Book Club: The Zookeeper's Wife

 

Last month my book club read The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman. This book was in high demand from the library and I got it the day before our meeting, but I managed to get to the half way mark in two days! So, now a few weeks later, I finally finished it.

I have to say that it wasn't what I expected. I can usually get into a story fairly quickly and I really don't see myself as a critical reader, but this book was very difficult to get into. It didn't read like a story to me. It was more or less as retelling or compilation of other people's memoirs and accounts of World War II with the main character being a zookeeper's wife in Warsaw, Poland.

That being said, it was all a true story and since I know very little about what happened in Poland during the war, it was informational to say the least. The zookeeper and his wife used their zoo and home to hide numerous people during the war which is understandably a very strenuous task. Add two children and a house and zoo full of animals and I can't imagine the stress. Both husband and wife seem to take so much of the happenings in stride and handle it with exceptional grace. My life feels chaotic most of the time, I really can't imagine all they dealt with, much of it life and death -- for years.

Have you read the book? Seen the movie? Tell me what you thought!

 

Last month my book club read The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman. This book was in high demand from the library and I got it the day before our meeting, but I managed to get to the half way mark in two days! So, now a few weeks later, I finally finished it.

I have to say that it wasn't what I expected. I can usually get into a story fairly quickly and I really don't see myself as a critical reader, but this book was very difficult to get into. It didn't read like a story to me. It was more or less as retelling or compilation of other people's memoirs and accounts of World War II with the main character being a zookeeper's wife in Warsaw, Poland.

That being said, it was all a true story and since I know very little about what happened in Poland during the war, it was informational to say the least. The zookeeper and his wife used their zoo and home to hide numerous people during the war which is understandably a very strenuous task. Add two children and a house and zoo full of animals and I can't imagine the stress. Both husband and wife seem to take so much of the happenings in stride and handle it with exceptional grace. My life feels chaotic most of the time, I really can't imagine all they dealt with, much of it life and death -- for years.

Have you read the book? Seen the movie? Tell me what you thought!