ALL BUT MY LIFE

The basis for the Emmy-winning documentary ONE SURVIVOR REMEMBERS, this is the memoir of a young Polish Jewess's enslavement by the Nazis and her ultimate liberation by American soldiers. Barbara Rosenblat reads the excellent Penguin abridgment in an authentic Eastern European accent. In her very personal rendering, the suspense, violence and horror of the author's travail is upstaged and somewhat trivialized by sentimentality. Where the author recalls screams and tears, we get only the tears. Otherwise, Rosenblat possesses a pleasant, expressive voice compatible with Klein's straightforward grace. While Rosenblat is perceptive and sensitive to the text, she doesn't do justice to all its resonances. Perhaps, considering the subject, that is merciful. Y.R. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: NOV/DEC 97]