Lost in America: A Journey with My Father

After reading innumerable memoirs featuring irresponsible parents, here is one so different - where the child hates his father for reasons which seem cruel and heartless.

I read and really admired Dr. Nuland's "How We Die" and he himself died recently. His obit mentioned this book and it is a shocker. Beyond being the quintessential Jewish boyhood in the Bronx, the introduction describes Nuland's near-lobotomy in his search of a cure for his severe depression. What follows is truly disturbing, including a shocker involving his father's own physical wretchedness and how Dr. Nuland discovered the cause.

Almost unbearable in its bravery and truth and an essential read.

Skilled surgeon and National Book Award Winner Sherwin Nuland writes a heart-wrenchingly painful memoir about growing up in immigrant New York in the 30s and 40s. Russian Jews, struggling to make ends meet in their southwest Bronx neighborhood, Nuland’s Mother, Father and older brother shared close quarters with his maternal Grandma Bubbeh and Aunt Rose. While the women of the family were affectionate with deep ties to their extended family, Sherwin’s father was domineering, angry and distant. Never gaining proficiency in English and plagued with a progressively crippling physical condition, Meyer Nuland often required his youngest son to assist him, a task that never ceased to embarrass Sherwin and that fed his growing anger and show more resentment toward his father, who remained always an outsider in his adopted homeland. show less

7/2012 - Cyrille Cobe : I almost rejected this gem for thinking the beginning words were far more cerebral and the topic far more depressing than I wanted for a summer read. However, I gave it one more try and found the story touching, poignant, and relevant. The author, known for other works including “How We Die”, is an excellent writer with a gift for sharing his extraordinary observations about human behavior. This father son story is an eye opener that in a few pages speaks volumes about family dynamics and the legacies we have received and will leave behind. Anyone who grew up in the Bronx will enjoy this for the setting at the very least.

About a son and father, often at odds, their loyalty to one another and the obvious love displayed in hidden ways. I shed tears as I thought of my own aging father and the too often silent love that connects us.