"To understand who you are you must know where you came from."

This slim autobiography focuses on author Cole Kivlin's (also known as Corsino) escape from Spain during the Spanish Civil War in 1937, and his ultimate rediscovery of his family roots some sixty years later.

At the age of seven Kivlin's father shipped him out on a truck that initially transported him to France, where he lived for five years, after which time he immigrated to the USA, where he was educated, married and raised a family.

Kivlin was the youngest of a family of twelve siblings, seven brothers and five sisters, some of whom also escaped Spain at the same time as the author, never to be reunited with him until many years later. As for the author's father, he never saw him again, and all that he could remember was his father stuffing a piece of paper into his jacket pocket, hugging him, and lifting him into a truck.

In the States he was shuffled from one home to another, never knowing where he would be sleeping from one day to the next. As he states: "it always amazes me that most adults feel that minors don't need to know the reasons for decisions that affect their lives. Looking back at my childhood, I think that I was moved around like a piece of baggage. I don't mean to sound bitter. I know that there must have been good reasons for all of the moves, but after a while a person reaches a point where he doesn't care what is happening and just accepts it."

The most absorbing parts of the book concern Kivlin's strong desire to survive within an environment that was continuously throwing road- blocks in his way. Narrated in the first person, the story is a poignant chronicle of a life filled with a great deal of sadness, however, at the same time, remarkable, in that the author's spirit was never broken. The prose is simple, touching and down to earth, yet the scenes depicting the rediscovery of some members of the author's family in Spain are evocative.

In the end, Kivlin's narrative reminds readers of the importance of learning and knowing your roots in order to understand who you are today. Moreover, by learning about your past, you gain a sense of tradition that will aid you and your descendants in carrying on the family line. It is little wonder that Time magazine recently named genealogy "America's latest obsession." In order to understand ourselves, it is absolutely necessary to discover where we came from.

Reviewed by Norman Goldman
Courtesy Bookpleasures
Posted August 22, 2003