Jonathan Wilson (1)

Interesting, really "tight" plot, believable characters: Set in the 1930's in the British Mandate of Palestine, this provides some history about that time period in a very readable way. Ivor Castle is a British Jew recently graduated from Oxford and sent to Palestine in order to assist an experienced Jewish lawyer in the defense of two Russian Jews who are accused of killing a man who has bartered a sort of peace with Nazi Germany some Jews to leave Germany. This idea is controversial from both the right and the left.

Ivor is sent to question a young woman who supposedly saw the two men in a cafe at the time the murders took place Tsiona is a free-spirited artist who has made pictures of the men, but when did she actually draw those pictures. Ivor falls madly in love with Tsiona. Meanwhile other factions are working to free the men, such as Ivor's college acquaintance who tells him that an Arab man will confess to the murder, which he does, only to later refute the confession.

The plot is easily followed with no extraneous threads, the writing is clear, the situations are believable. It was a book I almost wanted to reread just to see who neatly the plot comes together. Great writing set in an interesting place which shows how very complicated the Israel/Arab situation is… (más)

Kick and Run – Could be Any English Guy

Kick and Run – Memoir with Soccer Ball could have been written by most men in Britain of a certain disposition, football (soccer) lovers. The twist in this book to add to his outsider status as a football fan is that he happens to be Jewish and was brought up in North London. The one main difference is that Jonathan Wilson is now living and working in America in a world that think football is an egg shape and should be thrown around a pitch. They never really got the concept football means that is should be moved by the foot, but who am I to point this out to our colonial cousins?

Jonathan Wilson recounts his life from North London Jewish boy to a respected American academic at Tufts University through the prism of football. Like all football fans he has broken the book down in to chapters that fill the full 90 minutes plus extra time as if it were a cup tie. What Wilson brings to this wonderful book is a dry sense of humour, especially when recounting trying to teach the upper echelons of Boston society kids the basics of football.

He describes that when he was a member of the North West London U14 Jewish Boys Club team, there was a secret that ran through the heart of the team. A number of the parents had been refugees on the Kindertransport and the relatives left behind were murdered by the Nazis. He also points out that Pope John Paul II played for a Jewish team before his ordination in Wadowice.

This memoir with the aid of football matches takes from North London, to Essex University and on to Boston, to the World Cup final in the Rose Bowl in 1994. There are some great stories retold throughout the book, and to me some of the funniest usually encounter Tottenham Hotspurs or Spurs to us football fans. Also the 1994 World Cup brings up some funny stories of trying to talk football, when none of the population are interested. What he did find that he got to speak to many immigrants about football, about the world’s biggest single sporting event.

There are times when this book really does tug at your heart strings especially after his mother died in 2003 and he found out more about his family. He encapsulates what it is like for families that have been separated by war and events, something I too know, when history walks up and punches you in the face! At times this book can also haunt you with the stories that need to be remembered especially as the witnesses are getting fewer by the year.

An interesting book written by a Jewish Spurs fan with family that were Polish Jews, read by a Manchester City fan whose family were Polish. An interesting book for those interested in football or those those like to understand people that love football.… (más)

Chagall was born Moishe Shagal in 1877, in Vitebsk, a town in Belorussia. His parents were Orthodox Jews, were poor, yet his childhood was filled with a sense of stability. His father was a laborer. Chagall lived through the Russian Revolution, World War I and World War II, and was extremely cognizant of his childhood environment and what was occurring on the very streets where he grew up. His Jewish roots can be traced within the lines and strokes of his paintings. His memories of time and place are distinct in his art, no matter the time span. He is humbled by his roots, and one can sense a longing in some of his paintings for his childhood days and his memories of home. Often you will find him depicting himself soaring or floating above the scene or setting in his paintings, often in a tallit/prayer shawl. He was determined to be a man of all seasons, a person who a Russian Jew could look up to, an individual who could appeal to anyone from anywhere.

Marc Chagall is a story that lingers in this reader’s mind. Jewish history is depicted with brilliance throughout the pages, not only through Chagall’s artistic and creative paintings, but through Jonathan Wilson’s vivid imagery and poetic prose paintings of the artist.… (más)