Lost in Translation: A Life in a New Language

Rating:
Summary: Changing clothes are simpler!
Review: I'm also an immigrant. My new language(s) are like a spider's net in which I cannot travel freely from place to place. Things I feel or think are born in a polyglot pool of disinformation and ignorance. A friend of mine use to say that I'm becoming an illiterate polyglot. Hoffman's book is extremely sensitive to 'translational' problems but I still feel very lonely in this land. I cannot find my way home...

Rating:
Summary: Stunning insight into the heart of an immigrant
Review: I've read Hoffman's book 3 times now, and it never ceases to amaze. In fact, I'm writing part of my senior thesis on it this year. Very rarely is an author able to capture truth in words as Hoffman manages to do page after page. Her journalistic memoir captures the humanity that links us all.

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Summary: Escape from Poland did not always equal paradise
Review: In 1959, when she was 13yo, Eva Hoffman fled Poland with her family to British Columbia to escape the rigors of the communist regime. It did not prove to be the tremendous relief she expected, and the book begins with a section titled Paradise, in which the author reminisces about her life back in the Old Country.
The immigrant experience, a new language, new culture, new food - everything was traumatic for her. It became so bad that she felt her brain stopped working for a time.
The most fascinating parts of this book are those that take the reader back into Poland for a behind the scenes glimpse of the 'good life' lived by the middle class. Altho the whole family, plus a live-in maid, lived in just 3 rooms, they lived well, attending the theater and opera regularly. All this, of course, ended when Poland's gov't began persecuting Jews in the late 50s.
Fortunately for her and for us, Hoffman recovered from her period of despair and depression and went on to become editor of the New York Times Book Review.

Rating:
Summary: Greater as literature than as life
Review: It is impossible to not recognize in the sensibility of the writer of this work a great power of perception and intelligence. The story of the transition from world to world, from the Poland of her childhood to the Canada of the latter part of her youth, and young adulthood is too told as the story of a family ` lost in translation'. On the purely human individual level there is an exceptional story told here by an exceptional story - teller. There are too a number of remarkably moving scenes , I think especially of her re-meeting the love of her Polish childhood, and the kind of understanding they have for each other though they now live cultures away.
I nonetheless found a certain absence in the work, an absence in the making as end of the story real human connection beyond that given in childhood and early years. Every writer as Henry James has his ` donnee' the subject and material which he is given, and is not to be criticized for having. Eva Hoffman's is this lostness in translation, this perpetual not- at- homeness, but it nonetheless makes of her story at least to my mind , one which however successful on the purely literary level presents a life lacking in the higher significance of giving to and being with others.

Rating:
Summary: Greater as literature than as life
Review: It is impossible to not recognize in the sensibility of the writer of this work a great power of perception and intelligence. The story of the transition from world to world, from the Poland of her childhood to the Canada of the latter part of her youth, and young adulthood is too told as the story of a family ' lost in translation'. On the purely human individual level there is an exceptional story told here by an exceptional story - teller. There are too a number of remarkably moving scenes , I think especially of her re-meeting the love of her Polish childhood, and the kind of understanding they have for each other though they now live cultures away.
I nonetheless found a certain absence in the work, an absence in the making as end of the story real human connection beyond that given in childhood and early years. Every writer as Henry James has his ' donnee' the subject and material which he is given, and is not to be criticized for having. Eva Hoffman's is this lostness in translation, this perpetual not- at- homeness, but it nonetheless makes of her story at least to my mind , one which however successful on the purely literary level presents a life lacking in the higher significance of giving to and being with others.

Rating:
Summary: Moving and emotional
Review: This book is a must. It explores the difficulties of learning to express oneself in a new language. Although I have never experienced this myself, it does make you consider the link between language and experience and how sometimes there are no words available to say what you really feel. Hoffman draws you in to her narrative with ease, despite the difficulties she expresses. It is a moving insight into her life as an immigrant and her fellings of alienation.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely fantastic!
Review: This book marvelously captures the cultural differences between North America and Europe. It describes two similar but fundamentally different cultures, one based on the material comforts that a wealthy society can provide, and the other based on the human comforts of good friends, love of music and literature and a life that feels lived.