Tag: survival

book-review, books, Family Drama, literature, reading

Peace Like a River by Leif Enger

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This novel is a tribute to family, faith, and love. Told through the voice of 11‑year‑old Reuben Land, the story begins with the miracle of his birth. His father, Jeremiah, arrived late to the delivery room. After 12 minutes without breathing, the doctor told Reuben’s mother there was nothing more to be done. But Jeremiah picked up his son and commanded him to breathe in the name of the living God—and Reuben did. From then on, however, Reuben lived with severe asthma.

Jeremiah had once studied medicine but gave it up to follow the path of God. He worked humbly as a janitor at the town school. A man of deep faith and honor, he saved his son’s teenage girlfriend from being attacked in the boys’ locker room during a football game. The boys involved were known troublemakers who had terrorized the town, and they soon turned their anger on the Land family. They harassed them repeatedly, even kidnapping the youngest daughter, Swede, and hurting her before returning her home. At that point, Reuben’s older brother Davy realized the danger would never end. Armed with a shotgun, he waited in his room. When the two boys broke into the house, Davy shot them dead.

Although Davy believed he was protecting his family, he knew he had taken human lives. He was arrested but later escaped from jail and disappeared. Jeremiah, desperate to find his son, gathered the family into an Airstream trailer and set out toward the Badlands.

Both Davy and Reuben were the focus of their father’s prayers, but those prayers came with a cost. Reuben had been given life, yet his breathing remained weak and difficult. Davy knew his father prayed for God’s help against the family’s tormentors, but the price was heavy—Davy’s own act of violence. The novel suggests that faith can bring solutions, but those solutions are not always the same as justice.

The writing is strong, though at times the events feel a little unbelievable. Still, the family’s love and faith in one another never waver, making this a powerful story about resilience and devotion.

book-review, books, Holocaust, reading

The Little Liar by Mitch Albom

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Nico is a Jewish boy living in Salonika, Greece during World War II. He’s known for one thing: he never tells a lie. Because of this reputation, a Nazi commander takes him in and uses him to spread false hope to Jews being evacuated from Greece. He tells them there will be new homes and safety when they get to the destination—not knowing they were truly being sent to concentration camps.

Nico’s brother, Sebastian, has always been jealous of Nico’s goodness. When their family is forced onto a train, Sebastian believes Nico betrayed them and promises to get revenge.

Later, Nico realizes he was tricked into lying. Feeling guilty, he decides to find his family. By pretending to be different people based upon the situation he finds himself in Nico is able to survive the war.

Meanwhile, Sebastian and the rest of the family are sent to a concentration camp. Sebastian refuses to obey the Commandant—the same man who tricked Nico. The harsh treatment handed down to deliberately break him only fuels Sebastian’s anger and desire for revenge.

Years pass. Nico somehow ends up in Hollywood. Fannie, his first love and Sebastian’s estranged wife, finds him. As the truth slowly comes out, we learn that Nico tried to help the people who had protected him, while Sebastian hunted down those responsible for the suffering. Both brothers are trying to make sense of the pain they endured.

This is a bold and emotional story, though it relies on too many lucky escapes to feel fully believable. It may not be the strongest Holocaust novel, but it offers a satisfying ending for readers who want closure.

book-review, books, Historical Fiction, read around the world, reading

Green Island by Shawna Yang Ryan

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Set on February 28 in Taiwan, the story begins with a birth, a death, and martial law. The night the narrator is born is the crack down of Chinese Nationalists on the rebellious Taiwan. Her father, Dr Tsai, is brought a man that has been shot in the first street protests and delivers his youngest daughter into the world. This juxtaposition is the theme of the story – something bad and something good are bound together in this hectic world.

The next day Dr Tsai registers a protest against the violent crackdown, and is quickly arrested and sent to jail by secret police, the KMT, as are thousands of men in what is known as the 228 Massacre. How the family survives the stain of the arrest, and the wider distrust of the family when the doctor names anti-Chinese agitators, is one of perseverance under pressure. The family moves to the countryside and is shocked when a decade later a skeleton of a man returns to them.

While he has returned, he is a shadow of the man he was. Broken by the KMT, and despised by those in his community, the family struggles under the weight of the aftermath of the arrest. The four children all go different ways, with each being influenced by the events of the arrest/crackdown.

The youngest daughter moves to California with her husband. There, far from Taiwan, her husband joins the resistance. She is approached by the KMT in America, where they continue to sow discontent and fear between the Taiwanese people. The repeat of history around innocent words spoken continues to haunt the family, and all of those that live through the cycle of history and its never ending repeating.

This story examines the legacy of speaking out, its impact on those left behind, and how history continues to repeat itself. Not an easy read with such a heavy topic, with details about the brutality endured by those sent to “Green Island” for their crimes, but I am glad I read this and learned more about this period in Taiwan.

book-review, books, Non-Fiction, reading

Fever in the heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them by Timothy Egan

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This is a true story. The actions happened one hundred years ago.

What happened is abhorrent.

That it happened is unconscionable.

That history may be repeating itself is terrifying.

I even hesitated to write this book review because of fear. But if I learned anything from this book, it is to speak when you need, because no one else will.

This is a book of how men feed on the fears of others to profit for themselves. After reconstruction the South found ways to intimidate the slaves that they had once owned. Even if emancipated, there continued to be groups that believe Blacks were inferior to Whites. Men took to wearing white sheets to imitate ghosts to scare those that are different from them. Thus, the Ku Klux Klan was born. The federal government just after the war was able to dampen this fervor, but after Lincoln was assassinated, pressure from the Southern states to keep the parties together led to an easing of the concerns. Hiram Evans, head of the Klan, looked to expand its influence north. At the same time D.C. Stephenson landed in Indiana. With no real known history, he was able to charm his way into the Klan while finding ways to enrich himself along the way. This money, as well as his charm, led to a huge increase in Klan membership in Indiana – a state that had sent the most men to fight the South in the Civil War. Fear was used openly to prey on “others” to ensure a pure race of “true Americans” – White Protestant Men – who would use this fear to buy politicians, police, store owners, bankers, priests and more to create structural walls to keep these “others” from economic, educational, and social gains. Money helped to hide that D.C. Stephenson, and many others such as Daisy Douglas Barr, helped build this empire of fear. They created a shadow police force that was above the law, and thought of themselves above it too. They were, however, practicing the drinking and debauchery they were deriding in others.

D.C. Stephenson, specifically, threw huge parties flowing with alcohol during Prohibition. Naked women were available to men. People showed up and were photographed in compromising positions that D.C. used against them to get what he wanted. All along, D.C. was assaulting women – something that he had done to a few of them that he married but didn’t tell anyone about. Then one day he decided that Madge Oberholtzer was his next victim. He lured her to his mansion, drugged her, forced her to board a train to Chicago where he brutally assaulted her – not only raping her but biting out chunks of her flesh. She was able to buy poison to kill herself to escape, but decided after she had taken half a dose that she needed to stay alive to make him pay. Her mother’s presence at the Stephenson mansion led to Madge being abruptly taken home, ill and badly beaten. There Madge was able to dictate and correct a testimony of what happened to her. It is through this testimony, and that of the coroner and doctor that treated her, that brought about D.C Stephenson’s indictment.

D.C. was not concerned about losing the murder case brought against him. He had people owing him, all the way up to the governor’s office. What he didn’t count on was that the men of the jury had seen through his charade and were only concerned about the penalty he would pay. If not for these men, D.C. would not have turned on those that did not save him, spilling the whole sordid story – memberships and secrets – to make these men pay for the betrayal. The whole of the plan to land D.C. in the white house would never have come to light otherwise. As he said himself – he would have been a dictator.

What truly scares me of this entirely true story is the comparisons of today: 

D.C. Stephenson, a drifter and con-man, arrives in Indiana. He has tried his hand at a number of enterprises that failed, has left wives and a child along the way. His personal history was ever shifting. He began to peddle hatred – of Blacks, Catholics, Irish, Italian and Jews. Anyone that is not “fully Americanized.” This meant white, protestant, born here – no disabilities or mental challenges allowed. He rises quickly through the ranks of an organization – the Klu Klux Klan – as he enriches himself through cutting deals to take cuts of membership fees, robe costs, bootlegging (during prohibition) and more. He gets people to fear others. He begins to bring politicians, police, and priests into the fold, helping propel a reign of terror in Indiana while giving a group think of “being right”. He claims “I am the law.” After multiple assaults on women, one finally speaks out on the cannibalistic and brutal assault she endured. He is indicted, but his slate of politicians still wins. 

Donald J Trump, a con-man, arrives on reality tv, trying out his latest enterprise by saying he’s so successful. To my recollection there has been an airline, a university, a board game, a vodka, steaks, water, magazines, casinos, winery, and cologne businesses that have failed. He has left wives and children. He has peddled hatred – of outsiders from other countries, people with disabilities, veterans, and women. He talks about bringing back America to those that deserve it – the White Protestant Americans that make up his political base. He has been known to put a price on loyalty to him above anything else. Women have claimed he has slept with them (e.g. Stormy Daniels) or raped them (E Jean Carroll). He has claimed he can shoot someone on Wall Street and get away with it. He is indicted, but he still has the nomination of the Republican party. He has said he would be dictator.

Who will be today’s brave soul that will stand against the fear to do what is right? Only time will tell.

Black Experience, book-review, books, literature, reading

The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers

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If there was ever a book that you should read to learn of how other’s lives have been lived, this is it. This epic tale – but you are never sure exactly who the hero is. You are introduced to many individuals, all who sing a different song. None of the songs are named, but each time you see a new title page with SONG, you know the speaker has changed. It is through all these voices that moves this story along, even if not linearly. You are introduced to many people, at different times in history, in different orders. None of this makes sense until you are almost at the end. You are faced with information on the many terrible things that humans are capable of, even those that are supposed to love and protect you.  


We are introduced to the Creek Indians, those that inhabited the land. White men from Europe come and took away their land as if they had never been there. They brought slaves to do their work. And through their arrogance and ego, they abused these men and women. They sowed not only the seeds of cotton and tobacco, but also of themselves. Mixed races are common, but never acknowledged by the white men that made them.

This history of a people is complex and confusing. The book reflects this in the intertwined stories of sisters, generations, family, tragedies, and fears. Throughout the book, however, Uncle Root, an educated Black man with a doctorate in History, understands that the history of the family comes from the women. He extolls the strength of Black women especially, because the burdens they have carried is so heavy.

I can never imagine having lived this history and surviving it. The brutality and ongoing ramifications are horrifying. The truth of these pains and these slights are not shied away from to make it easier for someone else to read it. The racism that still exists within the hallowed halls of education and throughout the country is astounding. I am humbled that I have probably erred without knowing or understanding, and I hope that I will not make the same mistakes again.

This book challenges you. You need to understand that we are the sum of our ancestors, as well as our times. While this book is well over 750 pages, I never once wanted to skim a page, because I was so involved in the number of people we are introduced to. I felt the pain of loss, the pain of betrayal, and the pain of self-doubt. This was worth every single page – and there is not a word I would keep out to make it shorter. We need to do the work to understand what these families have endured, and continue to endure. Until we face it and learn, things will not change.

book-review, books, Holocaust, literature, reading

All the broken places

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Guilt and complicity. What you have done and what you have not done. Both are things that can torment people. I had heard John Boyne speak about his book All the Broken Pieces , and was intrigued by the idea of what you are complicit of allowing versus what you have committed – and how the sins of the parent are cast on the child. All these ideas led me to buy this book.

I admit, I never read the first book, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.  I also admit I had no idea of the backlash – that the book was considered controversial in its way of conveying the atrocities

The story is simplistic, while trying to deal with complex issues. Gretel grew up faithful to the Third Reich, proud of the part her family played in it, including her father’s role as commander of Auschwitz. As Gretel’s mother states, it was the Jewish problem – first the problems they made for Germans that forced the need for extermination, and then for the problems they wouldn’t stop talking about after the camps were closed – that were a disgrace. Gretel, however, understood the terrible things her father had led. She knew her place in allowing this to happen, even as she hid behind “I was only a child” excuses.  This was underscored in the book by others excuses – they were only following orders or they didn’t know anything about it. Being forced to see the horrors by the French Underground, other Nazi hiders, documentary films and camp survivors, Gretel understood she would live with guilt for the rest of her life. She kept her true self away from others. She tried to atone for the sins she knew, in the only way she knew how.

As the parts of history are unraveled, and the new realities of cruelty she faced within her own building, Gretel finally takes action – to not be one that stands by doing nothing, fulfilling her destiny as she and others had hoped it would be. It is, however, a destiny that is rooted in violence – acting on the brutality of her father’s answers for solving a “problem.”   

I felt this was an interesting read. I am glad I have taken my time to read this. With so much hatred in the world, in the US particularly, understanding the need to stand up and speak out is just as important as jumping into the fight directly.  While I understand that it only glimpses at the true horrors that were experienced by those that were taken and lost their lives at these camps, I don’t believe this story is about them. As in every story, there are always two sides. You do not need to agree with them both, but to ignore them is to do the same thing the Germans did to the Jews. Not all Germans are monsters, just as not all Jews are bad. For me, it is Gretel’s final decision to act with brutality to solve a problem that doesn’t make her a saviour but that allows her to accept she is her father’s child.

African Experience, book-review, books, read around the world, reading

Hate has too many places to live: Abyssinian Chronicles / Uganda

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Written as a novel, this is a semi-autobiographical tale of a family’s existence in Uganda in the 20th century. The racial, religious, gender and economic strife is all here. The story begins in a confusing way, setting the stage to meet the main character. At approximately 100 pages in I finally figured out when and who we were supposed to be focusing on. The historical information on the family, however, was needed to make the next 300 pages make sense.

Set in Uganda, we are introduced to the deep-rooted Catholic church’s influence, as well as the Muslim and Pagan traditions. These traditions tend to mix together, with some being incorporated into others. The influences of the outside cultures, Catholic and Muslim, is due to the evangelical history of Ethiopia (formerly Abyssinia) and the traders from the Middle East that came with the British. This becomes important when the reign of Idi Amin begins.  

Having an understanding of the history of Uganda would have helped, but this was covered in the first 100 pages through how the family members were impacted. The politics were not the focus, but the impact on the family. Information on what was happening was not central to living lives in the villages at that time. Early in the 20th century the tsetse fly spread a “sleeping sickness” pandemic, killing approximately 300,000. 1962 brought independence from Britain, the first election bringing Dr Milton Obote to power. 1967 brought a new constitution, giving more power to the Prime Minister, Obote. In 1971 Idi Ami overthrew the government and began a reign of terror – killing anyone that did not agree with him. Then the war with Tanzania, which Amin lost, and Obote returned to run a country that was decimated economically and ecologically. A new “plague”, HIV/AIDS then swept the African country.

The story starts in the time of independence, with the beginning being like the sleeping sickness – slow but gotten through. The family is a macrocosm of the country. Serenity (the son of a clan elder that had no interest in leading) and Padlock (a woman that was too brutal with her charges as a nun that led her to be thrown out of the nunnery) were the first despots that we encounter. Padlock required complete obedience from her children, and was brutal in enforcing her rule, while Serenity allowed this to happen as long as he was not impacted.   Mugezi, their eldest son, was never liked by Padlock and took the brunt of her hatred. He learned early on how to survive, instigate, and infuriate those in power. Padlock gets her way to send Mugezi to become a priest. Within the church walls, however, the next set of despots is found, with upperclassmen terrorizing the new students as the priests look the other way, or the controlling nature of the priest to have feasts of good food while the students watched and received mealy porridge.   

Through all of these tests, Mugezi learns how to survive, profit and exact revenge. These skills are what will allow him to survive the ongoing tragedy he is living through. To the very end, Mugezi relies upon his understanding of human nature and his ability to leverage this while not being too greedy.

This story is not easy to read. Awash with violence, the value of human life is cheap. The outright bigotry, of whites against blacks, blacks against Indians, Catholic versus Muslim, is prominent – the white Priest calling the black ministry students monkeys, the glee of the blacks when the Indians were deported, the smugness of the Catholics that only sinners got the “slimming” sickness (AIDS) – are all in the open. The hatred for each of the “others” is breathtaking in strokes, and the root of the cause of so much destruction. I kept looking for hope at the end, but I am not sure I found it.

While this book was well written, you need to be able to handle the horrors that are brought forth. I read this book at a time when I am personally struggling with the ongoing exposure of the deep hatred that remains in the Unites States. The fact that this has never gone away, or truly lessened for those that believe and teach this hatred is overwhelmingly depressing for me. In a world that has become so connected, how does this hatred of others still exist? As with Uganda, the answers are tied in not only racial issues, but are complicated by economic, religious and gender constraints also. These are all entangled and cannot be separated. We need brave souls to stand together to work toward a total solution that is based in respect for human life and beliefs. In 2022 they say there is much to look forward to for Uganda. I hope that is true there, and everywhere else in this world.

Black Experience, book-review, books, reading

The book of lost friends

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This is a book with at least two stories, all that intersect around family, and history.  We start meeting Benedetta Silva, known as Benny as she starts her first job teaching at a poor rural school in Louisiana to help pay off her student debt.  Although she is white, she is living in poverty until her first paycheck arrives.  She is intimidated by the unruly teens that await her, fighting with each other, and never listening.  She tries everything to get them engaged, even buying treats for those that are hungry from her low salary. 

Next we meet Hannie and her slave family were being moved from Louisiana to Texas by a relative to keep them from being set free.  Out of sight of the owners, the relative starts to sell off the family in ones or twos the whole way there.  The last to be sold, Hannie finally gets the buyer to understand that she was stolen and sold away from her rightful owner.  Along the way, she had kept track of who was sold where, in the hopes to reunite with them in the future.

As we follow Hannie, who is returned to the original plantation alone but strikes out as a sharecropper with a few other slaves that had remained, we see that she is smart and resourceful.  Lavinia, the plantation owner’s pampered daughter, meets with Juneau Jane, the plantation owner’s mulatto daughter by his mistress.  Afraid that Lavinia’s arrival meant that the head of the Gossett plantation was dead, Hannie listens in to find out what is happening because there was only one year left on the lease before the sharecropping land was to be free and clear for her and those working it.  The three end up in an odyssey to find the father, to determine who was entitled to what property.  At one point the three end up in a church, where the walls were covered in posters of letters to friends, where people were looking to reconnect with those that had been sold away. 

Benny, who is renting out a home near the plantation because it was the cheapest she could find, needs help when the roof starts to leak. Through this challenge, Benny meets marvelous women that have kept the community together and give Benny hope for surviving.  Through the stories that Benny hears from Mrs T, she decides that this is the story that would resonate with her students, and asks her to come and tell it to the kids.  The kids are hooked and come up with a way to bring the stories to life.  While not approved by the school board, made up of rich white folks, the stories are coming from the Carnegie Library, a source of pride of the community at one time.  Facing a threatening police force, and the school board that sends their own kids to a private school instead, Benny is told to just let the kids get a vocational education as they were not better than that. 

Throughout the chapters flipping between the two, actual letters written and sent are included.  These had been published in the Southern Methodist newspaper and was shared via pulpits across the country.  The heartwrenching stories behind each of these hit home for me.  I did not know that these adverts had been created for people to finds each other in the late 1800 – early 1900s.  I did, however, understand these completely.  As a Jew, I am fully aware that after WWII, the same was happening in the displacement camps throughout Europe with people searching for any connections that may be left.  It is the guilt at being alive, combined by the fear of being alone, that makes these so sad.  While the longing is always there, sometimes it is easier not to ask the question for fear of the answer.

That also is true when it comes to a hard past.  In the Louisiana is the reality that slavery did happen.  Ancestors we part.  But in order to remain in power, the stories and intimidation continued.  It is this need to keep the power structure as it is, and the fear of what will happen if it is not, that keeps the true history of the plantation and those that lived on it.  Until you face the choices that you made, good or bad, and acknowledge them, you are doomed to spend your life covering up for them. 

African Experience, Black Experience, book-review, literature, read around the world

Stories from Africa

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As I begin reading through my list of books to be read, I check out Say You’re One of Them by Uwem Akpan. As I turn to start the book, I am met by a map of Africa. I see the following countries highlighted for me: Sierra Leone, Liberia, Benin, Gabon, Nigeria, Niger, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Rwanda. There are so many countries on this continent – and yet all of these are part of this book. I start to think about my arm chair travelling.

Without fully comprehending until the first story has finished, I begin to realize the richness of the collection that is before me. With as many religions as languages throughout Africa, this is an extremely complex and confusing place. A continent that had been under siege, either by force or not, the contradictions that the people bring on to themselves is so sad, especially in the context of the children’s eyes we are looking through. Africa is a story of stolen children’s lives.

Each story begins with innocence, and ends in terror, or death. The capacity for hatred, and for adjusting to survive, are just a hairs breath away from each other. We have heard of the terrors on tv, but these stories, told from a child’s point of view, kick you harder. Where innocence should be, there is nothing but wariness and fear. There is no way this will not impact the future generations and how they relate to each other and themselves.

books, read around the world, reading

Year End Review

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As this year draws to an end, I reflect back on what I have read and what I have experienced. This year was a difficult one in terms of meeting my goals. With the significant shift in the workload at the office, I spent much more time listening to books in the car as my commute doubled. My once happily reading slant to old fashion books was, for the first time ever, over 60% listened to! This, in light of the fact I have only been listening to books for about three years, I was blown away.

Over this year, I have been working on my at home travel log, as well as the Goodread’s Horizons, where a different part of the world was chosen for each month. As I previously reported, I have now completed my tour of the United States, and I am over half my way through the 100 countries I have identified. As I was stretching myself geographically, I also expanded my reading horizons to include more memoirs (11), and essays (5). My two favorite memoirs this year included An Odyssey: a father and son by Daniel Mendelson and We should all be feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. These were thought provoking and brought me to action, even if in different ways.

As I mentioned earlier, this year has been a difficult one. I selected some titles that I would not usually in order to expand my horizons. The President’s Garden by Muhsin Al-Ramli, Chronicle of a last summer: a novel of Egypt by Yasmine El Rashidi, and In the time of butterflies by Julia Alvarez were all fiction based upon the realities of political horrors in Iraq, Egypt and the Dominican Republic. Each show the consequences of being honest in a society that is not open. Powerful in their own ways, each are a testament to those that survived the brutality and confusion.

Other authors take the horrors and stand them on their head. Examples of these include A woman in Jerusalem by A.B. Yehoshua, Death with Interruptions by Jose Saramago, and Death is Hard Work by Khaled Khalifa. In each, death is what starts everything. As assumptions on what should be and who should care, the absurdities of a corpse being arresting in Syria, or detained in Russia, can not be minimized. But when it is Death sending engraved letters that she is coming soon, that takes a whole new level. These were even more poignant to me as I face aging parents, and friends who are experiencing deaths that are way too early to have to face.

I have learned about the history of Mormons, the tranquility of Hawaii’s royal family, the breadth and depth of the Ojibwe, the brains of Hedy Lamar and the lengths men go to deny beautiful women, and that a fictional rock band can feel all too real. In the end, I feel that I have learned much more about people of my world, and hope that I can extend empathy towards others. I fear there is too little of this currently. I hope to bring more tolerance to others through what I have learned from these books.

Happy reading in 2020.