Annie's Ghosts

Steve Luxenberg recently released a family memoir, entitled Annie's Ghosts: A Journey into a Family Secret. Not long before his mother's death Luxenberg had discovered that she was not the only child she had always claimed to be; after her death he decided to find out more about this elusive missing aunt. My review for WYPR, Maryland Public Radio, can be heard here, and an excerpt appears below:

Steve Luxenburg has been with the Washington Post for many years and his book stands as a testament to his stringent adherence to the best practices of the news profession and to his determination to sift his own prose for sentimentality or unqualified assumptions. "I felt somewhat trapped between the roles of son and journalist," he writes. As a son he was often tempted to rise to his mother's defense...

Annie's Ghosts proves, as the best non-fiction does, that true facts about true lives need no embellishments to be startling or moving, and while Luxenburg rattled inside his family closet it was inevitable that other skeletons would fall out. "What is the relationship between secrets and the ability to keep secrets and the integrity of the family? he asks, probing his own intentions, because he uncovers more than he bargained for.