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A review by annakareniner
Alibis: Essays on Elsewhere by André Aciman
2.0
The 'Elsewhere' on the title's a totally fitting description for Aciman's musings. His nostalgia for the past and for an imagined life, an imagined self, tired me out multiple times, and I'm quite fond of the feeling of nostalgia. Sometimes he sounds a tad too pretentious and Eurocentric for my taste (despite the fact that he grew up in Alexandria, Egypt, like, come on man embrace your Egyptian-ness). At the latter half of the book I just itched to be done with it.
The above is not to say that I totally hated it. Sometimes I saw myself reflected in his writings, his ponderings on nostalgia and exile and other immigrant things. He described things I had never been able to articulate.
I wish to pick this up again someday—with a new lens that will hopefully make me appreciate the book more.
The above is not to say that I totally hated it. Sometimes I saw myself reflected in his writings, his ponderings on nostalgia and exile and other immigrant things. He described things I had never been able to articulate.
I wish to pick this up again someday—with a new lens that will hopefully make me appreciate the book more.