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marisolea's review against another edition
2.0
Un libro muy corto y que no me ha aportado gran cosa, en el que además el formato, con frases entrecortadas, sin continuidad del párrafo, hace que leas como en diagonal.
eatfoodreadbooks's review against another edition
5.0
16 million ---yes that is 16 million--people were processed through Ellis Island from 1890 - 1954..many of whom became the parents and grandparents of the boomers. We are such a forgetful culture but maybe that is the intent .. to forget the past as soon as you walked off the Island into New York --you were an American, a new person with no past, only the future. Georges Perec slim volume is poetic and poignant as is honors all of those souls who went on to create America in the 20th century.
spenkevich's review against another edition
4.0
Ellis Island: the ‘golden door’, ‘the island that / in every European tongue / had been renamed the Isle of Tears,’ tränen insel, ייל פון טרערן, wispa łez, ile des larmes, Остров слез, isola delle lagrime… Not to be confused with Liberty Island, housing the Statue of Liberty seen as emmigrants approached the harbor (the creation of it being on of my favorite humorous art stories which I wrote about here), but a tiny island where over 16 million people would enter the United States starting with teenage Annie Moore from Cork, Ireland in 1892 until its closure in 1954. Ellis Island from French author, filmmaker and Oulipo member George Perecs (translated here by Harry Mathews) is a hybrid text ‘attempting to give palpable form / to what those sixteen million individual stories were’ and its lasting legacy as what he calls ‘the ultimate place of exile.’ Through prose, poetry, lists, data and literary quotations, Perec’s constructs a piercing gaze at this ‘non-place’ where millions arrived after grueling journeys to go from ‘emigrants into immigrants.’ My own family passed through here, leaving Poland as the Piatkiewicz family and reemerging as Penkevich like many of the examples of names being changed at whim Perec describes. A short but powerful read on ‘dispersion, wandering, diaspora,’ and the legacy of Ellis Island.
Perec at Ellis Island
First, I’d like to shoutout to Kilburn Adam and his wonderful review through which I learned this book even existed. It’s a quick read at just over 50 pages followed by an equally impressive afterword by Mónica de la Torre for the 2021 reissue. She provides an interesting history of the book, written in conjunction with a documentary Perec worked on about Ellis Island and featured much of this text as a voice-over narration, as well as tying this history of immigration to issues surrounding it in the present during the COVID pandemic. ‘Why are we telling these / stories? what did we come / here to find? what did we / come here to ask?’ Perec writes, examining the island in a state of ruin as people began to convert it into a tourist location, and how the legacy is converted into a different experience for the new and future generations.
We learn the long history of the island, going from military fort to an immigration center with light restrictions (2% of people were turned away, which is still a lot of lives) that overtime increased with literacy tests and other exclusionary laws before eventually—in what feels very much indicative of the US—being converted into a detention center for a while. He also observes how this “golden door” was not the dreamland promised with many immigrants facing harsh xenophobia, low wages and poor housing opportunities, saying they learned quickly the streets they heard had been paved with gold were not for them to travel upon but only labor through the bricklaying. ‘The point is not to have pity, but understanding,’ Perec writes, and he delivers his examination with great power and empathy, exploring the past and these people’s lives, and it makes for a very moving read.
‘ we were sure of having resoundingly evoked
the two words that lie at the very heart of this long venture:
two intangible, precarious, weak, fugitive words that keep
endlessly refracting each other’s wavering light and whose
names
are wandering and hope.’
Ellis Island from Perec is a great little book in a beautiful reissue, and a highly recommended little look at history. It is a great reminder that the United States is made up of people from all over and will (and should) continue to be so, and that the complaints that people need to “come in legally” like “their ancestors did” is not anywhere close of a one-to-one comparison of immigration restrictions now and the time of Ellis Island. A wonderful little book just important now as it was then.
⅘
‘they had given up their past and their history,
they had given up everything for the sake of coming here
to try and live a life they were forbidden to live
in their native land:
and now they were face to face with an inexorable finality’
Perec at Ellis Island
First, I’d like to shoutout to Kilburn Adam and his wonderful review through which I learned this book even existed. It’s a quick read at just over 50 pages followed by an equally impressive afterword by Mónica de la Torre for the 2021 reissue. She provides an interesting history of the book, written in conjunction with a documentary Perec worked on about Ellis Island and featured much of this text as a voice-over narration, as well as tying this history of immigration to issues surrounding it in the present during the COVID pandemic. ‘Why are we telling these / stories? what did we come / here to find? what did we / come here to ask?’ Perec writes, examining the island in a state of ruin as people began to convert it into a tourist location, and how the legacy is converted into a different experience for the new and future generations.
‘What had been for the others a place
of trials and uncertainties has become for them a place
of recollection, a pivot of the connections that identify
them with their history.
We learn the long history of the island, going from military fort to an immigration center with light restrictions (2% of people were turned away, which is still a lot of lives) that overtime increased with literacy tests and other exclusionary laws before eventually—in what feels very much indicative of the US—being converted into a detention center for a while. He also observes how this “golden door” was not the dreamland promised with many immigrants facing harsh xenophobia, low wages and poor housing opportunities, saying they learned quickly the streets they heard had been paved with gold were not for them to travel upon but only labor through the bricklaying. ‘The point is not to have pity, but understanding,’ Perec writes, and he delivers his examination with great power and empathy, exploring the past and these people’s lives, and it makes for a very moving read.
‘ we were sure of having resoundingly evoked
the two words that lie at the very heart of this long venture:
two intangible, precarious, weak, fugitive words that keep
endlessly refracting each other’s wavering light and whose
names
are wandering and hope.’
Ellis Island from Perec is a great little book in a beautiful reissue, and a highly recommended little look at history. It is a great reminder that the United States is made up of people from all over and will (and should) continue to be so, and that the complaints that people need to “come in legally” like “their ancestors did” is not anywhere close of a one-to-one comparison of immigration restrictions now and the time of Ellis Island. A wonderful little book just important now as it was then.
⅘
‘they had given up their past and their history,
they had given up everything for the sake of coming here
to try and live a life they were forbidden to live
in their native land:
and now they were face to face with an inexorable finality’
ipiulaloutre's review
2.0
Un peu cher pour ce que c'est. Le travail documentaire de George Perec et Robert Bober est réduit aux présentations de l'île et aux réflexion de Perec sur sa judéité et son rapport à l'immigration. Les entretiens ont été supprimés et il ne reste que la coquille d'une présentation d'Ellis Island. En ôtant le vivant, les humains, de ce texte, l'éditeur en fait un article générique sur les lieux de transit. Dommage. Sans doute intéressant si on n'a jamais entendu parler d'Ellis Island et de son histoire. Inutile sinon.
maribooked's review against another edition
5.0
Τι να γράψω για αυτό το συγκλονιστικό βιβλίο; Έλις Άιλαντ, η το νησί των δακρύων, άνοιξε το 1892 και μέχρι το 1954 αποτελούσε κέντρο υποδοχής των μεταναστών Δεν βρίσκω λόγια, για αυτή τη νουβέλα, ειναι συγκλονιστικό το κείμενο, το έχω γεμίσει post it όλο, οπότε παραθέτω κάποια αποσπάσματα:
Όπου τίποτα δεν έχει κερδηθεί,
όπου όσοι έφυγαν δεν είχαν φτάσει ακόμα,
όπου όσοι άφησαν τα πάντα
δεν είχαν τίποτα αποκτήσει ακόμα
κι όπου δεν είχες τίποτ' άλλο να κάνεις απ'το να περιμένεις,
ελπίζοντας ότι όλα θα πήγαιναν καλά..
Πως να περιγράψεις;
Πως να αφηγηθείς;
Πως να κοιτάξεις;
Πως ν' αναγνωρίσεις αυτόν τον τόπο;
Πως ν' αναπαραστήσεις αυτό που υπήρξε;
Πως να διαβάσεις αυτά τα ίχνη;
Πως να πας πιο πέρα, να πας πίσω, να μην σταματήσεις μπροστά σ' αυτό που σου δείχνουν;
Όπου τίποτα δεν έχει κερδηθεί,
όπου όσοι έφυγαν δεν είχαν φτάσει ακόμα,
όπου όσοι άφησαν τα πάντα
δεν είχαν τίποτα αποκτήσει ακόμα
κι όπου δεν είχες τίποτ' άλλο να κάνεις απ'το να περιμένεις,
ελπίζοντας ότι όλα θα πήγαιναν καλά..
Πως να περιγράψεις;
Πως να αφηγηθείς;
Πως να κοιτάξεις;
Πως ν' αναγνωρίσεις αυτόν τον τόπο;
Πως ν' αναπαραστήσεις αυτό που υπήρξε;
Πως να διαβάσεις αυτά τα ίχνη;
Πως να πας πιο πέρα, να πας πίσω, να μην σταματήσεις μπροστά σ' αυτό που σου δείχνουν;
kilburnadam's review against another edition
4.0
Georges Perec's Ellis Island is a poignant meditation on the experiences of immigrants who arrived in America through the iconic gateway of Ellis Island. Originally published in 1979, it has been reissued in a new edition. The piece delves into the hopes, fears, and dreams of those who journeyed to America to forge new lives, and the obstacles they encountered along the way. Perec's prose is both evocative and empathetic, serving as a reminder of the profound power of language to convey the complexities of the human experience. His lyrical words capture the emotional intensity of the immigrant journey with insight and compassion, resonating deeply with the intricacies of the human condition.
emmalynallan's review against another edition
emotional
informative
sad
fast-paced
5.0
As someone who knew very little about Ellis Island, Perec wrote in such a heartfelt way that was additionally so informative. I really appreciated this writing and I liked learning more about Ellis Island and the many stories that island holds