Bob Katzman is an insightful writer who has an incredible memory for details and historical facts. Also, (which is curious to me), is his affinity for numbers: how many words in a book – this is amazing.
If you like delving into someone’s soul, Bob’s books of short stories on his life and experiences will be enjoyable. They contain the good, the bad, and the intimate: love, disappointment, abuse, struggle, and a little romance.
Bob’s love of history is reflected in his stories of Chicago corruption in the Mayor Daley era.
We, the readers, become better informed and learn from his experiences. Bob has an easy flow of words to convey his stories… I could not believe I had read 500 pages in two days!
I came to know and understand him through his words.
You will, too.
Eileen M. Schroeder
Robert Katzman on Eileen M. Schroeder
Eileen Schroeder is a woman my wife Joyce and I met when we moved in 2015, from our home in Northern Illinois, to Racine, Wisconsin, about 70 miles away. We joined the last Jewish Temple in Racine where she had been attending for some time. Besides helping to support the place financially, she would throw an annual picnic in her spacious yard, so big that horses could run around.
Eileen, a mother and business-woman, was warmly welcoming to us among the small congregation, where other older and more reserved people were not. It isn’t easy to integrate into a tiny society. We went to her picnics and gradually became more familiar with each other. Then, after 42 years together, Joy died in May, 2017. Besides Eileen attending the service for her, she was comforting to me on a periodic basis. Grieving is very lonely.
Eventually, I left the Temple for reasons of different perspectives on Judaism. Eileen remained supportive of me. I had reached a time, a stage in my life where no other person could dictate what sort of Jew I was supposed to be.
When I met Nancy Alexander in November 2019, Eileen was warm to her as well, knowing the loneliness of losing a spouse herself. She invited us to her lovely home filled with beautiful treasures and discovered Nancy also shared her love for Asian art. We three have become closer over time. She has read my books and recommended them to others. She is very dear to both of us. I am honored that Eileen would write a foreword for my book and follow my stories.
Now, she is part of them.
Bob Katzman