Reviews

Dora Bruder by Patrick Modiano

cavernousss's review

3.0

3,5⭐️

sarratbb's review against another edition

4.0

This was a recommendation. I loved reading it. The writing is immaculate. The amount of geographical accuracy (street names and stuff) is crazy. I liked that the author puts an emphasis on details like dates and serial numbers even though it does not seem necessary. This was the story of Dora Bruder, a Jewish French teenage girl of Austrian and Hungarian origins living in France during the German occupation (WWII). The narrator (author?) finds a missing person article (of Dora) in an old newspaper and he becomes fascinated by her and goes on a mission to find anything regarding her, her family, her education, and eventually her disappearance.

Spoiler

Through that mission, we come to learn that she was taken in concentration camps along with her family (and eventually to Auschwitz).

In parallel, the writer seems to go back into his childhood and adolescence memories to find similarities between him and Dora, like their struggles with the German police as Jews (I did my research, this isn't a bad word, and I do not intend it as a slur but as an abbreviation). This is why I shelved this novel in both "fiction" and "non-fiction" because it contains both elements (the fictional yet very realistic story of Dora, and the real autobiographical parts). The last thing I will say is I enjoyed the literature references, to authors or books which I will mention here :
- [b:Les Misérables|24280|Les Misérables|Victor Hugo|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1411852091l/24280._SY75_.jpg|3208463] by [a:Victor Hugo|13661|Victor Hugo|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1415946858p2/13661.jpg]
- [b:Voyage de noces|23375683|Voyage de noces|Patrick Modiano|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1492188409l/23375683._SY75_.jpg|314235] (by the author himself)
- [a:Friedo Lampe|54432|Friedo Lampe|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1540226683p2/54432.jpg] ([b:Au bord de la nuit|59664181|Au bord de la nuit|Friedo Lampe|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1637488625l/59664181._SX50_.jpg|21310092])
- Couldn't find him on here but : Félix Hardaub
- [a:Roger Gilbert-Lecomte|206810|Roger Gilbert-Lecomte|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1238039240p2/206810.jpg] ([b:La Vie l'Amour la Mort le Vide et le Vent|40672871|La Vie l'Amour la Mort le Vide et le Vent|Roger Gilbert-Lecomte|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1530328802l/40672871._SY75_.jpg|63236798])
- [b:La Place de l’Étoile|323535|La Place de l’Étoile|Patrick Modiano|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1472890343l/323535._SY75_.jpg|314240] (by the author himself)
- [b:La Place de l'Étoile: Antipoème|1514148|La Place de l'Étoile Antipoème|Robert Desnos|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1184533377l/1514148._SX50_.jpg|1505824] (by [a:Robert Desnos|341972|Robert Desnos|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1655519966p2/341972.jpg])
- [a:JEAN JAUSION|23310406|JEAN JAUSION|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] ([b:UN HOMME MARCHE DANS LA VILLE|75385076|UN HOMME MARCHE DANS LA VILLE (BLANCHE)|JEAN JAUSION|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1672275436l/75385076._SX50_.jpg|100610556])

jlkenneth's review

3.0

Read the whole thing in one sitting, completely transfixed. A highly original novel/memoir/historiography/detective story exploring the lost memories of those who disappeared from Paris during the Occupation. By tracking the life of teenager Dora Bruder in 1941-1942, Modiono creates a moving portrait of occupied Paris and compellingly reminds us of the lives which were lost in the horrors of WWII, but takes a fresh perspective by blending these stories with tales of his own life and family, and the coincidental ways his own life intersected with Dora's without him knowing it. I had a bit of a shock when he finally reveals that Dora was eventually deported to Auschwitz/Birkenau, as I suddenly realized that, like Modiano, I've also walked in the same places she once did. The text just has a peculiar way of leaping off the page. After reading this, it's easy to see why he won the Nobel prize in 2014.

sweetbeetle's review

dark emotional reflective relaxing sad slow-paced

3.25

conoraflynn's review

reflective

3.25

have always found Modiano a bit hit and miss and this was somewhere in between - moving prose in places but felt quite aimless with the lack of developments around the protagonist's identity and what eventually happened to her. with the obsessive focus on streets, geographical details and dates this blurred into Modiano's quite homogenous corpus for me and never really laid a claim for itself as something different or particularly noteworthy

cami19's review

emotional reflective medium-paced

3.0

diggitalot's review

4.0

Idén är nog bättre än själva boken. Författaren följer en ung flickas försvinnande under andra världskriget många år senare.

giugiola's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.75

buggyk's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

lorebrentano's review

informative reflective sad slow-paced

3.5