On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family
Lisa See, 1995
Knopf Doubleday
448 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780679768524
Summary
When she was a girl, Lisa See spent summers in the cool, dark recesses of her family's antiques store in Los Angeles Chinatown. There, her grandmother and great-aunt told her intriguing, colorful stories about their family's past stories of missionaries, concubines, tong wars, glamorous nightclubs, and the determined struggle to triumph over racist laws and discrimination.
They spoke of how Lisa's great-great-grandfather emigrated from his Chinese village to the United States to work on the building of the transcontinental railroad as an herbalist; how his son followed him, married a Caucasian woman, and despite great odds, went on to become one of the most prominent Chinese on "Gold Mountain" (the Chinese name for the United States).
As an adult, See spent five years collecting the details of her family's remarkable history. She interviewed nearly one hundred relatives—both Chinese and Caucasian, rich and poor—and pored over documents at the National Archives and several historical societies, and searched in countless attics, basements, and closets for the intimate nuances of her ancestors' lives.
The result is a vivid, sweeping family portrait in the tradition of Alex Haley's Roots that is at once particular and universal, telling the story not only of one family, but of the Chinese people in America itself, a country that both welcomes and reviles immigrants like no other culture in the world.
On Gold Mountain was a national bestseller and a New York Times Notable Book. It was the inspiration for an exhibition at the Autry Museum of Western Heritage in 2000. Lisa also wrote a libretto based on the book for a 2000 production by the Los Angeles Opera. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—February 18, 1955
• Where—Paris, France
• Education—B.A., Loyola Marymount University
• Currently—lives in Los Angeles, California
Lisa See is an American writer and novelist. Her Chinese-American family (See has one Chinese great-grandparent) has had a great impact on her life and work. Her books include On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family (1995) and the novels Flower Net (1997), The Interior (1999), Dragon Bones (2003), Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (2005), Peony in Love (2007), Shanghai Girls (2009), which made it to the 2010 New York Times bestseller list, and China Dolls (2014).
Flower Net, The Interior, and Dragon Bones make up the Red Princess mystery series. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and Peony in Love focus on the lives of Chinese women in the 19th and 17th centuries respectively. Shanghai Girls chronicles the lives of two sisters who come to Los Angeles in arranged marriages and face, among other things, the pressures put on Chinese-Americans during the anti-Communist mania of the 1950s. See published a sequel titled Dreams of Joy.
Writing under the pen name Monica Highland, See, her mother Carolyn See, and John Espey, published three novels: Lotus Land (1983), 110 Shanghai Road (1986), and Greetings from Southern California (1988).
Biography
Lisa See was born in Paris but has spent many years in Los Angeles, especially Los Angeles Chinatown. Her mother, Carolyn See, is also a writer and novelist. Her autobiography provides insight into her daughter's life. Lisa See graduated with a B.A. from Loyola Marymount University in 1979.
See was West Coast correspondent for Publishers Weekly (1983–1996); has written articles for Vogue, Self, and More; has written the libretto for the opera based on On Gold Mountain, and has helped develop the Family Discovery Gallery for the Autry Museum, which depicts 1930s Los Angeles from the perspective of her father as a seven-year-old boy. Her exhibition On Gold Mountain: A Chinese American Experience was featured in the Autry Museum of Western Heritage, and the Smithsonian. See is also a public speaker.
She has written for and led in many cultural events emphasizing the importance of Los Angeles and Chinatown. Among her awards and recognitions are the Organization of Chinese Americans Women's 2001 award as National Woman of the Year and the 2003 History Makers Award presented by the Chinese American Museum. See has served as a Los Angeles City Commissioner. (From Wikipedia. Retrieved 5/21/2014.)
Book Reviews
"[See] proves to be a clever, conscientious, fair-minded biographer… [She] has done a gallant job of fashioning anecdote, fable and fact into an engaging read. Terrific stuff… The See family's adventures would be incredible if On Gold Mountain were fiction.
New York Times Book Review
Astonishing.... A comprehensive and exhaustively researched account of a Chinese-American family...that juggles such explosive elements as race, class, tradition, prejudice, poverty, and great wealth in new and relatively unexpected combinations.
Los Angeles Times
(Starred reveiw.) A matchless portrait not only of a remarkable family but of a century's changing attitudes.... The ambitions, fears, loves, and sorrows of See's huge cast are set forth with the storytelling skills of a novelist. Immediate and gripping.
Publishers Weekly
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for On Gold Mountain:
1. Discuss the obstacles that Fong See, Lisa's great grandfather, and Letticie Pruett, her caucasan great grandmother, were forced to overcome in order to marry. Also consider the hardships—the indignities and abuses—that each of them encountered in America, the land of equality and opportunity.
2. Lisa herself is only 1/8th Chinese. Do you feel she is qualified to tell the story of Chinese immigrants to this country?
3. How well does See deal with her mother Carolyn, who careened from one marriage to another? Carolyn, by the way, has also written a book; she and Lisa have worked together assisting one another on their separate family projects.
4. Discuss the roles that the women in Lisa's family play. How would you describe those women? What qualities do they exhibit?
5. How does the family's life in China, prior to emmigration, compare with their life in America? Better off? Worse off?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
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Slave: My True Story
Mende Nazer, Damian Lewis, 2003
PublicAffairs
368 pp.
ISBN-13: 97815863180
Summary
Mende Nazer lost her childhood at age twelve, when she was sold into slavery. It all began one horrific night in 1993, when Arab raiders swept through her Nuba village, murdering the adults and rounding up thirty-one children, including Mende.
Mende was sold to a wealthy Arab family who lived in Sudan's capital city, Khartoum. So began her dark years of enslavement. Her Arab owners called her "Yebit," or "black slave." She called them "master." She was subjected to appalling physical, sexual, and mental abuse. She slept in a shed and ate the family leftovers like a dog. She had no rights, no freedom, and no life of her own.
Normally, Mende's story never would have come to light. But seven years after she was seized and sold into slavery, she was sent to work for another master—a diplomat working in the United Kingdom. In London, she managed to make contact with other Sudanese, who took pity on her. In September 2000, she made a dramatic break for freedom.
Slave is a story almost beyond belief. It depicts the strength and dignity of the Nuba tribe. It recounts the savage way in which the Nuba and their ancient culture are being destroyed by a secret modern-day trade in slaves. Most of all, it is a remarkable testimony to one young woman's unbreakable spirit and tremendous courage. (From the publisher.)
Author Bios
• Birth—ca. 1979 to 1982
• Where—Nuba Mountains, Sudan, Africa
• Currently—lives in London, England, UK
Mende Nazer [as of 2004, the time of the book's U.S. printing] was approximately twenty-five years old (the Nuba do not record exact dates of birth). She was granted political asylum by the British government in 2003. She currently lives in London.
Damien Lewis is a British journalist who helped Mende escape and transcribed her story. A Sudan expert, he is an anti-slavery activist. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews>
The Nuba Mountains of Sudan ... serve as the backdrop to the early chapters of Mende Nazer's harrowing tale, Slave. Nazer's book describes her oddly idyllic childhood; her subsequent capture and rape during an Arab raid on her village; her years of enslavement in the home of a well-to-do Arab family in the capital of Khartoum; and later, her life in London, where she served as the slave of a high-ranking Sudanese diplomat, also an Arab, before her ultimate escape, with the help of co-author Damien Lewis, a British journalist, in September 2000.
One of Britain's leading newspapers, the Sunday Telegraph, reported the story ... without speaking with Nazer. The former diplomat filed a libel suit against the paper, and even claimed to have letters written by Nazer to her family that refuted her story. The paper eventually paid damages and published an apology declaring Nazer's story false....
The Sudanese government has been extremely reluctant to investigate Nazer's claims, however, and given its obvious stake in wanting damning evidence of the country's slave trade refuted, this silence certainly lends credence to Nazer's story. If the experiences Nazer recounts here prove true, they will stand as an important reminder of the real, lived terrors of thousands of black southern Sudanese whose stories will never be told, and whose freedom may never be won.
Alex P. Kellogg - Washington Post
(Starred review.) The shock of this title is that it refers to what is happening right now, in Sudan, Africa, and also in the West.... The details are unforgettable, capturing both the innocence of the child and the world-weariness of one who has endured the worst.
Booklist
Born into the Karko tribe in the Nuba mountains of northern Sudan, Nazer has written a straightforward, harrowing memoir that's a sobering reminder that slavery still needs to be stamped out. The first, substantial section of the book concentrates on Nazer's idyllic childhood, made all the more poignant for the misery readers know is to come. Nazer is presented as intelligent and headstrong, and her people as peaceful, generous and kind. In 1994, around age 12 (the Nuba do not keep birth records), Nazer was snatched by Arab raiders, raped and shipped to the nation's capital, Khartoum, where she was installed as a maid for a wealthy suburban family. (For readers expecting her fate to include a grimy factory or barren field, the domesticity of her prison comes as a shock.) To Nazer, the modern landscape of Khartoum could not possibly have been more alien; after all, she had never seen even a spoon, a mirror or a sink, much less a telephone or television set. Nazer's urbane tormentors—mostly the pampered housewife—beat her frequently and dehumanized her in dozens of ways. They were affluent, petty and calculatedly cruel, all in the name of "keeping up appearances." The contrast between Nazer's pleasant but "primitive" early life and the horrors she experienced in Khartoum could hardly be more stark; it's an object lesson in the sometimes dehumanizing power of progress and creature comforts. After seven years, Nazer was sent to work in the U.K., where she contacted other Sudanese and eventually escaped to freedom. Her book is a profound meditation on the human ability to survive virtually any circumstances
Publishers Weekly
Nazer heart-wrenchingly describes the ragged unpredictability of beatings, the crowding thoughts of home, the repulsive food, and the drear of daily toil. Sent to London to work for her mistress's sister, the wife of a Sudanese diplomat, Nazer manages to contact a fellow Nuban who helps her to escape and gets her a lawyer.... Revelatory in the truest sense of the word told with a child-pure candor that comes like a bucket of cold water in the lap.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for Slave: My True Story—
1. How does the controversy surrounding Nazer's accounts of her enslavement affect your view the book? (See the Washington Post review above.) Does her story, even if embellished or patently untrue, help focus attention on the practice of slavery in the Sudan and surrounding nations? Or does it weaken the cause for putting a halt to slavery?
2. Talk about the disparity of Nazer's idyllic childhood in a primative culture and the cruelty she experienced at the hands of her captors in the more affluent culture of Khartoum. In what way does her dehumanization call into question the idea of progress?
3. What are the ways in which Nazer coped with the inspeakable cruelty and beatings? To what degree did her personality or inner strength enable her to remain intact?
4. Also imagine what it would be like—how disorienting, bewildering, awe-inspiring—to be exposed for the first time, as Nazer was, to all the comforts and trappings of a modern society—plumbing, tv, phones, mirrors, even silverware.
5. Discuss Nazer's first-person-narrative voice in Slave. Do you find her open, almost childlike, candor appealing ... authentic ... or disingenuous? After all, the book was written by a man.
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
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The Man Who Made Vermeers: UnVarnishing the Legend of Master Forger Han van Meegeren
Jonathan Lopez, 2008
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
352 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780547247847
Summary
t's a story that made Dutch painter Han van Meegeren famous worldwide when it broke at the end of World War II: A lifetime of disappointment drove him to forge Vermeers, one of which he sold to Hermann Goering in mockery of the Nazis. And it's a story that's been believed ever since. Too bad it isn't true.
Jonathan Lopez has drawn on never-before-seen documents from dozens of archives to write a revelatory new biography of the world’s most famous forger. Neither unappreciated artist nor antifascist hero, Van Meegeren emerges as an ingenious, dyed-in-the-wool crook—a talented Mr. Ripley armed with a paintbrush.
Lopez explores a network of illicit commerce that operated across Europe: Not only was Van Meegeren a key player in that high-stakes game in the 1920s and '30s, landing fakes with famous collectors such as Andrew Mellon, but he and his associates later cashed in on the Nazi occupation.
The Man Who Made Vermeers is a long-overdue unvarnishing of Van Meegeren’s legend and a deliciously detailed story of deceit in the art world. (From the publisher.
Author Bio
• Birth—1969
• Where—New York City, New York, USA
• Education—Harvard University
• Currently—lives in New York City
Jonathan Lopez is an American writer and art historian. Born in 1969 in New York City, he was educated there and at Harvard.
He writes a monthly column for Art & Antiques called "Talking Pictures" and is a frequent contributor to London-based Apollo: The International Magazine of the Arts. His noted December 2007 Apollo article "Gross False Pretences" related the details of an acrimonious 1908 dispute between the art dealer Leo Nardus and the wealthy industrialist P. A. B. Widener of Philadelphia.
Lopez has also written for ARTnews, the Associated Press, U.S. News & World Report, Boston Globe, International Herald Tribune, and Dutch newsweekly De Groene Amsterdammer. His book, The Man Who Made Vermeers is a biography of the Dutch art forger Han van Meegeren.
Lopez has written extensively on Van Meegeren in both Dutch and English, including an Apollo article entitled "Han van Meegeren's Early Vermeers," which revealed that Van Meegeren was behind three Vermeer forgeries of the 1920s that had been floated on the international market by an organized ring of art swindlers based in London and Berlin. Two of the three forgeries in question were purchased by the art dealer Joseph Duveen who then sold them in good faith to the great Pittsburgh banker Andrew Mellon.
At the time, Mellon was serving as secretary of the Treasury in the administration of President Calvin Coolidge. Unaware of his error, Mellon ultimately donated these two "Vermeers" as part of his founding gift to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. They hung there through the 1960s as genuine works by Johannes Vermeer, until technical analysis revealed them to be modern forgeries.
These works are now kept in storage, and although rumors have existed about their true origins for many years, they have never before been traced back definitively to Van Meegeren, a figure far better known for his later exploits, which included selling a fake Vermeer to Hermann Göring at the height of World War II. (From Wikipedia.)
Book Reviews
Profoundly researched, focussed, absorbing...The Man Who Made Vermeers brings hard light to van Meegeren's machinations and (very bad) characgter.
New Yorker
Lpez's work...will draw in even the well informed with its new details. His pioneering research on van Meegeren's early life gives us further insight into what motivates deception, a subject that will never cease to fascinate as long as art is bought and sold.
Art News
In this engaging study, art historian Lopez examines—as did Edward Dolnick's Forger's Spell, published in June—the fascinating case of Han van Meegeren, a notorious Dutch art forger. Van Meegeren, who sold Hermann Goering a fake Vermeer, was convicted of collaboration; he became a folk hero for duping the Nazi leader. But according to Lopez, Van Meegeren was a successful forger long before WWII, and contrary to Van Meegeren's claim that he was avenging himself on the art critics who had scorned his own work, Lopez says he was motivated by financial gain and Nazi sympathies: "What is a forger if not a closeted Übermensch, an artist who secretly takes history itself for his canvas?" Lopez asks provocatively. The author gives a vivid portrait of the 1920s Hague, a stylish place of "mischief and artifice" where Van Meegeren learned his trade, and brilliantly examines the influence of Nazi Volksgeist imagery on Van Meegeren's The Supper at Emmaus, part of his forged biblical Vermeer series. Lopez's writing is witty, crisp and vigorous, his research scrupulous and his pacing dynamic.
Publishers Weekly
Lopez's astute portrait of forger Han van Meegeren...detects the vocabulary of fascistic artwork in certain of van Meegeren’s bogus Old Masters, which relates his political sympathies and connections with functionaries of the Nazi art-looting operation. While duping Hermann Göring with an imitation Vermeer has its comedic aspect, Lopez shows how dangerous the swindle was. —Gilbert Taylor
Booklist
Art journalist Lopez shows a Dutch painter who enriched himself by faking Old Masters emerging as a folk hero at the end of World War II. Not much of a hero, the author convincingly demonstrates in his closely argued and generously illustrated debut. Han van Meegeren was a sorely sullied character at best, a perfidious crypto-fascist and Nazi collaborator at worst. A longtime art forger (he'd begun with fakes of Franz Hals), he married twice, dallied often, lived like a prince in occupied Amsterdam while his fellow citizens starved in the streets, sent felicitations to Hitler, painted pro-Aryan images, lied, manipulated old friends and betrayed both calling and country. Lopez meticulously reconstructs the edifice of Van Meegeren's life. We learn about his parents, his education and training, his early leftist leanings and his eventual relationship with the right. Because his portrait paintings didn't enable him to live in the style to which he hoped to become accustomed, he soon embraced forgery, inventing new techniques that fooled experts (chemists included) and employing to his advantage a lacuna in Johannes Vermeer's biography. Van Meegeren knew that Vermeer had done some early paintings with religious themes, so he decided to plug the gap with more. For a few years he fooled the art establishment. Collectors and museums bought his Vermeers and displayed them proudly and prominently; rapacious art lover Hermann Goering ponied up mega-guilders for the bogus Christ and the Adulteress. Although Van Meegeren was quickly nabbed after the war, he convinced arresting officer Joseph Piller that he'd been duping the Nazis, not collaborating with them. Piller became a friend and advocate; the press loved the story. Van Meegeren eventually was convicted of forgery and sentenced to a year in prison, but he died before serving a day. First-rate research and narrative skill propel this tale of greed, war and skillful manipulation of the popular imagination. For more, see also Edward Dolnick's authoritative The Forger's Spell (2008).
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for The Man Who Made Vermeers:
1. Is Van Meegeren a sympathetic character? How did he explain his motivation to become a forger? Is his explanation reliable? Take a look at the book's 1918 photograph of Van Meegeren. Does it affect how you think of him?
2. In what way did Van Meegeren's forgeries capture the attitudes of the time? How did he bend history in his paintings to reflect his personal ideological beliefs? What were his beliefs?
3. Lopez writes that "slowly but surely, the imitative logic of forgery condemned Van Meegeren to a state of arrested development." What does he mean by that statement?
4. What about Van Meergeren's patron, the man who backed him—British art collector Theodore Ward? What kind of character was he, and what was his motivation?
5. Is there a sort of Robin Hood quality to Van Meergeren's forgeries, on the parts of both Ward and Van Meegeren?
6. After his arrest, when he revealed that the masterpieces he had sold to Hermann Goering were fake, Van Meegeren became a folk hero for having duped the villains of Europe. Did he deserve this new found reputation?
7. Why did Van Meegeren not reveal the true extent of his forgeries to the authorities?
8. What questions does this book reveal about the definition of "art"? Is it possible for Van Meegeren's works to stand on their own as actual works of art? If the paintings appeared to be real and fooled so many authoritative art experts, why can't Van Meegeren's work be valued on its creativity, competency, and beauty?
9. How did Van Meegeren get away with his scam for so long?
10. Follow-up to Question 9: In what way was Van Meergeren a product of his era? In other words, how does the author present the specific cultural environment that allowed the Vermeer swindles to occur?
11. What finally precipitated the discovery of the Vermeer forgeries?
12. What suprised...or intrigued you most about Lopez's book?
13. Have you read Edward Dolnick's book, The Forger's Spell, on the same subject? If so, how do these two books compare?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
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Before the Last All Clear
Ray Evans, 2005
Morgan James Publishing
263 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781600373787
Summary
During World War II around three and a half million British people were evacuated away from possible air raids in the big cities in one of the largest social upheavals Great Britain has ever seen.
The Government called this ‘Operation Pied Piper’ and many of the evacuees were children. Journeys from the cities were long and tiring and the evacuees did not know where they were going. They were often dropped off in groups and gathered in a local village hall or school to be 'chosen' by the prospective foster parents. One of those children was Ray Evans whose family was transported from Liverpool to the Welsh Town of Llanelli.
In Before the Last All Clear, Evans tells a harrowing tale of leaving his mother and being forced to live with families who at best regarded him as a nuisance and, at worst, exploited and brutalised him. Evans account takes a happy turn when he is billeted to a family who make him so welcome that he is reluctant to leave them at the end of the war.
Written in a simple, direct style Before the Last All Clear depicts a world far removed from the glamour and sophistication of the twenty-first century. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—August 29, 1933
• Where—Liverpool, England, UK
• Education—Secondary School
• Awards—Welsh Book Council Wales Reads
• Currently—lives in Virginia, USA
Born in Liverpool in 1933, Ray Evans was evacuated to the South Wales town of Llanelli at the outbreak of World War Two in 1939. He remained there until the cessation of hostilities in 1945. When he left school he served two years National Service in Egypt as a member of the British Royal Army Medical Corps, before marrying Lilian in 1956. Ray started a wholesale clothing business in 1964 and ran this enterprise very successfully along with Lilian until they retired and moved to the USA to be closer to their daughter. They lived first in New Hampshire, but now reside in the warmer climes of south east Virginia. Ray has been happily married to Lilian for 54 years: they have two children and six grandchildren. Ray now spends his time writing, blogging and golfing unless his lifetime favorite football (soccer) team Liverpool FC are playing, in which case he will be ‘glued’ to the television!
His own words:
During the writing of the book I learned a lot that I had either forgotten or was never aware of because I was so young when the events took place. It was in the course of my researching certain war time events for accuracy and inclusion in the book that I discovered just how much interest there really must be because of the myriad of websites and organizations that exist.
Before the Last All Clear began as a way to ensure the stories that had fascinated my children and now my grandchildren, would continue to be shared within our own family. Although I was reluctant at first [I felt I didn’t had the education to write a book and am well aware, I am no Shakespeare] however it became a labor of love and grew into so much more than I ever expected it to. Many people tell me the stories are funny, sad and some say beautiful and even inspiring. I can only say they have meant much to me and had a very deep and lasting effect on the person I became in later life.
The greatest pleasure I’ve had since the book was published has been meeting people at book clubs, events and schools. I am constantly amazed at how strongly people relate to the stories and experiences that I now realize have shaped my entire life. It is very humbling to realize that through this book, they may now also affect others – hopefully in a positive way. If there is anything I learned from those early experiences, it is that you have to always look for the light at the end of the tunnel and then just put your head down and work towards it! (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Some recall it as the greatest adventure of their lives. For others, being a wartime evacuee was a nightmare. These are the witty yet deeply poignant memories of a man still haunted by the cruelties he endured. During World War II, around three and a half million British children were evacuated away from possible air raids in the big cities in one of the largest social upheavals Great Britain has ever seen. One of those children was Ray Evans. This is the story of a young evacuee from Liverpool sent to live in the Welsh town of Llanelli. Separated from his mother, brothers and sisters, six-year old Ray was dispatched to a series of families who ignored, exploited and brutalised him. Pushed from pillar to post, he finally finds happiness with a family who make him so welcome that he is reluctant to leave when war ends. Set in a world of ration books, air-raid sirens and ever-present danger, this is a candid and direct account of wartime Britain as seen through the eyes of a child..
Daily Mail (UK)
A superb portrait of wartime Britain seen from a child’s perspective, and recalled in astounding and excruciating detail by a man who lived through it and tells all. Before the Last All Clear is a superb memoir, but more importantly, it is a vivid and uniquely personal morsel of history that any reader will find difficult to forget.
Book Review.com (www.bookreview.com)
At the age of six, Evans, along with thousands of other British children, was separated from his family, home and school and sent to the safety of the English countryside during WWII. In his memoir, the author recalls the emotions of a small child who misses his mother and family. While it may be easy for readers to become emotional when it comes to this kind of story, Evan’s touching account is indeed a tearjerker; he aptly recaptures his fear and the feeling of being lost as he made his way to his temporary home. He presents a tale of horror as he relives the memories of two homes where he stayed during the evacuation period. As a castoff evacuee, Evans was often mistreated by the families with whom he stayed, enduring what Western society today would consider child abuse. By the time the author reaches his third and final home, he loves it so much that he almost doesn’t want to leave. Evans’ illustrative writing capably paints each scene, making it easy to imagine the conditions in which he lived. In fact, it would be realistic to picture this cute young boy’s life portrayed on screen. Before the Last All Clear is a well-written account of a lovable protagonist who yearns for a sense of normalcy—all while remaining optimistic that the war will soon end and better days are ahead. A beautiful memoir of WWII as seen through the eyes of a child.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Discuss the differences between life in 1939 and how we live today. How are things easier for us today than they were back then?
2. How do you think you would feel or react to being told that your hometown was a major bombing target? Was evacuation voluntary or compulsory?
3. Imagine you are a parent – intellectually you know and understand you must allow your children to be evacuated, yet you have no idea of their destination, who they will be housed with or when they will be allowed to return. What do you think might go through your mind as you watch your children leave?
4. Describe Ray’s reaction to the selection process he goes through at the “evacuee Distribution Center” on arrival in Wales
5. Discuss the relationship between Ray and his various ‘foster parents’ at the different billets.
6. How do you think children in that time differ from children today? They certainly seem more naïve, but then so do the adults. Are we better off now or has society in general lost more than it’s gained?
7. Describe how Ray is made to feel when he has to ask for another billet, food or clothing.
8. What would you have the most trouble or difficulty with in Ray’s situation - living with strangers, going hungry or the separation from family and friends?
9. Was Ray’s a typical evacuation experience or more likely the exception? How many children were evacuated under Operation Pied Piper? Where did they get sent to?
10. How did Mrs. Williams and her family make Ray’s final years of evacuation a positive experience in the end?
11. How do you think Ray’s experiences as an evacuee shaped his personality in later life? Do you feel they helped or hurt him and if so, how?
12. What did you learn about wartime life in England and about yourself from reading this book
Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered
E.F. Schumacher, 1973
HarperCollins
352 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780061997761
Summary
Noted British economist E.F. Schumacher proposed the idea of "smallness within bigness": a specific form of decentralization. For a large organization to work, according to Schumacher, it must behave like a related group of small organizations. Schumacher's work coincided with the growth of ecological concerns and with the birth of environmentalism and he became a hero to many in the environmental movement.
The book is divided into four parts: "The Modern World," "Resources," "The Third World," and "Organization and Ownership."
Schumacher argues that the modern economy is unsustainable. Natural resources (like fossil fuels), are treated as expendable income, when in fact they should be treated as capital, since they are not renewable and, thus, subject to eventual depletion. He further argues that nature's resistance to pollution is limited as well. He concludes that government effort must be concentrated on sustainable development, because relatively minor improvements—for example, technology transfer to Third World countries—will not solve the underlying problem of an unsustainable economy.
Schumacher's philosophy is one of "enoughness," appreciating both human needs, limitations and appropriate use of technology. It grew out of his study of village-based economics, which he later termed "Buddhist economics."
He faults conventional economic thinking for failing to consider the most appropriate scale for an activity, blasts notions that "growth is good," and that "bigger is better," and questions the appropriateness of using mass production in developing countries, promoting instead "production by the masses." Schumacher was one of the first economists to question the appropriateness of using GNP to measure human well being, emphasizing that "the aim ought to be to obtain the maximum amount of well being with the minimum amount of consumption. (From Wikipedia.)
Author Bio
• Birth—August 16, 1911
• Where—Bonn, Germany
• Died—September 4, 1977
• Where—Romont, Fribourg Canton, Switzerland
• Education—schooled in Bonn and Berlin, Germany; Rhodes
Scholar at Oxford University, UK; Columbia University, USA.
Schumacher was a respected economist who worked with John Maynard Keynes and John Kenneth Galbraith. For twenty years he was the Chief Economic Advisor to the National Coal Board in the United Kingdom, opposed the neo-classical economics by declaring that single-minded concentration on output and technology was dehumanizing. He held that one's workplace should be dignified and meaningful first, efficient second, and that nature (and the world's natural resources) is priceless.
Schumacher proposed the idea of "smallness within bigness": a specific form of decentralization. For a large organization to work, according to Schumacher, it must behave like a related group of small organizations. Schumacher's work coincided with the growth of ecological concerns and with the birth of environmentalism and he became a hero to many in the environmental movement.
E.F. Schumacher was an internationally influential economic thinker with a professional background as a statistician and economist in Britain. He served as Chief Economic Advisor to the UK National Coal Board for two decades. His ideas became well-known in much of the English-speaking world during the 1970s. He is best known for his critique of Western economies and his proposals for human-scale, decentralized and appropriate technologies.
According to London's Times Literary Supplement, his 1973 book Small Is Beautiful is among the 100 most influential books published since World War II. It was quickly translated into many languages and brought international fame to Schumacher, after which he was invited to numerous international conferences, university guest speaker lectures and consultations.
Early years
Schumacher was born in Bonn, Germany in 1911. His father was a professor of political economy. The younger Schumacher studied in Bonn and Berlin, then afterwards in England as a Rhodes Scholar at New College, Oxford in the 1930s, and later at Columbia University in New York City, earning a diploma in economics. He became a professional economist, but his wide-ranging mind never confined itself to a single discipline.
Schumacher moved back to England from Germany before World War II, as he had no intention of living under Nazism. For a period during the War, he was interned on an isolated English farm as an "enemy alien." In these years, Schumacher captured the attention of John Maynard Keynes with a paper entitled "Multilateral Clearing" that he had written between sessions working in the fields of the internment camp. Keynes recognised the young German's understanding and abilities, and was able to have Schumacher released from internment. Schumacher helped the British government mobilise economically and financially during World War II, and Keynes found a position for him at Oxford University.
According to Leopold Kohr's obituary for Schumacher, when his paper "was published in the spring of 1943 in Economica, it caused some embarrassment to Keynes who, instead of arranging for its separate publication, had incorporated the text almost verbatim in his famous "Plan for an International Clearing Union," which the British government issued as a White Paper a few weeks later."
Coal Board
After the War, Schumacher worked as an economic advisor to, and later Chief Statistician for, the British Control Commission which was charged with rebuilding the German economy. From 1950 to 1970 he was Chief Economic Adviser to the National Coal Board, one of the world's largest organisations, with 800,000 employees. In this position, he argued that coal, not petroleum, should be used to supply the energy needs of the world's population. He viewed oil as a finite resource, fearing its depletion and eventually prohibitive price, and viewing with alarm the fact that, as Schumacher put it, "the richest and cheapest reserves are located in some of the world's most unstable countries" (Daniel Yergin, The Prize [1991], p. 559).
His position on the Coal Board was often mentioned later by those introducing Schumacher or his ideas. It is generally thought that his farsighted planning contributed to Britain's post-war economic recovery. Schumacher predicted the rise of OPEC and many of the problems of nuclear power.
1955 Schumacher traveled to Burma as an economic consultant. While there, he developed the set of principles he called "Buddhist economics," based on the belief that individuals needed good work for proper human development. He also proclaimed that "production from local resources for local needs is the most rational way of economic life." He traveled throughout many Third World countries, encouraging local governments to create self-reliant economies.
Schumacher's experience led him to become a pioneer of what is now called appropriate technology: user-friendly and ecologically suitable technology applicable to the scale of the community. He founded the Intermediate Technology Development Group (now Practical Action) in 1966. His theories of development have been summed up for many in catch phrases like "intermediate size," and "intermediate technology." He was a trustee of Scott Bader Commonwealth and in 1970 the president of the Soil Association.
By the end of his life, it can be said that Schumacher's personal development had led him very far afield from the ideas of John Maynard Keynes. Keynes, second only to Adam Smith, is widely regarded as the most influential modern orthodox economist. In contrast, Schumacher is one of the most widely recognized heterodox economists.
Writings
Schumacher wrote on economics for London's The Times and became one of the paper's chief editorial writers. At this post he was assigned the somewhat uncomfortable task of compiling information for the obituary of John Keynes many years before the event of his death. He also wrote for The Economist and Resurgence. He served as adviser to the India Planning Commission, as well as to the governments of Zambia and Burma — an experience that led to his much-read essay on "Buddhist Economics."
The 1973 publication of Small is Beautiful, a collection of essays, brought his ideas to a wider audience. Schumacher's work coincided with the growth of ecological concerns and with the birth of environmentalism and he became a hero to many in the environmental movement and community movement.
His 1977 work A Guide For The Perplexed is both a critique of materialistic scientism and an exploration of the nature and organization of knowledge.
Philosophy
Schumacher's rejection of materialist, capitalist, agnostic modernity was paralleled by a growing fascination with religion. His interest in Buddhism has been noted. However, from the late 1950s on, Catholicism heavily influenced his thought. He noted the similarities between his own economic views and the teaching of papal encyclicals on socioeconomic issues, from Leo XIII's "Rerum Novarum" to Pope John XXIII's "Mater et Magistra", as well as with the distributism supported by the Catholic thinkers G. K. Chesterton, Hilaire Belloc and Vincent McNabb.
Philosophically, he absorbed much of Thomism, which provided an objective system in contrast to what he saw as the self-centered subjectivism and relativism of modern philosophy and society. He also was greatly interested in the tradition of Christian mysticism, reading deeply such writers as St. Teresa of Avila and Thomas Merton. These were all interests that he shared with his friend, the Catholic writer Christopher Derrick. In 1971, he converted to Catholicism.
Schumacher gave interviews and published articles for a wide readership in his later years. He also pursued one of the loves of his life: gardening. He died during a lecture tour of a heart attack on 4 September 1977, in Switzerland. (Author bio from Wikipedia.)
Book Reviews
E.F. Schumacher...is among the small number of writers whose ideas influence opinion and eventual public policy.... It is not at all difficult to comprehend Schumacher's immediate and enduring appeal. He asks us to start where we are—with ourselves and our immediate environment.... However much one may doubt the possibility of checking the momentum of modern technology, it is hard to deny Schumacher's anguished warning that at present rates of consumption, the world's inhabitants will soon exhaust existing stocks of nonrenewable resources and in the process poison the thin layer of atmosphere within which we subsist.
New York Times (5/20/1979)
Enormously broad in scope, pithily weaving together threads from Galbraith and Gandhi, capitalism and Buddhism, science and psychology.
The New Republic
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for Small is Beautiful:
1. It has been over 35 years since Schumacher posited the central tenet of his work—that infinite economic growth is impossible within a finite system. Do you believe he has been vindicated?
2. Just how relevant are Schumacher's ideas today? Some argue Schumacher was a visionary—that his ideas are as important today as when he wrote them; others say his views are outdated and no longer apply to 21st-century conditions. Where do you stand—and on which ideas in particular?
3. Most economists and politicians believe that our consumption-based society has created unprecedented wealth in the West and, therefore, justifies a degree of inequality. How does Schumacher view consumption-based economies? What kind of alternative system or reforms does he propose?
4. Some of the book's insights are aimed at the scientific community, with Schumacher asserting that scientists are incapable of ethical decision-making regarding the direction of their research. Consider his arguments in light of recent advances in stem cell research, cloning, and bio-engineered agricultural products. Do you agree with Schumacher...or are scientists as capable as anyone else, perhaps even more so, to explore the consequences of their work?
5. Schumacher asks a simple but penetrating question: what is progress? How does he answer that question...and how do you? Do you agree or disagree with Schumacher?
6. What are Schumacher's views on assisting developing countries?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
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