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About the author and blogger ...

Anne Goodwin writes entertaining fiction about identity, mental health and social justice. She has published three novels and a short story collection with Inspired Quill. Her debut, Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the Polari First Book Prize. Her new novel, Matilda Windsor Is Coming Home, is rooted in her work as a clinical psychologist in a long-stay psychiatric hospital.

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Haunted by the aftermath: The Memory Monster & Reeling

7/2/2022

14 Comments

 
Two translated novels – the first from Hebrew, the second from French – about young people invited to apply for grants to support their ambitions, which lead them into damaging situations. The first is about a tour guide to the Nazi death camps; the second about a teenage dancer groomed for abuse (with a section from the point of view of her school boyfriend, who feels burdened by his Jewish heritage). They question whether the legacy of such cruelty is to forgive, forget or become monsters ourselves. Difficult subjects, but both an easy and worthwhile read.


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The Memory Monster by Yishai Sarid
translated by Yardenne Greenspan

A young historian didn’t mean to become an expert in the extermination methods of the Nazi death camps. But, with a wife and child to support, he accepts a generous stipend to complete a PhD on the subject, which he supplements by guiding tourists through the memorial sites. His professionalism and attention to detail make his services in high demand, so that soon he’s spending more time in Poland than with his family in Israel.
 
But the work, and his dedication to it, takes its toll. At home, is son is bullied at nursery school while, on the tours, the students don’t all respond with the reverence he expects. Frustrated, he piles on the detail and are increasingly challenging questions of his groups. (Including one for me and my compatriots: why didn’t the British and American governments bomb the train tracks leading to the camps once they knew their function?)
 
I have a long fascination with the question of what we learn from the memorialising atrocities; while never again might be the intention, the takeaway message is outside the educators’ control. This short novel contrasts two opposing constructions: the survivors’ duty is simply to carry on living versus – or in addition to – emulating the oppressors’ willingness to kill.
 
This is an intelligent and thought-provoking novel that is nevertheless an easy read. Thanks to publishers Serpent’s Tail for my review copy.
 
Listen to me read my flash fiction story about the death camps, “Communal Shower”, and follow the link to my short story about the unanticipated consequences of a school trip to Auschwitz.

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Life Lesson by Anne Goodwin


Reeling by Lola Lafon translated by Hildegarde Serle

Thirteen-year-old Cléo loves dancing, so when a woman approaches her after a dance class to invite her to apply for a prestigious grant to further her training, she’s excited. Cathy is everything her parents aren’t: a sophisticated Parisian with money to spend in expensive restaurants and knowledgeable about the arts. When Cathy offers to help her with her submission and even to pay her for her time, Cléo is smitten. Her parents are similarly impressed by her gentle flattery.
 
As Cleo’s application passes the initial stages, Cathy encourages her to demonstrate her maturity and sensuality at a lunch in a private room with three rival candidates and five male judges. What happens next scars her for life. But she can’t tell anyone. When she fails to get the scholarship, she feels she’s let Cathy down. Eager to retain the older woman’s good opinion, she serves as a go-between connecting Cathy with other girls hungry for success.
 
This engaging novel shows how easily vulnerable children can be groomed for abuse and their silence guaranteed by making them complicit in the system. Despite the distressing subject matter, it doesn’t seem sordid and turns out to be a page-turning read. I did hesitate around the midpoint when the narrative flips to a fifth point of view character but, fortunately, Lara brings us back to Cléo, and the multiple viewpoints help demonstrate the extent of the damage.
 
One can only hope that, since the #MeToo movement has highlighted so many similar stories, teenagers can protect themselves better in 2022. But even in our senior years, many of us could be caught out by that combination of idealism and yearning to be acknowledged as special. Thanks to publishers Europa editions for my advance proof copy: another contender for my books of the year.


With the protagonists of both novels familiar with fear and angst, this post seems the perfect partner for this week’s 99-word story. The prompt is anxiety.
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The cost of never again

The guide thrusts his shaking hands deep into his pockets, tries to steady his voice although his tongue cleaves to the roof of his mouth. Yet his ratings are perfect; the tour so familiar, he’s abandoned the script. Must be some bug; it can’t be nerves.

The students aren’t listening. They pose for selfies below Arbeit Macht Frei. They see his head jerk towards the ghost-sounds: a steam train; children crying; the shouts of the guards. His nostrils twitch at the stench of burning bodies; the sweat; the fear.

His bowels know the terror of being Jewish in 1944.
Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
14 Comments
Norah Colvin
14/2/2022 10:23:17 am

That's a dark post, Anne. All five stories. With such dark subject matter as the two book you review, I'm surprised you say they are easy reads. I have read a few books about the Holocaust recently, but The Memory Monster does sound interesting. Your own two stories are tragic too. Life Lesson is tragic on more than one level - the horrific past and the sad uncertain present. You bring it all full circle with your flash. I don't know how the survivors survived. There must have been some things that couldn't be expunged. Bowels betray any anxiety we may try to hide.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
15/2/2022 10:59:49 am

Good question, Norah. I think that easy reads in terms of the language and style and absence of longueurs, and also that the territory is already familiar so, while it might be disturbing, it isn't a great shock. Yeah, our species has a strong survival instinct.

Reply
Charli Mills
15/2/2022 05:56:46 pm

There's a lot of shadow work going on in these stories, Anne. Yet, I'm intrigued to read, nervous about my own desire to understand -- how do we know when we've delved too deep? Yet, as you say to Norah, our species has a strong survival instinct.

I have to say that your question rattled me -- "why didn’t the British and American governments bomb the train tracks leading to the camps once they knew their function?" Woah! We had that knowledge and capability but focused instead on...what? "Winning"? Is there such a thing as winning a war if we ignore saving those suffering the most? I'm going to have to sit with this thought.

Your 99-word story shows the burnout of becoming an expert on something so heinous our bowels recognize the horror of it. If only humanity thrived in the opposite direction. But I suppose, we don't have survival instincts embedded in happiness and compassion?

You thoughtful associative work rounded out the review.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
16/2/2022 02:13:08 pm

Yes, it shocked me too! I had vaguely known that they knew about the death camps before the war was over but it hadn't occurred to me that bombs in the right place could have at least made them less efficient. But I think in general what is more about protecting politicians than protecting the vulnerable. I cringe when I see our PM – a proven lawbreaker and liar – posturing about the Russian threat to Ukraine. A very convenient distraction from his disrespect for the highest office in the land.

I think we do have instincts to cooperate but, if the threat's too great, we'll often, but not always, act to save ourselves.

Reply
Colleen Chesebro link
16/2/2022 05:06:13 pm

Anne, your characters are so full of emotions! I always connect them. The terror the Jews felt at the hands of the Germans is something I can't comprehend. I didn't know that about the Americans and British not bombing the train routes to the camps. Having served in the military, I can't help wondering if the shortage of goods for the war effort had anything to do with such a decision? It's a terrible thought. Let's pray Putin's War with Ukraine doesn't come to fruition.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
18/2/2022 04:48:54 pm

Maybe, you'll understand that more than I do. I guess they were juggling difficult decisions but we know that anti-Semitism wasn't committed to Germany at the time, nor is it now.

Reply
D. Avery link
16/2/2022 06:44:26 pm

If the trains were stopped on the tracks, the end would have still come for the Jewish people on board, I'm sure. And one does have to wonder what more could and should have been done.
All five stories are horrifying to consider what humans do to one another and that the lessons learned and integrated are not necessarily for good as one would like to expect. Tis a dark dark place, Author Anne Goodwin.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
18/2/2022 04:53:52 pm

You're right. They'd just have made them walk – or run – a bit farther to their deaths. But there might have been some solace in knowing the world hadn't forgotten them. Perhaps particularly for the Jews in the camp forced to carry out the Nazis' dirty work in order to live another day.
Yup I make my home in the dark places :)

Reply
D. Avery
19/2/2022 02:53:07 am

No, you're right. Those tracks should have been destroyed. Because of where they led. Full stop.

Anne Goodwin
19/2/2022 04:56:11 pm

:)

Irene Waters link
19/2/2022 04:21:56 am

Anne your flash was the perfect ending to what sounds like two harrowing books although you say they are both easy to read. You also made me do a double take with how the allies could have made it just that little bit harder to get people to the camps and could then have perhaps saved more lives. We should be totally ashamed of ourselves if that was indeed the case. I detest the lies told in order to preserve self serving interests. The lies are flying around our parliament at the moment - they need us to be fearful. This time I hope people see through them but I doubt they will.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
19/2/2022 05:01:32 pm

I don't know if it's contemporary politics, becoming more informed or just more cynical as I get older but, in a way, that didn't surprise me.
We might need to run a competition on whose government is the biggest liar – perhaps the only prize ours could win right now on the international stage.

Reply
Gary Wilson link
19/2/2022 02:13:40 pm

Hi Anne,
This was a great micro fiction, troubling, but great.
You managed to squeeze in a full spectrum of angst from something someone recognized from their bowels to those so numb to what was before them that they thought only of snapping selfies. . .
Troubling indeed, when someone could react so in the face of such reminders of horror.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
19/2/2022 05:06:26 pm

Thanks, Gary, and welcome to my corner of the blogosphere. Sometimes we're just so overwhelmed by the horror we need to protect ourselves by retreating into normality. Too much truth can lead to too many nightmares. Maybe that's why we don't often learn from the past.

Reply



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