Alfred and Emily
Book description
I think my father's rage at the trenches took me over, when I was very young, and has never left me. Do children feel their parents' emotions? Yes, we do, and it is a legacy I could have done without. What is the use of it? It is as if…
Why read it?
1 author picked Alfred and Emily as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
I interviewed Doris Lessing about her memoir Alfred & Emily at her home in London in 2008. She was 88 years old, but was still trying to break free of the “monstrous legacy” of World War II, which had left her father, Alfred, broken and her mother, Emily, “demented.”
Growing up in colonial Rhodesia, she was more comfortable in the bush with wild snakes than she was at home with her troubled parents. Yet she acknowledges what they could have been had history not been so cruel. I’ve tried to apply that same grace to my parents, who met during…
From William's list on surviving dysfunctional families.
Want books like Alfred and Emily?
Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like Alfred and Emily.
Share your top 3 reads of 2024!
And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.
1,187
readers submitted
so far, will you?
