Mosaic

A Chronicle of Five Generations

By: Diane Armstrong

Narrated by: Deidre Rubenstein

Length: 19 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

This remarkable true story begins in the Polish city of Krakow in 1890 and spans 100 years and four continents.God blessed Lieba and the devout Jewish patriarch Daniel Baldinger with 11 children. This richly textured portrait follows their lives, lives that personify the struggles and hopes of our century, down the decades, through the terrifying years of the Holocaust to the present.

Mosaic is compelling storytelling at its best - from the fascinating details of Polish-Jewish culture and the rivalries and dramas of family life, to its moving account of lives torn apart by war and persecution, this an extraordinary story of a family, and of one woman's journey to reclaim her heritage.

©2002 Diane Armstrong (P)2009 Bolinda Publishing

Critic reviews

"Although it has the epic sweep and emotional depth of a 19th-century novel, Diane Armstrong's absorbing family memoir centers around the 20th-century Holocaust that consumed the lives of six million European Jews....Her skillful blending of vibrant individual voices across the generations makes this memoir a touching tribute to the healing powers of storytelling as well as to the unquenchable human spirit." (Amazon.com review)

Compelling story in recreated history

What did you love best about Mosaic?

This book tells the story of an extended family through generations, bringing the horrors of the Holocaust into focus, and telling the stories from a different point of view, including that of survivors.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Too many.

Any additional comments?

This was so good, I look forward to listening to it again.

What a well written story to be so long

The story kept my interest for all those hours. That’s hard to do. The people became personal to me and I was so saddened at their fate especially the authors mother . I didn’t realize that the nazis weren’t totally responsible for the Jewish demise but Catholics and regular polish citizens and those people of the Ukraine and even I to the 1990’s was anti Semitic sentiment no wonder the Jews never felt safe I want to read more from Diane Armstrong. I wish I could have seen pictures and seen a family tree. A lot of characters to keep up with

Absolutely excellent!

I've read and seen other stories of the Holocaust, but this one excels. It has so many details, it makes you feel you actually knew the members of her family. One caution though, if you're struggling with depression, this is not the book to read right now. The subject matter is very difficult and heart-rending, although it's written very well. She actually came up with words for the thoughts that went thru my head when MY mother died, at the time her mother passed away - things that rang so true, I was in tears while listening - and I very seldom cry when it comes to books.

I have one suggestion - there are so many people in her family that I went into Google Books, hoping to find some kind of family tree from her book, and it was there! Just do a search on "Mosaic" in Google Books - I downloaded it, printed it out, and kept it in my car so I could glance at it every so often if I was wondering who she was talking about. It really helped, especially because of the foreign names and because some of the family members actually had the same name.

I found out a few years ago that I'm Jewish and that some of my family members died in the Holocaust. Because of this book, I now feel that I can identify with what some of them must have experienced during those awful years. Highly recommended!

Should be read by all high school students

This was an amazing piece of literature. In story form it provides a history of what happened to many Jews in Poland during WWll. A must read.

Spectacular story

A deeply moving account of triumph under harrowing and heartbreaking times. One of the finest nonfiction works I've ever encountered. Despite the hardships and horrors, a family lives and testifies to the power of love, family, survival. Highly recommended for its' breadth of emotion, fabulous narration and stunning account of victory.

Excellent!

I go through about 3-4 audio books a month and I rarely write reviews, but for this book I will take the time. Diane, with her thoughtful words tells a complex multi-generational tale of a large Jewish family and its slow decent into the horrifying years that the madman Hitler ruled part of Europe.

To tell the story of so many characters is difficult but Diane seems to do it with ease and congruency. Her story telling ability had me not wanting to turn off the radio. I found myself driving around the outskirts of my neighborhood for a few more minutes to hear what happens next.

The accented Deidre Rubenstein does an excellent job of narrating this journey of a family rich in character, the sad fate of some and the brave journey of those who kept moving forward and lived to tell about it.

I found this to be a beautifully and interesting told story of an important and very scary time we should never forget, if nothing else, so it does not happen again. It seems to not understand this history only allows the door to open for history to repeat itself, perhaps with a different culture and a slightly different bent. Diane captures the time and the moments magnificently.

Fascinating

Where does Mosaic rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Mosaic ranks at the top of my audible listens. I have heard over 250 books. My tastes usually run to sci-fi, espionage,and history.
This book is for anyone who has family from eastern europe whose history is lost in the terrors of WW II, has had family who fought to free the world from Nazi insanity, or is interested in following a Jewish family thru 4 generations and two world wars.
There are times when the names run together but this is a minor inconvenience.
The narrator is clear and speaks with emotion.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The first genertion children have the most depth especially th first son.

Have you listened to any of Deidre Rubenstein’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

This is my first experience with Diedra Rubenstein who was excellent.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

This could be an HBO series of 5-15 episodes.

Any additional comments?

I felt as if the story integrated into my being.

The best book of the year so far

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

By buying this book I have read the best book . Learned so much about the second world war and all the different countries in Europe that were effected .
The people especialy , I hope we never ever experience any thing like it again .
Thank you DIANE ARMSTRONG for this book .

What was one of the most memorable moments of Mosaic?

All of it .

Which scene was your favorite?

Yes .

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It made me relaise how cruel people can be when they are controled by a dictator .

Any additional comments?

I have allready recommended this book to many of my friends .

Mosaic

This is an amazing book that is perfectly narrated. The story is captivating and important I'm almost to the end and I want it to go on!

Amazing recovery of one family's history and tree.

This is a good book and, for the most part, interesting about the personal quest to recover a family's history and through them, to understand the lives of Polish Jews from the early 1900's through the 1950's, although some events are drawn from contemporary life. Other reviewers have described its content and some of the details, and I will not repeat them. It is remarkable how many of her relatives survived the holocaust, an abnormally large percentage compared to the three million Polish Jews (90%) killed. Ironically, it probably reflected that many of her relatives were not really part of a closely knit family and often children were eager to leave home to seek their fortunes, sometimes elsewhere in Poland, sometimes further. This was especially true of the 11 children of Daniel and Lieba, of which her father was one.

It is both a tale about various branches of the author's family tree as well as a personal journey to recapture her lost early childhood during the holocaust, having been born in 1939. Who were the people she met and knew at a young age? How have they contributed to the person that she has become? Given the devastation and destruction of European Jewry, it is amazing how many details of her family tree she was able to uncover. It illustrates her journalistic talent and experience.

The book reads like an historical novel except when she is relating her own impressions and experiences. Indeed, many of the specific events and conversations are clearly speculative, although having a basis in fact. This enhanced the reading and made for a much more interesting story than a narrative of the results of her research and interviews. She has a good sense of drama; however, I sometimes wondered whether I was reading a composite of some people who may have existed or descriptions of meetings and events that never really occured.

Her portraits of her near relatives seem realistic. She attributes to them positive qualities, such as generosity or cleverness, while, at the same time, indicating shortcomings, such as jealousy, selfishness, coldness, or miserliness.

On the other hand, the book is a bit tedious at times and could have benefitted from a strong editor. Her story could easily have been told in less than 500 pages instead of 600. Some events and thoughts are repeated verbatim, and some of her introspections are drawn out far too long. For example, her emotional difficulties dealing with the decline of her mother's health and, eventually, her death in Sydney, are not really so different from the experiences of many others who have had to become caregivers to one or more parent. However sad, it is really tangential to the book's thread, yet it drags on and on.

About the audio edition: The narrator did a very good job, given the first person point of view of the author. There are many characters who make appearances or are referenced in some part of the book that it is hard sometimes to remember. The printed book has diagrams of the family tree that the author recovered. Audible was remiss in not making this available to download. It would have helped me avoid a lot of confusion.