3 comments about An Island Called Home: Returning to Jewish Cuba.

1. This is a touching and lyrical account that mixes memoir with ethnography in ways that enrich both. A pleasure to read. Those who want to see how an anthropologist can also reveal something of herself as she reveals others would do well to read this book



2. a great book with wonderful photography. it's written by an academic, but is widely accessible. would make a wonderful addition to any library.



3. Dr. Ruth Behar has written an insightful book about the Jews of Cuba and personal memories of the island passed down to her from family members who left Cuba after Fidel Castro's revolution. Although Dr. Behar was only a child when she left Cuba with her family and had no personal memories of the events that happend during her childhood, her many trips to Cuba as an anthropologist have allowed her to recreate that period of history and update it to the current time. Her emotional interviews with Jews still living in Cuba have allowed her to document how Jewish lives and the practice of Judaism have evolved through three time periods; 1)Prior to the revolution, 2) During Cuba's officially atheistic period, 1959-1992, and 3) During its secular period, 1992 to the present. Dr. Behar also discribes the influence of American Jewish tourists and organizations which provide both humanitarian aid and funds for the reconstruction and operation of synagogues and cemeteries in various Jewish communities throughout Cuba.

5 comments about Jewish With Feeling: A Guide to Meaningful Jewish Practice.

1. Jewish With Feeling: A Guide To Meaningful Jewish Practice isn't just a guide to Jewish mysticism by Rabbi Zalman Schacter-Shalomi (in collaboration with Joe Segel): it translates scholarship and Jewish mystical experience to the realm of designing a personal spiritual path for those who would practice Judaism as a living religion. From questions of the special mechanics of faith in Jewish interactions, which differ from other religions, to Sabbath's real meaning, individual chapters translate the feelings and intentions of Jewish spirituality for all.



2. Perhaps the greatest compliment an author of a spiritual book can be paid is that he has, through virtually every page of his book, changed your life, deepened your connection with God, and brought new life to your spiritual disciplines. This is precisely what Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi has done for me through "Jewish with Feeling." It's the only book I keep among my prayer books, and each day I read something I've underlined (I've highlighted approximately half the book!)so that I might bring that spiritual practice or thought or way of interacting with others into my life .
   
   Rabbi Schachter (or, Reb Zalman, as he's known to many of us) lives a life full of delight, creativity and joy and, through this book, he infused mine with a desire for the same zest and exuberance. While he loves his own religion of Judaism, as do I, he brings in fresh insights telling us how to connect - not just dialogue - with people of other faiths. He tells us of the unique contributions that Judaism has brought to the world, and at the same time, reminds us of the rich traditions given to the world by those of other faiths. Yet he doesn't stop there. Reb Zalman shows us how our spiritual life can be deepened through a literal sharing of one another's spiritual practices.
   
   In addition, his personal experiences and stories captivated me, and his unique way of telling these stories, helped along by Joel Segel's extraordinary writing style, makes this a book I'll return to many, many times. Very often, it's a tribute to a book to say, "I just couldn't put this book down." But I think Reb Zalman would greatly appreciate the fact that I had to put this book down many times - to dance, to pray, and to reflect on how to live all I was reading.



3. From the time he was first sent out with Shlomo Carlebach by the then Lubavitch Rebbe Rav Zalman has been a major Jewish outreach person. He has followed the dictates of his own heart and experience. And he has tried to make Judaism a living spiritual reality for many. There are those who say he went outside the fold in doing this, went far too far especially in his efforts at syncretic connection with other religious traditions. But there are others his followers who claim that in the words of Reb Shlomo he is the 'holiest of the holy'.
   While recognizing his deep feeling for Jewish life and story, his deep readiness to feel the mystical presence of God, his hunger for life, real life in religion- I wonder if he does not make a bit too little of traditional Halachic practice, underplay the way for many observance is the key to the higher spirituality.
   Whatever one feels about it, this work provides a clear and story- filled picture of Rav Zalman 's personal way of seeing his life as a Jew, and making it holy.



4. A brilliant and loving introduction to new ways of approaching religion--and specifically Judaism-- for contemporary people. Very spiritual, very creative. JWF focuses more on how to rethink and reinterpret religious ideas and rituals, rather than a comprehensive primer to Jewish ideas and practices.
   
   Informative and inspiring. Well worth multiple readings!



5. I am not a religious Jew in any sense of the term. But so far I have found this book a welcoming approach to religion. This humble approach to spirituality is refreshing.

5 comments about Prisoner without a Name, Cell without a Number (The Americas).

1. Este libro es un resumen de un pais de tristeza. Anarchia, luchas, gobiernos coruptos, y la militaria- es lo mismo ahora en este pais bella y riqueza. Los maleducados hay un nivel de estupidez - ellos solo quieren el pavo, el dinero - la renta sin pensar de la gente.

   Tienes que leer este libro!




2. I won't give a synopsis of the book b/c everyone else has already done that for you. What I can say about this book is that it is an impetus. After you read it, you'll most likely be hungry for more information about this brutal time in a seemingly well-developed country. Questions to consider: Why the silence of the press, with the exception of Timerman's newspaper 'La Opinion' and the 'B.A. Herald?' How could someone treated so horribly come out of it okay? Why did this happen after Pinochet's regime and the Nazi regime? This is post WWII, so why? Where was the rest of the world? The book is splendid, the first chapter gut-wrenching and beautiful. You will love it as much as Elie Wiesel's 'Night.'



3. One of the most harrowing books I've ever read. An amazing entreaty against violence of both the left and the right, and a heartbreaking analysis of contemporary anti-Semitism. Comparable at some points perhaps to Koestler's Darkness at Noon, except that it deals with torture in a more direct (and horrifying, since it's nonfiction) way. I wish this were requiring reading in schools.



4. I used this book in my introduction to Latin America course as a supplementary text. The writing is moving and heartfelt while being historically and politically relevant. Most students read this book in one sitting finding it impossible to put down.



5. I read this book, here in Brazil, about 20 years ago.This book was writen by an argetinian and jew, about thirty years ago.This book is against Argetina's government, in late 1970 decade.This book isn't a communist's book, but a book against torture and other bad things.The main problem of this book is that we aren't in 1970 decade.Argentina's processo is over since 1983 and we must remember that in Argentina, there was less than 0.05% of murders that were did in "socialists paradises" such as China or former USSR.

5 comments about Unchosen: The Hidden Lives of Hasidic Rebels.

1. the very definition of hearsay is: "unverified, unofficial information gained or acquired from another and not part of one's direct knowledge".
   
   that definition sums up this book to a "t". i suggest not wasting your time.



2. I am a secular Jew with a great fascination and respect for Lubavitchers, and have read most of the available books on them, which I have found to be thoughtful, deep and illuminating, as well as honest. Hella Winston's book is the exception. The author seems not up to par in either intelligence, honesty or in an open-minded and respectful attitude towards the sub-culture she is supposedly researching as a sociology grad student.
   
   I can especially recommend "Mystics, Mavericks and Merrymakers." (which also includes rebels, depite Hella's claim that she is the only author who has dared to do so.)
   
   It is hard to believe she is an academic or earned a Phd, except that the liberal academic world is so bigoted about religious people that shoddy and superficial work like this was probably given a pass because it is so blatantly hostile to pious Jews.
   
   One small example shows the undercurrent of hostility that distorts the entire book. Winston describes the apartment of a Satmar grandmother "whose walls boast several innocuous paintings of flowers (no graven images here)." Why is the author mocking one of the ten commandments? Why the sarcasm? Why the nastiness? Is this a serious or respectful way to discuss another culture and religion? No graven images here? It seems floral paintings don't meet Hella's standards for Jewish culture, as she explains in the introduciton, "it was still hard for me to fathom that there really could be Jewish peoplelllwho actually believed that viewiing art...could be a bad, even dangerous thing....Didn't Jews ...pride themselves on producing and consuming culture?" As an ex-Peace Corps volunteer, I have troulbe with her difficulty in fathoming that different Jewish sub-cultures are actually...well, different. And that being a New York culture-vulture is actually not central to 4,000 years of Jewish identity. Isn't she weird?
   
   I also found winston less than honest. For example, she stresses the idea that the Hasidim are so strict because their rebbes planted the idea that if they fall away from strict observance, the holocaust could happen again. I will pass over how disrespectful this theory is, as if only fear of mass murder would make Jews observant...it is also dishonest, because she knows, but does not explain that the last Lubavitcher Rebbe taught that blaming Jews for the Holocaust was wrong. Instead she relegates his views to a footnote and disguises his strong stand against blaming Jews to a bland "we cannot know the reasons for the Holocaust."
   
   I also wonder how honest she is about her own motives for doing this research and her own Jewish identity. In the introduction she has a dishonest and superficial discussion of the attitudes of non-Jews to the Hasidim. She lists "a kind of admiration' (it would be too positive for Winton to say simply that some Jews have admiration)... for an "authentic" Judaism (her quotes - yet another example of her palpable hostility - she can't even allow the word authentic when describing Jews who admire Chasids' religious practices). Second attitude of other Jews: 'romantic longing'. Third, that Hasids are primitive, backward, dirty. Lastly, anti-Zionist.
   
   This list of other Jews' attitudes towards observant Jews leaves out any discussion of the truly vehement and irrational dislike of pious Jews by many secular and reform Jews who are threatened by Jews who remain 100% Jewish and are not trying to conform to and please and placate the majority culture. HOstility based on the pervasive fear of assimilated Jews of appearing 'too Jewish.' A fear that has been widely discussed in the sociological and historical literature, for example, in pre-war Germany. A fear and hostility towards Jews who are 'too Jewish' that perhaps our author shares.
   
   The most shocking part of the book was the conclusion, which again leaves the scope of her research and any pretentions at academic objectivity. She expresses revulsion at a culture that demands conformity and depends on shame, fear and ejecting rebels ... as if there is any traditional society on earth that does not require conformity, and enforce it by these universal cultural measures. Is she really this ignorant about cultures?
   
   The shocking part is that she then "concludes" ( my quotes - I suspect it was her initial motive to arrive at this conclusion, as it seems more like a held belief than a finding), she "concludes" that there is "a fundamental weakness in the belief system itself" and predicts "something might have to change sometime soon", quoting predictions of "the demise of these communities" because "so many" "are forced" out. (she makes no attempt to give us a number of her 'unchosen', but the only existing support group has a mere 200 members!)
   
   Leaving one more glaring dishonesty in this book - her total silence on the huge demographic success of the Chasidim. One reason many secular Jews who care about Jewish continuity love the Chasidim is that they - along with the Modern Orthodox - are the only Jews who will exist in America by the nextcentury, according to the juggernaut population trends which show a rush to self-extinction by the other Jewish 'sects' (her term for chasidic groups)who base their Judaism on what fits into the mainstream culture.
   
   The 2000 population study projects that for every 100 Yeshiva/Hasidic Orthodox Jews today, there will be 3,400 great-grandchildren. for 100 Reform Jews today, there will be 10 Jewish great-grandchildren. For 100 secular Jews today, there will be 7 Jewish great-grandchildren. These figures are well known and have resulted in heroic actions by non-observant Jews to try and reverse this death knell. And here is Hella, pretending it is the Chasidim who are in trouble.



3. I can't say that I enjoyed this book but I learned a lot about Hasidics and their religious practices. I would recommend this book to people who want to learn about religions other than their own.



4. Unchosen is interesting, just because it takes on a subject no one else has thought of, but the author doesn't actually come to a conclusion. The writing is good enough, and what she writes is interesting, but she leaves out any sort of analysis. She stumbled upon a fascinating subject, but she didn't do anyting with it. All she does is record the stories of half a dozen rebels and then drop it. She can't even say the extent of the phenomenon, because of course there's no way to find that out. So there's not much to get out of this, besides encouragement to doante to Footsteps, a charity organization she profiles. It was interesting, and worth reading I guess, but I was pretty let down at how little she did with the material. She didn't write any of her own ideas.
   
   For something better, I reccomend "Mystics, Mavericks, and Merrymakers" by Stephanie Levine. She interviews and analyzes Lubavitch girls, and comes up with some fascinating insights. And she includes some "rebels" in the girls she profiles, and I think does it a lot better.
   
   And by the way, all you idiots out there saying Unchosen is just an excuse to critisize Judaism, she says like ten times that of course this isn't how most people feel about the religion, and even the rebels she interviews have things they loved about it. And I'm Orthodox Jewish, and I didn't think it was biased at all. So there.



5. I enjoyed it. And not just because my sister wrote it.
   
   For the detractors:
   
   1) It shouldn't threaten you. Virtually every group has its defectors at one time or another (it doesn't mean that the "rebels" are renouncing Hasidism; its structure may be too rigid for them for the time being). What's worse, someone who says that something is not for them right now, or someone who fiercely condemns a religion or behavior or way of life while pursuing that way of life on the sly (think Sen. Larry Craig or Gov. Spitzer).
   
   2) Hella was granted access into the lives of some Hasidic people. She doesn't pretend to be a lifelong Hasid, nor does she claim to be the definitive authority on these people. She is an astute observer and a well-educated woman who wrote about some of the people whom she observed. That's all. She does not trash the sect. She does not claim to be a spokesperson for them or against them. She is telling her story about several people's life stories. That's all.

No comments about Towers of Gold: How One Jewish Immigrant Named Isaias Hellman Created California.

5 comments about The Children of Willesden Lane: Beyond the Kindertransport: A Memoir of Music, Love, and Survival.

1. This is a story which every parent should read to their children. Talk about the history of WW2 and discuss the extremes of humanity. A book which once read you will never forget.



2. Full of history. Easy to follow. Great read for young and old alike.



3. This is one of my all-time favorite books. If you are a musician, you will fall in love with it. The story is inspiring and moving and will make you appreciate music to the greatest extent possible.



4. author of Cooking Jewish: 532 Great Recipes from the Rabinowitz Family
   
   from the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles
   August 30, 2002
   
   Vienna, 1938. In the city of Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven and Strauss, 14-year-old musical prodigy Lisa Jura looks forward to a promising career as a concert pianist. Hitler has other plans. With the breaking of glass on Kristallnacht, Jura's dreams are shattered.
   
   Internationally celebrated concert pianist Mona Golabek, with journalist and poet Lee Cohen, has crafted a loving, lyrical tribute to her mother, Lisa Jura, in "The Children of Willesden Lane: Beyond the Kindertransport: A Memoir of Music, Love, and Survival."
   
   Jura was one of 10,000 Jewish children saved from the Nazis by the British and sent on the Kindertransport to safety from Eastern Europe. Already being compared to "The Diary of Anne Frank," this simultaneously heartbreaking and uplifting tale weaves together the stories that Golabek's mother told her about prewar Austria; the gut-wrenching separation from her family; life at the orphanage on Willesden Lane; and the power of music to help her survive.
   
   As Jura's mother, Malka, puts her on the train, she says the prophetic words that will sustain and inspire her daughter and future generations: "Hold on to your music. Let it be your best friend."
   
   In a world turned ugly, the beauty of music becomes Jura's strength, and, against tremendous odds, with the help and encouragement of the 30 other displaced children at the orphanage, she wins a scholarship to London's Royal Academy.
   
   "Each kid saw something in my mother's music that reminded them of what they had left behind in Czechoslovakia, in Austria, in Germany," says Golabek, a Grammy-nominated artist, "and that's what I tried to do in the story, not only to pay homage to my mother, but to all these kids and to their bravery."
   
   The book opens with Jura's tantalizing daydream of performing in a great concert hall and closes with the fulfillment of that dream, as she makes her debut before an exhilarated crowd. And in between, the pages burst with melody: Jura pounding the cadenza of the Grieg "Piano Concerto" to drown out the sounds of bombs during London's blitz, Jura visualizing Chopin fleeing a flaming Warsaw as she struggles with the somber coda of the "Ballade," Jura remembering her mother's Sabbath candles as she plays the solemn opening of Beethoven's "Pathetique."
   
   "My mom and her mother never cared if a piece is in C major. What really counts is the passion behind it, the image. If it's `Clair de Lune,' imagine the moon over a desert island. That imagination allowed her to survive the horrors of what she experienced, because a C-major chord will not inspire you through the horrors. It's the moonlight, the idea that maybe the composer wrote it for someone he loved. These things inflamed her imagination, and that's how she inflamed mine."
   
   And now Golabek's book will inflame the imagination of a whole new generation. The Milken Family Foundation, together with Facing History and Ourselves, an educational organization that teaches tolerance to 1 million students annually, are working with Golabek to bring the story to schools across the country by developing a companion curriculum guide.
   
   Plans are under way to launch the book in Austria, and make it available to teachers as part of the now mandatory four-year Holocaust education program for students.
   
   The saga of Golabek's 18-year struggle to get the story published is almost as harrowing as her mother's story itself. "It went through many, many writings; many, many ups and downs, starts and disappointments," Golabek says.
   
   Now the accolades and offers are pouring in. On Sept. 24, she will be an honored guest speaker at the California Governor's Conference for Women at the Long Beach Convention Center and will appear at Beth Am on Nov. 17 with her sister, pianist Renee Golabek-Kaye, and Jura's four grandchildren, all musicians: Michele, 16; Sarah, 14; Jonathan, 8; and Rachel, 7. Brandeis University will honor her at the Skirball Cultural Center next March 31.
   
   Last week Golabek was interviewed on NPR's Morning Edition and was the subject of a feature story by Andy Meisler of the New York Times. In the planning stages is a concert next year co-sponsored by the U.S. Holocaust Museum and the Austrian government. And, of course, Golabek is considering movie offers.
   
   On her syndicated radio show, "The Romantic Hours," which highlights stirring writings against a musical backdrop (Saturdays at 10 p.m., 105.1 FM), Golabek often quotes the poet Jean Paul Richter: "Life fades and withers behind us, but of our immortal and sacred soul all that remains is music."
   
   "That was a quote my mother taught me, and the whole reason why I wrote this book and why I created `The Romantic Hours' was that my mother felt through words and through music our souls would be immortalized."



5. I was unfamiliar with the Kindertransport that moved 10,000 Jewish children to safety from the Holocaust. This biography brings that event to life through the memories of Lisa Jura. At 14, her parents sent her to London and the book covers that wrenching journey and the next six years of her life. Growing up during the blitz in a refugee home with 31 children makes a fascinating book.
   Lisa's devotion to music weaves the story together as she strives towards her parents' dream. Becoming a concert pianist seems unachievable under the circumstances, but this touching biography details Lisa's progress towards that goal. This account has appeal for both adult and teen readers.
   I also recommend In The Shadow Of The Cathedral: Growing Up In Holland During WW II by Titia Bozuwa

3 comments about Souls on Fire: Portraits and Legends of Hasidic Masters.

1. Hassidism, its tales, legends, and masters, has always been a source of mystery and confusion. "Souls on Fire" is a journey through Hassidism. Traveling from the source and further development of this unique Jewish religious manifestation is a joy when led by the mind and sould of Elie Wiesel. His personal and emotional input, the tales and legends included throughout the book, and his non-academic but rather humane approach (a typical Hassid) is the most sincere attempt in trying to understand and "speak of the unspeakable," sparkling light into a religious fervor born out of anguish and despair. The purpose is not to agree or understand, but rather to believe.



2. It's amazing how everything Wiesel touches turns to gold, and here, he's done it again.

   The Chassidic masters Wiesel portrays were passionate about Judaism in a way any modern reader can relate to. Wiesel deftly brings that message home time and time again, evoking not only the syrupy nostalgia of most volumes of "Rebbe stories", but also a very immediate committment to Jewish life.

   A masterpiece, this would also make an excellent gift for anyone interested in Jewish spirituality.




3. I was disappointed with this work. It is more about Elie Weisel then about chassidic stories. Many of the stories are familiar to me, and in all cases they appear distorted and many times the point of the story is missing. To summarize, as one of the stories said, He didn't hear what was said, and didn't write what he heard.

5 comments about The Avengers.

1. Cohen's story is brilliant and courageous in the way it forces the Reader to acknowledge their hypocracies with regard to terrorism. Specifically, he draws the reader to sympathize and care for Abba Kovner, but also notes that Kovner and his gang try (unsuccessfully) to poison the water supply of Germans, many innocent noncombatants, even children. In other words, these Avengers are also terrorists (if you use the current definitions).

   By exposing the grey are of terrorism/ resistance, Cohen subtly places the reader in the uncomfortable position of acknowledging a double standard between hero, terrorist and freedom fighter. While we all have to come to our own (hopefully consistent)conclusion in that regard, it takes someone like Cohen and his hero Kovener to make us realize that it is not a "cut and dry" issue.




2. The Avengers follows the life of Abba Kovner and his associates, through the horror of Nazism through attempts at revenge, and to a life in Palestine. Although I have read several books on the holocaust, I must admit, I could not bought this book down. Cohen's writing style is very engaging. Cohen makes no value judgements here; it is up to the reader to decide right and wrong. Although I think most people would have a tough time accepting what the avengers tried to do after the war, I cannot possibly judge them. I also cannot imagine living the horrors (which are spelled out in graphic detail) that these Jews went through. One is struck again and again by the brutality and sadism used by these Nazi animals.

   Although not a comforting book, I believe this book should be read by anyone with an interest in one of the most evil periods in history.




3. Rich Cohen has written an extraordinary tale of heroism and survival during the most horrendous and brutal moment in mankind's history. The tale of these three individuals, Abba Kovner, Ruzka Korczak and Vitka Kempner, shine through as living testimonies in the dark night of the Holocaust. You will not be able to put this book down as you race through the pages of "The Avengers." It is so well written and well documented that you wish you had 20 more books just like this one. It really is amazing how these individuals actually survived this horrible time, but they did in fact prevail and triumph against overwhelming odds. Perhaps the greatest challenge that these people faced in the end was not to end up like the monsters who had persecuted them. Rich Cohen has done an amazing and tremendous thing by writing this book, sharing with the world the incredible testimony of these three courageous individuals. After you finish reading this book, you will never think about the Holocaust in the same way.



4. I have read many books about Jewish resistance during World War II and this one is among the best I have read. Once I started reading it, I could not put it down. The book covers the life of Abba Kovner, a Jewish resistance fighter from Vilna, through World War II and its aftermath. At the end of the war, Abba planned and executed acts of revenge against the Nazis. This is described in the book as well as Abba's participation in Israel's War of Independence. The book is well written and easy to read. It gives you two different pictures of Jewish suffering during the war. One picture is that of many of the Jews in the Vilna Ghetto.....one of fear and submission to the Nazi oppression. The other picture is that of Abba and his group of partisans.....one of resistance and hatred of the Nazi oppressors.



5. The Avengers may be out of print, but it's story will live on through those who are fortunate to read it. It is the true story of a small group that was part of the Jewish underground. For any of you who are not aware of the sheer bravery, the strength, the commitment, and the endurance of this band of heroes, you are in for a riveting, well written book. Don't miss this one.

5 comments about 1185 Park Avenue: A Memoir.

1. As with all of Anne Roiphe's books, 1185 PARK AVENUE is powerfully written. The title refers to the address of the apartment building in which she was raised.

   Still, as beautiful as her prose is to read, this is a difficult book. Her family was not a happy one, to say the least. And her personal history will not be of universal interest, appealing mostly to people of similar Jewish ancestry.

   Yet there is no question but, that on a broader basis, 1185 PARK AVENUE offers a singular examination of a particular population. Inescapably, Roiphe had a sad childhood.




2. I noticed this book on a friend's bookshelf in his 1185 Park Avenue apartment. Interested in the the building, its neighborhood, and its original milieu, I began to read. To my dismay, I found that Roiphe's book is primarily a recounting of a series of embarrassing and painful episodes from the author's privileged past: foolish and unlikable people hurting themselves and each other, again and again. Except perhaps as catharsis for the author, the point of the exercise is unclear: there are no insights to be found here.



3. I don't understand the negative reviews posted about this book. Granted, the author's style is a bit overblown at times, but the story and aspecially the characters were fascinating and honestly portrayed. The author has a wonderful eye for detail and captured a lot of the sense of assimilated Jewry with which I am familiar. This book deserves to be read, and I will be passing my copy around to my extended family.



4. Anne Roiphe wrote a brillant memoir that I can't stop thinking about, and a very interesting psychological portrait of her very disturbed family and odd upbringing.



5. Beneath the glamour of New York's Upper East Side in the mid-twentieth century lies a world filled with psychoanalysts, infidelity and lack of affection within families. Anne Roiphe poignantly tells her memoir in 1185 Park Avenue. Young Anne is the granddaughter of the Jewish immigrant who created the Van Heusen shirt company, who grows up on the privileged Park Avenue, her life filled with her mother's bridge games, her brother's asthma, two unloving parents and a nanny named Greta.
   
   Raised mainly by the nanny, Anne and her brother shared a bathroom yet were never close. Johnny, the terminally allergic and more serious sibling, often pushed Anne away, frequently expressing his resentment at her existence. Anne turns to each of her parents individually for love and acknowledgement but is consistently shut out. Her mother spends her days laying in bed or playing canasta with her Park Avenue confidants, while her father practically lives at the club, taking up company with various women.
   
   As Anne grows up and begins to experience life on her own, away from Park Avenue, she resents her former lifestyle and longs to live in a loft in Brooklyn. Throughout her life, she continues to cling desperately to men who cheat on her, men who steal her mother's money and emotionally abusive men, in her desperate attempt at love.
   
   A recurring theme of this memoir is Anne's desire to feel affection and her desire for true love. Despite never feeling these emotions from anyone close to her, Anne continues to speak affectionately of her mother, hugging her father when he shoved her away and laughing at her brother's jokes as he constantly insulted her. She is almost delusional in her perception on relationships, leading the reader to sympathize with her pitiful existence.
   
   The characters in Anne's family became well-developed, though quite unlikable, including her father, mother and brother, Johnny. However, her extended family played an important role in hers and her family's lives, but their characters were only described briefly. This could be indicative of her attitude towards her extended family; they were involved in her life solely because they were family, but she was completely apathetic to their existence.
   
   Overall, Anne Roiphe's memoir was insightful into the upper class life of Manhattan, but her lack of any meaningful relationships was disconcerting and leaves readers wanting more, wanting her to finally be loved. The memoir was engaging, grabbing hold of the readers' emotions, dragging them into the other side of the nation's upper crust.

5 comments about Because of Romek: A Holocaust Survivor's Memoir, Second Edition.

1. If you get through this book without shedding a tear, you are not human! POWERFUL and PAINFUL



2. Mr. Faber came to speak at my school and I was absolutely blown away. For a man to go through all of this and still be able to talk about it is just amazing. Thank you for making such a difference in my life Mr. Faber.



3. The author of this book actually came and spoke to my 8th grade class a few years back, and he had told us in great detail of everything that had happened to him. What he said in person and in the manner that he said it made me by his book. This book is possibly one of the best books about one's personal experience during the holocaust i have ever read. I ended up reading it in about a day and a half. This book is very good but quite graphic and may not be for the younger ones, but being able to hear this poor man speak about his life, and then be able to a copy of his book autographed by him just really makes it special.
   
   This is deffinetly a must buy.



4. This book is one that anyone can and should read. There are so many books out there about the Holocaust, but this is straight from the survivors mouth. You won't get a more vivid or perfect picture of what really happened those fateful days in the concentration and death camps set in motion by Adolf Hitler. Take the time to read this rendition. You won't forget what it was about after you put it down.



5. For holocaust survivor to endure the evils of concentration camps and not become bitter towards life and humanity in general is an accomplishment in itself. The book is well written. I can't say I enjoyed reading about the inhumanity that can be directed towards humanity, but it is a necessary book that needed to be written for future generations to learn from. I am glad the book was written for that reason alone. I wanted to add my aggreement with all the other good reveiws here.