An intelligent, honestly written memoir of immigration.
El-Sayed, in his debut memoir, tells the story of his struggle to find a better life—and of losing what he’d worked so hard to gain.
Born to Egyptian parents in Kuwait, the author became an undocumented immigrant in the United States for a time. However, immigrants are far more than the sum of their paperwork, and El-Sayed provides a balanced portrayal of his own foundation in this engaging book. He was the fiercely smart and driven child of an alcoholic father, and ranked fifth among all students in Egypt when he graduated high school. He traveled to the United States with a tourist visa in 1993 and stayed, then put himself through college with a combination of hard work and student loans. He married an American woman in 1997 and later became a permanent resident. There was just one problem: he claimed to be an American citizen so he could apply for his loans, and although Immigration and Customs Enforcement never caught up to him, the U.S. Department of Education did, in 2000: “I counted ten law enforcement personnel....these guys acted like they hit the jackpot.” The author signed a confession right on the spot, in exchange for the promise of a quick release so he could finish the few weeks remaining before he was due to graduate from California State Polytechnic University in Pomona as valedictorian. But that release never materialized; the judge went back on the plea deal, throwing El-Sayed in jail with drug smugglers, violent bikers, and convicted murderers for more than a year. Once released, the author went straight back to school—but although the academic world may have been forgiving of his status as convicted felon, employers were not. In this memoir, El-Sayed effectively tells of his pitched struggle to provide a good life for his loved ones, including his American daughter, born in 2006. Along the way, he relates so many setbacks that it may leave readers wondering how he found the courage to keep trying. Throughout the book, the author shines equal light on his own struggles to fully realize his dreams as he does on some painful, embarrassing aspects of the United States immigration system.
An intelligent, honestly written memoir of immigration.Pub Date: Dec. 6, 2014
ISBN: 978-0990782834
Page Count: 280
Publisher: Officio
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
