The two volumes of Wiesel's autobiography are titled, All Rivers Run to the Sea, and The Sea is never Full. They are the writing of Wiesel's mature years, retrospective and reflective, honest so far as any one of us can claim honesty in our deepest and most difficult to process memories.
Reading this biography is an exercise in hearing a gentle and respectful corrective, as the biographer helps the reader understand why the autobiography is written as it is. Berger is a journalist, skilled in examining motive, adept at interpreting human narrative, with an eye for the significant facts, and also with the benefits of hindsight.
Autobiography and biography giving their separate accounts of the same person, is like listening in stereo to separate speakers, the two voices trying to tell the same story, one from within, and one as external observer. And both are required to hear the full range of the music.
Writers and speakers (and preachers), note the advice given to the young cub reporter Elie Wiesel: "If you want to hold the reader's attention, your sentence must be clear enough to be understood and enigmatic enough to pique curiosity." (Page 57)
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