The memory of all that

the long version

"For readers of Rich Cohen's Sweet and Low, this is a fascinating memoir of an extraordinarily influential American family, from the celebrated author of True Confections, Triangle, and The Music Lesson. The Memory of All That is Katharine Weber's memoir of the rich, strange, and fascinating cast of characters in her family, including her grandmother, Kay Swift, known both for her own music (she was the first woman to compose the score to a hit Broadway show, Fine and Dandy,) and for her ten-year romance with George Gershwin; her great-grandfather, Paul M. Warburg, the creator of the Federal Reserve System (for which he was vilified by Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh, and countless conspiracy theorists as the ringleader of the so-called international Jewish banking conspiracy), the model for Annie's Daddy Warbucks, and the man known as the Cassandra of Wall Street for having forecast the Wall Street crash of 1929; and her crazy father, an eccentric filmmaker who made propaganda and training films for the OSS during World War II and who subsequently invented the regrettable and forgettable Aromarama movies (yes, you could smell them). The Memory of All That is an enthralling look at this tremendously influential family as well as a consideration of how their stories--with their myriad layers of truth and fiction--have both illuminated and influenced who Weber is today"--