Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK meTLE: Sirius
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1953
WEBSITE:
CITY: Berlin
STATE:
COUNTRY: Germany
NATIONALITY:
http://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Jonathan-Crown/2090482207 * http://www.vogue.com/article/jonathan-crown-sirius-author-interview * http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/books/ct-books-1016-sirius-jonathan-crown-20161013-story.html
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: nb2016006693
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/nb2016006693
HEADING: Crown, Jonathan, 1953-
000 00528nz a2200169n 450
001 10115522
005 20160324050913.0
008 160323n| azannaabn |n aaa
010 __ |a nb2016006693
035 __ |a (Uk)009587116
040 __ |a Uk |b eng |e rda |c Uk
046 __ |f 1953 |2 edtf
100 1_ |a Crown, Jonathan, |d 1953-
370 __ |a Berlin (Germany) |c Germany |e Berlin (Germany) |2 naf
375 __ |a male
377 __ |a ger
670 __ |a Sirius, 2015: |b t.p. (Jonathan Crown, originally in German) back flap (He was born in Berlin in 1953, lives in Berlin)
PERSONAL
Born 1953, in Berlin, Germany.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, journalist, and novelist.
WRITINGS
Sirius has been published in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
SIDELIGHTS
Sirius: A Novel about the Little Dog Who Almost Changed History was written by Jonathan Crown, the pseudonym of German journalist Christian Jämmerling. First published in Germany, the novel tells the story of a little fox terrier who goes from being part of a German experiment in the 1930s to Hollywood stardom to a spy who plays a pivotal role in the downfall of Adolf Hitler. “I wasn’t even really planning to write a book about Hitler—I just wanted to have the story of a funny little dog against a very dramatic, historic backdrop,” Crown noted in an interview with Vogue Online contributor Corey Seymour. Crown went on to tell Seymour: “I wanted Sirius to be a fable about fate. Sirius is constantly on the run, cast about here and there in a wild, unexpected life.”
Sirius begins with German scientists working on a project to teach dogs to read and write. The Gestapo arrests the lead scientists and shoot all the dogs, except for one puppy in hiding. The dog ends up roaming the streets of Berlin, offering up pawed salutes to suspected Nazis. He eventually finds a home with Carl Liliencron, a scientist, his wife and his two children. Now named Levi, the dog is precocious and extraordinarily intelligent. As the German persecution of Jews becomes more and more intense, the Liliencrons change Levi’s name to Sirius after the Germans ban Jews from owning pets.
Sirius plays a pivotal role in saving the Liliencrons from the concentration camp. The family eventually escapes to California and changes the family name to Crown. Carl ends up working as a chauffeur for a movie star, which leads the movie studio boss Jack Warner to discover that Sirius is a very talented dog. Sirius begins working in the movies and becomes a canine star. His stardom, however, eventually leads Sirius to mistakenly be sent back to Berlin, where he ends up living with a Nazi simpleton. However, Sirius garners the attention of Adolf Hitler and becomes the Furher’s lap dog. Eventually, Sirius is recruited as a spy by the German resistance because he has access to important information.
“Simply written and charming, this is a light read for history buffs and dog lovers alike,” wrote a Publishers Weekly contributor. Jochen Kürten, writing for the DW Web site, remarked: “Beyond Jonathan Crown’s satirical and surreal ideas, the wit and the puns, the novel offers layers of depth and warmth. Themes like exile and homelessness, flight and expulsion are presented with a light tone, yet leave a lasting impression.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, September 1, 2016, Kristine Huntley, review of Sirius: A Novel about the Little Dog Who Almost Changed History, p. 61.
Library Journal, October 15, 2016, Dan Forrest, review of Sirius, p. 71.
Publishers Weekly, August 15, 2016, review of Sirius, p. 45.
ONLINE
Chicago Tribune Online, http://www.chicagotribune.com/ (October 13, 2016), Rick Moser, “Jonathan Crown’s debut novel tells the story of ‘The Little Dog Who Almost Changed History.'”
DW, http://www.dw.com/ (April 8, 2015), Jochen Kürten, “Dog Shares World War II Adventures in Novel Sirius.“
Historical Novel Society Web site, https://historicalnovelsociety.org/ (June 15, 2017), review of Sirius.
Independent Online, http://www.independent.co.uk/ (August 20, 2015), Max Liu, review of Sirius.
Leighgendarium, http://www.leighgendarium.com/ (October 25, 2016), Carol Kean, review of Sirius.
Times Online, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/ (October 31 2014), David Charter, “Lap Dog’s Tale Helps Germany to Laugh at Nazi Past.”
Vogue Online, http://www.vogue.com/ (October 4, 2016), Corey Seymour, “4 Questions With the Author of the Acclaimed New Fable Sirius.”*
Jonathan Crown was born in Berlin in 1953, where he currently lives with his dachshund, Kelly. Sirius is his first novel.
4 Questions With the Author of the Acclaimed New Fable Sirius
OCTOBER 4, 2016 11:50 AM
by COREY SEYMOUR
Photo: Courtesy of Scribner
After spellbinding readers in his native Germany (where the book was a bestseller), Italy, the U.K., the Netherlands, and Spain, Jonathan Crown’s debut novel, Sirius: A Novel About the Little Dog Who Almost Changed History, reaches our shores today. The book is that odd thing: An elegant, charming, and heartwarming fable—a preternaturally kind and wise dog is lost, found, and lost again. Sirius becomes a Hollywood star, saves the Western world, that kind of thing—with Adolf Hitler and World War II central to the plot. (Take one part Zelig, one part Siddhartha, and one part Rin Tin Tin; render with the elan and jeu d’esprit of Saint-Exupéry; add Nazis, and you get the gist of this exuberant and elegant story.) We chatted with the Berlin-based Crown—who is making his jaunty debut as a novelist at age 63—to explain all this, along with a few other things.
First things first: Why bring Hitler into this lovely story—or was that your whole point? No! I wasn’t even really planning to write a book about Hitler—I just wanted to have the story of a funny little dog against a very dramatic, historic backdrop. (And I should note that all the facts in the book are true, whether it’s the Hollywood stuff or the World War II stuff—it’s all factual. The only imaginative part is the storyline.) I wanted Sirius to be a fable about fate. Sirius is constantly on the run, cast about here and there in a wild, unexpected life: A Jewish dog escapes the Nazis, becomes a Hollywood star, rubs elbows with Cary Grant, and ultimately becomes Hitler’s lap dog, secretly working as a spy for the Resistance. I mean, it’s a crazy life!
But there’s another issue that the book is raising. And it has to do with this mysterious thing we call “identity.” Sirius—our involuntary hero—loses track of himself in the course of his fight for survival, and we struggle along with him to learn who he really is—or maybe identity is instead ephemeral, like Heraclitus assumed in his famous aphorism “panta rhei,” meaning “everything changes and nothing remains still…you cannot step twice into the same stream.”
And might this notion of changing identities explain the nom de plume? “Jonathan Crown,” after all, is not your real name. Maybe. When I was living in Italy back in the seventies, the Italians used to call me “l’Americano.” To them, I came across like an American. Deep down, I feel like an American, and so writing a novel gave me a good excuse to take on an American name. In Berlin, where I am living now, I’m called “Buck” and I have no idea why. Only strangers call me by my real name.
But the real advantage of the nom de plume was that I could write my book without sitting in bars and restaurants and talking about it all the time. The only person who knew about it was my wife Lisa [Feldman, the editor-in-chief of L’Officiel in Berlin]. Nobody else, not even my good friends—or the publisher of the book when I first sold it—knew my true identity. That was my secret and it was beautiful. Having a secret is a great creative engine. It was my first book and it was very precious to me—I didn’t want to talk about it.
And what did Germany make of the book when it was published there? It was a big thing. There was a big discussion and the book became a bestseller largely based on that discussion. To be honest, I was a bit disappointed at first because I wanted it to be a fable about humanity, not an attempt to wrestle the legacy of Hitler down to the ground. But it did raise this enormous question: Are we allowed to laugh about Hitler? Hitler, of course, was a monster. And the majority of the German people did bow to that monster, ultimately being partners in the most terrible crime perpetrated against humanity. Yet at the same time Hitler, as a person, was a truly ridiculous character: The way he spoke, the way he looked, the silly mustache, the silly salute, the silly uniform—all of it preposterous, like a bad operetta character. How did it come about, then, for the great nation of Beethoven and Goethe to stoop so low as to worship that clown? So of course we are allowed to laugh about Hitler—how could we not? Sirius is not the first time that Hitler has been portrayed as a buffoon—that goes all the way back to Charlie Chaplin in The Great Dictator.
You could have had your fictional dog travel anywhere in the world—why did you send him to Hollywood in its so-called Golden Age? I wanted to set the dark backdrop of Germany against the bright Hollywood of my heroes at that wonderful period of time. But it’s also personal and autobiographical. I am obsessed with this era of Hollywood—so much so that when I was looking for a house in the south of France—where I lived for many, many years—I actually sought out one that was close to the house of “The Cat”—Cary Grant’s character in Hitchcock’s To Catch A Thief, one of my favorite movies of all time. I could see the house where the movie was shot nestled in the hills above my terrace every day and I would take the same bus line that took Cary Grant down to the flower market in Nice. I live in an imaginary world. That’s why I became a writer, I guess—how else can you make a living as a dreamer?
Sirius: A Novel about the Little Dog Who Almost Changed
History
Kristine Huntley
Booklist.
113.1 (Sept. 1, 2016): p61.
COPYRIGHT 2016 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text:
Sirius: A Novel about the Little Dog Who Almost Changed History. By Jonathan Crown. Oct. 2016. 256p. Scribner, $25 (9781501144998).
In his first novel, Crown chronicles the adventures of a brave little fox terrier who winds up playing pivotal roles in both America and Germany
during WWII. Bred as part of an abruptly terminated German science experiment to teach dogs to read and write, little Levi finds his way to the
Berlin home of scientist Carl Liliencron, his wife, Rahel, and their two children. As Hitler's persecution of the Jews reaches a fever pitch, the
Liliencrons are saved from being sent to a concentration camp by a warning from Levi, whom the family renames Sirius as a safety measure. The
Liliencrons flee to California, where Carl gets a job working for a movie star, and Sirius stumbles into accidental fame when he walks on a movie
set and gets discovered. Soon Sirius, too, is a big star, but his showbiz life unexpectedly sends him back to Germany and right into the hands of
Hitler himself. Crown's charming tale is an odyssey in the vein of Black Beauty and Lassie, and will no doubt find plenty of fans among animal
lovers.--Kristine Huntley
YA: This light, accessible read will give teens a tour of 1940s Hollywood and Berlin through the eyes of a lovable pooch. KH.
Huntley, Kristine
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Huntley, Kristine. "Sirius: A Novel about the Little Dog Who Almost Changed History." Booklist, 1 Sept. 2016, p. 61. General OneFile,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA463755171&it=r&asid=31bc06991efc47ee8fbcfa8ba0a9f4d1. Accessed 14 May
2017.
5/14/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1494813057852 2/4
Gale Document Number: GALE|A463755171
---
5/14/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1494813057852 3/4
Sirius: The Little Dog Who Changed History
Publishers Weekly.
263.33 (Aug. 15, 2016): p45.
COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Sirius: The Little Dog Who Changed History
Jonathan Crown. Scribner, $25 (256p) ISBN 9781-5011-4499-8
Sirius, a fox terrier owned by a Jewish family living in 1930s Berlin, is no ordinary pooch. In Crown's heartwarming debut novel, this little dog
escapes Nazi Germany, becomes a golden age Hollywood star, a circus performer, and an informant spying on the fuhrer himself. The result of a
zoologist breeding program to make a hyperintelligent dog, Sirius is born in a Germany in upheaval. He's adopted by the Liliencron family and
shares in their trials as they escape persecution in the quickly radicalizing Nazi state. Luckily, Mrs. Liliencron just happens to know famous
Hollywood heartthrob Peter Lorre, and the Liliencrons escape with their children to California. There, Mr. Liliencron takes up a job as chauffeur
for a Hollywood big shot. Little Sirius, ever the curious pup, wanders onto a film set and finds himself with an acting career as the majestic dog
actor Hercules. From there, he becomes the headliner for Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus, but through a mix-up and ever more
unbelievable circumstances, he is sent back to Berlin. There, Sirius finds himself with a high-ranking Nazi owner, rising through the ranks until
he's right next to the head of the Third Reich. Crown's novel is a fluffy alternate history tale filled to the brim with historical figures and
unbelievable coincidences. Simply written and charming, this is a light read for history buffs and dog lovers alike. (Oct.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Sirius: The Little Dog Who Changed History." Publishers Weekly, 15 Aug. 2016, p. 45. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA461444503&it=r&asid=e53d951bcf038bdce23a966a0517ccbf. Accessed 14 May
2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A461444503
---
5/14/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1494813057852 4/4
Crown, Jonathan. Sirius
Dan Forrest
Library Journal.
141.17 (Oct. 15, 2016): p71.
COPYRIGHT 2016 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
Crown, Jonathan. Sirius. Scribner. Oct. 2016. 256p. tr. from German by Jamie Searle Romanelli. ISBN 9781501144998. $25; ebk. ISBN
9781501145018. F
Levi is a bright, young fox terrier who lives with the Liliencron family in 1938 Berlin. His Jewish owners change his name to Sirius in an effort to
blend in, but they are eventually forced to flee the Nazis to America. The family ends up in Los Angeles where they rub shoulders with famous
Hollywood names and try to build new lives for themselves. Sirius comes to the attention of studio chief Jack Warner, who casts the photogenic
little dog, now renamed Hercules, in a series of films. Hercules is a hit with audiences, but fame takes a toll on him. A series of misfortunes leads
the intrepid canine back to wartime Berlin, where he performs his most challenging role as a member of the Resistance with close access to the
Fuhrer himself. The many various characters and settings are well limned without being loaded down with details that would slow down the
narrative. Sirius maintains his aplomb and essential dogginess whether dealing with Hollywood starlets, bloodthirsty lions, or the adherents of the
most evil regime of the 20th century. VERDICT This quick-paced, entertaining first novel will appeal to dog lovers and fans of light historical
fiction.--Dan Forrest, Western Kentucky Univ. Libs., Bowling Green
Forrest, Dan
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Forrest, Dan. "Crown, Jonathan. Sirius." Library Journal, 15 Oct. 2016, p. 71. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA466412946&it=r&asid=f85e001875daadda04564247eeced72a. Accessed 14 May
2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A466412946
Sirius by Jonathan Crown; Trans. Jamie Searle Romanelli, book review: The refugee pet who takes on Hitler
Loyal, resilient four-legged protagonists are the perfect witnesses to history
Max Liu Thursday 20 August 2015 15:00 BST0 comments
3
Click to follow
5760764.jpg
Ankle-level view of history: Adolf Hitler Getty Images
Jonathan Crown has written a lovely novel about Nazi Germany. The success of Crown's light approach to serious subject matter owes much to Sirius, the extraordinary dog of the title, whose name is changed from "Levi" by his Jewish owners, the Liliencrons, when the Nazis ban Jews from owning pets.
I hadn't considered it before, but Sirius is such a shrewd observer that I'm now convinced that loyal, resilient four-legged protagonists are the perfect witnesses to history. It's fitting, too, that Sirius is appearing shortly after the death of Uggie, the Jack Russell that starred in The Artist, because Crown's protagonist warrants his own place in the canine cultural canon.
Sirius roams Berlin, chatting to trees and raising a placatory paw in salute whenever he encounters suspicious Nazis: "The routes of his walks are still the same, but many familiar faces have disappeared." When Carl Liliencron, a distinguished scientist, is sacked, he regrets being slow to recognise the danger. His son, Georg, is under no illusions: "This is no longer our country."
Crown describes Kristallnacht with economy and immediacy: "One apartment after the other is emptied. The henchmen's boots thunder through every stairwell. 'Are there Jews living here?' 'Yes, upstairs,' the neighbours denounce."
Sirius and the Liliencrons narrowly escape to California where they change their surname to Crown. Carl works as a chauffeur for a movie star, meeting Rita Hayworth and his fellow émigré Billy Wilder, until Jack Warner recognises Sirius's talent and puts him on screen. After the horrors of Europe, it's surprising to find the Hollywood scenes too breezy and to crave some tension to return to the narrative. Fortunately, Crown concocts a series of unlikely events which whisks Sirius back to Berlin where Hitler takes a shine to him. Eventually, Sirius plays an instrumental role in the Nazis' downfall.
The happy ending is in keeping with the tone of the book but is it acceptable in a novel concerning an event that for millions of people ended in tragedy? Yes, because for Crown, lightness is a moral gesture and an effective mode in which to confront the atrocity. Jamie Searle Romanelli captures this in her translation and, from Crown's dedication onwards, it's clear that beneath the comic veneer, a grave imperative drives his storytelling: "For my family, who lived in Berlin during that period." Had Crown's ancestors not survived there would have been no Sirius. With this debut, Crown makes us consider those Jews who, unlike the Liliencrons, didn't escape.
Dog shares World War II adventures in novel 'Sirius'
It is said to be the first-ever novel by a dog. "Sirius," Jonathan Crown's tales of a (fictional) Fox Terrier who starred in Hollywood in the 1930s and spied on Nazi Germany, is poised to captivate English readers.
Dog and German novel Sirius. Copyright: DW/J. Kürten
When the Gestapo breaks into Isidor Reich's apartment to arrest and deport him, they shoot down all of his dogs, except for one hidden puppy: Levi.
Levi is later renamed "Sirius," as a Jewish name in Germany in 1938 is unsafe - even for dogs. The little Fox Terrier then becomes part of the Liliencron household, a respected Jewish family, and witnesses how the renowned scientist Carl Liliencron and his family are harassed by the Nazis.
Dog spies for the Americans
Fleeing persecution in Germany, the Liliencrons land in Hollywood. The head of the family works as a chauffeur for famous film stars. His dog gets discovered by movie producers and is hired as a performer. The Fox Terrier Sirius becomes a huge American star.
Historical photo of Hollywood. Copyright: AP Photo/Courtesy of the Bruce Torrence Hollywood Photograph Collection
A dog conquers Hollywood in the 1930s
He is later accidentally sent back to Germany. After initially finding shelter with a simple-minded Nazi, he becomes the lap dog of Adolf Hitler himself.
Sirius then lands another job: As a spy. His privileged position in the Führer's headquarters gives him access to important information, which he passes on to the German resistance.
Book balances black humor with depth
A dog escapes Nazi Germany, becomes a star in Hollywood, only to return to Germany as a spy: Summarized this way, "Sirius" could sound like some kind of cheap absurd comedy. Yet the novel manages to balance black humor and biting satire, offering an insightful narrative with a historical backdrop.
Book cover Sirius by Jonathan Crown (Buchcover). Copyright: Head of Zeus
Readers responded overwhelmingly positive to the novel when it came out in Germany in the fall of last year, which is why it has now been translated in English. Apart from Günter Grass and Daniel Kehlmann, German literature is still short in supply for English readers.
Here are some of the reasons why "Sirius" could realistically become a best-seller across the Atlantic too.
Ingredients for success: Nazis and Hollywood
First of all, the story takes places during the Nazi regime. Even though fantasy wildly merges with reality in "Sirius," this historic period still captivates readers.
Americans also typically like reading about Hollywood. In Jonathan Crown's novel, the little Fox Terrier Sirius becomes a film star, meeting icons of cinema like Rita Hayworth, Gary Grant, Marlene Dietrich, and Fritz Lang.
A story about a performing dog isn't so far-fetched, after all: There are tons of real-life dogs who've conquered the silver screen, from Lassie and Rin Tin Tin to Jack, the Jack Russell Terrier in the Oscar-winning worldwide hit, "The Artist" (2011).
Jean Dujardin carries Uggie the dog after The Artist won the Oscar for Best Picture at the 84th Academy Awards in Hollywood. Copyright: REUTERS/Gary Hershorn
The Jack Russell Terrier even went to the Oscars in 2012
And finally, beyond Jonathan Crown's satirical and surreal ideas, the wit and the puns, the novel offers layers of depth and warmth. Themes like exile and homelessness, flight and expulsion are presented with a light tone, yet leave a lasting impression. The American public will enjoy this.
The first novel by a dog
"Jonathan Crown" is actually a pseudonym. His publishers playfully claim that the reclusive author got the story from his Fox Terrier, Alpha - Sirius' grandson. Crown considers himself more a medium than an author, as he simply wrote down what the dog dictated. He says he hopes this will encourage other pets to reveal their perspective on world history.
Lassie Come Home 1943 film. Copyright: imago/EntertainmentPictures
Legendary dog star Lassie in "Lassie Come Home"
This surreal blurb on the author of the book "Sirius" belongs to the style of this charming literary gem.
The true author has since been revealed: It is the German journalist Christian Jämmerling. But the English book "Sirius - The Story of a Little Dog Who Almost Changed History" will be published under the pseudonym as well - after all, the name Jonathan Crown sounds more familiar to English ears.
Jonathan Crown's debut novel tells the story of 'The Little Dog Who Almost Changed History'
'Sirius'
Sirius: A Novel About the Little Dog Who Almost Changed History. (Scribner)
Rick Moser
Chicago Tribune
In what one would expect to be a belletristic key to the novel, the narrator observes at one point that, "Sometimes the end tells you everything you need to know about the beginning." This turns out not to be the case, however, with "Sirius," the new, and first, novel by Jonathan Crown — as the tale actually begins quite promisingly.
There's a bit of magic to the way "Sirius" jumps off. The story is reminiscent of Michael Chabon's "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" in its portrayal of a Jewish family in Europe that flees the deepening shadow of Nazism to find its way in America via popular culture.
RELATED: TRENDING LIFE & STYLE NEWS THIS HOUR
The paterfamilias is Carl Liliencron, an eminent German scientist and recipient of the prestigious Cothenius Medal from the German Academy of Sciences. The Liliencrons are privileged and cultured haute bourgeoisie, so are slow to admit the terrible truth forming around them in a land that had seemed civilized and accepting, but whose baser impulses are being stirred and fanned. So, yes — it's timely.
Paid Post WHAT'S THIS?
Take the next big step toward your next big idea.
A Message from Microsoft
Gain exclusive insights into our strategy and business application solution portfolio. Watch the Microsoft Business Forward keynote ...
See More
The Liliencrons are an impressive lot. Carl's wife, Rahel, is a famed Berlin beauty who chose him despite being pursued by the likes of actor Peter Lorre before he, too, fled to America. Fritz Mahler, conductor and cousin of Gustav, has complimented the pianistic talent of daughter Else. And son Georg is a fine student who would like to be a doctor if, as a Jew, he weren't barred from studying at the university.
But the family's most gifted member is the dog, Levi.
An Airedale terrier, Levi is the sole survivor of a fictional effort to create Jewish superdogs to match those that the Nazis actually tried to train to speak, read and write. In response to the Nazi edict requiring Jews to use only a limited number of recognizable names, Liliencron changes Levi's name to Sirius, after the Dog Star — a comparison he'll live up to fully.
Following Kristallnacht, the family barely manages to escape Germany. With the help of the loyal Lorre, they make their way to Hollywood, where they begin to assimilate and transform. Carl changes the family name, as well, from Liliencron to Crown.
Like so many immigrants, Carl takes work far below his previous station. Jack Warner, of Warner Bros., gives him a job as driver and "guardian angel" — that is, baby sitter — to one of the studio's hottest actors.
This humble entry into the dream factory changes the family's fates, none more so than Sirius, who becomes the movies' newest canine star.
There's fun in the way the story glides along — and glide it does, as it skims lightly, barely touching the tortured earth below. The book has charm but not much else; and whimsy alone is unequal to the weighty context of the tale.
Sparing spoilers, fate bears Sirius, a canine Zelig (he's too bright to be Forrest Gump), back to Berlin, where, through a series of events, he finds himself the pet of none other than Der Fuehrer, who, now trapped in his bunker, still longs for the canine he actually lost years earlier, Fuchsl.
"Sirius" is subtitled "The Little Dog Who Almost Changed History." One hopes for an "Inglorious Basterds"-style cap to the fantasy. But, despite working with the resistance, Sirius doesn't quite manage to even earn the "almost." While that may be a lot to ask of a little dog, it doesn't seem too much to expect of the guy who chose the title.
If it seems that the comparisons drawn here are more to movies than books, this is not accidental. The lightness of the prose reads more like a treatment for a future film version than it does serious fiction. Even the book's conclusion — again, falling short of its beginning — suggests the movies. In a flat echo of "The Wizard of Oz," which it invokes earlier on, the book reaches its Aesopian moral by actually using the phrase, "Home is where the heart is."
While often enjoyable, that this is Crown's first novel — at age 63 — shows, as his high-flying fantasy comes down to a sentiment from an embroidered pillow. No matter how extraordinary, a dog is going to offer certain limitations as the protagonist of a novel. But even Sirius could have come up with a better ending than that.
Rick Moser is a freelance writer.
'Sirius'
By Jonathan Crown, Scribner, 256 pages, $25
Book Review: Sirius: A Novel About the Little Dog Who Almost Changed History by Jonathan Crown
Facebook14TwitterGoogle+LinkedIn0Share
pinterest-author-interviews-4Book Title:
Sirius: A Novel About the Little Dog Who Almost Changed History
Author:
Jonathan Crown
Available Formats:
eBook, Hardback (256 pages), Audiobook
Publication Date:
October 4, 2016
Leighgendary Rating:
10/10 Stars
A Carol Kean Review
“To study history means submitting to chaos and nevertheless retaining faith in order and meaning.” –Hermann Hesse
Well, that’s easier said than done. In historical fiction, more so than the classroom, we find the lessons we must learn and commit to memory, however hard it is to reconcile with any kind of faith in humanity. Toss in a little magic realism, and what harm is done? None, in “Sirius: A Novel About the Little Dog Who Almost Changed History” by Jonathan Crown.
On the heels of The Perfect Horse by Elizabeth Letts (read that review here), a marvelous nonfiction account of priceless horses rescued in the closing days of World War II, I was sorely in need of some feel-good reading. “With charisma, heart, and delightfully spry prose,” the synopsis promises, “Sirius is an enchanting fairy tale about love and humanity and a roving exploration of a momentous historical moment.”
It’s also heart-rending, at times, and unsparing in its honesty. A fox terrier in 1938 Berlin loses his home, his familiar neighborhood where people greet him by name. Levi’s Jewish owners, the Liliencrons, rename him Sirius, after the “Big Dog” constellation, to protect him. Levi is flattered. “But at the same time he feels the responsibility weighing down on both himself and the star – of being a glimmer of light in the darkness. Dogs called Rusty have an easier time of it.”
The humor and insight of this preternatural terrier show up in line after line. Make me laugh, and you’ll rise to the top of my list of favorite writers. Like the stereotype of Blacks dancing better than whites, Jews seem to have mastered wit and humor like no other marginalized people in literary history. I’m officially smitten with Jonathan Crown, just as I’ve been with Robert Silverberg (“The Dybbuk of Mazel Tov IV,” a 1972 short story, is a classic example of what I might label as Jewish humor).
“Jonathan Crown” is a pseudonym. Born in Berlin in 1953, journalist Christian Jämmerling dedicates the book “For my family, who lived in Berlin during that period.” I’ve no doubt that the most wrenching scenes in this story come straight from real life, from first-hand accounts of people who were there, who experienced the worst fates we can imagine.
22638106Immersed in the point of view of a dog, readers might scoff at the cognitive genius of this furry, four-legged creature, but to write off this book as unrealistic is to miss out on a truly fantastic story. As if by magic, Sirius shifts from his native German to understanding words spoken in English. He even learns how to spell and to use the piano to convey what he’s learned via espionage (our magical dog cannot speak human). Any reviewer who’d fault the book for such “plot holes” is missing the boat. And this is one ride you don’t want to miss.
Carl Liliencron is a professor who studies microscopic plankton. “Anything bigger than ten thousandths of an inch is of no interest to me,” he’s fond of saying. He studies living things which are 3.5 billion years old, and they’re rarely mentioned in the newspapers. He doesn’t care to read about politics, Hitler, and the future: these things are “all too big.”
But then Nazi troops storm Berlin. After a harrowing escape, the “Jewish dog” and his family flee to California. Liliencron can’t believe the magnificent villas, the view of a landscape reminiscent of the Scottish Highlands: “Now it’s finally clear where the sun is when it’s absent in Berlin–in Hollywood.” This new life “often plunges him into extistential-philosophical moods.” The dog adjusts well, while the professor wonders if they’re caught in Einstein’s curvature of space-time.
Liliencron becomes a chauffeur, while Sirius befriends everyone from Humphrey Bogart and Cary Grant to Rita Hayworth and Jack Warner. Renamed Hercules, he becomes a canine movie star. A series of events, each seemingly the worst thing that could have happened, turn out to be blessings in disguise, reminding me that the Japanese word for crisis can also mean opportunity.
It also reminds me of a Hebrew expression, “Gam zu l’tovah,” or “Even this is for the best,” as Lenore Skenazy relates, along with the parable of Rabbi Akiva camping in the woods with his donkey, rooster and candle. While it’s “insulting to say that all bad things are really for the best,” Skenazy concludes, “…taking action, sometimes out of sheer misery, can change life for the better.” (www.creators.com, September 15, 2016). The story of Sirius illustrates this wisdom in scene after seemingly hopeless scene. Levi, renamed for the Big Dog constellation, “transformed himself into a star, Sirius, and saved his family’s life. Only he who transforms himself survives.”
“Humans have been around for 160,000 years,” murmurs Liliencron. “And yet it only took Hitler five to destroy humanity.”
avt_jonathan-crown_2065
Jonathan Crown
As World War II unfolds, Levi-Sirius-Hercules accidentally ends up in Berlin again, gets renamed again, and becomes the favorite dog of Hitler himself. How can a mere dog help the German resistance, depose the Führer, and find his family?
An omniscient narrator commands the point of view. Early in the Liliencron family’s assorted adventures, a movie mogul reminds an actor “I made you.” We also get the narrator’s interpretation: “The words sound as though God is speaking to one of his creatures, moved by the memory of the day when it learned to walk upright and become a human being. And that’s exactly how it is. In Hollywood, Jack Warner is God.”
But Warner has his good side: “Good old Jack Warner. He helps countless Jews to escape from Germany, he pulls strings in the White House, he takes the new arrivals under his wing and directs their journey from suffering to happiness, called destiny. He is a one-man dream factory.”
So many real-life people are named in this book, I had to learn more about them. Jacob (Jack) Warner was born in 1892 to a Polish Jewish immigrant family in Ontario. Reputedly crude and difficult, the real Warner sounds worse than Crown’s version. Warner made, or saved, the careers of numerous celebrities from Errol Flynn to Joan Crawford. He also accused some of his staff of being Communists, ruining their careers. Warner ousted his brothers from the family business that they had founded together and severed ties with his son. His brothers never spoke to him again. (www.haaretz.com)
Dr. Joseph Goebbels, Minister for Propaganda, is another real-life character who appears in this story. “The German people,” he says, “have to defend their most holy assets: their families, their women and children, their beautiful and pristine landscape, their towns and villages, the two-thousand-year legacy of their culture, and everything that makes life worth living.” It’s impossible to fathom how he reconciled this “holy” obligation with the imperative of torturing and murdering millions of other lives. A little bit of xenophobia is part of human evolution, but taking it to the extreme of exterminating others is beyond comprehension. This is one of many facets of a story rich with food for thought.
Here’s another: in desperation, the Germany Army plots fantastical ideas for a new wonder weapon. “The prototype of a UFO, built in the Skoda factories, turned out to be a failure. So now there was a new plan: Why not fire dogs into the enemy lines?” Just inject them with a neurotoxin “which would be released on impact and destroy everything in their vicinity.”
This facet of history may not be well known: a law forbidding Jews from keeping pets. “They are instructed to immediately put their dogs or cats to sleep. Germans are forbidden from keeping Jewish pets.” Jewish cats and dogs? Rational, educated Germans managed to believe this stuff? It staggers the imagination.
9782258118577This is “the kind of thing that usually gets forgotten,” Crown narrates, but in World War II Germany, “the birds are being looked after… The soldiers on the front receive guidelines on the construction of nesting boxes and feeders. Tons of hemp seed and sunflower seeds are transported to the front, as winter sustenance for the birds.”
Yes, the Nazis cared about small, vulnerable creatures. Cognitive dissonance, anyone? The infamous Third Reich commanded a Department for Bird Protection (and Forest and Nature Conservation). It’s forgotten details like these that keep me returning to that most brutal and horror-laden genre, historical fiction.
“We Germans are a people of the forests,” Goering wrote. “Unlike the Jews. They are a people of the desert.” Well, now this is beginning to sound familiar. “A bird singing in the forest is the most beautiful German song in existence.”
Not so incredibly, then, Walt Disney’s “Snow White” is one of Hitler’s favorites. (For real.) The evil dictator “likes to unwind by watching Hollywood movies.” And college basketball, I’ve read elsewhere. It’s unsettling to see a human side to the world’s most notoriously evil dictator. Hitler had a dog who loved him. More than one dog, in fact.
For a long time, I couldn’t reconcile this gentler, more humane side of the Nazis with their unthinkably horrific torture and mass murder of fellow human beings. Then it dawned on me that vegans will forego dairy products and eggs (potential lives), while allowing millions of human fetuses to be scalded, dismembered, and vacuumed from their mothers’ bodies. I’m not denouncing anyone’s ethics and morality, legal rights and politics, here; just pointing out that people, as a whole, do in fact hold conflicting ideals simultaneously. I’m not defending Germans, Hitler, or Nazis, either, when I marvel at their capacity to display a better side, even a kinder and gentler side.
Help! My brain hurts!
In no way have I come close to summarizing the plot twists, surprises and delights in this novel. No spoilers here. We all know Germany loses. It’s safe to say that one of the most memorable scenes is that of a Hausfrau with her broom, sweeping away the aftermath of war from the streets of Berlin. The woman has gone mad, of course, but this small scene illustrates so much of what I love about the German people as I knew them, all third-generation Americans, all thoroughly “German” in their ways. I grew up with cuckoo clocks, braided blondes in St. Pauli girl dresses, sauerkraut, bratwurst, hard work, thrift and industry, a dad who sometimes yodeled on his tractor, and a certain pride in a heritage that novelist Frank Norris called “a foul stream of hereditary evil.”
As the Hebrew phrase “Gam zu l’tovah” expresses Jewish wisdom, this novel shines a light on the darkest chapter in human history. Crown’s tragicomic approach to themes of exile, flight, expulsion, and homelessness make a profound and lasting impression.
First released in Germany, the novel received overwhelmingly positive feedback. Jamie Searle Romanelli translated it into English. I look forward to more from this writer.
Sirius: The Little Dog Who Almost Changed History
BY JONATHAN CROWN
Find & buy on
Sirius, Jonathan Crown’s debut novel, first appeared in Germany in 2014. Having made the bestseller list there, the book is now available in English. In Germany in 1938, an utterly charming fox terrier observes the changes taking place in Berlin. His owners, the Lilliencrons, realize it’s not safe to be a Jewish dog during these times, so they change his name to Sirius, after the “big dog in the sky.”
As conditions for the Jews continue to deteriorate, the family, along with Sirius, decides to flee Germany and head for safety in the U.S. They end up in Hollywood, and through a series of mishaps, Sirius becomes a movie star. But, the world being what it is, Sirius is once again returned to Germany, where, though terrified, the little dog wins the love of the Führer himself.
Watching the horrors of Nazism through the eyes of an innocent dog makes the whole business quite intimidating. Something about the juxtaposition of the rampant hatred of one group of humans for another against the loyalty and unconditional love of a dog places evil in even starker contrast with good. The scene that stands out as the most chilling, for me at least, is the Night of Broken Glass, when unruly mobs smash the Jewish ghetto with such violence and hatred that even the dog is shaking. It makes me wonder if such a scene could happen here, in the U.S, where the threads of civility are fraying as various groups rail against each other.
This grown-up fairy tale, simply written yet deeply complex, is a quick, easy read. That said, this story, and Sirius, will haunt you long after you’ve closed the book.
Please see website for review - unable to copy full article.