Reviews & Comments

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" rowspan="2" width=210 BGCOLOR="#99CC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="0518dfc3.jpg"> <div> <B><IMG SRC="073b4fa0.jpg" border=0 width="180" height="250" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> </td> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=82 style=" border-bottom: 1px solid #999980;" BGCOLOR="#CCCC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="0528dfe1esnpes.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>Brenda Barrie, the Official Website</B></FONT><B>     </B><B>|</B><B>     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Brenda Barrie, the Official Website"><B>home</B></A></div> <div> <A HREF="my_writing.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="My Writing">My Writing</A>   |   <A HREF="the_binding.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Binding">The Binding</A>   |   <A HREF="full_speed__full_stop_.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Full Speed. 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I couldn't put it down!" </A></div> <div> <A HREF="#i_hope_that_you_have_a_classic_on_your" TITLE="Reviews Comments">"I hope that you have a classic on your hands"</A></div> <div> <A HREF="#former_winnipegger_s_first_novel_an_exciting_read" TITLE="Reviews Comments">Former Winnipegger’s first novel an</A><A HREF="#former_winnipegger_s_first_novel_an_exciting_read" TITLE="Reviews Comments"> exciting read</A></div> <div> <A HREF="#arresting_tale_of_holocause_impact" TITLE="Reviews Comments">Arresting tale of Holocause impact</A></div> <div> <B> <A NAME="a_real_page_turner_may_17_2005"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B></div> <div> <B>"A real page turner," May 17, 2005</B></div> <div> <I>Reviewer:     R B Saffren  (Baltimore, MD) </I></div> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >I really was able to connect with the lives of the three couples. The action starts on the first page and pulls you into the story. The theme of how past events even before the birth of the main characters comes to influence even dominate their lives is very powerful. </FONT>(From 5-star review on amazon.com)  <A HREF="#top" TITLE="Reviews Comments"> Go to top</A></div> <div> <B> <A NAME="secretkeepers_in_the_binding_june"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B></div> <div> <B>"Secretkeepers in </B><I><B>The Binding,</B></I><B>" June 28, 2005</B></div> <div> <I>Reviewer:     Charles Rammelkamp  (Baltimore, MD) </I></div> <div> Brenda Barrie's first novel, <I>The Binding,</I> is a fictional exploration of the ongoing effects of a cataclysmic tragedy in the lives of three families as by chance the sons of three Holocaust survivors meet in South Dakota as the result of a rock-climbing accident one of the characters experiences. Dave Razkowski has gone on his annual solo climbing excursion that he undertakes every year in an attempt to match his survivor father's heroism in enduring life in the Nazi death machine, when he slips and falls hundreds of feet. He is spotted from the air by Wolff Blumen, another son of Holocaust survivors, who is flying a small airplane and notices Dave's broken body lying on the ground. Dave is rescued and taken to the Sioux Falls hospital where Wolff, an aspiring Orthodox rabbi, is the Chaplain. Another child of Holocaust survivors, Al Logan, a television newsman for the local station, gets involved as he sees a potential story that can make his professional career.</div> <div> Thus, the secrets each man harbors, a secrecy rooted in an instinct to survive, begin to unravel. As the story develops, the strategies by which each man - especially Dave - attempt to shield their identities and thereby increase their chances of survival are revealed and explored. While he seems more or less to have come to terms with his own past, Woolf Blumen, the Orthodox Jew, nevertheless fantasizes rescuing Jews by bombing concentration camp rail-lines, and as a child his parents, the survivors, tried to protect him by making him a child actor, somebody with a name not unrecognizably Jewish who is always on the move. In the course of pursuing his story on the rescue of Dave Razkowski, Al Logan (born Alton Lowenthal), driven by professional ambitions on the one hand and his own past on the other, comes to the conclusion that Dave is a Neo-Nazi and tries to root him out, only to discover Dave's real secret. In doing so, Al realizes certain awful truths about his parents and how they were able to escape death in Hungary.</div> <div> The Binding is full of psychological insights, not the least compelling of which is the way victim and perpetrator can become confused. Al Logan is not the only one who sees Dave as a potential Neo-Nazi; Robin McDonald, Dave's common-law wife, a gentile, uncovers her husband's secret Holocaust archives and is prepared to think the worst of him until her neighbor, Tovah Feldner, also a rabbi (and protagonist of the author's next novel, The Rabbi's Husband), convinces her otherwise.</div> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >This is a novel driven by both plot and character. Any intelligent reader will be charmed after the first two chapters and compelled to read to the end. Readers with a particular interest in the Holocaust will not want to miss this one.  </FONT>(From 5-star review on amazon.com)  <A HREF="#top" TITLE="Reviews Comments"> Go to top</A></div> <div> <B> <A NAME="children_______will_feel_the_awful"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B></div> <div> <B>"Children . . . will feel the awful effects of that time for many years to come," Sept. 10, 2005</B></div> <div> <I>Reviewer:     Linda Wiech  (Baltimore, MD) </I></div> <div> I finished your book last night and I must tell you, I thoroughly enjoyed it.  The story you tell is very moving, to say the least and certainly thought-provoking.  I was reminded as I read it, how, many years ago in Germany, the wife of one of [my husband's] business partners, took me to visit an Episcopal cathedral in Ulm, Germany.  </div> <div> Astrid was about 10 years younger than me and she asked me, out of the blue, if I blamed her, as a German, for what happened during the War.  I was quite taken aback and said that I did find it very unsettling and very sad to even travel in a country that could have allowed over 6 million people to be exterminated because of a madman.  </div> <div> I said "No, I don't blame you, but I do wonder what it was about the German personality, mentality, whatever, that allowed this to happen." I am always horrified by man's inhumanity to man.  The animals on our planet treat each other with more respect.  </div> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >Your book brought to my attention the fact that generations of children on both sides will feel the awful effects of that time for many years to come - maybe that is the only way to be certain it doesn't happen again.  Alas, I'm afraid it continues to happen in other parts of our world.  </FONT>(Excerpt from email to the author)  <A HREF="#top" TITLE="Reviews Comments"> Go to top</A></div> <bR> <div> <B> <A NAME="can_t_tell_you_how_much_i_enjoyed_the"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B></div> <div> <B>"Can't tell you how much I enjoyed the book," Sept. 11, 2005</B></div> <div> Reviewer: Sheri Kuperhand  (Corona del Mar, CA)</div> <div> Congrats on a topical, touching story that I could not put down! I . . . loved it on many levels. John (my husband) is a child of! This book is so good; well written, insightful, and a wonderful story. I really can't tell you how much I enjoyed the book, and really wondered how you knew so much about the behavior of the third generation of victims.</div> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >I would love to give it as a gift to four folk that have meant a lot to me and John over the years. Is it possible to have you send me four signed copies?  </FONT>(Excerpts from emails to Brenda Barrie; autographed copies are being delivered)  <A HREF="#top" TITLE="Reviews Comments"> Go to top</A></div> <div> <B> <A NAME="wow_i_couldn_t_put_it_down_sept_"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B></div> <div> <B>"Wow! I couldn't put it down!," Sept. 12, 2005</B></div> <div> Reviewer: Barbara Ford  (St. Paul, MN)</div> <div> I just finished reading <I>THE BINDING.</I> Wow! I couldn't put it down!  <FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >(Posted to online forum of Sam's Club, a St. Paul book club)  <A HREF="#top" TITLE="Reviews Comments"> Go to top</A></FONT></div> <div> <B> <A NAME="i_hope_that_you_have_a_classic_on_your"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B></div> <div> <B>"I hope that you have a classic on your hands," Sept. 15, 2005</B></div> <div> Reviewer: Newton Love  (Baltimore, MD)</div> <div> Your book will be more than a good read/distraction item.  It will be a part of their journey, after they read it.  The TRUTH of "being bound" to others, our paths inter-woven with others, especially our parents, is powerful.</div> <div> In Lakhota, our word for that kind of power is translated as either "medicine" or "magic."  The Lakhota word for children is the conjoined form of two words that separately mean "a gift" and "that which is made HOLY."</div> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >All novels are reading material, and hopefully entertainment.  A few are important, made so by what they do for the reader.  I sense that your book is one of those.  The "binding" theme is powerful stuff.  I hope that you have a classic on your hands.</FONT><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >  </FONT>(From letter to author from former president of Maryland Writers Association)  <A HREF="#top" TITLE="Reviews Comments"> Go to top</A></div> <div> <B> <A NAME="former_winnipegger_s_first_novel_an_exciting_read"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B></div> <div> <B>"Former Winnipegger’s first novel an exciting read," Oct. 19, 2005</B></div> <div> Reviewer: Matt Bellan (Winnipeg, Manitoba)</div> <div> Barrie proves skilful at graphically detailing people and places in <I>The Binding.</I> She shows an impressive knowledge of German, used briefly in the narrative, and the dialogue between characters is believable.</div> <div> Her depiction of the ultra-Orthodox Wolf Blumen and his wife and children, living a secluded life in Sioux Falls, is especially vivid. Barrie’s depiction of Razkowski and his non-Jewish, common-law wife, Robin are also effective -- especially when she discovers his Holocaust survivor past, by accident.</div> <div> Some aspects of the novel are a bit frustrating. Barrie fails to clearly explain exactly what Razkowski does for a living or what city he and Robin now live in until one of the last chapters in the book.</div> <div> And the structure Razkowski has secretly been building inside his Minneapolis house -- one of the most suspenseful parts of the book -- seems borrowed, although cleverly adapted, from a true Holocaust story everyone knows.</div> <div> Still, <I>The Binding </I>is a rewarding read. It’s noteworthy that Charles Adler, Winnipeg-based talk show host, commentator, and son of Holocaust survivors, has praised it.</div> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >“In The Binding, Brenda Barrie has nailed the psyche of Holocaust survivors,” he writes in one of the endorsements on the book’s first page. “I know, because I’m one of them.” </FONT>(From review in The Jewish Post & News)  <A HREF="file://c:\bbb\Publicity\jewish post review oct19-05.pdf" TARGET="_top" TITLE="file://c:\bbb\Publicity\jewish post revi">Download complete review</A>   <A HREF="#top" TITLE="Reviews Comments"> Go to top</A></div> <div> <B> <A NAME="arresting_tale_of_holocause_impact"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B></div> <div> <B>"</B><B>Arresting tale of Holocause impact," Nov. 20, 2005</B></div> <div> Reviewer: Harold Buchwald (Winnipeg, Manitoba)</div> <div> Brenda Barrie's first novel is an arresting story that holds the reader's attention by both subject matter and narrative. <I>The Binding </I>examines the powerful impact that the Holocaust has had and continues to have on the children of its survivors.</div> <div> The story benefits from its compactness. The characters are reasonably well-developed and well-defined.</div> <div> The reader is brought into the mindset of three distinct men, unknown to each other when the story starts, but each obsessed with a pathological compulsion to survive at all costs the fact that they are Jewish in a potentially larger hostile society, and not allow what happened to their families in the Nazi Holocaust ever to happen to them.</div> <div> Barrie crafts a fascinating interplay of the three by having them become involved with each other under almost implausible circumstances in a highly unlikely place. . . .</div> <div> Barrie shows a great deal of  respect for her readers, leaving it to their intelligence to fill in missing details and information. At the same time, she does include the reader in Jewish religious explanations, as well as transliterations of Yiddish and Hebrew idioms. . . .</div> <div> The book, published by a small New Mexico-based press, is replete with Jewish imagery. The title, chapter titles and page numbers are expressed in adaptations of Hebrew letters, and Stars of David are used to divide sections in chapters, all of which adds to its focus.</div> <div> <I>The Binding</I> is a worthwhile read for anyone wanting to understand the burdens borne by children of Holocaust survivors. <FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >(From review in The Winnipeg Free Press)   <A HREF="#top" TITLE="Reviews Comments">Go to top</A></FONT></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>Continue with </B><A HREF="for_book_clubs.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="For Book Clubs"><B>For Book Clubs</B></A></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>