Schindler's Legacy

The Boy on the Wooden Box: How the Impossible Became Possible . . . on Schindler's List by Leon Leyson

No matter how many books I read about the Holocaust, I never cease to be shocked and horrified by the suffering inflicted upon the Jewish people by the Nazis.  Leon Leyson (born  Leib Lezjon) was number 289 on Oscar Schindler's list and its youngest member. Decades later, as a grown man now living in the United States, Leon has an opportunity to greet Oscar Schindler and to thank him. He does not expect Schindler will even recognize or know him, because he was just 13 when his father convinced Schindler to put his young son to work in his enamelware factory. When Leon shakes Schindler's hand, Oscar says, you are "little Leyson" the boy on the wooden box.  To operate the machine he worked on in the factory, Leon had to stand on a wooden box to reach the controls.  According to Oscar Schindler, he was an "essential worker".

This moving memoir captures the innocence and the horror experienced by a young boy who survives the holocaust with incredible luck, perseverance, courage and ingenuity.  Leon rarely spoke about how he survived the Holocaust until after Steven Spielberg's film was released.  Leon Leyson died in January 2013 at the age of 83 without knowing that his book would be published.  A MUST READ!!!

The Secrets that hide in Rare Books

The BOOKMAN'S *TALE*: A Novel of Obsession by Charles Lovett 

Anyone who loves books (about books) will get hooked on this one.  A mysterious Victorian watercolor portrait, found in an 18th century book about Shakespeare forgeries, bears an uncanny resemblance to a young antiquarian bookseller's late wife.  Just six months after losing his beloved wife, Amanda, and now living in England, antiquarian bookseller, Peter Byerly, is trying to put his life back together. In his search to find out the name of the artist and possibly who the young woman might be, Peter finds himself searching through time and possibly the original works of Shakespeare.  His research to identify the watercolor's origins uncovers what could be the holy grail of Shakespeare studies—a book possibly annotated by the Bard himself at the time he was writing the play, A Winter's Tale.

This leads Peter back into the cutthroat world of antiquarian books to prove the book's authenticity, while also trying to identify the young woman in the portrait.  This is an intricately layered literary mystery that will surely keep you turning the pages as you follow Peter's journey from the Victorian era back to Shakespeare's time.  This book is not just for bibliophiles and Shakespeare aficionados.  Anyone who enjoys a good, intricate mystery will enjoy Lovett's first novel.   

New Occupants at 221B Baker Street

The Baker Street Translation
by Michael Robertson

How do you follow up a thought provoking, nerve wracking novel like The Paris Architect?  Well you pick up a fun and entertaining novel like The Baker Street Translation.  As you probably know by now, if you have followed or read any of my Reader's Cafe' blog, that I am a Sherlockian.  In other words, a die hard fan of the world's greatest detective. Believe me, I am not the only one out there who believes Sherlock Holmes is the world's greatest detective.  Did you happen to watch the PBS special this week, entitled "How Sherlock Changed the World"?

I was not aware when I picked up this book that it was part of a series from Michael Robertson.  It is about two brothers, both barristers or lawyers (in American parlance), who are renting the rooms at 221B Baker Street for their offices. This address is perhaps one of the most recognizable addresses in the world, at least on the same level as Number 10 Downing Street. One of the requirements of renting these facilities is the brothers must promise to keep and respond to all of the letters sent to the "fictional" detective, Sherlock Holmes.  As a result of having to answer the letters, the brothers, Reggie and Nigel Heath, find themselves pulled once again into a case straight out of Arthur Conan Doyle.

The variety of adaptations never cease to amaze me, whether Sherlock Holmes-like characters or new cases for Sherlock and Dr. Watson written by Arthur Conan Doyle wannabe's or the equally unique and well written TV and movie adaptations.  But if you are a fan of Sherlock Holmes, as I am, you will want to track down the other titles in this Baker Street series.  They promise to be a fun and engaging read.

Surviving in Paris during Nazi Occupation

The Paris Architect
by Charles Belfoure

What was it like to live in Paris during the Nazi Occupation?  What if you were a talented, well educated architect, but out of work?  What if you had a wife to support and rent to pay?  What would you do to survive?

This is what Lucien Bernard is facing when he is presented with a profitable commission from a wealthy Paris industrialist.  While this commission will make him a lot of money, it might also get him killed.  The commission Lucien Bernard reluctantly accepts is to design hiding places for Jews.  While he is not an anti-Semite, he also does not want to risk his life.  This is just the first dilemma, Lucien faces.  If he accepts this commission, the wealthy industrialist promises him the commission to design an addition to his factory, so it can be adapted to make weapons for the Nazis.

So, by accepting the challenge of designing undetectable hiding places for Jews, does Lucien become a collaborator or is he just doing what is necessary to survive this occupation?

This is not the only moral or ethical question presented in this thought provoking, and beautifully written, debut novel by Charles Belfoure.  How far would you go to help a stranger?  What would you risk to survive if your country were occupied by a brutal regime? 

There are several similarities between the fictional character of Lucien Bernard and the real life industrialist/opportunist, who saved thousands Jews, Oskar Schindler.  This is a DO NOT MISS, Must Read Novel!

The River Shannon

Follow the river Shannon by Frank Delaney

 

Frank Delaney continues to astound me. He tackles what appears to be from the title, a massive and overwhelming history lesson of the River Shannon in Ireland.  The story is set in 1922, shortly after World War I and just at the beginning of the Irish Civil War. Both of these historic events play an integral role in the story.  Similar to his previous novel, Ireland, he introduces his main character, a Father Robert Shannon, which enables him to weave the two stories into one.  The River Shannon, her beauty, her legends, and her lore, give comfort to Fr.  Shannon, who is inspired by the words of his mentor: "Find your soul and you'll live." Father Shannon has been sent to Ireland by the Archbishop of Boston, Cardinal O'Connell, to trace his family roots as a means to recovering from his traumatic experience at the Battle of Belleau Wood in France. Shannon is suffering from "shell shock" or PTSD as we know it today. 

The River Shannon not only serves as a main character in the story, but it also serves as an allegory to Fr. Shannon's recovery.  The story begins simply enough as story of a young priest trying to recover his health, his mind and his soul by following the intricate and diverse path of the river.  His story becomes much more involved as Delaney gradually peals away the various layers of Father Shannon's experience in WWI, as well as his traumatic experience in the Boston diocese.  Delaney weaves together several historical events, the Battle of Belleau Wood, the Irish Civil War, the death of Michael Collins and the controversy surrounding Cardinal O'Connell of Boston.

Since Cardinal O'Connell has some ties to my family's history, I decided to research him to find out how much of this part of the novel was true.  Not surprisingly the core of this subplot in Shannon is quite accurate.  I guess it just goes to show that truth is stranger than fiction.  I would strongly recommend you follow Father Shannon's trek along the shores of the River Shannon.  Shannon is a timeless and unforgettable story of a troubled man's salvation, belief, duty, devotion - and the healing power of discovering one's true vocation.

The Irish Answer to James Herriot

The Irish Country Doctor Series Continues

Patrick Taylor is the Irish equivalent of James Herriott, the pen name of the British Veterinarian, who brought to life the unique and quirky humor of a veterinarian in rural England, through his All Creatures Great and Small series.  I continued my reading of this series this past summer.  Pardon my late entries.  Be assured I have stopped 

Taylor has done the same thing with his Irish Country Doctor series. Taylor, a medical doctor himself, places his young medical doctor, fresh out of Queen's College Medical School in Belfast, in a small country practice in the fictional village of Ballybucklebo, located just southeast of Belfast, near the coast.

Taylor continues his tremendous storytelling by focusing on Dr. O'Reilly's unflappable housekeeper, Kinky Kincaid, in An Irish Country Girl, the fourth segment in his series.  After reading his first novel in the series, An Irish Country Doctor, I knew I was hooked. This book series is like watching the addictive BBC series on PBS, Downton Abbey.       

The 5th in the series is An Irish Country Courtship.  At this point in the story, you are not quite sure whose courtship is going to be the focus, because both Dr. Fingal O'Flaherty and the young Dr. Barry Laverty have started relationships. Dr. Laverty is trying to recover from a breakup with his love, Patricia, who basically told him life as a general practitioner's wife in a backwater town is not for her. And Barry is starting to question whether he is cut out for life as a GP in a small village. So has Barry found a new love or has he managed to rekindle the embers from his relationship with Patricia.  

Don't forget Fingal!  He has rekindled a relationship with his first love Kitty O'Halloran, who he met years ago as young medical student.   

If you haven't tried this series, you need to pick up the first novel in the set, An Irish Country Doctor. You will fall in love with Taylor's cast of quirky characters and the trials and tribulations in the life of a GP in a small Northern Ireland village.

A Tribute to Seamus Heaney!

I am not sure how many people took note of the recent passing of Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney, but this post from Booklist, dated August 30, pays a very moving tribute to this Irish poet.  While I was always aware of Seamus Heaney, I have never spent time reading his poetry, and I regret that.  But that is something I can remedy.  Rest In Peace!

The following is the tribute to Heaney as posted at Booklist Blog by Donna Seaman...

"Why are poets only in the news when they die? How I wish I heard the name Seamus Heaney this morning on the air waves because he had a new book coming out, or because he was reading poems at the United Nations, trying to bring some sense and sensibility to world affairs. Alas, the great Irish poet, successor to Yeats, made the news with a death too early.

Heaney’s work was borne of his deep awareness of and respect for the tangible world, the long reach of human experience, and our connection to all of life, a reality all too many of us take for granted. In reviewing his most recent collection, Human Chain, I wrote, “Nobel laureate Heaney is an earthy and mythic poet who channels the music and suffering of Ireland and, beyond that, the spiral of cultivation and destruction that sustains and endangers humankind. These are loamy, time-saturated poems, at once humble and exalted, taproots reaching into the underworld, flowers opening to the sun.”

Heaney’s poems span his life. In one of his most famous poems, “Digging,” from 1966, he writes,

Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests.
I’ll dig with it.

In a poem from Human Chain (2010), “In the Attic,”

As I age and blank on names,
As my uncertainty on stairs
Is more and more lightheadedness
Of a cabin boy’s first time on the rigging,
As the memorable bottoms out
Into the irretrievable,
It’s not that I can’t imagine still
That slight untoward rupture and world-tilt
As a wind freshened and the anchor weighed.