Book Review: How I Gained My Vision By Losing It - by Charles Lee Sidi (2014)

This book's intriguing title is an ingenious pun intended. The second visible hint that this is an extraordinary book is served by its brilliant cover: The letters of the title are arranged to resemble a vision test in a doctor's office, set against a background that appears to be a distorted vision of the side of the building.

Part memoir, part inspirational, and part business wisdom, "How I Gained My Vision By Losing It" by Charles Lee Sidi makes for a rare balancing act of honesty, humility and humor, certain to bring readers to tears and laughter, sometimes simultaneously. Furthermore, this truly is a suspenseful story, an unusual quality for books of this nature, primarily because of its unique structure as two stories that move on parallel lines until both threads reach a climactic conclusion that's both heartwarming and wise. (The unusual structure and its storytelling success should not surprise us as we learn about the author's professional skills and talents in the fields of design and construction).

The story begins in California with a health crisis that threatens to deprive the author of what remains of the vision in his eyes. Under a cloud of impending tragedy, Charles and his wife, Sarah, get in the car, and she drives through the night across the Mojave Desert from California to Arizona. That journey, and the medical drama that follows, serves as the second rail to the main story--Charles's life.

Growing up in Manchester, England, Charles was clearly a precocious boy with a good measure of hearty curiosity and a bit of naughtiness. The family backgrounds provides a wonderful picture of what it was like in England in those last few decades of the 20th century for a Jewish immigrant family with a mix of economic challenges, cultural struggles, and tightknit familial bonds. An English boarding school, as well as boundless intellectual and artistic energy, form a launching pad for a unique career that combines design and construction, earning Charles a number of national awards and honors.

Then, driven by an insatiable entrepreneurial sprit ("Go west young man...), the author relocates his family across the Atlantic and the continent all the way to Arizona. Launching a custom homebuilding company shorty before the Great Recession makes for a host of new trials and tribulations, followed by a dramatic pivot to an inventive new product and the challenges of an ambitious startup, which further test the author's resilience, determination and, yes, his vision.

At its essence, this book excels because it is candid to a fault. The author's uncanny ability to tell captivating stories is rooted in his rich perception of the details of life and the inimitably varied traits of each person, which make humanity so diverse and interesting. And like any good book, "How I Gained My Vision By Losing It" is at its essence a love story, with Sarah as the unsung hero (or perhaps the deservedly sung hero), as well as the author's passionate love for life itself.

While "How I Gained My Vision By Losing It" delivers on the promise to tell us how the author lost and gained his vision, both physically and spiritually, there is no doubt that this book will help every reader, no matter their backgrounds, circumstances, or character, to regain, or at least refocus, their own personal vision. Highly recommended!

*Avraham Azrieli writes books and screenplays. His website is: www.AzrieliBooks.com

Avraham Azrieli is the author of ten published books, most recently “Deborah Rising” (HarperCollins 2016) a novel portraying the dramatic rise of the first woman to lead a nation in human history. www.AzrieliBooks.com

Film Review: Seeking Asian Female (2013)

The title of this heartfelt documentary—Seeking Asian Female—is not descriptive of the finished film. Rather, it’s descriptive of the original impetus for filmmaker Debbie Lum’s project, which evolved into something very different from what she had set out to do.

An Asian women herself, Lum starts off the film with recollections of her own personal experiences as a target of white men’s leering attraction, otherwise known as yellow fever. As an American women, she wasn’t amused by white men’s impolite staring and foolish pick up lines (in Chinese, Japanese or Korean, no less). This phenomenon, according to Lum, had always made her uncomfortable, or ever disdainful. Curiously, she married a white man, but still set out to find such men by answering personal advertisements they placed on the Internet and convincing them to speak on camera.

One of these men, Steven, opens up to her to an extent much greater than she had expected. An aging cashier at a parking garage, who lives hand-to-mouth in a small, cluttered rental apartment above a store, he shares his inner passions and romantic hopes on camera with disarming honesty, showing Lum the meticulous records he had kept of his years-long quest of seeking Asian females.

The result is a gritty documentary about a 60-year-old man in search of a young Asian woman to share his life with, and what happens when he finds a much younger Chinese woman and brings her to American. The camerawork is up close and personal, and the couple’s story is told honestly, fairly and without hiding the most unpleasant, or even ugly moments.

Lum commendably produced, directed and filmed this documentary on her own. She managed to gain Steven’s trust as he searched for his dream Asian woman, and then Sandy’s trust, as well, during the couple’s difficult initiation into a shared life marred by severe incompatibility and near poverty.

On top of this incredible fit of multi-task filmmaking, Lum managed to serve as the couple’s interpreter, mediator and lay marriage counselor. As the story progresses, Lum genuinely agonizes—on screen!—whether her evolving role as the couple’s on-call conflict resolution expert tainted her qualifications as an objective observer and damaged her documentary’s true-life veracity. Did she inadvertently stop Sandy from breaking up with Steven and returning to China? Did she unfairly fail to translate Sandy’s harsh statements for Steven and thus kept his illusions alive? Was she reporting their story, or manipulating it?

But what Lum does not seem to realize, at least not explicitly on screen, is that she herself has become an integral part of the story: A born American of Asian descent, by virtue of her unique acquaintance with both cultures, she is uniquely positioned to help this ill-matching couple to bridge the immense cultural divide between them and prove that love does have a chance–even against all odds.

In the end, through Lum’s incredible sincerity (both as a filmmaker and as an accidental yet true friend to Steven and Sandy), this documentary ends up redeeming all those pesky white men, who had always bothered Lum with their yellow feverish advances, by making an unlikely hero out of the movie’s quirky male subject, Steven. The other oft-mentioned, disdainful assumption directed at these relationships is that the women are motivated by desire for green cards, not for the men they marry. But as Lum’s unforgiving, always present camera shows, Sandy not only gives up her Chinese family and friends, her old life and freedom, her mother tongue and culture, but also gives Steven her heart. Truly. This is a wonderful documentary. Watch it!

Avraham Azrieli is the author of ten published books, most recently “Deborah Rising” (HarperCollins 2016) a novel portraying the dramatic rise of the first woman to lead a nation in human history. www.AzrieliBooks.com

Book Review: Gone Girl - A Novel (2014)

This is your next read—if you want to be the nail-biting voyeur to a “normal” relationship between a married couple, which evolves into evil. Imagine watching a harmless-looking larvae gradually turn into the worst nightmare-inducing monsters, and you get the picture of Gone Girl.

It starts normally, lovingly even. Nick says: “When I think of my wife, I always think of her head. The shape of it, to begin with.” And Amy recalls their first meeting: “I smile because he’s gorgeous. ... His name is Nick. I love it. It makes him seem nice, and regular, which he is.”

From here, Gillian Flynn takes us on a journey of peeling off the mask of normalcy from this love story and finding a reality that, had it not crept into our heads so subtly, would have made us scream. Mainly because Flynn is so crafty a writer, we forget to scream as we turn the pages in a process of becoming increasingly horrified. Still, at the same time, we do believe that all this could really happen.

Gone Girl is Flynn’s third novel. It is excellent. We look forward to her next breezy, normal tale of absolute horror from her. Enjoy!

Book Review: Killing Patton (2014)

Readers who were fascinated, tickled, or outraged by the previous books in this series (Killing Lincoln, Killing Kennedy, and Killing Jesus) will find this new O'Reilly installment -- Killing Patton -- no less fascinating, tickling, or outraging.

Killing Patton: The Strange Death of World War II’s Most Audacious General was written by Bill O’Reilly in partnership with Martin Dugard. O'Reilly is a leading public voice in the US as anchor of The O'Reilly Factor, the highest-rated cable news show in the country, as well as the author of a widely syndicated newspaper column.

General George S. Patton, Jr., one of America's more decorated military leaders, died shortly after his fame reached new heights with his decisive and well-photographed victory over the Nazis forces in Europe. Whether he did, or did not, aspire to a political future and elected office (as did his commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower) Patton's untimely demise in an odd car accident left many wondering about its true 'accidental' nature.

Almost seventy years later, suspicions continue to simmer about this extraordinary man's death. Was it an act of assassination? In his review of Killing Patton, Senator John McCain points out that Patton's "outspokenness about his controversial views on postwar security, particularly his animosity toward the Soviets, our erstwhile allies, might have made him a target for assassination."

But whether one believes in conspiracy, incompetency or fortuity, this book provides a lively and historically accurate picture of the dramatic last months of WWII and the events surrounding Patton’s anti-climactic death. The book leaves us with no doubt that many powerful players harbored an eager death wish for the crusty blunt General. But whether his enemies got lucky or got away with murder is a question this book presents with ample facts to support either conclusion.

Hence, readers will enjoy Killing Patton as an excellent historical murder mystery, or as a well-told story of a great warrior whose luck ran out just as he was about to move on to fighting the next great war for his beloved nation.

Avraham Azrieli is the author of ten published books, most recently “Deborah Rising” (HarperCollins 2016) a novel portraying the dramatic rise of the first woman to lead a nation in human history. www.AzrieliBooks.com

Film Review: Quants: The Alchemists of Wall Street (2010)

The word “Quants” refers to the mathematical wizards and computer programmers whose brilliant work product forms the DNA, the wiring, the plumbing, and often the automated decision-making process that generates the myriad, constant, countless trades that collectively we call “our global financial system.” More specifically, this documentary opens a window into the bowels of the global financial beast, its innermost workings, and the purported causes of the 2008 financial crisis and the resulting Great Recession. Besides, it provides a well-explained premonition about the next brewing crisis that could be ignited by the vast networks of computer-driven financial trading.

Quants: The Alchemists of Wall Street is a documentary done with great subtlety. It features soft-spoken geniuses and intersperses artistic scenes of mundane daily routines. Yet, like a well-done horror flick, this documentary’s seemingly pedestrian atmosphere takes us into the underworld of those who brought upon a global disaster and ruined millions of lives.

This documentary is especially good because it avoids the shrills of hyperbole accusations, inflated political declarations, and futile attempts at witch medicine. It is reminiscent of Hannah Arendt’s “The Banality of Evil.” It introduces us to those who invented and developed the complex mathematical models that were supposed to quantify–and predict–human economic behaviors. Between the lines, there’s a wary warning here about how those same methods are now being used by a new generation of quants to generate the financial technological wonder that allows instant trading in various financial products that crisscross the worlds continents.

In its essence, Quants tells us how Wall Street no longer has either a wall or a street, but rather exists in the borderless, lawless, and timeless world of the Internet. In that world, computers use mathematical algorithms to make automated instantaneous trades at the speed of light, where the only criteria is the spread between purchase price and sale price, while the actual value of the underlying product is irrelevant. It is an efficient, rapid and exciting way to make or lose large sums, all within the made-up bubble of the unconfined worldwide web. But the consequences of this virtual way of doing business might be very real and bloody painful.

Quants is an excellent documentary. Not a dull moment. Watch it!

* Avraham Azrieli writes novels and screenplays. www.AzrieliBooks.com

Film Review - The Judge (2014

Hank Palmer (Robert Downey Jr.) is a hard-charging, take-no-prisoners, win-at-all-cost lawyer. And, yes, all the aforementioned clichés do apply, but somehow the line isn’t crossed into cheesy. Nor is it crossed when he must—after years of estrangement—return to his all-American mid-western hometown for his mother’s funeral and confront a disapproving father, a festering family wound, and his high-school sweetheart (a single mom whose daughter may, or may not, be his daughter). To top off this kitchen sink overflowing with chewed-up plotlines, Hank suddenly has to use his courtroom skills to defend his father, Judge Palmer (Robert Duvall), who is accused of a deadly hit-and-run. The prosecutor (Billy Bob Thornton) is determined to get a conviction because—yes, you guessed—he hates Hank, who had beaten him and gotten a guilty client off the hook years ago.

Now, in hands less capable than Director David Dobkin, who assembled a highly skilled cast to work with, The Judge would have been a dud. But instead, this movie works the magic. Robert Downey Jr. is totally convincing across a challenging spectrum of emotions. Robert Duvall is incredible as a tough judge, a disciplinarian father (struggling with regrets), and a grieving husband who is facing his own death with great dignity. And Billy Bob Thornton does his disappearing trick where you forget it’s Billy Bob and take him at his role. Also delivering top-notch performance are Vincent D'Onofrio as Hank’s older brother, Glen, Jeremy Strong as the younger (and mentally disabled) brother, Dale, and Vera Farmiga as the ditched high school girlfriend who went on to make something of herself without losing that small-town sweetness.

If I had to bet on Oscars, I’d put my money on Jeremy Strong (who strikes a perfect balance in portraying a mentally disable grown man) and Robert Duvall who, interestingly enough, got his first major role as a mentally disabled "Boo Radley" in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). The screenplay, by Nick Schenk Bill Dubuque, also deserves high praise for building up the emotional pace of the movie to a most-satisfying conclusion and for connecting all the threads of story and human subplots quite beautifully.

The Judge is a wonderful drama that delivers suspense, conflict and familial emotions and hurts that would feel painfully familiar to many of us. Excellent!

Avraham Azrieli writes books and screenplays. His website is: www.AzrieliBooks.com

Book Review: Mysteries of Judaism by Israel Drazin

Mysteries of Judaism by Israel Drazin

Gefen (2014)

ISBN: 978-9652296511

Book Review: Mysteries of Judaism by Israel Drazin

In “Mysteries of Judaism,” prolific author Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin uncovers fascinating aspects of Jewish holidays, beliefs, and attitudes. Brims with deep and wide knowledge of Torah, Mishnah, Talmud and later Jewish writings, Dr. Drazin’s conversational style offers a frank and readable discussion of otherwise complex—and possibly troubling—subjects.

“Mysteries of Judaism” is divided into three parts: The evolving nature of each of the Jewish holidays from biblical times to today, the gradual transformation of Jewish laws, beliefs, and customs under succeeding rabbinical generations, and the onerous regression of the Jewish woman’s role and status under rabbinical laws.

This seminal work tackles a fundamental yet seldom discussed phenomenon in Jewish life – the continuing process of substantive change that had lasted from antiquity through modern times. In clear and dispassionate detail this book shows that observant Jews today practice a massive set of religious laws that were not, as many would believe, handed down by God on Mount Sinai, and were not, as most rabbis would insist, wholly rooted in the Holy Torah of biblical times; rather, Orthodox Judaism of today is an amalgamation of rules and regulations that have accumulated over centuries through rabbinical creativity.

While some of the ideas presented in this book might appear radical at first, the author’s breadth of knowledge allows him to substantiate each contention in unassailable traditional Jewish sources. As the author of a series of books covering the widely accepted “Onkelos” interpretation of the Torah, as well as an expansive, multi-volume study of Maimonides, Rabbi Dr. Drazin is uniquely positioned in both skills and knowledge to take on the challenge of uncovering the “Mysteries of Judaism.”

In summary, this highly credible scholarly work is easy to read, thoroughly interesting, and genuinely thought provoking.

* Avraham Azrieli writes novels and screenplays.  www. AzrieliBooks.com