Blog Archives

Finding Faith

9/27/2014

I received a copy of The Butterfly and the Violin, by Kristy Cambron, from NetGalley. In exchange, I offer this, my fair and honest review.

* * * * *

For the third or fourth time over the past weeks, I found myself turning to a read relating to WWII. I’m not sure what has compelled me to turn to taking another look at an era I studied fairly intensely years ago. Perhaps news stories of leaders gassing their own people, of nuclear proliferation moving forward, or of beheadings, have moved me. I can’t say for sure. But I can say that this story, The Butterfly and the Violin, by Kristy Cambron, was both dark—and charming, as Cambron has offered up two stories in one.

Sera James is an art dealer. Left at the altar by a former fiancé, she focuses her efforts on finding the original of a painting she saw once as a child. The painting is of a woman in a concentration camp during WWII. Head shaven, arm tattooed, she is playing the violin. Sera follows her lead to California, where she meets William Hanover, the man responsible for his family’s business. The Hanover’s own a copy of the painting Sera is searching to find. The two set out to find the original. Along the way, they connect. But, can they trust one another?

The second story is of Adele, the “sweetheart” of the Vienna orchestra, a well-known soloist, and the subject of the painting Sera and William seek to find. Together with Vladimir, the man Adele has come to love, Adele seeks to find a place of safety for a Jewish family left hiding in Vienna. When their plans go awry, Adele’s own parents (her mother deeply shallow and her father, a military officer) deliver her up to the authorities. She is to be assigned to a “labor detail” for her “re-education.” She lands in a concentration camp, where an orchestra is formed to play for those who arrive as they march their way toward death.

The Butterfly and the Violin tells a story of struggle and perseverance, of death and destitution, and of faith. With strong Chrisitian themes, Cambron has delivered a memorable glimpse into the world of the concentration camps, of those who died there, and of those who lived to tell their stories. Meanwhile, she offers readers a story of courage, healing and hope.

0 Comments

The Hit -- A Hit

9/27/2014

0 Comments

I received a copy of The Hit, by Allen Zadoff, from NetGalley. In exchange, I offer this, my fair and honest review.

* * * * *

Often I find stories including teen protagonists capable of sophisticated adult thinking and action, unbelievable. Yet Allen Zadoff has pulled it off in The Hit.

When Boy Nobody ‘s parents are killed (or at least he believes them to have been so) at the age of twelve, by the boy he believes to be his best friend, Boy Nobody is taken into a “The Program.” In it, he learns how to assassinate others at the bidding of those in charge—those he now calls “Mother” and “Father.” To be successful, he has to be able to work on his own, cover his tracks, and move on from job to job without leaving suspicion behind. Zadoff has made all this believable through the use of the smallest details that Boy Nobody (known as “Benjamin” throughout most of this story) has been taught—details that a teen could fully embrace. For example, Ben knows that “when in doubt,” he should “emulate.” It is interesting to see this concept played out so successfully in this story. Another simple lesson Ben knows is how to appear a regular teenager so others will trust him—though they should not.

Ben is given five days instead of the usual three months or so, to complete an assignment. The setup is believable: the member of The Project responsible for the murder of Ben’s parents is the person who brings him into the ranks of The Project. Though Ben’s memories of his former life tickle at the edges of his consciousness from time to time, the training he endured left him able to read situations and react quickly. What I liked best about The Hit, were these simple “rules” Boy Nobody learned, such as emulating others, concentrating power rather than diffusing it, identifying the advantage one has when others underestimate him, turning “chance” in your favor when the unexpected occurs, or using the fact that when one sees something beyond his ability to comprehend, his mind interprets the occurrence as a “joke.” With his new assignment, Ben must use these and other skills he learned to infiltrate at a school. From there, his target is the parent of one of the other students. But this time, the plans change, and Ben must determine who the real enemy is in time . . .

I thought the Boy Nobody character was well designed. The dialogue between the students was believable. Boy Nobody’s inner thoughts of questioning what he was doing and why, drove the story. All in all, I kept turning pages, more quickly as the story progressed. I believe Zadoff will find he has a “hit” with The Hit.

0 Comments

Historical Witness

9/27/2014

0 Comments

I received a copy of Hitler's Last Witness, by Rochus Misch, from NetGalley. In exchange, I offer this, my fair and honest review.

* * * * *

Few people had ready access to the Fuhrer, Adolph Hitler. Few who did lived to tell stories of the man and his actions from the inside. Rochus Misch, a member of Hitler’s staff and later, in charge of the telephones where Hitler stayed from time to time, was the last surviving member of this small group.

Misch tells his story of how he came to his position. He insists throughout that he knew nothing, and heard nothing, of the millions of deaths in the concentration camps while serving Hitler. Indeed, he writes that he only ever saw one report on the camps, and that from an International Red Cross report that “contained nothing disturbing.” At the outset, I found this idea . . . highly difficult to believe. Yet, when I read Misch’s story, I found he was able to reiterate the smallest of details of Hitler’s daily life and moves, yet he seemed rather uninterested in larger affairs. His concerns were simply to “do his job” for the Third Reich, and not to cross any lines that might get him in trouble as he had seen others do, only to find themselves on the front line—or killed. He barely noticed when a colleague “went away” (which meant he went to a concentration camp or was sent to the front). One example was of a guard who, failing to keep a mosquito from Hitler, was sent packing. For his part, Misch stuck to the rules. He wouldn’t even dance with Eva Braun when Hitler was away and she threw a spontaneous party, because “she was the Fuhrer’s girl.”

It was the little details of Germany before and during WWII, of the lives of Hitler and his associates that I found most intriguing in this read. I noted Misch’s descriptions of the places where they stayed, of the people and personalities of Hitler and his associates, and the “rules” the staff followed so as not to bother “the boss” (such as not to wear boots that made “deep impressions on the thick carpet”). (Really?)

Risch met Hitler’s siblings (and half-siblings), Eva Braun, and so many others. He tells of how Hitler and Eva Braun acted publicly (that he never saw any intimacies between them, nor did his colleagues) and of their last hours together when the two were married. Does it matter to anyone that Hitler knew all his staff on sight and by name, or that he had a “first-class” memory, or that he rarely showed anger? Does it matter that he knew who would attend a dinner? That he never carried a weapon or that those who surrounded him often did—and that it seems he had no fear of that? Does it matter that Misch never saw Hitler laugh out loud? That the Fuhrer had a favorite dog—Blondie—who performed tricks for him? That he joked about always being the last to know anything that was going on around him? That he had poor vision, but did not want others to know because he thought it showed weakness? Does it matter that we know the type of car Hitler preferred to ride in? Or that he liked to bowl or to watch films? Perhaps not. From an historical perspective, Hitler is a monster. But Misch’s account does show that even monstrous people are—people. This “humanizing “ does not make Hitler a sympathetic character, but it does show me what people can be capable of doing.

0 Comments

Guilt, Shame and Heroism

9/27/2014

0 Comments

I received a copy of The Nightmare Dance: Guilt, Shame and the Holocaust, by David Gilbertson, from Netgalley. In exchange, I offer this, my fair and honest review.

* * * * *

David Gilbertson opens The Nightmare Dance with an introduction into the changes in Poland and other hard hit places during WWII, with a caution against the commercialism that has sprung up in the Auschwitz area. Though millions visit regularly, the trek is a spiritual experience for only a few. For many others it is little more than a stop on the travelers’ agendas. Gilbertson’s caution should be taken seriously. While many think the horrors of the WWII era were an historical aberration, in fact, we see some of the evil of which man is capable, play out in the evening news on a daily basis.

From whence does such hatred as could birth the concept of, and the program for, the Final Solution come? I can only imagine . . . (and that, not very well).

There are many lessons to take from these readings: lessons about the dangers of placing “blame” on any group at any time, for any reason; lessons about the power of language and propaganda; lessons about the cost of denying truth (so as to enjoy a free and easy conscience). Gilbertson lays these out through his renditions of European history regarding the Jews, with information regarding the position of the organized Church from time to time, and of the German laws that came about prior to the Holocaust. Presumably, their goal was to make it easier for some to see others as expendable. Sadly, that goal was met.

The horror of the concept of the Final Solution is profound. The number of people that had to turn a blind eye in order for tens of thousands of others to disappear from an area—sometimes within days—is startling. The entire idea that there could be “blind prejudice and passionate hatred” is confusing. Yet, from the information Gilbertson provides about Osjakow, the death of a shtetl, to the story of the unnamed boy in a photograph taken in Warsaw, to the details of life in the Jewish ghettos, to the life story of Stella Goldschlag who turned in her own, the information in The Nightmare Dance, is all worth reading and remembering. So too, is the story of King Christian X of Denmark and the Danish people who did all they could to save others, and the story of Janusz Korczak who, though unable to save the children in his care, did all he could to bring them a measure of peace during their short lives. The truths of history can only guide us if we face them, and so, I highly recommend this (dark and difficult) read.

0 Comments

Underground History

9/6/2014

0 Comments

Reviewed for NetGalley

* * * *

It is hard to imagine that it was only 150 years or so ago that the institution of slavery existed in this country. That history is a testament to the depths of evil to which mankind can descend—and it is a tale that applies to most of history in most of the world. Thus, it is an even greater testament when mankind struggles its way forward. The battle ahead in this country was taken on when the eyes of those of the larger community were opened to the truth. Once done, they sought change and prepared to pay with their lives if necessary to achieve it.

While concentrating on sins of the past does not change nor correct things, a study of those events can serve to see that such evils are not repeated. Thus, I have spent some time over the years reading the stories of freed slaves and of those who assisted them. My favorite of all time is Booker T. Washington’s account in Up From Slavery. One of the items on my “bucket list” is to go to Tuskegee Institute one day. Washington’s insight all those years ago, still serves us well today. Indeed, I think it should be on everyone’s required reading list. But for the present, I address those stories in Slave Narratives of the Under Ground Railroad.

The editors did a nice job of collecting a variety of stories, in some cases told by the former slaves themselves, and in others, by those who assisted them in their fight for freedom. It is shocking to read an account of a man willing to have himself shipped to a port in the free north, of a woman who carried her child across broken chunks of ice on a river toward freedom, and more. It is also important to understand the power of government, of statues and court rulings—power that when exercised imposes the will of elected officials on the lives of all. (Remember that on election day.) Such was the case with the The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, well discussed in the text. But what I took out of these stories that I wish to carry with me goes beyond the terrors slaves experienced. It goes to the kindness they found in others. Many risked their lives and fortunes to escape their chains, and many others to end the institution of slavery in this country. Their investments were well made and we honor them when we learn of their exploits.

0 Comments

Patricia Reding

Posted here are a number of Patricia's reviews of the works of others.

Those reviews posted here that Patricia did for Readers Favorite are identified as such. No review of less than 4-stars for any Readers' Favorite review is posted here or elsewhere.

Those works reviewed for NetGalley are identified accordingly.

Finding Faith

The Hit -- A Hit

Historical Witness

Guilt, Shame and Heroism

Underground History

Patricia Reding

Archives

Categories