In her memoir The Memory Palace,
Mira Bartok recalls a comment from Nicolaus Steno, the “grandfather
of geology,” who once wrote the following: “Beautiful is what we
see. More beautiful is what we understand. Most beautiful is what we
do not comprehend.”
In light of her mother's schizophrenia
and the havoc it wreaked on her life, it's an optimistic conclusion
for her to come to not only about her mother, but also about herself
and the life that she had because of her mother's illness.
Born in 1959, the youngest of two
daughters, Mira Bartok's life turned for the worse when her writer
father took off for parts unknown and left her and her sister to be
raised by a gifted but mental ill mother. From chaotic event to
chaotic event, Bartok recalls in lurid but eloquent detail the
episodes of her mother, Norma Herr, as she battled the demons that
surrounded her. Whether it be the Nazis, the police, her own parents,
or the mysterious and elusive “they” who were out to kill,
kidnap, or rape them, the paranoid Norma saw danger everywhere.
The sisters escaped into their own
world of survival: Mira's sister to her book readings and creative
writings and Mira to her art work, two skills that they perfected and
eventually became their livings.
When they were of age and means
to live away from their mother, each girl did, but it didn't stop
Norma from harassing and worrying each of them from afar.
What Bartok chronicles in this memoir
is both fascinating and horrifying – a dissecting look at a life
shared with a loved one so frightening ill.
For many reasons, this memoir stands
out from others. Perhaps it is Bartok's use of mnemonic paintings to
separate her chapters and highlight her memories or it's the
intelligent and disturbing excerpts from Norma's journals that Bartok
shares, but this book is courageous, compassionate, and tragic.
Thank you. My next read.
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