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The Coldest Winter : A Stringer in Liberated Europe
In this elegant and affecting companion to her “extraordinary” memoir, Borrowed Finery, a young writer flings herself into a Europe ravaged by the Second World War (The Boston Globe)
In 1946, Paula Fox walked up the gangplank of a partly reconverted Liberty with the classic American hope of finding experience—or perhaps salvation—in Europe. She was twenty-two years old, and would spend the next year moving among the ruins of London, Warsaw, Paris, Prague, Madrid, and other cities as a stringer for a small British news service.
In this lucid, affecting memoir, Fox describes her movements across Europe’s scrambled unplanned trips to empty castles and ruined cathedrals, a stint in bombed-out Warsaw in the midst of the Communist election takeovers, and nights spent in apartments here and there with distant relatives, friends of friends, and in shabby pensions with little heat, each place echoing with the horrors of the war. A young woman alone, with neither a plan nor a reliable paycheck, Fox made her way with the rest of Europe as the continent rebuilt and rediscovered itself among the ruins.
Long revered as a novelist, Fox won over a new generation of readers with her previous memoir, Borrowed Finery. Now, with The Coldest Winter, she recounts another chapter of a life seemingly filled with stories—a rare, unsentimental glimpse of the world as seen by a writer at the beginning of an illustrious career.
In 1946, Paula Fox walked up the gangplank of a partly reconverted Liberty with the classic American hope of finding experience—or perhaps salvation—in Europe. She was twenty-two years old, and would spend the next year moving among the ruins of London, Warsaw, Paris, Prague, Madrid, and other cities as a stringer for a small British news service.
In this lucid, affecting memoir, Fox describes her movements across Europe’s scrambled unplanned trips to empty castles and ruined cathedrals, a stint in bombed-out Warsaw in the midst of the Communist election takeovers, and nights spent in apartments here and there with distant relatives, friends of friends, and in shabby pensions with little heat, each place echoing with the horrors of the war. A young woman alone, with neither a plan nor a reliable paycheck, Fox made her way with the rest of Europe as the continent rebuilt and rediscovered itself among the ruins.
Long revered as a novelist, Fox won over a new generation of readers with her previous memoir, Borrowed Finery. Now, with The Coldest Winter, she recounts another chapter of a life seemingly filled with stories—a rare, unsentimental glimpse of the world as seen by a writer at the beginning of an illustrious career.
144 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2005
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336 people want to read
About the author
Paula Fox
57 books391 followersPaula Fox was an American author of novels for adults and children and two memoirs. Her novel The Slave Dancer (1973) received the Newbery Medal in 1974; and in 1978, she was awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Medal. More recently, A Portrait of Ivan won the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis in 2008.
A teenage marriage produced a daughter, Linda, in 1944. Given the tumultuous relationship with her own biological parents, she gave the child up for adoption. Linda Carroll, the daughter Fox gave up for adoption, is the mother of musician Courtney Love.
Fox then attended Columbia University, married the literary critic and translator Martin Greenberg, raised two sons, taught, and began to write.
A teenage marriage produced a daughter, Linda, in 1944. Given the tumultuous relationship with her own biological parents, she gave the child up for adoption. Linda Carroll, the daughter Fox gave up for adoption, is the mother of musician Courtney Love.
Fox then attended Columbia University, married the literary critic and translator Martin Greenberg, raised two sons, taught, and began to write.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
August 19, 2010
Another "to-read" bites the dust. I love goal setting! But, enough about me. This is a memoir. Paula Fox is known to me as a Young Adult author. Her YA books are very good and very good for young adults. Her biography BORROWED FINERY was quite a grim look at her childhood, and this book follows that but with not much mention of that childhood. She does mention her father briefly and all of the good contacts that she makes in her trip to Europe are because of some acquaintance of her father. Plus, near the end of the book she goes into some of her ethnic heritage which is exotic and enviable. At first I couldn't quite get this book. It seemed clunky and hard to concentrate upon. Later, and this is a very small book of one hundred thirty-three pages, I became entranced and couldn't put it down. Fox's story is a marvelous peek into a period of time that none of us can imagine. Her portraits and the people that she meets, rather off-handedly, Sarte, for instance, are excellent. She feels the repression of Franco's Spain and goes hither and thither without much knowledge, to places that are still horribly damaged by the war. This is balanced reporting about war. I wish there were a bibliography and an index. The pictures in the book are not attributed. That is, we don't know who the people the places, etc. are. We just have to suppose. I guess that is part of the art of the book, but I found it annoying that I had to be the one to decide who was who and where. Still, and all it is worth the read.
February 9, 2010
It's 1946. Europe is devastated by World War II -- not yet in Marshall Plan recovery mode -- when Paula Fox, then only 23, spends a year traveling as a a "stringer" (a reporter filing occasional dispatches to a wire service based in London). This memoir isn't really about the news stories she was sent to write, but more about episodes and impressions made on a young woman who isn't sure what she's seeking or what she expects to find.
Fox is young and impressionable and attractive, but this isn't really a coming of age story as you might expect from the "American abroad" set-up. Fox spends some time in London and Paris, but the bulk of this slim book -- its most memorable chapters -- take place in Poland , a country in ruins not just physically but morally, during a winter so cold Fox puts newspapers under her coat to stay warm.
If, like me, you're a fan of Fox's tightly plotted "Desperate Characters," you might find this memoir a bit slight, though her strong sense of insight is on display in flashes throughout. I wish there was a stronger sense of story or suspense at work. The book takes a while to find its momentum, and the episodes don't always add up to something greater than brief portraits of people Fox meets along the way and remembers from a distance of decades later.
Still, as a short informative book it's worth a try, especially if you're curious about the era it depicts.
Fox is young and impressionable and attractive, but this isn't really a coming of age story as you might expect from the "American abroad" set-up. Fox spends some time in London and Paris, but the bulk of this slim book -- its most memorable chapters -- take place in Poland , a country in ruins not just physically but morally, during a winter so cold Fox puts newspapers under her coat to stay warm.
If, like me, you're a fan of Fox's tightly plotted "Desperate Characters," you might find this memoir a bit slight, though her strong sense of insight is on display in flashes throughout. I wish there was a stronger sense of story or suspense at work. The book takes a while to find its momentum, and the episodes don't always add up to something greater than brief portraits of people Fox meets along the way and remembers from a distance of decades later.
Still, as a short informative book it's worth a try, especially if you're curious about the era it depicts.
January 25, 2011
I really enjoyed this book. What I appreciated most was Paula Fox's elegant simplicity. She had this amazing ability to create a scene, a feeling, even complete character profiles in very few words. I was amazed that such a huge experience could be culled down to so little and yet still convey so much activity. The last paragraph of the chapter entitled "Perlita" is something I always want to remember:
"As I look at her in my mind's eye, I am reminded not of the loftiness or dignity of the human spirit but, rather, its sudden capacity in dire circumstances for an overarching sympathy, its redemptive humbleness."
"As I look at her in my mind's eye, I am reminded not of the loftiness or dignity of the human spirit but, rather, its sudden capacity in dire circumstances for an overarching sympathy, its redemptive humbleness."
January 16, 2008
Beautifully written (but spare) account of a young journalist traveling in northern Europe immediately after WWII. The book is as much a "coming of age" novel, as it is a bleak portrait of the devastation and destitution Europe faced in the aftermath of the war. Fox is a sublime writer. She perfectly captures the emotions and innocence of a young woman making her way out into the world, as well as providing a bleak portrait of the remains of war.
I have recommended this book to everyone I know.
I have recommended this book to everyone I know.
February 19, 2012
This memoir ended up not really being my thing.
If this was a bunch of stories coming from someone I know, I'd be sitting there with rapt attention and wanting to know all of the details and I'd really appreciate them. Coming from a stranger though, I found most of it to be rather boring. It's also really disjointed and kind of hard to follow. Or maybe I was just so bored by it I missed details. I also find that for me personally, I don't do well with memoirs that are really just collections of thoughts and short stories. I find that I'd rather read these types of memoirs in little pieces as opposed to trying to read it like an actual book.
It's not bad, but it wasn't my thing personally.
If this was a bunch of stories coming from someone I know, I'd be sitting there with rapt attention and wanting to know all of the details and I'd really appreciate them. Coming from a stranger though, I found most of it to be rather boring. It's also really disjointed and kind of hard to follow. Or maybe I was just so bored by it I missed details. I also find that for me personally, I don't do well with memoirs that are really just collections of thoughts and short stories. I find that I'd rather read these types of memoirs in little pieces as opposed to trying to read it like an actual book.
It's not bad, but it wasn't my thing personally.
September 3, 2019
Deutschspr. Besprechung aus HansBlog.de:
Als etwa 23jährige reist Paula Fox (1923 – 2017) im Auftrag einer kleinen Nachrichtenagentur um 1946 durch das kriegszerstörte Europa. Die Stationen in diesen Erinnerungen sind New York, London, Warschau, Barcelona, Madrid, Mallorca, Paris. Diese Memoiren veröffentlichte Paula Fox über 50 Jahre später. Da hatte sie schon lange keine Erwachsenenromane mehr herausgebracht, jedoch kurz zuvor ihre gefeierten Kindheitserinnerungen In fremden Kleidern/Borrowed Finery (2001).
Und der Der kälteste Winter (2005) klingt ein wenig, als ob Paula Fox den Stil – und vielleicht den Erfolg – der Fremden Kleider wiederholen wolle: Wieder schreibt sie kurze Episoden in lapidarem, flüchtigem Stil, huscht hierhin und dorthin, wechselt die Orte und die Bezugspersonen, wertfrei, selbstmitleidlos, fast gefühllos. Sie liefert zunächst keinerlei Hintergründe, nur das unmittelbar selbst Erlebte. Der Ausdruck "borrowed finery" erscheint auch einmal wie zufällig auf S. 23.
In Europa
Bei den Erinnerungen an ihre unschöne Kindheit passt dieser Stil indes eher als im verwüsteten, eiskalten Europa mit Lebensmittelknappheit und Kriegsheimkehrern. Paula Fox bezeichnet sich als "Stringer", quasi Hilfsjournalistin, und hat zweitrangige Aufträge – also nicht etwa die Nürnberger Kriegsverbrecherprozesse (wo sie Erika Mann oder Hemingway getroffen hätte).
Fox erlebt Wahlen und Landpartien in Polen, spricht untergeordnete Botschaftsmitarbeiter in Paris, begleitet eine Pressereise nach Mont St Michel und durchstreift London auf der Suche nach Arbeit. Sie hat eine sehr flüchtige Affäre und trifft noch flüchtiger Winston Churchill, Jean Paul Sartre und Billie Holliday (dieses name dropping erinnert wieder an die Fremden Kleider). Sie trifft immer wieder Opfer der Nazigreuel, aber auch jüdische Funktionäre und Soldaten.
Natürlich kann Fox nach so langer Zeit keine sehr genauen Erinnerungen abliefern. Der hingehuschte, nachlässige Ton wirkt darüber hinaus aber auch gelangweilt, desinteressiert. Sie nimmt sich selbst nicht wichtig, aber scheinbar auch nicht ihre verwüstete Umwelt. Sie klingt hier kultiviert ästhetisiert und schreibt fast stolz:
"I knew so little, and the little I did know, I didn't understand." (S. 54)
Ausstattung
Ich habe das englische Original in der Hardcover-Version des Henry Holt-Verlags gelesen (ich kann also Übersetzung und Ausstattung deutscher Ausgaben nicht beurteilen). Diese US-Fassung kommt auf gerade mal 133 Seiten – und das nur, weil extrem wenig Text pro Seite erscheint, und weil der Verlag Leerseiten und ganzseitige SW-Fotos zeigt. Die Textmenge erinnert also eher an eine knappe Novelle.
Die nicht beschrifteten Bilder wurden lt. Impressum weitgehend bei Agenturen zusammengeklaubt – Duke Ellington, Billie Holliday, Cafés in Paris – und wirken sehr unpersönlich, mit einer Ausnahme nicht aus Paula Fox' Kamera.
Einzelne Teile des Buchs erschienen lt. Impressum vorab bereits in der Paris Review und anderen Publikationen. Der Verlag nennt aber nicht die Jahre der Erstveröffentlichung; ich weiß also nicht, ob sie ursprünglich als Einzelgeschichten geschrieben wurde oder ob Fox von Anfang an dieses Buch Der kälteste Winter im Sinn hatte. Ich weiß auch nicht, ob sie vier Stunden, vier Tage, vier Wochen, vier Monate, vier Jahre oder vier Jahrzehnte nach dem Geschehen entstanden. Tatsächlich zeigen die einzelnen Geschichten bei Gesamtbetrachtung Brüche und Überschneidungen; Paula Fox hätte sie womöglich vermieden, wenn sie alles en bloc geschrieben hätte.
Besonders deutlich fallen die zwei spanischen Geschichten vom Rest des Buchs ab. In Spanien ist Fox nicht mehr als Jungjournalistin, sondern auf Familienbesuch. Wir hören – wie in ihren anderen Büchern – Geschichten ihrer spanisch-kubanisch-amerikanischen Familie. Verblüffend: Nur in Spanien geht Fox ernsthafter auf die politische Situation ein, wohl weil ihre Verwandten dort direkt davon betroffen sind und teils vom Franco-Regime unterdrückt werden; vielleicht auch, weil Fox als Spanischsprecherin mehr aufnimmt als in Warschau.
Ihr Onkel Antonio hat eine Haushälterin Luisa – so heißt auch die Hauptfigur, eine Haushälterin, in Fox' Roman Luisa/A Servant's Tale (1984). Ansonsten spielt Fox außerhalb der Spanienkapitel kaum auf ihre persönliche Geschichte an und legt kaum Spuren zu anderen Romanen – ungewöhnlich für diese Autorin, bei der sonst immer wieder die eigene Lebensgeschichte zum Vorschein kommt.
Als etwa 23jährige reist Paula Fox (1923 – 2017) im Auftrag einer kleinen Nachrichtenagentur um 1946 durch das kriegszerstörte Europa. Die Stationen in diesen Erinnerungen sind New York, London, Warschau, Barcelona, Madrid, Mallorca, Paris. Diese Memoiren veröffentlichte Paula Fox über 50 Jahre später. Da hatte sie schon lange keine Erwachsenenromane mehr herausgebracht, jedoch kurz zuvor ihre gefeierten Kindheitserinnerungen In fremden Kleidern/Borrowed Finery (2001).
Und der Der kälteste Winter (2005) klingt ein wenig, als ob Paula Fox den Stil – und vielleicht den Erfolg – der Fremden Kleider wiederholen wolle: Wieder schreibt sie kurze Episoden in lapidarem, flüchtigem Stil, huscht hierhin und dorthin, wechselt die Orte und die Bezugspersonen, wertfrei, selbstmitleidlos, fast gefühllos. Sie liefert zunächst keinerlei Hintergründe, nur das unmittelbar selbst Erlebte. Der Ausdruck "borrowed finery" erscheint auch einmal wie zufällig auf S. 23.
In Europa
Bei den Erinnerungen an ihre unschöne Kindheit passt dieser Stil indes eher als im verwüsteten, eiskalten Europa mit Lebensmittelknappheit und Kriegsheimkehrern. Paula Fox bezeichnet sich als "Stringer", quasi Hilfsjournalistin, und hat zweitrangige Aufträge – also nicht etwa die Nürnberger Kriegsverbrecherprozesse (wo sie Erika Mann oder Hemingway getroffen hätte).
Fox erlebt Wahlen und Landpartien in Polen, spricht untergeordnete Botschaftsmitarbeiter in Paris, begleitet eine Pressereise nach Mont St Michel und durchstreift London auf der Suche nach Arbeit. Sie hat eine sehr flüchtige Affäre und trifft noch flüchtiger Winston Churchill, Jean Paul Sartre und Billie Holliday (dieses name dropping erinnert wieder an die Fremden Kleider). Sie trifft immer wieder Opfer der Nazigreuel, aber auch jüdische Funktionäre und Soldaten.
Natürlich kann Fox nach so langer Zeit keine sehr genauen Erinnerungen abliefern. Der hingehuschte, nachlässige Ton wirkt darüber hinaus aber auch gelangweilt, desinteressiert. Sie nimmt sich selbst nicht wichtig, aber scheinbar auch nicht ihre verwüstete Umwelt. Sie klingt hier kultiviert ästhetisiert und schreibt fast stolz:
"I knew so little, and the little I did know, I didn't understand." (S. 54)
Ausstattung
Ich habe das englische Original in der Hardcover-Version des Henry Holt-Verlags gelesen (ich kann also Übersetzung und Ausstattung deutscher Ausgaben nicht beurteilen). Diese US-Fassung kommt auf gerade mal 133 Seiten – und das nur, weil extrem wenig Text pro Seite erscheint, und weil der Verlag Leerseiten und ganzseitige SW-Fotos zeigt. Die Textmenge erinnert also eher an eine knappe Novelle.
Die nicht beschrifteten Bilder wurden lt. Impressum weitgehend bei Agenturen zusammengeklaubt – Duke Ellington, Billie Holliday, Cafés in Paris – und wirken sehr unpersönlich, mit einer Ausnahme nicht aus Paula Fox' Kamera.
Einzelne Teile des Buchs erschienen lt. Impressum vorab bereits in der Paris Review und anderen Publikationen. Der Verlag nennt aber nicht die Jahre der Erstveröffentlichung; ich weiß also nicht, ob sie ursprünglich als Einzelgeschichten geschrieben wurde oder ob Fox von Anfang an dieses Buch Der kälteste Winter im Sinn hatte. Ich weiß auch nicht, ob sie vier Stunden, vier Tage, vier Wochen, vier Monate, vier Jahre oder vier Jahrzehnte nach dem Geschehen entstanden. Tatsächlich zeigen die einzelnen Geschichten bei Gesamtbetrachtung Brüche und Überschneidungen; Paula Fox hätte sie womöglich vermieden, wenn sie alles en bloc geschrieben hätte.
Besonders deutlich fallen die zwei spanischen Geschichten vom Rest des Buchs ab. In Spanien ist Fox nicht mehr als Jungjournalistin, sondern auf Familienbesuch. Wir hören – wie in ihren anderen Büchern – Geschichten ihrer spanisch-kubanisch-amerikanischen Familie. Verblüffend: Nur in Spanien geht Fox ernsthafter auf die politische Situation ein, wohl weil ihre Verwandten dort direkt davon betroffen sind und teils vom Franco-Regime unterdrückt werden; vielleicht auch, weil Fox als Spanischsprecherin mehr aufnimmt als in Warschau.
Ihr Onkel Antonio hat eine Haushälterin Luisa – so heißt auch die Hauptfigur, eine Haushälterin, in Fox' Roman Luisa/A Servant's Tale (1984). Ansonsten spielt Fox außerhalb der Spanienkapitel kaum auf ihre persönliche Geschichte an und legt kaum Spuren zu anderen Romanen – ungewöhnlich für diese Autorin, bei der sonst immer wieder die eigene Lebensgeschichte zum Vorschein kommt.
May 24, 2022
This slight book--I read it all in two brief sittings--recounts the year in post-war Europe spent by its author. Twenty-two upon her departure in 1946, twenty-three upon her return, Fox worked as a stringer in England, France and Poland, taking a side-trip to fascist Spain to visit a relative. The book consists of a series of vignettes, roughly chronological and generally impressionistic, giving the reader some feel for a disrupted Europe slowly recovering from war. But it's also a memoir of youth, of a young woman's awakening to a bigger world.
November 2, 2021
This had a lot of wonderful moments, but it wasn't a very smooth read. The stories of Europe after the war were often interrupted by flashbacks or flashforwards, and the transitions could be abrupt, and the juxtapositions not that interesting or insightful. It seemed a bit disorganized, but perhaps there was a principle of organization that I missed. I found the content mostly interesting, but not compelling or memorable.
December 28, 2021
This should be required reading for all college undergraduates who intend to take a semester in Europe. The economy of this slim memoir is superb: Details are collected and watched over -- so many memorable characters. I think I'm now going to have to read Fox's other memoir.
February 13, 2024
I actually found this book boring. It seems to be a series of famous names dropped and little holding it together. In truth, I couldn’t get into it, and stopped reading after three chapters. We really need a no star category for books we couldn’t finish.
September 2, 2017
Short, tight and affecting prose pace a journey through Europe a year after WWII. Beautiful travel writing; makes me want to go on a journey.
March 1, 2023
Just okay. I wish there was more of an organic flow through Fox's story and greater descriptions on the included photos of the various places she traveled to.
April 7, 2023
A curious post-war read. Crazy all the people she crossed paths with!
July 7, 2013
En 1946, Paula Fox, âgée de vingt-trois ans, quitte New-York en bateau, en partance pour l'Europe, soulagée de s'éloigner pour un temps de la ville synonyme pour elle de toutes les difficultés de la vie.
Vivant successivement à Londres, Paris, Varsovie, Barcelone et Madrid, exerçant des métiers variés, elle découvre les villes européennes juste sorties de la guerre et rencontre tout un tas de gens aux expériences diverses : des rescapés des camps, d'anciens partisans de Tito, la représentante d'une organisation juive enquêtant sur les mesures prises par le gouvernement polonais pour faciliter l'installation des familles juives en Palestine, des opposants au régime franquiste. La confrontation de son propre vécu à des existences meurtries contribue à la faire définitivement entrer dans l'âge adulte et c'est une autre femme qui reprend le chemin des États-Unis à la fin de cette année européenne.
Comme toujours chez Paula Fox, la plume est distanciée, presque froide, en accord avec les températures qu'elle affronte, en particulier lors d'un voyage de presse en Silesie. Mais j'ai regretté que son propos reste superficiel, lorsqu'elle décrit ses expériences et ses rencontres. Correspondante d'une petite agence de presse britannique à qui elle envoie régulièrement ses articles, elle ne nous en fait partager ni le sujet ni le contenu. Personnellement, j'aurais aimé en savoir un peu plus. D'ici quelques semaines, je doute qu'il me reste beaucoup de souvenirs de ce court livre. Malgré tout, j'ai cru retrouver dans certains des personnages décrits ici quelques figures familières des autres romans de Paula Fox, lus précédemment.
Vivant successivement à Londres, Paris, Varsovie, Barcelone et Madrid, exerçant des métiers variés, elle découvre les villes européennes juste sorties de la guerre et rencontre tout un tas de gens aux expériences diverses : des rescapés des camps, d'anciens partisans de Tito, la représentante d'une organisation juive enquêtant sur les mesures prises par le gouvernement polonais pour faciliter l'installation des familles juives en Palestine, des opposants au régime franquiste. La confrontation de son propre vécu à des existences meurtries contribue à la faire définitivement entrer dans l'âge adulte et c'est une autre femme qui reprend le chemin des États-Unis à la fin de cette année européenne.
Comme toujours chez Paula Fox, la plume est distanciée, presque froide, en accord avec les températures qu'elle affronte, en particulier lors d'un voyage de presse en Silesie. Mais j'ai regretté que son propos reste superficiel, lorsqu'elle décrit ses expériences et ses rencontres. Correspondante d'une petite agence de presse britannique à qui elle envoie régulièrement ses articles, elle ne nous en fait partager ni le sujet ni le contenu. Personnellement, j'aurais aimé en savoir un peu plus. D'ici quelques semaines, je doute qu'il me reste beaucoup de souvenirs de ce court livre. Malgré tout, j'ai cru retrouver dans certains des personnages décrits ici quelques figures familières des autres romans de Paula Fox, lus précédemment.
October 25, 2015
Wanting to escape life in New York, where she’d grown up, Fox saves up her earnings from waiting table and books a bargain passage to post-war London in 1946. She gets a job as a stringer from a start-up news service and gets dispatched briefly to Paris, and then to Poland during the coldest European winter in twenty years. In Warsaw she meets Mrs. Grassner, a woman from “a Jewish woman’s organization in the Midwest.” Fox is there to cover the human interest stories surrounding the new Parliament. Grassner tells her she is there to help Jews escape to British Palestine. “Didn’t I know, she was asking, that the Poles and the worst anti-Semites in Europe? Had I imagined that Hitler had instructed them how to kill Jews?”
Clearly all the demons of the war have not been exorcised with the allied victory. This is reinforced by Fox’s next destination: Spain where the repressive regime of General Franco and the fascists still rule. She’s visiting her great-uncle in Barcelona. Tío Antonio had been turned in to the secret police by a visiting relative for writing to his sister in Long Island. In the letter he wishes that Spain might be liberated from the fascists as was the rest of Europe. He been taken into custody and beaten for this treasonable act.
Fox’ style is clear and direct; her witness is powerful.
Clearly all the demons of the war have not been exorcised with the allied victory. This is reinforced by Fox’s next destination: Spain where the repressive regime of General Franco and the fascists still rule. She’s visiting her great-uncle in Barcelona. Tío Antonio had been turned in to the secret police by a visiting relative for writing to his sister in Long Island. In the letter he wishes that Spain might be liberated from the fascists as was the rest of Europe. He been taken into custody and beaten for this treasonable act.
Fox’ style is clear and direct; her witness is powerful.
Read
June 12, 2007Memoir of 1947 post-war Europe, fledgling jounalist, written by Paula Fox whose illustrious screenwriter parents abandoned her at early age- her book Borrowed Finery explores her childhood. This book finds her at 23, sent to be a stringer in Prague and Warsaw, spare portraits of the demoralized rubble-strewn cities, then Spain and the Franco influence with allusions to defeated Republicans living in semi-hiding. Interesting to see the way memory works at such a distance, you can imagine the Paris of the time and the clothes and food and trains and hotels and sense of purpose in the odd selection of characters she highlights. I seem to return from time to time to chronicles of WWII and its aftermath- fueled by movies like the recent Black Box (Hollywoodized but interesting!)
Interesting juxtaposition of privilege (her job arranged by powerful parents) and privation (post-war conditions in Eastern Europe abominable and sad).
A good read on the plane from LA. and stood in contrast to the bright mechanized world of the present in its most hedonistic frenzied trendy consumer state...
Interesting juxtaposition of privilege (her job arranged by powerful parents) and privation (post-war conditions in Eastern Europe abominable and sad).
A good read on the plane from LA. and stood in contrast to the bright mechanized world of the present in its most hedonistic frenzied trendy consumer state...
December 14, 2015
I came across a story about Paula Fox in The New Yorker as I was reading this. The story covered both her life and writing, and apparently she's experienced quite a few setbacks that would devastate a lesser person.
This memoir has kind of a dreamy quality, probably since it was written many years after the fact. I was just plodding along with the story, thinking it was just a pleasant remembrance of a time long ago, but also wondering what the point was really, when the final chapter very movingly explained it all.
I can see a low budget independent movie of this being made with someone like Ellen Page or Jennifer Jason Leigh as Fox.
This memoir has kind of a dreamy quality, probably since it was written many years after the fact. I was just plodding along with the story, thinking it was just a pleasant remembrance of a time long ago, but also wondering what the point was really, when the final chapter very movingly explained it all.
I can see a low budget independent movie of this being made with someone like Ellen Page or Jennifer Jason Leigh as Fox.
June 6, 2012
This brief memoir of the author's time as a young post-war journalist, working as a stringer in Europe, consists of a series of vignettes as the author moves from assignment to assignment. In this respect, it is less a memoir than a series of sketchy recollections assembled into a book. The writing is spare; the author provides just enough detail for the reader to form a vague image of the time and place. The author seemed to be subtly melodramatic at times: I felt as if she were hinting at some bigger event to occur, and there was never anything that came next. Although the book was engaging enough, I did feel disappointed that my expectations of that "greater event" were not met.
January 20, 2009
A perfect winter read. Paula Fox writes about her experiences traveling abroad in Europe as an early twentysomething journalist with haunting brevity as she recounts her experiences among the postwar cities of London, Paris and Warsaw. Fox somehow avoids the sentimental even in her most personal experiences. Her short essays reflect the devastation wrecked on the people and places of Europe. A great short read that could be finished in one sitting or a couple of metro rides in my case
December 14, 2012
In this heavily atmospheric memoir we see a Europe still devastated by the recent war. Instead of the euphoria and prosperity America is experiencing, the places Ms Fox visits- London, Warsaw, Prague, Barcelona are all still stunned and rubble filled, with shell shocked and grief stricken survivors. As we now know , some of Europe never does fully recover, but seeing it first hand thru Paula Fox's eyes is fascinating, eyeopening and ultimately very sad.
November 11, 2014
Fascinating. Very quick read, but extremely evocative. I've read just enough about Europe from WWI to WWII to be familiar with much of what she described. What was most interesting, however, was this vision of how life continued immediately after the war. Somehow, stories that I know seem to just jump to the fifties, particularly the American fifties of prosperity and (relative) contentment. This book really illuminated small lives that lived in the aftermath of those horrible years.
September 28, 2011
I really wanted to like this. I'm very interested in post-WWII Europe, especially Eastern Europe, but this book just didn't hold my interest. I would have liked it much better if there had been something more to tie the vignettes together, or some sort of over-arching narrative, but there wasn't. It was all just so...terse.
I just couldn't do it.
I just couldn't do it.
August 2, 2009
Taking her "memoir train" the next step, Paula provides humanness to the cold aftermath of WWII in Europe. She uses short vignettes of those she met and observed in day to day "living" during their survival.
Written in the same spartan/non-judgmental/highly intense/beautifully drafted style of her previous memoir, she captures the reader to the point that they also experience what she has.
Written in the same spartan/non-judgmental/highly intense/beautifully drafted style of her previous memoir, she captures the reader to the point that they also experience what she has.
May 20, 2011
I've been wanting to check this author out for a while, I have a few of her books here from the library.
The timing on reading "Stringer......." was neat because I had just read all these letters between my Dad's 2 younger brothers (Dick and Wally)when they were stationned in Europe during WWII IN 1945 AND 1946.
Jo
The timing on reading "Stringer......." was neat because I had just read all these letters between my Dad's 2 younger brothers (Dick and Wally)when they were stationned in Europe during WWII IN 1945 AND 1946.
Jo
September 9, 2015
I asked library to reserve The Coldest Winter, a book about the Korean War, and they sent me this one. Same title but this one, a pallid, bloodless wandering memoir covering a 22 year old's travels in Europe post WW2. Best feature--it's short. How could someone who went thru those times remember only the inane. Or maybe she thought someone had already written everything else.
November 26, 2015
This author is the Observational Queen. She noticed the everyday things and wrote about them in a way that awed and inspired me. Then she dropped those observations abruptly to move onto the next, however some lingered in my mind for hours. The content was intriguing as well, the author becoming an adult and a journalist in post-war Europe (1946), complete with political and human musings.
August 27, 2013
Memoir of her time as a young stringer in post war Europe. Prose is simple and direct, which is refreshing! She is author of Newbery winner "Slave Dancer". She creates a moment in time dreary Europe with colorful characters
February 15, 2007
Wanted more. Too brief a memior for a very important time in post-war Europe.
June 19, 2007
I like terse writing but this is a bit too terse even for my taste. I wish she had filled in the blanks a bit more.
November 17, 2007
All anecdotes, no overall narrative or analysis (at least in the 50 pages I got through before giving up).
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