My Father's Shadow

A Memoir

Sandra Goldbloom Zurbo

• Publisher: Monash University Publishing
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9781922979186
• eBook ISBN: 9781922979209
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies
• Index: Social Sciences

My father, political activist Samuel Mark Goldbloom, was my hero and my nemesis all the days of his life.

Sandra Goldbloom Zurbo grew up in thrall to her father, a prominent antiwar activist, brilliant political organiser and covert member of the Communist Party. She adopted his beliefs from an early age, becoming a supporter of the Soviet Union and a peace campaigner. She travelled with him, meeting figures such as Indonesian president Sukarno, and greeted Paul Robeson and North Korean delegates with him at home.

But Sam could be withholding and difficult. He had a fierce temper and a sharp backhand and was not always a faithful family man. When Sandra entered adulthood and began to navigate a patriarchal world of work and relationships, she came to question aspects of her father's worldview. As the communist ideals of the Left were tested and faltered over the Soviet Union, the mood of the times gradually shifted to embrace the counterculture. Sandra, living and working amid the swirl of Melbourne's arts and political scenes, absorbed ideas about women, family and Jewish culture that often led to tense conversations with her father.

When Sam falls sick and hopes to end his suffering, his daughter's devotion undergoes a final test.

My Father's Shadow is a portrait of life on the Left during a time of great social change. Lyrical, sharply observed and affecting, it is a candid exploration of the fraught dynamics between father and daughter – and, ultimately, the love that underlies them.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• About this Book
• Epigraph
• By Way of an Introduction
• Number 1
• On Being Jewish
• Sister Rae
• Crimes, Punishments and a Bit of Screaming
• Now You Are a Woman
• Everything Turns to Ash
• Sandra and Sammy Go to the Movies
• In Bandung We Dance the Polka
• White Knight Rescue
• What the Psychologist Says
• Lunch
• M—
• The North Koreans Come to Town
• Doves and Roses
• A Keffiyeh and Four Yarmulkes
• The Slipper Walloping Story
• Fantasia
• The Cuban Missile Crisis
• Moscow Nights – and Days
• Can You Keep a Secret?
• Moratorium: a sliver
• Peep
• Reflections after a Brief Correspondence with Kim
• Santamaria the Mamzer
• Three Gongs
• Sammy and Rosie Go to the Movies
• Poetry
• Launching Rachel (Lazarus Rises)
• The Massage
• Another Lunch
• Moving Day
• Dying Night
• Dear Friends: An email post-mortem
• The Funeral, the Memorial and Going to Shul
• Burial
• Letter to Sister Two, Post Facto
• Perusing the Files
• Coda
• About the Author