The Memory Chalet

A captivating little book of recollections, reminiscences, reflections and essays. They are delightful and warm, even uplifting, although the background for the book is sad: while dictating the stories, the author Tony Judt was dying from ALS, a motor neuron disease that in a short span of time killed his body, but left his mind intact. Reconstructing memories and delightful short stories was for him a way of enduring pain.In an interview shortly before passing away, he says what we all know :`I was always good with words'; and he imagines his children reading the stories decades from now, and say: `This was our dad.'I believe that the stories will continue to remind us of life's beauty. Perhaps Tony saw it more clearly knowing that there was so little time left. From my own childhood, I remember H C Andersen's little Match Girl, who in her last moments saw what escapes the rest of us: `No one imagined what beautiful things she had seen ...'Readers of Tony Judt's other books, `Postwar' the best known of them, will recall an unparalleled master of the English language. That alone gives me much reading pleasure. It is a book you enjoy the second time as well. We are all able to recognize the themes in the stories; for Tony, early childhood in London, austerity, busses, school, trains, and Cambridge, but only Tony Judt can infuse the stories with humanity and keep us in stitches.For some years, I have enjoyed Tony Judt's essays and reviews in New York Review of Books; and I will miss them, sorely. My favorite bookstore and coffee shop has New York Review of Books displayed, a new one each week. I couldn't wait to read the next one of his essays. (Some are now collected in a separate book, called Reappraisals.)Born a few years after the war, a member of the baby boom generation, Tony Judt spent his formative years in Europe, and summers in kibbutzim in Israel, spoke the languages, was early on immersed in left wing political trends, and out of all of it, he formed his own ideas later in life. In his professional life he was a Professor. (This reviewer shares these experiences.)In his career, Tony Judt was a professor at NYU, director of the Remarque Institute, dedicated to the study of Europe, history and culture. By the way, Remarque is the author of "All Quiet at the Western Front. --- -- Review by Palle Jorgensen, Jan 2011.

A man is reduced to a Samsa-like life, not by a miraculous metamorphosis, but by ALS. He is condemned to helplessness, immobility and hopelessness. He perceives his retained mental agility as a blessing, sometimes a mixed one. In the endless hours of being alone, he works his memory, later he dictates the recollections. This way, we receive a series of autobiographical essays.But the vocal muscles are failing. The end of adult existence is approaching.The book was published posthumously in 2010.The man is, was, Tony Judt, an English historian in America. He was born in 1948 in a modest Jewish family in London. Childhood memories are the first part of this volume. I share the birth year, but not much else, apart from this: memories of austerity. Judt talks about food, cars, trains, ships... Nothing very exciting, really.Then he becomes more interesting: he gives us his personal Bildungsroman. The years in an unloved school, with a strong hint at appreciation for demanding teaching. Member in a Zionist Labour youth organization, spending summers in Kibbutzim. Cambridge: the essay not focused on learning in class, but on learning about class. The strange world of the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris. The myopic world of the 68 'revolution'. A rant against British education reforms. Words: advocating articulacy and preferring content over style.Part 3 takes us to America. Judt went from a Cambridge fellowship to become a professor in California, later at NYU. He crossed the continent 8 times by road and has much to tell us about it, I bet.It was in America that he felt the most European. But then a midlife crisis leads him the other direction: he specializes on Eastern Europe. He sees the ' market' ideology on par with communism as an intellectual hallucinogen. A playful chapter on American insanity re harassment: he got married to a student while at NYU. His love for world city NYC. His difficulty with the concept 'identity'.Despite my different 'identity', I can identify with or at least follow him with many of his concerns and peeves. I find a common wavelength in many issues.This book has made me decide that I need to read Judt's main claim to the historians' hall of fame, the book Postwar about modern European history.

Two references in reviews -the assertion of post-war prosperity, and the suggestion of "Proustian" associations of memory- prompted me to buy this book, which I immediately re-read. Tony Judt was a clearly very well-and variedly- travelled man who had a finely developed sensitivity to the surroundings in which he found himself,which made lasting and mind-broadening impressions upon him which he skillfully transposes into his essays. In this he he has demonstrated an ability to bring to the reader's attention an insight into some experiences which might easily be overlooked as being merely mundane, all the more admirable for being completed in the light of his disability, which he refers to with feeling but without self-pity. Altogether quite instructive in showing how life can be experienced-- and enjoyed.

One cannot dissociate this small masterpiece from the very particular process by which it has been created: the author alone in his bed, paralysed by his illness but with a lively spirit composed these texts. In 2008 the eminent historian Tony Judt was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a neurodegenerative disorder whereby the patient gradually loses control of all his bodily functions but leaves the mind clear, a `progressive imprisonment without parole'.These texts were never intended for publication, but were the result of Judts intellectual diversions simply to get him through the night: alone, completely immobile, as a `modern day mummy', in his `corporeal prison' Judt composed these short texts mainly motivated to ward off some bodily discomfort. Devoid of the possibility to write down these texts, by mnemonic means (his `memory chalet') he memorised these texts before they could be put to paper by him dictating it during the day to his assistant.Due to this very particular creation process, the end result is a collection of texts which describe without pathos, very finely worded and with quite some humour some very down to earth subjects linked to his personal experiences: e.g. his father's enthusiasm for cars which Judt interprets as a way to escape an unhappy marriage and humiliating work, his youthful fascination and experience with kibbutz-life which resulted in an early suspiciousness for ideologies such as Maoism, gauchism, tiers-mondism... The strict, politically completely incorrect German teacher Joe, who efficiently taught Judt in a short time span to master this difficult language.The diverse subjects always lead to very straightforward observations accompanied by intelligent analysis.I was impressed by the extremely well-chosen wordings to describe by definition very ordinary things and this with humour. These texts are written by someone who has come to terms with his terrible ordeal, illustrated by the benign, positive look on things passed not excluding well-founded criticism. As Judt expresses it himself, these texts are written by a person who knows that `being' is the only thing left to him, he will not experience new things.The texts for this book were finished in May 2010, Tony Judt died in August 2010.

Few of us know when we are near our end but if we did what might we say? Tony Judt writes in the knowledge that he may soon be unable to communicate. From that perspective we are taken into the room of roving thoughts and reflections on a wide range of topics. It is a curious, at times moving journey, written with elegance and clarity.

This book is a 'must' I found it fascinating and informative, some areas of which took me back to my youth being of a similar age. I felt envy too at the opportunities of so much freedom and travel from such an early age. What an amazing strong and clever character Tony Judt was, placing thoughts and memories into 'rooms' during his illness. This book should be read by everyone!

The author places in the position of someone seriously ill with consummate skill but reviews his life without a trace of self pity indeed the book is redolent with sardonic hummour. Without having set foot in 50's Britain I felt I knew Putney like the back of my hand so clear was his description. Not only is his sense of place strong but we know his place in that society with the description of his family in that society, his sense of self is excellent.The chalet described made such a deep impression on him and on me the reader, I would love to fled all and gone there. i read this book in every spare moment.