Eva Figes (1932–2012)
Author of Light
About the Author
Works by Eva Figes
Associated Works
He and I and the Elephants. Translated From the German By Eva Figes — Translator, some editions — 2 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Figes, Eva
- Legal name
- Unger, Eva (born)
- Birthdate
- 1932-04-15
- Date of death
- 2012-08-28
- Gender
- female
- Education
- University of London (Queen Mary College, BA, 1953)
Kingsbury Grammar School - Occupations
- novelist
literary critic
translator
memoirist
women's studies scholar - Agent
- Rogers, Coleridge & White Ltd
- Relationships
- Figes, Orlando (son)
Figes, Kate (daughter)
Wilmers, Mary-Kay (editor)
Grass, Gunter (friend) - Short biography
- Eva Figes, née Unger, was born to a prosperous Jewish family in Berlin, Germany, and had an idyllic early childhood. In November 1938, during the Nazi pogrom known as Kristallnacht, her father was arrested and sent to Dachau concentration camp. After his release, the family managed to flee to the UK, arriving in 1939. She was an avid reader and soon mastered the English language. In 1953, she graduated with honours from Queen Mary College at the University of London. She worked in publishing until 1967, when she quit to become a full-time writer. In 1954, she married John George Figes, with whom she had two children, writer Kate Figes and historian Orlando Figes. The couple later divorced. Her best-known book is Patriarchal Attitudes: Women in Society (1970), a hugely influential early British feminist work. She won the Guardian Fiction Prize for her second novel Winter Journey in 1967 and was acclaimed for creating new literary forms in works such as Light (1983). Among her dozen other novels was Konek Landing (1969), about a Holocaust survivor unable to come to terms with the present. She also wrote literary criticism, including Sex and Subterfuge: Women Novelists to 1850 (1982); and a trio of memoirs, Little Eden: A Child at War (1978), Tales of Innocence and Experience: An Exploration (2004), and Journey to Nowhere (2008).
- Nationality
- UK
Germany - Birthplace
- Berlin, Germany
- Places of residence
- Berlin, Germany (birth)
London, England, UK - Place of death
- London, England, UK
- Associated Place (for map)
- London, England, UK
Members
Reviews
Built more around imagery than plot line this book by the German born English writer Eva Figes is compelling in its own somewhat unusual way. Having read a hostile review on Amazon I set forward with some trepidation. What Figes is doing in one sense is examining what it is like for a person to grow old. She accomplishes this in several ways for instance her heroine sees herself becoming her mother as she remembers her as she grows older becoming more and more careful going down stairways show more and always lagging behind. In fact memory is what drives the book along as the nameless woman finds herself resorting to it more and more to keep a grasp on her reality--along with that comes Figes extraordinary and poetic use of language which help to describe a life seen through a series of vision-like fragments--reflections always pointing to the past. In some ways she reminds me of the French writer Robert Pinget who also was adept at describing the almost apathetic aloneness of the elderly left to their own devices in a world that is swiftly passing them by--like stranded islands of humanity. show less
This novel opens as a woman is checking into a country inn. She suddenly finds herself unable to remember anything, including her name. She randomly chooses a name, Nelly Dean. When she gets to her room she discovers that she has a suitcase full of cash, and no idea where it came from. She fears that this circumstance might place her in danger, and she senses that perhaps she is supposed to simply wait for the next development.
We follow Nelly as she wanders through the village over the next show more several days, unsure whether she recognizes the faces and places she encounters.
This book is not a mystery/thriller. Rather it is a psychological exploration of the mind of a disturbed woman, and we begin to wonder whether everything we read exists strictly in Nelly's mind. The book is fairly easy to read, and it is compelling, although the style verges on the edge of surrealism, which I sometimes find difficult to read. show less
We follow Nelly as she wanders through the village over the next show more several days, unsure whether she recognizes the faces and places she encounters.
This book is not a mystery/thriller. Rather it is a psychological exploration of the mind of a disturbed woman, and we begin to wonder whether everything we read exists strictly in Nelly's mind. The book is fairly easy to read, and it is compelling, although the style verges on the edge of surrealism, which I sometimes find difficult to read. show less
This is a memoir filled with parallel personal stories, but also makes controversial negative commentary about the creation of the State of Israel and the Zionist movement.
Figes discusses her family's exit from Nazi Germany in 1939, her adjustment to England, her problematic relationship with her mother. But at the centre of the story is Edith, her family’s housemaid, who is left behind in Germany. Edith survives the war in hiding and is convinced to move to Palestine - here she is show more horrified by the hate between people and the general open dislike of the German Jew. She moves to England in 1948 to live with Eva’s family.
There are three main themes to this book:
* the difficulties that Eva experiences while living with her mother after the war (she states that these days she would have been classified as an abusive mother),
* the story of Edith and her experience in Nazi Germany and Palestine, and
* the interpretation that Israel was a state created mainly by the US to funnel unwanted Jewish ‘displaced persons’ after the war, rather than the more traditional idea that Israel was born out of a guilt for the atrocities of the second WW.
Figes points out many contradictions – for example that living in Israel is not a safe-haven for the Jewish people, who are surrounded by hostile nations. She also points out that the terrorism visited on the world today by Muslim nations has similarities to the Zionist terrorist past.
Her arguments are compelling, but lacking in detailed completeness or total coherence. The cover blurbers repeatedly use the work ‘polemic’ to describe her ideas, and indeed this is the first time that I have encountered arguments against Zionism and the creation of the State of Israel by a Jewish person.
Figes is angry and accusatory. Her main villians; Harry Truman and the US government, the Zionists, and the Nazi collaborators who, she controversially suggests, had worked with the Zionists before the war (mainly Eichmann). It is an eye-opening opinion.
Reading this, I am now prompted to push away some of my Americo-centric biases. This is not a perfectly balanced and rigorously argued point of view, but a very brave and courageous one. I doubt that it will be taken up by a publisher in the US (Granta published it). She busts open a topic that really could only be presented by a Jewish writer who lived through the turbulence of mid-20th century history. I will have take my reading further afield. show less
Figes discusses her family's exit from Nazi Germany in 1939, her adjustment to England, her problematic relationship with her mother. But at the centre of the story is Edith, her family’s housemaid, who is left behind in Germany. Edith survives the war in hiding and is convinced to move to Palestine - here she is show more horrified by the hate between people and the general open dislike of the German Jew. She moves to England in 1948 to live with Eva’s family.
There are three main themes to this book:
* the difficulties that Eva experiences while living with her mother after the war (she states that these days she would have been classified as an abusive mother),
* the story of Edith and her experience in Nazi Germany and Palestine, and
* the interpretation that Israel was a state created mainly by the US to funnel unwanted Jewish ‘displaced persons’ after the war, rather than the more traditional idea that Israel was born out of a guilt for the atrocities of the second WW.
Figes points out many contradictions – for example that living in Israel is not a safe-haven for the Jewish people, who are surrounded by hostile nations. She also points out that the terrorism visited on the world today by Muslim nations has similarities to the Zionist terrorist past.
Her arguments are compelling, but lacking in detailed completeness or total coherence. The cover blurbers repeatedly use the work ‘polemic’ to describe her ideas, and indeed this is the first time that I have encountered arguments against Zionism and the creation of the State of Israel by a Jewish person.
Figes is angry and accusatory. Her main villians; Harry Truman and the US government, the Zionists, and the Nazi collaborators who, she controversially suggests, had worked with the Zionists before the war (mainly Eichmann). It is an eye-opening opinion.
Reading this, I am now prompted to push away some of my Americo-centric biases. This is not a perfectly balanced and rigorously argued point of view, but a very brave and courageous one. I doubt that it will be taken up by a publisher in the US (Granta published it). She busts open a topic that really could only be presented by a Jewish writer who lived through the turbulence of mid-20th century history. I will have take my reading further afield. show less
The subject heading for this book said it was about Wuthering Heights.
Hence, I was incredibly confused, as this book has NOTHING to do with this subject.
That said, it was a really interesting and well written book about a women who checks into a hotel and has amnesia. She narrates the entire book; and it is really hard to figure out until the last page what exactly is going on.
Hence, I was incredibly confused, as this book has NOTHING to do with this subject.
That said, it was a really interesting and well written book about a women who checks into a hotel and has amnesia. She narrates the entire book; and it is really hard to figure out until the last page what exactly is going on.
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Statistics
- Works
- 30
- Also by
- 1
- Members
- 852
- Popularity
- #30,031
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 8
- ISBNs
- 84
- Languages
- 5
- Favorited
- 2