Month: October 2023

Learn History Through Fiction: By Any Means

American journalist Varian Fry, working in occupied France for the Emergency Rescue Committee, a private relief organization, used legal and illegal measures to evacuate 2,000 refugees, including prominent writers like Lion Feuchtwanger and artists like Marc Chagall. In 1994, Fry was the first American honored by Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem as a “Righteous Among the Nations.” While the U.S. failed to end WW2 sooner or admit those fleeing Nazi persecution, history shows some courageous Americans spoke out and saved lives. Read about a German Jewish family who tries to escape to the U.S. in the novel One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.

Varian Fry rescued 2,000 prominent intellectuals targeted by the Nazis

Berlin, 1937. Jewish newlyweds flee Germany for Brooklyn before the Nazi slaughter begins

Survivor Story: That’ll Teach You

“Children escaped through holes in the ghetto walls and were hidden by Polish families. If the Germans found out, they’d sometimes shoot the family’s own children and leave the Jewish children with them for a few weeks as a lesson.” Read about two Holocaust survivors, German Jewish newlyweds sent to America by their parents to have children to “save our people,” in One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.

Courageous Polish families hid Jewish children at their own peril

Jewish newlyweds flee Germany for Brooklyn on the eve of the Nazi slaughter

What I’m Reading: Cloud Cuckoo Land

My Amazon and Goodreads review of Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr (Rating 5) – The Story of a Story. Although I bought Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr soon after it was published, I intended to wait before reading it. Having been awed by All the Light We Cannot See, as both a reader and fiction writer (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page, I was saving Cloud Cuckoo Land to prolong the anticipation of being wowed again. But when I discovered that Doerr would be speaking in the college town where I live in a couple of weeks, I decided to read it before his talk. I got only halfway through before his lecture, because reading this book cannot be rushed. It is meant to be ingested slowly. The novel alternates between five characters (six if you count the Greek figure from whose tale the book’s title is derived) and three eras, from the distant past to the not-so-distant future. With intricate plotting, atypical characters, and an erudition that reflects his insatiable curiosity, Doerr builds the connections between them. Despite humanity’s tragedies — from ancient wars to present day environmental destruction — Doerr salvages hope, and reminds us of the power of storytelling.

Storytelling at its most captivating

Why writers read: “Why are we reading, if not in hope of beauty laid bare, life heightened and its deepest mystery probed?” – Annie Dillard

Survivor Story: Heart of Ice

“At some point, my heart grew hard. Not because I lacked feelings for my fellow prisoners. I always had those. But my heart was no longer alive. Sheer terror had turned it into ice.” Read about two Holocaust survivors, German Jewish newlyweds sent to America by their parents to have children to “save our people,” in One Person’s Loss. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.

Sheer terror overrode all other feelings

Berlin, 1937. Jewish newlyweds flee Germany for Brooklyn on the eve of the Nazi slaughter

Character Rules

“For me the novel is character creation. Style is nice, plot is nice, structure is OK, social significance is OK, symbolism worms its way in, timeliness is OK too, but unless the characters convince and live the book’s got no chance” (Author Larry McMurty in a letter to author Ken Kesey). I agree. For me, before the seed for a story or novel can germinate, I have to answer the question, “Who is the book about. What’s the point of view?” Once I know the character(s), the ideas begin to flow and I can write. See more thoughts about writing in REFLECTIONS.

Why writers write: “I just knew there were stories I wanted to tell.” – Octavia E. Butler