Customer Reviews

Annie's Ghosts: A Journey Into a Family Secret

5 star:		(58)
4 star:		(33)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

At what point do you stop controlling a secret and find that it's controlling you? That's one of the questions at the heart of Steve Luxenberg's utterly compelling first book, "Annie's Ghosts" Annie's Ghosts: A Journey Into a Family Secret. Part memoir, part biography and part investigative reporting, this book humanizes a subject that probably touches more of us than we might realize.

Luxenberg's journey begins as a son's quest to learn why his mother turned her sibling from younger sister to lifelong secret and expands to become an exploration of a particularly moving era in recent American history.

Several months after Luxenberg's mom died, the cemetery where her parents were buried sent the family a letter containing a simple question that was to lead Luxenberg and his siblings on a journey through their family's past. "Spring was around the corner," Luxenberg writes, "and the cemetery was offering to plant flowers on the grave sites." The solicitation wasn't for two sites, however, but for three. Suddenly, this whisper of a woman had a name, Annie. Her burial certificate answered some questions, but led to others that took Luxenberg deep into the dynamics of his own family as well as the evolving nature of health care in the United States during several key decades of the 20th century.

He soon found himself part of a wave of thousands of family members seeking information about relatives who'd been institutionalized--relatives they'd never known they had. "I couldn't write about all the `forgotten people,' but I could write about one," Luxenberg writes of his decision to ferret out Annie's tale.

Steve Luxenberg is a veteran newspaperman, and his journalistic instincts and contacts definitely helped him develop questions and efficiently seek answers. However, he's also a son and a brother, and the decision to step outside the bounds of impartial reporter to involved memoirist and family historian cannot have been easy. His love for his mom and his family illuminates every chapter, even as he struggles with why his mom--who lived by the rule of honesty--chose to keep such a key element of her life a secret.

In the end, drawing on primary and secondary sources, and leavening these facts with his knowledge of his mom, he finds answers. Too late, as he notes in his dedication, for his mom and Annie ... but perhaps not for the other 5,000 whose families may still have time to reconnect.

I read this book twice. The first time, for the tale of Annie and the Luxenbergs; the second, for the larger historical picture. As I've written and rewritten this review, I've struggled with how to describe this book without spoiling the intensely personal journey it conveys. So I'll have to leave it at this. If you've ever loved or been loved, this book will hit you in the gut.

The subject matter here is fascinating: the stuff of Hollywood films or interesting novels.

After his mother's death (and not from a "deathbed confession" as the book's current blurb claims), journalist Steve Luxenberg learns something startling -- He has an aunt.

Or rather, had.

A letter from a cemetery asking about routine maintenance for a grave helps Steve begin to coax this particular family skeleton out of the closet. See, his mother's sister, Annie, was institutionalized. And as much as Steve might try to justify the obvious shame and embarrassment (even hatred? resentment?) that his mother felt, his difficulties in rationalization increase when he discovers this wasn't some sister his mom barely knew, socked away as a child, or dying young -- Annie was institutionalized when Steve's mother was in her early 20s. His mother had spent a significant portion of her life living with Annie, and Annie didn't die young. She lived into her 50s. She must have been a fixture around the neighborhood. How had his mother kept this secret all these years, and why?

A journalist by trade, Steve begins investigating his own family history, immediately discovering the difficulties that even the state throws in the way of those who would like to learn more about its former wards. As Steve struggles to obtain records and interview family and friends, some of whom are dying before he can speak to them, the reader is along for an exciting ride. Steve's careful research on the institution Eloise, Annie's contemporaries' views on mental illness, and how a physical handicap (malformed leg) might have affected Annie, absolutely shine.

However, at some point the memoir shifts focus, partially because the information Steve can gather about Annie is, ultimately, sparse, and the burning question Steve tries to answer becomes not, "Who was Annie?" but, "Did my Dad know?" While the author barely accepts what his mother has done (and he only accepts it because it is the bare truth) he seems horrified that his father might have been complicit too. It becomes a bit of an obsession and is also when the story loses my interest a little. However, it comes late enough in this otherwise engaging investigation for the reader to already be invested, and carries through to a strong finish.

Ultimately, I really enjoyed reading Annie's Ghosts. I had a very hard time putting it down and read it in as few sittings as possible. It is certainly a great narrative that I will be haunted by for years to come.

I won't repeat a synopsis of Annie's Ghosts - the "Product Description" does a good job of that. I will tell you what went through my mind as I read through this remarkable book.

As the blurb says, Luxenberg made good use of his journalistic skills to dig into the mystery that was his aunt, Annie. I was amazed at the resources he was able to make use of, not the least was the welcome cooperation of government clerks who went out of their way to look for information. He also was able to locate and get the cooperation of relatives and friends of his mother, many of which he had never known or not seen since childhood.

What I wasn't expecting, from what I had heard of this book, were the side stories; about the history of how we treated the mentally ill in the early 1900s and how things would be different today for Annie, and about the Holocaust and the Russian execution of Jews. This last resonated with me because, like Luxenberg, I am the child of Jewish immigrants who fled the Holocaust and pogroms. I was amazed at the connections he was able to make and his luck, really, in not doing this even a few years later when many of his best sources would have likely been dead. It made me regret not learning more about my own family while I still could.

As the book progressed, and more and more secrets were revealed, it seemed to me that Luxenberg's quest was really more about him and desire to know as much as he could about his family. There's a lot of introspective prose which at times feels like filler. I also tripped over some places, mainly early in the book, where he quotes someone, a few paragraphs later repeats the quote, and then repeats it again on the next page. Since I was reading a pre-publication copy, it's possible that these will be trimmed out before release.

While Annie's Ghosts is not my usual reading fare, I found the story captivating and, like the author, I wanted to know what happened next. In the process, Luxenberg reveals some horrors about overwhelmed mental institutions of the early 20th century, despite the best intentions of the medical staff. People's attitudes towards physical and mental disabilities have changed less, however, and Luxenberg's story made me stop and think more than once. It's well worth reading.

A side note - I first heard about Annie's Ghosts when NPR interviewed the author. When I've heard these interviews in the past, I often marveled at how the host had managed to find the time to read the book they quoted from. But, perhaps in this case, it seemed that everything discussed was from the first 10 pages or so. Maybe that's their secret?

Just before his mother's death, Steve Luxenberg finds out a family secret--that his mother never revealed that she had a sister, Annie, who was mentally and physically handicapped. Not wanting to approach his mother when she was ill, Luxenberg never asked about Annie until after his mother died.

Never losing his objectivity, Luxenberg used his skills as a journalist to uncover and tell this amazing, yet personal story. On the way, he uncovers what happened to Annie and some other family secrets that had been swept under the carpet for so many years. Through interviews, letters, documents, and hospital records Luxenberg traces Annie's history and how she was hidden in plain site.

Annie's story is as much a story about Annie as it is about the attitudes of mental and physical disabilities in this era. It is also a story about a poor, Jewish, immigrant family trying to make their way during the great depression. He traces what it must have been like for Annie, who lived most of her life within a mental health facility and how things might have been different had she been born two decades later. Luxenberg traces the attitudes all the way back to Europe and, for some family members, through the ashes of the holocaust.

The tale is always compelling. Luxenberg is not a flowery writer. Rather, he keeps things organized and allows the story to tell itself. For a book over 400 pages, it reads like it is half that. It's no thriller, but the mystery as it unfolds keeps you on the edge of your seat.

If there was a flaw with this book, it is that Luxenberg may at times be too organized. He sometimes leaves out a few pieces of information that he must have known earlier, mentioning them later where it suits the narrative. For example, he read all of his parents letters to each other near the beginning of his reasearch. At times, in the context of an interview or uncovering a new document Luxenberg brings out supporting evidence from a letter so that the readers' 'Aha!' moment, clearly wasn't the same thing for Luxenberg. On the other hand, I rather enjoyed being led through the story in this way. It may have been somewhat contrived, but it helped the book read more like a novel than a piece of cold journalism.

I believe this book deserves five stars because it is masterfully written. It tells a universal story and teaches many profound lessons. As we learn about Annie and Luxenberg's family, we learn more about ourselves. Highly recommended.

Steve Luxenberg has written a uniquely different kind of memoir. He employs many of his professional skills while revealing some genuinely heartbreaking family truths. His unflinching objectivity in reporting some disturbing facts surrounding Annie's treatment only makes this a more devastating, as well as compelling read.

Mr. Luxenberg learns that his mother, who proclaimed herself 'an only child,' had a mentally challenged sister. It would appear that Annie, Beth's sister, was dually diagnosed. Actually, she seems more multi-handicapped than dually-diagnosed since she appears not only to have suffered physical disabilities but intellectual deficits along with mental illness.

The reader is provided with a professionally dispassionate history of how the institutions for the mentally ill were operated. Again, the reportage employed makes this history even that more chilling. In attempting to discover as many clues as possible regarding Annie, Mr. L. delves into the lives of many other people. A number of these individuals bring their own histories. Juxtaposed against the history of institutionalization, Mr. L. provides some historical perspectives on the fate of the Jews under Nazism. This might be viewed as 'chancy,' however, its horrrors blends and contrasts with the horror that was Annie's.

Mr. L.'s mother never mentioned her sister Annie. Steven and his siblings never knew of her existence. It is with his book that Annie is restored to life, as well as some of the understanding and dignity that her life denied her. However, this reviewer carries a mental picture of Tillie [Annie & Beth's mother] having to impose on others to drive her to see Annie every week.

'When sorrows come, they come not single spies,

But in batallions.' [Shakespeare]

There is remarkable heart and humanity within these pages. Kudos to Steve Luxenberg for having revealing his family's numerous secrets and for not judging.

Coda: Parts of this book should be recommended reading for individuals entering Social Services. Your prodigious reportage in clinical charting is not only mandated but might, someday, shed light for the other Steven Luxenbergs searching for truths.

Highly Recommended Reading Especially For Advocates Of The Disabled Since The Stigmas Still Lives....

Steve Luxenberg manages to take a personal family secret and turn it into a story that everyone can relate to (after all, who has a family without some sort of secret?) and that everyone wants to solve along with him. He is a very honest writer with a straightforward style.

I found myself compelled to hear more about the Aunt that Steve never knew he had, not only because she is presented as a secret or mystery, but because she is developed into a very real person by his accounts. He does extensive research to piece together what his aunt must have been like, how her life must have progressed and in the process and who she must have become.

Just as important was who his mother had become because she had a sister who was institutionalized. She lived the majority of her adult life as if she were an only child and Steve is determined to find out what would compel his mother to essentially abandon her sister. Through interviews with friends and family, many now in their eighties, he tries to weave a new history including his Aunt since his entire life as he knew it she simply did not exist.

This story opened up the doors to many things that had been swept away in an era where any imperfection, physical or mental, was regarded so differently than it is today. This was a time of forced institutionalization, which it appears happened to Annie at the hands of her family, no matter their possible best intentions. He sheds light on the conditions and standards of mental facilities at the time and on those "forgotten" ones who lived their anguished lives there.

The topic of eugenics is also brought to light. As he puts it "...the American eugenics movement argued openly and vigorously for policies that would eliminate "defectives" from society and allow only the fittest to survive and procreate". Could these beliefs have had an impact on how his Aunt's life played out? It certainly relates the air of the American social consciousness in the early half of the 20th century with its deep rooted fears and unfounded beliefs allowing anyone to even consider these policies.

The author also touches on many other subjects, including the holocaust, medical confidentiality, immigration, etc. This is the only reason I could not give the book five stars.

As a journalist, he simply included too many of the facts that he collected. I expected the book to be more focused on the discoveries regarding his Aunt Annie but interspersed with this information was a lot of extraneous facts. Though well-intentioned, he asks physicians to interpret his Aunt's medical records and imagine how she would have been treated medically and orthopaedically, not only then, but if she were alive now. These speculations took away from the facts of the story, in my opinion.

I believe he could have written an excellent (but separate) book based on the historical facts he gathered from older relatives in relation to the holocaust and immigration. He could have also written a book based on the other facts and figures that he compiled regarding mental instututions and medical care.

Unfortunately, he included all of this in this one book. While his information was obviously well researched and incredibly exhaustive, I'm not sure that he had to share it all with the reader. His Aunt Annie's & his Mom's story could have been even more compelling if it were the central, and only, focus.

I do feel that those in (or entering) the medical field, particularly mental health field, will find this book especially informative. Those interested in the social aspects of the 20's to the 60's will also find it interesting. Those who want to know about The Luxenberg Family Secret will enjoy this book, but will have to sift through some excess baggage to find the truth of the underlying family tale just as the author did.

Author Steve Luxenberg takes on quite a quest in the search he reports on in his excellent book, ANNIE'S GHOSTS.

Shortly before his mother died, he learns that she had -- or may have had -- a sister whom she never mentioned to her own children.

After her death, he began the research which results in this book.

According to the jacket blurb, the author is an editor at the WASHINGTON POST. Not surprisingly then, his investigative skills are of the highest caliber, as is his writing ability. These are put to good use ANNIE'S GHOSTS.

Operating partly on educated hunches, partly with a certain amount of lucky assistance, Luxenberg learns that, indeed, his mother did have a sister, the "Annie" of the title.

It turns out that, by modern standards, Annie probably was mildly retarded as well as having been born with a deformed leg. Today, she probably would be allowed to have a relatively normal life, perhaps in a group home.

Instead, poor Annie was warehoused for decades in a mental hospital, after cruel surgeries had been performed on her leg. Once their parents had died, her sister, Luxenberg's mother, never visited Annie, though she lived quite near the facility in which Annie was housed.

Luxenberg provides a damning indictment of the lack of rights of those who were mentally challenged -- lumped together under a catchall diagnosis of mental illness, regardless of condition -- in America during the early decades of the 20th Century. We now take for granted our civil rights and the protections we are afforded by public advocates but, for people like Annie in that era, the habeas corpus laws did not apply.

The author tells the story almost like a fictional mystery, with every page bringing fresh revelations. So thorough is he that he actually journeys to Ukraine to inspect the village from which his maternal grandparents had come.

Though Luxenberg's deep love for his mother always is obvious, by the end of this saga, I felt heartsick for poor Annie, abandoned for no good reason to a punitive system for decades on end.

ANNIE'S GHOSTS is a sad story, but an important one. Those nameless souls, trapped like Annie in this system, deserve a final examination of their lives, just as Luxenberg has provided for the aunt he never had known existed.

Steve Luxenberg's mom, Beth, had always insisted on honesty in her children. She'd also always gone out of her way to tell everyone she met that she was an only child; it seemed to be a point of pride with her.

So imagine the shock and puzzlement of Steve and his siblings to learn that Beth hadn't been an only child and that their mom's name wasn't Beth, it was Bertha. Well, okay, many of us might have changed our names had we been born a Bertha. But why go out of her way to claim being an only child when she was not?

By the time the first glimmerings of the Luxenberg family secret came to light in the late '90s via a comment from an outsider, Beth was dying and her children opted not to bring it up, at least partly because at that time they'd been led to believe that the secret sister had been institutionalized when Annie was two and Beth four, so in a way it seemed Beth did live an "only child's" existence for most of her life and may have barely remembered otherwise. Only after Beth was dead did her children learn that Beth and her sister had shared the family home for 22 years before Annie was sent away.

Many, including at least one of Steve's siblings, would have just let it go at that point. But Steve, an acclaimed journalist and longtime head of The Washington Post's investigative reporting unit, was incapable of walking away from such a puzzlement--not as a reporter, not as a son. He had to find out about Annie and why his mom had lived a lie. Time was of the essence. Those who might have known Annie and Beth and could answer Steve's questions were now very old or dead. Huge public institutions such as those that might have served Annie were mostly long gone and the state of Michigan was destroying its old records and creating bureaucratic boondoggles around access to those that did still exist.

"Annie's Ghosts" is a son's memoir and a reporter's investigation that should prove especially fascinating and instructive to everyone with a family secret...and, as Steve's research makes clear, that would be a great many of us. (Personal note: I'm a longtime fan of the author's work and a former colleague.)

Whenever I start a book and find myself hooked on the first page I read it straight through in one day not putting it down. Well I was hooked with this book but I took my time, almost 2 weeks to savor and think about what was going on in Steves hunt for the truth.

To find out a shocking fact about a parent after they are dead is very tramatic. I know as it happened to me also. Not the same event, but right away you think "why didn't she tell me this?".

Steve finds out after his mothers death that she had a sister and that the sister was in a mental hospital. His mother had always claimed she was an only child. Infact she went out of her way always stressing the fact. As a child Steve and his half-sister Sach and younger brother Mike got used to the fact and counted it up as childhood story #239 or so.

What starts out as a few phone calls truns in to a huge quest for the truth. Steve is a journalist by profession so the gift of writting was already with him. He writes so vivid and with a passion and emotion that can have you thinking it is happening to you. You almost get into his heart and mind and soul.

Steve hits many road blocks as getting medical records from a long closed mental institution. Getting information carries with it many privacy issues. He has huge legal battles getting records being the nephew of the person does not give you rights to the information.

I stand amazed that Steve didn't give up. We go from Detroit to Germany and Russia all over the world following a life that was hidden from 1919 to 1972.

Starting with one woman who felt his need he was faxed some basic information about his aunt. It was just enough to really light a fire in him. He now knows his mother grew up with her sister who was physically and mentally handicaped.

Steve spans decades and digs layers and layers away like pealing an onion. We travel the world with him on this quest and some things are very hard to read. Some very painful facts come out of this families history. Being poor and Jewish in the depression and the holocaust. Why did both his mother and father hold such deep secrets. Yes, he finds his fater also has secrets. By learning the truth it sheds much light on Steves childhood and how he was formed in his thoughts and beliefs. Looking back with the truth now part of his life he has become more whole.

When Steve actually finds people who knew his mother and Annie as children he sees a side of his Mother he did not know. She was loving and cared for her sister often carrying her on her back as she was a smaller child although the eldest.

There are quite a few pictures we are given to help bring these people to life. There is a picture of a mental hospital and the typical treatment the patients had of just a mattress on the floor.

You will cry reading this book. You will be encouraged also. If you have a secret that has haunted you for years you will have tools to start your own journey and understand how important it is to know your roots.

Annie Cohen now is a life remembered. Mr Luxenberg I thank you for sharing the details of your quest for the truth. Well done.

Initially this book intrigued me. The storyline had the potential to be fascinating. Unfortunately, the extreme attention to detailing every phone call, conversation and discovered bit of information became too much. The author should have used much less dialogue and concentrated on major events. I wish I had come away with a real idea of who Annie was.

As a Library Thing Early Reviewer of this book I felt obligated to finish it but it was a real struggle not to abandon it before the final page.