Thursday, October 21, 2010

Simon Wiesenthal : The Life And Legends
by Tom Segev

After being in several concentration camps during WWII and surviving them, Simon Wiesenthal became known as the "Nazi hunter" and tracked down numerous criminals. His most famous catch was Eichmann who was found in Argentina.
Wiesenthal, though, was very controversial. He had a habit of embellishing his stories and/or making them up. Apparently, for almost every report that he wrote on major catches, there were several different versions.
Alas, I didn't get very far to read all of them. The book is quite large (over 400 pages) and extremely detailed. Tom Segev is a historian and an Israeli journalist and it shows. There's way too many facts (some irrelevant) and the writing is disjointed. After reading 30 pages, I was exhausted. Perhaps someone else can tackle Wiesenthal's life and be a much better author.
Wisenheimer : A Childhood Subject to Debate
by Mark Oppenheimer

The most interesting part of this book is the outside cover. The title is written as: wis-en-heim-er and then goes on to give the meaning of the word telling you that it is a noun and can be of German origin. Clever and that's where it stops.
Mark Oppenheimer was a child who talked like an adult and because of this didn't really have any friends and had no social skills. Most people found him irritating. When he found debating, he was finally fulfilled.
I lasted until page 48. It's very hard to read about somebody who is totally self-absorbed and an elitist. Oppenheimer is supposed to be good with words, but his writing is boring. He teaches English at Yale. I wouldn't want to be in that class.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Quiet Hero : Secrets From My Father's Past
by Rita Cosby

Six years after her mother died, Rita Cosby found all kinds of stuff about her father, hidden in storage, that she never knew before about him. Too many scars about what happened to him in Poland during WWII. When her father is 84, she finally interviews him.
Cosby is supposed to be this award-winning journalist who knows how to ask tough questions. The problem is her way of presenting them to her father is irritating and with an air of naivete. I couldn't stand it. Plus, her writing is less than stimulating. Most of it seems juvenile.
I would have liked to have read about her father's exploits during the war, but let somebody else write about it.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Riding With Reindeer : A Bicycle Odyssey Through Finland, Lapland, And Arctic Norway
by Robert M. Goldstein

Imagine riding a bicycle 2,000 miles starting from Helsinki and ending up at the Barents Sea. You have to deal with horrendous storms, bears, wolves and most of the time set up a tent for your sleeping arrangements.
Robert Goldstein, in 2007, did such a feat on a folding bike with a wagon towed behind him.
Two years earlier, the author had taken another adventure on the Trans-Siberian Express, which apparently was a disaster. (He wrote about it.) Not having read this book, I wonder if it, too, became as annoying as the current one.
Riding With Reindeer had its moments, but they were few and far between. The author is very funny and writes about some hilarious things that happen to him. After a while, though, it becomes old.
I didn't finish the book. After plowing through three quarters of it, I just lost interest. The writing wasn't so great and became plodding. It's a shame because every town that he passed through was noted for either some historical figure or event and Goldstein had obviously done research to write about it.
If you're gung-ho about riding bicycles across foreign lands and dealing with the elements, this might be the book for you. For the rest of us, don't bother.