Trusting Calvin
How a Dog Helped Heal a Holocaust Survivor's Heart
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- 11,99 €
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- 11,99 €
Description de l’éditeur
Max Edelman was just 17 when the Nazis took him from his Jewish ghetto in Poland to the first of five work camps, where his only hope of survival was to keep quiet and raise an emotional shield. After witnessing a German Shepherd kill a fellow prisoner, he developed a lifelong fear of dogs. Later beaten into blindness by two bored guards, Max survived, buried the past, and moved on to a new life in America, becoming an X-ray technician. But when he retired, he needed help. He needed a guide dog. After a month of training, he received Calvin, a handsome, devoted chocolate Labrador retriever. Calvin guided Max safely through life, but he sensed the distance and reserve of Max’s emotional shield. Calvin grew listless and lost weight. Trainers intervened—but to no avail. A few days before Calvin’s inevitable reassignment, Max went for an afternoon walk. A car cut into the crosswalk, and Calvin leapt forward, saving Max’s life. Max’s emotional shield dissolved. Calvin sensed the change and immediately improved, guiding Max to greater openness, trust, and engagement with the world. Here is the remarkable, touching story of a man who survived history and the dog that unlocked his heart.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The subtitle is misleading, as this book is more Holocaust memoir than human/animal story. An opening section describes how Calvin, an "exceedingly well-mannered and impeccably well-trained" guide dog, cannot bring himself to help Max Edelman, a blind Holocaust survivor; the animal, for some reason, cannot bond with Edelman. But after those four pages, the rest of the book by journalist Peters offers a well-written, grim portrayal of Edelman's struggle to survive imprisonment by the Nazis, which only became more of an uphill battle after a beating left him blind. After the war, he ends up in Cleveland and builds a life, a family, and a career. After retiring in 1990, Edelman agrees to having a guide dog, despite his fear of the animals based on witnessing attack dogs used by the Germans. Calvin receives scant attention, despite the book's title. Given that imbalance, animal lovers are likely to be disappointed, and, based on the title, reaching readers looking for another moving account of enduring unbearable horrors is a long shot.
