Claudia inherited my mother's love of reading early in life. When Claudia moved to central PA to be with then boyfriend Jim, she'd call mom on Sundays and they'd go over favorite reads of the week, New York Times book reviews and ended the conversation with shared reading recommendations.
These two women were never at a loss to talk about books.
Our mother didn't have a room dedicated to a library, but Claudia's library has bookshelves spanning up to the ceiling and spilling over to a beautiful wood bookcase. Whimsically perched around her beloved books are a collection of wood artist mannequins serving as bookends.
This room was my sister's sanctuary, and I'm so grateful that she enjoyed if for many years. It is here that she wrote copious notes in her journal on recently read books, or scoured recipes, and wrote in long-hand first– book reviews that garnered her a much followed reviewer on Amazon, and even earned her a prize, if not emails from authors. I personally was amazed at my sister's intellectual capacity to grasp such arcane concepts and difficult reads, this I think is when I realized what a true intellect she was.
Although Brother-in-Law Jim shared some of Claudia's reviews here, I wanted to share one more, and by all means, feel free to search her on Amazon, as my sister not only covered fiction and non-fiction–but her consumer instincts-finely tuned by our mother and especially husband Jim, she also shared some good house-hold buys for the discerning homeowner. Enjoy:
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Humanity in a Major Key,
Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Comedy in a Minor Key: A Novel (Paperback)
Hans Keilson, who died on 31 May 2011 at the age
of 101, escaped Hitler and was helped by the Dutch resistance. Though a
doctor, he was also an accomplished writer. The novella Comedy in a
Minor Key was published after the war and tells the story of a young
Dutch couple, Wim and Marie, who are quickly persuaded by arguments of
doing the humane thing, Christian charity and Dutch patriotism, to hide a
Jewish man, Nico, in their home. As the story opens, Wim, Marie and
their doctor are standing by Nico's bed, stunned that he has died of
pneumonia. The story cycles in and out of their existence together, but
also addresses the suspense of disposing of the body, very risky
business. There is a plot turn at this point that I won't get into, but
suffice to say there is more suspense.
This is also a terrific character study of the human condition, tackling risk, fear, the problem of being saved yet imprisoned, the satisfaction of doing the right thing and, ultimately, disappointment. Marie had always envisioned she, Wim and Nico triumphantly dancing out of the house together on Liberation Day and his death cheats her of that satisfaction. And it's the irony of it all that leads the author to call this a comedy, however in the key of sad music, because it's like that gimmick in a stage comedy where the audience is expecting a character to emerge from the curtains on one side of the stage and is looking over there when he suddenly appears out of the other.
Keilson gets emotion down right and his characters are charmingly, wryly human. He's a natural storyteller. Though I don't speak the language in which it was written, the translation offers up a strong sense of authenticity. The book flows swiftly and can be read in an evening. This reissue, published in America for the first time, was on the shortlist for the 2011 National Book Critics Circle Award.
This is also a terrific character study of the human condition, tackling risk, fear, the problem of being saved yet imprisoned, the satisfaction of doing the right thing and, ultimately, disappointment. Marie had always envisioned she, Wim and Nico triumphantly dancing out of the house together on Liberation Day and his death cheats her of that satisfaction. And it's the irony of it all that leads the author to call this a comedy, however in the key of sad music, because it's like that gimmick in a stage comedy where the audience is expecting a character to emerge from the curtains on one side of the stage and is looking over there when he suddenly appears out of the other.
Keilson gets emotion down right and his characters are charmingly, wryly human. He's a natural storyteller. Though I don't speak the language in which it was written, the translation offers up a strong sense of authenticity. The book flows swiftly and can be read in an evening. This reissue, published in America for the first time, was on the shortlist for the 2011 National Book Critics Circle Award.
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