Mr. Rosenblum Dreams in English
At the outset of World War II, Jack Rosenblum and his family escape Berlin for London. Jack embraces the welcome pamphlet instructing immigrants how to act like "the English." He acquires Saville Row suits and a Jaguar. He never speaks German, apart from the occasional curse. But one key...
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At the outset of World War II, Jack Rosenblum and his family escape Berlin for London. Jack embraces the welcome pamphlet instructing immigrants how to act like "the English." He acquires Saville Row suits and a Jaguar. He never speaks German, apart from the occasional curse. But one key item--membership in a golf club--remains elusive. So Jack hatches a wild idea: he'll build his own.Jack's wife, Sadie, does not share this obsession. She wants to cook her mother's recipes and remember the life they left behind. But when Jack relocates them to the country, Sadie watches their savings deplete as he pursues his quixotic dream.In this gently surprising first novel, Natasha Solomons tells the captivating love story of a couple making a new life--and their wildest dreams--come true.
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Format: paperback
ISBN:
9780316077590 (0316077593)
Publish date: June 10th 2011
Publisher: Reagan Arthur / Back Bay Books
Pages no: 384
Edition language: English
Category:
Novels,
History,
Literature,
European Literature,
British Literature,
Book Club,
Adult Fiction,
Historical Fiction,
Adult,
Drama,
Jewish,
World War II,
Holocaust
1937: Jack and Sadie Rosenblum and their one year old daughter, Elizabeth, are just one family in a crowd of Jewish refugees who emigrate to England. Jack wants to embrace British culture but runs into some roadblocks, one being that over the course of 15 years in England he never quite loses his ac...
Funny in places, but I admit I'd have liked it more if it has been more about "how to be(come) English" in general, and less about the whole golf court thing (I really don't care about golf, the topic bores me).
http://www.bostonbibliophile.com/2010/12/review-mr-rosenblum-dreams-in-english.html
Lovely hopeful little read. Watch my video recommendation here - http://youtu.be/Ypoe6i_SofM
Many years ago I read (or was told, cannot remember exactly) that if you emigrate to USA you can be an American sooner or later, while if you emigrate to England you can never be an Englishman. Now, trying to save himself and his family, Mr. Rosenblum flees Berlin right before WWII and goes straight...