Generation of Wrath

The Jewish men in the Polish town of Auschwitz have been drafted to fuel the Nazi war machine, and Elio Romano, at 16 the eldest child in his family, takes his father's place among them. Scuttling like a carpenter ant from camp to camp, throwing together barracks for the brief, bitter stay of fellow Jews on their way to the ovens, Elio never sees that his remaining in Auschwitz will be his parents' death warrant, whereas leaving is his ticket to survival. In a story that has been told and retold, urgency cools and can be rekindled only by a master hand. Here, unfortunately, Romano's hand, 40 years after the fact, falters: incidents lose their immediacy, and stolid reportage results. Neither passion nor lament informs the automatic words of grief. Only at the end, when rescue is near, does the tension increase; perhaps these final chapters are the book's justification. (March 7)