What Language Do I Dream In?: A Memoir
By Elena Lappin
3.5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
From Europe to North America—and back again, via some of the twentieth century's most significant political upheavals—Lappin reconstructs the stories and secrets of her parents and grandparents with the tenderness of a novelist and the eye of a documentary filmmaker. The story of Lappin's identity is unexpectedly complicated by the discovery, in middle age, that her biological father was an American living in Russia. This revelation makes her question the very bedrock of her knowledge of her birth, and adds a surprising twist: suddenly, English may be more than the accidental "home in exile"—it is a language she may have been close to from the very beginning.
"English is not my mother tongue," writes Elena Lappin, "it is something more valuable: a language I was lucky enough to be able to choose." What Language Do I Dream In? is a wonderful, honest story about love, family, memory, and how they intertwine to form who we are.
Elena Lappin
Elena Lappin is a writer and editor. Born in Moscow, she grew up in Prague and Hamburg, and has lived in Israel, Canada, the United States and—longer than anywhere else—London. She is the author of Foreign Brides and The Nose, and has contributed to numerous publications, including Granta, Prospect, The Guardian and The New York Times Book Review. She is the editor of ONE, an imprint of Pushkin Press.
Related to What Language Do I Dream In?
Related ebooks
Island of Thieves Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Kray Madness: The shocking truth about Reg and Ron from the East End gangster they almost destroyed Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGoing Back to Say Goodbye: A Boyhood on the Mine Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnforgiven: Face to Face with my Father's Killer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJokes My Father Never Taught Me: Life, Love, and Loss with Richard Pryor Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGhetto Brother: How I Found Peace in the South Bronx Street Gang Wars Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Happy Man Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5It's Too Late Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLay On, Mac Duff! Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Untold Tales of Love and Shame Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShadow of Ashland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Da Truth: Da Truth Shall Set You Free!! Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Erstwhile Buddhist Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMy Merry Mornings Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWho am I Really? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDeadly Deception: Deadly Series, #4 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5My Brother and his Brother: A gay story about a brotherly love Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gloucester House Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDeath's Door Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The One-Star Jew: Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Unknown Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSixtieth Street Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMoscow Dogs Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWitches Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAn International Exchange Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Rose, by Any Other Name and Other Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWorlds Apart: A Memoir Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTwelve Days of Reign Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Viking Witch Cozy Mysteries Books 1-3 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Irishman&Other Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Women's Biographies For You
The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Are the Luckiest: The Surprising Magic of a Sober Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Autism in Heels: The Untold Story of a Female Life on the Spectrum Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finding Me: An Oprah's Book Club Pick Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Getting Off: One Woman's Journey Through Sex and Porn Addiction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wuthering Heights Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Just Kids: A National Book Award Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Everything I Know About Love: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Freedom: My Book of Firsts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All That Remains: A Renowned Forensic Scientist on Death, Mortality, and Solving Crimes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pure: Inside the Evangelical Movement That Shamed a Generation of Young Women and How I Broke Free Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 1]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sex Cult Nun: Breaking Away from the Children of God, a Wild, Radical Religious Cult Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Woman Who Changed Her Brain: And Other Inspiring Stories of Pioneering Brain Transformation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Babysitter: My Summers with a Serial Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Butts: A Backstory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stash: My Life in Hiding Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unveiled: How the West Empowers Radical Muslims Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Woman They Wanted: Shattering the Illusion of the Good Christian Wife Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for What Language Do I Dream In?
7 ratings1 review
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5"It is our family tradition to leave gifts by the birthday child's bed late at night, so that they wake up surrounded by presents. On my tenth birthday I pretended to be fast asleep while my mother placed a mountain of new books on the chair by my bed and tiptoed out of the room. As soon as she closed the door I started reading them by the light of the street lamp just outside my first-floor window....By the time the milky greyish-white of morning I had read all my birthday books cover to cover....I absorbed all the stories, characters, illustrations: it was like a night full of vivid dreams."This memoir of a much travelled editor and writer's life was most interesting to me in the first half where she describes her life in the Czech republic as a child: growing up in Prague before 1968, seeing the crack down. Her family emigrated to Germany and her descriptions of her adaptation here too made for good reading. I found after that it lost focus on the linguistic aspect of her story, despite her shift onto Hebrew when she moved to Israel and then English in Canada and the US. She mwntions skme of the books she has helped get translated into English as a literary scout, but more of this as a 'book about books' would have been wonderful given her numerous languages (hopefully she'll write another like this!)Her family history (a grandfather a soviet spy in China in the 1930s) was fascinating but as she didn't have enough detail from the record probably would make more sense as fiction. For example, he was part of the Soviet forces in the Spanish civil war - but writes that she has little more detail. Given the controversy of the role of the USSR, this is tantalising.