Sunflower Completed

I have now completed The Sunflower, and, for as moving a subject as it is, I was a little disappointed. First of all, the book is very deceiving. It is not as long as one makes it out to be, for there is a ton of criticism after the 98 page novel. The criticism and insights are helpful and thought-provoking, but it does not and cannot salvage the book. I was hoping for a dramatic novel about the horrors of concentration camps and a unique experience between a dying SS soldier and a Jew. Instead, I got a few pages of dialogue between the two of them, and the rest is complaints or worries from the Jewish man. The SS man literally dies after one meeting with Simon. They didn't even have enough time for a meaningful conversation. It's as if Mr. Wiesenthal took a brilliant idea and spent maybe three pages concentrating on it. I was deeply let down. The criticism and insights in the back of the book differ in the question of "What would you do?" The Dali Lama's, for example, is much different than my own. I would never forgive a Nazi if I was in a concentration camp. Hell, I wouldn't forgive one now and I was never even in one. Yet the Dali Lama says we all must forgive, which I find to be in poor taste. If someone has made a decision as extremely horrific as that in their life, they must live with that. They must not and should not be forgiven. Overall, I sincerely wish The Sunflower had been better. You let me down Simon Wiesenthal...you let me down.