There are two things that must come together to form an excellent novel - a good story and the ability to find the words to tell it. Hegi is a master storyteller and gifted in her use of language to convey strong characters in memorable settings. Floating in My Mother's Palm is a first person account of the childhood of its main character, Hanna. As Hanna recounts aspects of her life that shaped her character and perspective, she introduces you to other characters in the town of Burgdorf and provides a view into their lives that make the town and its people real in every aspect. Each character is reminiscent of someone I've known from my own life. Its remarkable how the lives of characters from a small town in Germany can be so similar to those in Anytown, USA. The situations may be different but the issues are the same. Many of the characters in the novel appear in other work by Hegi, making the body of her work an intimate experience, leaving the reader feeling like they are getting closer and closer to each character with each novel read. Hegi's writing has never disappointed me.

In the tight community of Burgdorf, a girl observes the foibles of the town's people as they go about their lives. Each neighbor--young or old-- somehow touches Hanna's life, unintentionally parting with a lesson, depositing a memory that makes up a childhood. The events unfold in Hegi's lyrical, mellifluous voice, rich with the texture of the people and smells of the place.

Floating In My Mother's Palm is structured less in a novel format that in the form of interlinking short stories. Eventually, the characters that reappear in Hegi's stories become familiar with their physical traits and idiosyncrasies. Some, like Trudy the dwarf, populate Hegi's Stones From The River.

Growing up in a loving home of a father who is the town's dentist and a mother who is an accomplished painter, Hannah the child observes life's tragedies as they happen to others, never to her, until her mother's premature death. Interestingly, this event, which is foreshadowed in the opening of the book, is skimmed over. Hannah indulges in memories of her remarkable mother, but the emotional devastation expected from the start of the book and supported by the tone of the other tragedies is curiously missing. Even the adult Hannah selects only two of her mother's paintings out of an atticful. When tragedy strikes Hannah, it is less impactful than those taking place in other households.

Floating In My Mother's Palm is a beautifully told story that holds the reader's attention and never lets go. Highly recommended.

If Ursula Hegi's "Floating In My Mother's Palm" doesn't read like a novel, it's because it is a collection of loosely but seamlessly connected short stories which offer the reader a delectable taste of provincial life in post-war Germany. The unifying factor is Hanna Malter, a young girl growing up in the small town of Burgdorf amidst a seemingly large and disparate cast of characters who in one way or another shape her childhood experiences. These stories tell of idiosyncracies, deformities, illegimacy, masochism, incest, dark premonitions, murder, suicide, madness, magic and healing, but in the most gentle, lyrical and dream like way possible, ie a million miles away from the cheap sensationalism common to purveyors of pulp fiction. Each story is complete in itself and without exception, beautifully told. Readers of this wonderful collection of vignettes is going to have his own personal favourites. Therein lies the fun - it's like choosing from a box of chocolates. There is a pervading sense of sadness in these tales which spring from the religious limitations and provincial-mindedness of a society on the fringe, but you're never conscious of it until it's over and you get the chance to reflect on it. Hegi's talent and integrity as a writer is self evident in the way she has achieved the near impossible, that of transforming characters with the makings of a grotesque into believable human beings. The result is a poetic and strangely uplifting novel that is a joy to read. Highly recommended.

Hegi's story of Trudi, a dwarf living in Germany during the Nazi era, was slow reading for me, not because it is a challenge, but because I just didn't believe or identify with the characters. I guess the author wants Trudi to be the someone we empathize with, yet in order to create someone tough enough to make it through life as a dwarf and survive Nazi Germany, Hegi also has to endow her protagonist with a certain hard edge that causes the reader to back away. The result, at least for me, was a main character who you at once feel sorry for and can't really get close to.

The portrayal of the Germans during the 30's and 40's, I'm sure, is accurate and enlightening. This book makes you think, but it didn't capture my imagination. I found the characters rather flat. I learned about their political views and their quirks, but I never really got to know THEM. Although the book is in excess of 500 pages, somehow I felt the author was just scraping the surface.

An interesting read from a historical perspective... instructive, but not all that pleasurable a way to spend a quiet Saturday afternoon.

I read this book after reading Ursula Hegi's "Tearing the Silence" which referred to it many times in the introduction. I found it highly readable and moving. The mood created is at once mystical and potent and the book has many well-drawn characters. Trudi, herself, of course, and my favourites -- her father (I forget the name now) and the unknown benefactor -- all of them contribute to the uplifting of the story and highlight the strength and generosity in the human condition amidst a very cruel world of senseless destruction. What is refreshing is the ability to discuss the very sensitive topic of the holocaust using the novel form and Hegi should be congratulated for the depth of exploration she put into the characters and the juxtaposition between personal trials and deprivation against the larger difficulties and crimes of the age. Some parts of the story are corny and predictable, but the book as a whole is good, as Hegi has masterfully weaved the lives of her characters with our own. I should be picking up "Floating in my Mother's Palm" soon to give myself a more rounded and complete picture of the story of Burghof.

At first, the author's liberal use of commas to make extremely long sentences annoyed me. However, I soon forgave the author my pet-peeve since this is a common trait of Ursula Hegi's first language, German. As I read on, I realized that these long sentences created a beautiful poetic cadence in the book that made the book almost melodic.

The main character in the story is a German "zwerg" woman (a midget) named Trudi. The reader gets to see the inner and hidden thoughts of the "zwerg" woman as well as her longings to have a lover and a child of her own. When she finally does experience a beautiful romance, she keeps it a secret because it seems like something from a dream. To shift people's thoughts from her differences, Trudi spreads stories about all the townspeople through her gossip at the pay library that she and her father owns. STONES FROM THE RIVER takes place before and during World War II in a small German town. Through Trudi's acquaintances with the townspeople, the author introduces the reader to the characters in the town. Thus, the reader gets a sense of how people reacted as Hitler spread his propoganda throughout Germany. Some people, like Trudi and her father, hid Jews in their homes or were punished for showing kindess to them. Others spouted hate and turned against their neighbors to hopefully save their own lives. People felt pressure to join clubs and wear the colors of the party even when they did not agree with what the party was doing (although some actually did agree). The children were fed with so much propaganda in their schools that they often turned their own parents in for not being loyal to the party without understanding what they were doing.

This was definitely an insightful book and not soon to be forgotten. The author fills the book with so many characters and small stories about each of them that I did sometimes find myself confused when a character would suddenly resurface and I couldn't remembering what happened to that character 200 pages back when they were 10 years younger. I should have written downs the characters' names and something about them as I went along. There were times when I couldn't put the book down, times that I laughed, and times that I wanted to cry. All in all, it was a great find and highly recommended to others.

Tearing the Silence is one of the most important books that I have read, as I am the child of parents who grew up in the Third Reich. It was a truly rewarding experience reading this book and it helped me understand how others in my situation have been affected by the Nazi aspect of their German heritage. If I remember correctly, though, the author really only interviewed people of the "2nd Generation" born shorty after the war; there are, however, people like myself who were born somewhat later and had to come to terms with their heritage during the 1980s rather than the 1960s. The inclusion of one or two interviews with people in this situation would have added considerably to the book.

Ursula Hegi does a great service by examining the feelings of the "2nd generation" of Germans who were too young to have participated in the Nazi horror, but who have had to deal with it nonetheless. It is also an examination of what it is like to be a German immigrant in the US, and deal with American Christians and Jews and their feelings towards Germans and the Holocaust. As a child of Holocaust survivors from Poland who has read much of the "2nd generation" children of survivors literature, as well as other interviews with Germans of the "2nd generation" (Sabine Reichel's "What Did You Do in the War Daddy" comes to mind), I believe this book contributes greatly to creating an understanding among all of us who have been so heavily effected by the Holocaust. It was also an eyeopener for me to read the descriptions of the relationships these people had with their parents, and compare them to the issues Holocaust survivors and their children deal with. Very well written and hard to put down. Highly recommended.

"We are not political." This assertion by the German family hosting the senior judge in the 1961 film Judgment At Nuremberg typifies the prevailing attitude of the parents of Hegi's subjects. It lies at the foundation of the "great silence" experienced by Ursula Hegi and other children who had to come to America to discover the Holocaust. Hegi and her peers grew up in a vacuum of information about the Nazi years. Realization came as a shock, disillusioning some, generating anger and resentment in others. But as Hegi's subjects relate, few cast off their roots. Some made pilgrimages to the sites of the Nazi crimes. Others sought understanding from parents who kept them in ignorance. Assembling a collection of interviews with her counterparts, Hegi gives us their viewpoints, life histories and introspections of their pasts. It's a unique and worthy effort.

In trying to reveal the present feelings of German children who came to America, Hegi undertook to understand for herself why Germans remained reticent about the Nazi years. She delved into people's lives through the interviews, asking them to examine their own feelings to see how they equated with her own. Clearly, the responses amazed her with their familiarity. Silence from the older generation and a strong desire to understand the root causes of Nazism in the younger, immigrant population.

The stories told, garnered from twenty three individuals, relate the upbringing and disrupted lives of Germans, usually children, who carry the burden of their parents' origins. American children, cognizant of the Holocaust in ways the immigrant children were not, might characterize their German-born peers as "Nazis," even when it was clearly impossible. For most of the interviewees, the accusation was more mysterious than offending. Confident of their own innocence, whatever resentment arose was usually directed at their families in Germany.

While this book is of great value in bringing the memories of the post-Nazi generation into view, it also poses some interesting questions. Oppressive fathers and submissive mothers aren't a uniquely German phenomenon. We aren't even clear as to whether these dominating parents are viewed as Nazis or sympathizers by Hegi's subjects. The only common theme, unique among immigrants to America, is the Holocaust. Some wonder how "normal" people could have engaged in such barbarity, asking themselves how they would have reacted had they been aware of the circumstances. Hegi, as investigative journalist in this book, is careful to avoid judgment. But the subjects raising these questions pose another: how did they view injustices in their adopted country.

Few current prejudices are related in the interviews. One man admits to discomfort at seeing the "Dots;" South Asians "who "smell bad" and "never offer you a fair profit." The reader cannot help but wonder how these people reacted to the protest movements of the 1960s. Did they react to racial hatred in America with quiet acceptance as their parents had done in Germany? Unlike Germany, the violent reaction to protest was visible on any news channel in America. Did they object to America's most controversial war, or support it? One is left with the impression that these exiles comprised part of Richard Nixon's "Silent Majority" and that they, like the parents they admonish, remained equally silent when confronted by issues of moral weight. What Hegi has done is document again the universal that ethical values remain the province of those who stand to be counted. They are, after all, no more or less than human.

As a serious fan of Ursula Hegi, I was a bit disappointed in this book.

This book is a collection of short stories that stand on their own, but only a couple had her usually great characterizations and observations. However, even those were a bit light from what I am used to from her as an author. Usually, her writing really clicks with me and this book did not to the extent I'm used to. Maybe it's me.

This book seemed to me to be earlier work of a great writer and instead of the most current.

After reading Stones from the River, Floating in my mother's palm, The vision of Emma Blau, Intrusions, Salt dancers and the collection of short stories in Unearned pleasures, I felt this book was not up to par with all the rest. I hope her next is better.

I agree with a previous reviewer that the stories in this collection are not quite on the same level as Hegi's wonderful novels Stones in the River and The Vision of Emma Blau. But as a German woman living in the US, just like the author, I felt a pang of nostalgia reading some of the stories. The 12 year old narrator of A Woman's Perfume tells us she likes to read Gisel and Ursel books, a rather cheesy series for girls - goodness, so did I, and now I am reminded of this embarrassing fact! I had forgotten all about those books! I really appreciate these little tidbits in the stories, it makes them so familiar... Ursula Hegi's writing seems more "German" to me than that of some contemporary "real" Germans, i.e. Germans who have not emigrated to the U.S. Maybe it's just because the German names and references stand out more in an English text, I don't know. Anyway, it's an interesting effect.

The stories in Hotel of the Saints are heart-warming and at times, charming. "A Woman's Perfume" stands out particularly, as a complex and well-developed story. However, I couldn't help but feel that the book was dominantly quirky without possessing the true boldness of originality. This is a good book to read over the summer, in the spirit of visiting a favorite aunt and being sent off with lovely baked goods, but nothing too deep happens here. So, somewhere between 3 and 4 stars.

This was a worthwhile and enjoyable enough collection of short stories; most of them revolve around what seems to be the female equivalent of midlife crisis. Ideally, I would have rated this book 3.5, but I can't justify giving it a 4. The stories are interestingly told and emotionally sharp. They tend to leave something wanting, however.

An interesting style, detailed and absorbing for a short story. But too short for a story. Some of the short stories are very different, with a new perspective of social issues, but mostly recording sad incidents in a deep way.

Ursula Hegi known for Stones from the River, in this book writes bits of other lives.

WHAT POSSIBILITIES: In each of these smidgens of a life, you can see the past, present and future. There is a whole life in all of these short stories.

POWER OF THE WRITER: These stories step you into lives either vastly different that your own, or incredibly familiar, and show how alike we really all are. What these stories do show you, is how powerfully elegant Ursula Hegi is as a writer, to be able to do this.

EACH STORY IS CAPTIVATING IN ITS OWN WAY: Each of these stories could be a novel in its own right. In fact that is the only complaint I have, is that I wanted more. It was evident each story was complete in its own right, but on the same token, you wanted to follow the writer's thoughts so you could see how things ended up. Many stories were very introscpective, as much of Ms. Hegi's work is. All related a feeling of belonging, betrayal, concern, happiness, etc. These weren't so much spelled out, but you experienced them as you read the stories.

INTERESTING WAYS OF TELLING A STORY: I found several of the stories very compelling. One was by a person that was struggling with the wandering mind of a high fever. Another was of a jilted bride that attended stranger's wedding in her wedding finery, to insure their good fortune. In both of these stories, initially you don't know what's going on. The fog of the central character is over your eyes as well. Marvelous writing.

This is a short book that makes you wish for more.

Fantastic job.

This book is such an excellent portrayal of the act of creative writing. Textbooks and teachers tell us to "allow the plot to develop around your characters". This book SHOWS us this process in the act of writing, through Urusla Hegi's intersting writing device-- her book is so aptly named "Intrusions". We see the writer interacting and struggling with her work and with life outside of work as it intrudes on her writing. Besides this excellent portrayal of the "writing life", the novel Hegi creates within her novel is a very satisfying one. The main characters-- Megan Stone and her husband Nick-- are believable and the reader can identify with them. Also I really enjoyed the portrayal of the children-- sometimes difficult characters to write about convincingly. Hegi knows children and also knows the subtle emotions that flicker around in a woman's mind and the ambiguities women face in their lives and describes these so well. The ending is satisfying in that Megan does undergo a change, albeit subtle. But the storyline is subtle; it appears to be about "just" everyday life, but that is the way all lives evolve-- great and small. So in that, this story could be said to be "universal".

This being my 5th Ursula Hegi book, I'm a bit biased. Ironically,it was the first I purchased.
Having read one chapter of this book I realized I liked the author's thought process and went out and bought her earlier works. Then I read them first. Odd, but there it is.

MANY VOICES:
This is a most unusual book. Not so much in the sense that the author addresses the reader and discusses plot lines and possiblities but that she also chronicles the "intrusions" of her own life into the writing process. As a Mom of teenagers, I remember the days of being thankful to go to work to eat lunch in peace. This is why young moms eat alone when given the opporturnity... But, I digress. Needless to say it is very much as story about Moms with young children trying to remember who they were before the kids.

YOU GET CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT FROM ALL DIRECTIONS:
Not only do you get character development for the characters by Ms. Hegi, the characters pitch in as well. It is an interesting dialogue when a character is arguing for his personality and winning. I found this unique book treatment and the lessons within it captivating. Anyone who has pondered their motivations and who they are can empathize with not only the characters in this book, but the author herself.

IF THIS WERE A MOVIE:
If this book were to be made into a movie, it would remind you of many of the situation dramas where multiple story lines intersect. However, this book has alternative story lines as well and even would-be pushy alternative writers!

BRAVO ONCE AGAIN TO MS. HEGI:
You have a convert. If you will write it, I will read it. Once again, she fills the pages with the information we all can relate to, wonder about and notice in the corner of our mind. A truly inspired book about an ordinary life.

It has been said that art often imitates life. For a writer, the difference between the two is a fine line of creativity, one that is often crossed without even realizing it. In Ursula Hegi's book INTRUSIONS, Hegi writes about the struggles of writing a novel while being invaded by the thoughts and opinions of the very characters she is trying to create.

There is a grown man riding in Hegi's shopping cart, freezing beneath frozen vegetables as he demands a re-write of his character. A soggy, distressed woman sits in a tub for three weeks while Hegi tries to come up with ideas over what to do with her next. An old professor demands hot and torrid sex of Hegi's characters, attempting to turn even the most delicate of chapters into lewd pornographic pulp.

This melting of reality into fiction has resulted in a fast reading, well written novel that will strike a familiar chord with writers everywhere. Since this is one of the first books Ursula Hegi wrote, it may be difficult to find. But keep looking. Just like Hegi's best selling novel STONES FROM THE RIVER, this book is well worth the search.

Salt Dancers was a great disappointment after Stones from the River. The story itself had pontential but I found the writing flat, lacking the depth and color of Stones. There was a certain lack of maturity in the writing, which led me to wonder if the book had been written well before Hegi's best seller. Was Salt Dancers, perhaps at the urging of agent or publisher, retrieved from the back corner of a closet to take advantage of the hype attached to Stones from the River? If so, it was a great disservice to Hegi, a truly fine writer.

The Kirkus Review notwithstanding, this is a much more accessible, though not patronizing, account of a young woman's coming to terms with her family background. True, it is not "panoramic," as was Stones from the River. It is, in fact, the opposite, a story of just one real, fully drawn American adult woman who is pregnant, not the story, however wonderful Stones is, of a symbol whose life is different in every respect from that which most of us face daily. Though The Salt Dancers deals with common enough themes--alienation, the search for love, the desire to reconcile with the past--so do many other novels. What makes The Salt Dancers worth reading--indeed, what makes most good novels worth reading--is the fresh approach the author makes to these themes. Hegi's presentation of the distortions of memory alone make the book worth reading. Those who are expecting a sweeping novel in the tradition of Stones from the River may be disappointed. This reader, however, found The Salt Dancers more personally involving

I love reading about the past wars and getting the inside look at them. The one thing that I really loved about Stones From The River is that it didn't give you a general overview of the life people lived during the war with Hitler, but it gave you a close up look at some of the trials and tribulations that the people of the town went through. Following Trudi through her struggle of discovery you find yourself questioning,wondering and discovering the new ideas right along with Trudi. I for one can not relate with Trudi and what she lived through, but Hegi does such a good job at writing I almost felt like I could. I would really recomend this book and her other Salt Dancers to anyone who is in for the discovery of the real truth to life.

I read this book after reading "Stones from the River" and was a little disappointed. Hegi is a wonderful storyteller and she has a gift of writing poetically sensible sentences which strike at your heart and make you see things in her characters which you recognise in yourself. However, I can't help but feel that this was an over-ambitious work. The parts where it deals with Stefan Blau's attempt to adapt to life in America as an immigrant are not well explored, and when the novel unfolds, the introduction of the various characters becomes a tad confusing and you get the feeling that you're reading alot more about characters you don't care about only because they fall into the correct time frame. I would rather she had concentrated on characters from the first and second generation, as their lives were neglected towards the last third of the novel, leaving a sense of dissatisfaction in the reader. The writing of "Stones of the River" was much more in-depth and the fact that the story was seen through the eyes of a main protagonist managed to give the novel a degree of centrality which was severely lacking in "The Vision of Emma Blau". At the end of the novel, there is a sense that you have read everything, but have escaped the pertinent points. This was an average novel, but its resources, setting, people and themes could have been worked into something much more powerful. I still look forward to Hegi's other offerings.

i loved Stones From the River. Compared to that, this book is a disappointment. The characters did not move me at all, although the story itself wasn't too bad. I would not read it again, and only finished it b/c I like to finish what I start.

Ursula Hegi has always been an insightful, thoughtful,respected author. With THE VISION OF EMMA BLAU, her reputation as oneof the finest contemporary fiction writers is sealed. A German native, her work crosses any possible cultural borders --- every book is a tightly woven exultation of life as experienced by human beings, regardless of sex, creed, or any other distinguishing factor. She is, quite simply, a marvelous storyteller.

THE VISION OF EMMA BLAU is the story of Stefan Blau, a 13-year-old boy who flees his small town in Burgdorf, Germany. He comes to the USA in search of a chronic vision that haunts him --- it is a vision of a small child he hasn't seen before and a place he hasn't ever visited. The book travels from Germany to America and covers nearly 100 years. Emma, his granddaughter, is the girl of his dream; his sprawling apartment house, the place of his dream. Wasserburg, Stefan's estate, falls into a slow fade and parallels the evolution of American society. The book tells the life of the Blau family, but it truly reflects the experiences of all families that have lived and prospered and suffered throughout World War I and World War II.

Immigrant life in America is not a new subject. But somehow the beautiful prose Hegi utilizes brings Stefan's story into full bloom and makes us feel like we are reliving that period of history all over again, through a truly new perspective. I think this is a very difficult feat to pull off --- but the vision itself presents a framework that keeps us on the edge of our seats: When will Stefan's vision become clear? Who is the girl? Where is this place? How does it all tie into the life he creates for himself anew in the New World, then passes onto the generations of German-American descendants that come after him? THE VISION OF EMMA BLAU is a remarkably poignant story, far-reaching in its scope and irrevocably heartbreaking and heart soaring in its portrait of the growing up of America.

I would heartily recommend THE VISION OF EMMA BLAU to anyone who is part of a family, who wonders about how we all affect each other, our country, ourselves, with each of our experiences, as well as how the world around us affects our lives. These are important questions about life as we knew it in the twentieth century and provides plenty of indications as to how these times will affect us in the new millennium. Congratulations to Hegi for another affecting, considerate novel. What could have been a tired retelling of generational love transcends sentimentality to become a rousing, deeply evocative tale through which we can rediscover America.

--- Reviewed by Jana Siciliano