25 Favorite Contemporary Memoirs

Book Reviews227 other, that could make apparent what is never quite said in one, never quite said in the other, but said only in their fragüe overlapping." So what is the story told not in either ofthe texts but in their interplay? Perhaps it is the story ofPerec's search for memory, his search for himselfas a victim of Nazism, a search for his childhood, of which, he teUs us, he has no recoUection (just before he goes on to show his recoUections in their fragmentary, fllusory forms; before he footnotes his memories to correct them, to cast doubt and play with the idea of memory). The juxtaposition ofthe texts suggests to me that Perec is trying to understand and undermine the Nazi mindset by extrapolating it, surprising readers with perspective shifts that view the same situation in different ways, that give further information that has been withheld previously. He takesAryanism to its only logical conclusion—a conclusion the Nazis may not have minded, but which the rest of the world is horrified at—that of complete destruction of most of humanity in favor of a privileged few. The interplay of the two texts aUows Perec to mirror his own childhood growth in the understandings of the fictional narrator. It also suggests that Perec may never find himself. Also from the fictional narrator's first page of writings we have that "For years I sought out traces of my history looking up maps and directories and piles of archives. I found nothing, and it sometimes seemed as though I had dreamt, that there had been only an unforgettable nightmare."This seems to me a map of what Perec is doing with his book. Mimi Schwartz 25 Favorite Contemporary Memoirs Good contemporary memoir invites the reader into a whole world, notjust a single fife. Here are 25 worlds that I, and my students, have loved entering . I could add 15 more easily, but these should appeal to a cross-section of interests: 1.Andre Aciman, Out ofEgypt—the author, now an American, grows up in a hflarious Jewish family living in exfle in twentieth-century Egypt. 2.Max Apple, Roommates—a wise, curmudgeon of a grandfather shares the author's room, physicaUy and spirituaUy, for 104 years, and beyond. 3.RusseU Baker, Growing Up—a wonderfuUy funny and poignant account of growing up during the Depression as a lazy boy with a pushy single mother who insists he "make something of himself." 228Fourth Genre 4.Kim Barnes, In the Wilderness—a coming-of-age memoir about a daughter's struggle to find herselfin a Pentecostal household in Idaho— and what it takes to leave that life. 5.Peter Balakian, Black Dog of Fate—a New Jersey boy grows up in the silences of his family's memories of the Armenian Holocaust—and sets out to uncover what happened. 6.Jung Chang, Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China—a book that spans three generations of women in one Chinese family: the first, a concubine ; the second, an ardent Maoist; the third, who is the author, leaves China for England. 7.Nien Cheng, Life and Death in Shanghai—One woman's struggle to survive the Cultural Revolution in China with dignity and still save herself and her family. Wonderful insights into the history of those times. 8.Jill Ker Con-way The Roadfrom Coorain—a moving account of a childhood in the Australian outback and how a family, intent on doing everything right, struggles unsuccessfuUy to make it in the harsh life. 9.Cathy N. Davidson, Thirty-six Views ofMount Fuji—an American goes to Japan to teach English for a year. Offers wonderful cross-cultural insights. 10.Magda Denes, Castles Burning—a Hungarian family survives the Holocaust in hiding and then spends two years as DP's (Displaced Persons) in postwar Europe. 11.Helen Epstein, Where She Came From—a look at three generations of Jewish women from Eastern Europe and their legacy to theirAmericanborn descendent. A wonderful mix of memoir and historic research. 12.Lucy Grealy, Autobiography ofa Face—a book of courage about coming to terms with issues ofbeauty when you've had cancer of the jaw as an...