- Hardcover: 496 pages
- Publisher: Faber and Faber (5 Nov 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0571234720
- ISBN-13: 978-0571234721
- Product Dimensions: 23.8 x 15.4 x 4.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 391,534 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Eitingons: A Twentieth-Century Story
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
[A] chatty and often engaging group biography.
Book Description
Who were the Eitingons? And what part did they play in the secret dramas of the 20th century?
Inside This Book
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book starts with the assassination of Trotsky in Mexico -- completely thrilling, like something out of le Carre -- and goes on to tell the story of one influential and bizarre family. I learned more from it than I would have thought possible about Soviet-American relations and the spread of psychoanalysis, but it was so enjoyable: the narrative manages never to seem text-booky. A very good companion on what otherwise would have been one miserably long plane ride.
Format:Paperback
Purchased this on the strength of the Amazon reviews and was really looking forward to it when it arrived. Unfortunately, I found the book extremely heavy going and not easy to read. For me, the conclusions/linkeages suggested throughout seemed largely based on supposition rather than any hard and fast evidence that would support the author's wishful thinking. It has taught me too to never rely on Amazon reviews to give a true reflection of the worth of a book.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2 reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
A Red Stole on the Couch
4 May 2010
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
A quite interesting family tale by a very talented English writer, Mary-Kay Wilmers.
Ms. Wilmers tracks down, as best she can, the story of her extended Jewish family. Three men are the focus; a New York fur merchant, a high KGB officer, and a disciple of Freud. Most of the story unfolds in the age of Stalin's consolidation of power and the rise of Hitler. Vienna, New York, Madrid, Mexico City, Berlin and Moscow all come into play.
Beyond the family and its main occupations (the fur trade, psychoanalysis, and spying), this is a story of the ambiguities and transient nature of personal wealth, political ideology, and fame. And, the vagueness of memory and imprecision of official records.
As an aside, it was interesting to me that the taciturn KGB's officer's favorite book in old age was Alexander Herzen's Memoirs. A book that Isiah Berlin thought to be "a great permanent monument to the civilized, sensitive, morally preoccupied and gifted Russian society to which Herzen belonged..."
I would recommend "Trotsky: Downfall of a Revolutionary" (2009) by Bertrand Patenaude for those desiring more on Trotsky's assassination.
Ms. Wilmers tracks down, as best she can, the story of her extended Jewish family. Three men are the focus; a New York fur merchant, a high KGB officer, and a disciple of Freud. Most of the story unfolds in the age of Stalin's consolidation of power and the rise of Hitler. Vienna, New York, Madrid, Mexico City, Berlin and Moscow all come into play.
Beyond the family and its main occupations (the fur trade, psychoanalysis, and spying), this is a story of the ambiguities and transient nature of personal wealth, political ideology, and fame. And, the vagueness of memory and imprecision of official records.
As an aside, it was interesting to me that the taciturn KGB's officer's favorite book in old age was Alexander Herzen's Memoirs. A book that Isiah Berlin thought to be "a great permanent monument to the civilized, sensitive, morally preoccupied and gifted Russian society to which Herzen belonged..."
I would recommend "Trotsky: Downfall of a Revolutionary" (2009) by Bertrand Patenaude for those desiring more on Trotsky's assassination.
A Brief History of the 20th Century through Uncovered Family Secrets
15 Oct 2011
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I don't know about your family tree, but mine is pretty nondescript. Somewhere back there is a Dutch sea captain who lost his job because he was drunk one too many times. Other than that, there's no excitement--your average American collection of carpenters, farmers, teachers, and homemakers.
In contrast, Mary-Kay Wilmers's family tree contains poison fruit among the many branches dripping gold and wealth. And within those strangely twisted branches lie some of the most interesting secrets of the Cold War and the Stalinist nightmare that preceded it.
Wilmers, the editor of the London Review of Books, is descended from wealthy European Jews, with all the baggage that implies. The endpapers to the book are a panoramic view of her mother's first wedding in Vienna--a beautifully baroque ballroom and dozens of relatives in all their pride and finery. Not all that long after this fascinating photo was taken, these people would be scattered all over the globe, the lucky ones getting out with at least some of their money and belongings, the unlucky ones...who knows?
In 1988, an article that appeared in the New York Times mentioned one of Wilmers's relatives, Leonid Eitingon, as being involved in the assassination of Leon Trotsky. It also mentioned another of her relatives, Max Eitingon, a pet disciple of Sigmund Freud and major player in early psychology, and said that this cultured and intelligent man--who was instrumental in the establishment of psychology as a legitimate discipline--was an agent working for Leonid. Then there was the relative everyone knew and adored--Monty, a furrier who settled in New York City, and whose contacts with the Russian fur trade over the years might or might not have included a little espionage for the Soviets. The FBI interviewed him many times.
Wilmers decided to undertake the staggering amount of research that would be needed to unravel the secrets of all these relatives, to determine to what extent Leonid was "Stalin's man" and whether Uncle Max was Leonid's man. And just what Monty was up to in his relationships with the Soviets and their enormous supply of sables. As she makes her way through KGB and FBI files and face-to-face interviews, we go along with her on what is, essentially, a history of the 20th century: Freud, Stalin, Soviet espionage activities (including the Trotsky assassination), the gulags, World War II, the development of the atomic bomb (the Rosenbergs make an appearance), and the Cold War. It's an absolutely fascinating view of the major conflicts of the 20th century from a rare perspective.
Wilmers is a superb writer. I'm one of those readers whose brain freezes when a narrative goes into genealogical mode--My mother's second cousin on her father's side married my grandfather's second wife's son, etc., etc. I can't follow this kind of thing at all. And there is, of necessity, some of that in this book. But instead of agonizing over it, I just skimmed through those parts and lost nothing of the narrative.
This book will never be a best-seller. And it's definitely not for everyone. But for anyone interested in an erudite, well-researched, and detailed look at the 20th century from inside the machinery of Stalin's Soviet Union, it is more than satisfying. It is fascinating.
In contrast, Mary-Kay Wilmers's family tree contains poison fruit among the many branches dripping gold and wealth. And within those strangely twisted branches lie some of the most interesting secrets of the Cold War and the Stalinist nightmare that preceded it.
Wilmers, the editor of the London Review of Books, is descended from wealthy European Jews, with all the baggage that implies. The endpapers to the book are a panoramic view of her mother's first wedding in Vienna--a beautifully baroque ballroom and dozens of relatives in all their pride and finery. Not all that long after this fascinating photo was taken, these people would be scattered all over the globe, the lucky ones getting out with at least some of their money and belongings, the unlucky ones...who knows?
In 1988, an article that appeared in the New York Times mentioned one of Wilmers's relatives, Leonid Eitingon, as being involved in the assassination of Leon Trotsky. It also mentioned another of her relatives, Max Eitingon, a pet disciple of Sigmund Freud and major player in early psychology, and said that this cultured and intelligent man--who was instrumental in the establishment of psychology as a legitimate discipline--was an agent working for Leonid. Then there was the relative everyone knew and adored--Monty, a furrier who settled in New York City, and whose contacts with the Russian fur trade over the years might or might not have included a little espionage for the Soviets. The FBI interviewed him many times.
Wilmers decided to undertake the staggering amount of research that would be needed to unravel the secrets of all these relatives, to determine to what extent Leonid was "Stalin's man" and whether Uncle Max was Leonid's man. And just what Monty was up to in his relationships with the Soviets and their enormous supply of sables. As she makes her way through KGB and FBI files and face-to-face interviews, we go along with her on what is, essentially, a history of the 20th century: Freud, Stalin, Soviet espionage activities (including the Trotsky assassination), the gulags, World War II, the development of the atomic bomb (the Rosenbergs make an appearance), and the Cold War. It's an absolutely fascinating view of the major conflicts of the 20th century from a rare perspective.
Wilmers is a superb writer. I'm one of those readers whose brain freezes when a narrative goes into genealogical mode--My mother's second cousin on her father's side married my grandfather's second wife's son, etc., etc. I can't follow this kind of thing at all. And there is, of necessity, some of that in this book. But instead of agonizing over it, I just skimmed through those parts and lost nothing of the narrative.
This book will never be a best-seller. And it's definitely not for everyone. But for anyone interested in an erudite, well-researched, and detailed look at the 20th century from inside the machinery of Stalin's Soviet Union, it is more than satisfying. It is fascinating.
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