Lambrichs, Louise L. 1952-
(Louise Lambert Lambrichs)

PERSONAL:

Born May 2, 1952, in Boulogne, France; daughter of Georges Edmond and Yvonne Gilberte Lambrichs; married Dominique André Dhombres, 1974 (divorced, 1979); children: Ferdinand. Education: Sorbonne, M.A., 1973.

ADDRESSES:

Agent—c/o Author Mail, Éditions Philippe Rey, 15, rue de la Banque, 75002 Paris, France. CAREER: J. Vrin, Paris, France, assistant editor, 1973- 75; University of Paris, professor, 1975-79; Belin, Paris, editor, 1980-85; Harpo/Pauvert, Paris, editor, 1985-86; freelance journalist in La Croix, France, 1981—. Consulting editor to Penser la Médecine, 1993—; secretary for La Cause des Bébés, Montrouge, France, 1995.

MEMBER:

New York Academy of Sciences.

WRITINGS:

(With Holly Warner) Le livre dont le héros se tient debout, R. Laffont (Paris, France), 1987.

Le cercle des sorcières, Éditions de La Différence (Paris, France), 1987.

(With Charles Mérieux) Le virus de la découverte, R. Laffont (Paris, France), 1988.

La dyslexie en question, 1989.

Journal d'Hannah (novel), Éditions de La Différence (Paris, France), 1993, translated by Siân Reynolds as Hannah's Diary, Quartet Books (London, England), 1998.

La vérité médicale: Claude Bernard, Louis Pasteur, Sigmund Freud, légendes et réalités de notre médecine, preface by Mirko D. Grmek, R. Laffont (Paris, France), 1993.

(With Jean-Pierre Relier) L'aimer avant qu'il naisse: le lien mère-enfant avant la naissance, preface by Alexandre Minkowski, R. Laffont (Paris, France), 1993.

(With Myriam Szejer and Richard Stewart) Ces neuf mois-là: une approche psychanalytique de la grossesse et de la naissance, preface by René Frydman, R. Laffont (Paris, France), 1994.

(With Bertrand Schwartz) Moderniser sans exclure, La Découverte (Paris, France), 1994.

Le jeu du roman, Éditions de La Différence (Paris, France), 1995.

Le livre de Pierre: psychisme et cancer, Éditions de La Différence (Paris, France), 1995.

A ton image, Éditions de l'Olivier (Paris, France), 1998.

(With Mirko Drazen Grmek) Les révoltés de Villefranche: mutinerie d'un bataillon de Waffen-SS à Villefranche-de-Rouergue, septembre 1943, Éditions du Seuil (Paris, France), 1998.

(Translator and author of notes) Mirko Drazen Grmek, La vie, les maladies et l'histoire, Éditions du Seuil (Paris, France), 2001.

(Author of commentary and notes) Mirko Drazen Grmek, La guerre comme maladie sociale et autres textes politiques, Éditions du Seuil (Paris, France), 2001.

Aloïs ou la nuit devant nous: Suivi de ce que je puis dire de la naissance d'un roman, et de celui-ci en particulier, Éditions de l'Olivier (Paris, France), 2002.

Nous ne verrons jamais Vukovar, P. Rey (Paris, France), 2005.

ADAPTATIONS:

A ton image was adapted as the film In Your Image, starring Nastassja Kinski and Christophe Lambert, directed by Aruna Villiers, produced by Virginie Silla, M6 Films, 2004.

SIDELIGHTS:

A freelance French journalist, Louise L. Lambrichs has written and contributed to many books, many of them having to do with the medical field. But she has also written fiction. Her Journal d'Hannah, however, is the only novel to be translated into English. Published as Hannah's Diary in 1999, it is a vivid examination of one woman's trauma after surviving an abortion not of her choosing. Successfully hiding the fact that she is Jewish from the Nazis, she is persuaded by her husband to abort a pregnancy. After the war, the novel moves to the early 1960s. Hannah Périer has become obsessed with the child she lost, and in her mind this child, whom she names Louise, is alive and well, her activities faithfully recorded in Hannah's diary, which her husband reads after her death from cancer.

Reviewer Wendy N. Greenberg, writing in the French Review, pointed out that the novel is critical of the medical establishment, which chooses to medicate Hannah after her initial breakdown rather than help her psychologically. "The subtle unraveling of the plot paints a society where men make decisions about women's bodies," Greenberg added. The reviewer, however, was critical of the author for oversimplifying Hannah's dramatic recovery after speaking with a therapist, which she considered a "dangerous fuel for the myth that all a person has to do to feel good is to vent feelings and share the pain." Overall, Greenberg found many of the attitudes in Hannah's Diary to be somewhat old-fashioned, yet she praised the "diary format [that] presents the reader with a truly personalized representation of a woman's anguish." A Kirkus Reviews writer similarly called the novel "a moving study of how obsession can console and heal."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

French Review, March, 1995, Wendy N. Greenberg, review of Journal d'Hannah, p. 748.

Kirkus Reviews, May 1, 1999, review of Hannah's Diary, p. 665.