Managing Bubbie
Written by Russel Lazega
Published February 5th, 2015 by CreateSpace
Paperback 244 pages
ISBN 1499126298
WINNER OF 20 BOOK AWARDS. Her devoted family only wants the best for their Bubbie. Mostly they want to ensure that their matriarch’s twilight years are spent in comfort, safety, and serenity. But how do you manage an aging, immutably stubborn Holocaust survivor who has risen above the squalor of Poland’s ghettos; fled across the war-torn German wilderness; and survived the winter-ravaged Pyrenees alone on foot with three children? You probably don't.
REVIEW
I have read many books about WWII, but none of them have been like this one. While reading, the same word kept popping up in my head courageous and that is the fundamental of this story how one woman's courageousness never succumbed no matter how atrocious her life became. Russel Lazega the author is her grandson, he calls her Bubbie which is Jewish for grandmother yet her given name is Lea. This is a woman who was born with a great inner strength she fought off the Nazi’s and at 80 is still going strong doing anything she pleases by taking buses and trains all over town.
They say, "a picture is worth a thousand words." Maybe when you've lived such a horrific and wonderful life it's worth a lot more-like the marvel of knowing that one glimpse can make you cry when you need to remember or make you smile while you need to forget.The book jumps back and forth between the summer of 1987 during holiday brunch with the whole family attending the other half of the story begins in 1911 with the birth of a baby girl named Lea. Her strife started early in life she but Lea always pushed onward always confident and assertive. The prose is nicely written. Therefore, you never get confused jumping around through different eras. During the holiday brunch, I laughed so hard at times my sides started to hurt. It is a blast to listen in to someone else's family gathering, especially with the elderly Jewish ladies arguing over game shows. Managing Bubbie is a captivating book. You will laugh, you will cry, most of all you will cheer on Lea as she and her children fight for safety. In addition to this, I realized that if Lea could do all that she did in those horrid conditions why am I not out doing more for this world? Yes, I do have multiple health conditions that make everyday life very hard to get through, but if Lea can beat the Nazis I can be able to do something admirable with my life.
Then, it suddenly hits me-this is the world she left behind-a place where killing was an art, and people prayed to be rescued by Bolsheviks. But though she recalls those days with sadness, strangely there's really not a hint of bitterness. It's more like a glowing sense of accomplishment-like deep down she's quelled by the knowledge that survival is sweet satisfaction.What I took away from this book is that being courageous can inspire others like this book inspired me. You can do anything if you put your mind to it. Thank you, Lea, for giving me a new outlook on life. Who needs a therapist when you have a book like this.
PURCHASE
Author Russel Lazega is a lawyer living in North Miami Beach, Florida. He is a columnist for the Aventura News and the author of several nonfiction publications, including Florida Motor Vehicle No-Fault Law and Practice (PIP), the nation's leading treatise on Florida car insurance law that stirred tremendous excitement throughout Florida's bustling community of insurance agents and insurance lawyers. Managing Bubbie is Lazega's first foray into creative nonfiction. When he is not writing, or chasing after a pair of fire-breathing, house-wrecking T. rexes impersonating small children, the author can be found kayaking the waterways of South Florida, venturing as far as the tide will take him from his loving, but indescribably overbearing, family.
As you read this book you should check out Russels Facebook page also.
It is Hilarious!
"Thank you, Netgalley, for allowing me to give this honest review"
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