Customer Reviews

Memory: A Novel

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Philippe Grimbert's novella, MEMORY, might more aptly be titled, SELF-DISCOVERY. A best seller and multiple prize winner in France, this short and eminently readable tale recounts in fictional form the author's discovery of his Jewish identity (the family name had been carefully modified from Grinbert to Grimbert by his father) and that of his parents and the rest of his family. Heavily intertwined and propelling the family history of his parents' and grandparents was, of course, the story of Nazi Germany and Vichy France.

At the outset, Philippe is the 98-pound weakling son of parents Maxime and Tania, who are both paragons of physical beauty and athletic skill. Young Philippe sees ever-present disappointment in his father's eyes, so much so that he invents an imaginary and physically robust older brother as his protector. An incident in school during a classroom discussion of the Holocaust leads fifteen year old Philippe into a fight where he is beaten by a much larger classmate. As a result, the family's long-time friend, a woman named Louise, decides to reveal to Philippe the long and complex story of his unknown past.

Needless to say, that past is full of surpises and horrors, at least one of which is reminiscent of Styron's SOPHIE'S CHOICE. Philippe's parents are not entirely who he has believed they were, and he learns further about past family members whom he never knew existed. To say any more would be to reveal spoilers unnecessarily.

Grimbert's novella is neatly packaged, a chronological coming-of-age and coming-of-personal-awareness tale wrapped around Louise's account of the Grinberg/Grimbert family experiences during World War II. Dogs - real, stuffed toy, and buried in a pet cemetery - play a symbolic role in the story, as (perhaps a bit too neatly) does Maxime's and Tania's facility with diving.

One is tempted to argue that the same Holocaust story has been told many times before, just as the Cultural Revolution story from China has been recounted in so many different ways. What can be left still to say? Yet when all is said and done, MEMORY effectively adds another small chapter to the full story and reminds us once again of the devastating choices such horrors force upon both victims and perpetrators. Perhaps what makes this book different is that we see the Holocaust events one generation removed. Grimbert displays their after-effects as imposed on a young man who was not yet born during that turbulent era and who must view everything he learns through a lens that simultaneously informs who he is and corrects his beliefs about who and what he thought he was.

Grimbert's novella explores memory on at least two levels: through the narrator's retelling of his family's trauma during World War II and subsequently; and against the backdrop of the Vichy regime under the direction of Pierre Laval. France's shame for the latter is revealed in brief strokes; in a classroom, for example, in which teenaged children circa 1963 laugh (nervously? uncomprehendingly?) at a film that depicts broken bodies in one of the death camps; in a cemetery on Laval's former estate in which the family dogs have been lovingly buried.

These dogs stand in contrast to two dogs belonging to members of the narrator's family--one that is stuffed and is discovered hidden away in an attic; another, named Echo, who is killed by a car. The narrator, primarily through discussions with a family friend, pieces together the secret, or secrets, that haunt the family over the decades that follow the war.

At the heart of the book is a love story whose contours would merely be melancholy but common in a normal time; within its context, however, it takes on a tragic cast. That story propels the reader through this brief, affecting book.

Philippe Grimbert's tale of French Jews who avoided deportation in WWII focuses attention on the destructive force of the holocaust on survivors - not death camp survivors but those survivors who found safety in unoccupied France. It is a story that, as a reader, one takes as biography rather than fiction because the emotions are so "spot on." Certainly the author's profession - psychiatrist - served him well.

To tell the family story, the events of WWII are portrayed as a family secret, revealed to the narrator as a 15-year-old. These missing pieces / family secrets further a coming of age theme; they also narrate a love story. But all that is secondary to the exploration of the effects of the holocaust on one extended family.

About half-way through this searing memory piece, I realized I had seen the movie based on the same story. It was no less haunting, powerful and sad. The movie, "A Secret," was like this book, based on Philippe Grimbert's devastating family history. So slim it can be read in a single sitting, yet it packs a punch stronger than many books twice its length.

This book is beautifully written, haunting, and a must-read for anyone interested in the Holocaust.

I read this novel in French (Un Secret)which is a better title than Memory. The novel not so much of memories as of past events hidden from a young boy since they concern a painful and awkward period in the life of his parents. Grimbert writes sparingly but gradually peels back the secret in skillful manner. A good film was also made of this novel but it is not as powerful as the book. A recommended read.

Beautifully written, heartwrenching yet hopeful. These true stories are what children need to read to remind all of us about the horrors of the Holocaust.

"Memory"
(Originally published as Secret)

A novel by Philippe Grimbert

Book Review by Jay Gilbertson

Though this novel is small (a mere 160 pages) and could easily fit into the palm of your hand--the enormity of its significance will haunt you in a very big way.

Often times, when happening upon one of these novella's, I turn to the first page with an almost I dare you attitude of just you try and make me read on. I read and read and read--twice! The story telling itself is done through beautifully woven layers of what may have been, which in turn, unwinds the terrible secrets of what truly was. This is a story of remembrance; of how a young boys coming of age and all it can bring, also has the power to destroy.

This is the sentence that grabbed me and wouldn't let go: Although an only child, for many years, I had a brother. What? How could that be? I found out and not only was that revelation wrapped in truth; the outcome came as a complete surprise. There are two stories in this one little book and both are shrouded in secrets--and as anyone worth their salt knows--secrets always come undone.

Through Louise, an old family friend, Grimbert (the thinly veiled main character is perhaps--in truth--the author?) is shown the horrible past his parents had experienced and kept from him. WWII had swept through their homeland of Paris, France. Neighbor turned against neighbor, stars sewn on woolen coats meant belonging and, for many, certain death. All this was hidden away from young Grimbert in an attempt to protect, to conceal the identities of who had escaped--and who could not.

During that time of strife and struggle, a love story swept in. Two survivors that had managed to escape--fell toward one another--and out of that desperate love came Grimbert. Yet their love couldn't ward off the ghosts of those left behind and long after the war had ended and Paris was once again the city of light, the past rushed in and took them away...

The timeless certainty of this book is that the truth of secrets we hide from, will haunt all who keep them until one day--they're once and for all--revealed. Grimbert suggests the reader consider that though we're generations removed from that horrible time lumped into the word--Holocaust--the after-effects are still with us.

This hauntingly eloquent story of how Grimbert could only move forward in his life by embracing the past is an important reminder for all generations. I highly recommend this important work be considered for use in our school system.

There are some things that we must never repeat--nor forget

This book starts out slow with broken memories. Once the memories are put into story form it is a very good read

I had read the story in in original version - this was very well done.