This book had "dual identities" of its own. On one hand, I felt as though I was curled up on the rug hearing a great story told by a phenomenal story teller. On the other, I was drawn into an emotional roller coaster, wishing I could step off and take a breather. Arthur Horwitz details the unique story of a child of a Holocaust survivor. How does the next generation honor the trauma of the Holocaust without allowing it to hinder their own life? It was both an amazing human interest story and a loving and intimate memorial to the author's Jewish heritage and survivor mother.

This was a lovely memoir. As society becomes more distant from the events of the Holocaust, it is important to root it in the current culture. The stories of the descendants of the survivors matter.

Some years ago, I read Helen Epstein's work on the children of Holocaust survivors, and how they could feel extreme guilt and suffer from PTSD. Thus, I was expecting to read about those things in Arthur M. Horwitz’s book. Turns out, there is little of that in this memoir. This is more a story of a man who handled his mother’s horrors well and did not let such things keep him from having a happy, highly successful life. While at times I felt the book was weighed down with way too many job descriptions and duties, overall, it painted an affecting story of not being defeated by anything.

The author's mother Sala, too, went on to become someone who accomplished much in her lifetime. She was not broken by the Nazis. She never forgot but did not leave behind a legacy of mental problems and defeat. Yes, she repeatedly reminded her son he had to also live the life her little brother never got to live. Yes, she carried a picture in her wallet of a little boy being terrified by Nazis, claiming it was her brother, when it was not. Apparently, though, Mr. Horwitz learned to accommodate his mother’s wishes, without surrendering his own wishes and dreams.

He became a highly successful journalist, editor, publisher and civic leader; fighting not only for Jews, but for others who needed a fighter and defender. Interestingly, the love of his life turned out to be a woman who also had a mother who was a Holocaust survivor. They would go on to create a happy family with children and grandchildren. The Nazis would not wipe out the Jews in the world. Added to that, Mr. Horwitz developed a love for horses and riding as a child, and that love carried over to his adult years. When thinking about the horrors of the Holocaust, what could be more mentally freeing from those horrors than being all alone riding a fast horse across open land?