Review: The Son and Heir: A Memoir

The Son and Heir: A Memoir The Son and Heir: A Memoir by Alexander Münninghoff
My rating: 5 of 5 stars



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Life is complicated, and sometimes circumstances, completely out of our control, change everything. For example, what would this last year have been like if we had not gone through a pandemic? How did this change the course of people's lives?

Sometimes my students feel like their lives have been unfairly altered, and while this is true, my age and my fascination with history remind me that they are not the only ones who have experienced the injustices of circumstance.

This memoir follows the life of Alexander Munninghoff's family, through the Russian Revolution, World War 1 and World War 2, how circumstances, culture, and personal choices shaped their lives. How their family story would have been entirely different if things had been different. No. It was not fair. But it was.

None of us choose the time we live in, and so we are the victims or the beneficiaries of our eras.

And I thought about these things as I read this beautifully crafted and carefully researched memoir.

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