Growing Up Global – written road blog

Growing Up Global – written road blog:
“The writers represented here are the “privileged homeless,” according to Pico Iyer, whose brilliant, witty essay opens this collection by those who remember growing up as foreigners with families always on the move. Army brats, missionaries’ children, diplomats’ children, or those whose parents just couldn’t stay put, these adult writers still feel like strangers everywhere, longing to belong even as they fear attachment. There is sometimes a whining note of self-pity– you can hear the therapy session–and, except as metaphor, these restless essayists don’t even see the “streetbums” around them, the millions of child refugees and migrant workers who are truly homeless today. But many of the best writers, including Isabel Allende, Ariel Dorfman, and Tara Bahrampour, speak eloquently about the pain and also the riches of the search for home. Pat Conroy didn’t like the military life: “Each year I began my life all over again . . . and I think it damaged me.” In contrast, Carlos Fuentes found identity in contact, in contrast, in breakthrough. The editors provide excellent commentary and author bios.” —Hazel Rochman

this fits with my whole ‘transnational elites’ analysis.