The War at Home: A Memoir Novel

Nora Eisenberg has written a book about growing up that is both achingly moving and hilarious--quite a feat to pull off! The small vignettes about her childhood gave me entrance into her family and neighborhood, and more than that, into life in New York in the 40's and 50's. I loved the honesty and compassion, the beauty and humor on every page of the book. A delicious read!

The "War At Home" is a beautifully written menoir-novel of a child, Lucy, struggling to grow up in a chaotic home where her parents are not up to the job in which they find themselves. The author writes in the child's voice with sensitivity and humor, the challenges growing up in a disfunctional family. The bond between Lucy and her brother Nicky is particuarly poignant, as they each find different ways to cope with their family's plight. The author, also, is adept at presenting a balanced picture of her parents, their strengths and weaknesses that gives depth to the story. I loved this book, and reccomend it highly. It stays with you long after you are finished with it.

This is an amazing book. It is the story of children who have to parent their parents. It made me cry but it also made me laugh over and over again. Once you start it, you can't put it down because you're rooting for the kids so hard. It is beautifully written and emotionally so true and satisfying. If you've experienced family violence, alcholism, drug addiction, or madness, you'll connect immemdiately; and if you haven't, you will feel like you have! If you liked This Boy's Life or Angela's Ashes, you'll love The War at Home.

The War at Home: A Novelby Nora EisenbergThe War at Home is one of those rare books that stays with you for weeks after you read it. Its characters haunt you, particularly the brother and sister, Nick and Lucy, whose desperate struggle to stay together and to break free of their dysfunctional family, grips the reader with every page. This is a novel that evokes a time and place and politics distant yet dramatically present. It is a New York novel, set in the Bronx in the 1950s, charting the downward spiral of a father's return from World War II to provoke a "war" at home with his family and most tragically with his wife, Tippy. The character of Tippy, warm, talented and sadly vulnerable to his caustic rejection, is lovingly portrayed by the author, as is Nick, her son, whose left-wing politics protect him from the chaos around him. However, Lucy, her daughter, remains central to the story, remarkably surviving the tragedy of her family's dissolution. This is a sad story, but one that ends on a hopeful note, affirming as it does the strength and power of community. I strongly recommend it.

This book reminded me of Angela's Ashes, but I found it more real and more tender in its painful yet positive exploration of past and family. To read of darkness and bleak memories can affect us; to delve into fear, robed in humor and thoughtful levity, can change us. One of the best books I've ever read. If Opera misses this one, she's a fool.