When Sudhir Venkatesh entered Chicago’s poorer neighborhoods as a graduate sociology student with a survey in hand, he inadvertently formed a relationship with JT, a gang member of the Black Kings instead. This allowed Venkatesh to tag along with the gang on their daily activities and to learn directly about life in the Robert Taylor Homes (these projects were later torn down in the late 1990s). Six years studying the Black Kings and the residents of Robert Taylor became the basis of Venkatesh’s research as […]
This Author’s Note is the Twistiest of Twist Endings, Mind Blown
I finished this book this morning, got to the end and thought, sure, I’ll read the author’s note, and therein I found out that this story–about life and death and poverty and corruption and justice and injustice and good luck and bad luck in a Mumbai slum–is totally, COMPLETELY TRUE. It blew my mind, you guys, because it reads like fiction: the characters are so well-documented in their thoughts and dreams (and sometimes even in the listed cause of death in official records and police […]
Hope Against All Hope in Haiti
Set in a small village in Haiti, Claire of the Sea Light is a novel about loss and hope. Ville Rose has a long history of poverty and hardship. A few prominent families run the town, the school and local businesses, but the vast majority of its inhabitants are poor. The novel begins and ends with a poor widowed fisherman named Nozias and his seven-year-old daughter Claire Limye Lanme — Claire of the Sea Light. Nozias’ wife Claire died giving birth, and Nozias has struggled […]
Family Secrets and Tragedy
This debut novel by Nigerian author Adichie is a haunting story whose impact lingers long after the last page is turned. It describes the lives of two teenaged children of a wealthy and influential Nigerian newspaper editor, who is revered for his courageous stand against a corrupt and failing government, for his unswerving rectitude and broad generosity as a pillar of the Catholic community, but who behind closed doors is a violent religious tyrant and abuser of his wife and children. All this against a […]