5 comments about My Faraway Home: An American Family's WWII Tale of Adventure and Survival in the Jungles of the Philippines.

1. This is a marvelous book and makes for fascinating reading. Gave me pause to reflect and wonder if I would have the strength to endure a similar hadrship. WWII was such a long time ago and it shaped the lives of so many people around the world. It is great that there are some really worthy movies available to educate the young people about sacrifices made by their grandparents (I should say great-grandparents) generation.



2. When the Japanese invaded the Philippines in World War II most American soldiers and civilians surrendered. A few took to the hills and spent the war years as guerillas or simply hiding out from the Japanese. The author was an eight year old child during the war, the daughter of an American couple managing a gold mine on the island of Mindanao. They chose to live in the jungle and evade the Japanese. They didn't have any thrilling adventures, but the description of their day-to-day life is vivid and interesting.
   
   The author doesn't pull any punches about her experiences. Neither of her parents are sympathetic people, nor are many of the other characters. She tells us of being sexually molested by an older boy. She gives us a picture of the stress the fugitives were under from the standpoint of a young girl.
   
   One of the interesting aspects of the book was the almost-total separation of foreigner and Filipino before the war. The foreigners, mostly Americans, were unfamiliar even with Filipino food. Western men who married Filipino women were outcasts and the social and cultural separation of the cultures was almost complete. The automatic assumption by Americans and Europeans of the superiority of their cultures has broken down in part over the last half-century -- and that's a good thing.
   
   As a true and true-to-life story of people uprooted by war, this is one of the best you will find.
   
   Smallchief



3. A child in remote Phillipines at the outbreak of the ware. The author leans heavily on her mother's diary for material.



4. Ms Maynard reaches a long way back into her memory to bring us this absorbing tale of a family forced to hide in the jungle on Mindanao when World War II broke out. The Japanese took over the Philippines, leaving nine-year old Mary McKay, her parents and a brother away at boarding school, stranded. With the American Pacific fleet sunk at Pearl Harbor, General McArthur�s advice that Americans were in no danger turned out to be very wrong. McArthur was a stockholder in Mindanao Mother Lode, a mining operation where the author�s father worked. From a comfortable existence with servants to cook their meals and wash their clothes, this family had to flee to another inactive mining camp well into the interior of the island, where they were further from the Japanese soldiers now swarming over the coastal areas.

   Other families in the same situation lived with them at Gomoco, a gold mining camp that consisted of a few rickety buildings with a little stream flowing by. That stream became a river as it flowed to the coast, but boats could not navigate through the shallow water near the camp. Mary�s father was in charge of the collection of people who came and went over a two year period, and he presided over numerous arguments, often over whether to use more of the canned food or (as Mr. McKay thought) to preserve it for the even tougher times that might come.

   In the end, the family is rescued by an American submarine that took them aboard to share the tight quarters with sailors, dodging Japanese ships as they made their way to Darwin, Australia. Mary�s brother Bob spent the years in internment camps and was rescued from a prison in Manila when the Americans finally came and took back the Philippines. General McArthur kept his promise to come back.

   The book includes snatches of Mary�s mother�s diary which she kept during the years of hiding. I suspect this was the main source of information from so long ago, although surely a girl who lived through so much peril and fear would not forget these events. But research and that diary must have supplied many of the details. Mary gives us interesting glimpses into the complicated relationship of her parents -- a father who could not understand his wife�s need for comfort and reassurance, and a mother who begged her Filipino suppliers to find lipstick, believing that putting on a good face could hide her fears. The author also is willing to deal with the lopsided relationship between the Americans and the hard-working and loyal Filipinos, who did most of the work of keeping the foreigners fed and safe. That did not keep the Americans from feeling superior or making fun of the �pigeon English� spoken by the natives. It took many more years of living for the author to see how insensitive and ungrateful were these actions.

   I found the story pulled me in as I read, and I wanted to find out what new problems would appear and to learn how this family would finally found their way back home, whatever �home� had come to mean to them. Once Mindanao �fell� they had to decide whether to give themselves up (as the Japanese demanded of all Americans) or to continue to try to evade notice. Eventually enough servicemen and civilians who did not surrender themselves were able to put together an organized guerilla action to provide mutual support, harass the Japanese and keep in contact with American military forces fighting the war. That led to the submarine rescue and the end of the book, an interesting story from a time soon to be relegated to history books as memories fade completely and the story tellers are with us no more. This book is a rare opportunity to see the war from a new perspective, through the eyes of a child who experienced the disruption and terror of war up close and personal.




5. I learned about this book from my high school alumni web page and read it mostly out of curiousity. A fascinating book, a coming-of-age tale of a young girl in wartime. I so appreciated the author's skillful melding of her childish observations and her retrospective adult understanding of this difficult period of her life. She unflinchingly, and often humorously, describes the colonial prejudices of her parents and other Americans in their small community, their condescension toward Filipinos and Filipino-American mestizos, the tensions arising from a basic incompatibility between her parents, their strained relations with other fugitives from the war, and even a sexual assault. What makes the book so special, beyond its extraordinary tale, is the author's mature and sensitive handling of the subject matter. She owns up to her own failings and seeks to understand and forgive those of others, without condoning bad behavior. As an expatriate child in the Philippines (more than 20 years ago), I too felt superior to and made fun of the locals and am now heartily ashamed of it. Just as it took age and distance to fully appreciate my family, I can now admit to my love for the Philippines and her peoples. Our situations were so different, nevertheless McKay's words resonated strongly for me and inspire me to seek to develop even a fraction of her graciousness.

   I highly recommend this book.

1 comments about Finding My Way: The Autobiography of an Optimist.

1. Finding My Way: The Autobiography Of An Optimist is the self-told life story of Evelyn Stefansson Nef, a young woman born in Brooklyn 1913, who became a master craftswoman in the specialized art of creating marionettes; a skilled editor, researcher and writer; and who in her late fifties studied psychotherapy and became qualified to administer to patients. A particularly well written autobiography, Finding My Way presents a most remarkable and varied life, vividly and memorably narrated.

2 comments about A Youth in the Meuse-Argonne: A Memoir, 1917-1918.

1. This is not only an excellent soldiers account of small unit action in WW1 but is also a very entertaining story. Best book on WW1 I have read. My grandfather was in the 139th (Triplet was in the 140th) and this book lets you feel what it was really like to be in the AEF in France in 1918. Excellent book by an excellent author.



2. I am the grandson of colonel Triplet. I remember these stories first hand . Beind a vet myself it amazes me how much the army has changed in the last 70 years . Its great reading and I can tell you it is all facts. I read the original unedited memoirs.

5 comments about Half the House.

1. This book seems slightly shrouded by its sensational elements. 'Boy has troubled life - is abused, grieves the death of half of his family, suffers from alcoholism, etc.' These reviews and synopsis are accurate, and have probably/hopefully given the book a wider readership that it so deserves.
   I hope the inherent wisdom and subtlety beautiful writing have not been brushed aside in favor of the memoir's striking subject matter.
   I don't think I've ever felt aspects of childhood so perfectly captured in the innocent, yet curious mind of a child than in this book. Hoffman's inherent wisdom is deepened only by his perfect portrayal of how it feels to be young. Anyone who has considered their own childhood can relate to his delicate observations. The complexities and simple misunderstandings, yet intuitive honesty, of a child are the strongest parts to this book.
   I highly recommend it to anyone. The writing is straightforward yet elegant. Hoffman is a brilliant man and you can see his brilliance come together through his experiences. It truly is "a book of unsparing and at times brutal candor," consistent throughout the entire courageous memoir. There is true depth to this piece, beyond its traumatic subject matter, and Hoffman is truly speaking to everyone in his modest bildungsroman. Definitely a captiving book that you want to read all at once just to absorb its strength.



2. Without flinching from the truth, this book shows that it IS possible to break the circle of abuse: to understand, to love, to forgive, to recover, and to go on loving and nurturing those who are dear. The story of Hoffman's growing up with two terminally ill brothers, a father sometimes unable to control his rage, a mother who copes by shutting out memories, and a sexually abusive coach, is painful but ultimately hopeful.



3. This book was easy reading. I read this book in one night. It thankfully left out the details of the child abuse. Though it tends to jump around, and over many years, it is quite clear as to what happened. The author is telling his story, a very brave one to tell. But the importance of this book is really about how TELLING your story, can set others free. Its also about confronting your abuser, and how THAT can set yourself free. Free of secrets. Free of lies. Lies you tell others, and ones you may tell yourself.



4. Richard Hoffman is a brilliant writer, and quite a good teacher as well. My friend David says that he finds the book arousing. hehe Way to go Mr. Hoffman. The New York State Summer Young WriterInstitute Rules! Shout out to all of my peeps! AAAmennn



5. In Half the House Mr. Hoffman, like any good writer, is intimately concerned with truth, the minute, daily, specific reality of his experience in the rustbelt of Allentown, PA, in the nineteen fifties in working class America. His style is careful, descriptive, direct, and poetic -- but not personal. Half the House is written, as Mr. Hoffman is also a well-published poet, with detachment, technique, and maturity. Of the several memoirs I have read this year, only Half the House resolves its issues, its grimness, its pain in a health-promoting, realistic, peace-giving redemption. That final, moving scene between defensive father and guilty son, wherein each gives a little, then alot, then communicate genuinely and respectfully dissolving forty years of impediment to love, is the kind of real life forgiveness all of us only dare dream of. Half the House does it. As Nabokov once said it takes a deep spiritual sense to create a masterpiece. Half the House has the depth. Ron Morin

No comments about The Island's True Child.

No comments about Looking Back.

5 comments about Better Than Sane: Tales from a Dangling Girl.

1. I usually only review books that I absolutely love- but in this case I wanted to read this tome in one night and be done with it... Alison has a beautiful and sometimes seductive and brilliant way of stringing thoughts together- an idiosyncratic way of descriptive device. Five stars for individuality and fine form.
   The issue that I think most detractors have is the content and viewpoint of this clearly unfeminist female who in current jargon "gave all of her power away" to captivating and famous intellectuals - and I agree it's unclear the extent of the physical affairs that she was having - although there was plenty of mind games and heady flirtation and this was the food of her life- approval from men .So, if it's not your bag then you probably won't like the book-The men seem pompous smug and peurile to me, but I wasn't there. Everyone has their own life to live and Alison Rose shouldn't be judged to harshly for her choices. Certainly the game was a two way street and these New yorker men loved having their err egos stroked.To readers I say "try it , you might like it, and if not then she's just not your cuppa. "



2. I think, from reading the other customer reviews of this book, that this must be one that you either love, or hate. Put me in the latter category. There was great potential in this book - Alison Rose is clearly a good writer, she has brushed up against many other good writers and interesting people, and led an unconventional life. But. Arrgggh! She tells us only the faintest of details, skips around in time so it is difficult to piece together what happened when, and gives us no context for her actions or her memories. She has had a devastating effect on others - men and women - in her life (judging from what she tells us, anyway). But there's no real indication of WHY she was able to captivate so many interesting, intelligent and prominent people.



3. I read Better Than Sane: Tales from a Dangling Girl all the way through, in one sitting. I couldn't put it down. The book is original, beautiful, droll (as Rose would say), elegiac and perfect. It is also sexy. Better Than Sane is a piece of literature, something people aren't accustomed to anymore. Anyone who doesn't agree with me doesn't know what literature is. Rose has created an entire set of characters here. Their interactions made me a little bored with my own life. Through the dialogue (there isn't dialogue like this in any book I can think of)and the prose itself, the reader understands how Alison Rose has survived. She was "rescued by her own actions and didn't get killed," as George Trow, her mentor at The New Yorker and writer of "Within the Context of No Context" said to
   her. An editor at the magazine, where Rose became a staff writer,
   said to her, "You see beyond." She does.



4. I love The New Yorker. Each week, it's like a precious gift, and I relish every page, particularly 'Talk of the Town'. So one can imagine my delight at the prospect of a book by Alison Rose. Sadly, I feel that with her book she really drove home the fact that the ability to type does not mean one should write a book.
   
   This is the long, minutely detailed story of an apparently very beautiful woman who finds herself incredibly fascinating. Maybe she is truly fascinating, and just can't convey it through writing. Maybe this is why someone at Knopf deemed it acceptable to publish this excruciating memoir and send it out into the world. Or maybe Alison was just sleeping with the right person at the right time. Again.
   
   In closing, I would like to cite the sentence that pushed me over the edge, that transformed me from irritated non-fan into sarcastic review-writer: "The day before he made the birthday card for Puppy-I'd brought her into the office and introduced her to some writers and editors-I was carrying her under her front legs, her dog ankles were crossed, and Harold said, 'She should be wearing a skirt'." This is the type of statement people make in passing four hundred times a day. I have probably said this very thing to someone ahead of me in line at the post office. It doesn't make for interesting reading, and that's a shame because this book is comprised of similar sentences. God, the boredom.



5. Alison Rose is a real writer. Better Than Sane:Tales from a Dangling Girl is literature, which is hard to come by these days.
   Rose knows what friendship is. I have memorized a sentence she wrote about the writer Harold Brodkey: "If I have, say, twenty fragments of my mind all to myself, and I give ten to Harold, then half of them are taken care of for a few hours. Then I have only half the trouble, half the isolation. A real luxury." In the chapter "Dangling Girl," Rose's loyal friend Francine flies in from Atlanta to help Alison pack up her office at The New Yorker. The description is sad and charming and so beautiful that I could feel the decades of friendship, as if I had been in the office with them. On the last moving day, the brilliant writer, Renata Adler,(there is a sublime Adler quote in the epigraph)takes the photographs of George Trow and Harold Brodkey off the wall, a final goodbye. Parts of Better Than Sane are elegiac, but all of it is written in prose that, elegiac or not, brings happiness to a serious reader. We need Better Than Sane in our uncertain world.

5 comments about A Daughter of the Samurai.

1. A great book if you are interested in old Japanese ways. Well written, but not hard to understand. Would recomend to anyone



2. Unfortunately, out of print - but seek it out any way you can. A fascinating, wonderful, and truthful account of the life of a daughter of the Samurai class, which had existed for centuries, just at the time when it was beginning its decline. Much of what you read in this book will explain the behaviour of modern-day Japanese. As an American living in Japan, that has proved invaluable. The book is well-written, focused, imaginative, whimsical, and resourceful, just like the author herself. If you can get your hands on a copy, be prepared to fall in love with Etsu-bo!



3. Unfortunately, out of print - but seek it out any way you can. A fascinating, wonderful, and truthful account of the life of a daughter of the Samurai class, which had existed for centuries, just at the time when it was beginning its decline. Much of what you read in this book will explain the behaviour of modern-day Japanese. As an American living in Japan, that has proved invaluable. The book is well-written, focused, imaginative, whimsical, and resourceful, just like the author herself. If you can get your hands on a copy, be prepared to fall in love with Etsu-bo!



4. I was completely charmed by this beautifully written autobiography! I couldn't put it down! Not only did I learn some rich social history of Japan, but I was able to see into the Japanese heart for the first time. Although many of the customs mentioned are now outdated, they show the foundation that shaped and molded the Japanese people of today. I can now say that I have a much clearer understanding of the Japanese. Apart from what I learned of Japan, I also got a glimpse of America and how we haven't changed much over the years in our attitudes. I saw into the heart of the immigrant and the adjustments and readjustments they must face. I was awed and inspired!



5. I didn't want this book to finish so soon. I loved the style and became involved in the characters. I want to know how her children re-adjusted back to life in the USA - how did she manage as a single Japanese mother alone in the USA.

   Nothing tumultuos happens, no sex, no violence - just a peek into the not-so distant past!

   Especially interesting for me since I am a Brit who has lived in the USA and now living in Japan.

   Can anyone reccomend more books of this calibre?

5 comments about Dreaming of Columbus : A Boyhood in the Bronx.

1. A friend of mine from the Bronx told me about this book, and I'm glad she did. This if a beautifully written story that gets at the truth of both the time and the heart. The Bronx is a place that seems mythic and all too real to me and this writer keeps both of those images alive.



2. I loved this book. It gave a shape to Pearson's life and let me understand that there is a shape to all of our lives. It's just up to us to find the meaning that is there for us notice.



3. For me Dreaming of Columbus read more like a novel than a memoir. I mean that as a compliment to the writer. The story had the feel of fiction to it, as if you could see inside the characters lives and enter the story for a while. I loved it.



4. Michael Pearson has the right idea, but the ideas that are gathered into the book are a little disjointed and fractured. If he could smooth out the stories so that blend one into the other, the entire book would read better.
   On the positive note, Dreaming of Columbus would definitely stir memories of the neighborhood for those growing up in that part of New York. He does have some descriptive stories of people, places and landmarks in the book that are entertainingly delightful.
   If you are a Bronx native, I would recommend this book so you can remember things you may never see again.



5. Despite the images of sea voyages inspired by its title, Dreaming of Columbus is not the story of a young man spending his salad days in exotic, foreign settings. Instead, Michael Pearson takes the road less traveled and keeps his story closer to home. The reader looking for journeys will not be disappointed, however, in the imaginative way the Pearson uses literature to break away from the confines of the Bronx and the unpredictable, bourbon induced, violent outbursts produce by his father's rage to live. Although Pearson engages in excessive epigraph dropping, the means by which literature provides an avenue for escape adds a universal element to his narrative from which we call all learn something about the art of bridge building.

No comments about Roman's Journey:a memoir of survival.