This is a really impressive project, Nika. For one, it’s a period of history that usually gets ignored – I don’t think I’d ever considered what happened to people after they left concentration camps. I guess it’s easier for history to stop at the “and then the Americans came and saved the day” part of the story. I know this period of history is really interesting to you, and you did a great job recreating it in this story. I think my favorite part about your project is Jonah’s time-travel episode at the end. When he initially says “people think I’m crazy” at the beginning of the story, I interpreted it as simply meaning, “people don’t understand why this story matters so much to me, because they aren’t Jewish and don’t have the same personal connection with it that I do” but the ending reshapes the entire story in your mind. I had to go back and read it again with that new perspective. And I love the thing with the time travelling ring – it’s this fascinating little loose end at the end of the story – of course Jonah’s just imagining things … we think.
This story came out absolutely wonderfully! Like Tyson mentioned, you included some really good foreshadowing, and your execution of actual dialogue and description during the time travel scene was great. You shaped the modernist vs postmodernist divide really well, both between the protagonist and his coworker and within the protagonist's own mind (to me, his own very justifiable uncertainty surrounding whether the time travel event actually happened has this atmosphere of modernist vs postmodernist tension.) Absolute 10/10, very engaging story!
This is a really impressive project, Nika. For one, it’s a period of history that usually gets ignored – I don’t think I’d ever considered what happened to people after they left concentration camps. I guess it’s easier for history to stop at the “and then the Americans came and saved the day” part of the story. I know this period of history is really interesting to you, and you did a great job recreating it in this story.
ReplyDeleteI think my favorite part about your project is Jonah’s time-travel episode at the end. When he initially says “people think I’m crazy” at the beginning of the story, I interpreted it as simply meaning, “people don’t understand why this story matters so much to me, because they aren’t Jewish and don’t have the same personal connection with it that I do” but the ending reshapes the entire story in your mind. I had to go back and read it again with that new perspective. And I love the thing with the time travelling ring – it’s this fascinating little loose end at the end of the story – of course Jonah’s just imagining things … we think.
This story came out absolutely wonderfully! Like Tyson mentioned, you included some really good foreshadowing, and your execution of actual dialogue and description during the time travel scene was great. You shaped the modernist vs postmodernist divide really well, both between the protagonist and his coworker and within the protagonist's own mind (to me, his own very justifiable uncertainty surrounding whether the time travel event actually happened has this atmosphere of modernist vs postmodernist tension.) Absolute 10/10, very engaging story!
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