July 31, 2003

the politics of fear

I was going to comment on the new Israeli law (see here and here) that prevents Palestinians who marry Israelis from living in Israel or acquiring Israeli citizenship, but Jonathan Edelstein puts it in much better terms than I could.

July 29, 2003

zhivago's out

Dr. Zhivago and other books critical of the Soviet era are being removed from Russian schoolchildren's reading lists.

more librarians purge records

Boulder-area librarians are joining others in the country: they will stop keeping records on patrons' reading habits in an effort to thwart the PATRIOT act.

callousness is taken to new heights

If the Defense Department's policies in the Middle-East often sound like a big game, well, maybe there's a reason:
"The Pentagon is setting up a stock-market style system in which investors would bet on terror attacks, assassinations and other events in the Middle East. Defense officials hope to gain intelligence and useful predictions while investors who guessed right would win profits. (...) The market would work this way. Investors would buy and sell futures contracts — essentially a series of predictions about what they believe might happen in the Mideast. Holder of a futures contract that came true would collect the proceeds of investors who put money into the market but predicted wrong. A graphic on the market's Web page showed hypothetical futures contracts in which investors could trade on the likelihood that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat would be assassinated or Jordanian King Abdullah II would be overthrown."
The program is called the Policy Analysis Market, and it is run by convicted felon John Poindexter. You can read the AP wire here.

Of all the things the Pentagon could have thought of to handle the Middle-East I never thought I'd see a situation in which suicide bombers and their acolytes could be guilty of insider trading.

Update: CBS is reporting that the program will be stopped.

July 27, 2003

foreign lit

The New York Times has an interesting article about foreign literature in translation. Why are there so few foreign books in translation in the US? Even with highly acclaimed writers, sales are dismal. The article also covers the weird mechanics by which a lack of translation into English affects a book's sales in all other languages but its own:
"'Since English is the lingua franca, translating a book into English puts it in a position to be translated into many different languages,' said Esther Allen, a translator who is chairwoman of the PEN translation committee. 'We're the clogged artery that prevents authors from reaching readers anywhere outside their own country.' 'It's a great paradox of American life,' Ms. Allen said, 'that on the one hand we feel very cosmopolitan, with Mexican restaurants and cab drivers who speak Swahili, and we feel that we inhabit a mind-boggling multicultural universe, but at the end of the day, it breaks down to different ways of being American.'"
Read America Yawns at Foreign Fiction.

July 25, 2003

le carre takes on the war

John Le Carre's next book, Absolute Friends, due out in 2004, is the story of rival spies during the Cold War who become "caught up in the fallout of the American war against Iraq."

it sounds like a big joke...

except it isn't. Jayson Blair has landed two assignments, one for Esquire and one for Jane magazine, the latter an article about "workplace pressures." I wonder if those pressures include the pressure to actually do your job.
Link via Moby.

mise au point

Neal Pollack throws in his two cents on the Believer vs. ULA feud. And who better than him can distill the fight to its essentials?

9/11 report out

No surprise there. The 800-page report on 9/11 released by the joint Congressional Committee on Intelligence yesterday finds a number of intelligence failures and miscommunications between the FBI and the CIA. It also asserts that Iraq had nothing to do with the terrorist attacks. More interestingly, it confirms what many had long suspected (see this old Moorishgirl post): that the Saudi government provided logistical and financial support to the 9/11 hijackers. But you'll have to wait a while to know the details of Saudi involvement, since the 28 pages or so that discuss this were classified prior to the release of the report because it could "upset a key U.S. ally." We wouldn't want the Saudis to be upset.
Read the full 800-page report. Excerpts from the Washington Post.

July 24, 2003

soueif on genet

The Guardian has an edited version of Ahdaf Soueif's introduction to Jean Genet's Prisoner of Love.

lit feud

Page Six recaps the lit feud between Eggers and Co and the Underground Literary Alliance over an article that appears in the Eggers-funded The Believer (an article which Eggers didn't want to publish but he was overruled.)

recall a go

The recall of Governor Davis is now confirmed. Later on this morning, we'll find out when the election will be. The main contenders on the Republican side are Congressman (and Arab-American) Darrell Issa, Businessman (and ex-L.A. mayor) Richard Riordan, the inane Bill Simon, and maybe even Arnold Schwarzenegger. I don't know yet know how I will vote, but it's looking pretty grim. Who among the five contenders is capable of solving the budget mess?

July 23, 2003

michaelmoorization?

Go read Red's comments on recent trends in presenting the facts in documentaries. Then come back and tell me what you think.

the zadie report

La Zadie showed up on time, looked bashfully down while Benjamin Weissman delivered a glowing introduction, and then walked up to the rostrum and began reading. Her voice was huskier than I expected and she oozed confidence. She read three passages from The Autograph Man. The audience swooned at her fantastic delivery and humor. But when she finished reading she announced that she was told not to take questions. Oh, what a disappointment it was. Apparently, the folks at the Armand Hammer were hosting a Seabiscuit party and wanted to get the common folk out of the way before the beautiful people started showing up.

July 22, 2003

zadie in town

Lit star Zadie Smith will be reading at the Armand Hammer museum tonight.

comic con loot

Alex went to Comic Con last weekend. I wasn't able to join him, but he brought me back some goodies: The third volume of Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis (the French edition--it's not out yet in English.) This one talks about her four years in Vienna in the 1980s, after her parents sent her off to live with a friend to attend high school there, in the aftermath of the 1979 revolution. Her sharp observations about what it's like to be a foreigner (a Middle-Eastern woman to boot) in Kurt Waldheim's Austria is laced with her trademark humor. I'm looking forward to the next book, which talks about her return to Iran as a young woman. Alex also got me Broderies, a humorous little book about the women in her family. It's so delectable that I'm rationing myself to ten pages a day.

Update: Why didn't I hear about this before? Grant Morrison (of X-Men fame) is writing an "Islamic sci-fi love story" for DC comics, titled Vimanarama and due out in the Spring. Link via Bookslut.

give up those cards

Stop hogging the Ace of Hearts (?!) and the Ace of Clubs cards. It looks like Uday and Qusay may have been captured. Actually, most reports say that they were killed, which is a shame; it would have been a completely cathartic experience for Iraqis to watch them brought to trial for their crimes (not to mention they would have been an important source of intelligence.) But I'm sure Iraqis will take what they can get when it comes to those two. Speaking of which, whatever happened to Tariq Aziz? I know he surrendered to U.S. troops, but I haven't seen anything in the news about his fate.
Another piece of somewhat good news from the otherwise horrible mess in Iraq is that John Abizaid is establishing a police force at long last. (Okay, it's a militia, but it's a start.)

July 21, 2003

go get a subscription

to Harper's magazine. The August issue, for example, has an excellent article by Wil Hylton on the spread of Hepatitis in U.S. prisons and what correctional HMOs are (not) doing about it; a very funny article on the Vidocq Society, named after the 18th century French criminal/detective/writer (one of my dad's favorite crime writers--he named our German Shepherd after him); and a sobering article on the nature of dissidence by Edward Hoagland. Oh, and it also has excerpts from rent-a-negro.com.

uranium scandal

The New Yorker's David Remnick talks about the "Uranium from Niger" lie and gleefully points out how Seymour Hersch had published stories about such dubious intelligence at the time the claims were made. Well, he says, "One war later, the President and his team have variously (1) denied that they knew the facts, (2) dissembled over who knew what when, (3) sort-of-but-not-really apologized, (4) said it’s only “sixteen words” and “enormously overblown,” and (5) ladled blame alternately upon the C.I.A., which had tried, however feebly, to prevent the damage, and the United Kingdom, America’s only full-sized partner in the warmaking coalition." Read on.

campus crusade to Iraq

Something to watch when you're unemployed and dealing with 100+ degree weather. Courtesy of Campus Crusade.

July 18, 2003

sad news

The poet Reetika Vazirani (and wife of Pulitzer prize winner Yusef Komunyakaa) killed her son and then committed suicide. Details are scant. Link via Moby.

sinbad spun

Dreamworks' Sinbad movie bears little resemblance to its Middle-Eastern roots. It's been Greco-Romanized, says this National Geographic article.

seven lives?

The Oxford American shuts down. Again.

stranger than fiction

Seems straight out of a John Le Carre novel: Dr. David Kelly, a British scientist and ex-UN inspector who was said to be the main source of the BBC's reports that Tony Blair exaggerated/obsfuscated/lied about the Iraq threat, has been found dead. Elsewhere, we're still in Animal House mode, as Bush says that the reason we went to war with Iraq was that "We gave [Saddam] a chance to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn't let them in."

palahniuk on portland

Since visiting the Pacific Northwest last fall, I've had this fantasy of moving to Portland someday. A long time from now. So I was quite interested in Chuck Palahniuk's new book, which is a non-fiction paean to the city--a twisted one (it's Palahniuk after all.) The Seattle PI has a piece on it.

July 17, 2003

Caine Prize results announced

The winning story was by Kenya's Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor. Here's the BBC story.

L.A.'s used-book stores

Could this be a reaction to the survey of America's "most literate cities" that put L.A. at number 54? The Los Angeles Times has a piece about L.A.'s used-book stores that says "For devotees of the used-book store, Los Angeles has quietly become one of the last bastions, for L.A. has become one of the last great American book towns. New York may be home to the publishing industry and Lewis Lapham's thesaurus, Chicago still has Saul Bellow, but in both those cities high rents and the Internet have driven many of the venerable used- and rare-book stores out of business. But here, the book business is thriving. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the greater Los Angeles area is the largest book market in the country now with 21.5% of the books sold by independent bookstores, the highest percentage in the country."

farewell to two greats

Carol Shields and Celia Cruz have both died. Adios guajira, guantanamera.

calling a spade a spade

finally! John Abizaid, the new Centcom Commander, has said that U.S. troops are facing a "classical guerrilla-type campaign." What a mess.

July 15, 2003

new al jadid

A new issue of Al Jadid magazine is up, featuring fiction by Diana Abu-Jaber and essays by Hanan Al-Shaykh, Etel Adnan, and Elmaz Abinader, among others.

July 14, 2003

hello l.a.

Benjamin Schwarz, the Atlantic's literary editor, will move the magazine literary editorship to Los Angeles in September. And no, it's not because of the weather, people. There are actually smart and talented and cool people and ideas in this town.

literary lottery

What's it like for first-time authors? Alex Williams writes about it in this article. Here's an excerpt:
"Amy Koppelman had always wanted to be a writer, even after all those years she spent slogging away on a first novel in her closet—the only “office” space available in her cramped Upper West Side apartment. (...) For seven years, she hunched over her manuscript, a tale of post-partum depression and infanticide. The work spanned the course of two pregnancies and several thousand nagging doubts. Even after Koppelman, now 33, finally made the cut at Columbia in 1998, the doubts would grow so thunderous that she considered giving up and opening a coffee shop. During the darkest of those spells, she happened across a “Page Six” item in the Post concerning noise complaints in Cindy Crawford’s apartment building; it mentioned in passing that Koppelman’s idol, Joan Didion, served on the building’s board. Although she had never met Didion, Koppelman tracked down the handsome East Seventies prewar and left a copy of her manuscript with the doorman. Tucked in the package was a note, meekly asking Didion if she should just quit altogether. Three days later, Koppelman received a reply on solemn gray stationery that started, “Yes, you are a real writer . . . ” And so Koppelman pressed on. It was only when she tried to sell the book, however, that she learned what it means to be a "real writer" these days." Read on.
Link via Moby.

davis recall underway?

California news today is dominated by the talk of the recall of Governor Gray Davis. Recall backers say they'll turn in 1.5 million signatures to county election offices today, more than enough to force the recall. If the recall does indeed go through, a bunch of Republicans are only too happy to run, with Congressman (and Arab-American) Darrell Issa being the front-runner. I'm weary of the recall. Besides being a huge waste of money and time, I doubt putting Republicans in the governor's mansion will solve the $38 Billion deficit.

July 13, 2003

felicia's journey

Felicia is back from Russia. Go read her impressions.

what makes a (British) bestseller?

Tim Adams read every novel in last week's top 10 list to see what makes it rise above the rest. Read 'em and weep.

July 11, 2003

three books worth checking out

Three fiction books by three different Arab/Muslim Americans are reviewed in the Washington Post. The books in question are: Crescent by Diana Abu-Jaber, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, and West of the Jordan by Laila Halaby. And, as is often the case with "ethnic" fiction, the review is not by a literary critic, but by a scholar in the field, in this case the Post's Kabul correspondent.

America's most literate cities

A new survey from the University of Wisconsin (Whitewater) ranks America's 64 largest cities by their literacy "quotient." The magic number is crunched from U.S. census data, newspaper circulation rates, library resources, and number of booksellers, among other things. The top city? Minneapolis.
Unsurprisingly, L.A. isn't in the top 10 or even the top 20. It's at number 54, tied with Toledo, Ohio (gulp.)

where's my book deal?

Baghdad blogger Salam Pax has just signed with Atlantic Books in the UK for a book which is described in this report as the "ultimately embedded" account of the invasion of Iraq. Oh, and if you're an agent who happened here from Salam's site, feel free to email me.

time for finger pointing

already. Bush says his claim in last year's State of the Union address (that Iraq had tried to purchase Uranium from Niger) was cleared by the CIA.

July 09, 2003

under the weather

I got sick over the holiday weekend and still not feeling terribly well. Sporadic blogging may ensue.

July 05, 2003

Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis

I just finished reading Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel/memoir Persepolis. Already a best-seller in France, where it first appeared, the book has recently been published in the States. Satrapi is the great-granddaughter of the emperor of Iran, who was overthrown by Reza Shah in what at first was a bid to create a republic but in the end simply ushered in the Pahlavi dynasty. The book tells the story of Marjane (or Marji) who is 10 years old at the time of the 1979 revolution in Iran, and chronicles the next four years of her life, up until the moment when her parents, fearing for her future, send her off alone to Austria to stay with a friend of theirs.
Unlike many Iranians who fled in 1979, Satrapi has no romantic nostalgia for the reign of the Shah of Iran, and rightly so. The Shah was a brutal dictator who lived it up while the people suffered. But she is also disappointed in the revolution that followed. Although the opening chapter on the veil is overly simplistic (a panel shows two groups of women, one chanting "the veil" and the other chanting "freedom"), Satrapi has a keen eye for how the fundamentalists changed people around her (there is a scene of kids who brag about how many times a day they pray.) There are many poignant scenes in this book (Marji's dialogues with God are one example, the yellow plastic keys to heaven is another.) The story is gripping, the dialogue is sharp, and the charcters are well observed. Like Maus or Palestine, Persepolis is a landmark. A must for anyone who wants to understand modern-day Iran.

July 04, 2003

happy fourth

Me: So, kids, who wrote the Declaration of Independence?
My niece: Tom Jefferson.

She's on a first name basis with him!

July 02, 2003

L.A. lit

The very term might seem like an oxymoron to some people, but Adam Hirsch deconstructs the myth in this Slate article, where he argues that L.A.'s lit image is the creation of non-indigenous writers:
"Again and again, writers with the briefest experience of Los Angeles use it as a blank screen on which to project their own fantasies, prophecies, and fears. For Nathanael West in The Day of the Locust, it was famously a "dream dump," a "Sargasso of the imagination" in which civilization is reduced to "plaster, canvas, lath and paint." For Truman Capote, it was a nightmare city where "a crack in the wall, which might somewhere else have charm, only strikes an ugly note prophesying doom." And those are some of the milder opinions. (...)
What did Los Angeles do to deserve all this? Writing Los Angeles makes the answer clear: Although it is the second-largest city in America, in the literary imagination it is still a colony. Instead of speaking for itself, the city is spoken about."
Read L.A. Without a Map.

on a related note

Zadie Smith writes about Katharine Hepburn in this essay for the Guardian.

live and learn

Somehow Katharine Hepburn's death can be blamed on Muslims. Again.
Link via Tacitus.

July 01, 2003

problems with MT?

I just lost two entries from earlier this morning. Is MT having problems?

new words

"A former dot-commer working a McJob was listening to some headbangers while laying out the last of his dead presidents for longnecks and some less than heart-healthy Frankenfood." Read this article on new words that have been added to the dictionary.

blogathon 2003

I'm considering doing it this year. Don't know if I'll have the time/stamina. Anyone done it in years past?

About

bio articles news contact rss

My Events

04.26: LA Times Festival of Books
04.30: Claremont, California
09.23-10.04: International Literature Festival Berlin

Search

Web Laila Lalami

My book

Hope & Other Dangerous Pursuits

In hardcover

Buy a Signed Copy!

In Morocco

De l’espoir et autres quêtes dangereuses

In Italian

La speranza e altri sogni pericolosi

In Portuguese

A Esperança È Uma Travessia

In french

De l’espoir et autres quêtes dangereuses

In dutch

Hoop en andere gevaarlijke verlangens Hoop en andere gevaarlijke verlangens (paperpack)

In spanish

Esperanza y Otros Sueños