A Hidden Life: A Memoir of August 1969

by Johanna Reiss

For years, Johanna Reiss’ American husband, Jim, encouraged her to return to Holland to chronicle the two years, seven months, and one day she had spent hiding from the Nazis in rural Usselo, Holland. In 1969, she finally made the trip. Accompanied by Jim and their two young children, Reiss intended to spend seven weeks researching the book that would eventually become The Upstairs Room , her Newbery Honor–winning account of her time hiding in the attic of a farmhouse in which for a time a contingent of Nazi soldiers was billeted. But unknown to the millions of people who went on to read her beloved classic, behind the dark and painful story of the book was a still darker Reiss’ husband returned to America early and committed suicide at age thirty-seven, leaving no note. For Reiss, an ongoing reckoning with universal tragedy becomes she is forced to reckon, too, with Jim’s death—and explain it to her children. Subtle and disturbing, the book is a powerful consideration of memory, violence, and loss, told in a stunning and sparse narrative style. Johanna Reiss is the author of the classic young adult title The Upstairs Room , which Elie Wiesel praised in The New York Times Book Review as an “admirable account . . . as important in every respect as the one bequeathed to us by Anne Frank.” She is the winner of the Newbery Honor, the Jewish Book Council Children’s Book Award, and the Buxtehuder Bulle. She lives in New York City.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, History, Holocaust

250 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Dutch-born American writer presenting her Jewish childhood in the Netherlands during the Holocaust. The multi award-winning 1972 'The Upstairs Rooms', where she describes how she and her sister survived WWII in hiding, has remained a YA classic.

Her latest, 'A Hidden Life', is a memoir for adults: in it she writes of her childhood traumas and her late husband's sudden suicide.

Reviews

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like many people of my age who grew up voraciously reading every book about the Holocaust, I was familiar with the author's classic The Upstairs Room. I saw this book and thought, 'oh, right- what ever happened to her afterwards?' I didn't realize that the book was what the subtitle indicates- a memoir of the month in which she revisits her 'upstairs room' and her husband commits suicide.
The whole book felt very, very raw- like peering into someone's brain while they are processing a fresh trauma- and I felt uncomfortably voyeuristic. This was powerfully written, but very hard to read- both due to the nature of the content and because of the writing style. I really mean it- it was like peering into her brain: jumpy and nonlinear and stream-of-consciousness and all. I hope this helped her better process the trauma, the grief, the questions, the lack of answers, and everything else that the surviving family of a death by suicide go through. Just... very difficult.

[Catherine · Rating 1 out of 5]

Johanna Reiss's husband, Jim, encouraged her to return to her hometown in rural Holland to write a book about the two years she spent in hiding from the Nazis during WWII.

She returns to Holland with her two young daughters in 1969 and Jim joins them during their trip for a short visit. Jim returns home and commits suicide soon after arriving back home. That's what the memoir is basically about.

The huge problem I had with this book was Reiss's stream of consciousness writing style. I kept losing the thread of her message. Also, in order to make the prose more poetic (maybe?) the poor punctuation drove me nuts. I tried, really I did, to finish the book but I only made it to page 84. I ran out of patience.

[Dwight]

That Johanna was able to continue with her project, publishing her book as well as take care of her two daughters in the wake of her husband’s suicide, speaks volumes about her strength and determination. While no answers emerge, I do admire her laying bare everything, for better or worse, for everyone to see and experience. Unfortunately it is the ‘worse’ part which has lingered for me.

http://bookcents.blogspot.com/2010/01...

[Melville House Publishing · Rating 5 out of 5]

Johanna Reiss is the author of the classic young adult title The Upstairs Room, which Elie Wiesel praised in The New York Times Book Review as an “admirable account . . . as important in every respect as the one bequeathed to us by Anne Frank.” She is the winner of the Newbery Honor, the Jewish Book Council Children’s Book Award, and the Buxtehuder Bulle. She lives in New York City.

[Eric]

This is an important story, and quality material for a memoir. Unfortunately, the power of the narrative is somewhat lost in Reiss' meandering, stream-of-consciousness style. I hesitate to say it's a fault as much as I think it's simply a prose tone for her grief. I imagine this was written for her just as much as for anyone else. What she has to say about such terrible pain and how she says it are intensely personal. It may be a challenge for an outside reader to wade into such a thing, though I suppose that speaks to the difficulty in experiencing someone else's grief. Reading this book is akin to sitting and listening to Reiss on a long journey as she casually offers her story in brief observations.

It's a book to be experienced slowly, I think; something brushed up against over a matter of weeks rather than a few hours of focused concentration. Grief is an atrocious and wandering leviathan that consumes our attention, each of us skirting the edges of its wasting horrors, holding onto what we can. Reiss records hers with a delicate touch, each episode of her story captured and remembered with dashes of the things that made them memorable; splashes of color, like how the rain fell, the temperature, or something someone said once that she's never forgotten. A Hidden Life is not swift, nor is it generally coherent, but it does have value. Reiss continues to find her life and treasure it, despite the confusing mess of horrors life has visited upon her.

[Lindsay · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually finished this book a few days ago, but I needed some time to process it. It's a beautifully written memoir, you feel immersed in that summer when you read it. I read both of Reiss's memoirs targeted toward children as a child, multiple times, so to see the adult perspective is both interesting and heart-breaking. The absolute fear and terror that she felt during those three years in hiding is expressed in this book in a way that does not come across in the children's books. You also see a relationship with the Oosterveldts that is not as rose-colored. You can still feel the familial tie that is there, though. You learn a lot more about Reiss's family through this memoir; her brother Jopie for instance. You also see the effects of the Holocaust on her as an adult that are illuminating. I strongly recommend that everyone read this memoir.

[Rochelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I put this book off way longer than I should have. Reviews stating it was difficult to read due to the stream of consciousness style had me worried. However, it was not difficult to follow anymore than my own thoughts are. And it shed a lot more light onto the author's time spent in hiding, as well as the psychological aftermath many of the hidden people experienced.

[Alissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starts off strong, but the narrative focus is lost about halfway through. I get what the author is doing (making you experience her sense of vertigo), but we needed an anchor to help us through the story.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just finished this in hardcover--believe it or not--because it wasn't available on Kindle. I read it because I knew the author when I was a child, and I had enjoyed her two YA books--The Upstairs Room and The Journey Back. Ann, a Dutch Jew, lived a life like Ann Frank's, but she was lucky to survive it. Her YA books detail that. She got a Newberry for one of them. I was just poking around and thought I'd look her up and see if she'd written anything else, and discovered this book which turned out to be a shock for our family. I had always been told her husband died of a heart attack at age 37, but in this book she reveals that he actually committed suicide. It was even more shocking for my parents to hear this since Jim and Ann were their close friends. The book was written in almost a stream of consciousness as she flits back and forth in time trying to piece together what has happened, and how she could have been so unprepared. He hadn't seemed different. He had come to Holland to visit her and the kidsfor 10 days while they were researching for her YA books and had gone back to NYC. He said he was looking forward to them all being at home in a week's time. Then came the phonecall that destroyed everything. It is well written in that you can easily imagine her distress and situation and the constant swirl of emotions, memories and disbelief. It was not a fun read, but I'm glad I read it.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

At her American husband's urging, this Dutch woman who survived WWII as a Jewish girl hidden in a farmer's closet, returns in the 1960s to interview the couple who hid her so she can write a book. In stream of consciousness prose, she recounts that trip and her abrupt return when she is informed that her handsome, loving husband has committed suicide while she and their daughters were in Holland.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a slower moving book for me. I found myself mad at her husband for the way he left this woman that had already been through too much. She of course goes back through all the simple choices she made in her marriage and blames herself for her husband's suicide, but as the reader you realize how absurd this theory is. I liked her writing style, but found so little joy in this book.

[Val · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was very hard to finish because it felt like she was thinking thoughts within thinking thoughts. I think someone called it streams of consciousness...basically the problem. It would have been a great story if that weren't the issue. I'm glad she was able to write her story though.

[Luanne Castle]

Review later. Emotionally powerful and heart-breaking story, especially for someone who has read The Upstairs Room, the first book by Johanna Reiss which tells the story of her hiding as a Jewish child during WWII in Holland.

[Wendy]

Thanks for pointing this out, Shelley! THE UPSTAIRS ROOM is a dearly loved favorite.

[April · Rating 1 out of 5]

I tried really hard to get into this book and just couldn't. I really wanted to like it but it was flat and a little confusing for me.

[Karen Thornton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely a downer. Very stream of consciousness. Adds a lot of insight into The Hidden Room.

[Jeanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

a stunning memoir of a simple truth - there is no way out from the tragedy and loss of the Nazi cruelties and the young lives caught in that net.

[Julie Gloden · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reading felt like a chore at times. Her writing style seemed awkward and I was left wondering what her true goal was when writing this book.