Praise for The Suitcase
Thorough research married with autobiographical findings in family archives immerse readers in one man’s struggles and successes during the turbulent 1930s and ’40s. This informative and entertaining true story, spanning two decades and several countries, is an exceptional read.
– Dacre Stoker, International Bestselling Author and Great Grandnephew of Bram Stoker, Author of Dracula
Combining historical research and constructive imagination, Taussig-Boehner and Housman have replicated from a suitcase full of paper ephemera the eventful life of a Czech adventurer. The central narrative takes the reader across the globe, from Prague to Shanghai to London and New York during the pivotal 1930s and 40s. An engrossing novelization of one man’s remarkable life, The Suitcase offers a rewarding read.
– Dr. Tom Mack, USC Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Author of Circling the Savannah, Hidden History of Augusta
A powerful and beautifully written memoir of a family caught up in the Sino-Japanese War and World War II. The canvas is vast, stretching from Prague and Shanghai to London and New York and beyond. We see, in vivid detail, how even those whose lives weren’t destroyed by war and Holocaust-those who escaped to safety-were overwhelmed by the turbulent times. The Suitcase is a gripping story of death and life.
– Steven Naifeh, Pulitzer Prize-winning co-author of Jackson Pollock: An American Saga and Van Gogh: The Life
The Suitcase is a genealogist’s dream come true. Taussig-Boehner and Housman have methodically researched, analyzed, and documented every clue and artifact without bias to masterfully and completely fill in the missing pieces of this incredible life story. As readers, we can hear, see, feel, smell and touch as Vladimir did on his adventures due to the captivating detail brought to life on these pages. The Suitcase is an everlasting gift and invites the reader to explore the legacy within each of us.
– Keira Murphy, Founder of Jumpstart Genealogy, www.jumpstartgenealogy.com/
Taussig-Boehner has meticulously sorted through a treasure trove of her late father’s letters, photographs, diaries and other memorabilia and from this gleaning has, together with Housman, produced a historically enlightening and literarily entertaining glimpse into the privileged community of European expats, businessmen, socialites and diplomats in pre-World War II and wartime Shanghai. This engaging narrative shines a penetrating light deep into the evidently unapologetic social and cultural elitism of European residents of myriad national, cultural, and political backgrounds, a spectrum ranging in diversity from her father, a Czech Jew and something of an unofficial, part-time emissary for remnant Czechoslovakia, to pro-Nazi agents, intriguing and conspiring daily both openly and covertly, yet rubbing tuxes while partaking of Shanghai’s night life. One cannot help but imagine Vladimir Taussig as a tennis-playing Humphrey (Rick) Bogart–just transport Shanghai for Casablanca. Of profound value for us all is the authors’ illustration of the deleterious impact that the arrogant, ethnically supremacist and separatist European lifestyle surely had on everyday Chinese people and their coalescing, collective images of the West. The cumulative effect of such social and cultural distancing over the years no doubt left a bad taste and unfortunately manifests itself today, as the Chinese challenge the West for supremacy in virtually every walk of life. A must read for anyone curious about some of the more subtle, less pronounced sources of present Sino-Western relations.
– Valdis O. Lumans, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History, University of South Carolina
The Suitcase is utterly compelling… a superb intertwining of unflinching truth and informed imagination. Remarkably, it is a true story–with additional context and conjecture supplied from meticulous research. Focused primarily on China between the World Wars, then into the 1950s and beyond, this is a fascinating story told through an intriguingly personal perspective, during a time when the world came to terms with its conscience and changed its soul–along with that of one man: a Czech, a Jew, a father’s son. This first-person experiential narrative walks the backstreets and goes clubbing in pre-WWII Shanghai. It plays tennis and the ponies. Drinks cocktails. Gambles lavishly. Sails first class. Dances all night with wealth and privilege, politics and power. It also steps over the rubble of war-ravaged cities, is witness to Nazi death camps, fights lonely battles, and writes letters home. This is an authentic scrapbook of human history leading up and through WWII–like it was never taught in any classroom. Sadly, the suave, charming, resourceful Captain X did not live long enough to tell the story. Fortunately, his daughter has.
– Marti Healy, author of Blinding the Moon, The Secret Child, and others
The Suitcase: The Life and Times of Captain X is an epic story with two focal points: the colorful and eventful life of Vladimir George Taussig, and the tumultuous events he lived through during the first half of the 20th century. In these pages Taussig comes unforgettably alive as a bon vivant and a dashing ladies’ man who also exemplified an old-fashioned Mitteleuropean sense of duty and patriotism. The research that Lauren Housman and Deborah Taussig-Boehner have done is meticulous and exemplary; as well, they have succeeded in bringing Vladimir Taussig to life on the page. The book reads like a novel. But at the same time it is an important historical work, charmingly recreating the sporting life of the wealthy entre-deux-guerres expatriate community in Shanghai, and detailing the horrifying reality of life and death among the Jewish community in Nazi concentration camps, where members of Taussig’s Czech family perished.
– Richard Tillinghast, author of Journeys into the Mind of the World: A Book of Places