The Time of the Chrysalis

The story of Mireille, a young Jewish woman and her older brother, Saul, both of whom survived the Holocaust which claimed the lives of their parents, The Time of the Chrysalis presents a couple of vulnerable young people dealing with the complexities of postwar Paris in the absence of any social support. Evoking the nightmare of history in allusions and flashbacks, the novel focuses primarily on the trials and tribulations of the surviving adolescents, orphans left with no mooring in a world of heedless adults. Exploring the neurotic compulsions of those who have spent their formative years under siege, the novel deals with the dynamics of abuse internalized by the survivors, presenting the generally sensitive and intelligent older brother as one who falls into the role of patriarchal bully in his dealings with his beloved sister. In fact, Dworzan's characters seem compelled to reenact, in dealings with each other, the abuse imposed on them by an oppressive world in the aftermath of catastrophe. A coming-of-age novel in which the twenty-year-old protagonist occupies center stage, the novel also presents several poignantly and sympathetically rendered male characters, including Saul and his good friend, Marcel. Most remarkable and haunting is the author's presentation of Denise, Mireille's neighbor and friend, a coarse, street-wise woman brutally exploited by the thugs who surround her. Eminently vulnerable to the kind of violence perennially endured by such women, Denise occupies a crucial position in Dworzan's plot, since she is at one and the same time Mireille's only female friend and the embodiment of all the dangers from which Saul is determined to protect his little sister. Except for a few peripheral figures, there are no good guys or bad guys in this novel. All of the major characters and various minor ones display remarkable complexity.
About the Author: Hélène Dworzan was born in Paris in 1925, the youngest of five children. Enrolled in the Lycée Victor Hugo in 1937, she fled southward with her family in the exodus prompted by the advancing German army in 1940. Her description of the flight from Paris, recorded in a narrative entitled The House of Mourning, presents a perspective on fleeing Parisians that may recall the one presented by Irene Nemirovsky in Suite française, although Dworzan's account of the cataclysm differs from Nemirovsky's in that it emphasizes the hardships of the poorest evacuees. During the chaotic flight from the city, Dworzan's mother and two of her sisters were separated from the rest of the family. The Dworzan family was reunited in Paris after an absence of several months. By May of 1942, when the collaboration of the Pétain regime with the Nazis became manifest, the family had abandoned the hope of escaping as a unit, but Hélène was able to leave the city alone. During the year she was away from Paris, her parents and one of her sisters were deported to Auschwitz. Ms. Dworzan moved to the United States in 1950 and became a naturalized citizen in 1952. After studying at the New School for Social Research during the academic year 1952-53, she worked as a translator for Robin International/Cinerama from 1954 to 1959 and did freelance translation for NBC from 1962 to 1972. She taught French from 1970 to 1973 at the French Language Institute in New York and at the Riverdale Country School from 1973 to 1986. She obtained a B.A. from the City University of New York in 1974. Her marriage to Donald H. Reiman took place in 1975. While working as a translator and teacher, Hélène Dworzan was an active member of the New York literary scene, serving as associate editor of the Chelsea Literary Review from 1970 to 1981, founding the Continuum series of poetry and fiction readings in 1970; she continued to direct that program until 1976. In addition to her critically acclaimed novel, Le Temps de la Chrysalide, she has written short stories and poems that have appeared in various publications. The Dial Press presented her an award for fiction in 1953. In 1961, she received a grant from Material Jewish Claims against Germany in support of a fictional narrative based on her experiences as a survivor of the Holocaust. She won a Prairie Schooner prize for fiction in 1978. In 1990, she collaborated with Donald H. Reiman on the editing of Shelley's Last Notebook.