I’ve just finished reading “SPEAK, MEMORY,” Nabokov’s enthralling memoir. I had planned to say that anyone who wants to write a memoir should read it, for this incomparable stylist brings childhood to life with such vivid details.
That’s what I had intended to blog about . But in these tragic days there’s something even more timely to say about Nabokov. He was that currently vilified word, immigrant.
Russian by birth, he came here with his wife and son to find a new home in America. Russian was not an identity guaranteed to get the welcome mat in those days. But imagine how absurd it would have been if we had turned him away, for he’s indisputably one of the great writers of the 20th century.
It’s true that he was already famous, but the list of “ordinary” people who came to America from other lands and made invaluable contributions to our country is longer than space allows. (Weren’t the Pilgrims ‘immigrants”?) Think of the many writers and other artists who fled from Nazi Germany, found sanctuary on our shores, and added immeasurably to our culture. But think also of what we lost when we denied refuge to so many, like the desperate Jewish refugees whose ship was infamously turned back.
The media is overflowing with politicians warning about the “danger” of letting today’s refugees into our country, as if every migrant is a potential terrorist. Recently the papers related the story of a family who fled from Syria and finally – after two years of being exhaustively vetted – arrived here, planning to settle in Michigan where they had friends. What were the words of welcome? None. Michigan had closed its doors.
Dangerous people? Look at the photo in the papers. A man, his wife and their four- year- old child. ”We fled from violence,” the woman said. ”We are not looking for more.” To me, they and the multitude of other migrants, are far less threatening than politicians who volley racist words of hate and fear.
Fortunately, that particular family found welcome in Connecticut. . But for every family allowed to come here, how many thousands more find they have left their native land for a no-man’s land where they are shunned and rejected?
What has this got to do with writing (for this is supposedly a writers’ blog)? Everything. For who we are and what we believe are inevitably reflected in our work. Yes I’m afraid of terrorism, yes I travel more anxiously. But I never want fear to corrode the better person I strive to be.
If we kill our own “quality of mercy” something will die within us, and it will barely matter what we hope to write, for the victory will go to the terrorists.
[comments welcome]
WEBSITE: www.annehosansky.com
BOOKS: WIDOW’S WALK, available at iUniverse.com; ROLE PLAY and TURNING TOWARD TOMORROW, both available at CreateSpace.com, Amazon & Amazon Kindle.