NOTE: I was not paid to review this book. It is an unbiased and objective review. If you have a book with Jewish or Israel related content and would like me to write a review, contact me for details of where to send me a review copy of the book.

Book Review: Memories After my Death, The Story of My Father Joseph "Tommy" Lapid, by Yair Lapid

Memories After My Death by Yair Lapid is a biography of his father, Joseph "Tommy" Lapid, but it is written as an autobiography. This is a style I have not seen before - perhaps other books are written in a similar style, but I have not seen it. By saying ti is written as an autobiography I mean it is written as if Tommy Lapid is the author telling the reader about his life and it is all in first person. Not only is it all in first person, but it is in first person from beyond the grave - not as if Tommy wrote it while still alive, but as if he wrote it from the grave.

On the one hand, I found this style a bit disconcerting. On the other hand, I found it intriguing and even fascinating. A question that bothered me throughout the entire book was how could Yair know all this and write it as if Tommy was saying it, considering that it seemed clear (from certain things written) Tommy had not written it at all. The answer is not to be found until the end of the book in the Acknowledgements section when he thanks Amnon Dankner for having sat with his father during the last year of his life and recorded interviews and conversations with him about his life, from which the content of the book was largely taken.

Memories After My Death has been published as a translation from the original Hebrew.

When I first received this book for review I was hesitant and unsure about it. The Lapids are intriguing, but everything about this raises people's ire - at least people in the community I mostly associate with. I was concerned that there is no way this book will be taken as anything but anti-Haredi or as a political stunt to further Yair's political aspirations. Yair is painted as one who hates Jews, especially religious and Haredi Jews, almost as much as his father, Tommy, did, and there is no way around that.

The truth is that this is a fascinating book about Tommy Lapid and I am very happy I have read it. It puts a lot of what Tommy did in his public life into perspective and gave his style and actions some context.

I also expected a large portion of the book to be about his political career and his fights with the Ultra-Orthodox parties, but that was actually a very small portion of the book, and his relations with the ultra-orthodox even smaller. Looking back on his life, his political career and his sparring with the Ultra-Orthodox really did just take up a relatively small portion of it, near the end.

Tommy starts the book at the beginning as a child in Hungary-Yugoslavia when the family name was still Lampel. How he and his family survived the Holocaust, while his father did not is as sad and disturbing as any Holocaust story. The two main pieces of Tommy Lapid's life that formed his character and defined Tommy Lapid, in my opinion, were the Holocaust and how he became Israeli.

Lapid lays out his (or actually his father's life, from Yair's perspective) life as a journalist and the projects he was involved in and the people he knew. Throughout the book he expresses his love for his family - his mother, his wife and his children, the pain of losing a daughter in a tragic car crash, while his pride in being Jewish and Israeli shines forth in his interactions on the world stage - especially in Europe. Lapid dispels some rumors that were famous about Tommy, and he put son display Tommy's faults, as Tommy himself was aware of them - his great love for food, being fat, being course and direct.

A point in the book that particularly struck me was when talking about the Kastner trial. I have read about this before and I know it was a heated point of contention in Israel at the time - was Kastner a traitor to the Jewish people or was he simply saving all the lives he possibly could? Lapid puts the entire story into perspective, his perspective, very simply, in a way I never before heard or thought of, and it seems Tommy found this as a fault in all native born Israelis - they just could not understand the Holocaust. During the Holocaust people tried to survive in whatever way they could. There was no right way or wrong way to do things. People did whatever possible, whatever they could do. Kastner saved whatever lives he could, and to the claims that he could have saved more or saved others, they just have no idea what it was like. Perhaps. He did not support Kastner, and he was upset that Kastner kept his part of the deal after the war helping some Nazis  (in exchange for their having helped him save Jews), but he realized the Israelis just did not understand what being in the holocaust was really like.

And the loneliness in old-age that he describes is downright frightening.

The book is truly fascinating and a captivating read. Regardless of your politics, this book puts a lot of perspective into what Israel is, how Israeli culture and society developed, and specifically how Tommy Lapid became the person we all knew him to be, for better or worse.


You can buy Memories After My Death on Amazon.com

NOTE: I was not paid to review this book. It is an unbiased and objective review. If you have a book with Jewish or Israel related content and would like me to write a review, contact me for details of where to send me a review copy of the book.