Reviewer Rank: 179,305
- Total Helpful Votes: 39
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
This story about the experiences of a Viennese Jewish family in Shanghai perfectly fulfills two raison d'etre of books - on the one hand it allows the reader to enter a time-warp machine and be transplanted to another time and another place and vicariously live through the emotional upheavals, the smells, sights, sounds and most importantly the feelings of fear, frustration, Angst and yes, fortunately also joy, of the main characters. Vivian Kaplan is a master of setting the scene and allowing the reader to slip into the protagonist's skin. I have lived and worked in Vienna and also in Northern China (albeit at a much later time) and Vivian's writing rings true. The chapters in the boo… Read more
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3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Katz writes a story about his friend and his friend's colleagues who bravely stormed the apartment of two suicide bombers in Brooklyn the night before the bombers planned to self-destruct and in the process murder innumerable innocent commuters on a New York subway. The event took place after the successfully thwarted terrorist attack in lower Manhattan and several years before 9/11. That Katz has decided to tell the general public about this incident is admirable, however, a better writer would have related this story in a much more concise, objective and gripping manner. Katz does not allow the facts to speak for themselves but insists on adding his critical and at times cynica… Read more
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
A fascinating and very informative look behind the scenes of the White House during WWII. To someone who tried to learn about WWII from relatives who were involuntarily fighting on the German side (they refused to speak about it) and from going to school at a German-government funded high school in the 70ies (our history teachers covered the Romans and Greeks over and over but stopped our history classes at WWI, possibly because the German goverment and German universities were not sure how to present WWII to their future history school teachers) Goodwin's books filled many knowledge gaps in this reader. The story was made more endearing as the main characters were portrayed as huma… Read more
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