The Hare with Amber Eyes (Illustrated Edition): A Hidden Inheritance by Edmund De Waal Edition: Hardcover

This saga or memoir tracing a collection of Japanese netsukes is really the story of the wealthy Jewish Ephrussi family from its humble roots in Russia to Odessa, Paris, Vienna and finally flung to all corners of the earth. The author Edmund de Waal is the recipient of the netsukes through a bequest of his great uncle living in Tokyo. In 1870 de Waal's great grandfather's first cousin Charles Ephrussi became an ardent art collector. All of the Ephrussis became art collectors, but Charles was the most influential and the one who purchased the netsukes. The Ephrussi family was wealthy on the order of the Rothchilds operating one of the biggest and most successful banks in Europe, the Paris branch of the Ephrussi bank. They were given titles and were now part of the nobility. Because they were Jewish they could join certain clubs but could not become officers of those clubs. Still they believed they were largely accepted and were full citizens of their adopted countries whether that was France or Austria. Charles was a gay man living as if he were straight. Via his close friendship with a married woman he allowed the appearance of an affair with her. Rumors of their affair were prevalent. However, he had close friendships with Proust and other gay men living as gay. It was obvious that he too was gay. Proust even used Charles as the inspiration for his character, Swann. Charles began collecting works of art by Renoir, Manet and many other great artists of the impressionistic school. Charles also helped the impressionist artists financially loaning them money and arranging commissions for them. Renoir's girl in blue was probably the result of one of these commissions. Early in his collecting experience Charles purchases an entire collection of Netsukes and places them in one vitrine. He did not acquire them piecemeal searching out different subjects to complete the collection of 264 miniature works of art. There was a fashion of collecting Japanese artworks in Europe and Paris at the time. Charles participated early in that period by purchasing the netsukes from a well known and respected Paris art dealer. Charles circle of friends included great authors, thinkers and artists. The Ephrussis believed that their wealth, financial power,patronage of the arts, charitable works, and noble titles overshadowed their Jewishness, but it did not. Throughout their life in Paris they were exposed to anti-Semitism in words and deeds. They brushed it off as unimportant. Finally, Charles sends the entire netsuke collection with the vitrine to his young newly married cousins Emmy and Victor Ephrussi of Vienna as a wedding gift.

Along with the netsukes the story moves to Vienna. The Vienna branch of the family ran the equally rich and powerful Vienna branch of the Ephrussi bank. They were equally wealthy living in palatial homes in the best neighborhoods on the ring. They were friends with the nobility and Ephrussi bore the title of Baron. They participated handsomely in all the arts and became ardent supporters of the symphony and Opera. They purchased tapestries and paintings, donated money for hospitals, their synagogue and other charities. Here like in Paris the Ephrussis deemed their sophisticated art interests and charitable works washed them of their Jewishness. It did not. Emmy held weekly salons where she entertained famous artists, thinkers, writers and musicians. Many famous musicians, doctors and lawyers were Jewish. Yet the Ephrussis noticed that their non-Jewish guests were always bachelors. None of the Christian women attended. Once the bachelors married they too stopped attending. Victor was a member of many clubs and associations, but in some he could not hold office. He served with distinction as an officer in WWI. The Versailles treaty left Austria and the other axis powers bankrupt and Vienna suffered from the poverty. Victor believed that Austria would win the war and all his banking and investment decisions were made with that in mind. Victor lost about 90% of his fortune because he refused to place his funds in Switzerland in Swiss francs during the war. He refused to buy dollars or pounds. He was a loyal patriotic Austrian citizen and wanted to demonstrate his patriotism to his country. After WWI the Ephrussi family of Austria had to reduce its expenses. They had to cut out several routine expensive vacation trips. Their country home in Czechoslovakia was not kept up to the same degree. The swimming pond was allowed to return to its natural state of being surrounded by encroaching reeds. It was no longer swimmable. By 1933 public anti-Antisemitism began to rear its ugly head. There were vocal antisemitic diatribes. In 1933 there were 145,000 Jews in Austria. Of those 59% of all the physicians, 65% of the lawyers, and 50% of the journalists in Austria were Jewish. The economy became terrible with beggars and other poor refugees flooding Vienna looking for work. It was the depression and there was no work. People like the Ephrussis even though they lost most of their fortune were resented and doubly so because they were Jewish. They still lived in their palace on the Ringstrasse. Maybe they had fewer servants and vacations, but to the great population of the impoverished and downtrodden who didn't have enough to eat, they were unbelievably wealthy. Like every time in history when bad luck, war or disease befell a population, they blamed the Jews for their predicament. It did not matter that many Jews lost their money and property and were also impoverished by WWI and the depression. They were still blamed for the poverty and hopelessness. In the middle ages when the Bubonic plague swept through Europe, the Jews were blamed. Even though Jews died in equal numbers from the disease carried by rats and spread by fleas, the Jews were blamed for it. In some locales they were murdered for it. Irrationality of this belief did nothing to stop the hatred and violence. Similarly Jews were hated and blamed for the economic disaster brought on by the loss of WWI and the Versailles Treaty. 

The depression followed and the hatred and resentment became even more extreme. In 1933 the Nazi party came to power in Germany. Now Antisemitism became rampant in Austria. Victor had to step down as head of the bank in favor of his Christian partner who held a minority of the shares. At this point the reader wants to shake him by the scruff of his neck and tell him to get out while he still can. Three of his four children have left Austria. Iggy has gone to the U.S. for a career in fashion design. Elizabeth is studying in France. Gisella is living with her husband in Spain. Only the last of their children, Roland is still living with them. When Emmy and Victor married Emmy was 20 years younger than Victor. The marriage was engineered by two wealthy and powerful Jewish families. For Emmy it was not a love match. History indicates that she entertained a few lovers and it is possible that Roland is a result of one of these affairs. However, though Emmy was not thrilled by this pregnancy so long after her third child was born, Victor treated him with acceptance and love. Since Emmy married Victor she was cared for by a loyal and loving maid named Anna. In 1938 Germany annexed Austria and the Nazi Nuremburg laws befell even the rich and powerful Ephrussis. Victor was forced to sell his bank stock for 10 cents on the dollar to his Christian partner. Roland fled to the U.S. before the annexation. After the annexation Emmy and Victor fled to their summer home in Czechoslovakia. The Nazis loot the art collection, tapestries, rugs, silver and china. However, while they are working so hard to catalog all the finery, Anna who has been assigned a room in the palace smuggles and hides the netsukes from Emmy's dressing room. She hides them under her mattress for the whole of the war.

Elizabeth at the age of 27 has married a Christian Dutchman named de Waal. He is from a dutch shipping family but he is not rich. Elizabeth was the first female lawyer to graduate from the University of Vienna. She has also earned a Phd. She has published articles and essays in periodicals of note. She writes poetry. She is the brightest of all of Victor's and Emmy's children. She has her father's face with the big Ephrussi nose and dark eyes overhung with heavy eyelids and bushy brows. She was not a beauty and probably did not have many suitors. Perhaps, too her scholarship was intimidating to young men. Elizabeth and her husband were now safely residing in England. After the Nazi annexation of Austria Victor but not Emmy joined them. Elizabeth began attending de Waal's church and she raised her two sons in the Christian faith. One of them, Edmund de Waal's father, became a protestant minister.

Now the story moves to Tokyo. Iggy Ephrussi enlisted in the military as did his other stateside brother Roland. Because Iggy was fluent in three languages he served in military intelligence. After the war he was recruited by an international company who offered him a post in Japan. Iggy did not want to be in postwar Europe with all the reminders of Naziism. He did not return to see his home in Vienna. He became an executive in Tokyo where he took a young Japanese man as his lover. They made a home for themselves together. Elizabeth traveled to Vienna after the war to see what was left of her home and to determine if any of their collections or property were salvageable. Almost nothing was left and the palace had been turned into military occupation offices. She met with Anna who told her how she saved the netsuke. She was apologetic that it was all she could hide. However, she wanted to be able to preserve something for the family when they returned. Elizabeth was grateful and she returned to England with the netsukes. Later she sent them to her brother Iggy. Iggy had a vitrine built for them and kept them in his Japanese home. On his death bed he bequeathed them to Edmund de Waal now a successful ceramic artist in London. The author explores the history of his bequest in this novel. His language is beautiful and lyrical. It is natural and unforced. I could not put it down. However, I purchased this in the kindle edition. There are numerous photographs in the book . I believe the reader would be better served by an illustrated version of this book.

Skeletons at the Feast: A Novel (Paperback)

After the first 25 pages this became a page turner. I was invested in the characters Bohjalian created, and I wanted to find out what was going to happen to them. The heroine of the novel is Anna, a pretty blonde eighteen year old German girl. I am always suspicious of a male author who thinks he can write from a woman's point of view. However, it seems that Chris B. has made a career of that. He does a respectable job even in the love scenes. He must have researched these areas by interviewing women. However, the development of his female characters is still a little thin. The German characters who lived a cushy affluent life style were surprised at the barbarity of the Russians.

Their attitude that the Russians were barbarians who were cruel with no basis for their cruelty was surprisingly naive. Had they put their heads in the sand for the entirety of the war? The Germans were horrendously cruel to the Russians in both their warfare and their treatment of Russian POWs. Many German soldiers raped Russian women and their superiors did nothing to curtail this behavior. The looting and German barbarity were well known. That these Germans did not know or chose not to know of their countrymens' cruelty was absurd. They admit to listening to the BBC broadcasts which detailed the horrors that the Germans visited on the Jews and the Slavs. Yet they chose to believe that these were exaggerations. They heard "rumors" but chose not to believe them. Of course, they did not participate in the horrors perpetrated by Germans on the Jews. Anna's father even wrote a letter for one Jewish family he knew. However, they never actually hid a family for even one night. Instead they hung a personally signed picture of Hitler in their living room. The entire family belonged to the Nazi party. Innocent Germans- Please. I don't buy it. I was disappointed with the story's ending. ( spoiler alert) It would have been much more interesting if Anna had been intimate with Uri as well as Callum. This would have been entirely plausible because she found him more attractive than Collum. Then had she become pregnant with Uri's child instead of Collum's, the end could have had a bit of a twist. I am fascinated with novels set during WWII so I enjoyed this book. I have never before read a novel from the perspective of the Germans fleeing the Russian invaders. I could understand their fear, but could not feel sorry for them. This book was a decent effort.