Review by Booklist Review
Omar Sharif, Jr., part Jewish, part, Arab, is the grandson of celebrated Hollywood actor Omar Sharif and an actor in his own right. He is also an activist and advocate who came out as gay following the Arab Spring. Here he recounts how he grew up navigating two seemingly different and difficult worlds and struggling with his family and his ethnic and sexual identities. He uses his grandfather's inspirational, complex, and poignant advice as a guide through his life's unique challenges and shares his yearning to fully be himself while also gaining acceptance and accomplishing his goals. While becoming the person he wants to be, Sharif witnesses the onslaught of Alzheimer's on his grandfather while they're on set together for the movie The Secret Scripture, in which Sharif plays his grandfather's caregiver. "Grandfather was charming, put together, focused, and eloquent, but on set that day, he was confused, lost, agitated, and yelling at people. I was looking at a stranger and a stranger was looking back at me." Sharif survives many trials and tribulations on the way to revelation.
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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Sharif, grandson of the legendary Egyptian actor by the same name, bares all with his stirring debut, an account of his extraordinary and turbulent life. As he looks back on a childhood spent moving between his Jewish mother and Arab father's families and the years leading up to his current exile from Egypt after publicly coming out as gay in 2012, Sharif weaves in the ever-present spirit of his late paternal grandfather, a celebrity and fervent optimist. Even after he died in 2015, following a decade with Alzheimer's disease, his grandfather's philosophy of "leaving it all on the table" served as a beacon of hope for Sharif throughout his toughest moments, and buoys the narrative. Despite the rampant homophobia he suffered early in life; a tumultuous coming-out experience in college with his mother (who screamed at him to "be normal"); and multiple sexual assaults by powerful men, Sharif remains sanguine and measured in his reflections. And while his convictions may be tinged by his aristocratic upbringing ("Because of my grandfather, I could get into any private club I wanted"), he maintains his hope in humanity, making several calls for increased dialogue, tolerance, and patience in Mideast politics. This moving story will appeal to anyone looking for an account of inspiration in the face of oppression. (Oct.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Egyptian actor Omar Sharif, who died in 2015, was best known for roles in Lawrence of Arabia and Funny Girl, but here we see him as the grandfather to a half-Jewish gay grandson, who is the author of this memoir, Omar Sharif Jr. It sheds light on the elder Sharif's later years as he struggled with Alzheimer's, but this is mostly Sharif Jr.'s story. Sharif Jr., an actor and model, discusses coming to grips with the advantages and disadvantages of his famous name and discovering a balance between two different worlds--his father is an Egyptian Muslim and his mother a Jewish Canadian whose parents were Holocaust survivors. He describes how in 2012, in the wake of the Arab Spring, he came out by publishing an article in the Advocate examining his identities as a Jewish Egyptian gay man. Death threats followed, and he feared that he would never be able to return to Egypt, but he nevertheless became an international LBGTQ advocate and made a name for himself outside the shadow of his famous grandfather. VERDICT Though a bit dramatic at times, this book will be of interest to LGBTQ readers, celebrity watchers, and memoirs about coming into one's own.--Rosellen Brewer, Sno-Isle Libs., Marysville, WA
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
The grandson of iconic Egyptian actor Omar Sharif shares his coming-of-age as a gay man. In this moving memoir, Sharif Jr., a Canadian actor and model, begins with the controversial coming-out letter he submitted to the Advocate in 2012, in which he expressed distress at being gay amid the political and social upheaval across Egypt. The essay became a viral sensation and further spurred the author's work for "the movement for LGBTQ equality in the United States and across the globe." His parents--Jewish Canadian mother and Arab father--divorced when he was a child, and he vividly depicts a youth traveling between Montreal and Egypt, interspersed with fond memories of later years spent with his famous grandfather, who accepted his grandson's lifestyle unconditionally. When Sharif Sr.'s health began to decline due to Alzheimer's, the author was there to support him, defend his reputation in the press, and care for him until his death in 2015. He chronicles years of painful bullying throughout school, leavened only by the spark of early attractions to men--even while some of those encounters ended darkly and involved sexual abuse. The memoir captivates with sharp cultural criticisms of the prejudices embedded in the Egyptian political landscape, which keeps gay citizens in a constant state of fear for their personal safety. Sharif laments that "too many are staying quiet as the whole of Egyptian society moves toward this monolithic entity I barely recognize." He writes of making good use of his celebrity to advocate for human rights across oppressed communities, particularly those in Egypt "without a voice, without a face, and without an outlet." The writing is direct, exquisitely personal, and most striking when the author addresses the intense internalized conflict between wanting to return to his homeland and the reality that exile is the only way to survive the repressive, anti-gay "new Egyptian paradigm." An inspirational chronicle of courageous LGBTQ+ advocacy in the face of official repression. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
