I must say this was a great read. It definitely had the same air as Primo Levi’s Survival in Auschwitz. For instance, Gyuri tried so hard to survival in the camp by calculating everything he did. Unfortunately, it did not pan out the way he wanted it to and his body started to decline. What worried me about Gyuri is that he looked at his fellow Jews with disgust but looked at the Germans with admiration. It was mentioned in the story that he would have made a great Nazi. However, does Gyuri actually believe in this? Or his saving his sanity by trying to find the happiness in the camps instead of dwelling in the sadness and atrocities? Even after he is liberated, he says he misses the camp.
Upon researching the author, I noticed there are several similarities between the author and the main character in the book. For instance, both lied about being fourteen in the camp and changed their ages to sixteen so they would get gassed. Also, they are both Hungarian. The author has stated several times in interviews that his book is strictly a fictional biography and it is not about himself. I don’t believe him but whatever floats his boat, am I right? It is possible that the trauma is so difficult to face that he wrote Fatelessness as a means for therapy but cant bring himself to admit it.