“There are few subjects that have been so extensively written about as the Holocaust. Nevertheless, Shulman gave me a research work that dealt with a little-known event that took place in Warsaw after the destruction of the ghetto in 1943. The book consisted of an Introduction that related the author’s research into the happening, the analysis of others with whom he had spoken and the historic background of the time in which the event took place. But the final sentence of the Introduction is the one that stuck with me for years to come: “The greater the details of evidence the more confusion the conclusion seems to be.” How is this possible?

The book included interviews of survivors who had been at the Hotel Polski. Their descriptions of what took place and how people reacted were quite unbelievable. You may be sure it was a book whose contents stayed with me but, at that time of my life, making a living was foremost, and the book was relegated to a shelf in my library.

In addition to the practice of law, I also dabbled in the theatre and the idea of a play based on Shulman’s research became an idea worth pursuing. I never got beyond the second scene of the first act. There were so many characters that not even a not-for-profit theater company would consider such a play. So the book went back on the shelf and the play notes went into a drawer.”

More on Gildin’s latest, THE FAMILY AFFAIR

How can a woman’s struggle to reconcile her guilt of survival both unite and divide her family for years to come? It is some two years since Anna Adler returned from a reunion of the survivors who were “guests” of the Hotel Polski after the destruction of the Warsaw ghetto. At the reunion, she was applauded for her courage in testifying against the Commandant of the Polski at his War Crimes Trial. Despite the accolades, Anna’s obsession with what took place at the hotel during her period of imprisonment continues to haunt her.

The Family Affair, a sequel to The Polski Affair, tells of the fortuitous discovery of new members of Anna’s family, bringing her both joy and torment. For Anna, the ties that bind run deeper than she cares to remember … or admit. This results in explosive revelations and a family forever changed, proving that some things are better left unsaid.

4. Jon Reiner on Memory Writer’s Network

Jon Reiner, author and man behind THE MAN WHO COULDN’T EAT, stopped by Memory Writer’s Network for a Q&A about his highly acclaimed memoir. Here is a highlight of the interview:

When did you realize the guy you were writing about was flawed and didn’t behave like a prince or hero? Was it disturbing to write so honestly about these aspects of yourself, showing yourself so crushed, with all this dismal truth?

Jon Reiner:  Have you been talking to my mother? You’ve made an insightful observation contrasting marketing writing and literary writing (and you’re the first interviewer who’s commented on my office career. You have been talking to my mother.) In the former, depicting perfection is the writer’s objective. In the latter, the writer’s exploration of imperfection is essential to compelling storytelling. My literary training and orientation is as a fiction writer, and it was natural for me to apply that method to writing The Man Who Couldn’t Eat. For memoir writing, however, there’s another element in the equation that’s uniquely important — personal honesty, something that was impressed upon me at the start of the writing. My agent, Mitchell Waters, who had worked with other memoirists, advised me that I would need to be brutally, even painfully, honest in the storytelling if I were to write a compelling memoir. I held myself to that in portraying the arcs of the characters over the one-year-period that’s depicted in the book — but it’s a tricky business. Emotionally, writing a memoir was much more difficult than writing fiction.

Imagine not being able to eat or drink a single thing.  No lobster roll on the beach in Maine; no hot dog at the ballpark; no cool drink on a hot summer day; no birthday cake; nothing. In The Man Who Couldn’t Eat (S&S/Gallery Books: September 6, 2011), Jon Reiner – a James Beard Foundation Award-winning writer –chronicles his three-month struggle to live without food. Based on Reiner’s acclaimed 2009 Esquire magazine article by the same name, the book reinvents the foodoir, telling what happens when a man obsessed with food is denied the taste of it.  A beautifully written chronicle of one man’s journey from plenty to deprivation and back again,The Man Who Couldn’t Eat  will change the way you think about more than just your next meal.