January and February Reading
Persuasion by Jane Austen
A few years before Anne Elliot had been a very pretty girl, but her bloom had vanished early; and as, even in its height, her father had found little to admire in her (so totally different were her delicate features and mild dark eyes from his own), there could be nothing in them, now that she was faded and thin, to excite his esteem.
I loved this book. Anne has been persuaded to break off her engagement with a man she loves. He comes back into her life seven years later, now a Captain. The details are what is important. You hold your breath whenever the Captain enters the room. Each nod, look and word spoken are meaningful. Austen weaves a finely textured story.
The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust by Edith H. Beer
These nurses were not well-educated women from progressive homes... They had been raised in the Nazi era on Nazi propoganda. They truly believed that, as Nordic "Aryans" they were members of a superior race.
This book is about a young woman who grew up in Vienna, her struggle to survive, and the luck that saves her. She has a boyfriend who is half-Jewish who does not help her. When she has decided not to report to the Nazis and is hiding, going from place to place and even sleeping in the streets, her boyfriend says to her, "You don't know what it's like to be associated with someone like you."
When she is ready to turn herself in, she finds a way to assume a Christian identity. She moves to Munich (!) and a German man falls in love with her. They marry and she lives out the rest of the war, married to a Nazi Officer. I really enjoyed this story. She lets you into her thoughts, her guilt, her fears.
The only thing about it that doesn't quite add up is why she moved from Vienna to Munich. I know she was young, didn't know where to go, and was told to leave Vienna. But I don't understand why she felt compelled to go to a place filled with more Nazis. The book has a lot of documentation, and appears to be very credible (not even a question I've asked with other Holocaust books), but this one made me feel like maybe there was a piece of the puzzle that I didn't have.
With The Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa by E. B. Sledge
I recalled some of the eloquent phrases of politicians and newsmen about how "gallant" it is for a man to "shed his blood for his country" and "to give his life's blood as a sacrifice," and so on. The words seemed so ridiculous. Only the flies benefitted.
This is a fabulous book. It is about a marine serving in the Pacific during WWII. His description of the life of a marine in wartime is direct, brutal, and honest. You get a glimpse of what life was like in the foxholes, trying to kill and not be killed, to be wet and cold for days, to be tired and exhausted beyond reasonable limits, to see death, loss, and waste of youth. Through all of this, Sledge doesn't lose his compassion or his humanity.
The most poignant moment in the book is when Sledge is saying goodbye to a man who who has just been fatally wounded. He knows he is dying, but talks about the good times the man will have in the hospital and back home in America. The boy could be safe at home, but instead he simply isn't, anymore.
I don't think it's possible to understand what a soldier experiences during war, but this book gets you as a close to it as a book can.
China Marine by E. B. Sledge
In the fall of 1945, there existed in China a power vacuum that many opposing factions stood ready to fill. Into this seething cauldron of political and ideological unrest we arrived - the survivors of the battle of Okinawa - more like schoolboys on holiday than mighty conquerors.
This is the follow-up to With the Old Breed. It's good, but not as great as the first book. Eugene is stationed in China where he sees the "last of old China and the rise of the Communist state". Then, he returns home. We read about the difficulty he has adjusting to life back in the States and the slow return to normalcy.
The Flamboya Tree: Memories of a Mother's Wartime Courage by Clara Kelly
"Why didn't you try to escape?" That was all she said. Not "Thank God you made it. Now you are safe."
"Why didn't you try to escape?" Why was she saying that? She was supposed to be so happy to see us. I saw again in my mind's eye the barbwire fences and the soldiers with their glistening bayonets, and felt once more that excruciating fear in the pit of my stomach. Try to escape? Lots of people had tried to escape.
When Clara was four, she was living with her Dutch family in Java, an island in Indonesia. Their peaceful life is torn apart by the war. First, her father is taken away by the Japanese. Clara, her mother, and her brothers are sent to a Japanese concentration camp. She remembers vividly the brutality of the guards, the squalor of the living conditions, the sickness, and the starvation. Most of all, she remembers how her mother kept them together and kept them alive. This was very similar to Holocaust survivor accounts that I have read. The Japanese were similar to the Germans in their cruelty (the difference being the Japanese weren't systemically murdering millions). I highly recommend it.
A Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver Van Demille
Any effort to "fix education" will fail for two reasons. First, education is so many things to so many people: for some education means job training, for others it means fixing social problems, still others see education as job security and a source of political clout... Second, the problems of education seem seem varied and complex; but the complexity is a myth...The fact is that the only person who can fix education is the student.
This was a good book, but not great. It's basic premise is that having a mentor and reading "the classics" are essential to a good education. It's written clearly, has nice ideas, but didn't give me too many new things to think about. It did motivate me to start Reading Journals for the girls.
The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
Your man has been accustomed, ever since he was a boy, to having a dozen incompatible philosophies dancing about together inside his head. He doesn't think of doctrines as primarily "true" or "false," but as "academic" or "practical," "outworn" or "contemporary," "conventional" or "ruthless." Jargon, not argument, is your best ally in keeping him from the Church. Don't waste time trying to make him think that materialism is true! Make him think it is strong or stark or courageous — that it is the philosophy of the future. That's the sort of thing he cares about.
This was a great read. The writing is careful and dense. I found myself re-reading many of the sections to get the full impact of what he was saying. It's written from a devil's perspective, so everything is in negative. I think if it had been written straight (perhaps letters from a guardian angel) it would have come off very preachy. As it is, where you keep flipping the ideas around in your mind, it works.
