A review by eowyns_helmet
Among the Living and the Dead: A Tale of Exile and Homecoming on the War Roads of Europe by Inara Verzemnieks

4.0

Lovely exploration of family -- and lost -- memory. Is it usually true that our forbears try to hide the painful memories of the past? I wonder if that is one of the roots of our bad history-telling even in school. If we can't tell -- or bear -- the truth about our own families, then how can we bear the truths of our communities and nations? Verzemnieks quote Rebecca West - it's hard to examine "what history meant in flesh and blood." Especially in places where violence has been the rule, not the exception -- Verzemniek's Latvia, witness of "centuries of migration and flight;" my Scotland and Ireland, home of dispossession, colonization and famine; or the deep wounds of slavery, genocide and mass dispossession. Americans especially think of ourselves as geneology fans, but I suspect it's mostly for the feel-good stories of overcoming adversity and achievement, the unbearable losses and the ones who fell by the wayside, were erased, never made it off the ships -- or who never managed to board in the first place.