Music for the Third Ear

By Susan Schwartz Senstad

Book Overview

Seeking asylum from distant conflict in Eastern Europe, Zheljka and Mesud are given refuge in Norway at the home of Hans Olav and Mette. Their arrival has profound consequences. Apparently settled... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312287763
• ISBN13: 9780312287764
• Release Date: February 2002
• Publisher: Picador USA
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Music for theThird Ear and for the Right Time and Place!

Susan Schwartz Senstad could not have written a more timely and powerful work of fiction. The book is about the aftereffects of the rape genocide/ethnic cleansing policies carried about by Slobodon Milosevij on a couple coming back from their ordeal who meet up with a child of Auschwitz survivors, looking to take them in and "fix" what happened to them. .... In this powerful intersection of the Shoah that could not happen again, with the one that has happened and is now being debated--like its predecessor--Schwartz Senstad understands the human need to rid ourselves of survivor guilt, the resilience of the survivors of the Balkans and of other atrocities, and the great silence that, for the victims, is often the only possible response to what has happened to them. In this short and powerful tale, the main character,Zhelijka, a Croation Catholic woman, endures deliberate cruel and constant mass rapes, until she becomes pregnant by an anonymous father. Zhelijka's soon-born son becomes the pivotal character in the story. She calls him "Zero" and despite her strong ties to her child, is finally forced to endure yet another horror--she allows her Muslim husband Mesud to put the child up for adoption. Ultimately, the rejected child re-enters the lives of the four adult characters, Zhelijka and Mesud and Mette (the first-generation holocaust survivor) and her Norwegian husban Hans Olav.A perfect book club book, which manages to transcend its sad moments with emotion writ large and beautifully, a la Alice Walker or Joyce Carol Oates. Destined for the Oprah show! Thanks to Picador, USA for publishing a paperback version that exceeds the beauty of "The Red Tent."

Powerful, a must read!

Music for the Third Ear in eerie synchronous plotting seeks to and successfully connects two twentieth century holocausts, the Nazi atrocities and the Yugoslavian. Although fictional, it achieves an immediacy and a depth of understanding, particularly about the victimization of people from the Bosnian War. By putting names, faces, and personal histories in front of us, we can't avoid becoming emotionally involved. I will just briefly outline the plot here. The details are important, but what lies underneath in meaning is more so. A Yugoslav couple, one a Bosnian Muslim and the other a Croatian Catholic reunite five years after the end of the Bosnia War in Rome. The woman has a son as a result of gang rape during the war, whom her husband forces her to give up to a childless Italian couple. The Yugoslavians immigrate to Norway, where they stay temporarily with a childless couple, the woman being the daughter of Jewish holocaust survivors. The child, in the meantime, has severe psychological problems and eventually becomes a pawn between the Italians, the Yugoslavs, and the Norwegian couple. Each family is already psychologically scarred, some as a result of war, some for other reasons. The story is told in flashbooks. As we are taken through their lives what becomes painfully evident is that we can only watch, but are powerless to stop another tragedy in the making, even after war is long over. What makes it bearable at all, is the loving insight of the author, a psychotherapist, who tells the story in way that enhances our understanding and never intrudes.The title is not entirely clear to me, but I gather that it relates to a method of psychotherapy described by the psychoanalyst, Theodore Reik, in which listening, not just with the ears, but with all of one's senses and one's soul, is revelatory and crucial to understanding and healing.

Amazing story

A moving story that is relevant today. It tells us how war is a tragedy not only for its victims, but also for the children of the victims. After World War II the phrase "never again" became a mantra, but when is it going to occur? Read this book; pass it on to your friends. Help spread the word that today we should shout to our leaders around the globe "NEVER AGAIN."

Legacy of the War in Bosnia

Susan Schwartz Senstad's riveting novel transcends a half century of history in which the outside world said, "Never again," then looked the other way while tens of thousands of civilians were tortured, killed, and displaced in another European genocide. The author weaves a disturbing tale of a couple who endured unimaginable and unspeakable horrors during the 1992-95 Bosnian ethnic cleansing and their relationship with another refugee victim of an earlier Holocaust, World War II. Susan Schwartz Senstad displays the deft hand of an accomplished novelist and the soul of an empathic family therapist in portraying the characters and the compelling plot. Mette, a well-meaning Norwegian child of Jewish parents, attempts to heal her half century of pain through her well-intentioned efforts to assuage the suffering of more recent survivors, Zheljka and Mesud from Bosnia. Embroiled in the clash of cultures and trauma is an innocent five year old boy, doomed to be the tragic character, whose emotional needs for maternal nurturing can never be fulfilled due to the violent history of his conception. We wish Senstad would wrap up the story in a neat little package with a happy ending of adjustment, forgiveness, and emotional healing. But like the physical and psychic wreckage which still haunts war victims, this expertly written novel has a more unpredictable and realistic ending. The novel is a poignant reminder that the scars of ethnic conflict remain for years after the hostilities end and the treaties are signed. For Americans who watched the Bosnian war from afar and only caught TV glimpses of Sarajevans burning their books and furniture for fuel or news photos of starved and tortured concentration camp victims, Susan Schwartz Senstad vividly brings the aftermath of this brutal conflict into our living rooms, our consciences, and our hearts. [Bonnie Miller is a psychotherapist, educator, and social worker who has lived in Sarajevo and done humanitarian work all over Bosnia since 1999, collaborating closely with her husband, Tom Miller, U.S. Ambassador to Bosnia & Herzegovina. Among her professional contributions to the healing efforts in BiH are extensive, local language trainings, TV & radio programs as well as guidebooks for educators and parents.] Bonnie Miller, millert@bih.net.ba

Difficult Miracle

Susan Schwartz Senstad examines in unflinching detail the mingling worlds of Nazi Holocaust survivors and survivors of the atrocities in Bosnia. With a sensitive ear for the music of relationships, the fragile harmonies of faith, and the clashing dissonances of war, she creates characters who will not quickly leave your mind - babies held like bundles of laundry, a man with cigarette burn tattoos across his chest, a woman who can't bear to look at her ravaged body, the child Zero clutching his toy pistol.The situations in which these people find themselves - and the situations they create from their own passions - echo like melodies heard faintly from a distant room; yet, when examined, seem to be coming relentlessly from inside one's own skull.This is not an easy book, but one that I recommend for its clarity and for the overwhelming tenderness and respect with which Senstad draws her characters. The sensationalism of press coverage is firmly laid to rest as these complex personal histories evolve.Music for the Third Ear is deeply touching and unforgettable... a miraculous first novel.