The Fiftieth Gate

[Billy]

I am teaching this book, as a part of our senior advanced English course, first term, next year. I started it yesterday and so far I am totally confused. It is by a guy named Mark Raphael Baker. The book is being studied for a module called History and Memory.

After reading it for a bit last night, I found myself feeling incredibly dumb because it had managed to get me quite confused. I was left wondering how I was going to get the students interested and enjoying this book when I couldn't get into it myself. Fortunately, one of the other teachers at school has also read it and she informed me that it gets better and after a bit it is much easier to figure out who is speaking.

It appears that the book is about this man's parent's memories of what they went through, as Jews in a concentration camp, during WW2. I assume that we will be looking at how personal memories compare with historical fact.

Has anyone read this book, at all and if so, what is your opinion of it?

 

[Geenh]

I've read it. I too found it confusing. There are much better books about surviving the Holocaust. Do you have to use that book?

 

[Billy]

Unfortunately, yes. The way we work out what we are doing means that we have to inlcude: poetry, shakespeare, novel, non-fiction (and a few other text types), and drama. Within these categories there are certain choices. After I chose the others, this was really all I was left with.

 

[Geenh]

Bummer. There is a great story of a Holocaust survivor called Ellie. She was a young teenager during the war and tells her story of Auschwitz and may be more accessible for your students as she was a bit younger then the average writer (I have found that to be so in my reading).

Good luck with it!

 

[Billy]

Thanks, Geenh. We actually need other resources so I will suggest this one to them. Thanks again.

 

[Eleanor Padfoot]

Fiftieth Gate

I am studying the book by Mark Raphael Baker for English and I found it really hard to follow on my first reading. However, I have read it a secind time and it is much easier to get the idea of which of his parents the story is focusing on for each chapter. On my second reading, I pencilled in 'mum' or 'dad' at the top of the first few chapters just so I could get my head around the story. From there, it is much easier to move on to the more abstract concepts of history and memory. Good luck!