Review: A wonderful story in need of work
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 01 18, 2014
A very interesting read. The author spills his guts recounting his dysfunctional childhood. His mother, a byproduct of Nazi Germany and his father, a Jewish cab driver in New York. You read that right; A Nazi marries a Jew. Doesn’t sound like a marriage made in heaven does it? It isn’t.Trying to understand the psyche of the mom could probably fill fifty psychological books. Despite her loving her Germany: 1933- 1945, she never finds the peace or the past she loved. Today’s Germany is overrun with Russians and Americans. No mention of the French, Canadians or British. And she hates the first two. They were responsible for destroying her country. No mention of Hitler plunging them into this horrific war. When her husband mentions Dachua, Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen or any of the other Concentration Camps, she flies off the handle. She makes mention of living four kilometers from one of the camps saying, “no one knew what was going on.” This reminds me of the SS Captain’s wife  in “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.” She has no clue what her husband does until their son wanders into the camp to help an inmate find his father. I’ll give her that. Himmler made sure the camps were well protected and garrisoned to keep the local populace in the dark. But after the war, the evidence was overwhelming, yet denial still persisted.Did she really want Hitler to win the war? Absolutely! She hated what the Russians had done to the “Fatherland.” Yet, she makes no mention of the 20million Russians who died for their country.The pro of the story is the raw energy and emotion Mr. Wynzel fills the pages with. Many readers have commented on how his father should have strangled his mother or packed his bags and left. Maybe he should have, but I don’t think he would have done well in jail. We are led to believe his father was a “No good, lazy son-of-a-bitch.” It’s hard to tell. He drove a cab for thirty years, so he had some work ethic. He was a man of modest means and married a woman who was convinced she was entitled to the best America had to offer. If that’s the case, then the blame falls of her for her own choices. He became the kicking post for her failures and choices in life.Cons1) The punctuation, grammar and structure follow his childhood—a train wreck. For the most part, it’s non-existent.2) Despite his family being so poor they barely had enough money for rent and heating oil, I found it interesting how the toys he was given were the most expensive of the day. I know, because we are roughly the same age. I can remember saving my pennies and quarters for “Hot Wheel” cars and WWII models. No, they weren’t cheap. And what of the number of trips to Germany? Airplane trips to Europe were definitely not on the cheap side.3) The book really dragged after the halfway mark. It was the same situations rehashed over and over again. It became mind numbing and repetitive.4) I can’t believe how short the part concerning the Olympic Games in 1976 was. Arabs break into the Olympic Village, capturing the Jewish athletes. I remember this very well. Did the family turn off the TV or did they avoid the coverage all together?5) Did the author receive a scholarship to attend college? It would appear so since the family had no money to send him, or did he work his way through?Yes, there are a lot of answered questions.Who will enjoy this? That’s tough. Not sure if the general reading public will dive into this one, but if a family has relatives who were in Germany during the war years and shared their experiences and stories, I can see where it will strike many chords.Three stars.