Helpful Score: 6
This book was unbelievably good! It took me a bit to get into it but once I was hooked, I couldn't read it fast enough. It was disconcerting at times, but then I had to remember that the story is told from a Hungarian point of view and that it is different from mine. At some points, I thought, this cannot be--the constant highs and lows--the despair and sadness---but then you remember that the holocaust and WW2 are real and that the continual upheaval were probably pretty accurate. I cried through the last 50-75 pages of the book, but it is definitely a book to read and remember!
Helpful Score: 2
Beautifully written book about a family--could have been your family--could have been my family--an impossible war; survivors and victims, and through it all a thread of hope . An unforgettable book, a tremendously accomplished author who painstakingly described every event, every scene, every person so that you felt you knew them all.
Helpful Score: 2
WONDERFUL book, beautifully written about the Hungarian Jews during WW-2 The story about them is not very well known as they were more fortunate than the Jews of the rest of Europe since they were allowed to work and own property for a short time.
The men were forced to work in the "Munkaszolgalat", which was a Labor Service required of Jewish men who were prohibited from serving in the regular Armed Forces. They were hardly fed, clothes in rags, deprived of boots, sometimes doused with water and made to stand still until ice formed on their chin in below zero weather.
This book was hard to take at times, very realistic, troubling and heartbreaking. However, there is a beautiful love story woven throughout the book that will warm your heart. The author did an amazing job researching historical facts and created a story that will stay with you for a long time and haunt you.
Highly recommended!
5 Stars! Another for my keeper shelf!!
The men were forced to work in the "Munkaszolgalat", which was a Labor Service required of Jewish men who were prohibited from serving in the regular Armed Forces. They were hardly fed, clothes in rags, deprived of boots, sometimes doused with water and made to stand still until ice formed on their chin in below zero weather.
This book was hard to take at times, very realistic, troubling and heartbreaking. However, there is a beautiful love story woven throughout the book that will warm your heart. The author did an amazing job researching historical facts and created a story that will stay with you for a long time and haunt you.
Highly recommended!
5 Stars! Another for my keeper shelf!!
Helpful Score: 2
THE INVISIBLE BRIDGE is a sweeping, epic historical fiction novel by Julie Orringer. The beginning of the book tells of Andras Levi, a Hungarian Jew who travels to Paris to study architecture. I enjoyed being immersed in Andras' group of friends and his budding romance with Klara. But given that this is 1930s Europe, the reader knows that bad things are on the horizon. The second half of the novel takes the reader back to Hungary and depicts the utter despair and heartbreak of World War II. The novel could have benefited from condensing or eliminating some subplots, but overall it is a memorable and moving tale with a likable hero, written by a talented author who did her research.
Beautifully written, great imagery, painful story of a family of Hungarian Jews during WW2. While this was a great book and I am sure I will never forget it, it was a little slow for me and took me quite a while to finish.
Wonderful historical fiction! The story keeps you engrossed and the characters are sympathetic. Loved it!
I read THE INVISIBLE BRIDGE with a buddy in my online book club, The Reading Cove. It took me two weeks to finish it.
It's a very dense, sweeping epic set just before, during and after the height of WW2; it's part history lesson, part love story and part memorial for the victims and scarred survivors of that awful time in Hungarian history.
From the open I was immediately impressed with the descriptions of the brothers, Andras and Tibor, out for a night at the opera in late 1930s Budapest, having no idea of the horrors on the horizon.
This is not a story that can be read in a hurry to move on to your next book. It's best served with undivided and patient attention. The pace takes its time, from Paris to Hungary to the Ukraine; be prepared to settle in and snuggle up with this one. It requires time and commitment, as there's a lot of (tedious?) historical detail about the war, and many times when I felt it indulged far too long in certain storylines ~ with sharper editing, the book could've covered the same ground in 200 fewer pages without losing its emotional resonance.
Nonetheless, I remained fundamentally engaged. I cared a lot about Andras and his family and fretted for them all throughout this journey. While many of the characters escape certain fates by way of great luck at times, there were some seriously heartbreaking scenes...and two instances in the last third when I even shed a few tears.
So overall, I'm glad I read this book and would recommend it to intelligent readers. It's a pretty sophisticated, high-quality and powerfully told story that pays its rewards for sticking with it. 3.75 stars.
It's a very dense, sweeping epic set just before, during and after the height of WW2; it's part history lesson, part love story and part memorial for the victims and scarred survivors of that awful time in Hungarian history.
From the open I was immediately impressed with the descriptions of the brothers, Andras and Tibor, out for a night at the opera in late 1930s Budapest, having no idea of the horrors on the horizon.
This is not a story that can be read in a hurry to move on to your next book. It's best served with undivided and patient attention. The pace takes its time, from Paris to Hungary to the Ukraine; be prepared to settle in and snuggle up with this one. It requires time and commitment, as there's a lot of (tedious?) historical detail about the war, and many times when I felt it indulged far too long in certain storylines ~ with sharper editing, the book could've covered the same ground in 200 fewer pages without losing its emotional resonance.
Nonetheless, I remained fundamentally engaged. I cared a lot about Andras and his family and fretted for them all throughout this journey. While many of the characters escape certain fates by way of great luck at times, there were some seriously heartbreaking scenes...and two instances in the last third when I even shed a few tears.
So overall, I'm glad I read this book and would recommend it to intelligent readers. It's a pretty sophisticated, high-quality and powerfully told story that pays its rewards for sticking with it. 3.75 stars.
