This richly colored memoir chronicles the exploits of a flamboyant Jewish family, from its bold arrival in cosmopolitan Alexandria to its defeated exodus three generations later. In elegant and witty prose, André Aciman introduces us to the marvelous eccentrics who shaped his life, Uncle Vili, the strutting daredevil, soldier, salesman, and spy; the two grandmothers, the Princess and the Saint, who gossip in six languages; Aunt Flora, the German refugee who warns that Jews lose everything "at least twice in their lives." And, through it all, we come to know a boy who, even as he longs for a wider world, does not want to be led, forever, out of Egypt.
"Kirby combines the narrative urgency of Sinclair's novel with the investigative reporting of Schlosser's book -- Animal Factory is nonfiction, but reads like a thriller. There's no political pleading or ideological agitprop in this book; it's remarkably fair-minded, both sober and sobering. Like Sinclair's and Schlosser's work, it has the potential to change the collective American mind about con
NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO, "BOOKS WE LIKE"
"Animal Factory is a compelling narrative in the tradition of Upton Sinclair, whose 1906 novel "The Jungle" led to changes in the meat-packing industry. It isn't a novel, but it moves along with the urgency of a pot-boiler. What Kirby has done in this journalistic account of animal factory operations across the country is draw back the curtains that have carefully screened from the public the unti
THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER
"Kirby profiles three individuals who have been subjected to the stench, mess, environmental contamination, and health risks of megafarms. Stonewalling government agencies and evasive and hostile factory-farm owners and their corporate overseers ensure that the trio's battles for safe air and water have been protracted, complicated, and dangerous, hence the magnitude of Kirby's meticulously detail
BOOKLIST – JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSN *STARRED REVIEW*
