A Sad Book (Or one that Made me Cry)

Title: Night
Author: Elie Wiesel
Published: Original: 1958 by Les Editions de Minuit, Translated (copy I own): 2006 by Marion Wiesel
Started: 1/19/15
Finished: 1/20/15

This post is a little late, but I have been busy working, spending time with my family, and of course, reading.  Back in high school I was assigned to read the book Night in my sophomore English class.  You can bet that if I say, "I was assigned to read..." it means I probably didn't read it.  Most of these books I went back and read shortly after high school, a necessary thing to do since I was in school to become an English teacher.  Night was one I left out for some reason.  Because of it's short length, maybe I had forgotten it.  I really don't know why I forgot it.  So, originally this was my book on the list that "I was supposed to read in school, but never did."

I decided to change what book it qualified as to "A book that made me cry" or in this case "A sad book."  Unfortunately, it is very hard for me to get that emotional when reading or viewing so crying is out of the question.  There were times while I was reading this book that I had a lump in my throat.  There were times I was angry.  There were times I just wanted to put it down and read something happier.  This is exactly why this book is a must-read.  The emotion it evokes is incredible.  I can read about the holocaust in most history books, on Wikipedia, etc., but Night is so much more telling.  A real account of what this event looked like and felt like.  

To a certain extent I am glad I waited to read this book.  I don't know if I would have appreciated it back then, and if I had read it, I may not have ever read it again.  I love books that eat away at our emotions or at least evoke those emotions.  I think when a book does that it becomes more than just literature or reading material.  When we can sympathize with characters (I won't use empathize, as I would never fully understand the pain Wiesel went through), we start to feel as if they are more than a character.  This book is nonfiction, so Elie Wiesel is a living human being, and to know that makes this book so much more powerful.

If you have not read this book, you need to, but be prepared for the emotion.