A historically intriguing and tender retrospective.
In this debut book, a writer offers a tribute to his mother, who left Denmark after World War II to marry a handsome American soldier.
Born in 1923 in a small town in Denmark, Inge Elizabeth Buus grew up on the family farm, a successful enterprise. But she did not take to country life. She decided to study nursing and, to that end, moved to Copenhagen after finishing high school. Nursing was satisfying, but her ankles, weakened from rickets, became compromised, and Inge secured a high-paying job as a bookkeeper for “Burmeister and Wain, the largest shipyard in Denmark.” The Germans occupied Denmark in 1940. Although the country was under the yoke of the Third Reich, Hitler’s demand for new ships brought temporary prosperity. Peterson’s attention to the details of the war as experienced in Denmark creates one of the more captivating sections of the book. Following the Nazis’ surrender, Robert, an American soldier stationed in Germany, took his 10-day leave in Copenhagen. At a dance for GIs and British soldiers, he met Inge. After a week’s courtship, Inge knew she had found her life partner; 10 months later, in September 1946, she sailed to America to marry him. The author was born in November 1947. Over the course of his mother’s life, she would make 24 trips back to Denmark, 11 of those accompanied by Peterson. His comprehensive account of those journeys, including, it seems, a citing of every tourist and off-the-beaten-track spot they visited, forms a travelogue of sorts within the larger narrative. Especially close to his mother, the author delivers recollections of his own life that primarily concern activities he shared with his parents, especially Inge. He does devote several pages to a strange and tiresome obsession over what he believes was an inadequate third grade education. And some readers are likely to find his occasional political snark off-putting. He refers to payroll taxes as supporting “restrictive government programs…designed to mollify ‘the little people.’ ” The generally engaging prose is augmented with a substantial supply of black-and-white and color family photographs.
A historically intriguing and tender retrospective.Pub Date: April 15, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-949735-76-5
Page Count: 210
Publisher: Ideopage Press Solutions
Review Posted Online: March 24, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Brisk, sharp, and elegant.
Film critic and memoirist Sayre (Previous Convictions, 1995) recalls her astonishing circle of acquaintances in mid-1950s London.
“Like millions of young Americans with knapsacks and bicycles,” she writes, Sayre headed to England at 22 to find what London might hold. There her resemblance to any typical American youth ends. The daughter of a New Yorker writer, she was soon taken up by her parents’ London friends (a cross-section of the period’s intelligentsia that few 22-year-olds could ever dream of meeting) and enjoyed a five-year stay in the company of history makers. Her first apartment came courtesy of Arthur Koestler, Tyrone Guthrie hired her to research scripts for his theater company, critic John Davenport helped her navigate the London literary scene, and A.J. Liebling became her dinner companion. In the wrong hands, such a tale could be insufferably smug; happily, Sayre is a charming raconteur with a light comic touch that comes into play when she recalls such incidents as Graham Greene, outraged by a savage review from Liebling, running in circles around her and a companion who had been seen with Liebling earlier in the evening. Interleaved with tales of stars—Katherine Hepburn grousing about a friend’s rusty garden tools, Ingrid Bergman’s musings on Casablanca’s two final scenes—is fine political history. An extended chapter on the blacklisted Hollywood community gives vivid insight to the motivations of the exiles and provides an excellent précis of what was happening in the artistic community back home, long before most Americans had a comprehensive view of the anticommunist battle. “All this history was new to me. . . . About twenty years passed before it was publicly discussed in my own country.” Sayre is not above the tasty details, however; she lards her entire narrative with descriptions of who wore what and how their houses were decorated.
Brisk, sharp, and elegant.Pub Date: June 5, 2001
ISBN: 1-58243-144-2
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Counterpoint
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
A competent memoir about World War II Germany.
The story of a German family’s struggles during Hitler’s reign.
McIntosh attempts to explore–and perhaps atone for–the sins of Hitler’s Germany via this carefully related story of one family. Intimate tales of domestic drama mix with historical accounts of Hitler’s youth in Vienna, his entrance into German politics, rise to power and, ultimately, his demise. The author’s implication is clear–Hitler is a self-serving outsider who weasels his way, with more charm than integrity, into an essentially good nation, only to ruin it. McIntosh, a German born during Hitler’s rise, writes with a sense of contrition only truly available to those who directly experienced the dictator’s rule. However, she tends to insinuate her own perspective into her protagonists’ speech and thought. Her characters often speak as if they were reading from a 21st-century analysis of the crimes committed in Nazi Germany, possessing strong insight into the unfolding events. In the preface, McIntosh thanks a friend for ridding her manuscript of “Germanisms.” Though her writing remains free of such errors, it is clear that English is not her first language–the prose is clean but indicates that the composition cost her much time and effort. An able craftswoman, McIntosh has yet to elevate her writing to the level of art.
A competent memoir about World War II Germany.Pub Date: June 27, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-7414-3971-9
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
