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Finished and started it again!

Revisado: 11-02-23

This is the second James McBride book I read, so I was aware that his storytelling weaves lots of different people and stories in to one and just flowed with it, even when I was a bit confused. This book was charming and wonderful. As soon as I finished, I went right back to the beginning to review how he masterfully constructed the story and characters.

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Relentless, endless, not credible

Revisado: 04-08-22

Even a broken clock is right twice a day. Yet according to this author it seems there have not be any genuinely redeeming characteristics in any member of the extended Sackler family, or their pursuits, since the original matriarch and patriarch. When someone tells only one side of a story they lose credibility. I don’t understand why such a well-educated and gifted writer would choose to write the story in this way. I agree with other reviewers who have commented that the story would have had more weight if it included accounts of people who had never struggled with any type of substance abuse who became addicted to Sackler made drugs. The author slams Purdue for business practices that nearly all companies have, such as the sales strategy “always be closing”. That is a cookie cutter strategy and not a specific evil invented by the Sacklers. The book is an endless barrage of attacks. After committing over eight hours to listening to the book on Audible, I simply became too bored and irritated with the author’s approach to continue.

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A journalist's memoir

Revisado: 07-26-20

I bought this book based on the March 20, 2020 review in the New York Times. Shame on me for buying a book based solely on a review in the same paper for which the book author is a reporter. The review focused almost entirely on Searcey’s coverage of stories in West Africa, a region I was interested in learning more about. And indeed, those sections of the book are compelling and edifying. Unfortunately, much of the book is, as the subtitle indicates, a memoir of a fairly insufferable journalist who feels sorry for herself, while realizing how pathetic she is to feel sorry for herself. She never comes close to making peace with how to blend being a mother, a woman with a career, a feminist, a wife - but she slogs through these issues endlessly, as if she is unique in trying to reconcile them. At times she applies her tortured lense to the women she covers, who have radically different realities. It’s grating. Her ongoing descriptions of her flirtations with a married photo-journalist were cringeworthy. The book is worth a skim for the coverage beyond her memoir.

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Misses the Mark

Revisado: 06-15-16

What disappointed you about Stir?

I read the opening 5 pages at a friend’s house and then decided to buy the audio book. What I initially found compelling was seeing how a young, intelligent, talented woman explained her life suddenly changing forever –even after a full physical recovery. The illness/recovery part of the book was moving. The story of her life as a 20-something, including her entirely sweet but wholly unremarkable love story which was weaved throughout the book was, frankly, a bit boring and a bit sophomoric. Her illness and recovery are certainly story worthy, if not inspirational. They are not however, book worthy. Maybe an article. Even a long article. Or a much shorter book. But at many points in the story I found myself asking “why am I reading a memoir about someone whose life, other than her illness, is no more interesting than mine”?

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

What makes Ms. Fechtor's story different from other 28-30 year olds is her illness and recovery. And those parts of her book are interesting. But there are many more chapters that are simply about the life of a regular college and graduate student. She writes lovingly about her family and friends, and I'm sure they treasure this work, but to a stranger, the details of her daily relationships, meals, etc. do not feel captivating. It is her story to tell as she pleases but I would have been much more satisfied learning more about how her recovery and the challenges she faced and choices she made and much less about the her friends and even some sections about her family.

What about Jessica Fechtor’s performance did you like?

Her performance was lovely. Her voice was full of happiness and energy and it added a lot to have the story read by the author.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

It made me think that memoir was not the ideal format for this story.

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A Tragic and Rich Life, With Lessons For All

Revisado: 03-17-16

Would you listen to Remember Us again? Why?

Yes. Few people live (and suffer) as fully as Martin Small. The lessons of his upbringing,, his experiences during the Holocaust and how he rebuilt a life from nothing offer so much wisdom. I have already shared many of his stories with my children and expect that they will be interested in reading his story too.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Remember Us?

The memorable moments are endless. 4 stand out:
1. The absolute interconnectedness of all people in his small shtetl.
2. When he watched a polish farm woman get beaten because she was suspected of hiding Jews.
3. When Mr. Small was approached after the war by the wife of an SS officer and asked to save her daughter.
4. When he/the reader learn that his visa to American had been sold on the black market and had it not been for his relative, he may have languished on the beaches of Italy for many more years, never finding the chance to rebuild his life.

What does Peter Altschuler bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

He seems to read the book with a smile, channeling Mr. Small's positive energy, which he holds despite his unbearably traumatic early life.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes.

Any additional comments?

The book is captivating from the start and grows more compelling as it moves forward. The seemingly tiny details of his journey, such as his visits to the Italian beach while he waited days, then months then years for his visa to America hint at much larger themes. How long might the clearly resilient and personable Mr. Small have floundered on the Italian coast line had a distant relative from America not come traveled across the world to sort out his visa problem? When would this young man, with all of him immediate family murdered and no tangible ties to his rich past left, have given up hope? When would he have lost the will to build a life or grown too weary to find the strength to learn a new language and a new trade? Mr. Small’s story sheds light on the atrocities endured by survivors. That so many were never able to recover from their trauma and build a “normal” life becomes easy to understand after reading this book. Those, such as Mr. Small, who were not too young or old to be immediately murdered by the Nazi machine, and went on to defy every odd and survive the war, lost years of their lives to war and its aftermath in displaced persons camp, never able to quite pick up the pieces . Mr. Small’s story highlights where he was graced by luck and pluck and distant relatives able to help him find a place to fit in as well as jobs where he could make a living.

Mr. Smalls stories highlight true good versus evil moments that many of us, thankfully, cannot even imagine. When the war came to Mr. Small’s home village, former friends became murders. There was one Polish farm family Mr. Small felt safe turning to for help. Amazingly, their living room was filled with others who had sought their help. Mr. Small witnessed a former playmate break the leg of the homeowner with a rifle butt when he suspected of her harboring Jews. After the war Mr. Small remembered the few noble people who had helped him. He then tells about when he was approached by the wife of an SS officer who pleaded with Mr. Small to save her daughter from the Russians who were now hunting Nazi war criminals. Mr. Small chose to save not only the SS officer’s daughter but his wife and her mother as well.

The afterward, by Mr. Small’s daughter, shows the reader the scars that Mr. Small endured but spared his audience. The appendices, with historical reports by soldiers who knew the camps in various capacities, also contribute to the strength of this book.
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esto le resultó útil a 9 personas