Another Praiseworthy Oprah Book Pick
As if I wasn't impressed enough by Oprah Winfrey's "Summer of Faulkner" reading program, her latest Book Club selection is the Holocaust memoir Night by Elie Wiesel. As a result, the book is now the #1 selling book on amazon.com and is apparently selling like crazy elsewhere as well.
If there was ever a book that everyone should read, it would be Night. And thanks to Oprah, seemingly everyone will be reading it now. Once again, ya gotta hand it to Ms. Winfrey for using her influence to enrich and educate her audience through challenging and important books.
If there was ever a book that everyone should read, it would be Night. And thanks to Oprah, seemingly everyone will be reading it now. Once again, ya gotta hand it to Ms. Winfrey for using her influence to enrich and educate her audience through challenging and important books.
posted by Steve Shapiro at
12:53 AM
8 Comments:
Cous -
I'm glad that people are finally reading "night". It should be required reading in schools I think...but is is equally sad that it takes Oprah to make people read something so important...
In any case...I'm glad :)
Bradley
The Egel Nest
By
The Egel Nest, at 1/18/2006 1:50 AM
I agree completely. I've read the book several times, and loved it. Actually, in the school I went to (which had a large Arab population), we had a controversy over it, when the class president's father (she was Egyptian), called and raised a row because his daughter was "being forced" to learn about the Holocaust, which he denied.
By
Irina Tsukerman, at 1/18/2006 10:18 AM
I think that's why it's unlikely Night will ever be required reading at any school. There are just too many people who incredibly think that the Holocaust never happened--and not just people from areas of the world that grow up hating Jews. Even in my upper-middle-class high school in Woodland Hills in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, I met the occasional person who said they were taught by their parents that the Holocaust never happened.
By
Steve Shapiro, at 1/18/2006 12:46 PM
Which is probably yet another good reason why teaching Holocaust should be made mandatory in all schools across the country!
By
Irina Tsukerman, at 1/18/2006 4:39 PM
Exactly! Kind of a Catch-22 (another great book, by the way) situation: Night should be mandatory reading for all high schools because of prejudice and ignorance, but it won't be because of prejudice and ignorance. :(
By
Steve Shapiro, at 1/18/2006 5:50 PM
Loved Catch-22! Shame so many people are forgetting about it nowadays!
By
Irina Tsukerman, at 1/18/2006 5:56 PM
I went to a college that had less than 1% Jewish population. I was part of a grouop opf people who instituted an annual holocaust remembrance day on campus. When we called some of the national Jewish organizations for funding and ideas, they asked why we would want to do something like this at a school with such a small Jewish population. "What possible value or effect could it have," one woman asked me. I explained to them what both of you have been saying...the reason FOR the event if BECAUSE there are very few Jews...no need to preach to the choir! People who are NOT Jewish or not exposed normally to Jeiwhs ideas should be. Especially the Holocaust.
Good discussion you 2! :)
Bradley
By
The Egel Nest, at 1/19/2006 7:14 AM
Fortunately, things ARE changing for the better, after all. I go to a Jesuit college (no need to explain the significance of Jesuits to Jewish history)... and this term, taking a class on History of Modern Israel. Moreover, in my Literature and Society class, we're reading... Night!
By
Irina Tsukerman, at 1/19/2006 12:40 PM
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