Sipping from the Nile: My Exodus from Egypt in Around the World in 80 Books

Nov 04, 2018 Ra rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audio-book, scribd, biography

Jean is a great writer but a mediocre reader. Still her reading of her own book lent it authenticity and a bit of power.

I read this book for an insight into the experience of Middle Eastern Jews, but it left me truly baffled. What I found is an account of a foreigner's existence in Egypt, and I felt that the "Egypt" this person experienced was filtered through layers and layers of luxury, European holidays and foreign boarding schools. This person has very little to do with the Egypt of the com Jean is a great writer but a mediocre reader. Still her reading of her own book lent it authenticity and a bit of power.

I read this book for an insight into the experience of Middle Eastern Jews, but it left me truly baffled. What I found is an account of a foreigner's existence in Egypt, and I felt that the "Egypt" this person experienced was filtered through layers and layers of luxury, European holidays and foreign boarding schools. This person has very little to do with the Egypt of the common people.

We are pre-programmed to symathise with the Jewish experience of suffering and exodus and the emotive title plays on this, but I could not help feeling that if it weren't for a few pepperings of Jewish culture and custom I could have very easily been reading about the exodus of one of King Farouq's offspring, but oh of course King Farouq was a bad guy and did deserve his fate while Jean and her family did not. My rational mind wants to ask why, what is the difference between King Farouq's daughter who was born into his privileges and Jean who was also born into hers? At least I think that the progeny of King Farouq spoke Arabic. Jean says she did not (she was almost an adult when she left Egypt). On her later return to Egypt she thought of Arabic as the background to her life, but it did not play any part of it.

The Arabs that Jean dealt with are the gardener, the driver and the woman who prepared the halawa (sugar paste) for her exfoliation. I am sure she had only limited vocabulary to talk to those. After her family left she mentions in long passages how the driver Usta Hussein kept writing to them, praising his loyalty, but nowhere in all of this did she ever mention anything about the man's circumstance, family, or children. Did she ever write back?

One interesting observation is that while the Jews of Europe suffered horribly from discrimination, the Jews of the middle east were by and large very prosperous and only suffered after the creation of Israel. Yet even as they "fled" most managed to live comfortably in Europe and America. From my own experience I know this as well from the handful of Jews that used to live in my native city Aleppo. The affluent lot had their own hierarchy and my heart really went out for example to Jean's first love. Her family of course did not accept him for he was a Polish Jew from some Shtetl and so really not in her league. All went well when she met someone from the same milieu.

I do not mean to be terrible to Jean and her book, and to belittle her experience. But as a Middle-Eastern Jew her experience sounded remote to me. Only in the latter parts of chapter 16 does she mention a few of the superstitions and language quirks I am familiar with. The rest of her book is about a spoilt rich girl. I felt dizzy with all the descriptions of opulence, and her constant quoting of French poetry. What can I say I guess I am a peasant at heart.

The book is a tribute to large families and their enduring connections. There are a few memorable characters like her father's sister Helen Mosseri. Her maternal grandparents Joseph (born in Iraq) and Rosa Smouha (nee Ades - born in Damascus). Jean's mother is also a special character taking up painting in old age. Most of her people lived comfortably through old age though and there is no denying that their experience of "exodus" was truly a mild one and had to do more with their privileged and insular existence during the time of revolutionary change in Egypt, and less with their Jewish heritage. ...more

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