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5.0 out of 5 stars
A Romance wrapped in a Mystery wrapped in History, January 9, 2009
This review is from: Keeping Hannah Waiting (Paperback)
Have you ever read a book and thought how great the movie of it would be? This is one of those stories! "Keeping Hannah Waiting" is a beautiful and compelling story by Dave Clarke, a veteran author and child of two Holocaust survivors. This is a classic romance wrapped in a mystery and knitted together by art, history, and Holocaust.
A working class bakery employee named Kate inherits an attic full of books from her mother. One of the books, titled "Die Zulassung, 1940" contains a real surprise - a breathtaking painting of a young woman lying in a field of lavender. Only after she sells the painting for $50 million does she find that the painting was stolen by the Nazis from its rightful owner. Unable to get the painting back, Kate wants to give the money from its sale to the original owner - if she can find that person. Solving the mystery of who is the painting's rightful owner takes Kate on a journey of the most interesting kind, one that runs right through the heart.
The story jumps back in time to Russia in 1910 to tell the how the painting was created. The romance between an artist and the beauty that eventually becomes his model is a familiar one. If you liked "Titanic", then you will definitely like "Keeping Hannah Waiting."
This story reaches across Time and embraces it with both hands. It is rich with culture and the characters are real enough to jump right off the page. Its scant 267 pages is simply not enough to tell a story this big. This shortness really hurts in two ways. The description of the end of the romance between the model and the artist occurs in just two pages. If that part of the story had been written as tenderly and compellingly as the rest of this really good book, then it would have been great. The story of how the Nazis steal the painting happens in just a few pages as well leaving the reader with a sense of "what might have been" rather than the "wow" that is the rest of this book.
"Keeping Hannah Waiting" is good and definitely worth every minute of the read. Another fifty pages would have made this great. I hope the author adds those missing pages at some point in the future. The quality of the writing and the powerful elements of the story make this a pleasure to read.
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Keeping Hannah Waiting - a portrait of love, December 31, 2008
This review is from: Keeping Hannah Waiting (Paperback)
"Keeping Hannah Waiting"
By Dave Clarke
Author Dave Clarke spins a fascinating tale of a grieving daughter's accidental discovery of a previously unknown and fabulously valuable Chagall painting, found among the huge collection of old books left by the young woman's recently deceased mother.
More interesting than the fairy-tale-like inheritance of riches is the story that unfolds after young Kate McBride, a bakery worker, receives the proceeds of the painting's sale. The story is driven by Kate's strong ethics, her determination to do the right thing and her natural empathy for those in need. The money takes Kate to Europe where the chance viewing of a photograph at Dachau turns her life in a new direction--the search for Hannah Kessler Stern, believed to be a survivor of the Holocaust. Kate's seriousness is nicely offset by the facetiousness of best bud Connie Perez. All of Clarke's characters are highly believable, and his use of authentic dialect is compelling.
The reader is transported back to pre-World War II Europe, when young Marc Chagall, an aspiring Russian painter from a large Jewish family, met and fell in love with eighteen-year-old Hannah Kessler, daughter of a Jewish insurance mogul who intends for his daughter to marry the son of his business associate and carry on the family business. Their tender story stands in stark contrast to the horror set in motion by the rise of Adolph Hitler and his ethnic purging.
Clarke has put human faces on history, and has highlighted, not only the terror of Nazism, but also the unresolved injustices that remain today, decades after the murders and destruction of families in the concentration camps and the wholesale looting of art and other valuables by Nazis. He has done it so artfully that I was pulled headlong into the story. The harshness of war's ugliness and injustice were gently offset by the beauty of his description and the joyful freshness of the love story. The reader, however, will remember it all.
Clarke is to be commended for his treatment of this topic, and for directing profits from his book to the Survivor Mitzvah Project, begun as a 100% charity to support aging Holocaust survivors in need around the world. ( Visit their web site, http://www.survivormitzvah.org/.)
Reviewed by Persis Granger, author of " Adirondack Gold," " Adirondack Gold II: A Summer of Strangers" and coauthor/editor, " Shared Stories from Daughters of Alzheimer's: Writing a Path to Peace." Granger also hosts writers' retreats in NY and FL. See www.PersisGranger.com
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Follow your heart: Chagall in love, December 26, 2008
This review is from: Keeping Hannah Waiting (Paperback)
"Keeping Hannah Waiting" is one of those rare gems that manages to take a topic whose scale seems too large for any one person to fully comprehend--the echoing repercussions of the Holocaust across the last six decades--and, by telescoping in on just a few ordinary lives, gives the reader a perspective that is at once all-encompassing and microscopic. More important, it's a perspective anyone can understand and take to heart.
By artfully adapting an age-old premise (poor boy meets rich girl and the ensuing impediments to true love--think "Pride and Prejudice" to the mega-box office hit "Titanic," a formula which suits this topic well), Clarke takes a tale otherwise too depressing for most to endure, and instead creates an enchanting love story between a young, idealistic Marc Chagall and the woman who touches his soul, all while infusing the book with well-researched cultural tidbits and the historic and contemporary challenges that remain to be resolved.
With well-rounded characters, a fast-paced plot, and an easy, descriptive style, Clarke pulls readers headfirst into his story from the get-go. It's hard to put 'Hannah' down once you pick it up
Like the celebrated artist at the heart of his story, Clarke deftly paints a vibrant, colorful picture of life in eastern Europe at the turn of the twentieth century and of the risks and all-too-real consequences when prejudice and intolerance are allowed to fester in society unchecked.
This one is worth your time (which will fly by as you're drawn into the story) and, with proceeds from the book benefiting aging Holocaust survivors in need around the world, you'll help warm someone's heart the way this book will warm yours.
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