The Town Beyond the Wall, by Elie Wiesel
Reviewed by Margaret McGuire
For the next year, My Secret is Mine newsletter will be centered on the autobiography of Dr. Edith Stein, Life in a Jewish Family. Canonized in 1998, she is now known by her Carmelite name of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, co-patroness of Europe. Many apostolates today have St. Teresa as their patroness, including My Secret is Mine. This series will explore the Jewish roots of the Catholic faith found in the Old Testament and Magisterial teachings. All of our interviews, Bible studies, and book reviews will explore the themes of conversion, family relationships and the effect of anti-semitism in the world.
Nothing will ever be the same again. Most people have such a moment in our lives, where everything that came before is a memory, and everything after it is new, stark, and uncertain.
Elie Wiesel takes that moment to the extreme in his gripping novel, The Town Beyond the Wall. Like many of his semi-autobiographical works (Night, Dawn, All Rivers Run to the Sea), this is fiction based on Wiesel’s Holocaust experiences. That foundation undoubtedly gives this novel its power.
The Town Beyond the Wall takes us into the middle of Michael’s story, introducing him while he is undergoing interrogation at the hands of Hungarian Communists who have taken over his old hometown.
He stands for hours, facing the walls of his cell. His guards mockingly refer to this torture as ‘saying prayers.’ (This loosely refers to the Jewish Amidah prayers.) We follow Michael’s thoughts back over the course of his life. He recalls incidents from his childhood in his beloved hometown of Szerencseváros (seh-REN-cheh-vah-rosh). And yet, his memories include the town as a ghetto after the Nazis arrive. A discrete veil is drawn over his time in a concentration camp. However, an interaction with another character, alongside a few vignettes, make clear what Michael endured.
The bulk of his reminiscences, however, focus on what happened after liberation from the camp. Michael struggled to find a sense of normalcy after his world was turned inside out and upside down by evil. We follow his grappling: What does it mean to be sane? To be mad? To blaspheme? To pray? And, what ought one to do in the face of indifference? That indifference is the most haunting feature of the novel, leading Michael to conclude that, “...evil is human, weakness is human. Indifference is not.”
The book can feel meandering and hard to follow at times as we move through Michael’s reflections, reminisces, and resulting philosophical questions. But would not our own minds do the same, were we in Michael’s shoes? The novel is a moving portrait of one wounded man’s struggle with himself, with humanity, and with God.
Discussion Questions
- Michael feels haunted in some ways by the boy he was before the ghetto and the concentration camp. Have you ever felt haunted by a past version of yourself?
- Michael often feels or says he wants to blaspheme God, but ends up praying instead of cursing. Have you ever been surprised by your own emotions suddenly channeling into prayer?
- Tears are presented in the novel as cathartic and an antidote to madness. Have you ever wanted to cry, but felt that you couldn’t?
