The American: A Memoir Book

On June 6, 1944, Frederick Giesbert, assigned to the American army’s 29th division, landed on bloody Omaha Beach, Normandy, an experience from which he never recovered. Three years later, Frederick had returned to his hometown of Chicago, married to a French girl. But when the seemingly happy couple moved to Normandy to make a home with their baby, something in Frederick snapped, and he turned cruel and violent. His son, Franz-Oliver, spent his childhood doing everything he could to defy his father. The American is a son’s fiercely honest and emotionally gripping story of a search for paternal understanding and forgiveness.

The Washington Post - Jonathan Yardley

Readers may be tempted to approach The American as another memoir of victimization in the manner so commonplace nowadays, but the temptation should be resisted. Franz-Olivier Giesbert isn't beating his own breast and doesn't appear to be especially sorry for himself. He too has survived, after all, and has gone on to a life of accomplishment and recognition. What he is saying in this memoir is not that we should feel sorry for him, but that we should pity his father.