Daughter of History

Susan Rubin Suleiman is a professor emerita of French and comparative literature at Harvard University. Her many books include The Némirovsky Question (2016) and a previous memoir, Budapest Diary: In Search of the Motherbook (1996). She lives in Chevy Chase, MD.

• Contents and Abstracts

"A memoir of heart and soul, of ideas and intimations. On page after page, it reminds us that we think with the objects we love and we love the objects we think with. Compelling, sophisticated, accessible—it's a gift."—Sherry Turkle, MIT Professor, author of Reclaiming Conversation and The Empathy Diaries: A Memoir "Memoir writing, for Susan Rubin Suleiman, is a process of reconciliation. Daughter of History is a compelling journey reconciling intimate memories with the violent history of the twentieth century. The resilience that enables survival is everywhere visible in this story of a vivid writer and groundbreaking scholar who has turned her sharp analytic lens on her own life."—Marianne Hirsch, author of The Generation of Postmemory: Writing and Visual Culture After the Holocaust "In exquisitely detailing not only what she can remember but what she can't—including, at one point, her own name—Susan Rubin Suleiman limns history's mark on even her ability to feel. And yet that's not the whole of her story: equally moving is the restorative power of literature. This is marvelous, riveting reading—courageous, insightful and inspiring."—Gish Jen, author of Thank You, Mr. Nixon and The Resisters "Using photographs as the spur to memory, Susan Rubin Suleiman takes us on a journey of 'unforgetting.' Like Proust, she is in search of lost time, and in this beautifully written and psychologically wise book, she tells the story of how she became American. Sentences trail her from the farm outside Budapest where she is left at age 5 while Nazis round up Jews in the city to the high school outside Chicago where she is dropped by a girl she had thought her best friend: If I don't get used to this, I'll die, If you don't want me, I'll do without you, along with her mother's admonition don't look as if you didn't belong here. She is history's fortunate daughter and this is a tale of survival. I read it straight through and then it stayed with me, this remarkable study of what she calls 'history's axe'—because here, in a voice so intimate it is as though she is speaking to a close friend, Suleiman reconnects past and present."—Carol Gilligan, author of In a Different Voice and co-author of Why Does Patriarchy Persist? "Written with insight and vivid detail, Suleiman's memoir encourages us all to consider how the relationship between our personal past and the times and events in which we live helps shape us into who we are now."—Abby Remer, Martha's Vineyard Times "Daughter of History: Traces of an Immigrant Girlhood is an absorbing sequential narrative of [Suleiman's] life. It too uses photographs, which serve as catalysts to trigger memories from childhood."—Eva Fogelman, Moment Magazine "This is a very interesting book which is very readable and its description of life in Hungary during the Holocaust and the long way to real freedom is an important addition to the works that explain the very difficult post Holocaust life of survivors. This title is recommended for every library as it is informative and a pleasure to read."—Michlean Lowy Amir, Association of Jewish Libraries Reviews "Suleiman's curiosity and dark humor illuminate her prose; she zigzags between poignancy and, somehow, moments of playfulness."—Julie Sugar, Jewish Review of Books