Suleiman's erudite and elegant essays display a profound understanding of the complexities of memory.
   --Chuck Leddy, Boston Globe

Suleiman's book results from prolonged reflection going back at least to her autobiographical Budapest Diary (1996). The textual analyses illustrating the evolution of collective memory range chronologically from Sartre's essays on the Occupation to 21st-century works, including novels, essays, memoirs, and documentary and fictional films...Although she cites numerous studies in several languages, from various disciplines, Suleiman's erudition never overpowers or descends to jargon. She poses crucial questions about writing and rewriting, or narrative and generic expectations, debating with other theorists as she does so. Suleiman has written a beautiful book, one that tackles uncomfortable questions about official myths and commemorations, juridically unforgettable crimes, and Jewish identity versus national assimilation. The adjective 'exhilarating,' which Suleiman uses to describe Elie Wiesel's self-correction in All Rivers Run to the Sea, applies equally to this book. The vast WW II and Holocaust literature has needed a study of this clarity and brilliance. Summing Up: Essential.
   --A.M. Rea, Choice

Suleiman's book offers us no sure way of overcoming "crises of memory," but it admirably succeeds in guiding us through a memory landscape that is still (or again) littered with explosive underground mines.
   --John Neubauer, Shofar

Susan Rubin Suleiman is the Dillon Professor of the Civilization of France and Professor of Comparative Literature, Harvard University.

Read More by Susan Rubin Suleiman:

• The Female Body in Western Culture: Contemporary Perspectives
• Risking Who One Is: Encounters with Contemporary Art and Literature
• Subversive Intent: Gender, Politics, and the Avant-Garde
• Coming to Writing" and Other Essays