Our second book club evening turned out truly wonderful. It was interesting to hear different impressions of the novel by Dr. Edith Eva Eger. It’s a book many of us probably wouldn’t have chosen on our own, as it tells the story of a woman who survived Auschwitz. In the first part, she describes the horrific experience of life in the camp and how she managed to survive, while in the following parts she reflects on how she coped with the trauma — first by running away from it, and eventually by accepting it and “overcoming” it.
We all experienced the book in different ways, which only shows that it depends greatly on the stage of life we are in and the experiences we carry with us. After a lot of healthy discussion and differing opinions, we came to a shared conclusion: the novel may not have offered us entirely “new wisdom,” but it certainly reminded us of something we often “like” to forget — that we must take responsibility for our own lives.
So I’ll borrow a quote from the book that expresses this beautifully:
“We cannot spend our lives hanging under someone else’s umbrella and then complain about getting wet.”
Perhaps the most important conclusion of the evening, however, is that despite all our differences, we value and respect one another — and above all, we truly enjoy spending quality time together at our book club evenings, chatting and sharing a glass of wine. :)
