I’m glad I managed to get my hands on Jane’s Lazarre’s memoir The Communist and The Communist’s Daughter. It is an interesting and intensely personal memoir, the story of a complex man and his never-ending quest for justice and love.

The man is Lazarre’s father, Will Lazarre, an immigrant from what’s now Moldova, a radical activist and a member of the American Communist Party, a man who held to his ideals all his life, despite the disillusionment, the persecution, and the risk to his family.

Jane Lazarre intertwines the story of her father with a part of the story of hers and explores the complicated relationship between them and the strong emotions that accompany this relationship. It is an intelligent and engaging concept, it makes you keep reading.

Jane Lazarre includes a lot of information in this memoir. One of the best sections of the book is the transcript from a 1958 testimony of her father before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Bill Lazarre was not deported or sent to prison. He lost so much, but never betrayed his principles. Even at the end of his life, he ends a letter written to his daughter when she turned twenty-eight with the words: ‘My faith in mankind knows no boundaries.”

I had a hard time getting into this book. Since I did not finish it, I do not intend to publish a review.