My Name, A Living Memory (Steerforth's Italia Series)
ユダヤ系オランダ人の家族史をたどりながら、名前、移住、記憶の継承を静かに掘り下げる作品。個人的な来歴を手がかりに、家族史が広い歴史へつながっていく感触を描く。
作品情報
家族の記憶をたどることで、個人史がそのまま歴史になる瞬間を描き出す。
Giorgio van Straten が、1811年から現代まで続くユダヤ系オランダ家族の物語を、名前と移動の歴史を軸に再構成する。私的な記憶を、世代をまたぐ大きな歴史の物語へと広げる一冊。
レビュー要約
-
家族の来歴を個人の感情に結びつける筆致が好意的に受け止められている。記憶を世代のあいだで受け渡す構成に、温度のある読後感がある。
書籍情報
- 出版社
- Zoland Books
- 発売日
- 2003-09-10
- ページ数
- 275ページ
- 言語
- 英語
- サイズ
- 13.84 x 1.98 x 21.54 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9781586420710
- ISBN-10
- 1586420712
- 価格
- 2799 JPY
- カテゴリ
- 洋書/Literature & Fiction/Genre Fiction/Historical
SPANNING SIX GENERATIONS and three continents, My Name, a Living Memory is a fictionalized saga of author Giorgio van Straten’s family from the Napoleonic era through World War II. The story begins in Rotterdam in 1811, when Hartog son of Alexander — father, cucumber salesman, and Dutch Jew — is forced by Napoleonic edict to choose a last name. He chooses Straaten, the Dutch word for “street.” The name presages a journey through history that flings Hartog’s descendants as far afield as San Francisco, London, Odessa, Sao Paolo, and Tbilisi. They witness the Gold Rush, the Russian Revolution, the Stalinist purges, and, finally, the Holocaust. Some are uprooted by business interests, including the author’s grandfather, who lost one of the A’s in his surname en route. As the political climate grows increasingly perilous for Jews throughout Europe, several are forced to flee for their lives, and many fail to return from Auschwitz, Sobibor, and Bergen-Belsen. Historical fiction of a very personal sort, van Straten weaves his relatives’ stories together, much as an art restorer reconstructs the missing portions of a fresco, guided by the evidence that remains. A gold watch, a few photographs, crumpled documents and letters, family lore; these are the artifacts from which lives are re-created. In the end, the story of van Straten’s family can be read as a testament to the rich and varied history and culture of Jews in Europe and the Americas.
GIORGIO VAN STRATEN was born in Florence in 1955. The author of several novels, he has also translated into Italian works by Jack London, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Rudyard Kipling.
レビュー
-
A fascinating family saga written with the elegance of a great stylist. My only regret is that I cannot read it in Italian.
-
Excellent book