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Dec 21, 2008

Julia rated it:

Whether or not you have first-hand experience with Egypt, this book provides a very interesting window into the lives of a Jewish-Arab family living in Cairo up until shortly after WWII. I had spent a summer in Egypt in the early 90's, and while I was aware that most to all of the Jews had long since left for more tolerant nations, Lucette Lagnado's story helped answer a lot of my questions about what those Egyptian Jews' lives were like before they felt the need to flee their country. Ms. Lagna More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Oct 10, 2011

Betty rated it:

I thoroughly liked this book. The author speaks from the heart about her family's life with respect and candor. Mostly autobiographical in content, the history of the family and particularly the patriarch is the backbone on which it is written. A complete "riches to rags" story, the early part of the book deals with a world completely alien to post-war Egypt and its Jewish population. Fleeing from their country of birth and rich lifestyle into the unknown life of refugees with " More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 20, 2008

Andy rated it:

Next time someone tells you about the terrible struggle of the Palestinians, remind him that the Jews of Syria and Egypt, communities whose existence predated Islam, were robbed and exiled by corrupt Arab nationalist tyrants. This is the story of one family. Fifty years later, are the descendents of the exiled patriarch hunkered down in a refugee camp, living on handouts and plotting bloody revenge? Nope. This book is personal, not political, and deeply affecting in the writer's treatment of More...

4 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 13, 2008

Sarah rated it:

My mom shared this book with me at the beach. It's a non-fiction account of a family who immigrates to the United States from Egypt in the 1960s. I'm not typically drawn to non-fiction but this book reads like fiction. Towards the end, I had a hard time putting it down because I was so engrossed it the story and wondered what would happen to this family! It's really amazing to read stories like this one and understand that these events actually happened to someone (or many someones).

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Apr 12, 2008

Ellen rated it:

I couldn't decide if I should give this 3 or 4 stars and went with the higher number because the author did such a nice job of describing Cairo society back when it was an elegant, cosmopolitan city. The story of her family's loss of status, wealth and comfort as they are forced to leave after Nassir's rise to power and their difficult relocation to the US is familiar but well told none the less. I would have like more details about their lives in NY, but since the focus is on her father, the More...

5 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 13, 2008

Kathy rated it:

I was fascinated to learn that Jews lived among Arabs in comparative peace in Cairo during and after WWII. This is the story of a wealthy Jewish family forced out of Egypt by the growing anti-semitic sentiment, the rise of Islam, and the intolerance of a new regime in power. The family flees to America via Paris and is forced to live in relative poverty while they adjust to life in a new country. Some of them never do, some assimilate very quickly. I liked the memoir very much, but I found some More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Feb 19, 2011

Melanie rated it:

Fascinating!

How very different Cairo was during and after WW2, before the military and Nasser. It was cosmopolitan, a cultural olio, a beautiful mashup of the old and the new, Jew and Muslim, scented with rosewater and apricots - at least, in the experience of Lucette Lagnado, filtered through the story of her elegant father. I began to read this book right before the recent uprising in Cairo, and it added a layer to my understanding of how many changes have occurred, as well as how s More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 18, 2010

Irene rated it:

A moving memoir written by a woman, born in the mid -1950's to a prosperous, Jewish family in Cairo. Forced to leave Egypt in the early 1960's, they moved to Paris and then New York. Though much diminished financially, they managed to re-connect culturally with other immigrants from the Levant. I knew little of the middle eastern Jewish communities, or their customs, or that they existed for many hundreds of years. The establishment of the State of Israel and consequent tensions ultimately resul More...

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Jul 11, 2010

Erika rated it:

I'd been meaning to read Lucette Lagnado's family memoir for awhile. Learning that the book had won the 2008 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature motivated me to actually pick it up. This past weekend, I finished reading the book. And it's an excellent read.

Given what often seems an unending stream of memoir-related scandals, not to mention the primacy of what I'll charitably call the dysfunction narrative (and of course the interrelationship between the two), reading THE MAN IN THE More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 14, 2009

Khaya rated it:

The reviews I read of this book sounded positive but a bit lukewarm, and when my book club chose it, I wasn’t expecting to appreciate it quite as much as I did. When I read other reviews of this beautifully written book, the evocation of Lagnado’s lost world seemed to be touted as its major selling point. Like other reviewers, I also found myself taken with the descriptions of 1940s Cairo. The sights and smells, and the overall atmosphere – there was something so romantic and sensuous about i More...

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Dec 09, 2010

Joshua rated it:

Interesting family memoir about life in Cairo, being uprooted to Paris and then New York. Love the Cairo descriptions--although they tend to get a bit repetitive--and whilst I'm not a big memoir reader, enjoyed this book for the most part. Lagnado gets the atmosphere of what I'd imagine Cairo to be like--would so love to visit there!--but as the story progresses it kind of loses steam for me. This is probably not the fault of Lagnado and her story of her Jewish family's forced exit from the coun More...

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Feb 05, 2012

soft rated it:

لم اكمله بعد
لكن مبهوره جدا بقاهرة الثلاثينيات والابعينيات
كتاب جعلنى افكر جدياً فى اعادة الرأى فى مأساة اليهود وهل كانوا حقا ضحايا
لا اعرف دعنا نكمل سطور ذلك الكتاب اولا لنرى
============================
هذا وقد انتهيت لتوى من قراءة كتاب الرجل ذو البدلة البيضاء الشركسكين
وقفت على عده ملاحظات دعنى اقولها لك
1.بهرتني ذاكرة طفله كانت فى السادسة من عمرها استطاعت ان تحكى بوضوح احداث الكتاب بذاكرة وفكر حاضر
الكتاب لا يحوى بين طياته على لغة ادبية قوية فقط كان More...

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Aug 08, 2010

Judy rated it:

Lucette Lagnado's beautiful, remarkably well documented portrait of her family and their ultimate expulsion from Egypt to the United States in the early 1960s repeats a trope of Jewish history: periods of peace for Jews somewhere in the diaspora, followed by abrupt, cruel expulsion to new lands.

This book gave me an appreciation for the richness the Egyptian Jews enjoyed, not only monetarily (surely not all Jews from Egypt had the wealth that this family once had) but the richness of More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 06, 2011

Jendy rated it:

I enjoyed this book in conjunction with Inside Egypt by Bradley. The point of view of the author was sometimes too subjective, but I am glad for the glimpse into colonial Cairo, before Nasser and Mubarek. King Farouk and his cronies were corrupt, and the revolution could have, should have, had a better result. But the Jewish family of this memoir/biography (of the author's father) were suddenly ousted from the city and the country they had made their own for decades. The war with Israel pois More...

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Oct 24, 2010

Lisa rated it:

This book covers a much-forgotten cultural group, the Egyptian Jews of the 20th century. Through much of the book the author pines for the time as a child when she lived in Cairo. Or perhaps remembers this place of her childhood more for the sake of her parents. What bothered me most about the book were the things the author has learned from her father: the suspicion it seems of outsiders, hanging on to things past and not looking ahead to the future. It seems the family's despair at leavin More...

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Feb 07, 2011

Darryl rated it:

The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit by Lucette Lagnado *** Non Fiction. A memoir, a paean to Cairo before Nasser and to the author’s beloved father, Leon, who was the elegant Jewish boulevardier in Cairo of the 40’s and 50’s, both before and after his marriage to Loulou’s (nickname of the author) mother. Always wearing a white sharkskin suit, he roamed the streets of Cairo at night in search of and always finding gambling, dancing, and other treats of the Cairo nights. It is also the story of More...

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Aug 28, 2010

Robyn rated it:

It's hard to objectively make an assertion about this book because it made me think so deeply of my long lost beloved grandfather, my own troubled father, my strange & beautiful grandmother & so much that is lost that I feel partially responsible for in the upkeep of my own family's traditions. I will say that the author's ability to present this flawed but precious real-life characters without shying away from the more controversial aspects of their nature while maintaining a compassionate & e More...

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Jan 08, 2011

Danna rated it:

Lagnado tells the story of her youth with a focus on her father, the man in the white sharkskin suit. The story begins in Cairo, pre-World War II. Her family is a well-to-do and sophisticated, and also Jewish. It is clear that Lagnado worships her father in many ways, and the stories she tells of his livelihood are entertaining. However, during WWII, Jews are inevitably ousted from Egypt. Along with a severe injury incurred by her father, they are off, via Europe, to the US. Lagnado shares about More...

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Mar 10, 2009

Cara rated it:

In the end, I gave this book 3 stars. It bored me at times, but ended up being a book that I was glad to have read. I always appreciate a book that I can learn something from. From this book I learned to appreciate the plight of an immigrant to this country. As an American, we often just don't understand why people that choose to come here, can't assimilate. I can't even imagine having to leave all that I love behind and being forced to abandon my values and all that is dear to me in order More...

1 comment like

Dec 30, 2010

Michele rated it:

I'm not sure why I loved this book but i did. The writing flows and the detailed descriptions of Cairo are both wonderful and educational (for me). The reason i say that I'm not sure why I loved the book is because I have such a strong emotional feeling towards the father. And he IS the book in many ways. Tears were flowing as I finished reading and continued through the acknowledgments. I kept thinking of my grandparents from Russia and stories my mother told me of growing up with immigrant par More...

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Apr 07, 2010

Doug rated it:

I really, really enjoyed this book. It wasn't an easy start though as I found the first few chapters a bit slow. After a while though you whip along and can't stop reading. The book is the true story of this woman's childhood, where her family was living in Cairo at the peak of the city's culture. Her family is well to do, but after the political climate changes (fast), they are forced out of the country for being Jewish. They end up close to penniless and eventually in America. In many cases it More...

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Sep 20, 2011

Noelle rated it:

Lagnado tells the story of her culturally Egyptian family of Jews who emigrated to Egypt from Syria several generations before World War II. After the war Jews were forced to leave the country with whatever they could cram into a suitcase...sounds like the tale of some French colonial Algerians I used to know when I was a kid...the family went to France, and eventually to New York. The trauma of being uprooted this way is well handled in the book. Eventually the Egyptians figured out they'd a More...

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Jan 31, 2010

Sue rated it:

I don't usually like memoirs & had not actually intended to read this. But then I decided to give it a try, based on a recommendation from a friend who often shares tastes in books. I found it fascinating.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 29, 2009

Marian rated it:

Lagnado writes about the glory of Cairo from the years between WW II and Nasser's rise to power. She highlights the life that the Jews and her wealthy father lived until they were forced out of Egypt with only $200 in cash. She traces the poverty and hardship the family endured as refugees in Paris and then New York in contrast to the comforts of the life they lived in Egypt. She traces her development into a young woman in America in contrast with her father's decline pyhysically and economical More...

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Dec 30, 2009

Vicky rated it:

After reading "My father’s paradise" I was very interested in the history of Jewish Diaspora in Orient. Here is Cairo before the end of the Second World War, the vibrant cosmopolitan city full of theatres, nightclubs and luxurious restaurants. There are many prominent Jewish families, some from Syria, and some from Alexandria with a very distinctive culture and lifestyle. They live peacefully with their neighbours, they are secure and prosperous. The end of the war and the change of t More...

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May 26, 2011

Adel rated it:

العمل مش روائي قد ماهو مذاكرات بس كبيرة حبيتين
تفاصيل كتير قوي تخليك تستغرب ازاي طفلة قادرة تفتكر كم التفاصيل دي كلها

معجبنيش اسم الكتاب ولا اسماء بعض الفصول
ولا حتي اسلوب الكاتبة اللي بان قوي انها كاتبه الكتاب علي مراحل متتعدة
لان الفصول بعضها بيتكرر فيها نفس الكلام والوصف وبعض الفصول بيتكرر جواها الكلام بشكل مش مرتب

يبقي الفصل الاخير هو الافضل بلا منازع ...
رحلة في مصر التي تمنيت ان احيا فيها ... More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 06, 2011

Linconter rated it:

Jewish Egyptians in Cairo who lead a privileged lifestyle make it through WWII but then must flee Egypt under Nasser's anti-Jewish regime. They leave Egypt with $200 in their pockets, are taken in by France temporarily, until they can be repatriated somewhere else. They eventually opt NOT to follow most of their family to Israel but to go to their other possible choice: America. These educated people who speak 5 or 6 languages fluently have to live in poverty, but they manage to get at least More...

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Feb 27, 2010

Alecia rated it:

This book was strongly recommended to me, and I read it for that reason.I would actually give it 3 1/2 out of 5 stars. I seem to have read a few memoirs this year(Half-Broke Horses, Saving Mum and Pup and a few more). This memoir holds it's own and was very interesting to me as I knew next to nothing about the experience of Egyptian Jews. I think the narrator/daughter, Loulou, tells her family's story with honesty and sensitivity. She clearly adored her father (the man in the white sharkskin sui More...

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Aug 08, 2011

Bonnie added it

Wow, what an incredible story. The author uses such beautiful descriptions and imagery of her early life in Egypt, that I can see a movie reel running through my head of what it must have been like. Contrast that to her family's exile to America and the bleak exitence they lived there. This book, more than any other in a while, made me think long and hard about my own familys exile (i am the grandchild of holocaust surivors). The story was heartwrenchingly sad, the kind of sadness that sits More...

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Apr 27, 2009

Ellen rated it:

Stories about Jewish refugees from Europe are plentiful, but this story about the Jewish community in Cairo, and Arab Jews in general, was a viewpoint that I hadn't read about before. Lagnado's family emigrates to the US, and the story of once-wealthy, now poverty-stricken immigrants reminds me of family stories. However, her adoration for her father at the expense of her memories of her mother got to me. He seemed thoughtless and abusive towards his wife, while he adored the young daughter. He More...

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