Customer Reviews
disappointing - By: Bookworm, 03 Dec 2008 
I bought this book having heard extracts on the radio. As I read the book I realised how selective the programme had been. I wish I had not spent the money buying it. I found it self indulgent on the part of the writer, just a platform for how wonderful he was. Very surprised, as I had expected a more factual account of how he gathered information on Schindler NOT a vehicle for writing about his own life. Perhaps the giveaway is the large number of photographs showing the author with various peoplein various settings. If I had wanted an autobiography about Thomas Keneally I would have bought one.
an intriguing follow-up to 'Schindler's Ark/List' - By: Mr. Ian A. Macfarlane, 08 Nov 2008 
I remember Thomas Keneally telling the story of how he came across the Schindler story when 'Schindler's Ark' ('List'in the USA) was first published. Then it won the Booker Prize & eventually, though after a long delay, was filmed by Steven Spielberg. This book covers that territory, from the moment Schindler walked into a Los Angeles bags, briefcases & leather goods shop & thereby met the extraordinary 'Leopold Page',in reality Leopold (or Poldek) Pfefferberg, to the making of the film & its success. The book is partly the story of Keneally's growing involvementin the tale & the search for other Schindlerjuden, the Jews Schindler saved, partly reflections on the Holocaust, the writing of the book, the making of the film & the moral ambiguities which surfacedin various ways at various stages of the process.
If this perhaps makes it seem a little dry, it's not. It is a highly personal book - this was often not an easy process for Keneally or his family - whose two 'heroes' are Pfefferberg, a truly remarkable man, & I think Keneally himself, though he would probably squirmin denial at that conclusion. There are interesting facts & anecdotes throughout, & many, many remarkable characters emerge, most of them other survivors. The process of getting the film made is absorbing - Keneally meeting Spielberg, the rights eventually being bought, time elasping & Spielberg working on other films, Keneally being contracted to write a screenplay, a new writer & then another being found, eventually the actual making of the film onset, meeting the actors, the first screening, the adulation - not unmixed with bitter & vociferous criticism - that it received. It's not a long book, but it covers a great deal of ground in a most involving way, & towards the end it becomes very moving. I enjoyed it very much, & I recommend it highly.
I would simply add that any who are moved & drawnin by the Schindler story, as well as seeing Spielberg's film should seek out Jon Blair's TV documentary, voiced by Dirk Bogarde & available sadly at present onlyin VHS form, which Keneally mentions with approval & which includes chilling interview film of Majola, Amon Goeth's mistress, close to death, whom Keneally & Pfefferbeg failed to find when they visited Vienna. Her ambivalent testimony, whisperedin the pained rasp of a terminal emphysemia sufferer, is well worth hearing, & there are many, many excellent & moving interviews with DEF & Brinnlitz survivors as well. I think,in its different way, it is just as good as Spielberg's film.
would love this on dvd - By: Lesley Warner, 30 Oct 2008 This book was "Book of the Week" on Radio 4 3rd weekin October & I heard part 1 which was fasinating & immediately caught my imagination & curiosity. I then went away & missed all other episodes until I again listened to 1/2 of the last one...I was driving along with tears running down my face - totally touched & moved by the thought of the 'story teller's' pain at the final end. Unfortunately it was not available on "Listen again" so I have come to the site to see if I could get a copy of the DVD, only to learn that this is a newish book, only publishedin Hardback at the moment (paperback April 09).
Of course I will have to buy it, & as I wait for the post, I do wonder if reading itin book form will touch my heart as piercingly as the spoken word.
I do appreciate the Shindler subject has been written about & filmed - & is not a new subject, however the writer, Thomas Keneally, seems to have come at this at such a different angle.
