As a Georgia writer and reader, I occasionally come across something remarkable: a book I nearly missed by a Georgia author of real importance. This first book by Erika Dethlefs Passantino transcends categoroies and historical settings-her story is fluid, crossing oceans and eras with an account of one family’s determined efforts to survive the Depression, Hitler’s wartime Germany and the avenging Red Army at the close of World War II.
Erika’s parents married after a shipboard romance on a steamer bound for America. Imagine. A tall, handsome engineer bound for the dynamic new world meets a beautiful and gifted musician bent on a musical career. The two are magically joined in a world that will soon explode in the violence of war. But things go wrong. Erika’s mother’s singing career is ended by asthma attacks. Her engineer father’s career falters in the Depression. His work in below- ground construction projects curses him with the bends, gradually destroying his ability to work and eventually to even walk.
Ericka’s mother is homesick, discouraged, and eventually returns home to Germany, to the familiar and family. But a horror is stalking the heart of Germany. Hitler’s rise to power casts doubts but fosters economic recovery and in one of those decisions that shape lives and generations yet to come, Erika’s father- now an American citizen- makes the fateful decision to join his beloved wife in Germany. A child-the author of this story- is born. Following the sinking dream of his engineering career, he moves to a remote corner of Austria. They pray they are beyond the worst of war-but they have moved near a labor camp and onto the invasion path of an invading and vengeful Red Army.
Memories offer imperfect answers as Erika reconstructs her childhood. Her mother’s scrapbook of notes and mementos raises many questions. How did they survive these times, why did their situation deteriorate? Was there Jewish blood?- or did her mother’s outspoken political connections while in America incite Nazi suspicions. Dark ideas emerge from childhood memories. Who was the family’s mysterious benefactor? A Nazi official, yes. But why was this “uncle” often in their home?
After the war, Erika and her father move to America-they are citizens after all. And, he must find work. But Erika’s mother is not allowed to leave. America has become a bastion of anti-communism and the Cold War is on. Always there is the earnest but slender hope of family reunion. The reader is forced to reflect on his own times, our own era of violence, mass migrations and xenophobia.
Erika’s father, sick and unemployed, accepts work in Angola where he is to rebuild a dilapidated coffee plantation for old friends. It becomes a hopeless task but Erika is free. Free to roam, to learn as she pleases, free of most responsibility. Faithful African families who serve the coffee plantation care for her father-but his health does not return. Erika’s independence blooms amidst everyone else’s preoccupation with survival.
Among the great memoir writers of the twentieth century are a few who have been inspired by their life in Africa. Karen Blixen’s Out of Africa (1937) and Beryl Markham’s West with he Night (1942) come to mind after reading Erika Passantino’s Coffee Hour in Flensburg. All three women grapple with passionate affections, explain beautifully their conflicted feelings , and all have the courage to ask questions of a past that will not easily give up its secrets. And then there is the beauty and mystery of Africa with its enchanting memories.
Memoirs are nothing if they avoid the truth-or fail to probe for it. Erika Passantino’s reconstruction of her family’s story is sensitive, honest, and satisfying. The truth, no matter how painful, is the only path to healing. And, Erika’s family finds a kind of healing in the solace of coffee hour, where stories are retold and souls renewed.
This memoir sounds really interesting, Joe. I’ll keep my eyes open for it!