4 comments about War Child: Growing Up in Adolf Hitler's Germany.

1. I was honored to be able to buy this book directly from the author when she attended our women's Spring Luncheon as our Guest Speaker. She was so kind as to sign it for me with a German dedication. Although I was born an American, my children both carry German passports. I am glad for this opportunity to share with them the story of their country through the eyes of someone who was there to experience it all first hand.

   We are already planning to buy her next book, War Bride, and read more about her experiences with immigration.




2. What a book! What a storyteller! I remember a few snippets from freshman English class that you shared with us, but the opportunity to glimpse the whole picture was a rare treat I've been looking forward to.

   I once read an account by an "undercover" war correspondent- who attended a speech by Hitler, and found himself so moved and overwhelmed by his speaking prowess that he suddenly found himself cheering and shouting with the rest of the crowd. You communicated that same spirit, that same awesome power of the prevailing tide. I feel one lesson that Nazi Germany teaches us is how dangerous unchecked government can be: how it can creep into and start to control our daily lives -with the best of intentions- and soon compromise our freedoms and even our right to independent thought. I very much appreciate and value your perspective as one who has lived through such a strict (and successful!) propaganda machine. I strongly feel if we just trust in our elected leaders and let them satisfy our wants and desires in exchange for ever-increasing tax rates the United States will soon cease to exist as we know and love it.

   On the other hand, I'm forced to be impressed by what the Third Reich was able to accomplish; how a broken and defeated nation at the end of WWI was able to come within a stone's throw of conquering the world. It's been said that if Hitler hadn't imprisoned all of the (Jewish) scientists... Germany would have developed the A-bomb before the United States and ended the war on their terms. Germany already had a more reliable rocket (V-2) than we did! What also strikes me is the wealth of development that Germany saw before and early in the war - the autobahn, fine, new schools (for loyal party members of course), the housing and works programs and impressive social motivations to join the Nazi party always reflected Hitler's genius side (not the other side of his personality that wrought great suffering and evil). How insightful he was regarding human nature though - how else could he have enticed so many to join his crusade.

   In one part of your book I actually stopped reading and contemplated how beautiful the writing is - how descriptive and wonderful the wording; when you described the morning of your departure and the breathtaking surroundings you were so familiar with that I truly felt the natural wonder - and the love you had for your home.

   Thank you again for letting me share in your story. I will be recommending this book to my friends!!




3. We are grateful to have learned of this book when it was first published in spring 2003. It gives an unusual and unfortunately rarely noted perspective about German life from 1933-45 as experienced by an ordinary person and family in a small town. Annelee tells her own story in a very open and honest way, from the early days when she wanted to wear the uniform of the Hitler Youth, to the terrifying end days of the war when urban Germany was virtually destroyed. This is not an academic study of war theories; it is about what really happens to a people when their government chooses a tragic course.



4. Ms. Woodstrom's first publication will help you understand the reason so many Germans viewed Hitler and his promises the way they did before and during WWII. This book is a first hand account from the author, presented in her voice at the various stages of her life during this time. She tells of the day-to-day life of her family and community and captures the perceptions that people had about Hitler, the economy, the reasons for this war and the drastic changes in their lives. It's a real insight into the struggles and the challenges and yes, even the joyful times. "War Child" not only kept me reading far into the night, it also left me feeling like I want to know more...what happened to her family, her neighbors and her town after she left? I have a new appreciation for the freedom and abundance here in America. This book is suitable for all ages.

No comments about Solitaire.

5 comments about Good Old Boy: A Delta Boyhood.

1. Anyone who grew up in a small town in the 40's and 50's will enjoy this book, especially if that small town was in the South. Willie Morris was a brilliant wordsmith. I have read several of his books and this one may be my favorite.



2. I am from Yazoo City so this book has always been one of my favorites. I saw Willie Morris at a car wash in Jackson, MS not long before his death. I was shy and didn't want to bother him, so I didn't introduce myself and have a chat. I would have loved to have spoken with him. Now I regret my shyness - should've taken the chance. Yazoo City has an enduring quality and charm that shows in all his books and stories. No matter where I live, it will always be home. There is a great feeling of safety and warmth whenever I drive into the city limits. It is a feeling of home. Not many people have that sense of home these days. I feel blessed to have grown up there.



3. I was born 2 years after Mr. Morris. My childhood was not at all like Mr. Morris'. I recognized some of the events of the times, but the adventures he told of going through came across to me as gross exaggerations; just think of the 8 foot+ tall Indians he mentions. And the story about the race - very, very unlikely. His tales remind me somewhat of the character in the movie "Bigfish". Even thinking about Tom Sawyer, the incidents in there were not as outlandish as those in "Good Old Boy". To me this book was entertaining and well-written, but not really enlightening regarding growing up in the 40's. I watched baseball in those days, I went into a haunted house, I had my run-ins with a teacher's pet, etc. but I enjoyed Salinger's writing about this stuff much more.



4. This was a great memoir about a "typical" southern boy's childhood. I wish Willie Morris had not died so young because I found his work so enjoyable, and it would have been wonderful to read even more of his writing.

   I would not put Mr. Morris up on the same level as Mark Twain (and he probably would not want it either), but this book reminds me in a lot of ways of Tom Sawyer--a young boy's life on the Mississippi Delta. Everyone should experience these memories, whether in real time or vicariously.

   He tells of his childhood in Yazoo City, Mississippi, with all his childhood friends, including Spit McGee (the forty's Huckleberry Finn). He recalls their baseball games, football games, hunting on the Delta with his father, practical jokes played on anyone and everyone. He recounts the story of the Witch of Yazoo and the broken chain. One of the best and most humorous of his stories is the tale of the haunted house and what the boys found in it one dark and stormy night.

   I best remember in this book the chapters of a typical day in the life of a boy his age in Yazoo City--a day in the summer and a day in the fall. These are great vignettes and very poignant pulling in the reader to want to recall his or her own childhood memories.

   This is a great memoir and can be enjoyed by all.




5. This is one of the best books that I have ever read.Mr. Morrishas a beautiful writing style, and captures the beauty of the southperfectly.

5 comments about Manhattan Memoir: American Girl; Manhattan, When I Was Young; Speaking with Strangers.

1. It's a memoir about Cantwell being in her 20's and 30's in NYCity -- time period is 1950's and '60's. Very good. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Her writing is really good.



2. Mary Cantwell's Manhattan Memoir is three books in one but you will never tell the difference. The stories flow together as Cantwell's memoir's cover her life. Cantwell takes you through a stroll in Manhattan. The good times, the struggles. The best memoir I have read. This is that book you will tell all of your friends about. Cantwell is a fantastic story teller.



3. The other reviews told what the book was about. I just wanted to add to their comments by saying that I couldn't put the book down and was sad when it ended. Her words flowed so beautifully.



4. Mary Cantwell bares her triumphs and joys as well as her shortcomings and insecurities in this collection of three memoirs that span her childhood, early adulthood, and middle- to late-adulthood respectively. Cantwell lead a wonderful, if unremarkable, childhood in an enviably Rockwell-esque seaside town - her depiction of her life through high-school is a real joy to read. Upon graduation from college, Cantwell hits the "Big City" appears to have forgotten some of the lessons learned in her idyllic childhood, however, she still manages to snag a plumb job with Mademoiselle Magazine and occasionally interacts with literary legends with her ambitious young husband. In her later life she is given interesting writing assignments and carves out a life for herself in Lower Manhattan, however, I found it discouraging that she wallows in the collapse of her marriage (which never appeared to be very strong), often to the detriment of her two daughters. I kept wondering how a woman with such a strong background could have allowed herself to sink to the depths Cantwell periodically allowed herself to hit. Regardless, she is not ashamed to remember less-than-glamorous moments in her life (which also include being jeered by fellow classmates as an elementary school student and suffering from paralyzing fits of self-doubt as a young career woman) - these are the events that have made her what she is.

   It must have been incredibly therapeutic for Cantwell to write these memoirs. All three books can be seen as a view of the author's life from within her own head. Her message is simple: accept me for what I am. "Manhattan Memoir," in addition to being the story of Mary Cantwell's life, it also about trying to be true to oneself when one isn't always sure what that means. By writing her story, Cantwell examines her life and tries to learn from her experiences - and it can make the reader start to think about his/her own life as well.

   While Cantwell's life is not particularly fascinating or different in itself, her writing style and manner of portraying her experiences are magical and riveting. She describes the joyous and painful events of her life in an easy, engaging manner - it is as if she is talking about the past with old friends. She manages to make the mundane fascinating. She also has a real gift for engaging the reader. I wasn't sure if I liked her writing style at first - Cantwell writes almost as one speaks - but within pages of beginning the book I became used to her rambling style and truly enjoyed it.

   This book provides an added plus for those from or familiar with Rhode Island and/or New York City. It was fun for me to recognize the addresses of Cantwell's Manhattan apartments and know that the places she frequented, I often go to today.




5. The late Mary Cantwell charmingly recounts, in this 3 books in one volume paperback, her years growing up in a small New England seaport town and her youthful foray into the 'glamourous' magazine world of New York City in the 'fities. Sane, sensible and warm nostalgia--without being saccharine. Beautifully written. A must for the literate and for New York lovers-- especially those who remember the days!

5 comments about Not a Happy Camper: A Memoir.

1. This is an hilarious memoir of an adolescent's first summer at sleep-away camp. If you remember what it's like to play color wars, sing ridiculous songs which insult camp food, have your first crush, drink "bug" juice, well, then your experience is not even half as fun as Mindy's, whose camp's meals were salvaged from train wrecks, whose camp's truck was one that could only be ridden in for as long as you could hold your breath (against the fumes), and whose characters are 12 year old versions of Henny Youngman and Totie Fields.



2. Readers will find that enduring Mindy Schneider's entertaining memoir of summer camp life is much like her experience: a seemingly endless trudge through a benignly monotonous, routinely humorous and absolutely predictable right of passage. "Not a Happy Camper" faithfully recreates Schneider's thirteen-year-old awkwardness, and self-deprecatory voice is full of genuine Jewish angst and humor. Nevertheless, there is only so much you can say about a pathetically decrepit Maine summer camp and its stereotypical denizens. Schneider takes about 230 pages to recount what she could have told in 25.
   
   Duped by the slick-talking owner of Camp Kin-A-Hura (Hebrew for "Are You Out of Mind for Sending Your Child Here?"), Mindy's parents succumb to a barrage of sweetened lies and sign their resigned daughter to a summer's worth of unsupervised, unstructured (unless you consider binge consumption of candy an organized event) and uninspiring activities. There, Mindy discovers the joy of listening to rain on the roof, eating institutional food whose origins and nutritional value are at best dubious and interacting with a group of disaffected, disinterested and disillusioned Jewish early adolescents.
   
   Naturally enough, Mindy wrestles with the weighty issues of trying to navigate the entire summer unnoticed by the cool kids and getting a boyfriend. It doesn't require a genius to predict that the relatively plain Mindy will set her sights on the camp's hunk, only to be consistently rebuffed, all the while letting the gem (the dork who undoubtedly will grow up to be a real mensch) slip through her fingers. Parading with her in this laissez-faire fairyland is a group of characters right out of central casting: the overbuilt air-brained beauties, the sophisticate who believes in reincarnation, the sleepwalker, the recluse and the oversexed camp counselors, whose main advice is akin to "leave us alone."
   
   Mindy is bright enough to understand that the camp divides itself into two: the "Legacies" and the "Losers." Naturally enough, the Legacies, the "children of former campers," are "rich kids destined to lead relatively easy and productive lives." The "Losers," unsurprisingly, are "paste-eaters...conned into coming to this place in spite of the unbridled self-doubt and absolute lack of social skills." Schneider attempts to depict a certain poignancy in the interaction of both groups; sadly, the results are flat and unsurprising.
   
   After a delightful thirty pages or so, "Not a Happy Camper" descends quickly into a seemingly interminable monologue about summer camp. For those who have graduated from this so-called life-altering time away from home, the head-nodding recognition of pranks and pratfalls could dangerous veer into whiplash. For the uninitiated, this memoir will convince them that they really haven't missed much at all.



3. This book is a humorous recollection of what many remember as bad days away at summer camp. The experiences had me wondering how she survived all of them and lived to tell the tale. Unlike most camps, the camp which Schneider attended had no solid rules making for some interesting experiences.
   I highly recommend this book to everyone who has ever attended a summer camp, and for those who haven't, I will assure you that this does not happen at all camps.



4. I looked forward to reading this book each night. Although I'm about 15 years younger than Ms. Schneider, my memories of Jewish summer camp are similar. Ms. Schneider remembers the feelings of young adolescence so well and captures the funny small moments that are so true! This is a story that I want to share with my sister and friends.



5. This book delivers what it promises---a camp story. There isn't much else here, just the story of one summer at a camp in Maine. The camp wasn't what was advertised, but it turned out to be a great summer for Mindy anyway, especially in retrospect. I think the book aims to mean a little more than that, and be about discovering character traits, learning about appearances vs. truth, etc, but I don't think it really does that. It just tells in a fairly amusing way what the summer was like.
   
   I am not a big camp person, having crawled home with homesickness after a few days both times I tried to go to overnight camp, but I read this book as it was set in Maine. However, it was only in a very small way about Maine. There are a lot of summer camps in Maine, and overall I think they aim to have as little contact with "the locals" as possible. This camp had a bit more than some, due to some property issues, but overall the locals are portrayed as fairly scary Deliverance types. One girl is shown not to be, but Mindy never even learns her name and seems a bit shocked that a local could be nearly human. I grew up in Maine during the time period of this book, and I don't think campers from other areas would really have any clue how different their lives were than most Mainers, and would have no idea how this could create resentment.
   
   From that perspective, it was interesting to get a look at Maine during that period from the other side! The writing is well done and enjoyable. If you went to a similar camp to the one Mindy did, you would probably really enjoy this book. Just don't look for a lot more.

5 comments about Tiny Titan.

1. The Mom's Choice Awards® honors excellence in family-friendly media, products and services. An esteemed panel of judges includes education, media and other experts as well as parents, children, librarians, performing artists, producers, medical and business professionals, authors, scientists and others. A sampling of the panel members includes: Dr. Twila C. Liggett, Ten-time Emmy-winner, professor and founder of Reading Rainbow; Julie Aigner-Clark, Creator of Baby Einstein and The Safe Side Project; Jodee Blanco, New York Times Best-Selling Author; LeAnn Thieman, Motivational speaker and coauthor of seven Chicken Soup For The Soul books; Florrie Binford-Kichler, Founder of Patria Press, Inc.- an award-winning independent publisher and Member of The Children's Book Council; Tara Paterson, Certified Parent Coach, and founder of The Just For Mom Foundation(tm) and the Mom's Choice Awards®. Parents and educators look for the Mom's Choice Awards® seal in selecting quality materials and products for children and families. This book has been honored by this distinguished award.



2. Congratulations to an amazing family with an amazing story. A thank you to the Yurcek's on a life well lived and an award well earned. Let your light shine for others who need to believe in miracles and the strength of family.



3. Ann Yurcek's "Tiny Titan" is a memorable story. The constant struggles of the family, Ann, Jim and the children were nearly exhausting to read. The tenaciousness of this family overwhelms me. Having their sixth child be so desperately ill might have fractured other families. Becca just made their's stronger. Way to go Yurcek's! While I admire the dedication, blood, sweat, and tears of raising up their adoptive children, I had to wonder how they thought they could ever do it. I felt badly for them that so much potentially important information was withheld from these loving, giving parents. While I'm glad those children now have a 'forever' family with the Yurcek's, I feel they might have been better served in a black home where they had more of a familiar cultural and extended community experience. I applaud the Yurcek's, every one of them for their abilities to share, care, and work hard to get there. My only criticism I have about the book is that it seemed to be authored (especially near the end) almost entirely by a voice recognition system. I can understand that as Ann is an extremely busy person. However, a good proof-read for grammar and incorrect word usage would have made this good book a terrific book. I'm surprised it was published at all without having been given a little spit and polish.



4. Almost unreal perseverance by the mother of this Tiny Titan! This book should be read by every social worker and Department of Health employee in every state. The failure of the "system," whether from lack of training, lack of funds or just plain lack of caring, is often devastating to families and disabled persons. Fortunately, our family also had the help of the Yurcek's "guardian angel," seemingly the only person who knew the what, when and especially how of getting help for our adult disabled son. Too often families don't have the perseverance of Ann Yurcek and lose hope while going through the endless loops of the health system, leaving the disabled person much less than what he or she could be.



5. This is an inspiring, humbling book. As a fellow adoptive mother of a special needs child, I can relate to many of the emotional ups and downs that are described here. However, the immensity of the challenges taken on by this family, the anguish they go through as systems fail them, and the dedication they show to their children inspire awe and deep respect. This book is hard to put down, and also is very informative on the topics of Noonan syndrome, which the sixth biological child in the family was diagnosed with, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders, Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, and Reactive Attachment Disorder, all of which are, sadly, extremely common in adopted children (my daughter also has all three, as well as an alphabet soup of additional diagnoses!). This book will be extremely meaningful to anyone touched by adoption, and fascinating and informative to others.

1 comments about My Name Is Anne, She Said, Anne Frank.

1. Jacqueline van Maarsen is a contemporary of Anne Frank, and only in recent years has begun speaking out more and more about her experiences and interaction with Anne Frank. This book was originally published in the Netherlands in 2003, and now is finally available in the US.
   
   "My Name is Anne, She Said, Anne Frank" (176 pages) is structured in 3 parts: Parts 1 and 3 deal with her mom and dad, respectively, and Part 2, by far the longest, deal with her own experiences living in the years leading up to the war, the war time itself with the occupation of Amsterdam by the Germans, and the aftermath of the war. The author, who is half-Jewish, brings us fascinating insights on what life really was like in those dark days of the late 30 and the 1940s. The author became best friends with Anne, and spent a lot of time with her in the years until Anne and her family went in hiding in the summer of 1942. There are some descriptions in the book regarding her friendship with Anne that I felt were almost too close for comfort. The author never saw Anne again after the Frank family went into hiding (and eventually was betrayed--it's still not clear by whom), but brings us touching, even heart-breaking, descriptions on her post-war dealings with Otto Frank, Anne's father (and the sole survivor of the Frank family). She writes: "He often wept when he was with me. I didn't know how to deal with that." Wow... how could a 16-17 yr old child bring comfort to Anne's dad?
   
   Anne Frank's contributions to history and her influence continue to this day, not only through the on-going sales of her diaries, but also as a result of the Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam (which I've had a chance to visit and will readily recommend to anyone). Meanwhile, "My Name is Anne, She Said, Anne Frank" is a nice addition to understanding not only the context of Anne Frank better, but even more importantly, to also better understand what life was really like, and the unspeakable crime that was the holocaust, which nevertheless must be spoken about for the sake of our children and our children's children. Highly recommended!

5 comments about The Twelve Little Cakes.

1. When I first began reading The Twelve Little Cakes, I didn't realize that it was a true story. (I check this information along with the reviews on Amazon before buying a book, but by the time I get around to reading it I have long forgotten.) I realized that it was real when she mentioned Bohousek, her famous dog -- I remember my mom pointing him out in films when I was young. From that point on, it made the story a completely different experience for me and I was even more eager to read ahead.
   
   There were many other similarities I shared with Dominika, but the most important one was our romantic view of Czechoslovakia as children. When we're young, we don't care about any differences. We just want to go play. I remember my mom explaining why certain neighbors didn't like each other and how everyone gossiped. The urge people had to snitch on someone for no reason and make their life miserable is something I definitely understood in this book, though I never understood it as a child (and even now, really) -- Can't we all get along?
   
   As a Czech-American, I relate to this story very well, and perhaps this is partly responsible for my 5-star review as this story transported me back a few years and allowed me to relive some of my own cherished memories. I have spent half of my life living in each place, and my Czech childhood was quite similar to Dominika's.
   
   The Czech Republic is a stunning place and there are so many amazing people. This book did hit the nail on the head, though, as far as the problems in Czech society.
   
   It was an absolute pleasure to read this book. I truly admire Dominika's parents for sticking it out together and for the incredible love they shared within their family. It will warm your heart!



2. I will hold my thumbs for the sequel to Twelve Little Cakes, but with talent such as this, the author hardly needs me to cross my fingers Czech-style. The spirit of the Czechs is captured by Dominika in her first English work. Her spirit is that of The Little Prince: observant, sparked with life, and wise beyond her years. Dekuji. The hours you spend with Dominika in this work will connect you with her soul, and the soul of a beautiful country full of beautiful women. It is a holiday to remember.



3. I picked this book up on a whim, I admit it was right up my alley in content and it seemed like it got good reviews. I have to admit I was surprised by how much I just enjoyed the book. The perspective and stories are engaging and I found that the book ended much too soon for me- but just right for the story line.
   
   Well worth the read.



4. I recommended this book for my bookclub since it had so many 4-5 star reviews on this site. This book was a nice easy read but I would only give it 3+ stars. Most of my bookclub agreed. It has some cute and touching stories in the various chapters but doesn't get into much depth regarding actually living under a communist regime. Some of the stories seemed alittle unbelieveable.



5. You wouldn't think that a novel about being the daughter of dissidents in Communist Czechoslovakia would be funny, but this novel is hilarious. I shared my copy with several persons and purchased others as Christmas gifts (2006). I'm dubious whether Dominika could so accurately recall conversations as a young child as detailed in the book, but you will fall in love with her in this autobiography. Her refreshing honesty and childish innocence opened some of the hardest hearts in a difficult time when adults were fearful whom to trust and honest conversation had to be guarded. It's an insider's look into hard times under a Communist regime without being preachy. And their family vacation to Poland makes you understand why the Poles were the first to throw aside the iron curtain. I cannot recommend this book more highly, particularly to our newest generations (X and Y) who did not grow up in the Cold War.

5 comments about A Bag of Marbles.

1. A bag of marbles was pretty good. If you are looking for an educational book about wwII and want to escape the gore, this is the book for you. It gets a little slow, but you really do find yourself caring for theses two boys. Plus, it is non-fiction.



2. The story is about two young boys : Joe and Maurice, they are French and Jews, it's in Paris during world War 2. So they must avoid. they went to the south, near the Italian border.
   The story is touching and well writing, but sometimes it's very boring, because there isn't a lot of action.



3. Kudos to the translator for keeping the author's words & spirit in tact in this heroic and moving testimonial about what it took to survive the Holocaust & what we all must do to keep other holocausts from happening again. In his own words, "be brave, know how to take care of yourself, don't rely on others, don't let your emotions get the better of you, take responsibility." Clearly, this title is a story that will encourage & remind young readers to always remember and to take responsibility.



4. This is a beautiful book that tells the true story of two young Jewish boys on the run from the Gestapo in war-torn France. The author, Joseph Joffo is never nostalgic about the ordeal he and his brother went through in their bid to escape the Death Camps of Nazi Germany. He writes from the heart but he writes with purpose. His story is a warning to future generations never to take their lives for granted. A Bag of Marbles is a fantastic book that should be on the shelves of every school in the world, just to remind future generations that life is not always a bed of roses...



5. this book made me want to read more. It kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. You are really rooting for the boys to come out of this entire oredeal alright.+

5 comments about Memories of a Catholic Girlhood.

1. In this memoir Mary McCarthy's childhood appears to be marked by two contradictory principles: orphanhood and board study at a Catholic convent. Convent life appears to her as a revelation of the aristocratic principle in life. The Catholic nuncs she encounters are dazzling intellectuals, preoccupied by themes such as purification through sin and the fate of the romantics. The identification of the nuns with the romantics is stressed, and is based on their shared antimodern nonconformity, the spirit of loss and failure flickering at the side of the happy, straight road of Protestant civics. The exact opposite of the romance of Catholicism lies in the prototype exemplified by Uncle Myers, the "rootless municipalized man who finds his plasures in the handouts or overflow of an industrial civilization." The purposeless emptiness of modern municipal life is contrasted with the beautiful heroics of medieval European history.
   
   Yet from the pretty orderliness among the girls at the convent isnot only derived romance, but at times also misunderstanding. When Mary rehearses a "loss of faith" drama to gain popularity, her faked doubts lead to a real breach of faith: "Why can't the universe be self-sufficient?" In order not to disturb the expectations of the nuns, she will be forced to fake her period. The limits between the real and the pretended, both spiritual and organic, seem troublesome inside the convent.
   
   Mary McCarthy's love of Latin language and culture came about at college, where she represented the opposing forces of law and anarchy in the classic play "Marcus Tullius" as a reflection of her own mixed heritage. To her surprise, though, she sides with the Protestant, "law and order" Preston side of her family, which is hardly shocking to us if we take into account the abusive, stingy character of the McCarthys she knew: "The injustices my brothers and I had suffered in our childhood had made me a rebel against authority, but they had also prepared me to fall in love with justice, the first time I encountered it."
   
   As a minute analysis of a developing psychology, we find in Mary McCarthy's memoir a description of her central conflict betwen that which she can give and that which her community needs and expects. Either with the nuns at the convent, at the boarding school before graduation or with her Protestant relatives, Mary finds the need to take refuge in pretension and lying so as to repeatedly restore the precarious balances of peace of the communities she seeks to inhabit. From this psychological need of absolute, unconditional integration we can perhaps trace the origins of her vocation as a novelist: "My whole life was a lie, it often appeared to me, from beginning to end, for if I was wilder than my family knew, I was far tamer than my friends could imagine, and with them, too, as with my family, I was constantly making up stories..." In her view this dilemma is also a designing feature of adult life, or "the trap of adult life in which you are held, wriggling, powerless to act because you can see both sides."



2. This is the type of book that I think of as a conglomeration but not really a book. That is, she had published several magazine articles, then gathered them together and made a book. I find that style difficult to get into. She glossed over too much; so many years were packed into just a couple pages.

   It irritated me after I kept reading and reading, and she kept criticizing and criticizing the people who raised her after her parents died. I sure didn't blame her for criticizing her father's side of the family. But her criticism didn't end with them. She didn't have many kind words for anyone.




3. That Mary McCarthy's childhood was difficult and unpleasant is well recognized. She has created a worthy and literary memoir from the material gathered during the years before she was claimed by her benevolent Seattle grandparents from the truly draconian aunt and uncle who kept her for 5 years prior to that. Somewhere along the way, this child who was probably difficult and moody - and certainly intelligent and scathingly witty - developed the ability to step outside herself, observe what was happening, remember it, then later write about it. The result is a classic memoir that deserves to be read by writers as well as the general reading audience. Funny, heartbreaking, sarcastic, bitingly acerbic - and always excellent.



4. I have always held a fascination for people who grew up with a real sense of religion that later fell away from the faith. I bought this book expecting something akin to the movies that are so prevalent nowadays about the catholic schoolboys smoking and getting caught by the nuns and hit with a ruler across the wrists. Instead, I was greeted with an amazing tale of Mary and her sad loss of her parents, pitiful existence with her aunt and uncle and twisted "saving" by her West Coast relatives.

   The childhood she had was less than perfect, I agree, but the fact that she survived it and lived to create such a wonderful literary account of it almost makes me appreciative of her having to go through it. The chapter on her grandmother is so reminiscent of my own mother that I had to laugh out loud at times.

   Well worth the read and the struggle through the many latin references and unfamiliar religious practices.




5. As an off-again, on-again admirer of Mary McCarthy, I sometimes wondered if she ever had a childhood or just appeared full-blown, rapier-witted and sword at her side. While never doubting her talent, reading her was frequently as pleasant as drinking a glass of vitriol.

   Mary indeed had a childhood, and unusual it was. I am sure it marked her forever to lose both her parents within a week of one another to influenza at age six. To add to the horror, the family was traveling by train to start a new life in Minnesota. Mary, herself, was deathly ill with the virus, and that colored her impressions of the tragic event.

   Some reviewers and the book jacket describe her childhood as "Dickensonian," I presume referring to Oliver Twist. I disagree, as Mary came from a well-to-do family that didn't lack for the material things of life. She lived with an aunt and uncle from her 6th to 11th year and was tremendously unhappy, claiming she didn't have enough to eat, was dressed in hand-me-downs and frequently beaten. Yet all photos of this time depict a well-dressed, well-fed child. At age 11, she was taken to live with her benevolent, wealthy grandparents in Seattle. From that time on, she received the kindest attention and was expensively educated. My doubts about those five early years are because Ms. McCarthy all her life was an implacable, unforgiving enemy when her feelings were aroused.

   The memoir is beautifully written with sharp and fascinating characterizations of her family. She appends each chapter with an epilogue taking an adult's eye-view of her childhood impressions. It is most effective. You are constantly reaffirming her brilliance. Well worth reading.