Lucette Lagnado (1956–2019)

I could not put this book, and read all 400 pages in one sitting. Outstanding description of Egypt and the horror of leaving a person's country and moving to another location. I knew so little of Egypt and gained an immense bit of knowledge from Ms.Lagnado's description of her family's flight and plight. But the mesmerzing part of the non fiction novel was the language. I truly did not know of Lagnados' work, but she is someone I will foliow from now on. I especially was please to read of show more her relationship with her husband; such a loving addition to this marvelous book. Do not hesitate to buy this book for a loved one who thinks there are no more great books out there. Having taken my father into my home when he was ill and dying, I felt bonded to Ms. Lagnado as she told of her mother and father's last months, and the joy she felt in taking care of them. I had never had anyone put into words what I felt about this time of my life, and Lucetted Lagnado was able to do that for me. I, too, left a country (USA) to live in a foreign place (the Netherlands) and could relate to her having to learn new customs, traditions and how to fit in.
Run, don't walk, to buy this book and immerse yourself in the life of a talented writer. I now will go out and buy her first book, which won the Sami Rohr prize for Jewish Literature, "The Man in the White Sharksking Suit", which is about her father. If you haven't bought either book, start with this one, and then get the one I am now reviewing, which is about her mother and their life and relationship. Ms Lagnado is not only a talented writer, her writings are that of an artist as she paints family portraits with words. show less

The Arrogant Years: One Girl's Search for Her Lost Youth, from Cairo to Brooklyn by Lucette Lagnado is a memoir about the author's early childhood in Cairo, the circumstances that brought her family to New York City, and her adolescence/college years in the United States. It is also a loving remembrance of the author's mother and her heritage.

I instantly loved Lucette's mother, Edith, because of her love for education and libraries. As a young woman before her marriage, Edith worked as a show more teacher for an exclusive Cairo academy, L'Ecole Cattaui, and helped develop their first library:

"Madame Cattaui decreed the school would have a state-of-the-art library and la chere Mademoiselle Matalon would be the one to organize it. That was the extraordinary project entrusted to Edith - to set up a library that would allow even students of modest means, or simply those with great intellectual curiosity, to read and study and take home any books they fancied
"...It was a thrilling assignment, and Edith, still in her teens, rose to the challenge. Driven, committed, and thoroughly impassioned by her undertaking, she had never felt so empowered as when she ordered more books, and money was no object, and she could indulge in all her tastes" (pg. 57).

Sounds like heaven! I'm a librarian, but when I order books, not only is money an object, but I can only order boring health sciences books. Even so, it's thrilling to order new books and handle them when they come in. I can only imagine how much more amazing that would be if I were actually interested in the books!

When Edith married her husband, Leon, he expected her to quit her job. She did so very reluctantly. Years later, after the family moved to Brooklyn and was under financial strain, Edith ignored her husband's wishes and got a job - at a branch of the Brooklyn Public Library:

"One day after dropping me off at Berkeley, she had trudged across the expanse of Prospect Park West and interviewed for a job at the imposing library with the big bronze entranceway. And though she didn't have any of the classic credentials - a college degree or even a high school equivalency diploma - she was able to draw on her vast store of knowledge and her literary sensibility to persuade the library to hire her practically on the spot.
"...With a few tweaks to her wardrobe, thirty years after L'Ecole Cattaui, my mother was ready to return to work at a library.
"It was a part-time job and she was only a clerk. Her pay was a pittance - barely above minimum wage. But no matter, to her mind she was going back to those halcyon days working with the pasha's wife. She would be her own woman again, and more important still, she would be surrounded by books" (pg. 205-206).

As Lucette makes clear, Edith "was passionate about libraries - it gave her such pleasure to step into those quiet rooms filled with books... She trusted libraries implicitly - they were sacred to her, holy sites" (pg. 189).

The title of the book - The Arrogant Years - comes from a quote in F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night:

"She put on the first ankle-length day dress she had owned in many years and crossed herself reverently with Chanel Sixteen.... How good.... to be worshipped again, to pretend to have a mystery. She had lost two of the great arrogant years in the life of a pretty girl - now she felt like making up for them."

The premise that Lagnado takes from this quotation is that nearly every woman, at some time in her life, though generally when she's young and knows everything, has her "arrogant years" - a time when she feels most confident about herself, her appearance, her intelligence: "that period in a young woman's life when she feels - and is - on top of the world" (pg. 58).

This book, as evidenced by the title, revolves around the "arrogant years" of two women living in completely different worlds. A mother and a daughter, living and fighting with each other, loving and supporting the other. Lagnado tells her mother's story of young womanhood in Cairo, and juxtaposes her own adolescence in Brooklyn, New York. We get an account of Edith's life - the ups and downs, her arrogant years and her repressed years.

Overall, The Arrogant Years is a touching and thoughtful story of mothers and daughters, adapting to the inevitable changes in life, and the strength of womanhood. It doesn't matter that when we pick up the book we don't know these two women. As we read, we come to know them and respect them for their amazing experiences and the obstacles they overcame. Furthermore, the writing is clear, drawing the reader in without barriers. A memoir worth reading, for sure. show less

This book takes us from the youths of of Josef Mengele and his victims (briefly) to Auschwitz to the Nazi-hunting of the post-war period to the late 1980s. It tells these stories in alternating voices, stressing how necessary it is to do so: these stories are inextricably linked.

The title is a bit misleading; this is perhaps weighed more on the side of a brief biography of Mengele, with emphasis on postwar activities. The stories of a group of twins break into the narrative in italicized show more bursts, fracturing it-- and thus reminding us all of how the horrific events of World War II fractured individuals, families, communities, nations.

The book is an oral history of Auschwitz, told by those who survived it. Certainly, it is well researched (especially when it comes to the information about Nazi hunting and war tribunals), but the information in the "spotlight," so to speak, are the unsilenced voices of the twins. Do not expect pages of historical detail about what types of experiments were performed, reviews of medical cases, lengthy discussions of what occured in labs; that information is not there. This is a book about a handful of people and their stories, and while the book tells Mengele's for him, the twins tell their own. Particularly on the part of the twins, it is more a psychological study than a historical one (we could go into how psychology and history are intertwined, but it would be best for the reader to reach his or her own conclusions after reading the book).

The text is deeply moving, often shattering. The voices that shatter the narrative of Mengele's life, denying the murderer any seamless biography, are vivid and alive. The authors picked a unique and, ultimately, extremely effective way to deliver biographies of oppresser and oppressed. show less

The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit is an extraordinarily moving and well-written memoir that speaks to the immigrant experience that built America. The focus is on author Lucette Lagnando’s family, particularly her father, Leon. Leon was a prosperous Cairo businessman. A lover of Cairo’s nightlife, Leon did not consider marriage until spying 20 year old Edith at an outdoor cafe in 1943.Within a few weeks, they become engaged, and wed shortly after.

Devout Jews, the Lagnado family lived show more in harmony with their Moslem and Christian neighbors in a spacious apartment on a bustling Cairo boulevard, Malaka Nazli. The Lagnado family has servants. The children attend the finest schools, and wear the finest clothes, and are often treated to excursions to Cairo’s most renowned cafes and pastry shops. The family vacations each year by the sea, and visits with their extended family are routine.

This magical life ends when Nasser comes to power, and the Jews of Egypt are forced to leave with only whatever clothing they can take-no money, no jewelry, nothing that would help them begin a new life. The family spends a year living in Paris, then comes to New York, all with the assistance of international refugee aid organizations. Eventually, the Lagnado family ended up in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, amidst a small community of Egyptian Jews.

Over the years, the different family members react to their new circumstances in different ways. As Leon and Edith age and become more infirm, their children become more distant, and more American. Leon and Edith never really become American.

The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit is a love letter to a time gone by, and also a sad and realistic depiction of how immigrants become American. As all traces of their old life disappear, some become stronger, and other are destroyed.

I highly recommend this fine memoir, and look forward to reading more of Lucetter Lagnado’s work. show less