Notes from the Hyena's Belly: An Ethiopian Boyhood

Book Description

Winner of the Governor General's Award
A Library Journal Best Book of 2001

Part autobiography and part social history, Notes from the Hyena's Belly offers an unforgettable portrait of Ethiopia, and of Africa, during the 1970s and '80s, an era of civil war, widespread famine, and mass execution. "We children lived like the donkey," Mezlekia remembers, "careful not to wander off the beaten trail and end up in the hyena's belly." His memoir sheds light not only on the violence and disorder that beset his native country, but on the rich spiritual and cultural life of Ethiopia itself. Throughout, he portrays the careful divisions in dress, language, and culture between the Muslims and Christians of the Ethiopian landscape. Mezlekia also explores the struggle between western European interests and communist influences that caused the collapse of Ethiopia's social and political structure—and that forced him, at age 18, to join a guerrilla army. Through droughts, floods, imprisonment, and killing sprees at the hands of military juntas, Mezlekia survived, eventually emigrating to Canada. In Notes from the Hyena's Belly he bears witness to a time and place that few Westerners have understood.

Customer Reviews:

Notes on Notes.......2007-03-27

An enlightening story of a boy growing up in Ethiopia. A world that we Americans cannot relate to, however we certainly are sympathetic. Still, Mezlekia spares us by sprinkling a little humor here and there, and we see that young boys do find time to be a little mischievous even in the worst of situations, like straying too far and being eaten by hyenas. Visited Ethiopia with my wife in the late 80's and witnessed some of the famine and suffering, but also found the people gracious and hospitable to Westerners. Thoroughly enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it.

James Hart Isley
Author of The Bear Hunter

A Very Enjoyable Read.......2007-03-27

Why I enjoyed Notes from the Hyena's Belly? The writing, the wisdom, the history, the survival. If you enjoy having a narrarator walk you through a book showing you the real people, places and happenings that were "Once Upon A Time," then you may just find this book to be a treasure. I myself enjoyed the way this author held my inner voice's attention. It was almost as if I were sitting at his home while he spoke of the life experiences that make him the person now sitting before me. Because I'm such an avid reader, I did put this book down a few times to indulge in other reads. I did this knowing that when I'd pick it back up I'd have a great companion to spend time with. I almost hated to see the book conclude. The fact that I'm writing only my second or third amazon review says how much I enjoyed this read. Hope you decide to visit the Hyena's Belly. You won't be disappointed.

Ethiopia and the Dergue.......2007-02-17

My family spent 23 months in Ethiopia during my active duty military service, in a home just a block off the road from His Imperial Majesty's (Haile Selassie I) palace and the Bole airport in Addis Ababa. That was from February of 1970 until January of 1972. The American community was concerned about the stability of the government there when the Emperor would eventually go the way of all mankind. HIM HSI died after we left, probably suffocated by the new rulers after the Dergue took over the country . Many of us wondered what has happened during the intervening years. This book tells the story from the memories of one student who lived and suffered through those perilous times. It's very interesting to anyone who ever lived there, and appears authentic.

When even the hyenas stopped laughing.......2006-08-29

Nega Mezlekia was unlucky enough to be born in Ethiopia in 1958, so that he was a teenager when Emperor Haile Selassie was overthrown and murdered. A new regime, guaranteeing change for the poor, feudal rural masses, came to power. In the grim years that followed, Ethiopia ate its own children at a terrible rate. They died in civil wars, in political repression, and in an international war with Somalia. Later, at least in the cities, there was a period of terror in which 100 to 200 youths a day were being killed on the streets of Addis Ababa, with no trial, no accusations, nothing. Perhaps 100,000 people died in this time. Finally, a ghastly famine, seen on televisions around the world, claimed thousands more lives. From a generally innocent childhood, Mezlekia moved into a youth of horror after horror, barely escaping with his life time after time. Revolutionaries executed his father, Somali guerrillas killed his mother, his best friend died as a rebel; death crashed all around him for years. Somehow, Mezlekia survived to become a university lecturer in the provinces, then at last to go abroad to study, first in the Netherlands, then in Canada. He did not return. The story, related in this book, is a gripping one, well-told, with many touches of magical realism and tellings of Ethiopian folk tales to help readers understand the grim dreadfulness of those times.

Having recently read Pascal Khoo Thwe's "From the Land of Green Ghosts" about Burma, I was struck by the comparison. Both men came from small places in countries suffering from despotic rule, corruption, and poverty, but had generally enjoyable childhoods. Both wound up joining armed opposition, surviving many dangers, and at last escaping to the West and a university career. Khoo Thwe's book is lyrical and extremely frank, while Mezlekia has a wonderful sense of irony and dark humor. Though an engineer, he is pretty loose with distances, ages, etc. (well, who cares about numbers when you are writing magical realism ?) and many political questions about his past remain unexplained. But am I some kind of examiner ? I accepted NOTES FROM THE HYENA'S BELLY as a very accurate and devastating picture of what was going on in Ethiopia in the `60s and `70s. Both Khoo Thwe and Mezlekia have written rare accounts of what millions of people around the world experience, so far from the daily reality of those of us fortunate enough to live in peaceful, wealthy nations. That they survived at all is amazing, that they could write their stories in English is even more impressive, and they write so well. For anyone who wants to know what Ethiopians have lived through, or where they have come from, this book is a must. The customs, religion, and daily life of an Ethiopian are not often encountered in literature. Mezlekia does a great job illustrating them. Finally, for a glimpse of the irrepressible human spirit, you could do a lot worse than read Mezlekia's story.

Notes That Matter.......2004-06-23

This book is full of meaning, often insightful and completely unforgettable it is written with candor and wit despite its serious edges.

Nega Mezlekia has written a memoir about his boyhood growing up in Ethiopia during the fall of Emperor Selassie. He experiences all of the curious playful things that all boys are reared with yet he also discusses the harshness of the environment during the rise of Junta communism in which thousands of young people were ruthlessly slaughtered. He writes on page 183, "Apathy in the face of continual violence is something someone who has never lived through a war cannot understand......People simply gathered about themselves, like rags, what life there was left, deafened and inured to the inevitability of death." Although Mezlekia has many horrible atrocities to write about this is not all he adheres to. At times this memoir is very witty and I laughed out loud several times imagining some of his shenanigans. His adventures with medicine men and native cures is hilarious as well as his attempt to capture the loose cattle in his village with pepper.

Amazon.com

From 1932 to 1945, the Japanese occupied Korea. Organized in seven vivid scenes, Kim's fictionalized memoir tells the story of one family's experience, as told by the boy. The narrative starts in 1933 with a dramatic iced-river crossing into Manchuria, when the boy was just a year old, a story the boy knows from the many times his mother has told him the tale. Next scene and we're in 1938. The boy and his family have moved back to Korea, where the boy is the new boy in school and is learning new routines like bowing his head toward where the Japanese emperor is supposed to be in Tokyo. He does as he is told, but wonders if the emperor knows the children are bowing to him, wonders if he's asleep, or eating breakfast--or maybe even in the toilet. He pictures someone knocking on the door, saying, "Your Majesty! The children, the children! They are bowing to Your Majesty!" and him saying, "Wait a minute! I have my pants down!"

A few years later, the children are told they need new names--the Koreans must renounce their family names and take Japanese ones instead. Later, his father takes him to the cemetery to ask forgiveness from their ancestors for the humiliation of losing their names. The scenes continue as the boy grows up, mingling the experiences of childhood with the history of the occupation, seen in the small day-to-day moments that bring history alive. Richard Kim uses a simple but powerful voice to evoke painful times, a loving family, and a strong spirit of survival. Lost Names is a beautifully written tribute to the people of Korea that is subtle, moving, and hard to put down.

Book Description

In this classic tale, Richard Kim paints seven vivid scenes from a boyhood and early adolescence in Korea at the height of the Japanese occupation, 1932 to 1945. Taking its title from the grim fact that the occupiers forced the Koreans to renounce their own names and adopt Japanese names instead, the book follows one Korean family through the Japanese occupation to the surrender of the Japanese empire. Lost Names is at once a loving memory of family and a vivid portrayal of life in a time of anguish.

Customer Reviews:

Insightful and uplifting.......2007-10-10

While reading this book I got the impression that it was a memoir. It is actally not so please be aware of this when reading. Considering that it is fiction the author was surprisingly "tame" in telling the story. I was expecting another depressing memoir of a family destroyed by the Japanese occupation. In Kim's book, however, the family's suffering is more subtle and their eventual triump refreshing. It's nice to not read a book where everyone and their mothers die a painful death. This book gave a lot of insight into the lives of Koreans during the occupation. It was also nice to know that not all of the imperial Japanese soldiers were as gruesome as they were in the Rape of Nanjing.

Nonfiction bogged down by fiction.......2007-06-15

The "scenes from a Korean boyhood" in this book, which are evidently based on actual events, are very compelling and convey powerfully what life was like under the Japanese occupation of Korea. So that's the reason to read this book. Unfortunately, these scenes are set in a kind of fiction jello that connects one episode with another by means of impressionistic accounts of the Korean landscape and so on. This sort of writing is much less successful, and you'll find your eyes sliding past some of it. Kim is not as skillful at blending fiction and nonfiction as, say, Dave Eggers, and one wishes the author had related more about the father, who had been imprisoned by the Japanese, or the grandparents, or even the village, which was located in what is now North Korea. However, that would be a different book. Lost Names is not difficult reading and is certainly a good place to begin learning about what Koreans endured during World War II.

Lost Names.......2007-04-05

Imperialism is something that is often associated exclusively with the West. The histories of the British colonization of India and the Spanish colonies of Latin America abound, but many fail to notice the history of the Empire of Japan, which held Eastern Asia prior to and during the Second World War. Richard Kim writes about his childhood experience in Korea from 1932 to 1945 in his book Lost Names: Scenes from a Korean Boyhood and focuses on the situation of Japanese imperialism on the Korean peninsula, and the effects of the colonization.
Richard sees first hand how Japan influence on Korea is affecting his family life, school, and friendships. The book begins with an image of Kim's family leaving Korea for a job and being stopped by the Japanese Imperial Army. This was the first of the scenes that were told through the eyes of Richard Kim. The book goes on to depict six more stories, separated by chapters.
Japan is painted as an outside influence, which is taking over Korea in a more passive way. The narrator describes the Japanese as not bad people, but people who are distinct from the native Koreans, and collectively more powerful and all-surrendering when it comes to their Emperor. This is shown when the narrator talks about how the books gets it's name, in which the Koreans are made to give up their Korean names in exchange for a Japanese name. Showing the strong nature of his family the name chosen by his father means "Foundation of Rock."
Throughout the book, Koreans are portrayed as being in control in Korea behind the thick wall of Japanese occupation. This is largely personified in the character of Kim's college-educated father, whose firm anti-Japanese standpoints are looked-up-to by much of the local community. In spite of this, many Koreans are portrayed to be people who are indebted to the Japanese - shown by the character of Kim's teacher.
Aside from the educated people, Koreans are portrayed as being unaware of the events around the world at the time, shown by the narrator's mother's obliviousness to the unfolding of German invasions in Europe and Japanese occupations in China. These chapters's focus on day-to-day event, which make it very important to the overall understanding the reader, gets of the depth of the effects of the Japanese colonization.
Overall this book was very informative, one is able to see the true impact of the Japanese during World War II. However, not every event depicted in the story is completely true is still shows a first hand perspective in a new way, through a child eye. I would recommend the book to anyone interested in history or the impact of war. Just keep in mind this is not completely factual, but it will give you a better understanding of Korean history.

Korean pride triumphs.......2005-09-21

This was probably my favorite of the books we read in the Japanese History course I took my senior year of college. Young Richard Kim spent the majority of his childhood in his native Korea while it was under occupation by the Japanese, who were not very nice to or tolerant of his people, no matter they were the majority and the occupying Japanese were the minority. There are many hardships and much prejudice he faces growing up, from neighbors, the government, teachers, and schoolmates, but he never loses his sense of pride and Korean nationalism, constantly being reminded by his parents (who are ministers) and his grandmother to remain aware of where he comes from, his identity, the sustained hope that the Japanese won't always be in Korea, and to do well in school and set a fine example to the Japanese, since he mustn't let those Japanese boys at school think they're better than he is. When WWII comes along, everyone suffers the normal wartime deprivations, such as food shortages and bombing raids, but it is especially hard for the Koreans in the midst. Young Richard is forced, along with his classmates, to bow in the direction of the Emperor each morning, recite an ode of allegiance to the Emperor and Japanese government, and, worst of all, to even change his family name. All Koreans are forced to change their surnames to Japanese surnames, although Richard's father is clever and changes their family's name to one with the root meaning "rock," which of course is a reference to Saint Peter and the family's religious faith, a reference the Japanese won't get. It's enough to take away and try to usurp one's culture, traditions, customs, language, and way of life, but when you take away someone's name, that is in a way the ultimate erasure of their identity. Even when forced to, at least on the surface, speak a foreign language, submit to foreign leaders, and follow alien customs, there's still the comfort of knowing your base identity, your name, is still the same, but taking it away makes this prejudice and attempted usurpation of Korean culture incredibly personal and insulting.

It didn't really bother me that some of these memories and thoughts are very complex and detailed for a child as young as Richard is in the beginning. Many times memories of traumatic defining events are stronger and more vivid and real precisely because they were so awful and traumatic, leaving more impact than something as mundane as, say, eating breakfast or walking the dog. And even if some gaps in Richard's memory may have been filled in by what he imagines happened or what his family have told him happened, it doesn't lessen the emotional impact of these events in the slightest. And I like how it was told in the present tense; since discovering quite some time ago that books can be written in the present tense and there's no rule written in stone saying you must only and always write in the past tense, I've much preferred books written in the present tense. It makes the events seem more real and gripping, full of suspense and tension, like constantly wondering what's going to happen next, living right in the moment.

No blame, just poetry.......2005-08-28

A beautifully written book that places you in Korea during the second world war. Fast reading, and well paced told from the POV of a very (maybe too!) wise young boy. Only thing that got me down was knowing that it ended just before the next war again wreaked such damage and havoc, and there was no post script. Definitely worth reading.

Escape from Slavery: The Boyhood of Frederick Douglass in His Own Words

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A microcosm of the contradictions of slavery

Escape from Slavery: The Boyhood of Frederick Douglass in His Own Words
Frederick Douglass
Manufacturer: Knopf Books for Young Readers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0679846522
Release Date: 1993-12-28

Book Description

Illus. in black-and-white. Opening note by Coretta Scott King. For the first time, the most important account ever written of a childhood in slavery is accessible to young readers. From his days as a young boy on a plantation to his first months as a freeman in Massachusetts, here are Douglass's own firsthand experiences vividly recounted--expertly excerpted and powerfully illustrated.

Customer Reviews:

A microcosm of the contradictions of slavery.......2001-06-20

With so much of the sordid history of slavery in the United States behind us, many of the major wounds have been healed. However, that does not mean that we should forget what it did to people. Slavery turned otherwise kindly people into beasts. Eventually, it was the wedge that drove two segments of the U.S. into overt warfare.
Frederick Douglass was one of the most articulate voices opposed to slavery among free blacks. A natural writer, he describes his life in slavery and how dehumanizing it was. The time he spent in slavery was a microcosm of most of the contradictions of slavery. Taken from his mother at a young age, he knew nothing about his white father. A slave was property to their owner, somewhat on a par with a horse or cattle. And yet, many slaveholders fathered children with their female slaves. Many slaves were severely beaten or killed for disobedience. Chivalrous gentleman who would not tolerate a man beating a horse would speak approval of similar actions being performed on a defenseless slave. Douglass was beaten many times, even to the point of possible permanent injury, for actions that were simply human. Finally, there was the bizarre spectacle of slaves and free blacks living in the same areas, sometimes even being relatives by blood or marriage. The woman who eventually became his wife was a free woman while he was a slave, joining him after he escaped to freedom.
It does us all good to be reminded how destructive slavery was to the structure of American society. Douglass lived on both sides of the issue and his story of the slave years are a powerful tale of human destruction. Written for older children, this book should be required reading for graduation from high school.

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sailors will love this book
Welsh Boyo
one of my favorite books

A Steady Trade: A Boyhood at Sea
Tristan Jones
Manufacturer: St Martins Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0312761384

Book Description

Tristan Jones's nostalgic memoir of his early years in Wales and on the arduous “sail-in-trade” of northern Europe glows warmly with many charming reminiscences of the lost Welsh countryside – a corner of the world largely untouched by the 20th century, where chantey-singing sailors fought the weather to transport bricks, coal, and even animals around the world. An incredibly vivid evocation of a legendary man's remarkable coming of age, A Steady Trade captures the sights, sounds, and smells of the sea.

Customer Reviews:

sailors will love this book.......2002-06-23

A Steady Trade is a wonderful autobiographical book about a teenage boy from Wales who works on sailing barges in the coastal trade in northern Europe in the 30s of the last century. I liked the book because it is well written, and has detailed information about life and work on the sailing barges and small ships that plyed the waters of the English Channel and the rivers of northern Europe.

It contains fine descriptions of life in a village in Wales in that bygone era, and many details about boating and shipping in Sussex and Kent, and London. This is one of the best books that I have read about sailing and is a "must read" for anyone interested in what it was actually like when sailboats were the workhorses of coastal shipping--actually the end of that era.

There is a certain amount of psuedo-philosophical BS in the book, Welsh boosterism, and idealization of working types in Jones story, but it is easy to skim these parts for those mainly interested in life and work in coastal Great Britain in the 30s.

I think this book would be appropriate for children and teenagers who are interested in sailing and working sailboats. There is some bad language, a bit of wry sexual content, and manly dialogue, but nothing frightening or too offensive. The extensive and detailed descriptions of the boats and how they were worked and sailed (without engines) might bore some kids. Mostly the book is charming and absorbing.

I would almost be willing to put this book next to Two Years Before the Mast on my shelf. It is that good.

Welsh Boyo.......2000-11-02

I worked in Barmouth, N. Wales in the early 80's. Mr. Jones accuratley describes the very friendly Welsh people. This book will make you laugh and cry at his adventures. It is a wonder that Mr Jones has kept his innocence in his later writings, after all he went through as a child.

one of my favorite books.......1999-06-09

I first read this book when I was probably 11 years old, and have read it I don't know how many times since then. Tristan Jones had the soul of a poet, as well as a natural ability to evoke the spirit of a bygone era seen through the eyes of a boy coming of age. Filled with colorful, sometimes heart-wrenching, often humourous anecdotes, this wonderful book has won a permanent place in my heart - very highly recommended.

Before Texas Changed: A Fort Worth Boyhood

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Before Texas Changed: A Fort Worth Boyhood
David Murph
Manufacturer: Texas Christian University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0875653332

Book Description

Growing up in Fort Worth during the 1950s never lacked in excitement for David Murph. In his memoir, Murph recalls a mischievous childhood punctuated by adventures in driving, occasional acts of accidental arson, more than one trip to the jailhouse, and countless other tales. The cast of characters includes not only friends and family but also famous figures such as John Scopes, Bobby Morrow, and Frankie Avalon. Murph details an early interest in politics and an unintentional affinity for troublemaking that had more to do with an active imagination and intense curiosity than any ill will. His adventures included broken windows, brushes with blindness, bull riding, and a pet spider monkey, alongside lessons about life and death and the importance of family. Murph's story brings to life a time when television was new and exciting, parents sided with the law, and people were to be trusted more often than not. As a close friend wrote in his senior yearbook, "it would take a book to recall our adventures." Murph fondly recalls his active youth with clarity and humor.

In many ways, though, Murph's childhood was not all that unusual. Born in 1943 in Shreveport, Louisiana, Murph moved to Tyler, Texas, at the age of two with his family. He recalls moving to Fort Worth at the age of seven, feeling excited about his new home, and making new friends in the neighborhood and at school. In a neighborhood established around the time of World War II, he and his friends played war in their backyards. The child of a geologist and a homemaker, Murph vividly recalls the strong influence they were in his life.

Murph's story follows him from early childhood through high school graduation and leaving for college at the University of Texas. His enthusiasm for leaving home is tempered by the reality of what it means to leave his parents and younger brother behind—a sentiment familiar to any college-bound student.

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Beautifully Written Memoir

Wow!.....This book brought back memories....

A Book that touches You

An American Manhood

Two wonderful books

Twelve Years: An American Boyhood in East Germany
Joel Agee
Manufacturer: Farrar Straus Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Literary Theory | History & Criticism | United States | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | Essays | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | Germany | Europe | History | Subjects | Books
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After The Wall: Confessions from an East German Childhood and the Life that Came Next

The Lost Border: The Landscape of the Iron Curtain

Stasi: The Untold Story of the East German Secret Police

Crossing the River: A Memoir of the American Left, the Cold War, and Life in East Germany

Stasiland: True Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall

ASIN: 0374279586

Customer Reviews:

Beautifully Written Memoir.......2005-02-22

"Twelve Years: An American Boyhood in East Germany" is a fascinating memoir. Eight-year-old Joel Agee was brought by his mother and stepfather to the Soviet zone of Germany (what would become East Germany) in 1948 and lived there for the next 12 years. As Agee's stepfather, Bodo Uhse, was a prominent Communist, Agee had the best that East Germany could offer: a villa with servants, summers at the Baltic Sea, and numerous opportunities to recover from his dismal performance at school. Agee does provide an insight as to how the Communist intelligentsia in that country thought -- their explanations for the closed border, their view of the Stalinist (and Soviet-bloc) purges in the early 50s, and their conflicting views of Khruschev's revelations. This memoir is also a coming-of-age story, filled with teenage angst and sexual frustration. What distinguishes this from many other memoirs is that it is exceptionally well-written. Although Agee was never able to get his bearings in the East German school system (or was, as we would say today, a "slacker") his descriptions are almost poetic. Well worth reading.

Wow!.....This book brought back memories...........2002-11-05

I too have been urged by friends to write a book about my youth. In 1981, at the age of 18, I decided to reunite with my father and immigrated from the USA to the DDR. I was later expelled in 1986 for political reasons and lived elsewhere in Europe until my return in 1991 following the Fall of The Berlin Wall. I remained there until April of 2000 at which time I returned to the USA.
This book brought back some memories despite the difference in time. (The Author went to the DDR in 1948 at the age of 8. I went to the DDR in 1981 at the age of 18) I had no idea that there had been any other Americans that shared an even remotely similar story and Joel Agee does a great job of telling his story with far more emotion and prose than I ever could.
The book is a wonderful insight into life in a country that no longer exists...from the view point of an American child/young adult. I especially recommend it to anyone who has grown-up or lived in a country where they felt they did not belong. In my opinion, Agee entered the DDR in its infancy and left just as its darkest period began. I entered The DDR at the height of the Reagan Era and witnessed its collapse from within. Two historic phases. I only wish that both of us could have witnessed more.

A Book that touches You.......2000-12-06

I read Joel Agee's book "Twelve Years. An American Boyhood in East Germany" in German and in English and tried very hard to get a used copy of his first american edition - without any success. Finally, he is back again with a new edition, and allthough my english is not as good as it should be, I just want to write down some words abaout this book. For me who always lived in Western Germany it is one of the most interesting books about the communist part of Germany, the GDR (in german it's DDR). It was not meant to be a political book, but it has become one anyhow. The reader is not only enabled to follow a very private story of growing up as a boy (including all the problems most man - since they have been boys - know and prefer not to talk about it), but to understand how culture and everyday life had been transformed by the communist ideology in a way that could be critizised only by children: some simply laughed about it and learned, that even only to laugh could have negative consequences. And getting some idea of how adults did discuss the political penetration of everyday life makes you feel glad to be grown up in a non communist state - but still you can understand that this adults they had their living like others had, and that they were fathers and mothers having everyday problems like others had. This book indeed touched and pleased me. It is a marvellous written autobiographical kind of literature. If you'll read it, it will take a part of your heart and your intellect to. You'll have to love it.

An American Manhood.......2000-12-03

I'm delighted to see that Joel Agee's memoir is now available again, and I look forward, with pleasure, to re-reading it. In beautiful prose, Agee not only reveals the pains and pleasures of his growing up (it could be anywhere), but gives us a portrait, from an unusual angle, of life in the newly formed German Democratic Republic, i.e.,communist East Germany, during the period 1948-1960. The historian will find the book of particular interest, but so will anyone else who enjoys entering the unsual world of a sensitive young man with a terrific eye for detail, and who is frank about his inner life.

Agee returned to the U.S. just as the amazing 60s were about to roll their thunder, and I can't wait to read his follow-up memoir, his "American Manhood" in another world far removed from the East Berlin of his youth.

Two wonderful books.......2000-06-29

This is a timely reprint of the author's fascinating recollections of his youth spent from 1948 to 1960 in East Germany.

Together with his mother and his younger brother, the son of a famous American writer followed her second husband, his stepfather, a well-known communist German writer, from his exile in Mexico to East Germany. The circumstances were peculiar, yet the faithfulness to memory and the facts, and the careful choice of language make this book a wonderfully personal and universal piece of literature, capturing `atmosphere, conflicts, and hopes' of adolescence and life in an ideologized society of the Cold War Era.

Book Description

When he first published A Hole in the World in 1990, Pulitzer Prize-winner Richard Rhodes helped launch and legitimate a decade-long publishing phenomenon-the memoir of abused childhood. In this tenth anniversary edition, Rhodes offers new reflections on the abuse he and his older brother endured at the hands of their terrorizing stepmother and negligent father. He also describes readers' powerful and moving responses to his book, considers his changing sentiments as the years have passed, and provides additional details on his brother Stanley, who remains the author's true hero in this moving memoir.

Customer Reviews:

Superb.......2005-12-12

This is a beautifully written memoir of childhood hardship, cruelty, and neglect. The author's candor and equanimity in examining a painful history is remarkable, as is the poignant outcome.

Another famous author belabours us with his supposedly-sorry childhood?.......2005-11-17

Not exactly. If you arrive at this book as I did, mildly inquisitive after enjoying his two masterful, definitive tomes on nuclear weapons, you are in for one HELL of a ride.

This is a different book altogether, one that you will not put down. I find myself wondering how elder brother Stanley might have turned out if he hadn’t been the one to walk into the bathroom and find their mom dead with a shotgun in her mouth. Seems he turned out OK, though he didn’t go on to win a Pulitzer Prize.

And when the manipulative floozy moves in and besots their dad to the point where he just seems to vanish, and she starves them, and tortures them, what comes through is just what basic survival machines human beings are capable of becoming when necessary.

Yeah, sure – I had a rough childhood, and so did you. It probably haunts you still. To get an idea of how lucky you are, read this book.

But then, you probably have never won a Pulitzer Prize, and neither will I. If that was the deal being offered, I’d jump on it.

Rhodes' tale of survival and a brother's courage..........2005-11-17

I came to this book quite late, just finishing it a month ago. I read a few non-fiction books by the author and liked them quite a lot, so I grabbed this recently at my local Friends of the Library used book sale. Actually, since I am a domestic violence social worker, reading autobiographical accounts of various kinds of abuse experiences is part of my continuing education. Sad to say, I have read tales of abuse suffered in childhood which are even more disgusting than what Richard and his brother endured, and which lasted much longer than the two-plus years of horror the Rhodes kids experienced at the hands of a vicious stepmother. This is well-done, and the suffering depicted is probably understated...my sense is that Rhodes did not want to rub the readers' noses in his agony, but rather present a message that acting to protect the multitude of neglected and abused kids all around us sometimes does pay off in big ways. If you have an interest in the survival of a bad childhood, this one should be read, but probably would be even more powerful if paired with Dr. Laura Schlessinger's upcoming book, "Bad Childhood, Good Life" due to be published in January, 2006.

A silent cry that last a lifetime........2005-05-19

"A Hole in the World" was recommended to me by people that had read my memoir. I was astonished to see how much our childhoods were alike. Although my story involves being raised as an Old Order Mennonite, we both had childhoods filled with anguish and fear, the deprivation of a mother's love, and behaviors tailored to whatever you had to do to get through the day. And we both had an essential ingredient that helped us make it in life, and that was teachers that saw potential within us. Mr. Rhodes knew he had raw intelligence, and with the positive influence of his teachers, went on to become the successful writer and person we so greatly admire. He clearly cites his personal difficulties in his adult life for he did not know how to be a father, how to have a happy home. I think as the title of his book alludes, he will always have an ache that can't be filled. This is a book everyone should read for it shows the importance of good teachers and mentors. Their encouragement can say to a child that gets it no where else: You are somebody and you have value.

powerful autobio of abuse and growth.......2001-05-11

This is a moving memoire of Rhodes' abusive childhood and how he grew out of it but still carries much of it with him. He is such an exquisite writer that every page aches with anger and regret. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to understand what some foster children go through. One of America's best writers.

Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth (Modern Library Classics)

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Promising Prose But Little Drama from Tolstoy in His Twenties
A young aristocrat
Growing up, Russian style
Nascent Mastery
Early Tolstoy

Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth (Modern Library Classics)
Leo Tolstoy
Manufacturer: Modern Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0375759441
Release Date: 2002-04-09

Book Description

Begun in 1851, when Tolstoy was twenty-three and serving as a cadet in the Russian army, Childhood, the first part of Tolstoy’s first novel, won immediate praise from Turgenev and others, and marked Tolstoy’s emergence as a major writer. Its originality was striking, as Tolstoy sought to communicate with great immediacy the “poetry” of childhood—the intense emotions, confusions, and fears attendant upon a young boy, Nikolenka, as he grows up. In the years following, Boyhood and Youth appeared (a fourth volume was planned but never executed), each replete with psychological and philosophical subtleties hitherto unknown in Russian literature. In Scammell’s resplendent translation, Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth remains one of Tolstoy’s major works.

Download Description

This is the first of Tolstoy's autobiographical trilogy, written while he was in the army in the Caucasus and the Crimea. Please Note: This book is easy to read in true text, not scanned images that can sometimes be difficult to decipher. The Microsoft eBook has a contents page linked to the chapter headings for easy navigation. The Adobe eBook has bookmarks at chapter headings and is printable up to two full copies per year. Both versions are text searchable.

Customer Reviews:

Promising Prose But Little Drama from Tolstoy in His Twenties.......2007-08-24

I have read most of Tolstoy's major work including his most well known short stories. This is an early work from 1852 to 1856 and it is considered to be semi-autobiographical. It is not up to the standards of his later works, although it is long and detailed and made up of three stories that flow together as one.

Tolstoy was born in 1828 and he was in his twenties when he wrote this early work. He his famous for detailed physical descriptions combined with emotional drama. For example, read that wonderul short story Master and Man that combines those two elements. The present work has the detailed descriptions but lacks the emotional appeal and lacks the great characters that we see in other works, i.e.: a crying youth because he is humiliated is hardly a great emotional experienece.

Tolstoy remains as one of the leading writers of novels. His impressive legacy includes three of four monumental works including War and Peace, Anna Karenina, and the novella The Death of Ivan Ilych. According to his own estimate, he has over 400 works - as he describes in one of his non-fiction works.

Tolstoy's writing can be divided into three phases: the early years up to 1860 to 1861, the mid-career years from approximately 1861 to 1890, and his final years when he turned to non-fiction polemics. His most important fiction was written in the middle period, and it started with the release of The Cossacks in 1863. That story contains emotional elements and descriptions similar to what we read in Anna Karenina. His writings before The Cossacks contains his famous detail but lacks the same level of drama and emotion.

The present work is a good example of his early work pre-1961. Tostoy follows a Gogol like approach to produce a lengthy and detailed account of a young man growing up. The narrative is about a young man living in rural Russia. He goes on to attend university in Moscow and he is the son of a landowner as was Tolstoy himself. The story covers the boy's experiences from around the age of ten to the age of twenty. The character is based on one of Tolstoy's childhood friends and includes other characters based on real people that he knew. The story is a work of fiction. Tolstoy's own father died when he was still young as did his mother who died before his father.

This is a very slow read. It took me a week on and off to get through 314 pages in small font. Readers should not confuse this work with his famous works that came in his mid-career. The prose is excellent, especially the description of the thunderstorm about one third of the way into the book, but the story lacks drama and charm. Considering the author and his complete body of work, this is just 4 stars among the stories by Tolstoy.

As a side note, this is a beautifully bound hardcover book.

A young aristocrat.......2006-11-14

This semi-autobiographical youth memories are characteristic for the life of a young member of the Russian tsarist high society.

The main character wants to be a young man `comme il faut': `The comme il faut people I respected and considered worthy of being on terms of equality with me; the comme il ne faut pas I pretended to despise but in reality hated. The lower classes did not exist for me, I despised them completely.'
This stands in sharp contrast with: `His tendency of ecstatic adoration of the ideal virtue and a conviction that the purpose of man's life is continually to perfect himself. At that time it seemed very possible to improve all men, to destroy all the vices and miseries of mankind.'
But as the young man states himself: `noble words seldom go with noble deeds.'

His life is not without problems: his father, who loses all credit with his son, is a big gambler and doesn't give a damn for his estate. His mother adores her husband and forgives him everything. But she dies when the main character is still young. He receives an aristocratic education and, unsurprisingly, his life goes on very smoothly with `dancing' problems, adolescent loves and student exams.

This book contains beautiful pictures of the Russian countryside and lively childhood memories, but it is rather innocent stuff.
Only for Tolstoy fans.

For a picture of the lower classes (still not the `people of the abyss'), I recommend Maksim Gorky's `My Childhood'.

Growing up, Russian style.......2003-02-27

I thought that this was a lovely novel, a deeply reflective work in which Tolstoy concentrates on the life of the character Nikolai Irtenyev from his early childhood to his days as an aspiring student.

It's told in picaresque style, and reminded me a lot of Proust's "In Search of Lost Time" (had Proust been influenced by Tolstoy at all?). As an example:

"It was almost dark in the room, and very hot; there was a mingled smell of mint, eau-de-cologne, camomile and Hoffman's drops. The smell struck me so forcibly that, not only when I happen to smell it but even when I recall it, my imagination instantly carries me back to that darkly stifling room and reproduces every minute detail of that terrible moment."

The novel is full of such fine descriptive passages - the approach of a thunderstorm being the one that sticks in my mind.

But the main strength of this work is, I thought, that Tolstoy does a good job of describing the sweetnesses of childhood but does not cover up the agonies of growing up. This is no sugary, romantic account. Childhood and adolescence are portrayed as immensely trying times, both for Nikolai himself and for his family and friends. All the emotions, anger, misunderstandings and disorientation are detailed by Tolstoy.

Fine Stuff.

G Rodgers

Nascent Mastery.......2002-09-11

One of my favorite novels is "Anna Karenina"; this trilogy starts off as strongly. In the first volume, "Childhood," the immediacy of experience is palpable, the vividness of sensations is high, the emotionality is less diluted by philosophical wonderings. Tolstoy's writing is evocative, clear, and engaging in this book. His writing becomes increasingly abstract with each volume in the series. As his protagonist moves through adolescence, his uncertainties, moodiness, and fickle nature bogged down the narrative, I thought. Of course, this reflects the state of mind of the young man, but in comparison with the brightness of the first volume, made for some tedious reading. The books do, however, show how masterful Tolstoy was from the beginning of his career.

Early Tolstoy.......2001-08-21

When this book first hit the stores in Russia about 150 years ago, folks didn't think too much of it, seeing it merely as a minor work by one who had read Dickens. Tolstoy himself claimed that no one taught him more about the art of fiction than Dickens, and the literary circles of Russia were Dickens-fanatics, Russia recieving his works only after England.

Book Description

Chronicles first 15 years in life of a native Santee Sioux Indian in mid-19th century: childhood memories, training in the hunt, woodlore, religious practices, work of the medicine men, games, initiation rites, more. 13 illustrations.

Customer Reviews:

Indian Boyhood.......2006-04-04

This is a most excellent book because it is "AUTHENTIC" and not one that speaks of prejudice and the horrors of the Native American experience; instead, it allows you to catch a glimpse of what is now lost, a world of beauty and wonder. I highly recommend it to anyone: young or old; red, white, brown, or yellow -- a book that should be preserved and revered.

From a Boy to A Man.......2000-05-24

This book is a great compilation of the story of a young Indianboy who grows up to learn the traditions of his family. It was veryinformative and a great read. It would also be beneficial for people intereted in Native American history or just those wanting to read a good novel.

Waiting for the Morning Train: An American Boyhood (Great Lakes Books)

Average customer rating:

A lament fior the 20th century
Boyhood Memoirs of a Literary Giant
A plesant book to read
The boyhood of a giant
Civil War Historian grows up in Northwestern Michigan

Waiting for the Morning Train: An American Boyhood (Great Lakes Books)
Bruce Catton
Manufacturer: Wayne State University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0814318851

Amazon.com

One of America's great Civil War historians recounts his days growing up in Benzonia, a small town in Michigan's lower peninsula. During the first years of the 20th century (Catton was born in 1899), Catton listened to the tales of old Civil War veterans and gained an interest in the War Between the States that would never leave him. But this book, unlike Catton's other works, isn't primarily about the Civil War. It's about growing up in a particular time and a place. Written with grace, warmth, and wit, it describes an era of trains and timber. People who know and love the forests of northern Michigan will appreciate this book immensely, as will anybody who has enjoyed Catton's other books and wants to learn a little bit more about the historian who is one of America's great storytellers.

Customer Reviews:

A lament fior the 20th century.......2007-08-05

This book is generally considered a memoir of growing up in rural northern Michigan in the early 1900's, and it is; but it is also a lament for the 20th century. Catton contrasts the optimism of the America of his youth--it's faith in progress and in the future, it's belief that Americans could solve any problem with hard work, right thinking, and the guidance of Divine Providence--with the reality of national and world events that transpired from World War I through the Viet Nam era.

The mood of the book is reflective and even melancholy at times. I felt Catton was a concerned and discouraged man as he wrote this. He saw unlimited technological power as a frightening development and he had little faith in the ability of America or humankind in general to exhibit self-discipline in the use of such power.

It's a very thought-provoking book, and extremely relevant to today's world even 35 years after publication.

Boyhood Memoirs of a Literary Giant.......2003-05-14

I never met Bruce Catton, but I corresponded briefly with him in the mid-1970's. The same qualities that marked him as a correspondent--courtesy, graciousness, and gentle humor--illuminate this lovely memoir of a great historian.

Catton grew up in Benzonia, Michigan, "a city upon a hill," as he correctly notes, very close to Lake Michigan, where the old certitudes held seemingly invincible sway over virtually every aspect of one's daily life. Catton's father was the superintendent of Benzonia Academy, whose main building is now Benzonia's library.

The memoir, which recalls the years between the author's birth and his graduation from high school, is a series of reflections on what it was like to be a boy just as Michigan's logging era was drawing to a close, when sleepy Benzonia, along with the rest of the nation, was about to drift into the maw of the violent twentieth century. Catton writes of boyhood ambitions and boyish pranks, of the rich history that made Michigan's Lower Peninsula what it was, and especially of the Civil War veterans whose stories would later prompt Catton to devote years of his life to recording the history of that great conflict in rich anecdotal detail.

Though unabashedly nostalgic, "Waiting for the Morning Train" is neither saccharine nor bitter. Catton was far too experienced a writer and historian to let his emotions get the better of him. This is, nonetheless, a rich and moving memoir of a time which, though it may seem virtually within reach, we will never see again.

I recommend this book highly as a gift for yourself and, perhaps, for that reflective friend who can appreciate personal history told with universal appeal. Bruce Catton was, quite simply, one of the greatest writers and historians this country has produced, and in many ways this deceptively modest little volume represents the zenith of his literary achievement.

A plesant book to read.......2003-04-14

Bruce Catton was born in 1899 in Bezonia, Mich., a town of about 300 people then and now. Catton tells a lot about lumbering, tho he himself had little to do with lumbering. He graduated from Bezonia Academy in 1916, there being 11 in his class. The Academy closed in 1918. The book ends when Catton goes to college. It is a pleasant book to read, since Catton is a fine writer. But Jimmy Carter's book on his rural childhood I thought a more fetching read.

The boyhood of a giant.......2000-10-04

My interest in Waiting for the Morning Train lay not so much with Bruce Catton's being a giant of Civil War literature, but rather with his subject: Benzonia, Michigan, the place at which my family has taken vacation for decades (and where several family members now permanently reside). I could see the waters of Crystal Lake, the snow-covered hills of Beulah and Benzonia, and the lush birch, maple and pine forests of Northern Michigan as Catton knew them in his youth. Readers of Waiting for the Morning train will not only catch a glimpse of the spark that ignited Catton's pasion for the Civil War, but more importantly the story of a land that, if one tries hard enough, one will still find. Catton's boyhood stomping grounds come alive with tales of logging, weary travel by train and the fits of small towns being brought into a more modern era. The subtitle is An American Boyhood, and in Catton's childhood memoirs the reader will not only witness Catton's growth to manhood, but also the nation's emergence from adolecence to adulthood.

Civil War Historian grows up in Northwestern Michigan.......1999-04-21

Bruce Catton, winner of the Pulitzer, National Book Award and Presidential Medal of Freedom writes a little know memoir of his childhood of listening to the Civil War veterans tell tales of their Battery from Michigan that fought in the most famous battles in the War Between the States. How he was able to develop an almost transendent ability the listen and record in the far reaches of his sub conciousness the words and deeds that were told to him is remarkable. He would use the stories when he finally decided to put them down in his famous books that he didn't start until he was nearly at the age of fifty. But the book is also a statement on how the world has become a bunch of "Babbits" who put the motorcar above everything else. The metaphor he uses is the Mackinaw Bridge which was built in the late 50s to connect the Upper Penninsula to the lower so people would not have to wait in line for the ferry. Kafka said, "Because of impatience we were tossed out of Eden and because of impatience we can never return." Ironically Mackinac Island allows no cars and gets half a million plus tourists in the summer, where Maui has the finest weather in the world but no public transportation because people can't deal with the inconvience. Catton was very presient on this. The world finds itself in a place where we can't roll back to a slower time and now people want to drive tanks in the form of off road Vans. This book is also very readable and fun and in the intro his brother calls it his best book.

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