Andre Aciman: In the irrealist dimension
The author of talks about antisemitism, and about writing as an exploration of identity
Chintan Girish Modi
hile reading about you, I noticed that some people describe you as Egyptian American, others call you Italian American, and some introduce you as Jewish American. What resonates most with you?
Yes, it’s a bit funny, isn’t it? First of all, I was born in Egypt but I was never Egyptian. I became Italian when I was probably 10 or 11 years old, and I didn’t even know Italian at the time. Then I lived in Italy but eventually my Italian citizenship lapsed entirely. I can no longer retrieve it, since I have become an American. But in essence, all these are names of identities that don’t capture anything essential about me.
Is there anything that does capture something essential about you?
To be very honest, if I knew the answer to that question, I wouldn’t be writing. I would be doing something else. I write in order to find out: Who am I? What do I like? What do I want? What am I tied to? I have no idea. It’s all free-floating.
That’s true! In many respects, it is exactly what you call it. As long as I cannot identify what it is that I’m about, I can write. When I know the answer to the question “Who am I?” there will be no point in writing. Writing is an exploration. It is a trying out of several identities, and trying to fashion something. Once you are done with publishing a book, you think that the matter seems to have been resolved. Suddenly, a few days later, you realise, no, it’s not resolved. Thanks to the insoluble character that I am, the question crops up again and again. It demands a sort of resolution – one that never comes, or maybe hasn’t yet.
One of the identities you’ve discovered is Homo Irrealis, also the title of your new book. It sounds like the name of a species you’ve concocted to explain the relationship between the real and imagined...
That is completely correct. The irrealist dimension is where I am. Who might I be? Who might I have been? Who might I still become? Do I want to become that person? Do I really know where he’s going, who he is? Ultimately, I have no idea about the answers to any of these questions. And I love this.
I’ve been playing with the idea of homo irrealis for quite a few years now. It allows me to enter the work of people whom I respect a great deal, and engage in acts of reading and misreading that are eventually about reading my own self.
Do you feel New York is one of the safer places for Jewish people? Is anti-semitism on the rise again?
Well, it’s not rising again. It has always been in place. Anti-semitism is just part of life. I think it’s a given. However, living in New York, for example, is far easier. In fact, the only time in my life when I started saying to people that I was Jewish was in New York. In Italy, in France, especially in Egypt, you never said you were Jewish. When people asked you, you didn’t answer directly. That’s how it was. Even today, when you go to France, people rarely tell you that they are Jewish. They will tell you something about their grandparents, and it is up to you to sort of infer that they are Jewish. In comparison, I have found it easy to be Jewish in New York. It doesn’t mean that anti-semitism doesn’t exist.
How was received by gay readers in Egypt and Israel?
It has been well-received in Israel. It is one of those countries where people can be openly gay. I have no idea about Egypt because my book has not been translated there. It is still very difficult to be gay in Egypt. If people are reading it, they must have obtained it in a manner that is not legal. They might be reading it clandestinely. It’s difficult, and I empathise with them. I know that there are people in Iran who have read it. As an author, I have to deal with the fact that there are parts of the world where people cannot talk about it openly.
How do you feel about travelling with the book to the JLF Soneva Fushi festival in the Maldives, where homosexuality is criminalised?
I don’t think that the festival is itself worried about it; otherwise, I wouldn’t have been invited. I am proud of this book and all the books that I have written. They address a host of subjects, and homosexuality is one of them. I hope the audience is openminded.
Tell us about your next book.
I am writing about a period of my adolescence when I was living in Italy. It was a difficult time because I had just been expelled from Egypt and I had arrived in Italy. I didn’t like Italy. All the torment of adolescence was playing out in my life at that very moment.