Street to Redemption
No matter how much we are told that it is a mistake to judge a book by its cover, it is very easy to do just that. Juvenile as it may be; to assume that just because a work does not outwardly seem all that compelling or relevant, before reading it that is, that it actually is not. So, as a reader (and yes, even a slightly juvenile one) it is quite a treat to come across a book that far surpasses one’s expectations. What makes this particular treat even sweeter (as well as the guilt of misjudging it even greater) is to get the story behind the story directly out of the mouth of the man who concocted it.
“Who She Was” by Samuel G. Freedman is a biography of the author’s mother: a oversimplified and very inadequate description. While the book does follow the standard biographical form of elaborating upon an individual’s life, “Who She Was” is far deeper than any kind of simple summary. From but the first few pages, that much becomes very clear. Freedman focused this book on the period of his mother’s life that he knew the least about. He begins where most stories are already at an end: death.
Not only skilled and successful but munificent as well, Freedman came to Baruch College to give a seminar with a select and very fortunate few students. He shed a great deal of light on elements of the book that slipped into the background and on some very intimate aspects of an already extremely personal story.
Eleanor Freedman died at the age of fifty. At her grave one day, without even the intention of being there to begin with, and for the first time since her death over two and a half decades previously, Freedman had an epiphany. He was struck by the realization that he had no idea who his mother really was. Their relationship was always shaky, at best. But only then had Freedman begun to feel that perhaps he had erred. The book alone tells the reader this. But Hearing Freedman himself added an entirely different dimension to the story. Freedman spoke about his mother, but he also shared his thoughts, feelings, and experience on research, writing, and on life.
Why did she die feeling unfulfilled? Of what importance is the “Periodic Table of Human Life?” How can ordinary lives be just as extraordinary as those of the famous? What effect does the popular culture of the time have on its youth? Information, by nature, is revealing, but what can the absence of information reveal? Despite some relatively meticulous note taking, jeopardizing the integrity of the answers to these questions by attempting to recreate them here is not a risk worth taking. However, one answer that can confidently be explored accompanies a question in regard to the division of heart and mind in the course of writing. Freedman believes that the divide between emotion and craft in the process is a false one. When asked by a student if it was difficult to keep his emotions detached, to remain objective while writing this biography of his mother, he responded with ever-so-slight surprise. His reply was that he found it beneficial, essential even to incorporate one’s emotions into their writing, especially when the nature of the work is something that emotion lends itself to so easily.
Freedman said that he enjoyed writing “Who She Was” because of all that he discovered about his mother’s life. His goal was to write about it in great detail and make her come alive through his words. It is clear he succeeded, but there is something deeper here. Freedman spurned his mother during her life, just as she had spurned hers before him. That guilt never quite subsided within Freedman’s heart. He said it himself actually. Penance: that was the word he used. He said that writing this book was his penance to his memory of the mother he never really got, or rather took, the chance to know. Academy Award-winning director Martin Scorsese’s first film “Mean Streets” began with the protagonist, Charlie, narrating his belief that “You don’t make up for your sins in the Church. You make up for them on the street.” The difference is that in the end, Charlie’s penance destroyed him. Freedman’s penance has made him stronger. “The Street” has always meant different things to different people; maybe Freedman’s path to discovering all that hid in the shadows of his mother’s life was, indeed, his own personal street to redemption.