The Book of Lamentations in the Hebrew Bible (Christian Old Testament) consists of five distinct poems, corresponding to its five chapters. Although traditionally ascribed to the prophet Jeremiah, there actually may be multiple authors although scholars are divided over this.In naming his book The Sixth Lamentation William Broderick means to draw our attention to yet another calamity which has befallen the beleaguered Children of Israel, the Chosen People of God. While occurring after the closing of the canon of Sacred Scripture, the Holocaust of the 1930s and 40s merits its own lament.In The Sixth Lamentation Father Anselm, lawyer-turned-monk, makes his debut as William Broderick’s amateur sleuth when a mysterious old visitor to the abbey asks Father what he should do when the world turns against him. In his answer—claim sanctuary—a traditional Church and monastic response, Anselm never imagines the repercussions which will ensue. This particular man, Eduard Schwermann, ends up being a suspected Nazi War criminal. ‘Dislodging’ him will turn out to be more difficult that anyone can imagine.Alternating with the story of Father Anselm’s efforts on behalf of his abbey and in pursuit of truth and justice is another related story of a young woman and her grandmother. The grandmother, Agnes, was a young Jewish woman who survived the extermination efforts against the Jewish populations of Europe during World War II. The granddaughter, Lucy, is the one entrusted with most of her grandmother’s story – as much as her grandmother understands of it that is, the rest seems lost in time or buried with those who were sent off to their deaths. Even what Lucy's father thinks he knows about his own mother isn’t true and would hurt him too much to learn. This is a book which takes you back and forth and back again from confusion to clarity, falsehood to truth, self-delusion to painful awakening, from misunderstanding to understanding, from illusion to revelation. What I liked best, however, was that our ‘sleuth’ was also learning as he went. He did not sit on high, with all the answers, making us—the readers—feel like dummies because he knew what was going on and we didn’t. As much as I love Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot and P. D. James’ Adam Dalgliesh, I find myself frustrated by the officiousness of those detectives and their insufferable habit of omniscience. Father Anselm is more down-to-earth, makes mistakes, sometimes gets humiliated and takes it well when he does. As such he is a very likable hero. At one point in the story, Father Anselm is quite desperate to locate someone the police are tracking. Once before he asked this particular officer if/when they find an individual—central to the case against the suspected Nazi war criminal—would they please let him know? This time, however, Anselm makes his help conditional on the police doing something for him. Very coldly the police inspector answers she would have helped him with or without his help. He was appropriately chastised and chagrined. This was only one example in the story where Father Anselm shows his monastic vocation is at the heart of what he does. Occasionally his humanity shows through and he doesn't get things right. He is fallible. But then, who isn’t? His redeeming quality is that realizes when his sin(s) and repents.The rest of the book was a fascinating story and I can’t begin to tell you how insightful or fascinating it was. I've already read The Gardens of the Dead, Broderick's second Father Anselm mystery and plan to get the rest of the books.
La sindrome da accumulo di FinaliLa Sesta Lamentazione è un romanzo inizialmente ben impostato, ricco di materiali, argomenti e (forse troppi...) personaggi e dotato di ambientazioni interessanti.Fa parte di quel genere narrativo, spesso (ma non in questo caso) inserito in un contesto poliziesco, in cui le vicende partono dal contemporaneo ma affondano le loro radici, le motivazioni dei protagonisti e le cause profonde degli eventi in episodi della storia passata ed in particolare negli anni della seconda guerra mondiale e dell'olocausto.Peccato che la narrazione manifesti gravi problemi: Il principale è che, una volta poste le basi apparentemente solide per la costruzione di una storia altrettanto ben strutturata, l'autore non si dimostra in grado di gestirne lo sviluppo in modo adeguato e la trama comincia a disperdersi in mille direzioni in modo a volte confuso a volte ripetitivo, perdendo l'interessante atmosfera iniziale e quindi anche l'attenzione del lettore in un percorso progressivamente sempre più faticoso.Il secondo guaio è che questo romanzo, in una tendenza che di recente si riscontra con preoccupante frequenza, soffre gravemente della "sindrome da accumulo di Finali", come se il pathos derivante dal colpo di scena posto verso il termine di un libro potesse essere moltiplicato a dismisura accumulando rivelazioni, confessioni, figli perduti, nipoti ritrovati, cattivi che si rivelano innocenti e viceversa, con un eccesso che ogni volta ribalta le prospettive, disperde ogni credibilità arrivando quasi a rasentare la parodia.A posteriori è facile giustificare tutto ciò come tipici difetti dell'esordio, perchè tale è "The Sixth Lamentation" per William Brodrick che tuttavia cinque anni dopo ha vinto il Dagger Award con "A Whispered Name", non ancora tradotto in Italia: non so proprio se avrò voglia di leggerlo...!
Do You like book The Sixth Lamentation (2003)?
I have read my share of Holocaust novels. Brodrick's mystery is a tangled web of relationships and characters that peel open as the story progresses. ...moreI have read my share of Holocaust novels. Brodrick's mystery is a tangled web of relationships and characters that peel open as the story progresses. I thoroughly enjoyed his fluid, descriptive writing. What was even more interesting to me was the author's background in relation to his protagonist. Broderick is a former priest turned lawyer. Anselm his main character, has dropped out of the legal profession in favor of the religious life. He based the plot loosely on his mother's experiences in the war. He certainly gifts his characterizations with more depth than most.The plot revolves around the round up of the Jews in France. It also touches on the precarious relationship of the Catholic church in the politics of anti-semitism. He portrays it in an ambiguous light that presents the good and the bad. Highly recommend if you enjoy WWII history.(less)
—Nancy (NE)
This was the first "Richard and Judy" recommendation that I've read, and I left it wondering what percentage of their viewers would be gripped by this mystery. Less than one? Less than five, surely, because the fact is that this literary thriller wasn't all that gripping at the best of times. The Holocaust, and the psychological fall out from it, inspires hundreds of plot devices these days, the best of which I've encountered in novels like "The Good German". Even Big Steve had a go at it in "Apt Pupil", but this novel is more concerned with how people may have escaped the camps at the time, but are still haunted by the consequences of attempting to do so. How many betrayals and sacrifices were there, and how do you live with them through the generations? When I saw that there was a list of "principle characters" and their relationships at the start of the book, I thought there may be complexities in the plot, but I actually had to reread the ending to be sure I'd understood how it all worked out. It was quite a moving finale, and the book was undoubtedly well written and thought out, but the truth within the Holocaust is so much stranger than any fiction that books like these only raise more questions about the reality of the time than shedding any light upon it. I approach the next "Richard and Judy" selection, because it's difficult to avoid them in the bookshops, with sceptical interest about just who they're trying to impress, but fair play to them for at least stretching the boundaries of what the normal reading public prefer to buy.
—Jim
I had mixed feelings about this book, which is about a Nazi war criminal who seeks sanctuary in an English monastery, but is eventually brought to trial.Agnes Embleton, who is dying of motor neurone disease, writes down the story of her part in the French resistance to Nazi occupation, smuggling Jewish children out of France, using a monastery of the same order as that in which the war criminal has sought sanctuary. She writes the story for her granddaughter Lucy, in haste, knowing that she will soon lose the ability to write. The snippets from reviews quoted in the blurb speak of the "complex" plot, but I was left wondering whether it was complex or just confusing. The behaviour of some of the characters is inexplicable, even when it is explained. It was an enjoyable read, but some aspects were not quite satisfactory. I wasn't sure whether to give it 3 stars or 4; probably three and a half stars, better than six out of 10, but not really deserving 8 out of 10. Though Agnes is dying, she is not yet dead, yet all those involved in the war crimes trial, the prosecution and the defence, the witnesses and the judge, believe that she died in Auchwitz. Lucy Embleton, sitting in the court observing the trial, knows but will not say that Agnes is still alive, though dying. It seems that this is something only to be revealed after the trial, but why this should be so is never made clear. Father Anselm, one of the monks at the monastery, is sent to Rome both to report on and find out about the war criminal staying at the monastery, and conducts his own somewhat bumbling investigation, but seems to take everything that people tell him at face value, or else draws the wrong conclusions about what he is told. So there are lots of good ingredients, but the mixture never quite seems to work. William Brodrick was a monk who later became a lawyer, and so he gets the monastic and the legal bits right. This is his first novel, so perhaps in his second he will get the story-telling bits right as well.
—Stephen Hayes
