The Rescue of Memory

By Cheryl P. Sucher

Book Overview

For Rachel, the Holocaust was always as close as her father's bedroom closet. Buried there were the faded photographs and dusty film reels of hopeful young faces, of her late mother, of the past that she was warned never to forget.This highly acclaimed novel tells the story of young woman growing up in 1960s New York -- and learning to survive in a family of survivors...

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 042516618X
• ISBN13: 9780425166185
• Release Date: November 1998
• Publisher: Berkley Books
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 4.2" x 7.1"

Customer Reviews

Funny and Heartbreaking

I'm married to a woman who is a child of survivors, and she encouraged me to read this novel in order to better understand her family history. I'm not usually a reader of contemporary novels, but I was transfixed. I found Ms. Sucher's novel to be a wonderfully accurate depiction of the complex relationships which often define American survivor families. While avoiding melodrama, Ms. Sucher employs humor and pathos to convey the strength and loss evident in this very unique community. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in literature, humor and this particular subject matter.

Bittersweet and sublime

Sucher touches the heart and the funny bone in her daring and truthful exploration of one woman's struggle to get out of the shadow of her family's past into the spotlight of her own gifts. Fearless and moving, her protagonist, Rachel Wallfisch, sometimes threatens to fall into sentimentality only to pull herself out of her own malaise. Sucher's portrait of women survivors is unequivocal. I can't recommend it highly enough.

DYNAMIC AND MOVING

I recently heard Ms. Sucher talk about her novel in Dunedin, and was moved to go and purchase her book. I was not disappointed. Her novel proved to be a sincere, funny and moving journey of the particular trials and joys of growing up a child of Holocaust survivors in America. I couldn't put the book down and I cried at the end. I can't recommend it highly enough

A brilliant and beautiful novel

Exquisitely written, flled with gems, this book is poignant and powerful

A moving account of a young woman's transition to adulthood

THE RESCUE OF MEMORY is a moving, mimetic tale of the power historical memory has in shaping the future of a young child. Rachel Wallfisch, the narrator of this moving work, is haunted by the tales of her parents sorrowful past yet possesses enough wit and gumption to move into the center of her own life. I found this book particularly insightful in describing the dilemnas faced by a dutiful daughter who wishes to maintain her family ties yet does not wish to be bound by guilt and obligation. With wit and humor, her prose moves from past to present, imitating the course of memory, describing how Rachel comes to take hold of her life, retaining the past while moving into the future. A beautiful, moving, powerful work indeed.