Like Mother, Like Daughter: Proud Australians

emoirs are usually written at the end of life in an attempt to make sense of it, and hopefully enumerate one’s achievements in the face of adversity and articulate the faith or philosophy that guided it. In any case, memoirs are selective constructions made up of the remembered bits that survived the passage of time, [...]

M emoirs are usually written at the end of life in an attempt to make sense of it, and hopefully enumerate one’s achievements in the face of adversity and articulate the faith or philosophy that guided it. In any case, memoirs are selective constructions made up of the remembered bits that survived the passage of time, refashioned into a smooth logical narrative that is largely unassailable by long-dead key players. In Australia, Holocaust survivor Eddie Jaku’s best-selling memoir, The Happiest Man on Earth, written when the author was nearly 100 years old, is a case in point.

Jaku’s message, which he regularly communicated to students who visited the Sydney Jewish Museum, was that even in the nadir of human brutality, goodwill can and must triumph. His own terrifying experiences at the hands of the Nazis did not destroy his conviction, and Eddie’s fulfilling life in his new home of Australia was the proof. That makes Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s memoir, Matters of the.

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