Check nearby libraries
Buy this book
Inspired by the posthumous discovery of letters written by his father but never mailed, Jack Marshall’s memoir is both a moving story of a writer’s artistic coming-of-age and a lush, lyrical recollection of a childhood spent in Brooklyn’s Arabic-speaking Jewish community. Born in 1936 to an Iraqi father and Syrian mother who had immigrated to the United States, Marshall grew up in the hardworking Sephardic community—enveloped in an extended family that spoke little English, no Yiddish, and whose way of life owed more to their Middle Eastern homelands than to European Jewish traditions.
As the sights, sounds, and tastes of midcentury New York leap off the page, Marshall beautifully evokes the magic of youth and discovery. From playing “running bases” in the Brooklyn streets to making egg creams at Coney Island, from his mother’s rich kibbeh and baklava to the vast world revealed in the books of the New York Public Library, from the pleasures of music to the mysteries contained under a microscope, Marshall’s story is as enduring as it is original. And before he sets sail for Africa as a seaman on a Norwegian freighter, Marshall has, through his negotiation of language, culture, family strife, and issues of education, faith, and politics, shined a light upon the possibilities of our collective future.
Check nearby libraries
Buy this book
Previews available in: English
Subjects
Social life and customs, Family, Children of immigrants, Sephardim, American Poets, Jewish families, Homes and haunts, Poets, American, Arab American families, Childhood and youth, Biography, Arab americans, Brooklyn (new york, n.y.), New york (n.y.), social life and customs, Poets, biographyPeople
Jack Marshall (1936-)Times
20th centuryEdition | Availability |
---|---|
1
From Baghdad to Brooklyn: Growing Up in a Jewish-Arabic Family in Midcentury America
October 1, 2005, Coffee House Press
Paperback
in English
- 1st ed.
1566891744 9781566891745
|
aaaa
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
Book Details
Edition Notes
Classifications
The Physical Object
ID Numbers
Community Reviews (0)
Feedback?August 14, 2020 | Edited by ImportBot | import existing book |
February 14, 2020 | Edited by MARC Bot | remove fake subjects |
November 21, 2018 | Edited by Silverina | Edited without comment. |
November 21, 2018 | Edited by Silverina | Edited without comment. |
December 10, 2009 | Created by WorkBot | add works page |