by Jennifer Krebs | Jun 3, 2019 | Books
Lost and Wanted, by Nell Freudenberger
This book knocked my socks off. I read Freudenberger’s first book, a collection of short stories when it first came out. While I’m sure portions of her book reflect actual people she knows or situations that she’s been in, she seems to select interesting far-ranging subjects. Though her writing style is very different, I was reminded of Richard Powers’ The Overstory: lots of science (in Lost and Wanted, physics) and some quirky physicists. But while Powers also populates his books with mere mortals, Freudenberger seems to offer only geniuses and uber-creative people. Still Lost and Wanted is a very interesting tale, and I enjoyed hanging out with the protagonist as she processes the death of her best friend from college.
by Jennifer Krebs | Jun 3, 2019 | Books
The Invisible Bridge Julie Orringer.
This tome reminded me a bit of Gone with the Wind: a love story set with the backdrop of a war, in this case WWII. A good pat of schmaltz. Most of the main characters make it through the war although statistically (according to Wikipedia) roughly 75% of Hungarian Jews perished in the Holocaust. Statistical probabilities aside, I enjoyed absorbing a cursory history of 20th Century Hungary in this book. The government collaborated with the Nazis and sent scores of soldiers to the Russian Front. In the novel, Jewish regiments help build roads and unload materiel for soldiers.
About Hungarian Jews, the only reference that I have was the 1999 movie Sunshine with Ralph Fiennes. Good to have another perspective, though much of the Invisible Bridge takes place in Paris.
by Jennifer Krebs | Jun 3, 2019 | Books
The Club, by Takis Würger.
This is a quick story about a poor orphaned German young man with an aunt in Cambridge. She uses him to infiltrate a secret Cambridge club to seek revenge against the Patriarchy, the upper crust, the Old Boys Club. Not the best book of 2019, but good summer reading. Interesting to have been written by a man….
