1 comments about Mine Enemy.

1. The book is a true story of a well known Palestinian meeting a well known Israel journalist and Now Israeli TV Arabic Affairs
   Expert. A new edition in Hebrew has come out recently (2005).

No comments about And Life Is Changed Forever: Holocaust Childhoods Remembered (Landscapes of Childhood).

No comments about My Grandmothers' Letters.

No comments about From Siberia to America: A Story of Survival and Success.

No comments about Literary Companion Series - Night (hardcover edition) (Literary Companion Series).

1 comments about Shanghai Refuge: A Memoir of the World War II Jewish Ghetto.

1. The refuge Heppner evokes in vivid color is of war-time Shanghai: the one place Jews could escape Hitler without a visa. From harassment and worse in Germany, he and his family find squalor, hardship, and hunger...but also hope, inspiration and, ultimately, safety. A little-known chapter of the Nazi era.
   Marion Cuba
   Author, Shanghai Legacy

No comments about Jewish Life in the Village Community of Southern Germany.

No comments about In Sunshine and in Shadow.

5 comments about East of the Storm: Outrunning the Holocaust in Russia.

1. Hanna does an excellent job describing the horror and sacrifice her family endured as a refuge during WWII. Her prose is honest; her story remarkable.
   
   Read this book!



2. In 1939, the idyllic world of 11-year-old Hanna Davidson, born to a family of artists, professionalsand achievers, was irretrievably shattered by the momentous events of the War. What followed was her journey in the hub and later just ahead of the crest of the Holocaust. It is a tale of courage, resourcefulness and frequent depravation. However, it is also an adventure, providing insight into life in Poland, the Soviet Union, and elsewhere,ending in the haven of the United States.



3. I found the book to be well written. The historical details and personal strength of the writer and her family were a combination that made it hard to put the book down. I would recommend this book to family and friends.



4. What an absolutely brilliant narrative Hanna Pankowsky relates as she explains the years of hardship and perils she and her family experienced trying to escape the dangers of Nazi Germany. This is truly an "action thriller." The sad fact is the events actually happened and the fear, danger, pain and terror were lived by millions of men, women and children. Mrs. Pankowsky paints images in the reader's mind that are so vivid that the reader can place himself/herself in the action (even to the point of being out of breath trying to hop a train or run in the cold snowy forest!). This book is so well written and in a "first person" voice of history that this book should be in every school library as well as on the suggested reading list for history classes. Oprah needs to make this selection one of her book club favorites! Read it. You won't put it down!



5. Ms. Pankowsky was a ten-year-old girl when German troops invaded her native Poland at the start of World War II. Her family immediately experienced the awful reality of being Jewish under the Nazi regime. They fled to the Soviet Union, where they had to hide their family's past from the repressive communist government. The book is a riveting first-person account of her experiences.
   
   It's a very readable account. The majority of the book deals with her family's time in USSR where they endured great hardship due not only to wartime deprivation, but also because their family background had to be hidden. (Her father was a businessman who fled Russia at the time of the Revolution. Had this become known, they would have been considered 'enemies of the state'.)
   
   The book also briefly covers life in Poland before the war; their escape from Russia; their short-lived return to their hometown in Poland, and how they eventually reached and settled in Mexico City.
   
   I highly recommend this book.

5 comments about Last Honest Man, The: Mordecai Richler: An Oral Biography.

1. Although written with the cooperation of Richler's family, Posner's oral biography avoids turning the author of Duddy Kravitz and St. Urbain's Horseman into a CanLit saint. Like many writers, Richler had his mood swings, but his absolute determination to find a balance between the literary life and happiness is inspiring. It would have been nice to have an index and a photographic insert, but these are quibbles. Posner has used his access to the family and friends of Richler to good advantage. Highly recommended for those interested in the Commonwealth literary scene of the fifties and sixties, screenwriting, and Richler's many fans across Canada and around the world.



2. This is not a definitive biography. It is an oral biography with interviews of family friends and hanger ons in Richler's life. As an admirer of Richler it still enthralls me however. While there is nothing terribly new here the book does a good job at summing up what we knew, loved or despised about the Canadian Icon. I wasn't sure I would like a book that was just interviews but somehow it works. It provides several views of particular incidents in Richler's life. And it adds Richler's comments here and there as well in an effort to clear up any muddles. Anyone who is an aspiring writer should read this book.



3. This is not for those looking for a definitive biography. Its a wondeful read however. I wasn't sure I would like a book full of interviews but it works really well in this case. This is a must have for any aspiring writers. It makes Richler, who had impeccable work habits when it came to his craft, accessible and encouraged me to read or re-read Richler. Anyone who is a fan of Richler will really enjoy this book.



4. This is an outstanding biography and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about the life and family of Mordecai Richler. The author has done a fantastic job putting together a fascinating life story from what must have been hundreds of interviews with those who knew Mordecai Richler best, including his immediate family and the people he grew up with, went to school with, and worked with.



5. 
   In my humble opinion Mordecai was one of the most interesting and colorful characters that Canada ever produced.No doubt,anyone who ever read anything he ever wrote or ever listened to anything he ever said,either loved or hated him.Especially those people who were pompous,stuffed shirts or otherwise full of themselves would be setups for him to tear into shreads and leave in tatters.Quebec language idealogues,righeous Jewish who set rules for him,or in fact anyone who managed to get his goat,was fair game for his satiric target practice.
   I have read most of his novels and being about his same age,plus having had a friend who also grew up near where Mordecai did ,and also lived in Montreal,for quite a few years,I am able to relate to so much of what he wrote about.Reading Richler one can really understand what it was like to live in
   Montreal,what being Jewish,French,English,subserviant,or an outright rebel really meant.You couldn't,or would you want to be anything but what you decided to be.Mordecai reminded me of my friend and even myself when I lived there.I first came to Montreal in 1959,and being from the Maritimes,and not speaking French,was automatically classed as English,particularly by the French.One day this guy tells me that I have a poor attitude for a person living in Quebec and being only a minority.I told him that that if I was the only person in Quebec who didn't speak French,I wouldn't consider myself a minority.I don't think he,s gotten over that yet..but that's his problem,not mine.
   Meanwhile,back to this book,the author has given us a very deep insight into the personality ,thinking and character of the Mordecai we all,at least some of us,came to love from his writings and gut renching statements he entertained us with for a time that was all too short.I often wondered what he would have been like as he grew older.You know,Mordecai never really got older,his knife just got sharper and sharper.
   Some of the comments from the family,friends,business associates,croonies,etc are priceless,such as:
   "That is what should be on his tombstone:"Here lies Mordecai,a mazik par excellence."
   "He died too soon."
   "He's laughing up his sleeve.He's putting it on for them."
   "He was an ond fashioned heterosexual male all the way through."
   "But he never forgot he was a Jew.He was buried in a plain wood coffin."
   and a couple by his editorial cartoonist friend,Terry Mosher:
   "The air of fame is heady.Make sure you don't inhale."Mordecai didn't inhale."
   "A lot of people complain and bitch.They're whiners,but they're not rascals,and he was a rascal."