Harriet's Corner
The Bi-Monthly Newsletter of What to Read
Issue #8: In which she catches up on her "Sex and the City"...
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Ok.....I know....I am tardy, remiss, dilatory....well....just plain late. I suppose I could say that I wanted everyone to have time to catch up on their reading...but that is not really true. I simply chose to not read like a fiend for a few months....whew! what a nice break! I actually read a number of books that just weren't worth writing about. I was also pleasantly distracted by visits from my children. In fact, when my youngest daughter returned after nine months in the Middle East, we watched all six seasons of "Sex and the City"....you see, I spent all my free time reading so I never saw even one episode. Don't worry, I'm not going to review "Sex and the City"! But, I did start reading after that....and I read some very fine books......so here goes.....
Let Me Go by Helga Schneider (paperback, $12.00)
This is a remarkable psychological study of a mother-daughter relationship......but not anything remotely relating to your average mother-daughter relationship. The author, Ms. Schneider, was four years old, living with her parents and baby brother in Berlin in 1941, when her mother left the family to join the SS. In the ensuing 57 years, Ms. Schneider saw her mother only once. In 1998 she received a call from a family friend saying that her mother was very sick and on the verge of death in a home for the aged in Vienna. Ms. Schneider visits her mother because she wants to hear her mother not only acknowledge that she had abandoned her young children but also to hear her express her regret and repentence for the horrible things she did while working in the concentration camps. The narration alternates between the author's inner feelings and her conversations with her mother. One moment she wants to forgive her mother and the next moment she wants to physically harm her.....a deeply emotional story.
The Mystery of Olga Chekhova by Antony Beevor (paperback, $15.00)
Antony Beevor is a writer known for his books on the huge events of the early 20th century..."Stalingrad", "The Fall of Berlin", "The Spanish Civil War". This book is way more intimate in tackling little known events involving people of minor fame. Olga Chekhova was the niece of Anton Chekhov, the famous Russian playwright. She bore the same name as her aunt, the wife and widow of Anton Chekhov. Her aunt was a famous actress in turn of the century Moscow. Young Olga turned her back on her family, the theater and her country to move to Berlin and become a famous film star. She became the darling of the Nazis, being wined and dined by Hitler and Goebbels. While the families of others "traitors" who remained in the USSR suffered horrible hardships , Olga's family thrived......the mystery of Olga is whether in fact she was a spy for the Soviets. While this story is itself quite fascinating, the other events that swirl around Olga and her family between the two world wars is riveting. Beevor also draws parallels between the developing regimes in Moscow and Berlin that we know will ultimately converge on the battlefields of Europe. This book has the feel of a WWII spy film....dark streets, people meeting clandestinely under fog shrouded lights....one almost expects Humphrey Bogart with his trench coat and turned up collar to come walking off the pages. One needn't have much knowledge of Russian or German history to appreciate the intricacies and the tightrope walk that was the life of Olga Chekhova.
Outwitting History by Aaron Lansky (paperback, $13.95)
This is am amazing story of a young man, Mr. Lansky, who sets out to save the world's abandoned Yiddish books from extinction and some 25 years later 1.5 million volumes are housed in the National Jewish Book Center which was founded by Mr. Lansky. A culture verging on extinction was lifted out of the very literal dumpsters of history. This is a story told with humor, passion and a lot of love. It is told in charming anecdotes..... many of which made me laugh and some of which made me cry. But the real universality of this story is its proof that one person CAN make a difference. Here is this poor graduate student who decides that if he doesn't go out to find Yiddish books which are being tossed out by a generation of people who do not read the language, then in a short time there will be no Yiddish books left. And without those books, a rich culture that spanned hundreds of years would be lost forever. His associates and professors thought he was nuts...but he was determined to save all the books he could find. And today, the Book Center, housed in Amherst, Massachusetts is a monument to what the will of one person can create. A thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable read.
Despite the Falling Snow by Shamim Sarif (hardcover, $24.95)
Wow, I have not yet been able to pick up another book since I read this one last week. The characters have stayed with me and totally haunted me. This story takes place between present day Boston and Moscow in the 1950s. At the core of this story is Alexander Ivanov, a successful businessman and long time resident of Boston who has repressed the horrors and nightmare of life in post Stalinist Russia. It is a beautiful story of love and redemption...in fact two stories of love....one reveals the depths of human tragedy and the other soars in an improbable and enchanting tale. At the same time, this novel vividly depicts the human cost of totalitarian regimes such as Stalin's USSR. This book is hypnotic, thrilling and a pure delight.
Between Two Worlds: Escape >From Tyranny by Zainab Salbi (hardcover, $26.00)
Well, while we are talking about totalitarian regimes....Saddam Hussein's Iraq clearly gives stiff competition to Stalin. This is an inside look at pure evil embodied in Saddam. For starters, Saddam killed his cousin to become President of Iraq. Then as an outsider from Tikrit, he felt he needed to cozy up to the Baghdad elite in an attempt to legitimize his regime. Unfortunately for Ms. Salbi, her parents were among this group. One simply could not say 'no' to Saddam Hussein. Her father became Saddam's private pilot.....and the family slipped into the iron grip of a monster. Through her herculean efforts, Ms. Salbi's mother was able to get her daughter out of the country and out of the grip of Saddam and his sons. She succeeded but at an awful price for the author. This is a riveting story and an unliftiing one. It is not only the tale of Ms. Salbi and her remarkable successes, it is the travails of finding love on her own terms and, in the end, a tale of a mother's and daughter's love.
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (hardcover, $21.95)
Now for a break from Europe and the Middle East.....to a beautifully told tale of a remote part of China in the 19th century. Lily, the storyteller, is in her late eighties and looking back on her life. She begins with the horrors of the foot binding of her sister and herself. Then Lily finds her "old same", Snow Flower, a young girl her age to whom she is paired by the area's matchmaker. They communicate through the use of an ancient secret women's language. They develop a deep and loving friendship, even though their stations in life are seemingly so different. Their friendship, and this tale, illustrates the deepest of human emotions: self-absorption and devotion, pride and humility, love and hate, loyalty and treachery. There is a soft gentleness in the telling of this story which itself is often not so gentle.....but a fine respite from the Middle East!
Tehran Rising by Ilan Berman (hardcover, $24.95)
I am going to leave you on a very disturbing note. This book would read like a real Chicken Little story if it were in fact written by some wacky alarmist. The scary thing is that it is written by a Vice President of the American Foreign Policy Council....a man considered a rising star of American foreign policy. His thesis is that Iran has been quietly...and sometimes loudly...working toward elevating its status to that of a regional superpower....at the expense of the United Stated and Europe. Their tentacles have not only spread throughout the Islamic world, but to Asia and Europe as well. Iran is now the major supporter of terrorist organizations while it has been busy building its nuclear capability. Iran continues to develop its biological and chemical weapons as well. These WMDs are not elusive....they are there and the ruling mullahs are proud of them! This book is short, succinct and to the point. The first section is how Iran developed into the threat it has become. The second section is America's response.....as of today, Mr. Berman claims that America is woefully unprepared to deal with this mounting peril. If half of what Mr. Berman writes is true, our future is very insecure indeed. He poignantly dedicates his book to Mark, who I am guessing is his son. The dedication is "with dreams of a safer and more peaceful world".
The good news is that Mr. Berman will be in Ketchum on December 9 speaking at Iconoclast Books. Read this book and come hear what he has to say!
Next month (I promise) will be my holiday edition.....recommendations of very special gift books you will find only at Iconoclast Books! |
