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A review by _mery98_
False Papers: Essays on Exile and Memory by André Aciman
4.0
4.3/5
The book consists mostly of essays with the addition of one or two short stories. The thread connecting all the pieces is the feeling of longing for someplace or someone. Aciman is masterful in being able to put into beautifully expressed words the sense of longing and nostalgia. For anyone grappling with the phantom pain of missing someone who is no longer around or a place you no longer inhabit, this book will be a treasure.
That dream space is Aciman's territory, and he has made it ours as well. You don't need to have lost an Alexandria to understand what he does with place and time and memory. After all, we are all exiles in away - from our own childhoods, our own pasts, if nothing else. It is that remembered aspect of ourselves, that shadowy other life, that André Aciman's new book so piercingly addresses.
The book consists mostly of essays with the addition of one or two short stories. The thread connecting all the pieces is the feeling of longing for someplace or someone. Aciman is masterful in being able to put into beautifully expressed words the sense of longing and nostalgia. For anyone grappling with the phantom pain of missing someone who is no longer around or a place you no longer inhabit, this book will be a treasure.
That dream space is Aciman's territory, and he has made it ours as well. You don't need to have lost an Alexandria to understand what he does with place and time and memory. After all, we are all exiles in away - from our own childhoods, our own pasts, if nothing else. It is that remembered aspect of ourselves, that shadowy other life, that André Aciman's new book so piercingly addresses.