All But My Life by Gerda Weissmann Klein (O. T. 2009 #6 of 10)

Klein's memoir of her time as a Nazi prisoner/slave laborer in Poland in the three years before her liberation was at first difficult for me to delve into. I am not sure what it was...certainly there was tension and the author expressed herself well...I just wasn't there at first. But as the book progressed, I became amazed by her strength and her spirit. She truly never despaired. Even when things were horrific beyond my imagining, one day at a time she survived and lived the best way she could. I can't remember having read holocaust literature in which the main character was not in the concentration camps...but Gerda never was. She was at work camps and was marched all over Poland towards the end of the war.

There were times when I felt very connected to her...when I could see her fears being exactly as mine would be. I loved the love story of her and her husband. It truly is beautiful. A worthy read.

In the Land of Invisible Women (O. T. # 5 of 10)

I am not sure how to review this book...I didn't really like it but I didn't really
dislike it. It took me a while to read...it is a pretty decent size. And the subject matter was interesting - it is a memoir written by Qanta A. Ahmed, a British Palestinian female doctor living and practicing medicine in Saudi Arabia. She had some amazing stories. Stories about her patients, about her experience when she undertook a Hajj to Mecca, her relationships with other doctors and patients, the terrifying power of the Muttawa (the religious police). All very cool.

I think what sort of took away from the power of the book for me were her super involved descriptions of the looks, clothing, and accessories of pretty much every person she met. Details down to the brand of wrist watch he or she was wearing. She spent much time extolling the beauty of different women she encountered. Not that this is a bad thing...but so much of what she did was important and powerful that these passages become rather boring to me. I wanted to know more about what she did than what people looked like.

It was interesting to read a book by a Muslim woman who is incredibly religious and yet incredibly tolerant. Her frustration with having to wear the full abbayah in public, her outrage at the treatment of Saudi women, and horrified reaction to the celebration of many of her colleuges during and after the 9/11 attacks seemed very real and personal. She obviously has a very deep faith and vehemently rejects the interpretation of the Quran that led to the oppression of women and men (this was an interesting discussion) in Saudi Arabia.

So again, it's a mixed review. I think she could have taken out about 100 pages of description and had a better book. Still, I'm not sorry I read it.

We Are On Our Own (O. T. #4 of 10)

This is the second graphic novel I've used for the Orbis Terrarum 2009 challenge and it was so good. Miriam Katin is from Hungary and this book is about her experiences as a Jew living in Hungary during the Nazi regime. In the story, Katin is only a child and her father is away fighting in the army. Her mother fakes her own death and that of her child to escape Budapest when the German army invades. What follows is a story of survival - of incredible hardship, of both cruelty and kindness. Some of the illustrations flash forward to a grown up Katin trying to reconcile her faith with her experiences. It is a powerful World War II memoir and the illustrations were amazing.

Persepolis (O. T. #3 of 10)

Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi's autobiographical graphic novel. Satrapi's story spans her life as a girl living in Tehran, Iran between age six and age fourteen - 1975-1984. The novel's art is stark black and white, simple illustrations. Satrapi was an incredibly intelligent girl who lived in a time where things didn't make sense. She remembers being forced to wear a veil at school, her parents demonstrating against the Shah, the friends of her parents being jailed, tortured, even executed. Satrapi grew up both relieved by and a bit ashamed of her parents' wealth and status. She heard and witnessed terrifying things for anyone let alone a child. But her story is so important and so well told. I plan on looking for Persepolis 2 when I have a chance.

Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China

In this heart-wrenching memoir written by Jung Chang, the true horrors of China under the Kuomintang and then under the Communists and Mao are detailed through the story of her life as well as the lives of her mother and grandmother. Though I have read about China in other stories, this particular account was just painful to read...mesmerizing and fascinating but the atrocities committed by the leaders and citizens of China are so far beyond my scope of understanding it was difficult for me to absorb it all. I feel inadquate to try to describe both what I read and my feelings about it.

The story begins with Jung Chang's grandmother who was a concubine to a chief of police in Peking and she gives birth to Chang's mother. After her first husband dies, she marries a doctor and they live through attacks from Japan and the Communists and the Kuomintang form an alliance to defeat them. Chang's mother joins the Communist underground and a civil war erupts between the former allies. Chang is born a few years after the Communists take over and over the course of twenty-six years she endures a stint in the Red Guard, the defamation and detention and torture of her parents, "reeducation" in the country and horrible illness. It is a life I cannot imagine.

The women in Wild Swans were trapped - truly trapped. Death was the only escape from the hardship, the fear, the pain. Certainly they had happy moments, but they were far outweighed by the horrible ones. The memoir contained vast amounts of historical information about China but it was so well written and integrated into the story that I didn't feel like I was reading a history book. A truly eye-opening book.