Oleander, Jacaranda: A Childhood Perceived [Paperback]

Penelope Lively (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 31, 1995

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 planets of 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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Lively, the Booker prize-winning British author of Moon Tiger , here recalls her childhood in Egypt from the mid-1930s until her parents divorced in 1945 when she was 12. This intriguing memoir of growing up in another culture relies on Lively's perception of experience rather than on a detailed chronology of events. Her father, whom she rarely saw, was a manager at the Bank of Egypt; her mother was taken up in the expatriate social whirl. Lively's upbringing was left to Lucy, a young English woman, who was first her nurse and then her governess. The author's impressionistic portraits of Egypt, Alexandria and Palestine evoke sights and smells that are, in many respects, no longer accessible. Already suffering emotionally from parental neglect, Lively was further traumatized when her return to England caused her to be separated from Lucy. A sad and engaging reminiscence. Illustrations not seen by PW.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Oleander, jacaranda . . . jacaranda, oleander . . . they are the same trees but in reverse order, depending on whether you see them on the journey going or returning. In many ways, this childhood memoir, by the winner of the Booker Prize for her novel Moon Tiger ( LJ 3/15/88), is just such a journey. It is an adult reminiscence, based on "a headful of brilliant frozen moments" from the author's 12-year sojourn as a British child in Egypt, Palestine, and Sudan in the 1930s and 1940s. It is also a journey of discovery into the nature of childhood perceptions. The wide, brown Nile, the ebony-skinned Nubians, incense-laden Jerusalem, and the stifling heat of Khartoum are experienced as a child would experience them, with Lively's surogate mother, Lucy, providing a chauvinistic filter. In this book Lively has given a heartrending yet historically fascinating account of a little girl who hardly knew her parents; it is a first-rate demonstration of how a child sees.
- Marie L. Lally, Alabama Sch . of Mathematics & Science, Mobile
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (March 31, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060926228
• ISBN-13: 978-0140125870
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #336,053 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thoughtful and intriguing, March 21, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Oleander, Jacaranda: A Childhood Perceived (Paperback)

This is not only a memoir of Penelope Lively's childhood in Egypt in the 1930's and 40's, but also a meditation on childhood perception and how it differs from the way one sees as an adult. Lively manages to present the direct, self-centered, sensual perceptions of a child; but she also writes of her later re-interpretations of her childhood experience with adult hindsight and an adult's complex, but clouded, vision. The last chapter, in which she "returns" to England -- exotic, inscrutable England -- is beautifully rendered, turning on its head the experience of the Westerner visiting the exotic East.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb Illustration of the Third Culture Phenomena, October 12, 2000

By 

Renee Thorpe (Karangasem, Bali) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Oleander, Jacaranda: A Childhood Perceived (Paperback)

While it becomes quickly evident how excellent is Penelope Lively's memory, reading this memoir opens up all kinds of doors.

In the book there is a wonderful theme of how we think of the past, and what the past means to us. There is also more than a glimpse into the lifestyles of 20th century British colonial elite. As a child, Lively could straddle different realms, different cultures, and this is the fascinating heart of the book.

She grew up with ruling class privilege in British-occupied Egypt, and yet she had a child's access to local village life. She had a devoted governess, but the grown Penelope realizes how little they shared of each other. There are many fascinating parallels of home and country, such as the weight of a distant, somewhat cold mother/land.

Nowadays, there's a lot written about the phenomenon of the Third Culture Kid. Usually, and to speak very simplistically, this refers to American kids who grow up overseas and cannot feel any true attachment to the US, but who are not visibly connected to the land where they spent so much of their childhood. In the worst scenario, these people can end up with severe feelings of rootlessness, and with a sense of never quite belonging. Lively beautifully and sensitively writes of this lack of connection.

Aside from Oleander, Jacaranda being a wonderful story of returning, it is a comforting read for those who are affected by Third Culture Phenomena. I urge ALL EXPATRIATE parents to obtain and read this book! My third culture daughter read it at age 15, and I would recommend it to others in her age group and cultural situation.

Also great by Penelope Lively: Moon Tiger (Fiction).

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Penelope's lively memories are entertainingly wonderful!, June 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Oleander, Jacaranda (Audio Cassette)

Penelope Lively's autobiography is dense with a beautifully arranged description of her unusual childhood and offers the reader a chance to imagine life as a young child growing up in a lifestlye with changing surroundings that only an adult should be handling! Lively's writing styles (very apt colloquialism for this sort of book) blend in with the content of her descriptions of her childhood and the humourous moments she had with Lucy, her nanny/best friend. Her travels are illustrious and vibrant allowing the reader the escapism into the lands of Egypt from Cairo to Khartoum!

I love this book and the memories passed on from Lively through to me are treasures to read!

I'd give this a six if it were possible!-PKane