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Gregory's reviews
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Gregory posted a review at 2009-09-06 20:30:21 for Defiance: The Bielski Partisans.
(Language: English)
 
Nechama Tec's "Defiance" is a fascinating account of the survival of 1200 Jews during the second world war. Three brothers - Tuvia, Asael and Zus Bielski, created a sanctuary in the forest for Jews fleeing from Nazi persecution and extermination in the ghettos. According to Tec, the Bielskis accepted all Jews, including those who were unarmed and those who were not able to fight, such as children and the elderly. Despite several attacks from Germans, and continual friction from nearby Russian partisans, the Bielskis formed a "tribal society" that lasted until the Red Army liberated the group in 1944.It is hard to look back on the heroic efforts of the Bielskis without feeling a sense of awe. While the Germans slaughtered their families in the ghettos, a few escaped to join the Bielskis in the forest, suffering hunger, mistreatment, disease, and the fear of German raids. While the history is incredible, the narrative is uneven and apologist. Nechama Tec seems to be building a case for Tuvia Bielski. The author describes his infidelities, suspected favoritism, the peremptory execution of a tanner who refused to follow orders, and offers commentary, either in her own words or by using the thoughts of eyewitnesses, to rationalize Tuvia's behavior. In my mind, Tuvia needs no explanation or apologies. What he, his family, and the Jews who joined him in the forest achieved defies belief. Ed Zwick directed a movie, presumably based on this book. The movie makes several gratuitous and unnecessary departures from the book, presumably for dramatic effect. In addition, the movie focuses on the main characters at the expense of everyone else in the film. It seems as if the Jews spend the entire movie standing in line, waiting for food and complaining about the servings. This seems like an insult to the men and women who risked their lives and suffered so many deprivations. 
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Gregory posted a review at 2009-08-09 12:53:48 for The Frog.
(Language: English)
ohn Hawkes' "The Frog" is a sensual, indulgent tale about a boy named Pascal who swallows a frog while sleeping beside a pond. The frog's presence induces severe stomach pains, but when Pascal's mother tries to remedy her son's suffering with curatives from the local pharmacist, Pascal determines that he must protect the frog buried in his belly, and thus prevent his mother from seeing what an oddity he has become. From that point, Pascal's psyche becomes fused with Armand, the frog that lives inside him.Throughout his insular life, Armand chooses when he will emerge from Pascal's throat - once, for example, when wooed by a young girl who is more enchanted by Armand the frog than by Pascal the boy. While Pascal freely operates as an agent of his own passions and desires, other times he is nothing more than the motor while Armand steers him, a host overtaken by its parasite. Pascal seldom leaves the cloistered walls of his various homes - the pastoral grounds of the Domaine Ardente, Saint-Mamès, an asylum for the afflicted, and the brothel of Madame Fromage where Pascal serves as a sort of concierge. His life is paranthetical, almost a footnote. At the end the reader is left to wonder how to weave and assimilate Pascal's enigmatic fable into his own. Perhaps there is a larger meaning to this story, or perhaps it is simply a guilty pleasure, a richly-worded, evocative and pleasurable narrative to fill a rainy afternoon...
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Gregory posted a review at 2009-05-17 22:02:03 for The Great Depression: America 1929-1941.
(Language: English)
Having just read "The Forgotten Man" by Amity Shlaes, and "The Great Depression" by Robert McElvaine, back-to-back, I have the opportunity to compare how both authors treat this complex topic. What struck me is that Shlaes' approach seems to be "top-down" while McElvaine's approach is "bottom-up". McElvaine sprinkles into his text the correspondence from ordinary Americans to the Roosevelts; the language is rich, heartfelt, evocative, and infuses the text with a deep sense of melancholy. Shlaes focuses more on the major players, people in a position of power, thought leaders. Both authors approach the topic of the New Deal from diametric economic and political camps. McElvaine's commentary is definitely biased toward a liberal belief in government. His swipes at President Reagan may seem anachronistic (I believe the book was published in the early eighties, and then re-published in the early nineties) so Reagan-bashing may have been more au courant at the time, but now it seems like cheap jabs. Fortunately, these remarks are not too distracting. Shlaes makes a strong case that the New Deal was concident to the easing of the economic downturn, while McElvaine plays both sides - he attributes the New Deal as "saving capitalism" but as having little influence on ending the Depression. Both books emphasize the experimental nature of FDR's attempts at righting the economy, and ascribe much of the direction of the New Deal to political rather than economic forces. Both books are required reading for the student who wishes to understand how America changed from the Roaring Twenties to the Great Depression.
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