Bob Katzman is a late bloomer. It took him close to fifty years to realize his writing gift and it has only been in the last four years that he has evolved into a passionate and prolific writer of non-fiction. He concentrates on his own complex and often violent life, repeatedly leaving the reader pondering how an individual could survive so much pain and anguish and still turn out to be a caring and compassionate human being.
His narrative style has a clear and distinct speaking voice which he uses with great skill and precision. His intensity is portrayed in the episodes of abuse and violence dating back to an early age and spanning subsequent years of his life. One need only begin reading a chapter in one of his books to appreciate the deeper meaning that his powerful words convey. His are words of wisdom and intuition, of experience and solutions. His language is simple and frequently beautiful – almost poetic in its delivery.
There is genuineness and candor in his writings giving us an opportunity to become part of his world from the first page of one of his stories, We become so involved in fact that we begin to feel that areas of our lives are enhanced by experiencing what he experienced; by vicariously participating in his life events.
We grow to be the protagonist of his own survival and the effect of such transformation can be truly monumental for those of us who feel less than adequate in our own lives. The sheer strength of character and conviction of Bob Katzman’s writings leave people, men and women, wanting more. Yearning for more ways to deal with controlling and overwhelming external forces that affect our lives the way his life has been affected, while addressing our own fears, our anger, and our own inability to cope.
In the end, one is left with a glorious feeling of triumph over extraordinary circumstances that could have shattered a man who would not let it happen to him. A man who would not be destroyed.
Gela Altman, LCSW
Bob Katzman on Gela Altman
Gela Altman is from a Polish-Jewish family that left Galicia – part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire – in 1923 and settled in Cuba a year later. She emigrated to the United States in 1961 at the age of fifteen. She speaks English, Spanish and Yiddish, but learned them in the opposite order. She knows me and my family very well and has read all three of my published books and other as yet unpublished stories. I asked her for her general opinion of the books as a whole, since they are very similar in content and voice. I asked her to be honest and told her that even if what she wrote was critical, I would still print it (but maybe in smaller type).
Bob Katzman