Leslie Gilbert-lurie

I really got tired of the book, it seemed to repeat itself a lot. I am certainly interested in the Holocaust and I certainly believe it happened but the text just got boring some of the time especially when the daughter wrote about her Mother and her depressions. Also it was tiring to read over and over again that the mother was drawing incorrect conclusions about her conversations with her children. I just felt that we read too much about each thing that happened to the family because of the mother's tragic childhood. Still I finished the book and although I cannot say that I enjoyed the book I did want to read the story and find out what happened. Unfortunately the things that did happen to the family as they hid from the Nazis, the death of her mother and little brother, the hunger, the cold in the winter, the malnutrition the need to remain silent all of the time, not being able to go outside ever to play and enjoy the benefits of the sunshine seemed to make the original character attach an unusual relationship with her family, her home and her children after she had them. The feeling of never being safe follow the children of the future generations and affect their lives because their mother had endured such deprivations. The family was still fortunate to have been able to hide with their father's friend and not end up in one of the concentration camps. I do not doubt the veracity of the story but I do not understand why the little granddaughter would have the feelings of insecurity that the grandmother felt when she was hiding in the attic with her family for two years. I suppose that I have led such a sheltered life that I cannot identify with the characters and their terrors. I am terribly sorry that that the people who wrote this book have to live with their problems. I sincerely wish that the hatred of the Jews which more than bordered on manic would not happen again to the Jews or anyone else. But I do know that similar things are going on in parts pf the world right now. It is discouraging to me, that humans can treat other humans so poorly. It is unbelievable that something similar could ever happen after the horrors of the holocaust were brought to light at the conclusion of World War II in Europe.… (més)

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Bending Toward the Sun: A Mother and Daughter Memoir by Leslie Gilbert-Lurie and Rita Lurie tells of how the mother’s holocaust experience affected later generations. The book is told through the eyes of Rita, the mother and a holocaust survivor, and her daughter, Leslie, who grew up in the United States.

One of the reasons I wanted to read Bending Toward the Sun: A Mother and Daughter Memoir by Leslie Gilbert-Lurie and Rita Lurie was to learn more about trauma influences later generations. This a point often overlooked, and sometimes even ridiculed.

That issue, however, was not significantly touched upon in this book.

The narration is done by the author, and her family which I felt was lacking. They are not professional narrators and instead of embracing the personal story (ex: To Be Honest by Michael Leviton), they are trying to sound professional. By all means, it’s charming to have a personal story told with a personal touch, not forcibly try to lose it and sound mechanical.

I thought the first part of the book, the story of Rita was fascinating. Rita’s story is altogether tragic. As a young girl she had to hide, for two years, in the attic of a Polish farmer during World War II. Rita had to watch her mother and brother die, he aunt lose a baby, and almost died herself.

After the war, Rita’s family found themselves strangers in their own country. That is they no longer had a place to call home, and were moving from one camp to another, becoming Displaced Persons, finally immigrating to America. Undeniably a fascinating story which is certainly worthy of being told.

The second part, that of Leslie, Rita’s daughter, I found to be disappointing – even though, or maybe because, I was looking forward to it. Leslie grew up in an ideal home, one which many only dream of with a career that many could only envy. In this segment Leslie tries to explain how her mother’s trauma affected her. I don’t doubt that it has, there are many cases like that. Instead of focusing on this however, Leslie seems to gloss over it. She mentions studies and research, but never follows up on them, or how they are applicable to her.

I was fascinated by Rita’s story, her experiences, what she remembered versus what really happened, and the worldview as seen through her eyes. On the contrary, the book never got around to focus on what I hoped it would be about… (més)

The Holocaust has many stories and I am determined to read as many as I can. Each story is different because the situation was different for those experienced it and the survivors. We should fight with all our heart and soul to prevent this ever happening again. Bending Toward The Sun is written by Leslie Gilbert-Lurie and her mother Rita Lurie. Rita was just a five year old when the situation in rural Poland became intolerable. Rita's father was taken in for questioning and returned home badly beaten. Issac Gamss's father knew that they should not go willingly to to the train station as ordered. They split up so that there may be a chance that some of the large extended family might survive.They had planned to hide in the forests but it grew too cold and had to find some kind of shelter. A portion of the large family including Rita Lurie, begged for temporary shelter in a narrow attic of a barn.

This book is divided into three parts, Rita's story, her daughter and the third together. Instead of shelter for a short time. Rita, her family and some other close relatives lived in the attic for two full years before it was safe to come out. The first part is the most vivid. The cold in the winter, barely any privacy, sporadic bits of food and water and also two family tragedies. Rita's small brother died and then her mother.

The writing give the details of the family's daily life in the attic and the experiences of Rita. Rita will never be free of that part of her life. The book shows how her experiences of never being sage, losing her little brother and her mother and her adulthood and her daughter. The emotional scars of the Holocaust run far deeper than the physical one. The mother-daughter story is well detailed and makes you consider how the emotional scars effect the next generation of survivors. This story was extremely painful for the authors to write but it is an important one that we need to read. We need to remember, understand and be grateful for this survivor's story.… (més)

Rita Lurie is a Holocaust survivor. Her story is remarkably similar to Anne Frank's. She hid in an attic in Poland for two years at the very end of WWII. Her family's hiding place was nowhere near as carefully-planned as the Frank family's though. They fled Nazi soldiers in the night and eventually found a family friend who let them stay with him. Imagine 15 people, including children and a baby, hiding in an attic for two years with no food supply mapped out. The children couldn't run around a make noise and be children. They had no heat source. They didn't even have much light. They lived on what the men could forage at night. Needless to say, they were very sick and malnourished when they finally emerged. Rita was five when they went into hiding, but the experience left a deep and lasting mark on her psyche.

Now, where this memoir is different from others that I've read is that it doesn't stop with Liberation. That's only the beginning, in fact. How does such a horrific experience mark your life forever after? Also, how does it mark your children and their children? It's not like you come out of hiding and return to a perfectly normal life.

I have to say that the first time I ever thought about these questions was when I read [b:The Complete Maus|15195|The Complete Maus|Art Spiegelman|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166671818s/15195.jpg|1658562] by Art Spiegelman. Spiegelman shows that his father was hard to live with, and sometimes it was because of his experiences as a Holocaust survivor. He's a hoarder and a control freak. Spiegelman's mom, also a survivor, was clinically depressed. That opened my eyes a little bit. So when I was offered this book for review, I jumped on it.

I was surprised by the ways that the Holocaust affected this family's life. Rita was a little fearful to let her children out of her sight. Her children picked up on that, as children do, and became overly fearful as well. It's even carrying on to the next generation.

There are also the cycles of depression. I had to admire Rita, because she is a fighter, but it seemed almost inevitable that the depression would come around for her again. She tries so hard, but how do you overcome something like the Holocaust? And how does your family react when you spiral down?

If, like me, you're interested in the Holocaust but hadn't really thought about the lasting effects in the survivors' lives, pick this up. It was very readable and very thought-provoking.… (més)