Stories my Father Told Me:
From Warsaw, Moscow, Algeria, Siberia, Kazakistan, Dominican Republic 
by Dvora Treisman
2024 / 196 pages – Kindle 
Rating 9.25 / memoir-travelogue 

Quite a title there, no?  This is the book my book-group friend Dvora had been working on and meaning to get published for awhile. Well, she did it! And announced it to some of us just the other day.  I am in awe!  How many people say they’re writing a book vs how many actually do it and even get it published and sold?  Ha!

It’s a fun book – a sweet book – a book of stories told on a couple levels. Top level is that the author is telling her father’s life story as he told  her. On another level there was is a lot going on in the world during his lifetime and he managed to see so much both good and bad as well as good within bad sometimes. Sometimes he was the good.

This is like a love letter to her father and it’s pretty much what the title says it is.  Dvora’s father, Rafal Feliks Buszejkin,  lived in many places during his lifetime and he spoke 6 (?) languages. From the descriptions he must have been quite an intelligent and fun-loving man. He was certainlyremarkably hardworking and what Dvora has done is try to write Rafal’s life and stories as he told or wrote them to her.  One thing she makes clear is that if you, the reader, have questions, ask now – these dear older ones might not be here when you think you’re “ready.” I know this feeling exactly!

Dvora has fleshed out the branches of a family tree to look like one that is flowering with friend and family blooms and the photo sections were such a delightful surprise.

The organization is natural and easy to follow with 10 basic chapters bookended by a Preface and an Afterword.  The chapters are mostly named for the places he, or they, lived and these are further divided into sections by topic or adventure or characters he met – and he had wild adventures, and met fascinating characters.  Dvora writes clearly and with enough descriptive detail and energy to keep me turning the pages, but not too quickly because there’s a mood or ambiance here worth savoring.

 I know a bit about European WWII history so jumping around all those places was quite interesting.  After Rafel leaves Poland and France for study in Algeria and elsewhere, the book becomes something of a travelogue – I adore travelogues.