read: 30.08.18

book: The Pianist

author: Władysław Szpilman

blurb: The last live broadcast on Polish Radio, on September 23, 1939, was Chopin's Nocturne in C# Minor, played by a young pianist named Wladyslaw Szpilman, until his playing was interrupted by German shelling. It was the same piece and the same pianist, when broadcasting resumed six years later. The Pianist is Szpilman's account of the years inbetween, of the death and cruelty inflicted on the Jews of Warsaw and on Warsaw itself.

review: This is a book I have always heard about in my history lessons. It's always the film they talk about when they want to take about an actor's dedication to a role. So I finally read it, and both hope and despair filled me up all at once.

Hope was evoked from the fact that the human spirit was able to endure so much pain and agony and yet still come out the other side alive. Władysław Szpilman seems to have 9 lives or something because his escape from the fate of so many Jews during the war is nothing but legendary. I can't imagine how he managed to survive when he had lost everything he ever loved in the world, but hearing his recount of those years he spent hiding or labouring away really inspired me.

Hatred was evoked towards the Nazis obviously. The Warsaw ghetto is something I have never property studied in school but I've always known it existed. Learning about the lived experience of those who were there was really hard to stomach at times, and it made me wonder how incredible it is that humans end up adapting to their situation no matter how horrible.

Overall it was a really stunning memoir, and one I think everyone should read.

rating: 10/10