Exit the Glories of Empire
Rumors of the glorious British Empire persist, the benevolence of the colonial rule, the improvement in the lives of the …
Tag Archives: Books
Why Does the World Exist?
On a recent 21 day river trip, the Colorado carving down into 1.8 billion year old rock and the stars …
Perla — A Novel of the Disappeared and Found
Perla Carolina De Robertis 2012, Random House What a brave book! Carolina De Robertis, widely celebrated for her first novel, The …
The Sheltering Sky — in Morocco
Since my wife returned from a two week visit to Morocco we’ve been combing old movies for scenes shot in …
Tenth of December: George Saunders Short Fiction
Count me among the many who have extravagantly praised George Saunders’ writing. Some of the passages in Tenth of December …
The Prince of Peace — A Novel of Love and War Resistance
On a long train ride from Los Angeles to Oakland recently I was able to take up the recommendation of …
No Man’s Land: A Novel from Vietnam by Duong Thu Huong
I couldn’t have been more surprised when our guide in Hanoi, a Vietnamese Catholic, mentioned offhandedly that some soldiers coming …
Behind the Red Mist — Fiction from Vietnam
I first encountered Ho Anh Thai’s fiction at it’s fantastical best in the wonderful Whereabouts volume of Vietnam: A Traveller’s …
Reading Vietnam
Packed with my travel duffle for a 5 week trip to South East Asia is one of the indispensable series of books …
Confucius: Reading the Secular Among the Buddhists
For some reason, heading out for a 5 week trip to South East Asia, I retrieved my 1972 copy of …
Did Gifted Generals Win the War?
Andrew Bacevich, former colonel in the US Army, and now professor of International Relations at Boston University reviews two books …
Literary Festival in Rangoon
I would think that many, especially the young, would be dizzy with excitement in the ‘new’ Burma/Myanmar. After decades of …