Scan barcode
sivujaselaten's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
4.5
thesaggingbookshelf's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.0
book_concierge's review
4.0
Book on CD read by Michael Maloney
When his great uncle Iggie died in 1994, Edmund de Waal inherited a collection of 264 netsuke. The tiny Japanese wood and ivory carvings had long fascinated him and he wanted to know more about how they came to be in this collection. Thus began a search back through the archives of history, and family lore, to discover a family banking dynasty dating back to the nineteenth century in Paris and Vienna. At one time the family was every bit as prominent and wealthy as the Rothschilds. But by the end of WW2, the collection of carvings – which has been hidden by a servant – were all that remained of their vast holdings.
What a wonderful biography of a family this is. Told with eyes wide open, but with a great deal of love and respect, de Waal takes the reader back through time and breathes life into the history of not just his family, but of art, culture, politics, and war. Though I was listening to the audio, I kept picking up the text to look at the pictures, and how I wish there had been more of them!
The audio book is capably narrated by Michael Maloney.
When his great uncle Iggie died in 1994, Edmund de Waal inherited a collection of 264 netsuke. The tiny Japanese wood and ivory carvings had long fascinated him and he wanted to know more about how they came to be in this collection. Thus began a search back through the archives of history, and family lore, to discover a family banking dynasty dating back to the nineteenth century in Paris and Vienna. At one time the family was every bit as prominent and wealthy as the Rothschilds. But by the end of WW2, the collection of carvings – which has been hidden by a servant – were all that remained of their vast holdings.
What a wonderful biography of a family this is. Told with eyes wide open, but with a great deal of love and respect, de Waal takes the reader back through time and breathes life into the history of not just his family, but of art, culture, politics, and war. Though I was listening to the audio, I kept picking up the text to look at the pictures, and how I wish there had been more of them!
The audio book is capably narrated by Michael Maloney.
aya_the_papaya's review
4.0
An interesting and well-told family history of sorts, losely following various artifacts through the lineage of a self-built rich Jewish family down several generations through WWII and to the modern day. Fairly engaging, though a bit verbose at times for me.
amjwarburg's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.5
directorpurry's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
2.75
"You assimilate, but you need somewhere to go. You keep your passport to hand. You keep something private."
This is more a family story than a book about art or Jewish history. There were times I felt great kinship with de Waal and the Ephrussi family, and other times I felt nothing at all. Our shared ethnicity was not enough to tie us together.
But through it all I felt such deep sadness - in such a time of destruction and loss, why do you get your art collections back when my grandmother will never know the names of her aunts when both were taken in the same instance?
This is more a family story than a book about art or Jewish history. There were times I felt great kinship with de Waal and the Ephrussi family, and other times I felt nothing at all. Our shared ethnicity was not enough to tie us together.
But through it all I felt such deep sadness - in such a time of destruction and loss, why do you get your art collections back when my grandmother will never know the names of her aunts when both were taken in the same instance?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Antisemitism, War, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Suicide
Minor: Torture and Confinement