Bernstein, Harry 1910–

PERSONAL:

Born April 17, 1910, in Stockport, England; brought to the United States, 1922; married, c. 1935; wife's name Ruby (died, 2002); children: Adraenne, Charles.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Brick, NJ.

CAREER:

Writer. Has worked as a book and script reader for movie studio Columbia Pictures, a freelance writer for periodicals, and as an editor for a trade magazine, until 1972.

WRITINGS:

The Invisible Wall: A Love Story That Broke Barriers (memoir), Ballantine Books (New York, NY), 2007.

Also author of about two dozen unpublished novels, including The Smile, The Peekskill Episode, and Hard Times and White Collars. Contributor to periodicals, including Popular Mechanics, Family Circle, and New York Daily News.

SIDELIGHTS:

Widely praised for his first published book, the memoir The Invisible Wall: A Love Story That Broke Barriers, Harry Bernstein has particularly drawn attention for breaking into publishing at age ninety-six. Actually, he has been writing for many years, including contributions to magazines and nearly thirty unpublished novels. It was not until his wife died in 2002, though, that his disappointment over earlier failures was overcome by a need to reflect on his life. "I was too much alone. My wife was dead. My friends were mostly gone …," he said in a Seattle Times interview with Mark DiIonno. "I had no future to think about, no present. And so I found myself thinking about my past, and the people I knew and the place I grew up. I was looking for a home." He found writing about his childhood to be a satisfying creative release.

Several critics of the memoir compared it to Angela's Ashes, the book by Frank McCourt about his desperately poor childhood in Ireland. Bernstein's memoir is about his early years in the Jewish section of Lancashire before World War I. The title, The Invisible Wall, refers to the fact that Christian families lived on one side of town and Jews on the other. Though they often got along, the city remained divided by religion. Bernstein, one of five children in an impoverished home, recalls his alcoholic, abusive father and kind, loving mother. But the story centers around his sister Lily, who falls in love with a Christian boy and how their relationship first tears apart, then joins together the community. Because the events happen some eighty years ago, the dialogue and events are subject to some artistic license. A Kirkus Reviews critic commented that readers would therefore be advised to consider it "less a memoir, more an autobiographical novel." The author readily admitted to Motoko Rich in the New York Times that his book "is not necessarily an accurate day-to-day detailing of your life, … [but] certain scenes are projected in your mind as if they are on a screen and you are looking at it."

Many reviewers praised the results, with Library Journal contributor Ingrid Levin describing it as a "gripping coming-of-age memoir." In Booklist, Hazel Rochman stated: "Far from rambling oral history, the chapters are tense with danger and with tenderness," while a Publishers Weekly writer concluded that "the conversational account takes on the heft of a historical novel with stirring success."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Bernstein, Harry, The Invisible Wall: A Love Story That Broke Barriers, Ballantine Books (New York, NY), 2007.

PERIODICALS

America's Intelligence Wire, March 30, 2007, "96-Year-Old Author Proves It's Never Too Late to Write That Book."

Booklist, November 1, 2006, Hazel Rochman, review of The Invisible Wall, p. 17.

Bookseller, March 10, 2006, "Debut Writer, Aged 95," p. 10.

Entertainment Weekly, March 23, 2007, Tanner Stransky, review of The Invisible Wall, p. 65.

Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 2006, review of The Invisible Wall, p. 1250.

Library Journal, March 15, 2007, Ingrid Levin, review of The Invisible Wall, p. 78.

New York Times, April 7, 2007, Motoko Rich, "Successful at 96, Writer Has More to Say," p. 7.

New York Times Book Review, April 4, 2007, William Grimes, "Recalling a Time When a Street Divided Two Worlds," p. 9.

Publishers Weekly, December 11, 2006, review of The Invisible Wall, p. 54; January 29, 2007, "PW Talks with Harry Bernstein: A Writer Takes Off at 90: In His Memoir The Invisible Wall, Harry Bernstein Tells of Growing Up Jewish in a World War I-Era Northern English Town," p. 53.

School Library Journal, June 2007, Ellen Bell, review of The Invisible Wall, p. 181.

USA Today, March 20, 2007, Bob Minzesheimer, "Writing on the ‘Wall,’" p. 01.

ONLINE

Guardian Online,http://www.guardian.co.uk/ (February 12, 2007), Ed Pilkington, "Divided Loyalties."

Happy News,http://www.happynews.com/ (April 1, 2007), Rebecca Santana, "Author, 96, Proves It's Never Too Late."

International Herald Tribune Online,http://www.iht.com/ (April 10, 2007), Motoko Rich, "At 96, Harry Bernstein Finds Literary Success with His Memoir."

Nextbook,http://www.nextbook.org/ (March 20, 2007), Joey Rubin, "Late Bloomer."

Seattle Times Online,http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ (April 16, 2007), Mark DiIonno, "93-Year-Old Writer Discovers Success—at Last."