Roman Year: A Memoir Hardcover – October 22, 2024

Among the best memories I've read! Must read to know about Rome in the 60s and to know what Jewws endured after being kicked out of Egypt

a jewish family expelled from alexandria, egypt becomes refugees in rome, italy. their story is narrated by the older of two teenaged brothers, who wraps himself in a world of great literature, separating himself from the day to day rome he hates, hoping for the day he can leave rome. the younger son makes friends and learns his way around the neighborhood and in school. mom is deaf, but manages to adjust to their new home. dad is still in egypt. mom and sons are greeted in naples by dad’s brother, who living in rome by his wits as a businessman, gets the new arrivals settled in a blue collar neighborhood distanced from the colosseum, the cathedrals, the plazas with fountains and sculpture by famous artists, the spanish steps, and the museums.when dad arrives, he pretty much abandons his family as he travels to paris in search of work. the family visits him and other relatives in paris, where the young narrator has his first sexual experience, followed by more sexual experiences when he returns to rome. as he becomes more familiar with rome, the girls, riding throughout the city on a borrowed bicycle, he still looks forward to the day he and family can leave. he refers to himself and similar discontented characters he reads about in books as elsewhere people.it isn’t until he becomes a man, years later, he realizes how much he missed by giving so much of himself to books instead of the city he inhabited for a year. this is an unappealing story of a dissatisfied youth redeemed by the writer’s literary influences, mastered as the man who subsumed them into a highly polished prose style. this is the second book in what promises to be an ongoing memoir, the first book, out of egypt, of the family’s time in egypt. of course, one is reminded of karl ove knausgaard.thank you to farrar, straus, and giroux and netgalley for an advanced readers’ copy.

I read Aciman's last four books. He is at his best in Roman Year, his most romantic and vulnerable work yet.

Though I have enjoyed all Andre Aciman’s books, in particular Out of Egypt, this one seems to ramble about. The characters are interesting, but the details repetitive. The author’s ‘coming of age’ story is touching but hardly original. Read the earlier books.

Marvelous from start to finish. A book about outsiders and the various ways in which people perceive their lives while living as these outsiders. An author who writes with an open heart and yet describing a critical time in his early life when living with an open heart was very difficult, if not impossible for him.Recommended for everyone's reading list.

This may have been a recollection of the author’s year in Rome as a teenager; however, it was told in such a nuanced way to include all parts of his life throughout. It was like following a timeline and taking some brief detours. I truly enjoy memoirs that give me new perspectives on life that has been lived and experienced. This book also challenged my vocabulary, which for me is always welcomed. It did take me longer to read than most 300 page books, but I think many passages required time to ponder and reflect on. The way this is written felt like it paralleled how the author must have felt knowing several languages but not feeling like one of them was native to him. A truly beautiful memoir. If you like a memoir, this one is a good one to dive into.

Beautifully written, but ultimately disappointing, as the narrator is self absorbed and is so burdened with his sense of being an outsider that it is difficult for him to adjust to his newly downgraded social status, living in a working class neighborhood in Rome and struggling with his teenage identity

Having read and appreciated nearly everything written by Andre Aciman, I was eager to read this new book. I’m particularly a fan of his essays which I feel is the genre where his consummate skills as a wordsmith really shine. As brave and personal as My Roman Year is, it made less of an impact on me than his earlier, magical memoir, Out of Egypt. His Alibis:Essays on Elsewhere remains my favorite book of his. Do yourself a favor and seek out that masterpiece.