The Hare with Amber Eyes - a family biography

I was excited to start reading this book, because of the European history. I had spent a weekend in Vienna not long before reading about the family's move there at the turn of 1900, until the second world war. It seems we had stayed with friends very close to the area where the Ephrussi mansion was, and so I could quickly take myself back to this amazing city. I must say I was ignorant of Edmund de Waal, sometimes described as the greatest living british potter, and of netsuke, apparently tiny wooden hand crafted amulets, exported from Japan to Europe as part of the Japonisme movement also around 1900. So I was caught in the tension set up by Edmund that these netsuke were more than a device to trace a rather tragic family story. I think he wanted to project something deep and psychological about why people collect and share objects within and beyond families - but I was left feeling a bit confused and disappointed - is there anything deeper than some families have more secrets than others - and that some secrets are genuinely lost and others need to be stitched together? Anyway, I decided just to enjoy the family story - of a large Jewish family dispersed from Odessa to Paris and Vienna and the twisted fates of both arms - interrupted by the dreadful wave of anti-semitism linked to the second world war. The lives of the wealthy and the challenges of sharing inheritances between generations of people with different interests and skill sets were cleverly described. I do wonder why the family did not leave Vienna, as many succesful Jews must have - but their choice to stay enabled the creation of a very different set of circumstances. I liked the way these netsuke connected the family - originally bought by Charles in Paris, somewhere around 1880, given to Viktor and Emmy in Vienna as a wedding present. They were seemingly undervalued amongst the many ostentacious art objects and remained in Emmy's dressing room, as objects the children loved playing with. It seems they were lost during the war, but they were rescued by the family's maid and hidden in a mattress, until they were reunited with the family. It is not clear whether they influenced (great uncle) Iggie to move to Japan, but it seemed important that they were taken 'home' before becoming part of Edmund's home in London.