One of my strongest hopes in writing Ancestor Trouble was that it might help some people feel less marooned with their own ancestor troubles. So you can imagine how touched and floored I was to find the book listed in The Atlantic by Tajja Isen—a writer and editor I deeply admire—as one of “Six Books That Will Make You You Feel Less Alone,” alongside great books like Saeed Jones’ Alive at the End of the World and others I need to read.
I truly cannot imagine the person I’d be if I hadn’t landed in the classes of my high school drama and musical theater teacher, Sandy Miller, known to me as Mrs. Miller, who has passed on.
Today I was live on Connecticut Public Radio’s Colin McEnroe Show to talk ancestors and Ancestor Trouble. The hour begins as Jenny Strauss contemplates the legacy of her great-grandfather Lewis Strauss, currently depicted in “Oppenheimer” by Robert Downey, Jr. She refers to him as the film’s antihero, which was my takeaway of the director’s intentions after seeing it last night. . . .
When an ancestor who was persecuted also persecuted others–in even more devastating ways.