Readers who can overlook Zéphanie’s self-indulgent prose will be stirred by her courage and intentionality.
A coming-of-age memoir set in World War II-era France.
Zéphanie grows up in an uncaring family, surrounded by the petty cruelties of poverty, illness, alcoholism and city life. As a young child, she is shuffled among country homes, militaristic camps and boarding schools, and develops a strong moral compass and an unending compassion for the suffering and downtrodden. When WWII breaks out, she manages not just to survive but to nurture her “inner voice,” a mix of religious understanding and almost supernatural premonition. From the death of her father to joining the French resistance against the Nazis to time spent in the French Air Force, Zéphanie longs for love and looks for the good in everyone. Her prose, while often clunky and overly lush, nevertheless richly invokes the physicality of the time and place. Her insistence on referring to herself in the third person can feel ponderous, especially when compounded with her tendency toward high-minded musings and an overuse of phrases such as “Silent Heroes.” Her insistence on the precociousness and goodness of her young self, while creating a bond between her and the reader, can be a turn-off, especially when most of her goodness is not so much exceptional as it is remaining human in circumstances where others lose their humanity. Despite all this, Zéphanie’s earnest recounting of her life and deep engagement with morality make her a compelling and sympathetic character. She examines family life in depth, shedding light on the difficulties both neglected children and overworked parents faced during the time. Her fearlessness in speaking up for what’s right, whether against the arrogance of American troops in Paris or the callousness of nuns who mistreat her despite their Christian beliefs, is an inspiring reminder of all the ways in which people can stand up against injustice. The first of a two-part autobiography, Zéphanie’s story paints a thoughtful picture of a young girl coming into her own humanity.
Readers who can overlook Zéphanie’s self-indulgent prose will be stirred by her courage and intentionality.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2010
ISBN: 978-1452054872
Page Count: 314
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: Nov. 16, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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