"The Lost" Post 1b

One thing that I noticed about “The Lost” was its unique writing style. Mendelsohn doesn’t follow a concrete story line; instead, he circles from one idea to the next, reiterating certain ideas. One of these is Yizkor, the annual Jewish memorial service for the dead, which is defined on pg 9 as well as on pg 21. I think that Mendelsohn is imitating his grandfather’s style of story-telling, to help us better understand the type of culture in which he was raised in. With this style it’s as if he is telling multiple stories at the same time that all relate to the same central idea: his six lost relatives. I really like the way he refers to them as lost instead of dead, because, as he explains: “My grandfather told me all these stories, all these things, but he never talked about his brother and sister-in-law and the four girls who, to me, seemed not so much dead as lost, vanished not only from the world but- even more terribly to me- from my grandfather’s stories” (15). I think that this brings up the idea of the difference between being dead and being “lost”, because lost implies a sense of unknowing. Is it better to know the truth, however unpleasant or tragic, or are we sometimes better off not knowing? I think that the author is leaning towards the idea of the necessity of truth, as he describes that their lostness from his grandfather’s stories makes him feel “terribly”.