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The Arrogant Years: One Girl's Search For Her Lost Youth, From Cairo To Brooklyn (2011)

by Lucette Lagnado(Favorite Author)

3.75 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0061803677 (ISBN13: 9780061803673)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Ecco

review 1: The author's previous book focused mainly on her relationship with her father during their forced journey from Egypt to New York. This book concentrates on the author's relationship with her mainly during the New York years. Three things stood out to me in this book1). Most religions have a past and sometimes current history of subjugation of women. The Egyptian Jews were definitely in this category. Women were not "allowed to work" after they were married.2). Interestingly, the author's father was so crushed by the change of his circumstances and loss of his personal identity that the mother became the breadwinner. She held the family together as best she could.3). Other than the author's very young years with her father their entire family culture seemed bereft of... more love. What puzzled me was how devoted the mother was to the father & how the children were so concerned about their parent's well being in later yrs despite being raised (by the author's own account) in a strict rigid nonloving atmosphere by 2 parents who did not love each other.
review 2: I had already read this author's first book, a memoir called "The Man in the Sharkskin Suit". I wanted to read this book to find out what happened to the author after arriving in America from Egypt. Unfortunately, about half of this book was just a repeat of information from the first book. The author's writing style improved since her first book, which had an excess of repeated, stock phrases to describe people or places. Much of the story revolves around the author's somewhat traumatic experiences as an immigrant in New York, and then by her diagnosis and treatment for Hodgkin Disease as a young adult. She also devotes a good deal of the book to her relationship with her mother, while her first book focused more on her father. I gave the book 3 stars (and not fewer) because I did want to keep reading and find out what happened. less

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