2005 book 139

vikram seth's two lives
here, seth writes a compelling double biography of his great-uncle and great-aunt--one a one-armed indian dentist, the other his german-jewish wife--and their lives in the 1930s and 40s. seth's research into their pasts is fascinating, and his presentation of aunt henny's family being decimated in the Holocaust is a compassionate one--though i could have done without his imaginings of their deaths. this somewhat unlikely pair and seth's obvious affection for them make for an engaging story, and my only complaint is that the brief appendixes didn't include charts/family trees (i especially was confused by some of seth's family's relationships, since their closeness transcended generational lines and i occasionally got confused about who was an uncle and who a brother). anyway, both members of this pair led fascinating lives, and the exercpts from his aunt's correspondence were an especially interesting read.