In The Dress and the Girl by Camille Andros a young girl dreams of having an extraordinary life. While wearing her favorite dress her mother made her, she goes and enjoys the simple life of her village: watching the sunset, doing chores, picking flowers, going to school, playing and riding in wagons. One day, her family takes a special trip. They are emigrating to a new country. And while the girl and dress still play and go to school, instead of a wagon they are […]
“Lady, did you ever see anyone shot by a gun without bleeding?”
My year of Murakami continues with Sputnik Sweetheart, a brooding and disturbing book about connection and isolation, what kind of pants people are wearing, and writing. While it’s not my favorite Murakami work, it’s still more gripping and provocative than most of the fifty-something books I’ve read this year. All of his books either change my worldview or spur me towards my own creative pursuits. That’s good art. Sputnik‘s protagonist is the typical Murakamian narrator. Male. Enjoys alcohol and thinking, does ok with the ladies, interested […]
If Suppiluliuma were here, I wonder what he’d make of the Arab Spring.
In many ways, “the world” of 3200 years ago was vastly different from today. The Torah (or “Hebrew Bible”, if you’re so inclined) wouldn’t be written for another 600 years. If Homer existed, he wouldn’t be born for another 300 years (give or take). Elsewhere in the world, the ancient Puebloans of the American Southwest first formed. The 12th century BCE is as far removed from the formation of the Roman Empire as we are from the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. In short, […]