Cayce-West Columbia - Coffee, Books & More discussion

Post your thoughts and ratings on Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum here. Tell why you did or didn't like it or ask for clarification on confusing plot points. Below are some discussion questions to get you thinking about your answers- feel free to answer all, some, or none of them.




- How would you categorize Those Who Save Us: as a war story, a love story, a mother-daughter story? Why? How is it different from other novels that address the issues surrounding the Holocaust? What new perspectives does it offer?

- Discuss the novel's title, Those Who Save Us. In what ways do the characters save each other in the novel, and who saves whom? How does Blum play with the concept of being saved, being safe, being a savior?

- In the beginning of the novel, what is Anna's attitude towards the Jewish people of Weimar? Does her attitude change? If so, where does this transformation occur and why?

- Are Trudy's difficulties with her mother caused only by the secrets Anna keeps? If the past had not come between them, what would their relationship have been like? In what ways are Trudy and Anna typical of mothers and daughters everywhere?

- Why does Trudy get involved with Rainer? Is Trudy and Rainer's relationship a healthy one? When Rainer departs for Florida, he says, "I do not deserve this .... I am not meant to be this happy," a statement with which Trudy agrees. If Trudy and Rainer's relationship were not affected by their wartime pasts, would it have been happy? Would it have existed at all?

- At the end of Those Who Save Us, the characters' fates are ambiguous; Trudy, for instance, is left in a "vacuum between one part of life ending and another coming to take its place." Why does Blum do this? What statement, if any, is she trying to make? Do you feel that the novel's end is a happy one for Trudy? For Anna? Why or why not?

While not a happy topic I enjoyed this book. To touch briefly on some of the review questions I think it was different because it revolves more around life outside of the camps through the eyes of the Resistance. As for being a War Story, Love Story or Mother Daughter Story I felt like it was all of the above. Tells of the challenges and hardships faced to just survive. It tells of the love that the characters had for different reasons, Anna for Max, Anna for Trudie in her involvement with The Obersturmfuher, which offered them protection even if at a cost. Jack for Anna and Trudie by bringing them to the United States which wasn't always an easy life and Trudie for Anna in her lifelong desire to know her Mother. Different forms of love but love none the less. Maybe even Anna’s Dad by turning in Max as his way of protecting Anna.

I give this book a 10.