March 1944:War's darkest period descends upon Hungary's Jews. By the time it ends in January '45, over half a million Jews will have been murdered. Gratitude tells the story of that period, through a group of people whom terrible circumstance has thrown together, and of lives and loves saved and lost. At the centre of it all is Paul Beck, a young lawyer whose chance meeting with a visiting Swede, Raoul Wallenberg, may alter the inevitability of the Jews' fate. Gratitude explores brilliantly and with deep humanity the complexities of the human psyche in its darkest hour, and offers a rich and unforgettable portrait of a European Empire's last days.
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Review
"Gratitude is a tragic story of our times--lyrical and wonderfully accomplished"
-- M.G. Vassanji"From the dramatic opening pages, readers will be thrilled. The writing is so skilful that you must read on-and you'll want the book never to end." -- Wayson Choy
"Gratitude grabbed me and wouldn't let go; I found it totally engrossing. It is a huge, sprawling novel, yet beautifully precise. Gratitude brings new life to well-known history, but the lasting strength of this wonderful book is its people, in all their flaws and glories. It is a massive achievement." -- Roddy Doyle, author of Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, winner of the Man Booker Prize
"Gratitude is a rich, grand novel. It reveals the complexity of human psychology and motivations. It shows the fate and the cruelty and generosity of human beings caught in the violence of history. Joseph Kertes writes with tremendous skill, strength, and passion, which make reading this book sheer pleasure. Stylistically and thematically, it is a remarkable achievement." -- Ha Jin, author of Waiting and War Trash Ha Jin, author of Waiting and War Trash
About the Author
Joseph Kertes, a Hungarianborn, award-winning author, is founder of Humber College's School for Writers, where he is currently the Dean. He lives in Toronto.
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By A. Sileika
Format:Hardcover
Gratitude is a remarkable addition to the writing about the second world war and the holocaust. More than that, it is a piercing analysis of human psychology.
We all know who the enemy was and we all know how many suffered, but what we so rarely have seen in writing on this subject is the complexity of human emotion and motivation. In this novel, victims are not saints by virtue of their suffering - they are human beings who stay complex.
The novel can be praised for its family story and its depiction of a place we know so little about - Hungary in the Second World War was a kind of sideshow for most Westerners - most important of all, though, is what it tells us about how people act under pressure, both for good and for ill.
This is a very worthy read.
We all know who the enemy was and we all know how many suffered, but what we so rarely have seen in writing on this subject is the complexity of human emotion and motivation. In this novel, victims are not saints by virtue of their suffering - they are human beings who stay complex.
The novel can be praised for its family story and its depiction of a place we know so little about - Hungary in the Second World War was a kind of sideshow for most Westerners - most important of all, though, is what it tells us about how people act under pressure, both for good and for ill.
This is a very worthy read.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Gratitude is the finest book about the horrific effects of WWII on the human condition I have ever read. Bravo Joseph Kertes - and thank you for writing about a difficult subject with such honesty,clarity, and compassion.
0 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By Andrea
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover
(This review has also been posted on LibraryThing)
I had high hopes for Gratitude but was disappointed. There were some good aspects to it but for the most part, I found it frustrating.
The good:
- Occasional passages of really good writing
- Very well researched; I looked up a few Budapest landmarks that I wasn't familiar with and found that not only did they all exist but that Raoul Wallenberg also existed. It led to some interesting history lessons on the side. Both my family and my husband's family are Hungarian but we grew up in Canada so we didn't really have the opportunity to learn all of the history there, and there is SO much to learn.
- Kertes does a good job portraying the way in which the basic humanity of Jews was stripped away during the Holocaust
The frustrating:
- Kertes seems to have borrowed plotting and character development tips from Danielle Steel in a lot of places, which really bothered me. Just didn't feel appropriate for this story.
- The dialogue often didn't make any sense and wasn't always even appropriate to the events taking place
- While Kertes is good at portraying the horrendous things that happened to Jews, he's not so good at going into the psychological ramifications of that. Things happen to some characters and they just go on as if it wasn't anything nearly as monumental as it was. The only one who does end up having a breakdown from it all happens to be the most self-absorbed, whiny, needy character in the whole book. By the time she started showing emotion related to the plight of others, I couldn't care less.
The frustrating aspects far outweighed the good bits for me and I couldn't wait to be done this so that I could move on.
I had high hopes for Gratitude but was disappointed. There were some good aspects to it but for the most part, I found it frustrating.
The good:
- Occasional passages of really good writing
- Very well researched; I looked up a few Budapest landmarks that I wasn't familiar with and found that not only did they all exist but that Raoul Wallenberg also existed. It led to some interesting history lessons on the side. Both my family and my husband's family are Hungarian but we grew up in Canada so we didn't really have the opportunity to learn all of the history there, and there is SO much to learn.
- Kertes does a good job portraying the way in which the basic humanity of Jews was stripped away during the Holocaust
The frustrating:
- Kertes seems to have borrowed plotting and character development tips from Danielle Steel in a lot of places, which really bothered me. Just didn't feel appropriate for this story.
- The dialogue often didn't make any sense and wasn't always even appropriate to the events taking place
- While Kertes is good at portraying the horrendous things that happened to Jews, he's not so good at going into the psychological ramifications of that. Things happen to some characters and they just go on as if it wasn't anything nearly as monumental as it was. The only one who does end up having a breakdown from it all happens to be the most self-absorbed, whiny, needy character in the whole book. By the time she started showing emotion related to the plight of others, I couldn't care less.
The frustrating aspects far outweighed the good bits for me and I couldn't wait to be done this so that I could move on.
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