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Leslie Gilbert-Lurie joins mother in memoir about the lasting effects of the Holocaust
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In Bending Toward the Sun: A Mother and Daughter Memoir, Leslie Gilbert-Lurie looks at how the horrors suffered by Holocaust survivors are passed across generations in the form of guilt, fear, and anxiety. Gilbert-Lurie's mother, Rita Lurie, was five years old in 1942 when she and about a dozen other family members crammed into the attic of a farmhouse in Poland to hide from the Nazis. It was in that attic that Rita saw her brother and mother die, and after emerging two years after entering the attic, she was ill and forced to endure frequent moves and a new life with a stepmother, who as a survivor of a concentration camp, had issues of her own.
Rita understandably suffered from depression, and Leslie became an overachiever, constantly worried about death, and feared being separated from her family even for a short time. Years later, when Leslie became a mother, she noticed that her daughter suffered from similar anxieties. Bending Toward the Sun is a powerful memoir about survival and family, and it is beautifully written in a way that makes readers feel as though the Luries are old friends. Though there is much sadness within the pages, there is much hope. It is well worth the emotional roller-coaster ride.
Leslie Gilbert-Lurie kindly took time out of her busy schedule to answer some questions about Bending Toward the Sun:
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You mentioned in Bending Toward the Sun that your mother was deeply depressed after the book was completed. How has she fared since the book's release?
My mother has been faring pretty well since the book's release. Some days are better than others for her emotionally, but she really comes to life when she is in a group and has done fabulously at all of our book events.
What was the best thing to happen to you and your family since you wrote the book? Do you or your mom have any regrets?
The best thing to happen to my family and me since writing this book is that we all are in good health and can enjoy the positive response it is garnering. Occasionally I question whether we should have used one or two substitute names in place of the real ones, but each time I considered that option as we wrote I decided it would do little good, since all of the other names were real.
What do you want readers to take from the book?
I hope that readers will take from the book one or more of the following ideas: A. Life is finite and one never knows what the next day will bring, so it is beneficial to make the most of each good day. B. Look for opportunities to make a difference by acting rather than being a bystander. C. Individuals can go through the worst experiences imaginable and not only survive, but survive well. D. Where children are suffering today in the world, particularly in war torn countries, look for ways to help and to advocate for psychological services to be provided.
You and your mother are pretty open about how the Holocaust deeply impacted your lives, and you both went to great lengths to speak to family members and get as much of the story as you could before committing it to paper. How do you feel about the controversy surrounding certain memoirs, in particular the story of Herman Rosenblat? Do you feel lies such as these cast a shadow on authentic Holocaust stories? Have you had to deal with anyone questioning your family's story? Did you make an extra effort in your writing and research to make sure there could be no such claims against you?
My mother and I went to every effort possible to obtain the most accurate information for our book. Clearly, each inaccurate memoir creates an impetus on the ones that follow to be more honest and accurate. The fact that one inaccurate one happened to involve the Holocaust should not cast any added credibility on Holocaust stories. I'm sure as a whole they are no more or less accurate than any other work of non-fiction. I made extra effort in writing to be thorough and to cross-check everyone's recollections, because it was a matter of personal integrity. Beyond this, my interest in this story to begin with was to get at the truth and discover as much of my mother's past as possible, not simply to tell a good story.
You said in Bending Toward the Sun that you hadn't considered writing a book. Do you have plans for any other books?
I would like to write another book and have several ideas I'm considering at the moment.
What are some of the books you'd recommend for people interested in learning more about the Holocaust?
For people interested in learning more about the Holocaust, there are so many wonderful books. If I had to choose, I would say readers would find a good variety by beginning with the following: Night by Elie Wiesel, Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl, The Holocaust by Martin Gilbert, Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi, and Maus by Art Spiegelman.
About Leslie Gilbert-Lurie:
Leslie Gilbert-Lurie, author of Bending Toward the Sun: A Mother and Daughter Memoir, is a writer, lawyer, teacher, child advocate, and a member and past President of the Los Angeles County Board of Education. Gilbert-Lurie also is a founding board member and immediate past President of the Alliance for Children's Rights, a non-profit legal rights organization for indigent children, chair of the education committee for the Los Angeles Music Center, and a board member of several schools including Sierra Canyon and New Visions Foundation. Finally, she has just completed serving as a member of the mayor's task force charged with developing a new cultural plan for the City of Los Angeles.
Previously, Gilbert-Lurie spent close to a decade as an executive at NBC, where, at various times, she oversaw NBC Productions, Comedy, wrote television episodes, and co-founded a new NBC in-house production company, Lurie-Horwits Productions. As a lawyer, Gilbert-Lurie worked briefly at the law firm of Manatt, Phelps, Rothenberg and Tunney and served as a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Law Clerk. She is a graduate of UCLA and UCLA School of Law.
Gilbert-Lurie lives in Los Angeles with her husband, son, daughter, and stepson.
For more information, please visit www.bendingtowardthesun.com
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