This book is a difficult read in my opinion. I know that all of the medical terminology is completely over my head. I felt like I spent much of the time at Dictionary.com. On the other hand I found the book quite fascinating and for lack of a better word “deep”. Sack writes about things that I never put much thought into before. I never thought about all of the functions of my body and mind and how they could relate to how I function on a daily basis. What if I became spiritually disconnected from my body? I could only imagine it being like the feeling that I get when a hand or a foot “falls asleep”. This “asleep” feeling would possess my entire body and would never wake up. I know that I was most touched by the story about the disembodied woman. I could not help trying to imagine what it would be like to live as she did unable to physically feel. What if I could never feel the touch of another human being? What would that do to my life as I know it?
Sacks writes about what normal people take for granted and about what he says about a person’s experience. Are we what we have experienced? I believe this is true. I believe that what we have experienced and what we hold in our memories will dictate how we will behave in our lives. If we do not remember our experiences are we not who we really are? (It begs the question). In my opinion, if we lose our experiences then we are like a child who is never capable of reaching adulthood. When I was reading Opincar, he wrote, “A child’s sadness is so large because he has nothing with which to compare it (142).” This could explain why teenagers are so dramatic and also why patients who have amnesia are indifferent to what they cannot remember.
I really like how Sacks quotes modern philosophers like Hume and Nietzsche. I believe that it does show what type of person that he is by which quotes he chooses to relate in his writings. I cannot imagine knowing a person much less a medical doctor like him. His bedside manner is philosophical and he is far from egocentric because he allows his patients to think and wants them to understand about their illness rather than simply writing a prescription.

The beginning of this book is mostly about Indian customs in Guatemala. This made the book hard for me to read in the beginning. I soon found out how powerful this book really is. I know that many of the atrocities that happened in Guatemala came with American dollars and actually started in 1954 when the CIA overthrew Guatemala’s democratically elected leader. Menchú speaks about a soldier that they caught that told her the things that they were doing was to prevent communism. This is Regan and the Cold War and the American government’s regime to wipe the world clean of communists no matter how many people died. I remember reading about how people are able to treat other human beings like animals was possible if the victims are not looked at as human beings but rather enemies. I suppose that if our American government could sell the idea that these peasants were trying to overthrow the Guatemalan government with the help of Russia in order to establish a communist state then it gave them the okay to eliminate these enemies. It did not matter that these people were unarmed and poor or that they were only trying to fight for their human rights; they were communists and needed to be exterminated. It is no surprise that the American government spent millions of tax dollars “helping” the Guatemalan government to fight communism during the Cold War and even after the Cold War ended. The really disgusting thing is that Guatemala was not the only country that the American government “helped” to serve its own interests in Latin America and elsewhere. And Americans do not understand why the U.S. will not sign the U.N. agreement to establish courts that bring to justice violators of human rights in the world. Anyone who wants to argue with Menchú’s story can read so many documents in our own Library of Congress that will prove that these accounts are true. They would just have to read past all of the bullshit and propaganda written to justify human rights violations.
Menchú speak of Catholicism and how the Christian religion helped keep the Indians silent and suffer as Jesus did. Then she actually read the bible and found out that being repressed in the name of God is only another tactic that their oppressors used to keep Indians silent and in their place. Suppression in the name of Christianity is not new to us and it is easy to see why it is so very effective when it has been used so many times. Perhaps the portion of Christian faith that teaches us to accept suffering in order to prove to the Almighty that we are worthy of heaven only makes it that much easier to become exploited is promoted by repressive governments. On the other hand, perhaps it is an easy way to give up and gives people a reason to accept their lives as they are no matter how mush suffering they have to endure. Either way, the only way to see past the martyrdom of Christianity is to become educated about the faith rather than have someone tell people what it means to be a Christian.

It is difficult to imagine the horrors that happened in Europe during the Holocaust. The truly sad thing is that racial genocide has been carried out several times since the Holocaust. Personally, I have studied the Holocaust in vain trying to make some kind of sense out of it. I have made my own conclusions and studied the Holocaust to a point where nothing surprised me when it came to the lack of human compassion. Many people say, “Wow, that was a horrible thing that happened!” What people do not realize however, is that this “thing” happens over and over again. The really sad part is that they happen right under our noses.

• 1.7 million Cambodians during 1975-1979.
• Sudan of genocide for killing more than 2 million civilians in the south during an ongoing civil war since 1983.
• The murder of thousands of Kurds in northern Iraq by Hussein in 1980’s.
• Organized ethnic cleansing carried out by Serbs against Croats, Roma, and Bosnians throughout the period. More than 7,000 Muslim men and boys were massacred in Srebrenica in July 1995.
• The Rwandan Genocide of 937,000 Rwandan Tutsis including women and children and Hutu moderates at the hands of Hutu militias and the Hutu-dominated government in 1994.

Just to name a recent few. I suppose that learning about what “is” happening becomes more important when we educate our students about diversity and racial issues. It is baffling to think that people could hate each other so much to kill just because they think that someone is different.
As for the subject of Maus, I would like to address the racial issues placed on the characters in the book. I do not know if Spiegelman is simply being ironic in his racial representation of the characters in Maus or if he is really a racist. The Jews are mice, the Nazi’s are cats, the poles are pigs, and the Americans are dogs. I can see why the Jews are mice and the Nazi’s are cats considering the actions of the Nazi’s and Jews during the Holocaust. The cats chase the mice and the dogs chase the cats. The poles as pigs are a little confusing because I associate pigs with dirty and greed. I can see the greed part because in order to help the Jews, the polish people always needed money or something of material value. On the other hand, they were poor and risking their lives in order to help the Jews. It would have been more moralistic for the Polish people to help the Jews at no cost. It is terrifying to think about what it would have been like to live as a Jew in Nazi controlled Europe during WWII. While reading Maus I kept hoping that Anja’s journals would turn up at any time. I still do not understand why Vladek destroyed them. Was it out of spite so that Anja would be truly dead? Was it revenge toward Anja for killing herself? Or could he have destroyed the journals in order to destroy the traces of the Holocaust? I cannot help but think that there were things in Anja’s journals that Vladek did not wish for anyone to know. I suppose that the real point is that nobody will ever know except Vladek.

To me Patrimony was the most realistic book that I have read. I felt like I could have known these people in real life. The author sometimes is a little over dramatic especially when he described how he felt after recovering from his heart surgery. And then again maybe since I have never experienced such a close call in my own life, I really cannot say that his being over dramatic was or was not in the right context. I suppose I just do not like when men attempt to describe or compare anything they have experienced to childbirth and especially the experience of a nursing mother. I rolled my eyes so far in the back of my head that I could see my brain while I read his description of the rebirth of his arteries. Nevertheless, this book made me feel quite sad because I thought very much about my own parents and their deaths as well as my own. I suppose it is not enough for me to continuously think about the death of my son out of fear that it could happen. I know that I feel this way because I am responsible for his life and I know how very fragile a life it is. I am the first to admit that I am terrified that I may die because I feel like my life has been a series of hard work to reach goals in order for my life to finally begin.
This book has made me want to find out more about my parents mostly because I love them so very much and the fact that they are both pushing coronaries. I really never think about losing my parents and during spring break, while I was reading this book, I spent the entire week with them. Probing them for their informative histories, I found out much more than I wanted about their lives. The things that they got into while we lived in the cesspool Philippines alone were enough to guarantee their journey to Hell. They have by now, purged themselves by confession and penance so I do feel comfortable that they will journey past Purgatory.
While reading this book, I felt like the things that the characters did could happen to anyone myself included. In particular the part where Philip wishes he could take back what he said about his inheritance from his father. I have found myself in situations like this where I wish I had not committed to something yet I must keep my word valuable so I make myself commit to my initial decision. These types of experiences for me just harden one of my philosophies that a person will always find a decision difficult to make until he or she is actually faced with the consequences of that very decision.
Patrimony is definitely one of the more downbeat books that I have read in a while. I think that for me Patrimony is depressing because it is so true to life.

When I first began reading Fried Butter I thought that Opincar was a man whose memories were brought by food and I could picture him sitting there at the table or wherever he was paused in reminiscence. Just to name a few instances are when he left his wife he is reminded of baked chicken. His memories of friends in Paris are provoked with goose liver and black radishes. Fried eggs and persimmons reminded him of his mother.
Then, when I continued to read, I realized that this book is a series of stories not about Opincar’s life but about people that he knew and people that his friends knew. It is like he is a bystander who heard a story about something that happened in someone’s life and shares their stories with us. He shares stories about a blond he knew, his doctor, and his doctor’s friend.
Opincar offers tidbits of information about different cultures that are quite interesting like when he writes about insulting the cook if a knife is used in Paris. Also he offers information about the history of basil and avocado and foods that have a strong odor like cheese that are considered a delicacy in certain cultures.
I am struck by the difference between Fried Butter and Autobiography of a Face. I now understand the difference between an autobiography and a memoir. An autobiography is a work about the author and a memoir is more like a record of events written by a person who either experienced or observed them.
I must have gained about five pounds while reading this book. I find myself looking for new things at the grocery store. I believe that Opincar is a worldly man who has a sensual memory and life. I love how he describes food. I will never eat the same again. While reading this book I often found myself daydreaming about what foods reminded me of. On my internal voyage, I can see how food and life are connected. Maslow said that food is on the top of the hierarchy of needs. After food comes shelter and so on. I can understand how food is so essential and why people love it so much.

I really do not know where to begin with this book. Once I began to read it, I could not put it down. I suppose that this is the real story about history as seen through the eyes of the other side of a history book. I never knew how Crazy horse died. I really do not know how to feel about it. I can feel angry that Black Elk and his people were pushed out of their territory and murdered on their land. I vaguely remember the story as told to me about Little Big Horn and Crazy Horse in history classes. I can feel the anger that Black Elk and the others who speak in this book have when they describe the deceit of the Wasichuas. I can see how the Wasichuas took what they wanted and in doing so made the Native American population dependent on them. I suppose that this is the way things end up when a war is lost. It is wrong and unfair but what can one person do when everyone else disagrees or the opposing power is stronger.
I believe that this book offers more than a mere history lesson though. I see more about the religion and way of life in which Black Elk and his people participated. The religion is described in cycles and there are no gods but ancestors. Where gods are powerful in other religions, in the Sioux theology the ancestors are wise and know the ways of the Native American people. It is a personal religion where help and understanding is sought with the ancestors rather than simple worship. The goal of the ancestors is the preserved existence of their bloodlines rather than their pleasure. I really can understand how the greatest powers are the world around them. The Earth, Sun, Moon, Four legged and those whose legs are roots are seen as living together in harmony in the Native American religion. All of nature around them is spiritual. This book is truly enlightening.

When I first began to read this autobiography, I was confused about what Lucy Grealy really looked like. I still cannot picture her face in my head as it was before her final surgery. Her photo on the back of the book shows a somewhat uneven jaw line but I can still not understand how serious her disfigurement was without looking at a photograph. I tried several times to imagine what life would have been like if I had lived a life like Lucy Grealy. I know that the worst place to have any type of blemish or imperfection is on a person’s face. I am however amazed at her ability to cope with her disappointment after every surgery failed. It must be like winning the lottery and then losing all of the money. To build her hopes up before and after each surgery believing that her life would be better, more livable, just to find herself back where she started must have been devastating. She wrote about how she would try not to hope for anything better and how every time she would do it anyway. I am sure that if she never truly believed that she deserved anything better then she would not have gone through with the surgery every time.
I was quite interested in her philosophies about life and how she interpreted truth and beauty to be within reach even though she never really wrote about finding it except for how she would accept that she was ugly and she knew that she would never find the love that she felt she needed from someone else. This was her truth and every once in a while her truth would crumble with the prospects of another surgery just to come back to the same truth that she began with. After reading this book, I believe that truth and beauty are as individual as the person who seeks it. Just as each person seeks truth and beauty for a different reason.

In the beginning of this book where Hong Kingston wrote about her imaginary life as a woman warrior in China was really exciting. I always love reading about women who are powerful because women are usually written as victims. Surprisingly Hong Kingston, in my opinion, does not make herself a victim in this book. I imagine her fighting against all attempts to make her a victim.
I suppose if I had not read more than this book about Communist China it would be difficult for me to understand the murder of so many female children. It is still difficult for me to understand how a person could murder their own child. I do know that at one point the Chinese government permitted infanticide and even encouraged it. Beijing’s population control program limited parents to one child preferably a male. Chinese couples were penalized by wage-cuts and reduced access to social services when children are born “outside the plan. From what I understand the penalty could mean starvation for a family that depended on wages and government help. Because female children would belong to their in-laws, a male child was preferred in order to help and take care of their parents in old age. This is not a Chinese policy any longer because among other things the ratio between males and females in China was something like 100 males to one female in the aftermath.
Toward the end of the book, Hong Kingston tries to communicate with her mother about her feelings and experiences growing up and her mother tells her to stop talking so much. I could feel Hong Kingston’s frustration. I remember thinking at this point in the book that she should make her mother listen to her. In the end however, Hong Kingston becomes outraged and tells her mother everything that is on her mind simply to find out that her mother did not feel as Hong Kingston believed.
What was especially powerful about this book was the way Hong Kingston felt at school. I plan to be a teacher in the public school and I would have never guessed that some of the reasons children refuse to participate is due to cultural reasons. I would have assumed as Hong Kingston’s teacher did that it had something to do with politics or laziness. I believe that all teachers should research the cultures of their students in order to understand them better. In fact I think that there should be a class taught at the university level and become a required course that teachers must complete in order to receive their degrees to teach. .

This book helps us understand the man behind the image. It is important to read the entire book because he changes so much throughout the book. It is really sad in the end but he grows and changes during the course of writing the book. I am so glad that I read this book.