Lucette Lagnado Visits the SCC Women’s Center

Poopa Dweck and Lucette Lagnado

Community member Lucette Lagnado, author of The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit, recently thrilled her fans when she spoke and signed copies of her book at the Sephardic Community Center’s Women’s Center.

Her memoir tells the story of her family’s exodus from Cairo to the New World, settling in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. She was just six-years-old at the time.

“I am utterly overwhelmed, but nothing, nothing, has prepared me for the passion, the beauty, the grandeur, the tenderness, the excitement—and above all, the overwhelming, bountiful love that I encountered at 1901 Ocean Parkway,” said Lagnado, upon addressing the standing-room-only audience.

She spoke enthusiastically with her guests—many of whom were members of the community she was first introduced to in 1963 upon arriving in the United States. Feeling as if she had never left Egypt, Lucette imparted that our community has completely guided her in writing this novel, recounting the life and the country she and her family had left behind. Investing her hopes and ambitions into the fabric of the novel, Lucette has had eminent success, receiving countless emails and letters, and positive reviews and praise in response to the book.

The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit begins by recreating Cairo, Egypt in the years between World War II and Gamal Abdel Nasser’s rise to power. Lucette’s father Leon was a boulevardier (man about town) who conducted business on the elegant terrace of Shepheard’s Hotel, and in the dark bar of the Nile Hilton, dressed in his signature white sharkskin suit. With the fall of King Farouk and Nasser’s nationalization of Egyptian industry, Lucette and her family lost everything. Neighborhoods of their fellow Jews were disbanded, and the Lagnados had to make their escape. Lucette and her family encountered poverty and hardships upon moving from Cairo to Paris, and to New York, in sharp contrast to the lives they left behind.

Her poignant tale documents the extraordinary upheaval through the eyes of a child. Eighty thousand Jews had lived in Egypt, and over one million Jews lived in surrounding Arab countries. Today that number is tiny.

Nadim provides music for the audience

Lucette Lagnado is a special senior writer in the New York Bureau of the Wall Street Journal. She covers hospital and health systems in the US, concentrating on the poor, the elderly and the uninsured. She has been the recipient of numerous journalism awards.

To write the book, Lucette asked herself, “How does an investigative reporter investigate her own family?” Mainly, she reached out to the people that lived in her family’s world. Two years ago she returned to Cairo as a reporter, and was welcomed back to Egypt. As Lucette told her story, many Egyptian community members had tears in their eyes, recalling their own memories as well.

The event was a huge success. With delightful music provided by Nadim, hundreds of guests enjoyed a delicious array of pastries and fruit. Francine Dweck and Linda Ebani, co-chairman of the SCC’s Women’s Center, along with Sari Setton, organized this wonderful evening. The evening would not have been possible without the generous sponsorship of the Sephardic Community Center, Marlene Ben Dayan (who knew Lucette as a child) and the Sephardic Bikur Holim, the Sephardic Angel Fund and Chehebar Foundation.

The SCC’s Women’s Center holds a monthly book club. On November 15th the book club will feature The Decision by Reuben Bibi, and on December 20th, The History of Love by Nicolas Krauss. Anyone interested in purchasing The Man in the Sharkskin Suit, or learning about upcoming events in the Center, can contact Sari Setton at (718) 954-3140, or send her an email at sari@scclive.org.
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Randi Shomer is a community member, mother of four children and a freelance writer for IMAGE Magazine.