Really? I hated that they weren't allowed any happiness or beauty or dignity in their lives, and that there was no fight left in them, and everything was their fault. They were, to me, exactly the defeated European Jewish stereotype that Israelis hate about the Holocaust. More reaction here and here. I think Chabon just isn't the author for me: I reread Kavalier and Clay this summer, and just. I hated it. His writing and his politics make me so angry.