Rita Gabis

How does one face the unfaceable? Often by burying it out of sight hopefully never to be seen again. At least that's how the author's family treated their experience of the horrors of the Eastern Front in World War II, though the biggest horror for Gabis is coming to terms with the likelihood that her well-loved grandfather played an active role in the rounds of ethnic cleansing that took place in the region. Why do I not rate this memoir a bit higher? Partly because my ends are not the same as those of Gabis. She writes as someone learning to come to terms with the realities of the past and her personal burdens but at a certain point my interest started to flag a bit, as though I'm not sure that there's more real content here then would be contained in a "New Yorker" article. This book is still a useful addition to that shelf of books where the authors wrestle with old evils to see if a usable past can be reconstituted.… (mere)