cover image TATTOO FOR A SLAVE

TATTOO FOR A SLAVE

Hortense Calisher, . . Harcourt, $24 (324pp) ISBN 978-0-15-101096-7

While Calisher devotees will certainly be eager for this latest version of her memoirs, first-timers may find themselves somewhat lost. Calisher (Sunday Jews , etc.), now 92, lays out the book's burden in the first sentence, when her father tells her, "Your grandmother never kept slaves." Her father, born in Richmond in 1861, then explains his adored "Mammy" was a freed woman, that his mother had "insisted on that." Calisher goes on to describe her mother's German ancestry, her father's Southern relatives and family life up North, including furniture, clothing, mementos and—constantly—each person's particular turn of phrase. Calisher was always listening, and it's from all this "idle imprinting" that her writer's voice developed—a "recording one." It's only after Calisher's grown, both parents have died and she's emptying their safe deposit box that she finds a receipt for insurance payments that her grandfather made in 1856 on two servants. She immediately starts putting the word "servants" in quotes, having convinced herself that they were really slaves. Unfortunately for readers—and remarkable in an account where everything else is endlessly analyzed—she doesn't discuss this particular assumption. Those who enjoy Calisher's lush prose, and perhaps even share her sense of shame about the sins—real or imaginary—of their ancestors, may find this a small quibble. Still, Calisher's closing tattoo, "Remember the slave," sounds an oddly hollow drumbeat. (Nov.)