AN ESTATE OF MEMORY

by llona Karmel ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 16, 1969

From the estates of blessed memory the dead were coming into the night"" -- the night of a concentration camp where often the past is all that can partially redeem the present. Miss Karmel's long, inevitably relentless, sometimes dense novel, composed of the alternately disparate and affiliating experiences of four women, takes place within a Polish concentration camp. There the solidarity of two, Tola Ohrenstein, who came from a background of some substance, and Barbara Grunbaum, whose sterile husband had gone into the army, is extended to two strays -- a girl Alinka and her putative mother, a professional whiner Aurelia. In time however it is revealed that they had only ""met at the grave"" and that Aurelia is about to have a child. All share in protecting the nativity, particularly Barbara who has empty dreams of escaping with the child. The proprietary relationships between the women disintegrate in divisive episodes: Aurelia has her baby which is sent away and she dies of typhus; Alinka falls ill during the epidemic; Tola, the strong one, moves up to become an Anweiserin (attendant) and finally is able to salvage Alinka when the camp is evacuated and Barbara deported in a truck...... For those who can endure the unendurable, a cumulatively powerful takeover.

Pub Date: Sept. 16, 1969

ISBN: 0935312641

Page Count: -

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1969

Categories: FICTION