Nina Perrin Perrin থেকে Asapur, Bihar, India
This is a great memoir about someone completely different from the author. It is not often that biographies are so subjective. Pretty unique. UNIQUE. what a word. The Empress of Ireland reminded me of a diverse array of other books. The perspective and protagonist are very much like Christopher Isherwood's Berlin Stories; it is not surprising then, when the man who inspired Mr Norris (i think that's his name) of Berlin Stories appears in Empress. The abundance of openly homosexual content was a mixture of The Scarlet Professor and a bio on Fassbinder. Now that I think about it, much more in line w/ Fassbinder than the Professor, who basically died from hiding his feelings, unlike Brian Desmond Hurst. The whole writing of the screenplay scenario that lends itself as a reason for any contact between the author and Hurst is something that also kept me into it. I guess one could say subjective reasons. One last thing before I keep writing forever; the Gallipoli chapter, completely unexpected and unlike any other part of Empress, is unbelievable. I haven't read any war memoirs describing such a cruel, absurd and completely horrifying experience outside of concentration camp descriptions. Strange you would find this in a battle between the Irish and the Turks, both fighting for quite arbitrary reasons. If you're Irish, you'll probably like the book even more. Unless you're VERY Irish, i.e. very religious, in which case the whole gay thing might make you very uncomfortable... -j.d.