Gregor von Rezzori - Memoirs of an Anti-Semite

Gregor von Rezzori - Memoirs of an Anti-Semite

This is a strong recommendation to read a very different kind of book. There are many books that speak to the experiences of holocaust victims; there are even a few devoted to the stories of the perpetrators. This book attempts to explore the public bystanders that allowed it to happen through indifference or a willingness to accept the government storyline about the problems caused by Jews.

The story is set in Eastern Europe where the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after WWI has left many people feeling at risk - financially and culturally. It is before the Nazi's major push into Eastern Europe and before the Final Solution. They are on the cusp of the holocaust, but don't know it. They go on with their daily lives. The narrator (he's no hero!) is the child of minor nobility trying to get by in a no longer familiar world. He is no Nazi, but has inherited an attitude of anti-semitism that informs his actions - or lack thereof. He lives in a milieu with many Jews from rag-pickers to professionals and businessmen. Many are more educated and wealthier than he is. He has many close relationships with Jewish neighbors growing up; in fact, some of his closest friends growing up are Jews. He 'loves' them, but his anti-semitism, so deeply rooted in his perceptions of class and family, relegates them to less than fully human.

The over-riding focus of this book is how the holocaust could happen, and by inference, happen again? The "Holy War" between Muslims and Christians? No-one knew what was about to happen then; what it is that we don't know now?

Book Description
The elusive narrator of this beautifully written, complex, and powerfully disconcerting novel is the scion of a decayed aristocratic family from the farther reaches of the defunct Austro-Hungarian Empire. In five psychologically fraught episodes, he revisits his past, from adolescence to middle age, a period that coincides with the twentieth-century’s ugliest years. Central to each episode is what might be called the narrator’s Jewish Question. He is no Nazi. To the contrary, he is apolitical, accommodating, cosmopolitan. He has Jewish friends and Jewish lovers, and their Jewishness is a matter of abiding fascination to him. His deepest and most defining relationship may even be the strange dance of attraction and repulsion that throughout his life he has conducted with this forbidden, desired, inescapable, imaginary Jewish other. And yet it is just his relationship that has blinded him to–and makes him complicit in–the terrible realities his era.

Lyrical, witty, satirical, and unblinking, Gregor von Rezzori’s most controversial work is an intimate foray into the emotional underworld of modern European history.

Mia Dona, a new neighborhood restaurant

Mia Dona

We recently went to Mia Dona, a new restaurant from Donatella Arpaia that opened recently in our neighborhood on East 58th Street. It was recommended by our neighbors, the Schaffer's. It's moderately sized with a comfortable bar area and two small dining rooms. The overall decor is a little severe for me - boldly patterned wall paper, bare wooden tables and no carpets. Service was good, if a little intrusive at times. Hopefully, they'll improve with time. Prices, moderate for the neighborhood.

The menu is eclectic Italian with an emphasis on pastas and interesting game and grills. A lot of interesting combinations. The portion sizes seem a little erratic. Chris started with the "Crispy Rabbit with salt & vinegar fingerling chips. It was delicious but we could easily have shared it. The portion was huge. My "Grilled Calamari & Caponata Salad with pignoli nuts, currants, pickled eggplant, and tomato" was not quite as good and the portion was more traditional.

For the main course (I am still a traditional starter/main eater) I had the "Roasted Pork Chop with frisée, lardons, Gorgonzola and a farm egg" (adding an egg to everything seems to be this year's craziness!). It was excellent, although the portion seemed much smaller than Chris' rabbit. I particularly liked the combination of cheese and bacon to flavor the pork. The small portion was not a problem. I prefer smaller portions, but seemed irrational. Chris had a very nice "Butternut Tortelli with dried cherry, walnuts and asiago". She liked her pasta better than my pork chop. They have a nice wine menu by the glass.

Atypically, we had dessert and shared a "Cannoli with ricotta ice cream and candied orange". It was really delicisious. But maybe we're spoiled by not normally having dessert.

Overall, an excellent neigborhood choice but not yet a "destination". We'll be back.

Dona Maria

206 E. 58th St. (bet. 2nd & 3rd Aves.)
212-750-8170

James McBride - Song Yet Sung

Book description -

Escaped slaves, free blacks, slave-catchers and plantation owners weave a tangled web of intrigue and adventure in bestselling memoirist (The Color of Water) McBride's intricately constructed and impressive second novel, set in pre–Civil War Maryland. Liz Spocott, a beautiful young runaway slave, suffers a nasty head wound just before being nabbed by a posse of slave catchers. She falls into a coma, and, when she awakes, she can see the future—from the near-future to Martin Luther King to hip-hop—in her dreams. Liz's visions help her and her fellow slaves escape, but soon there are new dangers on her trail: Patty Cannon and her brutal gang of slave catchers, and a competing slave catcher, nicknamed The Gimp, who has a surprising streak of morality. Liz has some friends, including an older woman who teaches her The Code that guides runaways; a handsome young slave; and a wild inhabitant of the woods and swamps. Kidnappings, gunfights and chases ensue as Liz drifts in and out of her visions, which serve as a thoughtful meditation on the nature of freedom and offer sharp social commentary on contemporary America. McBride hasn't lost his touch: he nails the horrors of slavery as well as he does the power of hope and redemption.

Elias Khoury - Yalo

Book description -

After the acclaimed Gate of the Sun, Khoury returns with the spellbinding confession of Beirut criminal Daniel Jal'u, aka Yalo, who is picked up by the cops for rape, robbery and suspicion of arms smuggling. Under torture and the threat of more torture, Yalo writes numerous confessions, but seems unable to grasp the whole of his life, producing instead a series of conflicting sequences and inexplicable omissions. Brought up by his grandfather Ephraim, a half-mad Syriac priest, and his mother, Gaby, Yalo joins the army in 1979 and fights in the horrific Lebanese civil wars already under way. Deserting 10 years later, Yalo, after a series of adventures, ends up working as a guard for a rich lawyer whose villa is close to a wooded lovers lane; he progresses from voyeurism to robbing and, in some cases, rape. In so doing he meets Shirin, who will change his life—partially by turning him in. Khoury refuses to give the reader an easy position from which to judge Yalo—either as a poor soul or a serial rapist, criminal or victim of torture—or from which to judge Lebanon's tragic and violent fate. His novel is a dense and stunning work of art.

Jimmy Breslin - The Good Rat - A True Story

Book description -

Breslin, renowned journalist and author of The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight, revisits a familiar wise-guy milieu in this collection of stories and anecdotes about the mob. His writing, like the Mafia itself, breezily transitions from humorous to horrifying as he regales the reader with loosely connected tales of mistaken identity, crooked cops, snitches and murder. Unlike the Sopranos and the many other touchstones of the American love affair with organized crime, for Breslin, there's good and there's evil, with little in between. As always, however, nicknames are half the fun, as Sammy The Bull Gravano, Tony Café and Gaspipe Casso take the stage in the Mafia hotspots of the five boroughs, including Greenpoint, in Brooklyn, and Ozone Park, in Queens, as Breslin delights with stories from the Mafia's heyday. Breslin's storytelling is set to the sweet background music of one of the mob's biggest canaries, Burton Kaplan, as he sings to a grand jury. The author's vernacular precision contrasts sharply with the plodding sterility of Kaplan's grand jury testimony, and as we find out, good guys can often tell ugly stories more authentically than the bad guys. The effect is tragicomic as Kaplan's testimony sounds the death knell for his associates. These stories unveil the strict code of conduct, often broken, of a dying breed. According to Kaplan, however, while illegal gambling and extortion may be waning industries, the myth of the American Mafia will never die.

Robin Wright - Dreams and Shadows - The Future of the Middle East

Book description

Robin Wright first landed in the Middle East on October 6, 1973, the day the fourth Middle East war erupted. She has covered every country and most major crises in the region since then, through to the rise of Al-Qaeda and the U.S. invasion of Iraq. For all the drama of the past, however, the region's most decisive traumas are unfolding today as the Middle East struggles to deal with trends that have already reshaped the rest of the world. And for all the darkness, there is also hope. Some of the emerging trends give cause for greater optimism about the future of the Middle East than at any time since the first Arab-Israeli War in 1948. Dreams and Shadows is an extraordinary tour d'horizon of the new Middle East, with on-the-ground reportage of the ideas and movements driving change across the region-and the obstacles they confront. Through the powerful storytelling for which the author is famous, Dreams and Shadows ties together the players and events in Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Morocco, Turkey, the Gulf states, and the Palestinian territories into a coherent vision of what lies ahead. A marvelous field report from the center of the storm, the book is animated by the characters whose stories give the region's transformation its human immediacy and urgency. It is also rich with the history that brought us to this point. It is a masterpiece of the reporter's art and a work of profound and enduring insight.

Oliver Sacks - Musicophilia

Oliver Sacks is a well known medical science writer specializing in the brain. He is best known for the "The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat" about catastrophic brain disease. In this new book, he focuses on music and the brain. He believes that humans are uniquely equipped by evolution to understand and appreciate music. His books are filled with interesting anecodotes and examples from the lives of individuals and are a pleasure to read.

I was particularly drawn to this book because I am one of a significant number of people who cannot appreciate music. He estimates 1 in 300.

He refers to these people as 'amusical'. It can be the result of genetics (my sisters are amusical too) or an injury or stroke. What interested me most was that it is not related to hearing. In fact he cites some individuals with perfect pitch, who cannot yet hear music only as a series of sounds--often unpleasant. There are interesting variations relating to melody, rhythm and tone. To some people (me included) music is just sound, not unpleasant, just white noise. Some others find it unbearable, like pots and pans crashing about. Fortunately, my problem is pretty benign. I don't find music unpleasant, just boring. I relate to the words and for me it's sort of like poetry.

I found the book a pleasure to read; it's filled with interesting case studies and anecdotes. While it was comforting to read about others just like me, it still leaves me really sad that I can't appreciate or share a love of music like most of my friends.

Book description
Sacks is an unparalleled chronicler of modern medicine, and fans of his work will find much to enjoy when he turns his prodigious talent for observation to music and its relationship to the brain. The subtitle aptly frames the book as a series of medical case studies-some in-depth, some abruptly short. The tales themselves range from the relatively mundane (a song that gets stuck on a continuing loop in one's mind) through the uncommon (Tourette's or Parkinson's patients whose symptoms are calmed by particular kinds of music) to the outright startling (a man struck by lightning subsequently developed a new found passion and talent for the concert piano). In this latest collection, Sacks introduces new and fascinating characters, while also touching on the role of music in some of his classic cases (the man who mistook his wife for a hat makes a brief appearance). Though at times the narrative meanders, drawing connections through juxtaposition while leaving broader theories to be inferred by the reader, the result is greater than the sum of its parts. This book leaves one a little more attuned to the remarkable complexity of human beings, and a bit more conscious of the role of music in our lives.

Daniel Silva - The Secret Servant

Book description -

Bestseller Silva's superlative seventh novel to feature Gabriel Allon, the legendary but wayward son of Israeli Intelligence, puts Silva squarely atop the spy thriller heap. When Solomon Rosner, a professor in Amsterdam who's also a secret Israeli asset, is assassinated for his strident reports and articles detailing the dangers of militant Islam within the Netherlands, Gabriel gets the job to clean out the professor's files. In Amsterdam, the Israeli agent and his old partner, Eli Lavon, unearth a plot that leads to the kidnapping by Islamic extremists of the daughter of the U.S. ambassador in London. While most intelligence agencies consider Gabriel persona non grata because of his unorthodox methods and the trail of bodies he leaves in his wake, he once again proves invaluable as he and his stalwart team hunt down some of Israel's—and the world's—most violent enemies. While you don't have to have read the earlier books in the series (The Messenger, etc.), knowing the history of the returning characters adds depth and color to the overall story

Minette Walters - The Dark Room

Book description -

British suspense writer Walters, each of whose previous books (The Ice House, The Sculptress and The Scold's Bridle) has won an award, now has a new publisher and a big promotional push behind her. Unfortunately, the new book is her weakest to date?overplotted and rather unconvincing. It rests on an interesting premise, however: its heroine, Jinx Kingsley, who has been found drunk and disoriented on an abandoned airfield in Wiltshire after apparently trying to kill herself by wrecking her car, is suspected of several murders?but can't, after her accident, remember anything that happened for several vital days. Her husband had been mysteriously killed some years before?and now her fiance and the girlfriend with whom he has been cheating on Jinx are missing. Can her powerful millionaire father be involved? And what about the man who is savagely attacking prostitutes in the area? As Jinx tries, in a local clinic run by sympathetic Dr. Alan Protheroe, to recover her memory and exorcise dark terrors hovering at the edge of her mind, several well-observed police investigators dig out fragments of her story. But that story is so complicated, and filled with such a welter of walk-on characters, many of them ultimately insignificant, that the reader loses patience. Jinx herself is not made sufficiently sympathetic to win interest, her growing affection for Dr. Protheroe seems half-hearted and the ultimate murderer, when finally unmasked, comes right out of left field. Walters is highly talented, but perhaps she is working too fast

Benjamin Black - Christine Falls

Pretty good effort. Interesting characters and a passable mystery.


Book description -


Dalton uses all his pacing and vocal skills and his wonderful, deep Welsh tones to keep listeners engaged and on edge through this mystery set in 1950s Dublin and Boston. He skillfully sustains our empathy for widowed Dublin coroner Quirke, the alcoholic, angry and acerbic narrator who drags himself into solving the mystery of Christine Falls's death in childbirth and the disappearance of her newborn—a scenario that parallels Quirke's own experience. Black (pseudonym of Booker Prize–winner John Banville) is a fine writer, reminiscent of P.D. James in his care for language and his emphasis on psychologically complex characters, including Mel, Quirke's obstetrician stepbrother; Sarah, Mel's wife (and sister of Quirke's dead wife), whose love for Quirke is reciprocated; and Mel and Sarah's confused daughter, Phoebe. Black weaves his characters through a neat and original plot that descends into the dark depths of Quirke's family history and rises to the highest ranks of the Catholic church. Detective fiction readers will love Black's writing and Dalton's reading, and look forward to more from both.

Book Description -

The award-winning author of the Tess Monaghan mysteries has written an independent crime thriller and coming-of-age mystery. The 1999 Columbine High School massacre received great media attention; here, Lippman shows that girls possess the same capacity for violence. Critics agree that Lippman writes with great empathy and insight into the ups-and-downs of teenage friendship, high school peer pressures, and the ways in which violence affects the community. But the novel is too long, contains inaccurate forensic details, and creates characters who are detailed to the point of becoming dull. Despite these flaws, To the Power of Three is a gripping, readable exposé of teenage girls’ psychology.

Laura Lippman - No Good Deeds

Book Description -

Smartly plotted and paced, Lippman's ninth Tess Monaghan novel (after By a Spider's Thread) opens with a somewhat unlikely scenario: Tess's boyfriend, Edgar "Crow" Ransome, brings home for the night a homeless teenager, Lloyd, who slashed Crow's tires outside a Baltimore soup kitchen. When PI Tess discovers that Lloyd has information regarding the recent murder of Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory Youssef, Tess gives his story, sans name, to the local paper, so the authorities will get it secondhand. After a crony of Lloyd's is murdered instead of Lloyd, Tess receives her first visit from a sinister trio of law enforcement agents avid to know her source. Crow flees with Lloyd while Tess suffers growing pressure, including the threat of federal jail time. Baltimore itself is the book's most compelling character, its uneasy mix of aspiration and decay perfectly suited to Lippman's ironic voice. Crow is the book's weakest link; even a late revelation about his motives fails to make his sudden paternalism toward Lloyd believable. Happily, Lippman's loyal fans won't mind.

Some unsolicited comments - March 5, 2008

Theater

We have been subscribers, on and off, to Roundabout Theater since the beginning. Frankly, our experience has been mixed, and we have seriously considered dropping out. The appeal is being able to see 5 or 6 shows a year; in good seats; at reasonable prices - with the occasional blockbuster. This year has been the best by far, with really interesting productions, and even more interesting technical and staging effects. Some of our favorites this season have included: "The Ritz", "39 Steps" and "Sunday In The Park With George".

We recently saw "Crimes of the Heart", a vintage tragi-comedy about three southern sisters trying to get on with life. It's hard to imagine but, we laughed and cried equally. It was good, but not as outstanding as the exceptional staging of the others - but the casting, and acting of the three sisters hooked us. This year made a couple of slow years worth it.

Restaurants

We ventured out to eat this week at Dovetail, a new restaurant located in a townhouse on W77th St. It's a well regarded New American, from chef-owner John Fraser (ex Compass), featuring seasonal, continental fare. Overall, we thought the restaurant was OK, maybe even good, but not worth the trip to the UWS! The food was good; the wine list "By The Glass" particularly undistinguished; and the room cold and a bit too austere. There was nothing to distinguish it.

If you do go, the menu is creative with some interesting items.

Chris started with the "Brussels sprout leaves, pears, & serrano ham, served on a puree of cauliflowero, sprinkled with manchego cheese" .

I chose the "Pork belly porcini mushrooms, kale, and hen egg". Both were delicious and we would recommend them.

For the main course, I followed with the "Pistachio crusted duck endive, celery root, and truffles". It was quite good.

Chris had the "Maine sea scallops topped with pink grapefruit, parsley, almonds and a light hollandaise sauce". She thought it was excellent. But then she's easy!

We also had a very nice cheese plate. My favorite course of the night. Unfortunately they served coffee BEFORE the cheese. As the espresso was not to our liking, we ended on a good note with the cheese.

Dovetail Restaurant

103 W. 77th Street

212-362.3800

Books

Minette Walters - The Sculptress

This was a new author for me. She writes psychological mysteries. There is no series character. I've read a bunch of them now. This one, from 1993 is probably her best. It was an Edgar Award winner. A really well done exploration of how people are damaged; and why they confess. Also, how certain personality types can manipulate others. She's a British author and I first found one of her books in Canada. She's not easy to find here, although Amazon has them. I was very excited when I found her as a new (to me) author last year and have now read 9 or 10 of her books. They don't disappoint.

Book description

Convicted of the brutal ax murders of her mother and sister, Olive Martin spends her days in prison carving tiny human figures out of wax. Rosalind Leigh, a best-selling author's publisher jolts her out of writer's block by telling her to research a book about Olive and the murders - or else. Though repelled by the idea at first, Rosalind soon becomes intrigued by her subject and begins to believe she may be innocent. She soon uncovers plenty of reasons to doubt the official police version of the killings.

Anne Harrington - The Cure Within

As a "graduate" of Pfizer, dependent on their success for my lifestyle, I was enormously skeptical of the premise for this book - that there is something to the power of suggestion that can actually affect outcomes of serious illnesses. After reading the book (or most of it, 350 pages is a lot of positive thinking) I am still skeptical, but am impressed that she makes a forceful argument that we need to look at this in a more open, or unbiased way. In the interim, I'll stick to the most powerful drugs I can get!

Book description

People suffering from serious illnesses improve their survival chances by adopting a positive attitude and refusing to believe in the worst. Stress is the great killer of modern life. Ancient Eastern mind-body techniques can bring us balance and healing. We've all heard claims like these, and many find them plausible. When it comes to disease and healing, some believe we must look beyond doctors and drugs and look within ourselves. Faith, relationships, and attitude matter.

But why do people believe such things? From psychoanalysis to the placebo effect to meditation, this vibrant history describes our commitments to mind-body healing as rooted in a patchwork of stories that have allowed people to make new sense of their suffering, express discontent with existing care, and rationalize new treatments and lifestyles. These stories are sometimes supported by science, sometimes quarrel with science, but are all ultimately about much more than just science.

Harrington is the Chair of Harvard's History of Science Department,

Our comments on what we see and do

In response to absolutely no interest from anyone, I have decided to begin posting brief opinions of restaurants, books and theater to our blog. I began posting comments on books last year, and, to date, they have garnered absolutely no interest from anyone. Based on that experience, I am expanding to the two additional areas.

I have no especial knowledge or expertise in these areas - but do spend a substantial amount of time on them. I call the blogs "opinions", rather than reviews, because I am making no effort to be comprehensive, or fair - just opinionated. Today, there are exhaustive reviews of every possible subject online. You can't buy anything or use any service without being asked to "rate" it. I started blogging brief comments on books for myself - I often forgot I had read a book and buy it again; only to realize it after reading a few pages. I will try to provide a link to Amazon or Zagats or TimeOut NY or someone like Theater Mania for an additional perspective.

I thought some of you might be interested in seeing these comments because Chris and I probably spend more time researching what we want to see or do than most have the time or interest. I do books and restaurants. Chris does everything else - theater, travel, museums and esoterica. I will try to mitigate Chris' tendency to be excited about everything. While our tastes are NOT FASHIONABLE OR TRENDY, they are both eclectic and traditional.

We'll start this week. I look forward to your feedback on our feedback.

Patricia Cornwell - Book of the Dead

Book description -

Bestseller Cornwell's 15th novel to feature Dr. Kay Scarpetta delivers her trademark grisly crime scenes, but lacks the coherence and emotional resonance of earlier books. Soon after relocating to Charleston, S.C., to launch a private forensics lab, Scarpetta is asked to consult on the murder of U.S. tennis star Drew Martin, whose mutilated body was found in Rome. Contradictory evidence leaves Scarpetta, the Italian carabinieri and Scarpetta's lover, forensic psychologist Benton Wesley, stumped. But when she discovers unsettling connections between Martin's murder, the body of an unidentified South Carolina boy and her old nemesis, the maniacal psychiatrist Dr. Marilyn Self, Scarpetta encounters a killer as deadly as any she's ever faced. With her recent switch from first- to third-person narration, Cornwell loses what once made her series so compelling: a window into the mind of a strong, intelligent woman holding her own in a profession dominated by men. Here, the abrupt shifts in point of view slow the momentum, and the reader flounders in excessive forensic minutiae.

Craig Karmin - Biography of the Dollar

Book description -

In this colorful but sometimes superficial survey of the history and present role of the U.S. dollar, Wall Street Journal reporter Karmin tackles the complex dynamics that have placed American currency at the top of the global economy and the forces that now threaten its position there. In six loosely linked chapters—one offers a peek inside a currency-trading hedge fund, while another takes readers to Ecuador, which in 2000 abandoned its own currency and adopted the dollar as its only legal tender—Karmin examines the dollar's unprecedented role as the first truly global currency that is trusted and accepted around the world, a phenomenon based on little more than faith in the U.S. government and the idea of America. The book is studded with interesting trivia, especially in a chapter about the Department of Engraving and Printing, which produces $529 million in banknotes every day and once printed counterfeit Cuban pesos as part of a government plan to destabilize Castro's regime, but Karmin occasionally sacrifices depth and explication in order to maintain the book's fast pace and glib tone. It's a fun read, but doesn't add up to more than the sum of its disparate parts.