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There are currently 18 member reviews
for Jacob's Oath
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Linda W. (Summit, NJ)
Before You Promise
The premise for this book - why would a Jew who survived World War II chose to live in Germany - is an entry into the chaos of post-war life. It is also the framework for a poignant love story. The horror of survival in Germany of two Jewish young adults is not whitewashed. At times the deprivation and violence is hard to read, but the author counter balances these passages with wonderful descriptive phrases of an emerging spring and the resurrection of trust and love in Jacob and Sarah. Simple pleasures, like a bag of cherries and hot water, are embraced and savored. But the secrets and suffering of unfulfilled promises are potential obstacles to the future of their life and love together.
I thoroughly enjoyed this well written and satisfying novel of romance, love and restoration seen through the eyes of Jacob and Sarah who scarred by the Holocaust.
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Susan B. (Lowell, MA)
Jacob's Oath
Why would a refugee who is dirty, hungry, homeless, destitute, and shoeless want to return to his birthplace? After the camps, how do you rebuild toward a hopeful future without the painful and brutal memories of the assault and horror of your losses? This book is about the courageous survivors of the camps and their daily emotional roller coaster of memories that influence hope and planning for a future in Heidelberg, Germany. The conflicts escalate to a climax in a very engaging way. The characters, Sara and Jacob the villain, Hans, and others were very believable and hard to forget. The German Holocaust was horrific and those who returned to Germany had both logical and emotional reasons for making the trek. This novel is about their journey during the war, their decision to return to home, and the aftereffects of the horrors. The descriptions were so vivid a reader could feel the cold, the pain of the fall, and the sickness from fever and bacteria. The bullying of Maxi, Jacob's brother and his subsequent death by "THE RAT" became reoccurring nightmares for Jacob as he dealt with his demons. The losses that this couple experienced were significant and became hard for the reader to assimilate without a great deal of empathy and sympathy. I felt I knew the moral fabric and soul of this couple. Lieutenant Isak Brodsky became a savior and the hopeful eye toward life and future happiness. His fortuitous help and empathy at critical times in the novel's plot became necessary to the reader's need to know that things would only get better for this couple that we come to know so well. This new novel is a different take on the story of the holocaust because this was about the demons that accompany the psychological state as the protagonists attempt to rebuild a future without predictability while paying homage to a past that is horribly traumatic.
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Kelly H. (Martinsville, IN)
Jacob's Oath
Jacob's Oath is a novel about Holocaust survivors, Jacob and Sarah. Jacob survived a camp, and Sarah survived in hiding, underground. Of course, each of them has endured horror beyond imagination. Jacob's oath is to avenge his brother's death.
After the war, the two meet, and must try to put their lives back together. Jacob must decide what is more important: his oath to his brother, or building a new life with Sarah.
I enjoyed the book, although it was a bit slow at times. It would be a great book club read; there is no shortage of discussion material when it comes to the Holocaust. It would also be a great book for a book club because typically some can't stomach this subject, while some feel it demands examination, even though it can feel physically bad to discuss it. I think those are the most interesting and fulfilling book club meetings.
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Robert S. (Henderson, NV)
The Ultimate Liberation
Martin Fletcher's Jacob's Oath is the moving and thought provoking story of two German Jewish Holocaust survivors, one who endured Bergen-Belsen and the other who, although avoiding the camps, experienced her own hell in underground Berlin. Set in Germany in the days immediately preceding and following VE Day, the work is a probing exploration of the relationships and tensions between the two protagonists, between each protagonist and his past and, most poignantly, between a resolute determination to avenge yesterday's horrors juxtaposed with an acceptance of what was and a redirection imbued with tomorrow's promise. With gratitude to the author, I was moved by the book to reflect about the experiences and feelings of the newly liberated survivors as the Nazi oppression was suddenly and seamlessly replaced by the treachery of of the Russian victors. I was uncomfortable as Fletcher's characters witnessed their captors resume their pre-war life and came face to face with their former neighbors who cheered as the Jews were led away expecting never to see them again and who had become the beneficiaries of the Jewish homes and property that the Nazis had seized.
Fletcher's charcaters are well drawn and real, his themes are deep and the plot is creative and effectively paced. Surprisingly, though, the book is effective in spite of, and not because of, the prose which all too often I found to be trite, colloquial and ordinary. Phrases such as "it gives me the creeps", "don't be melodramatic, girl" and "psyching himself up" violate the mood that is otherwise set by the story and are not befitting the complex characters.
The characters and plot, however, are so strong that Jacob's Oath is nevertheless a good book. With a more refined literary style, however, this could have been a great book, and I regret the missed opportunity.
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Susan P. (Boston, MA)
Jacob's Oath
Although Martin Fletcher says he does not write Holocaust novels, this really is one. It's also a story of why Jewish Holocaust survivors would actually go back home to live in Germany. A man survives a camp and goes back home to Heidelberg -- because it was home and also to avenge the death of his brother who died at the hands of a guard from their hometown. He starts to make a life for himself and meets a Jewish woman who has also come to town to find her husband. It's a very readable story about how and why people choose to live on, and there's suspense around what will happen to that guard. The historical aspects are compelling and it's an uplifting story in all respects.
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Joan B. (Ellicott City, MD)
JACOB
I wanted to give this book a 5 since it is more than just good. The few reservations I have come from the slow moving story. I did fall asleep several times while reading.
That being said, the plot was so true to the quandary generated by the difficult decisions of love and life. I could relate to Jacob's indecision. I would like to know Sarah better.
I think that the story is missing some emotional interaction since the author is a news correspondent and not a novelist. He includes great nuggets of interest about Germany's WWII trials. I will recommend this book to my book club for that reason.
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Anne M. (Austin, TX)
Jacob's Oath
This is the story of two survivors -- both Jews, one of whom survived Bergen-Belsen and one of whom survived living in bombed-out houses and other inhospitable spaces during the war. The title's "oath" refers to the promise Jacob made to his little brother, Maxie, to kill the camp guard who killed the boy; but it also refers to the vow Sarah made to make a life for herself, despite having lost everyone she loved.
Jacob and Sarah meet in Heidelberg after his concentration camp is liberated; Jacob finds that he has a talent for making money in all sorts of semi-questionable ways, and Sarah is still trying to recover from a rape that was perpetrated by a Russian soldier. "Jacob's Oath" is the story of their growing love for each other, and the choices they make as they decide whether to live in the past or create lives for themselves for the future.
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