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Reviewed by Pennell PaughMay 8, 2024 (San Diego) -- Becoming American is an inspiring story of the author's transformation, from a child of Holocaust survivors in post-war Europe to moving to America and becoming part of America’s cultural, business, and political institutions, while he retained ties to his family roots.
Here is an excerpt from the book:
On a sunny autumn afternoon in 1997, I arrived with my nine-year-old daughter at the entrance of a long-closed Jewish cemetery near Strakonice in the countryside south of Prague. Thirty-five years after my family had left Europe for America, a search worthy of Indiana Jones had brought me and Coralea here from our home in Los Angeles. Inside, I hoped to find the graves of my paternal great-grandparents.
Stepping out of the car into a light breeze, I felt the momentary burst of elation of a marathon runner crossing the finish line. Then reality interrupted. Pursing my lips, I turned to Coralea.
“I just hope this is the right cemetery,” I said. “Aunt Mimi told me only that it was near Strakonice, but she didn’t remember anything more. It’s been a long time since she was here.”
“It has to be the right one,” Coralea responded with the certainty of youth.
Six-foot stucco-encased walls and eight-foot wrought-iron gates blocked our way. If I could get in, would I find the graves? How would I read Hebrew inscriptions on the headstones?
I felt as nervous as when I stood before a federal judge to take my oath of United States citizenship at the age of seventeen. Clasping Coralea’s left hand, I took a step toward the gates, then another and another, with her in tow, until the gates loomed over us like sentinels. An ancient-looking lock the size of my fist secured chains wrapped around the innermost bars. I searched for a sign with information on how to gain entry. A musty smell, a combination of rust and fallen leaves, momentarily caught my attention. Trembling, I reached out with my left hand, grasped the rough bars, and shook them. I knew I would not be entering through those gates.
“We’ve come so far,” I said. “We’ve got to get in there.” Yet, the graves beyond the gates seemed out of reach.
The author became inspired to write his memoir when he and his daughter launched a search for their roots in Eastern Europe. While searching for his great-grandparents' graves, in a hidden cemetery outside Prague, he recalled listening to Army counterintelligence agents gathered at his home in Austria, a tense encounter with Russian soldiers, seeing Jim Crow racism in the South during his first visit to the United States, and becoming an American citizen in his teens but having his citizenship challenged by border guards. Then when Lowe witnessed the Watts riots, he decided citizenship required him to be political.
Cary D. Lowe is a California attorney and academic who has published eighty essays in leading newspapers. He holds a law degree and Ph.D. from the University of Southern California, and has taught at major California universities. After serving as an officer in the US Navy, Lowe rose to leadership positions in organizations shaping government policies on housing, finance, Native American rights, and environmental protection.
Becoming American has won the Discovery Award in the field of politics/current events. It has also been recognized as a Distinguished Favorite in the NYC Big Book Awards.
I highly recommend this book to all Americans. Lowe made me appreciate the path that immigrants take to become part of our country, as well as the importance of being politically active and aware as a United States’ citizen.
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