The American Way and What it Means

Click here to listen to our conversation.

I read The American Way by Helene Stapinski and Bonnie Siegler in two days. I am not bragging; I couldn’t help it. The story drew me in: I had to know how things would play out for the Schulbacks and the Donenfeld crew once they got to America. I put lesson planning, exercising, and real-world grown-up responsibilities aside to experience the story of Holocaust survivors and refugees who do everything they can to get to America and to make lives for themselves. 

Marilyn Monroe’s place in the story surprised me. I grew up with Marilyn in the air, a cultural icon nobody needed to know much about–a part of the scenery. She was the pretty blonde who somehow gave “being blonde” a bad name. In contrast, Stapinski and Siegler paint a portrait of an Orphan Annie who took notes every time life delivered a lesson and made the most of her learning to come out ahead of the game. Their Marilyn is a woman of our time–fearless, driven, unapologetic, lonely. 

The American Way chronicles the experiences of Jewish refugees and how they found their place in American culture and how we understand ourselves. This is our biography, our memoir. Read it and learn that we might better care for our new neighbors as we deepen our understanding of what it means to be American.