Roberta Dietzen

GYPSY MUSIC STREET

Reader Reviews

 

5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling!

 

Given that my father was from Munkács and both my parents are survivors of the Hungarian Holocaust, I have read over the years numerous books about events in Munkács and Hungary during and after WW2. This book is one of the best and most compelling ones I've read. Much credit goes to Ms. Dietzen for telling her story (and her mother's) in a deeply honest and personal manner, And for revealing so much about modern day Munkács. Bravo!

 

5.0 out of 5 stars Gypsy Music Street

 

I would recommend this book to people who have longed to visit the birthplace of their mother or father, but felt afraid to travel to a place where they did not speak the language. Roberta Dietzen's courage to trace her mother's footsteps back to Eastern Europe is an inspiration to others. Her complex relationship with her mother would resonate with anyone whose parents were immigrants.

 

5.0 out of 5 stars a book of love and sadness, of loss and understanding of the past and the present.

 

This book was a haunting tale of an adult child looking for her past and the past of her mother so she could better understand her mother after her death. She found the place where her mother lived on Gypsy Music Street - very different than when her mother lived there and had the opportunity to flee the land that killed most of her relatives . For as Jews, most of the people who lived there were murdered while the other few escaped. It is a very touching book - written very beautifully. I admire the author for taking this trek to find a final answer to questions she had about her mothers life. It is really a tribute to the love she felt toward her mother and her longing to continue to feel that love. I highly recommend it.

 

5.0 out of 5 stars A Family Saga

 

Gypsy Music Street is a wonderful story. It's a compilation of actual historic events combined with very personal family remembrances. The people are described so fully that the reader feels that she knows them. The scenery and buildings are so vivid that the images jump off the page. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading about family histories as the author obviously loves hers. Janis.

 

4.0 out of 5 stars A touching tale of remembrance

 

This is a heartwarming story that conveys the strong bond between a mother and daughter. The author is blessed to have the opportunity to trace her ancestral history by actually walking the same streets and tying together the family stories! I always said I wish I could go to the countries my grandparents grew up in so I could get a sense of what their lives must have been like. Thanks for taking me on your journey!

 

5.0 out of 5 stars personal, moving, real

 

A good friend told me to read Gypsy Music Street, and I feel that I am lucky to get to know the story of the beautiful girl from Munkacs, Hungary who left for New York just in time. Roberta Dietzen tells us about fulfilling her promise to her mother, to visit the town, now in the Ukraine, so lovingly remembered. She invites us along , telling us about the travails of the trip, and of her family with affection, curiosity, and highest regard. She stresses their normalcy along with their strong Jewish faith. Her grandfather sold wood, her grandmother worked hard to raise nine children. Life was good until a day in 1944 when the Jews were taken, unbelievably, to be brutally held and then killed at Auschwitz. She tells this story in glimpses, from different points of view, layering the images so that we can just bear to read them. It is a vivid and true story of luck and love, and courage, set against the antithesis of all those that was the holocaust. Thank you, Roberta Dietzen.

 

5.0 out of 5 stars  Captivating

 

Ms. Dietzen’s story of her mother’s journey is heartwarming… taking the reader to relate with the daughter by means of her loss of extended family as so many from that era, as well as other eras, can relate, thus, we also have the daughter's journey. I was captivated by the author’s emotions and descriptive writing. This book is highly recommended, not long and drawn out... staying with the affair of the ‘journey’.

 

5.0 out of 5 stars  Moving Story

 

This is an incredibly moving account of a woman's journey to visit the birthplace of her Hungarian mother. The story offers insight into the devastating decisions faced by those victimized by Nazi aggression during the Holocaust. I hope a hard copy will be available too.

 

5.0 out of 5 stars  Finding Her Mother's Memories

 

As soon as I started reading this I couldn't put it down. I quickly became acquainted with the witty, charming, and feisty woman who was the author's mother. Through the author's marvelous description I was sucked into her mother's poignant sense of losing her Hungarian family of origin and the familiar places of her youth during the Holocaust. The author gives vivid, sometimes amusing accounts of her family coping with hardship juxtaposed with descriptions of the savage persecution inflicted on them. Later I was caught up in the adventure of the author visiting her mother's village and childhood home.

 

5.0 out of 5 stars  Moving and inspiring

 

This is a touching story, and a tribute to a daughter's loving empathy for her immigrant mother's
difficult life and losses. Vivid, affectionate, and humorous, the author's portrayal of her mother
draws the reader in and conveys the extent to which she was haunted by having escaped the Holocaust while much of her family did not. The author's determination to visit her mother's childhood home in Hungary (now Ukraine)--the dream that her mother had but was not able to fulfill--is moving and inspiring.

 

5.0 out of 5 stars  Gypsy Music Street by Roberta Dietzen

 

This is a great, poignant story of family, history and discovery. Only by understanding the past can you understand yourself.

 

5.0 out of 5 stars  I couldn't stop reading this book

 

This is an engrossing biography about a devoted daughter's journey to find the birthplace, hidden records and history (based on minute clues and pieces of information) regarding her deceased mother, father and many other relative's lives in Eastern Europe. I could not put this book down because it is so engaging. This true story; although sad in some parts, was inspirational and heart warming beyond my expectations. I am not a big book reader, but found this book to be so interesting that I read it in two days and that is a record time for me. This is a must read!