Friday, March 25, 2011

MURIEL'S WAR : AN AMERICAN HEIRESS IN THE NAZI RESISTANCE
by Sheila Isenberg

Do you remember when Lillian Hellman wrote Pentimiento back in the early 1970s? It was a collection of stories that included a portrait of a woman named "Julia" who was purported to be a friend of Hellman's. "Julia" was involved with the Austrian resistance during World War II. Hellman never knew this woman, was never a friend of hers yet she took the liberty of borrowing a life to write about it to make herself look good. Luckily, the real woman had more class.
Muriel Gardiner was born into wealth. The family of Swift and Morris were involved in the meatpacking industry in Chicago. Muriel did not know anything about the business; nobody at home ever talked about it. When she was twelve, her father died and Muriel became a millionaire inheriting $3 million (this was in 1913). By the time she went off to college and entered Wellesley, she disengaged herself from her life of luxuries. When Muriel graduated, she took a trip to Europe, studied at Oxford and then went to medical school at the University of Vienna. She became interested in psychoanalysis and although she never met Sigmund Freud, she went into therapy with a protege of his. War clouds were gathering by this time and when Hitler marched into Austria, Muriel began to help both Jews and anti-Fascists escape using both her unlimited stores of money and connections. She risked her life many times, but she had incredible courage. When she left Europe for New York, she continued to help rescue hundreds of people still trapped behind enemy lines.
Muriel Gardiner was an incredibly selfless woman and quite a hero to everyone she saved. She kept on giving to others until the day she died. Muriel financed education for aspiring students, bought homes for people in need, paid for vacations for friends and relatives; the list goes on.
Although she rebelled against her family for their wealth, she finally realized that by having an inordinate amount of money she could accomplish much more by passing it on to others in dire straits.
Sheila Isenberg has produced a book about a virtually unknown woman and has done a terrific job. Her writing is fluid and absorbing. Between the extensive number of people she interviewed who knew Muriel, the amount of archives she perused (twenty-six pages of Notes) and over one hundred books and articles, Isenberg has brought the tale of a very gutsy woman into the limelight.
Not many libraries own this book. (Pennsylvania has four copies.) I made a special request at my local library having read about it on the Internet. It's worth your while to read it.
Recommended.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

THE GOOD DAUGHTER : A MEMOIR OF MY MOTHER'S HIDDEN LIFE
by Jasmin Darznik

It all started with a photograph. The young girl pictured was thirteen years old and she was wearing a wedding veil. She was none too happy to start a life with a man that she barely knew who was so much older than her. It was common for the families to have these arranged marriages.
Jasmin Darznik found this photo when she was helping her mother, Lili move into a new abode in California. When Jasmin showed her mother the photograph, Lili refused to say anything. Six months later, the first tape (there would be ten, altogether) arrived in the mail and Lili's story of her previous life in Iran was revealed. It was quite tumultuous.
Males are favored much more than females in that kind of society. They are fawned over and treated like royalty and can do no wrong. The opposite sex, in the minds of the men, are only good for being a domestic servant and the earlier they are married off, the better.
And, so it was with Lili. When she was eleven years old and going to school, she was spotted by a man who decided that she was going to be his wife. (He was twenty-six at the time.) Two years later, barely an adolescent, the ceremony takes place. Lili has a daughter, Sara, at fourteen. Her life is a living hell. She is granted a divorce but is not allowed to take her daughter.
Lili goes back to school, which had been interrupted, and she soon goes to Germany to join her brother and studies to be a midwife. Her plan is to be able to support herself, go back to Iran and finally be a parent to Sara. Things don't always happen the way you want them to.
What an incredible book! I read it in two days mainly because I just could not put it down. Jasmin writes so beautifully about the women in her family and what they went through in their own personal lives.
The Good Daughter perfectly captures Iranian culture via its delectable food, the living arrangements amongst families, the age-old traditions and the inner strengths of females who are continually abused and yet always seem to rise above it.
The story captivated me until the very last page.
Highly recommended.