LESLIE GILBERT-LURIE
BENDING TOWARD THE SUN
A MOTHER AND DAUGHTER MEMOIR
(September 2009)
by Leslie Gilbert-Lurie
From Holocaust survivor Rita Lurie and her daughter, Leslie Gilbert-Lurie, comes a beautiful and haunting dual memoir of a deep family bond, forged in the wake of a brutal terror.
In BENDING TOWARD THE SUN (HarperCollins Publishers; September 2009; $25.99; Hardcover), Rita and Leslie weave a riveting and rare first-hand account of how the Holocaust experience has a profound psychological impact on survivors and also extends into the lives of their descendants. BENDING TOWARD THE SUN links mother, daughter, and granddaughter, and shows how the resilient human heart survives to help heal future generations.
Spanning from the time in which Rita Lurie fled her home in Poland to hide in an attic with 14 family members, never speaking above a whisper and surviving on scraps of food, to watching her granddaughter grow up, BENDING TOWARD THE SUN is a remarkable journey from trauma to hope. Where most Holocaust stories end, this unique memoir—a story like no other—just begins.
Once liberated, Rita and her surviving family found themselves homeless, without a country, shifting through Displaced Persons camps, and finally moving to America, where she grew into a loving, successful mother. But her emotional legacy of fear, guilt, and pain had a tremendous impact on her children. Her eldest daughter Leslie, an accomplished lawyer, media executive, and philanthropist, developed fears eerily related to Rita’s past. Seeking answers, Leslie realized how deeply Rita’s suffering had shaped her outlook on life. Now, she is beginning to notice similar tendencies in her own daughter. Through research, Leslie discovers that, perhaps en utero, the trauma her mother incurred as a child had been transmitted to her, and a generation later, it is possible she had passed on this legacy to her own daughter.
Incorporating the remembrances of six other survivors from the attic and interviews with the Catholic farmer’s wife who hid five-year-old Rita, BENDING TOWARD THE SUN explores how the Holocaust reverberates in their hearts and minds, and extends into the lives of the second and third generations. Leslie Gilbert-Lurie and her mother Rita Lurie provide powerful—and inspiring—evidence of the resiliency of the human spirit, relevant to every culture, in every corner of the world. This firsthand account of survival and psychological healing offers both a strong and poignant message of hope in our own uncertain times. With its honesty and emotional arc, it will touch anyone who has ever sought reassurance and renewal following a traumatic experience.
A writer, lawyer, and former executive at NBC, Leslie Gilbert-Lurie is the president of the Los Angeles County Board of Education and a teacher of Holocaust studies. A founding member and past president of the non-profit Alliance for Children’s Rights, she was recently appointed by the mayor of Los Angeles to a panel to devise a new cultural plan for the city of Los Angeles. She has been a recipient of the American Jewish Congress’s Tzedek Award for Outstanding Commitment to Civil Rights, Civil Liberties, and Justice, and the Alliance for Children’s Rights Child Advocate of the Year Award. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, two children, and stepson.
I hope you give serious review/feature consideration to this exceptional and significant memoir, BENDING TOWARD THE SUN.