A Glimpse of Hell: The World War II Years: The True Memories of James "Jim" E. Brooks

Customer Reviews:

true story from a true hero.......2006-11-26

I've known James for years and can guarantee every word is true. A witness to the history that overtook many men, James illuminates the day-to-day world that annealed character and brought out the strength of mind to carry on in spite of danger and hardship.

An Emotional Journy of an American Hero.......2003-01-17

I have one word to describe James Brooks. Hero. This book is an excellant portrayal of what our soldiers went through in the second World War. The words on the page are gripping and they can't even start to tell us what these men went through. It is amazing to see the bonds these men had for one another. Throughout the book, I pictured myself right beside Mr. Brooks. There is no other person that I would rather be next to if I was in this situation. He is an American Hero!

Book Description

Fifteen original essays by eminent personalities in public life, journalism, economics, and the arts, written to honor the ninetieth birthday of one of the world's most famous economists The wide array of contributors to this celebratory volume reflects the richly varied life of John Kenneth Galbraith -- professor of economics and writer, public servant and ambassador, eminent collector of Indian art, and head of a gifted family. Each contributor writes from his or her own highly individual perspective, whether informed by politics, journalism, economics, academe, art -- or just as a good friend. Some of the essays are anecdotal and humorous; others, more serious, show how Galbraith's ideas have influenced the contributors; yet others underscore the contribution his ideas have made to a better understanding of the world by us all. Galbraith is himself present through a collection of his memorable aphorisms compiled as the closing chapter to the book -- not least in his thoughts on writing and the publishing business. The contributors include Derek Bok, Carlos Fuentes, Peter Galbraith, Katharine Graham, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Robert Reich, and Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

Customer Reviews:

Sharing a point of view.......2003-07-24

This is a birthday tribute book, in which a famous author, Harvard professor, economist, former Ambassador to India, and incredible wit is praised in print by people who find themselves honored by the opportunity to detail their links with John Kenneth Galbraith. Many names are scattered throughout the book, which has no index for finding them again. All my life I have wanted to be smart enough to be as witty as JKG, and in the present economic situation, it is a great comfort to find evidence that so many people share that aspiration. Freud is mentioned as a possible source of "a similar remark about individual people in psychoanalysis" needed for a comparison on page 126 with a comment of Karl Marx in CONTRIBUTION TO THE CRITIQUE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY, originally published in 1859, "Mankind inevitably sets itself only such tasks as it is able to solve." Conversations between these people can be daunting when it seems to lack any point whatever, and JKG has the kind of courage that it takes not to worry when an interest in political economy puts someone in a spot which requires responses at a level which most people have trouble maintaining at their best, responding to cues about basic conditions that establish who they are in ways that the inquisitive JKG could notice, when it was missing in those who had formerly been powerful, as when he met ex-Prime Minister Sir Alec Douglas Home and told Roy Jenkins, "Who was that man? I thought he was Alec Home." (p. 50).

Power is a major consideration in this book, as a factor that was not adequately considered in the mainstream economic theory of motives which were thought classically to drive supply and demand. JKG noticed that the affluent society's maximization of production produced an increased need for public goods like trash collection and police to protect people from being swindled. The friendly tributes at the beginning of the book frequently note how tall and witty JKG was, and pages 161-175 at the end provide examples from books that JKG wrote of his thoughts on Farming, The Scotch, Rules of Academic Life, Economics and Economists, Writing, Politics, Politicians, Family, Places, and The Wisdom of Age. My favorite choice of words, "or a drunken bat," (p. 171) occurs in the section on Politics, and seems less hyperbolically suggestive of the fears that the Scotch possessed and the way everyone felt in 1968 than the kind of comparison which JKG used to describe a government crisis, in addition to "or a drunken bat."

I have not been doing Harvard many favors in recent thoughts which associate it most frequently with the Unabomber, Daniel Ellsberg, or Henry the K., who was repudiated when he might have wished to retain the kind of association with Harvard that JKG maintained for 50 years. Galbraith was a key adviser to JFK, and his book LETTERS TO KENNEDY still makes interesting reading, but JKG did not stay on for the debacle produced by President Johnson, and many in this book considered JKG a leader of the effort to oppose the Vietnam war. Political party was not an overriding consideration for JKG, certainly not in 1981 when he wrote the description of Johnson which is included in this book, that might be applied to Woodrow Wilson or any number of American presidents.

"Johnson sought to compensate for his uncertainty in foreign policy with an outward display of firmness, strength, decisiveness. This made him open to the advice of those who urged the seemingly strong as distinct from the restrained and considered course. Perhaps also his instinct was for an assertively masculine pose, as others have suggested. Combined, these qualities put him at the mercy of those who took pride not in their knowledge but in their will to act. Thus the disaster in Southeast Asia." (p. 173).

Seriously, though, there is a section on Economics in this book and an attempt throughout to present phrases which JKG ought to get credit for adding to the vocabulary of political economy. On the birthday question, if you hurry, you should be able to obtain and read this book prior to October 15, 2003, when John Kenneth Galbraith will be 95 and coincidentally, Friedrich Nietzsche will be 159, though Nietzsche has been dead more than a hundred years. This book starts with, "Thorstein Veblen" (pp. xii, 26, 30-31, 35, 36), "he could see little difference between a communist jungle and a capitalist one." (p. 9). "Galbraith's complaints against atmospheric nuclear testing" (p. 10), "endless meetings and far too many people." (p. 11). "I came to oppose strongly the widely applauded Reagan-Bush policy of reaching out to Saddam Hussein" (Peter Galbraith, appointed United States Ambassador to Croatia in 1993, worked extensively on Iraq in the late 1980s, p. 13). "During World War II, in the very opposite of the Keynesian stereotype, Galbraith and a few others in the Office of Price Administration actually produced a decline in prices during wartime. . . . Inflation dropped from 9.7 percent in 1941 to 2.1 percent in 1944." (p. 18). "his ability to distinguish carefully between real motives and pretense" (p. 23), "sought-after public speaker" (p. 24) "an extremely fluent writer, a quality that journalistic exigencies had fostered in him. From that time onward, I think, he always believed that he had to write something every day." (p. 24). "even truer today than it was then, although today the outstanding gap is that between private affluence and public poverty." (p. 26). "American farmers, today about 1 percent of the population, produce more than they did as 25 percent of the population in 1930." (p. 32). "American Academy of Arts and Letters; from 1984 to 1987 he served as its president." (p. 34). "countervailing power" (p. 37) "he vividly contrasted the `social imbalance' between the opulence of private consumption and the starvation of public services." (p. 37).

Average customer rating:

One warning

light and entertaining

I wish there was a craft book with SIMPLE ingredients.

Good book

Misleading

Natural Beauty for All Seasons: More Than 250 Simple Recipes and Gift-Giving Ideas for Year-Round Beauty
Janice Cox , and Dorothy Reinhardt
Manufacturer: Owl Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Cosmetics | Beauty & Fashion | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
General | Beauty & Fashion | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
General | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Natural Beauty at Home, : More Than 250 Easy to Use Recipes for Body,Bath, and Hair (Revised Edition)

Natural Beauty From The Garden: More Than 200 Do-It-Yourself Beauty Recipes & Garden Ideas (Natural Beauty)

Natural Beauty Basics : Create Your Own Cosmetics and Body Care Products

Making Aromatherapy Creams and Lotions: 101 Natural Formulas to Revitalize & Nourish Your Skin

Earthly Bodies & Heavenly Hair: Natural and Healthy Personal Care for Every Body

Accessories:

philosophy hope in a jar daily moisturizer

ASIN: 0805046550

Book Description

Cox offers readers more than 250 brand-new recipes for body, bath, and hair care, with an eye toward special beauty needs and ingredient avail-ability in each of the four seasons.

Customer Reviews:

One warning.......2003-10-13

This book has some fabulous ideas for facial scrubs and massage oil BUT reader be warned of the BANANA-HONEY conditioner! I tried this and the gooey bananas would NOT come out of my hair. It took 4 shampoos and a LOT of brushing. Not a fun morning.

light and entertaining.......2003-05-10

I had fun reading through the recipes in this book evening if I do not have enough time to make them.

I recommend getting Natural Beauty for all Seasons by Cox if you enjoy simple pleasures like house work and gardening. But get Healthy Beauty using nature's secrets to look great and feel terrific by Hadady if you want advice on top quality natural cruelty-free products you can buy.

I wish there was a craft book with SIMPLE ingredients........2002-09-03

I decided to check this book out at a bookstore first, because I have gotten so many craft books that sound really great, but the materials and ingredients needed are very exotic or expensive. This book is no exception. Although the recipes and ideas are simple and easy, the essential oils needed (which are NOT cheap, mind you.) and the other array of items (that no one keeps in their house) would cost a fortune.

Her other book, "Natural Beauty at Home", is a MUCH better book, with the same easy and simple instructions, and realistic materials. Ideas like oatmeal masks, potpurri, and soap that are not hard to do, and not pricey. I highly recommend this one over "Natural Beauty for All Seasons".

Good book.......2002-06-17

It got easy follow recipes, easy find ingredients.
Perfect for prepare homemade gift.
I follow the recipes prepare gift for my mother-in-Law and my husband's sister and recently they are very happy with me...Sure!!!
So glad to get such easy recipes to make someone else happy!!!!
Good Book!!!!

Misleading.......2002-05-11

I didn't care for this book. I have several (home-made toiletries) books and I was dissapointed in this one. There should have been more recipes that incorporate the use of 'raw' natural materials OTHER than food. Food is extremely perishable. There ARE natural preservatives available on the market (Vit E, Grapefruit Seed Extract, Germaben II) that could have been utilized to come up with many good recipes. I also didn't like the fact that castor and mineral oils were used in some of the recipes, as these will clog up pores tremendously. In the Gift-Giving section, her ideas were good, though I would have liked to have seen some actual recipes and step-by-step instructions on the creations of these ideas. All in all, I give this book a 2-star rating. There ARE a few recipes in here that I will use, but hardly worth the price of that I payed. I could have had a better response via the search engines on the internet and saved the money.

Book Description

The art of napkin folding is experiencing a revival , as table decorating becomes ever more sophisticated and stylish. This book presents thirty stunning designs in an easy-to-follow format, with clear concise instructions and step-by-step photographs of every stage of preparation. From the Water Lily to the Bishop's Hat, each napkin fold will delight and amaze your guests and make your table the talk of the town.

Customer Reviews:

Upside down and..........2006-11-28

At first sight, this looks to be a great book. Colorful photography. Terrific ideas. BUT--many of the pictures are taken from the wrong perspective: as if you were standing across the table from the folder. This means that if you want to follow the directions, you have to mentally reverse each photograph. For me, that was very hard to do.

The easiest and the best!.......2003-11-03

I have several napkin folding books but I think this book illustrate the best. I always have companies for dining in my house and a good napkin foldings really gives the final touch to the table. This book explains so clearly and made it so easy. Pictures are so clear and vivid. I love this book!

Fast & Professiona;yet Elegant!.......2002-07-15

This book is so handy to someone inexperienced in table setting. I remembered days when my grandmother taught me about starching and folding the napkins to utmost perfection. But the ideas given in this book was so beautifully captured in photographs, and the end results are liken to an experienced table setter! It was a perfect gift for me. My grandmother is even more proud of me in setting up the table for special family occasions now.

WoW: A napkin folding book like no other!.......2000-06-09

This book is the most fantastic napkin folding book I have ever seen. If you are interested in napkin folding, I would reccomend no other book higher for a beginner.

Napkin Folds: Beautifully Styled Napkins for Every Occasion

Average customer rating:

Napkin Folds: Beautifully Styled Napkins for Every Occasion

Manufacturer: Barnes and Noble
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000GRRTF6

Customer Reviews:

Fun, easy, and interesting.......2002-11-20

Horsefeathers is a fun book to read and brings up many ideas and information about horse husbandry. It is informative, yet basic and easy to understand. Not too specific or in depth into any subject, a nice overview.

Very easy to read and understand.......1998-11-11

Dr. Ramey is one of the few vets that make sense of common ailments of the horse. I must congratulate him on his no nonsense answers to questions I've had about horses. thanks for writing such a great book.

Average customer rating:

Reccomended by the accidental quilter

Attractive Stylish wearable Art!!

Easy Reversible Vests
Carol Doak
Manufacturer: That Patchwork Place
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Fashion | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
General | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Quilts & Quilting | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
General | Fashion | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Vest Book: Create and Customize Your Own Vests Using Embroidery, Fabric Painting, Beadwork, Applique, and a Host of Other Techniques

40 Bright & Bold Paperpieced Blocks: 12 Inch Designs from Carol Doak

Easy Paper-Pieced Keepsake Quilts : 72 New Blocks Including the Alphabet!

Judy Murrah's Jacket Jackpot

Easy Mix & Match Machine Paper Piecing

ASIN: 1564770923

Amazon.com

As a bridge between apparently incompatible items of clothing, a colorfully patterned vest can enable you to wear that blouse that never seemed to go with anything, or it can hide that waistband you hate. The pieced and applique variations of this simple but nicely presented book range from the country-quilt look to sophisticated, along with good specifics on color selection, piecing techniques, and embellishments. The 16-page, full-color gallery of vests contains clear photos of 31 vests, 14 of which are accompanied by specific directions. There are also 13 pages of reduced-size, pieced-block designs and, as an extra bonus, an actual tear-out, full-size vest pattern with cutting lines ranging for sizes petite through extra-large.

Book Description

Combine your love of quilting with your sense of style! These quick-and-easy vests are fun to make and flattering to wear. An innovative reversible feature means you can make one side of your vest casual and the other side elegant and dressy.

• Choose from four different vest styles and 14 patterns that use simple rotary cutting and paper piecing

• Add a distinctive focal point to a vest with 37 different paper-pieced block designs

Includes a full-color gallery of 41 vests for inspiration; sizes range from petite to extra large

Customer Reviews:

Reccomended by the accidental quilter.......2000-08-12

I bought this book to use in a class on paper piecing. It's a good intro to paper piecing and the vests are great. There are three major pattern styles--but endless possibilities. I made my Mom's birthday vest from the pattern in this book, and I made a sewing vest for myself out of quilt scraps. These are art vests and if you don't wear vests--they look great hung on the wall too. Carol Doak is clear and accurrate and she doesn't leave out any of the steps. Vests, paper piecing, a creative jumpstart--are all here--what more could you want? Mary Z. Cox the accidental quilter

Attractive Stylish wearable Art!!.......1998-06-13

Another of my cherished Foundation piecing books - my second Carol Doak one. What a lovely selection to choose from. I hope vests don't go out of fashion too soon. These are all very special. Vest patterns in a number of sizings and styles are included but the techniques can be used on any pattern you have. Well worth having.

Average customer rating:
The Colour Dictionary of Garden Plants, with House and Greenhouse Plants
Roy Hay , and Patrick M. Synge
Manufacturer: Bloomsbury Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NDD808

Average customer rating:
Dictionary of Garden Plants In Colour with House and Greenhouse
Roy Hay; Patrick M. Synge; Foreword The L
Manufacturer: BOOK CLUB ASSOCIATES
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000WTKCB6

Average customer rating:
THE DICTIONARY OF GARDEN PLANTS IN COLOUR WITH HOUSE AND GREENHOUSE PLANTS
ROY HAY
Manufacturer: EBURY PRESS
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000S9GPRK

Average customer rating:
Dictionary of Garden Plants In Colour with House and Greenhouse Plants
Roy Hay; And Patrick M. Synge; Foreword Lord Aberconway
Manufacturer: EBURY PRESS
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OJETI6

Average customer rating:
The dictionary of garden plants in colour with house and greenhouse plants
Roy Hay
Manufacturer: Ebury Press : Joseph [for] the Royal Horticultural Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0718112164

Average customer rating:
THE COLOUR DICTIONARY OF GARDEN PLANTS WITH HOUSE AND GREENHOUSE PLANTS, COMPACT EDITION
ROY HAY AND PATRICK M. SYNGE
Manufacturer: BLOOMSBURY BOOKS
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000RZCHA4

Average customer rating:
The Dictionary of Garden Plants in Colour With House and Greenhouse Plants
Roy Hay
Manufacturer: Ebury Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NX0PCC

Average customer rating:
The Dictionary of Garden Plants in Colour with House and Greenhouse Plants
Roy; Synge, Patrick M. Hay
Manufacturer: Ebury Press and Michael Joseph
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000HAZDTG

Average customer rating:
The Dictionary of Garden Plants in Colour with House and Greenhouse Plants
Roy & Synge, Patrick M. Hay
Manufacturer: The Royal Horticultural Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NPNKN6

Average customer rating:
The Dictionary of Garden Plants in Colour with House and Greenhouse Plants
Roy & Synge, Patrick M. Hay
Manufacturer: The Royal Horticultural Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000K6LQSE

Average customer rating:

The prescription for better parenting and happier families.

Offers week-by-week family activities ideal for parents and children of all ages

Doc Pop's 52 Weeks of Active Parenting: Proven Ways to Build a Healthy and Happy Family
Michael H. Popkin
Manufacturer: Active Parenting
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Parenting | Parenting & Families | Subjects | Books
General | Parenting & Families | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Active Parenting Now Parent's Guide

Active Parenting Today (For Parents of 2- to 12-year-olds)

Taming the Spirited Child: Strategies for Parenting Challenging Children Without Breaking Their Spirits

Parenting Your 1-to-4-Year Old

Active Parenting Now in 3: Your Three-Part Guide to a Great Family

Accessories:

Health o Meter HDC100-01 "Grow with Me" Teddy Bear Scale for Babies and Toddlers

ASIN: 1880283824

Book Description

Easy and fun way to make Active Parenting ideas a part of your family's daily life.

Customer Reviews:

The prescription for better parenting and happier families. .......2006-01-06

Parents who feel lost at times and wish that there was a handbook to help them communicate better with their children, will be pleased to find "Doc Pop's 52 Weeks of Active Parenting." This book teaches parents many things: it discusses how to communicate better with children, how to be a better listener and ask the right questions, and how to avoid anger by better expressing yourself and enforce the positive. In addition, it teaches more effective ways to discipline, how to be a better teacher, how to help your child feel better about themselves, and how to be a better parent and overall family.

There are 52 weeks of parenting lessons, and each one includes an activity so parents can try out and keep track of their newly-learned skill. You can read and concentrate on one lesson per week, practice it with your family, and see how they respond. Or, you can browse through the 52 lessons and choose one or more to learn at a time. However you decide to use the book, readers are sure to find a wealth of knowledge.

MyParenTime.com highly recommends this book -- the lessons are simple, easy to understand and implement, and include a variety of activities geared toward helping families be the best they can be.

Offers week-by-week family activities ideal for parents and children of all ages.......2005-09-13

Michael "Doc Pop" Popkin, Ph.D., one of the nation's foremost parenting experts who has appeared on CNN and "The Oprah Winfrey Show", Doc Pop's 52 Weeks of Active Parenting offers week-by-week family activities ideal for parents and children of all ages. Each is designed to promote parenting, family bonds, and just plain fun. Sample activities include learning how to listen actively to one's child, share stories from family history, monitor television and computer time, adopt games that make math and science everyday play, and more. Simple worksheet diagrams will help spur and structure such positive activities. The techniques may seem deceptively simple at first glance, yet have been tested and proven to promote good parenting skills and quality family time. Highly recommended.

Book Description

This book is the first biography of 20th-century pianist Rudolf Serkin, providing a narrative of Serkin's life with emphasis on his European roots and the impact of his move to America. Based on his personal papers and correspondence, as well as extensive interviews with friends, family, and colleagues, the authors focus on three key aspects of Serkin's work, particularly as it unfolded in America: his art and career as a pianist, his activities as a pedagogue, including his long association with the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, and his key role in institutionalizing a redefinition of musical values in America through his work as artistic director of the Marlboro Music School and Festival in Vermont. A candid and colorful blend of narrative and interviews, it offers a probing look into the life and character of this very private man and powerful musical personality. Along with a discography by Paul Farber that documents an essential part of Serkin's achievement, the book includes a CD of previously unreleased Serkin performances of Bach, Mendelssohn, and Chopin.

Customer Reviews:

Good Biography of a Great Pianist and a Great Man.......2004-07-13

Rudolf Serkin, one of the most cerebral of pianists, was a giant among pianists, although far fewer people would recognize his name than, say, Horowitz or Rubinstein's. The authors, while clearly Serkin fans, give a balanced look at his life and his music.

I would prefer that the book had been considerably longer, and that the additional length had been used to discuss things like his choice of repertoire. For example, the authors, in refuting the claim that Serkin didn't play much besides Beethoven and Brahms, note that he played a good deal of Chopin's music in recital. The list of Carnegie Hall performances in the book bears them out. The list of Serkin's recordings, however, shows very little Chopin, and it would have been interesting to find out why the disparity existed.

The fact that I wish that the book had been longer is also, though, testament to how well-written it is. The short pieces in the second half of the book by his colleagues and students add interest, as well.

Overall a disappointment.......2003-09-08

I found the first half of the book dull. I mean DULL!! Rudolf Serkin has been my favorite pianist since I was 18 years old and I would have expected some of the passion of his playing to leak into the writing about his life, although he didn't live life in as intense a way as his playing would suggest. The second half of the book gained somewhat in interest but I expected more, especially considering the subject. I think the authors did an acceptable job but there were times while I was reading that I thought I was going to fall asleep because the writing was so monochromatic. I expected more.

A Wonderful Book.......2003-02-02

Absorbing, illuminating: Lehmann and Faber's biography of Rudolf Serkin is a remarkable achievement - it's also a great read.

The book is a lively combination of narrative and interview. The first half of the book tells the story of Serkin's life (his time in Europe and his move to America), and the second half, based on interviews, examines Serkin's career as a pianist.

What most impressed me was the authors' deep understanding of Serkin, his place in the world of music and the world in which he lived. The authors share with the reader their rich knowledge of piano repertoire and 20th Century performance, but without resorting to the sort of technical language that can exclude all but the professionally trained musician. Crucially, Lehmann and Faber help the reader to understand what was at stake for Serkin. Through a thorough examination of Serkin's life and choices, this biography, like all great biographies, ends up being about the big issues. Ultimately, this is a book that invites you to examine your own life.

Intelligently designed (for example, photographs are next to the relevant passages) and beautifully produced (the CD of previously unreleased performances is exquisite).

In short: a great book.

'You do it like THIS'.......2003-01-22

He is my favourite piano player of all. To mark the centenary of his birth here is what I would call a brilliant illuminating and very readable account of his life, character and service to music. As well as the book we get a CD of previously unreleased live performances of Bach's 4th French suite, six Mendelssohn numbers and Chopin's op25 etudes.

What a pleasure it is to read an account of a major executant musician, in this age of groupies and supporters' associations, that is actually intelligent. You will not find here any attempts to rank Serkin, nor any talk of expressiveness or inevitable organic unity in his or anyone else's playing. What the authors have done is to provide first a brief sketch of his life. He was born in the Sudetenland to an ethnically Jewish but atheistical father and a mother whom he overheard telling a neighbour that he was an unwanted pregnancy. His talent was recognised early as being not just outstanding but as of an unusual type. He was particularly lucky in attracting the notice of Adolf Busch, reform-minded as a musician and vehemently anti-nazi, and also, in a very different way, in being taught by Schoenberg. Throughout his life Serkin remembered Schoenberg with affection as well as reverence, but he disliked his music and said so once he had safely got Schoenberg's commendation. Schoenberg never forgave this apostasy, but the bellicose and revolutionary imagery that Schoenberg used ('you must decide which side of the barricades you are on' and so forth) clearly displeased Serkin and helped cool any early revolutionary ideas he might have acquired from his father, Karl Popper and others. It looks as if he was always on the liberal side of the political argument, e.g. he fund-raised for Stevenson against Eisenhower, but he knew he was a textbook example of the American self-view as a land of opportunity. Oddly, the puritanical exclusiveness that he objected to in Schoenberg was a striking characteristic of his own. On the one hand he was indifferent to the sexual peccadilloes of his friends: on the other he could break friends completely with someone who gave an unworthy performance of Mozart, Beethoven etc, and he reacted with spinsterish horror when someone told him (rightly I would say) that the end of Beethoven's 5th symphony is naff.

The rest of the book is reflexions on him by associates, and most illuminating they are. Behind all his interpersonal skills, astuteness, genuine humility and not infrequent deviousness, Serkin was a man possessed. If anyone ever embodied Stapledon's grim maxim 'find your calling...or be damned' it was Serkin. As a teacher he instilled a fierce work ethic but never taught by demonstration. As a performer he was wayward and vulnerable to nerves, a bit like Richter. I remember him starting Beethoven's op31/1 in a flurry of wrong notes. Technically the passage is dead easy, but to allow any music to be easy was anathema to him. His great sausages of fingers were odd in a man of medium height and slight build, but they can't have been more of an impediment than to big men like Rachmaninov and Richter, on whom huge hands were in proportion. He could turn out virtuosity equal to any, as some of the Mendelssohn and Chopin pieces on the disc attest. His tone gets some comment, as he is often said to be indifferent to tone-colour, at least in his prime, which is interesting as Serkin's tone-production is near-impossible to mistake, like Michelangeli's or Gould's in that respect if in no other. One contributor puts his finger on the point by saying that Serkin was not 'a smoothie'. He is not alone in that -- Horowitz and Cziffra were not smoothies either. The trouble set in with Michelangeli and Gould. They spawned, unintentionally, a whole generation of players for whom absolute evenness was a basic requirement like perfectly straightened teeth, and Michelangeli himself expressed disgust at this result. There is nobody quite like Serkin when his demon is in the right mood. His command of rhythm and timing surpasses anyone else's. His discography is far more varied than I had realised, and I have to get hold of his Liszt and Debussy performances. On the disc with this book is a complete set of the Chopin op25 etudes, and despite the recorded sound this is terrific Chopin-playing. It is not like Pollini (an admirer of his) nor Ashkenazy but very like Cziffra. Of his other Chopin readings the A flat polonaise does not seem to be on record (I bet he was memorable in that), but the Barcarolle is and I shall find it or die in the attempt.

'Serkin says "You do it like THIS"' was how he was described to me by a friend whom I introduced to his playing. Serkin's mighty Waldstein, the greatest I have ever heard, is not his studio recording but a live performance owned by the BBC. His Appassionata is in the same bracket -- but where do we go from there? Players can't go on doing it 'like this' forever, but attempts at novelty, however distinguished their perpetrators, strike me as travesties of Beethoven. It's a real problem. I can't solve it, but at least there are a lot of his recordings I hadn't known of, and the photo on p145 of the figure I came to know so well and who taught me so much about music is one I would have bought this book for by itself.

Rudolf Serkin, A Life.(Book Review): An article from: Notes

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Rudolf Serkin, A Life.(Book Review): An article from: Notes
Paul Orgel
Manufacturer: Music Library Association, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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Book Description

This digital document is an article from Notes, published by Music Library Association, Inc. on March 1, 2004. The length of the article is 1553 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Rudolf Serkin, A Life.(Book Review)
Author: Paul Orgel
Publication: Notes (Refereed)
Date: March 1, 2004
Publisher: Music Library Association, Inc.
Volume: 60 Issue: 3 Page: 690(3)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

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Rudolf Serkin A Life
Stephen and Marion Faber Lehmann
Manufacturer: Oxford, 2003
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000RF0328

Customer Reviews:

A mother and daughter learn to accept each other's differences.......2005-11-21

This narrative is mostly about the relationship between Natalie and her mother, Agi. Natalie comes from an upper middle class mainstream Jewish Australian family. Natalie eschews the comfortable upper middle class secular life that her mother envisions for her to become a baal teshuva, a repentant one. Natalie joins a Hassidic sect

Black is a reference to the clothing Hassidic men wear and the rainbow is the joy Agi eventually finds in being the grandmother of five Hassidic children.

Agi is at times meddlesome and disapproving and at others very helpful,

Mother and daughter eventually come to accept each other's differences.

Recommended for anyone interested in the Bal Teshuvah movement, Hassidism, or any non-religious mother who feels lost or distraught because her son or daughter has joined a fundamentalist religion

Very real .. and helpful........1999-05-31

Helpful book for parents of children who become bal teshuva. Realistic yet heartwarming and encouraging.

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