Beth Benedix on "Ghost Writer: A Story About Telling a Holocaust Story"

ABOUT THE BOOK:

"In this haunting and stunning book, Benedix tells us Joe’s story. Somehow, she tells us a story that doesn’t necessarily want to be told. Somehow, she manages to tell Joe’s bold and painful story while her own story simultaneously sneaks in. With breathtaking grace, Benedix navigates the wild, wandering shapes that such stories can take on. And because she invites her readers in so graciously, we are not merely on-lookers or voyeurs. Benedix offers us the chance to become active agents in the storytelling. She allows us to become empathy detectives. And so Benedix tells us Joe’s story, and her story, and even our own." -Sarah Gerkensmeyer, Author of what you are now enjoying, winner of the Autumn House Fiction Prize, Late Night Library’s Debut-litzer, and the Indiana Authors Award

"Some writers know that every life story takes form within the constraints of genre, the expectations of readers, the stubborn reality of their subject, and the stubborn integrity of the author herself driven to convey a fullest possible truth. Within the arena of books about Holocaust survivors, only a very few authors have had the knowledge, talent, and commitment to describe that quest in detail. In this vitally important book, Beth Benedix shows herself to be one of those very few. Beautifully conveyed, informed and informing, Benedix shows us what it means to listen to a Holocaust survivor—and to listen to our own listening—with unflinching integrity, candor, and care. This book asks the right questions and--almost unique in writing about survivors--it grounds those questions within the complexity of a full relationship. Benedix cherishes that complexity because she knows it is the real, irreducible thing." -Hank Greenspan, author of On Listening to Holocaust Survivors, Reflections: Auschwitz, Memory and a Life and the acclaimed play, "Remnants."

"Beth Benedix’s Ghost Writer is a deeply layered narrative which, from its first pages, tears into the artful, sometimes disorderly fashion in which story comes together for an author and the man who is her subject. Asked by the family of Joe Koenig, a 90-year-old concentration camp survivor to help collect his stories into a memoir, Benedix completes that fraught and painful enterprise by challenging herself to examine her own past—woman, daughter, mother, teacher, reader. She quickly forges bonds with the unapologetically cantankerous, and unerringly wise, Joe. Thus we are propelled on a journey across the landscape of two emergent stories: one Benedix draws out of Joe, and one he illuminates in her heart and intellect. Cranky, loving, boldly unafraid of his own, deeply earned grudges with the past, Joe is above all a smart man, a teacher, a witness. His compelling lessons are beautifully unsprung by Benedix, who comes to elegantly detail the story of her own passage through pain and memory, literature and philosophy, father, family and dark quirks of the past. Where all this goes, and where it ends, is testament to the freaky, surprising power of a story consciously told, by two brave and full hearts." -Tom Chiarella

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Beth Benedix is Professor Emerita of World Literature, Religious Studies and Community Engagement at DePauw University, and Founder and Director of The Castle, a nonprofit organization that partners with public schools in Putnam County, IN to create a culture of high-impact, hands-on and relevant learning. A prolific writer, her most recent book, The Post-Pandemic Liberal Arts College: A Manifesto for Reinvention (co-authored with Steve Volk) has contributed to a national conversation about higher education and her third book, Ghost Writer (A Story About Telling a Holocaust Story), was named a finalist for the 2019 Next Generation Indie Awards. She recently produced an award-winning documentary, "North Putnam," with a production team that includes Dave Eggers and Joel Fendelman.

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