I think the bulk of this story is the remarkable account of a survivor. Wiesel is very matter-of-fact in his recounting and I think I know why he did this because if he were to write a grand poetic work it would go to places that had died in those years he spent at the camp. I think a part of him died there and this is why he nearly keeps the reader at a distance because he can't go back to the pain it caused him and I felt how he held back but I cannot blame him or fault him for it. 
 This is a hard read but it's a book, much like books like 12 Years of Slave that you just have to bite the bullet and read it. Not reading it doesn't erase what happened it just makes you confront it and it's not a happy thing to confront - a lot of history is not. Hell, a lot of what goes on around the world is not, it's very easy to forget it in our world of Barnes & Nobles with Starbucks inside. This was jarring and painful and I ground my teeth through most of it. I don't know if I would flippantly recommend this book, I think this is the type of book a person has to reach for when they feel they are ready to read first-hand accounts. For me? This is a book I don't think I will read again because the events flourished so vividly in my mind that I wont soon forget.