The rate I’m knocking out books for my A Century of Books project has been slow lately because first I was reading books for Novellas in November (some of which also qualified for ACoB), and I also wanted to read at least a few books for Dean Street December. And I don’t know what I was thinking, but I also put several books for my other projects on my library reserve list, and they have arrived. I must be crazy! Anyway, I read The Dancing Bear for Dean Street.
Although The Dancing Bear is set in time after Faviell’s A Chelsea Concerto, it is actually her first memoir. It covers her time in post-World War II Berlin, where her husband was part of the Occupation. The people in the city are freezing and starving, and even their occupiers are on strict rations of many commodities.
Much of the book is about Faviell’s relationship with the Altmann family. She is being driven in her car when she spots Frau Altmann, an older lady of fragile build, trying to move a heavy cart of furnishings through the streets. Faviell’s German driver thinks it’s hilarious when she falls, but Faviell stops to help her and shames him into helping, too. Despite the dictum not to give rides to Germans, she takes Frau Altmann home in her car.
There, she gets to know Herr and Frau Altmann, two gentle and dignified older people, their daughters Ursula and Lilli, and their sulky son Fritz, a former member of a Nazi youth group against his parents’ wishes. Ursula is the only bread-winner, making money by fraternizing with the British and American soldiers. Lilli, extremely frail, is a ballet dancer.
Aside from descriptions of the living conditions and the changing situation between the Soviet and the other occupiers, much of the story is about Faviell’s relationship with the Altmann’s and with her regular driver, Stampie, who trades on the black market to keep some German families alive.
This is a fascinating account of how some people meet and overcome difficult situations and some don’t. I also wasn’t aware of the conditions in Berlin (although I had heard of the Berlin Flyover) and all the manipulation the Soviets did to try to claim the entire city from their other allies.
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I’ve just read this one myself – I found it fascinating though very sad. I hadn’t realised it was a memoir when I downloaded it, but that helps with my fiction/nonfiction balance for the year, too!
Oh, that’s good! I don’t think I have a fiction/nonfiction balance. I’m unbalanced!
I enjoyed A Chelsea Concerto but haven’t read this one yet. It sounds equally fascinating! I’m halfway through one of her novels, A House on the Rhine, which I’ll be reviewing for Dean Street December.
I liked both of them. I read another one of her fiction books, The Fledgling, but I didn’t like that one that much.
The title and cover made me think it was going to be some kind of mystery for some reason. Why is it called The Dancing Bear?
I don’t remember any outright allusion to it, but it may refer to Russia, which is sometimes symbolized by a bear.