This is a really interesting book about interesting topics. The author really goes into depth and tells some fascinating stories. I highly recommend this novel.

This was an excellent book. I will be recommending it to anyone who asks me what they should read next. Billy Wilder, Marilyn Monroe, Joe DiMaggio, Hugh Hefner, Harry Donenfeld, Superman -- these are a few of the people represented in this book. I am really amazed how the author was able to take so many people and show how they were connected to each other even if it was distantly. I learned something new about people I had heard about before and I admired Jules Schulback and his family their courage in either surviving or escaping to the U.S. in the face of the atrocities of Hitler's Germany.

This was an entertaining and informative read. I found myself sharing what I learned from this book with those around me. I recommend it to fans of good and highly readable non-fiction.

I thought The American Way: A True Story of Nazi Escape, Superman, and Marilyn Monroe was an interesting read. I give it four stars.

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley.

This is a fascinating book that tells the stories of two very different, but essentially ordinary, men who lived in extraordinary times. One was a furrier from Germany and the other was a New York publisher of pulp (mostly pornographic) fiction. In following their lives, families, and careers, the reader learns about the horrors of Hitler's rise in Germany and the Holocaust. The advent of comic books introduced the world to Superman, America's first super-hero who fought the Nazis at every turn.

When the war ended and the GIs came home, the movie industry, home photography, comics and magazines rose to new heights. We learn how some of the now-famous athletes and stars got their start. When Marilyn Monroe rose to fame with her picture taken over a subway grate in New York City, the furrier was there recording all of it with his home movie camera.

The scope of The American Way is all encompassing. There are inventors, mobsters, movie stars, and real-life heroes.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, which presented a different and highly personal view of mid-20th Century America.

This was an interesting story of how Superman came about and the struggles that these two intertwined families went through from escaping Nazi Germany to making names for themselves in America and crossing paths with some of the biggest names. In short, from one distant family member making a connection to the other, a family was saved from concentration camps, torture and death and as a result, a legendary super comic was created and the iconic Marilyn Monroe moment came to pass in history. It was an incredible read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Simon and Schuster for a digital ARC - pub date 2/14/2023.

First of all, I had to read this because, looking at the title, how could you not? The inclusion of the word "true" makes it especially intriguing because the rest sounds like a wild romp of fiction. I had to see how it all tied together. To my pleasure, it did. The extremely disparate threads actually all were woven together by the skilled hands of the authors; nothing proved too far a stretch in this six degrees of separation book.

Mind you, that does not mean that all of the threads were structural or even necessary. I feel that it would have been just as fascinating if they had whittled it down by a player here or there. It made for a very large and sprawling cast of characters, after all, and a very long timeline. However, it was a choice made by the authors to include every single diverging branch and, thanks to their care and conversational writing style, it worked far better than it theoretically had a right to work. In fact, it felt like you were reading one of those deftly balanced movies that Hollywood so rarely gets right, where they have an entire baker's dozen of Big Name Stars and actually utilize them all correctly. Jules, the Every Man of sorts, the Survivor, the Heart, kept everything remarkably grounded despite the explosions of glitz and glamor and famous names. He and his family stood fast in the center somehow and kept the book remarkably cozy. His life and experiences kept things realistic despite the brushes with the famous and infamous.

If the authors did not want to fully relinquish all of the characters, though, it occurs to me that they could have shorted some of the weight towards one or the other a bit. After all, while Marilyn Monroe is fascinating, she is also so well known that the reader does not need any elaborations other than a Cliff's Notes version of her life. I love Marilyn - deeply - but even I caught myself skimming those areas to get to the actual brush her life had with that of Jules Schulback. Likewise, to some extent, with the Superman connection which is only landed via Harry's sponsorship.

In the end, Jules and his family are the powerful central hub with the spokes of Billy Wilder, Marilyn Monroe, Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, Harry Donenfeld, and all the rest spiraling out from them. The Schulbacks give the history its weight and relevance. They are a story of the American Dream that so many want to believe. Their suffering, their resilience, their love story. We want and need to believe that there are good people and good people are rewarded. We want to believe that, so long as a name is spoken, its owner's deeds can never die. Deeds and stories - we are human and to tell stories makes us even more human and to live stories... Well, that is all of our fate.

I wish I could quite a line from the book because it is such a beautiful summary of the immortality of our stories but, alas, it's pre-pub and I'm not allowed. Go on and read it, though. Go through the lives of Jules and Edith and see how even the smallest of us can be linked to the biggest because, in the end, we are all just simply human.

There are quite a few stories in this expansive book and the authors have adeptly tied them together. The reader can't help but be impressed by the huge amount of research that must have gone into the writing of the book. It is a little challenging to keep track of all the characters, but well worth the effort as the reader gets to learn about so many diverse aspects--or at least they seemed diverse before reading the book--of American life.
To me, the story of Jules Shulback was what really stood out and had me engrossed in the book. For those of us who are Jewish and seek to understand the impact of the Holocaust, this is a huge draw. Did I know that the comics world and the early film industry was so saturated with Jewish refugees and immigrants? Perhaps vaguely, but having it all laid out like this was a satisfying revelation of our role in American history.

The Marilyn Monroe story is a great hook, and will no doubt attract film buffs to this book. But it is much more than this and an excellent slice of life look at American history both pre- and post-World War II.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. I hope it climbs straight up the best seller lists!

I really enjoyed this book. It threads together seemingly disparate stories into one really moving tale. I'd like to interview the author for our news outlet.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Simon and Schuster for an advance copy of this book that is both a biography, and family study and and a history of America in the middle part of the twentieth century.

People like to believe in things. Most people want to think the best of the world, though that is getting harder and harder, and the best about themselves. People would like to think that if asked to help others, strangers, distant family, neighborhood people, work mates, co-religionists that they would do so without a doubt, or if there was a doubt still do it. People also like to think that the stories they grew up hearing, not fictional stories, but the stories about family are true. Maybe not totally true, uncles like myself like to add details, but that the basis for the story is true. That Grandpa and Grandma actually did interesting things, lived lives that were full, scary but interesting. I know we have plenty of stories like that in my family, and sadly no real way of checking to see if they are true. These two ideals, ideals that make America what it is, helping others and learning from the people before us to make a better today are at heart in this memoir and history by Helene Stapinski and Bonnie Siegler. The American Way: A True Story of Nazi Escape, Superman, and Marilyn Monroe is a book about comics, heroes, villains, finding a new home, cinema and celebrity, and much more.

Jules Schulback and his girlfriend, soon to be wife Edith were enjoying life in Berlin, Germany, which was an oasis at the time from many of the problems that were slowly under mining the country. The ascendancy of Adolf Hitler soon changed that, and their lives and the lives of their family were soon to be very much in danger. Henry Donenfeld had come with his parents from Romania, and started his own clothing business with his wife. After the First World War, times got hard, and he lost his business. Joining his brothers in their printing company Martin Publishing Donenfeld might have worked with the mob to smuggle illegal hooch during Prohibition, which gave him connections in the underworld that later helped his business, and comic book history. Joel Shuster and writer Jerry Siegel had an idea of a Super Man, one who wouldn't be afraid to fight oppression and the Nazis, but would fight for the rights of people of everywhere. And finally Joe DiMaggio loved baseball and comics, and later the actress Marilyn Monroe, and would later cross paths with Jules Schulback in a different way.

A big sprawling history book about the interconnection of history and how one little thing, can change events and lives. These people and others would circle each other, some helping others by physically doing things, others inspiring events and actions, but all leading to almost one moment in a dark night surrounded by cast, crew and lots of men watching one actress do one scene. The book reads almost like a collection of Zelig-like moments, and each page has information and facts that makes the reader flip to find more. The narrative is strong, and if one wonders why I didn't go much into the book, I really didn't want to ruin it for others. The story covers many of the big events historically and culturally, and the writing is very good at describing and making sense of what is going on. Some people in the book live, happy, some end horribly, and in sad situations. However the reader does care about the characters due to the writing, and how everything interlinks.

Recommended for readers who like narrative history such as books by Eric Larson or David Grann. Also for fans of big family history books like Rich Cohen's Sweet and Low, which shares a lot of characteristics with this book. And for readers who enjoy big stories about people doing good things and helping others, something we all should strive to do.

I was intrigued by the subtitle of this book - "A True Story of Nazi Escape, Superman, and Marilyn Monroe" - thinking how do these disparate things all fit together if at all? I was so pleasantly surprised as they do fit together because of the authors' absolutely brilliant interweaving of stories that are personal and fascinating. One of the author's grandfather is a central figure whose compelling story is one of the key through-lines in this book. I could not put this book down it was so gripping and well-written. The writing and approach reminded me of Erik Larson's writing as he also aptly pulls in different contexts and narratives. Not only are the creators of Superman featured, but also Billy Wilder, Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio. There is also harrowing tales of fleeing the Nazi's or in some cases tragically believing it can't get much worse so staying to ride it out - knowing that these are personal stories of the author's family make it even more poignant.

I am so glad I discovered this book - I highly recommend it. An absolute must-read.

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Loved this book especially much of it concerned my own family’s upbringing. Compelling and accurate depiction of the horrors of the Holocaust yet inspiring of those that escaped. I loved the background history of the comic book and pornographic industries.
Weaving the story around Marilyn Monroe was brilliant
Exceptional period piece

The American Way feels like an American story all of it’s own. The story blends History, Pop Culture and striving for the American Dream to deliver a touching story of a family and the lengths they would go to reach for their dreams.

Bonnie Siegler and Helen Stapinski bring to the page a comic book level story that ranges from WW2 all the way to the streets of NY with stars and gangsters such as Marilyn Monroe and at the center is family.

This book was a blast to read because it feels earnest and real and above all reads fantastically. The blending of topics makes this a must read for historians, comic book and movie fans and anyone looking for a true, human story!!