This book is horrendous, terrible, amazing, sympathetic, and heroic all at the same time. How humans can do this to each other is beyound me, and thankfully beyound most of us in this world. Simply breathtaking at times. Makes me really appreciate the freedoms we all share. Just read it, you won't be disappointed!

This book is horrendous, terrible, amazing, sympathetic, and heroic all at the same time. How humans can do this to each other is beyound me, and thankfully beyound most of us in this world. Simply breathtaking at times. Makes me really appreciate the freedoms we all share. Just read it, you won't be disappointed!

After seeing the film of SCHINDLER'S LIST, I had the feeling that it covered so much, included and recreated so much that it wasn't necessary to read the book.

Last month, I visited Jerusalem and toured the Holocaust Museum (a profoundly disturbing experience I would recommend to everyone). I also found Oskar Schindler's grave just outside the Old City walls and saw the small stones atop the gravemarker. (There's a sidewalk next to it now where the survivors filed past in the grass at the end of the film).

Now I wanted to read the book and I realized how wrong I'd been to ignore it. I finished it last night and can tell everyone: there is so much more to the story!

You will be even more blown away by Herr Direktor's wily recklessness in saving his Jews. As played in the film, Schindler makes the gradual realization of the horrors around him, breaking down at the end when the scale of the inferno hits him. In the book, Schindler knows what's happening to the Jews and he despises the SS Officers from the very beginning. Schindler constantly questions his workers about everything going on. He knew. And he did everything he could to save as many as he could from the very start of the madness.

Actually, SCHINDLER'S LIST should've been a mini-series like BAND OF BROTHERS. There was certainly enough material and you'll find that material in the book. As written, it's also very easy to see in visual terms.

Definitely read this. Like the film, I was brought to tears in the final chapters. An astonishing true story.

This book is both enjoyable and enlightening. It details how a German industrialist Oskar Schindler managed to save the lives of 1,200 Schindlerjudens (Schindler's Jews) during the Holocaust by sheltering them first in his enamelware factory in Zablocie, Cracow and later in his (supposedly) anti-tank shell factory in Brinnlitz, Monrovia.

I watched the movie before I read the book. While the movie succeeds beautifully in portraying the human suffering and the thin ray of hope Oskar managed to instill in his prisoners/workers, the book includes a lot more little details that readers could appreciate. For example, while this is definitely a depressing book, I find the little dark comedies of life and witticisms quite enjoyable. For example, after the war, when there was disbelief surrounding the story of Oskar's improbable rescue of the Jews, he was challenged by some journalists and was confronted with the fact that he personally knew many of the high-ranking SS officials in the Cracow region and beyond. Oskar's coolly replied: "At that stage in history, it was rather difficult to discuss the fate of Jews with the Chief Rabbi or Jerusalem."

I you enjoyed the movie, the book won't disappoint. If you haven't seen the movie or read the book, I suggest you do both.

The book is amazing for its wealth of information and doggedness to tell the story of not only Oskar Schindler but of what life was like for the people interned in the factories and death camps. In the author's note, Keneally tells that he chose to write the story as a novel but used documentary evidence and extensive interviews for most of the exchanges and conversations and all of the events detailed in the book and made reasonable constructs of conversations where only the briefest record exists. As a novel, the storytelling is lacking--it doesn't flow well or have a strong narrative--but as a record of a truth, it is astounding.

Because of the movie's fame, I avoided the book - thinking the movie had already provided the majority of the story. Not so.

Mixing fact with some fiction, this book recites most of the major historical events which are now covered by great and encyclodepic non-fictional accounts of the Holocaust, as well as by museums which mushroomed throughout Europe and the United States. This is a great historical perspective of the 20th century's darkest hour. Throughout the fact is a fictional story so closely tied to truth that the reader cannot tell what is not the truth.

Keneally's depiction of the oh-so-human Schindler whose great protection of a few thousand people can only be described as oh-so-saintly. Best described by his estranged but not embittered wife: "Oskar had done nothing astounding before the war and had been unexceptional since. He was fortunate, therefore, that in that short fierce era between 1939 and 1945 he had met people who summoned forth his deeper thoughts."

Nazi German historians must ask the nagging question of German efficiency having gone array in order to carry out the Holocaust. At one time in the book, Keneally asks why they wasted men, ammunition, materials and more in order to proceed to the execution of laborers with expertise. Why not use their services in servitude - like Schindler - in order to make shells, armaments and more for the cause? Free labor for the soldiers was what Schindler saw, and he made a good deal of money from this situation. But, when the Germans transformed the edict from suppression to extermination, commencing with inhumanity at the labor camp, Schindler left his capitalist instinct for his Judeo-Christian ethic and lived what can only be described as a remarkable tale.

At the war's end, he managed to have hundreds of women removed from Auschwitz for his factory. This feat unfortunately is perhaps his most unique event. "There never had been, and would not be, any other Auschwitz rescue like this one."

Excellent details to Schindler's three imprisonments, careful detail to historical events which affected the issues of Schindler and his people, as well as great story telling, make this an incredibly good book. Because the weaving of truth with fiction is totally unobservable to the eye, this is a great read.

I was surprised by how similar the book was to the movie; there was a little extra detail, but not on any major points. I thought it was reasonably easy to read, and it whetted my appetite for a factual biography of Schindler which I will soon start to read.

This gripping book was published a decade before Steven Spielberg began filming the Academy-Award winning movie. Czech-German businessman Oscar Schindler (1908-74) was flawed and hedonistic, and he profited from Jewish slave labor in his wartime factory producing cookware for the Germany army. But Schindler had a big heart, and he took many risks to save his 1,100 employees (and others) from near-certain death at the hands of their Nazi captors. We see how Schindler operated, stuffing gifts into the hands of the SS commanders, and profiting from the skills of his fearful employees. Readers get a strong feel for Schindler's life, including his flaws and excesses. We also learn of his largely un-successful years after the war, where Schindler received support from some of the employees he'd saved, but was occasionally griped at by Germans for having betrayed the fatherland.

This gripping book resulted from a chance 1980 encounter between the author and Schindler employee Poldek Pefferberg (1913-2001) in the latter's Los Angeles store. Officially classified as fiction, this is a very real tale, and it contains much information the movie didn't have time for. In short, this superbly readable effort is worth your time even if you've seen the movie.

This gripping book was published a decade before Steven Spielberg began filming the Academy-Award winning movie. Czech-German businessman Oscar Schindler (1908-74) was flawed and hedonistic, and he profited from Jewish slave labor in his wartime factory producing cookware for the Germany army. But Schindler had a big heart, and he took many risks to save his 1,100 employees (and others) from near-certain death at the hands of their Nazi captors. We see how Schindler operated, stuffing gifts into the hands of the SS commanders, and profiting from the skills of his capable employees. Readers get a strong feel for Schindler's life, including his flaws and excesses. We also learn of his largely un-successful years after the war, where Schindler was occasionally griped at for having betrayed the fatherland - however, he also received support from some of his former employees he'd saved.

This gripping book resulted from a chance 1980 encounter between author Thomas Keneally and Schindler survivor Poldek Pefferberg (1913-2001) in the latter's Los Angeles store. Officially classified as fiction, this is a very real tale, and it contains much information the movie didn't have time for. In short, this superbly readable effort is worth your time even if you've seen the movie.

Seriously what can I say about this book? IT IS AMAZING. If you haven't read it, have you been under a rock your whole life? The book definitely takes a long time to read/get through but it is worth it. The story is so interesting, inspirational, and tugs at your heartstrings. The movie is great too. So if you're not much of a reader, watch the movie.

Schindler was an amazing man that gave hope to many Jewish people in a era where they all thought there was no hope what so ever. Schindler saw past what many other NAZI's saw, Jew's are people to, with the same hopes and dreams as any other person. They shouldn't be executed due to their religious beliefs. Keneally did a great job portraying the hurt and pain of the Jewish people during the holocaust, a horendous event that took place during World War Two. Highly Recommended AMAZING BOOK!!

Although I have read previous works of fiction by Thomas Keneally, who is one of Australia's overlooked treasures, I picked up this particular novel (as have many readers) because I recently re-screened the movie.

I was especially heartened to realize that Spielberg stuck largely to the facts and the incidents related in this book. Even the girl in the red dress (which I was sure was a cheesy embellishment) really existed: her name was Genia and "in red cap, red coat, small red boots," she was the last of a column of evacuees who witnessed the cold-blooded execution of a family found hiding in the ghetto. Seeing Genia see the execution convinced Oskar Schindler the horror of what was happening: "They permitted witnesses, such witnesses as the red toddler, because they believed the witnesses all would perish too."

Although this is a "novel," Keneally in the introduction is careful to stress he attempted "to avoid all fiction" while distinguishing between the facts and the myth of Oskar Schindler himself. That is, he uses the novelist's craft to re-create dialogue and reconstruct incidents to fashion a narrative that tries to explain why a seemingly amoral industrialist would go to such lengths--to risk his own life and to undergo (on three occasions) imprisonment by the SS--in order to save a community with whom he had the most tenuous connection. For this "novel," the author interviewed dozens of survivors and his book tries to sift and reconcile their various accounts and memories of a man whose life was otherwise unremarkable.

While most of us would like to think we would be as brave, it's almost impossible to explain Schindler's success, much less his motives. But, for two reasons, Keneally's book is hardly a hagiography: Schindler is presented as a deeply flawed, even selfish man, and the people he rescued proved to be equally courageous--and many of the survivors are presented in far more detail than is possible in a two-hour movie. The novel makes clear that this is as much their story as Oskar Schindler's; their survival was a coordinated effort by a large group rather than a miracle effected by one man. And Commandant Amon Goeth, whose villainy, incredibly, is even worse than the character depicted in the film, comes across not simply as an evil man but, in the end, a truly pathetic and cowardly one.

"Schindler's List" is not meant to be a history of the Holocaust. This biographical novel is set in a terrible time and a unique place, and its perhaps unseemly hopefulness can seem jarringly out of place for an epoch that had no silver linings. Instead, Keneally's (and Schindler's) underlying story is a lesson for us all: what might have happened if there had been not one, but one thousand Oskar Schindlers.

Schindler's List is the story of Oskar Schindler, a German business man that saved the lives of "his" Jews (those that worked in his factory) during World War II. The book is, in large part, nonfiction: some dialogue comes from the author's brain, but the events and characters are generally based in well-researched fact. As a result, the text is informative but lacks emotion, gets bogged down in numbers and reports but still managing to introduce and discuss one small aspect of the war: a man who saved lives. To be honest, I only appreciated the book for its historical and educational value. As a novel, it's lacking in humanity and overfilled with detail. It didn't live up to my expectations.

I read this book to gain a better understanding rather than to be absorbed by the reading, and in terms of information and learning more about the Holocaust, I'm mildly satisfied by the text. It is very well researched and doesn't stray far from fact even when telling a story, and so the data is there. To that extent, it's an interesting, informative read, especially because it presents a smaller side of a large story by concentrating on a man that saved lives rather than a man who ended them or the people that died.

What the book lacks, however, is storytelling, and where the narrative fails the contents becomes much less interesting and much harder to absorb. Keneally becomes obsessed with his research, quoting numbers, dates, and full names as often as possible in order to base the story in fact. No doubt he is trying to maintain fidelity to the events and to Schindler himself; the result, however, betrays him. The book reads like a somewhat creative textbook and the facts have the same limited impact. Although the text claims to do otherwise, the focus on numbers and data detracts from the human element. The reader can't connect and so loses interest. As it is a novel, the book is disappointing, and because the novel fails the facts lose their impact.

I don't mean to say that the text is without merit. The research is there and the story is interesting and, needless to say, admirable. However, I expected a lot more, and was disappointed by my lack of emotional attachment to any part--plot, characters, ending. My holding back some of the data while still keeping to the truth, Keneally could have written a much more emotional, and therefore more effective, text.

Schindler's List is the story of Oskar Schindler, a German business man that saved the lives of "his" Jews (those that worked in his factory) during World War II. The book is, in large part, nonfiction: some dialogue comes from the author's brain, but the events and characters are generally based in well-researched fact. As a result, the text is informative but lacks emotion, gets bogged down in numbers and reports but still managing to introduce and discuss one small aspect of the war: a man who saved lives. To be honest, I only appreciated the book for its historical and educational value. As a novel, it's lacking in humanity and overfilled with detail. It didn't live up to my expectations.

I read this book to gain a better understanding rather than to be absorbed by the reading, and in terms of information and learning more about the Holocaust, I'm mildly satisfied by the text. It is very well researched and doesn't stray far from fact even when telling a story, and so the data is there. To that extent, it's an interesting, informative read, especially because it presents a smaller side of a large story by concentrating on a man that saved lives rather than a man who ended them or the people that died.

What the book lacks, however, is storytelling, and where the narrative fails the contents becomes much less interesting and much harder to absorb. Keneally becomes obsessed with his research, quoting numbers, dates, and full names as often as possible in order to base the story in fact. No doubt he is trying to maintain fidelity to the events and to Schindler himself; the result, however, betrays him. The book reads like a somewhat creative textbook and the facts have the same limited impact. Although the text claims to do otherwise, the focus on numbers and data detracts from the human element. The reader can't connect and so loses interest. As it is a novel, the book is disappointing, and because the novel fails the facts lose their impact.

I don't mean to say that the text is without merit. The research is there and the story is interesting and, needless to say, admirable. However, I expected a lot more, and was disappointed by my lack of emotional attachment to any part--plot, characters, ending. My holding back some of the data while still keeping to the truth, Keneally could have written a much more emotional, and therefore more effective, text.

I make this an annual event, to re-read Thomas Keneally's inspiring story of Oskar Schindler.Writers have sought to contemporize Jesus;they need not look further than Schindler's WWII story, a biography of action, of spiritual dimensions.One man becomes a hero while the world is in a violent grip of madness and darkness, like the time we're in. Yet, who's going to come forth now?Not a MTV star,nor an "American Idol."It will take a merchant of war to stand apart from the status quo, even if it means abandoning "business ways." Like the Man from Bethleham, Oskar avoided violence,(grew employees) to achieve a lasting legacy.No Jack Welch or business tycoon who pre-empts competition would understand this.

Schindler's List is unadulterated proof that a part-fact, part-fiction book can succeed. The product of painstaking archival research and personal interviews, Schindler's List is a riveting, painful account of a German entrepreneur's transformation into an extraordinary humanitarian who plucked from the jaws of death many thousands of people who were marked for extermination. Oskar Schindler is far from perfect. He's a hard-drinking womanizer and profiteer. But that's what makes him so appealing. Schindler rises above his faults, and, at great personal expense, risks his life to save thousands. Beware, this isn't a book for kids. There are many graphic scenes that adults will find hard to take. But it is a unique, redemptive story of a Holocaust hero that should be told as long as human beings walk the earth.

SCHINDLER'SLIST is an extremely well written novel. It truly grasps your attention and makes you feel as if you're part of the story. Adults may have an easier time reading this book rather than children younger then the age of twelve. What makes it so difficult to understand, are some of the gruesome details and the very straight-forward way of writing. If you are interested in chronicles about war and history, and aren't bothered by some mind blowing facts, this is a very appealing book.

It is about Oscar Schindler, a heavy drinker that loves women, and cares mostly about himself. Not until he realizes how horrible the Jewish people are being treated in the concentration camps, is it when he takes action. Schindler was able to save over one thousand jews. He saved them from having the same fate as millions of other Jews. Conroy's SOPHIE'S CHOICE came to mind more than once while reading this.

This novel is one of the best i have read in along time. Though very heart-breaking and depressing, it truly lets you see what it was like for the Jewish people in that area of time. If you enjoy great literature, an off-beat story, insight into the human soul, fun, and even darkness and shocking family secrets, I would also recommend two other books: LIFE OF PI by Y. Martel and the ever-popular TOUR OF SOUTHERN HOMES AND GARDENS by J. McCrae.