> a mother seeks her son's safety and inadvertently finds love
> a bureaucrat seeks answers and finds love
> The son seeks vengeance and finds acceptance
> Themes: nature and the power of love, acceptance, surprises in life and the importance of looking beyond the superficial
> Title: what lies beneath a stereotype, the unexpected
Review: Absolutely wonderfully written story! This is a story with great setting (Canadian wilderness), wonderfully developed characters, and one of the best mystery plots I have read in a long time. This is a full fledged novel, not just a mystery. This is a story of loneliness, the evolution of people's lives, the power of love, and the manner in which people make the small and big choices which change their lives forever.
A murder occurs, journeys begin, nature teaches lessons to all, and the scariest of individuals demonstrate their capacity for tenderness....hence the title. Great read!
Saturday, March 26, 2011
"The Tin Drum" by Gunter Grass - *****
> Setting: Insane asylum post WWII in Germany....and the preceding years of Oskar's life
> published in 1959
> As a boy, Oskar, born in 1924, receives a drum and becomes obsessively attached, using a glass-breaking scream to stop anyone from taking it away
> Oskar alternates between 1st & 3rd person narration when referring to himself
> Book is set up as an autobiography being written by Oskar as an inmate of the asylum
>Characters: Mama, Jan Bronski (her lover, and natural father of Oskar), Matzerath (her husband), Bebra (the midget, clown)
> Bebra recognizes Oskar as having stopped his own growth, forewarns of Nazis, "always take care to be sitting on the rostrum and not standing out in front of it."
> 1934-1938 - Oskar disrupted rallies with his drum from under rostrums, "transforming marches to waltzes"
> Favorite quote, refers to being under his grandmother's 4 skirts: "I was looking for Africa under the skirts, or perhaps Naples, which, as we all know, one must have seen before dying. This was the watershed, the union of all streams; here special winds blew, or else there was no wind at all; dry and warm, you could listen to the whishing of the rain; here ships made fast or weighed anchors; here our Heavenly Father, who has always been a love of warmth, sat beside Oskar; the Devil cleaned his spyglass and the angels played blindman's bluff; beneath my grandmother's skirts it was always summer, even when it was time to light the candles for Christmas or to hunt for Easter eggs; even on All Saints Day. Nowhere could I have been more at peace with the calendar than beneath my grandmother's skirts."
> O tempted people who looked at an item in a shop window by breaking a hole in a window from a distance with his voice....watched them steal the item
> p.130 "... a doorway is the favorite dwelling place of evil"
>p.138 word play with religious symbols is great ....i.e....Jesus as an athlete, champion hanger on cross with "regulation nails"
> p.180...."To remain human without external growth, what a task, what a vocation!"....Signora Roswitha, Bebra's lover
> house of cards imagery....Polish resistance to German invasion
> card playing - repetitive image of ephemeral, chancy nature of life
> vocab: occiput: back of the skull or head, sacerdotal: priestly
> p.247 - I have never been able to look at a building under construction without fancying the same building in the process of being torn down."...Oskar and his anarchic way of thinking
> p.248 "I tend, like everyone else, to make allowances for my ignorance, the ignorance which came into style in those years and which even today quite a few of our citizens wear like a jaunty and oh so becoming little hat.".....Oskar regarding his "importunate feeling of guilt" which "sits on the very pillows of my hospital bed"....guilt of feeling responsible for his mother's and Jan Bronski's deaths....symbolically the deaths cause by the Nazis
> Just as Oskar hid from adulthood in his child-like stature, so too did the German people hide from responsibility for their complicity in the holocaust of WWII
> Oskar's sexual awakening w Maria via "fizzy powder"....wonderful!
> fatherhood....Oskar fathers a son, Kurt (1941) with Maria....she marries Matzerath
> while in Paris, Oskar likened standing under the Eiffel Tower to being under his g'mother's 4 skirts
> June 12, 1944....D-Day, Kurt's 3rd birthday at which Oskar gives him a drum......Kurt whipped him as the Allies whipped Germany
> Oskar joins the adolescent anarchists, "The Dusters"...as their leader, "Jesus", when caught by police he uses his stature to feign innocence, metaphor for defeated Germany
> Matzerath swallows his Nazi Party pin to avoid the wrath of the Russions...he chokes to death on it
> p.404 "It was a jagged pointed lozenge...intending...that he put the Party in his mouth and choke on it....on the Party, on me, his son; for this situation couldn't go on forever." end of the "Fatherland"
> as father is buried, Oskar begins to grow
> Oskar became a hunchback....post-war Germans deformed by past
> sold synthetic honey....false sweetness
> p.436 "...today I know that a postwar binge is only a binge and therefore followed by a hangover, and one symptom of this hangover is that the deeds and misdeeds which only yesterday were fresh and alive and real, are reduced to history and explained as such....".............collective guilt
> p.463 "Oskar...was the shattered image of man, an accusation, a challenge, timeless yet expressing the madness of our century.".....art professor to students for whom Oskar sat as a model
> two sides to human nature......"Goethe" and "Rasputin"
> "The Onion Cellar", a club, all guests peel onions to allow themselves to cry....
> p.525 "It did what the world and the sorrows of the world could not do; it brought forth a round human tear."
> Too many tears led to chaos, releasing too much sorrow, Oskar calmed the guests by drumming them back to their childhoods
> No matter what Oskar chooses to do with his life, he knows he will be heckled by the "Black Witch".....the powerful dark side of life....death
> AMAZING NOVEL!!!!
> LibraryThing Review: This novel ranks among the most brilliant pieces of fiction that I have ever read. A 589 page metaphor for the pain and shame of the German people from the period of WWII. Oskar, the self stunted midget who expresses himself via his tin drum and shatters glass with his voice with a precision not to be believed (Kristallnacht) and who hides in his 3 year old body to avoid taking responsibility for his choices is the epitome of the anarchist. He drums the psyche of the Rasputin and the Goethe in every German. The satiric humor is absolutely brilliant. I caught myself laughing and then self-recriminating because it wasn't funny at all! I will never forget the imagery of Oskar craving the safety of hiding beneath the four skirts of his grandmother, his sexual awakening, and his love of nurses. The themes in this book include: the dichotomy of human beings, fear, shame, love, and the very human struggle to survive our own human frailties.
> published in 1959
> As a boy, Oskar, born in 1924, receives a drum and becomes obsessively attached, using a glass-breaking scream to stop anyone from taking it away
> Oskar alternates between 1st & 3rd person narration when referring to himself
> Book is set up as an autobiography being written by Oskar as an inmate of the asylum
>Characters: Mama, Jan Bronski (her lover, and natural father of Oskar), Matzerath (her husband), Bebra (the midget, clown)
> Bebra recognizes Oskar as having stopped his own growth, forewarns of Nazis, "always take care to be sitting on the rostrum and not standing out in front of it."
> 1934-1938 - Oskar disrupted rallies with his drum from under rostrums, "transforming marches to waltzes"
> Favorite quote, refers to being under his grandmother's 4 skirts: "I was looking for Africa under the skirts, or perhaps Naples, which, as we all know, one must have seen before dying. This was the watershed, the union of all streams; here special winds blew, or else there was no wind at all; dry and warm, you could listen to the whishing of the rain; here ships made fast or weighed anchors; here our Heavenly Father, who has always been a love of warmth, sat beside Oskar; the Devil cleaned his spyglass and the angels played blindman's bluff; beneath my grandmother's skirts it was always summer, even when it was time to light the candles for Christmas or to hunt for Easter eggs; even on All Saints Day. Nowhere could I have been more at peace with the calendar than beneath my grandmother's skirts."
> O tempted people who looked at an item in a shop window by breaking a hole in a window from a distance with his voice....watched them steal the item
> p.130 "... a doorway is the favorite dwelling place of evil"
>p.138 word play with religious symbols is great ....i.e....Jesus as an athlete, champion hanger on cross with "regulation nails"
> p.180...."To remain human without external growth, what a task, what a vocation!"....Signora Roswitha, Bebra's lover
> house of cards imagery....Polish resistance to German invasion
> card playing - repetitive image of ephemeral, chancy nature of life
> vocab: occiput: back of the skull or head, sacerdotal: priestly
> p.247 - I have never been able to look at a building under construction without fancying the same building in the process of being torn down."...Oskar and his anarchic way of thinking
> p.248 "I tend, like everyone else, to make allowances for my ignorance, the ignorance which came into style in those years and which even today quite a few of our citizens wear like a jaunty and oh so becoming little hat.".....Oskar regarding his "importunate feeling of guilt" which "sits on the very pillows of my hospital bed"....guilt of feeling responsible for his mother's and Jan Bronski's deaths....symbolically the deaths cause by the Nazis
> Just as Oskar hid from adulthood in his child-like stature, so too did the German people hide from responsibility for their complicity in the holocaust of WWII
> Oskar's sexual awakening w Maria via "fizzy powder"....wonderful!
> fatherhood....Oskar fathers a son, Kurt (1941) with Maria....she marries Matzerath
> while in Paris, Oskar likened standing under the Eiffel Tower to being under his g'mother's 4 skirts
> June 12, 1944....D-Day, Kurt's 3rd birthday at which Oskar gives him a drum......Kurt whipped him as the Allies whipped Germany
> Oskar joins the adolescent anarchists, "The Dusters"...as their leader, "Jesus", when caught by police he uses his stature to feign innocence, metaphor for defeated Germany
> Matzerath swallows his Nazi Party pin to avoid the wrath of the Russions...he chokes to death on it
> p.404 "It was a jagged pointed lozenge...intending...that he put the Party in his mouth and choke on it....on the Party, on me, his son; for this situation couldn't go on forever." end of the "Fatherland"
> as father is buried, Oskar begins to grow
> Oskar became a hunchback....post-war Germans deformed by past
> sold synthetic honey....false sweetness
> p.436 "...today I know that a postwar binge is only a binge and therefore followed by a hangover, and one symptom of this hangover is that the deeds and misdeeds which only yesterday were fresh and alive and real, are reduced to history and explained as such....".............collective guilt
> p.463 "Oskar...was the shattered image of man, an accusation, a challenge, timeless yet expressing the madness of our century.".....art professor to students for whom Oskar sat as a model
> two sides to human nature......"Goethe" and "Rasputin"
> "The Onion Cellar", a club, all guests peel onions to allow themselves to cry....
> p.525 "It did what the world and the sorrows of the world could not do; it brought forth a round human tear."
> Too many tears led to chaos, releasing too much sorrow, Oskar calmed the guests by drumming them back to their childhoods
> No matter what Oskar chooses to do with his life, he knows he will be heckled by the "Black Witch".....the powerful dark side of life....death
> AMAZING NOVEL!!!!
> LibraryThing Review: This novel ranks among the most brilliant pieces of fiction that I have ever read. A 589 page metaphor for the pain and shame of the German people from the period of WWII. Oskar, the self stunted midget who expresses himself via his tin drum and shatters glass with his voice with a precision not to be believed (Kristallnacht) and who hides in his 3 year old body to avoid taking responsibility for his choices is the epitome of the anarchist. He drums the psyche of the Rasputin and the Goethe in every German. The satiric humor is absolutely brilliant. I caught myself laughing and then self-recriminating because it wasn't funny at all! I will never forget the imagery of Oskar craving the safety of hiding beneath the four skirts of his grandmother, his sexual awakening, and his love of nurses. The themes in this book include: the dichotomy of human beings, fear, shame, love, and the very human struggle to survive our own human frailties.
"The Swan Thieves" by Elizabeth Kostova - ***
> Setting: Washington, D.C., present day and Paris 1870s
> Plot: Man attacks painting @ National Gallery, admitted to psych clinic.....refuses to speak, draws same woman obsessively.....psychiatrist, Marlowe, tries to piece his life together through packet of old letters and conversation with patient's ex-wife and ex-lover
> Loss of aimlessness....used to be enjoyed by leafing through books randomly, replaced by "surfing the net"....is it equivalent? Author says not.....no smell of books!
> awareness of very real lives of people in the past
> dual story lines done very well
> nice info on Impressionism
> Themes: love, art, artists, fate, honor, self-discovery through relationships, choices
> LibraryThing Review: Audiobook.......Mixed review. Interesting enough plot....a psychiatrist tries to unravel the story of his patient who refuses to speak. Let's just say that the psychiatrist breaks every rule of confidentiality known to mankind, and if this artist patient is at all true to form...beware living with an impassioned artist! Seriously, if you are not yet tired of the ubiquitous dual story line, you may find this to be a long, yet enjoyable read. Themes include....life of artists, love, passion, persistence, and obsession.
> Plot: Man attacks painting @ National Gallery, admitted to psych clinic.....refuses to speak, draws same woman obsessively.....psychiatrist, Marlowe, tries to piece his life together through packet of old letters and conversation with patient's ex-wife and ex-lover
> Loss of aimlessness....used to be enjoyed by leafing through books randomly, replaced by "surfing the net"....is it equivalent? Author says not.....no smell of books!
> awareness of very real lives of people in the past
> dual story lines done very well
> nice info on Impressionism
> Themes: love, art, artists, fate, honor, self-discovery through relationships, choices
> LibraryThing Review: Audiobook.......Mixed review. Interesting enough plot....a psychiatrist tries to unravel the story of his patient who refuses to speak. Let's just say that the psychiatrist breaks every rule of confidentiality known to mankind, and if this artist patient is at all true to form...beware living with an impassioned artist! Seriously, if you are not yet tired of the ubiquitous dual story line, you may find this to be a long, yet enjoyable read. Themes include....life of artists, love, passion, persistence, and obsession.
"Bury Your Dead" by Louise Penny - ****
Audiobook......A little slow to start but this Three Pines installment was wonderful. I am not embarrassed to admit that at one point I wept! I love Three Pines!
"The Sound & The Fury" by William Faulkner - *
Well, I can honestly say that I have met my match. "The Sound and The Fury" is considered a brilliant work by many, but I feel like I moved into an entirely new plane of existence, one for which I am utterly unprepared. Faulkner's exercise in removing the dimension of time, not just chronology, resulted in one of the most unpleasant reading experiences I have had in a very long time. I like to read....I love to think about what I read....in this case I found myself thinking about not wanting to read! The only silver lining to this cloud of a novel was that I read the Norton Critical Edition, which contained fascinating information. Jean-Paul Sartre, of whom I am a lifelong devotee, wrote the most helpful essay about the novel. Not helpful enough, however!
"The Italian Secretary" by Caleb Carr - ***
> Carr was commissioned by the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to write this book
> Setting: Victorian Scotland @ Holyrood Castle
> I love Caleb Carr's use of language, always have
> I could visualize Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law throughout
> LibraryThing Review: A really enjoyable Sherlock Holmes romp! Apparently Caleb Carr was invited by the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to write such a tale, and I felt like he did the task more than justice. In the afterword, Carr is also challenged to write a tale in which his own alienist, Kreizler, meets up with Holmes. It would be a wonderful combination of the scientific medical mind and the psychological.
> Setting: Victorian Scotland @ Holyrood Castle
> I love Caleb Carr's use of language, always have
> I could visualize Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law throughout
> LibraryThing Review: A really enjoyable Sherlock Holmes romp! Apparently Caleb Carr was invited by the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to write such a tale, and I felt like he did the task more than justice. In the afterword, Carr is also challenged to write a tale in which his own alienist, Kreizler, meets up with Holmes. It would be a wonderful combination of the scientific medical mind and the psychological.
"Room" by Emma Donoghue - ****
> Setting: somewhere in USA, first in "Room", then clinic, then Grandma's house, then Independent Living Apt.
> Jack (age 5) & Ma
> Ma abducted at age 19 by "Old Nick", kept in a backyard one room shed for seven years....1 miscarriage and then Jack.......they escape into the "World"
> LibraryThing Review: What a moving story! The plot is unique and meaningful on multiple levels, from the intrapsychic, to interpersonal, to the cross-cultural, and spiritual. The wonderful thing about this story is that it can be taken at face value, and stand on its own, or be considered as a metaphor for so much of life. Jack (age 5) and his mother, Ma, escape the room they have occupied all of Jack's life and are suddenly thrust into the world. Reading this novel reminded me of the lovely movie, "Being There" with Peter Sellers and Shirley MacLaine. I think the story and its ramifications will linger with me for quite a while to come.
> Jack (age 5) & Ma
> Ma abducted at age 19 by "Old Nick", kept in a backyard one room shed for seven years....1 miscarriage and then Jack.......they escape into the "World"
> LibraryThing Review: What a moving story! The plot is unique and meaningful on multiple levels, from the intrapsychic, to interpersonal, to the cross-cultural, and spiritual. The wonderful thing about this story is that it can be taken at face value, and stand on its own, or be considered as a metaphor for so much of life. Jack (age 5) and his mother, Ma, escape the room they have occupied all of Jack's life and are suddenly thrust into the world. Reading this novel reminded me of the lovely movie, "Being There" with Peter Sellers and Shirley MacLaine. I think the story and its ramifications will linger with me for quite a while to come.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
"Corrag" by Susan Fletcher. ***
> Setting: Edinburgh, 1692
> Epigraph: "More things are learnt in the woods than in books. Animals, trees and rocks teach you things not to be heard elsewhere." Saint Bernard (1090-1155)
> LibraryThing Review (really bad one): "Corrag" was a lovely, passionate story of the Scottish Highlands. I genuinely enjoyed the rhythms of the writing and the wonderful characters.
> Epigraph: "More things are learnt in the woods than in books. Animals, trees and rocks teach you things not to be heard elsewhere." Saint Bernard (1090-1155)
> LibraryThing Review (really bad one): "Corrag" was a lovely, passionate story of the Scottish Highlands. I genuinely enjoyed the rhythms of the writing and the wonderful characters.
"Cutting For Stone" by Abraham Verghese - *****
> Epigraph: "And because I love this life, I know I shall love death as well. The child cries out when, From the right breast the mother, Takes it away, in the very next moment, To find in the left one,
Its consolation." Rabindranath Tagore
> Setting: Addis Ababa, capital city of Ethiopia, twins birthdate, 9/20/1954
> Characters
>p.3 - "So fertile was that loamy soil that Matron....cautioned us against stepping into it barefoot lest we sprout new toes."
>p.5 - "Years later I leaned that St. Teresa's recurrent vision of the angel was call the transverberation, which the dictionary said was the soul 'inflamed' by the love of God, and the heart "pierced" by divine love; the metaphors of her faith were also the metaphors of medicine."
>p.6 - "Because, Marion, you are an instrument of God. Don't leave the instrument sitting in its case, my son. Play! Leave no part of your instrument unexplored. Why settle for 'Three Blind Mice' when you can play the 'Gloria'?"
>p.31 - "If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans."
>p.53 - called a large woman "magnified"...I like that
> first betrayal was Shiva doing something separate from Marion, learning to dance
> Ghosh loves Hema
>p.64 - "Children were the foot wedged in the closing door, the glimmer of hope that in reincarnation there would be some house to go to, even if one came back as a dog, or a mouse, or a flea that lived on the bodies of men."
> Characters: Twins...Marion & Shiva, their mother...Sister Mary Joseph Praise, the father(?) ...Dr. Stone, Hema...the adoptive mother and the OB/GYN who delivered the twins, Ghosh....adoptive father, Genet....daughter of the cook, best friend of the twins
> Title: p.72> "....while the good doctor recited Cicero and excised a part of himself as blithely as if he were cutting for stone on the body of another. What neither the reader nor Stone would accept was that his self-amputation was as much an act of conceit as it was an act of heroism".......he amputated his own finger after injuring it, Sister Mary Joseph Praise helped him...hence..."Cutting for Stone"
> New Vocab: "excrescences": 1)an abnormal outgrowth on a body or plant, 2) an unattractive or superfluous addition or feature.
>p.112 - "But it was as if the twins' place in the firmament as well as in the earthly order of things had been secured for them even before they were born; she knew that nothing - not even the familiar scent of eucalyptus, or the sight of its leaves thrust into a nostril, or the the drum roll of rain on corrugated tin roof, or the visceral odor of a freshly opened abdomen - could ever be the same again."
> I like the idea Marion uses to describe Shiva's behavior....mentally going up to the tree house in his mind and rolling down the shutters
> the story is marked by progressive, minute separations, all painful for Marion
> Rosina circumcised Genet when she thought Marion deflowered her, it was Shiva
> LibraryThing Review: Normally, I would give a novel such as this a 4 star rating, especially when the author acknowledges how many of the lovely phrases were taken from elsewhere (although credit is due for the acknowledgment). However, I found the story itself incredibly moving. In fact I think I was in tears for the last 75 pages or so. A tale of destiny, love, and passion for life make "Cutting For Stone" a truly memorable read.
Its consolation." Rabindranath Tagore
> Setting: Addis Ababa, capital city of Ethiopia, twins birthdate, 9/20/1954
> Characters
>p.3 - "So fertile was that loamy soil that Matron....cautioned us against stepping into it barefoot lest we sprout new toes."
>p.5 - "Years later I leaned that St. Teresa's recurrent vision of the angel was call the transverberation, which the dictionary said was the soul 'inflamed' by the love of God, and the heart "pierced" by divine love; the metaphors of her faith were also the metaphors of medicine."
>p.6 - "Because, Marion, you are an instrument of God. Don't leave the instrument sitting in its case, my son. Play! Leave no part of your instrument unexplored. Why settle for 'Three Blind Mice' when you can play the 'Gloria'?"
>p.31 - "If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans."
>p.53 - called a large woman "magnified"...I like that
> first betrayal was Shiva doing something separate from Marion, learning to dance
> Ghosh loves Hema
>p.64 - "Children were the foot wedged in the closing door, the glimmer of hope that in reincarnation there would be some house to go to, even if one came back as a dog, or a mouse, or a flea that lived on the bodies of men."
> Characters: Twins...Marion & Shiva, their mother...Sister Mary Joseph Praise, the father(?) ...Dr. Stone, Hema...the adoptive mother and the OB/GYN who delivered the twins, Ghosh....adoptive father, Genet....daughter of the cook, best friend of the twins
> Title: p.72> "....while the good doctor recited Cicero and excised a part of himself as blithely as if he were cutting for stone on the body of another. What neither the reader nor Stone would accept was that his self-amputation was as much an act of conceit as it was an act of heroism".......he amputated his own finger after injuring it, Sister Mary Joseph Praise helped him...hence..."Cutting for Stone"
> New Vocab: "excrescences": 1)an abnormal outgrowth on a body or plant, 2) an unattractive or superfluous addition or feature.
>p.112 - "But it was as if the twins' place in the firmament as well as in the earthly order of things had been secured for them even before they were born; she knew that nothing - not even the familiar scent of eucalyptus, or the sight of its leaves thrust into a nostril, or the the drum roll of rain on corrugated tin roof, or the visceral odor of a freshly opened abdomen - could ever be the same again."
> I like the idea Marion uses to describe Shiva's behavior....mentally going up to the tree house in his mind and rolling down the shutters
> the story is marked by progressive, minute separations, all painful for Marion
> Rosina circumcised Genet when she thought Marion deflowered her, it was Shiva
> LibraryThing Review: Normally, I would give a novel such as this a 4 star rating, especially when the author acknowledges how many of the lovely phrases were taken from elsewhere (although credit is due for the acknowledgment). However, I found the story itself incredibly moving. In fact I think I was in tears for the last 75 pages or so. A tale of destiny, love, and passion for life make "Cutting For Stone" a truly memorable read.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
"Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand - Audio - Book Club 3/11 - *****
> Olympic runner, juvenile delinquent, WWII bombardier
> amazing number of interviews, research
> brother, Peter, sounds saintlike in his support of Louie
> parents unbelievably patient.....today Louie would be in a group home
> tremendously engaging writing, vivid
> met Hitler, placed sixth at Olympics in 3000 meter race
> "only the laundry knew how scared I was"
> so many died without making it to combat, you don't hear about it, 75% 35,000 in non-combat deaths, mechanical, weather
> Louie, Phil, Mac
> " the custom of the sea" - cannibalism @ sea
> difference between Pacific & Atlantic- less stormy
> "the doldrums"-
▶plural noun (the doldrums)
1 a state of stagnation or depression.
2 an equatorial region of the Atlantic Ocean with calms, sudden storms, and light unpredictable winds.
> a dead body breathing......why didn't the guards just kill them, it is beyond me that humans can treat one another so cruelly, the raft was better than the POW camp
> amazing how quickly they became depressed when humiliated over time v. Maintaining their dignity for 2000 miles in a raft
> what is the similarity between Ofuna (sp?) and Guantanamo - "unarmed combatants"
> Explanations for brutality at POW camps:
Japanese: guards at bottom of power structure, " transfer of oppression"
Frederick Douglass: the most timid compensate w/ the greatest ferocity,
> "university of thievery", pow guerilla warfare, sabotaging everything they could, made them feel like soldiers again, some dignity
>p. 365 - "The paradox of vengefulness is that it makes men dependent upon those who have harmed them, believing that their release from pain will come only when they make their tormentors suffer"
>p.367 - "All he had left was his alcohol and his resentment, the emotion that, Jean Amery would write, 'nails every one of us onto the cross of his ruined past.' "
> bizarre that Billy Graham came into his life
>p.375 - It was a promise thrown at heaven, a promise he had not kept, a promise he had allowed himself to forget until just this instant: If you will save me, I will serve you forever."
>p.376 - "When he thought of his history, what resonated with him now was not all that he had suffered but the divine love that he believed hadf intervened to save him. He was not the worthless, broken, forsaken man that the Bird had striven to make of him. In a single, silent moment, his rage, his fear, his humiliation and helplessness, had fallen away. That morning, he believed he was a new creation."
>p.379 - "At that moment, something shifted sweetly inside him. It was forgiveness, beautiful and effortless and complete. For Louie Zamperini, the war was over."
> still active into his tenth decade of life, "When I get old I'll let you know."
Review: "Seabiscuit", and it is true in "Unbroken". I was completely engrossed from the very beginning. Louie, the subject of this biography, is unbelievable. A runner, a juvenile delinquent, a bombardier, a POW, and apparently a man of many heroic qualities to boot. There Re so many angles one could discuss, that all I can say without spoiling the read is read it! Themes include: determination, the power of love and of faith, the depths to which human beings can sink, the power of dignity and the power of taking it away, and above all the tremendous resilience of the human being, both physically and spiritually!
> amazing number of interviews, research
> brother, Peter, sounds saintlike in his support of Louie
> parents unbelievably patient.....today Louie would be in a group home
> tremendously engaging writing, vivid
> met Hitler, placed sixth at Olympics in 3000 meter race
> "only the laundry knew how scared I was"
> so many died without making it to combat, you don't hear about it, 75% 35,000 in non-combat deaths, mechanical, weather
> Louie, Phil, Mac
> " the custom of the sea" - cannibalism @ sea
> difference between Pacific & Atlantic- less stormy
> "the doldrums"-
▶plural noun (the doldrums)
1 a state of stagnation or depression.
2 an equatorial region of the Atlantic Ocean with calms, sudden storms, and light unpredictable winds.
> a dead body breathing......why didn't the guards just kill them, it is beyond me that humans can treat one another so cruelly, the raft was better than the POW camp
> amazing how quickly they became depressed when humiliated over time v. Maintaining their dignity for 2000 miles in a raft
> what is the similarity between Ofuna (sp?) and Guantanamo - "unarmed combatants"
> Explanations for brutality at POW camps:
Japanese: guards at bottom of power structure, " transfer of oppression"
Frederick Douglass: the most timid compensate w/ the greatest ferocity,
> "university of thievery", pow guerilla warfare, sabotaging everything they could, made them feel like soldiers again, some dignity
>p. 365 - "The paradox of vengefulness is that it makes men dependent upon those who have harmed them, believing that their release from pain will come only when they make their tormentors suffer"
>p.367 - "All he had left was his alcohol and his resentment, the emotion that, Jean Amery would write, 'nails every one of us onto the cross of his ruined past.' "
> bizarre that Billy Graham came into his life
>p.375 - It was a promise thrown at heaven, a promise he had not kept, a promise he had allowed himself to forget until just this instant: If you will save me, I will serve you forever."
>p.376 - "When he thought of his history, what resonated with him now was not all that he had suffered but the divine love that he believed hadf intervened to save him. He was not the worthless, broken, forsaken man that the Bird had striven to make of him. In a single, silent moment, his rage, his fear, his humiliation and helplessness, had fallen away. That morning, he believed he was a new creation."
>p.379 - "At that moment, something shifted sweetly inside him. It was forgiveness, beautiful and effortless and complete. For Louie Zamperini, the war was over."
> still active into his tenth decade of life, "When I get old I'll let you know."
Review: "Seabiscuit", and it is true in "Unbroken". I was completely engrossed from the very beginning. Louie, the subject of this biography, is unbelievable. A runner, a juvenile delinquent, a bombardier, a POW, and apparently a man of many heroic qualities to boot. There Re so many angles one could discuss, that all I can say without spoiling the read is read it! Themes include: determination, the power of love and of faith, the depths to which human beings can sink, the power of dignity and the power of taking it away, and above all the tremendous resilience of the human being, both physically and spiritually!
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