Last Performance at the Odeon

Literary Nonfiction. Jewish Studies. "Sometimes it takes years and years to see a pattern, but watch a tin of paint when it falls and spreads unmercifully across the carpet. You can't stop it. The stain just gets bigger and bigger and bigger, like secrets, passed down from generation to generation. Each family fiddles with the story, changes a fact here and there, tries to protect itself. From what--shame. We have to stop it." LAST PERFORMANCE AT THE ODEON is an evocative and original autobiographical prose poem, rich in insights into Anglo- Jewish life from the late nineteenth century to the present day, supported by family-historical documents and photographs. Nathanson gives us stories and snapshots of lovers, family, a grandfather who sails the wide open seas, an adventure in South Africa and a Romanian caretaker who watches over the tombs of their fathers or was it her great-uncle Alf? We never quite know. Her story stands alongside the complexities of her childhood, her search for roots and her desire for completion; the circle of identity that we all aspire to. "Hovering in an evocative space between poetry and prose, LAST PERFORMANCE AT THE ODEON is a hypnotic, exquisitely situated, study of remembered love. In an age of formulaic writing, this original book, with a voice and a vitality all of its own, stands out as one to savour and revisit."--Melissa Raphael "A hauntingly beautiful read, touching and tragic. A very personal family history come to life, a truly remarkable remembrance, highly recommended."--Steve Hoffman