In the Darkroom

By: Susan Faludi

Narrated by: Laurel Lefkow

Length: 13 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and best-selling author of Backlash comes In the Darkroom, an astonishing confrontation with the enigma of her father, and the larger riddle of identity consuming our age.

"In the summer of 2004 I set out to investigate someone I scarcely knew, my father. The project began with a grievance, the grievance of a daughter whose parent had absconded from her life. I was in pursuit of a scofflaw, an artful dodger who had skipped out on so many things - obligation, affection, culpability, contrition. I was preparing an indictment, amassing discovery for a trial. But somewhere along the line, the prosecutor became a witness."

So begins Susan Faludi's extraordinary inquiry into the meaning of identity in the modern world, and in her own haunted family saga. When the feminist writer learned her 76-year-old father - long estranged and living in Hungary - had undergone sex reassignment surgery, that investigation would turn personal and urgent. How was this new parent who identified as "a complete woman now" connected to the silent, explosive, and ultimately violent father she had known?

Faludi chases that mystery into the recesses of her childhood, and her father's many incarnations: American dad, Alpine mountaineer, swashbuckling adventurer in the Amazon outback, Jewish fugitive in Holocaust Budapest. When the author travels to Hungary to reunite with her father, she drops into a labyrinth of dark histories and dangerous politics in a country hell-bent on repressing its past and constructing a fanciful - and virulent - nationhood. The search for identity that has transfixed our century was proving as treacherous for nations as for individuals.

Faludi's struggle to come to grips with her father's metamorphosis self takes her across borders - historical, political, religious, sexual - to bring her face to face with the question of the age: Is identity something you "choose", or a thing you can't escape?

©2016 Susan Faludi (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Narrator Laurel Lefkow shines most brightly when recounting the most difficult moments of Susan Faludi's life.... This immersive story about a father and daughter illuminates so much more." ( AudioFile)

Not a favorite

Not for me. Struggled to finish, didn't hold my interest. Fascinating premise, but lost something in the telling.

Enjoyable mix of history and family dynamics

I enjoyed both the story and the narration. The POV of the author on her quest to understand her father unfolds over the course of time and the span of a lifetime. Well constructed and written.

Thank you susaaan and stefi faludi!

What a amazing project and ambitious book which met the all expectations!
There are so many memorable moments and epithets in the book. I just wanted to quote one from the last page:
“ I thought: there is in the universe only one true dives, one real binary, life and death. … everything else is molten, malleable.”

Great Book for Understanding Hungary and Jewishnes

I understand that Hungarian is a super hard language, and I'm inured to hearing "Movie Dracula" accents for Hungarian characters. It's not every listener who will know what the languages referenced are supposed to sound like, I get that.

It's worth struggling through the vocal third wall to hear the story of Susan's life, and with that, her father's and Hungary's and, by hearing her story, getting better understanding of my own Hungarian father's story. No one (as far as I know) has told the story of the Hungarian Gypsies during WW2. This will have to do, and like Susan, my father was a master of retelling his life, over and over again.

I've wanted to understand why so many gifted and productive people/men come from Hungary, especially during that period, and now I do understand better.

What my father and so many lost while assimilating into Hungarian identity, how that impacted their country, and most important how that assimilation did not protect them from their Christian Hungarian community -- I understand better.

Brilliant

Intellectually rich, emotionally moving, and wonderfully performed. Equal parts biography and historical narrative, Faludi's exploration of identity is riveting.

After a rough start book improved immensely

I struggled with the first few chapters of this book. The main character is certainly not a hero but rather an anti-hero. He/she is need a kind nor really compelling. However the historical and sociological aspects and components of the book as the story proceeds are fascinating. I would recommend this book but it is not an easy read. I am glad I prevailed but this is by no means a “page turner “!

Worthy of the praise

Any additional comments?

The accolades this memoir/history/identity study has garnered are incredibly well-deserved. Susan Faludi, journalist, has beautifully documented her fraught relationship with her father, and his fraught relationship with identity. The book opens with Faludi heading to Budapest to visit her father who, via email, reveals to her that he has undergone a sex reassignment surgery and has transformed from Steven into Stefanie. What follows is part personal memoir of life with her father and part journalistic investigation. On the one hand, Faludi's writes a lovely if conflicted remembrance of her father, his creativity and knack for editing and airbrushing (he was a well known photographer), his violent outbursts, his controlling nature, and his internal struggles. On the other, her father's transformation leaders her to an investigation into gender identity and into Hungary during WWII (her father came of age as a Jew in that nightmarish time). The book is wonderful and sad, confusing and fascinating. Highly recommended.

An astonishing journey of identity

I could not stop listening to this audiobook. It was powerful and moving. I was a fan of Susan Faludi before I began this book and it is so different from her other works. It is such a human and powerful journey and she never hides her own shortcomings. I recommend this audiobook.

Intricately insightful study of identity

Where does In the Darkroom rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

one of the best

What did you like best about this story?

the wry tone, intelligent writing

What does Laurel Lefkow bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

good voice for both Susan and Stephani --- brought Stephani to life

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Susan Faludi's compassion for her father and steady sense of her own self throughout...

Any additional comments?

a masterful psychological analysis in historical contexts ...

Well written & interesting

this was a very well written book , which grab your attention and kept it throughout. Unfortunately the reader mispronounced many of the Hungarian and Jewish words and this detracted from my overall enjoyment of the book.