Books Set in Europe and the Middle East

Dinner at the Center of the Earth, by Nathan Englander  (2017)

Dinner at the Center of the Earth addresses the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from many points of view and from various time period between 2002 and 2014.  First, we have Prisoner Z, an idealistic American Jew who moved to Israel to attend college in the mid-1990s.  He was recruited by Mossad, and as a result of an operation involving a Palestinian businessmen, finds himself in a secret prison deep in the Negev.

Then we have the General (unnamed, but clearly based on Ariel Sharon).  The General was responsible for putting Prisoner Z in the prison.  Prisoner Z writes regular letters to the General pleading his case, unaware that the General is in a coma and is dying in a hospital.  The General is, apparently, the only person who knows (other that the guard), that Prisoner Z is imprisoned.

There’s Farid, the mysterious Palestinian businessman, who likes yachting and befriends Prisoner Z.  Farid’s business supports his brother’s terrorist acts in Gaza.  When the Israeli’s bomb his brother’s house, however, Farid becomes emotionally involved it the violence occurring in the conflict.

Before he is caught, Prisoner Z takes up with an Italian waitress in Paris.  As a spy, he has loose lips and confides in her.

Finally, in prison, he is guarded by the unnamed Guard, whose mother, Ruthi, was the General’s trusted personal assistant.  Both the Guard and Ruthi as prisoners in their emotional commitment and responsibilities to their charges.

This was not an easy book to read, and it took me about 100 pages before I began to care about the characters.  Each character contemplates the violence occurring between the Israelis and Palestinians, in the context of their complex interdependency upon each other.

Read:  March 31, 2018

3 Stars

Books Set in the United States: New York City

Queen of Thieves, by J. North Conway (2014)

Queen of Thieves is ostensibly the story of Fredericka “Marm” Mandelbaum, a German-Jewish immigrant who became one of the most notorious fences in organized crime during New York’s Gilded Age.  The book spends a lot of time discussing the politically corrupt environment of New York City during the latter part of the 1800s.

Fredericka and her husband, Wolf, immigrated to America in the 1850s.  Like many other immigrants, they became peddlers.  Fredericka soon learned, however, that it was far more lucrative to peddle in stolen goods.  Bribes went a long way in her new profession.  For over twenty-five years, she was the reigning “Queen” of fencing stolen property.  She ruled over a network of gangs who aided in the illicit business.  In the process, she became incredibly wealthy.  By 1880, she had a personal wealth of over $1M.

Her empire came to an end when she was arrested by a Pinkerton detective.  The ensuing court battle was more of a fight between the court system and the police department, however, with each side accusing the other of corruption.  Ultimately, Fredericka made her escape and fled to Canada, which at the time had no extradition agreement with the United States.  She lived quietly in Canada until her death.  Her body was returned to New York where she is buried.  People flocked to her funeral.  In keeping with the nature of her work, many people who attended her funeral found their pockets were picked!

The book was interesting.  The best parts were the chapters describing the court scenes of her trial with the arguments between her attorneys and the judge.

Read:  March 23, 2018

3.5 Stars

Books set in Europe: Poland

Irena’s Children by Tilar J. Mazzeo  (2016)

Irene Sendler (1910 ~ 2008) is sometimes referred to as the female Schindler.  Through her organization of a secret network in the Warsaw ghetto, she helped save more than 2500 Jewish children from the Nazis during World War II.

Irena’s Children tells of her courage during this period of history.  When asked about her efforts years after the war, Irena downplayed her role and insisted that she was assisted by many others and fretted that she couldn’t save more children.

Irena followed her beloved father’s example.  Although her doctor father died when she was only 6 or 7 years old, she remembered his tending to patients during the typhoid epidemic.  He gave her a strong moral compass to come to the aid and assistance of others.

Irena married shortly after university, but fell in love with the married Adam Celnikier, who was Jewish.  With her husband off to war, Irena and Adam made a life together, working to protect the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto.

As conditions worsened in Poland, Irena, who was a social worker, was able to obtain a pass to enter the Warsaw ghetto.  When the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939, the Polish resistance quickly grew.  Irena met Dr. Helena Radlinska, who was a leading force behind the resistance of Warsaw.  Irena was in a position to falsify official paperwork and create new identities.  This helped provide children with an escape.  Many of the children were given to Catholic families and taught Christian prayers so that they could fool the German soldiers if questioned.  Irena kept careful records of the children’s old and new identities so that the children could be reunited with their surviving parents after the war.  After the war, however, many of the children were orphaned.

Irena was captured by the Gestapo and imprisoned.  She was tortured, but never gave up any information.  She feared being executed, but a bribe by her fellow resistance fighters on the outside saved her.

After the war, Poland was under Soviet control and many of the resistance fighters were persecuted, thus much of the history of the resistance was suppressed.  I found this book a bit confusing.  It was written almost like it was a translation from another language.  It is an important piece of history, however, and is one that should be read by all.