The Death of Tony: On Belonging in Two Worlds

Novelist Sileika (Dinner at the End of the World) attempts in this ponderous memoir to reconcile his Lithuanian and Canadian identities. As the child of Lithuanian immigrants in Weston, Ontario, Sileika grew up answering to the name Tony, riding bikes, and drinking Coca-Cola, just like any other “English” boy in his neighborhood. When a friend’s grandmother called him a foreigner, however, the fantasy collapsed, and Sileika began to see himself as an outsider among his peers. In college, one of his classmates questioned why he went by Tony; the encounter led him to reclaim his birth name, Antanas, and resolve to connect with his roots. Later, Sileika and his wife decided to speak only Lithuanian in the presence of their sons, and he began writing for a variety of Lithuanian literary journals. Here, he parallels his journey toward self-acceptance with the story of his parents’ escape from Lithuania during WWII, interweaving tidbits about the country’s struggles for independence from the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, Sileika fails to meld the book’s intriguing ingredients into a satisfying whole, resulting in a disjointed reading experience. It’s a muddled and meandering affair. (Mar.)