In 2008, Loridan-Ivens published an autobiography (written in collaboration with journalist/novelist Elisabeth D. Inandiak) entitled Ma vie balagan (Paris: Eds Robert Laffont). Written with her usual verve, humor, and political acumen, the book takes the reader from her childhood, through her experience of the Shoah, her documentary work with Ivens, and up to the present moment, including, of course, her film, La Petite prairie aux bouleaux. Simone Veil, her lifelong friend, recalls that even in Auschwitz, Marceline told funny stories to lift the burden of suffering. A note at the beginning of the book explains: "Balagan, a sort of disorder, disorganization, chaos. Order in disorder...Order for one is balagan [disarray] for another. The word is used both in Hebrew and Yiddish but it seems to come from Russian [and Turkish]."
In 2008, Loridan-Ivens published an autobiography (written in collaboration with journalist/novelist Elisabeth D. Inandiak) entitled Ma vie balagan (Paris: Eds Robert Laffont). Written with her usual verve, humor, and political acumen, the book takes the reader from her childhood, through her experience of the Shoah, her documentary work with Ivens, and up to the present moment, including, of course, her film, La Petite prairie aux bouleaux. Simone Veil, her lifelong friend, recalls that even in Auschwitz, Marceline told funny stories to lift the burden of suffering. A note at the beginning of the book explains: "Balagan, a sort of disorder, disorganization, chaos. Order in disorder...Order for one is balagan [disarray] for another. The word is used both in Hebrew and Yiddish but it seems to come from Russian [and Turkish]."