I re-read Briar Rose by Jane Yolen the other day. (It’s not a slow read - didn’t take much longer than the return trip to work to finish it.)

I really recommend that novel. It’s labelled Young Adult, and some aspects of it are defeinitely geared to a 16-year-old readership; but it is very, very readable for adults as well. The story is a retelling of the Sleeping Beauty tale in the context of the Holocaust. It is very dark, of course, although it takes place in the 1990s rather than the 1940s, which allows for some hope. There is no revelling in grisly detail, but there is certainly some very nightmarish stuff there. I have since read up a little on Chelmno. The information on the site I just linked to is terrible beyond belief, and beyond words. Still, it is what happened. And that was only one of the camps.

But I digress. As I say, Briar Rose doesn’t leave the reader with a feeling of hopelessness. I think that’s important, for hopelessness is no fertile ground for making things better. Some things in the novel are better than other things, such as the slightly unnecessary-feeling love story (that’s definitely aimed at the 16-year-old element in the audience!) but on the whole it’s just a really, really good book. Of course it has its detractors. People who think that judging other people based on their sexuality is more important than condemning genocide, have burnt the book because, among other things, it portrays a homosexual man who was persecuted and sent to a camp by the nazis. (Yes, it does mention that he was in bed with other men, although in extremely non-explicit terms.) I think I’ve said this before: Sometimes it’s good to find that you disagree with certain people. Such as the people who burnt Briar Rose.