About:
The Street Sweeper by Australian historian Elliot Perlman is a fictional book which deals with the American struggle for civil rights and the Holocaust. The book beautifully ties together the idea that we are all human and touch each other’s lives.
The publisher is giving away one advanced reader copy (ARC) of this book— enter at the end of the post.
- 640 pages
- Publisher:Riverhead Hardcover
- ISBN:1594488479
My rating for The Street Sweeper – 5
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Thoughts:
The Street Sweeper by Elliot Perlman is storytelling at its best. The book manages to bring complex ideas to the forefront of the reader’s attention such as what is history, how do we record it or pass it along as well as the importance of firsthand accounts.
A well written and sweeping book which touches many subjects and ties them all together in a humane sense rather than the meticulous books we read about history. However, the main point of the book, for me, was the importance of remembering history, not as dry dates and figures but from the point of view of people who are real people, fathers, mothers, daughters, brothers and sisters.
The book interweaves two main stories, an ex-con named Lamont Williams and the historian Adam Zignelik. The book has its own unique rhythm which is intricate and involved.
While remembering is certainly a point which is hammered throughout the book, some themes also include love, lost and that basically we are all human beings and we must always remember that despite the unbelievable outrageous numbers (like 6 million) which any person cannot even fathom.
Mr. Perlman wrote a risky novel, one that is intricate, detailed yet cycles through events at almost breakneck speed only to stop, reflect and expend upon what we, the human kind, have been capable to do to one another.
Synopsis:
Lamont Williams, an ex-con African American, is trying to return to normal life after being at the wrong time in the wrong place. Lamont gets a job at a hospital where he works as a janitor and befriends a cancer patient who is also a World War II survivor. Lamont learns about Poland, the Jews, extermination camps, gas chambers and the Sonderkommando.
Adam Zignelik is an untenured Columbia historian whose career and relationships are falling apart. Adam pursues a research topic about African Americans being part of liberating concentration camps and finds a discovery of a lifetime.
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Giveaway
Giveaway ends: December 13 2011
US/Canada Shipping Addresses Only
Winners will have 24 hours to write back with their address, otherwise an alternate winner will be picked
Congratulations: jwitt33@
Zohar – Man of la Book
Disclaimer: I got this book for free.
*Amazon links point to an affiliate account
Article first published as Book Review: Street Sweeper by Elliot Perlman on Blogcritics.
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BOOK BLOGGERS – Have you read The Street Sweeper? If so link up your review below:
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8 Comments
This book sounds really good.
Zohar,
This books premise sounds like an odd, yet, at the same time, interesting. One doesn’t usually think of Civil Rights and the Holocaust together storywise.
Hi Alex, yes it does sound strange.
Oh my goodness! This sounds like a gripping book. One I’m most certainly not going to read without shedding tears.
Thanks for the comment C.E., it is a sad book. Some parts I had to close it before I continued.
hmm… the holocaust and civil rights, sounds interesting
I recently finished this title also – cannot praise it more highly. Perlman is a supremely talented author.
Glad you liked it Jo, I’m surprised it didn’t get more publicity.