Lisa Appignanesi was born Elsbieta Borenztejn in Poland. Unlike other holocaust memoirs, hers is the story of how the nucleus of a family survived outside the camps, beyond the ghetto and eventually made it to the new world, where Lisa's mother found that her years of masquerading as an Aryan stood her in great stead in anti-semitic post-war Catholic Quebec. As her mother's memory fails, Lisa finds her self trying to unravel the truth about her family, searching not only for signs of her mother's lost brother - a Jewish Schindler character, making money and saving Jews in Warsaw - but also for the truth about how her parents managed to survive, and for her own birth certificate. It's above all the compelling story of one woman's determination not to go under, and the story of her father, who learned to make himself invisible and hide behind silent rage. This is a remarkable tale of terror, courage, deprivation, persecution, survival, and Jewish family life. (19990909)
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After a lifetime spent steadfastly ignoring her parents' accounts of their struggle for survival in World War II Poland, novelist Lisa Appignanesi played the "ultimate generation game" as her mother's increasing old age impelled her to discover the truth about her family's past. Growing up as part of an immigrant Jewish family in Canada, she had recoiled at "the implicit message...that you could live through terrible things and come out at the other end to sip a glass of tea or Schnapps". Yet years later she found herself en route to Poland to "excavate" for herself the story of her parents' amazing endurance--and to reclaim her family history.
Appignanesi's parents Hena and Aron, together with her older brother and maternal grandmother, had escaped certain death in the Warsaw ghetto by tenacity, audacity (especially on the part of her mother)- -and the ultimate suppression of their Jewish identity. To this end they were helped out enormously by the heroism and sacrifices of individuals and in particular by Hena's mysterious, fabled brother Arek, who disappeared from view in 1943. Losing the Dead swings effortlessly between Appignanesi's comedic childhood reminiscences, her tireless search through Polish archives and registers for forgotten identities and the dramatic, immediate narrative of her family's day-to-day existence in the terrifying war years. It is a story of loss and deprivation, yet ultimately one of profound understanding, as Appignanesi resurrects her past in order to lay it to rest, proving that Losing the Dead is a truly commemorative memoir.--Catherine Taylor --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
Distinguished . . . Appignanesi has a sharp eye for the details of everyday life in the Warsaw ghetto . . . Read Losing the Dead and you begin to appreciate what life must have been like for hundreds of thousands of European Jews during the long nightmare of the Third Reich (The Times )
This book crosses genre, combining profound story telling and hard history. It is wonderful and heartbreaking in equal measure, and it remains an astonishing work (Edmund De Waal, Author Of The Hare With Amber Eyes ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
This book crosses genre, combining profound story telling and hard history. It is wonderful and heartbreaking in equal measure, and it remains an astonishing work (Edmund De Waal, Author Of The Hare With Amber Eyes ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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Format:Hardcover
This is a wonderful book, because it shows how individuals affect each other. There are mysteries at the beginning and the end, there are no easy resolutions, but the author manages to show us her parents so clearly that you entirely see how she herself was brought up. The other fascinating thing about it is that she makes it clear how relationships can be simulataneously successful and damaging, and how ultimately, however much we have been influenced by our families, we must take responsibility for ourselves and our own moral decisions. The depiction of the author's mother in particular is amazing - it encapsulates all the admiration and ambivalence so many of us seem to feel for our mothers. A resonant book.
0 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This review is bit in appropriate because I have ent read the book completely yet. I heard the authors name mentioned on a radio program and thought I would like to read her book. Also, recently I tend to be attracted by rather unhappy lives and think I must cast around for more light hearted stories. I will write a further review, if I remember, after I have read it through.
As usual I enjoy buying books through Amazon - or whatever - its fun when they arrive - even if the book isnt going to be!
As usual I enjoy buying books through Amazon - or whatever - its fun when they arrive - even if the book isnt going to be!
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