Finding My Father: His Century-Long Journey from World War I Warsaw and My Quest to Follow

Finding My Father chronicles linguist Deborah Tannen's investigation into her father Eli Tannen's past, sparked by the discovery of his journals after his death. Through documents, interviews and travel, she pieces together his journey from early 20th century Warsaw through his immigration to America and life in New York City. The narrative follows both Eli's experiences and Deborah's research process as she traces his path through significant historical events including both World Wars, the Great Depression, and the rise of Jewish intellectual culture in New York. She examines his career as a lawyer, his four marriages, and his lifelong habit of keeping detailed journals and engaging in self-analysis. Tannen's work operates on multiple levels - as family history, historical documentation, and exploration of the relationship between fathers and daughters. The book raises questions about how children can truly know their parents, and how the search for understanding continues even after loss.

Readers describe this memoir as a daughter's investigation into her father's past, blending family history with scholarly research. Many note the book's emotional depth while maintaining academic rigor. Liked: - Detailed historical context about Jewish life in Poland - Integration of old documents and photographs - Clear writing style that makes complex history accessible - Personal touch in describing family relationships Disliked: - Some sections focus heavily on genealogical research details - Occasional repetition of information - A few readers found the pacing slow in the middle sections Ratings: Goodreads: 4.1/5 (183 ratings) Amazon: 4.5/5 (156 ratings) Notable reader comments: "Documents a father's life while revealing universal truths about parent-child relationships" - Goodreads reviewer "Too much emphasis on research methodology" - Amazon reviewer "Powerful combination of personal story and historical documentation" - BookBrowse reviewer

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🔹 Deborah Tannen is a renowned linguistics professor at Georgetown University and has written multiple bestsellers about communication, including "You Just Don't Understand," which stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for nearly four years. 🔹 The author discovered her father had started writing his life story in Yiddish when he was 85 years old, which became a crucial source for the book decades after his death. 🔹 Eli Tannen, the subject of the book, survived the Warsaw Ghetto during World War I by escaping to Russia at age 14, where he lived through the Russian Revolution before eventually making his way to America. 🔹 The book combines traditional memoir with investigative journalism, as Deborah Tannen traveled to multiple countries to trace her father's journey, including visits to Warsaw, Vienna, and Paris. 🔹 Much of the historical documentation used in the book was obtained through a remarkable stroke of luck when the author discovered that the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research had preserved immigration records and documents from her father's hometown.