The Arrogant Years
It finally happened. The unthinkable. My reading list dwindled to a crawl. I remember years ago reading about writers who didn't have time to read. Reading became a luxury eschewed for publishing deadlines, editing and maybe public readings. I arrogantly thought it would never happen to me. Surely, I could carve out a space for my beloved pastime no matter what. Wrong and wrong. I haven't picked up a magazine in over a week and limped through only two books. I know, I know, it's more than most people read but for me it's like a junkie going cold turkey. And it's going get worse. My fear is I'll be reduced to reading cereal boxes and cat food labels.
Enough ranting. On to real arrogant years. My favorite book title in ages is The Arrogant Years: One Girl's Search For her Lost Youth, from Cairo to Brooklyn, a memoir by Lucette Lagnado, an investigative reporter for The Wall Street
Journal. An article written by her published in 1996 in The Village Voice reads like a synopsis for the book. I''ll be honest, I didn't know much about the cultural life of Jews in Cairo pre-Nasser and found it riveting.
She was born in Cairo, Egypt and moved to Brooklyn as a child of refugees. Lagnado alternates her focus on her Orthodox Jewish upbringing in the U.S. and her mother's former exotic life in Cairo before the exodus of Jews. This is a bookend for her first memoir about her father, The Man In The Sharkskin Suit, an elegant man-about-town and womanizer. It's never easy being an immigrant but for a sassy girl like Lucette, she couldn't imagine how her life turned topsy turvy. Not only did the Lagnado family need to assimilate into a new culture but also suffer the vicissitudes of fortune, misfortune, illness and a magic carpet ride of wild characters. Given the current political climate in Cairo, reading about happier times in the ancient city, felt especially poignant.
Enough ranting. On to real arrogant years. My favorite book title in ages is The Arrogant Years: One Girl's Search For her Lost Youth, from Cairo to Brooklyn, a memoir by Lucette Lagnado, an investigative reporter for The Wall Street
Journal. An article written by her published in 1996 in The Village Voice reads like a synopsis for the book. I''ll be honest, I didn't know much about the cultural life of Jews in Cairo pre-Nasser and found it riveting.
She was born in Cairo, Egypt and moved to Brooklyn as a child of refugees. Lagnado alternates her focus on her Orthodox Jewish upbringing in the U.S. and her mother's former exotic life in Cairo before the exodus of Jews. This is a bookend for her first memoir about her father, The Man In The Sharkskin Suit, an elegant man-about-town and womanizer. It's never easy being an immigrant but for a sassy girl like Lucette, she couldn't imagine how her life turned topsy turvy. Not only did the Lagnado family need to assimilate into a new culture but also suffer the vicissitudes of fortune, misfortune, illness and a magic carpet ride of wild characters. Given the current political climate in Cairo, reading about happier times in the ancient city, felt especially poignant.
Posted by Layla Morgan Wilde at 12/4/2011 12:23 AM 
Categories: Baby Boomers, Cats, What I'm Reading This Week, Art
Tags: the arrogant years-book review lucette lagnado
Categories: Baby Boomers, Cats, What I'm Reading This Week, Art
Tags: the arrogant years-book review lucette lagnado
I hope you can find a way to make time for more reading again. I actually schedule it into my day on really busy days. I think as writers, it's a must for us to make that time, and sometimes, scheduling it like any other task is the only way to make sure it happens.
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Ingrid, I agree it's important and I do schedule it in but for me to write more means reading less now. It's about finding the balance and that accepting that sometimes less can be more.
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I must get this book.
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