Iraq | Iraq
Dec.08.2012
Survivors and their children: this description could apply to many countries today, but it fits Cambodia perhaps more than most. I learned this as we explored the Cambodian countryside, small towns, and villages, as well as the cities and famous...
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Nov.30.2012
Fobbit, by David Abrams
image via bnreview.barnesandnoble.com
What a difference a few decades makes, but I’ll come to that in a bit. David Abrams’ book, Fobbit, is perhaps the most comprehensive look yet, through the lens of fiction, at the U.S. involvement in Iraq. Its cover blurbs want...
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Nov.17.2012
Long before coming to America, the first English phrase I ever uttered was, oddly enough: “No money, no honey.”
The painted girls in impossibly tight, colorful miniskirts who strutted on the sidewalks near my school in downtown Saigon said it shamelessly, and loudly, as they plied their trade...
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Nov.14.2012
The family I often prefer is the family of my choice, the people with whom I have shared good times and bad and have become close to. Blood family can often depress and repress. And sometimes, like today, family is irritating and petty.
On Sunday, I wrote about a man who visited our home many...
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Oct.03.2012
A friend told me I was being too “journalistic” when answering interview questions about Pretty Much True… :
You wrote a fictional story in which the characters and actions were different but the feelings and the fear were the same. Get PERSONAL.
I never wanted to do that before, because I...
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Sep.03.2012
Photo: (Top) Title page of the First Edition, 1850, from the book's Wikipedia page.
Photo: First Editions, from flavorwire.com.
I have a lot of little things to say about this--about its plot, themes, images, metaphors and writing--so let's just bullet them:
--There was a stretch...
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Aug.21.2012
A Rough Guide To The Dark Side [Paperback], by Daniel Simpson (Zero Books; Washington, DC, August 2012) 252 Pages, $16.95.
Author Simpson, an Englishman who appeared to be on a charmed course, read history at Cambridge and moved somewhat effortlessly on to Reuters and then the New York Times, where...
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Aug.14.2012
Just for fun, and to give my creativity a little boost, I decided to create some "dream" headlines. I dislike reading the newspaper or watching TV news because almost every story is bad news or a negative take on an event or some new study.
Here are a few of the headlines I would like to see:...
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Aug.03.2012
History is easily forgotten, yet everything we are today is because of it. Iran and our relationship with that country is a good example. Not many people from the West visit Iran these days, but not long ago quite a few were – and were welcomed by Iran. Even though women entering...
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Jul.27.2012
As we left the cliff-side town of Artvin in Eastern Turkey, we passed a pair of life-sized statues of ferocious looking, massive-shouldered bulls squaring off opposite each other. Unfortunately, we’d missed the bull wrestling matches that are popular...
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