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Lost in Shangri-La by Mitchell Zuckoff

Jun10

World War II, in addition to being The Good War fought by the Greatest Generation, continues to provide a wealth of lessons, images, illustrations, and just good stories for authors to mine and for readers to appreciate. Lost in Shangri-La, subtitled “A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II,” is one of those many stories that can inspire and educate us today, some sixty odd years later.

The episode took place in Dutch New Guinea (later called Irian Jaya and West Papua, a part of Indonesia) in the waning years of the war, 1945-1946. Twenty-four AMerican servicemen and WAC’s boraded a transport plane for a sight-seeing trip over the Baliem Valley, also called by the service personnel that discovered, Shangri-La Valley because it reminded them from the air of James Hilton’s novel, Lost Horizon. The plane crashed, and three of the twenty-four miraculously survived the crash. However, the three were trapped inside a valley that was inaccessible to airplanes, and between them and the coast where Allied base were, was miles and miles of jungle, home to possibly hostile tribesmen and also possibly filled with Japanese soldiers who had yet to surrender. And to compound the problem of getting back to their comrades, the three survivors were covered with serious burns from the crash that were in danger of turning gangrenous.

The mountains were too high for helicopters. The valley was too narrow for planes to land, and there was no suitable runway anyway. The jungle was too thick fro planes to even spot the survivors from the air. How were the three to be rescued? The story of how and who did it and what the crash survivors encountered in the valley of “Shangri-La” is quite fascinating.

I was reminded of the missionary story, Peace Child by Don Richardson. Mr. Richardson worked with the Sawi people of Papua somewhere in or near the Baliem Valley where the people in Lost in Shangri-La were marooned. He was also in contact with the Dani and Yali tribes, the same peoples with whom the survivors of the Shangri-la plane crash found refuge. After the war, many of these isolated Papuan tribespeople were introduced to Christianity and prepared by missionaries for their inevitable encounter with Western culture.

It was fascinating to get a glimpse of these tribes in their pre-Western-influenced and pre-Christian cultures. Obviously, the coming of Western influences to these tribes has been a mixed blessing. Before World War II the Baliem Valley was largely unexplored and isolated from the rest of the world. Now, although the valley is still somewhat isolated because of its inaccessibility, most of the native people claim to be Christians, and the wars between villages that took place with regularity before are no more the men’s favorite pastime.

At any rate, if you’re interested in these sorts of things—isolated people groups and cultures, World War II stories of adventure and bravery, historic encounters between modern and prehistoric groups of people— Lost in Shangri-La should be just the ticket.

Similar and related books:
The Airmen and the Headhunters: A True Story of Lost Soldiers, Heroic Tribesmen and the Unlikeliest Rescue of World War II by Judith Heimann.
Peace Child by Don RIchardson.
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand.

What is your favorite (true) World War II story?

1900: Music and Art

Jun9

In Helsinki, Jean Sibelius’ Finlandia premiered and in Rome, Giacomo Puccini’s opera Tosca premiered.

Published in 1900:
“The Flight Of The Bumble Bee” by N. Rimsky-Korsakov.

“Lift Ev’ry Voice And Sing” lyrics by James Weldon Johnson, music by John Rosamond Johnson (1905). James Weldon Johnson’s poem was set to music by his brother, John. The song became known as The Negro National Anthem.

In art, the impressionists–Manet, Degas, Cezanne, Monet, Renoir, Mary Cassatt, and others–were the dominant influence in the art world of the late nineteenth century. As the new century began, new voices were soon to be heard. Some of the new avante-garde artists were called post-impressionists because they were still influenced by impressionism, but other schools of art developed as many artists tried different techniques to become “modernists.”

Two Dancers on Stage by impressionist artist Edgar Degas

Two Dancers on Stage

The Mascot by Mark Kurzem

Jun8

The Mascot: Unraveling the Mystery of My Jewish Father’s Nazi Boyhood by Mark Kurzem.

I read two books in a row about boys and their relationships with a father who had mysterious past. (See my review of Jesus, My Father, the CIA and Me by Ian Cron) Short version: it’s complicated.

In The Mascot, Mark Kuzem is surprised by a visit from his father to Mark’s apartment at Oxford in England. Alex Kurzem has come all the way from Australia, with no warning, and without telling Mark’s mother the truth about where he’s gone. Mark expects some earth-shattering communication from his father, but the visit continues for days with only surface pleasantries. Finally, just before Alex leaves to go back to Australia, he tells Mark that he remembers two words from his childhood in or near Latvia, before World War II. The words are “Panok” and “Koidanov”. Alex wants Mark to find out what the words mean.

These two words and Alex Kurzem’s recurring and expanding memories of his childhood during World War II begin a journey into the past for Mark Kurzem and his father. Are Alex Kurzem’s memories trustworthy, or has he chosen to remember too late for the memories to be confirmed as truth? Will his story damage the lives and reputations of the people in Latvia and elsewhere who were his rescuers and protectors? And most importantly, what does the story of Alex Kurzem, or Uldis Kurzemnieks, or whatever his real birth name was, mean? Mark wonders and later tries to find out exactly who this man, his father, really is, and what his experiences before, during, and after the war really mean to both his identity and Mark’s identity as the son of a Holocaust survivor.

Alex:
“I don’t have any choice about what I can remember and when. My memories are here inside me like vipers inside my bones gnawing their way out.”

“To be truthful, I don’t want to remember anything of what happened to me. Who is his right mind would? But the bigger truth is that I am more terrified to forget. I am trapped.”

Mark:
“I was disturbed, perhaps even slightly annoyed, that my father had kept so many things from me. . . . I was baffled by the fact that my father had remained silent for more than fifty years. What almost superhuman strength had this required? What toll had silence taken on his inner life? My father seemed to inhabit two separate worlds. . . . One world was inexorably unraveling while a new, unpredictable one emerged.”

Some doubts have been raised about the veracity of Mr. Kurzem’s memories. Author Mark Kurzem died in November 2009 of “complications following diabetes.” Alex Kurzem says, “My story is true. I have nothing to hide.”

The Mascot is an exciting, disturbing Holocaust memoir about a boy who was both protected and exploited by his Latvian and German captors. It’s also a story about a delicate, but loving relationship between a father and son and about the fragility and the importance of memories. I recommend the book to anyone interested in Holocaust memoir, not just for the story itself, but also for what it has to say about memoirs and the complications and even perils of unearthing the past.

1900: Events and Inventions

Jun8

All year. 1900: The British fight the Boers (Dutch farmers and settlers) and their allies in South Africa. The war finally ended in 1902 with all of South Africa becoming a part of the British Empire.

May-August, 1900: The Boxer Rebellion in China. A patriotic society of Chinese, discontented with the Chinese emperor, the Dowager Empress, and with government policies, wish to drive all foreigners out of China. British, French, German, Japanese, Austrian, Russian, Italian and some American troops fight to put down the rebellion. Many missionaries and Chinese Christians are killed. The Europeans and others win the war and retain influence, particularly over China’s ports.

June, 1900: The Americans are also fighting rebels in the Philippines. The Filipinos originally rebelled against Spanish rule, and then after the Spanish American war ended in 1898, the Philippines became a territory of the United States. Filipino rebels have been offered amnesty if they will swear allegiance to the United States.

July 2, 1900: Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin’s hydrogen-filled airship powered by two engines made its first flight over Lake Constance in Switzerland. The flight lasted approximately one hour.

Zeppelin above Lake Constance

July 30, 1900: King Humbert I of Italy is assassinated by an anarchist, Angelo Bresci. His son, Victor Emmanuel, succeeds him to the throne.

September 8, 1900: A deadly hurricane destroys much of the property on Galveston Island, Texas and kills between 6000 and 12000 people. The Galveston hurricane of 1900 is the deadliest natural disaster ever to strike the United States.

November 6, 1900: William McKinley is elected president of the United States, and Theodore Roosevelt becomes vice-president. McKinley defeats William Jennngs Bryan, a populist Democrat.

Kodak introduces $1 Brownie cameras. The Brownie camera was the first hand-held camera that was cheap enough and simple enough for everyone to use.

March, 1900: UK archeologist Arthur Evans begins to excavate the ancient city of Knossos, Crete.

A cookbook from 1900, The Enterprising Housekeeper by Helen Louise Johnson.

1900: Books and Literature

Jun7

Fiction Bestsellers:
1. Mary Johnston, To Have and To Hold. Available in reprint edition from Vision Forum.
2. Mary Cholmondeley, Red Pottage Virago reprint available.
3. Robert Grant, Unleavened Bread. Semicolon review and thoughts here.
4. James Lane Allen, The Reign of Law, a Tale of the Kentucky Hemp Fields.
5. Irving Bacheller, Eben Holden, a Tale of the North Country.
6. Paul Leicester Ford, Janice Meredith, a Story of the American Revolution. Semicolon review here.
7. Charles Frederic Goss, The Redemption of David Corson. Available online.
8. Winston Churchill, Richard Carvel
9. Charles Major, When Knighthood Was in Flower, the love story of Charles Brandon and Mary Tudor, the king’s sister, and happening in the reign of … Henry VIII..
10. Maurice Thompson, Alice of Old Vincennes.
All ten of these books are available to download and read as ebooks at Project Gutenberg.

Critically Acclaimed and Historically Significant:
Josiah Royce, The World and the Individual
Clarence Stedman, An American Anthology
Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie Semicolon review here.
Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams
L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, published by the George M. Hill Co. in Chicago on May 17, 1900. Download the ebook at Project Gutenberg. An unabridged dramatic audio performance of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz directed and narrated by Karen M. Chan with the Wired for Books Players and featuring Nicoletta Mazzocca as Dorothy.
Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim
John Dewey, The School and Society

It’s interesting that all of the bestsellers, as far as I can tell, were historical fiction. Genres go in and out of style, don’t they? Nowadays the fiction bestseller list would be mostly thrillers and mysteries, I would guess.

Picture Books Set Around 1900, the turn of the century I’ve read a few of these picture books:
The Edwardian wordless books by John Goodall are fun to explore.
Glorious Flight: Across the Channel with Louis Bleriot by Alice and Martin Provenson won a Caldecott Award. It’s the story of one of the pioneers of flight, Frenchman Louis Bleriot who flew his plane across the English Channel in 1909.
My Great-Aunt Arizona by Gloria Houston is a lovely depiction of a school teacher in the late 1800’s/early 1900’s in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Children’s and YA Fiction Set in 1900:
Brooklyn Rose by Ann Rinaldi.
Galveston’s Summer of the Storm by Julie Lake.
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly. (1899) Semicolon review here.

In this post, Edwardian, Turn of the Century and the Great War I comment on a few books and TV series that depict the late nineteenth century/early twentieth century ambiance and culture, especially in England.

Resources for my Journey Through the 20th Century

Jun6

At our homeschool co-op this next school year, I’ll be teaching a high school class on 20th century world history and literature. These are some of the resources I plan to use as I travel through the 20th century with my students. I want to start this week posting useful resources and links for my (future) students and anyone else who’s interested.

General Print Resources:
DK Millennium Children’s History of the 20th Century. DK Publishing, 1999. Out of print, but available used.
Chronicle of the 20th Century. Chronicle Publications, 1987. Disadvantages: This book is no longer in print, and my edition only goes through 1986; on the other hand, I paid $10 for it at a used book sale. This book is similar to the one that Sonlight curriculum originally recommended for the study of 20th Century history, 20th Century Day by Day, also out of print.
The Visual History of the Modern World. Edited by Terry Burrows. Carleton Books, 2009. This book is the one that Sonlight now recommends as a spine text for 20th Century history. The one reviewer at Amazon blasts the book for bias. I have yet to read the entire book, so I couldn’t say yea or nay.
Our Century in Pictures for Young People. Edited by Richard B. Stolley. Little, Brown, and Company, 2000. Also out of print.
The Decades of Twentieth Century America series. Twenty-First Century Books, a division of Lerner Publishing, 2010. These books, one for each decade of the twentieth century, obviously focus on the United States, but I found the pictures and the text useful and interesting. The titles are America in the 1900’s, America in the 1910’s.
The Common Room: Books and Resources on the Twentieth Century

Food and Recipes
Food Timeline has links to recipes and recipe books from all the years of the century.
Depression Cooking With Clara 90+ year old Clara teaches how to cook like they did during the Great Depression while telling stories about her life.

Books and Journalism
Pulitzer Prize Winners
Biography/Autobiography starting in 1917.
Drama starting in 1917.
Fiction starting in 1948.
Novel from 1917 to 1947, when the prize was renamed “Fiction.”
History starting in 1917.
Music starting in 1943. (Did you know there was a Pulitzer Prize for music? Me neither.)
Poetry starting in 1918.
Editorial Writing starting in 1917.
Reporting and National Reporting from 1917.
Editorial Cartooning starting in 1922.
There are many, many other categories of journalism Pulitzers, but these are the ones I thought would be most helpful in studying the century year by year. Unfortunately, there are NOT copies of the Pulitzer Prize winning news articles, editorials, or cartoons at the Pulitzer website until the year 1995.

Bestseller Lists, 1900-1923.
Publishers Weekly list of bestselling novels and nonfiction (starting in 1918) in the United States in the 1900s
Best English-Language Fiction of the Twentieth Century–Composite List.
Newbery Medal and Honor Books, 1922-Present.
Carnegie Medal WInners, 1937-present.

Music
NPR 100: The 100 most important musical works of the twentieth century, according to NPR and its listeners.
Music of the 20th Century, Part 1 at About.com
Music of the 20th Century, Part 2 at About.com

Art and Artists
WebMuseum: 20th Century Art

Fashion and Clothing
Vintagevixen: 20th Century Female Fashion Facts by Decade.
Costume History Silhouettes: 1900-1940.

News and Events
Timeline of the Twentieth Century
Fact Index (searchable by year with information about mathematics, natural science, applied arts and sciences, social science, philosophy, culture and fine arts)
Year by Year at Infoplease with quizzes for each decade.
Historical Atlas of the Twentieth Century
The Top 100 This-and-Thats of the 20th Century

Movies and Television
Academy Awards: Best Picture, 1927-present

Yesterday Once More: The Carpenters

May30

I was listening to my Carpenters Pandora radio today, and I had an idea that it would be fun to share some of my more obscure favorite songs. If you’re younger than I am, and you probably are since I’ve passed the median point of normal female life span, you may not recognize many of the songs I post on here. Roll with it. You may find something that makes you smile.

I saw today on Twitter that Ginger at GReads has a feature she calls Tune in Tuesday, so I thought I’d roll with that and share my totally arcane and nearly forgotten songs, mostly from the 60’s and 70’s (twentieth century), on Tuesdays. I looked at the music that people, mostly book bloggers, shared last week, and I’m sure I’ll be in the minority in my musical offerings.

The first song and the first group aren’t exactly obscure, but they were and are easily my favorite voices to listen to. I love(d) The Carpenters. I love Karen Carpenter’s voice because she sings in my range, low to mid-range. And of course, I love it because it makes me sound good when I sing along. And I do sing along, in the car, full volume, windows down, embarrassing the heck out of my kids.

By the way I’m all about the lyrics because I’m a Word Person. So I’ll probably post the lyrics to the songs I share because without the lyrics it’s just . . music.

When I was young
I’d listen to the radio
Waitin’ for my favorite songs
When they played I’d sing along
It made me smile

Those were such happy times
And not so long ago
How I wondered where they’d gone
But they’re back again
Just like a long lost friend
All the songs I loved so well

Every sha-la-la-la
Every wo-o-wo-o
Still shines
Every shing-a-ling-a-ling
That they’re startin’ to sing’s
So fine

When they get to the part
Where he’s breakin’ her heart
It can really make me cry
Just like before
It’s yesterday once more

Lookin’ back on
How it was in years gone by
And the good times that I had
Makes today seem rather sad
So much has changed

It was songs of love
That I would sing to then
And I’d memorize each word
Those old melodies
Still sound so good to me
As they melt the years away

Every Sha-la-la-la
Every Wo-o-wo-o
Still shines
Every shing-a-ling-a-ling
That they’re startin’ to sing’s
So fine

All my best memories
Come back clearly to me
Some can even make me cry
Just like before
It’s yesterday once more

Every Sha-la-la-la
Every Wo-o-wo-o
Still shines
Every shing-a-ling-a-ling
That they’re startin’ to sing’s
So fine . . .

We Die Alone by David Howarth

May27

We Die Alone: A WWII Epic of Escape and Endurance by David Howarth. Recommended by The Ink Slinger.

This true adventure story was published in 1955, and it read like 1955. Maybe it’s that I expected a first person memoir, and I got a journalist’s view of the story, a bit detached and told from the point of view of several of the participants in the story. However, that journalist’s retelling didn’t feel strange to me when I read Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. I’m not sure what it was about this book, but I never felt the same empathy for Jan Baalsrud, the hero of We Die Alone, that I did for Louis Zamperini, the hero of Unbroken. Maybe I felt more for Zamperini because I got more background on his life both before and after his World War II adventure. Or maybe Jan Baalsrud was too much of a Scandinavian stoic for me to be able to identify myself with him; I’m certainly no stoic.

That’s not to say I didn’t like the book, We Die Alone, because I did. If Jan Baalsrud remains a sort of distant and remote character in spite of his very real sufferings described in excruciating detail in the book, the adventure and survival story itself is riveting and amazing:

“In March 1943, a team of expatriate Norwegian commandos sailed from northern England for Nazi-occupied arctic Norway to organize and supply the Norwegian resistance. But they were betrayed and the Nazis ambushed them. Only one man survived–Jan Baalsrud. This is the incredible and gripping story of his escape.”

Incredible it is. Jan Baalsrud is frostbitten and snowblind. He becomes unable to walk and must be carried to freedom by some astonishingly brave Norwegians and Lapps, through the snow and the mountains and at the risk of Nazi capture and reprisal.

Wouldn’t a book of World War II survival stories for young people (YA) with a chapter for each survivor be a great idea? The book could condense adult books like this one and Unbroken and then refer young adult readers to the full length stories if they were so inclined. What other survival adventures would you recommend for such a compilation? Add your favorite WWII survival stories to my list in the comments.

The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom.
Night by Elie Wiesel.
The Boy Who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
The Zookeeper’s WIfe by Diane Ackerman.
Evidence Not Seen: A Woman’s Miraculous Faith in the Jungles of World War II by Darlene Deibler Rose.

Z-Baby’s Audiobooks: Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher

May11

We downloaded this classic story in audiobook form from Librivox, and Z-baby listened to it last night and today. The narrator was Lee Ann Howlett.

How was the narration on this story?
I hate when old men do the narration, and for girls they make the voices sound really high and annoying. The narrator for this book was good.

What was the story about?
Well, it was about a girl named Elizabeth Ann whose parents had died, and she lived with two of her aunts and another lady. One of her aunts was middle-aged, Aunt Frances, and the other one was old. Aunt Frances and ELizabeth Ann were best buddies, and Aunt Frances basically babied her. Then her old aunt got sick, so the doctor came and said that Elizabeth Ann needed to go somewhere else. They sent her to her one of her other aunts that didn’t really like her. So she went to another aunt and uncle and cousins, the Putneys.
At first, they didn’t baby her and they acted as if she was nine years old, which she was. She thought they didn’t even care about her. But then she got used to it, and . . . well, you just have to listen to or read the rest of the story to find out what happens.

How did the story end?
You have to listen to it. I can’t tell you how it ends!

What did Betsy learn in the story?
She learned to act her age. She also learned how to cook a little and how to make butter and other stuff, too.

In addition to the audio version, you can get this 1916 book in Kindle format for free, or in a paperback edition for about $10.00.

Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger

Apr11

I grew up in West Texas, San Angelo, not Odessa, but definitely football country, the era and culture of Friday Night Lights. I learned football sitting in the flute section of the Edison Junior High School band as my band director explained to me first downs and safeties and extra points. I never learned it well, but I knew enough by the time I got to high school that I could get my flute in place to play the fight song when our team made a touchdown.

Friday Night Lights has become a movie and a TV series. I’ve never seen either one. However, I can vouch that the culture and the obsession depicted in the book did exist, and probably still does. I graduated from Central High School in San Angelo in the mid-seventies, and football was a Big Deal. We saw Permian, the school featured in the book, as the school to beat. We detested “Mojo” and all their black and gold trappings. They probably saw us as not so much of a threat since the San Angelo Bobcats have only won two state championships in their history, in 1943 and again in 1966. I think Mr. Bissinger, who is a Yankee from Philadelphia, probably got a a narrow but accurate picture of the place and influence of high school football in a West Texas town, as he spent a year following the fortunes of the Odessa Permian Panthers.

He also made a lot of people mad. In the afterword, written in 2008 ten years after the book was written, Bissinger says he received death threats at the time of publication and that many Odessans still resent and argue with the depiction of their town, their attitudes, and their football team in the book. I’m sure the fictional extension and embellishment of the story in movie and television has done nothing to change the perception that Bissinger misquoted, fictionalized, and sensationalized a narrative that was dear to the people of Odessa. I don’t know. Certainly, football is important, even worshipped, in Odessa and in other towns and high schools and colleges in Texas. I’ve seen it myself. Perhaps Mr. Bissinger could have found many people with a more balanced and rational view of the significance of the Permian Panthers football team and its win/loss record had he tried. However, he wasn’t writing about those balanced people with little or no interest in football; he was writing about the Mojo of Permian High School football and about its effect on a group of young men who found their identity in a series of Friday night football games.

Friday Night Lights is a sad book. It asks the question, “If football is your life, what happens when the season is over?” Win or lose, the answer to that question isn’t pretty. I felt sorry for the boys in the book. How could such a system be good for anyone concerned? And why do we continue to perpetuate such intense pressure on young men to succeed at a game that is essentially meaningless in and of itself? When I read about football mania as practiced in Friday Night Lights, I’m glad we homeschool. And it makes me look carefully at my own life and the expectations I have for my children. Is there anything that I have made into an idol that takes the place of God in the lives of my children? I pray not.

The book is excellent. It deals with both the strengths and weaknesses of a community’s having a cause or a team to unite them. Taking pride and inspiration from the accomplishments of a group of athletes or other successful people is a good thing, in moderation. Loading the hopes and dreams of an entire city on the shoulders of a group of seventeen and eighteen year old boys is a mistake and a perversion of true community.