It’s hard to think about Holocaust literature without the words of Adorno in my head–“to write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric”– but the discussion is too important, and the correctives too far-ranging. I physically ached while reading this book, and did, finally, cry–while reading Tuck’s acknowledgments. The care she has taken here to give voice to a young Catholic girl who would otherwise remain a number is evident both from the considerable research and the unflinching tone. The story that emerges feels piercingly, viscerally true, and alive. I won’t soon forget Czeslawa and her very real, youthful humanity, a girl in full bloom, afraid of her father, curious about boys, comforted by stories and prayer and the vastness of her imagination before it was starved to death. The insights into Poland’s history before and during the war, as well as the glimpses into the lives of various (real) notorious figures, create a haunting scaffolding for Czeslawa’s story. A heartbreaking novel whose integrity can’t be impugned.
The Rest Is Memory by Lily Tuck, (List Price: $24.99, Liveright, 9781324095729, December 2024)
Reviewed by Kristen Iskandrian, Thank You Books in Birmingham, Alabama