On the Impact of the Holocaust on the Next Generations
Author writes about ‘mutated trauma’ Toronto Tribune, January 2014
Child of survivors carries baton into the future - Canadian Jewish News - Nov, 26, 2013
Pearl Goodman - The Tapestry of Trauma - Jewish Tribune, Nov 5, 2013
Ms Goodman was a featured speaker at Holocaust Education Week in Toronto, November, 2013
"This book is not a fast read, but it creates an ambience that sits in the memory, long after it has been read and laid aside" Bookpleasures
"A thought provoking memoir" Jewish Tribune
"Engrossing" 4 Stars
Peril: "a powerfully moving book that deals with the lingering intergenerational effects of the horrific history of the holocaust.." Bookpleasures
"culturally informative and emotionally moving story". "Far More Than 'Coming of Age': Holocaust and Love"Amazon
"She's accomplished something I wish I could have done: written a very personal memoir of her life growing up Jewish in Toronto.
Peril details the culture of the time, and is most affecting when she tells us about her complicated and perilous relationship with her Holocaust survivor mother and father and their harrowing traumatic experiences.
Whether you recognize familiar Toronto landmarks from her youth, recall television shows and music from back-in-the-day, relive the sometimes hilarious and sometimes chilling experiences of her adolescence, or suffer through the torments of her parents' concentration camp trauma and the tribulations of their decline, there's something in Peril to engage almost every reader"
David Schatzky, psychotherapist and former CBC broadcaster
"'Peril' Goodman gives a meticulous, humour-tinged account of growing up in mid-20th century whitebread Toronto, the child of heroic survivors.
Peril captures Torontonia--Eaton's delivery trucks, The Ports of Call, Sam the Record Man, the Liquor CONTROL Board with no bottles on display--and traces the clash between wary parents and a girl who, like the provincial town itself, is seeking her own identity." Sheila Gostick Toronto-based writer and performer
Translated from Dutch "the traumas she describes are terrible but she describes them with warmth and humour. Her dialogue sparkles and so you smile despite the tragedy of ruined lives."
by Pearl Goodman
Author Pearl Goodman presents a first-hand account of life with her parents - two people traumatized by the Holocaust. With no resources to understand how their devastating experiences may have translated into their behaviour and their child-rearing practices, they attempted to rebuild their shattered lives in Canada with a new language and a stone’s throw from the feeling of being unwanted in the Anglo Toronto of the late 50s and 60s.
Ms Goodman chronicles their stories and at the same time tell the story of the impact of their trauma upon her and her brother as she searches for her own identity. The Holocaust is not her experience and yet she embodies a feeling of dread she can’t explain as a child. She juxtaposes this backdrop with a light-hearted look at sibling rivalry, at life in Toronto, at the 60s, and particularly at how she was influenced by the images, ads and characters on American Television.
Pearl Goodman was born, raised, and resides in Toronto, Canada. After graduating from the University of Toronto, she taught high school English and Dramatic Arts. Then she chose to train as a psychotherapist and has now been in private practice for the past ten years. Words and the human condition have always been her passions. Peril is her first published work.
Pearl Goodman and the Proust Questionnaire on Open Book Toronto/Ontario
ISBN 978-0-9878244-6-2, 300 Pages, $21.95, Available on Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Barnes and Noble, Chapters/Indigo Kobo Kindle and Google Play Distributed by Ingram
Hear Pearl Goodman interviewed about the book on the Jewish Digest Radio Show with Leslie Lutsky on Radiocentreville.com in Montreal. The show aired on February 16, 2013 - Listen here