Child No More: A Memoir

Rating:
Summary: Interesting story
Review: Great read, incredible life story, my only criticism is towards the end, Ms. Hollander just kind of glosses over things quickly and the book ends abruptly. I would still highly recommend it!

Rating:
Summary: The amazing 20th century of a rather special family
Review: Xaviera has managed to captivate the 20th Century without losing herself into that what would have sold best, her life as the happy hooker.

In fact, being "the happy hooker" is only a very small part of her life. Born in Indonesia during the second world war, her family was captured and her mother and father separated. At the time Xaviera was only 3 weeks old and she spent the all important first 3 years of her life in this Japanese prisoners camp.

Her father was a psychiatrist. Her mother a famous model with French/German blood married Xaviera's jewish father. In that era of the emerging national socialist party, this wasn't the mainstream marriage at all.

Child no more is a memorial and a memoir, a dedication of a daughter who does want to share the life and the memory of her incredibly special parents. She's at times painfully honest. Her darker demons are not hidden, nor does she try to be the "good daughter". And it is the struggle of her coming to terms with the death of her father, and the more recent death of her mother that is the most gripping. Everyone who'se lost (a) parent(s) will recognise it and find comfort in it.

I've known Xaviera and her mother for a long time. When Xaviera used to invite you to her home to one of her very special parties, her mother would always be there. Enjoying some of it and shaking her head jokingly at the more extravagant guests. I miss her mother, not just at these parties. She was an incredibly strong and charming lady, who knew about her daughter's escapades, but couldn't and wouldn't condemn them. And I've seen Xaviera's love for her mother, especially during the last years of her life. I'm sorry that I've never had the chance to meet her father. Both Xaviera and her mother kept him alive by talking about him openly and in that way he was always there.

I'm amazed how resilient children can be. Spending the first 3 years in a Japanese prisoners camp, where the corporal punishment was incredibly refined, painful, intimidating and brutal. Neither her mother nor Xaviera ever really complained about that horrible period. Only once did I see the horror coming back, and that was when we saw the movie "Paradise Road". Only then Xaviera was able to cry.

If you're more into The Happy Hooker, then you'll be happy that Xaviera's publisher is reprinting this title.
Should you, however, be interested in a very honest, interesting memoir of a family living in the roaring twenties, the depression in the thirties, the war and its after-effects in the forties, the bouncing back in the fifties, the sweet sixties, the happy hooker years, all the way to the millennium, then you will love Child no more. Keep the tissues ready though, this is a book that isn't shy on emotions!