RECENT READING—D DAY
June 6th this week marked the 80th anniversary of D-Day when Allied troops landed on the Normandy Beaches and changed the outcome of the war. Two recent novels I’ve just completed are concerned with the Holocaust. One is set in France and has been a bestseller in France and Europe, and the other is set in Italy.
The Postcard by Anne Berest
French novelist and writer Anne Berest was intrigued by a postcard her mother, Lelia, a noted scholar, received in 2003. Written on the card in an unfamiliar hand were the names of four members of their extended family, Lelia’s grandparents and her aunt and uncle, all of whom were deported and killed in the concentration camps. With her mother’s assistance, Berest goes on the hunt to find out who wrote and mailed the card and to learn more about her great grandparents, Ephraim and Emma, and her great aunt Noemie and her great uncle Jacques.
Although the work is a novel or autobiographical fiction, it reads like nonfiction since so much of it is factual. Berest does, however, create dialogue and flesh out situations based on the archival information the two women discover. Central to the story is Myriam, Ephraim and Emma’s oldest child, and Leila’s mother. Myriam survived the war and Anne Berest knew her and visited her in Provence as a child.
The book goes back and forth in time and is an absorbing and poignant journey into family history as daughter and mother share experiences, but don’t always agree on what should be pursued or what is too painful to revisit. The book is translated from the French. Highly recommended! (~JWFarrington)
Our Darkest Night by Jennifer Robson
The Postcard, published in 2023 in English, was on my summer reading list. Having finished it on my Kindle, I discovered this related novel by Canadian author Jennifer Robson. Robson’s historical novel portrays the experiences of one Jewish woman, Nina, taken into hiding by a Catholic family in 1942.
Nina’s physician father is determined that she should be protected and makes arrangements with a friend. Having enjoyed a comfortable and sheltered childhood in Venice, Nina must now masquerade as farmer Nico’s wife. She earns her place in his family through hard work on their farm, but later is arrested, beaten, and transported to a camp in Poland.
Nina is a fictional character, but her story was partly inspired by Robson’s son asking whether it was true that his Italian grandparents had hidden Jews during the war. Robson’s novel reflects the extraordinary amount of research she did about real events—massacres, hangings, deportations—and is both graphic and extremely compelling. It is a fitting companion to Berest’s book, and I recommend it. (~JWFarrington)
READERS’ RECOMMENTATIONS
Our Swedish friend is deep into Fresh Water for Flowers by Valerie Perrin and calls it a must read. It’s translated from the French and was a bestseller all over Europe. I read it in 2022 (see blog of 4/3/22) and found it slow to get into and then fascinating and memorable.
The Chief Penguin’s Colorado cousin belongs to an international book club which meets every other month. She shared their 2024 list. Two titles on it are: The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese and River Sing Me Home, a historical novel about a mother’s journey to find her stolen children.
ART OUTING
CAM Raleigh
The Contemporary Art Museum (CAM) is located in downtown Raleigh in a former produce storage building in the Warehouse District. Opened in 2011, it’s a non-collecting museum that offers bold and innovative exhibits from local and national contemporary artists as well as educational programming.
On a recent visit, I surveyed a photographic study of Black women and hair, Crowning Glory, an exhibit of UNC-Chapel Hill MFA student thesis projects, and a collection of works from emerging artists in rural Robeson County, part of a project called CAMERA. Overall, a wide diversity of styles and media here. Shown at the very top, the Vera Weinfield collage is one of her thesis works on Jewish identity.
Collage by Molly English (UNC MFA student)
,
Note: All unattributed photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)
Header painting is Still by S. K. Chavis-Bullard.
