On Borrowed Words: A Memoir of Language (Paperback)

~ (Author) "I AM PACKING my library..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York, Bobbe Bela, Ciudad de México (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

English is Ilan Stavans's fourth language, but you'd never know it from the elegance of his prose. Indeed, he claims in this fascinating intellectual memoir, he now thinks of himself "as having been born into Yiddish and Spanish and then having been lured away by English... [I] found my true self the moment I spoke Shakespeare's tongue." The grandson of Jewish immigrants, he never felt truly at home in Mexico, though he adored Spanish: "It is far easier for me to think of my birth as having occurred in the tongue of Quevedo, Cervantes, Borges, and Octavio Paz than to perceive myself as un mexicano hecho y derecho." He was thrilled to experience Hebrew (his third tongue) as a living language, but Israel proved only a way station for the writer, who eventually discovered that "the only place I feel I truly belong is New York." Certainly the inhabitants of America's polyglot, multicultural cities will feel the strongest affinity for Stavans's memories of his grandmother, who never again spoke a word of Russian or Polish after she emigrated to Mexico, and of a sense of self that shifted depending on the language he spoke. More personal in tone, though still firmly linked to his themes, are portraits of his father, an actor whose fluency with words of emotion and affection slightly overwhelmed Ilan, and of brother Darian, who compensated for a severe stutter by communicating through music but never quite outran his personal demons. The luminous closing section, "The Lettered Man," sums up the book's primary preoccupation: identity formation through language and literature. "Sometimes I have the feeling I'm not one but two, three, four people. Is there an original person? An essence? I'm not altogether sure, for without language I am nobody." --Wendy Smith --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

The prolific Stavans, author or editor of 18 books (including The Hispanic Condition and The Oxford Book of Jewish Stories) tries to elucidate his ethnically overdetermined condition as a Mexican Jew of Eastern European origins (his family's name originally was Stavchansky) who now lives in the U.S. This beautifully written memoir is the tale of a search for a homeland, for a language and for a calling. The last was perhaps the easiest to find. Infatuated with drama as the son of a successful stage and TV actor, he long imagined his future in the theater or in film. But in his 20s, he discovered literature. In writing his first novel, for the first time he "felt truly human... yes, literature was the answer my promised land." But if literature was a "portable" homeland, where was his concrete one? Stavans describes his efforts, after growing up in a fairly self-contained Jewish community in Mexico City, to be fully Mexican, involving himself in Marxist politics on his college campus. When that failed, he went to Israel and Spain, but neither place answered his need. And as for language, neither his native Spanish nor the Yiddish and Hebrew he learned as a schoolboy felt quite right. At last moving north, Stavans believes he may have found his place: "... to become an American writer of sorts. Could I ever?... I was a wandering soul, inhabiting other people's tongues." But he chose English as the language for his memoir and a fluid, natural English it is. Refreshingly, the memoir is not totally self-focused Stavans's search takes readers through the lives of others: his tough immigrant grandmother; his elusive, ever-changing actor of a father; his musically gifted but emotionally unstable brother. (on-sale: Aug. 27)Forecast: This tale of learning to live in translation should resonate with Americans of many ethnic backgrounds, not only Jewish and Latino.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (July 30, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0142000949
• ISBN-13: 978-0142000946
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #931,619 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a memoir - language and marginality, September 22, 2002

By	M. J. Smith (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This book is a well-written, fascinating memoir of a childhood and young adulthood of a Jewish childhood in Mexico city. The characters are memorable - Bobbe Bela from Russia, the actor father, the talented and unstable brother, and the author himself seeking home and identity. A significant component of his seeking identity is found in language - Spanish, Yiddish, Hebrew, English. He compares multiple languages with masks of an actor, one of many elements in his tale that cause the reader to reflect. Another component is the author's finding his calling as an author - the influences (and absence of encouragement) that shape his writing, the language and the content. Another component is his searching for his Jewishness - in Israel, in Spain, in theology books (and classes), in Yiddish literature.

This memoir is excellent reading on being human - the reader gains insight into human experience as a whole through the detailed exposition of what it means to be a specific human, Ilan Stavans.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ¡Gracias Ilán! A groisen Donk! Thanks Ilan!, October 1, 2003

By	Mark H. Schwartz "Multilingual" (Tel Aviv, Israel) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As an American Jew with insider knowledge of the Mexico City Jewish community, I was startled and later heartwarmed by this book, and in the end proud of Stavans' courageous autobiographical outpouring. He has expressed facts about the Mexico City Jewish community and its effect on how one grows up there and how one views the world from this shtetl within one of the largest cities in the world.

I am enormously proud of how he has expressed himself in a language still somewhat foreign to him. He has given the reader some food for thought on how we all sometimes live on immigrant islands trying so ferociously to protect our languages and cultures while our offspring yearn to find a meaning in the country of their birth.

I suppose I'm a bit prejudiced since there are family ties here, but this book is outstanding and worth your reading. It definitely deals with the great questions of the humanities. His "let it all hang out" style must have cost him dearly amongst the family and the community, but as a writer he is definitely true to himself. I admire him greatly. This is a must read.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A prototype intellectual memior, January 16, 2003

By	A. Battista "abattist" (Lexington, KY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: On Borrowed Words: A Memoir of Language (Hardcover)

Ilan Stavans' On Borrowed Words flows nicely. It is at once an autobiograpical account of Stavans' intellectual journey, a rich detail on the literary works that have shaped his worldview, and a commentary on the influence, power, and limitations of language. The reader will develop a greater awareness of the books and influences that form one's belief system after reading Stavans' memior.
Credit Stavans for not unnecessarily dwelling on his past as a minority, but for developing (though his detail of language in his life) his own persona.