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 Feb. 24-28
Coda ~ Tokyo, Odessa, London 2001-2009

De Waal calls the last section of the book, his "Coda."  What does this mean?
 What  do we learn in the Coda of his story?

35.  Jiro

 Why did Edmund return to Tokyo 15 years after his uncle's death? Was there a reason he brought the newspaper clipping of the sale of the diamond-studded Ephrussi-Rothschild Faberge egg to show Jiro?  To impress him?

36.  An Astrolabe, A Menzula, A Globe

  ~ The de Waal brothers returned to Odessa, to find the city where the Efrussi famly started. Do they find anything of the family here?

  ~ What causes Edmund to question what his book is really about - his family, himself, or the small Japanese things?

  ~ "I realize how wrong I've been." What effect did this "family archive" in the envelope found in Iggy's flat  and the yellow seder armchair chair in the synagogue have on Edmund?  How does he regard Odessa now, after this visit?
 
37. YELLOW/Gold/RED

~ What are some of the questions the visit brings up? Should the story begin in the shtetl in the Ukraine, not Odessa?
~ Edmund is ready to finish the story now?
~ Should the netsuke stay in Japan?  How does de Waal answer this question?  How do the netsuke tie in with the Ephrussi family's vagabonding?

Question from the Publisher

~Edmund originally thought that all the Ephrussi "vagabonding" stemmed from a desire to develop culturally and grow from the provincialism of Odessa. But he realized that Odessa itself was a very culturally rich city. Why do you think it was so important for the Ephrussis to send tendrils of their families to different cities?

Questions and Comments from you, our readers

Related Links:
link to Ephrussi family tree
Ephrussi family photos
Edmund de Waal at the Palais (YouTube)

DIscussion Leaders: JoanP & Marcie

[Olle]

Hello everybody! Long time, no see and I haven't got any excuses. Well one quite important.
I have fallen in love with this book, but it is too well and witty written, that is too hard for my school-English. So my reading speed(?) is so slow that I have decided to read it in my own pace, looking into your comments every other day and keep on broaden my knowledge. I have noticed that it is going better for every page I read, but it's a matter of fact that I'm still of the end of 1800.
When i read Charles writings about the impressionists, it actually takes me back to Paris hundred years later, when I was wandering in the museums with all the great masters. The Renoir's "Le Dejeuner des canotiers" and the "Luncheon of the Boating party".
So please forgive an uneducated old fool from Sweden. The correspondence with you lot, has given me much pleasure and I think, also a better understanding of English, American views of other cultures and countries.
Thank you all. And thanks for the silver lining you brought to my life. For that I am truly grateful.
The lazy Swede
Olle

[marcie]

Olle, I think that de Waal would approve of your reading the book at  your own pace, savoring the writing and bringing your own stories to life through information from the book.

I am torn, JoanP, about the netsuke leaving Japan. They did seem "at home" there. De Waal says that they are meant to tell and elicit stories. Moving from place to place makes that a richer experience and provides opportunities for more people to participate.

I think that de Waal discovered that the Ephrussi family, like many of the other Jewish families,  seemed to try to "fit in" wherever they went. It seems to me they didn't lose themselves but they immersed themselves in the local culture and made a home wherever they went.

[JoanP]

Olle, even though our days are numbered as an open discussion, you will still be able to follow the posts that you see here in the discussion when it's archived.  It's been a delight having you with us.  We hope to see you in future discussions.  Please stay in touch.

"....the Ephrussi family, like many of the other Jewish families,  seemed to try to "fit in" wherever they went. It seems to me they didn't lose themselves but they immersed themselves in the local culture and made a home wherever they went."  That sounds like the Netsuke "family," doesn't it, Marcie?

I'd like to do a follow-up of the Ephrussi family - the de Waals, if that's possible.  To learn what sort of feed-back the author has been getting for this book.

[JudeS]

Joan P asked "Should the Netsuke collection have remained in Japan?"

In my opinion, the answer is a definitive no.
The reason is that if they had remained in Japan, they would have been "just another Netsuke collection". Whereas in changing venues we have "THE NETSUKE collection". A thing of wonder and beauty that draws in all who see it. Thus in a foreign land the figurines get much interest and attention as well as bringing the beauty and workmanship of Japan to foreigners. 
This collection and it's history has given us a never to be forgotten book and story.
A new world has been revealed to us all.
Thank you little figurines. Thank you Edmund deWaal.
Thank you Joan P and Marcie.

[JoanK]

"Thank you little figurines. Thank you Edmund deWaal.
Thank you Joan P and Marcie. "

And all the rest of you who have made this such a great discussion.

[Frybabe]

This has been such a great discussion, I hate to see it end. Whether or not he meant to, de Waal has succeeded in bringing us into his family. As he was searching, so too were we. That may be a little overstated, but I think you all know what I mean.

[marcie]

Thank you all for your great interest and participation in talking about this book. I would have never found it without you. I've gotten so much more from it because of your questions and thoughts.

There is a very good article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/feb/12/edmund-waal-life-profile-interview.

It seems that he knows that all of our questions are not going to be answered in the book.

De Waal says: "One thing is exploring repetition. This isn't just to do with visual rhythm being revealed. It's also to do with repetition as longing, with not being able to find closure." And both his book and his installations are fascinated with what's hidden or discovered only gradually."

Also, it sounds like he is working on another book: "He says, carefully, that the follow-up to The Hare with Amber Eyes will also concern itself with "memory and place", and that it'll take five years."

[JoanP]

Thank you Marcie - and everyone who contributed.  You made the conversation hummm!  It was a pleasure to come in each morning to see what nuggets you picked up on.  I really don't think there was much that got by us, that went over our heads, do you?

That was a revealing article, Marcie. Thank you for bringing it to us. I especially liked idea of de Waal's finding things - and changing his mind... I felt that when reading the Coda at the end.

"It was hard work "to find a voice to inhabit the experience of finding things out and really changing your mind", but this contributes to the book's sense of intimacy – the reader is carried along by De Waal's responses to a series of revelations."

And I also liked reading that we will hear more from him in the future - thought he'd go back and lose himself in his little pots. Let's make a date to reconvene right here when that new book is published?

Thanks again - to all of you.  
ps Olle - will meet you in the Archives in the coming weeks...

[Frybabe]

I've gone on to read A Train in Winter by Caroline Moorehead. I thought I'd just quote a few lines in regard to France and the Jews prior to 1940. It lends a little more background.

...there were a little more than 300,000 Jews in France as of 1940, of which only half were France nationals, the rest having arrived as a result of waves persecution across Europe.
   At the time of the 1789 revolution, France had been the first country to emancipate and integrate its Jews as French citizens. All through the 1920s and 1930s the country had never distinguished between its citizens on the basis of race or religion.

As soon as the Germans arrived (within weeks according to Moorehead), that all changed.

I can see why France had become a popular place for emigres and why the Ephrussi family felt integrated into the society there. It also tells me that it was not uncommon to keep ones citizenship as a national of another country. Family members who grew up in France may have brought this feeling and expectations of being integrated into society to Vienna with them. Vienna may have been similar, but I detected an undercurrent of antisemitism in both countries regardless of the official government stance.

[marcie]

Thanks, Joan, for all of the work you did to facilitate this discussion. I look forward to de Waal's new book (in five years!)

Thanks for that interesting "coda" Frybabe.