The Courage of Strangers: Coming of Age with the Human Rights Movement

Book Description

The intimate, beautifully told memoir of a woman who helped create Human Rights Watch and bring about the fall of Communism-and in the process became free and independent herself. After Jeri Laber earned a Master's degree in Russian studies at Columbia University, she became a part-time writer and editor and a full-time wife and mother. Then one day in 1973 she read an article about torture that altered her life and subsequently the lives of countless others around the world. The Courage of Strangers tells how Laber became a founder and the executive director of Helsinki Watch, which grew to be Human Rights Watch, one of the world's most influential organizations. She describes her secret trips to unwelcoming countries, where she met with some of the great political activists of the time. She also recalls what it was like to come of age professionally in an era when women were supposed to follow rather than lead; how she struggled to balance work and family; and how her fight for human rights informed her own intellectual, spiritual and emotional development. This story of the birth of the human rights movement is also a sweeping history of dissent and triumph in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Elegantly written, full of passion, humor and political wisdom, it is exciting history as well as a moving, entertaining, inspiring story of a woman's life.

Customer Reviews:

Strangers no Longer.......2004-04-13

After reading this incredible first person account of Jeri Laber's remarkable life and accomplishments you feel that you know her well. From a solid but not prominent upbringing to a growing awareness of the world and a possible role for her in changing it, you walk step by step through her early years into her development as one of the most influential if unsung human rights advocates in history.
It has been famously said that 'evil triumphs when good men do nothing.' This autobiography is a classic example of the opposite: how much good even one person is able to do when she sets her mind to accomplish the seemingly impossible. Ms Laber fills this story with understated but chillingly suspenseful stories of acts of personal bravery that put story-book heroes to shame. Like a classic secret agent Ms Laber carried out her misions under the constant threat of discovery and arrest.
Travel with her as she carries funds for Czech dissidents past stone-faced border guards who would be predisposed to arrest and abuse if they caught her. Learn tradecraft with her: She perfects a system of writing notes on meetings with a microscipically tiny had then crumpling them in her pocket or bag to read later in safety. She mentally rehearses cover stories about these seeming scraps of trash to use in case questioned. She lives in an underword of pantomine, gesture and whispers for fear of secret recording equipment and straining ears of barbaric police forces.
Not satisfied with winning the human rights fight in the field, Ms Laber takes on the bureaurcatic wars within her own organization and with outside agencies. She successfully expands Helsinki Watch to encompass a global mission and receives presidential level recognition when the Soviet occupied countries of Eastern Europe achieve independence.
This is a must-read for all who revel in stories of special people meeting extraordinary challenges. It moves quickly and reflects the workmanlike compentence of Ms Laber as a writer, yet another of her amazing array of talents. One suspects that even in this work she has left many stories untold and the reader will close the book hoping for a follow-on work.

Chronicling the Human Rights Movement.......2002-08-31

Jeri Laber?s ?Courage of Strangers? is a touching book about her journey as an early human rights activist. The book starts with Laber?s early life to a fortunate family. Yet, the real essence of the book comes into concentration when Laber begins to tell about the early human rights movement. She writes about traveling to communist countries to quietly meet with dissidents, smuggling her notes out of the countries, taking a contraband computer into a communist country, reporting on the horrors of torture, and other narratives to which many can only imagine.

All of these accounts are intertwined with stories about Laber?s personal life. She talks about her abrupt divorce, attempting to keep a balance between work and home life, and her dedication to the dissidents who relied upon her to tell their stories and bring aid to their plights. A very relevant book to the world we live in today, and a wonderful book chronicling the beginnings of Human Rights Watch.

The Courage of Jeri Laber.......2002-06-24

The Courage of Strangers is a wonderful combination of important and intimate: Jeri Laber's personal awakening, in her mid-40s, as a single mother in the wake of a divorce that shook up her "perfect" life, and the awakening of the human rights movement that we take so much for granted today but which barely registered a generation ago. Laber brings off the difficult challenge of making her own journey a major part of this beautifully-written memoir -- and her honesty about herself, her family and her colleagues is in itself an act of courage -- while honoring the stories of the others whose courage has inspired her. I have been giving this book to many people, particularly young women friends who are eager to learn about the pioneers who came before them. As a longtime activist in the human rights movement -- and a colleague of Jeri's for many years -- I am thrilled she has written this book because anyone can connect with it. Because of it, many more people can begin to "get" the work that human rights advocates do through a gripping story about what happened in the amazing time she writes of, as a first-hand observer and participant in the fall of repressive regimes in the Soviet world. Jeri Laber carries this off this feat of storytelling without sacrificing the sophistication and expertise she acquired in helping to build one of the world's leading human rights organizations and serving as a crucial partner of those whose courage toppled governments.

The Courage of Strangers: Coming of Age with the Human Rights Movement.(Book Review): An article from: Ethics & International Affairs

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The Courage of Strangers: Coming of Age with the Human Rights Movement.(Book Review): An article from: Ethics & International Affairs
David Petrasek
Manufacturer: Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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Book Description

This digital document is an article from Ethics & International Affairs, published by Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs on October 1, 2002. The length of the article is 1223 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The Courage of Strangers: Coming of Age with the Human Rights Movement.(Book Review)
Author: David Petrasek
Publication: Ethics & International Affairs (Refereed)
Date: October 1, 2002
Publisher: Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs
Volume: 16 Issue: 2 Page: 164(3)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

Artist'ss captivating and sober memoir of survival, renewal and healing among French Canadian, Jewish and Indian families across America. Follows the Author from Woonsocket, RI to Wellesley College, New York'ss Lower East Side and Soho to Indian Country and Santa Fe, New Mexico where she is debilitated by a toxic illness and must remember her childhood to heal. ART016000; BIO000000; OCC000000

Customer Reviews:

Great Reviews of It Stops with Me.......2006-07-02

"This book is incredible." Louise Erdrich
"beautiful book." Lawrence Ferlinghetti
"Tough, evocative, border-crossing, honest, unflinching...large enough so it can embrace its readers. Margaret Randall, Author. PEN NM Lifetime Achievement Awardee 2005
"An emotion-charged story of initial struggle and ultimate success...a must in any library collection." Book Wire
"magnificent in its courage and decency." Sam Ballen Author Without Reservations.

Great Reads - New Mexico Magazine, April 2005 p. 45.
Personal Journeys: More Than Just Survival by Michelle Miller Allen
"Our girlhood years, formed in various cultures and family configurations-from the most abusive to the most loving-and tempered by the social prejudices and taboos of one's time-are where we begin our journeys into adulthood. These factors have much to do with whether we will just survive or become empowered by the most demanding, even devastating, events on our individual paths.
It Stops with Me: Memoir of a Canuck Girl by Charleen Touchette (TouchArt Books 2004) Touchette's memoir opens the doors into the lives of women who shaped her childhood into adulthood-the healers, storytellers, homemakers, and artists. This most compelling book includes fascinating color and black and white reproductions of the author's artwork over three decades. The book charts Touchette's journey from a French Canadian/RhodeIsland childhood at the hands of an abusive alcoholic father, to Wellesley College, to New York City's culture of arts, to Minnesota and Indian Country.
Touchette combines the voice of the reminiscing adult writer/artist with that of a child obsessed with "making things" as a survival mechanism. Abusive parents seem to bank on the false assumption that their children, as adults, will not remember abuse. Yet anyone who doubts the intelligence and level of awareness in a young, abused human being should read the end of Chapter "Forsythia Blossoms": "I do not know when I started fighting back. I do not have a memory of when Daddy started hitting me. I was too young. But I do remember clearly the moment when I looked up at my dad's face, and realized he was a fool. I was seven."

PEN Opposes Public Library Considering Book Ban of It Stops with Me in Author's Hometown.......2005-12-19

December 14, 2005

Woonsocket Harris Public Library Board of Trustees
Diane Rivers, Chair
Dorian Parker, Vice-Chair
Lisa Sparks, Secretary
John Pellizzari
Ernest "Buddy" DiSpirito
303 Clinton Street
Woonsocket, RI 02895-3214
Fax: 401-767-4140

Dear Members of the Woonsocket Harris Public Library Board of Trustees,

On behalf of the 2,900 members of PEN American Center, an international organization of writers dedicated to protecting freedom of expression wherever it is threatened, we are writing to express our deep concern over the fact that the Woonsocket Public Library Trustees are considering a request to ban It Stops with Me: Memoir of a Canuck Girl written by native Woonsocket author-artist Charleen Touchette.

We understand that a citizen request to ban the book was made at the Library Trustees' September meeting. The Library Trustees removed the book from the Woonsocket Harris Public Library shelves after the September meeting pending a decision.

It Stops with Me: Memoir of a Canuck Girl, the latest work by author-artist Charleen Touchette, invites you into the provincial world of a French Canadian girl in Rhode Island who cannot tell anybody her family secrets. Years later when she has her first daughter she must relive her childhood to heal the future generations of her family. It is a story of survival and triumph as a victim of childhood abuse and was written for an adult audience. The novel tells a realistic story with complex figures. Such books help readers approach sensitive topics and figure out how to deal with them. Even if the novel's themes are too mature for some, they will be meaningful to others. No book is right for everyone, and the role of the library is to allow community members to make choices according to their own interests, experiences, and family values.

Author Charleen Touchette, a member of our colleague organizations PEN USA and the Author's Guild, advocates for the freedom to write worldwide. It Stops with Me has been praised by authors Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Louise Erdrich, Margaret Randall, Ana Pacheco, and Winona LaDuke, and received a Foreword Book of the Year 2004 Finalist Award.

PEN American Center respectfully asks you to deny the request to ban It Stops with Me: Memoir of a Canuck Girl and to return it to library shelves. By doing so, you will be upholding a fundamental principle of freedom: the right of all Americans to read, inquire, question, and think for themselves.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Hannah Pakula

Larry Siems
Chair, Freedom to Write Committee Director, Freedom to Write
and International Programs

"Story of survival and triumph" pick for Book Special.......2005-11-06

Reviewer Jennifer Lefkowitz chose "It Stops with Me" as the Book Special for "Girlfriends Magazine" November 2005 issue, p. 58 with two color photos of Touchette's art.

"It Stops with Me: Memoir of a Cannuck Girl"

"Charleen Touchette's memoir is healing and cathartic, a story of survival and triumph as a victim of childhood abuse. The author is an artist, and throughout the book she showcases her paintings, which resemble the work of painter Frida Kahlo. Like Kahlo, Touchette survived vehicle collisions; after a spine injury she is able to connect her past to her present. This compelling memoir dives into the dark trenches of that past, confronting memories with ancient practices. "I learned it is the task of all human beings to cut through the fog and illusion of maya, and reconnect with the light." A - Jennifer Lefkowitz

"Water Illumination" (top) and "Boom Boom Boom" are two of the many paintings which illustrate the author's journey."

Creative Franco-American Autobiography.......2005-05-15

An autobiography of a spunky Franco-American woman from Woonsocket, Rhode Island gives cultural storytelling multi-generational appeal. Too many Franco-Americans (with ancestral roots in French-Canada) are quickly amalgamating into the mainstream of American culture without writing their special family stories. Fortunately, Charleen Touchette, a Woonsocket, Rhode Island writer and artist now living in New Mexico, puts both of her pleasingly creative talents together in "It Stops With Me: Memoir of a Cannuck Girl".
Touchette writes about her Franco-American roots by relating simple, often bittersweet and even brutal experiences growing up as a typical French Catholic girl in Woonsocket and later as an accomplished artist.
Moreover, Touchette energizes her autobiography's prose with a series of original black, and white and color print blocks. In other words, "It Stops With Me" expresses Touchette's Franco-American creativity using prose accentuated by her surprisingly cutting edge original art describing absorbing coming of age experiences. Her journey from a parochial Franco-American into her adult life is fraught with opportunities, along with unexpected harsh challenges. Her life is ordinary in some ways but hardly a nostalgic cake walk.
"It Stops With Me" is at its best when Touchette looks back and elevates normal Franco-American experiences to familiarities we can identify with. For example, she describes cooking with her "Ma Tantes" or getting ready to receive First Holy Communion at Woonsocket's Eglise Précieux-Sang (Church of Precious Blood).
Discord arises at a young age. Growing up as a French Roman Catholic girl is an underlying theme. Touchette's typical childhood is without the benefit of feeling safe at home, as she depicts in one of her portraits of a "Not a Picture Perfect Family".
Rather, Touchette's absorbing life story endures familial stress, social and personal conflicts, even leading to physical ailments, which haunt her into adult years.
Touchette's hard hitting narrative is set apart from others of the modern autobiographic genre by the intimate and complicated relationships she shares with her family. Delving even deeper into her private spiral are the intense personal investigations Touchette undertakes with regard to her sad relationship with her father.
Nevertheless, in spite of the particular circumstances, it's typical of Franco-Americans to harbor deep attachments for their relatives and parents regardless of obvious flaws, shortcomings or even family violence. Female family role models are especially strong in Touchette's life. "Although my Maman was a devout Catholic, she was a strong supporter of my right to freedom of expression," writes Touchette. In fact, her female relatives were outraged when Touchette even considered not going to college after high school. In her Woonsocket Franco-Americans world, Touchette writes about how curious it was to be singled out for college when no other woman in her family ever went beyond a high school education.
Throughout the autobiography, her French heritage is front and center, even when she embraces the peace of Judaism.
Many of the book's chapters are charmingly led by simple French titles.
Touchette's talent as a creative writer moves the reader beyond the dark side of her autobiography. Using the power of words, she inspires us to learn more about her as an individual woman with a spellbinding story to tell. Touchette does a good job explaining the pros and cons of the personal contrasts she inherited from her religious and ethnic roots. This is a well written autobiography, nominated for book awards, with a progressive social focus.

Kudos for "Pie Religion" in May issue Késsinnimek - Roots.......2005-05-03

Charleen Touchette's story "The Pie Religion" is online in the May issue of Késsinnimek - Roots - Racines

"What a loving, touching article! I could see, smell, hear everything, thanks to your beautiful descriptions. And what memories of my own childhood you brought back; we, too, had a pie religion among the women in our large family. My mother even had a modest business of making pies for the restaurants and the hotel in our little Northern Vermont town.
Indeed, the secret to pie-making is passed on from mother to daughter to daughter as a sacred tradition.
Thanks for a great read!
I've recommended your article to several people, with my comment that if I could write as well as you, I'd give up quilting and stitching...and making pies!"
Louise Dubrule

Customer Reviews:

Genius unparelled.......2004-02-01

HI, My name is Sam, and I am the grandson fo Daniel Button, the author. His days in congress give him unique insight into Mayor Whalen-Having known the man personaly for many years.

The reviewer who said that the "author ran out of information" couldnt be more wrong, as if anyone is best fitted to write a book on the man, its Daniel Button. If the reivewer felt somthig was left out, thats because My grandfather probaly knew what was and what wasnt important when it came to Mr. Whalen.

A GREAT READ FOR PEOPLE ALL OVER THE US-- A BRILLIANT PORTRAIT OF AN ICONIC AMERICAN LEADER

Great beginning, runs out of gas.......2003-01-07

The early portion of this chronology is fascinating and offers a unique insight into urban government over the span of some 40 years culminating in a watershed event, the death of the old Mayor and the ascension of the new. The political insights were accute and could only have come from an insider. The cultural aspects of the early portion of the book are worth exploring as yet another insight into the Irish ascendency in politics, with a rather unusual twist of the WASP frontman.

The last twenty per cent of the book is a disappointment, filled as it is with percentages of wages, expenses and other numdane matters. It is not that the book is too long, it is that the writer apparently ran out of steam or information. He failed to capture the excitement that the new way of governing created and the innovations which the late Mayor Whalen inspired. Having attended the 18th First Night celebration last week, I have a deep appreciation of the revitalization of Albany that Mayor Whalen accomplished. Albany is alive and vibrant thanks to his initiatives, many of which go unrecognized in this effort.

"City Hall" a must-read tribute to Tom Whalen.......2002-12-11

Three hearty cheers for author Dan Button on his 85th birthday and the unveiling of his latest creation, a scholarly, well-researched and timely book on Tom Whalen, the 73rd Mayor of Albany.
"Take City Hall: Mayor Tom Whalen and the Transformation of New York's Capital to an 'All-American City'" deals with the vision and leadership of one man, Tom Whalen. His courageous and determined quest to transform Albany, the Capital of the Empire State, from the iron-fisted ways of a late-19th-Century political machine to the progressive "All-American City" of the 21st Century is presentated in a readable and enlightening manner.
Dan Button has accurately and without bias documented for all time the living accomplishments of Tom Whalen and his administration.
"Take City Hall" is a must read for all the citizens of America's Great Democracy.

TAKE CITY HALL!: MAYOR TOM WHALEN AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF NEW YORK'S CAPITAL TO AN "ALL-AMERICA CITY"

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TAKE CITY HALL!: MAYOR TOM WHALEN AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF NEW YORK'S CAPITAL TO AN "ALL-AMERICA CITY"

Manufacturer: Whitston Publishing Company Albany, NY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000IA6KZG

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PRIMO LEVI. Tragedy of an Optimist. Translated by Steve Cox.
Myriam. Anissimov
Manufacturer: Overlook Press,
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MZ55JY

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"The aims of life are the best defense against death." Levi

A superb biography and contribution to Holocaust studies.

Spotty insights but helpful contexts

A disappointing account of a beloved writer.

A very good portrait of the philosopher and survivor

Primo Levi: The Tragedy of an Optimist
Myriam Anissimov
Manufacturer: Overlook Hardcover
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Primo Levi: A Life

The Periodic Table

The Reawakening

The Double Bond: The Life of Primo Levi

The Drowned and the Saved

ASIN: 0879518065

Amazon.com

In 1987, the literary world was shocked when the Italian writer and chemist Primo Levi died after falling down the stairs in the very home where he had been born 78 years earlier. The reason his death caused such surprise was the widely held suspicion that it was suicide--Levi, a man who had lived through 18 tortured months in Auschwitz, was known as a survivor.

What kept him alive through the Holocaust was an intense yearning to tell the world exactly what had happened, and when the war was over he immediately began writing. His books about the horrors he had lived through include If This Is a Man and the brilliant The Periodic Table. Levi also lectured, gave interviews, and led tours to Auschwitz, yet he always wondered if he had done enough. Once, pointing to the number tattooed on his arm, he said, "That is my disease." His tombstone in Turin bears his name; his dates of birth and death; and his number, 174517.

Myriam Anissimov, a Paris-based writer and journalist, painstakingly recorded Levi's life using hitherto unpublished letters and poems. She also consulted archives and interviewed Levi's colleagues and friends. Levi believed writers should be concise and clear, avoiding embellishments and convolutions, and that's exactly what Anissimov has accomplished. Her work will prove to be an invaluable resource for scholars and researchers, but readers who desire some insight into Levi's personality may be disappointed. His marriage is dealt with in just a few paragraphs and there's barely a mention of his children or any other significant relationships in his life. After reading this 450-page book, readers will have gained an excellent understanding of Levi's work, but little of him.

Book Description

The landmark biography of the Italian writer and Holocaust survivor who helped shape our understanding of humanity.

Myriam Anissimov's major biography of Primo Levi delves deeply into the life and mind of this controversial writer, philosopher, and Holocaust witness, exploring the complex nature of a man who was both a strong-spirited survivor and a sufferer of severe bouts of depression, a man who felt misunderstood. His experiences at Auschwitz resulted in some of this century's most remarkable literature, which includes The Periodic Table and Survival at Auschwitz. He was haunted not only by his own experiences, but by the fear that future generations would inevitably forget and even deny the Holocaust. On April 11, 1987, Levi committed suicide, throwing himself down the staircase of the building where he was born.

By bringing Levi's life into focus with material gathered from exhaustive research, interviews with his friends and relatives, and numerous unpublished texts and testimonies, Anissimov's biography is an invaluable contribution to Holocaust scholarship and a crucial companion to the writings of this tortured genius.

"Myriam Anissimov's biography of Primo Levi is masterfully evocative and will serve as a companion volume to his own books. It helps explain their depth and greatness."-- Elie Wiesel

"An important event. . . . a serious, lively, and at times fervently told story that is always sympathetic to Levi's shy personality and restrained tone."-- front page, The New York Times Book Review

Customer Reviews:

"The aims of life are the best defense against death." Levi .......2005-03-14

Until Myriam Anissimov published this comprehensive biography of Primo Levi in 1998, the world knew him primarily through his own writings. He was born into an assimilated middle-class Jewish family in Turin, Italy, in 1919. His people were not observant Jews, and Levi, apparently, knew little about "Jewishness" until Mussolini's anti-Semitic policy taught him something about his heritage. His father, Casare, was an electrical engineer and an avid reader. Primo learned from him that the humanities and the sciences need not be separate worlds.

Trained as a chemist, he was arrested during the Second World War as a member of the anti-Fascist resistance and deported to the Monowitz concentration camp, part of the Auschwitz complex in 1944. Badly beaten and half-starved, Levi was determined to spend his time mentally recording his irrational world "with the curiosity of the naturalist." His background in chemistry actually saved his life, Levi was to acknowledge later. After being transferred to work in the camp laboratory his situation improved dramatically. Anissimov's account of the final days at Auschwitz - when Levi, suffering from scarlet fever, managed to forage, with a few comrades, through a semi-dismantled concentration camp in the freezing cold - is the focal point of her book. Her research is meticulous. Levi survived 11 months as slave laborer 174517 until the liberation of what he called "that hideous distortion of humanity." Seven months after the war, he was still a refugee in Russia, trying to make his way home.

When he returned to Turin, to the same apartment where he had always lived, he felt a terrible need to bear witness. He had watched as fellow inmates were stripped of their essential selves before they died in the flesh. His powerful memoirs, works of fiction and poetry describe his experience in the death camp and his later travels in Eastern Europe. Levi wrote. "And I felt like Coleridge's Ancient Mariner, who waylays on the street the wedding guests going to the feast, inflicting on them the story of his misfortune." The civilized world did not seem to care what he had to say, however. No large publisher would accept his powerful manuscript, "Survival in Auschwitz." Anissimov reports that the book received a few positive reviews but was "distributed rather than sold."

For the last forty years of his life Levi devoted himself to understanding why he was not killed in the concentration camp. "The worst survived, that is, the fittest; the best all died," he said. He spent much of his time writing about literature, astronomy, philosophy, the wonders of the natural life and the dignity of manual labor. Married with two children, he was a lifelong agnostic, and was described by some coreligionists as a stranger to Jewish culture. He worked at his profession, as a research chemist and factory manager, until his retirement. Plagued by survivor's guilt, and inner wounds, as well as the coverage the media was giving to Holocaust deniers, Levi, the most gentle of men, died in Turin in April 1987, an apparent suicide.

This biography delves deeply into the life and mind of the man who was a philosophical student of life. Ms. Anissimov, a French journalist and novelist, explores the complex nature of the man, who was at once such a vital force, a real survivor in many senses, and the man prone to dark moods, disillusionment and bouts of severe depression. She writes, with riveting detail, about Levi's year in Auschwitz, drawing on his autobiographical accounts and those of other survivors. Hers was the supremely difficult task of attempting to do what Levi himself said he could not. He was not able to show how the survivor and the scientist, separately and together, perceived the world. "Primo Levi: Tragedy of an Optimist" is based primarily on Ms. Anissimov's reading of Levi's work, her correspondence or interviews with men and women associated with him, and interviews and essays on him by others. This painstaking journalistic endeavor is concise and clear, which is what Mr. Levi believed his own work should be - "avoiding embellishments and convolutions." She has accomplished all this and more. I have read that many are disappointed that this biography did not delve more into Levi's personality, his psyche. I understand that his wife would not be interviewed. Nor would she release intimate personal papers. When close family members do not cooperate, and first-hand information is not available, it is almost impossible to form an accurate analysis of someone's inner complexities.

I was deeply moved by this biography. There are flaws here, but overall it presents an extraordinary portrait of a great man. His writings were fundamental in shaping many people's understanding of what the Holocaust meant when he originally wrote about it, and what it means today, in the context of the 21st century. Some people, devastated by the manner in which he died, say that the Holocaust finally killed him. I do not believe this. Primo Levi fought almost all his life to live. He struggled to enjoy life and the world around him, and to bear witness, an enormous responsibility for anyone. He fought courageously for forty plus years. I respect him greatly for that, and for allowing us all to know him a little bit.
JANA

A superb biography and contribution to Holocaust studies........2000-08-06

Primo Levi: Tragedy Of An Optimist is a major biography which delves deeply into the life, mind and work of an influential writer, philosopher, and Holocaust witness. Drawing from exhaustive research, interviews with friends and relatives, as well as numerous unpublished texts and testimonies, biographer Myriam Anissimov explores the complex nature of a most singular, shy, intelligent, and diffident man who was both a strong-spirited survivor and a sufferer of depression, a man who felt misunderstood, certain that future generations would inevitably forget, and even deny, that the Holocaust happened. Indeed, on April 11, 1987, his self-deprecating depression was to lead him to suicide by throwing himself down the staircase of the building in which he was born. Primo Levi is a superbly presented biography and an important, singular contribution to Holocaust studies.

Spotty insights but helpful contexts.......1999-06-20

As many reviewers have noted, this English translation whittles down the original French two-volume work, so perhaps an English-language reader's perspective is likewise narrowed; perhaps the publisher and translator of the English version are also responsible for the admittedly scattershot coverage given by Anissimov to Primo Levi's inner complexity. Again, Levi was certainly not the most forthcoming of men, even as he was a writer most famous for his autobiographical accounts. His wife and children receive little more than fleeting mention in the hundreds of closely-printed pages, and inevitably her treatment serves sometimes more as a commentary on the works of Levi himself than a fresh work. How difficult it must be, after all, to write the biography of an autobiographer! Yet, having pointed out some faults, this biography is worthwhile for its picture of the Piedmontese Jewish community into which Levi was born and returned to; its explanations of how Fascist Italy differed from Nazi Germany in its anti-Semitic actions; and most of all how the inner workings of the lager--Auschwitz-Birkenau--played out in Levi's classic accounts as well as the larger context of the privations endured by many of his fellow inmates. Here, the two lengthy chapters on the camp are astoundingly detailed and intimately rendered, and would make an ideal follow-up to readers who have read Levi's own descriptions, for Anissimov is alert to what Levi says and what he leaves out. Apparently the child of refugees herself, the sensitivity and acumen with which Anissimov describes how and why Levi gave the famous accounts for which he is justly famed makes her biography--especially in these two long chapters which themselves comprise almost a monograph--necessary for those who have first read Levi's own works. Her book will not tell you much new about the content of these works, but you will understand better why they were written when in his career, and why such a reticent man remained so in his own life while his books spoke for--only some part--of the pain and hope he carried within and guarded carefully.

A disappointing account of a beloved writer........1999-04-30

I bought this book with great expecations--partly on the strength of Victor Brombert's NYT review and partly because I was midway through the wonderful Periodic Table when the biography came out. My hopes were disappointed--big time. The problem is, the writer has collected a lot of details, only to be confronted with the necessity of doing something with the details. She was not up to the task. In many cases, information is put forth without any attempt to integrate it into Levi's life story. The reader asks, What does this have to do with Levi? How did it have an impact? How should we interpret the information--should we interpret it at all? Alas, one senses that the author dug up some fact or other and said, well, now I'm going to cram it into my book. You figure it out, reader. Another problem with the author's treatment of detail is her very annoying repetition of facts. Sometimes the language is close to verbatim in different places throughout the book. Levi's books are constantly being published and then, a few pages later, published again (and I'm not talking about different translations). A third problem is that much of the information seems to have been gleaned from Levi's published books. And yet there are no new interpretive glosses that add anything to what Levi himself wrote. Finally, as the Amazon review notes, Levi the man does not emerge from the pages. If you want to know about Levi, stick with Survival in Auschwitz, the Periodic Table, and his other works. Wait for a better biography than this one.

A very good portrait of the philosopher and survivor.......1998-12-25

Primo Levi, an Italian Jewish chemist, apparently committed suicide in 1987, after writing several books about his life and his experiences at Auschwitz. Why would Levi, who was like the Italian Elie Wiesel, commit suicide after a life of bearing witness and surviving a death camp? Did he feel survivor's guilt? Did he feel that only the good died, and the bad were allowed to survive? This major biography by Anissimov, the French journalist, delves deeply into the life and mind of the controversial Levi. Why did he feel guilt? Why did he feel misunderstood? Did people die and suffer for nothing? Did he continue to suffer in Turin after the war by caring for his blind and senile mother and mother-in-law? Was he right in thinking that the Holocaust will become just a forgotten footnote in history? This book begins to answer some of these questions, and paints the first of many portraits of the post-Holocaust philosopher.

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Primo Levi: tragedy of an optimist

Manufacturer: Aurum Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000H5VJR6

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Primo Levi: Tragedy of an Optimist.
Primo]. Anissimov, Myriam. [LEVI
Manufacturer: Woodstock: Overlook Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000UG3QKA

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Primo Levi: Tragedy of an Optimist.
MYRIAM ANISSIMOV
Manufacturer: See notes
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000RQM0PA

Average customer rating:

Primo Levi Tragedy of an Optimist
M. Anissimow
Manufacturer: Overlook, 1997
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000FSJS3M

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