What is Gone & Will Never Come Back

 

Not Even My Name: A True Story by Thea Halo tells the all too common tale of dislocation, genocide, and upheaval in the twentieth century.  Halo’s mother was a Pontic Greek – an ethnic Greek person living in Turkey in a village along the Black Sea.  These communities probably existed in remote antiquity as Greek trading communities.  The form of Greek spoken there had more in common with certain ancient dialects of Greek than modern varieties.

Halo’s mother and her family were caught in the destruction of the Ottoman Empire, the rise of Turkish nationalism, and its narrow definition of who is a Turk.  Like the Armenians and other ethnic Christian groups, the Pontic Greeks were ethnically cleansed, murdered, and deported.  Halo's mother spends a lifetime rebuilding a new home through extraordinary courage and love.

In the end, mother and daughter find the old Greek village and her mother's homestead, and of course, it is heartbreaking.  A people make a land – and what is left when they are gone seems unreal.  Something is missing – the soul of the land and a people who will never return.

The Talmud Kiddie Pool

 

Come and Hear: What I Saw in My Seven-and-a-Half-Year Journey through the Talmud by Adam Kirsch is a good-natured “romp” through the seven-year reading cycle of the Talmud.  Kirsch is not an expert on the subject, and does not read Hebrew or Aramaic, so he provides, in many ways, an excellent beginner’s guide to the Talmud.  Readable, accessible, and entertaining, if you want to dip your toes into Talmud, this is a good kiddie pool.   

Not Quite Finished

 

You have to be into J. G. Ballard’s fixations to get into High-Rise: A Novel.  At times fascinating and at others boring, the novel shows Ballard’s brand of talent – narrow.  Reading this novel is like reading a treatment of some better work (yet to come): there are compelling moments and language, but it seems that this is a draft.  But of course, this is the final version.  For me, Ballard never feels completely done with his work.  

In Wartime: Stories from Ukraine

 

In Wartime: Stories from Ukraine by Tim Judah is required reading if you want to understand the recent war in Ukraine.  Judah’s dispatches take place just before and after the rapid series of changes in Ukraine in 2014.  He delves into their democracy movement, attempts to squash corruption and graft, and Russia’s first moves which led to this current war (2022) in the annexation of Crimea and the (at that time) secret support of the breakaway provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk.

Judah’s pieces are concise, informative, and complex.  The news out of Ukraine right now (with justification) tends to sanitize their internal problems, challenges, and the fractured nature of their culture and society.  Judah lays this out for us.