5 comments about The Blue-Eyed Salaryman: From World Traveller to Lifer at Mitsubishi.

1. Content is accurate, well-observed, and recounted with sensitivity and balance; happily, it's very well-written and flows beautifully. Certainly worthwhile reading for foreigners working with (or for) the Japanese. Hopefully, this work will appear in a Japanese edition as well, and I'll bet it would be a best-seller in Japan. Like the author, I have worked in a large Japanese company, married a Japanese national, and make my home in Japan.



2. Niall Murtagh is an Irishman who came to Japan to study the language. He ended up working for the Mitsubishi corporation for 14 years. Murtagh was a world traveler who did not stay in any one place for to long. So how is it he stayed with one company, a japanese company at that, for 14 years? This book attempts to answer that perplexing question. Though Murtagh has led a varied life, he devotes most of his book to his 14 years with the Mitsubishi Company as a Japanese kaishain, or salaryman.
   
   Murtagh rose to a middle-manager position, almost unheard of for any gaijin (foreigner) in a Japanese corporation. He was always the only gaijin in the room. Because his Japanese was flawless he was always looked at askance. The Japanese feel that their language is to difficult for gaijin to learn let alone speak fluently. He tells of his daily commute to work on a bicycle, his unpaid overtime, company uniforms and he even the company song.
   
   He says little of his personal life. His courtship and marriage to Miyuki is a good example of this. He sums up this chapter of his life by saying Miyuki's parents approved of their marriage because of his Mitsubishi credentials.
   
   Murtagh keeps the story moving in a conversational style. He has an eye for the irony of the cultural differences between the west and the east.
   
   I have a friend in Tokyo who is also a salaryman. I got this book for that reason. I wanted to see some of the things that he had to go through. He said that many of the experiences that Murtagh went through are quite common for a gaijin salaryman.
   
   It is an entertaining book and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who has friends or family working in Japan. And for those of you who don't, it is still an interesting read to compare the cultures.



3. From the first opening sentence, this book is a page turner. The writer provides a simple but deep insight on working in a major Japanese company. The events presented are sometime caricatural, looks too bad/good to be true, but I can attest from my own experience they're quite real.
   A must reading material for people thinking of working at a major traditional Japanese company.



4. Niall Murtagh gives us an understanding of the real(hone) underbelly of Japanese corporate life. The book is well written entertaining and accurate. I have the same roots as the author and like him have endured 14 years in a large Japanese corporation. So I can verify his accuracy. He deals with the frustrating an oppressive aspects of salaryman Japan life in a very Irish way - he uses humour. He tries hard to fit-in but soon learns that foreigners, even Japanese fluent ones with a Phd., never fit in. or become totally accepted. He could have expanded on the psychological impact of salaryman life on foreigners. For those with a work link to Japan, read this book.



5. "The Blue-eyed Salaryman" is a book written by Niall Murtagh, an Irishman, and is based on his real life experience as a salaryman at Mitsubishi Corporation in Japan.
   
   The story starts when he joins the R&D department at Mitsubishi in the early 1990. At the beginning he was a contract worker, but eventually he became a normal lifetime salaryman. He was also the first foreigner to be promoted to management level in Mitsubishi in Japan.
   
   His book is very interesting, because it is based on his experience over a period of more than 10 years. So he really got to understand deeply about Mitsubishi's culture and way of working. He also experienced the end of the bubble area, and the following crisis years.
   
   Later on, Murtagh-san was transferred to Osaka, which allowed him to compare between Osaka and Tokyo working culture. His finding was that people in Tokyo cared about big visionary research projects, whereas in Osaka all research needs to have a practical application to get accepted. He did enjoy living in the Osaka area, and eventually enjoyed working here.
   
   The final conclusion of his book is that for foreigners, as change agents, it is not meaningful to join traditional Japanese companies from the bottom; because the only way to drive fundamental change in large Japanese traditional corporations is top down. According to Niall, Carlos Ghosn would never have been able to impact to Nissan if he had joined them from the bottom...
   
   Working as a foreigner in a large Japanese corporation in Japan, I really identified strongly with Niall's writing. It gave me a sense of comfort, making me believe that I still haven't lost my common sense....

No comments about Christy Ring: Hurling's Greatest.

5 comments about Catherine the Great : Life and Legend.

1. This is a good book to read to get a handle on the reign of Catherine the Great and late 18th C. Russia. Alexander covers the court intrigues, the attempts at reform, the complexities of foreign policy. He also avoids treating Catherine's personal life in a sensationalistic way.

   So if you read this book, you will learn a lot. On the other hand, the book doesn't really come to life in the way Massie's "Peter the Great" or Avrich's "Russian Rebels" did. It is recommended only to those with a serious interest in the time of Catherine, such as students, and not the casual reader.




2. I have read several books on the history of Russia, like Peter the Great, and the Romanovs, but this book frankly bored me. The author definetly knows his stuff about Catherine, but I got so tired of reading about all the political stuff in this book. I wanted to know more about her personal life, more details about her comings and goings, not about how she ruled her Russian cabinet officers. Also the use of vocabulary was way over my head, so it made it hard to enjoy reading because many times I needed to get the dictionary, and I feel I have a fairly good vocabulary. I would not recommend this book unless you want to know about Russian administration in her time.



3. I have read history books more interesting than this book. When i purchased the book i thought that it would be an interesting work. The book started off interesting. Then, as it progressed it got worse. Rent the movie. It would be much better. Trust me.



4. Alexander does a marvelous job retelling history without sensationalizing it. Many past biographers undertaking the job of writing about Catherine the Great have often focused too much on her sexuality, rather than her political prowess. John T. Alexander, however, thoroughly examines the political and cultural context of her life, and refuses to insult the reader's intelligence by dishing gossip or repeating long-held opinions. Having read four other biographies of Catherine the Great, I can assure you this one is probably the best. Impartial, informative, and interesting.



5. First of all, contrary to the review now on line, this book was not written by John T. Williams, whoever he is, but by John T. Alexander. This biography is a much more serious and learned biography than Henri Troyat's, which I read in 1987. This book has dull parts, but the story it tells is an incredible one. Catherine had an amazing career, and of course her parade of favorites is legendary. I found this book to be good academic history and it well deserves reading.

5 comments about The Last of the Hitlers.

1. A rather sordid little peek show, set against the background of the post-Nuremberg truths about 'what really happened' and the shame of having to live with it.
   
   And, if, as modern liberal multicultural, 'we-are-all-simply-products-of-our-environment' lore would have it, does it matter if someone has Hitler's genes?



2. It's the very first book I have read about Hitler's family, and I found this book rather interesting. The author writes that Hitler tried his very best to hide the facts about his clearly dysfunctional family. Gardner tells us about Adolf Hitler's father who was born out of wedlock, and all the questions made about who was his real father. Alois Hitler sr. is described as a bully and adulterer. Alois jr. should have been beaten unconscious by his father, and Alois sr. should also have kept a string of mistresses whom he married when his current wife died.
   Adolf Hitler's mother protected her own son, but should have been cruel to her stepson Alois jr.
   Alois jr. turned out to be a bigamist, and he also comes across as irresponsible, selfish and a bad father to his English son.
   We also learn about Adolf Hitler's sisters Angela and Paula, while the author keeps tracking the führer 's family in the USA.
   I found this book to be well written and I learnt a lot I didn't know.



3. This is a pretty good book. However, it concentrates primarily on the authors search for the Hitler relatives in the US and not so much on information about them. It does provide a look at Adolph Hitler as a young man which is actually pretty interesting. This is apparently a rare book, so it took 6-8 weeks for delivery which was kind of a disappointment.



4. This is one of the rare books that holds you in riveting attention all the way through. The reader should try to view the history channel documentary on this subject. The book is well written and is five stars+
   farleyrd



5. This book is very entertaining. I bought it expecting to get answers on what became of Hitler's blood relations. I was disappointed in the amount of information concerning Hitler's nephew, and what became of him. But, it did have some fascinating evidence about Adolf's mother, father, and siblings. Worth a look, but, it's quite expensive for what you really get. I'd recommend checking it out from a library if you can.

3 comments about Germans: The Biography of an Obsession.

1. Growing up as an "Auslandsdeutscher" (German raised in foreign countries) I early on came to understand that NOBODY understands the "Germans," not foreigners with their cultural/ethnic/political biases (even if they are positively inclined), much less the Germans themselves with their "unbewaeltigte Vergangenheit" (unprocessed past).

   So, it was amazing to find that the person who got closest to the German essence, soul, substance, what you will, was someone who discovered the people in his adolescence and then pursued this interest into adult life. His view is loving and critical at the same time, as it should be. That he is of Celtic ancestry surely helped him in acquiring insight, because I have found tremendous parallels between the two peoples. 'Nuff said - I'll be accused of something....

   THIS BOOK SHOULD BE RE-ISSUED !!!...




2. I just re-read this book for the first time since I was living in Berlin, Germany (S.O. 36) through most of the 80's. (My copy of this book is a dog-eared Avon paperback, fallen to pieces and carefully saved by means of rubber bands.) Like the book's author, I am multi-lingual (German, Dutch, French, with some Spanish, Wolof and Eve). So, his attempt to get more understanding of Germans from the German language itself makes all the sense in the world to me. I also appreciate his notion of what he calls the "polyhistor." This is the only book in which I've seen this term. I recommend the book highly, but it is not easy reading (pleasurable, yes, but not easy). I doubt that I could get any of my engineering friends (I am also an engineer) to read it, because they wouldn't get the jokes. You almost have to have lived in Germany, as he did and I did, for it to make any sense.

   I wish this book were back in print, just as I wish Charles Beard's books were available. It repays the effort of reading it, something that can't be said of many books these days.




3. My father handed this to me when I left to live in Germany ten years ago. My entire experience of the country turned out to be colored by Bailey's mixture of autobiography and profound linguistic and historical knowledge. This man knows the peoples and history of Central Europe inside out, to a degree that one can only envy. The book veers back and forth: from tiny specific details of Bailey's own experiences in military intelligence in the Second World War (and his life in a German family afterwards), to sweeping views of what the German national character is and how it came to be. It's all written in a clear, vigorous style, sort of like George Orwell as a bon vivant. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the subject.

No comments about The Cecils: Privilege and Power Behind the Throne.

No comments about Growing Up in England: The Experience of Childhood 1600-1914.

5 comments about WHOREDOM IN KIMMAGE CL.

1. 
   I remember reading about this book when it first came out. The writer stayed in this small Irish village, interacted with the people, and wrote such a revealing and accurate portrait of it that one or two of the village people who were unhappy with it claimed that she had made it all up Then, when that defense didn't work, they backtracked and switched their defense to: "Oh, well, yes, but we're not really like that. We were just putting her on and stringing her along. We were just performing." Interesting. If they were just putting her on, if it was all just a performance on their part, why should they have been angry when the book appeared and it accurately captured their "performance"?
   Obviously they were angry because the picture she made of them is genuine. There was no performance. To think otherwise is ridiculous. This is exactly who the villagers were in 1991. I, too, lived in a small village in western Ireland. Funny and sad though they may be, the stories in this book are quite serious. Some of the men were obviously showing off, but that was sincere too. There aren't many writers more attuned to the complexities of human nature than Mahoney. When I read this book (Ive read it three times now) I was amazed by the accuracy of it, the truth of it, and the fairness of it. It's completely implausible--and even laughable--that an entire village could possibly be pulling the writer's leg for months on end. Whoever thinks these people were just performing and having the writer on doesn't know the Irish. More important, what exactly is it that these few naysayers here object to? Is there something wrong with the way the Irish live, the way they act? I don't think so. They are human, and those who try to say this book is not representative is basically denying the humor and verve and conversational genius of these village people. This book struck a nerve because it was one of the first to portray the Irish the way they are, rather than the way they have always perceived to be: as some fairyish, innocent, infantile and sickly sweet people.
   Some of the readers here can't allow that this portrait is genuine because they don't like the picture it resulted in. But why don't they like it? Do they want the people of Ireland to be perfect, conventional, boring, and ordinary? Why be ashamed of this wonderful human reality? What is it in this picture that's so dramatic or bizarre or unbelievable that it would suggest that the people of this village were weaving some kind of fiction? Nothing. The telling fact about the truth of this book is the strength of feeling, humor, and poetic expression in the people. They are beautifully alive. This is the reality. Why say this portrait isn't who they really are? There's a fantastic spontaneity in them that, sadly, some would try to deny.
   So many native Irish people have attested too the accuracy and sensitivity of this book, some of them among Ireland's best known writers. Attempts to deconstruct the portrait as untrue or inaccurate are cheap and offensive. I loved this book because I love Ireland and the Irish.



2. It should say something about this book that my wife and I kept grabbing it away from each other to read certain parts of it that we found funny or sad. I adored Whoredom in Kimmage. HAving had an Irish grandmother and having spent a lot of time in rural Ireland, I was struck but how vivid and true the stories in this book are. There's a whole Irish psychology and humor that Mahoney captures here better than just about any other writer writing non-fiction about Ireland. I was blown away by the details, the intelligence and authority of the writing, and above all the sympathy and love the author clearly feels for her subjects. The chapters that take place in Corofin are absolutely riveting and hilarious, the people are so alive and energetic, the dialogue is so accurately represented. More than anything, though, The author makes a picture of Ireland in the early nineties that is complex, human, troubling, and humane. The contrast of the chapters that take place inthe country and the chapters that take place in Dublin form a very complete view of the struggles and growing pains that country has gone through. Reading this book was like reading the best kind of absorbing novel, and yet it also gave a very clear sociological picture of Ireland. Even if you don't care about Ireland at all, you should read this book just for the stories.



3. Being neither Irish, nor a woman, I read this book because I had thoroughly enjoyed two of Rosemary Mahoney's other books, Early Arrival of Dreams and A Singular Pilgrim. She has an incredible talent for vividly describing people and their idiosyncrasies. While she has more in common with the Irish than the Chinese and the pilgrims she meets in her other travels, her observations about Ireland and the Irish make it seem like an equally fascinating, equally foreign land. While Rosemary does paint pictures of people that are tend to be more critical, she is equally critical of herself, and at this stage of her life, quite unsure of whom she is.
   
   If you are someone who enjoys visiting new places not just for the scenery but for the people, then you will thoroughly enjoy this book. Not many of us will be able to live out of the country long enough to know specific individuals with such depth as described here. I appreciate that she shares her subjective perspective with us; it makes me love the world in which we live and wish that I could have such experiences myself!
   
   Both Whoredom in Kimmage and Early Arrival of Dreams give you a rare view into the people of Ireland and China from an American's perspective. The fact that both countries have changed so much in the last decade makes these books so much more precious and enjoyable to read. Highly recommended.



4. After recently reading Mahoney's account of late 80s China, "The Early Arrival of Dreams" (also reviewed by me), and thinking about her curious account of pilgrimages as "The Singular Pilgrim," which I also enjoyed, I went back to re-read "Whoredom" a dozen years after I had first finished it, when it came out to a small flurry of attention (at least in my conversations) among Irish emigres and Irish Americans, especially feminists. Taken in the dimmer light of an Ireland since riven by clerical scandal, and where now 1:3 babies are born to unmarried mothers, the transitions seem far away from the subsequent hi-tech & EU-fueled immigration booms into Ireland. Her interviews with Mary Robinson and the poet Eavan Boland are a bit too lengthy, but do document well this jittery state of change as the 90s settled in and unsettled traditional roles across the nation. I was amused, by the way, to hear Boland call herself "middle class." As Boland was the daughter of the UN's first president, with a diplomatically-raised childhood and a very posh education, it made me wonder if you'd have to live in Buckingham Palace to be any rank higher than "middle class."
   
   Anyway, Mahoney, as in her other books, reveals very little about herself and an overwhelming amount about everyone who passes by her sharp eye and into her evidently capacious memory. Like many Irish, no matter where born, she directs conscientiously but almost invisibly her attention outside herself. So, this is not even a memoir but what's since been labelled "creative non-fiction" in its novelistic and "thick" detail--perhaps more fitting an anthropologist crossed with a storyteller.
   
   I did wonder, especially in the Corofin pub dialogue--and most of all a drunken long night after when some of the folks followed her back to the castle for more craic and awkward conviviality--how she remembered it all in such minute incidences as the alteration in a countenance after an utterance or the shift in tone as heard in the midst of one of her "informant's" endless recitations. I presume, without discounting the essential veracity of her accounts, that she does take a bit of liberty with the re-creation of so many thousands of words after perhaps hundreds of nights whittled down to the best bits from her many months.
   
   While some castigate the author for trying to fit into the JJ Smythe lesbian pub scene by "passing," Mahoney does explain in retrospect that she did not do this lightly, and acted on the spot half out of embarassment or fear, rather as any willful and premeditated desire to deceive her companions. She describes well the mingled excitement and terror that she feels when put on the spot in a setting she never before had entered.
   
   Similarly, I do not believe that she tricked any of her Corofin conversationalists; they all knew her as a writer and her task being to observe them all for a book in the works. The accusations she relates while--fittingly--being driven off from Clare by way of Ennis while being tongue-lashed by a madwoman driver who disdains her passenger's scribal vocation which the driver knows by repute: this subtly portrays the tensions that she stirred up among the local people.
   
   Mahoney's characteristic approach being rather to let herself be self-effaced and to blend into what she is experiencing and then conveying to us makes her style admirable for its technical skill, if rather detached for the lack of a strong first-person presence. I realize that this is her chosen vantage-point, but it makes the hints she gives out--alcoholic strife, no mention of a father, only the barest asides to her own Boston formative years--all the more mysterious. Judging from her previous China and her future pilgrimage books, I suppose she wants to remain more enigmatic--an intriguing trait for a non-fictional writer who tells of her own encounters.
   
   A few typos marred an otherwise thorough effort: on pg. 265 she misspells what should be the writers Walter "Macken" and Austin "Clarke"; the next page shows her twice giving out Eric Cross' folkloric and once notoriously banned (and de-banned) account as "The Tailor of Ansty" when the "of" should be "and."
   
   She has done her homework. Her careful attention to what she hears and how it's spoken makes her a thoughtful and slyly entertaining guide. Her paragraphs on pp. 10-12 showing us what her castle looked like marvelously show her powers of summation and support. I still wish she would have delved further with her first-person narration, and told more about her own previous trips to Ireland, her studies that prefaced the months narrated, and much more about her own Irish American background.
   
   But, her reticence amidst so much verbiage is typically Irish itself.



5. How can anyone spend a couple of years abroad, anywhere, and expect to portray an accurate historical account of the status of women in that country, let alone the entire people? She can't. So why are the reviewers expecting this book to be that impossible thing and to be unequivocally historically complete?
   
   This is an autobiography of the author's experience in Ireland, not a history of Ireland. This is Ms. Mahoney's journey, not Ireland's. Take it for what you will beyond that, because it is a compelling read with wonderfully imagined and experienced events. She is honest with her material while drawing out the poetic charm of her travels. She tracks several key political movements, such as the attempts to legalize a woman's right to seek counseling on abortion, through their late-80s specific events and leaders and in relation to the deeper built-in oppressions of Irish-Christian dogma. She does not come out and condemn anyone or anything, but leaves those opinions to the reader. She paints a picture of a country that is quite progressive in many ways, even electing their first woman president, but silently the culture continues to oppress women in ways that are not befitting a 20th (now 21st) century world.
   
   Too bad so many individuals misinterpret her work: If the people of Corofin and Dublin truly were "having their fun" with Ms. Mahoney by avoiding being honest with her in the hopes of making a fool out of her, frankly, they deserve to be caricatured. What a wonderful lesson in humility - a detail that speaks more about the state of a handful of men and women than any idealized cultural representation could have. When you have a guest to your house, do you mock them and make them out to be fools or do you welcome them and their cultural differences? I guess in some places, the tradition is to scare the outsider away rather than include them in the larger world picture.
   
   Maith go leor, a Rosemary! Is iontach ?

5 comments about Simon de Montfort (British Lives).

1. It took me ages to wade through this but I am very pleased that I did. Its very comprehensively written and I appreciated the lengths that the author undertook in his research.
   
   This book was a bit serious for me but I enjoyed the learning experience that it provided.



2. J.R. Maddicott brings a lively and informative narrative with "Simon De Montfort". This mid 1990s 404-page (paperback) book is popular with four reprints by 1999. Maddicott is thorough in this presentation. He searches many, if not all, documents from the era for composing the dramatic and interesting life of medieval England's most famous Frenchman.
   
   With documented history Maddicott persuasively argues that De Montfort was a powerful pioneer for English baronial liberties. The book answers many questions about Simon's life, politics, religion, victories and defeats (in the political arenas and on battlefields). The reader also learns about Simon's family life (he married the king's widowed sister- Eleanor- without royal permission and had duplicitous sons), the life long quarrel between De Montfort and King Henry III, how the battle at Lewes brought Simon to the pinnacle of governmental power, and about his disastrous defeat and death at Evesham.
   
   If you like medieval pageantry and romance, you will appreciate Maddicott's presentation with "Simon De Montfort". French aristocrat De Montfort arrives to England in 1230 to begin his colorful baronial career. At first Henry III warms to the young aristocrat. Soon their relationship sours and De Montfort diligently works to depose Henry and gain royal power for the remainder of his life. It is a gripping interesting story.
   
   Although Maddicott tends toward run-on sentences and sometimes tediously examines each source (multiple footnotes appear on almost every page), this book is a good read. It opens with a helpful abbreviations list, presents an informative family tree, supplies more than 20 photos and maps, offers an exhaustive 12-page bibliography, and closes with a useable index.
   
   This book is recommendable particularly for English history buffs, medieval scholars, military historians, and constitutional history students. The specialty reader and the general reader will find, through this text, Simon De Montfort exciting and well worth the price.



3. This book proves to be a well-written if not very complex biography of Simon de Montfort, a revolutionary mediveal baron who dares to challenged the King of England about the limitation of the royal powers. While initially successful, he allowed that success to go to his head and he was finally defeated and killed.

   The book revealed a highly complex character, its superbly researched, readable to a those who knoweledge of the period is pretty good, bit hard on those who may be entering this subject for the first time. The author managed to intergrate all elements of de Montfort's life, as a great soldier, as a politican, a man of God with a look of idealism and above all, a family man. Along with his strengths, lies his weaknesses, his ruthless ambition, self-centered on family promotion and wealth at expense of others and his overwhelming sense of pride that borderline on sheer arrogance. The book clearly show how his strength gained him his victories while his weaknesses sent him into defeat.

   With great insight, perception and scholarship, I would say this biography of Mountfort is probably the best on the subject and one of the best on any mediveal personalities of the time period. (Although Michael Prestwich's biography on Edward I is also quite excellent.)




4. A very fair account of a truly remarkable individual. It presents him as a man dedicated to his ideals and as a man utterly obsessed with his well-being, even at the cost of his losing credibility for his government and the provisions he fought so hard for, making him believable as a real man. It is a shame so few people know about him. Highly recomended!



5. Great but tragic story of a strong character who wanted too much and lost everything. Facinating story of an educated man in a uneducated time. Inside into the economic circumstances and its motivation in the 12th century. Highly recommendable but also higly difficult to read.

5 comments about Ruined by the Reich: Memoir of an East Prussian Family, 1916-1945.

1. For an autobiography, constrained to stick to what actually happened or was lived, the second world war is as dramatic a context as you can get. I have little previous exposure to books about personal experiences of the second world war, but I think what sets this book apart is the slowness & indirectness of experiencing the war & the inevitable & visceral destruction it brings.
   
   Brandenburg tells a very involved & nuanced story without ever bordering on the dramatic. She shows remarkable poise & a wonderful eye for detail without losing herself in any kind of literary embellishments. She tells the story of growing up with a lovely peasant family in East Prussia, its hard life demanding discipline, the Germans trading freedom for security post first world war, Hitler's deep penetration into the social & psychological realms of Germany, the initial victories, the never-ending war with Russia, the eventual retreats, & the German defeat.
   
   In between all this are woven tales of growing up, marriages, jealousies, betrayals, cowardice, fear & suspense. And inevitably, there is death. Yes, there is hope at the end, & yes, there is rejuvenation. But those remain very lame consolations for what is lost, for what is learned, & for what is lived.
   
   Perhaps, if Brandenburg had experienced the war as an adult, there might have been more complex experiences & analysis; however, this book remains ultimately about what is lost.
   
   S!



2. The beauty of this story is in the details. What was eaten for breakfast; her first doll; the logistics of evacuating - of loading your possessions and food onto a wagon hitched to a horse in the days before refrigeration and styrofoam coolers. Yes, this story is a tragedy, be prepared to have your heartstrings pulled but intermingled are the happy events such as finding an abandoned cow, hiding it and tasting milk again.The characters are real and the reader cannot help himself from empathizing with the whole village.



3. After reading Ruined by the Reich it brought to light that everyone suffers during and after war. Unfortunately, to this point, the view of Germans has always been that the whole population were Nazis. From this book we realize that such is not the case and that Germans also encountered horrible and unspeakable acts of terror in their own country. It's important to understand that there are two sides to every story and thanks to the vivid recount by Dan Laing and the strength of Christel Weiss Brandeburg we are presented with the entire picture.



4. I recently finished the book Ruined by the Reich. Its a compelling story of a firsthand account of a families anguish. When Christel speaks of her harrowing ordeals you can visualize everything that she is going through. A detailed outlook of the effects of war on all individuals involved.I would love to see this book made into a movie. Dan Laing is an excellent writer and Christel Weiss is a wonderful story teller.



5. I JUST FINISHED READING, RUINED BY THE REICH. THIS WAS
   A FASCINATING STORY, AND YET VERY SAD. I DON'T THINK
   MOST OF US EVER THOUGHT ABOUT THE GERMAN PEOPLE SUFFERING.
   THAT POOR GIRL. THE WRITING WAS SO DISTINCT, I FELT IT
   WHEN CHRISTEL WAS COLD AND I FELT STARVED WHEN SHE DIDN'T
   GET ENOUGH TO EAT. POOR CHRISTEL IS IN OUR PRAYERS.

   I HOPE THESE TWO WHO HAVE COLLABORATED SO WELL, ARE
   WORKING ON A SCREEN PLAY.

   THIS WAS SO VERY WELL TOLD. POOR CRYSTEL IS IN OUR PRAYERS.