An incredibly insightful and eloquent author
Contradictory in as much as the prose is at once a searing honest almost journalistic aspect, yet literary and embellished as the author romanticises much of what he sees in order to find a way of understanding the world around him.
Stunning insight into a Rome which perhaps doesn’t exist anymore
Deeply personal observations abut himself and familial relationships, and the authors burgeoning sexuality.
Grief at loss of home and culture, sometimes relieved by the realisation that home has been found, if only when leaving it.
The sense of a life very keenly observed in the present but only really understood in the echoes of elsewhere, even if that elsewhere is not somewhere he has visited
A sense of a struggle for the author to find and name self..
I loved this

Roman Year reads like a literary bildungsroman as young Aciman navigates his tumultuous relationship to Italy, immigration, fantasies of America, women, school, and his family. This is ultimately a story about compromising between dreams and reality, learning to appreciate what is in front of you (a task tricky for any youth!), and managing competing desires. Like in his novels, Aciman's prose is absolutely lovely. He focuses more on fleshing out the characters and relationships in his life than on the setting itself, giving this memoir a novel-like quality.

Thank you to NetGalley and FSG for the e-arc.