Christien, The Green Mountain Wonder (Adventures of Christien, The Green Mountain Wonder Book 1)

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The Farm in the Green Mountains is a story of a refugee family finding its true home—thousands of miles from its homeland. Alice and Carl Zuckmayer lived at the center of Weimar era Berlin. She was a former actor turned medical student, he was a playwright, and their circle of friends included Stefan Zweig, Alma Mahler, and Bertolt Brecht. The couple and their two daughters were forced to flee, first to Austria, then to Switzerland, and finally to the United States.

I really enjoyed this memoir. It triggered wonderful memories of snail mail letters, often chapters of unpublished books, as they were so thick and packed with news. I recount a letter from Vermont, addressed to me in my remote little world in the mountains, from the real nun who married Captain Von Trapp in The Sound Of Music.

In her own hand writing she wrote to me from her Vermont home and had me almost passed on from anaphalactic shock when I opened the letter and realized where it came from. Several years ago a penfriend in New Jersey picked up on my love for that movie, traveled to Vermont, met the nun and told her about me.

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I received a book, autographed by her, with several family photos not publicity pics of the children and the personal written letter. Can you imagine my surprise!? Since then I always had this dream to one day visit Vermont myself. Alas, that dream might never happen, but in the meantime, some other treats can make up for that loss. By reading Diane's review of this memoir, I decided to read it. Partly because of Vermont, but also because it was one of those books that slipped through the grit of pop lit.

And of course I live in an even more remote location, where it takes two hours and three mountain passes just to reach the nearest tar road with a four-wheel drive high powered vehicle! We cannot drive Ferraris, they're simply not convertibles. They cannot be converted into chicken-pens or u-boats. We have to cross the river 35 times to the nearest tar road. When said river is in flood, these four by four vehicles need to be converted into u-boats! Another remote farm and an equally inexperienced urbanite who took on the romance of living on a remote farm and make chickens a secondary family, with often the same funny results.

However, The Farm in the Green Mountains had a serious tone, and a different approach to the challenges that kept this German family away from everything they ever loved and treasured. They were immigrants and emigrants. They had a tough time learning a new language and settling down in America. And their memories of "the plague" ruling Germany? We have emigrated from there, we no longer belong there.

Will they distrust us here, because we come from the land in which the plague reigns? Will they quarantine us in camps, the way they did in France, or deport us, the way it happened in England? Emigration and immigration are the same as death and birth. I have not yet been born again. From the bitterly cold winters which made their ears hurt, to the ever present Drude depression who waited for any opportunity to invade their home in the long dark freezing days.

The Farm in the Green Mountains by Alice Herdan-Zuckmayer

Drude, Drude, come tomorrow, I can wait to borrow sorrow. In between they had animals with psychological problems; a duck with an identity crisis; a long road through the woods to walk to the nearest road; bears, foxes, rats, and other creatures which insisted on sharing their space, and the non-stop labour which left their hands blistered and bloodied.

Farm life turned out to be a never-ending cascade of chores. But the laughter were always present. Alice made of every hardship an opportunity, found in every setback a gift, in every unforeseen problem an adventure, in every new obstacle a good story to tell in her letters to friends in Germany.

These letters became this book. The translator says in the introduction: There is a hilariously cranky, bossy old woman on their party line. There is a transgender house cat, an infertile chicken, an antisocial duck, and a naughty dog. There are misadventures and horror stories and always, always there is more work to be done. The intricacies of their days, the ins and outs of life on the farm as it is learned and lived by these unlikely inhabitants, this is superficially what The Farm in the Green Mountains is about. A wonderful, deeply moving and inspiring read.

View all 19 comments. Aug 15, Diane Barnes rated it really liked it. I sorely needed a quiet, peaceful read after my last book, which was intense. This one gave me that, a brief respite from the horrors of the world we live in right now. This one began with the author and her family leaving the horrors of Nazi Germany, not because they were Jews, but because her husband had been critical of the Hitler regime, both vocally and in print.

They found themselves sitting out the war on an isolated farm in Vermont, where they raised chickens and goats, struggling to make I sorely needed a quiet, peaceful read after my last book, which was intense. They found themselves sitting out the war on an isolated farm in Vermont, where they raised chickens and goats, struggling to make ends meet in a country in which they were not only foreign, but from a country with which the U.

It is written with humor, with love for America, and for the town and people of Bernard, Vermont. A straight-forward account of their difficulties, and also the blessings they received along the way. I liked their philosophy: You will always be happy if you don't expect much, but are satisfied with people and things as they are. I was reading happily along toward the end, when they returned to Europe to see what was left of the world they had fled, when this passage hit me like a sledgehammer.

The Farm in the Green Mountains

It was written in A few had been destroyed. Others sit behind bars. Many have assumed straight-jackets of de-nazification to convince people that they are normal again, but they are just waiting for a new era of insanity, when crimes will again be legally permitted and the mentally ill will again achieve power and honor. I guess nothing ever really changes, does it?

View all 7 comments. May NYRB selection. Herdan-Zuckmayer's memoir about her time on a farm in Vermont is wonderful. You meet her goats. More importantly, are the wonderful descriptions of the surrondings as well as mediations on the difference between European and American cultures - in particular trains, women, and libraries. Especially about the gander and his duck groupies. This book is based on letters that the German author sent home from America during the World War II, and that when she went home after the war she re-worked for a newspaper column.

Not long after that they were collected in book form, and some years later they were translated and an English language edition of the book was published. I love the translation by Ida H Washington and Carol E Washington, and the clever way they used English that was perfectly correct but not quite the way a native sp This book is based on letters that the German author sent home from America during the World War II, and that when she went home after the war she re-worked for a newspaper column.

I love the translation by Ida H Washington and Carol E Washington, and the clever way they used English that was perfectly correct but not quite the way a native speaker would speak. Zuck was a playwright, his most recent play had satirised the militarisation of Germany, and the couple were concerned that the authorities were taking the satire very seriously.

This book is an account of the years they spent living in an eighteenth-century farmhouse in the Vermont countryside. It is clear that Alice — I call her Alice because I feel that I know her very well after reading her book — did a great deal of reworking of her material. The book had a beginning and an ending, there is some progression, but most of the chapters are written around a particular theme rather than a particular period of time; and it is clear that she has thought back over her years in America, adding more memories and more consideration of what she has to say.

Alice fell in love with her new home at first sight. In the woods there were weasels, marteens and foxes. It was a landscape that resembled the one at home even in details, and yet it was totally unfamiliar and foreign. It was as if we had come onto an enchanted, bewitched wood in which every shape had been transformed, over which even the moon hung in a different corner. The farmhouse was run down, but the landlord was pleased to have tenants and organised all of the work needed to make it habitable. Then Alice and Zuck had to work out how best to support themselves, and after a thorough investigation of the possibilities open to them they decided that their best option was to become poultry farmers.

They took that very seriously, they clearly worked very hard, and they came to love what they were doing. The chapters about the farm birds are wonderful, they recognised that those birds had their own distinctive characters and their own society, and that makes the chapters that stories about them a joy to read. Alice was very impressed by the USA. It is called starting from the beginning. I loved her voice; it was warm and witty.

I loved her thoughtfulness and her practicality; her readiness to work hard and her readiness to enjoy whatever life in America could offer her. A piece of tree trunk too big to fit in the highest and widest fireplace must be cut through with a two-person saw. Now our Miss Perkins walks on to the scene, seventy-nine years old, and saws with Miss Patenaude, who is only seventy-six years old. And while they are sawing, precisely and powerfully, you catch a vision of the age of the pioneers.

When they win and receive the first prize, you realise why women in America are not inferior to men. What wonderful things are the American celebrations. I loved the chapter about the telephone — a party line shared with eight other households! Germany will always be home, but returning is difficult. Many have assumed straight-jackets of de-nazification to convince people that they are normal again, but they are just waiting for a new era of insanity, when crimes will again be legally permitted and the mentally ill will again achieve power and honour.

I am so glad that Alice wrote those letters home, that she re-worked them, and that they were compiled and translated so that I could read this lovely book. Jul 30, Tuck rated it really liked it Shelves: An unusual memoir of Austrian refugees escaping to Vermont and starting a farm. Unusual in that it has chapters on USDA and their help with novice farmers and chapters in the Dartmouth library the author used extensively.

Also has bits about their chicken houses, stoves and fireplaces , country stores etc. An nyrb book. Mar 20, Lillian rated it it was amazing. I cannot believe nobody rated this book One of the best in this genre. Jul 01, Caren rated it really liked it Shelves: I read a bit of this book every night before bed.

It carried me away to an old-fashioned farm tucked away in the Green Mountains of Vermont. I have never been to Vermont in real life, and perhaps it isn't just like the descriptions in this book any longer, but it was a wonderful place to visit through this author's commonsense accounts from the early s. She and her husband and two daughters had been upper class intelligentsia in Germany before World War II.

In the late s, they had to fle I read a bit of this book every night before bed. In the late s, they had to flee after Hitler came to power. Her husband whom she always called "Zuck" had written satirical plays about the Nazis which were not at all appreciated by Hitler. They came by ship to Hoboken from Rotterdam.

I thought it was fascinating that the ship traveled slowly enough that the crew announced every night that the clock would be set ahead by one hour. No jet lag there! They considered settling in New York or Los Angeles, but after a visit to Vermont, decided to stay there.

They rented a farm and researched what sort of animals were best for a small operation such as theirs. Interestingly, they got most of their farming information from USDA pamphlets. This book was actually written after the war and originally published in German in The author based her accounts on letters she had written for family back in Europe. For such a fraught time, it is interesting that she never once mentions Hitler or politics. It is as though her family lived in a little bubble, raising their animals, battening down during brutal winters, reading and studying when time allowed.

Imaginetheir lives had been upended, yet they rose to the challenges at hand without complaints, but with a steady determination to meet each new task as it arose. At one point, as the family sat around a fire, they did reminisce about the fact that they had had four servants plus a nanny for the children in their former life, but now they toiled at the farm with only themselves to see to the endless chores. In fact, they seemed to gain a sense of satisfaction in learning to handle the crises with animals and weather. There was a sort of stoic fortitude about their response to where life had led them.

In later years, after the war and a return to Europe, the author had a certain nostalgia for that time and place. But don't we all think back fondly to a time when we were younger and stronger and managed to overcome whatever life threw in our paths? They did in fact come back to Vermont later, but found they couldn't continue the farm life and have time for her husband to write, which was his profession and source of income.

The children were grown and the house too much for her to handle. Besides that, in the s, the interstate highway system was being built and it apparently completely changed the rural nature of the land around their farm. Her memories, as rendered here, are a moment in time in which we , the readers, are allowed to dwell with her family in that time and place.

We can stand by as they diagnose once again, with the help of USDA pamphlets and treat strange diseases in their poultry, as they battle rats, as they work to winterize their house and prevent frozen pipes. The beauty in this writing is the descriptive, "you are there" quality. It is also interesting to compare life in the USA then to now. They could take trains albeit not as comfortable as European ones, as she notes to tiny rural towns.

Getting to town in winter was quite an undertaking. She describes in great detail her visits to the library at Dartmouth College.

You library aficionados may swoon at her descriptions. You can almost feel the hushed reverence for the printed word although reading that the library designated three areas for smoking really dates the description! I am so glad they chose to reissue it! This is a rather lovely book. A time when books and libraries where considered to be of enormous importance, when during difficult times depression was kept at bay by keeping ones hands busy - baking cakes, chopping wood or darning socks —, when self-knowledge and self-depreciation went hand in hand.

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And when authors still excelled in crisp and precise formulations, I am t This is a rather lovely book. And when authors still excelled in crisp and precise formulations, I am tempted to add. Yet I do prefer Herdan-Zuckmayer's somewhat more down to earth and self-reflective attitude: She was a Communist and in the s shared a flat in Berlin with her small daughter Michi and Helene Weigel Bert Brechts later wife , after her first husband had died. So she definitely was neither a nun nor politically naive. This small volume well deserves to be read, especially during the times of Trump, Erdogan and Putin, and shortly before federal elections in Germany will probably show shocking wins for the extremist right wing party AfD: I wish I had the words to describe what I feel after reading this marvelous book.

Witty, funny, serious, human nature -- the writing translation is beautiful and the perspective of an "outsider" describing Rural America is wonderful. Oct 23, Karen Prive rated it really liked it. While browsing in the bookstore always a dangerous proposition I stumbled across this title. As a native Vermonter who grew up in farm country, I knew I had to read it.

Once I discovered it is her memoir of living on a farm in Vermont with her husband and two girls after being expatriated from Germany just before the War, I giggled with delight. My best friend and her mother also both avid readers came to America from Germany not long after the War, and so I bought 2 copies so we could discu While browsing in the bookstore always a dangerous proposition I stumbled across this title. My best friend and her mother also both avid readers came to America from Germany not long after the War, and so I bought 2 copies so we could discuss the book.

In Germany, the Zuckermans enjoyed their place in society - Zuck as Alice's husband is called was a successful and popular playwright, and they enjoyed having a couple of live-in servants in their home. Those of us who knew him well can recall a man Frodo-esque in both his size and his sense of adventure and wonder. He was Gandalf-like in his wisdom. This book makes readers aware that Kilby was a man of vision.

These papers, by Kilby, reveal his passion for the authors he loved. This book will not only allow us to see what he saw, but it also gives a glimpse into the mind and heart of a man who truly embodied what it means to be a man of letters. Would you like to tell us about a lower price? If you are a seller for this product, would you like to suggest updates through seller support?

Kilby is rare among the best expositors of C. He particularly captured the soul of C. Lewis in his lectures, articles and books, which guided his vision in creating and curating the prestigious Wade Collection at Wheaton College, Illinois. This delightful book makes available Dr. Read more Read less. Add both to Cart Add both to List. One of these items ships sooner than the other. Buy the selected items together This item: A Well of Wonder: Ships from and sold by Amazon.

The Arts and the Christian Imagination: Customers who bought this item also bought. Page 1 of 1 Start over Page 1 of 1. The Messiah Comes to Middle-Earth: Lewis and the Art of Writing: Finding the Good Life through Great Books. Here's how restrictions apply. Mount Tabor Books Book 1 Hardcover: Paraclete Press December 1, Language: Start reading A Well of Wonder on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Try the Kindle edition and experience these great reading features: Share your thoughts with other customers. Write a customer review. Showing of 3 reviews. Top Reviews Most recent Top Reviews. There was a problem filtering reviews right now.

Please try again later. R, Tolkien, I have been fascinated by the lives and faith of both men. Over the years I have continued to read more of not only their own writing, but books on both Lewis and Tolkien, as well as their group The Inklings. Needless to say, I am excited every time a new book comes out in the hopes of learning more. The latest offering is Clyde S. Kilby's A Well of Wonder: Tolkien and the Inklings. Like most books on the subject, it's heavier on Lewis and Tolkien.

The book begins with a wonderful poem by Luci Shaw that's a tribute to her late professor, Clyde S. Kilby that not only encapsulates the man she knew, but those about which this book is written, and the world of imagination and faith they all brought to the world. She writes how he "swung open for all of us the wardrobe door" and caused us to ""re-explore" the worlds these men created Middle Earth, Narnia, Utter East, Prelandra and ends the poem with: There in that room we smell the past, untainted by decay or death but fragrant, for in there the mallorns bloom and all the blessed air is warm with Aslan's breath.

It's library as eternity. The wonder is Eternal Wonder.

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Shaw encapsulates what all of these men were doing in their own work: Kilby's A Well of Wonder is a collection of essays, discussions, talks and interviews that are broken up into three sections: The Inklings Each of the sections have small portraits of the men they are covering, but most of the essays focus on topics of theology, mythology and the shape all of these men have had on imagination.

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