Amazon.ca:Customer reviews: A Castle in Brooklyn: A Novel

Top positive review

a great read

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on April 5, 2023

This book at first felt quite grim but it definitely got better. Luckily it was not a really difficult read as it was easy to continue reading long enough for it to end up inspiring and a happy ending!

Top critical review

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Evalina

It was not a bad read

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on December 28, 2022

The book was quite sappy and predictable …. The writer was competent, the reader was very good but the story was slow which is ok if you like that kind of thing. For me it was just something to finish

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From Canada

canadianreader

Beautifully constructed story!

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on January 3, 2023

Shirley Russak Wachtel’s debut novel, A Castle In Brooklyn, is a beautifully constructed story following two young men, Salman and Jacob, across six decades from Poland to America. She reveals how the experience in their teens with the Nazis influenced almost every aspect of their future.

I appreciated the reminder that their survival, both present and future, depended on their honesty and trust in each other. In addition to an examination of what makes a house a home and what constitutes ‘family,’ I also appreciated her focus on what ‘being there’ for another really entails. If we aren’t willing to unpack the baggage and deal with the fallout, we aren’t really a support for a needy friend.

While the beginning was focused and compelling, the narrative slowly meandered through the following decades and my interest waned slightly along the way. Regardless, this is a heartfelt debut story about the weaving together of dreams, disappointments, and three hearts.

I was gifted this copy by Little A and NetGalley and was under no obligation to provide a review.

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From other countries

Kath S.

Jewish Brooklyn After the War

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 13, 2023

Verified Purchase

I thought the writing was good. It depicted Brooklyn after the war and what life was like for the Jewish immigrants. It was very typical of the 1950s and 60s in our country. The instinct to survive in Jacob and Zalman was very realistic of many during the war in Europe.

The thing that bothered me the most in this book was the timing of events. I am a numbers person and keep dates in my mind all the time. Most people don't notice these things. But there were several instances when the timing was off. One example is when Esther says that she can't believe that she's been married 30 years because they just had their anniversary. And in the next moment she says that she can't believe that Jacob has just turned 50 since he still reminds her of the young man she met 30 years ago. When she met Jacob he was 26 and when they got married a year later he was 27. That means on their 30th wedding anniversary he was 57, hardly just turned 50. I know that's not a big deal to most readers but it is like nails on a chalkboard to me. I would think that a writer would have a chart of ages and when people were born and the dates so that she could be more accurate. This happened a couple of times in the book and it drove me nuts.

Aside from the timing issues, it was well written and a very good story. I recommend it, just don't pay attention to the years and the ages of the people because they're often wrong.

9 people found this helpful

G. Davis

Didn't know where to end the book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 22, 2023

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Let me start by saying the overall story and writing is good. That said, I couldn't give this more than three stars because the writer didn't know where her ending should've been. The story is about the lives of three main characters, Jacob, Esther and Zalman, whose lives are interconnected and essentially become a family. Yet three-quarters of the way through the book, the author up and devotes two chapters to two additional families who add nothing to the story. We do not need to know their histories and do not need to read about their lives. They are completely irrelevant to the main story. It felt like the author was just trying to make her book a certain length at that point. Doing my best not to give away any spoiler alerts, the last chapter should've come immediately after the last chapter concerning one of the main characters.

As some of the other reviewers have noted, the story could be plodding at times and there were inconsistencies in the timeline, at times. And although most of the book was well written, there were times the author included far too much minutiae in her descriptions. For instance, in one place she describes every detail of one of the characters morning routine, including his relieving himself. TMI and again, irrelevant to the story.

2 people found this helpful

Kindle Customer

A Castle in Brooklyn

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 28, 2023

Verified Purchase

A biography of a house and it s designer &occupants. It's life &the lives of a man's vision for his fami!y.played out over many years. Loves.joy.tragedy,lives& deaths and a twist at the ending.The house lived on after its original family was long gone.

JMG

Much Sadness

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 24, 2023

Verified Purchase

Kudos to the author for writing a book to honor her parents who were Holocaust survivors. The book started out strong, and I loved the premise. I had no trouble finishing it, but overall, there is no happy ending for anyone. Even the unnecessary chapters about two of the families who rented the house weren't uplifting. One situation was sad and the second was brutal with a tenuous connection to one of the main characters that was contrived and didn't add to the story. I would've loved to see more laughter and love between all the characters instead of referring to some earlier happiness while they were mired in their sorrow. Plus, the characters' ages seemed to fluctuate as the years went by.

Bookworm426

So conflicting

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 12, 2023

Verified Purchase

Not only am I conflicted on deciding whether I liked this book, but the book itself is filled with conflict after conflict.

On the plus side, this is a wonderful story of honorable people who do the right thing... even when it's painful. And it's a story of doing the right thing, even when others can't see or know that you're doing it.

I also witnessed the part of life where enthusiasm and dreams of young lives are tempered by the realities of what life throws at you and the ways that past experiences form our expectations and reactions.

On the negative side, I found it to be slow and depressing. I kept waiting for something good to happen. I guess it all comes down to how you define "good."

Kindle Customer

Could have been better as a series

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 7, 2023

Verified Purchase

I wish that this story had moved along a bit quicker. When it finally started to flow it abruptly switched gears and all new characters bega
n to appear. This happened repeatedly until the end which was so disjointed from the first half of the book it held little interest to me.

It could have been a series and developed the characters of each part separate as well as incorporating into the overall story.

Kindle Customer ebsierra

Just OK

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 2, 2023

Verified Purchase

I'm sorry to say that this was just mediocre. I enjoyed some of the beautiful and creative descriptions, but in between were awkward phrasing and a really slow moving plot. It jumped among different characters so that I didn't get too attached to any one of them. The characters seemed complacent, not really fully exploring their emotions. As soon as one was about to resolve something in a relationship, it was prevented. Characters were added who really didn't add to the plot. I just didn't feel very interested in the story. Other reviewers have mentioned that it was plodding, and burdened with minutiae. I agree.

Amazon Customer

The characters all seem to have sad lives

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 11, 2023

Verified Purchase

The beginning of the book gave you such hope as Jacob and Zalman escaped death and came to start new lives in America. They were so damaged by their early lives that they never truly felt happy. The same was true for Riku due to early circumstances in his life. Esther tried so hard to be the perfect wife and mother only to feel such loss and defeat. Miriam also truly loved her family but was never given the full return for that devotion. In the end it just felt so sad and depressing. This home that had been a dream could not compensate for the failed human connections.

One person found this helpful

Ramona Mitchell

just okay

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 31, 2023

Verified Purchase

I didn’t love A Castle in Brooklyn, but I didn’t hate it either.

The story itself was just not satisfying— not that I need a happy ending. And, that was the best part of the book.

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A Castle in Brooklyn: A Novel

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