As the grandson of internationally famous Hollywood star Omar Sharif, this memoir's author may have seemed destined to live in his grandfather's shadow, and the book's title hints at just that: "two Omars."

Not that Omar Sharif Jr. would have minded; he was particularly close to his grandfather Omar. In this memoir, he recalls watching his grandfather hold court at glittering dinner parties, laughing and telling stories. Many years later, their bond still held; Sharif Jr. was one of the few allowed to help his grandfather as Alzheimer's took hold at the end of the great actor's life.

Born into a family that had ties on several contine�nts, a family well off enough that he never wanted for anything, Omar Sharif Jr. had a complex background. On the Jewish and Canadian maternal side of the family, the Holocaust left its mark; his mother's parents barely escaped the concentration camps. On the Lebanese, Syrian, and Egyptian paternal side of the family, in addition to the more famous Omar, Sharif Jr.'s grandmother was also a beloved actor with roots in Egypt.

But this memoir is not just a story about what it was like to grow up with a famous actor for a grandfather, or what it was like to grow up in a multicultural family. It's the story of a Gay man who kept his true sexuality hidden until well into adulthood. In the memoir, Sharif Jr. says that when he was young, he thought other children must sense what was different about him. It was a part of himself that he feared revealing to his father. It helped him land a dream job that ultimately became a nightmare.

The title of this book — A Tale of Two Omars — is a bit of a misnomer. Judging by what author Omar Sharif Jr. writes here, there are several Omars, at least: an activist; a globe-trotter; a son and grandson; a writer—as well as the famous grandfather, whose life was impactful but who has a surprisingly small footprint in this book.

Which is not to say that readers will like all the Omars gathered here. Indeed, parts of this book may seem as though you've read them before: bullied as a child, fear of coming out, the college revelation, the mismatched first love. Those ubiquitous bits are here, but they pale in comparison to Sharif's ultra-urbane life and the hair-raising, terrifying account of getting and getting out of what seemed like the ultimate job with a wealthy sheikh, a job that slowly grew dangerous. That story-within-a-story is so edgy, so heart-stopping, that you'll throw away the thriller you bought last week.

Then there's the part about his life-threatening activism, a tale that starts and ends this book...
And so beware of the unevenness of this memoir, but understand that the tedium doesn't linger. Skim past the duller parts of A Tale of Two Omars and the rest is remarkable.