A while back I penned a post called Memoir Unrequited complaining about an author’s reluctance to completely come clean.
Well to counter that, I just read a memoir that rocked me to my core: 
Ghosts By Daylight: A Memoir of War and Love, by Janine di Giovanni.
As a writer for the American, British and French press, Ms di Giovanni reported from Afghanistan, Algeria, Bosnia, East Timor, Gaza, Iraq, Israel, Ivory Coast, Kosovo, Liberia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Rwanda, Somalia, Sierra Leone, West Bank and Zimbabwe over a span of twenty years.
She tells you everything in painstaking detail without even remotely flinching. There were times I had to put the book down to be able to pick it up again. I said I wanted candor so be careful what you wish for, as they say.
Her recall alone is astounding. It humbled me actually to read about the atrocities of war realizing how little I know living in my safe, sequestered world.
I like what the book jacket says: Janine di Giovanni has spent most of her career recording events on behalf of the voiceless…
She’s also a beauty looking more like a Parisian actress than a seasoned, acclaimed war correspondent. The way she shimmies from genocide to romance without passing go takes a few chapters to get used to. However, once you learn to ride her rhythms it becomes a riveting read.
When she talks about her fellow journalist husband, Bruno Girodon who’s as insanely brave as she the affection seeps through all the dust and mortar fire. It gives love a great plug when you think it can actually bloom under such hellish circumstances.
When they decide to move to Paris to have a baby the whole pregnancy reads surreal. To quote Martha Gellhorn, an esteemed predecessor in the same field and third wife of Ernest Hemingway, our author ‘leaped before she looked.’
I felt I was in the delivery room watching from a concealed corner, her clarity treating me to the emotional yet somewhat disturbing experience.
Why disturbing? Let’s just say it wasn’t one of your more easy breezy baby moments.
When her 80 year old mother comes to see her new grandson my heart opened like a trapdoor. Being the youngest child in a huge family, for once, she had her mom all to herself. Her need for affection that should have been a given surges off the page.
I’ll say again that writing so brazenly is no easy feat. Peeling yourself like an onion for the whole world to see is more than a little painful. Think of open heart surgery while holding a pen.
Rather than print some of the more harsh passages I’ve chosen one that warmed and made me smile.
It’s part of the birth announcement written by Janine’s husband Bruno introducing their newborn son Luca to the world:
For nothing in the world would I miss the Rugby world cup of Six Nations 2004…So I decided to on Thursday, 12 February at 4:27 a.m. to wake up my parents, who were sleeping deeply and get them to help with my intention to proudly sing ‘La Marseillaise’ as quickly as possible…
OK, let me introduce myself…Luca Constantino Pinocchio (the first one who makes fun of me gets a punch in the nose) Girodon di Giovanni, son of Bruno and Janine, born 12 February 2004 at 2:59 p.m. and not 3 p.m.
Born into a world sweet and tough, honey and vinegar, tender and merciless…that’s life!
Please don’t hesitate to give me any words of advice that I might need. After all, I am only 2 days old.
Nice to meet you!
Luca.
Ghosts By Daylight is about courage and grace, love and acceptance and will leave you knowing you read a very special account of someone’s noble yet humble history.
I recommend it.
SB
