“There are places that I have never forgotten. A little cobbled street in a smoky mill town in the North of England has haunted me for the gr...
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Aug 29, 2008
Jill
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I LOVE YOU, HARRY!
Phew--what a great book. I haven't been that engrossed in - I don't know how long!
If I grew up with a such a bastard of a father, and bitch of a sister (I hate you Rose), I would have...I don't know what I would have done--but it wouldn't have been pretty.
Harry is able to convey all of the emotions attached to living on a 1/2 Jewish, 1/2 Christian street--all that you'd expect and more.
When Lily's father drags her, by her hair, t More...
Phew--what a great book. I haven't been that engrossed in - I don't know how long!
If I grew up with a such a bastard of a father, and bitch of a sister (I hate you Rose), I would have...I don't know what I would have done--but it wouldn't have been pretty.
Harry is able to convey all of the emotions attached to living on a 1/2 Jewish, 1/2 Christian street--all that you'd expect and more.
When Lily's father drags her, by her hair, t More...
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May 19, 2011
K.D.
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This is my 3rd book in this genre: memoirs, specifically boy's and I am becoming fond of it. Few years ago, Tata J told me to read ANGELA'S ASHES by the late Frank McCourt and it remains one of my all-time favorite books. Then early this year, he also lend me TOAST by Nigel Slater which I also found amazing (5 stars). Now, how could I not like THE INVISIBLE WALL by Harry Bernstein? It is a lot better than the latter - having a more serious theme (anti-Jews) and more poignant (having two tragic l
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Dec 08, 2008
Michelle
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Apart from being a fascinating glimpse into the religion barriers that shaped an early twentieth-century impoverished British industrial community, the narration is surprisingly innocent and pure. Bernstein, writing in his 90s, remembers a past almost a century old. Yet his five year old self paints a story in such beautifully refreshing tones that the tragedies of want, fear, bitterness, and betrayal are tempered with the hopeful view of childhood. Not to say that the tragic parts of the mem
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Nov 22, 2008
David
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Harry Bernstein was 93 years old when he wrote this tender memoir about his childhood in Manchester, England in the years surrounding World War I. He narrates his family's story from a child's point of view growing up in a poor, working-class neighborhood. The Jewish families lived on one side of the street, and the Christians on the other with an "invisible wall" between. While they avoided the violence that would later oppress the Jews, they suffered persecution in more subtle ways (
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May 12, 2008
Kathleen
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Harry has a hard life... Jewish and poor in England around WWI in a truly dysfunctional family. Little things bring him joy, many things in his life are scary. Each chapter provides a snapshot of the divided street, Jews on one side, Christians on the other. Harry paints a great picture of times gone by with horses, outhouses, and yet people warring against one another. One wonders how things have changed in the last century, when many considered WWI, the war to end all wars.
I could ident More...
I could ident More...
Jan 29, 2012
Chrissie
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There is an overwhelming sense of nostalgie and melancholy throughout the entire book. The tone is too sombre for my tastes. The author, in his nineties looks back at his childhood in a small Lancashire village outside Manchester. More specifcally the book is about the invisible wall between the Jews living on one side and the Christians living on the other side. The book starts when the author is four and is centered around his older sister's love for a Christian boy on the other side of the st
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Oct 31, 2011
BarbaraNathalie
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Although I am not Jewish, I have been reading books about them since I was eight years old. I have read many historical pieces and memoirs dealing with the holocaust. When I read The Invisible Wall in 2007, I was introduced to another area where differences among people cause pain, heartache, and disadvantage in the world. In a poor part of England, it is sad that people don't find ways to help each overcome the "stuff" in their environment to make a better life for everyone.
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Apr 20, 2011
Sarah
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A memoir of a divided (Jewish/Christian) street around the time of World War I in Manchester, Bernstein's story is very interesting and readable. There are a lot of touched emotions throughout this memoir--unapproved love between young people on both sides of the street, the differences of religion, the fights between socialism and communism, the death of dreams, abusive fathers....
The story itself is very interesting and emotional. I liked the story a lot. Bernstein was 93 when this wa More...
The story itself is very interesting and emotional. I liked the story a lot. Bernstein was 93 when this wa More...
May 23, 2010
Margaret
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An incredibly touching and tragic memoir published when the author was in his 90s, but telling the experiences he had as a young boy growing up as a Jew in England just before and after World War I. The Invisible Wall refers to the street on which he lived -- Jews lived on one side, Christians on the other. In the prologue, author Harry Bernstein says, "It was a quiet little street, hardly noticeable among all the other larger streets, but what distinguished it from all the others was the f
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Mar 13, 2010
Clare
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Jan 26, 2010
Jane
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Wow. I'd thought I'd reviewed/recorded this book, but when I was looking at my "read" books just now, it wasn't among them. I actually can't recall exactly when I read this book, but it's one of the best I've read in a long time.
Details are now a bit fuzzy for me, but Harry Bernstein (who was in his 80s when he wrote this) is an incredible writer who made me feel an immediacy about everything he was describing. The "invisible wall" is the dividing line between More...
Details are now a bit fuzzy for me, but Harry Bernstein (who was in his 80s when he wrote this) is an incredible writer who made me feel an immediacy about everything he was describing. The "invisible wall" is the dividing line between More...
Aug 04, 2009
Cindy
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Bernstein was 93 years old when he wrote this memoir, (his first book) of his childhood in an English mill town. For those readers who require that their books be firmly grounded in time and place, The Invisible Wall will be a delight. Little Harry describes the segregated working class neighborhood he grew up in—Christians on one side of the narrow cobble-stone street, Jews on the other—with the kind of detailed observation that comes naturally to children, but is generally lost as one grows ol
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May 23, 2009
Jessica
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Mr. Bernstein's memory is excellent, and his tellings of his youth are vivid, surprising, fun and frank.
I actually felt like crying for Lily. You can't help who you fall in love with, and she was cast out of her family for deciding to follow her heart and marry Arthur, the good, kind and smart Christian boy from across the street.
I actually felt Lily's struggle from the moment she realized she had feelings for Arthur, the anxiety those feelings caused, and the uncertaint More...
I actually felt like crying for Lily. You can't help who you fall in love with, and she was cast out of her family for deciding to follow her heart and marry Arthur, the good, kind and smart Christian boy from across the street.
I actually felt Lily's struggle from the moment she realized she had feelings for Arthur, the anxiety those feelings caused, and the uncertaint More...
Oct 08, 2010
Grace
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Jan 02, 2010
Khaya
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I felt like I was reading the Jewish Angela's Ashes. Poverty, alcoholism, abuse, dysfunction, a different time and place vividly remembered and evoked by an old man writing from a child's perspective. Harry Bernstein writes about his difficult childhood as a Jewish boy in World War I Lancashire, England, where an "invisible wall" divides the Jews and Christians in the neighborhood. It is against this backdrop that Harry's sister falls in love with a Christian boy, causing consternat
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Apr 05, 2011
Rick
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The story is very interesting. It's a reminder of Angela's Ashes with the addition of Judeo/Christian ethnic bigotry. It's amazing that this story was told by Harry Berstein when he was in his 90's. My wife noticed that 'arry' always seemed to be in the scene of all the key moments in the book. He was after all telling his story but it does seem like everyone always singled him out. Perhaps that's the way he remembers it. The story is not as well written as the McCord saga's however Berstein doe
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Apr 10, 2010
Sarah
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Jan 30, 2012
The Invisible Wall
By Harry Bernstein
303 Pages
By Harry Bernstein
303 Pages
The Invisible Wall is about young forbidden love that is seen and witness by the mind of a little boy. It is set at the peak of War World 1 where the jews and christians were separated; although at this time, the restrictions were not that strict, the thought of a christian and a jew being in love, was out of the question. However, that is exactly what happens. Harry, a jewish boy, lives in a small town where his sister fell in
Mar 02, 2010
Karen
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This book was enthralling. I have to wonder how much the author actually remembered, because it takes place between his ages of 4 and 11. Regardless, I took it all as fact, though much is certainly supposition and reconstructed memories. I very much appreciated the author's descriptions and manner in which he told the story; it was the key to how vividly I could imagine the scenes. If this were a work of fiction, for some reason, it might not move me as much. But "'arry" is so real, an
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Mar 09, 2009
Terry
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Harry Bernstein's memoir, The Invisible Wall: A Love Story That Broke Barriers was famously published when he was 96 years old, a vicarious triumph for greybeards everywhere. Bernstein is certainly not a new writer. This memoir is a result of decades of writing and the retelling of his unique childhood experiences.
Though often compared to McCourt's Angela's Ashes, this memoir describes people living in the same neighborhood who cannot cope with conflicts born of their unique, religio More...
Though often compared to McCourt's Angela's Ashes, this memoir describes people living in the same neighborhood who cannot cope with conflicts born of their unique, religio More...
Apr 04, 2008
Kimberly
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Definitely worth reading. A memoir about a little Jewish boy in England during WWI. His side of the street is Jewish and the other side is Christian. The Jews' and Christians' lives do mix in some respects--they go to the same school, shop at the same candy store--but are completely separate in other respects. The major plot development is when Harry's older sister falls in love with a Christian boy. A very well written book. A meaningful story.
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Jan 29, 2011
Shannon
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This was a very readable memoir - and the amount of detail the then 96-year-old Bernstein remembers from his childhood is astounding. It's primarily the story of a poor street in an English town, with Jews on one side, and Christians on the other. And when his sister Lily falls for a taboo Christian, to coin a phrase, all hell breaks loose.
His father was an irredeemable rat bastard, and his sister Rose was a vindictive little twit. Apparently Bernstein's 4th book, which the 100-year-old i More...
His father was an irredeemable rat bastard, and his sister Rose was a vindictive little twit. Apparently Bernstein's 4th book, which the 100-year-old i More...
Jun 09, 2011
Rebecca
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I loved this book because it is a memoir, but written as if it is a novel. Sometimes memoirs get bogged down by what the author was feeling, but not this book!!
Harry (known as 'arry) writes in such a beautiful way, he brings the street to life, and makes us feel what it is like to live with the invisible wall!
Even though his family was poor and lived with a drunk of a father that they all feared, there is no bitterness in this book. Just a truthful portal of the Jewish side o More...
Harry (known as 'arry) writes in such a beautiful way, he brings the street to life, and makes us feel what it is like to live with the invisible wall!
Even though his family was poor and lived with a drunk of a father that they all feared, there is no bitterness in this book. Just a truthful portal of the Jewish side o More...
Jan 27, 2011
TBML
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At age 93, first-time author Bernstein boasts a gripping coming-of-age memoir of his childhood in a religiusly divisive town in Northern England circa World War I. Home to both Christian and Jewish families, the street where Bernstein grew up was defined by the strict social and vocational segregation. Bernstein crafts the tale of his sister's forbidden love for a Christian boy from the other side. From the perspective of his boyhood self, Bernstein offers a glimpse into a family riven by povert
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Feb 20, 2011
Sibyl
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At first I struggled to get into this autobiography.
It seemed too bleak, and I was worried that I'd accidentally bought a misery memoir. On the other hand a working class childhood in the early 20th century was bleak - even without having unhappily married parents, poverty and widespread anti-Semitism to contend with.
I had imagined I would find out quite a bit about Stockport where both I and the author grew up. But as it's told from a small child's viewpoint, the world More...
It seemed too bleak, and I was worried that I'd accidentally bought a misery memoir. On the other hand a working class childhood in the early 20th century was bleak - even without having unhappily married parents, poverty and widespread anti-Semitism to contend with.
I had imagined I would find out quite a bit about Stockport where both I and the author grew up. But as it's told from a small child's viewpoint, the world More...
Apr 23, 2011
Korri
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This charming memoir, written by the author when he was 93, looks back on his childhood in a working class English mill town before the first world war. Although everyone on his street was united by the war, living conditions and economic circumstances, there was an invisible wall separating Christians and Jews. When Bernstein's elder sister, Lily, falls in love with Arthur, the Christian boy across the street, their obvious affection as well as his encouragement of her goal to attend grammar sc
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Jan 13, 2010
Chris
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This book should be required reading for any teenager. If they think they're living through hard times...try growing up in Harry Bernstein's time. I've read both The Invisible Wall and The Dream, and I hope Harry lives a few more years to write his third book. The hero in both books is his long suffering mother. You can feel his love and admiration for her throughout both books. I was outraged by his fathers treatment of his sister Lily. All she wanted to do was go to school so she could b
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Nov 23, 2008
Mary
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If Angela's Ashes wasn't one of my all time favorite books,I may have given this book a 5. It was similar in style - a difficult childhood seen through the eyes of a young boy. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Mr. Bernstein's writing. I was very encouraged when I read in the forward that this was his first book and he was 96 when it was published!!!!! There is hope for me!!!!!
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May 15, 2011
Rose
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This story was so interesting I couldn't put the book down, thus I finished it in a day. Though I think it should have been named The Invisible Wall & could have done without the "Love Story That Broke Barriers" part. It was more a coming of age story to me. Harry Bernstein did a wonderful job of bringing the religiously segregated street he grew up in come alive. During pre World War I, in Lancashire, England anti semitism ran rampant in this little cobble stone street. It's heart br
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Apr 28, 2010
Nicole
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I was so sorry to finish this book. It was so heart wrenching what the author, his siblings and mother had to go through just to survive. I will most certainly buy the sequel "The Dream". When I read a book I usually try to put myself in the time period the book was written but this book was so different. However, it gave a very clear picture of how people lived with different beliefs and how they tolerated each other until a crisis happened. Major events do not alter life permane
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