Today I have read The address as part of my ENG 3U class and personally I found the story mildly interesting at best. It is a recollection of a memory from a child how survived the holocaust and the grown woman revisiting her past by picking up her possessions.
The author talks allot about her experience before and after the war but chose not to discuss the experience during the war. This is most likely because she did not want to make the story particularly lengthily or detract from the main objective. However I think that had she spent atleast one page discussing her interactions with Mrs. Dorling it would have aided the comprehension of the character and her relation to the author (and narrator) as I am very curious to see if she was in-fact as self serving at the beginning of the war as she was at the end.
The author makes it apparent that Dorling wanted nothing more than to take her mothers things but I still would have liked to see more about Dorling's situation. It is possible that she felt owed for her work or that she felt that the author was still to young to have back all of her possessions. Her age is not clearly mentioned in the story. Personally I think that the author lacked many details on her relationship with Mrs. Dorling and that it would have made far more sense had she included some of those interactions because without them the story feels rather one sided.
I also feel that the story lacked a purpose, she talks about her past and tries to recover her stuff only to realize that she doesn't want it as it has become unfamiliar and leaves. The story has no climax and very little objective and I feel this really guts the substance from the story. Had she atleast attempted harder to get her things or gone more in-depth on the relationship on the pre-war Mrs. Dorling or even simply described the situation of the post war encounter with more flavor the story wouldn't be such a dry read. It simply failed to convey my interest.
To resume I must say that the story is another true story from the holocaust and the era in which it occurred. However the author should have included it as part of a larger story recounting the whole experience as on its own it is a dry read about repossessing property. I understand that this must have been emotional for the author but I fail to have any conveyed to me. However the author seems to make great use of timing and literary devices and I would love to read about her experience in hiding.
Trennick, you certainly pull no punches in your review! I hope you maintain that keen eye, and demand a certain quality from things you read. For this particular piece, do you think that perhaps the writer is not necessarily speaking about the possessions so much as a sense of self having been taken or destroyed? Is it not important that each face is not clearly drawn (since it is a particular story of similar, or general stories)? Or about forgetting the things we try so hard to remember, but remember to forget? You're right about it being void of an emotional centre--would this be because the heart has been left elsewhere? Many things to think about, but if this story is not a style you enjoy, then we can move on to something that you'll enjoy writing about!
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