Customer Reviews

The Iron Butterfly: a trip through the twentieth century

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Quite simply, this is one of the best books I've read in ages.

Doris Colmes is not a towering figure of the 20th Century. She
didn't hobnob with the Roosevelts, shoot a Kennedy or shoot up with Jimi Hendrix. She didn't give Einstein helpful hints about relativity nor Oppenheimer tips for designing the Bomb. She didn't march alongside Martin Luther King in Selma or scold the poor while ladling out soup alongside Mother Theresa.

What she did do was live private her life so attentively, honestly, and vividly that her report equals those characters' in an important way; in another way it outshines the apocryphies of the towering figures "under" whom we all shared that century, whose stories have been overmagnified into unavoidable hypocrisies.

No hypocrisies for Doris. You get it "warts and all." These are
real people. Nobody's perfect. But everybody's a part of, and forms the milestone events of which Doris was also part, from a childhood of quietly daring the Nazis to dump her into a concentration camp for sitting on a park bench, to a full grown adult, daring enough to dump the cozy life of a pampered millionaire's wife and go find real meaning among the folds and contours of poverty and uncertainty.

Doris relates here story with such a knowledge of human nature that you can see her behind her own words, quietly watching you read. The point the story of her life makes is self-evident on every page: we all count. Every one of us, every day, everything we do. It takes a brilliant soul to relate that message so that it keeps us turning the pages.

I certainly kept turning the pages. In fact, I took the book with
me wherever I went... walking down the street nearly bumping into
people, busy reading. Sometimes uttering about it out loud. I now have a little waiting list of friends lined up to borrow it.

Don't wait for the movie!

This book has fascinated me from line one to the last. It is beautifully written; in a style one rarely finds these days. The reader gets a pretty good idea of who the author is and can picture all events quite vividly.

I loved the many details regarding music and political events, but apart from all that, the story of Doris Colmes' life is so unusual, so fascinatingly told that it leaves the reader with great insight into a wonderful personality.

Recounting her past in a very candid way - not even shying away from very personal issues -, Mrs. Colmes gives the reader an account of world events spanning several decades.

This book is a must-read and I hope it will be translated into many other languages, so that a worldwide readership can enjoy it.

Doris Colmes is a great writer and she should write another book soon. This lady still has a lot to say and she says it so well. When do I get to read the next "Doris Colmes"?

It's been a long time since a book followed me from the bedroom to the bathroom, to the kitchen to the car, to the waiting room, grocery line, traffic jam. The Iron Butterfly has been my dear companion this past week and now exhibits all signs of well-worn love - folded page corners, underlined passages, crinkled cover. Thank you Doris Colmes for this gift of delectable literature, so finely crafted I felt the ocean caressing my toes and the pointed schoolgirl stares stabbing my soul. I ached for your grief, rejoiced in your cunning strength, shook my head at your gutsy, live-life-to-the-fullest tango. I found myself exhausted, impressed, amazed, cheering, closing my eyes, afraid of your next move, but peeking at the next chapter. Thank you for dancing with words. Thank you for a brilliant performance.

"The Iron Butterfly" emerged from the cocoon of a repressive and abusive childhood and a stifling l950's marriage to lead a colorful and productive life. Doris Colmes' free-spirited and sometimes wild journey, often on the edge of danger, took her through the tumultuous times of early women's lib to the sensational sixties and seventies of sex, drugs and rock and roll. With the passage of years she was able to free herself from the ice age of her frozen emotions and the furies that pursued her to find a personal and spiritual resolution. Along the way, Colmes' interests and experiences ran the gamut from the athletic -- ski patrol, scuba diving, sailing, and jogging -- to the intellectual-- earning bachelor's and master's degrees. Love for her children, for humanity, for animals, and for music permeate this story. This book is definitely worth your time -- not only for the entertaining escapades, but for the elegant and intelligent writing that brings the reader into this vital life.

In this narrative of life, Doris Colmes puts her dignity on the firing line as she relates a tale of culture changes from Hitler and FDR to the Bush and Clinton administrations.
In this work, she has captured not only the flow, but the cultural differences of the pre-war years, through WWII and on to the present.
She begins her remembrances as a child in the Weimar Republic of Germany, past Hitler's election, through the terrified view of a ten-year-old Jewish child watching as the Border Guards temporarily detained her father at the German/Belgian Border during their 1938 escape.
And she takes us on from there.....

A Jewish woman's journey through life in the twentieth century is revealed in The Iron Butterfly: A Trip Through The Twentieth Century, the moving and candid memoir of Doris Colmes. This compelling autobiography includes an escape from the Holocaust, a sexual assault, a stint of homelessness, a cycle of jobs, marriage, and more. An instructive and personal story of her triumphs, sufferings, and hard-earned lessons, Doril Colmes' The Iron Butterfly is thoughtful, thought-provoking, and highly recommended.

I found myself drawn into this amazing life story that is well written and fast paced. Doris is able to clearly communicate the lessons she learned on her journey. Her message to take care of yourself and others and do no harm is a timely message that has much to offer. To read about her journey of personal growth and change that allowed her to see the needs of those around her is inspiring.

It was easy to get lost in her descriptions of places...a master wordsmith or mistress wordsmith as the case may be. Mesmerizing is a word that comes to my mind.

Amazing, inspiring, thought-provoking, adventurous, timely, hopeful - these are all words that flow through my mind when I think about The Iron Butterfly, Doris.

For those times when we think that our lives are too hard, that there is no way to have a better life, that we will never experience joy again, The Iron Butterfly has a message and has a heroine who has overcome many of life's adversities. Doris has shown that it is possible to grow, change, and become.

A great book and a great read!

The passage is dark but opens into brightness. A butterfly emerges, reflecting an array of impulses and emotions, increasingly shocking.
An innate writing talent - after lingering for decades - virtually exploded and became a book Empress Catherine the Great and prolific writer Anais Nin would have been proud of.
But it is not just a book that incites lust. Colmes narration skills are captivating throughout. Featured are highlights and the dramatic events of her life.
Again and again I kept wondering what did happen inbetween.
Not once did I skip a page.
Not once felt I bored.
Her individuality - she is feisty, spicy and courageously independent - elevate The Iron Butterfly into a spere of fascinating reflections.
Also, her superior language skills stand out, most of all her soul-talks.
Doris Colmes tested freedom far ahead of the sexual revelution.
Her story is illuminating and deserves a place in every library
- in yours, too - if you count yourself among those with a truly free spirit!
So, that's what this is all about? - you ask the author. And, at the end of the book, she will give you her answer: "All this is about all of us, together, taking personal responsibility for ourselves and our planet. Collectively and individually, we create not only who we are, but how we affect one another" ... "And yes, our greatest crime IS indifference!"

Gasp, smile, giggle, or laugh out loud. Absolutely pure enjoyment.

Doris Colmes presents the reader with views into several places she lives and loves. It becomes obvious that Doris is definitely about love. A person can feel it in the passages, in the stories of her passions, her loves and her discoveries about life and herself. When she learns she is a stereotype, her life is already difficult, but then to try and juggle an affair while recovering her self image, Doris scoops up the reader and transports them with her on a journey that is only possible in the 20th Century. In the Middle Ages she would have been burned as a witch or a heretic. I loved every page.

This book, The Iron Butterfly: a trip through the twentieth century, was my "relax in bed book" that I took on a vacation to visit relatives. I looked forward to my nightly chapter. As a reader when I was young, I found I was fascinated with biographies and auto-biographies... it seems that these types of books genuinely give a person an eye witness account of the time they lived in... and, if the author is good, a reader is treated to a real feel for what it was like back then. With Doris you "live through" several social movements... You gain an insight into what it's like to be female during a time when it was real important to be cool. Learn what it was like to be one of the first women bridge tenders in Portland, Oregon.

Recommended for mature audiences. Great example of how to share one's life stories.