Book review - The Seventh Gate

Categories: books

Tags: Books

Date: 09 December 2008 23:01:51

Recently I wrote a post about things coming along in threes. Well this review falls into the general category of books about the Third Reich - and this is the third I read after The Book Thief and Stones from the River.  I would have blogged about it earlier but somehow just couldn't find the energy.

The Seventh Gate is written by an American novelist, Richard Zimler, who is Jewish. A Sephardic Jew, I believe, but I can't tell you how that might make him different from any other sort of Jew.  One of the main characters in The Seventh Gate is Jewish - and is looking into ancient manuscripts which may or may not be Sephardic. This aspect of the novel was either unclear or just beyond me and my sketchy knowledge of Judaism. Others may find this part of the story gripping, I found it rather incidental.

The main character of the novel is Sophie, a German teenager, who in the 1930s finds that her world is changing daily as many of her friends' lifestyles are forced to change. Through her neighbour, Issac (the character referred to above), she meets and becomes friends with an eclectic group of people, all older than she is, many of them Jewish and they all have physical disabilities of one sort or another. These disabilities make them a target for the Nazi "solution" of ridding Germany of anyone who may taint pure "Aryanism".

Sophie's father, a Communist, changes sides to become a Nazi before it is too late (in his terms) but this does not solve the "problem" of what will happen to Sophie's deaf brother, Hansi.  Sophie is obliged to join the Bund Deutscher Mädel (the female equivalent of the Hitler Youth), a situation she finds is further complicated by the fact that her best friend, Tonio, who becomes her boyfriend, is an enthusiastic and committed member of the Hitler Youth.

The story evolves into a murder mystery (and my regular readers will remember that I said I'd decided I didn't like this genre) when one of the "ecletic" gang is found murdered. Sophie also finds herself forming a close personal relationship with Issac, who is three times her age, while still attending school, dealing with the death of her mother, protecting her brother and asserting herself against her father.

Although I finished the book, I couldn't really believe in the characters. I felt Sophie was too independent for her age and I found it too difficult to believe that she would have been able to continue a close relationship with Issac, unopposed, in the heart of Berlin when there were so many restrictions on Jews well before Germany declared war on France and Britain.

If you want to read a book on this theme - The Book Thief and Stones from the River are much better value in terms of dealing with the theme of "outsiders", being a ripping yarn and credible. The Seventh Gate could do with a darn good edit and a bit more focus in my very humble opinion.