Reviews - A Different World - From Old Germany to New England, One Family's Story, By Rudy Mutter - Published by The Sunrise Group, South Hadley, Massachusetts

Reviews

"A Different World offers a moving, humorous and endearing personal history, tracing six generations of the author's family." (Odyssey Book Shop, South Hadley, MA)
Mutter's unadorned and thorough family-history-cum-personal memoir begins
with a frank admission: "I wanted to record...memories before I got too senile to remember them." Such forthrightness marks the rest of this volume, which traces the Mutter lineage through facts and "family lore" beginning with a sketch of the anti-Kaiser rebel army days of Johann Georg Mutter (born Rüsswhil, Germany in 1823); advancing into accounts of the author's maternal grandparents the Meyers (who also hailed from Germany) and several chapters devoted to his father, Rudolph Francis Mutter; and culminating in "Assorted True Stories"-tales of college pranks, ROTC jokes, Air Force life and office duties-as experienced by the author (also Rudolph Francis Mutter, born in Northampton , MA in 1928) himself.

Mutter's sources range from personal interviews and diaries to public documents, and from a history of the 1939 World's Fair to the "baby book" his parents kept after his birth. Because families tend to be large, complicated entities, Mutter's task of relating stories and names isn't a simple one, but he includes a helpful list of characters and many photos, as well as enough colorful anecdotes to keep readers amused even if they've temporally forgotten where any particular individual perches on the family tree. He presents extensive material from his father's 1942 Biography of Mr. Average American and, in addition to family memories, offers a compelling portrait of a very different era.

Though the subject matter might suggest an audience composed primarily of Mutters and their friends, this is a clear-eyed, fond telling of a classic American tale-of immigration, integration and achievement-with its characters convincingly rendered, "the good and the warts."
Publishers Weekly, The International News Service of Book Publishing and Bookselling.
"I can't think when I have enjoyed reading anything as much as I enjoyed your memories. I started at the beginning, and couldn't put it down." (from a teacher)
"The day it arrived all work stopped and I read until 1:40 in the morning." (from a retired newspaper woman)
"It was great! and Grandpa Meyer came close to outdoing Yogi Berra."
"It is so well written and so interesting." (from a librarian)
"It is a delight to read, and brings back a lot of memories."
"There is a great amount of humor in it." (from a newspaper woman)
"It is a way to see the world in much simpler times and the way people lived in the 19th and 20th centuries."
"I especially loved the photos."
"What a great book! And what a lot of work it represents!"
"It is so readable and so interesting and such fun. You write very well, Rudy."
"I just finished reading the chapter on Grandpa Meyer - great belly laughs! Anyone looking in my window would think I was crazy!"

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A Different World - From Old Germany to New England, One Family's Story, by Rudy Mutter

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