In this beautifully written book, Aciman describes growing up in Alexandria, his birthplace, until expelled by Nasser in 1965. His large extended family’s mother tongue was French, and they also spoke Ladino and Arabic. Prosperous but precarious, their stories are funny, touching, and profound, and André’s boyhood memories are mostly happy, in spite of the anti-Semitic lessons he was forced to recite in school. Eventually Aciman came to the U.S. and earned a Ph.D. in comparative literature at Harvard. He is known as an expert on the French author Marcel Proust, and also as a brilliant fiction writer. Among his books is Call Me by Your Name, recently made into a popular film. With Pat Bizzell, we’ll explore the memoir’s six interconnected but independent chapters in four sessions, offered live and Simulcast on zoom, on February 7, 14, 28, and March 7, 7:30-8:30 p.m. Pat taught this memoir in her Jewish Diaspora Literature class at Holy Cross, from which she retired in 2019. Pat sees Aciman’s experiences as emblematic of the Galut, life in exile from the Promised Land, and she’ll set the context for our discussions with the Biblical story of Joseph, another exile. All in person attendees need to be fully vaccinated and wear masks throughout the class. To register for the class, contact the office.