New Year, Old Story

• My running has not gone as planned. As I suspected, running at lunch time did not work too well on Thursday. I was only able to get in 3.37 miles. Friday was a scheduled day off. Saturday was very windy and cold, but I got my 8.5 miles in. However, Sunday the weather was too much. I did about 2.5 miles and it was too cold to continue.
  
  Last winter the weather on weekends, which is when I was running outside was amazingly mild and I had good running days. This winter it seems that the bad weather days are falling on the weekends. We had the blizzard on Saturday two weeks ago and extreme winds all of this past weekend.
  
  Not getting my long run in this weekend will likely make it tough to to do a 20 mile run by the end of the month. Today I worked on the rowing machine. My tentative plan for this week is
  
  Tuesday 5 miles
  Wednesday 7 miles
  Thursday 5 miles
  Saturday 8.5 miles
  Sunday 13 miles
  
  The Invisible Wall
  
  I purchased the audio of this book for my MP3 player from Audible when they had a sale. The sale was on a limited number of books. I really didn't find anything I was looking for, but the price was low so I took a chance on The Invisible Wall by Harry Bernstein.
  
  http://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Wall-Story-Broke-Barriers/dp/0345496108/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262619183&sr=8-1
  
  The unique aspect about Bernstein is that this is his first book and he started it when he was 93. He has published two more book since then and is now 99. This is a non-fiction story of Bernstein's childhood that reads like a novel. Bernstein grew up Jewish in London around world war I in a ghetto. He lived on a street that was Jewish on one side and christian on the other side. Harry was was the fifth of six children. Bernstein considered his mother to be a saintly women and his father to be a distant alcoholic.
  
  The book can be broken down in the following topics.

• A very young Harry secretly carries messages between a Jewish teenage neighbor and her Christian boyfriend. When they are discovered, the Jewish girl is shipped off to live with relatives in Australia. They boy loses his legs in the war and end up killing himself.
• Harry's sister, Lily wins a academic scholarship and wants to become a teacher. However, their father makes her quit school and go to work in the tailor shops where a lot of the Jews work.
• The relationship between the Jewish side and the Christian side of the street is discussed throughout the book. Both sides keep their distance. The Jews would never go into the Christian's houses. However, the Jews would hire the Christians to light their fire on the sabbath since the Jews could not do it themselves during the sabbath . There was a lot of anti-Semitism. However, there were also similarities such also all the people on the street were lower working class people. In addition, during the war when both sides were very concerned about loved ones fighting in the war, the two sides became closer. However, when the war ended, it went back to the same separation.
• Lily had a Christian friend, Arthur Forshore that she admired since she was young. He helped her win the scholarship. Her mother was always concerned about their relationship. When Arthur returned from the war, Lily started to secretly go out with Arthur. Both Arthur and Lily became Marxist and did not believe in religion or that there was any reason for the Jews and Christians to be separated. Harry accidentally found out about their relationship and kept their secret. Eventually Lily's mother finds out. She convinces their relatives in America to allow Lily to move to the US. However, Lily runs away and marries Arthur. Lily's mother disowns Lily.
• Lily and Arthur live in a nearby town and Harry continues to visit regularly. Eventually Lily has a baby. Their mother reconciles with Lily and the street has a big party for the baby with both sides of the street. This is how the book ends.
• The epilogue is revealed that Lily and Arthur both die of health problems at a young age and their child ends up dying in WWII. Harry and the rest of his family move to America. About 30 years later Harry revisits the street just before they are demolishing the houses and the street for a new housing project.

I enjoyed the The Invisible Wall. It is a pleasant, sweet book that shows how much the world has changed in less than 100 years. It was a bit strange to have an upbeat ending and they to find out about the deaths of Lily, Arthur and their son. However, this is a true story. If you are looking for an action packed story this book is probably not for you. I give The Invisible Wall a B+.