Invent Radium or I'll Pull Your Hair : A Memoir

Rating:
Summary: A rare and welcome memoir
Review: Doris Drucker's memoir chronicles a life whose early years were framed by war but whose concerns were those of most young German women her age--school, dating, and, in her case, establishing her independence from a contolling family and social structure. Beautifully written, economical but also eloquent in expression, the book moves at a brisk pace, rewarding the reader with deft and witty observations and reminding us that even during the most tumultuous periods of history, daily life somehow goes on. Drucker is an extraordinary woman who, one guesses, would scoff at such a thought. Her story is told with care but wholly without the sentimentality and pretentious self-indulgence that so often plague the genre. Her mother (one of whose early admonitions became the book's title) is a character of epic proportions, and this relationship provides some of the book's most heatbreaking, and also most hilarious, moments. Drucker's is that rare memoir that sheds light on a society and historical period while never losing its highly personal, indeed idiosyncratic, individuality. This is a fascinating and wonderfully rewarding book.

Rating:
Summary: wunderbar
Review: Not only is the account of the author's peripatetic life absolutely engrossing, her use of language delights throughout. The story is told with the feistiness and sly humor of a survivor-- I cheered for her all the way. Despite her deceptively simple style, the author has the guts to use vocabulary mere mortals only read about ( morganatic wives anyone?) A real treat for biography lovers!

Anni Puckett, PhD