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An Evening with André: André Aciman at Topping & Co

Ilaria Freccia

On Friday, 11 October, I entered St Andrews cosiest and most bookish institution (and yes, that includes the university’s many libraries) to listen to an hour-long talk between a bookshop staff member and André Aciman (Ass-i-men), the renowned author of books including Call Me By Your Name, Find Me, and Out of Egypt. The subject of the talk was My Roman Year, Aciman’s memoir, released on 10 September. The memoir takes place in the 1960s and follows his family’s forced migration from Egypt to Rome and his following experiences, each of which shaped his life in one way or another.


The talk began at 7:30pm and included about 45 minutes of discussion, a short reading by Aciman, a 15-minute Q&A, and then time for dedications and Aciman's signature. Tickets were reasonably priced, ranging from £22 (including a signed first edition of My Roman Year) to £6 for students, with all tickets redeemable towards a copy of the book. Topping & Co. also provided all attendees with a glass of wine at the door.


To the surprise of few, Aciman spoke of his memoir, and the experience of writing it, with the same elegance and sensitivity that he writes his novels, discussing how he struggled with this dramatic life change he experienced, and how his younger brother and deaf mother played a crucial world in opening him up to a new world, that, for better or for worse, he could not help but romanticise. 


Perhaps the most relevant topic of the evening, for the students in attendance at least, was his profound discussion of language and dislocation. Forced to leave Egypt because of his Jewish identity, he discussed his relationship with the different places he has lived and the languages he speaks saying “There is nothing I belong to” and “If Egypt was my home, it was never my homeland.” This topic is as relevant as ever today, with people all over the world, and in general university students, struggling to identify who they are in relation to where they are from versus where they now live. As Aciman so beautifully put it, “Add all these things, you have someone who is fundamentally lost.” And yet, he followed up, “Time has crossed these things and made it totally liveable and loveable to me.” 


It is this way of speaking that appeals Aciman to so many audiences, and this understanding of human nature that affiliates him with so many of his literary influences, discussed throughout the evening and his memoir. Fyodor Dostoevsky, the Russian novelist, as well as Marcel Proust and James Joyce, are Aciman’s leading influences, something increasingly apparent as he discussed his approach to writing. 


Aciman stated that he “puts writing between [him] and the rest of the world…when something is scary or uncomfortable, nullifying and adulterating it.” He explained that he is always sceptical and suspicious of others and uses intimacy to explore this, taking something that we (the readers) have known our whole lives but didn’t have time to focus on and giving it a body. “I’ve seldom given [the reader] something intimate that I didn’t think you shared.” 


And this is perhaps the key to his success. That unabashed acknowledgement of human nature and the intimate moments of it, that become such defining characteristics of us as individuals. 


Along with intimacy, coming full circle, the conversation was concluded with an exploration into our relationships with our pasts and how that affected those core feelings of dislocation and suspicion that Aciman himself identified, saying that “the past is not necessarily something you seek but it is embedded within you.” 


Overall, the evening was both engaging and provocative, with discussion of not only Aciman’s memoir and writing process but also the grittier parts of life and what it means to be both human and an author. No topic was left untouched and I was left impressed by his skilful responses to questions from both the interviewer and the audience, and by the overall organisation of the event as well, with thought-provoking and highly researched questions from the host, that encouraged well-rounded conversation and an enjoyable evening.


Photo by Ilaria Freccia

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