In The Moment 03.2020

incredible story. And he used to talk about how he

escaped from the train – that was his thing, escape

from the train, fighting the Nazis – although my

parents were always like, you know he

exaggerates, don’t take it too seriously. But what

I didn’t expect is that all the stories he used to tell

were true. That was the biggest surprise.

Q How worried were you about, for example,

Jacques being read as the antisemitic stereotype

of the passive Jew?

A I didn’t really worry about it because this was his

personality. Some Jews were passive, you know.

Not all French people were in the resistance, not

all Jews were in the resistance. This is a true story.

And fortunately, he’s only one character out of four.

It’s not that he was like this meek lamb. It’s just that

he believed in the rules, which a lot of people did.

Jacques was actually the easiest to write about

because he has no descendants.

My grandmother was far harder to write about,

because I was very aware of my father, my uncle

reading it, and their feelings. I was very aware

of that responsibility. In terms of representing

the Jews, the one that felt more risky was social

mobility with Alex. I had to be careful about

acknowledging the fact that, yes, Jews did get

wealthier and better educated in the 20 th century,

because that does play on other antisemitic tropes.

Q The Glass siblings took different approaches

to assimilation.

A It was quite hard to unpick that because I’d never

really thought about it. How you want to assimilate,

what does that say about your feeling that you’re

accepted in this country or not? Because I’m very

lucky. The only move I’ve ever made is from New

York to London, and that’s not the worst culture

shock and I wasn’t in danger of being rejected.

But it’s a sign of how insecure Henri felt that

he had to assimilate. And it’s also a sign of how

conscious Alex was that he could never fully be

seen as French that he didn’t, he made a very

conscious decision not to. Whereas Jacques kind

of took it for granted – I’m here, that’s it, it’s fine –

without bothering to assimilate into the country.

Q What does it feel like to finish something that’s

been a part of your life for so long?

A It feels very weird because I never thought I

would actually finish it. It feels like a massive relief.

I used to think, ‘God if I was hit by a bus and I was

lying in the road about to die, what would I regret?’

I would regret not having written this book. So now

I can die. Now all buses can hit me. I’m done.

House of Glass by Hadley Freeman (4th Estate,

£16.99) is out now.

Hadley Freeman is a

columnist and feature

writer for The Guardian

newspaper, where she

also writes the popular

'Ask Hadley' fashion

column. House of Glass

is her third book.

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