David Armstrong had a review of Growing Up Global in the San Francisco Chronicle this weekend:
“Life with no homeland, many homes”
Here are the nice things he has to say about the book.
“Unrooted Childhoods: Memories of Growing Up Global,” edited by Faith Eidse and Nina Sichel (Nicholas Brealey, 317 pages, $23.95) is an anthology of memoirs by writers whose early years took them far from their native lands. By turns funny, scary, poignant and instructive, the 20 pieces collected in this trade paperback give a vivid picture of life abroad for children without borders, especially children of the privileged upper middle-class.
I’ve never heard of the publisher, but here is the book page from NICHOLAS BREALEY INTERCULTURAL.
I preferred the review from Booklist.
“The writers represented here are the “privileged homeless,” according to Pico Iyer, whose brilliant, witty essay opens this collection by those who remember growing up as foreigners with families always on the move. Army brats, missionaries’ children, diplomats’ children, or those whose parents just couldn’t stay put, these adult writers still feel like strangers everywhere, longing to belong even as they fear attachment. There is sometimes a whining note of self-pity– you can hear the therapy session–and, except as metaphor, these restless essayists don’t even see the “streetbums” around them, the millions of child refugees and migrant workers who are truly homeless today. But many of the best writers, including Isabel Allende, Ariel Dorfman, and Tara Bahrampour, speak eloquently about the pain and also the riches of the search for home. Pat Conroy didn’t like the military life: “Each year I began my life all over again . . . and I think it damaged me.” In contrast, Carlos Fuentes found identity in contact, in contrast, in breakthrough. The editors provide excellent commentary and author bios.” —Hazel Rochman
Lovers of travel and living abroad, do you ever wonder how your choices will affect the lives of your children? I’m not ready to think about that yet, but I’m interested in hearing how these people were effected. Still, it is a different world that we live in now than the one they grew up in years ago.
True, Jen, the world is different today than when these people grew up, but, if you look at history, the world doesn’t really change that much in how we behave and view our planet. We are influenced by our environment now as our ancestors were and as our descendants will be.