Reading Clauius: A Memoir in Two Parts
Caroline Heller, 2015
Penguin
320 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780385337618
Summary
A stunning elegy to a vanished time, Caroline Heller’s memoir traces the lives of her parents, her uncle, and their circle of intellectuals and dreamers from Central Europe on the eve of World War II to present-day America.nn
In this unforgettable dual memoir of her parents’ lives and her own, Caroline Heller brings to life the lost world of European café culture, and reminds us of the sustaining power of literature in the most challenging of times.
Heller vividly evokes prewar Prague, where her parents lived, loved, and studied. Her mother, Liese Florsheim, was a young German refugee initially drawn to Erich Heller, a bright but detached intellectual, rather than to his brother, Paul. As Hitler’s power spreads and World War II becomes inevitable, their world is destroyed and they must flee the country and continent. Paul, who will eventually become the author’s father, is trapped and sent to Buchenwald, where he survives under hellish conditions.
Though Paul’s life nearly ends in Europe, he reunites with Liese in the United States, where they marry. Their daughter Caroline, restless and insecure, carries the trauma of her parents’ story with her, but her quest to make peace with her heritage is eased by her love of books and writers, part of her family legacy. Through the darkest years of Hitler’s rule, Caroline’s parents and uncle had turned time and time again to literature to help them survive—and so she does as well.
Written with sensitivity and grace, Reading Claudius is a profound meditation on the ways we strive to solve the mysteries of our pasts, and a window into understanding the ones we love. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—Riverside, Illinois, USA
• Education—B.A., University of Chicago; M.F.A, Bennington College; Ed.D, University of California,
Berkeley
• Currently—lives in Boston, Massachusetts
Caroline Heller is the director of the interdisciplinary Ph.D. program in Educational Studies at Lesley University, where she is also a professor in the graduate school of education. She lives in Boston with her family. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Reading Claudius, Caroline Heller’s memoir...[recounts] the lives of her parents, her uncle and their circle of intellectuals and dreamers in Prague on the eve of World War II. Following them through the war years and beyond, it becomes a complex elegy to a vanished time. I was lucky enough to read an early draft, and can’t wait for it to reach the hands of many more people.
Leah Hager Cohen - New York Times Sunday Book Review
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