America’s Forgotten Hisitory

Posted on May 19, 2013 | 2 Comments

I lived in Lynchburg, Virginia during the 1960s while in high school and college. I left after graduating from Lynchburg College in 1968. I returned eleven years later for a brief four years. During those four years I discovered things about Lynchburg’s history that I was unaware of while living there in the sixties.

I did not know, for example, that Thomas Jefferson’s summer home, Poplar Forest, was located in one of the city’s western suburbs. Neither did I know that a large house up on one of the hills overlooking the city was once the home of the doctor who gave Patrick Henry a fatal dose of mercury medicine. Dr. George Cabell warned Henry that it might be fatal, but Henry insisted on taking it. He died.

Both Popular Forest and Point of Honor are now tourist attractions; neither was when I lived in the area. My point is simply this. We often live near locations of historical significance without knowing it, often because no one ever bothered to erect a marker.

Andrew Carroll‘s very interesting book, HERE IS WHERE: DISCOVERING AMERICA’S GREAT FORGOTTEN HISTORY (New York: Crown Archetype, 2013), brings to light many interesting, and often overlooked, individuals and events in America’s history. Carroll does so by visiting the sites associated with the people and events. Often those living nearby were unaware of what took place there until Carroll showed up asking questions.

The stories uncovered by Carroll are more interesting than they are of historical importance. A visit to some “lush green bean fields” in western Indiana is the setting for an account of Horace Greeley’s involvement in an attempt to establish the utopian community known as the Grand Prairie Harmonical Association. Like other such attempts in America, and there were quite a number, GPHA failed. Nothing is left of the community, or should we say commune, except bean fields.

Not everyone would be happy with Carroll’s reviving memories of individuals or events many Americans, especially those living in their shadow, would rather remain hidden in the back of history’s closet. One example is Carroll’s visit to California’s redwoods in search of any tribute to Madison Grant, one of America’s early conservationists.

Given the popularity of environmental issues today, it is remarkable that almost no one is aware of the fact that one of the three men responsible for saving the giant redwoods of California was a man named Madison Grant. In fact, there is only a small bronze plaque in California’s Redwoods State Park that pays tribute to this great conservationist and defender of America’s natural beauty. There are three names listed on the plaque. They are Madison Grant, John C. Merriam, and Henry Fairfield Osborn, founders of the Save-the-Redwoods League.

Most of those who by some accident happen to see the plaque and read it have no idea who any of the three men were. A few do, and some of them are aghast at any mention of Madison Grant, especially in a favorable light. Why? Not only was Grant a conservationist, he was also the author of a very popular book advocating the now discredited pseudoscience known as eugenics. Eugenics was an attempt of give scientific credibility to the idea of breeding a “master race.”

Madison Grant’s book, THE PASSING OF THE GREAT RACE (1916) was not only widely read in America, but also in Germany. Many Nazi leaders and intellectuals used Grant’s book, as well as Henry Ford’s THE INTERNATIONAL JEW (1920), to give respectability to their racist theories.

HERE IS WHERE includes a great many little known historical points of interest. Not everyone will find every article equally interesting, but there is more than a little here for anyone who enjoys reading about one of the most interesting of topics, history.

HERE IS WHERE: DISCOVERING AMERICA’S GREAT FORGOTTEN HISTORY is an easy and most enjoyable read. Thank you Mr. Carroll.

Until next time, be good to all God’s creation and always walk under the mercy.

Related articles

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Book Reviews

Tagged , , , ,

Another Novel About Zelda Fitzgerald

Posted on May 2, 2013 | Leave a comment
The May 1, 1920 issue of The Saturday Evening ...

The May 1, 1920 issue of The Saturday Evening Post, the first time Fitzgerald’s name appeared on the cover of the magazine to which he contributed for much of his life. Fitzgerald’s short story Bernice Bobs Her Hair appeared in this issue. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It was for me a mistake to read Erika Robuck’s CALL ME ZELDA (New York: New American Library, 2013) after having read Therese Flower’s Z: A NOVEL OF ZELDA FITZGERALD (2013). Whereas Z kept me turning the pages, CALL ME ZELDA kept me wondering if I should continue reading. A hundred pages into the novel all I could utter is “ho hum.”

CALL ME ZELDA is the sort of novel that is enjoyed by ladies who want a somewhat romantic story to pass the time while enjoying a good cup of coffee. It is a good story, well written, but only that.

Zelda Fitzgerald is merely a supporting character in a story about Anna Howard, a nurse in a psychiatric clinic. Zelda Fitzgerald, a patient in the clinic, plays a supporting role to Anna. Other characters, like Zelda’s husband the writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, move in and out of the story.

CALL ME ZELDA is a bit of light fiction, a notch or two above the cheap paperback romance novels that are cranked out like newspapers. There is really nothing to communicate to the reader any feeling of the Jazz Age. Unlike Flower’s Z, I felt that I knew nothing more about the Fitzgerald’s or the world they so colorfully inhabited than when I began reading.

In the end, I am left with the feeling that this is just a story, one in which the characters are given names that enables it to capitalize on the renewed interest in F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, an interest stirred up by the remake of the movie, THE GREAT GATSBY. Change the names of the characters, and the story would be the same.

Until next time, be good to all God’s creatures and always go under the mercy.

Related articles

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Book Reviews

Tagged

Zelda Fitzgerald: An Autobiographical Novel

Posted on April 12, 2013 | 1 Comment
Zelda Fitzgerald

Zelda Fitzgerald (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I decided to read Z: A NOVEL OF ZELDA FITZGERALD by Therese Anne Fowler (New York:  St. Martin’s Press, 2013) after viewing Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris” (not once, but three times!), visiting the grave of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald in Rockville, Maryland, and viewing once again the 1974 version of “The Great Gatsby.”  There is just something about the interwar era and its ambience which draws me to anything associated with that period.  Whatever the case, I could not resist reading Z.

The novel is written almost as an autobiography.  In fact, I had to keep reminding myself that it was, in fact, a work of fiction.  Ms. Fowler has Zelda relating the story of her life from 1918, when she first met Lieutenant Scott Fitzgerald, until Scott’s death in 1940.   The reader is able to see and experience the “Jazz Age” through the eyes and emotions of Zelda.

As I journeyed through the two decades of Zelda and Scott’s turbulent life together, I kept wondering how much of Zelda’s struggle to establish her own identity, apart from always being known as “F. Scott Fitzgerald’s wife,” was true.  I felt sorrow for Zelda as she tried repeatedly to love Scott despite his obvious obsessive jealousy.  Scott himself struggled with his own doubts about his talent as writer and his fear of slipping into the shadows behind a wife whose potential success as a writer threatened his own self-image.

I felt sorrow for Zelda as she fought a mental illness that neither she nor the doctors of that time were able to understand.  Today, she would likely have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, a treatable illness.  Unfortunately for Zelda the best knowledge about mental illness of that time was very limited.  Much of the treatment she apparently received was not what some someone suffering from bipolar disorder would receive today.

Although Ms. Fowler wants the reader to remember that Z:  A NOVEL OF ZELDA FITZGERALD is a work of fiction, she does inform us of the extensive research she undertook in order to write the novel.

There is one quote attributed to Ernest Hemingway, whether in fact so or a creative invention of Ms. Fowler’s, that I feel sums up the ambience of that period for which Scott coined the descriptive term, “the Jazz Age.”  “Nature tests you, and if it finds you worthy, it lets you live another day.”  In reality, all the glitz and glamor associated with the Jazz Age was only an illusion that hid the pain felt by a generation wounded by the Great War and all that followed from it.  Perhaps the Jazz Age was a distraction, an attempt to ignore psychological pain.

I seldom read novels, but when I do, I want one that is more than just a story, a brief diversion from everyday boredom.  Therese Anne Fowler’s Z:  A NOVEL OF ZELDA FITZGERALD fit the bill, and so I award it five stars.

Until next time, be good to all God’s creatures and always walk under the mercy.

Related articles

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Book Reviews

Tagged , , , , , , ,

A Love that Endures

Posted on March 23, 2013 | 1 Comment
Cover of "Joni: An Unforgettable Story"

Cover of Joni: An Unforgettable Story

JONI & KEN: AN UNTOLD LOVE STORY by Ken & Joni Eareckson Tada (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1213) is a book that answers many questions. Those of us, who have followed Joni Eareckson’s life since the appearance of her autobiography and the movie based upon it, have wondered what life must really be like for her, and since her marriage in 1982, her husband Ken Tada. Now we are able to see, understand, and be inspired by a marriage that must have been, as they say, “made in heaven.”

Joni’s story is familiar to many, especially Christians. Born in 1949, a diving accident in the Chesapeake Bay in 1967 left her a quadriplegic, paralyzed from the shoulders down. Her struggle with pain and depression as she learned to accept the reality of her future is told in her autobiography, JONI (1976) and JONI (1779), the feature film based upon it.

Her public life and ministry since then is well known. She founded a Christian ministry, Joni and Friends, devoted to providing practical and spiritual support for individuals suffering with disabilities of various kinds and their families. Over the years she has authored 48 books, including 2 award-winning children’s books. She has made too many public appearances to count, and used every form of media to bring comfort and encouragement to those suffering and understanding to those of us more fortunate.

In 1982, Joni married Ken Tada. All sorts of questions now flooded the minds of her admiring public. Why? Why would a healthy, athletic man marry a woman, a very beautiful woman, but a woman in a wheelchair? What sort of life can they have together? How will he be able to deal with her disability day after day, year after year? How will he be able to deal with her inevitable periods of depression, providing encouragement and strength rather than pity? In short, what will their life together be like, when they don’t have to be always smiling and cheerful in front of the cameras?

JONI & KEN: AN UNTOLD LOVE STORY is the story of an enduring love, a love based upon commitment to one another, and most importantly, a commitment to Jesus Christ, the one who has promised to be our rock, and the one who is ever faithful to his promises.

Until next time, be good to all God’s creatures and always walk under the mercy.

Related articles

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Book Reviews

Tagged , , , , , , ,

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night

Posted on March 15, 2013 | 4 Comments

“It was a dark and stormy night.”

I typed that line at the top of the page. Then I leaned back in my chair and just stared, stared at the sheet of white paper peeking out from the top of the typewriter, mocking me.

“’It was a dark and stormy night.’ Is that all you can think of? How about a flash of lightning followed by a slow roll of thunder across the dark sky, wind blowing through the trees, the rattle of windows, the sound of rain hitting the roof, yes, lots and lots of rain?”

I tore the page from the typewriter in frustration and anger, crushed it into a ball and tossed it in the direction of the waste basket. It hit the wall and bounced off, missing its target to join the many other wads of paper scattered about. I reached for a clean sheet of paper and fed it into the typewriter.

I turned the roller until a small portion of the virgin paper emerged above the keys. I sat up straight, took a deep breath, and prepared to type.

The keys sang out: click, click, clickity-click, click . . .

I was composing a short story, a great piece of literature, perhaps a great novel in its infancy.

I paused and looked at what I had written: “It was a dark and stormy night.”

“Hemingway could do better.”

“Hemingway does not impress me,” I replied. “If your intent is to mock me, you really must do better than Hemingway.”

“Hemingway won the Nobel Prize, or have you forgotten?”

My frustration with my own lack of creativity was increasing.

“I am sure that even Hemingway had dry moments from time to time.”

“Dry?” I answered with a note of contempt in my voice. “He drank more than that big fish the old man in the boat claimed to have caught. Need I warn you,” I continued, “you can be replaced?”

“With what, a computer?”

“And why not?” I asked. “Technology is everywhere today. Why even books are digitized.”

“No great writer ever used a computer,” my antagonist continued. “And may I add, no lover of books would ever read one on a screen.”

I folded my arms and stared down at the typewriter.

“Now, put some mood music on the phonograph, pour yourself a drink, and get to work.”

I ripped the paper from the typewriter, crumpled it, and tossed it on the floor with the others, and placing a new sheet in the typewriter, I began to type.

“It was a dark and stormy night.”

Until next time, be good to all God’s creation and always walk under the mercy.

→ 4 Comments

Posted in Short Story

Tagged , , ,

Someday I Want to Write a Novel

Posted on March 11, 2013 | 5 Comments

Someday I would like to write a book, a real book, the kind that people purchase to read while sitting in an airport waiting for their flight, or while seated in their favorite chair with a cup of Jo on the end table and a noble beast asleep on the rug.  I mean a novel, the sort of book that reviewers after reading it refer to the one who wrote it as an “author.”

I am frightened by the thought of attempting to write fiction.  Writing ordinary prose such as you are reading is something anyone can learn to do.  It is all about technic, whereas fiction requires talent.

Not long ago, I joined a local group of individuals interested in writing.  They call themselves the “Clinton Ink Slingers.”  The purpose of the group is to encourage each other by gently critiquing each other’s writing.  Shortly after joining the group, I tried my hand at writing a short story.  I even took a chance and posted it on my blog.  A few individuals read it and complimented me on it, but they were mostly friends, relatives, and members of the Clinton Ink Slingers. 

I have written books, all of them history books.  Most are read by students forced to slug through them by a frustrated and disillusioned professor ever on the quest for the perfect text dumbed down enough to hold, however briefly, the limited attention span of today’s “young scholars.”  My use of “young scholars” is a humble attempt at sarcasm.  I do not think there is a textbook on the market with enough bells and whistles to draw the average student away from his or her iPhone for more than a fleeting moment.

What started me thinking about writing and my dream of one day writing a novel are several things.  The first was a visit to the grave of F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife, Zelda, in a small church cemetery in Rockville, Maryland.  One of the priests at the parish church assumed I was just another of many pilgrims who stop by from time to time.  One such pilgrim who preceded me left an empty wine bottle, two mini whisky bottles, also empty, a single red rose, and a hand written letter to Scott and Zelda.

A second stimulus came in the form of an advance readers’ edition of a new novel by Therese Anne Fowler titled Z:  A NOVEL OF ZELDA FITZGERALD.  It will be on-sale in April.  Although fiction, it is well-researched and very interesting.  Anyone who has seen and enjoyed Woody Allen’s recent movie, MIDNIGHT IN PARIS (2011), will enjoy reading Z.  Ms. Fowler does an admiral job of communicating to her reader what it must have been like to be among that group of American expatriates known as the “Lost Generation.”

Finally, it was 87 years ago that the Book-of-the-Month Club was born.  Its first selection was LOLLY WILLOWES by Sylvia Townsend Warner.  It is an early feminist novel about a woman who sells her soul to the devil, and in return becomes a witch.  The novel is still in print.  There is even a Sylvia Townsend Society which seeks to keep interest in the too often neglected author.

The Book-of-the-Month Club was the creation of Harry Scherman, Max Sackheim, and Robert Haas.  At a time when books were sold through bookstores in urban areas, Scherman looked for a way to sell books to people in rural areas.  Scherman was a member of a group of bohemian intellectuals living in Greenwich Village during and after World War I.  They had in common a love for fine literature and the desire to find a means of marketing books to the literate masses beyond the big cities. 

The first Book-of-the-Month Club selection, LOLLY WILLOWES, was mailed to 4,750 members in April, 1926.  Membership rose to 46,539 by the end of the year, and stood at just under 100,000 in 1928.  Record numbers continued over the decades.  In 1946, the club mailed its 100 millionth book. More than 22 million books were shipped to over 3 million members in 1993, alone.

A book’s success was virtually guaranteed if selected by the club’s editorial board.   The board’s original function was to “select the best new books each month.”  Sales were important, but for many decades the editorial board selected books that were likely to endure as “literature” rather than be remembered, if remembered at all, as “best sellers.”  During the board’s first sixty years the Book-of-the-Month Club offered books by 25 authors who went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize, and 79 who won the Pulitzer Prize.   

A case in point is J. D. Salinger’s novel THE CATCHER IN THE RYE (1951).  At one point in the story, Holden Caulfield makes a disparaging remark about “guys who belong to the goddam Book-of-the-Month Club.”  Salinger had no idea at the time that that “goddam Book-of-the-Month Club” would help establish THE CATCHER IN THE RYE as one of the all-time great American novels.  After having sold more than 65 million copies, it remains on the shelf of any respectable bookstore or library.

I do not expect to ever win a Pulitzer Prize or become a Nobel laureate, but I do continue to dream of writing a novel.  Two members of our little group of Ink Slingers recently signed contracts with “real” book publishers.  Dreams do come true, but not if one merely sits dreaming.  Persistent hard work is necessary.  I think I will write a short story beginning with the line:  “It was a dark and stormy night.”  

Until next time, be good to all God’s creatures, and always walk under the mercy.

Related articles

→ 5 Comments

Posted in Opinion & Editorials

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,

Jesus: A Biography

Posted on February 1, 2013 | Leave a comment

The first thing one must acknowledge about JESUS: A THEOGRAPHY by Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola (Thomas Nelson, 2012) is that it is written for the layperson who is already a believing Christian what is commonly referred to as an evangelical.  It is not scholarly book meant for the seminary student, although I do not want imply that a seminarian would not profit from reading it.  It is written in a popular style and does not assume a very sophisticated reader.

The central theme of the book is that the Bible is a single narrative that is all about Jesus Christ from Genesis through Revelation.  There nothing new in that.  Any evangelical Christian, this reviewer included has heard that many times, and has no problem agreeing with it.  After all, we recognize the Bible as divine revelation, not a collection of myths and attempts by various individuals to answer those perennial questions of the meaningfulness, if any, of what exists.

Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola have taken on a difficult task.  The book is published by a prominent Christian publishing house to be sold primarily through Christian bookstores.  Hence they had to write within certain acceptable interpretations.  They had to keep one eye on the targeted market while trying to write a book that is both intellectually creditable and helpful.

Although I believe the subject could have been covered in far fewer pages, and perhaps too many concessions are made to avoid offending the intended audience, Sweet and Viola have succeeded in their mission.  The average Christian in the pew, the all too few who actually read books, will benefit from this very readable and understandable book.  The Bible IS all about Jesus Christ, and JESUS: A THEOGRAPHY makes that point in a convincing way.  Those who wish to pursue the topic further will find sufficient titles written by theologians and published by presses that specialize in publishing books for the more sophisticated pilgrim.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Book Reviews

Tagged , , , , , , ,

Julian Barnes On The Writers Who Influenced Him

Posted on January 1, 2013 | Leave a comment

 

I enjoy reading about authors.  I also enjoy reading essays of all sorts, including book review essays.  These are perhaps the reasons why I chose to read and review THROUGH THE WINDOW:  SEVENTEEN ESSAYS AND A SHORT STORY by Julian Barnes (New York:  Vintage International, 2012).  Frankly, I had never read anything by Julian Barnes, or even heard of him before reading THROUGH THE WINDOW.

Collections of essays, like collections of short stories, are always a mixed bag.  Some will inevitably be more interesting than others.  This collection is no exception.  I did not find the first two essays on Penelope Fitzgerald particularly interesting.  When I hear the name, Fitzgerald, I naturally think of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.  After reading about Penelope Fitzgerald, I am not likely to do so. 

The essay on George Orwell and the three on Ford Madox Ford are worth the purchase of the book.  Like everyone who went to college during that marvelous decade of the sixties, I read several of Orwell’s volumes.  DOWN AND OUT IN PARIS AND LONDON (1933) and THE ROAD TO WIGGEN PIER (1937) remain my favorites.  After reading the three essays on Ford Madox Ford, I found myself wandering about the local library in search of a copy of THE GOOD SOLDIER (1915).

Julian Barnes is an award winning author of seventeen books, including three short story collections and four non-fiction volumes.  THROUGH THE WINDOW is a good introduction to his writing style as well as an interesting look into the world of books and authors.

Until next time, be good to all God’s creation and always walk under the mercy.

 

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Book Reviews

Tagged , , , ,

For the Sender

Posted on December 2, 2012 | Leave a comment

 Product DetailsImage of Alex Woodard

I admit at the outset that I am a romantic.  When I say romantic, I mean that I believe, as William Wordsworth wrote:  “One impulse from a vernal wood/May teach you more of man,/Of moral evil and of good,/Than all the sages can.”  The one who does not connect with the universe that he or she is a part of through emotions must surely be a cold, hollow, and ultimately lonely human being.

I enjoy books in which the author attempts to explore the meaning of life by reflecting on one’s own search for meaning.  I think that what I find in these books, as well as in certain poetry, is a sense of what the Germans call Sehnsucht, a longing for something in life that is always there, just out of reach and undefined.  There is a touch of this in Alex Woodard’s FOR THE SENDER: FOUR LETTERS. TWELVE SONGS. ONE STORY.  (Carsbad, CA:  Hay House, Inc., 2012). 

Alex Woodard is a successful singer-song writer from the coast of southern California who divides his time between his beach home and a second residence in the mountains of Idaho.  Woodard offered to write a song for anyone who preordered an album he was working on and sent him a letter telling their story. 

A year went by before the first letter arrived.  It was from “Emily.”  Emily told of how she met her perfect companion, her soul mate.  They were happy together until he died.  Each year since, on the anniversary of his death, Emily writes him a letter telling him how much she cherishes the memories of their time together, and how much she still misses him.  Normally the letters go unread into a drawer, but not this year.  She included the most recent one with her letter to Woodard.

Emily asked Woodard to write a song for her and her deceased soul mate because, as she put it, “I think your songs are gifts.  Pieces of yourself used to help other people with their stories.  So, here is a piece of myself.  It is all I have to share in return for the wonderful thing you are doing with your music and your talent.”  Emily’s letter helped Woodard cope with the loss of his close friend and companion a black Labrador named Kona. 

Three more letters arrived from individuals telling their stories.  One is from “Kim,” the director of a homeless shelter for children.  She tells her story of her own life on the streets, of being raped, beaten, addicted to drugs, and of loneliness and shame.  Because of what she has experienced, she can help others to overcome their feelings of hopelessness.

Another is from “Alison,” who is working as a medic serving in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.  She sees things that even nightmares shy away from, but also beautiful things.  She learns much about herself from those who cannot begin to imagine a world like that from which Alison came.

“Katelyn” writes about how she was able to overcome the despair she felt after her husband, a policeman, was killed in the line of duty.  Life can go quickly from a pasture green to a burned over field, but new life and renewed meaning can take root and grew where once only ashes lay.

The four letters inspired twelve songs.  The letters and the lyrics of the songs are found in the book.  Included with the book is a CD of the songs.  I found both very meaningful. 

THE SENDER is suited for the individual who is trying to make sense of a world that is often filled with more questions than answers. It is ideal for anyone trying to cope with some personal loss.  It would, I believe, make an ideal gift. 

 

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Book Reviews

Tagged , , ,

Germany to Germany with Gunter Grass

Posted on November 29, 2012 | Leave a comment
Günter Grass

Günter Grass (Photo credit: Sebastian Niedlich (Grabthar))

As a student at the University of Bonn, in what was then West Germany, I became somewhat familiar with the two outstanding German literary figures, Günter Grass and Heinrich Böll.    Both provide a certain insight into the world that was West Germany before reunification in 1989-1990.  Both won the Nobel Prize for Literature, Böll in 1972 and Grass in 1999.

Gunter Grass is best known for The Tin Drum (1959), the first volume of his Danzig Trilogy.  The Tin Drum was made into a successful motion picture in 1979.  While spending the summer of 1980 in Berkeley, I took advantage of the opportunity to see the film in a local theater.  “You really must see it,” was the advice I was given repeatedly.  So I did.

A short while into the film, there was a scene where some people were at a beach.  They pulled a horse’s severed head tied to a rope from the water and began to shake it.  Eels began to fall from the neck.  The camera kept going back and forth between the eels falling from the horse’s head and the same people at a dinner table eating plats filled with eels as if they were eating spaghetti.  It was too much for me.  I got up from my seat and walked out.  As far as I can recall, that was the only movie I ever walked out of.

Obviously it was not Grass the novelist that drew me to From Germany to Germany: Journal of the Year 1990.  Rather it was my interest in Günter Grass as a political activist, supporter of the Social Democratic Party, and friend of Willy Brandt.  Grass has been a witness to much of what is positive in the history of postwar Germany.  He is one of the German authors who have tried to come to grips with Germany’s past and how it continues to haunt the present.

From Germany to Germany is a journal Grass kept as he traveled through the newly reunited Germany between 1 January 1990 and 1 February 1991.  In it Grass recorded his impression of what was happening during that memorable year.  A whole host of well-known and not so well-known personalities from the cultural and political communities appear throughout the journal.  He also comments on such mundane things as buying freshly caught “fluke and herring” off a fishing boat along the Baltic shore.

Grass is not only an author, but also an artist.  And so there are drawings executed during his journey scattered throughout the book.  I find the one used on the cover of the book especially interesting.

A very nice feature of the book is the collection of information at the back of the volume that serves to help the reader understand the text.  These include an eighteen-page, alphabetical listing of the “Persons Mentioned in Grass’s Journal” with a brief identification.  There is also a “Brief Chronology of Modern German History,” and a “Glossary” of terms that most American readers are not likely to be familiar with.

I would recommend From Germany to Germany for those who are interested in postwar Germany, and in particularly those who might find interesting Günter Grass’s insight into the birth of a new Germany from the ruins of what President Reagan called “the evil empire.”

 

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Book Reviews

Tagged , , , , ,