Bonhoeffer - Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy - Eric Metaxas

The story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his brave and relentless effort to keep Christian ethics and Christian life alive and well in Nazi Germany is an inspiring one. Bonhoeffer, a bright and intelligent man with strong intellectual and religious family roots, worked tirelessly to be a voice for the German people to hear when the National Socialist party of Adolf Hitler dominated the airwaves, political platforms, social scene, and German Evangelical churches of the 30's and 40's. His great concern that Hitler was becoming, for the people of Germany, a dangerous and evil idol caused him to cast aside concerns for his own safety. He began to work frenetically toward a split with the Nazi sponsored German Evangelical Church that fell to pressure by the Nazis and pledged loyalty and obedience to 'the Furhrer' instead of God. He was horrified by the Nazi state's isolation and persecution of Jewish citizens and knew that the blending of church and Nazism would create a false sense of piety and a dangerous rationalization for what the government proceeded to do to Jews, the disabled, the socially disenfranchised, and any who differed in opinions with Nazi leaders. So ... he spoke out from the pulpit, wrote articles for theological seminars, traveled extensively to communicate his concerns to other religious leaders and politicians, trained new, young German theology students in the ideas and ethics of Christianity and discipleship, and finally joined an ill-fated plot to remove Hitler from power.

His love of Germany and the German people and his family never waned; he was a devoted German. Never let it be said that he turned his back on Germany. He longed, however, for a return of the brightest and best of German ideals- love of God, honorable and hard-working life style, love for and cherishing of the arts and literature, honoring of honorable leaders who are God-fearing and good, and ethical behavior toward all citizens. The lies, evil, and self-serving superiority of the Nazi system was considered an evil to be rooted from German society. Bonhoeffer came to believe that it was imperative that German people must work toward that end. He paid the price for his resistance.

Eric Metaxas has written a deep and thorough exploration of Bonhoeffer's spiritual and ethical voyage, as he grew up and developed into one of the 20th century's most intelligent and respected theologians. It is, at times, very deep with its references to Scripture and philosophical theories. I will admit to having read the book with my Bible, a copy of Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship , and my computer by my side. Researching his peers, looking back at historical texts, and reading about the history of WWI and WWII helped me to place Bonhoeffer more firmly in his world and aided in my understanding of the issues, the philosophy, and the history of the German Evangelical Church and its roots with the German people. This is a powerful book ... and it seems fitting that I have finished reading it during this Holy Week. Bonhoeffer was a devout man, a devoted patriot, a brave and resolute man - one that comes along once in a very great while who makes such a difference. He loved the Lord and placed himself firmly on the side of the good Christian - he lived his beliefs and for that, he deserves our love and respect and prayers.

Unbroken - Laura Hillenbrand

Since discovering that the secret for audio books and me is to play them in the kitchen while I am cooking or cleaning up, I have constantly had a tape or disc in the kitchen sound system. I have consciously had to stop the 'book de jour' to listen to NPR news, 'Prairie Home Companion' and 'Celtic Sojourn'. Now THAT is saying something when NPR and my fave radio gets pre-empted by an audio book, but I find I love being read to ... a real story, an adventure, or a fantasy!

 My latest adventure is Laura Hillenbrand's account of Louis Zamperini's whirlwind life and his harrowing war experience when he and his crew are lost at sea during WWII's Pacific engagement with the Japanese. Zamperini is a rowdy, smart assed,  young Italian kid from Torrance, California. He leads a rough and tumble life from childhood up through his teen years, a rowdy child who challenges all authority, has light fingers and a daring personality that gets him into all manner of scrapes with his parents, teachers, neighbors, and the law. When it seems that Louis is going to end up in the state juvenile system (or worse!), his older brother takes it upon himself to find a socially acceptable outlet for his younger rogue of a brother. He begins training him on the running track at school. After a few 'false starts', Louis settles in and becomes a track star ( all that running from the law and his parents HAD to come to something!). He progresses through high school track finals and into the college track system in the California state college system. He's fast and strong and because he is such a spirited personality, he gathers a following that supports him and pushes him to greater athletic heights.

Louis ends up qualifying for US Olympic track team and goes to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, placing respectably for a young up-and-coming track athlete. Returning home triumphantly clutching all sort of pilfered souvenirs of the German Reich and Germanic culture, he becomes a source of pride and chagrin for his followers and family. He's a fun and lovable rake with an incredible athletic talent! With aspirations for the 1940 Olympics (in Tokyo), Zamperini continues to train at USC  ... but alas, Tokyo backs out of hosting and Finland signs on ... and then war breaks out in Europe and the Olympics are cancelled.

The American military begins to ramp up and Louis joins up. Here, his life takes a major twist. Louis becomes part of a crew on a fighter plane that is ordered into the air war in the Pacific. His years of resilience and savvy on the streets of Torrance, dodging bullies and cops will look like child's play compared to what he's in for. A plane crash in the middle of the Pacific, a long fight for survival at sea with wounded crew mates, a stint in one of the notoriously harsh prison camps of the Japanese army, and finally rescue brings back a far more mature and heroic man.

Hillenbrand makes Zamperini seem larger than life, but really, the men of that WWII generation were larger than life. Young and full of promise, thrown into the biggest conflagration the world has known, they performed with a sense of adventure, loyalty to each other, honor for home and country, and humor and self-deprecation that took the horrors they saw in stride. It was the only way to go ... and they went there. And back again.

This is a great read, fast-paced, full of pluck and humor. The audio version is read by Edward Herrmann, a pretty well-known stage and television actor. His voice is perfect - resonant and expressive and his pacing is excellent also. It often feels like I am listening to a reminiscence around the kitchen table. I expect to look up and see a group of old geezers yakking up their times 'back in the day' - geezers now, young bucks then in their prime and willing to take on the world. I plan to share this book with my Dad. He might just like this easy listen. At 90, he was in that generation of soldiers, trained for the Naval Air Corps and knows those big old planes. I'm betting he will enjoy this story of one smart ass guy who made it through the hardest of times and came back to tell the tale.

The Lost City of Z - David Grann

This book was a stretch for me, as it covered multiple ventures into Amazonia by the British surveyor, cartographer, explorer, and legendary adventurer Lt. Colonel Percy H. Fawcett, in search of a lost center of ancient civilization. The book jumps back and forth between modern explorations of the Amazon River and some of it tributaries, the history of the Spanish explorers of the 1500's and their high jinks in the conquer and massacre of the native populations of Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil, the more modern rape of the rainforests by the rubber barons, and finally the various political endeavors to become familiar with and tame the indigenous peoples of subtropical Brazil. All these interesting back stories serve to make a tapestry on which the various explorations of Fawcett and his multiple teams of adventurers traipse. Their time of exploration ranged from 1907 until 1925. Since then, they have piqued the interest of numerous other adventurers who have followed them and either become sick and disappointed or have met the same fate as the Fawcett expedition - 'disappeared'.

Who can resist a story of adventure, exciting tanglings with snakes and insects, extreme climate challenges, hostile and mysterious natives, infighting and suspicion between different explorers, and the mystery of uncharted regions deep in the jungles of Amazonia ? I couldn't, but the book was too detailed for me. After reading five or six chapters, I started to bog down, so I got the unabridged audio version of the book at the local library. That was a much better experience.  Listening to the narrator reading quickly and with great expression helped me stay interested in the story of Fawcett's obsessive search for a mysterious lost civilization in the center of the South American jungle and a modern day reporter's research into his mysterious disappearance.

David Grann became involved with the story when he was investigating an Arthur Conan Doyle novel called 'The Lost World'. He came across the name of Percy Harrison Fawcett and became intrigued by this man, considered the last of the great territorial cartographers and explorers and Doyle's inspiration for his novel.   In his investigation of the Royal Geographic Society and Fawcett's biography, he became even more intrigued with Fawcett's drive to become the man to conquer the South American jungle and the unknown depths of the Amazon River. It's an amazing story and a continuing mystery ... is there a Lost City of Z ? Grann's investigation became somewhat of an obsession as he researched Fawcett's private papers, records of the exploration voyages into South America, and made his own Amazon exploration of Fawcett's last expedition - the one on which he was lost with his son and another family friend.

This is an intriguing story that heralds back to Conrad's novel The Heart of Darkness . Stranger than fiction, though, it's a true story of the British will to expand the empire and map the world and a man that tested his physical and psychological limits as he searched one of the last great uncharted frontiers of the world. Amazing stuff ...

A Small Triumph for Truth and Restitution

I will freely admit that I have a real interest (my husband and kids call it an obsession) in the plight of Jews throughout the various diasporas and the Holocaust. I am intrigued with the evil that men do and how it is rationalized politically, socially, religiously. Jewish history gives a host of examples of just this thing that man does to man over and over again.

I also admit that I am an art junkie. I don't know a lot, but I have a great interest in seeing the beauty that man creates and the cultural clues that paintings and sculpture and theater and poetry and literature give the person who will only look and think and delve into the lives of the creators. That is why I have fallen hard for this book. It melds the story of a Jewish family at the height of the cultural heyday in Vienna and the rise of the artistic star of Gustav Klimt with the subsequent fall from grace of Austria after the first World War. Enter the Nazis in the 30's and we all know it ended very badly for Jewish culture  - once again.

I heard about this book while making dinner one evening. I was listening to an interview on National Public Radio's 'All Things Considered' in which Anne-Marie O'Connor was talking about her exercise in following the convoluted path that Gustav Klimt's gold leafed masterpiece portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer has taken over time. Adele became enthralled by Klimt and sat for pencil studies and this portrait in turn of the century Vienna. She and other wealthy Viennese intellectuals were at the center of the artistic whirlwind of early Modernism. Her salons attracted great men like Richard Strauss, Gustav Klimt, Carl Moll, Egon Schiele - musicians, architects, artists and the cream of the Austrian intelligentsia and socially connected. It was an era that embraced a new and unconventional attitude toward art and culture that lasted through the 1920's and into the 30's.

When the Germans invaded Austria, the Nazi Party policies changed the lives of Vienna's cultured bourgeoisie. Jewish citizens scrambled to escape the harsh treatment of Nazi sympathizers. Some hid their assets and hunkered down in Vienna and the outskirts, some read the writing on the wall and fled with what they could carry or tranfer into Swiss banks. Artists and artwork became the target of Hitler and his lackeys. As the tragedy of the Holocaust unfolded, Adele's portrait and thousands of other pieces of artwork were snatched by opportunists and German officials, hastily sold by desperate Jews looking to finance their escape from German held countries, and looted for personal collections by the greedy. The reader follows Adele's portrait as it makes its way from Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer's personal collection into German Nazi Party possession and after a time to an art repository in the Austrian countryside, as the fall of the Nazi Reich becomes imminent. It made its way back to the Belvedere Museum in Vienna after the war  ... and there it was displayed as a treasure of Austrian culture. Adele's name was removed from the title and the painting was renamed 'Lady in Gold'  to hide the fact that this beautiful rich woman was a Jewess. Nowhere was the history of the painting discussed - it was a Klimt and was revered because of that fact. Its beauty made it an icon of Austrian Secession modernism.

At the time that O'Connor became interested in the story behind this painting, the story of the Viennese pre-war culture, the Bloch-Bauers, and the career of Gustav Klimt,  the portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer was embroiled in one of the most important legal cases that involved restitution and return of property confiscated by Austrian and German Nazis before and during World War II. She has told the full story dispassionately and in great detail, unraveled the many personalities, historical events, and the legal story of Adele Bloch-Bauer's legacy with aplomb, and left the reader with a disturbing picture of the state of artworks that still sit in private collections and museums just waiting to be investigated. It's a tangled web of deceit and greed, cold-blooded cruelty, and underhandedness - most of all, though, this book is a tale of triumph over the creeps that would hide the dirty little secret of the Austrian government and its attempt to sweep the crimes of war under the carpet at the Belvedere and other state sponsored museums.

An excellent read ... I highly recommend it ... and when you're done reading the book, you can make the trip to NYC to see Adele's Klimt portrait at the Neue Galerie where it has found a permanent home after being sold and placed there with the blessings of the heirs of Adele Bloch-Bauer.