by Michael B. Oren ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 23, 2015
Even before its publication, Oren’s book has been attacked, based on culls of provocative pieces. Readers would do well to...
The former Israeli ambassador to the United States balances his personal story with his ambassadorial history.
American-born Israeli historian Oren (Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East: 1776 to the Present, 2007, etc.), who is currently a member of the Knesset, is forthright in his memoir of service as ambassador from 2009 to 2013, years of some discord between the two proud allies. A former paratrooper, his performance is on a tight rope fixed by his love at one end for the nation where he was born and, at the other, the beloved spiritual land of his forefathers. Beyond the speeches and state dinners, crisis management was a constant duty, as terrorism never abated (in 1996, Oren’s sister-in-law was killed by a Hamas bomber). He represented Israel during the ill-fated Arab Spring, and Turkey, once friendly, turned hostile. Visiting Vice President Joe Biden was twice offended, and Oren was blindsided by unsanctioned announcements of increased settlements. There was turmoil in Egypt and, internationally, calls for boycotts, divestments, and sanctions against Israel. Amid burgeoning anti-Semitism, there arose an existential threat with Iran’s steady march toward nuclear weaponry—not to mention an often hostile press. Oren has seen shifts toward abandonment of the working paradigms of the historic alliance, and his characterizations of various key legislators, government functionaries, and ill-informed pundits are deft and pointed. The author is candid in his admiration of his former boss, Benjamin Netanyahu. Less warm is his assessment of the American president, whom the former ambassador found sometimes inspiring but too often cerebral, remote, and deficient in understanding the political machinations of the Middle East. Throughout, the author proves a genuine, ardent advocate for the well-being of his beleaguered homeland and its ongoing alliance with the land of his birth.
Even before its publication, Oren’s book has been attacked, based on culls of provocative pieces. Readers would do well to attend to the entire text of this fluent, important political memoir.Pub Date: June 23, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-8129-9641-8
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2015
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by Elie Wiesel & translated by Marion Wiesel ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 16, 2006
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
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by Elie Wiesel ; edited by Alan Rosen
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by Elie Wiesel ; illustrated by Mark Podwal
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by Chris Gardner with Quincy Troupe ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 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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