This is, without a doubt, an important book. The subject matter is one that people should be engaging with to remember the atrocities. However, may be it is just a sign of the times, but I really struggled to give time to this at the moment! Definitely a book I will keep picking up to read fully.

I thought this book was interesting, but could not find my footing nor was I really engaged. Perhaps it's just a consequence of the time, but I have to DNF this one all the same. Nevertheless, thanks for allowing me to read in advance — I really love the cover!

Lucie D’Eramo’s Deviation — first published in Italy in 1979, but now only getting an English translation — is a harrowing work. It is a fiction, but it is based in fact — so much so that it reads as both an autobiography and a Bildungsroman. The story concerns a woman named Lucia, the daughter of Fascist parents in Italy, who decides to work as a volunteer in the Nazi labour camps of Germany. There, she organizes a strike and is then sent to another camp as a prisoner. She escapes, but in the twilight of World War II, she is crushed by a wall that falls on her, rendering her paralyzed. It’s a frightening, sad story to be sure — but it is unique in that it paints a different picture of the Holocaust that didn’t impact Jewish peoples, and is just as nightmarish. When the novel opens with a scene of Lucia walking into cesspools of human feces to be later spread onto a nearby field as fertilizer, you know that this will be a journey into the abyss.

What’s exceptionally noteworthy is that this is a novel that took about 25 years to write, coming to the author in fits and spurts. Events are not arranged chronologically, but, rather, chosen to be written about when the author feels the need to confront them. The novel holds together surprisingly well having been sewn together into a patchwork. All in all, this is the story of a young woman who moves through all of the hells of Dante’s Inferno, only to come out of it through the other side. Not unscathed, but perhaps better put together — especially after her body has been broken and shattered into a million tiny pieces.

Because this is a novel that I want you to experience for yourselves, I don’t want to say too much about it. It is an important novel — perhaps no more so than now, in the era of Trump and the rise of white nationalism. Deviation is a memory of a time of the natural outcome of such prejudiced attitudes, and how horrible the world really was. However, parts of it seem romanticized and the author even admits at one point that the best time in her life was when she was roaming the bombed-out streets of German towns, unsure of where she would get her next meal or whether or not she would live to see another day. Perhaps part of this has to do with the fact that the author would up being paralyzed, and so the best time of her life was indeed during the war when she had (relative) freedom and had the use of her legs.

This leads me to say that Deviation is not a perfect work. The last third gets a little too philosophical for my liking, and the book could have been easily shorter and more enjoyable if the author stuck to her memories of the war. Instead, we get long passages of her life as an invalid living in Italy, which she was initially reluctant to return home to. The novel almost stops on a dime too, both literally and figuratively as though she has run out of things to say. However, the fact that the book is many things — recollections and untruths — is beguiling. It’s hard to really peg Deviation. It is a book about war, but also a book about peacetime, a book about fearing for your life, and a book about living a broken, shattered life.

Indeed, the most memorable part of the book for me wasn’t necessarily the war scenes, but, rather, the passage in the second quarter of the book where D’Eramo recounts her recovery from her injuries. Despite being in great physical pain and addicted to morphine to stanch it, she receives many visitors and tries to be in a chipper mood for them. This becomes interesting as recovery also means getting out of the country, and the narrator has to jump through many hoops to be able to leave Germany. The intrigue is infectious and is exciting. Thrown into the mix is a would-be husband who would help her get the authorization she needs, if not for the fact that he is taking mistresses on the side. You wind up rooting for the narrator to pull through — even if she began, after all, as a Fascist.

The novel is also a bit experimental. The third quarter of the book shifts the narrative from the first person singular to the third person — as though the author is looking at her life in a more objective way. The shift isn’t jarring in the least, and, again, it’s astounding that a book written basically whenever D’Eramo felt like it feels this complete and whole. While the book isn’t really too much about the horrors of war — it’s more like a book about confronting the horrors of your imperfect ideals — it is still horrifying and sweat inducing. I read it mostly in two sittings — it is a fairly long book — and devoured it fully.

In the end, Deviation is a book meant to be experienced. It is a fascinating lens into the Third Reich that comes from things from a different viewpoint, making it a deviation from the norm of most Second World War writing. While we don’t learn anything about the narrator’s life before the war, just only how she changed afterwards, it is still a compelling story of a life that becomes different because of the destruction and devastation that the ravages of war bring. To conclude, I’ve heard Donald Trump say that All Quiet on the Western Front is one of his favourite books, if not his favourite, which isn’t so much in line with his character. I can only hope he reads Deviation. It may change his mind about how he views things, and put an end to the sort of internment camps for Mexicans. Well, sigh, one can only hope at least. Deviation is the type of book that changes how you look at war, and makes you want to say, “Never again.”

The subject of this book makes it a difficult read sometimes, it is heart-wrenching. However, the shift between he different points of view and the translation also added to the difficulties. Although an impressive work, it's not one I would re-read

This is a most unusual book, a sidebar to the ever-expanding literature of the Third Reich but unlike any other I have read. D’Eramo, French born but Italian, who died in 2001, was the daughter of bourgeois parents who allied themselves with – and worked for – Mussolini’s Fascist regime. Luce describes herself as a Fascist too, but began to question her beliefs and in her late teens, in 1944, chose to find answers for herself. The way she did it was to volunteer, initially under an assumed name, to be a worker (i.e. quasi slave) in various camps and factories in Nazi Germany.

There, in various locations, including Dachau and the IG Farben factory, a grade or two above the Untermenschen/subhumans – the Jews, gays, and others – she worked, starved, suffered beatings, attempted suicide, bickered, became ill and infested, escaped, returned, and all the time watched and questioned.

An extraordinary personality, not exactly fearless but not cowed either, she formed alliances with other workers and prisoners from many nations and challenged herself and them, all part of a process of trying to understand the meaning of the politics that had engulfed them. The result is this book, described as fiction but as much a memoir as a novel. First published in 1979, it was an instant bestseller but has only now appeared in translation.

D’Eramo’s account of the work camps, of the Munich refuge where escapees and other lost souls gathered, of confronting her captors, of joining the strike efforts at IG Farben, of traveling on a transport back from Italy to Germany after choosing to be recaptured – all these episodes are full of grim detail and personalities, recorded with an unblinking gaze. The author’s intellectual curiosity is inexhaustible, her self-scrutiny relentless.

She emerges as a figure of astounding fortitude, besting her challengers and the various men who enter her life. But perhaps the greatest test is yet to come. As the war is coming to an end, while helping to rescue people from a bombing raid, D’Eramo, aged nineteen, is badly injured when a building collapses on her. She comes close to death repeatedly, and permanently loses the use of her legs. Now her pages are filled with descriptions of the pain, the many surgeries and the emotional torture of her situation, as well as the doctors and nurses who attend to her, the surrounding patients and corpses, her addictions to painkillers and morphine and the agonizing business of detoxing. But, despite it all, she refuses to lose control of her life.

Marriage, divorce, friendships, work, a child, all of these ensue. But the later part of the book is also an attempt to understand why she suppressed some of her experiences until well after the war.

The structure of the work – which was written over some decades – is dislocated, partly to reflect the piecemeal nature of D’Eramo’s understanding. Thus its chronology can seem confusing, but the author’s unquenchable spirit burns bright throughout, self-analyzing, offering support to others, always working to comprehend. Is she, a product of her class, ever able to escape her privilege and attitudes? She sieves her memory, psychology and inner voices with a fine mesh.

‘First I blame my decline on the struggle related to my physical affliction, then when that alibi failed, it was the overwhelming battle against my social environment instead. And always this innocence, this ineradicable nobility of intention and genuineness of feeling that are so typical of me. Choleric, fraudulent, muddleheaded, dangerous – but so human, maybe too human. Seemingly a worm, but essentially of such refinement, sensitivity, goodness. Wait, I’ve got it, an inveterately elite worm.’

D’Eramo died in 2001 but her voice survives, blazingly, in this impressive, bonkers book which tells a startling story of life and commitment, taken to the extreme.

2.5 stars
I recognize that this is an important work, and even though I have not finished it, I will rate it 3 stars because of that. I had a difficult time getting into this. I appreciate the opportunity. Dice I did not finish it, I will not post a review other than this brief statement on. NetGalley. Thanks so much again.

Deviation book review - no spoilers -
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This one had such promise but for me I think the beauty was lost in the translation. I've read translated books before and some have been done wonderfully, keeping the full experience intact but unfortunately sometimes it just doesn't work out. This is the case for me.
Deviation, first published in Italian in 1979, is part memoir and part historical fiction. The author begins as a devoted fascist who after hearing of the atrocities being committed in the concentration camps decides to volunteer at one to see for herself. Because for her, it couldn't be as horrific as they are saying it is... Can it? As we all know yes, yes it can and was. The novel follows her journey in and after Nazi Germany and shows how she has to come to terms with what she experienced and saw.
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I really wish the translation had been more fluid and I wasn't exactly a fan of the POV jumping from first to third person. I'm glad I tried it though, the topic is incredibly important.
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Thanks to Netgalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
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#deviation #netgalley #bookreview #holocaust #nazigermany #memoir #historicalfiction

Deviation begins with a woman’s escape from a Nazi labor camp. As an Italian bourgeois Fascist, she originally volunteered to disprove the rumors of horrifying acts committed by Hitler’s army only to discover the reality to be even worse.
After escaping during an air raid, she arrives at a transit camp surrounded by people from all walks of life and yet completely alone because she cannot trust anyone. Her entire world view has been irrevocably changed by what she has experienced and she cannot identify with who she was before the war. With all of her papers destroyed, she creates a new identity for herself.

Tragedy finds Lucia again when she is in an accident that leaves her paralyzed when attempting to rescue people trapped under a collapsing building. What follows is a harrowing ordeal of hospitals, surgeries, and even an emotionally abusive relationship. Coming to terms with her body adds more trauma and Lucia finds herself in one dangerous situation after another with her reckless behavior. Getting away from Nazi rule may not be as easy as getting in was but now she doesn’t know where she belongs.

Written in several parts over the course of many years, Deviation is complicated. The first half of the book seems to be stream of thought written in first person by a survivor still in shock and far removed from the account described. The second half is written in third person by an older, wiser Luce who is coming to terms with events and attempting to piece together repressed memories; it’s much more personal and emotional and shares details of her life after escaping Hitler’s Reich and its lasting effects.
Many readers may have trouble determining truth from fiction as this is an autofiction novel with complex emotion but confusing and sometimes conflicting thoughts/memories. While I have no doubt this is a valuable and powerful piece of Holocaust literature, I was never able to immerse myself in this story. The change from first to third person was necessary for the writer but left a large disconnect for me and so many details were unclear or seemed to be missing altogether. I respect the author for her willingness to share this incredible testimonial and I’m glad that I read it but it was hard to make a connection to the story with so many missing pieces.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

As I read Luce d’Eramo’s Deviation (translated by Anne Milano Appel), I had the image of a moth fluttering around a bug zapper constantly in my head. Lucia, the protagonist of this book—which I can only describe as autofiction—resembles nothing so much as a moth furiously and irrationally trying to kill itself. Lucia volunteers to work as a laborer for the Nazis in Germany to get a better look at the Arbeitslager and konzentrationslager because she believes that they can’t be as bad as the rumors make out. As if this wasn’t enough of a deviation, Lucia makes decision after decision that puts her straight back into harm’s way. In this reflective book, d’Eramo uses fiction to explore her decisions, the consequences of those decisions, and her lost memories. Fiction that hews closely to autobiography (or vice versa) seems the best way for her to try and understand her actions.

D’Eramo’s book is a collection of stories that closely resembles what happened to her in 1944-1945 and 1960. Deviation opens with an escape, when Lucia makes her way from the Arbeitslager at Dachau to a Durchgangslager where deportees and laborers live while they perform impressed work for the Nazis and Germans. (Lucia was never interned with Jewish people or any inmates in the death camps. Also, I’m not sure what the right words are to describe the laborers. Some of them are volunteers, but most of them seem to be drifters who got caught by the Nazis.) Lucia has, by this point, learned the ins and outs of camp life. She also has a knack for making the right friends, friends who will steal food and supplies for her. Futher, Lucia knows that, if things get really bad, she can always pull her rip cord: her parents connections to the well-heeled fascists of Italy. In spite of herself, Lucia lands on her feet in the Durchgangslager.

From the first story, d’Eramo takes us back and forth from the events of 1944. We see her running away from an attempt at repatriation to Italy. We see her helping rescue people in Frankfurt after a bombing—only to be crushed under a collapsing wall, an injury that leaves her legs paralyzed. We also see her striving mightily to escape a pernicious suitor after her injury, fluttering from tenuous situation to tenuous situation, with no though to anything except getting a little further away.

Lucia’s behavior is very confusing, even after d’Eramo spends pages looking back in an attempt to understand her younger self. The last “story” is full of thoughts about how she recovered memories only decades later and why she repressed those memories. D’Eramo/Lucia’s theory is that she suppressed and deliberately hid things in the earlier stories because it took her that long to realize that she wasn’t a hero for volunteering for her fact-finding mission. D’Eramo/Lucia retold a less complicated version of her life so many times that it became real, at least until the real memories started to resurface.

Deviation puzzles me greatly. If it wasn’t so obviously modeled on the author’s own life, I would have found it a particularly audacious and worrying piece of fiction. Because it is autofiction, it offers a unique look at the Holocaust—even if it leaves me with more questions than it answers. In spite of my continued confusion about the book, I want to complement Appel, the translator, for her very capable job of transforming d’Eramo’s text into coherent English. There are parts of the book that drag, but I chalk that up to d’Eramo’s maundering.

I’ll leave it to other readers to think about d’Eramo/Lucia’s epiphanies and revelations. I don’t know that I’m entirely convinced by d’Eramo/Lucia. I don’t think the narrator is either. The last story of the book, I think, betrays the narrator’s own bewilderment towards her own actions. Lucia’s behavior is so irrational that calm reflection decade’s later doesn’t seem capable of answering the central question of why Lucia volunteered for an Arbeitslager.

How man stars can you give this book; not enough. Luce D'Eramo's gets a unique opportunity to not just to LEARN but to LEARN and live. This great book will shake you to the core

Luce D'Eramo was born and educated in Reims, France until age fourteen when her bourgeois Fascist family moved back to Italy. At university, Lucia (Luce) was a member of GUF (Association of Fascist Students). Her ideology was put to the test when she decided to eyewitness labor camp life with the intention of disproving the so-called atrocities being alluded to about Nazi-Fascism. Running away from home, she discarded her identity documents and volunteered for camp labor in Germany. She secured a job in Munich as part of a work crew assigned to clean out waste pipes and empty cesspools.

The stark, brutal reality of camp life made Lucia determined to escape. The ideal escape window was during an air raid and enemy bombardment which created chaos where "every boom is (an) accomplice". Lucia found her way to a transit camp. Prior societal rules experienced by this nineteen year old college student were irrevocably altered. The norms of Nazi camp life created "deviations", conformity to an aberrant way of life. Lucia described the difficulty of trusting, indicating that it was safer to be unnoticed as if one did not exist. To stay alive, it would be better not to feel or love. Lucia no longer identified with her privileged upbringing. She was subjected to subhuman treatment that included running naked and barefoot behind a truck during a heavy rainstorm. She described being freezing on the outside and burning with fury and humiliation inside.

In recounting her memories, she found them to be fragmented. Many memories were repressed. At times, there might be a disconnect between what was remembered and what really was. "...memory proves to be fluid: shifting sands that constantly rearrange themselves".

"Deviation" by Luce D'Eramo is arguably one of the great Italian novels written in the twentieth century. It was written in four parts starting in 1945. It was not completed for over thirty years. As such, this reader found the work of Holocaust literature to be complex, but at times unclear and redundant. An important novel and testimonial, although for this reviewer, a 3 star read.

Thank you Farrar, Straus and Giroux and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review "Deviation".