Lament for a Father: The Journey to Understanding

by Marvin Olasky

Marvin played catch with his father, Eli, only once―it didn’t end well. Eli never laughed, rarely spoke with his son, and was periodically lambasted by his wife for his lack of ambition. How had a Harvard graduate failed to achieve all that he had once hoped for? Now an experienced investigative journalist, Marvin Olasky uncovers the true story of his father’s past in his most personal work to date―facing Eli’s pain and his own in order to understand and forgive. He follows Eli from his Orthodox Jewish childhood in Boston to his days as a commuter student at Harvard to his traumatic experiences in Germany following World War II to his embrace of Reconstructionist Judaism, describing the many cuts that led to Eli’s “spiritual and psychological death”―and discovering what he himself owes to his parents.