Alex Halberstadt

I received this ARC during a Goodreads giveaway. The opinions of this review are my own.

In the beginning of the book, there is the results of an experiment conducted in 2013 by researchers at Emory University. The experiment questions whether or not trauma can be inherited. This is the route that I expected Young Heroes of the Soviet Union to take. It did not. What this book is, however, is a memoir and nothing else.

When I read the synopsis for this book, the experiment results in the beginning, and studied the cover of the book, I have to admit that I automatically assumed that it was going to be more of a clinical read. I was pleasantly surprised. The journey that Alex set himself upon couldn't have been an easy one emotionally.

The Holocaust is a subject that should be talked about, studied in schools, and kept alive through those conversations. If we don't know and/or understand history, how can we learn from it and keep from repeating it? This book isn't just about the Holocaust. In fact, it is only mentioned at certain points throughout the book.

As many books as I have read, as many movies/documentaries that I have watched on the subject of the Holocaust, I did not know that Russia treated their Jewish communities not much, if any, better than the Germans. The older generations lost everything. Their families, their homes, livelihoods, and for many, their lives. Learning of his family's losses, seeing the differences in how they were treated (Alex included), knowing of and living through so much cruelty, had to be heartbreaking.

This memoir is an example of the strength, bravery, and perseverance of the Jewish people. It also sends us on the journey with Alex to find his and his family's truths, to form a relationship with his (Russian) father and grandfather, and I believe more than anything, to find himself.… (mais)

"Lonely Avenue" is the biography of New York City, Brooklyn born singer then songwriter, Jerome Felder, known by his professional or stage name as Doc Promos http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doc_Pomus As a young boy in Brooklyn, Jerome contracted polio and was left partially paralyzed and forever on crutches or in a wheel chair. An early interest in music led to his brief career as a singer. Following that scant success singing blues and jazz, over the next four decades Doc Pomas together with a number of partners crafted more than a thousand songs. Mostly rhythm-and-blues and rock 'n' roll tunes, some became top hits for artists such as Ray Charles, Bobby Darin, Fabian, the Drifters, Dion and the Belmonts, and Elvis Presley. Read online reviews of this book at This Magic Moment by Alan Light http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/25/books/review/Light.t.html?_r=1&ex=11834352... (Mar. 25, 2007, New York Times) and Viva Doc Pomus! http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/32893/lonely-avenue-by-alex-halberstadt/ (Feb. 200) by M.E. Ross at PopMatters. (lj)… (mais)