Daniel Mendelsohn 'The Lost'

This book arrived in my life as i was wandering in Paris in the Fnac (the French Barnes & Nobles).
I don't believe things happen by accident. I had a look at Literature French Prizes, and this book caught my attention.
It received the Medicis Prize in 2007, but i read it in 2009, the year i attempted to learn more about my family story with the closed door of my father.
This book was a sort of revelation and full of hope for my little Jewish heart.
For the speech:
http://www.danielmendelsohn.com/books/the-lost-reviews
It impacted on my life and through his book, i identified myself on all these Ukrainian roads seeking for my past.
I have traveled in Poland during 3 weeks in 1994, so the descriptions of landscapes, villages, towns were very familiar. The people too. It's in Ukraine now after the frontiers have changed.
I was with him and his words when he was visiting the house where a part of his family used to live.
This book touched me so deeply.

Daniel Mendelsohn had already started his research by another book written in 1999, The Elusive Embrace: Desire and the Riddle of Identity which is the first volume of a tryptic. I just found it on Wikipedia.

Have you read this story about this Polish man who beat Jewish, Arabs and homeless and found he had Jewish blood? He became very religious. He was a sort of Alex from Clockwork Orange by Stanley Kubrick.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7fO3bzPeBQ
His story was in the NYT, and i think Hollywood bought the rights. Let's see!
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/world/europe/28poland.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Jewish redemption? Interesting story about the ignorance.
Pawel/Pinchas: 'Even as Pawel embraced the life of a neo-Nazi, he said that he had pangs that his identity was built on a lie.'
He is not the first one to feel that way. I had an ex boyfriend who knew he was Jewish by his father but his family lies to him. His father went to the church. He tried to know the truth. His father always avoided the conversation. Welcome to the club!
Our parents don't understand how painful it's to feel lonely to accept their lies, secrets…

I want to find my family here and in the same time, i am scared that they might be mean like my French family… I let my subconscious to give me the starting signal for the next step. Lately I was thinking of writing back to my father to ask him for sending me old photos and threaten him to sue him. I know that's bad but did he give me the choice so far? Being scared of a scandal in the family, he might be more conciliatory. Let's see!

If only all roads lead to our roots…