Synopses & Reviews
A poignant, taut, and harrowing childhood memoir-a best seller in Europe-of a French-man's dark relationship with his American father.
The author's father, Frederick Giesbert, was twenty years old when he landed on Omaha Beach in Normandy, on June 6, 1944. It was to be the defining moment of his life, wounded to the quick at having survived. Three years after the invasion, Frederick was living in his hometown of Chicago, married to a French girl he'd met in Normandy. But when the seemingly happy couple returned to Normandy to make a home with their baby, Franz-Olivier, something in the father snapped, and he began habitually to batter both his wife and his child.
Franz-Olivier Giesbert spent his childhood defying, ignoring, and even plotting to kill his father. But as an adult he began searching for forgiveness, to free myself from the grief of never having given my father the chance to talk to me. Now that search comes to a deeply moving end, in this fiercely honest and emotionally gripping memoir.
From the Hardcover edition.
Synopsis
A poignant memoir recalls the author's harrowing childhood growing up with his French mother and American father, a troubled World War II veteran who took out his frustrations and psychological turmoil in the habitual battering of his wife and young son. Reprint.
Synopsis
On June 6, 1944, Frederick Giesbert, assigned to the American armys 29th division, landed on bloody Omaha Beach, Normandy, an experience from which he never recovered. Three years later, Frederick had returned to his hometown of Chicago, married to a French girl. But when the seemingly happy couple moved to Normandy to make a home with their baby, something in Frederick snapped, and he turned cruel and violent. His son, Franz-Oliver, spent his childhood doing everything he could to defy his father. The American is a sons fiercely honest and emotionally gripping story of a search for paternal understanding and forgiveness.
About the Author
Franz-Olivier Giesbert is a prominent French intellectual, though he was born in Wilmington, Delaware and spent the first three years of his life in America. He is a novelist, biographer, television host and newspaper editor. He has worked at Le Nouvelle Observateur as its Washington correspondent and served as Editor-in-Chief of Le Figaro.