Fitting somewhere between the stories of Lawrence of Arabia and Anna and the king of Siam, this is nicely recounted by the Jewish carpenter's daughter and son-in-law, bracketed by their own pertinent observations. Actually, Mendel Cohen was more than a simple carpenter. He was a contractor to the king. Abdullah, the only Arab chief known to have talked directly with Israeli leaders, was the first ruler of Transjordan (as it was then known), an entity created shortly before the birth of Israel. Cohen, a native of Jerusalem and fluent in Arabic, was hired in 1937 by then-Emir Abdullah to refurbish his palace in Amman. Work led to friendship, and Cohen soon became familiar with the royal household and the inevitable court intrigue. Portraits of Abdullah's sons, the slow Naif and the explosive Talal (father of Jordan's present king, Hussein), the noble characters, and the wily courtiers are all drawn neatly. The stories related here range from the operation of the harem to feasts in the emir's tent, where an entire roasted camel was not an unusual entree. More than a royal backstairs exposÇ, this is a thoughtful text, respectful of Arab ways and the teachings of Islam as well as the lessons of the writers' own heritage. Biblical history is felt as a current presence. The forces of enmity that finally separated Cohen and the king (in 1948, Cohen fought in the Israel Defense Force against the Arab forces commanded by Abdullah) have not abated, yet years later, visiting Amman at the invitation of Hussein, Cohen's daughter found reason in her father's experiences to hope for peace. An engaging story and a vision of friendship, seen perhaps through rose-tinted glasses, but nevertheless a rare upbeat view in a particularly dim season for Mideast peace. (8 pages b&w photos, not seen)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1997
ISBN: 1-55970-391-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Arcade
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1997
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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