Promise at Dawn

Promise at Dawn by Romain Gary is a memoir of his coming-of-age years. It stands as a tribute to his mother, a unique and remarkable woman, who shaped Gary into both the man and the artist he became. She was an independent, fierce woman who fought to give her son everything she could. Gary recounts his childhood in Russia, Poland and France.

Gary and his mother were poor Russians. His father abandoned them soon after Gary was born, but his mother decided that her son was meant for greatness and that his future lay in France. She put all her energies into ensuring that they reached this promised country and that Gary was prepared for the glorious future she envisioned for him. The successes of his career as a prize-winning novelist as show more well as a decorated officer who fought in WW II, and a diplomat for the French government, were all planned by his mother from his early childhood.

I thoroughly enjoyed learning the details of Gary’s early life. From how they fought the bailiffs to his torture at the hands of his first love at the ripe age of ten, he recounts episodes and adventures in a wry and at times, amusing way. He readily admits that there were many times when his mother embarrassed him but his admiration and love for her shines through each page. I was touched by the bond between these two, she in her single-handed determination to shape his future and he, who appreciated this motherly love and actually strove to fulfill her expectations. I found Promise At Dawn to be a humorous, charming and poignant story. show less

This memoir is basically a eulogy to Gary’s mother. Seeing as I have never really had a mother to speak of, this was an interesting one for me to read as a kind of “what if”, all the while imagining I’d had a female role model there to love, encourage and inspire me to head for my dreams.

My mother never wanted children, drank heavily, was emotionally and physically violent, left us when I was 9 and then fought for custody just to spite my father, lost and then won the right to force us to spend one holiday a year with her until we were 18 and could decide whether we wanted to see us or not. Romain Gary’s mother was not like this.

In contrast to me, Gary grew up without a father to speak of although he suspects in the book who show more it might be. Instead, his mother becomes both parents in one and pursues the unlikely dream of emigrating to France. Quite why she was besotted so much with France Gary never quite understands. But, contrary to all expectations, they do indeed end up settling in France.

In addition to her almost divine powers to determine her son’s nationality, she also manages to somehow determine his future as a great writer and diplomat. Again, against almost incredible odds, this is exactly what happens. So, the tale is at once a poignant memoir to his mother while at the same time an interesting one of how Romain Gary came to be the man he was to be.

And the tale is well told. While the book’s latter half was of more interest to me than the former, it is told with some humour and character. I found his experiences in the French air force to be of most interest, in particular the racism he suffered and his desperate attempts to flee France when the Germans invaded. All in all, this was a pleasant read about the early life of an interesting man I’d never heard of. show less

"I am not saying that mothers should be prevented from loving their young. I am only saying that they should have someone else to love as well. If my mother had had a husband or a lover I would not have spent my days dying of thirst beside so many fountains." (26).

A beautiful memoir stemming from how having a fiercely loving parent can make you into someone who endlessly searches for that same unattainable devotion in adulthood. What a fascinating life.

This is a memoir written by Romain Gary and is also a book from the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. Mr Gary wrote this memoir as a tribute to his mother. Romain Gary is of Jewish and Russian origin became a French citizen. He is the only son of his mother, he never knew who is father was and she raised him single-handedly and single-mindedly. The first chapter is the ending but only a glimpse and it leaves you guessing. Mr. Gary is lying on the beach at Big Sur. He also introduces us to the four gods; Stupidity, Absolute Truth, Mediocrity and Acceptance and Servility. In chapter 2, mother love is introduced. He talks about how her love made future love so difficult and he wished she would have had someone else besides to love. show more He talks about Freud and explores any possibility of Oedipus complex which he rejects. He describes the psychoanalysts as “sharks feeding on refuse underwater”. His mother early on painted the picture for her son’s life so concretely that Romain never questioned it. She planned that he would be an artist, he became a writer, she planned that he would get a law degree and then go into the French air force and be a lieutenant. He got his law degree, joined the air force but because of bias he was not allowed to be a commissioned officer because he hadn’t been a French citizen long enough. She planned that he would go into the diplomat service after he was out of the service. WWII came into the picture and Romain spent more time in the service than he was planned. He started as a private but he became an officer and he was decorated with the Cross of the Liberation pinned on by General de Gaulle under the Arc de Triomphe. He was not a man who was meant to kill though he was brave. He said many times that he never killed. In the end, he valued life especially the life of animals and he especially had a connection to the ocean. He felt that everything he did was really his mother’s accomplishments. She lived her dreams through her only son and he often talked about his career as a Champion of the World.
This was very good. I enjoyed his writing and humor though there is a backdrop of sadness throughout. This is not in the book but Mr Gary died in 1980 by self inflicted gunshot. His actress wife Jean Seberg committed suicide in 1979. Among his literary works areA European Education published in France in 1945 and The Roots of Heaven which one the Prix Goncourt, top French literary honor. It also became a motion picture. show less

wonderful read if not completely believable. Writing can be pretentious.

"Avec l'amour maternelle la vie vous fait à l'aube une promesse qu'elle ne tient jamais"

WWII autobiography