My Father's Paradise by Ariel Sabar

"The thing about our idea of paradise is that some are not all that they seem. That was certainly true for my grandparents and great-grandparents in Israel, where Kurds and other Sephardic Jews struggled against poverty and bigotry and suffered great disappointments. At the same time, some paradises are of our own making."
                        -Ariel Sabar, from the interview with the author

I doubt I would have ever read this book if it had not been the selection for an intergenerational book study for which I volunteered. I found it informative and at times, compelling. There was a great deal about linguistics that I didn't necessarily need or want but I appreciated learning about the history of some parts of the Middle East. I am rating the book a 3.

The book is probably more memoir or personal narrative than anything, not surprisingly written by a journalist. Ariel Sabar grew up American while his father, now a professor of Aramaic language at UCLA,  was an immigrant from Kurdistan by way of Israel. There was generational, as well as religious/cultural, conflict between them. The two had not been close and Ariel had thought little of his heritage until he had a son. Suddenly he was motivated to reconcile his present with the past. One might say he started a quest to discover what he might pass on to his child..

The quest takes him and, eventually, he and his father back to Zakho in the mountains of Northern Iraq, at some risk. There the author interviews people who knew his family and even begins a search for a long-missing aunt. He meets some very interesting people along the way.

My Father's Paradise gives some valuable insight into obstacles faced by immigrants and especially family relationships where 1st, 2nd and even 3rd generation Americans live together. One undergraduate college student in our group is 2nd generation Mexican-American and she freely shared some differences faced by her and her mother. Very comparable to Ariel's story.

The group read and discussed the book in thirds over a couple of months and I believe I would have enjoyed it more, had we read it in one month and discussed it at the end. The facilitator, a college professor, is trying to get the author to come and speak to the group. I would really look forward to that!