Nonfiction-International

The Search for Omm Sety: A True Story of Eternal Love and One Woman’s Voyage through the Ages by Jonathan Cott ’62. Jonathan’s work is very wide-ranging: from interviews of great children’s writers to a memoir on memory loss, to now this exploration of reincarnation. This book spans the 3000 years of one woman’s life. It may be true! The woman in question certainly believes it is true. I am a sceptic, but, nonetheless. I found this saga of reincarnation compelling reading. Her ancient persona is a young girl named Bentreshyt. As a priestess of Isis in the temple at Abydos, Egypt, she is forbidden secular love. The much older Pharaoh Sety sees this fair maiden in the temple garden and is much taken with her. After a time of clandestine meetings, he goes away. She turns up pregnant and, in order to spare her true love any publi…

The Last Kings of Shanghai, The Rival Jewish Dynasties that Helped Create Modern China by Jonathan Kaufman ’74. The Last Kings of Shanghai sweeps through the 19th and 20th centuries, telling the story of two families of the Jewish diaspora, originally based in Bagdad, the Sassoons and the Kadoories, who end up accumulating astounding wealth through trade. For decades they rule the elegant waterfront of Shanghai, living in the opulent splendor of their own grand hotels and mansions, while the Chinese, whom they barely notice, struggle to survive. Through the improbable lens of these families we glimpse the tumult of the great transitions that ended the centuries of dynastic empires in China – from the collapse of the Qing dynasty to Sun Yat-sen to Chaing Kai-Shek to Mao – all of which led to today’s People’s Republic.

Jonathan offers an absorbing and innovative angle on the story of east mee…

A Brief History of Egypt by Arthur Goldschmidt Jr. '55. The story of Egypt is a sweep through 12,000 years of history and about 5,000 years of recorded history. The authoritative voice of this book presents a comprehensive introduction to this intricate chronicle. The great icons of Egypt that we all know date from before the Common Era: the natural wonder of the annual flooding of the banks of the Nile, a built-in irrigation system, and the manmade wonders of the pyramids and sphinx. In the shadow of this glory, I find the following sentence the saddest in the book: "In 525 B. C. E. Egypt ceased to be ruled by Egyptians." It was not until 1952, so many centuries later, that the Egyptians regained control of their own country. A succession of foreign powers held sway: the Persians, the Macedonians, the Romans, and the Ottomans until finally the British.

Brazilian Food: Race, Class and Identity in Regional Cuisines by Jane Fajans 60’s. An anthropology professor, Jane Fajans draws on food as an avenue of entry to the regional and social diversities of Brazil. The distinctive attitudes toward food in this sprawling country reveal the alternately competing and blending forces of the three main groups – indigenous, colonial and African. The same cannot be said for our own country where the original peoples have been swept aside and where even the cooking that came from Africa is seen, as she says, as ethnic, outside the mainstream. Perhaps the differences between the Portuguese and the English could play a part. In any case, Brazilians pride themselves on their meals and have in mind the goal that diners will come away well satisfied.

Jane describes the colorful food markets, fiestas, and street venders of delicious wares. We learn of Pará’s use o…