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.
This is the one of the saddest and most beautiful books I have ever read. I can't even think about it without a lump in my throat. As the daughter of a holocaust survivor, I read this as my own history. If you are a second generation survivor, please read this book. But read it alone in a quiet place. If not, by all means read this and understand the catharsis and beauty of this book.
This book I felt was very informative about what a little girl and her brother went through in Poland with the war and being Jewish. She was 4 when the war started and 10 when she was rescued. She went through alot. Her mother stayed in the city where they lived and got a job. She left the care of the children to their nanny. A woman that hated Jews and was a devote Catholic. She loved the children and took very good care of them. Her father had ran away to safety and she had not seen her father for years. I feel so sorry for what she and her brother had to go through and her father I feel didn't even suffer a fourth of what they did. Her mother had fake papers so she stayed away to work and give them $. This little girl was taken from her home where she was Jewish, then with the nanny she was to learn the catholic faith. From then she was sent to a sanitarium where she learned the Swedish way of life and language. They were taught Lutheran Religion. One day her mom and dad come for her. She is then thrown back into being a Jew,
that she had not been in years so to speak because she had to survive and adapt.
This book is a very good eye opener to those who like to study history.
that she had not been in years so to speak because she had to survive and adapt.
This book is a very good eye opener to those who like to study history.
