Helen Epstein on "Why We Read (And Write) Memoir"

Calling herself a "perennial student," Lexington writer Helen Epstein, journalist and author of literary non-fiction, believes memoirs can open readers' eyes to new perspectives on the world and their own lives. On July 8, at 7 p.m., in Cary Library, Epstein presented "Why We Read (And Write) Memoir," reflecting on her experiences writing two memoirs, "Children of the Holocaust" and "Where She Came From."

Born in Prague, Epstein was raised in New York City. At age 20, she stumbled into the midst of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia and published her account of it, beginning her journalism career. She graduated from Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and taught at New York University before moving to the Boston area with her family.

On Thursday, Epstein said she was happy to see familiar faces in the Lexington audience. Opening her talk, she said memoir attracts many types of writers, from journalists to poets. Epstein also said readers and writers of memoir have different ways of understanding the form.

For instance, Epstein's journalistic background has infused her with a love for truth. Epstein recalled reading fiction as a child but said she "never really trusted" novels and was always looking for the "reality" behind characters like F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Great Gatsby."

Epstein says her fascination with the "raw materials of history" is primarily what draws her to read and write memoir. She credits James Baldwin with introducing her to the memoir genre. In works like "The Fire Next Time," Epstein said, Baldwin explored what his experience meant to American society. As a "New York City kid growing up during the Civil Rights movement" and the daughter of Czech Jews who survived the Holocaust, Epstein valued Baldwin's personal reflections on history.  The stories of Henry James and Leo Tolstoy "paled in comparison to what I heard in my kitchen," she said.

It makes sense that Epstein's first memoir, "Children of the Holocaust," touched on her experience growing up in a community scarred by the Holocaust. Epstein later wrote "Where She Came From," combining eyewitness, biography and social history to retell the stories of her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, as shaped by war.

To reconstruct scenes in her mother's life that occurred before Epstein herself was born, Epstein traveled to Prague to interview her mother's cousin and best friend.  She also enlisted old letters and photographs to inform her writing. 

Epstein went on to discuss the writing and publishing life in general. Writing is a "solitary, outmoded profession that will make you very little money and amount to a lot of frustration," she said, "Write only if you want to write." Epstein said that, every day after breakfast, she sits at her desk and writes for four hours, refusing to answer the phone or water her plants.

After her talk, Epstein answered questions and signed books, including "Joe Papp: An American Life," "Where She Came From" and "Music Talks," a recently reissued collection of musical profiles. Epstein said her project-in-the-works takes a look at what it meant to be female during the 1960s.

It was an evening well spent for audience members, many of whom shared an interest in publishing or had personal links to survivors of the Holocaust.