Mark Strauss to hold book signing at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Wasgington D.C. on Sunday, August 1, 2010 in the Book Store, 11AM - 5PM

You who know Mark Strauss as an artist or as a speaker on the Holocaust will be interested in his two biographical novels Four Plus Five and Crumbs, recounting of the drama of World War II Poland as witnessed by a young Jewish boy. (if you already have the book, please let your friends know about it) During the signing, you will also have an opportunity to review a new book, GOOGLE KNOWS BEST

To pre-order your signed copy, please contact Mark Strauss:

Phone 540-459-4215, email: mstraus@shentel.net - Cost: $15 per copy, add $5 for shipping, payments made to Mark Stauss, 332 Zepp Road, Maurertown, Virginia 22644

“From the opening pages of Four Plus Five, Mark Strauss pulls us into the drama of World War II Poland as witnessed by the young Jewish boy, Edek Edelman. Decades have passed and Dr. Edward Edelman, now stricken by a terminal illness, spends his final days in a nursing home recalling an epoch of terrifying fear and widespread butchery interwoven with moments of tender compassion and sexual awakening. Four Plus Five is a page-turner that holds us spellbound from beginning to end.” It will be good to hear from you or see you at the signing.

Mark Strauss - An Artist at Work

"I'm very ambiguous. The artist often is. At one moment he feels everything is collapsing around him, and one moment there is hope...Obviously I'm disturbed by the loss of quality of the environment and by violence."

With his words, Mark Strauss unashamedly describes human behavior under severe stresses of the Holocaust. In both Crumbs and Four Plus Five, the author weaves suffering during those horrid times with experiences of an American immagrant.

Mark Strauss:
Phone: (540) 495-4215
E-mail: mstrauss@shentel.net

Four Plus Five

You who know Mark Strauss as an artist or as a speaker on the Holocaust will be interested in his latest novel, Four Plus Five, a recounting of the drama of World War II Poland as witnessed by a young Jewish boy.

Praise by a referee for Four Plus Five:
“From the opening pages of Four Plus Five, Mark Strauss pulls us into the drama Of World War II Poland as witnessed by the young Jewish boy, Edek Edelman. Decades have passed and Dr. Edward Edelman, now stricken by a terminal illness, spends his final days in a nursing home recalling an epoch of terrifying fear and widespread butchery interwoven with moments of tender compassion and sexual awakening. Four Plus Five is a page-turner that holds us spellbound from beginning to end.”

Cost: $15, add $5 for shipping

Crumbs

Strauss co-wrote Crumbs, a semi-autobiography about an elderly Jewish artist who falls in love with a young American woman of German descent. The authors adopted the pseudonyms Marek Mann and Maria Martell.

Excerpt from Crumbs

     I got off the tour bus at the National Gallery and immediately saw a display of colorful and imaginative pictures across the street.  Next to the display, several onlookers surrounded the artist, observing him paint. I crossed over the street to see him at work. The artist was kneeling along the gravel path. The patches of grass around him were trampled down by tourist shoes an parched by drought. A stretched canvas lay on the ground in front of him and he was brushing oils onto its linen surface. Unusual, I thought, don't artists use easels? Next to him stood two elaborate aluminum stands with paintings and prints affixed on their frames. Near the stands was a table piled with matted and shrink-wrapped miniature prints. An empty lawn chair beside a large cooler under a shade of an oak tree completed the artist's encampment.
     I was intrigued and stood next to the artist to observe. His brush did not have long tapered bristles like those I saw in art stores; the bristles were rather short, widely arrayed and were squared off at the end. He was using a squat brush, about half an incch in width, to spread the oil pigments. I watched as he imbedded thick, orange oils into streaks of white oils. The orange hue lightened as the brush stroke lengthened. the result was a gradual transition, gnetly rendered. Narrow orange furrows resulted from one very long, slow sweep of the artist's hand. The separated bristles of the brush gave the orange-white streak an elegant texture. It was hard to determine what the artist was painting. Perhaps it was a plowed field or tongues of fire.

     Even though the artist focused intensively on his work, he was explaining to the viewers that he was using two metallic pigments: cadmium orange and titanium oxide. He spoke with an accent. I could not tell where he was from, but he was easy to understand. At first I thought that the artist was a meticulous, plodding person because his explainantions were so detailed and carefully phrased.  He told us that he really should not have used titanium oxide as a substrate pigment because it was lighter than cadmium oxide, which was heavy, but it was not sold those days because of safety considerations. But, on the other hand, he said, titanium oxide was brilliantly white––and he liked it.
     He stopped talking, looked for a long moment at the canvas and then, with surprising speed, wiped the brush on paper toweling. With a vigorous motion of  his entire hand, he plunged the brush into the newly created orange-white field. Twisting the brush from a wide aspect to a narrow one, he plowed a perpendicular, wavy wedge across the beautifully textured field. Then, faster, without pausing, at a slightly different angle, he created another wavy wedge. Throughout, he anchored the canvas, pressing it downward with the palm of his left hand, thus preventing it from sliding on the ground. The canvas did not budge in the assault of the squat brush.

Cost: $20, add $5 for shipping