I finally got around to reading the final book in Elie Wiesel’s Night trilogy: Day, which was once known as The Accident.
As far as trilogies go, it’s fairly loose, the books being related thematically rather than forming a continuous story. They aren’t even related in terms of genre as the first, Night, is memoir, while the other two Dawn and Day are novels. Night is about Wiesel’s experience in Auschwitz. Dawn fictionalizes Night‘s narrator, the young Holocaust survivor, and places him in post-war Palestine where he has joined a terrorist group to help drive the British out. It’s a fascinating exploration of violence and how the victim can easily become the perpetrator.
Following a parallel path out of Auschwitz, Day finds the young survivor (not quite the same character as the protagonist of Dawn) in New York City in the early ’60s. He and his girlfriend are crossing the street near Times Square to see a movie. He is struck by a cab and wakes in a hospital. The narrator drifts in and out of consciousness, skirting the thin line between life and death, unwilling to commit to either one.
During the weeks of his recovery he is visited by his surgeon, his girlfriend and an artist friend of his. He is also tortured by memories of a past that has deprived him of a desire to live. Believing his experience in Auschwitz has already left him spriritually and emotionally dead, he begins to wonder if he didn’t step in front of the cab on purpose.
Like the other two books in the trilogy, Day is a short and tightly focused examination of one aspect of the Holocaust survivor’s experience. In this case, Wiesel explores the near impossibility of building a life while carrying the weight of memories that never fade, the dark edges of madness, and the ever-present temptation of suicide.
James Brush is a teacher and writer who lives in Austin, TX. He tries to get outside as much as possible.
Be First to Comment