The Hare With Amber Eyes: The #1 Sunday Times Bestseller Paperback – January 1, 2011

This saga or memoir tracing a collection of Japanese netsukes is really the story of the wealthy Jewish Ephrussi family from its humble roots in Russia to Odessa, Paris, Vienna and finally flung to all corners of the earth. The author Edmund de Waal is the recipient of the netsukes through a bequest of his great uncle living in Tokyo. In 1870 de Waal's great grandfather's first cousin Charles Ephrussi became an ardent art collector. All of the Ephrussis became art collectors, but Charles was the most influential and the one who purchased the netsukes. The Ephrussi family was wealthy on the order of the Rothchilds operating one of the biggest and most successful banks in Europe, the Paris branch of the Ephrussi bank. They were given titles and were now part of the nobility. Because they were Jewish they could join certain clubs but could not become officers of those clubs. Still they believed they were largely accepted and were full citizens of their adopted countries whether that was France or Austria. Charles was a gay man living as if he were straight. Via his close friendship with a married woman he allowed the appearance of an affair with her. Rumors of their affair were prevalent. However, he had close friendships with Proust and other gay men living as gay. It was obvious that he too was gay. Proust even used Charles as the inspiration for his character, Swann. Charles began collecting works of art by Renoir, Manet and many other great artists of the impressionistic school. Charles also helped the impressionist artists financially loaning them money and arranging commissions for them. Renoir's girl in blue was probably the result of one of these commissions. Early in his collecting experience Charles purchases an entire collection of Netsukes and places them in one vitrine. He did not acquire them piecemeal searching out different subjects to complete the collection of 264 miniature works of art. There was a fashion of collecting Japanese artworks in Europe and Paris at the time. Charles participated early in that period by purchasing the netsukes from a well known and respected Paris art dealer. Charles circle of friends included great authors, thinkers and artists. The Ephrussis believed that their wealth, financial power,patronage of the arts, charitable works, and noble titles overshadowed their Jewishness, but it did not. Throughout their life in Paris they were exposed to anti-Semitism in words and deeds. They brushed it off as unimportant. Finally, Charles sends the entire netsuke collection with the vitrine to his young newly married cousins Emmy and Victor Ephrussi of Vienna as a wedding gift.Along with the netsukes the story moves to Vienna. The Vienna branch of the family ran the equally rich and powerful Vienna branch of the Ephrussi bank. They were equally wealthy living in palatial homes in the best neighborhoods on the ring. They were friends with the nobility and Ephrussi bore the title of Baron. They participated handsomely in all the arts and became ardent supporters of the symphony and Opera. They purchased tapestries and paintings, donated money for hospitals, their synagogue and other charities. Here like in Paris the Ephrussis deemed their sophisticated art interests and charitable works washed them of their Jewishness. It did not. Emmy held weekly salons where she entertained famous artists, thinkers, writers and musicians. Many famous musicians, doctors and lawyers were Jewish. Yet the Ephrussis noticed that their non-Jewish guests were always bachelors. None of the Christian women attended. Once the bachelors married they too stopped attending. Victor was a member of many clubs and associations, but in some he could not hold office. He served with distinction as an officer in WWI. The Versailles treaty left Austria and the other axis powers bankrupt and Vienna suffered from the poverty. Victor believed that Austria would win the war and all his banking and investment decisions were made with that in mind. Victor lost about 90% of his fortune because he refused to place his funds in Switzerland in Swiss francs during the war. He refused to buy dollars or pounds. He was a loyal patriotic Austrian citizen and wanted to demonstrate his patriotism to his country. After WWI the Ephrussi family of Austria had to reduce its expenses. They had to cut out several routine expensive vacation trips. Their country home in Czechoslovakia was not kept up to the same degree. The swimming pond was allowed to return to its natural state of being surrounded by encroaching reeds. It was no longer swimmable. By 1933 public anti-Antisemitism began to rear its ugly head. There were vocal antisemetic diatribes. In 1933 there were 145,000 Jews in Austria. Of those 59% of all the physicians, 65% of the lawyers, and 50% of the journalists in Austria were Jewish. The economy became terrible with beggars and other poor refugees flooding Vienna looking for work. It was the depression and there was no work. People like the Ephrussis even though they lost most of their fortune were resented and doubly so because they were Jewish. They still lived in their palace on the ringstrasse. Maybe they had fewer servants and vacations, but to the great population of the impoverished and downtrodden who didn't have enough to eat, they were unbelievably wealthy. Like every time in history when bad luck, war or disease befell a population, they blamed the Jews for their predicament. It did not matter that many Jews lost their money and property and were also impoverished by WWI and the depression. They were still blamed for the poverty and hopelessness. In the middle ages when the bubonic plague swept through Europe, the Jews were blamed. Even though Jews died in equal numbers from the disease carried by rats and spread by fleas, the Jews were blamed for it. In some locales they were murdered for it. Irrationality of this belief did nothing to stop the hatred and violence. Similarly Jews were hated and blamed for the economic disaster brought on by the loss of WWI and the Versailles Treaty. The depression followed and the hatred and resentment became even more extreme. In 1933 the Nazi party came to power in Germany. Now anti-semitism became rampant in Austria. Victor had to step down as head of the bank in favor of his Christian partner who held a minority of the shares. At this point the reader wants to shake him by the scruff of his neck and tell him to get out while he still can. Three of his four children have left Austria. Iggy has gone to the U.S. for a career in fashion design. Elizabeth is studying in France. Gisella is living with her husband in Spain. Only the last of their children, Roland is still living with them. When Emmy and Victor married Emmy was 20 years younger than Victor. The marriage was engineered by two wealthy and powerful Jewish families. For Emmy it was not a love match. History indicates that she entertained a few lovers and it is possible that Roland is a result of one of these affairs. However, though Emmy was not thrilled by this pregnancy so long after her third child was born, Victor treated him with acceptance and love. Since Emmy married Victor she was cared for by a loyal and loving maid named Anna. In 1938 Germany annexed Austria and the Nazi Nuremburg laws befell even the rich and powerful Ephrussis. Victor was forced to sell his bank stock for 10 cents on the dollar to his Christian partner. Roland fled to the U.S. before the annexation. After the annexation Emmy and Victor fled to their summer home in Czechoslovakia. The Nazis loot the art collection, tapestries, rugs, silver and china. However, while they are working so hard to catalogue all the finery, Anna who has been assigned a room in the palace smuggles and hides the netsukes from Emmy's dressing room. She hides them under her mattress for the whole of the war.Elizabeth at the age of 27 has married a Christian Dutchman named de Waal. He is from a dutch shipping family but he is not rich. Elizabeth was the first female lawyer to graduate from the University of Vienna. She has also earned a Phd. She has published articles and essays in periodicals of note. She writes poetry. She is the brightest of all of Victor's and Emmy's children. She has her father's face with the big Ephrussi nose and dark eyes overhung with heavy eyelids and bushy brows. She was not a beauty and probably did not have many suitors. Perhaps, too her scholarship was intimidating to young men. Elizabeth and her husband were now safely residing in England. After the Nazi annexation of Austria Victor but not Emmy joined them. Elizabeth began attending de Waal's church and she raised her two sons in the Christian faith. One of them, Edmund de Waal's father, became a protestant minister.Now the story moves to Tokyo. Iggy Ephrussi enlisted in the military as did his other stateside brother Roland. Because Iggy was fluent in three languages he served in military intelligence. After the war he was recruited by an international company who offered him a post in Japan. Iggy did not want to be in postwar Europe with all the reminders of Naziism. He did not return to see his home in Vienna. He became an executive in Tokyo where he took a young Japanese man as his lover. They made a home for themselves together. Elizabeth traveled to Vienna after the war to see what was left of her home and to determine if any of their collections or property were salvageable. Almost nothing was left and the palace had been turned into military occupation offices. She met with Anna who told her how she saved the netsuke. She was apologetic that it was all she could hide. However, she wanted to be able to preserve something for the family when they returned. Elizabeth was grateful and she returned to England with the netsukes. Later she sent them to her brother Iggy. Iggy had a vitrine built for them and kept them in his Japanese home. On his death bed he bequeathed them to Edmund de Waal now a successful ceramic artist in London. The author explores the history of his bequest in this novel. His language is beautiful and lyrical. It is natural and unforced. I could not put it down. However, I purchased this in the kindle edition. There are numerous photographs in the book . I believe the reader would be better served by an illustrated version of this book.

I love the author’s inquiry into a small item and the part it played in his family’s history. Edmund de Waal has a fascinating way of exploring history.

The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund de WaalThe Hare with Amber Eyes follows the history of the fabulously wealthy Ephrussi family from 1870 to the present day. The author uses a collection of 264 Japanese netsuke (small button sized wooden or ivory carvings for hanging from a kimono) passed around the family to discover their story and, by extension, a microcosm of twentieth-century history: one family’s experience of the tumultuous effects of war, occupation and conflict.Part I Paris 1871 -1899 describes in the life of Charles Ephrussi in Paris. In particular it describes in great detail all the beautiful artistic wealth, which filled his life, and how valuable that art is. The connection between the French impressionists such as Monet and Japanese works by painters such as Hokusai is outlined. Although there is a lot of beauty in the artefacts described there is also an element of obscene wealth. Charles Ephrussi lived a life of extreme luxury in a Paris where there was also a great deal of poverty and hardship at the time. Charles purchases the collection of netsuke in Paris in the 1870s and sends it to his cousin Viktor in Vienna as a wedding present in 1899.Part 2 Vienna 1899 – 1938 centres around the life of Viktor and his wife Emmy in Vienna during this turbulent period. Viktor has inherited the family business and his family live in an enormous palace near the centre of Vienna. The netsukes are stored in a cabinet in Emmy’s dressing room. The children (Elizabeth, Gisela, Ignace and Rudolf) play with netsuke while their mother is dressing. Even by today’s standards the wealth of the family is astonishing. Their lifestyle comes to a shattering end when Austria is joined to Germany in 1938 and Nazi supporters and the Gestapo enter the palace.Part 3 Vienna, Kovesces, Tunbridge Wells and Vienna 1938 -1947 outlines the escape of Victor’s family from the Nazis in Vienna. The only significant item of value that is saved is the netsuke.Part 4 Tokyo 1947 -2001 centres around Ignace or Iggies life in Japan where he takes the netsuke after the war. Iggie seems to have reverted to a life of luxury similar to what he grew up with in Vienna.Coda Tokyo, Odessa, London 2001 – 2009 brings the reader up to date with the Author (Viktor’s great grandson) now the owner of the netsuke in London. The author’s children now play with the netsuke as Viktor’s children did.The novel provides a powerful sympathetic description of the life of the Ephrussi and of the all the beautiful artworks that was part of their lives. Lives of great wealth and experience. Their great fall in the thirties is at least partly due to the instability of a society where great wealth exists alongside great poverty. Although the paintings and art works are described extremely well (the author is a famous artist himself) characterisation is shallow. The readers only get a limited third person view of what the Ephrussi think of the situations they find themselves in.

This is a truly fine book. Edmund has an amazing command of the English language and I began reading this fascinating book as a borrowed paperback from a dear friend. I was frequently going to the dictionary to look up words or specific mentions. I decided to see if there was a Kindle edition and I opted for this one. It was the ideal choice. When the author spoke of particular pieces of art I could see them in "living" color which made the waft of the story even more vivid. I could also expand the portraits of family members and examine them with greater care for resemblances and textual descriptions.Without giving away any part of the glory of this book, this is a story of a a collection of 264 netsuke which Edmund inherits and how they came into the author's family and their transgenerational journey from early acquisition during the Impressionist period in France to the present day. The book is detailed in its descriptions; and, for some, it may get to be too much. I felt cocooned and mesmerized by it all never losing a grasp of the harsh realities of history throughout those 150 years and four generations.Edmund de Waal is a very accomplished ceramicist and was on the Queen's Birthday list for an OBE (Officer of the British Empire) in 2011. His sensibilities to form and structure in the world of fine art are evident throughout the book. I learned much from the account of this collection's journey through time.I am not one to recommend books to a broad cross section of friends and acquaintances; but this is an exception. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.