Skip to main content

I Just Wanted to Save My Family: A Memoir

Review

I Just Wanted to Save My Family: A Memoir

written by Stéphan Pélissier, translated by Adriana Hunter

Stéphan Pélissier’s memoir, I JUST WANTED TO SAVE MY FAMILY, enlightens us by aiming an unforgivingly bright beam on the injustices engendered by the network of dark systems and practices that define governments and authoritarian figures all over the world. Unfettered nationalism. Corrupt populism. Cruel tyrannies. Stubborn bureaucracies and the frustrating red tape that characterizes them. Pélissier came face to face with all those dark realities because he dared to attempt to save his Syrian in-laws from the terrors of the government of Bashar al-Assad. The narrator/protagonist/attorney simply wanted to bring his wife’s family to France, his home.

Pélissier’s quest took him to and through Syria, Hungary, Greece, filthy prisons, and threats to his life and the lives of his in-laws. He was accused of and tried for the crime of illegally attempting to transfer immigrants without proper authorization; he was, they said, a trafficker. The details are harrowing, and Pélissier is indeed a hero. He had made the difficult decision to save the lives of innocent people in dire circumstances, people he had grown to love. And he paid the price. Even France proved to be as serious a roadblock to his plans as the other countries and governments with which he was forced to deal. Anti-immigrant rules and laws, as well as the condemnable but apparently universal human flaw of fear and hatred of “the other,” dogged him every step of the way.

"Here’s hoping that the futures of Pélissier and his loved ones will be entirely free of the dangers and downright horrors depicted in this extraordinary memoir of an absolutely extraordinary family."

At one point near the end of his terrible adventure, Pélissier actually faced the threat of 7 to 15 years in prison. He was eventually saved from that fate due to his considerable connections to important and sympathetic government and media figures, as well as his sheer determination never to give up his struggle for freedom, security and justice. And he survived, as did his whole family.

But the tired old adage that “all’s well that ends well” certainly does not apply here. The conditions that led to Pélissier’s frightening experiences have not abated. Others, millions of others, can, do and will continue to suffer the same indignities, the same fears, the same deadly threats to their very existence that he and especially his in-laws suffered. What, we must wonder, would have been the fate, for example, of a person who shared his convictions and heroism but did not have access to the same influential people who he was fortunate enough to know? And what about the continuing power of rulers like Assad and the desperate situations in scores of other nations that remain under the thumb of tyrants? The happy ending of this story is satisfying. But such endings are all too rare. The terror lives on.

The memoir as it stands suffers from a few flaws that detract from the power of the narrative. The language of the French-to-English translation is too often stilted and rather awkward. It “sounds” like the work of a translator who is not entirely comfortable with the common usages and rhythms of English sentence structures and phrases. The editors might consider shortening some of the sections in which Pélissier offers detail upon detail describing his love for his beautiful wife and family. They are not nearly as compelling as the descriptions of the suspenseful experiences of the family as they escape from their pursuers and the disgusting jailers, lawyers and judges with whom they must cope. Finally, there are several chapters narrated by Pélissier’s wife and other family members wherein we must ask if they are actually co-authors, or if their thoughts are simply an expression by Pélissier of what they were probably thinking and feeling. I could not determine the answer to that question from the text.

All those questions notwithstanding, the story is worth telling and deserves the most effective possible delivery. Here’s hoping that the futures of Pélissier and his loved ones will be entirely free of the dangers and downright horrors depicted in this extraordinary memoir of an absolutely extraordinary family.

Reviewed by Jack Kramer on January 22, 2021

I Just Wanted to Save My Family: A Memoir
written by Stéphan Pélissier, translated by Adriana Hunter

  • Publication Date: January 5, 2021
  • Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction
  • Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Other Press
  • ISBN-10: 1635420180
  • ISBN-13: 9781635420180