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Written by Our Reviewer, Stuart Nachbar
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Thursday, 04 December 2008 |
Bear Any Burden: A Well-Developed Espionage Thriller
In reviewing Ellis Goodman’s Bear Any Burden, I must disclose that I am a descendent of Eastern European Jewish immigrants. If you come from a similar family background, from a country such as Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland or Romania that has been a venue of two world wars, and prior acts of discrimination (not only Jews faced discrimination and persecution in those countries between the later half of the nineteenth century and the end of World II), you will appreciate this story.
 Bear Any Burden
Most of the story follows the lives of three main characters from birth through education, through immigration and assimilation into new societies in the West. Interesting for me is that I read this story at the same time as I am finishing Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers. In the book, Gladwell laid out his perception of the pattern of Jewish immigrant success in America. Goodman’s book followed that very pattern with the family of its businessman character, Sir Alex Campbell, although the character’s pattern is formed across the pond.
The three main characters of Bear Any Burden are all Polish immigrants who have left their home country then later returned to attend to family matters. Sir Alex Campbell is a former intelligence officer who is occasionally asked to do “small jobs” in the conduct of his business as the chief executive officer of a London-based global beverage alcohol producer, importer and distributor. These jobs typically involve delivering a package, little more, and do not put Campbell’s life at risk. |
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 04 December 2008 )
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Written by Our Reviewer
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Thursday, 23 October 2008 |
What It Takes to Fight WildfiresBook Review by Stuart Nachbar
Kurt Kamm’s One Foot in the Black is a novel of firefighting with very realistic details of the training and hazards of fighting wildfires. I only knew of wildfires from television, so I appreciated learning about the people who fight them.
 One Foot in the Black
I learned more about the character of firefighters in One Foot in the Black than I did about adventure, but that was fine. I could not imagine that someone who fights wildfires for a living, and put his life into situations far beyond his control, would not be a unique character. Before I started One Foot in the Black I would have believed that such a person would be like a soldier; he’d put the mission before his life. However, he is fighting an enemy that is not human; it is nature turned into a destructive force. That battle might play different tricks on the mind than a military skirmish.
Greg Kowalski, Kamm’s main character, and the son of a fireman, did not originally plan on being a firefighter himself. He was presented with a seasonal opportunity by his father’s boss, which was a bus ticket to escape from his father’s abuse. While his father had enjoyed the camaraderie that goes along with being part of a fire company, he doesn’t seem to enjoy the work and takes his frustrations out on his family, except for Greg, whom he merely ignores. He takes his son on a father-son outing then abandons him in a hotel to pursue extramarital companionship, then later when Greg is of high school age, he is conspicuously absent during his son’s hockey championship games. |
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 23 October 2008 )
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