Powerful, meticulously imagined ... The Postcard (translated into a lucid and precise English by Tina Kover) takes its readers on a deep dive into one Jewish family’s history, and, inextricably, into the devastating history of the Holocaust in France ... If Berest’s search for her identity and for her family history feels, at times, as long and difficult for the reader as it was for Berest herself, that effect is of the essence: In a sense, it’s the point ... Powerful ... Contains a single grand-scale act of self-discovery and many moments of historical illumination
Powerful ... Equal parts family history, detective story, inquiry into what it means to be Jewish even when you’ve never been to a Seder, and sobering reminder that anti-Semitism is an ever-present blight ... Smoothly translated from the French ... Ms. Berest has done her research, artfully weaving grim facts and figures into her family history.
A powerful exploration of family trauma, of 'psychogenealogy,' or 'cellular memory', transmitted in the womb or down the generations ... Berest acknowledges that she has blind spots, and some of her evocations of Jewish life seem, at best, shaky; at worst, reliant on stereotypes of men with sidelocks and tzitzits. Occasionally, issues are introduced in the translation — on the whole fluid and engaging — that are not her fault at all ... What kept me engaged, despite these issues, is not the question of whether Anne will solve the mystery but how she goes about trying to ascertain the unascertainable. This is, after all, why we read: to understand that which we may not ourselves have experienced.
Every page is gripping, revelatory ... Impeccably researched and deftly structured, the book’s form allows Berest to combine the heft of lived experience with the drive of narrative fiction – and the personal element lays bare how very live these questions still are.
Effectively translated by Kover, the narrative has a somewhat complex structure, but despite all the flashbacks, the story is not hard to follow, and the well-drawn characters readily gain readers’ sympathy ... Not only a significant contribution to our understanding of the Holocaust but a moving reflection on loss, memory, and the past, in equal measures heartwarming and heartrending. Highly recommended.
Delves into both literal and figurative archives, conjuring a past that has never fully receded into history ... It is this mysterious, vast horizon of the past that propels the novel, and Berest weaves a haunting narrative that simultaneously travels back in time and pulls time forward ... Reading this novel is intimate, uncomfortably so at moments, but that intimacy is a gift. It is as though Berest has taken us by the hand to lead us through the family home and search for the family graves that don’t exist.
The story overall is poignant, tense, restless, and ultimately pivotal, as Anne not only solves her mystery, but, more importantly, gains her identity. The anguish and horror of genocide arrive with fresh impact in an absorbing personal account.
