Categories: uncategorized
Date: 22 October 2007 09:35:08
The book group I go to were reading Aimee and Jaguar by Erica Fischer this month. As a novel it's both a love story and a history book. The history part means it is an easily accessable book what ever your view on the gender factor of the relationship.
So like most of the list in Diva this month of the best of lesbian literature it's not actually specifically lesbian lit but rather a book for everybody which happens to contain a love story involving a lesbian rather than a straight relationship.
I have to say as somebody interested in social history and without much knowledge of the war beyond the basic knowledge of the holocaust we all have I found it facinating. What shocked me, with my English upbringing was how even in the early 40's when this book was set there were still some Jews living in Berlin and the detail of how the Nazi's restricted them before going for "the final clearance". It made me realise that in someways the simplified versions of history we are given don't allow us to fully appreciate the horror and hardship of everyday existence the Jewish community (and others) had to endure before being taken to the camps, with all of the horror and tragedy involved in that situation.
The other interesting thing about the book, which the author illustrates is how the impact the restrictive immigration policies of various governments (including the United States which is detailed in the book) had. At the end the author looks at the way governments are still following a similar path, by drawing paralells with the Bosnian situation which was going on when she wrote the book.
The only down sides of the book are the fact it's translated means some of it is abit awkward. As for the love story well on one hand it's beautiful yet ultimately tragic but on the other it has slightly too many issues involved to be as straightforward as it seems.
So all in all not an easy read but a worthwhile one.