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The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance [Paperback]

Edmund de Waal (Author)

4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (314 customer reviews)

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Book Description

Publication Date: 27 Jan 2011

THE NUMBER ONE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

WINNER OF THE 2010 COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD

264 wood and ivory carvings, none of them bigger than a matchbox: Edmund de Waal was entranced when he first encountered the collection in his great uncle Iggie's Tokyo apartment. When he later inherited the 'netsuke', they unlocked a story far larger and more dramatic than he could ever have imagined.

From a burgeoning empire in Odessa to fin de siecle Paris, from occupied Vienna to Tokyo, Edmund de Waal traces the netsuke's journey through generations of his remarkable family against the backdrop of a tumultuous century.

'You have in your hands a masterpiece' Frances Wilson, Sunday Times

'The most brilliant book I've read for years... A rich tale of the pleasure and pains of what it is to be human' Bettany Hughes, Daily Telegraph, Books of the Year

'A complex and beautiful book' Diana Athill

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THE NUMBER ONE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

WINNER OF THE 2010 COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD

'You have in your hands a masterpiece' Frances Wilson, Sunday Times

'The most brilliant book I've read for years... A rich tale of the pleasure and pains of what it is to be human' Bettany Hughes, Daily Telegraph, Books of the Year

'A complex and beautiful book' Diana Athill

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Product details

Paperback: 354 pages
Publisher: Vintage (27 Jan 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0099539551
ISBN-13: 978-0099539551
Product Dimensions: 2.8 x 12.8 x 19.3 cm

Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (314 customer reviews)

Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 496 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1 in Books > Art, Architecture & Photography > Sculpture
- #6 in Books > Biography > Social & Health Issues > Cultural History
- #10 in Books > History > Cultural History

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Product Description

Review

"...as full of beauty and whimsy as a netsuke from the hands of a master carver"--The Economist

"...this book is impossible to put down. You have in your hands a masterpiece."--Francis Wilson, The Sunday Times

"An intensely personal meditation on art, history and family, told in prose as elegant and precise as the netsuke themselves"--London Review of Books

"It is a rich tale of the pleasure and pains of what it is to be human"--Bettany Hughes, Daily Telegraph

"An exquisitely described search for a lost family and a lost time"--Colm Toibin, The Irish Times

"Both the story he uncovers and the objects he describes are fascinating and startling"--AS Byatt, Financial Times

"Unexpectedly combines a micro craft-form with macro history to great effect"--Julian Barnes, The Guardian

"A book of astonishing originality"--Evening Standard

"An extraordinary and touching journey with a backdrop glittering with images from Proust and Zola and Klimt"--Margaret Drabble, Times Literary Supplement

"Every page of Edmund de Waal’s The Hare with Amber Eyes gave me pleasure"--Rachel Polansky, Times Literary Supplement

Book Description

The history of a family through 264 objects - set against a turbulent century - from an acclaimed writer and potter

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Customer Reviews

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

283 of 291 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An artist 's relationship with ancient artefacts 26 Nov 2010

By A Common Reader TOP 50 REVIEWER VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Edmund de Waal is a renowned ceramic artist who's work has been exhibited in Tate Britain and the Victoria and Albert Museum. He can trace his ancestry back to a wealthy Ukrainian family who made their fortune from grain exporting and later banking, and who had spacious and luxurious homes in Vienna, Tokyo and Paris. When Edmund inherited a collection of 264 tiny Japanese netsuke carvings from his Uncle Ignace, he felt prompted to investigate their place in the family history. The Hare With Amber Eyes is the result.

The book opens with De Waal studying in Tokyo in 1991 while on a two year scholarship, visiting his Uncle Iggie (Ignace) in his home in Tokyo, which he shares with Jiro, his partner of 41 years. Ignace has a wonderful collection of netsuke which has been in the family since the late 19th century. Three years later, Uncle Iggie dies, and Jiro writes and signs a document bequeathing the netsuke to Edmund once Jiro himself has gone.

When Edmund eventually owns the netsuke he finds himself greatly intrigued by the history of this remarkable collection, and realises that all he really knows are a few anecdotes, which become thinner in the telling. The only answer is to carry out a proper investigation into their story - and off he sets to visit the locations the netsuke have resided in and to investigate those who owned them before.

The Hare with Amber Eyes is a lovely book. I have read similar accounts of family history where too much is assumed, where scenes are guessed at, conversations created where none could possible be recalled, and personalities are elaborated until they are far too larger than life. Edmund de Waal seems to be a very careful writer. He has only written about what he knows and what he can prove from primary sources.... Read more ›

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503 of 520 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Remembrance of Times Past 24 Jun 2010

By R. G. Saunders

Format:Hardcover

This is a mesmerising many-layered book. The fascinating narrative of the fabulously wealthy Jewish Ephrussi family moves through the decades from commercial Odessa to the Paris of the Impressionists and artistic salons to the brutal destruction of the Anschluss of 1938 in Vienna and a familial diaspora over three continents. Parallel to this, we follow with the author his own emotive journey to reclaim the lives lived in the vanished rooms of his forbears. This he does sensitively and successfully, imagining his way there through archives, letters and contemporary fiction. He visits all the great houses and, in Odessa, tasting the dust of the demolished palace rooms, he rejoices in the survival of the Ephrussi family emblem on a last remaining banister.

Such evocative writing and small discovered detail make this a story we want to follow with him and we find that this is not, after all, a tale of acquisition but of loss. The 264 tiny Japanese carvings (netsuke) bought in the 1870s in Paris are all that now remain of the family possessions. We also come to understand another loss: the Ephrussis no longer felt defined by their Jewish origins: artists and socialites passed through their grand salons. It is shocking to discover that even those who enjoyed their patronage were casually anti-Semitic. It is hard to read the vivid account of the abrupt violence of the Nazis as they took (almost) every precious possession from them, leaving them, in the end, only their Jewishness.

The netsuke are the beginning and ending of the story. Their exquisite detail is emblematic of this beautifully crafted book and its touching story of the individuals through whose hands they passed.... Read more ›

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26 of 27 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars In Search of Time Lost Reading this Book 15 Oct 2011

By Quicksilver TOP 500 REVIEWER VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I am genuinely surprised about how many people love this book. Whilst it does offer a lens on anti-Semitism across a century of European history, 'The Hare with Amber Eyes' also manages to be incredibly tedious.

I should probably offer up a few caveats of my opinions before offering my assessment of what is obviously a much-loved book. I am not a great reader of biography. I can probably count the number I have read on one finger. Despite having read many excellent reviews of this book in the press, I had decided it wasn't my thing at all. But then my book-group (which has a most democratic arrangement) decided to read it. Not being one to duck a book I don't like the look of, I gave it a try.

The novel traces the history of the author Edmund De Waal's family, though an inheritance - 264 carved Japanese netsukes. De Waal wants to trace their history and the meaning they had for their owners. I had assumed from this premise that the objects would be of great significance to their owners, but I don't feel that they ever were.

Originally from Odessa, the Ephrussi family were extremely wealthy bankers. The branch we follow first has relocated to Paris, where they are patrons of the arts. The netsukes were purchased as part of the fashion at the time for Japanese items, and I get the impression it was done without much thought; acquisition was the key. Most of the Paris section of the book is an exercise in name dropping. Ephrussi knew Renoir, Proust, and countless other luminaries of the time. - So what? It's vaguely interesting, but it takes more than a list of famous people to make a good book. The bulk of the first hundred pages, could be distilled as - 'Rich people buy stuff'; hardly a revelation....

De Waal's depiction of the Ephrussi family is lifeless, and perhaps this stems from it being a biography. In a novel, emotions and thoughts can be expressed easily, but I assume De Waal was working through source material that only detailed facts; what his ancestors did, rather than what they felt. The result is very dry.

Where the book is strongest is as a document of social history. The casual anti-Semitism of fin-de-siècle Paris, is something about which I was shamefully ignorant. The factions and politics around the Dreyfus affair was a subject that I was only dimly aware of, but the Ephrussis were at its heart. Interesting, yet the netsukes barely feature.

My impression that the netsukes were a mere bagatelle for the Ephrussi family was reinforced when they are casually given away as a wedding present (I don't think it was because they were much loved that they were passed on). This is how the story moves to Vienna. Here the netsukes become children's playthings, which at last shows some emotional attachment to them.

The Viennese section of the book is by far the strongest. The details of the family's desire to assimilate into Viennese society is interesting, as is the insight into the strong Jewish network in a city that was the cultural and intellectual hub of Europe. As the Second World War approaches the mood becomes stormier and the lives of the family more turbulent. The effect of the Anschluss on the family is devastating.

Interesting though this was, I still found the book lacking. The story of Holocaust is one that can't be told too many times. The plight of the family is of course, deeply affecting but not because of great writing on the author's part. This is a story that has been told many times before and so much better too. I wonder if people's love of this book is because of the emotive nature of its subject matter.

After the war the story trundles on, and to reveal much more would spoil what little surprise the book has. Despite having now been alive at the same time as the major players in his family's history, and having met and conversed with them, De Waal's ancestors still felt flat to me (With the exception of his remarkable Grandmother). There is one tantalising revelation that could have opened up the human side of his Uncle, but it is glossed over in a single sentence.

I seem to have had an adverse reaction to this book, and many will find my opinion unpalatable, but I found `THWAE' to be turgid and putdownable. The netsukes that supposedly form the backbone of this book, for me at least, failed to come alive. If I had to sum it up in single sentence (too late!), I would say it was `Cash in the Attic' meets `Who Do You Think You Are?'. A harsh appraisal, but I think an apt one. Mr De Waal's next book is apparently about pots - This one is about as interesting as watching glaze dry. Read more ›

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars The Hare with amber eyes

I was engrossed from start to finsh.Fascinating hiatory of family enjoying unimaginable wealth, ruined mainly because they were Jewish. Read more

Published 2 days ago by oldie

5.0 out of 5 stars An enthralling and brilliant read

A richly observed historical memoir, tracing the netsuke's journey through two centuries of his family's dramatic past to the present

Published 4 days ago by elaine j marshall

4.0 out of 5 stars Amasing

Loved the history off this book. The times and the amazing story and all the work that has bean put in to the book.

Published 6 days ago by monica

4.0 out of 5 stars Highly reecommended

I found this book very interesting and a good unusual historical account of a wealthy family and their losses in the last
war.

Published 12 days ago by mrs j. hogg

3.0 out of 5 stars A THOUGHT PROVOKING BOOK FOR A QUIET NIGHT IN.

I AM ONLY ONE THIRD OF THE WAY THROUGH THIS BOOK AND FIND THE INSIGHTS INSIGHTS INTO THE JEALOUSY OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY IN VIENNA AT THE END OF THE 19TH CENTURY, AS TOLD BY A... Read more

Published 14 days ago by Mrs. Gloria Burke

3.0 out of 5 stars A recomended read

Recamended by two friends as a must .

Thus far not finished and not particularly able to recamend, or even interested in the topic

Published 16 days ago by Merryl Gahan

5.0 out of 5 stars Fab book tracing the trail of art thro' a Jewish family in the 18 and...

An artistic way of seeing the history of the two world wars through the eyes of a Jewish family by tracing the path of a collection of netsuke as it changed hands within the... Read more

Published 17 days ago by SNOOSIESUSIE

4.0 out of 5 stars Atmospheric and brilliant

This book was recommended to me after we visited Paris in March as we visited Rue de Monceau where the story starts. Read more

Published 19 days ago by Manda Moo

5.0 out of 5 stars Cool autobiography

This is an unusual take on the genre, threading pan-European (and eventually far Eastern) family and more general political history on to the circumstance of a Jewish family's... Read more

Published 22 days ago by Ronnie Mulryne

5.0 out of 5 stars I thought I wasn't going to enjoy this book

As one of my reading group choice books I thought this might have been one of the less interesting picks, but I was fascinated by the story of this Jewish family and their... Read more

Published 28 days ago by kartracer

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