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

I had been out of touch with Deena for a while, but we emailed recently and she recommended this book, which she had liked because of her interest in genealogy. Having just finished a fictional account of a Jewish family's escape from post-revolutionary Iran, I thought it would be a good contrast to read some non-fiction on a Jewish family's leaving Egypt. Coincidentally, I found myself reading this just weeks before Passover, which added to my interest in the story.

This book follows a family who lives in Cairo as upper-class Jews. Narrated by the family's youngest child, a daughter, the first half of the book is about their family history and the early years of the parents' marriage, not particularly happy. The political situation in Egypt in the 1960's forces many Jews to consider leaving the country, and the Lagnados eventually flee to France and then ultimately Brooklyn. The family's story is not a particularly happy one, and the 'man in the white sharkskin suit', Lucette's father, deteriorates from debonair regular on the Cairo club circuit to infirm old man forever mourning his home country.

I enjoyed reading the book, though, because it was a crisp depiction of what it is like to leave a home country under duress. I had never really understood the dimensions of that choice as well as I did after reading this book. While Lucette is young enough to eventually adjust to that change, her father never really recovers. I had to glance at the title several times during reading this book to remind myself that the story is really about him, not her.

PS - Turns out that my mother has an unusual connection to this book that I only learned about half way through - her mother was treated by the same doctor at Sloan-Kettering as Lucette was, back in the 1960's. It is a small, small, small world.