Peripatetic: A Memoir: A French-American Citizen's Perspective on His Jewish Heritage and War, Love and Politics

by Daniel H. Dorian

Jewish parents, the war, the German occupation, the round up of Jews, the risk of being sent to a concentration camp, and then Daniel’s exile to a small village in the center of France. The young man’s return to a newly liberated Paris, an addiction to poker, private Latin lessons with Einstein’s best friend… his unusual tour of duty during the Algerian War… his tryst with a painter who encourages him to emigrate to America. Early years in New York City bohemia, honing his skills at Lee Strasberg’s Actors Studio, a poetry recital tour in major US universities… an affair with a black jazz singer and coping with the hardships of miscegenation. He co-hosts a popular hit parade show with one of WMCA’s Good Guys before becoming a foreign correspondent, covering the Cold War, the Johnson-Kosygin summit meeting, the race riots, the Apollo flights, the tumultuous conventions in Chicago and Miami where he is beaten and left for dead in the ghetto. Brando, Sinatra, Fitzgerald, Bardot, Sammy Davis Jr., Dali, Rockefeller, de Gaulle, RFK, are some of the people he interviews, sometimes befriends, as a journalist. This is the story of a man lucky enough to have had an orchestra seat to the major historical events that shaped the second part of the twentieth century.

272 pages, Paperback

First published September 21, 2015

Reviews

[Eaustin01]

A very readable account of one man's incredible life. Daniel Dorian does an excellent job of explaining what life was like for him under the threat of Nazi terror in France to the rebellion of the 1960's and everything in between. His account is very personal which is a real asset for the reader to better understand his amazing life story.

[Bev Black]

I loved this book. Mr. Dorian has lived an amazing life, experiencing America as few have been able to do. The writing is spot on and reads like a novel. I highly recommend this to all.