A vividly layered narrative that intertwines history and the complexities of identity.
In My Family and ‘Them Languages’, Aline P’nina Tayar turns to the intertwined histories of her Maltese and Tunisian Jewish heritage to make sense of identity, migration, and the role of language in shaping belonging. The narrative begins in the wake of her parents’ deaths, moving back through time by way of recollection, archival traces, and family storytelling to better understand the Mediterranean past that shaped them. Her father, a Maltese Jew fluent in English, Italian, and Maltese, and her mother, descended from a Sephardic family in Tunisia, carried with them generations of displacement and adaptation. Their journey to Australia under a post-war migration scheme sets the stage for new struggles, where their culture marks them as different even as it remains a source of pride. Rather than following a strict chronology, Tayar arranges her memoir in thematic fragments—snapshots of childhood and community life, portraits of relatives and neighbors, and later reflections from her career as an interpreter across Europe. The title phrase, ‘Them Languages,’ borrowed from her brother’s rejection of their multilingual identity, is only one example of the ongoing balance of past and present. Wry, moving, and incisive, the book offers both a deeply personal meditation on memory and a broader reflection on what it means to build a life across borders.
Aline P’nina Tayar turns a complex subject into a thoughtful exploration of how we define our heritage. Plentiful reflections paired with evocative imagery illuminate how heritage shapes who we become across generations. Whether an empathetic father who never stops pursuing intellect, or a mother less inclined toward sentimentality due to her own upbringing, our history always leaves a mark on the future. An immigrant family’s path is an expansive topic that is well-covered, yet progresses naturally through the ebb and flow of memories. The result is a poignant, insightful, and deeply personal window into the challenges and opportunities of living between cultures, while choosing just how much to embrace and what to leave behind. As the author observes a Russian family embracing their heritage, audiences get an honest look at the ongoing struggles between assimilation and preservation. Rich context clues and personal touches help readers outside of her unique place in the world to understand exactly why these tensions are so profound. Timely, broader reflections on migration, cultural adaptation, and the power of language are essential considerations in our divided modern world. In this context, they provide a vividly layered narrative that tangles history and the complexities of identity among this family. Told with warmth, humor, and elegance, My Family and ‘Them Languages’ is both a personal memoir and a cultural study that invites readers to consider the ways memory, heritage, and displacement inform our sense of home and identity, no matter where in the world we find ourselves.
