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Adult Books - Nonfiction - Literature
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Tattoo for a Slave.
Calisher, Hortense (author).
Nov. 2004. 336p. Harcourt, hardcover, $24 (0-15-101096-X). 813.
REVIEW.
First published October 15, 2004 (Booklist).
Cherished for her daring perspectives and gorgeously elliptical style, Calisher portrayed a part-Jewish, part-Christian extended family in her last novel, Sunday Jews (2002). Here, in this sinuous, archly witty, and socially discerning memoir, she contemplates her own similarly complex heritage. Born in 1911, Calisher collapses time to vividly portray her adoring, Virginia-born Jewish father turned northerner when he opened his perfume manufacturing business in New York City, a generous man who secretly wrote poetry and made sure his daughter went to college; and her skeptical mother, a much younger German immigrant; and her matriarchal grandmother, and a parade of relatives, including down-home entrepreneurs and striving refugees, rendering her past both as highly entertaining farce and as a microcosm of social change. She is especially keen on tracing the gradual liberation of women, and unveiling the painful truth about her slave-owning grandparents. Calisher also offers tantalizing glimpses into her own indelible experiences working for the welfare department, and finding her way to writing, her own personal emancipation from the safe but “humdrum” life of a homemaker. — Donna Seaman
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