Hare with Amber Eyes, The ~ Edmund de Waal ~ February Book Club Online

[JoanP]

 The Book Club Online is  the oldest  book club on the Internet, begun in 1996, open to everyone.  We offer cordial discussions of one book a month,  24/7 and  enjoy the company of readers from all over the world.  Everyone is welcome.

the HARE with AMBER EYES
A FAMILY'S CENTURY OF ART AND LOSS
by EDMUND de WAAL

"In The Hare with Amber Eyes, Edmund de Waal unfolds the story of a remarkable family and a tumultuous century. Sweeping yet intimate, it is a highly original meditation on art, history, and family, as elegant and precise as the netsuke themselves.When the Nazis took over Vienna, the family's loyal maid Anna simply hid these miniature works of art in her mattress, some 264 pieces depicting turtles and tigers and rats, a boy with a helmet and samurai sword, a naked woman and an octopus, a hare with amber eyes. Edmund de Waal eventually inherited the collection, and it serves to link the various parts of his story as he traces how the netsuke pass from one family member to the next."  Edmund de Waal click to enlarge

                                                                                                                       

Discussion Schedule: Feb. 1-3       Prologue Feb. 4-8       Part One ~ Paris ~ 1871-1899 Feb. 9-13     Part Two ~ Vienna ~ 1899-1938 Feb. 14-18    Part Three ~ Vienna ~ 1938-1947 Feb. 19-23 Part Four ~ Tokyo ~ 1947-2001 Feb. 24-28    Coda ~ Tokyo, Odessa, London ~ 2009

For Your Consideration
February 9-13
Part Four ~ Tokyo ~ 1947-2001

30. Tankenoko
What were some of the changes that struck you that took place in Japan after the War? What does "tankenoko" refer to?

31. Kodachrome
De Waal used Iggie's photos to describe the houses that hold the netsuke in Japan. How does Iggie's lifestyle compare with his previous life in Europe? How are the netsuke treated?

32. Where did you get them?
How were the Japanese and the netsuke characterized by Americans? Why did netsuke "fall out of fashion" in Japan in the 1950s? How were Iggie's netsuke valued by Mr. Okada of the Tokyo National Museum?

33. The real Japan
How did Iggie and Jiro live in Japan in contrast to tourists seeking "the real Japan"? What do you think of Iggie's two decisions after he returns from visiting Vienna in 1973?

34 On polish
What do we learn in this chapter about the making of netsukes?

Related Links:
link to Ephrussi family tree
Ephrussi family photos

DIscussion Leaders: JoanP & Marcie

[JoanP]

I'm wondering how Viktor Ephrussi could have been so uninformed about what was going on in the world, especially in Vienna.  He reads the newspapers every day. His friends were making plans to leave.
Hitler had ordered  all Jewish inhabitants of his hometown of Linz  arrested and ordered to move to Vienna.  Why would he have done this?

   Babi wonders why the family hadn't gone to Switzerland - it wasn't as if they had no place to go for safety. Don't you wonder what Emmy thought about staying on?   Was it really the bank, and the "stuff" they'd accumulated in the house?  Did he believe that his wealth and position in Vienna would protect them?  I'm still wondering why he wasn't arrested. Perhaps because the Palais break-in was not official. Fry, it seems to me that this was  a mob break-in.  The question is - was it students...rioting students looking for any excuse, as Babi suggests -  or resentful townspeople.  Or maybe both -  fanaticized by Hitler's Nazis?

 Thanks, Fry for those links on Kristallnicht. Will add only this...

"In Vienna, dozens of synagogues were destroyed, and 12,000 Jewish workshops and 5,000 Jewish shops were ransacked and closed. "Vienna presented an extraordinary spectacle with fires raging all over the city and Jews being hustled along the streets, cursed at and assaulted by crowds of hooligans," the British Consul General in Vienna reported.
Thousands of Jews were arrested, six hundred Viennese Jews were sent to Dachau." http://www.chgs.umn.edu/museum/exhibitions/rescuers/kristallnacht.html

How on earth did Viktor escape this night?

Welcome home, Jude...sounds like a great trip.  The link to Edmund de Waal's speech at the Palais is in the heading...I don't think there are any spoilers there.
There you are, Sally!  As you catch up, please be sure to post any nuggets of information that catch your attention.  We'd love to hear from you as you and Olle cover our tracks...

[BarbStAubrey]

Hitler could not do it alone - he had to have the support of the people - maybe the people did not know his tactics but many of them understood what he was attempting - I think like battered women you do not think what is happening is really pandemic but a temporary explosion and this cannot be happening they show love for what the victim does that assists either the batterer or in this case a nation.

Here is Hitler's blueprint - note when it was written and published

http://www.h-net.org/~german/gtext/kaiserreich/class.html

[kidsal]

The Jewish families were certainly aware of the discrimination.  Did they believe their money and position in the community would save them?

Remember often of the Jewish boy I danced with at the Iowa State College dime-dance in the Memorial Union one Friday night in 1950. He told me he was from New York and it was difficult for him to get a job there.  I - at 17 years - said why don't you just move?  Also when I rented a one-room apartment in Beverly Hills in 1959 and the landlady asked if I were Jewish.  I am ashamed to say that I didn't tell her off and leave but I wanted the apartment. 

[Babi]

  I wish I could answer that, JOANP. Surely some books have been written that
at least attempt to explain how and why.
 
  BARB, that was a frightening 'blueprint'. I can see why it could have appealed
to the 'educated' and 'propertied'. And I suspect the average working citizen
would not have read it. Hitler's initial actions did improve the country's
efficiency...like the famed railroads that ran on time...so they would have felt
they had an excellent new leader.

  The Jews money, their valuable treasures, did at least deliver soome of them.
That was the price for not being sent to Dachau. Their property and a huge sum
of money.

   It is the most painful irony.  Why do conquering rulers so often try to put a pretty veneer
on their conquest.  They claim to have 'liberated' the people they are despoiling.  "..with deep emotion in this festive hour that Austria is free, that Austria is National Socialist".
  It's all so sad.

[JoanP]

"Let us be clear in the discussion of these necessities that the innocent must suffer along with the guilty...."

- from Heinrich Class's, "If I Were Kaiser" (1912) in the link Barbara posted yesterday.


Hitler was twenty three years old when he read Class's manifesto...   I am always looking for insight into this man's mind regarding the innocence of his victims.

"Hitler's supremacist and racially motivated policies resulted in the systematic murder of eleven million people, including an estimated six million Jews, and in the deaths of an estimated 50 million people during World War II."

[JoanP]

Good morning, kidsal and Babi too.  We're posting at the same time this morning...

I was interested in your comment - that this manifesto could have appeal for the 'educated' and 'propertied' - and since Viktor Ephrussi was both, and an avid reader, I wonder if he hadn't read it too?

Kidsal - couldn't help but notice that you attended the dime-dance in 1950 and that your dance partner was finding it difficult to find a job in NY - because he was Jewish?  Makes you wonder what it will take to end discrimination.  

[JoanP]

The first break-in must have been simply mobs wishing to destroy, not even steal.  But the Gestapo came back to search, not to steal, or even take note of the contents of the Palais...  They were looking for evidence that would implicate Viktor.  Apparently they found what they were looking for - because they had enough to arrest him. Do you think it was a bit odd that de Waal never asked either Viktor or Rudolf about that?  Was that the "missed opportunity", referred to in the chapter's title?

I can think of so many things that I wished I had asked my grandmother - and my father, while they were living.  Sometimes I am overwhelmed with the thought that there is no one left who can answer those questions...

 When they took Viktor and Rudolf into custody, I think of poor Emmy alone in that big house...does she communicate with her daughters - with Iggy during this time?

[BarbStAubrey]

I think everytime we question why this family and other Jewish families did not act differently to protect themselves or their art, jewels and wealth we are really saying they were either naive for trusting or stupid given the history of Jews, or they helped bring this on themselves they should have seen the road signs. Which is the language that says they were complicit in their own demise.

Sorry that hits all sorts of buttons for me - I had a husband who ended up taking everything of real value - money and retirement was nothing in comparison to my daughter's trust, her view of me because of his lies and horrendous actions that has taken us 25 years to repair -  I cannot even describe as I struggled with why could I not see what was going on even though this was part of my childhood -

I Know when you have a relationship that you are given to believe you are aiding the goals of the other party it never occurs to you that they would turn on you - how could you stay if this Jewish family could even imagine behind their back, in secret, the plan is to take everything, both earthly and the life of your family - if you suspect then you flee - but often, as in my small case in comparison, it never crosses your mind that anyone could be that devious especially, after you helped them and you could see all around you the benefits you created  -

I guess I do not have words to describe the betrayal that sucks the life blood and to hear words that suggest others still do not get it reminds me again of loosing my job and most of my friends and learning more and more secrets that even others knew and that because others knew the fool you feel because society is I think frightened that this could happen to them so they become content making you the scapegoat and because of the importance in the community of the one doing all this damage they, like Hitler were, and for some still, hailed as having worth.

I know that is the hardest part to realize no one is 100% evil and so there is part of them that is always knee jerk acknowledged - and then the guilt sets in that again, we blame ourselves and all victims get blamed again
because we have not been trained nor have we learned how to live with that ambiguity. And that to me is the message - somehow to learn how to live with ambiguity because the very ones that do so much damage to others also in some way contributed to your life -

For me the idea of hating what happened and the atom bomb it threw into my family and my future was enough to deal with - yes, church, therapists, some friends and even some family keep talking forgiveness - get on with it - forget - but when you cannot even wrap your head around the so called crime - when it is so beyond anything you can understand - all I could do is let God do the forgiving and go my way trying to repair and learn.

I am not sure how the Jewish people especially those immediately affected by the Holocaust handle it and go on but some things are beyond rage - we learn rage expressed does not help - for me it was easier to get angry over those who blamed me or acted by pulling away or if I see others who do not try to learn and understand the many wounds and un-expected ways wounds bleed.  I wonder if that is what the Jewish people do - rage at those who are only in the preifery representing their fears and experience.

I know - I do go on - but what appears to be a rant is really like being age 5 and begging - please see the victim acted in good faith.

[Frybabe]

Gosh, Barb, I am almost speechless. I am profoundly sad that you have still to deal with what happened 25 years ago. Mega HUGS!


As a partial illustration of your comment, "And that to me is the message - somehow to learn how to live with ambiguity because the very ones that do so much damage to others also in some way contributed to your life", I saw this morning the controversy over a museum display of Herod the Great. Mostly, the controversy is because the excavations are on the West Bank which the Palestinians claim should be given back to them. However, the display itself is meant to show both sides of Herod which is also a bit controversial.

He's best known as a great tyrant. King Herod is said to have killed his wife and sons as well as all the baby boys of Bethlehem.

But the first major exhibition on the Biblical ruler at the Israel Museum sets out to prove that he also had positive qualities that make him more deserving of the title "Herod the Great".

"We tried to show that he was not only the cruel person described by [the Jewish historian] Josephus and the New Testament but he was also a ruler who managed to keep this country in peace for 33 years," says curator Silvia Rosenburg.

"It was probably very difficult being a local ruler caught between the Roman Empire and the different exigencies of Judaism, but he did it very well. In his time there was prosperity and work for everyone."

Full text is at:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-21460847

[JudeS]

When I read the book I had the same question:"Why did Victoe Ephrussi and Emmy not depart when the Nazis came to power.
I Looked at the Geneology chart and saw that Victor was born in 1860 making him 79 in 1939.
Not many people of that age are willing to make a big move away from their home at that age.
In my mind I heard his thoughts:
"Soon I will die. I'd rather die here, surrounded by the familiar than in a strange land surrounded by the unknown."

This is as I said  something I thought but it rang true to me knowing myself and other folk of that age. I asked myself what would I have done in his place?
I'm not sure.

[JoanK]

I had a hard time reading the section on the nazis -- at the beginning detailing all the THINGS that were destroyed, and I was thinking "never mind the things: what about the people: who lives, who dies, who lives, but lives a half life like so many I met in Israel who survived but never recovered?"

I admit, I bid on two of the netsuke that were in the link posted to eBAY. (the owl, and one of the hares). I didn't get either: someone bid against me, and I didn't want to get into a bidding war. i've never bid on e-bay before: there's clearly a strategy to it, which I am clueless about.

[marcie]

How exciting, JoanK, that you bid on the netsuke. I'm sorry you didn't get one.

JudeS, I think that Vicktor's age could well have made him feel that he couldn't make a big move, let alone abandon his collections, his family home and the bank.

Many countries were not acknowledging the wrongness of what Hitler was doing. If the world was not against him, then it is easier to understand why Viktor and Emmy didn't leave Vienna.

[JoanP]

"I bid on two of the netsuke that were in the link posted to eBAY." I'm curious, JoanK - what did they sell for?  Did the link give you any idea how old they were? Or were they reproductions?  I have on my desk this note - no longer remember where I found it...

"Netsuke evolved over time from being strictly utilitarian into objects of great artistic merit and an expression of extraordinary craftsmanship. Such objects have a long history reflecting the important aspects of Japanese folklore and life. Netsuke production was most popular during the Edo period in Japan, around 1615-1868. Today, the art lives on, and some modern works can command high prices in the UK, Europe, the USA, Japan and elsewhere. Inexpensive yet faithful reproductions are available in museums and souvenir shops."

[JoanP]

 As I read through your questions and your posts, I can't help but think of what this story would have been without the memoirs and now the letters from Elizabeth Ephrussi to her family after the war came to a close.  I am thinking of how few letters I write to my own family these days.  Everything is email.  On the occasions I do write with pen and paper, I find it difficult now...the mistakes I make that need do-overs - either that or cross out, which I refuse to do.  I find I'm typing up my letters on the computer - and then copying them on to paper. (Quicker to email what I have typed.)

"I am not sure how the Jewish people,  especially those immediately affected by the Holocaust handle it and go on."  Barbara, as you say, the response to unimaginable loss and abuse will vary.  My heart goes out to you. You're right.  Somehow you go on the best you can.  De Waal had his grandmother's  letters which described how each member of the Ephrussi family coped with their loss.

"Soon I will die. I'd rather die here, surrounded by the familiar than in a strange land surrounded by the unknown."  Jude, Viktor Ephrussi got his wish - did not live long in the strange land of England...but the rest of the family seemed to get on, reinventing their lives, didn't they?  (With the exception of Emmy, that is.)

"...at the beginning detailing all the THINGS that were destroyed, and I was thinking "never mind the things: what about the people?"  Dare I say, JoanK, de Waal doesn't address your question, as much as he concentrates on the loss of THINGS.  Am I missing something?

In one of her letters, Elizabeth Ephrussi detailed a return to her "emptied home" in Vienna in 1945. Did you notice that the lacquered vitrine was still there where it had always been? - emptied of course.  And Anna  had spent the occupation - and the war - in the Palais!

  The question in my mind - what did she intend to do with the netsuke collection, had Elizabeth not returned? Or was there no question in her mind that the family would return as soon as it was safe again?

[Babi]

 An interesting thought, JOANP, but considering the long Jewish experience with intolerance
I would think the Ephrussi's were well aware of what claims to superiority could lead to.
The Rothschilds were wise enough to recognize the changing climate and escape in good
time. The Ephrussi's, with such popular members as Charles Ephrussi, seemed to believe
they were safely integrated. 

 I am sorry this has all brought up such painful memories, BARB. I hope sharing them with
us has helped.

  I could see that, too, JUDE. Apparently, for Emmy, it was all at last too much.  At the
end, she simply couldn't bear to live any longer under the constant tension of waiting for the
axe to fall.
  I was am so impressed by Elizabeth, tho'.  What a remarkable woman. What a sharp, clear,
decisive mind. I am convinced there is nothing she could not accomplish once she set her
mind to it.

[JudeS]

Joan P
Yes, , deWaal is writing about THINGS not people.
THINGS are stable with no inner life. To write about people is so different. To write about people you have to be a Novelist.
Our author is writing "Literary Journalism" which is non fiction with literary techniques.

One of the reasons this book so stirred me (and it seems millions of others) is that it leaves a lot to the imagination. It stirs the imagination and forces you to fill in the gaps, making you a partner in the on going events.

The story of the Holocaust is not one story but six million differnt ones. There is no one definitive book about the events.
Each story is a world unto itself.

[JoanK]

"The story of the Holocaust is not one story but six million differnt ones. There is no one definitive book about the events.
Each story is a world unto itself. "

More than six million ones. The people like those in the book who didn't go to the camps have their stories, too. And yes, JoanP, deWaal tells them eventually. It was the suspense.

Yes, he is telling about things, and through their things we glimpse the people. It is fascinating.

Since I didn't continue upping the other bidder, one netsuke went for around $35. The other had a reserve price which hadn't been met when I stopped paying attention.

[BarbStAubrey]

an aside - JoanK my experience is there is always this unknown someone who starts to bid you up - my tactic that has worked is to wait till 1- minutes before due time and up my bid - if no other takes I have it if another biider shows than try to get as close as you can within the last minute for your final bid. I also put in a range that I judge to be higher than the alternate bidders appear to be comfortable with - but I only do that near the last minutes because I do not want to push the bidding higher past my range - the only bid that will count is if it is past your range - you only pay the lowest if you are the winner not the high end of your range.

[JoanK]

Good tip. I wish I'd thought of that.

[JoanP]

 "Netsuke production was most popular during the Edo period in Japan, around 1615-1868."

I find myself wondering why those netsuke carvers suddenly stopped carving them in 1868. The only thing I can think of is that the style of dress may have changed and they were no longer needed.  Any ideas?

[JoanP]

"Yes, he is telling about things, and through their things we glimpse the people."

Good points, Joank, Jude. - I hadn't considered that  he was emphasizing the things so that we might better understand his people.  

There was another line in the book:

"Jews matter less than what they once possessed."  

Another example of the dehumanization of the Jews  and the value placed on their possessions?

[Babi]

 JOAN, 1868 was a major year in Japanese history, I find. After years of war, 1868 marked
the beginning of the Meiji period.  I found the new national leadership systematically ended
feudalism and transformed Japan into a world power that closely followed Western models.
  Then I found this on the netsuke:  "The late period (late 19th and early 20th century).
During the latter part of the 19th century Western influence and style were introduced to
Japan after two centuries of isolation. European merchants clamored for Japanese wares,
good, bad and indifferent. The excellence of netsuke carving diminished, but the little
carved objects found great favor with the foreigners who took them back to the West. With
the advent of Western style clothes in Japan, the netsuke lost its practical purpose as a
toggle and became strictly an art form. Among outstanding carvers of this period were
Tokoku and Sosui.

  Back to the people!  What a lovely bit of serendipity!  So convenient.  Elizabeth returns to Vienna, to her childhood home,  in hopes of claiming her mother's portrait.  And how is the house now being used?  It is the offices of the American Headquarters/Legal Council Property Control Sub-Section.  Exactly the people
she needs to see.

  Anna's story is the most positive story I've heard yet, doing more than anything else to re-assure me of the reality of human loyalty and decency.  And after reading of the horrendous behavior...although I already knew of that...of the Nazi Gestapo,  what a relief was the contrasting behavior of the American officials there.  Delighted to have Elizabeth there,  courteous, helpful, friendly.  I hope this kind of attitude helped just a little bit with the healing.
little bit with the healing
   

[JoanP]

Thanks for looking into the netsuke issue, Babi I can see where the Ephrussi collection would be quite valuable.  Probably the greatest treasure from the whole Ephrussi estate, don't you think? And to think that Anna had been sleeping on them until one of the family members returned.  I wonder two things about her- how was she so sure anyone would return - would want to return?

And then what was life like for Anna when Elizabeth left Vienna, probably for good.  With the netsuke, her last connection, to the family. No reward, nothing. Edmund was sorry he didn't think to ask her last name.

[JoanP]

"It was a family that could not put itself back together."

It seems that individual family members moved on with their lives, some better than others...but they never returned to their old selves.  Which got your attention? The idea of Rudolf in Arkansas tickled me, but my goodness - Iggy reinvented himself - comfortable in his new skin?  

Does anyone know what it meant that Rudolf and Iggy were "demobbed" from the US army at the end of the war?

[Frybabe]

demobbed - demobilization from the armed services.

Why he didn't just say discharged, I don't know unless it is a term associated with the mass discharges after the war.

[marcie]

Joan and Frybabe, the word "demobbed" stumped me too.

"Demobilization is the process of standing down a nation's armed forces from combat-ready status. This may be as a result of victory in war, or because a crisis has been peacefully resolved and military force will not be necessary. The opposite of demobilization is mobilization. Forceful demobilization of a defeated enemy is called Demilitarization.

In the final days of World War II, for example, the United States Armed Forces developed a demobilization plan which would discharge soldiers on the basis of a point system that favoured length and certain types of service."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demobilization

[JudeS]

I think "demobbed" is the British expression. I know my parents, who were British, used that expression and not discharged.

[marcie]

In the next section we're following the netsuke on their "return" to Japan with Iggie. I was interested in the changes that de Waal describes that took place in Japan after the War. What were some of the changes that struck you?

[Babi]

 I was struck by frequent comment about the initials on Nazi documents being 'illegible'.  I suppose that could simply be the result of hurried clerks and dispatchers with a huge pile of records to sign.  But it could also be the guilty wish not to be identified in case the ruin and theft were ever challenged.

  Full circle.  After a century of travel and passing through generations of Ephrussi,  the netsuke are returning home. I am interested in meeting the remarkable Jiro Shizuoka.

[JoanP]

Don't you wish you could raise your hand and ask de Waal a question or two?  I would like to know why Elizabeth decided to give the netsuke collection to her young, unsettled, bachelor brother with no home of his own - rather than keep them to play with her own sons as her own mother had played with her.  Were those memories too painful for her?  Did she want to distance herself from her old life? 

[marcie]

Babi, it was stricking, with all of the thoroughness of the confiscation of property by the Nazi's, that when it came time for people to claim their property there were lots of small "technicalities" that prevented them from doing so.

Joan, it seemed to me that Iggie took possession of the netsuke and said that he was bringing them "home" rather than Elizabeth actually giving them to her brother. Now that you bring it up, I wonder how old her children were at the time.

[JudeS]

Elizabeth's sons were born in 1929 and 1931. Much too old to play with Netsuke after the war.

Iggie had a choice; To be stationed in Congo or Japan.
By giving him the Netsuke, Elizabeth helped him make the choice. Going to the Congo  was frought with many health risks at that time and even now. Japan was more or less safe with a long cultural history. They (Iggie and Elizabeth) had grown up exposed to that culture (at least partially).
It was a fitting present for a sister to give a brother who had fought in a war and survived. It was  a link to the family and the life they had once known. It was a gesture of love.
With all their losses, this was a family who knew how to love.

[JoanP]

Thanks for those dates, Jude -
I can understand Elizabeth giving the netsuke to her younger brother who had enjoyed playing with them as a child. Apparently her own boys were not attached to them...

Fitting that the netsuke were carried back to Japan in Iggie's little attaché case.  I liked to imagine them, happily at "home" in Japan. But wait a minute...Iggie's giving them to his sister's grandson, who will take them out of Japan again - to England this time.  What do you think of that?  Iggie considered Edmund a worthy caretaker of the collection- he appreciated them, shared his appreciation for Japanese art.

Do you think he ever considered leaving them to Jiro...his adopted son - who had lived with, held and appreciated the little carvings for many years?

[JoanP]

I 'm really interested in this inside picture of post-war Japan.  Iggy lived it - I think it is accurate?  I remember when my uncle came home from serving in Japan after the war. I was seven or eight. He brought gifts and souvenirs home for everyone.  I vaguely remember a folded, painted paper fan. But to my grandmother he brought a "geisha" doll, wearing red robes, an elaborate black hairdo...Grammy kept her behind glass in a locked cabinet.  Everyone was relieved that the youngest uncle never saw action - had the good fortune to serve in Japan after the war.

[marcie]

Yes, thanks for the dates, Jude.

Actually, it's Jiro who bequeaths the netsuke to Edmund. (I think that Jiro and Iggie must have talked about it before Iggie died.)  In the prolog, de Waal says that he went to Iggie's funeral. After the funeral he returns to the apartments of Jiro and Iggie and helps sort out Iggie's clothes. "When this job is done, over a glass of wine, Jiro takes out his brush and ink and writes a document and seals it. It says, he tells me, that once he has gone I should look after the netsuke."

Edmund seems the likely candidate. It keeps the netsuke in the family and he is very familiar with Japanese art and appreciates the netsuke. Given the kind of utilitarian, amusing figurines the netsuke are, and their history with his family, it seems fitting that Edmund have them and share them with his children, even though it means taking them from Japan. They might not even be treasured by many Japanese since netsuke "fell out of fashion" in Japan in the 1950s.

[marcie]

That's interesting, JoanP, that you have a connection to Japan via your uncle. Does someone still have the geisha doll?

[waafer]

I have just finished my second reading of The Hare and with the help of this discussion and the Family Tree and all the different sites members put on here I have enjoyed it ever so much more.  Unfortunately I do not read as fast as I used to.  Thank you all and I will contin ue to read the forthcoming discussions.

[Frybabe]

Either in this section or the next, de Waal mentions that Iggie was a big Len Deighton fan. I never heard of him so I looked him up. Now, The Ipcress File I do know because it was made into a movie. Of course I had to go out and get one of his books. I ended up with City of Gold, set in Cairo during WWII.  Deighton also liked to cook and wrote several cookbooks, a weekly cooking guide type comic strip. He also wrote several nonfiction history books.

[Babi]

 Ah, thanks, MARCIE. I remembered there was something about that in the prologue.

   I had no idea there had been such devastation in Tokyo.  16 square miles of the city destroyed, 100,00 people killed.  Yet that was not enough to bring them to surrender.  It took an atomic bomb. 
     Still, I reminded myself that London had also been blitzed by the Germans. They lost 1/3 of the city, tho. I don't know what that comes to in square miles.  They lost 40% of the housing.  But nowhere near 100, 000 people.  Tokyo was a much more populous city.  The London blitz apparently aroused the stubborn defiance of it's citizens.  I don't know how the citizens of Tokyo felt about it.  Maybe we'll find out.

  I'm a Len Deighton fan, too, FRYBABE.  Have you tried Alistair McLean?  His 'Ice Station Zebra' was so well
written I was feeling the cold.