5 comments about Into My Own: The Remarkable People and Events That Shaped a Life.

1. Roger Kahn has been writing about sports and other topics for more than half a century, but it was only with THE BOYS OF SUMMER, his watershed account of the Brooklyn Dodgers, that he became a household name and a standardbearer for similar endeavors.
   
   The product of an intellectual New York home, Kahn grew into a curious, if not exactly academically motivated, young man. School was tolerated, not embraced, until his father arranged an interview for him with the Herald Tribune. Thus began a long career in journalism, writing about other people and issues. With INTO MY OWN, he invites the reader into a personal world, focusing on several individuals who were influential in his life and work.
   
   Among these are Stanley Woodward, his boss, mentor and friend, who challenged him to be not just another sportswriting hack. Kahn looks back fondly on his salad days as a young copyboy who broke into the ranks of the ink-stained wretches, earning more increasingly important assignments until he became the Dodgers' beat reporter.
   
   Since the Brooklyn team was his ticket to middle-aged fame, it is fitting that two of the key members of the team receive significant attention: Harold "Pee Wee" Reese and Jackie Robinson.
   
   Reese, the shortstop and captain, was a Southerner who literally embraced the African-American Robinson in full view of hate-spewing racists, thereby setting an example of gentility, cooperation, tolerance and friendship. Robinson was a more fiery personality and gave Kahn the opportunity to learn about the difficulties of being a black man in America on several levels. These relationships lasted long after the players had retired.
   
   Kahn was more than a one-trick pony, however; he also wrote about "serious" subjects, such as politics and his Jewish heritage (THE PASSIONATE PEOPLE). He also recalls relationships with the likes of Eugene McCarthy and the poet Robert Frost.
   
   The most touching chapter, however, is painfully personal: the difficult life and premature death of his son, Roger Laurence, a suicide at 23. Roger L. was the product of a "broken home" following the divorce between Kahn and his second wife, Alice. The author does not mince words as he writes about their tenuous relationship, which deteriorated when his son was quite young. Despite numerous therapists and private schools (including a controversial boarding school), Roger L. sank deeper into bipolar problems, much to his father's helpless distress.
   
   --- Reviewed by Ron Kaplan



2. The English poet Alfred Lord Tennyson once wrote, "I am a part of all that I have met." Roger Kahn has provided us with a heartfelt tribute on those individuals who have influenced him throughout his adult life. Stanley Woodword, his mentor at the New York Herald Tribune, teammates Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson on the Brooklyn Dodgers, poet Robert Frost, polititian Eugene McCarthy, and his late son Roger Laurence Kahn are all written about in a way that author Roger Kahn can use his skill as a writer to bring these people who have special meaning to him to life. Anecdotes not found in other baseball books are included here such as Dodger pitcher Orel Hershier's kindness to Roger's late son, Dodgers' owner Walter O'Malley sending a note of warning to the author when Kahn's late wife, Joan, had her nose broken by a batted ball while sitting in the stands, Jackie Robinson suppressing anger and quietly telling a teammate to deal the cards when pitcher Hugh Casey described what folks in the south used to do when good luck was needed. Kahn interviewing Robert Frost with the poet calmly describing his son's suicide little knowing that he, himself, would have to face the same tribulation lurking in the future. We all have people who have influenced our life in a positive manner, and Roger Kahn's sincerity fills the book on those who have touched his life. This is a book that will appeal to anyone who enjoys good writing whether you are familiar with Roger Kahn's previous books or not.



3. Roger Kahn is one of the greatest sportswriters of the century, and in this memoir he does what all great sportswriters do--bring the readers into the story. Although this is a memoir, Kahn focuses not on himself (which is in itself refreshing), but on the people he loved and worked with. The first chapter is as much about the Herald Tribute as it is editor Stanley Woodward, who taught Kahn his craft. As Kahn moves on professionally we get to know Pee Wee Reese, Jackie Robinson and Robert Frost. Even when Kahn exposes his deepest feelings in the heartwrenching chapter describing the gradual deterioration of his son, the story focuses on young Roger.
   
   This is really an elegant, moving book that everyone should read even if they've never heard of the Brooklyn Dodgers or the Herald Tribune.



4. The author of the classic The Boys of Summer reveals his life story via a select few main influences, from his journalistic mentor Stanley Woodward to Jackie Robinson and finally to his late son, Roger, Jr. Books like these often provide glimpses into lives we know mostly from a public non-intimate perspective. In Into My Own, we get a deeper revelation about the heroism of Jackie Robinson as the first black player in major league baseball as well as insight into his full humanity. The same can be said for all the other protagonists in Kahn's memoir, including his first wife. There is some sadness that lingers from the narrative, particularly the lack of closeness between Kahn and his mother, and especially the passing of his son, but there are also moments of triumph and joy in everyday life.



5. I can't put Roger Kahn's book down. His writing style is personal yet detached, and he is as unkind to himself at times as he is to others. He is in his eighties now, and reviews the people and events that impacted his life. He has not grown softer with age, and still has his signature sharpness. His sportswriting and journalistic career are the backdrops from which he travels through life, but all of us on our own pathways can benefit from reading his struggles and observations.

5 comments about An Echo in My Blood: The Search for My Family's Hidden Past.

1. This book goes far beyond conventional memoir. The author's story shows how our world today is tangled with the past, and that we drag the past along with us, whether we know it or not. Through vivid personal stories, the writer shows how events as disparate as the Jewish pogroms in Russia, the McCarthy blacklist, and the current environmental crisis are all connected. He reminds us that we all share the inherited pain of immigration. A beautifully written, sad and funny, important book.



2. I am a descendent of the family that Mr Weisman writes about. How ironic, that I discovered this book through a distant relative who knew I was looking for information on my great grandparents, on my mother's side. I am named for Bess Goldman, a relative of Mr. Weisman. I asked hundreds of questions about my family while my grandparents were alive, and most were stonewalled. After resigning myself to never knowing the truth, I read this book, and many mysteries are finally solved. I am now 56 and for most of my life the story of my family was concealed from me, I never knew why. In those days, living in denial saved you from the truth. I must be a distant cousin to Mr. Weisman, I had many relatives my grandparents would never tell me about, I never knew why they fled the Ukraine. this book has provided answers to lingering questions, echos, so to speak. I will be sending each my two children this book and will share it with remaining family members. Mr. Weisman's research is inspiring. I admire his tenacity in delving into the past with such enthusiasm. This book could be anybody's family, it is a microcosm of our journey from elsewhere to America. Pamela Price Lechtman



3. How deeply moved my wife and I have been by this momentous, beautiful book, which both of us have found to be truly unforgettable. Echo in the blood, indeed. Weisman has found a way to widen a story that is essentially "personal" and familial by ramifying that story in multiple dimensions -- geo-politically, ecologically, historically and racially (the euphemism is "culturally," but this is a book that is unabashedly concerned with the complex meanings of racial inheritance). Most staggering to me are the book's accounts of visiting the weirdly transformed Ukrainian landscape around Chernobyl, the passages that combine the author's father's letters from combat in World-War-Two-era Europe with descriptions of the ongoing lives of relatives at home in Minnesota, and the chapters detailing (with intricate, agonizing subtlety) the deaths of his parents, one then the other. My wife's strongest response was a whole-body recognition of a certain truth, in which the book immerses its reader: As a people, as a species, we are making war on each other and on the living earth. Every one of us carries the burden and the damage of that war into our future. This is extraordinary writing, extraordinarily difficult to make sing, and Alan Weisman has brought it to song.



4. I surpsed myself and finished this
   book as I was going to stop on several
   ocassions. His vinettes of imprtant
   history(the Russian civil war,the Chicago
   convention,the Unamerican Committee) were
   incredible. I take issue with the extent
   of his family history which was confusing
   and tiring.



5. Weisman is a good writer, with an amazing true story to tell. A journalist traveling to the Ukraine to investigate the Chernobyl disaster (an amazing story in its own right), he decides to visit his ancestral town of Elizavetgrad (Yelisavethgrad). This takes him on an unexpected odyssey of self-discovery and family history.

   His insights into Jewish life (in Chicago and Russia) are especially engaging. Some readers will tire of his sometimes relentless left-wing agenda, but I was glad I didn't let that distract from the really fine cultural portrait he has composed.

No comments about Life in the Shadow.

1 comments about Taking on the World: Joseph and Stewart Alsop, Guardians of the American Century.

1. Those who remember being rankled or reassured by the political columns of the Alsop brothers during the 1950's will appreciate this thorough study of two of the most prominent journalists of their time, Joseph and Stewart Alsop.

   This well written, well researched book is more than just a dual biography. It is a fascinating walk-though of the times which the Alsops reported with intelligent insights drawn from their unparalleled contacts.

   Sons of a privileged Northeastern WASP family, the Alsops had the best of everything: education at Groton and then at Harvard; they had money; their cousin, Franklin Roosevelt, reigned supreme in the White House; their a great-uncle, Teddy Roosevelt, had become an historical monument. With these resources behind them, they applied their great talents as writers and their high intellects to make the most of it.

   As partners in the syndicated newspaper columns, their contacts and influences put what they reported at the top of the list of "must reads". When they separated to go their separate ways, the flamboyant Joe remained a highly influential daily columnist while the more reflective Stewart won even greater praise for his Saturday Evening Post features in the days when the Post was the preeminent weekly family magazine.

   The lives of the Alsop brothers paralleled the history of the United States during the mid-part of the 20th Century -- from the Depression to Reagan's election and finally the fall of the Soviet Union. It was because they participated in and reported history in the making that their biographies resonate with so much interest. We see Stewart parachuting behind enemy lines during World War II while Joe -- with General Chenault -- was chased by enemy troops over the rough terrain of China. We read of their many dinners and parties with their cousins the Roosevelts at the White House; their mutual abhorrence of Senator McCarthy; the benign acceptance but not idolatry of President Eisenhower; their love of Jack and Jackie Kennedy; their awful sorrow at President Kennedy's assassination; their encouragement and then their discouragement of the Vietnam war; the Watergate fiasco -- American history of that time in the raw -- from their perspective.

   Through it all, Mr. Merry is able to paint good, memorable pictures of the flamboyant, often outrageous Joe and the down-to-earth Stewart and how they became important to the Washington of their times. This is a fine book, worth reading and owning.

5 comments about Life's Work: Confessions of an Unbalanced Mom.

1. Lisa Belkin's reflections on life and work are a joy to read for any veteran of the family/work balancing act. Her strong message resonates equally well for those in the corporate world to those working at home or the full-time stay at home parent -- trying to balance the demands of our lives can trap us in the unreasonable expectation we can please everybody all the time.

   Life's Work is about the emotional conflict we all feel whether we have to work at a despised job for the paycheck or need to work in a beloved field for personal fulfillment. We know that family and friends matter most in life but the devil is in the details -- juggling the mechanics of getting through each day when there is more than one person (or even two) can reasonably accomplish, coping when the unexpected overwhelms the system, deciding how best to care and provide for those we love who depend on us.

   The essays are short enough to read in five-minute bites (great to tuck in your bag for that wait in the doctor's office or the long line at the bank) and is also fun to read straight through. It's an especially great book for any parent (Mom or Dad) trying to write professionally at home. Lisa Belkin's take on combining a writing life with a family life had me laughing out loud.




2. I received a copy of this book to review for my website. And the book changed my life.

   When I first picked up the book Life's Work I put it down, deeming it not appropriate for BlueSuitMom's working mother audience. How wrong I was. Initially in the introduction I was put off by this sentence "Not a one of us seems to be able to give 100 percent of themselves to their job and 100 percent of themselves to their family and 100 percent of themselves to taking care of themselves." I read the line and decided she was wrong ... there are so many of us that can and do have it all. However, I didn't get the point ... the point she was making is that inevitably there are times when our balancing act glitches. When sometimes "life and work collide."

   Had I finished reading the introduction I would have read that the point is that we can work, have a family and take care of ourselves but sometimes they all can't happen at the same moment in time. Sometimes one has to come first. Sometimes there are dare I say "sacrifices."

   However, when I finally picked it up again I read that "No one can do it, because it cannot be done ... So let's start forgiving ourselves when we can't do it ... So what if the house isn't as clean as it should be? So what if that last business report was not the best you've ever written? So what if you're eating takeout for the second night in a row, or haven't been to the gym in weeks, or sent your children to school in crumpled shirts on school picture day? ... I'm not saying that none of these things matter. They all matter, but not all the time ... even I know that 100 percent plus 100 percent plus 100 percent equals more than any one person can do in a day. So what?"

   This might have been the most powerful message I've read in a book -- ever. Because today I vow that this will change my life. From now on, I'm not going to stay awake until 3 a.m. stressing out about why I'm not good enough. Why do I have to spend countless hours worrying that it isn't good enough. Some days I send out newsletters to BlueSuitMom readers with typos. And probably no one notices (okay maybe some of you do since you write to say hey this link is wrong or this tease didn't actually exist in the newsletter). And today I am saying "So what if it wasn't the best." This is a radical thought since normally I will agonize for hours that heaven forbid Rachael made a typo or put the wrong link in. In fact, I profusely apologize to those who write in ... but from now on I will give you the right link and repeat to myself "So what." I've learned that sometimes our best work can't be perfect.

   It isn't that I don't care about producing the best source for working mothers on the Internet; it is just that sometimes I will remember that no one can be perfect. And for years I've always strived to be that exception. I'll work until the middle of the night and then wonder why I don't have as many friends as I want or have the time to religiously stick to the gym.

   But from reading "Life's Work: Confessions of an Unbalanced Mom" I've now decided that I can't have it all 100% of the time. I can maybe only have 95% of it all. And for today ... that will have to do.
   And I hope that Belkin's message will get through to all of you as well. Sometimes we can't do it all. Sometimes we have to skip out of a meeting to attend a child's play ... sometimes we have to fake being sick ... sometimes we just need to give ourselves a break.

   I'm sure that all our readers will enough reading Life's Work ... the best part is that the chapters are only a few pages long. It's the type of book to keep on your desk and read when you actually find that five minutes of time for yourself. And if you are saying you don't have that five minutes I encourage you to read the chapter entitled "September 11, 2001." I certainly needed the reminder that there are some things in the world that we can not control ... but what we can control is our reaction to things like guilt.

   I want to hear what you have to say. How do you deal with guilt? Am I the only one awake at 4:30 in the morning because I've only slept for 4 hours tonight? Feel free to write me at .... Let me know if I can publish your response in one BlueSuitMom or better yet share your "So What" moments on BlueSuitMom's message boards ... and don't tell yourself you don't have the time ... since we all have the same amount of time. It is up to us to decide how to use it. And if you don't want to start the dialogue ... that's okay my response is now "SO WHAT?"




3. Being a new mom and managing a high stress career, Lisa Belkins' book was very eye opening for me. There are several times when I wonder how I can have the energy and motivation to keep this lifestyle going long term, and how long I will survive in the professional world while being a good mother to my child .Lisa Belkin gave me a peep into the future and opened options that I knew only vaguely about. Very well written and enjoyable as well.



4. I really enjoyed Lisa Belkin's book about the difficulties and successes of balancing work and family. She divides the book into short, dynamic, well-written chapters that capture the point quickly. You don't need to be a working mom to enjoy this book, as she touches upon quite a few interesting topics, like the relationships between adult children and their aging parents and choosing love when one's career is booming.
   
   I have one quibble though - her book overall focuses on what I would deem the upper middle to upper classes of society. People who are CEOs, orthodontists, attorneys, New York writers and the heads of Internet Start-ups. I'd love to have heard the voices of those who likely have a harder time balancing work & play - folks who work two jobs to make ends meet, waitresses, college students with part-time jobs and young children, etc.
   
   Other than that, I found the book to be a delightful read!



5. If you already know Lisa Belkin's column, this book is for you. As a compilation book of previous columns, it's a quick romp through balancing work and life and, at times, parenthood. However, after ten or so essays, you feel stuck in the 850-word column world and are left wanting more. I would have loved her to expand each "story" for the book form and add more meat to it.

No comments about Friend and Lover: The Life of Louise Bryant.

5 comments about John Wilkes: The Scandalous Father of Civil Liberty.

1. John Wilkes could be considered a "flower-child of the 60's". The 1760's, that is. As I read this magnificent telling of JOHN WILKES: THE SCANDELOUS FATHER OF CIVIL LIBERTY by Arthur Cash, I couldn't help but wonder how this free spirit would be accepted today. I was reminded of countless modern day examples of people who resemble this man they probably never heard of. Cash captures the essence of his subject in an erudite fashion seldom found.
   
   We Americans owe a great deal to Wilkes, and yet, he ranks but a footnote in the pages of our history. Wilkes encompassed the American spirit of independence and if known today, would be a folk hero of the highest regard. Perhaps Cash's work can help put the name of John Wilkes in its rightful place.
   
   John Wilkes had to compensate for his less than dashing looks, and he did so quite well with his wit. He was cross-eyed and had a most prominent jaw, almost to the point of deformity. By the time he was forty, he had lost his teeth and spoke with a very heavy lisp. His wit can be illustrated by his comment to Lord Sandwich who told Wilkes he would either die of the pox or at the gallows. Wilkes retorted, "That depends, my Lord, on whether I embrace your wife, or your principles."
   
   Wilkes pushed the bounds of the "free press" with his publication, the North Briton, which at one point, won him a week in the tower. In the end, however, Wilkes' incessant attack on pushing the boundaries of the free press would eventually make his name synonymous with liberty.
   
   We picture those stuffy men of the late 18th century sitting in Parliament with their starched collars, their powdered wigs, and their staunch expressions and I'm sure many of them fit that very description. But this parliamentarian, writer, freedom fighter and part time pornographer will shock readers with just how "anti-establishment" he was, and for the most part, got away with.
   
   Arthur Cash has composed a delightful, though lengthy read about someone we all should get to know a little better.
   
   Monty Rainey
   www.juntosociety.com



2. John Wilkes was one of the most fascinating figures of the 18th century, both politically and personally. We in the U.S. owe many of the principles in the Bill of Rights to Wilkes, yet how many Americans have heard of him? Especially now, when so many of our civil liberties are being eviscerated, this is an important book. Wilkes was also a colorful character -- to say that he loved wine, women, and song is an understatement. This was a guy who squeezed every drop he could out of life, all the while fighting battles for a free press, protection against unwarranted search and seizure, and free speech. Arthur Cash has given us a rich historical portrait of a true hero (along with some unforgettable Wilkes quotes). If you've never heard of North Briton No. 45, what are you waiting for?!



3. The name of John Wilkes has come up in several books I've read and in a few classes I've taken, but I never really learned all that much about him. Arthur Cash has written a good biography of this eighteenth century Englishman who gained fame for pointing out and fighting the abuses perpetrated by his own government, namely the Parliament and the King's ministers (Wilkes rarely blamed King George III personally). Specifically, Wilkes fought his government when it came to issues like the general search warrant, freedom of press and privacy, and the right of the people, not parliament, to choose its representatives in the House of Commons. Indeed, all this makes Wilkes out to be a champion of civil liberty as well as for the rights of commoners, which in many ways he was, but he also remained loyal to the crown and acted against rioters and mob action, at least that which threatened to turn into lawlessness. It's also worth mentioning that our country learned from some of the causes Wilkes fought for.
   
   In addition to Wilkes's causes and actions taken in the public sphere, we get to see the John Wilkes who enjoyed the intimate company of many women, producing one legitimate daughter (Polly) and a few illegitimate children along the way, enjoyed a good bawdy joke or just making fun of a political figure, spending himself into deeper and deeper debt and so on. Wilkes was not a one-dimensional man by any means. It seemed to come across in this book that John Wilkes tried to make the most out of life, though I think he enjoyed certain things a little too much. He did not seem to sink into complete despair or unhappiness; his contemporaries made note of this upbeat side of his personality. But his activities without question made him a controversial person.
   
   He published criticisms of the government that led to his being declared an outlaw, resulted in a few duels, forced him into exile, was imprisoned and even then was being elected to serve in the House of Commons, but was denied a seat until he finally did win the right to represent the constituents who had elected him to serve. He served in other positions as well, including as Alderman, Lord Mayor of London and Chamberlain (like a treasurer for the city of London). Throughout his ordeals, his reputation and popularity only grew, much to the chagrin of those in government who had been subjected to his wit and criticisms. Wilkes also spoke out in the House of Commons as a supporter for universal suffrage for men, almost unheard of at that time.
   
   In addition to these sides to Wilkes's public roles and his personal life, which I've only so briefly touched on, we become acquainted with many of his friends and associates as well as his enemies, his close and loving relationship with his daughter Polly, though he also seemed kind and loving towards his illegitimate children. Indeed, Cash makes it a point to reveal that Wilkes was often a very courteous, loyal and true gentleman, though this isn't always the case. He was full of life. These are some of the impressions I came away with from reading this book. There were still certain episodes I would have liked to have known a little more about, namely his public service roles and more about his accomplishments and or failures, a more in-depth view of his take on the American Revolution and its conclusion among other things. In the afterword, Cash mentioned that his take on Wilkes is different from that of many other historians; I would have liked the author to have developed that point more. I guess that's what reading other sources are for. Needless to say, this was a good biography on a very colorful individual.



4. This book reads well and has lots of of things of interest to say about this great, but flawed Englishman. One small niggle: the author has difficulty with the peerage system and titles [especially the sons of peers and the correct use of Royal Highness, which does not refer to the monarch]- okay, pretty trivial for most purposes, but fairly important for a historian of 18th century British politics.



5. Arthur Cash's biography of John Wilkes, the 18th century English political figure, provides a fascinating view of the social and political world of the 1760s, a time when English radicals under the "Wilkite" banner challenged the authority of the King's Ministry to control the press. It is astounding to realize to what extent Wilkes, by his lampooning publications in the "North Briton", personally took on the establishment of the time. Rights he was instrumental in securing include "habeas corpus", freedom of the press, freedom from search and seizure without a specific warrant, and the right of people to choose their representative. Just as interesting is his personal life as a libertine and devoted father to his daughter Polly and illegitimate son "Jack Smith". He knew everyone who was anyone and was a renowned wit.

No comments about Pierre Berton: A Biography.

No comments about Juan Rulfo: del Paramo a la esperanza. Una lectura critica de su obra (Vida y Pensamiento de Mbexico).

1 comments about The Last Titan: A Life of Theodore Dreiser.

1. I have to disagree with the Publishers Weekly reviewer who states that Loving doesn't seem interested in finding out what made Theodore Dreiser tick. I walked away from this hurricane of a book feeling I knew TD inside out (and incidentally more than a bit about Loving as well)! A difficult figure to classify, Dreiser has been cursed for decades by having a friend like HL Mencken, a man who praised him to the skies on the one hand, but on the other let the whole world know his real opinion, that Dreiser was an oversexed drunk who couldn't write his way out of a paper bag. Mencken's tributes to Dreiser's "power" were like Norman Mailer's tributes to Muhammad Ali, to be honored more in the breach than in the observance. And thus generations of students and readers have only picked at Dreiser warily, feeling that some of his low-class trashy ways might rub off on them.
   
   Loving at least has no fear, and walks in like an angel into a landscape littered with the corpses of previous biographers. He focuses Dreiser's development right at the mirror stage, as it were, with his intense relationship with Sarah, his mother, and a brooding, quarrelsome batch of siblings. Among them was the Indiana songbird, Psul Dresser (who changed his name from "Dreiser" for show biz reasons) who wrote many hit tunes for Tin Pan Alley before an untimely death. For some reason Loving feels it necessary to state, more than once, that Paul Dresser is forgotten today, but how true is that? Not very! And a film like "My Gal Sal," with Victor Mature and Rita Hayworth, Phil Silvers and Carole Landis--a Fox biopic of the songwriter--is every bit as good a film as the more portentous pictures drawn from Dreiser's own writings. I love Wyler's CARRIE and Stevens' PLACE IN THE SUN, but even Dreiser's greatest fans would admit theu're heavy sledding.
   
   Loving takes particular pains with the first half of TD's life, the formative years, and lets the last half of his life slip by in a mere hundred pages, so he's actually skimming a bit, but one feels that the balance is essentially correct. I can't imagine a better biography of our weirdest novelist. Loving makes you want to read even the later books, like THE STOIC and THE BULWARK, books that haven't been cracked open since 1947. He explains the reasons why Mencken turned on Dreiser--basically Dreiser came to Baltimore to visit at a time when Mencken's mother was very sick, on her deathbed, upstairs, and he didn't even have the politesse to ask after the old woman. He was self-centered, true. Loving is also very good about explaining how old two fisted Dreiser wound up editing women's magazines at the turn of the century and how he changed their course, and how the demands of the profession changed his own writing, perhaps required him to spend more time thinking about women. Loving states that Dreiser was the first important US writer to have descended from a country other than England. Interesting, but it sort of negates the achievements of some black American novelists I think.