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EMERALDS NEVER FADE

A lucid history of the Jewish experience after World War II, but unsatisfying as a fictional tale of real people in the...

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In this historically panoramic drama, the horror of the holocaust permanently binds and alters the lives of two German boys.

Leo Bergner is a young Jewish boy whose otherwise quiet middle-class upbringing is ruptured by the rise of the Third Reich. After fleeing his native Germany in order to escape the persecution that envelops his parents, Leo matures into a committed Zionist, becoming a British officer to defend Israel against its anti-Semitic adversaries, Nazi and Arab alike. Leo’s childhood piano teacher, Bruno Franzmann, follows a different trajectory: He works for the Nazis as an administrator at a concentration camp. A wave of consequence washes over all who sided with the Fuhrer when it becomes clear that Allied Powers will prevail, so Bruno decamps for Buenos Aires. There he hopes to begin a criminal enterprise centered on bribing former Nazis bent on concealing their identities. The narrative leads the reader to the final crescendo, their reunion: Now a well-heeled banker, Leo discovers a vast financial conspiracy that facilitated the looting of Jewish property during the war, which draws him into Bruno’s nefarious dealings. Maitland-Lewis’ tale is scrupulously researched, saturated with rich historical detail. His account often deftly depicts both the gradual unfurling of Nazi atrocities and the psychological trauma thrust upon so many Jews as a result. While Leo struggles with the pathos of a fractured identity—his German nationality pitted against his Jewish religion—Bruno abandons all sense of allegiance to his own narrowly conceived self-interest. Problematically, such an ambitious psychodrama requires deeply textured characters and a nuanced exploration of their motives, which Maitland-Lewis doesn’t fully offer. A few developments don’t add up—Bruno’s growth from a morally divested Nazi collaborator to anti-Nazi compatriot or hardnosed Leo’s sympathy for him. The story seems to be designed as a moral parable, but the lesson isn’t quite clear.

A lucid history of the Jewish experience after World War II, but unsatisfying as a fictional tale of real people in the throes of moral crisis.

Pub Date: Nov. 30, 2011

ISBN: 78-0983259633

Page Count: 334

Publisher: Glyd-Evans Press

Review Posted Online: March 5, 2012

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THE THINGS WE DO FOR LOVE

Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.

Life lessons.

Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.

Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.

Pub Date: July 1, 2004

ISBN: 0-345-46750-7

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004

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SEE ME

More of the same: Sparks has his recipe, and not a bit of it is missing here. It’s the literary equivalent of high fructose...

Sparks (The Longest Ride, 2013, etc.) serves up another heaping helping of sentimental Southern bodice-rippage.

Gone are the blondes of yore, but otherwise the Sparks-ian formula is the same: a decent fellow from a good family who’s gone through some rough patches falls in love with a decent girl from a good family who’s gone through some rough patches—and is still suffering the consequences. The guy is innately intelligent but too quick to throw a punch, the girl beautiful and scary smart. If you hold a fatalistic worldview, then you’ll know that a love between them can end only in tears. If you hold a Sparks-ian one, then true love will prevail, though not without a fight. Voilà: plug in the character names, and off the story goes. In this case, Colin Hancock is the misunderstood lad who’s decided to reform his hard-knuckle ways but just can’t keep himself from connecting fist to face from time to time. Maria Sanchez is the dedicated lawyer in harm’s way—and not just because her boss is a masher. Simple enough. All Colin has to do is punch the partner’s lights out: “The sexual harassment was bad enough, but Ken was a bully as well, and Colin knew from his own experience that people like that didn’t stop abusing their power unless someone made them. Or put the fear of God into them.” No? No, because bound up in Maria’s story, wrinkled with the doings of an equally comely sister, there’s a stalker and a closet full of skeletons. Add Colin’s back story, and there’s a perfect couple in need of constant therapy, as well as a menacing cop. Get Colin and Maria to smooching, and the plot thickens as the storylines entangle. Forget about love—can they survive the evil that awaits them out in the kudzu-choked woods?

More of the same: Sparks has his recipe, and not a bit of it is missing here. It’s the literary equivalent of high fructose corn syrup, stickily sweet but irresistible.

Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2015

ISBN: 978-1-4555-2061-9

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Review Posted Online: Sept. 30, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015

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