The Communist and the Communist’s Daughter: A Memoir

“Lazarre remembers her Communist Party organizer father and how she grew up in his “powerful, endearing, [and] at times intimidating” shadow. Romanian-born Jewish radical activist William Lazarre was dedicated to “justice, human equality [and] dignity.” In this moving memoir, Lazarre’s daughter, the distinguished author of both fiction and nonfiction, recalls his life by drawing on memory, court documents, and data from his FBI file. Reflective and intelligent, her narrative not only chronicles the life of a complex man; it also celebrates the power of memory and love. A poignantly lyrical memoir of family and politics.”

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The Communist and the Communist’s Daughter: A Memoir

“I found this an intriguing, clear-eyed look at a corner of history, the Communist experience in America, that is usually just righteously condemned-or, occasionally, romanticized. Jane Lazarre’s vision of it is more subtle: she lived in this world as a child, and now looks back on it as a thoughtful adult.”

– Adam Hochschild

Biography

Jane Lazarre is a prize-winning writer of fiction and non-fiction. Her memoir, The Communist and The Communist’s Daughter, was published in Fall, 2017 by Duke University Press. Her previous memoirs, Beyond the Whiteness of Whiteness: Memoir of A White Mother of Black Sons (reissued in a special 20th anniversary edition), Wet Earth and Dreams: A Narrative of Grief and Recovery, and The Mother Knot, are also published by Duke University Press. Other recent works include the essays, “Once White in America,” “On The Problems of Breathing in America” (both widely published on line), “Politics and Art,” in the anthology, The Racial Imaginary, Editor, Claudia Rankine et al.; and “Hoarding,” a story, in Hamilton Stone Review. Novels include Inheritance, Some Place Quite Unknown, The Powers of Charlotte, and Worlds Beyond My Control, reissued in winter, 2017, by Hamilton Stone Editions.

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