From Publishers Weekly
In this poignant collection of related stories, protagonist Rachel's life is influenced by three major factors: her parents' foreignness (as exemplified by their German accents), her Jewishness and the fact that she, like Loewenstein ( This Place ), is a descendent of Freud.Rachel is great-granddaughter. Author--not clear. The opening section is told from the points-of-view of Rachel's grandmother and parents, but the rest of the stories are Rachel's, and she narrates them in a straightforward voice. They center on her close relationship to a mother who alternately embraces and rejects her , calling her Sorgenkind , or " worry child. " This conflicted relationship is set against the cruel social background of grade school and then high school, with their cliques and unbending rules of conduct. Loewenstein has a sharp memory for the fears of children; about the story of the little mermaid, for example, Rachel says, "It was bad enough to have someone cut your tongue out under protest, but the way she opened her own mouth on purpose for the witch to do it was what terrified me." Rachel moves closer to finding her own voice, and to resolving questions about her lesbian sexuality, her mother and her place in the world.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
With chunks called "From The Stories That Came Before" and pieces named "The Grandmothers' Stories," this pithy collection - "fictional composites of memory, imagination and invention" - is Rachel Freud's story of growing up. "Look how we make here a nice picnic, a little herring, a little cucumber zalade -- come Puppi you're hungry?" asks Grandmother Oma as she guides Rachel through the photo album. Parents' stories, school stories, and friendship stories follow, each told in the voice of the teller, mostly Rachel. Her famous great-grandfather, Sigmund Freud, is a distant but important part of family history. So are Nazi Germany, World War II, fascist extermination camps, and American schools. Rachel's family isn't rich or poor; Rachel isn't gorgeous or quick-witted or small. Even worse, she's afraid of the dark, terrified to be without her mother, and cannot learn to tell time. She's also a story teller and secret writer. Lucky us. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. -- From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Jesse Larsen
