| You're Not From Around Here, Are You?: Reminiscences/Memoir Contributor(s): Madland, Helga Stipa (Author) |
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ISBN: ISBN-13: 9798655482838 Publisher: Independently Published OUR PRICE: $10.37 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: October 2020 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Biography & Autobiography | Personal Memoirs |
| Physical Information: 0.62" H x 5" W x 7.99" (0.65 lbs) 294 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: The first part of my book concentrates on my family's (sister, mother father) experiences during and after World War II. We lived in Upper Silesia, now a part of Poland; when the war came to an end and the Russian Army moved into Eastern Germany. We became refugees, fleeing to West Germany, along with many other people. As a six year old--my sister Ingrid was four --I was terrified; so were the adults. In the middle of air raid attacks -- bombings, sirens, we barely missed the bombing of Dresden -- we moved west by any means possible. Ultimately, after my father had escaped as a prisoner of war, we settled in West Germany and later emigrated to the United States.The second half of my reminiscences/memoir describes the years after my graduation from high school-- marriage, children, divorce, later graduate school, and and ends in 1981, at which time I accepted a position as an assistant professor. One reviewer said that part reads somewhat like a holiday letter -- what we did last year -- and she may be right. I don't especially like holiday letters, but I try to be funny, and think sometimes I succeed. I like the comment by a reviewer who writes: "But it is Helga Madland's sense of humor and stylistic lightness which makes this narrative very readable and keeps the story from becoming ponderous and painfully personal." The immediate impetus for this book is as follows: Not long ago I returned from a summer of research in Germany. After I took the shuttle from the airport in Oklahoma City to Norman and settled back into my house, I realized we needed an item that required a trip to a department store. Standing in line at the cash register I spoke to the cashier, when the woman behind me said: "You're not from around here, are you?" "No," I answered. It was a question I had heard many times. In fact I had just heard it in German when boarding my plane at the Frankfurt AirportLuckily, I have been able to write it all down . |
