daughters. The historical catalyst for this French
revival was the collaboration of some French
people with the Nazis in 1942 and the subsequent
Nazi occupation of France with the consent of
the fascist Vichy government. By previous agree-
ment, the Nazis took Paris without a struggle,
saving the city from the destruction other Euro-
pean cities experienced. Yet this surrender was
an affront to individuals in the French resistance
movement, some of whom made heroic, yet
futile and oftentimes fatal, protests. Public par-
allels to the famed Antigone’s refusal to obey
King Creon were obvious to Anouilh.
The nature of Anouilh’s purpose and mes-
sage are matters of some debate, especially given
his political neutrality and somewhat conserva-
tive bent. Nonetheless, the Nazis initially found
the play sufficiently objectionable to censor it,
and it was not performed until 1944, literallyWHAT
DO I READ
NEXT? The Company They Kept: Writers on Unfor-
gettable Friendships(2006) is an interesting
compilation of essays by writers about the
influences they felt from other writers.
Included is an essay by Joseph Brodsky on
Isaiah Berlin and a lyrical intimate portrait
of Brodsky by Tatyana Tolstaya.
Famed travel writer Paul Theroux recounts
his mid-1990s journey around the Mediterra-
nean inThe Pillars of Hercules(1995). Ther-
oux describes conflict in Croatia, anarchy in
Albania, and Israel in a state of siege.
Lillian Schlissel’sWomen’s Diaries of the
Westward Journeypresents in historical con-
text a compilation of diaries written about
the 1840s movement of Anglo-Americans
into the Oregon and California territories.
Published by Schocken Books in 1992, this
collection is part of the Studies in the Life of
Women, under the general editorship of
Gerda Lerner.
Swimming Across: A Memoir, published by
Warner Books in 2001, is the readable and
fascinating story of the early life of Andrew S.
Grove, who became the chairman of Intel.
Born into a secular Jewish family in Buda-
pest, Hungary, in 1936, Andris Grof lived in
hiding through the Nazi occupation and sub-
sequent communist regime, before immigrat-
ing to the United States as a young adult.
A thrilling tale of suffering, escape, and sur-
vival, Slavomir Rawicz’sThe Long Walk:The True Story of a Trek to Freedom, pub-
lished by Lyons Press originally in 1956 and
several times thereafter, is the first-hand
account of a Polish soldier arrested by the
Soviet secret police and ultimately shipped
with hundreds of other Poles to one of many
Stalinist labor camps in Siberia. Rawicz
relates his cunning escape with several
others and their two-year trek south through
Mongolia and across the Himalayas into
India and his final arrival in England.
Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried
(1990) is a fictionalized collection of essays,
enriched by O’Brien’s own experiences as a
U.S. soldier in Vietnam.
Rocket Boys: A Memoir(1998) is the inspir-
ing account of Homer H. Hickman Jr. about
his 1960s childhood in a mining town, a
miner’s son who is entranced by the space
race and dreams of rockets and astronauts.
Hickman grew up to be a NASA engineer,
fulfilling his hopes to participate in the space
age. This is a story that appeals to young
readers who like to build things and adults
of all ages. The story was made into a 1999
film,October Sky, starring Jake Gyllenhaal.
In Retrospect: The Tragedies and Lessons of
Vietnam (1995) is Robert McNamara’s
regretful and apologetic reassessment of the
Vietnam War and his role in shaping U.S.
military policy in it.Odysseus to Telemachus