Like a gale at her back, history propelled Julia Israel Schueler early in life on a westward course. She was born in Moscow in 1923 and at the age of three months was exiled with her parents and other Mensheviks to Berlin. Twice more "The Group" was displaced - to Paris in 1933 as Adolf Hitler intensified the persecution of political opponents, and to the United States, via Spain and Lisbon, when he invaded France in 1940. Elsewhere is Schueler's life memoir, an adventure, coming-of-age, and coming-to-America story all in one. Against the gripping backdrop of major twentieth-century events, she tells in lyrical prose her personal tale of immigration and acculturation, and the ongoing search for an elusive home "elsewhere." Schueler revisits memories of school days in Germany; streets blood-stained from an early version of Kristallnachtand the admonishment "You saw nothing"; nostalgia for socialist songs of youth; reading banned books by Balzac and Zola; a wardrobe of castoff, made-over clothes; the shock of seeing Paris in blackout; scenes of civil war-ravaged Spain; tears of guilt in Times Square on New Year's Eve 1940; and much more. She introduces a parade of intriguing individuals, including her imaginative, romantic schoolmate Vivi, the niece of Leon Trotsky; Mr. Wittenberg, a close family acquaintance who spoke Esperanto; Dina, the daring young friend who ran away to become a model for the sculptor Aristide Maillol; and refugees from Stalinist gulags and German concentration camps. Elsewhere will draw readers into a delightful intimacy with the author as they follow her suspenseful passage from impressionable childhood through vibrant youth to graceful maturity, to finding home at last in New Orleans. For the past forty years, Julia Schueler has lived in Metairie, a suburb of New Orleans - "my springboard to fly out to far-off places, always to come back refreshed, renewed, and happy to call it home." She taught German and French there for over twenty years and then launched a second career as a trilingual tour guide and lecturer.
Book Description
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A beautifully scripted narrative of our mutual history.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Elsewhere: A Memoir (Hardcover)
Julia Schueler seemed to float through history. Her view of the world's progression is everything it should be, funny, emotional and honest. This is a wonderful book.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must-read for history buffs who prefer the personal story.,
By A Customer
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Elsewhere: A Memoir (Hardcover)
Julia Schueler's autobiographical book remembers the story of a girl who always lives elsewhere - Russia, Germany, France, America. . . She interlaces the past with the present - often within the same page. She describes people's lives, hopes, fears during the 1930's and 1940's during World War II (we Americans tend to think Hitler's terror began with Pearl Harbor). She does not paint with a broad brush - the details are exquisite.Unlike most monolingual English speaking Americans, Julia's world was/is peopled with many languages, many cultures. Her style of writing is unique and made me want to taste each word, each phrase, each story - and often I reread. Some books make the reader sad to see that there are fewer and fewer pages left to be read. "Elsewhere: A Memoir" is one of those books. -Diana DeMille
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Inside This Book
(learn more)
First Sentence:
Papa and Mama grew up in the last quarter of the last century a scant generation after the abolition of serfdom in a crumbling Russian Empire racked by pogroms and rumblings of civil strife. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
little brown suitcase, red fire engine Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New Orleans, New York, United States, World War, Boris Ivanovitch, Grandma Mabel, Aunt Mirrha, Iowa City, Childhood's End, Soviet Union, Uncle Karl, Finkbine Park, Miss Pinson, Central Park, New World, American English, Great War, Latin Quarter, Madame la Directrice, Miss Saunders, Right Bank, Communist Party, East Germany, French Quarter, Heil Hitler New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Papa and Mama grew up in the last quarter of the last century a scant generation after the abolition of serfdom in a crumbling Russian Empire racked by pogroms and rumblings of civil strife. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
little brown suitcase, red fire engine Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New Orleans, New York, United States, World War, Boris Ivanovitch, Grandma Mabel, Aunt Mirrha, Iowa City, Childhood's End, Soviet Union, Uncle Karl, Finkbine Park, Miss Pinson, Central Park, New World, American English, Great War, Latin Quarter, Madame la Directrice, Miss Saunders, Right Bank, Communist Party, East Germany, French Quarter, Heil Hitler New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 3
books:
- The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas on page 85
- Men of Good Will by Jules Romains on page 123
- The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas père on page 85
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
