{"product_id":"returning-a-search-for-home-across-three-centuries","title":"Returning: A Search for Home Across Three Centuries","description":"\n\u003ctable align=\"center\" border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"2\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\"\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd class=\"productDetailSmallElements\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIn this anguished, uncertain, moving, and driven memoir of his pursuit of personal reclamation, Nicholas Lemann writes as the historian of a family, a people, and an idea. How he comes--through love and introspection, and rising finally to a kind of (biblical?) poetry--to the restoration of purpose and integrity may not be intended as a guide for the perplexed, but it will not be surprising if it achieves exactly this.\"--Cynthia Ozick, author of Antiquities\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/em\u003e staff writer Lemann ( \n\u003cem\u003eHigh Admissions\u003c\/em\u003e) offers a personal take on the history of Jews in America in this powerful family portrait . . . a stirring saga.-- \"Publishers Weekly\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIn \n\u003cem\u003eReturning\u003c\/em\u003e, [Lemann] has turned his considerable investigative skills on his family, its antebellum past, its connection to Germany, and above all its complicated and ambivalent relation to Judaism. . . . Adept at separating the unseen from the seen, Lemann here chronicles his family's accumulation of wealth, whatever the moral costs or compromises, and their subsequent acculturation and partial deracination. But he is also writing a Thoreauvian spiritual autobiography whose aim is the shucking off of any vestige of quiet desperation, which, in his case, is something felt but unnamed for many years--except his progenitors aren't New England Transcendentalists.--Brenda Wineapple \"New York Review of Books\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe search for identity and community does give this sprawling, ruminative memoir a thematic unity. Its narrative, as signaled by the title, depicts Mr. Lemann's metaphorical progress from a Southern heritage in which Jewish descent was a mild social embarrassment to an enthusiastic embrace of Jewish rituals and beliefs. . . . After his assessment of his family's triumphs and missteps, Mr. Lemann's own commitment to Judaism--reinforced by his second marriage, to the writer Judith Shulevitz--is genuinely moving.--Julia M. Klein \"Wall Street Journal\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhat does it mean to belong? \n\u003cem\u003eReturning\u003c\/em\u003e offers a profound mediation on family, Jewish identity, and the meaning of home in a world constantly shaken by economic, social, and cultural change.--Henry Louis Gates Jr., Harvard University\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eReturning\u003c\/em\u003e is a beautifully rendered history, at once highly personal and very broadly cast, and it is a soul-baring story that must?touch us all.--Steven Hahn, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Nation Under Our Feet\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLemann sets off on an extraordinary pilgrimage, one that touches on caste systems and 'ethnic prisons, ' on civil rights, family rifts, and immigration policy. The doors open, the doors close; I lost count of the bruising number of times. But I remain haunted by this clear-eyed, literature-rich, original, entirely dazzling memoir.--Stacy Schiff, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of The Revolutionary\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThis is a book that sheds insight on difficult historical truths while wrestling with some of the most important issues of our own times as well. A family history, yes, but also a beautifully and courageously written literary memoir that leads its author on the road to self-knowledge.--Farah Griffin, author of Read Until You Understand\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLemann takes readers on an intimate, gripping journey through his own roots, vividly bringing to life generations of Jewish ancestry who struggled to find their place in America.--Julian E. Zelizer, Princeton University\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhat begins as an exploration of Lemann's family history becomes, quite unexpectedly, a gorgeous statement of devotion--one of the most moving meditations on Jewishness in recent memory.--Franklin Foer, author of World Without Mind and The Last Politician\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLemann's book is his fifth and his most personal, reaching back in time to uncover how his aristocratic, well-established life in Louisiana was a relatively modern development following decades of assimilation. It is a family portrait in a unique milieu -- Faulkner and Robert Penn Warren meets Irving Howe's \n\u003cem\u003eWorld of Our Fathers\u003c\/em\u003e -- that follows the rough contours of the Torah: the original sins of slavery, Exodus and the conflicted push towards a promised land with political Zionism and a codification of life as Lemann reclaims tradition. It's a compelling read, all the more so for how its personal investigation brushes up against American history.--PJ Grisar \"The Forward\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWrit-ten with the keen eye of a jour-nal-ist, the per-spec-tive of a his-to-ri-an, and the love of a grand-child, Lemann charts the course of five of his family's gen-er-a-tions in America. . . . \n\u003cem\u003eReturn-ing: A Search for Home Across Three Cen-turies\u003c\/em\u003e is for any-one who wants an inti-mate sto-ry with uni-ver-sal themes that will chal-lenge and inspire us, and make us think about our own fam-i-lies' stories.--Marc Katz \"Jewish Book Council\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher Marketing\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNicholas Lemann, a veteran \u003cem\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/em\u003e correspondent, grew up in New Orleans, the son of German Jews in a world of gilded privilege. Yet in contrast to his parents' generation, which always sought to downplay their religious background, Lemann was intrigued by his roots, thinking he wanted to be like Jack Burden, the ever-curious reporter in Robert Penn Warren's \u003cem\u003eAll the King's Men\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e And like his fictional hero, who gets drawn into a web of Southern political intrigue, Lemann in \u003cem\u003eReturning\u003c\/em\u003e delves deeply into the family story--from their arrival in the 1830s as peddlers from Germany, to their becoming plantation owners and department store owners after the Civil War, to their emergence as aspirants in the aristocratic world of New Orleans, where they could never quite belong.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Seemingly more \u003cem\u003eOur Crowd\u003c\/em\u003e than \u003cem\u003eYentl\u003c\/em\u003e in its depiction of a German-Jewish family where young scions matriculated at Harvard and liveried staff served \"crustless duck sandwiches\" at cocktail parties, \u003cem\u003eReturning\u003c\/em\u003e, with its parade of colorful family characters--from his grandfather's cousin, who participated in a campaign to prevent a Jewish state in the 1940s, to his father, a wealthy business lawyer in a Deep South seigneurial city, who took his kids to temple \u003cem\u003eonly on Thanksgiving\u003c\/em\u003e, to his New Jersey-raised mother, who \"went into a kind of cardiac arrest of the soul\" upon meeting the family--defies easy categorization. Indeed, as the Lemanns climbed the ranks of New Orleans's high society, their struggles became part of a larger metaphorical story of the challenges faced by Jews, even wealthy ones, who are never able to fit in.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Keenly aware of these contradictions, Lemann began chafing both at the South's strict racial hierarchy and at his relatives' eagerness to be accepted in a subtle but distinctly antisemitic environment. \u003cem\u003eReturning\u003c\/em\u003e then follows the narrator as he rejects this cossetted, assimilated society, embraces religion, and chooses, along with his wife, to raise his children in a Jewish world.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Searchingly asking what it is about antisemitism that allows it to flourish after two thousand years, Lemann uses his own family saga as a springboard to address some of the most urgent questions of our time. Through its nuanced combination of biography and philosophy wrapped into a family history, \u003cem\u003eReturning\u003c\/em\u003e ultimately becomes one of the most memorable statements about Jewish life in the twenty-first century.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations:\u003c\/strong\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/span\u003e 01\/26\/2026 (EAN 9781631498411, Hardcover)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/span\u003e 02\/01\/2026 (EAN 9781631498411, Hardcover)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eContributor Bio:\u003c\/strong\u003eLemann, Nicholas\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNicholas Lemann\u003c\/strong\u003e is a professor and dean emeritus at the Columbia Journalism School. He is the author of \n\u003cem\u003eThe Promised Land, The Big Test, Redemption, \u003c\/em\u003e and \n\u003cem\u003eTransaction Man\u003c\/em\u003e. A staff writer for \n\u003cem\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/em\u003e since 1999, he lives in New York.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n","brand":"Liveright Publishing Corporation","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51496034566422,"sku":"9781631498411","price":42.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0857\/9910\/8886\/files\/9781631498411.jpg?v=1783051266","url":"https:\/\/lusper.myshopify.com\/products\/returning-a-search-for-home-across-three-centuries","provider":"Lusperbooks","version":"1.0","type":"link"}