Thwarted love, scandal, and tragedy among royals, this time played out in the genuinely moving story of Michael Romanov. At the beginning of the century, the Romanov rulers of Russia faced turmoil both in politics and in their personal lives. Scandals and feuds erupted as various Romanovs defied Tsar Nicholas by marrying commoners and divorcÇes, and by taking sides for or against the controversial Tsaritsa Alexandra. Because Michael, Nicholas's younger brother by ten years, was a potential heir to the throne, his personal life carried very public implications. Thus, when he fell in love with a married woman (and divorcÇe), Natasha Wulfert, it was both a political and a family scandal. After fathering a son with her, Michael, a loyal lover and dedicated family man, defied the tsar's orders and married Natasha secretly in Vienna. Outraged, Nicholas took drastic measures, denying him money and removing him from the regency. Yet after spending several years in European exile, Michael and Natasha returned to Russia with the outbreak of WW I; when the Motherland was at stake, family rows could be put aside. Their return also led to their tragic end: Michael, chosen by Nicholas as his heir upon his abdication, was imprisoned and executed by the Bolsheviks in 1918, while Natasha later died alone and destitute in Paris. The Crawfords, British journalists, tell two stories here: the compelling account of a private romance and enduring love, and a less focused narrative of the historical circumstances that determined the couple's fate. Well researched, but lengthy and overly detailed, the book will appeal especially to fans of royal romances. Given this intimate and persuasive account of a decent, honest man, readers cannot help but wonder about the course of history if only Michael, and not Nicholas, had been tsar. (16 pages b&w photos, not seen)
Pub Date: Nov. 4, 1997
ISBN: 0-684-83430-8
Page Count: 441
Publisher: Scribner
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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