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Snow White's stepmother looks like a pussycat compared to the monster under which Adeline Yen Mah suffered. The author's memoir of life in mainland China and--after the 1949 revolution--Hong Kong is a gruesome chronicle of nonstop emotional abuse from her wealthy father and his beautiful, cruel second wife. Chinese proverbs scattered throughout the text pithily covey the traditional world view that prompted Adeline's subservience. Had she not escaped to America, where she experienced a fulfilling medical career and a happy marriage, her story would be unbearable; instead, it's grimly fascinating: Falling Leaves is an Asian Mommie Dearest.
Book Description
Born in 1937 in a port city a thousand miles north of Shanghai, Adeline Yen Mah was the youngest child of an affluent Chinese family who enjoyed rare privileges during a time of political and cultural upheaval. But wealth and position could not shield Adeline from a childhood of appalling emotional abuse at the hands of a cruel and manipulative Eurasian stepmother. Determined to survive through her enduring faith in family unity, Adeline struggled for independence as she moved from Hong Kong to England and eventually to the United States to become a physician and writer.
A compelling, painful, and ultimately triumphant story of a girl's journey into adulthood, Adeline's story is a testament to the most basic of human needs: acceptance, love, and understanding. With a powerful voice that speaks of the harsh realities of growing up female in a family and society that kept girls in emotional chains,
Falling Leaves is a work of heartfelt intimacy and a rare authentic portrait of twentieth-century China.
Customer Reviews:
The Plight Of An Unloved Child.......2007-10-11
Although this book was difficult at times to read, the author did keep me fascinated with her story. She has an ease of writing that very much feels as if she is having a conversation with the reader, and the book just flows.
The story is one that is ageless: a man marries a woman and they have several children (in this case 5). When the youngest is born, the woman dies from complications, and the man in his loneliness quickly finds another woman to marry. He concerns himself more with outward appearances than with character, and ends up with wife #2 who is controlling, domineering, and wishes she had been wife #1 instead of wife #2. She really doesn't care for the fact that her husband has 5 children from wife #1, but no matter. Since her husband is weak and does as she wishes, she can treat them as she likes. Which isn't pleasant.
Adeline is the youngest of the 5 siblings and therefore the recipient of not only her stepmother's wrath, but most often her 4 siblings as well. Unlike some children, Adeline never seems to truly stand up for herself, and that might be her personality or it might be cultural. Whatever it is, it defines her.
Some reviewers here think Adeline is "whiny", especially after she reaches adulthood. Perhaps. However, if anyone knows somebody who was treated as though they were unwanted and/or unloved as a child - and my mother was such a one - then they might very well see the same behavior Adeline portrays as an adult.
I thought this book was fascinating and a terrific tale of the healing power of the human spirit. At times I just wished I could have reached through the pages of this book and snatched Adeline away to a safe place where she could be nutured and feel safe.
Read it entirely in one night.......2007-09-05
I found this book while browsing the library and borrowed it. I thought it would be good reading material for my daily subway rides since the book wasn't too long at all.
I had a quiet evening, so I started reading. Page by page I turned and when I finished the book it was 1am in the morning. It was definitely a page turner. The reader is kept on their toes to find out what comes next.
I was truly touch by Adeline's story and there were a couple of tear-jerking scenes. This book reminds me a lot of the 1st Harry Potter book somehow. Both tell the story of a rejected child living with sinister relatives.
Adeline's story is different from many other books in that she was a rejected child from a rich family that could have given her everything. Many memoiors tell of a very poor childhood, so I really liked that this was different. She was pretty much poor in a rich family.
I was full of rage when I found out Lydia was backstabbing her & how her brothers are still jerks as adults. Inheritance issues always bring out the nastiest in people. Ultra-rich families do not usually fare well & are usually the subject of drama serial TV in Hong Kong.
Lydia can just shove it...she is just about as dragonlady as Niang for what she did.
Edgar...gosh I wonder if he made a good doctor at all.
James...he's such a timid turtle & it got annoying to see him still like that as a grown adult.
Susan...she married into an ultra-rich family and didn't even care for the inheritance. I was happy for her as she was able to let go of her family.
Adeline...I wish she would stop being the nice person all the time. It was so unfair to her to be taken advantage of even as an adult (Lydia two-timing her while Adeline was willing to help Lydia's song, putting up with 1st abusive husband, still scared of Niang as an adult).
I really wish she had the courage to cut her family off and carve her own happiness with her own family (husband and 2 sons and future grandchildren). I really hope that Adeline is able to/or has already done so. I hope she is having a much happier life right now :)
A PERFECT STUDY OF SCAPEGOATING! ADELINE, YOU GO, GIRL!!!!.......2007-08-10
i have to respectfully disagree with Jazmanian here. No, not 'any family therapist would tell you being cut off from your family of origin would not do any good to your own family.' Even apes have families, and 'family of origin' is not always a safe place.
This book was ALL about moving on and finding blessings in the hand one is dealt. The author had one family member who truly loved her unconditionally and without deviation. Her discovery that her father truly did love her, in spite of his cowardice and weakness of character, gave her some satisfaction; but to realize that throughout her years of emotional torture, there was always one member of her immediate family who had never hurt her and loved her unconditionally, incontrovertibly - namely,her Aunt Baba - was enough for her to move on in her life, taking comfort in the love and support of her husband and child.
The abuse this woman endured was mind-boggling. The incidents with her pet duckling, the orange juice, and being sent to a boarding school that ALSO served as an orphanage was deplorable. But the most painful part of the book to me was when she and her husband accidently walked into that hotel room to find all her siblings having a celebration party to which she was not made aware. That broke my heart, because it hit so close to home; I experienced a similar incident with my own family.
This book was a great comfort to me because I learned that I'm not the only child this has happened to; my similarly dysfunctional family did the same sort of things to me (add in sexual abuse and daily beatings, and there you have it).
Sometimes one must accept that the family is sick and will never be healthy, and realize that one must remove one's self in order to, as you worded it, "do any good to your own family". Had she kept in contact with her sicklings, er, I mean, siblings, 'her own family' would surely have been exposed to their pathological toxicity. Her moving on was the best gift she had to give her family. Past behavior is a pretty good indication of future behavior; why would she want to expose her husband and children to these people?
As one who finally 'pulled the plug' from her bio toxic family, I applaud her for letting these people go.
Tragic beginning, whiny ending........2007-08-03
I enjoyed the beginning of this book. It presented a slice of history about which I was uninformed, wrapped in the personal true story of a little girl persecuted by her family. By the end of the book, though, I felt the author was more determined to make her case against her stepmother than to write a compelling story. The book did not hold my interest to the end, although I did finish it. I wanted to celebrate the triumph of the author over her painful start in life. Instead, I read an endless list of family misdeeds. Victimization of a helpless child is tragic. Wallowing in it as an adult is annoying.
Captivating memoir.......2007-07-10
This book had me very engrossed and actually crying. It doesn't overtly try to teach a lesson or philosophize, but it still makes you think about how it is that people can be so heartless, because we all know, they can.
Book Description
Kien Nguyen grew up an outsider in his native land. His once prosperous family, thrust into poverty at the dawn of a new political regime, lived among neighbors who treated them as an unwelcome remnant of the colonialist past. Kien himself, a child of mixed race (his father was American), was among the most unwanted.Told with a stark, poetic brilliance, Kiens account of his early yearsfrom the fall of Saigon, when at age eight he watched the last U.S. Army helicopter leave without him and his family, to his eventual escapeis a work of profound emotional resonance, at once harrowing and inspiring. The Unwanted unforgettably records a universal human experience played out in extreme circumstances: the forging of an identity, a life.
Customer Reviews:
Hard to put down............2007-10-11
This story was fantastic...It was hard to stop reading. Both my husband and I read the book while on vacation and really enjoyed.
Kien Nguyen does a wonderful job telling his life. I would love a sequel...to know the how his life was after arriving in the U.S.
Gone With The Wind for the Vietnam Conflict.......2007-07-16
Book Review by John J. Fitzgerald
The Unwanted: A Memoir
Kien Nguyen
New York and Boston: Little Brown, 2001
This is a compelling read. It held my attention and I finished it in two readings. Perhaps, because I am a Vietnam veteran, the book's theme held my attention. What happens to the people that we leave behind after an American invasion is repulsed and eventually comes to an end? Many of those who worked with and for the Americans will be viewed as collaborators. French women who dated German soldiers in Paris during WW2 were regarded as trash. What happens to the children of these women and their "foreign affairs", after the invader departs or flees? There have been a lot of these American invasions over the last century or so, and the story told here probably echoes in other lands. In a few years, we will probably get a similar tale based on Iraq.
Kien Nguyen seems to have written an honest tale. Parts of it do not ring true. Not all of the Communist officials are corrupt. Some of the corrupt officials in his tale are actually placed on trial by other Communist officials. He seems to have a very puritanical view of sexual relations and some of his sex scenes are quite sadistic. He does not treat a loving, young, girl friend very well. In fact the "hero," our narrator, is quite self-centered and depicts himself as the innocent victim of all of the activity swirling around him. He seems to dislike, if not hate, his mentally challenged sister. There are some scenes of torture that strain credibility, unless you buy the notion that the Vietnamese people are generally cruel. He has a scene where his cousins kick a dog to death. This strikes me as strange when they could have killed and cooked the animal. Captured "boat people" are first rescued and then "tortured" for no clear reason.
Escape from Hell, Vietnam, is the main goal of the story. The United States is described as the Heavenly City where all truth, goodness and beauty are thought to reside. It is also "air conditioned." The story is heavily shaped by ideology. Americans are good and Vietnamese are not good, for the most part.
The theme of the "Wizard of Oz" is part of this story. If Dorothy can just get to the Emerald City everything will be all right. Kien is our Vietnamese Dorothy.
He can't be happy, or even half happy, living in Vietnam. His real home is America! Dorothy would have settled for Kansas!
I read this book as the product of a South Vietnamese, Republic of Vietnam, "take" on the events of the Vietnam War. The narrator's family members were collaborationists and were quite well off and during their reign of power they treated their countrymen as simply their servants and their inferiors. The one strong character in the tale is the grand-father, and in the best Confucian tradition he is always wise and judicious. He was an officer in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) and it was one of the most corrupt armies the world has ever seen. But he was a hero. (The narrator does not dwell on that fact of life.)
At times, I found myself thinking of Scarlet O'Hara in "Gone With The Wind." Fighting to maintain her ante-bellum lifestyle in a post Civil War Georgia, Scarlet feels no responsibility for slavery. She struggles to hold on to a world that no longer exists. Kien's mother is a lot like Scarlet and so is Kien. Narcissistic and egotistical, they have no sense of obligation to society and act surprised that the society that they reject, rejects them.
Aristocrats after the French Revolution of 1789 acted the same way. They hated the new regime and dreamed of the golden days of the "Ancien Regime."
At times the book seems a bit surreal. But then, the world of Kien is not quite real. He is a half-breed, part Caucasian-American and part Vietnamese. His identity is not anchored in either culture. Some of his narration reveals this when he prays to Buddha and then to God. His words contain some American slang and you have to wonder where he learned it. Was it from his mother?
The book seems to contain a measure of truth. The treatment of the children born of American fathers and Vietnamese women was not kind or humane. Children of colored Americans and Vietnamese women are treated the worst of all. Women get the worse treatment of all. Vietnam is a very sexist society.
The fact that the Vietnamese government allows Kien and his family to leave is not explained. It happens "out of the blue." (There is not much history in this memoir. During the period of the memoir, the big issue in the USA was where are our MIA's and our POW's? Sylvester Stallone was making his fantasy films about the war. The U.S. kept an embargo in place against Vietnam until the 1990's. The Vietnamese never received any of the promised compensation that Nixon/Kissinger promised in their peace treaty of 1973.) Nor is there any serious mention of the damage done to the country and the people of Vietnam by the American war effort. After the American Revolution, those who sided with the British, the "Tories" were regarded as traitors and many of them fled from the states back to England. They were not wanted by their neighbors. These were some of the original "boat people" of American history.
This book might do some harm. It contributes to the notion that the Americans (who invaded Vietnam) were the ones who suffered the most from the Vietnam War. It seems to support the Ronald Reagan claim that the war was a "Noble Cause." In American history, if you believe that the Confederate South's fight against the Union Army was a "Noble Cause," you will probably never get to a clear understanding of the American Civil War. There are some people who do not want us to come to a clear understanding of either the American Civil War or the War in Vietnam. They prefer that we endorse myth over history.
This memoir/book reads too much like a novel to be a significant contribution to history. I predict that it will soon be a Hollywood movie. Right up there with, "Gone With The Wind." It will make the same kind of lasting "contribution" to our understanding of the American past.
-----
See below for an idea of what Ronald Reagan considered the history of the Vietnam War to be.
Source: http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1982/21882b.htm
Public Papers of Ronald Reagan
February 1982
The President's News Conference
February 18, 1982
- - - - - -opening statement- - - - - -
And now, Jim [Jim Gerstenzang, Associated Press], I can't think of anything else to say, so you can ask the first question.
El Salvador
Q. Thank you.
Mr. President, the Secretary of State has said that the United States will do whatever is necessary to head off a guerrilla victory in El Salvador and that the mood of the American people should not necessarily determine our course there. Do you agree with those statements, and under what conditions would you send combat troops to El Salvador?
The President. Well, once again, Jim, we get into an area -- there are all kinds of options -- economic, political, security, and so forth -- that can be used in situations of this kind. And as I've said so often, I just don't believe that you discuss those options or what you may or may not do in advance of doing any of those things -- except that I will say, lest there be some misunderstanding, there are no plans to send American combat troops into action anyplace in the world.
Q. If I could follow that up. Can you just envision any circumstances under which we would be sending U.S. combat troops to El Salvador?
The President. Well, maybe if they dropped a bomb on the White House, I might get mad.
- - - - - - other questions - - - - -
Lou [Lou Cannon, Washington Post]?
Nicaragua
Q. Mr. President, have you approved of covert activity to destabilize the present Government of Nicaragua?
The President. Well, no, we're supporting them. Oh, wait a minute, wait a minute. I'm sorry. I was thinking El Salvador, because of the previous -- when you said that. Nicaragua. Here again, this is something upon which the national security interest -- I will not comment.
But let me say something about all of Central America right now, and questions on that subject. Next week I will be addressing the Organization of American States on that entire subject, and therefore, I'll save any answers to any questions on that subject.
Q. If I could follow up, do you approve or reject -- or do you care to state what your policy is as far as having American covert operations to destabilize any existing government without specific reference to Nicaragua?
The President. No, again I'm going to say this is like discussing the options. No comment on this.
Yes, George [George Skelton, Los Angeles Times].
El Salvador
Q. Mr. President, although you have no plans to send combat troops to El Salvador, plans can be developed quickly. I'd like to hear some expression of your commitment, if there is one, not to use American combat forces in El Salvador. And, again, just how far will your administration go to keep the Duarte government from falling?
The President. Well, George, your question again gets to that thing that I have always said I think has been wrong in the past, when our government has done it -- and I will not do it -- and that is to put down specific do's and don't's [sic] with regard to some situation that deals with not only security matters but even such things as trying to influence a situation such as the one in Poland. I think that to do so is just giving away things that reduce your leverage.
- - - - - - - - other questions - - - - - -
Now, Lesley [Lesley Stahl, CBS News], you were -- --
U.S. Foreign Covert Operations
Q. Thank you, Mr. President. I'm sorry, but I'd like to go back to Latin America and El Salvador for a minute.
In the 1960's the CIA came up with a secret plan to get us involved in Vietnam in a surreptitious, covert manner. Is it possible that you can tell us that there is no secret plan now devised by the CIA or any other agency in government to surreptitiously involve Americans in similar activities in Latin America? And can you also assure the American people that we will not go in there secretly without you and this Government giving us some pre-warning?
The President. Well, Lesley, you know there's a law by which things of this kind have to be cleared with congressional committees before anything is done.
But again, if I may point to something -- I'm not in total agreement with the premise about Vietnam. If I recall correctly, when France gave up Indochina as a colony, the leading nations of the world met in Geneva with regard to helping those colonies become independent nations. And since North and South Vietnam had been, previous to colonization, two separate countries, provisions were made that these two countries could, by a vote of all their people together, decide whether they wanted to be one country or not.
And there wasn't anything surreptitious about it, that when Ho Chi Minh refused to participate in such an election -- and there was provision that people of both countries could cross the border and live in the other country if they wanted to. And when they began leaving by the thousands and thousands from North Vietnam to live in South Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh closed the border and again violated that part of the agreement.
And openly, our country sent military advisers there to help a country which had been a colony have such things as a national security force, an army, you might say, or a military to defend itself. And they were doing this, if I recall correctly, also in civilian clothes, no weapons, until they began being blown up where they lived and walking down the street by people riding by on bicycles and throwing pipe-bombs at them. And then they were permitted to carry sidearms or wear uniforms.
But it was totally a program until John F. Kennedy -- when these attacks and forays became so great that John F. Kennedy authorized the sending in of a division of Marines. And that was the first move toward combat troops in Vietnam.
So, I don't think there's any parallel there between covert activities or anything -- --
Q. Will you tell me that there will not be secret plan that you will not tell the American people about?
The President. I can't answer your question for the same reason that I couldn't answer George's. I just can't answer on that.
There's a lady in the very back row.
- - - - - - - other questions - - - - -
And so it goes!
Excellent! Very Well Written.......2007-06-25
I could not put this book down. It was that good! Every chapter was so vivid and intense.
evocative.......2007-06-09
This book is a distressing and fascinating story and also one of courage. In clear language devoid of bitterness the author tells of the years following the Vietnam War. Both insightful and inspiring.
A wanted reading.......2007-04-04
It's amazing that one person can go through such repeated tragedies in one lifetime. I hope Kien writes a follow up book to document his new life in the United States.
Book Description
According to KGB archives, Pavel Sudoplatov directed the secretive Administration for Special Tasks. This department was responsible for kidnapping, assassination, sabotage, and guerrilla warfare during World War II, it also set up illegal networks in the United States and Western Europe, and, most crucially, carried out atomic espionage in the United States, Great Britain, and Canada. Sudoplatov served the KGB for over fifty years, at one point controlling more than twenty thousand guerrillas, moles, and spies. But his involvement with the most nefarious Soviet activities-- and the rulers who ordered them-- made Sudoplatov an unwanted witness, and he was arrested in 1953 after Beria's fall. Despite torture and solitary confinement he refused to "confess", disavowing any criminal actions. He spent fifteen years in prison, then struggled two decades more for rehabilitation. "Special Tasks" is an astonishing memoir and a singular historical document of a man who knew and did too much for the Soviet empire.
Customer Reviews:
An important book about Soviet Intelligance.......2007-08-19
The KGB in all of it's various forms whether Chekist or OGPU has always been considered an efficent as well as ruthless organization. Sudoplatov's "Special Tasks" is an important volume about the history of that organization. He describes how his section was in charge of assassinating the enemies of the Soviet State abroad and how he co-ordinated the murders of several such people namely Leon Trotsky. He also writes of penetrating the western democracies by sending 'illegal' agents abroad, penetrating America's Manhatten project, enduring Stalinism, and finally imprisonment. I thought it was an important book, required reading for those interested with the KGB. However, the books biggest problem is that the author was too much of a sycophant of Joseph Stalin.
Doubtful veracity.......2006-05-18
Extremely questionable story of a top Soviet spy. I suspect this author is telling stories that he thinks people would want to hear, rather than actual facts. Much of this book strikes me as just plain silly, and highly distorted if true.
Zero stars in my opinion.
A Head Spook tells All.......2005-07-13
The Russian version of the popular movie "Hopscotch"
in which we learn how the spies were run that stole
the Atomic bomb.
Here we have the story of a "Monster" , a super spy and killer,
the kind of man the bad guys are modeled after.
He probably should have been executed
because he did these acts willingly and with no conscience at all.
It appears that the men and women in this book make
the worst of American leadership (like Herbert Hoover) in this era look good.
As reward for being one of the most trusted, respected and successful spooks in world history
who only just managed to survive, but for his service was given 15 served years in prison
and the title of criminal.
For me this book makes me ask if there were parallels in American
CIA and FBI history of the same era to the Soviet purges of their best Intelligence people.
Pavel Sudoplatov's license to kill almost got him killed by his own people.
A lot of people distrust what he says about American scientists,
but I tend to think that he may be telling the truth for once in his life,
but we are left with the Eublides liars paradox:
"The statement I am making is false."
View From the Kremlin.......2004-12-14
More than any other work I've seen, Special Tasks illuminates the Soviet experience. Its author lived it from beginning to end, joining the Red Army in 1919 at the age of 12 and offering his opinion 7 decades later on what Gorbachev did wrong in his attempts to keep the Soviet Union together.
During those 70 years Sudoplatov is at or close to the very center of all the Soviet leadership was known for. He lived through the purges of the Thirties, directed the assassins of Trotsky, played a major role in the defeat of the Nazis, coordinated the theft of atomic secrets from the US, was arrested and imprisoned and tortured, then spent another 20 years in a sort of twilight struggle for rehabilitation, which was finally granted him just days after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The breadth of this memoir is truly astounding. And while at times it becomes difficult to read due to his tendency to digress into details about persons most readers would not know the significance of, the details about well-known persons and events keep one reading past the digressions: Oppenheimer and Fermi feeding atomic secrets to the Russians in the altruistic belief that a balance of power was preferable to an American monopoly (one thinks of the recent Pakistani scientist who spread nuclear knowledge around for the same reason); Ramon Mercador killing Trotsky with an ice ax while his mother waited in a car outside; then giving all the details of the assassination to Sudoplatov in person in 1969--thirty years later--when they'd both done many, many hard years in prison: the control of emigre scientists in America such as George Gamow through threats to their families in Russia...
Sudoplatov makes no apologies nor seems to have any regrets about what he and Stalin and the others did. He states plainly in the Prologue: "We did not believe there was any moral question involved in killing Trotsky or any other of our former comrades who had turned against us. We believed we were in a life and death struggle for the salvation of our grand experiment..."
So we are left to wonder whether Sudoplatov, who seems to be a basically decent person playing rough in the service of his country really believes that 10-15 million of his former comrades had really turned against communism and deserved to die for the "salvation" of the "grand experiment". Are we to believe that he believes all of Stalin's purges were justified and Kruschev's were not?
Like Albert Speer, Sudoplatov is more than a little reticent about the mass murders he was a witness to. A Ukranian by birth, he says nothing about the millions of Ukranians who died during Stalin's collectivization and subjugation of that country, though he worked in Ukraine for the Party through the Twenties, when those horrors took place. There is not the slightest mention of the famines or the shipping off of entire Ukranian villages to death camps.
In a way, one can't blame him. There is a limit to the amount of such things a person can deal with. He was very young and no doubt counted himself lucky to have escaped it. Still, one would like to know what he thinks about it now.
Crucial Work Dealing With Soviet State Security Operations.......2003-09-25
Sudoplatov ran the NKVD's Administration for Special Tasks, which carried out some of the Soviet Union's darkest operations --- assassination, kidnapping, murder, and frequently, terrorism (the author's own words, no less). Sudoplatov also directed undercover and partisan operations behind German lines during WWII. Later he supervised all atomic espionage operations against the US and Britain after the war.
Still a Stalinist at heart, Sudoplatov offers few regrets for a career filled with death up close and personal. One of his first solo operations entailed infiltrating a Ukrainian nationalist group. After befriending one it's leaders for the better part of a year, he dispatched him in Rotterdam with a box of chocolates loaded with explosives. Later, he went on to supervise large roving killer squads himself, such as the team that assassinated Trotsky outside Mexico City in 1940.
The book is filled with surreal scenes, such as in the "Komandatura" in the Lyubianka, where prisoners were executed. One section was outfitted more as a hotel than a prison. But as prisoners were given a "routine" medical examination, they were administered a lethal injection, then quickly cremated. Sudoplatov, himself arrested on bogus charges after Beria'a arrest, describes receiving not one, but two spinal taps while pretending to be catatonic (so as to avoid interrogation). His simple, direct language in describing these kinds of sequences is chilling.
More than a few of the author's historical claims are either suspect or simply false based on information long available elswhere. For instance, his assertion that Stalin was not involved in the murder of Leningrad Party leader Sergei Kirov can't be taken seriously. He also offers suspect versions concerning the demise of various defectors and other Soviet "enemies" such as Agabekov and Krivitsky. In other cases he seems to want to have it both ways. He admits Alger Hiss was a paid Soviet agent -- but before WWII, not when he was actually accused.
Regardless, these sorts of flaws can be overlooked. This work is critical for an understanding of the mentality behind of some of the Soviet Union's most notorious policies, actions, and crimes.
Book Description
Unwanted! is the biography of Esther Mary Lyons. She lived through a time when many changes were taking place in the world. Many discoveries were being made which helped shape the present into a better world. Besides describing the culture and a time which can never come back, she describes her own pain and frustrations as she grew up as an illegitimate daughter of an American Jesuit priest, deserted and abandoned in India at the age of four. Her story takes readers to the past—through the history of India, the United States, and Australia—and then brings them back to the present when all things have changed. It also covers Irish migration to the United States in 1850s during the Potato Famine, French migration in the 1700s to Canada, and the establishment of Detroit City. In addition, Lyons describes incidents surrounding the creation of the atom bomb in the 1940s. The book also describes the involvement of Catholic priests in politics during World War II. It is a story of culture, history, and emotions.
Customer Reviews:
A true story, from the perspective of a woman who struggled against poverty, discrimination, and being an outcast in two worlds.......2005-11-11
Unwanted! is the memoir of an Anglo-Indian daughter of a Roman Catholic priest. The transgressions of her birth and the birth of her sister during the mid-twentieth century, of having a father who was supposed to be celibate, was severe in the eyes of society at the time; and so she suffered discrimination from the Hindus of India, who did not share her Christian religion and accused her of having loose morality because of her father, and the Church itself, which refused to allow her to become a nun or help her struggle to survive in poverty. She and her sister were declared orphans at a young age even though their parents were alive; a childhood robbed of innocence and burdened with undeserved guilt prompted her into an ill-fated marriage to a chronic liar with a verbally abusive personality. Yet despite her hardships, she found the resilience to pursue a teaching career, raise children (one born intellectually and physically handicapped due to her husband's genetic background), and eventually forge a new life for herself in the unfamiliar land of Australia. At last she experienced the miracle of contact with relatives from her father's side - though he was a distant figure and a poor father to her, who kept her existence secret for many years, the truth came out after his death and she experienced what she had always dreamed of: being part of a large, respectable and loving family. Unwanted! is a compelling true story, from the perspective of a woman who struggled against poverty, discrimination, and being an outcast in two worlds, yet whose achievements and hard-learned lessons speak for themselves. Highly recommended.
Average customer rating:
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Nobody's Child: The Stirring True Story of an Unwanted boy Who Found Hope
John Robinson
Manufacturer: Kregel Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0825460557 |
Book Description
The miraculous story of a boy abandoned at the age of four who was eventually reclaimed by God's grace and now runs a program to help kids left alone as he was.
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Exodus Unwanted
Robert B. Kugel
Manufacturer: Heritage Books
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ASIN: 0788440764 |
Product Description
This novel provides insight into the motives of an aristocratic family from northern Germany who immigrated, albeit reluctantly, to America in the period before the Civil War. For Rudolphs family, Napoleons final defeat at Waterloo was cause for celebration. Rudolphs brothers were allowed to return from their refuge in England once the war was over. Rudolph and his brother, Heinrich, traveled to Heidelberg where Heinrich studied & tutored Rudolph. Captivated by the University, Rudolph later returned to study forestry. Rudolphs interest in the preservation of the forest was handed down from his father who had been Chief of Forestry in the court of Prince Franz. It was a proud day for the whole family when the prince appointed Rudolph to his fathers old position. At his investiture as a nobleman, Rudolph met Melanie, a daughter of a noble family. Their romance led to a happy marriage and two children. Rudolph adored his wife and was devastated when she died during childbirth. His mother consoled him, helped him with the children, introduced him to another young woman. Rudolph needed a loving woman by his side and a mother for his children. Leonora soon became his wife. Difficult times were fast on the heels of Rudolphs newfound happiness. Needing funds, Prince Franz announced plans to sell off forest land. Rudolph opposed the destruction of the forest. Despite advice to submit to the princes will, he resisted. Prince Franz dismissed him from court, ordering him to leave the country. Rudolph left his beloved homeland with reluctance. The family moved to a farm in Wisconsin. Rudolph, unable to accept this new country & their change in lifestyle, sank into alcoholism. Leonora & the children adapted easily to farm life, his family flourished in the period following the Civil War.
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Falling Leaves: The Memoir of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter
Adeline Yen Mah
Manufacturer: Broadway Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Chinese
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General
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Memoirs
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ASIN: 0767904184 |
Product Description
Born in 1937 in a port city north of Shanghai, Adeline Yen Mah was the youngest child of an affluent Chinese family who enjoyed rare privileges during a time of political and cultural upheaval. But wealth and position could not shield Adeline from a childhood of appalling emotional abuse at the hands of her Eurasian stepmother. Determined to survive, Adeline struggled for independence as she moved from Hong Kong to England and eventually to the United States to become a physician and writer. A compelling, painful, and ultimately triumphant story of a girl's journey into adulthood, Adeline's story is a testament to the most basic of human needs: acceptance, love, and understanding.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Canadian Journal of History, published by University of Saskatchewan on August 1, 1995. The length of the article is 3621 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Special Tasks: The Memoirs of an Unwanted Witness - A Soviet Spymaster. (book reviews)
Author: T.R. Ravindranathan
Publication:
Canadian Journal of History (Refereed)
Date: August 1, 1995
Publisher: University of Saskatchewan
Volume: v30
Issue: n2
Page: p349(8)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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- Getting Mother's Body: A Novel
- Ghettonation: A Journey Into the Land of Bling and Home of the Shameless
- GOAT: A Tribute to Muhammad Ali
- God's Long Summer
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