Saturday, February 1, 2020

Review: THE FIRE AND THE DARKNESS by Sinclair McKay



5 Stars

Reading about the Dresden Firebombing of February 1945 is a painful and horrific encounter,  as is reading about Hiroshima or Nagasaki,  September 11 2001, the Holocaust or the history of lynching.  Yet we as readers and thinking humans need to be aware of the evils of history as well as the glories. On the other hand,  Dresden 's history also testifies to the invincibility of the human spirit,  above and beyond the biological drive to survive.  For biology alone cannot account for the city 's reconstruction nor for the impetus to record for posterity its tragedy, nor for those outside Dresden who strive to repair and to improve it. There is something in humanity that is propelled to rise above its frequent inhumanity and destruction.

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