Oleander, Jacaranda: a Childhood Perceived

Jacket Description/Back: 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 plants 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. Review Quotes: "Vivid . . . forthright and witty. . . . [Lively] turns her hand to autobiography with the same depth of feeling and meaning that characterizes her fiction."-- "New York Times Book Review""The vivid confusions of childhood and the shadings that come with retrospect are seemingly blended."-- Merle Rubin, "Wall Street Journal""A quite stunning mediation on the archaeology of memory and time's predations."-- "Kirkus Review" (starred review) Publisher Marketing: Written by the celebrated, Booker Prize-winning author of "Moon Tiger", this eloquent and evocatively detailed memoir is "vivid . . . forthright and witty. . . . [Lively] turns her hand to autobiography with the same depth of feeling and meaning that characterizes her fiction".-- "New York Times Book Review" Review Citations:

New York Times 07/23/1995 pg. 20 (EAN 9780060926229, Paperback)

Booklist 03/15/1994 pg. 1322 (EAN 9780060171063, Hardcover)

Library Journal 04/01/1994 (EAN 9780060171063, Hardcover)

Publishers Weekly 03/07/1994 (EAN 9780060171063, Hardcover)

Kirkus Reviews 02/01/1994 pg. 120 (EAN 9780060171063, Hardcover) - *Starred Review

Library Journal 08/01/1998 (EAN 9781856958332, Analog Audio Cassette)

Contributor Bio:  Lively, Penelope Penelope Lively is an award-winning novelist and author of children s literature. She received the Booker Prize for her novel Moon Tiger and wide acclaim for The Photograph, Family Album and How It All Began. Lively is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a member of PEN and the Society of Authors and a recipient of the OBE and CBE. In recognition of her contributions to British literature, she was elevated in 2012 to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. She lives in London.