Customer Reviews

Ahead of Time: My Early Years as a Foreign Correspondent

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Many of you who see the CBS miniseries will be reading and loving HAVEN,the book, but may be puzzled that the material on Ruth's experiences in 1930s Germany are --missing. Look no further! The information is here. If you are hooked on HAVEN you will want to read this book also, because the flashbacks to Germany are entirely taken from AHEAD OF TIME. It's also a great book. As Joan Michel wrote in HADASSAH MAGAZINE upon first publication in 1991:

-"Talk about courageous pioneers and voyages into uncharted waters, about plumbing the depths of the human spirit, of discovering new worlds and uncovering hidden teasures..Ruth Gruber takes us on an extraordinary personal journey."

Ruth Gruber, my stepmother, is 89 and I can vouch that she remains one of the most brilliant and adventurous women you could ever hope to meet, as well as THE BEST storyteller. She learned story telling from a consumate artist, Virginia Woolf, on whom Ruth wrote the very first doctoral thesis, conferred by the Univerity of Cologne in 1931 when she was but twenty. The University boasted that Ruth was "the world's youngest PhD" and in honor of her achievement, Cologne's Lord Mayer Konrad Adenauer presented her with a gift of two magnificent art books. As she left his chambers, the future United Nations leader placed his hand on her head, as in a benediciton."Bless you my child. May God go with you."

And- it seems as though God did!

This very engaging book covers so many experiences that you have to keep reminding yourself it's only about Ruth Gruber's first 25 years. While others have commented negatively on her simple writing style, I found it refreshing. She doesn't come across as a Ph.D. disseminating her vast knowledge, but as the young woman she was at the time, amazed at being able to have all the experiences she had. She seems to write from that viewpoint, so that even though she wrote this book much later in life, you feel like you're having a chat with "Rut," as the Russians call her, who is a very intelligent, but still very young woman. She apparently based this book on notes she took at the time, so its youthful attitude is authentic. Be warned, though, if you're older than 25 you're going to come away from this book feeling like a complete slacker.

If you want to energize and expand the horizons of young people, especially females, give them this beautifully written autobiograhy! It is an against-all-odds story made more riveting by the fact that it is true. There is enough action and tension to fill several movies. The only question: who could play the indomitable Ruth Gruber?

the author,ruth gruber,tells a fascinating story.she is an amazing woman,very bright and gutsy.one feels as if he or she is going along with ms. gruber on her journeys. she is an accomplished writer and journalist. i recommend this book for others who want to go with her on her journeys.

I was inspired to purchase this book along with Haven after watching the mini-series on TV. Ruth Gruber is a woman definitely ahead of her time. She puts modern day "women's libbers" to shame. This is a woman who, when she decided to do something, didn't live her amazing life so she could show the world what a woman could do. She lived her amazing life because she took advantage of any and all opportunities offered her. She didn't say, "Let me do it so I can show the world a woman can do it." She just said, "Let me do it because I can." She should be an example to all -- men and women alike. I would recommend this book and Haven to anyone interested in learning more about the history of the period as well as to anyone simply interested in a good read. Ms. Gruber writes her books in a way that brings them alive. They are not historical textbooks, nor are they "me" books. They are simply wonderfully inspiring books about a wonderfully inspiring woman.

I knew nothing about Ruth Gruber.... I spotted this book on an Amazon sale. It sounded interesting, so I purchased it.

I found it fascinating. What I was not expecting to read was a first person account of a woman watching the "brewing" of WWII from within Europe, and subsequently Russia. And, it all came together by accident. Interesting to see the connections between seemingly unrelated events in seemingly unrelated places. Never mind what this woman accomplished before most women were in a position to accomplish anything close to what she acheived. After all, this was in the 1930s!

This is a remarkable story, and very well written. I intend to read her other books.

Enjoy!

What a wonderful, inspirational story! While this book only deals with the first 25 years of Gruber's life, it still is engaging, disturbing, and a great lead-in to Haven (the story of Gruber's efforts to save about 900 Jewish refugees from being deported back to Nazi-controlled countries during WWII - which turned out to be the ONLY Jewish refugees from the Nazis ever to be allowed into the USA. Can you believe that? Only 900 out of 6,000,000 were allowed in to the U.S. by President Roosevelt. How shameful...)

A movie was made of this book that was released in 2010, and it is a wonderful companion to this book. As of this review, though, I haven't seen a DVD or Blu-ray release announced.

Gruber's writing is approachable and almost conversational. No dull academic airs here! :)

I would like to have known her to get inspiration from her an amazing self sacrificing dedicated woman

I bought this because I was interested in early women's lib-ers who "just did it" and in her 1930s era access to Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union. She certainly is an interesting woman with a will power, but her access and her insights into these two countries were minimal and superficial. While she ackowledges that she was a pawn, the information she does present adds nothing to the understanding of those two countries or to what it must have been like to BE there. The Artic adventures are more promising, but like the rest of the book suffer from a really quite juvenile writing style that does little to effectively or movingly capture the moments she experiences. Finally, her lack of introspection seem to suggest that she really did "just do it" without much of a real reason and without much struggle and that just isn't very interesting reading.

Unfortunately, I never received the book. I am very disappointed with the company that was supposed to send it.
I have been credited for the book, it was the book I wanted not the credit.