Town Beyond the Wall

As always, Elie Wiesel has transformed his personal experiences into a work of fiction that is anything but. In "The Town Beyond the Wall" readers are introduced to Michael, a Jew who has survived the Holocaust and spends the rest of his life searching for meaning and answers to questions that may not even have answers. Wiesel's stories are driven by questions and the memories that haunt his characters. "The Town Beyond the Wall" is told through flashbacks. Michael, the narrator, is being tortured in jail after finding his way back home inside the Iron Curtain. His torture is the 'prayer', to stand face to a wall until the pain in his legs causes him to speak. But Michael is strong and resists telling on his friend because he wishes to save a life. He no longer cares about God or religion. He is plagued by memories of his childhood and the regrets he has about actions not taken. He desperately wants answers but knows that some of his questions have no answers. Wiesel is a master storyteller. He creates characters who are vivid and alive, perhaps because they are endowed with who he is. In "The Town Beyond the Wall" he has crafted perhaps his most optimistic tale, ending with a parable that is at once as thought-provoking as it is disturbing. Perhaps Wiesel has Michael sum up the story the best with these words: "...it isn't easy to live always under a question mark. But who says that the essential question has an answer? The essence of man is to be a question, and the essence of the question is to be without an answer."

When I read this book, the only other works of Elie Wiesel that I read were those from The Night Trilogy. The Town Beyond the Wall is a bit of a departure from those three stories. You see more optimism in this work, though this only becomes obvious towards the end. The language is more poetic and really sucks you into the protagonist's world.