“Memory, in short, is engraved not merely by the life we have led but by the life of the mind…by all the lives we so nearly led but missed by an inch, and—if we grant enough leeway to the imagination—by the lives of others, which can cut into ours every bit as sharply as our own experience.” – Anthony Lane, writing about W.G. Sebald in The New Yorker (May 29, 2000)
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Category Archives: War
Simon Critchley writes of science and creativity—memory and morality
The New York Times published a beautiful essay on science, creativity, human morality and fallibility by Simon Critchley this past weekend, “The Dangers of Certainty: A Lesson from Auschwitz.” Critchley writes of his childhood memories of the science show “The … Continue reading
Old Memories and New Stories
A new year, and there is much talk about resolutions and what lies ahead. I’ve been engaging in this looking forward too, aspiring and hoping for this or that to receive more time, energy, success…. But in the midst of … Continue reading
Posted in Grief & grieving, Memory, Suicide, War, Writing & Reading
Tagged André Aciman, dyslexia, Failure, memory, Neurodiversity, Philip Schultz, poetry, revising, Sholom Aleichem, veterans, writing
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On writing and war—voices of veterans
This morning, instead of heading out for a longed-for run in that quiet half hour between the kids’ departure for school and the forward rush of my day, I sat down to glance at the Times and got swallowed up … Continue reading
Jam in my purse—and unsticking the novel
Rule number one, never put jam in your purse, even if you think it will come in handy for the Dramamine your son needs in order not to throw up. When it comes down to it, would you rather have … Continue reading
Posted in COUNTRIES OF LOST THINGS, DOWN THE STREET..., Memory, War, Writing & Reading
Tagged adultery, bosnia, Countries of Lost Things, fiction, motherhood, parenting, writing
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Of secrets, silence, and despair—veteran suicides, Russian teens, the power of the novel
I’ve had my head in the sand as much as possible this month, a rather nice (and terribly necessary) place to be as a writer. But emerging for air—or simply to attend to surrounding noise—tends to create something akin to … Continue reading
Witness—the Holocaust, suicide, and memory (coincidence redux)
A few weeks ago, someone recommended the book Spectral Evidence to me, which, among other things, includes World War II photos from the Łódź Ghetto, the Nazis’ Jewish quarter in this major Polish city. I wrote the book title down … Continue reading
Tell me a story—about war
“While you were out last night, I saw a piece of paper, and it was very sad. And then it blew away,” my three-year-old reported the week before last. At first, I was not quite alarmed but certainly taken aback—how … Continue reading
The memory keepers: Remembering September 11th—and World Suicide Prevention Day, September 10th
My thoughts this weekend, along with much of America and many around the world, are on 9/11, remembering, mourning, thinking about what happened ten years ago and what has happened since. Two wars, much grieving, many shifts, small and large, … Continue reading
Posted in Memory, Motherhood, Suicide, War, Writing & Reading
Tagged 9/11, Aaron Fein, children, depression, Edwidge Danticat, grief, literature, suicide, White Flags, World Suicide Prevention Day
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Addendum: War, suicide, aggression—hope (a gay politician, a veteran, and a president)
When I finally saw the film Milk earlier this summer, afterwards my thoughts kept returning to the stress placed on hope in the story, seemingly in a starkly different context from that of Iraq war veteran Brad Eifert (see my … Continue reading
War, suicide, aggression—hope
In the autumn of 1992, having just returned from a semester in Moscow, I enrolled in my senior seminar, where I had the good fortune to study with Lawrence Weschler, then a staff writer with The New Yorker. Almost twenty … Continue reading
Kara Krauze 