If the only thing you read in this book is the first chapter, it will have been worth every penny you spent on it. Dominick LaCapra is merciless in his approach to Sartre's philosophy from the point of view of post-modern textual analysis. The book might also be described as "the student (LaCapra) of the student (Derrida) takes on the professor (Sartre)." But, if that in any way minimizes LaCapra, I would be wrong to suggest it. This generation of French philosophy is out to do nothing less than rewrite all of intellectual history. And LaCapra is one of their foremost spokesmen. This is no small task, the results of which have yet to be seen. LaCapra, in this and other works, makes a formidable argument as to why this needs to be done. And Sartre, of course, is one of the icons that needs to be dealt with. In some ways, this particular book is somewhat unsatisfying. But, it serves to make its point. The battle lines have been drawn. Even Michel Foucault is seen as "the older generation" from this vantage point. Quite interesting, as intellectual works go.

Dominick LaCapra presents in this volume several essays of great importance to literary criticism and historiography. It is superior to History and Criticism inasmuch as we see in LaCapra a willingness, even an eagerness, to engage the authors he criticizes. Where his critique in H & C verged on arrogance, a kind of rock-throwing, he takes a more measured and reflective tone in this collection. The concepts of transference and dialogue are explained with great precision and impressive self-reflection in the first chapter. Elsewhere he comments on the role of Marxism, and upon the limitations of Paul de Man's formalist deconstruction. Of interest for some readers is LaCapra's early response to the release of de Man's wartime journalism, a subject explored at greater length in his Holocaust study. While LaCapra's theoretical insights are consistently adept throughout his career, this book is better-produced and better-organized. In H & C he contradicts his arguments both in the introduction and the footnotes. One is never sure what to make of his Orphic posturing (is that the point?) In Soundings he achieves something closer to a form suited to his content, asking questions of his own method in a spare and detailed manner and succeeding in shedding tremendous light on problems of critical subject-position today.

I found this book very complimentary to other books I have read about the Holocoust. The index was excellent and suggestions for further reading. In chapter one the dealing with the trauma of the survivors and the long term affects of having to watch their fellow victims die and the survivals guilt they had to deal with for as long as they lived and the memories also. Chapter two dealt with the ongoing debate amongst historians wich has been going on almost as soon as the World War Two ended, from Bullock to Goldhagen and all those in between (not to mentione those who have seen reason to take the road to fill the small group of apolagisers). Many controversial others quite tradisional but there has been many points of views and I did not think that this aspect was very well done in the book. Genocide was on the National socialists agenda, ie Nazis, under the direct rule of the Dictator Adolf Hitler.Mourning was mostly done by those Germans and who look the other way or actively helped in making the genocide possible even just as burocrats.Other nations under Nazi occupation were also far from blameless. France, Lithuania, Czekoslovakia, Polland (which was the location of Auswitch among other horrible exterminations camps), Hungary (wich to the credit of their leader tried to stand up to Hitler even if he did not succseed), all the Balkan states, Rumania and more. Some of them have shown remorse but many of them have not dealt with their past in any meaningfull way. Chapter three. That chapter did not make a lot of sense to me mostly because though there might be similarities to France experiance in World War Two and what the behaviour of the French in Algeria i had did not find the the author making a very good case and it was not backed by convincing arguments. In Chapter four there is an attempt to show the debate about the Holocaust wich the the Israelis call Shoah. In this there the author discusses Lanzmann's Shoah and Lanzmann's assertion that there was no reason. The "Here there is no why". The authors rendering of the work of Lanzmann is only adiquit but there is another book that did a far superior work on that subject wich is "Explaining the origins of Hitlers evil" Chapter five was downright incomprehensible, and the less that's said about that chapter the better. Chapter six was slightly better. The conclusions part were not that far off the mark. The psycoanalysis part a little worse, the memory part quite good and the ethical turn even better. The Index was very good and actually the best part of the book.

If you are in academia, this is a book you will find as a useful addition to your bibliography. If you are simply interested in the theme, you will also enjoy this book.

Dominick LaCapra is one of the best-known critics of literature and art that is engaged with the Holocaust and of the Holocaust and post-Holocaust eras.

This book is not a book of history, though it is bound up with a historical event, nor is it a literary work. Instead, it is analysis of some major works of literature and art of the Holocaust and post-Holocaust eras. LaCapra provides concise and well thought-out analysis of The Fall, by French philosopher Albert Camus, Claude Lanzmann's unforgettable must-see documentary about the Holocaust (you will never forget it, and you MUST see it if you wish to understand something about the Holocaust, or Shoah, in Hebrew), and Art Spiegelman's Maus, a unique cartoon-art chronicle about his own father's life and experiences in the Auschwitz concentration camp.

A useful companion title is Testimony: Crises of Witnessing in Literature, Psychoanalysis and History, by Shoshana Felman and Dori Laub. Felman also has an article on Camus' The Fall, and one on Lanzmann's Shoah. For another article on Maus, see Marianne Hirsch's article in Discourse 15:2, Winter 1992-1993 pp.3-29 entitled,"Family Pictures: Maus, Mourning and Post-Memory."

LaCapra's first two chapters in this book are especially useful, as is his introduction and excellent discussion of the Historikerstreit in Representing the Holocaust: History, Theory, Trauma. This particular work is not a book to skip, even if you ultimately don't agree with all its conclusions.

For more on the Holocaust and literature on and of the Holocaust, see authors such as Sidra Ezrahi, Lawrence Kritzman, Berel Lang, Pierre Nora, and Geoffrey Hartman.