Jan20
A reading odyssey–How words can take you down, then bring you up again…
Ever been behind on your New Yorkers? I race through to catch up. First I find “By Fire,” by Tahar Ben Jelloun. This brief tale brings a transparent clarity to the Arab Spring. Fiction can be a short cut–often more meaningful than...
Oct25
The Immigrant Experience, inside and out…
To experience the fabric of a particular immigrant’s life, try The Walking, by Laleh Khadivi. You can read it in an afternoon. A Kurdish man chooses to leave Iran after he is forced to participate in a massacre of his own people. He saw a couple...
Jul21
Haiti in Fiction and Fact
This from Che, of course: “At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love.” Ben Fountain does not even mention the famous quote in his wonderful short-story collection, Brief...
Jul09
You left-wing pinko rebels who question the established order…
HERE IS A MOVIE, STILL IN THE THEATERS, FOR YOU! The East, which refers to the name of an anarchist collective whose members work to insure that various corporate wrongdoers experience the effects of their damage in the most direct ways possible. As...
Jul06
Mature women and lovers therof, add this to your list …
The Good House, by Ann Leary. A fine and funny and readable portrait of a sixty-something single psychic-descended-from-witches real estate agent in New England. She vies with corporate brokers, her grown children, her friends and neighbors, new and...
Apr22
Barbara Kingsolver’s “Flight Behavior” soars!
The title is perfect on at least three different levels: 1) behavior of the butterflies; 2) behavior of Dellarobia Turnbow, who wants to flee her marriage; and 3) behavior of the media, and for that matter most of the human community, which prefers...
Apr21
Two good movies about progressive politics from times still fresh in memory:
1. No, starring Gael Garcia Bernal. Remember the 1973 U.S.-sponsored coup against Chile’s President Salvador Allende, the first and only elected socialist at the time in Latin America? Pinochet, the military strongman who came into power, killed...
Apr19
Who is the Greatest Narcissist…
In TC Boyle’s The Women? Narcissism is not in short supply in this book. The Great Architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, of course, was adept at both preoccupation with and promotion of self. And the three women who sacrificed their respectability to...
Apr15
Three documentaries to gladden the anti-war environmentalist’s heart…
1. The Gatekeepers. The retired leaders of Shin Bet (the Israeli FBI/CIA) agree–it’s time to craft peace with the Palestinians. Old men who have made war tend to have regrets. Too late, of course. But this film could affect the present...
Apr12
Two novels about crazy death
The World Without You, by Joshua Henkin, examines the aftermath for the family of a young journalist kidnapped and killed a la Daniel Pearl. Prose and dialogue are both lively, so this is a good read. (Ah yes, the “good read” — a label...
