Skip to main content

Personal History by Katharine Graham.

 


 

I love autobiographical accounts. The best ones for me, are the ones that are unbiased and make me empathise with the narrator (writer)

This one was rather simple and straightforward. The author lays bare the facts and allows you to make your own impressions about the events that unfolded, rather than thrusting upon you a pre-formed opinion.

We get a front seat view of major events in history from the first world War onwards, up to the Nixon scandal and a further few years beyond that.

Katharine Graham was born at the fag end of the first world War and that is where her narrative begins. There is a little segue into previous years, to explain her ancestry.

She describes a difficult relationship with her mother, without looking for sympathy and a beautiful one with her father, with love and pride.

She grew up in a world which had just weathered major strife and was in her early twenties when the second world War rolled around. In the intervening years, she shares her privileged upbringing and the various historical figures that she met. Some of these she knew intimately well and with the others, she had a passing acquaintance. It is noteworthy, that this lady has managed to inform us of this without coming across as pretentious. Think about it, how many could claim to have breakfasted, at the home of Albert Einstein or confess to turning down an offer to be sculpted by a world-famous sculptor, just because she was uncomfortable. And all this done with no condescension or even a sense of awe herself. It was just narrated at this point, as she probably felt at that time, without a sense of proximity to history.

The habit of letter writing, and solid references add credence to her narrative. This is aided by the exchange of letters between her and her mother. It made me realise the power of the written word, not that I needed a reminder.

It amazed me to learn of the bias, she and her husband faced, because of her Jewish antecedents. She was denied apartment after apartment as she was half Jewish. Even though her father, was considered the man who saved the USA from starvation. What makes this stranger still, is the fact that her husband was a war hero and known for his many exploits.

The tumultuous relationship that she had with her husband is finely etched. His highs and his lows, were as diverse as being Kennedy’s confidante to an affair with a socialite. His infidelity, coupled with his rapid descent into mental instability and eventual suicide is detailed and baldly written, with no attempt to joust for sympathy. It is an insider's view, on life with an overachiever, who devolves, which is aggravated by his PTSD after the war.

She did not choose her life, instead it chose her. Nothing brings this out better, than her recounting of the strike by her printers, that she combated by a hit and miss approach. The Watergate scandal and its adroit handling, by an editor appointed by her, was surprisingly not her high point. She felt, that the repeated takeover attempts which she repelled and stayed afloat successfully was in fact, her major credit.

I loved this book for the myriad details and the simple prose. I read it and also listened to it. The narrator, Carrington MacDuffie was good too, and had an old-time charm to it, which suited the book well and enhanced my enjoyment of it.

 

#MiniasReviews

#AllLivesMatter

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Qala

Anvita Dutt, is a master story teller. And she, tells this one well too. She and Kanika Dillon have a knack of painting their leading ladies in shades of grey. Whilst Kanika brings in the whacky and the wild, Anvita brings in the angst. It makes for great entertainment.  This movie seeps in slowly and is for those of you who like the slow burn. There is drama and angst and tragedy and it leaves you wondering, what did I just watch? Was this a movie or sheer art? And it is a movie that stays with you for a bit.  The visuals are stunning, particularly those of the boat on the water. The noir-ish feel of the movie fits the mood perfectly. One does know what has happened and why, but the visuals and the artistry keep you in thrall. This is the story of a woman, who learns to be competitive in her mother's womb itself. Her quest for survival began in the womb itself. She then spends all her childhood and teen years having only her mother and constantly craving her validation. Is ...

Monica, O My Darling

Straight off the bat, let me tell you that I went into this movie cold. I just saw the trailer and put it on my watch list. I was totally enamored with the cast and the premise. I knew I was going to watch this one, so I didn't delve into the promotional shenanigans.  So if you are of the same bent of mind, stop reading and start watching.  And on your behalf, I did Google Ankola, it is a town in Karnataka and is not to be confused with Akola in Maharashtra. Ha ! Ha! Netflix has been delighting us with gems like Raat Akeli thi, Haseen dilruba and Bulbul. Add this one to that list and think Gehraiyaan. I need not stress on the proficient star cast. They are masters of their craft. Starting with the sneaky Rajkummar Rao, the sultry Huma Quereshi and the wily Radhika Apte, the ensemble includes the creepy Sukant Goel, the beleaguered Zayn Marie and many others. For me Sikandar Kher was a standout. A shoutout to his intensity and his baritone.  The dialogues are spot on and t...

Suicides

I am sorry, I am going to come across as terribly insensitive when I have said this but, what is all this fuss about? A celebrity was unable to cope with the pressures of the life he had chosen and gave up on living. I mean have you ever seen a rejected sportsperson commit suicide? And the person in question here actually had a degree from a very prestigious institute and could have looked for another job, but he didn't.  So my take on this is: 1- Nepotism is a fact in all walks of life. 2- A person who is suffering from Clinical Depression is a person who needs to be constantly monitored and a care-taker needs to be assigned, because patients of such depression always experiment with dosages and such. They also cease to take their medications. 3- Here it seems to have been the sister who was the designated care-taker, so why isn't she being questioned? 4- Also the doctor who was treating him said that SSR had discontinued his treatment. The correct protocol is to m...