RIP
Night
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_(book)
"It has been categorized as a novel, autobiography,
autobiographical novel, non-fictional novel, semi-fictional memoir, fictional-autobiographical novel, fictionalized autobiographical memoir and memoir-novel.
[56] Ellen Fine described it as
témoignage (testimony).
[57] Wiesel called it his deposition.
[58]
Literary critic Ruth Franklin writes that
Night's impact stems from its minimalist construction. The 1956 Yiddish version, at 865 pages, was a long and angry historical work. In preparation for the French edition, Wiesel's editors pruned without mercy.
[59] Franklin argues that the power of the narrative was achieved at the cost of literal truth, and that to insist that the work is purely factual is to ignore its literary sophistication.
[60] Holocaust scholar Lawrence Langer argues similarly that Wiesel evokes, rather than describes:
Weisel's account is ballasted with the freight of fiction: scenic organization, characterization through dialogue, periodic climaxes, elimination of superfluous or repetitive episodes, and especially an ability to arouse the empathy of his readers, which is an elusive ideal of the writer bound by fidelity to fact.
[61]
Franklin writes that
Night is the account of the 15-year-old Eliezer, a "semi-fictional construct," told by the 25-year-old Elie Wiesel. This allows the 15-year-old to tell his story from "the post-Holocaust vantage point" of
Night's readers."
