The Way Home: A German Childhood, an American Life

by Ernestine Bradley

In this moving and candid memoir we meet Ernestine Bradley, the wife of former senator and presidential hopeful Bill Bradley. She stood out among Senate wives: a German-born lover of languages and a transplant to America, Ernestine had a full-time career in New Jersey as a professor of comparative literature, commuted weekly to Washington, D.C., and ran two households—she was in constant motion.

As the book opens, Ernestine takes us to the small town of Passau, Germany, her childhood home, offering a vivid picture of ordinary German life during the Nazi period and just after World War II. As kids on the loose while the fathers were away at war and the mothers were working, Ernestine and her pals explored the town’s winding alleys and its three rivers, experiencing a sense of adventure and freedom (despite the privations of war) that would be a touchstone throughout her life. Ernestine vividly describes how she came to see opportunity in defeat as she watched the American troops roll through her little town; this was a primal moment that helped her to face everything that was to come. We follow her as she leaves West Germany, lands a glamorous job as an airline stewardess, and arrives in America, where she marries unhappily and divorces before finally meeting the basketball star and future senator. We watch their romance become an inspiring marriage of equals, his steadiness the perfect complement to her passionate, sometimes flaring nature, as their lives are soon crowded with family, the demands of their individual careers, politics, and, finally, Ernestine’s fight with breast cancer.

This is a wonderful, inspiring story from a woman who has triumphed—both publicly and personally—against great odds. It is also the introduction to an exuberant voice, one that invites us to reflect on all that we have and on how far we may have to travel to find our way home.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, Biography

272 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2005

Reviews

[Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was drawn to this book because of my own German background, and also the fact that my parents lived in Bavaria (where Bradley was from) before I was born. I've never actually been to Germany, although I studied German in high school and college.

Bradley perceptively lays out some of the differences in German and American culture, and she clearly struggled with some of the decisions her parents made during her childhood.

Bradley is haunted by her family's possible connections during the war, and decisions made by her fellow Germans. I found it interesting because I too have often wondered about myself what I would have done had I been living in Hitler's Germany. I would hope that I would have been one of those sheltering and helping Jews, but it's hard to imagine living in those desperate, dangerous times.

Bradley was a fiercely independent and strong woman in her youth (she left Germany and became a flight attendant for Pan-Am when she was 21 years old), and dedicated herself to her career and profession so that she could establish her own identity separate from her family.

She described her bout with breast cancer sensitively...the most touching scene in the book was when she was trying on a suit in a department store and explained to the store clerk that she wasn't sure how it would fit because of her prosthesis, and the clerk told her she too was a cancer survivor and had reconstructive surgery done. They went into the dressing room and showed each other their breasts for comparison. This is such a great story about the way that women can rapidly move from strangers to intimacy in a matter of moments.

I did not previously know much about Bill Bradley, but given his support of his wife during her bout with cancer, and the way he raised his daughter, I'm sure he would have been a compassionate and principled president.

WAIT!!! UPDATE!!! I take back that last paragraph. I just read about Bill Bradley on Wikipedia, and I discovered that he left Ernestine in July 2007! I can't find out much more information on the web except that later last year he was frequently seen with a blonde woman who had just divorced her husband. What a disappointment after having just finished the book! So much for being a compassionate and principled president...

[Aria · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book surprised me. I didn't expect to respond like I did. Although we have had different lives, I related to her descriptions of how she reacted to her world and her relationships. She is obviously an intelligent person, and her writing style is excellent. I found myself responding emotionally in many areas of her tale, as her ways of dealing with situations (or not) and how she approached her life echoed my own experiences. It was refreshing to find another I felt I could understand. She so deftly express the ways of coping that become the norm for some of us. Her tale demonstrated how these things influence the ways we who must cope through so much in our formative years make decisions, what we think we want, how we prioritize, and how we see the world, as well as how we relate to it. I'm so glad she found a husband that values her and seems to have adjusted as best as anyone might be able.

I wish I was better able to verbalize what it is I am trying to say here. I know I have failed to express myself properly, but I've not yet the clearer grasp of my own minds experiences that Mrs. Bradley has come to acquire, and that leaves me ill-equipped to put my finger on what happened here. I'm glad I came across this, though. It's always nice to experience a bit of kinship, or to have your own inner world expressed in ways you had been struggling to nail down. I know not everyone will resonate with this the way I did, but regardless of who my audience is, I can still say that this was a well-written and interesting tale of a life thus far.

I was nearly put off reading it by the mention of a political husband, but that is really nothing more than a minor side bit near the end, as was the bit about his having played basketball. As presented, that stuff is almost inconsequential in a summation of the tale. The ways that life in Germany were presented were vivid and very informative, and I found it interesting what was and was not noticed by a young child of the period. Also, the relative recentness of one of the characters and her very Victorian-era ways of thinking and living was another surprise, as it seems to the rest of us that the era had ended so long ago. Apparently holdovers from that time period were still alive and well much more recently than is commonly thought. Overall, this book was intriguing on many different levels, had good flow, and kept me pleasantly hooked in. I'm so glad she wrote and shared her story.

[Georgia Herod · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a memoir of self-discovery, a memorable portrait of a German wartime childhood . . . moving seamlessly between a child’s memories and an adult’s perspective, by Ernestine Bradley, wife of former basketball player and senator and Democratic candidate for President (2000). She is very introspective.
Ernestine struggles with her identity as a German, coming to grips with Halocaust, with betrayals by her mother and father, longing to be loved and cared for, desiring adventure, independence, and peace. Having breast cancer brings some of those pieces together. Though she becomes a tenured professor at a NJ college and a mother, she struggles with those decisions into her adult life. Little reference to anything spiritual—even after encountering cancer. She mentions coming to peace with self and life as a hope.

[Jenny Yates · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writer was a child in Bavaria in World War II, & her depiction of the times is very real - mostly because it's so ordinary. She becomes a stewardess, then a professor, and she marries Sen. Bill Bradley. She examines her family dynamics as she travels back to Germany, and she takes us along on her psychological/spiritual journey as she is diagnosed with cancer.

I enjoyed her as a person, but sometimes I felt she was a little too well-adjusted to write a really riveting book!

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

An unflinching memoir of growing up in Bavaria during World War II. Her story continues to America when she marries former Senator Bill Bradley. Her honesty is what makes this a compelling read as well as her nonconformist ideals about motherhood and marriage. I was sad to learn that since the publication of The Way Home the Bradley's have divorced.

[Ingrid · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the descriptions of Bavaria during World War II however I felt she was very, very self-absorbed and full of herself and made way way too much out of her relationship with her mother. LOVE / HATE for sure. She has had a ton of therapy and wants to share it all.

[Lynette · Rating 1 out of 5]

Way too much jumping around. She is here and then she is ten years back. Couldn't finish reading. I got too bored.

[May Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

life of growing up in after war Germany, immigration to the U.S.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting description of German childhood during WWII and cancer in the 1990's,

[Gloria Bailey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ernestine Bradley was born in 1935, before the start of WWII. She was so young during the war that many of her memories were unsure. Germany was in turmoil both during and after the war. Ernestine wrote of the events and circumstances as she experienced and remembered them.

The book continued on to her education and later to get training for the Pan American Airlines to be a Stewardess. The second half of the book carries her on to moving to New York City and her 2 marriages in the US.

This was a very interesting story of her life experiences both in Germany and in the USA. It was slow reading for me, partly because of the size of the font, but also due to the many German phrases.

[Julie S · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is a great underlying tone of bitterness in this book.