A review by eyegee
The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: My Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World by Lucette Lagnado

4.0

A moving memoir written by a woman, born in the mid -1950's to a prosperous, Jewish family in Cairo. Forced to leave Egypt in the early 1960's, they moved to Paris and then New York. Though much diminished financially, they managed to re-connect culturally with other immigrants from the Levant. I knew little of the middle eastern Jewish communities, or their customs, or that they existed for many hundreds of years. The establishment of the State of Israel and consequent tensions ultimately resulted in most residents leaving the area. This story lovingly brings to life a time and place as told through through the eyes of a young girl, and by extension those of her father with whom she was extremely close. Her teen years were spent in New York where she bridged the old and new cultures. Ultimately she became a writer for the Wall Street Journal where she wrote a feature about her family for a Father's Day issue. Response was so strong that a publisher encouraged her to write this book.