A thoughtful, troubling addition to the literature of the Holocaust.
A descendant charts a Jewish family’s unusual course through the years of the Third Reich.
In 1938, Adolf Hitler ordered that the Munich synagogue be demolished, and its rubble was bulldozed into the Isar river. Years later, writes English novelist Dunthorne, workmen noticed that the “rubble buried in the riverbed was unusually ornate” and began the long course of excavating it to restore the building. It’s a perfect metaphor for his book, which, among many other storylines, charts his Jewish great-grandfather’s problematic career as a chemical manufacturer who promoted the received wisdom of the day that thorium and other radioactive elements constituted “a miracle cure and the source of mysterious powers,” used as ingredients in things as various as toothpaste, energy drinks, and even lingerie. Great-grandfather Siegfried also made poisonous gases, some quite diabolical: One penetrated a gas mask and prompted retching, driving the wearer to take off the mask and inhale still more deadly components. Siegfried’s laboratory was in Oranienburg, a center not just of scientific research but also of the SS, the chemical plant next door to a concentration camp, and a production facility that made uranium oxide for the secret Nazi atomic bomb project. Siegfried and his family left for Turkey when anti-Jewish laws were promulgated, but in exile he still worked for the chemical firm, one of whose poisonous gases was used against Kurds in eastern Turkey, killing some 13,160 civilians around the town of Dersim, which, Dunthorne writes, “has led to rumors that the Nazis saw Dersim as a proof of concept.” That Siegfried was aware of the implications of his work may have led, after he emigrated to the U.S., to a mental breakdown. Dunthorne’s winding story embraces other family members whose histories were less freighted with guilt, but Siegfried’s lies at its heart as a cautionary tale of accommodating evil.
A thoughtful, troubling addition to the literature of the Holocaust.Pub Date: April 1, 2025
ISBN: 9781982180751
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Jan. 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
A frank and funny but uneven essay collection about neurodiversity.
An experimental, illustrated essay collection that questions neurotypical definitions of what is normal.
From a young age, writer and comedian Myers has been different. In addition to coping with obsessive compulsive disorder and panic attacks, she struggled to read basic social cues. During a round of seven minutes in heaven—a game in which two players spend seven minutes in a closet and are expected to kiss—Myers misread the romantic advances of her best friend and longtime crush, Marley. In Paris, she accidentally invited a sex worker to join her friends for “board games and beer,” thinking he was simply a random stranger who happened to be hitting on her. In community college, a stranger’s request for a pen spiraled her into a panic attack but resulted in a tentative friendship. When the author moved to Australia, she began taking notes on her colleagues in an effort to know them better. As the author says to her co-worker, Tabitha, “there are unspoken social contracts within a workplace that—by some miracle—everyone else already understands, and I don’t….When things Go Without Saying, they Never Get Said, and sometimes people need you to Say Those Things So They Understand What The Hell Is Going On.” At its best, Myers’ prose is vulnerable and humorous, capturing characterization in small but consequential life moments, and her illustrations beautifully complement the text. Unfortunately, the author’s tendency toward unnecessary capitalization and experimental forms is often unsuccessful, breaking the book’s otherwise steady rhythm.
A frank and funny but uneven essay collection about neurodiversity.Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9780063381308
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2025
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