First Chapter Review: BECOMING AMERICAN: A POLITICAL MEMOIR by Cary D. Lowe #firstchapterreview

Thanks for visiting Literarily Speaking! Today's post is a first chapter review for BECOMING AMERICAN: A POLITICAL MEMOIR, Cary D. Lowe's latest political memoir. First, a little about the book....

Becoming American is the inspiring story of the author’s transformation from a child of Holocaust survivors in post-war Europe to an American lawyer, academic, and activist associated with such famed political leaders as Robert Kennedy, George McGovern, Jerry Brown, and Tom Hayden.

Searching for his great-grandparents’ graves in a hidden cemetery outside Prague makes him recall his experiences of becoming American: listening to Army Counterintelligence agents gathered at his family home in Austria; a tense encounter with Russian soldiers during the post-war occupation; seeing Jim Crow racism in the South during his first visit to the United States; becoming an American citizen in his teens; having his citizenship challenged by border guards; fearing for his new country upon witnessing the Watts riots in Los Angeles; advancing the American dream as a real estate lawyer, helping develop entire new communities; and rising to leadership positions in organizations shaping government policies around some of the most important issues of our time.

Becoming American won the 2020 Discovery Award for best political writing from an independent publisher. It features a foreword by bestselling author Edith Eger.

FAVORITE QUOTE FROM FIRST CHAPTER:

Although the slaughter was over, the guns were silent, and the armies mostly had gone home, I lived amid the aftermath of the war — the bombed cities being rebuilt, the Hitlerhaus that cast a cloud over my hometown, my refugee nanny Herma, displaced persons in squatters’ camps, and concentration camp survivors piecing their lives back together.

BOOK COVER:

I personally absolutely love the cover and find it fitting for this book. It looks like a path leading to America. Very clever.

FIRST CHAPTER REVIEW:

Again so fitting, the first chapter opens with the author and his daughter looking for the graves of his paternal grand-parents in a long-closed Jewish cemetery near Strakonice, in the countryside south of Prague. They reach the cemetery only to find it locked and they can't get in. This is when the author gives us a little back story telling us why it was so important to find these graves. The author takes us back to the Holocaust remembering stories of his father's narrow escape from Vienna on the eve of WWII and of his mother's years in hiding during the war and her narrowing escape. The author takes us back to his childhood in Austria in which The Iron Curtain blocked them off from their roots for years. He remembers "Although the slaughter was over, the guns were silent, and the armies mostly had gone home, I lived amid the aftermath of the war - the bombed cities being rebuilt, the Hitlerhaus that cast a cloud over my hometown, my refugee nanny Herma, dsplaced persons in squatters' camps, and concentration camp survivors piercing their lives back together."

The author tells us about two weeks earlier when his late father's older sister, Mimi, wanted him to do something very important to her - find the graves of the author's great-grandparents and see if they are alright.

The very end of the chapter, when they feel somewhat defeated because they can't seem to get into the graveyard, his daughter tells him to climb the wall. And that's where the chapter ends and the journey begins.

KEEP READING?

I'm telling you - on this first chapter alone which is powerful in itself - I am dying to read the rest of the book. I'm so into the Holocaust for sure but the author has a way with words and makes me want to finish the book. When I'm finished, I'll write up a proper review. Overall, with this first chapter, it grabbed me in so much that I'm going to have to finish it soon and I can't wait. Well done!

Pick up your copy!

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Cary Lowe is the author of the award-winning book Becoming American: A Political Memoir. He has published over fifty essays on political and civic issues in major newspapers, as well as professional reports and articles in professional journals.

Mr. Lowe is a retired California land use lawyer with 45 years of experience representing public agencies, developers, Indian tribes, and non-profit organizations. He holds a law degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California. He taught courses in law and urban planning at USC, UCLA, and UC San Diego, and he writes and lectures on land use and environmental issues. In addition to his legal experience, Mr. Lowe is a credentialed mediator affiliated with the Land Use & Environmental Mediation Group of the National Conflict Resolution Center.