The autobiography of a prominent folksinger/actor/activist of the 1950s and '60s. It's difficult to write the story of a good man, harder still when the good man is writing his own story: Bikel does not entirely avoid the pitfall of a self-congratulatory tone. Still, his is a compelling life, taking him from preWW II Eastern Europe to an acting career in Israel; emigration to England after the war, training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, and initial success in British theater and film; a leap to the Broadway stage and stardom in The Sound of Music; productive years as a Hollywood character actor; a new career as a folksinger in the late '50s; then several decades of activism, as president of Actors' Equity and a prominent figure in the civil rights and antiVietnam War movements. Of late, he has made a career out of playing Tevye in many road productions of Fiddler on the Roof while guest starring in made-for-TV dramas ranging from the classy (``L.A. Law'') to the crass (``Dynasty''). Bikel has rubbed elbows with a fascinating parade of directors and actors (John Huston, Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable, Mary Martin), singer/songwriters (Pete Seeger, Buffy Sainte- Marie, Phil Ochs, Frank Zappa), activists (Martin Luther King, Stokely Carmichael), and politicians (presidents Carter and Clinton invited him to the White House frequently; their Republican counterparts were, unsurprisingly, less friendly). As a performer, activist, and actor, he is a natural moderate-liberal. He seems surprised that ``folk purists'' object to his smoothing out the unusual harmonies of traditional music in his slickly commercial performances; similarly, as an early supporter of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), he was upset when the leadership turned increasingly radical, from ``freedom marchers...[to] freedom fighters.'' A model life for those inclined to save the Earth while strumming a guitar. (16 pages b&w photos, not seen)
Pub Date: Oct. 12, 1994
ISBN: 0-06-019044-2
Page Count: 448
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1994
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
A standout immigrant coming-of-age story.
In her first nonfiction book, novelist Grande (Dancing with Butterflies, 2009, etc.) delves into her family’s cycle of separation and reunification.
Raised in poverty so severe that spaghetti reminded her of the tapeworms endemic to children in her Mexican hometown, the author is her family’s only college graduate and writer, whose honors include an American Book Award and International Latino Book Award. Though she was too young to remember her father when he entered the United States illegally seeking money to improve life for his family, she idolized him from afar. However, she also blamed him for taking away her mother after he sent for her when the author was not yet 5 years old. Though she emulated her sister, she ultimately answered to herself, and both siblings constantly sought affirmation of their parents’ love, whether they were present or not. When one caused disappointment, the siblings focused their hopes on the other. These contradictions prove to be the narrator’s hallmarks, as she consistently displays a fierce willingness to ask tough questions, accept startling answers, and candidly render emotional and physical violence. Even as a girl, Grande understood the redemptive power of language to define—in the U.S., her name’s literal translation, “big queen,” led to ridicule from other children—and to complicate. In spelling class, when a teacher used the sentence “my mamá loves me” (mi mamá me ama), Grande decided to “rearrange the words so that they formed a question: ¿Me ama mi mamá? Does my mama love me?”
A standout immigrant coming-of-age story.Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4516-6177-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: June 11, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2012
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