{"id":82619,"date":"2021-08-16T06:48:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-16T10:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/?post_type=bu-article&#038;p=82619"},"modified":"2021-08-16T12:57:40","modified_gmt":"2021-08-16T16:57:40","slug":"helen-fremont-memoirs","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/record\/articles\/2021\/helen-fremont-memoirs\/","title":{"rendered":"Mining for Memoirs"},"content":{"rendered":"\t<div class=\"wp-block-editorial-leadin record-block-editorial-leadin is-style-side-by-side has-media has-wider has-box has-media-focus-center-middle has-quinary-theme\">\n\t\t<div class=\"container-lockup\">\n\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-leadin-media\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<img width=\"1333\" height=\"2000\" src=\"\/law\/files\/2021\/08\/Escape-Artist-by-Helen-Fremont-cover.jpg\" class=\"\" alt=\"A young girl running down a steep hill, the cover of The Escape Artist, a memoir by Helen Fremont (BU Law Class of 1982)\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2021\/08\/Escape-Artist-by-Helen-Fremont-cover.jpg 1333w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2021\/08\/Escape-Artist-by-Helen-Fremont-cover-424x636.jpg 424w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2021\/08\/Escape-Artist-by-Helen-Fremont-cover-682x1024.jpg 682w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2021\/08\/Escape-Artist-by-Helen-Fremont-cover-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2021\/08\/Escape-Artist-by-Helen-Fremont-cover-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2021\/08\/Escape-Artist-by-Helen-Fremont-cover-551x826.jpg 551w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2021\/08\/Escape-Artist-by-Helen-Fremont-cover-455x682.jpg 455w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2021\/08\/Escape-Artist-by-Helen-Fremont-cover-688x1032.jpg 688w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2021\/08\/Escape-Artist-by-Helen-Fremont-cover-880x1321.jpg 880w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2021\/08\/Escape-Artist-by-Helen-Fremont-cover-229x344.jpg 229w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2021\/08\/Escape-Artist-by-Helen-Fremont-cover-353x529.jpg 353w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2021\/08\/Escape-Artist-by-Helen-Fremont-cover-459x688.jpg 459w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2021\/08\/Escape-Artist-by-Helen-Fremont-cover-705x1058.jpg 705w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2021\/08\/Escape-Artist-by-Helen-Fremont-cover-909x1364.jpg 909w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2021\/08\/Escape-Artist-by-Helen-Fremont-cover-1101x1652.jpg 1101w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2021\/08\/Escape-Artist-by-Helen-Fremont-cover-667x1000.jpg 667w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1333px) 100vw, 1333px\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"wp-block-editorial-leadin-caption wp-prepress-component-caption\">Cover image curtesy of Helen Fremont<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"container-words-outer\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"container-words-inner\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"wp-prepress-tag\">Books<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"head\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMining for Memoirs\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h4 class=\"deck\">While working as a public defender, Helen Fremont (\u201982) wrote two acclaimed books about growing up with relatives who hid their Jewish identity after surviving the Holocaust.<\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar js-block-editorial-metabar record-prepress-layout-metabar\">\n\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-date\">August 16, 2021<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-credits\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<ul data-credit-type=\"By\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/record\/authors\/rebecca-beyer\/\">Rebecca Beyer<\/a><\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-share js-bu-prepress-share-tools\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-twitter\"><span>Twitter<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-facebook\"><span>Facebook<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-action\"><\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-editorial-introparagraph record-block-editorial-introparagraph is-style-dropcap-boxed has-dropcap has-dropcap-color-quinary\"><div class=\"wp-block-editorial-introparagraph-content\"><p>When Helen Fremont (\u201982) first started writing, she was drawn to fictional stories about crime, inspired in part by the people she met and represented as a public defender in Massachusetts.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>But her greatest commercial and critical successes have come a lot closer to home. As in, her own home. Fremont is the author of two acclaimed memoirs\u2014the latest published last year\u2014that address her childhood and relationships with her sister and Eastern European\u2013born parents, who hid their Jewish identity from their daughters for decades after surviving the Holocaust and immigrating to the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image alignfarright\"><figure class=\"alignright size-medium is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/law\/files\/2021\/08\/Helen-Fremont-Photo-by-Mikki-Ansin-424x636.jpg\" alt=\"Helen Fremont ('82), lawyer and author\" class=\"wp-image-82621\" width=\"318\" height=\"477\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2021\/08\/Helen-Fremont-Photo-by-Mikki-Ansin-424x636.jpg 424w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2021\/08\/Helen-Fremont-Photo-by-Mikki-Ansin-682x1024.jpg 682w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2021\/08\/Helen-Fremont-Photo-by-Mikki-Ansin-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2021\/08\/Helen-Fremont-Photo-by-Mikki-Ansin-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2021\/08\/Helen-Fremont-Photo-by-Mikki-Ansin-551x826.jpg 551w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2021\/08\/Helen-Fremont-Photo-by-Mikki-Ansin-455x682.jpg 455w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2021\/08\/Helen-Fremont-Photo-by-Mikki-Ansin-688x1032.jpg 688w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2021\/08\/Helen-Fremont-Photo-by-Mikki-Ansin-880x1321.jpg 880w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2021\/08\/Helen-Fremont-Photo-by-Mikki-Ansin-229x344.jpg 229w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2021\/08\/Helen-Fremont-Photo-by-Mikki-Ansin-353x529.jpg 353w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2021\/08\/Helen-Fremont-Photo-by-Mikki-Ansin-459x688.jpg 459w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2021\/08\/Helen-Fremont-Photo-by-Mikki-Ansin-705x1058.jpg 705w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2021\/08\/Helen-Fremont-Photo-by-Mikki-Ansin-909x1364.jpg 909w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2021\/08\/Helen-Fremont-Photo-by-Mikki-Ansin-1101x1652.jpg 1101w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2021\/08\/Helen-Fremont-Photo-by-Mikki-Ansin-667x1000.jpg 667w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/files\/2021\/08\/Helen-Fremont-Photo-by-Mikki-Ansin.jpg 1333w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 318px) 100vw, 318px\" \/><figcaption>Helen Fremont (&#8217;82) author of <em>After Long Silenc<\/em>e and <em>The Escape Artist<\/em>. | Photo by Mikki Ansin<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI was really, really into crime,\u201d Fremont laughs. \u201cAnd one of my earliest [writing] teachers said, \u2018Frankly, you lack depth.\u2019 She wanted me to work on stuff that was closer to my own story.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Not long after Fremont started to approach what she knew of her parents\u2019 World War II survival stories\u2014she planned to turn their actual war-torn romance into a novel\u2014she and her sister discovered through conversations with family friends and archival research that their parents were Jewish, not Catholic, as they had been raised to believe. That realization spawned a second career for Fremont, who made time to write when she wasn\u2019t working at Committee for Public Counsel Services, which provides legal representation for people who can\u2019t afford a lawyer in Massachusetts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThese pages and pages of documents blew everything open,\u201d she explains. \u201cAs a writer, in order to make sense of your world, you write.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fremont says she always knew she wanted to be a writer but worried her doctor father and teacher mother would not \u201csee that as a \u2018real\u2019 career.\u201d She felt she needed an advanced degree and chose Boston University School of Law because it was within driving distance of her family in upstate New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt was inconceivable to our parents that we go anywhere beyond a three-hour drive,\u201d she laughs. \u201cThat was verboten.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fremont loved learning about the law, especially courses with Professors <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/profile\/wendy-kaplan\/\">Wendy Kaplan<\/a> and the late <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/record\/articles\/2015\/bu-law-remembers-beloved-professor-lois-h-knight\/\">Lois H. Knight<\/a> and Dean <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/record\/articles\/2017\/bu-school-of-law-remembers-dean-william-schwartz\/\">William Schwartz<\/a> (DGE\u201952, LAW\u201955, GRS\u201960). She found her passion in the legal profession as a second- and third-year student when she took clinical courses, including a precursor to the Criminal Law Clinic\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/experiential-learning\/clinics\/criminal-law-clinical-program\/\">Public Defender Program<\/a>, which allowed her to represent actual clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI loved being able to work with real people who had real problems,\u201d she says. \u201cI could make a difference on a one-on-one basis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After graduating in 1982, Fremont taught in Lesotho as a member of the Peace Corps and prosecuted corrupt attorneys as a staff attorney at the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers. In 1985, she joined the newly created Committee for Public Counsel Services. She worked as a trial attorney for a few years and then took on a more administrative role overseeing private lawyers who handle cases for the public defender\u2019s office. That\u2019s when she found time to write. She also went back to school, earning her MFA from Warren Wilson College in 1991.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere were very few emergencies that I had to stay up all night for,\u201d she explains. \u201cSo, instead of staying up, I started writing again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fremont, who retired in 2019 after more than three decades in the law, describes the process of learning about her family\u2019s past as \u201clifesaving.\u201d But ultimately, her decision to publish details about her relatives would have profound consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-bu-pullquote record-block-bu-pullquote alignwide is-style-pop has-quinary-theme\"><div class=\"wp-block-bu-pullquote-inner\"><blockquote><div class=\"container-lockup\"><div class=\"container-icon-outer\"><div class=\"container-icon-inner\"><\/div><\/div><div class=\"container-text\"><hr\/><div class=\"quote-sizing\">These pages and pages of documents blew everything open. As a writer, in order to make sense of your world, you write.<\/div><footer class=\"caption\">Helen Fremont (&#8217;82)<\/footer><hr\/><\/div><\/div><\/blockquote><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Her first book, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/56244\/after-long-silence-by-helen-fremont\/9780385333702\/\"><em>After Long Silence<\/em><\/a>, was published in 2000, and became a national bestseller; the <em>Boston Globe<\/em> called it \u201criveting,\u201d \u201cpainfully authentic,\u201d and \u201ca labor of love for the parents she never really knew.\u201d Yet, the book was also a goodbye of sorts. Ultimately, Fremont\u2019s mom could not recover from a feeling that Fremont had betrayed the family by revealing their secret, and, although Fremont\u2019s father kept in touch with her until his death, he added a codicil to his will disinheriting her by treating her as \u201cpredeceased.\u201d That event in turn led Fremont to probe her past further in her latest book, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.simonandschuster.com\/books\/The-Escape-Artist\/Helen-Fremont\/9781982113605\"><em>The Escape Artist<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSo many people say, \u2018How tragic! You lost your family!\u201d she explains. \u201cBut I learned that I never had them in the first place. I could have them only as long as I denied my own reality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fremont says her work as a lawyer gave her a unique appreciation for her family\u2019s experiences during World War II.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe Holocaust could not have happened without a system of laws and legislation specifically against [certain] people,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was very much a legal framework. That did remind me that the law is a construction. It\u2019s all about power. Whoever has power creates who is an in-law and who is an outlaw.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Looking back, Fremont says she also thinks her work as a public defender was a way to honor her father, who was imprisoned in Siberia by the Russians after graduating from medical school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn some ways, I felt a real calling to stand between people and the government,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s such a privilege to be able to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-end-of-article\">Fremont wants to return to writing fiction, which she describes as \u201cfreeing.\u201d But instead, she feels pulled to revisit her own life again. \u201cI hate to say this, but it looks like it\u2019s going to be another memoir,\u201d she laughs. \u201cI keep saying, \u2018I should not do this.\u2019 But I think I will.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When Helen Fremont (\u201982) first started writing, she was drawn to fictional stories about crime, inspired in part by the people she met and represented as a public defender in Massachusetts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11260,"featured_media":82633,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"Books","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"tags":[1819],"bu-publication":[3742],"record-article-category":[3918,3744,3786],"record-topic":[],"bu_edition":[],"media_type":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/82619"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11260"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82619"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/82619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82634,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/82619\/revisions\/82634"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82619"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=82619"},{"taxonomy":"record-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/record-article-category?post=82619"},{"taxonomy":"record-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/record-topic?post=82619"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=82619"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=82619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}