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The Communist and the Communist's Daughter: A Memoir
In a letter to his baby grandson, Bill Lazarre wrote that "unfortunately, despite the attempts by your grandpa and many others to present you with a better world, we were not very successful." Born in 1902 amid the pogroms in Eastern Europe, Lazarre dedicated his life to working for economic equality, racial justice, workers' rights, and a more just world. He was also dedicated to his family, especially his daughters, whom he raised as a single father following his wife’s death. In The Communist and the Communist's Daughter Jane Lazarre weaves memories of her father with documentary materials—such as his massive FBI file—to tell her father's fascinating history as a communist, a Jew, and a husband, father, and grandfather.
Soon after immigrating to the United States as a young man, Lazarre began a long career as a radical activist, being convicted of sedition, holding leadership positions in the American Communist Party, fighting in the Spanish Civil War, organizing labor unions, testifying in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee, and resisting the FBI’s efforts to recruit him as an informant. Through periods of heroism and deep despair Lazarre never abandoned his ideals or his sustained faith in the fundamental goodness of people.
This is also the story of Jane as she grew up, married an African American civil rights activist, and became a mother and a writer while coming to terms with her father’s legacy. She recounts her arguments with her father over ideology, but also his profound influence on her life. Throughout this poignant and beautifully written work, Jane examines memory, grief, love, and conscience while detailing the sacrifices, humanity, and unwavering convictions of a man who worked tirelessly to create a brighter future for us all.
Soon after immigrating to the United States as a young man, Lazarre began a long career as a radical activist, being convicted of sedition, holding leadership positions in the American Communist Party, fighting in the Spanish Civil War, organizing labor unions, testifying in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee, and resisting the FBI’s efforts to recruit him as an informant. Through periods of heroism and deep despair Lazarre never abandoned his ideals or his sustained faith in the fundamental goodness of people.
This is also the story of Jane as she grew up, married an African American civil rights activist, and became a mother and a writer while coming to terms with her father’s legacy. She recounts her arguments with her father over ideology, but also his profound influence on her life. Throughout this poignant and beautifully written work, Jane examines memory, grief, love, and conscience while detailing the sacrifices, humanity, and unwavering convictions of a man who worked tirelessly to create a brighter future for us all.
240 pages, Hardcover
Published September 8, 2017
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252 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
October 20, 2017
Why do I love this book so much? Because for a child of leftist parents, growing up in the 1940s and 1950s in America, it is a corrective story of our parents’ fight for social justice against the powerful forces of our government, as they were condemned for their political beliefs, hounded by the FBI, fired from jobs, in some cases deported, imprisoned, and in the worst instance, a husband and wife, parents of two small children, electrocuted by the state. Lazarre in this marvelous memoir tells the world that though these adults, some our mothers and fathers, may have been flawed, may have disagreed vigorously among themselves, may even have made some egregious mistakes, were essentially good people, moral, loyal citizens who loved their families and above all their children, every bit as much as they cared for their causes.
She masterfully intertwines history, politics and the deeply personal over generations, from life in Russia, to immigration to America, to the fight against fascism in Spain, to the splits within American communism, to the HUAC hearings, through the liberation movements of the 1960s and 1970s, and finally to where we find ourselves today in America. Lazarre focused on their Jewishness, both secular and observant, and the role that it played in forming their views. Oppressed in Russia and discriminated against in America, it contributed to their sympathy for those in need. Throughout the narrative she delves into her own sense of connectedness to being a Jew. Though never stated explicitly, I sensed that, as with many of us, the double forces of hiding from the authorities, the example being the children learning to say that their parents weren’t home when the FBI knocked, and the fact that many who were called up to testify before HUAC, as her father was, were Jews, contributed to an existential fear of being rooted out and harmed for her own beliefs and very being.
This is a persuasive and profoundly psychological and political analysis—at times poetic, and at others steadfastly researched and fact-filled—of friends, cousins, aunts and uncles, grandparents, parents, and children, who for the most part acting honorably toward each other under political and historical duress. When Lazarre’s beautiful, elegant mother, the primary bread-winner in the family, died of breast cancer when Lazarre was seven and her sister a few years younger, their father, relatives, and the political community stepped in to protect and offer comfort to the girls. This father who devoted himself to bettering the world, even volunteering to take up arms against the fascists in Spain, risking his life for freedom and democracy, was equally as committed to caring for his motherless daughters. In a profound way, this memoir, the story of the Communist father and his daughter, flies in the face of those who say liberals and socialists and communists care nothing for family values. Throughout the narrative we see that the Communist father applies the same values toward his family, that he is fighting for, for all Americans—financial well-being, access to humane work, to health care, a good education, to freedom of speech, and racial and gender equality.
In the rich, resonate voice of Lazarre, as she labors for years to understand who and what her father was to her and to the world, we see how she is and isn’t her father’s daughter, but a singular woman who through writing, scholarly research, historical introspection, psychoanalysis, and personal familial choices, that included falling in love with and marrying an African American man and bringing up two black sons, forged her own moral path in today’s world.
This is a book for all Americans, those who need its sustenance to salve old wounds, and others who can learn of the contributions toward bettering America, made, with courage and dedication, by the committed people depicted between its covers.
She masterfully intertwines history, politics and the deeply personal over generations, from life in Russia, to immigration to America, to the fight against fascism in Spain, to the splits within American communism, to the HUAC hearings, through the liberation movements of the 1960s and 1970s, and finally to where we find ourselves today in America. Lazarre focused on their Jewishness, both secular and observant, and the role that it played in forming their views. Oppressed in Russia and discriminated against in America, it contributed to their sympathy for those in need. Throughout the narrative she delves into her own sense of connectedness to being a Jew. Though never stated explicitly, I sensed that, as with many of us, the double forces of hiding from the authorities, the example being the children learning to say that their parents weren’t home when the FBI knocked, and the fact that many who were called up to testify before HUAC, as her father was, were Jews, contributed to an existential fear of being rooted out and harmed for her own beliefs and very being.
This is a persuasive and profoundly psychological and political analysis—at times poetic, and at others steadfastly researched and fact-filled—of friends, cousins, aunts and uncles, grandparents, parents, and children, who for the most part acting honorably toward each other under political and historical duress. When Lazarre’s beautiful, elegant mother, the primary bread-winner in the family, died of breast cancer when Lazarre was seven and her sister a few years younger, their father, relatives, and the political community stepped in to protect and offer comfort to the girls. This father who devoted himself to bettering the world, even volunteering to take up arms against the fascists in Spain, risking his life for freedom and democracy, was equally as committed to caring for his motherless daughters. In a profound way, this memoir, the story of the Communist father and his daughter, flies in the face of those who say liberals and socialists and communists care nothing for family values. Throughout the narrative we see that the Communist father applies the same values toward his family, that he is fighting for, for all Americans—financial well-being, access to humane work, to health care, a good education, to freedom of speech, and racial and gender equality.
In the rich, resonate voice of Lazarre, as she labors for years to understand who and what her father was to her and to the world, we see how she is and isn’t her father’s daughter, but a singular woman who through writing, scholarly research, historical introspection, psychoanalysis, and personal familial choices, that included falling in love with and marrying an African American man and bringing up two black sons, forged her own moral path in today’s world.
This is a book for all Americans, those who need its sustenance to salve old wounds, and others who can learn of the contributions toward bettering America, made, with courage and dedication, by the committed people depicted between its covers.
November 21, 2021
"Mi padre siempre estaba leyendo libros de historia, ficción, teoría política o poesía. Mi padre amaba las palabras [...] El Partido, una palabra que ya he aprendido a leer y oír con mayúsculas. Ese es mi mundo, el de las familias comunistas, una comunidad con fuertes lazos, casi parentescos, en la que convivo fuera de la escuela. El primer espacio en el que comprendí y viví por primera vez eso que años más tarde Sara Ruddick calificaría como "política de los cuidados".
No puedo negar que este libro me ha emocionado. Porque es imposible no emocionarse al leer a Jane Lazarre hablar de la experiencia de su padre en el batallón Lincoln de las Brigadas Internacionales. De cómo luchó en el frente en Albacete, de los amigos que hizo y que perdió en la Guerra Civil española, de cómo entendió que nuestra lucha era también la suya. Hay que tener unos ideales y una convicción profunda en el internacionalismo y en la lucha antifascista para cruzar más de 2000km (algunos en la clandestinidad) para ir a una guerra en un país ajeno. Sólo esa convicción en que hay algo que trasciende fronteras como es el hermanamiento de la clase obrera es capaz de maravillas semejantes.
Dicho esto, el libro se me ha quedado flojo. Ni profundiza mucho en el plano político ni en el plano personal del padre de Lazarre. Tampoco profundiza en la relación padre-hija. Son retazos de recuerdos, información recopilada y notas manuscritas plasmadas sin un hilo conductor muy claro.
Emociona? Si. Pero podría haber sido mucho más. Con todo, sólo por el episodio dedicado a las brigadas Internacionales merece la pena.
Dice Jane que "el voto de no olvidar nunca puede ser un voto silencioso, necesita una reivindicación visible y audible. Necesita sonidos, imágenes y palabras".
Creo que Jane ha cumplido de sobra con ese voto al escribir este libro.
Gracias Las afueras por traernos esta historia.
No puedo negar que este libro me ha emocionado. Porque es imposible no emocionarse al leer a Jane Lazarre hablar de la experiencia de su padre en el batallón Lincoln de las Brigadas Internacionales. De cómo luchó en el frente en Albacete, de los amigos que hizo y que perdió en la Guerra Civil española, de cómo entendió que nuestra lucha era también la suya. Hay que tener unos ideales y una convicción profunda en el internacionalismo y en la lucha antifascista para cruzar más de 2000km (algunos en la clandestinidad) para ir a una guerra en un país ajeno. Sólo esa convicción en que hay algo que trasciende fronteras como es el hermanamiento de la clase obrera es capaz de maravillas semejantes.
Dicho esto, el libro se me ha quedado flojo. Ni profundiza mucho en el plano político ni en el plano personal del padre de Lazarre. Tampoco profundiza en la relación padre-hija. Son retazos de recuerdos, información recopilada y notas manuscritas plasmadas sin un hilo conductor muy claro.
Emociona? Si. Pero podría haber sido mucho más. Con todo, sólo por el episodio dedicado a las brigadas Internacionales merece la pena.
Dice Jane que "el voto de no olvidar nunca puede ser un voto silencioso, necesita una reivindicación visible y audible. Necesita sonidos, imágenes y palabras".
Creo que Jane ha cumplido de sobra con ese voto al escribir este libro.
Gracias Las afueras por traernos esta historia.
August 21, 2017
I think the Achilles heal of this story was the back and forth between the author's present and her father's past.
I feel like it was shooting for the type of flashbacks found in films Forrest Gump or A League of Their Own, but it just didn't work well. There were so many shifts that at times it was hard to keep track of whether it was past or present. At times, it felt like rambling rather than coherent thoughts or recollections.
The concept is great, though, and kept me reading. Just like with Patient H.M., I continued reading because I want to know the end result, but I found myself daydreaming and getting distracted, especially during the history lesson portions.
I had to know more about Lazarre and her father, though. He fought for worker's rights and racial equality; issues that are still at the forefront of politics today. It was really interesting reading her father's words through official court records.
Lazarre's overall story was interesting and engaging. I'm glad I managed to get my hands on a copy. I enjoyed watching her remember her childhood and put together the pieces of events as an adult. Through her memories and the official records, she began to view her father in a new light. I think this book served as a learning experience not only for her readers, but also for herself. The story kept me reading.
I feel like it was shooting for the type of flashbacks found in films Forrest Gump or A League of Their Own, but it just didn't work well. There were so many shifts that at times it was hard to keep track of whether it was past or present. At times, it felt like rambling rather than coherent thoughts or recollections.
The concept is great, though, and kept me reading. Just like with Patient H.M., I continued reading because I want to know the end result, but I found myself daydreaming and getting distracted, especially during the history lesson portions.
I had to know more about Lazarre and her father, though. He fought for worker's rights and racial equality; issues that are still at the forefront of politics today. It was really interesting reading her father's words through official court records.
Lazarre's overall story was interesting and engaging. I'm glad I managed to get my hands on a copy. I enjoyed watching her remember her childhood and put together the pieces of events as an adult. Through her memories and the official records, she began to view her father in a new light. I think this book served as a learning experience not only for her readers, but also for herself. The story kept me reading.
May 1, 2021
Un libro homenaje a su padre, contundente, sincero, sanador.
January 13, 2022
"Sé muy bien que alzar la voz en una salita para protestar por la necedad de una mujer que justifica la ideología de pureza de la Inquisición, y con ello del fascismo español, el racismo estadounidense, y en consecuencia también del Holocausto, constituye un acto nimio, que no arriesga en absoluto y tampoco consigue cambiar nada. Aun así, pude volver a sentir la suave y reveladora agitación dentro de mí. El voto de no olvidar nunca puede ser un voto oculto y silencioso; muy al contrario, necesita una reivindicación visible y audible -como las estrofas de Pilar, como la visita guiada que hizo Diego con toda su intención, como las pinturas y las voced que aún estaban por llegar en nuestro viaje a España-, necesita sonidos, imágenes, palabras."
March 10, 2022
"As I embraced him, he felt my cold hands. He took off his blue woolen gloves and insisted I put them on, shoved his own hands into the deep pockets of the navy blue pea jacket he always wore"
February 13, 2018
Born in Kishinev, famous for pogroms at the beginning of the twentieth century, Jane Lazarre's father Bill and his immediate family emigrated to the United States when he was a teenager. He learned English with great speed, worked, joined the Communist Party, did a stint in prison, and always read widely, but especially Marx, Lenin, Dostoevsky, Theodore Dreiser and other masterful critics of the status quo.
In fact, Bill Lazarre's reading list, and what he and his daughters read together and discussed, is one of the threads that binds the book together. For this is a memoir about people who constantly think and discuss, and feel as passionately as they think.
As a young man, Bill went to Spain with the International Brigades to fight fascism, and this remained one of the high points of his life. His life in the Party back in the United States was also rich: he wrote and spoke publicly and taught, but the heroic days were gradually undermined by intra-party struggles as well as rumors that justice was not being meted out in the Soviet Union. He was eventually thrown out of the party for reasons associated with the last days of Stalin when any disagreement was tantamount to betrayal. The ideology he had built his life around for its clear path to a better world no longer seemed to work.
After losing his Party positions, he had trouble finding work that would support him and his two daughters. Harassed by the FBI and eventually taken before the HUAC committee, he stood firm and revealed nothing to implicate his old comrades, in spite of a real danger of deportation, even though he was an American citizen.
In his final years, he found some satisfaction in a quiet life, a worker hired by former comrades, reading all the papers, finding a second love. He also had a little time with his first grand-child, Jane's oldest son whose heritage is half Eastern European Jewish radicalism and half southern African-American. This becomes part of Bill Lazarre's hope for the future--for a time when international union will be the human race.
The author, meanwhile, as she grew up--and this is almost as much her story as his--turned to psychoanalysis and literature as a language for finding meaning in the complexities of life.
Telling these things about this book, of course, give no hint of its texture: it attempts and largely succeeds in creating a nuanced view of Bill Lazarre's emotional and political experience and the world he lived and suffered in, which was also the world the author grew up in. He has his heroic days recruiting workers for the righteous cause, and he has personal catastrophes when both his adored wife and then a second love die of virulent breast cancer. The author creates his life using his letters and notes, stories told and books written by his old comrades, and she also imagines scenes of him as a boy in Kishinev and alone in his apartment at the end of his life.
She also writes about what it was like to be a Communist Child, when the families gathered in living rooms over food and discussion, with the children loved by all the adults-- a hint, perhaps of the yearned for Utopia of equality and camaraderie.
The book is organized in generally chronological sections, but within those sections, it works by association, by retelling dreams, by including transcripts of and commentary on court proceedings. It is a collection of materials, insights, incidents, and imagery formed into a brilliant whole by Jane Lazarre's skill and patience.
It ought to be a classic of twentieth century American life.
In fact, Bill Lazarre's reading list, and what he and his daughters read together and discussed, is one of the threads that binds the book together. For this is a memoir about people who constantly think and discuss, and feel as passionately as they think.
As a young man, Bill went to Spain with the International Brigades to fight fascism, and this remained one of the high points of his life. His life in the Party back in the United States was also rich: he wrote and spoke publicly and taught, but the heroic days were gradually undermined by intra-party struggles as well as rumors that justice was not being meted out in the Soviet Union. He was eventually thrown out of the party for reasons associated with the last days of Stalin when any disagreement was tantamount to betrayal. The ideology he had built his life around for its clear path to a better world no longer seemed to work.
After losing his Party positions, he had trouble finding work that would support him and his two daughters. Harassed by the FBI and eventually taken before the HUAC committee, he stood firm and revealed nothing to implicate his old comrades, in spite of a real danger of deportation, even though he was an American citizen.
In his final years, he found some satisfaction in a quiet life, a worker hired by former comrades, reading all the papers, finding a second love. He also had a little time with his first grand-child, Jane's oldest son whose heritage is half Eastern European Jewish radicalism and half southern African-American. This becomes part of Bill Lazarre's hope for the future--for a time when international union will be the human race.
The author, meanwhile, as she grew up--and this is almost as much her story as his--turned to psychoanalysis and literature as a language for finding meaning in the complexities of life.
Telling these things about this book, of course, give no hint of its texture: it attempts and largely succeeds in creating a nuanced view of Bill Lazarre's emotional and political experience and the world he lived and suffered in, which was also the world the author grew up in. He has his heroic days recruiting workers for the righteous cause, and he has personal catastrophes when both his adored wife and then a second love die of virulent breast cancer. The author creates his life using his letters and notes, stories told and books written by his old comrades, and she also imagines scenes of him as a boy in Kishinev and alone in his apartment at the end of his life.
She also writes about what it was like to be a Communist Child, when the families gathered in living rooms over food and discussion, with the children loved by all the adults-- a hint, perhaps of the yearned for Utopia of equality and camaraderie.
The book is organized in generally chronological sections, but within those sections, it works by association, by retelling dreams, by including transcripts of and commentary on court proceedings. It is a collection of materials, insights, incidents, and imagery formed into a brilliant whole by Jane Lazarre's skill and patience.
It ought to be a classic of twentieth century American life.
September 8, 2021
Una historia fascinante. La vida de William Lazarre es realmente interesante, pero lo que hace esta historia más especial es la manera en la que la autora la narra, entrelazando el pasado y el presente y echando una nueva mirada sobre el pasado de su padre. Se aprecia en la narración el intento de ver desde una nueva perspectiva sobre la vida de un padre, al que no siempre comprendió durante la primera juventud de su autora. De ah��, el doble interés de esta obra, no solo como memoria de una vida realmente fascinante, sino la de un espejo en el que todas las relaciones entre padres e hijos pueden mirarse.
January 19, 2022
Es una lectura para sumergirse de lleno y conocer a este hombre tan maravilloso que fue el padre de la autora. Su legado como activista por los derechos de los trabajadores y las personas en general, su búsqueda intensa de un mundo más justo, pero sobre todo, la necesidad que tuvo de inculcar sus experiencias a sus hijas y a quienes lo rodearon.
Lo retrata su hija, su mayor desafío y su gran admiradora. El amor, así como el cuestionamiento necesario de todo hijo hacia su padre, están bellamente plasmados en estas páginas.
Además, tiene un gran contenido histórico del comunismo de los años 40 en adelante en Estados Unidos y el mundo.
Lo retrata su hija, su mayor desafío y su gran admiradora. El amor, así como el cuestionamiento necesario de todo hijo hacia su padre, están bellamente plasmados en estas páginas.
Además, tiene un gran contenido histórico del comunismo de los años 40 en adelante en Estados Unidos y el mundo.
January 2, 2023
El comunista y la hija del comunista, Jane Lazarre (las afueras)
Le Monde Diplomatique, enero 2022
Por Lala Toutonian
Porque escribir la historia es redescubrirse también. “Mi padre, Bill, líder revolucionario, comisario político en la guerra civil española y profesor, siempre trabajó mezclando varios métodos y propósitos. Uno de los primeros discursos que pronunció en público le valió una visita a la cárcel de Filadelfia, en los años veinte”, relata Lazarre en su libro. Y vaya declaración (y testimonio). ¿Cómo se es la hija de un hombre así? “Un líder revolucionario”. Tras la lectura de El nudo materno, Jane Lazarre es traducida al español y, novelista y ensayista ella, gran referente del feminismo, acá se desnuda para apelar a la memoria (tiene dos libros más al respecto pero en inglés), su propia historia: la de una hija (dos, en rigor) criada por su padre, huérfana de madre y traza una cartografía que recorre desde la melancolía hasta la historia de la humanidad entreverada con la suya propia. Y la de su padre, claro, el verdadero protagonista de este ensayo. Su infancia, recuerdos, por igual buenos y malos, pero sin dudas, todos ricos en sabiduría y experiencia vital, han hecho de Lazarre quién es.
Aunque lo más interesante, más allá de la historia misma, es el aporte de la autora en términos de análisis (comunismo, psicoanálisis, dudas sobre sus propios recuerdos, judaísmo, represiones, huída de pogromos, largo etcétera) y reflexiones sobre lo acontecido: pone en duda algunos hechos, el autodescubrimiento como piedra filosofal y la fragmentación de recuerdos hilados con su mirada.
Verdaderamente un libro fundamental.
Le Monde Diplomatique, enero 2022
Por Lala Toutonian
Porque escribir la historia es redescubrirse también. “Mi padre, Bill, líder revolucionario, comisario político en la guerra civil española y profesor, siempre trabajó mezclando varios métodos y propósitos. Uno de los primeros discursos que pronunció en público le valió una visita a la cárcel de Filadelfia, en los años veinte”, relata Lazarre en su libro. Y vaya declaración (y testimonio). ¿Cómo se es la hija de un hombre así? “Un líder revolucionario”. Tras la lectura de El nudo materno, Jane Lazarre es traducida al español y, novelista y ensayista ella, gran referente del feminismo, acá se desnuda para apelar a la memoria (tiene dos libros más al respecto pero en inglés), su propia historia: la de una hija (dos, en rigor) criada por su padre, huérfana de madre y traza una cartografía que recorre desde la melancolía hasta la historia de la humanidad entreverada con la suya propia. Y la de su padre, claro, el verdadero protagonista de este ensayo. Su infancia, recuerdos, por igual buenos y malos, pero sin dudas, todos ricos en sabiduría y experiencia vital, han hecho de Lazarre quién es.
Aunque lo más interesante, más allá de la historia misma, es el aporte de la autora en términos de análisis (comunismo, psicoanálisis, dudas sobre sus propios recuerdos, judaísmo, represiones, huída de pogromos, largo etcétera) y reflexiones sobre lo acontecido: pone en duda algunos hechos, el autodescubrimiento como piedra filosofal y la fragmentación de recuerdos hilados con su mirada.
Verdaderamente un libro fundamental.
February 3, 2024
Hermoso homenaje de una hija a su padre. Utilizando múltiples recursos narrativos relata su historia familiar y los sucesos históricos y políticos que la atraviesan.
"Cuando escribimos utilizando algún recurso evocador, cuando aspiramos a usar el lenguaje de forma tan precisa y lírica como la música, cuando las estructuras creadas revelan significados y sugieren diferentes capas de la realidad, llamamos a ese resultado ficción. Sin embargo, también las memorias pueden contener una mezcla armónica de forma y significado, que inevitablemente incluye recuerdos tan fiables como inciertos, evocados por una sola palabra o conformados por una imagen sostenida, y esa imagen, precisamente, constituye la raíz de la palabra imaginación."
"Cuando escribimos utilizando algún recurso evocador, cuando aspiramos a usar el lenguaje de forma tan precisa y lírica como la música, cuando las estructuras creadas revelan significados y sugieren diferentes capas de la realidad, llamamos a ese resultado ficción. Sin embargo, también las memorias pueden contener una mezcla armónica de forma y significado, que inevitablemente incluye recuerdos tan fiables como inciertos, evocados por una sola palabra o conformados por una imagen sostenida, y esa imagen, precisamente, constituye la raíz de la palabra imaginación."
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October 28, 2018This was heartbreakingly beautiful. Intelligent and thoughtful, it interrogates the ideas about memory and inheritance. I took my time reading it during my daily subway ride to drag out the pleasure of the read.
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