Clementi spent much of her early 20s as a journalist in various European countries, dealing with sexual assault and harassment from a number of her supervisors before heading to Israel to live in a kibbutz to recover from a breakup with a boyfriend who had “an ego of steel, a heart of mud, and a soul of distilled alcohol.” But in the back of her mind was always the dream of moving to the United States, and particularly to New York, which was more of a fantasy than a real city in her mind, thanks to multiple viewings of Woody Allen movies. When Brandeis University offered her a scholarship to graduate school in 1995, she accepted it as a step in the right direction, even though its location near a historic American city was no incentive, since, according to Clementi, “Boston is disliked by most people.” Eventually, she dropped out of the program and, with more than a little help from her parents, moved to New York and picked up work as an adjunct professor, teacher of Italian, and journalist before becoming an American citizen and earning her doctorate at City College of New York, while juggling a series of romantic relationships, some good and some horrifying. In her late 30s, she received the offer of a tenure-track job as an assistant professor of English and Jewish studies at the University of South Carolina, and once there, despite the initial culture shock, found herself happier than she had ever been. Clementi's wry and often startling memoir zigs and zags through her life at vertiginous speed, but readers willing to hang on through a wild and sometimes confusing ride will be rewarded with the author's uncensored observations, both positive and negative, of life in this strange new world.
English (US) ·