They were like Family to me by Helen Maryles Shankman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n <\/p>\n
Below is a brief summary of the stories I loved, which are six from the eight in the collection. I think that is impressive for a short story collection.<\/p>\n
In the Land of Armadillos<\/em> is the story of a German who wants to save the life of the Jewish artist who illustrated his son\u2019s picture book while he doesn\u2019t mind exterminating the artist\u2019s friends and family. There is a symbolic reference to the political situation using a story of armadillos and cockatoos and how the some Jews are magically saved by the artist.<\/p>\nThe Partizans<\/em> talk of the power of the partizans to shapeshift into beasts.<\/p>\nIn The Messiah<\/em>, the messiah appears in a boy\u2019s bedroom and says he wants to quit trying to save the world. It does not hurt Christian religious sentiments, but makes the reader wonder about the concept of a Messiah, whether he is just a lunatic or a real saviour. The magical climax of this story was wonderfully done.<\/p>\nThe Jew Hater<\/em> is about Pavel Walczak, an anti Semitic Pole, who has pointed out the Jews in his neighbourhood to the Nazi regime. He is threatened by the partizans to take care of a young Jewish girl. Reminiscent of Silas Marner by George Eliot<\/em>, the young girl transforms him while a talking dog changes both their lives.<\/p>\nThe Golem of Zukov<\/em> \u00a0has a surreal, magical feel and is the story of loyalty, magic and a golem.<\/p>\nA Decent Man <\/em>is what I call a \u2018climax story\u2019. It sheds light on Reinhart and connects all the stories by the truth of what happened. You know the kind that makes you say \u201cOh! Now I get it.\u201d<\/p>\nOverall, I adored all the stories except for the title story, which makes it seven great stories out of the eight in this book). Shankman sometimes ends her stories with a link to a real incident and how she adapted the reality into a story. This was something I did not enjoy at first, but after a few stories I felt comfortable with this style of narration. Such endings gave insight into the situations Jews had to face. I have qualms about the\u00a0 reference \u2018wolf\u2019 and ‘bear’ that appears in several stories. This was quite lost on me. I think the idea must be part of Polish folklores that I am not familiar with.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nThey were like Family to me by Helen Maryles Shankman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n <\/p>\n
Final Verdict<\/h3>\n If you pick a copy I would highly recommend sticking with the whole collection because it gets better with each story. If you love magical realism, stories of war and stories of normal humans that lived in this world years ago, you will love the collection. I am sure these stories will linger in my mind for a very long time.<\/p>\n
PS: This collection was originally published by the name In the Land of Armadillos.<\/em> \n <\/p>\nTitle : They were Like Family to Me \nAuthor : Helen Maryles Shankman \nPublisher : Scribner \nPublished : 2016 \nLanguage : English \nPages : 304 \nRating : 4.5\/5<\/p>\n
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Disclaimer : Much thanks to Scribner for a copy of the book. All opinions are my own.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Blending reality and folklore in the lives of the residents of Wlodawa, a Polish town,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3010,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6307,16,57],"tags":[51,462,6369,499,31,2118,498],"thb-sponsors":[],"yoast_head":"\n
They were Like Family To me by Helen Maryles Shankman - Stories of War, Humans and Magic | The Book Satchel<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n