free run of the camp? I understand he was very generous with his good fortune and took many risks to improve the lives of all, but it was never explored why he had the privileges he enjoyed. He seemed too removed from the misery surrounding him to be compelling as the protagonist in a novel about the holocaust.

4 people found this helpful

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owlet

Not so great, not so bad

Reviewed in the United States on September 14, 2019

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I got this because my book club was reading it. The library was out, natch, so looked at Amazon and checked the reviews. I found a lot of 5-star raves about how fantastic it was and a handful of 1-star pans most of which seemed to think she had made Auschwitz sound like summer camp. Myself, I felt the author had taken the skeleton of a story from this survivor over the course of a few weeks, and then filled it in with the standard concentration camp narrative - standard because true, but still feeling not personal to the survivor. It made the story feel a little cardboard. Nevertheless no one reading it would imagine that Auschwitz was anything but horrifying and gruesome. There are better books out there written by the survivors themselves (Corrie ten Boom, Elie Wiesel for instance), and these have the advantage of being written when memories were fresh and painful, and nothing needed to be "filled in". This is certainly not a keeper.

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J. Roan

I wanted to like it so much more than I did.

Reviewed in the United States on November 16, 2018

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I enjoyed the people and their story but the writing was choppy. I really wanted to like this.
As history : well done
As for the writing: poorly written.

12 people found this helpful

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