My Mother and Me

the long version

"In this witty and insightful memoir, Peter Schrag meditates on the life of his mother, Ilse, who left Germany in 1933 to marry a German Jewish doctor in Lebanon. She left that marriage after five years (1933-1938) and made her way to New York City with her infant son. Together, mother and son built a new life. At once a rumination on the problems a Jewish refugee family faces in difficult times, an observation of the mysteries of the mother-son bond, and a treatise about what it means to be an American, My Mother and Me is a remarkable family story." -- back cover.