The Escape Artist

De: Helen Fremont

Narrado por: Gabra Zackman

A luminous new memoir from the author of the critically acclaimed national best seller After Long Silence, The Escape Artist has been lauded by New York Times best-selling author Mary Karr as “beautifully written, honest, and psychologically astute. A must-read”.

In the tradition of Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home and George Hodgman’s Bettyville, Fremont writes with wit and candor about growing up in a household held together by a powerful glue: secrets. Her parents, profoundly affected by their memories of the Holocaust, pass on to both Helen and her older sister a zealous determination to protect themselves from what they see as danger from the outside world.

She delves deeply into the family dynamic that produced such a startling devotion to secret keeping, beginning with the painful and unexpected discovery that she has been disinherited in her mother’s will. In scenes that are frank, moving, and often surprisingly funny, she writes about growing up in such an intemperate household, with parents who pretended to be Catholics but were really Jews - survivors of Nazi-occupied Poland. She shares tales of family therapy sessions, disordered eating, her sister’s frequently unhinged meltdowns, and her own romantic misadventures as she tries to sort out her sexual identity.

Searching, poignant, and ultimately redemptive, The Escape Artist is a powerful contribution to the memoir shelf.

©2020 Helen Fremont (P)2020 Simon & Schuster Audio

First rate Memoir

I was completely fascinated by this book. It was beautifully and sensitively written. The narrator did an excellent job. I highly recommend it.

Great story!

This story is amazing a hart warming testament of a family!
Fremont did a superb job with the details and experiences that come from a strong family!

Outstanding story!

Riveting Memoir

Family love, identity, loyalty and lies all shape who we are . Helen Fremont’s unraveling of her family dynamics’s is riveting. Highly recommend for anyone interested in listening to a story about a family hiding their Jewish identity, and more, in an effort to survive. Yet, the layers of lies threatened their bonds and relationships in insidious and profound ways. Highly recommend.

Holy Sh*t!

Fantastic writing, a story I could not put down, and a superb reader. I was captivated by the intricate family relationships: the heart wrenching combination of love and emotional violence between sisters and parents; the struggle between being true to yourself and the pressure to conform to family expectations. I loved the honesty, the emotional insight and depth. It was hugely impactful for me.

The Ties that Bind...Survival of the Misfits.

I love when I can escape right into the heart of a story and not want it to end. Helen Fremont's spellbinding
memoir is both harrowing and a great listen. If you have been following Dani Shapiro's podcast, "Family Secrets" -
this author should be at the top of her interviews in Season 3. It is brave to tell your own painful story and to
expose other members of your family in intimate detail – as the catharsis of trying to make sense of the emotional chaos your survived will have consequences. I've just finished this book and it slowly dawns on me that it is reminiscent of Tara Westover's bestseller, "EDUCATED" – with unbelievable twists and turns of gaslight and abuse where family ties and the need to be loved, to belong and to be seen are so violently strong – that the lengths one goes to in order to honor the family structure is achingly painful - until it becomes so clear that you have to save yourself if you want to escape the emotional prison you have been sentenced to from birth.

Psychologically astute and fascinating

This is a deeply personal account of growing up in a very dysfunctional family. It contains embarrassing revelations about the author, her older sister and their (currently deceased) parents. It's hard to imagine the degree of anger required to make such humiliating information available to the public. I missed the first memoir published by the author and wish it were also available from Audible.

Beautifully written

The damage of secret keeping rang loud and clear
She weaved the words and metaphors so well that i wanted to pause and write it down

The story that spells out unacknowledged pain forces an unconscious repeat

Difficult to understand

As I read it, I wanted to squash each of the characters. What was wrong with them and why did they continue on such self defeating paths? Only in the final moments is one offered a weak explanation of the plot.

Life with a Borderline

This is the 60 year story of a girl/ woman growing up with an older sister who is a borderline personality and whose parents make excuses for the Borderline and Gaslight the younger sister. The younger girl/ woman is constantly tormented by sister and parents and yet loves them ( in a very unhealthy way) and desperately wants them to love her back. They never do because of course, they can’t. The result is a crazy love- hate dance between author and family members which creates dangerously strong bonds- bonds which ultimately are painfully destroyed by truth . A very intense, well written and accurate portrayal of living with a borderline.

Brave story

What courage it took to tell this story. Could not stop listening. Great insight and really well written.