The One Man

Published 2020-10-30

Set during WWII, the Allies sneak a young Jewish man who came to the U.S. after escaping Poland into Auschwitz to extract a physics professor crucial to the war effort. The first sentance of the book is a grammatical mess: “The private room is on the fourth floor of the Geriatric wing at the Edward Hines Jr. Veterans Administration Hospital outside Chicago, bent, old men shuffling down the hall in hospital gowns with nurses guiding them and portable IVs on their arms.” There are similar oopsies throughout the book, and much of the dialog feels contrived. However, the breaking point for me was, when, the day before the hero is sent into Auschwitz, his overseer makes him kill a cat to “prove that he can kill if needed.”

Come on.