The Really Serious Oreo Cookie Book Club met May 15 at the home of Diane Hearne to discuss the book, The Hare with the Amber Eyes, written by Edmund de Waal. The “hare” was part of a family collection of Japanese netuske belonging to the author’s family of which he traced the ownership back to the early 19th Century.
He attempted to capture the time and mood of the socio-political landscape in which the family was involved. The locus changed from Vienna to Paris to Tokyo and, finally, to London. The place and significance of possessions and mementos in our own lives and in our parents’ and our grandparents’ lives was discussed. The assimilation and subsequent brutalization of the Jews in Germany and Austria was noted.
The next meeting is to be on June 19 at the home of Phyllis and Chafer Tezer, with the book After the Music Stopped: Response and the Work Ahead, by Alan Binder, to be discussed.
— Norton Schwartz
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