The Glovemaker by Ann Weisgarber 4 stars 312 pgs. 2019 publication date

 Thirty seven year old Deborah Tyler is waiting for her husband, Samuel’s return in 1880’s Utah.  They live in the tiny town of Junction, a Mormon settlement of about 7 families far from their original settlement of Parowan, Utah. The town lies at the confluence of the Suphur Creek and the Freemont river, a picturesque spot in red river rock country. Deborah is a glove maker and she keeps a book displaying the hand size and glove pattern for each of her customers.  It is December and Samuel should have been home at the end of November or the beginning of December.  Still Deborah is not yet worried.  They live at the confluence of the Sulphur and blank Creek in the wastelands of Utah.  A hauntingly dramatic location, the roadways and horse paths are treacherous in the winter months.  Yet Samuel is very familiar with the difficulties of the journey and has a healthy respect for it. Samuel is a wheelwright.  He travels the hinterlands tending to the broken wagon wheels of fellow rural inhabitants of Utah.  Nels Anderson her husband’s widowed step brother and best friend lives alone less than a mile away over the bridge traversing the Sulphur river.  Her sister, Grace, her husband and three little boys live just on the other side of the orchard planted by Deborah and her husband when they first arrived.  Deborah and Samuel have not been blessed with children, but she helps her pregnant much younger sister with her three nephews.

In the middle of December Nels and a younger colleague set off looking for Samuel to see if anything can explain his delay.   While they are gone, a stranger comes to Deborah’s door.  His comments and repetition of scripture identify him as a fellow Mormon.  He is hiding from Federal marshals and he wants passage to a sanctuary called Floral Ranch where fellow polygamists hide from authorities.  Although hesitant Deborah offers him shelter in her barn.  Had Nels been home she would have sent him there, but he is off searching for Samuel.  She tells him he must wait in her barn until Nels returns.  Of the seven Junction Mormon families only one practices polygamy. Parowan is a more observant community and one reason Junction began was to seek a settlement with less onerous religious practices. In Parowan most families are polygamous.  In 1882 the U.S. and its territories passed the Edmunds act which outlawed polygamous marriages.  Deborah and Samuel do not agree with the practice of polygamy.  Still they offer safe haven to their co-religionists running from the law. Deborah recalls how it saddened her mother when her father took a second wife and how she further declined with the birth of each one of her sister wife’s subsequent children.  Still she is aware of the prejudice and religious intolerance the broader Christian community has for the Mormon faith.  She feels uncomfortable as a woman alone providing shelter to an unaccompanied man, but feels she owes a fellow Mormon her protection from the elements and the law. She knows Nels & his friend will return soon and bids the man to wait a day or so before heading over to Nels Anderson’s cabin.  She misses Samuel and thinks of him and his travels as well as the terse letters he has already sent.

While traversing the narrow mountain passes that were likely to have been Samuel’s route, Nels and his fellow traveler come upon a rock slide that partially blocked the passage.  Nel’s friend thinks he spots sunlight glinting off a piece of metal buried in the rocks that tumbled to the valley floor.  Nels does not catch the sparkle of light reflected by the piece of metal and assumes his friend is mistaken.  They return and tell Deborah that the passageway was blocked and that Samuel would have had to take a much longer way up and over some mountains in order to bring his wagon home.  This explanation satisfies Deborah and she accepts a new date of about the middle of January as the expected return of her husband.  In the meantime Nels meets with the traveler and seeks to lead him to Floral ranch about ten miles away.  However, it is snowing and Nels bids the stranger to stay in a cave while they await better weather.  The snow is thigh deep and insurmountable.  At this time of year few lawmen venture out preferring to seek polygamists in the spring summer or fall.  Searches in the dead of winter are rare.

  The following night another stranger appears at Deborah’s door.  This time it is a middle aged Federal Marshall seeking a polygamist. She realizes he is chasing the man she had offered shelter to the night before.  He questions her at length and she denies seeing any other solo male traveler or any strange male at all. Deborah who is again uncomfortable providing shelter for a man alone is fearful that if she turns him away he will suspect she provided comfort to the Mormon man on his way to Floral Ranch.  He too stays in her barn.  Deborah learns that the Mormon who already had two wives had absconded with a non-Mormon girl of 15 or 16 years against her parents’ wishes.  He married her and consummated the marriage.  The parents wanted the girl returned.

The next day she points him in the direction of Nel’s cabin indicating that Nels might know the way to Floral Ranch which she learned was the marshal’s destination.  Nel’s and the marshal have a confrontation and the marshal suffers a serious head injury.  Nels seeks Deborah’s help assuming that if the community appears to tend the injured lawmen his friends to follow will believe Nel’s story that the man fell off his horse when the horse stumbled on an icy bridge at the confluence of Sulphur creek and the Freemont river on his way to Nel’s cabin. They claim to have found him injured at the bridge with his horse standing nearby.  Deborah bids Nels and his friend to carry the man to Nel’s cabin where they put him in bed.  Deborah notices that the man is bleeding from his head.  She dresses the wound and cares for him as best she can.  The man continues to deteriorate.  Deborah partially undresses him in order to treat him.  She finds his pocket watch.  Inside his watch is a photo of the marshal, his wife, daughter and son.  She realizes that the girl that was taken from her home was the marshal’s daughter.  She now understands why he is searching for a polygamist in the dead of winter.

Nels leaves Deborah alone with the marshal and leads the fleeing Mormon the 10 miles to Floral Ranch. The marshal moans and bleeds from his ear.  This Deborah recognizes is a fatal head injury.  The marshal dies.  When Nels returns, they carry the marshal to Deborah’s barn where they make a coffin and place him in it.  The rest of the town including Deborah’s brother-in-law Michael who is now the school teacher are concerned that they will all come under suspicion over the marshal’s death.  Subsequently, the marshal’s now grown son and his friend find the marshal dead in Deborah’s barn. They do not believe that the marshal who was an expert horseman would have fallen off his horse and suffered such a blow.  Still they realize that he was well cared for once he was injured and are impressed with the care Deborah has given to the injured man. The visitors have brought with them correspondence from Samuel to Deborah which were left in mail drops along the way.  Deborah devours Samuel’s loving letters but is saddened by the prospect that she may never see him again.  During all the upheavals it becomes apparent to the reader that Nels has romantic feelings for Deborah which she tries to discourage.  Still they cannot be denied.

It is now February and Nels must admit to himself that Samuel probably was killed by the rock slide he and his fellow searcher found in December.  They tell Deborah that they will return to the spot and find out for sure.  The snow has stopped now, and it is not as deep. Deborah insists on accompanying them.  When they come upon the rock slide Deborah can see a part of Samuel’s wagon on the canyon floor covered by rocks.  She decides to leave his body there in the beauty of the nature they have come to love. Grace and her family have decided to move back to Parowan once her baby is born. Junction is just too far from civilization and their fellow Mormons than they would like.  Nels clearly has feelings for Deborah.  While he does not yet act upon them it is apparent to the reader that in the near future he will and that they may find a life together.

The Stars Are Fire 4 Stars - By Anita Shreve - 322 pgs.

At age 23 Grace finds herself in a loveless marriage with Gene.  They live in a small beach town in Maine reliant on the fishing industry and tourism.  Grace has two small children, Claire and Tom.  When Grace was younger, she became pregnant with Claire and Gene just returned from World War II had to marry her.  Tom her son was born shortly afterward.  She finds their lovemaking unsatisfying and Gene unresponsive to her needs.  Yet after a rough episode of lovemaking she finds herself pregnant for the third time.  After his brutality in the marriage bed, he does not attempt to make love to her again.  Apart from her friendship with her neighbor Rosie and her mother nearby she is lonely.  Her deep friendship with Rosie, her warm relationship with her mother, and the joy of her children keep her from despair.  When she confers with her mother, Marjorie, Marjorie repeats the mantra of the generation that she must stay with her spouse especially now that she has children.  Gene had originally planned to attend college, but those plans were dashed.  Gene’s wealthy mother does not like Grace and Grace assumes it was, because they had to marry and Gene’s education plans were ruined.  Gene works as a surveyor and they barely get by on his salary.  They own a small house and a car, but there is nothing left for extras.  Gene’s mother dies and they visit her very large house overlooking the beach.  Gene wants to move there.  Grace recalling how uncomfortable her mother-in-law made her feel in the house does not want to live there.

                One afternoon a fire starts on the outskirts of their town.  Gene with other volunteers leaves to fight the fire.  Grace gathers her most precious things like her documents, her photographs, some basic clothes for her and the children and any mementos that she had planning to pack them in the children’s carriage should she need to run from the fire.  She and Rosie with their children in tow plan to run together if necessary.  Neither has a car nor can drive. As night falls suddenly the wind shifts and quickly the fire threatens their survival. She warns Rosie and together with their children they run toward the coast believing the fire will not travel to the beach. In their haste they leave all the items packed in the baby buggies and run with their children and a couple of blankets. They wet the blankets and cover themselves and their children.  However, when the fire threatens their very survival even on the beach, Claire instructs Rosie to follow her into the water where they dig themselves into the sand placing a child under each arm in a hole dug just for the child.  They cover themselves with the wet blankets.  It is fall and the water is freezing cold, but there they stay.  Claire thinks they will die there if not from the fire then from hypothermia.  She sees the fire has destroyed all the houses including hers and Rosie’s set two blocks from the beach.  There is nothing but ash and charred wood as far as she can see.  She believes she and her children as well as Rosie and her children will die there.  She has no idea what became of her mother.  Neither of them had telephones.  Suddenly when she is filled with despair and has lost all hope, a truck comes by and rescues her and the children.  She does not know what has become of Rosie.  Her legs are so cold that she cannot stand and they must lift her into the truck.  A man named Mathew takes her and the children to his own home where he and his childless wife nurse and care for them until they regain their health.  Gene has not come for her.  He has not contacted her.  She and Mathew make the rounds of all the Red Cross lists of people still looking for loved ones.  They do not find Gene on the list.  After a few weeks she moves in with her mother and two neighbors, Gladys and Evelyn who live together.  It is obvious to Grace and Marjorie that they are lesbians.

Realizing they must find a place of their own and not having any money, Grace and her mother decide to move into Merle’s house.  Merle is Grace’s deceased mother-in-law.

                When Grace first inspected the house she found a concert pianist playing music on the 3^rd floor.  His name is Aiden Berne. She asked him to move the piano which was Genes down to the 1^st floor and live in the study where there was a single bed. He agreed to pay rent.  Grace, her mother and the children moved into the spacious house with the pianist and enjoy the beautiful music he played every day. Grace discovers her mother-in-law’s many valuable jewels secreted in the hems and seams of her clothes.  She sells some of it for living expense money and money to buy a car.  Aiden treats Grace with kindness and respect and they fall for each other.  On the night before he leaves to take an engagement in Boston, they make love.  For the first time Grace experiences a satisfying lovemaking experience.  They are both sad when he leaves.

                Realizing that she needs an income Grace takes a job working for Dr. Lighthouse, the new young doctor in town.  He helps her buy a car.  She learns to drive and becomes independent.  There has been no sign of Gene for two months and she believes him to be dead.  Dr. Lighthouse too is kind and solicitous.  He is grateful for the work she does straightening up his office and doing triage with the patients.  She helps him find an apartment and create an organized filing system.  He compliments her on her work and unlike Gene is grateful for her presence in his life.

                Gene has been gone for three months.  Now that Grace has assumed Gene is dead, he suddenly reappears.  He is horribly burned and missing his left arm and eye.  He is in terrible pain.  Because he was in a coma for three months he could not notify her that he was alive.  When his arm became gangrenous, it was amputated.  He is angry and nasty.  Dr. Lighthouse visits and prescribes PT. among other things.  Amy, the nurse in his office, comes by to teach Grace and Gene the PT exercises.  Grace must force Gene to do them. Gene becomes abusive especially during the exercises.  Finally she hires a nurse who though assertive lasts only one day before walking out when Gene spits on her.  Grace is left alone with Gene.  Finally her mother leaves and she is alone with the children and Gene.  Gene does not know she was working and she cannot tell him.  Not even her work can offer an escape.

                Gene becomes even more abusive with some of it becoming violently physical and sexual. At this point Grace realizes she must leave him b/c it is dangerous for her and her children to remain in the house with him.  She sleeps in her children’s room and locks the door from the inside to protect them and herself from him.  Some of it is because of the pain and disfigurement, but some of it is because he resents her for his lot in life.  He sabotages the Buick she bought and then directs the garage that fixed it to sell it unbeknownst to her.   She realizes she must leave him.  She gathers all her mother-in-law’s jewelry and takes it into town to sell.  There is quite a lot of valuable jewelry.  She buys a used Ford with a small portion of the money and heads North to Nova Scotia, because that is where Rosie and her family have taken up residence.  Before she leaves she hires a live in nurse to arrive the morning she plans to leave.

                On a girl’s trip to Halifax for a long weekend, the ladies notice that Aiden is playing in a concert, and they attend it. Aiden sees her at the back of the stage door where she, Rosie and other autograph seekers are waiting for him to walk out. He notices Grace at once and parts the crowd to get to her.  He kisses her and grabs her hand.  They go to dinner as Rosie begs off with a headache.  The novel ends as it is clear to the reader that they will end up together.

Tattooist of Auschwitz by Morris 5 stars 288 pages

I am giving this novel 5 stars, because it was a page turner for me. I did not expect it to be as well written as it was. However, when compared to the Flight Portfolio by Orringer , it was simpler with a linear story and no tangential tales.  The Flight Portfolio was about a far more complex man and included more complex Jewish characters who were fighting to keep from being sent to the camps where they would meet certain death.  Ludwig Eisenberg (Lale) the hero of this fact based story was a relatively simple man whose goal was to survive the Nazis and to make sure his girlfriend Gita did as well.  Survival was the goal of most of the concentration camp inmates. Remarkably, Lale and Gita survived 3 years in Auschwitz and its sub camps.  On more than one occasion Lale managed to pull himself and Gita from death’s doors.  His revenge on the Nazis was merely to survive them.

The Czechoslovakian government announced that the Nazi occupiers demanded that every Jewish family send one Jewish male over 18 years of age for evacuation to a labor camp.  Since Lale’s older brother was married and had two children, Lale, age 25, volunteered to go.  His family was less than ideal.  He was close to his mother, his older brother and younger sister.  However, his father, a taxi driver, was abusive.  His mother tried to protect her children from her abusive husband.  She often took the blows meant for her progeny.  Lale had a particularly close relationship with his mother whom he loved dearly.  He believed he was her favorite.  This close and ideal relationship with his mother gave him  high self-esteem and put him in good stead to survive the ordeal.  Even though the Nazis indicated that the willing evacuation of the laborers would protect other family members from deportaion that was not the case.  Three days later the Germans came for the rest of the family. Lale’s older brother joined the partisans.  His younger sister did as well. Only his sister survived the war.

Lale joined the other young men in the cattle wagons for transport to Auschwitz.  Many were panicing.  Though Lale too was desperate for calm and reassurance, he spent the time during transport calming and reassuring the other young men in the carriages. At the outset he thought of the needs of others instead of himself.  After they arrived in the camp and were assigned barracks and took bunks, he tried his best to consider the needs of his compatriots.  In other books and films about the conduct of inmates in the camps, most would steal a piece of bread from another in order to stave off death for one more day.  I found his charitable behavior in the camp to be questionable.

Shortly after arriving, a man named Pepan tattooed his wrist.  Every inmate was tattooed as part of the Nazis dehumanizing system.  It is against the Jewish religion to tattoo one’s flesh.  It prevents those tattooed from being buried in sanctified ground.  I am sure there was an exception for those who the Nazis tattooed in the camps, but it was an especially upsetting experience for Jews.  Just like at Babi Yar after forcing 10,000 Jewish men, women, and children to dig a deep and wide pit for their communal grave, the perpetrators forced them to get completely undressed before murdering them.  For observant women who wore modest clothes and covered their hair, becoming naked in front of men not their husband was a cruel and dehumanizing requirement with no practical justification.  It was cruelty for cruelties sake.  They stood at the edge of the pit group by group and were machine gunned so that they fell into the pit as they died.  Tattooing of the inmates was a painful, dehumanizing and cruel Nazi policy.  They could have had numbers written in indelible ink on their uniforms.

Being the tattooist was lighter work than much of the back breaking work others were forced to do.  Lale had a winning personality and spoke Czech, French, Russian and German.  Because Lale spoke four languages including German, Pepan asked him to join him in tattooing the prisoners shortly after his arrival in the camp.  Large influxes of inmates were expected and Pepan could not do it himself.  However, a few days after Pepan showed Lale where to go to check out his supplies and how to do the work, Pepan himself disappeared.  Now Lale was the sole tattooist.

As he is tattooing a group of women, he notices Gita in the line.  While he is tattooing her their eyes meet and he is smitten.  He adores her dancing eyes.  From then on he makes every effort to meet alone with her and send her private notes. Gita refuses to tell Lale her last name or where she is from, because she has no hope that they will survive the camp.  Baretski, the guard responsible for supervising Lale helps him make these arrangements in exchange for advice on how to charm girls. At one point he asks Lale to procure a pair of nylons for a girlfriend.  Baretski, a crude, poorly educated man, had the power of life and death over Lale.  Even though Lale tried to treat him and view him as a friend, he knew the man could be capricious and cause him great harm.  Lale made it his business to be of use to Baretski and made Baretski feel he got the better end of the bargain between the two of them.  Lale managed to walk this tightrope skillfully which was one of the reasons he survived.

In the buildings referred to as “Canada” by the inmates, prisoners were assigned to go through inmate clothing of those recently murdered or who had merely disrobed to find jewels and valuables.  Many Jews knowing they were going to a terrible place sewed valuables into the hems and seams of their clothing. Jews in “Canada” ferreted out these valuables and put them aside for their Nazi torturers.  Gita worked in “Canada.”  She and some of her coworkers passed these items on to Lale.  He exchanged them for extra food and medicine much of which he passed on to the women in need.  He saved Gita’s life when she became deathly ill by procuring medicine for her.  After she recovered he traded valuables to secure her a job in the heated filing room which was easier work than working in the “Canada.”

AS the Tattooist Lale was entitled to better housing.  He was assigned his own room and bed in a vacant barracks which allowed him to hide the valuables in his mattress and bedding.   Lale was alone in the barracks for quite some time until a transport of gypsies arrived and was assigned to his barracks.  He enjoyed the company of the gypsies and became part of their family.  This was another example of Lale’s ability to charm people and empathize with them even when they were very different from him.

Because of the even larger numbers of inmates arriving daily, Lale is given a young assistant, Leon.  After Dr. Mengale arrives, Leon is spirited away.  He returns thinner and looking sicker .  Dr. Mengale has cut off his testicles.

Lale made friends with a Christian man, Victor, and his son, Yuri who were hired from the town to build the crematoriums. They liked him and sympathized with his plight.  They volunteered to help him even without payment.  However, because he was able to compensate them for the supplies, they were able to provide much more. Through his friendship with them he was able to get sausage, cheese and medicine which was totally unavailable through his camp contacts.  Several of the young ladies in Gita’s barracks and workrooms survived the war because Lale shared his bounty with them. Lale also partook of the bounty so that he would not starve.  Yet when he obtained a piece of chocolate, he gave most if not all of it to the ladies.  He no longer had as much long term exposure to the men in the barracks using all his free time to be with Gita.

When Lale tried to kiss Gita, she protested complaining that it had been months since she had brushed her teeth.  Nevertheless, they kissed and snuggled repeatedly. In chapter 14 they become intimate in one of the bunks in an empty barracks.  One of Gita’s friends, Cilka, was allowed to keep her hair and became the plaything of a highly positioned SS officer named Schwarzhuber.  He raped her nightly. Lale comforts her by telling her that succumbing to Schwarzhuber without protest was heroic and would allow her to survive.  Lale is caught secreting the valuables and is sent to an interrogation building where he is beaten by a large and strong inmate to whom he had shown kindness at an earlier time.  The man beats him badly but makes it look as if he was beaten even worse.  He told Lale he would kill him before he would let him inform on the other inmates which is what the Nazis wanted.  Barely alive he was sent to block 31, a punishment barracks. Few if any inmates survived block 31.  He gets a message thru Baretski to Gita and Cilka.  Cilka uses her relationship with Schwartzhuber to get him released.  He is assigned to his old barracks and once again is performing tattoo work.  The gypsy camp has been emptied in his absence and noticing the ash arising from the crematoriums, Lale loses control in front of Dr. Mengale trembling and sobbing.  He falls into a severe depression upon realizing his gypsy friends have been turned into ash. Gita comforts Lale.  News of the advancing Russian army gives the prisoners hope.  The Germans hurry to destroy their records and empty the camp in anticipation of the Russian army.  As Gita and Lale are leaving the camp, Gita shouts to Lale that her last name is Furman.  She now has hope she will survive. 

Gita runs from the forced march and seeks help from local villagers.  Next she goes to Bratislava to see if she can find other survivors from her family.  Lale also in Bratislava for the same purpose sees Gita on the main street.  The story closes with Lale asking Gita to marry him.  She accepts.  Miraculously two of Gita’s brothers and Lale’s sister have survived.

The author’s note tells us that they eventually immigrated to Melbourne and had a son named Gary.  Lale did not tell his story earlier, because he was fearful he would have been considered a collaborator. He did what he had to do to survive, and he helped several others.

The Flight Portfolio by Julie Orringer 4 stars

This novel is based on the true story of Varian Fry, a Harvard educated wasp, who became the hero of Jewish artists, philosophers, writers, musicians, and composers trapped in Nazi occupied Europe.  As a promotion for donations to the American Rescue Committee which sponsored and financed Fry’s activites, Varian commissioned a portfolio of art work from luminaries like Chagall to be auctioned off by the rescue committee in New York. Varian named the portfolio of art “The Flight Portfolio.” The portfolio was taken by the Nazis when they found Lev Silberman, one of the artists in a safe house Varian rented in Marseille.  Silberman was also arrested and detained.  Fry felt responsible for the loss of the portfolio which would have provided funds for more rescues, and he berated himself in front of Danny, one of the rescue subjects.  Danny replied “You saved more than a thousand lives.  There is your flight portfolio.”  That in a nutshell is the story of Varian Fry

Much of the novel is based on actual people and events.  However, some of the characters like Lev Silberman and Grant were likely composites of people Fry knew.  Fry was married to an Ivy League educated wasp a few years older than Varian. Varian loved Eileen as much as he could.  However, he was a closeted homosexual at a time when homosexuality landed people in jail.  There was no acceptance of it in any quarter. Eileen likely knew of Varian’s proclivities and in the book he writes and tells her.  Her response is to ignore the letter. In her social circle such a response was probably typical.  It is likely that after several years of marriage to him, she already knew. During his time in France Fry engaged in his homosexual activities more openly than he could in New York.  He lived with a very attractive homosexual biracial man that bore a likeness to a tall elegant Jewish man at Harvard with whom Varian had a relationship. Lincoln Kirstein was his Harvard lover who went on to found and finance the New York City Ballet (Kirstein’s memoir Mosaic.) Stephane Hessel was a lover he first met in France during his rescue work. (This is based on my research outside the book. It is also referred to in the author’s notes at the end of the novel) Lev Silberman was a composite of the artists Fry was unable to save.

The mission of the rescue committee was to save the soul of Europe.  The U.S. state department was composed of anti-Semites.  Despite the wide availability of U.S. visas for Europeans escaping the Nazis the state department closed the availability of them to the fleeing Jews. Even when they were issued they had time limits that made using them difficult since the recipients had to obtain exit permits which also had time limits. Some people like Albert Einstein who was needed for the war effort were given visas, but other luminaries were not.  Most of them died in the concentration camps.  I personally saw a painting hanging in the Munich museum of art.  Each painting noted the artist’s birth and death dates as well as the places of birth and death.  His place of death was Auschwitz.

Personal information, romantic conflicts as well as other entanglements were likely fiction that was based in part on fact. Grant was likely a composite of Kirstein and Kessel with whom Fry had homosexual relations.  Katznelson and his son Tobias were probably composites as well.  It would not be unheard of for a man to try to smuggle his son out of Europe in the Flight Portfolio by representing him as genius physicist when he was merely a somewhat talented physics student.  What father would not try such a rescue?

The many characters in the book whether real or imagined were well drawn.  Mary Jane and her lover, “Killer” added interest to the book.  Descriptions of Chagall and his wife and their refusal to believe they were in danger was true.  Thankfully, they finally admitted that they needed to flee and did so with Varian’s help.

Grant’s character allowed the author to explore the difficulties of a biracial man “passing.”  Grant who was raised in his mother’s white family household also had some of his black father’s musical ability.  He was dismissed from Columbia’s faculty when he informed them of his racial background upon his return to the states.  He was offered a lesser positon at the New School in an area that was less rigorous than the subject he taught at Columbia.  These events were based on typical reactions in the 1940’s.

From research I did on my own I learned that Varian divorced and remarried.  He had two children with his second wife. After several years of marriage they also divorced.  One of his children admits that he was a homosexual.  However, his sexuality should not diminish his heroism.  Few if any wasps who had the power to change the state department’s attitude did anything to help the Jews who were being murdered by the Nazis.  Varian Fry did.  For that he should be honored many times over.

Fry did not detail the sexual or romantic nature of his close friends with men in his memoir “Surrender On Demand.”  He went on to teach Latin at a private school for fourteen years.  Marino in his biography A Quiet American: The Secret War of Varian Fry draws a connection between his subject’s sexuality and his work. “The skills Fry had developed to cope with and express his deviance from the norm…may have stead him in good stead for the illicit and secret activities he took to so naturally and performed so extraordinarily well in France.”  Orringer believes that :…Fry’s perception of his own difference, and his need to hide it, sensitized him to the plight of others who were persecuted and made to fear for their lives.”

In 1965 Fry assembled the real flight portfolio, a collection of lithographs used to help raise money for the organization which continued to help rescue refugees..  Chagall, Lam, Lipchitz, and Masson were among the contributors.  A copy of them may be seen at the New York City public library.

During his lifetime Fry received little recognition for his work.  The French government awarded him the Legion of Honor in 1967 thanks in part to the efforts of his friend Stephane Hessel.  In 1991 the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council presented Fry posthumously with the Eisenhower Liberation Medal.  In 1994 he became the first American to be honored by Yad Vashem as “Righteous Among the Nations.

The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by : Hannah Tinti

Samuel Hawley isn’t like the other fathers in Olympus, Mass.  A loner who spent years living on the run, he raised his beloved daughter Loo on the road moving from motel to motel, always watching his back.  Now that Loo’s a teenager Hawley wants only to give her a normal life.  In his late wife’s hometown he finds work as a fisherman while Loo struggles to fit in at the local H.S.  Hawley has 12 scars each from a bullet Hawley took over his criminal career.  Each is a memory of another place, another close call, another love lost and found.  Ignore the unusual name of this book for a look at a close and loving relationship between a father and daughter that is so different from our own.  Part Quentin Tarantino, part Scheherazade and 12 parts wild innovation, this book is a fast and gripping read.

Awards: Pen Faulkner, Best New Author

Others:  This author received the Center For Fiction 1^st Novel award for an earlier work as well as being the runner up for the Pen Faulkner award for another work

Professional reviews (recommended):  New York Times, Washington Post, Kirkus,  Houston Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune    Others: Named one of the best books of the year by NPR and the Washington Post.  Positive review in Newsweek. Great review in the New York Times.  National best seller

The Pearl That Broke Its Shell by Nadia Hashimi - 4.5 stars

In Kabul 2007 with a drug addicted father and no brothers Rahima and her sisters only hope lies in the ancient custom of Bacha Posh.  This custom  allows young Rahima to dress and be treated as a boy until she is of marriageable age.  As a boy she can attend school, go to the market, and accompany her sisters in public.  Separated by a century, Rahima’s great great grandmother, Shekiba is scarred by boiling kitchen oil and is reviled by her family.  She disguises herself as a man and works as a guard at the women’s quarters in the king’s palace in Kabul where she finds refuge.  The book deals with gender inequalities and violence against women in the two different centuries.  Although Russians, the Taliban, Americans, and Europeans are mentioned, the book primarily involves the traditional Afghan culture which has not changed much in a century.

Afghan-American, Nadia Hashimi’s debut novel

The author is a pediatrician and was the democratic candidate for congress from the 6^th congressional district in Maryland

Citizens Of London: The Americans who Stood With Britain in its Darkest by Lynne Olson - 4.5 stars

How the U.S. finally came to the aid of Britain, the only European power left fighting the Nazis.  The book revolves around three U.S. characters: Gil Winant, Averill Harriman, and Edward R. Murrow all of whom wanted the U.S. to enter the war even tho Roosevelt tarried.  As England held on by her fingernails our U.S, ambassador, Joseph Kennedy, hid out at his country house and told Roosevelt that England was going to lose the war and the U.S. should not waste its resources trying to save her.  Kennedy was also a Nazi sympathizer.  The English people and its government did not care for him. The appointment of Winant was a game changer and he was greeted upon his arrival at the train station by the King of England.  Winant, Harriman, and Murrow were very close to the entire Churchill family.  This is not a dry read of history, It was a page turner. You will also read about Pamela Harriman and how she seduced so many men close to power.