3 comments about Everything Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Book: A portrait of an American icon (Everything Series).

1. This is a very interesting book. I learned a great many facts that I hadn't previously known.



2. This is a good book if you're just starting to research, or learn, about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. The format is chronological; it includes all of the major events of her life spanning childhood to her final days in New York City. Each section is about two to four paragraphs with photos to support much of the text. The content, while being thorough, is sparce due to the book's attempt to list everything (ergo, the title) that encompassed her life. There are, however, some interesting trivial facts about her (and President Kennedy) that make reading this book fun to read, as these tidbits of information aren't usually included in many of the more in-depth biographies on her. Overall, this is a good book by the Everything Series to launch someone's study of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.



3. I am a huge Jackie-O. fan! I met her as a child, and she was utterly gracious,and charming, in Hyannisport, on a steamy summer morning near the Kennedy Compound.I am learning facts about her I did not know before.I truly admire her class,taste,and love of country, as well as her dedication to her husband and children.She was quite a lady, America's queen! If you admire Jackie, for sure, you will enjoy this book.

4 comments about Pendragon: The Definitive Account of the Origins of Arthur.

1. Who was King Arthur? The honest answer is, "We don't know." However, it certainly is a lot more fun to at least try to see what the evidence says. And in that vein, this book excellently approaches answering that question by looking at the oldest Arthur evidence written more closely in time to when Arthur would have lived and written in a tongue that he was more likely to have spoken. While it's true that for most people these limitations would produce only a small amount of literature akin to a book of haiku, this book uses that evidence as a starting point to make educated suppositions as to who Arthur was and when he lived.
   For those who's interest in Arthur was piqued by the recent movie featuring Keira Knightly in a leather bikini, it's an interesting topic so read the book. To those who've read only the book, go see the movie because you need to get out more.



2. One of the best written historical references I have had the pleasure to read. Gives a historical document based evaluation of the Authurian theory.



3. Pendragon: The Definitive Account of the Origins of Arthur does indeed come closest of all the Arthurian literature to identifying the real 6th century man. Mssrs. Blake and Lloyd do a great job of peeling away the later Medieval romanticist mythology to get at the northern Welsh warband leader as depicted in the original Welsh texts. Their examination of the geographic locations associated with Arthur and his compatriots is much more plausible an explanation than any other. Enlightening and again sound is their assertion that he fought most, or even all, of his battles against fellow Welsh Britons rather than Saxons (except possibly at Badon).
   
   If there is one criticism it would be that the authors failed to follow their own evidence to what seems to me to be an obvious conclusion. They claim that Arthur was only a war leader and never a king but admit that Arthur is not a Welsh name. From their own information, it is possible that he started as a war leader under King Maelgwn of Gwynneth, where one of Arthur's hill fort 'courts' resides and where the early documents reveal to be his original homeland. Yet, he may have later become a king in his own right, the one they identify as Cuneglasus of the Bear's Stronghold. (Arthur comes from the Latin Artoris, which means The Bear.) He may well have been one of the adulterous underlings that Gildas criticized but also later one of the five kings who Gildas likewise lambasted. The second hill fort 'court' they identify lies within the small realm of that minor Welsh king. It is a real possibility that Arthur was Cuneglasus. As they point out, it was Gildas who attached animal names to the five kings he criticized, that one being the Bear. They also cite several early Welsh texts that call him a king or sovereign as well.
   
   Their analysis of the origin of Pendragon, as part of that discussion, is ingenious.
   
   All in all, for anyone who is interested in clearing away the Medieval Romance and finding out about the real Arthur, this is probably the most important tome to read. I heartily recommend it.



4. Pendragon is Blake and Lloyd's second book, and builds creditably on their first one, Keys to Avalon. They have painstakingly documented the evidence which leads them to the conclusion that Arthur was Welsh and lived, fought, and died in Wales. The evidence for this appears incontrovertible, even if the particular details are not necessarily as easily fleshed out. If nothing else, this is an incredibly important gift to Arthurian research, which hopefully will eventually supercede the always dubious, Arthurian claims of regions from Cornwall to Scotland.
   
   As an anthropologist, I most appreciate their attention to the differences in language and culture which prompted later chroniclers and authors to shift Arthur from his original location to Great Britain as a whole.
   
   Anyone looking for the 'real', historical Arthur will find him here.

1 comments about The Masonic Magician: The Life and Death of Count Cagliostro and His Egyptian Rite.

1. WOW!!! Freemasons, Martinists, Rosicrucians, Gnostic students, Alchemy students, Hermetic students, and Cabalistic students, you must buy this book, now! Why? For two reasons. One, because this is currently the best book in the world written on the life and times of one the Occult's and Initiactic fraternal world's most enigmatic characters. And two, because chances are high you will meet the enigmatic Count Cagliostro somewhere in your studies or be involved in a rite or two which has been directly or indirectly influenced by him. Authors Philippa Faulks and Brother Robert Cooper have constructed a great book complete with an Index, Glossary, Appendices, Endnotes, and Bibliography, which will satisfy all scholars. The color plates are lovely to look at and serve to place the reader in the context of the time period in which Brother Count Cagliostro lived and died. The Illustrations help clarify certain portions of the text. This book is not only a historical study which reads like an adventure novel, but an important reference tool as well. The authors do a great job in chronicling the series of events and characters of the Western Mystery Tradition who had an impact on Brother Cagliostro, and whose impact is still to be found today. This book is top-notch and has my highest recommendation. Bravo Indeed!!!

4 comments about Silvio Berlusconi: Television, Power and Patrimony.

1. Italian politics since 1945 has often seemed too unstable and esoteric for most Americans. Paul Ginsborg's short polemic about Silvio Berlusconi shows why people should pay attention. The Berlusconi phenomenon is an amazing, and quite appalling, one. From 1992 to 1994, it was revealed that the conservative Christian Democratic party, which had held uninterrupted power since the war, was deeply, deeply corrupt. So corrupt in fact, that the revelation caused its disintergration. But instead of the Right losing the next elections, a wealthy businessman came along and simply bought a new political party. Silvio Berlusconi's "Forza Italia" was not a party devoted to political debate and discussion. It was staffed by his cronies and devoted to his political cult. With it he won the elections of 1994, even though he was himself deeply compromised by the old regime. Serious allegations of corruption soon led to his loss of power and his electoral defeated in 1996. But he returned to power in 2001. Now in point of fact, the charges against him are more than just "allegations", as that infamous left-wing rag, The Economist, has pointed out. Berlusconi has perjured himself about his membership in a conspiratorial, anti-democratic, quasi-fascist masonic lodge. (He benefited from an amnesty). In the seventies his keeper of one his (one-horse) stables was a notorious mafioso. His personal lawyer, Cesare Preveti, has been convicted of 11 year and 5 year sentences for corrupting judges, though he remains free on appeal. Berlusconi delays his trials to run up against the limitations laws. He amends the limitations laws to render himself immune. He changes the rules of evidence so that trials will be further delayed. And when all that fails, he passes laws giving himself immunity, while seeking to undermine the independence of the magistrates.
   
   This is bad. And it gets worse. For as Ginsborg notes Berlusconi is still backed by more than 40% of Italians. His defeat in 2006 is by no means a sure thing. Indeed he plans to become a powerful President of the Republic. This despite his judical troubles, an anaemic economy, and support for a massively unpopular war. This despite his failure to simplify administrative procedures, or start promised infrastructure projects, though he has reduced the penalties for accounting fraud. Ginsborg himself is one of the leading historians of modern Italy, and he points out Berlusconi's origins in the Milan building trade. He points out how Berlusconi benefited from the intervention of the infamously corrupt Bettino Craxi, who in 1984 ignored the courts and constitutional mandates for a proper broadcasting law to pass a decree without which Berlusconi could not maintain his broadcasting monopoly. (He also points out how Craxi was the godfather of Berlusconi's child out of wedlock, and how Berlusconi comically elides his adultery in discussing the end of his first marriage.) Although Ginsborg tries to be fair, there is not much to be said about about Berlusconi's media: the absence of proper news coverage and documentaries, rampant bias in Berlusconi's favor, more advertisements than the rest of Europe combined, two-hour documentaries about stigmatic priests, a sexism that sometimes seems to have come out of Lolita.
   
   Berlusconi is not a fascist, but he is a threat to democracy. To be exact, he wishes to make democracy safe for the Right and for wealthy people like himself. One should be wary of a man who claims "Better fascism than the bureaucratic tyranny of the judiciary." The party euphemizes the fascist past, with public places and spaces named after "acceptable" fascists and with Berlusconi claiming that Mussolini didn't murder anyone. Whether it is the Bank of Italy, the civil service, public broadcasting, magistrates or the public health system, all have their independence and integrity threatened by Berlusconi. Meanwhile he deals with Murdoch and his own media empire as if conflict of interest laws don't exist, which in Italy they don't. His model polity is a world in which mass apathy is punctuated by his biased media and his political image, where people consent, but do not choose. Ginsborg points out how this project is encouraged by the weaknesses of a centre-left which, purged of its Marxist past, cannot seek to mobilize support, which seeks to compromise and which cannot inspire with its technocratic biases, and which, for one reason or another, cannot attack Berlusconi's venality. Ginsborg's book is not perfect (a law undermining magisterial independence is not made clear, while Ginsborg overestimates the influence of the late Canadian media lord Izzy Aspser). But in an era with declining voter turnout and declining independent media, where media monopoly advances with partisan and unscrupulous conservative politics, and where the left, the centre, and the right-centre are too nervous and exhausted to resist, there are good reasons to fear that Berlusconi's Italy could soon be our world.



2. The author of this book knows how to dramatizize politics. "...something important is happening in Italy, potentially quite sinister, and the seeming normality of life serves to mask it very well." If only it were just a fiction. "Silvio Berlsconi" is a great book on the current state of democracy in Italy, the kind of "modern democracy" heralded by Berlusconi's media empire. If the dictators of the early 20th century have been characterizes as "charismatic leaders" pied pipering away their cults of personality, then today's dictator can be thought of as the sort of highly tailored, well edited "iconic leader," the guy who just LOOKS RIGHT for the job. (Paul Ginsbourg includes a hilarious anecdote in the post-script about Berlusconi who, at a recent press conference, showed up with a face lift he had gotten over Christmas and then proceeds to make the most unfortunate analogy: "The communists...tried to have a face lift in order to hide their real identity, but theirs failed.")
   As relentlessly critical as Ginsbourg is to Berlusconi, it is hard to ignore the facts of his presidency, both rise to and the policies to follow. It is also hard to ignore the remarkable similarity between the current state of Italian politics and those of the U.S. As Ginsbourg writes, "All this will have a familiar ring in Anglo-Saxon ears."
   Democracy is becoming increasingly about television and leadership about being televised. What happens to "freedom" in a community connected only by cable? Ginsbourg makes a couple claims of his own, but the exciting aspect of the book is the fact that it raises such questions at all.



3. Ginsborg is truly a master of italian history, society, and politics. I am not at all surprised with the overwhelming expertise displayed is this book, seeing as all Ginsborg's works display the extent of his knowledge and literary skill. A great "riassunto" of Berlusconi from youth to today, and fairly non-partisan.



4. This book is well written and really tells the story of berlusconis rise, but it is biased against Berlusconi.

5 comments about Good Time Girls: Of the Alaska/ Yukon Gold Rush.

1. I bought this book at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks bookstore. My dad, Class of '51 at UAF (we were there for his 50th reunion), had told me some stories about "The Line" and he had had his first job with the gold mining operations, so I was curious. There's not a lot of gory detail here. It's about people and places, but it's quite a colorful history. Though never officially legal, prostitution was tolerated and it flourished in Alaska for more than 50 years. And some very famous characters pop up, like Wyatt Earp and the "Birdman of Alcatraz". Definitely worth the time.



2. Well, the men mined the gold, and the women mined the miners. All had unhealthy jobs but it would appear that more womem made money than the men from this book. It is also interesting that many of the women ended their trade by marrying the miners. So while to some they were "soiled doves" to the miners they were princesses.
   
   Still interesting that the town tollerated this business until very recently. An enjoyable read.



3. I was disappointed in this book, it seemed more like a history of the men of the Yukon and Gold Rush . There were some stories about some of these women in there, but they were not very interesting to me, just sort of dry and lacking the quality that you could see and picture the people-which is a quality I look for in books of a historical nature. If you like just a history of cut and dry facts about the Gold Rush and the men etc., this might be ok, but overall, the book failed to be interesting to me.



4. The Alaska-Yukon Gold Rush, a time at the turn of the century, when the gold camps were booming and the dust flowed like wine. Leaving behind law and many of the constraints of the Post-Victorian era, men and women went north to find adventure and wealth. Most found death among the cold frozen mountains and rivers but a few survived to find money, power and, sometimes, even love.
   The women found it easier to mine the miners then to mine the mines. Women couldn't work claims in most cases and most of the normal jobs didn't pay well.
   If a woman wanted the wealth and adventure she was searching for she ended up becoming a Good Time Girl. Men outnumbered women ten to one and were always willing to pay for the company. Dance hall girls and prostitutes were among the pioneers who opened the new regions, became rich entrepreneurs and powerful women who, in some cases, changed the towns for the better.
   But their history cannot be written in a vacuum. As many of them left behind no written records we have to use police logs, old photos and stories left behind by the more respectable women and men of the cities. The book deals with the conditions and events that made the Far North so much different from the lower forty-eight states where many of the women came from. Why did the cities, in many cases, allow a red light district? Why did they give them police protection? How did the women influence the towns and change the very future of the frontier? Why did so many women turn to be Good Time Girls?
   With tons of humor, happy endings and sad ones, the chapters within this book give a detailed look at the history of the independent women who faced hardships, lost fortunes and the dangers of a wild land to find a future.



5. I had to read this for a book club and didn't make it all the way through. I will give credit for a well researched book. It is a history of endless short accounts of the miners and the women who serviced them. While there are a few interesting characters, the information was limited and left you wanting to know more of the story.
   
   This will be of interest of someone who studies the history or who has visited Alaska and seen the locales of the stories to make a connection.

5 comments about Mao Zedong: A Life (A Penguin Life).

1. Only about two hundred pages, Jonathan Spence does a very noble job summarizing one of the most powerful, mysterious, fascinating, and frightening persons of the twentieth century. Though if one is looking for a book that goes into detail about any aspect of Mao's life or policies, it is best to look elsewhere. This book is a straightforward and unabashed introduction and quick overview of Mao's life and work and ideas. Perfect for people curious about Mao and twentieth century China who want to read more than an abstract, but do not necessarily need or want to tackle a big and detailed work. Just the facts and little commentary. Spence does a good job balancing any bias against or for Mao and his policies and deals mostly with the reasons for them and overall consequences.



2. If you going to attempt a 180 page biography of someone of this stature, one must sift thru and present only the most relevent and important details. This did not happen. A decent book, but lacked details on some very important areas, while giving too much time to unrealted topics. Example: Mao becomes the head of a small, isolated band of communist guerilla fighters. Very well, now how does he transform from that, into the head of state for a billion people? the book doesnt say. In this biogarphy, Mao goes from that cave-living nobody into meeting Stalin and ruling China in about 2 paragraphs. From cave-dweller to world leader in 6 sentences. We get more than 6 sentences about his last secretary's personal life.



3. "The American moon and the Chinese moon are the same moon" noted Mao - the American moon was not BETTER. This is my first book on Mao and the way in which Mr Spence underpins this brief overview of Mao's life with examples of Mao's poetry and philosophy adds to understanding of this hugely significant figure in the World's history. The descent into senility (for want of a better term} and the confirmation once again of the dictum power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, are sad perhaps even tragic conclusions to what began as a noble inspirational life. An enjoyable, informative and concise read.



4. As leader of China for over a quarter of a century, Mao Zedong is one of the dominant figures of modern history, one whose shadow continues to fall on his country today. In this book, Jonathan Spence offers a short introduction to the Chinese leader's life and times, one that seeks to explain how the son of Hunan farmers became the ruler of the most populous country in the world.
   
   That Spence succeeds is a tribute to his command of the subject. He concentrates on Mao's intellectual development, analyzing his writings in order to shed light upon the key points in his life. Spence sees Mao's organizational skills as key to his rise within the Communist Party during the hard years of the 1920s and 1930s. Once in power, Mao consolidated his rule behind an image of himself as the simple, determined leader of a revolutionary movement, an image he sought to impose on the movement as a whole. Yet his increasingly absolute position fueled a self-absorption that, once in power, contributed to the great disasters of his rule.
   
   One of the leading historians of China, Spence presents the details of Mao's life with confidence and erudition. While much of the treatment is perfunctory (what else is to be expected in a biography of less than 200 pages?), within the space available he provides a good overview of Mao's life intertwined with coverage of the complex and dramatic history of twentieth century China. For readers seeking to learn about the interesting times which Mao shaped, this is a good place to start.



5. Jonathan Spence is probably the leading Western scholar on Chinese history, and for that reason alone this book is worth reading. Spence provides the reader with a concise overview of Mao's life with an appropriate amount of commentary on issues that help the reader understand Mao's personality. This focus on Mao as a person (instead of Mao as an historical actor) is, in my opinion, the book's strongest feature.
   
   I'd like to spend a second or two dealing with what some of the other reviewers of this book have said, because I think several of them have missed the mark. Some people seem to be disquieted because Spence spends so little time covering the historical aspects of major events, such as the Long March, the Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution. However, the point of this book is not to give a detailed account of Mao's role in modern Chinese history, but rather to provide an image of Mao that readers can get their hands around. Spence accomplishes this task nicely, and reviewers misunderstand his purpose when they criticize this book for its lack of coverage of such important events.
   
   Another set of reviewers are disillusioned with the book because they feel it does not adequately show how Mao went from a middle-peasantry childhood to become the leader of China. I don't know what these reviewers think the book is missing in particular; I think Spence does a good job of capturing the essence of Mao's life through time, and Spence stops at each categorical change in Mao's life to explain what was going on that led to Mao's upward shift in stature.
   
   I give this book three stars because I think it is a book without a definable demographic in terms of readership. The content is too surface-level to be of much use to even the moderately informed Chinese history student. At the same time, Spence's sense of irony and paradox will probably be lost on the novice reader because of a lack of contextual understanding. Additionally, Spence leaves unexplained things that not all readers will understand (such as the role of various political bodies that get brought up). So it is that, in my opinion, this book is at times too advanced for the novice, and yet generally too introductory for the more experienced.
   
   I myself didn't learn a whole lot about Mao's life that I didn't already know. Spence's scholarship is very good, however, and there were a decent amount of details that I didn't know beforehand which I found interesting. Spence is very even-handed in terms of moral judgement, which is an important distinction between this book and others that present Mao as either a Saint/Savior or an Antichrist. As a concise biography I think Spence accomplished the worthy task of providing an image of Mao that readers can understand, and on that basis I would recommend this book to people looking to get a better feel for Mao the person.

2 comments about Paul, Least of the Apostles: The Story of the Most Unlikely Witness to Christ.

1. Not a good book! Pauline usually does good work (I have recommended them)--but someone missed the boat on this one. The book has grave historical and theological problems (contrary to history and the Catholic Faith)
   
   Some Catholic bookstores found the problems and have pulled the book from their shelves. One even I read contacted everyone who purchased it and gave their money back for the book return--with an apology.
   
   This book is unfortunately contains teachings contrary to the Catholic Faith and to history. For instance he goes against the teaching of the Church (and history) regarding the Primacy of St. Peter! He says on pg 106 that James "replaced him, not only as head of the church of the city but as the head of the Christian Movement" and later infers that JAMES had primacy over Peter -- which is contrary to the Church and to the very words of Jesus Christ in the Gospel of Matthew. Others have found other problems with the text as well but this one is a BIG one and flys in the face of history and the Catholic Faith. Thus he does not come from a Catholic perspective (in fact most of the sources he quotes from are Calvanistic Protestant sources--this is not so much the problem --as rather the cause of his mistake regarding Peter). Normally this publisher puts out some good Catholic books...someone must have missed this one...
   
   (I know from my long theological experience which includes a degree in Catholic Theology from Franciscan University of Steubenville--but one does not need a degree to see that this is contrary to the Teachings of the Church!!)



2. Excellent work on the life of Paul. The author made a trip through the places where Paul preached. It is readable and informative. Decaux presents Paul with a fresh perspective. He writes from a Catholic viewpoint and presents a sketch of Paul fully in line with the Catholic faith, as well as Scriptural scholarship. The author follows Paul through his journeys and captures the spirit of the apostle.

5 comments about Bat Masterson: The Man and the Legend.

1. Mr. Dearment has provided an excellent read. The data is presented in a well thoughtout manner while the writing style is easy to read and comprehend. It seemed like there was less of Bat's later life presented then earlier days but that may be because there was more to present. I tend to read mostly non-fiction, historical books and found this to have been a very worthwhile project to read.



2. This is probably the best biography of Bat Masterson out there. It is also a good history of 19th Century Kansas is that interests anyone. I learned that alot of western history took place in Kansas so I may want to travel there and check out the sights thanks to this book.



3. This is a well researched and written book about a western icon. Unlike many westerns, this one is a very interesting read - sharing not only the life of Bat Masterson but the gunfighters and others who lived around them and their experiences. For example, a whole chapter is on Jim Masterson and his experiences in southern Kansas and Colorado in the late nineteenth century. Although the book does an excellent job of covering Bat during his Dodge days and especially his two years as sheriff of the county and the "battle of the Plaza" afterwards, I especially liked the stories about his late years in Denver and New York, including his close calls with possible gunfights during that time. Yes, Bat Masterson did not kill 27 men, and only one is credited to him, but it is clear from this book, that the reason for this was that most people stayed clear of him because of the recognition of his prowess with a six gun. This book is not only a history of Bat Masterson but an excellent history of the gunfighters who crossed his path. Consequently, I highly recommend this for any individual interested in that period of US history.



4. Bat Masterson: The Man and the Legend
   I have been watching the old Bat Masterson TV series recently and I got curious about who he really was. This book is very well written and full of stories and excerpts for other biographies and newspaper articles to create a pretty complete picture of William Barclay Masterson.



5. I not being one to read novels much at all, found this book very easy to read! I liked the fact that the author used historical documents to support his book, and had learned a great deal about Bat Masterson himself. The author also includes a lot of other characters that Bat had associated with during his time. I also come to learn that Bat had really been involved in a lot of small town politics, which in a sense was surprising to me for the life style he led.
   
   I have not read other books of Bat Masterson, but I feel I don't need to after reading this book.

4 comments about Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum 1941-1943.

1. Etty began life with the same silly angst and shallow aspirations that we endure each day. Then came the war and her experience as a Jew in Holland. The transformation of this young intellectual to a woman of great depth takes the reader on a soul journey of such transcendence that one's paradigms are forever changed.

   Add to the story a great and musical quality of writing and a brilliant mind . You have Etty, my heroine, my mentor.




2. A young woman who is running out of time writes about her experiences as a prisoner of the Nazis in a concentration camp in World War II in 1940s Europe. She responds to the demands of society and of life as she finds it in both its pedestrian and hopeful forms, while also musing about what a distracted God might be doing up in heaven as so many innocent people perish at the hands of so many cowardly and sadistic oppressors. Ultimately she converts to Catholism and she dies in a concentration camp at the age of 29. Even with the crushing and depressing burden of a predatory society of captors constantly hovering over her, captors to whom she would soon sucuumb by her physical death, she wrote about life, social roles, her relationships with others and God prodigiously before her life was stolen from her in a dark place and a dark time by the human forces of evil. The strength she must have called upon to do this work while living in day to day oppresssion and unrelenting misery is stunning to imagine.



3. I read this book over twenty years ago and it remains one of the most inspirational books I've ever read. I leant it to a client who lost it so I must buy another. Thankfully it's still available.



4. This book is one of the most touching and inspiring books I ever read. This book will touch the heart of anyone - whether Jew, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, etc. and even an atheist!
   
   The battle of a soul in those dark days (the German Occupation in the Second War World) trying to keep sane, asking herself how not to loose hope and remain human, avoiding hate, in spite of all what is going around her. This is a journey of a Soul from focusing in herself changing to focus in the world around her.
   
   I bought the book also for 3 friends of mine as a New Year present!
   
   P.S.: Since my English is NOT my mother tong (I'm an Israeli), I'm apologizing in advance for spelling (and other mistakes). Thank you for understanding.

5 comments about Displaced Persons: Growing Up American After the Holocaust.

1. This book will be enjoyed by all who read it for it is a story of survival from the ashes of the Holocaust. This book is also an excellent book club selection that will spark much thought and conversation.



2. My father's story parallels Joseph Berger's in eerie ways...they were both at the Schlactensee DP Camp and the Landsberg-Am-Lech DP camp...Berger's mother's story of her youth could be my grandmother's, from an unpleasant step-mother to the flight East to Russia. My father was born during my grandparents' refuge in the USSR, and crossed illegally with his family into Poland after the war ended. I have always been close to my grandparents, but this book brought clarity and insight into topics they don't generally discuss...the duality that immigrant survivors (the displaced persons) felt between their new lives in America and the tragedy and loss left in Europe. When I look at my grandparents' happy faces at family occasions---graduations, weddings, bar mitzvahs, birthday parties---I wonder if the events make them remember times similar back in Lithuania. Berger's story, beautifully written and researched, is a must-read.



3. Joseph Berger has written a story that needed to be told, but he has included too much extraneous material about his own life. Much of what he tells reveals what it was like growing up as the child of a refugee, but who cares whether or not he dated in high school?

   The best parts of this book were those about his mother's life and about how she managed in the United States as a refugee. Berger's writing is more journalism than story telling. He's got all the facts, but none of his descriptions flare above the mundane. His mother's reminisences are far more artistic, and reveal more than the words on the page.




4. New York Times journalist Joseph Berger has created a masterful, evocative and moving account of the ever-present duality of his life: his identity as an acculturated American child of Holocaust survivors. This duality gives his account of his mother's life and his own evolution from a bewildered refugee child into an accomplished American a poignancy and power. "Displaced Persons" will stand as an important contribution, not only to our understanding of the long-term implications of being a survivor of the Holocaust, but of the unique burdens, pressures and responsibilities children of survivors inherit from their parents.

   Berger is acutely aware of "the unmentioned sorrow that was the subtext to everything [his] parents said or did." Haunted by memories, devastated by enormous loss, handicapped by their arrival in America in their twenties and driven to provide security for their families, Holocaust survivors often perceive their children as replacements of beloved family members who perished and as repositories of hopes and dreams denied them. Worried about their children's safety, happiness and future, Berger muses about his parents' perspective, "What could I say about the dread and suspicion with which they encountered a world that had proven maliciously fickle?"

   As the author emerges from childhood, he begins to chafe from his mother's protective, controlling instincts and desires to assert himself as his own man. Berger's wrenching analysis of his status becomes the overarching theme of his memoir. "I saw myself now an an American...I would no more be the timid refugee boy with one leg planted in the fearful shtetls of Poland, with a mother ever vigilant that no more perils come to the remnants of her kin." It is this unspoken loving tension between Joseph and his mother, Rachel, that gives "Persons" its dynamism.

   Alternating between two narratives, one his own and the other the gripping account of his mother's survival, Berger deftly intermingles past and present. Aware of his distinct heritage, the young Berger recognizes others in his impoverished Manhattan neighborhood who share his background. "We knew one another, knew in our young bellies that our parents were the same dazed and damaged lot, had the same refugee awkwardness, the same whiff about them of marrow bones and carp." Now attempting to wrest coherence in America, Holocaust survivors tend to frustrate Berger with their problem solving techniques. Berger prefers the American way of standing up directly; survivors "were always scraping by on a willingness to do what was necessary to survive, even if that meant surrendering pride or principle."

   Raw emotion floods "Displaced Persons." Rachel's symbolic mourning of a dead child in Warsaw at the onset of World War II serves to remind us that she has no "mental picture" of the actual murder of her family. Unspoken grief undulates throughout the memoir. Berger's stoic father Marcus scarcely articulates his unfathomable sense of loss; nearly half a century passes before he can utter the names of his sisters. Guilt ebbs and flows in Rachel's description of her survival. Anguished over refusing to bring non-kosher food to her hungry brother during World War II, she has never forgiven heself, calling it "the worst thing I ever did in my life."

   Yet life surges and humor emerges in Berger's descriptions of growing up in New York City in the 1950s and 60s. With both parents working at dreary, tiring jobs, the author experiences a freedom of movement he admits he would never conceive of allowing his own daughter today. His descriptions of his initial exploration of Manhattan reveal the sheer joy of discovery, the incredible exuberance of youthful hopes and the awesome sense of possibilities Berger recognizes in his new home. Berger's frantic disposal of an illicit girlie magazine carries universal appeal; he becomes an American everyboy. His struggles with self-confidence, academic competition and sexual frustrations are those of not only his generation, but of those before and after.

   Written with conviction and compassion, "Displaced Persons" is that kind of memoir that not only describes, but instructs. Through the author's descriptions of his resolute, stubborn and proud mother, survivors attain an identity beyond that of suffering and loss. His own life's story shapes our understanding of the purpose of our national experience and the sacredness of an American identity. Treating both the Holocuast in its past brutality and its implications for the second-generation children of survivors, the memoir blends sorrow and joy, heartache and hope, pain and redemption.




5. i loved this book. i felt as though i was right there with him and his family through every phase of their lives. this book had everything going for it, sadness, chaos, happiness, tragedy. it was so personal and you just felt as though the author let you in to share with him.