Oleander Jacaranda

This is a memoir by British fiction writer Penelope Lively, about her childhood growing up in Egypt during the 1930s and 1940s. Lively tells the story of her life as a young girl, and the various experiences she has during that time, including visits to a fellaheen village and an afternoon at the Gezira Sporting Club. Lively's memoir is full of the vivid confusions of childhood and the shadings that come with retrospect, and it is a very interesting read.

A poignant and bittersweet memoir from the distinguished British fiction writer Penelope Lively, A poignant and bittersweet memoir from the distinguished British fiction writer Penelope Lively, Oleander, Jacaranda evokes the author's unusual childhood growing up English in Egypt during the 1930s and 1940s. Filled with the birds, animals and planetsof the Nile landscape that the author knew as a child, Oleander, Jacaranda follows the young Penelope from a visit to a fellaheen village to an afternoon at the elegant Gezira Sporting Club, one milieu as exotic to her as the other. Lively's memoir offers us the rare opportunity to accompany a gifted writer on a journey of exploration into the mysterious world of her own childhood. Review: Vivid . . . forthright and witty. . . . [Lively] turns her hand to autobiography with the same depth of feeling and meaning that characterizes her fiction. -- New York Times Book Review The vivid confusions of childhood and the shadings that come with retrospect are seemingly blended. -- Merle Rubin, Wall Street Journal A quite stunning mediation on the archaeology of memory and time's predations. -- Kirkus Review (starred review)