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kegifford's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
Fascinating story of how the life of a Jewish family interacts with a set of collectible art objects over several centuries.
sherwoodreads's review against another edition
Beautifully evocative and elegiac, a history of a family. You know it will not end well, as this family is Jewish and the history begins a few generations before WW II, but de Waal is determined to bring the family to life through his descriptions of their homes, their idiosyncrasies, and above all their passion for art.
De Waal traveled to all the places this family had lived, and did his best to walk in the spaces they walked, look out the windows they did, and endeavor to imagine their lives. It builds slowly as he paints in the family's background, and how Charles Ephrussi collected the netsuke that bind the entire narrative together, but as he moves toward 1900 there are more records, and the individuals take on shape and color and personality.
This is also the story, in a microcosm, of how Jews gained the right to do business and even own land in the latter 1800s, some (like the Ephrussi) becoming quite wealthy. The Ephrussi patriarchy had enough clout to call a halt to the latest Russian pogrom by threatening to effect the price of grain. So the pogrom was halted, but the fallout was an increase of antisemitic resentment.
But this is not just another Holocaust tale, harrowing as that might be. It is also a thoughtful, painterly, sometimes elegiac examination of how human beings relate to things, especially art things. Like the netsuke.
That sets up the scene for the painfully vivid account of Austria's fall to the Nazis, and the horrors of having your house invaded, first by angry young men with their new swastika armbands who bully their way in just to smash things and take what they want. But when the Gestapo comes, the real horror sets in, as they deliberately, with a semblance of legal exactitude, proceed to catalog everything they are stealing from this family.
The story of the netsuke binds everything together, as de Waal brings the story up to the present.
Near the end, one of his neighbors says, "Don't you think those netsuke should stay in Japan?"
No, I answer. Objects have always been carried, sold, bartered, stolen, retrieved and lost. People have always given gifts. It is how you tell their stories that matters.
De Waal traveled to all the places this family had lived, and did his best to walk in the spaces they walked, look out the windows they did, and endeavor to imagine their lives. It builds slowly as he paints in the family's background, and how Charles Ephrussi collected the netsuke that bind the entire narrative together, but as he moves toward 1900 there are more records, and the individuals take on shape and color and personality.
This is also the story, in a microcosm, of how Jews gained the right to do business and even own land in the latter 1800s, some (like the Ephrussi) becoming quite wealthy. The Ephrussi patriarchy had enough clout to call a halt to the latest Russian pogrom by threatening to effect the price of grain. So the pogrom was halted, but the fallout was an increase of antisemitic resentment.
But this is not just another Holocaust tale, harrowing as that might be. It is also a thoughtful, painterly, sometimes elegiac examination of how human beings relate to things, especially art things. Like the netsuke.
That sets up the scene for the painfully vivid account of Austria's fall to the Nazis, and the horrors of having your house invaded, first by angry young men with their new swastika armbands who bully their way in just to smash things and take what they want. But when the Gestapo comes, the real horror sets in, as they deliberately, with a semblance of legal exactitude, proceed to catalog everything they are stealing from this family.
The story of the netsuke binds everything together, as de Waal brings the story up to the present.
Near the end, one of his neighbors says, "Don't you think those netsuke should stay in Japan?"
No, I answer. Objects have always been carried, sold, bartered, stolen, retrieved and lost. People have always given gifts. It is how you tell their stories that matters.
tomleetang's review against another edition
4.0
The perfect model for reflective familial biography.
'My ancestor was a rich dude who knew a few famous artists and authors' hardly seems like a promising start, but de Waal has astutely positioned his biography at a crossroads of different themes. Art and aestheticism, yes, but also anti-Semitism in the years before the Dreyfus affair, through to the rise of Nazi Germany; a confrontation with orientalism, explored through lacquered boxes and the titular netsuke; social commentary on the belle epoque; the complicated process of reconstructing the past.
The writing is also nicely done, with flourishes of ornate prose and well-selected quotations sprinkled in just the right amount.
I wasn't surprised to read after finishing that some other historians have claimed the significance of the Ephrussi family is sometimes overstated in the Hare with the Amber Eyes, since there is an element of hagiography to this book, for all de Waal's pretence to objectivity. Still, it's a fascinating, well-constructed work.
'My ancestor was a rich dude who knew a few famous artists and authors' hardly seems like a promising start, but de Waal has astutely positioned his biography at a crossroads of different themes. Art and aestheticism, yes, but also anti-Semitism in the years before the Dreyfus affair, through to the rise of Nazi Germany; a confrontation with orientalism, explored through lacquered boxes and the titular netsuke; social commentary on the belle epoque; the complicated process of reconstructing the past.
The writing is also nicely done, with flourishes of ornate prose and well-selected quotations sprinkled in just the right amount.
I wasn't surprised to read after finishing that some other historians have claimed the significance of the Ephrussi family is sometimes overstated in the Hare with the Amber Eyes, since there is an element of hagiography to this book, for all de Waal's pretence to objectivity. Still, it's a fascinating, well-constructed work.
lwb's review against another edition
4.0
A wonderful tale, at it best approaching [a:Stefan Zweig|25573|Stefan Zweig|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1190140738p2/25573.jpg] and his [b:The World of Yesterday|629429|The World of Yesterday|Stefan Zweig|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1347696322l/629429._SY75_.jpg|615762].
maseface's review against another edition
informative
reflective
medium-paced
This book is very interesting. It's not just about a collection of netsuke figurines. But about the people who have owned those netsuke and their connection to them. De Waal has a fascinating family history and it's amazing how you can see traces of the Ephrussi everywhere.
I don't want to give this book a star rating because it feels kind of disingenuous to the story this book is telling. But I really enjoyed this book. Even if you're not interested in Netsuke I recommend this book. It tells a family's history, their highs and crushing lows, and the objects who's meaning change as time goes on.
I don't want to give this book a star rating because it feels kind of disingenuous to the story this book is telling. But I really enjoyed this book. Even if you're not interested in Netsuke I recommend this book. It tells a family's history, their highs and crushing lows, and the objects who's meaning change as time goes on.
lindzlovesreading's review against another edition
3.0
For me this was a memoir/family history/art history story of moments. It may have suffered a little because of it's hype, as books of this nature tend to do. It is a cool book, it calmly and at times meanderingly wonders around the streets of Japan and Europe, through posh apartments, wide boulevards and opulent palaces. All in search of a tiny figurine called a netsuke.
I did like how the author De Waal inserted himself into the pages. After all this is his family's history, and he was able to give a resonance to the story, an almost circular narrative. De Waal can woffle on at times, like a child picking on a thread till it comes loose, such as when we are Paris, Impressionist painters and writers are scattered every where.
But then he will throw an image at you. My personal favourite is an image of Vienna, in the Ringstrasse just after the defeat of World War One, which is filled with detritus of a once great Empire.
When he chooses to De Waal can sparkle with emotion and tenderness. From the Ephrussi children playing with the tiny netsuke in their mother's dressing room, to heart breaking accounts of a crumbling Vienna welcoming the Nazis through the Ringstrasse, and the swift and devastating violence that was to follow.
The images of this book stay with me, rather than the whole story, but that isn't always a bad thing.
I did like how the author De Waal inserted himself into the pages. After all this is his family's history, and he was able to give a resonance to the story, an almost circular narrative. De Waal can woffle on at times, like a child picking on a thread till it comes loose, such as when we are Paris, Impressionist painters and writers are scattered every where.
But then he will throw an image at you. My personal favourite is an image of Vienna, in the Ringstrasse just after the defeat of World War One, which is filled with detritus of a once great Empire.
When he chooses to De Waal can sparkle with emotion and tenderness. From the Ephrussi children playing with the tiny netsuke in their mother's dressing room, to heart breaking accounts of a crumbling Vienna welcoming the Nazis through the Ringstrasse, and the swift and devastating violence that was to follow.
The images of this book stay with me, rather than the whole story, but that isn't always a bad thing.