by Joanne D. Gilbert ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 2018
Well-researched and powerful; challenges readers to consider the heroism and struggles of women’s resistance.
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Gilbert provides a necessary, historically rich account of the Polish Jewish resistance via the perspectives of four women.
The author interviewed four Jewish women who survived the Holocaust: Manya Feldman, Faye Schulman, Lola Lieber, and Miriam Brysk. Each went on to live long lives abroad with various careers—a Hebrew School teacher, photographer, research scientist, and artist. In her debut nonfiction work, which borrows its title from a biblical phrase (“A woman of valor is robed in strength and dignity and faces the future with grace”), Gilbert immerses readers in the lives of her interviewees; photographs and helpful notes that provide historical background are interspersed throughout. Gilbert also “interviewed several Polish Gentile women who had been active in the Resistance” who asked that their stories not be included in the text. Each narrative is remarkable in its own right, extensively limning the horrors of World War II. In Manya Feldman’s chapter, for example, she tells Gilbert, “I would learn much later that my mother and precious little sisters were among the fifteen-thousand innocent Jews that were rounded up and sent to Sarny to be ‘liquidated’ during that hideous week in August 1942.” Faye Schulman describes her experiences developing horrific photos for the Nazis (“Before my eyes, appearing like phantoms on the photo paper, I again saw the heinous deaths of my neighbors, my friends…and my own precious family”); Lola Lieber recounts pretending to be Catholic and mimicking "Gentile mannerisms, and speech patterns." The chapter about Lieber includes an anecdote with Adolf Eichmann (“I was struck by how absolutely normal he looked”). Taken together, these recollections are intensely personal and thoughtfully compiled—richly descriptive of the women’s day-to-day experiences during the war while also providing historical context. Miriam Brysk’s story best epitomizes the text’s matter-of-fact style, as when she remembers her family’s arrival at a shared apartment in the town of Lublin: “There was very little furniture, but we felt safe and happy to be in our own apartment. We were especially happy to be able to celebrate our first Passover in six years.”
Well-researched and powerful; challenges readers to consider the heroism and struggles of women’s resistance.Pub Date: July 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-73244-511-6
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Adira Press
Review Posted Online: May 6, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
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by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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