André Aciman, author of the critically acclaimed gay love story Call Me by Your Name, has released a new memoir, Roman Year, on 22 October 2024, which delves deeply into his formative years as a refugee in Italy exploring the experiences that shaped Aciman’s early understanding of identity, displacement, and belonging.
Aciman’s early life was transformed when his Jewish family was forced out of Alexandria, Egypt, during the regime of Gamal Abdel Nasser. The Egyptian government seized his father’s factory and the family’s assets, prompting their relocation. In Roman Year, Aciman recounts this unsettling transition to Rome, where he, his younger brother, and his deaf mother inhabited a cramped apartment on Via Clelia, a former brothel, while his father pursued work in Paris. This physical and familial displacement created a profound sense of dislocation and longing within Aciman.
His memoir captures the essence of a young man grappling with the notion of home when familiar ties are severed. Aciman writes poignantly about feeling adrift, noting, “My mother was not a home, my brother was not a home, and Via Clelia certainly wasn’t home.” His struggle was compounded by the verbal abuse and hostility encountered from relatives like Uncle Claude upon their arrival in Italy—a man who, despite sparing them from a refugee camp, belittled and berated them.
With his family unit fractured, Aciman’s adolescent years were marked by a search for identity and belonging. Roman Year recalls his discovery and exploration of his sexuality in a 1960s Rome imbued with cultural norms that rarely embraced fluid identities. He reflects on experiences with his cousins, including a visit to a brothel in Paris, and interactions with sex workers that would become pivotal, albeit complex, moments in his understanding of desire.
Aciman also articulates his encounter with cultural dichotomies—celebrating Christmas despite his Jewish roots and developing a love for both his mother tongue and a newly acquired one. These contradictions shaped his character and creative ambitions, drawing him into the world of literature and introspection.
A poignant segment of the memoir details Aciman’s visit to his father in Paris, a journey which awakened a deep appreciation for Europe’s layered histories and enigmatic allure. Embracing his father’s sentimentality, Aciman muses, “Like him, it is in echoes, not in things themselves, or in places, much less in people, that I find my true alignment to life itself.”
Source: Noah Wire Services
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