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alexblackreads 's review for:
Let Me Go
by Helga Schneider
This was an interesting concept to me. Helga Schneider's mother abandoned her at age four to become a guard at Auschwitz, and this book is about the second time she's seen her mother since then. Schneider is in her 60s and her mother in her 90s. I wanted to like this a lot because there's so much to unpack there. She clearly has a great deal of unresolved issues toward her mother, and a complex relationship with having a mother in general, but at the end of the day, it felt like this book lacked a purpose.
With nonfiction, it feels like there needs to be some reason behind telling a story. Like why do I, the reader who knows none of these people, care? There needs to be some kind of point for me, and in this book there wasn't anything. Schneider has basically no relationship with her mother and continues on that path, she doesn't learn much of anything new (her mother was awful, remains awful), she doesn't resolve any issues, doesn't shed light on past events. I almost question why she bothered to meet her mother one last time at all.
This is the kind of book where I can see why the author wrote it and how it would be meaningful to her, but as a reader I didn't feel a whole lot of anything. The whole book felt lacking and I wanted something more.
At the very least, it was interesting to hear bits of a first person account from a guard at one of the Nazi concentration camps. The book wasn't really about that so much as it was set in the present, but Schneider interrogated her mother a bit looking for reasons to hate her or forgive her or feel anything at all. That part I enjoyed, but because the only information we got was from an ailing 90 year old with dementia who was inclined to lie, there honestly wasn't much of it. And it wasn't the focus of the book, so I'm not blaming Schneider for that.
I think if you're interested in the concept, it's probably worth picking this up. It's a quick read and I did enjoy it. Everything about it is fine at worst and much of it is interesting on at least a superficial level, but below the surface it felt a little hollow to me. I'm still glad I read it, but it won't be one that sticks with me.
With nonfiction, it feels like there needs to be some reason behind telling a story. Like why do I, the reader who knows none of these people, care? There needs to be some kind of point for me, and in this book there wasn't anything. Schneider has basically no relationship with her mother and continues on that path, she doesn't learn much of anything new (her mother was awful, remains awful), she doesn't resolve any issues, doesn't shed light on past events. I almost question why she bothered to meet her mother one last time at all.
This is the kind of book where I can see why the author wrote it and how it would be meaningful to her, but as a reader I didn't feel a whole lot of anything. The whole book felt lacking and I wanted something more.
At the very least, it was interesting to hear bits of a first person account from a guard at one of the Nazi concentration camps. The book wasn't really about that so much as it was set in the present, but Schneider interrogated her mother a bit looking for reasons to hate her or forgive her or feel anything at all. That part I enjoyed, but because the only information we got was from an ailing 90 year old with dementia who was inclined to lie, there honestly wasn't much of it. And it wasn't the focus of the book, so I'm not blaming Schneider for that.
I think if you're interested in the concept, it's probably worth picking this up. It's a quick read and I did enjoy it. Everything about it is fine at worst and much of it is interesting on at least a superficial level, but below the surface it felt a little hollow to me. I'm still glad I read it, but it won't be one that sticks with me.