An Echo in My Blood: The Search for My Family's Hidden Past

by Alan Weisman

Book Overview

Throughout his childhood in Minneapolis, Alan Weisman was told that his grandfather was killed by Communists in the Ukraine at the turn of the century. When, as an adult, he meets a long-estranged... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0151002916
• ISBN13: 9780151002917
• Release Date: October 1999
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.3" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Our shared catastrophe and revelation

How deeply moved my wife and I have been by this momentous, beautiful book, which both of us have found to be truly unforgettable. Echo in the blood, indeed. Weisman has found a way to widen a story that is essentially "personal" and familial by ramifying that story in multiple dimensions -- geo-politically, ecologically, historically and racially (the euphemism is "culturally," but this is a book that is unabashedly concerned with the complex meanings of racial inheritance). Most staggering to me are the book's accounts of visiting the weirdly transformed Ukrainian landscape around Chernobyl, the passages that combine the author's father's letters from combat in World-War-Two-era Europe with descriptions of the ongoing lives of relatives at home in Minnesota, and the chapters detailing (with intricate, agonizing subtlety) the deaths of his parents, one then the other. My wife's strongest response was a whole-body recognition of a certain truth, in which the book immerses its reader: As a people, as a species, we are making war on each other and on the living earth. Every one of us carries the burden and the damage of that war into our future. This is extraordinary writing, extraordinarily difficult to make sing, and Alan Weisman has brought it to song.

An Echo in My Blood

I am a descendent of the family that Mr Weisman writes about. How ironic, that I discovered this book through a distant relative who knew I was looking for information on my great grandparents, on my mother's side. I am named for Bess Goldman, a relative of Mr. Weisman. I asked hundreds of questions about my family while my grandparents were alive, and most were stonewalled. After resigning myself to never knowing the truth, I read this book, and many mysteries are finally solved. I am now 56 and for most of my life the story of my family was concealed from me, I never knew why. In those days, living in denial saved you from the truth. I must be a distant cousin to Mr. Weisman, I had many relatives my grandparents would never tell me about, I never knew why they fled the Ukraine. this book has provided answers to lingering questions, echos, so to speak. I will be sending each my two children this book and will share it with remaining family members. Mr. Weisman's research is inspiring. I admire his tenacity in delving into the past with such enthusiasm. This book could be anybody's family, it is a microcosm of our journey from elsewhere to America. Pamela Price Lechtman

An amazing, page-turning story about real ideas

This book goes far beyond conventional memoir. The author's story shows how our world today is tangled with the past, and that we drag the past along with us, whether we know it or not. Through vivid personal stories, the writer shows how events as disparate as the Jewish pogroms in Russia, the McCarthy blacklist, and the current environmental crisis are all connected. He reminds us that we all share the inherited pain of immigration. A beautifully written, sad and funny, important book.

Soul-stirring analysis of family and self

This book is a passionate look at the author's father and family roots, aligned with his Ukranian Jewish ancestry. Weisman skillfully presents his deepest feelings. I was fascinated by the story. It's a page-turner I couldn't put down, and was sorry to see it end. I can relate to his relationship with his father, which resembled my relationship with my mother and her volatile temper. She also was a displaced person who came to the U.S. in childhood, having been uprooted from her European homeland in the early 1930's. I truly enjoyed this book and recommend it.

One of the finest books I've read.

Alan Weisman weaves a compelling tale that is so universal and familiar I kept losing track of who he was writing about--him or me--his family or mine. This is a soulful piece of work with analysis of events that is lovely, deeply moving and musical in how it is presented to the reader. I couldn't put this book down. He is a fine wordsmith and one of my favorite writers.