Search This Blog

Tuesday, September 07, 2021

Names in a Jar by Jennifer Gold

 What drew me to Names in a Jar was the fact that Jennifer Gold used Irene Sendler as the inspiration for this fictional account of Warsaw, Poland and the Nazi occupation, and that as a young person, Leon Uris' Mila 18, the well-researched novel about the Warsaw Ghetto and the remarkable uprising, was an unforgettable experience.

Sendler's courage, initiative, and ingenuity intrigued me, and I wanted to try this fictional account based on Sendler's activities.

Two sisters, Anna and Lina, and their father are rounded up and imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto where starvation and typhoid take a terrible toll.  Twelve-year-old Anna joins a group of children who make their way in and out of the Ghetto, usually through the sewers, in order to get food and medicine.  

The story alternates between Anna and Lina.  Anna and infant Dov are smuggled out by Jolanta (the nom de guerre used by Irene Sendler) and taken in by a Polish family.

Lina stays in the ghetto, but becomes involved in forging papers for the underground network to give the children being smuggled out new names and backgrounds.  Eventually, Lina and Masha, another young woman who exhibits great courage, end up in Treblinka.  

Both sisters hold out hope for reunion, struggling with the threats that could end their lives.  Will the jars in Jolanta's garden help reunite the sisters, or any of those 2,500 smuggled Jewish children, with their families?

Although the author never goes into graphic detail at any point, there are some difficult and unpalatable incidents that should be expected in a book set in this period and location.  Gold handles all of these incidents well, including just enough to give a sense of the horror faced by Polish Jews and the Polish resistance and still be in keeping for young adults.  

NetGalley/Second Story Press
YA/Historical Fiction.    Sept. 14, 2021.  Print length:  336 pages.

22 comments:

  1. Good review. The title does sound interesting.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jennifer Gold did a good job with this fictional account based on real circumstances.

      Delete
  2. I do love the story of Irene Sendler; they made a movie of her life in 2009 and I was amazed by her courage, and everything she did during WWII.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I didn't see the movie, but I've read several accounts of Irene Sendler's courage and determination. I love that high school students in Kansas started the "Life in a Jar" project that gathered primary sources on Sendler's work. Sendler was also recognized as Righteous Among Nations by the State of Israel in 1965. She was an amazing woman, and while Names in a Jar isn't really about Irene, it is based on her work.

      Delete
  3. Adding to my wishlist now. This sounds like a book I need to read.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is a fascinating fictional account based on Irene Sendler's work!

      Delete
  4. Wow. I clicked over to the link you provided. What an amazing story and an amazing, courageous woman.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Irene Sendler was a courageous woman, and those high school students did an amazing job of bringing so much of her story to light!

      Delete
  5. Another good, emotional and intense book from this period which always turns up very good reads. Thanks for the review.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Names in a Jar is an interesting look at the way lives were affected by the Nazi occupation of Warsaw, Poland. Reading history can be dry with lists of facts and statistics, but stories bring the reader in and make it personal.

      Delete
  6. This sounds like a well-written and important book about that period of horror. Sometimes fiction is even more revealing of the truth than nonfiction.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, fiction takes facts and turns them into something we can personally identify with in a very human way.

      Delete
  7. Wow, such an intense story inside a book with such an innocent looking cover. I'm sure that's no accident, though, because I imagine it intensifies the horror of what was happening in the ghetto.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The cover does look innocent, even with the skull in the corner. It doesn't indicate the horror of the content.

      Delete
  8. Replies
    1. Names in a Jar is certainly a poignant look into the Polish occupation.

      Delete
  9. What a coincidence. I noticed that Kelly Rimmer's recent novel The Warsaw Orphan also is inspired by Irene Sendler's heroic actions. I guess there are several novels and they are all quite scary about the Ghetto.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Interesting! There are a number of nonfiction and fiction accounts concrning the Warsaw Ghetto, but since Sendler's role became more well known she has inspired a lot authors. I will check out The Warsaw Orphan.

      Delete
  10. At first glance, I thought this might be a light and fun read based on that cover until I read your review about it. This sounds both intense and powerful and I think this would be an unforgettable story (and history as well) for young adults and adults alike.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is a great cover, but not one that immediately gives you an impression of the content. The history behind it is important--we need to remember the courage required to save others at that time and place.

      Delete
  11. I'm in awe of the people that risk their lives but it's just so amazing what they did isn't it? I think it's good that stories like these are available to a younger audience too so that we learn about the horrors that humans can do to one another and one day hopefully learn from these mistakes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, books that can inform young readers about what human beings are capable for both good and evil are important. Anna and Lena may be fictional characters, but Irena Sendler's courage was real and documented.

      Delete