A Woman in Amber: Healing the Trauma of War and Exile

by Agate Nesaule

Book Overview

"Shows us, in disturbing but illuminating detail, how violence and cruelty register on the psyche. This beautifully written book makes us reckon anew with the deep costs of war."--Eva Hoffman.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140261907
• ISBN13: 9780140261905
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.1" x 7.7"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

One Woman's War - Transcends All Borders

Being of Latvian heritage myself, perhaps it is impossible for me to read Nesaule's book as anyone else of a different heritage might. I have grown up on stories that are but variations on a theme to this one. My first language was Latvian, my first book was Latvian, my own first efforts in creative writing were in the Latvian language. Indeed, I have just participated in a literary reading of Latvian authors at the 11th Latvian Song Festival in Chicago, Illinois, where I had the honor of sharing the podium with Agate Nesaule. Is it possible for me to turn the pages of "Woman in Amber" without a deeply ingrained bias? Perhaps not. But I can say that these pages, these words, these memories, resonated profoundly with me. The war experience in many ways, however, is a suffering and a horror that crosses all lines of ethnicity, all borders of nationality. For this reason, I believe this is an important account for a far larger audience than just the Latvian reader; I am thrilled that this book was written first in English, then translated into, I believe, seven other languages. Latvia is a tiny but beautiful country on the coast of the Baltic Sea. The Latvian language is one of the oldest still in existence. The country's history is one of the most war-torn and ravaged of any country anywhere - although it has existed for many, many centuries, Latvia has been independent, free of occupation by other armies, for only a wink in time. If this nation can be proud of anything, it can be proud of its ability to survive even the cruelest and most oppressive conditions. This memoir, "Woman in Amber," opens a small window of light shed on how such a people survive. Even more precisely, it gives an account of how a very young girl can survive - losing her home, losing her family, conditions of hunger, rape, pillage, exile, and the terrifying experience of being a stranger in an immense and completely alien country where the culture and language are all new and strange. Most memoirs of war and battlefields are written by men. It is particularly interesting to read a different kind of account, from the perspective of a woman. If soldiers on a battlefield suffer, there is a quieter, less evident suffering that happens behind the front lines, and this memoir reveals, painfully and movingly, the no less violent and scarring battles that happen there. Agate Nesaule's memoir is a couragous sharing of the experiences she endured - not just during World War II, but for many years following the war. Long after the sounds of war have died down, the wounds are still bloodied and pulsating with pain. Healing can often take a lifetime. My respect to this author for sharing her experience, and my hope that it has offered her healing. This is a book I am proud to recommend to both my Latvian friends as well as my non-Latvian friends.

Honest memoir of suffering makes painful reading

Suffering is not good for the soul, no matter what anyone tells you. There is nothing redemptive about it. The pain continues long after the actual experience is over. You do not become a better person because you have endured much, though perhaps your patience increases. No, we don't learn lessons from reading about others' suffering, even from such a well-written book as Nesaule's. Her life is not an example to anybody. Certainly not an inspiration. If you keep your eyes and ears open in life, and don't watch too much TV, you cannot but become aware of a huge amount of suffering and pain in the world. Whether abroad---during World War II, in Korea or Vietnam, or in the myriad wars and dictatorships of the late 20th century-or at home thanks to racism, poverty, substance abuse or simple human cruelty, we should be no strangers to the tragedy of life on earth. A WOMAN IN AMBER describes a life broken by war, dislocation and brutality. Darkness surrounded Agate Nesaule at an early age, a gray cloud that did not begin to dissipate for nearly forty years. After early childhood happiness in Latvia, her homeland was occupied by Russians, then Germans, then Russians again. Obviously fearing the Russians more, when Soviet forces loomed on the horizon in 1944, the family fled to Germany, a refugee camp where Jews and Gypsies were sought out and taken away. Then came the raping, thieving Soviet forces, a dramatic escape to the British-occupied zone of Berlin, and five years of life in the DP camps. In 1950, the whole family, still miraculously together, emigrated to Indianapolis to begin the hard process of rebuilding a life in America. Life in the slums, little income, sub-standard housing, but at least the chance for education followed. Nesaule made a disastrous marriage to a repulsive, manipulative slob of an American, perhaps the worst choice possible, and stayed with him for over twenty years. Through everything, she longed for a close, open relationship with others, especially her mother, but could not achieve it, thanks to her own unfortunate choices. At last, divorced, she reached some peace thanks to an understanding psychiatrist and a decent, loving man. For years, the writer could not distinguish normal authority and everyday forms of social control from stark, cruel, and arbitrary forms found in squalid refugee camps, under foreign military regimes, or in the hearts of parents in the most extreme situations. At times, Nesaule seems to take a perverse pleasure in her pain, but I felt that this emerges due to her extreme honesty, her attempt to plumb the depths of her feeling in order to arrange it on paper, and remove from her psyche all those feelings warped and twisted by war, by the desperation of her childhood. The question a reader must ask, as does the author, is how many more Agates are there out there? In Bosnia, Kosovo, Palestine, Chechnya, Ethiopia, Sudan, Angola, Congo, Liberia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Timor,

Women and war...

So often the tale of war is told from the standpoint of the brave soldiers or the cowardly soldiers or the stupid soldiers. Here is a book about war told from the woman's point of view. Women are so vulnerable, and so often the innocent victims along with their children of the cruelties of the soldiers.This was the first history I read about war from the perspective of a woman. I think the thing I fould most shocking about Ms. Nesuale's story is that she survived the Nazi occupation relatively entact, only to suffer dreadfully at the hands of the liberating Russian army. The book has it's harrowing moments, but it is extremely uplifting. Ms. Nesaule survived the war and it's aftermath, moving to the U.S. as a refugee immigrant. She went on to become an educated woman, and today is happily married and a college professor at the University of Wisconsin. Her story is worth reading.

A memoir of Latvian suffering and survival.

"A Woman in Amber" is a touching and sensitive memoir of a young girl's escape from war-torn Latvia. Agate Nesaule left home with her family in 1944 along with more than one hundred fifty thousand other Latvians seeking refuge in the West. They were fleeing the oncoming Red Army and a resumption of the horrific Soviet occupation of 1940-41. Nesaule's family got only as far as what became the Soviet zone of Germany, a place of desperation and violence. Finally as the war neared an end they managed to reach the relative safety of a displaced persons camp in Berlin and eventually to secure passage to the United States. The second half of the book recounts the difficult experience of Nesaule and her family in starting their lives over in a new land. This book is not a history of the emigration but simply one woman's heartfelt story. Even amongst the description of all the pain and loss, there are scenes of heroism and humor. Once I started reading "A Woman in Amber," I could hardly put it down until I was finished. Highly recommended.

Self-honesty begets self-truth

The title of this book is a remarkable, symbolically apt appellation, "A Woman in Amber"; imagine the imprisoned feeling. But the beauty of amber, as in the beauty of this book, is that light can be seen through it. After reading Dr. Nesaule's book, I purchased it as a gift for Latvian friends. My Indian women friends have used this book as study material in their bookclub and my Irish friends have received great solace from the work because of its honesty in its disclosure about the needs, desires, and trust that may or may not exist between a mother and a daughter. Self-honesty begets self-truth, and this book is an honest exploration that seeks whatever truths can be found between a mother and a daughter under the most extreme conditions - war and its aftermath. If you want language without pretense painting a daughter's portrait of her life's process that searches for solid ground on which to plant her understanding of forced exile - both physical and familial, then read this book. It is not a history book nor is it a travel guide to Eastern Europe. It is the finished product of a search many of us give up on after a parent's death. The book is a singular image of one Latvian family exiled by war; its deeper content however, is about the universal tugs of emotional wars that exist in many families. I questioned myself after reading the book and wondered how truthful I could be on paper if writing about my mother who left this world early with many of her own questions unanswered: I hasten to try. The author's up front disclosure about her own questioning of what truth in one's memory really is, is an honest prelude to this self-investigation. My treasured, older Latvian friends have discovered that "A Woman in Amber" was the #1 best seller in Latvia in 1998, and in reference to some critiques of the book, one friend recited a line she learned in a Latvian school during the war: "It is easier to perceive error than to find truth, for the former lies on the surface and is easily seen, while the latter lies in the depth, where few are willing to search for it." - Goethe. Dr. Nesaule is a courageous writer who had the guts to disembowel learned, protective protocol that can distort self-truth in any culture. I thank her for writing this book and wish her continued success.