Location: United States
Member Since: Aug. 12, 2014

Kordish

Smashwords book reviews by Kordish

  • Unexpected Odyssey: Danzig to Tennessee on Aug. 16, 2014

    Comments on Unexpected Odyssey: The memoir reads like a “bildungsroman” of a young lad in the 18th-19th C. with a youthful resolve to pursue a chosen path regardless of obstacles and without the financial means to undertake a more formal or traditional path. Without a father figure, or someone to provide guidance, he relied on inner resources for much of adolescence, and somehow, acquired the confidence to move away, and found others who took an interest and supported him. An intense desire to do a job conscientiously, and to the utmost of his abilities on the one hand, and on the other, putting up with indifference, and vexations of all kinds seem to be a driving force of his life. Given his life’s experiences to a point, there nevertheless, seemed to always be a cleft separating his outlook, preoccupations and expectations from those of his peers, and a disquieting caution with close relationships. The recall of dates, names, and details is amazing: the events are so firmly etched in his memory. Pride, shame, the emotional highs and lows are vividly portrayed; as well, the frustrations, misplaced authority, tolerance for pettiness and smugness or indifference. He provides instances of kindness shown to him on several occasions by people he would never meet again that stayed with him all his life. It is so intriguing that he can pinpoint incidents early in the narrative that lead to events he could not have foreseen, but which are indelibly linked. And periodically, there is the presence of his mother, a bright star if somewhat removed, who is always there. She encouraged living one’s life however it fell out, as it did for her. It was a moral issue, a consequence of choices, circumstance, and survival. His summation, a “weltanschauung,” has a tinge of bitterness? Contentment is elusive, and ultimately a static state of mind and his life was more dynamic and fluctuating. It is perhaps always dangerous to view an earlier life from the perspective of maturity and to project back, but there seems to have developed “clear” water between himself now, and the events which brought him to this point.