Helpful Score: 3
It's easy to finish this slim volume in one sitting. But resist that urge--Memory is best savored over several sessions. Previously published as Secret, this little book is a catharsis for a deep family secret.
Philippe Grimert, a Parisian psychoanalyst, blurs fiction and autobiography in a sparse, lyrical telling of growing up as the sickly only child of beautifully athletic parents in postwar France. On his fifteenth birthday he learns from an old family friend about his family's survival during the war, and that his imaginary stronger older brother really lived in occupied Vichy France. The horrors are not graphically depicted, but emotionally and symbolically palpable.
Brilliantly translated by Polly McLean, form fits function in this poignant novella about memory and guilt--personal and collective, blurred and never truly relived--best read with time to reflect.
Philippe Grimert, a Parisian psychoanalyst, blurs fiction and autobiography in a sparse, lyrical telling of growing up as the sickly only child of beautifully athletic parents in postwar France. On his fifteenth birthday he learns from an old family friend about his family's survival during the war, and that his imaginary stronger older brother really lived in occupied Vichy France. The horrors are not graphically depicted, but emotionally and symbolically palpable.
Brilliantly translated by Polly McLean, form fits function in this poignant novella about memory and guilt--personal and collective, blurred and never truly relived--best read with time to reflect.
Helpful Score: 1
Powerful, beautifully written memoir of a French family mired in secrets in the post-Holocaust era.
