A NOVEL, BUT based on Berest's own family history. Indeed, a lot of it could qualify as memoir, I think. Is the distinction between the two, always smudged, in the process of disappearing entirely?
The postcard of the title is received by Berest's mother, Lélia, in early 2003. On it are written the names Ephraïm, Emma, Noémie, and Jacques--nothing else. Berest's mother is shocked and scared, because these are the names of her own mother's father, mother, sister, and brother, all four of whom were Russian Jews who emigrated to France in the 1930s and were then sent to their deaths in the camps in 1941. Who sent the surprisingly knowing card, and why?
The book is about Berest's and her mother's efforts to answer those questions. This involves a lot of detective work, which is the part that feels most like a memoir. As they learn more about how Myriam (Lélia's mother, Anne Berest's grandmother) lived in the 1930s and how she evaded capture during the years of the Nazi Occupation, Berest narrates an imagined version of what Myriam's life was like, which feels more like a novel.
All questions about the postcard get answered in the book's last few pages.
Worthy of note: Berest's family is Jewish, but not particularly observant. Early in the book, Berest attends a seder where she gets criticized for not being more familiar with Jewish traditions than she is. She can't come up with much of a reply in the moment, but near the end of the book (Chapter 38), she comes to some very striking conclusions about what her Jewishness means.
This was a book club pick--probably not something I would have chosen to read on my own. Good, though.
No comments:
Post a Comment