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ISBN-10: 1-55861-436-2
ISBN-13: 9781558614369
Publisher: The Feminist Press
Country:
Year: April 1, 2003
Size: 16.51 x 22.35 x 1.78cm
Number of pages: 216
Weight: 204gr
Binding: Paperback
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Now in paperback, this European bestseller won huge -acclaim from U.S. critics, Jonathan Yardley of the Washington Post Book World declared this memoir of a Holocaust girlhood and a life reclaimed »one of the best books of 2001 … a book of surpassing, and at times brutal, honesty. … Among the many reasons that Still Alive is such an important book is its insistence that the full texture of women's existence in the Holocaust be acknowledged.«
Ruth Kluger's story of her years in several concentration camps, and her struggle to establish a life after the war as a refugee survivor in New York, has emerged as one of the most powerful accounts of the Holocaust. Still Alive is a memoir of the pursuit of selfhood against all odds, a fiercely bittersweet coming-of-age story in which the protagonist must learn never to rely on comforting assumptions, but always to seek her own truth.
»A deeply moving and significant work … compared by European critics to the work of Primo Levi and Elie Wiesel.« –- Publishers Weekly
»A stunning contemplation of human relationships, power and the creation of history. … A work of such nuance, intelligence and force that it leaps the bounds of genre.« –- Kirkus Reviews
Ruth Kluger is professor emerita of German at the University of California, Irvine. She is the author of five books about German literature and the recipient of Austria's National Prize for Literary Criticism. Her widely translated memoir has won eight European Literary awards. Lore Segal's writings include the novels Other People's Houses and Her First American.
»Instead of God I believe in ghosts,« writes the literary scholar Ruth Kluger in this harrowing memoir of life under the yellow star, a controversial bestseller in Germany.
Born in Vienna, Kluger somehow survived a girlhood spent in Theresienstadt, Auschwitz, and Gross-Rosen. Some of the lessons she imparts are surprising, as when she argues, against other historians, that the female camp guards were far more humane than their male counterparts, and when she admits that she has difficulty today queuing in line, a constant of camp life, »out of revulsion for the bovine activity of simply standing.« Her memories of her youth are punctuated by sharp reflections on the meaning of the Shoah and how it should best be memorialized in a time when ever fewer survivors are left to act as witnesses. Those reflections are often angry--»Absolutely nothing good came out of the concentration camps,« she writes, recalling an argument with a naive German graduate student, »and he expects catharsis, purgation, the sort of thing you go to the theatre for?«
But they are constantly provocative, too. Though readers will doubtless take issue with some of her conclusions, Kluger's insistent memoir merits a wide audience. --Gregory McNamee
reviews
Let's the reader know that after the horror was over, they were still strong enough to make real lives for themselves. Excellent.
Ruth Kluger gives a remarkably lucid and thoughtful account of her experiences as WWII Austria, and eventually the concentration and forced labor camps of Germany. Even though English is not her first language, Kluger writes remarkably succinct and cogent English prose, and she confronts the moral and emotional complexity of the holocaust in her memory. »Still Alive« is loosely structured, as Kluger prefers to record the events as she recalls them as opposed to adhering to strict chronology, but the result is very interesting, she superimposes her thoughts and secrets as the horrible events unfold. She paints a vivid and, at times unusual portrait of the Nazi holocaust, often ruminating on the pain and humiliation (she wonders if her father trampled children when sentenced to the gas chamber), but also the sheer enormity of the camps as an historical event, she recalls that when she received her tattoo she felt glee because she realized that she was a part of something that was much larger than herself, something »worth witnessing.« A third of the memoir is post-holocaust, Kluger recounts her experiences in New York after the war as she and her mother struggle to regain control of their lives, and look for possible meaning and redemption in their past-suffering.
I found this book extremely tedious, poorly edited, full of boring speculations and philosophical self centerdness. Am shocked at myself being able to say this about any survivor, but there you have it. I kept thinking, »OK, now when are you going to get on with the actual story«, before realizing that it just droned on in this way. A much better book that I just read is 'A Jump for Life', a far more moving account and likeable woman.
There are many excellent memoirs describing the Nazi death camps, but this one touched me in a way that no other book has. My fiancé died in the World Trade Center, and this is really the only book that resonates with the deep, bitter grief I felt in that disaster's aftermath. I don't mean to compare 9/11 to the Shoah at all, but Kluger articulates many of the contradictory feelings and beliefs I myself have struggled with, including my frustration at being shaped by something that everyone knows about, but almost no one understands. I felt a shock of recognition when she complained about people visiting Auschwitz as a sentimental gesture, because I feel that same (totally irrational) discomfort about people visiting »Ground Zero«. Though I have lived my life as an intellectual, Kluger spoke to the savage in me that still rails and howls at my loss. This is oftentimes an angry, bitter book, but she mentions in passing that she has grandchildren, so I believe she found some measure of joy in her life after her internment. After my tragedy, I was forced to ask myself how someone who doesn't believe in life after death can go on in the face of the gruesome injustice of existence. I never really found an answer, but I kept on living, and I don't intend to stop anytime soon. I heard a lot of my journey in Kluger's voice as well, and I am exceedingly grateful that she wrote this book.
Having read the stellar reviews and being immersed in the genre, I certainly looked forward to Ms. Kluger's memoirs. Without being too judgmental of Ms. Kluger, at the same time I suspect Ms. Kluger would prefer me to be honest. And my opinion may be colored because I recently read Clara's War, in my opinion one of the finest survival memoirs I have ever read. There is no question that the author has put the full force of her intellect and personality in this book. She has strong opinions on a whole range of topics, and delves deeply into her difficult relations with schoolmates and teachers growing up, her mother, her relatives, her children, her ex-husband, his friends, colleagues, even her psychotherapist. And that's the common theme running through this book –- she pretty much has difficult relations with everyone she meets. Whether intentional or not, Ms. Kluger comes off through the pages of this book as someone who is not entirely likable, who is very judgmental, critical, somewhat pretentious in terms of her academic standing, defensive, and who justifies at length a series of uncomfortable anecdotes in which she has difficulty with numerous disparate people, places, and events. Because Ms. Kluger strongly denounces the »victimology« that has grown around the horrific events of the Holocaust, I am quite certain the author wants to be evaluated based on who she is, not what she went through (terribly) as a child. And I agree with many of her views and her perspective on man/woman relations, human suffering and various social issues. Still, I was pleased to be done with the book.
keywords
- Austria
- Biography
- Biography & Autobiography
- Biography & Autobiography – General
- Biography – Autobiography
- Childhood Memoir
- Historical – Holocaust
- History – Jewish
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
- Jewish children in the Holocaust
- Jewish – General
- Jews
- Literary Criticism – Women Authors
- Personal narratives
- Vienna
- Women
- Women Authors
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