Dora B: A Memoir of My Mother

by Josiane Behmoiras

272 pages, Hardcover

First published February 6, 2006

Reviews

[Loretta Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

The simple, affecting storytelling in this memoir makes for powerful reading. A single mother and her daughter living on the streets of Paris, then sent to Israel, is a testament to survival of body and spirit. What I found most touching that, despite the mother’s mental illness, no doubt caused, if not exacerbated by, World War 2 as a Jewish woman, the loving bond between mother and daughter is never broken. It is astounding what the mother is able to create with so little: using boiled onion skins to dye her hair; hand sewing a dress out of an old nightie; cooking scavenged food on a makeshift gas burner. All around is the kindness of strangers as well as cruelty from those who also struggle post war with their own demons. This memoir is also a reminder that those who suffer with serious mental illness need kindness, compassion and proper care. That the daughter, bereft of a proper home and a decent education is finally able to make her way in the world on her own terms is truly remarkable.

[Di · Rating 3 out of 5]

A memoir by Josiane Behmoiras of her mother Dora and her life as a new migrant in Israel in 1961. Dora is a single mother who has been forced to leave France with her young daughter. In Israel, in a spartan shack in a desert village, in a strange culture with a strange language, they have to survive. Dora has psychological problems that grow worse as she ages. She seems to inspire hatred and bullying and is quite erratic in her behaviour, ending her days as a bag lady.
Josiane grows up and escapes to Australia where she has a family and tries to overcome the guilt that she feels for abandoning her mother.