Non­fic­tion

Annie’s Ghosts: A Jour­ney Into a Fam­i­ly Secret

Steve Lux­en­berg
  • Review
By – September 9, 2011

Career jour­nal­ists who attempt to write about their own fam­i­ly his­to­ries some­times find they can’t sep­a­rate their pro­fes­sion­al selves from their per­son­al jour­neys. But Steve Lux­en­berg, an edi­tor at the Wash­ing­ton Post, does not have this prob­lem. Instead, he demon­strates his abun­dant writ­ing skills and report­ing tal­ents by unearthing a sto­ry that is grip­ping, haunt­ing, and real while telling it with just the right amount of pro­fes­sion­al dis­tance and per­son­al depth. The tale bounces through time and around the globe, illu­mi­nat­ing life in a men­tal hos­pi­tal in Depres­sion-era Detroit, touch­ing down in the Holo­caust, tra­vers­ing the sacred space between fathers and chil­dren, mov­ing seam­less­ly from sad­ness to joy. 

Lux­en­berg tells this fam­i­ly saga as if it were a detec­tive sto­ry, reveal­ing one lay­er at a time of the hid­den world of an insti­tu­tion­al­ized aunt he was nev­er told exist­ed and the con­se­quences of fam­i­ly secrets that, when revealed, imply lost worlds and pri­vate motives that have con­se­quences down through the gen­er­a­tions. Yet in his hands, the sto­ry comes to life, and this mem­oir dis­plays the tex­ture of social his­to­ry as it sheds light on the pow­er of love in Jew­ish fam­i­lies to over­come the secrets that dri­ve us apart. Author’s note, fam­i­ly tree, index, notes. The paper­back edi­tion of this book will be pub­lished in May, 2010.

Lin­da F. Burghardt is a New York-based jour­nal­ist and author who has con­tributed com­men­tary, break­ing news, and fea­tures to major news­pa­pers across the U.S., in addi­tion to hav­ing three non-fic­tion books pub­lished. She writes fre­quent­ly on Jew­ish top­ics and is now serv­ing as Schol­ar-in-Res­i­dence at the Holo­caust Memo­r­i­al & Tol­er­ance Cen­ter of Nas­sau County.

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