Amazon Category:  Memoir Publisher: Columbia University Press ISBN-10:  023112130X Type: Non-Fiction Pages: 220 Copyright: September, 2000 A memoir of childhood in Communist Romania by a woman of hyphenated parentage--a Jewish mother who survived Auschwitz and a Greek father who became a political prisoner during the Communist regime, an adolescence in Western Europe and the U. S., and an adulthood haunted by a continued sense of displacement. No Return Address is a vivid memoir of a life in exile and a poignant meditation on pleasure and loss, repression and transgression, and the complexities of love under harsh human conditions. In recounting her life's journey from Romania to Paris and Brussels, then on to the United States, Anca Vlasopolos writes movingly of the peculiar attributes of displacement in the contemporary world -- the hyphenated, ambiguous identities; the purgatory in which immigrants await transfer to another country; the mysterious nostalgia for places and events dimly recalled. Throughout, she describes the constant search for a place to truly call home. Vlasopolos renders a clear and loving portrait of her mother, an Auschwitz survivor courageously raising a young girl by herself after the death of her husband, a political dissident. She details their years of limbo in Brussels and Paris and of settlement in Detroit, Michigan, as well as her ultimate decision to identify the United States as home, inspired by the strong multicultural quality that allows so many others to do the same Excerpt When I tried to argue with my mother that everyone's tragedy is deeply tragic to the individual, she'd say, "Well, maybe the loss of a child. Bu no, not really, what about the loss of all the children? Can you picture a neighborhood where every child under thirteen dies a violent death? Every ONE, no exceptions." And I'd have to concede, always, the limits of my imagination.

No Return Address
Vlasopolos opens this pensive memoir by proclaiming that she is not Philip Roth and that she detests therapy. Indeed, she is no "self-hater," as Roth is often labeled, and she does not equivocate regarding her Jewish origins in order to establish a new sense of self. Her insightful autobiography easily reads like fiction and is actually more of a love letter to her family--especially her mother--than to her Romanian heritage and its place in her adult life in America. While this is not an inappropriate focus, the early chapters, which depict the political pressure that Vlasopolos could sense while growing up in Romania, are far more riveting than the later chapters, which center on her psychological quest of the West at the age of 13. The word "displacement" here apparently entails a form of indescribable longing rather than location or identity. Alas, it remains unclear whether the teenage girl eventually freed herself of the mental burdens of communism or is still unwittingly adapting to a culture in which the "I" overrules the "we." An English professor and a writer, Vlasopolos is clearly as talented as she is erudite, and despite the blurred ending, her memoir conveys well-above-average writing and a unique perspicacity worthy of accolades.--Mirela Roncevic, "Library Journal" Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.



No Return Address
A poet and novelist relates her journey from childhood in communist Romania to her coming of age in the US. She writes movingly about ambiguous identities assumed by displaced people, and describes the constant search for a place to call home. The true heroine of the story of the author's mother, an Auschwitz survivor who raised her daughter herself after her husband's death. Includes b&w personal photos. The author teaches English at Wayne State University. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)


No Return Address
“Abounding with images and symbols—the ‘Holy Grail’ of the West, the smell of bread in Paris, the tangled but orderly subterranean Paris Metro, the Easter candle in a Jewish/Orthodox household, the plastic mesh sack to carry food—the book aptly describes the emigrant experience and life behind the Iron Curtain. Defining the nomadic struggle many emigrés to the US (and elsewhere) have endured, this volume is recommended for academic and general collections at all levels.” — L. J. Rippley, Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, vol. 38, no. 8 (April 2001)