Uganda: Religion, Rebellion Dog Fate of the Banished

APIRE, a failed student-turned-rebel, returns from his bush exploits to find his wife in the bed of a parish priest, the Rev. Fr. Dila. He executes both of them and hands himself over to the Police. This is the thematic gist of Fate of the Banished - rebellion, religion and despair.

Imre Kertész: The Pathseeker

Beaten but unbowed (well: perhaps a little bowed), I delved straight back into the literature of Nobel laureates after my recent failure. After falling in literary lust with Melville House’s Art of the Novella series, I was pleased to see them expanding into modern fiction, with the unsnappy but unarguable Contemporary Art of the Novella series.

‘Monster of Florence’: A grisly trail in idyllic Italy

When Douglas Preston moved from Maine to Florence, Italy, during the summer of 2000, he intended to write his next murder-mystery ...

Run, rabbit run

As I came around the corner from the gents’ lavatory, head down, concentrating on rebuttoning my flies, a manual skill I’ve yet to master completely, I accidentally barged into a man with a hawk perched on his arm. He was a calm, friendly man of about my age. His hawk was magnificently liveried in brown and black. It was a male Harris hawk. The man stroked the bird and spoke kindly to it to reassure it. Did he hunt with it? I asked. Well, he was only two years old, he said, and he’d been ill for a long time.

Interview with Mary Pattillo on WNYC

Mary Pattillo, author of Black on the Block: The Politics of Race and Class in the City was interviewed yesterday on WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show to discuss the gentrification of urban African American communities.

Bill Ivey sounds ‘Cultural Rights’ alarm

Conservatives and libertarians question why government is in the business of supporting the arts, however modestly, something ...

Namibia: Winning African Writer to Receive Prize in Country

Unam will co-host the presentation of the NOMA Award for Publishing in Africa at a celebration ceremony and dinner to be held at the Windhoek Country Club this Thursday, it was announced in a press statement.

Eduardo Mendoza – Mauricio, Choices

We already know Mendoza as the author of funny crime stories, like “The Adventures of Ladies Hairdresser”, so it`s the right time to get to know him better as a brilliant observer of Spanish society.

Mauricio, the main hero, is already known from “Adventures of Ladies Hairdresser” but this time he`s quite ordinary, a brilliant and intelligent dentist, who is induced to take part in the local government election. Mendoza forced him to do so in order to have enough reasons to show a rather merciless section of the Spanish society, of his beloved city Barcelona.

Mendoza wouldn`t be himself if if he wouldn`t mix Mauricio up in complicated romances and would force him to choose between two very attractive women. The local government selection is all in all a boring stuff, but to choose a woman and moral choices is something that rivets the reader`s attention.

Summarized by Fusinha

Pierre Mérot – Mammals

A novel of contemporary ennui, centered on uncle’s life, Mammals refers to the deformities of modern society and how people relate to them.

The mammals are the uncle’s family members, but the circle is as large as the entire society.

A dominating female that psychologically castrates her husband and uncle’s brother, fails to exercise the same powers on our main character. Not because this one is a strong individual in terms of social achievement, but because he chose to be the contrary.

A laid back individual that watches the human race doing all the tricks they were trained for. Like landing in a proper job, finding a long-term mate and paying for some small space they call apartment.

Solitaire, often unemployed, the uncle is drawn to alcohol, but he is harmless to the others. Not very often, though, he has brief episodes of envy for the normal life: a house in the suburbs, a pretty wife, kids, a dog and “some low key cancer”.

A sad novel with a funny twist, Mammals was awarded Prix de Flore 2003.

Most certainly, Mérot is not a flawless author, but is for sure refreshing after so many unsatisfying lectures picked up after reading upraising reviews.

Simone De Beauvoir – All Men Are Mortal

She’s more famous for her personal life than for her literary activity and when her works are mentioned, it’s always the feminism impregnated ones. But apparently she wrote other kinds of things as well. All Men Are Mortal is sort of a classic novel in my opinion. A book to be read when you’re a restless teenager of even later on, like for instance when you’re preparing for an exam and you are craving for an entertaining novel rather than a bunch of boring school books. It is a dissertation about life and death, or more precisely about the meaning of life and the dimension of eternity.

It can be seen with the naked eye that Simone has something from her beloved Jean Paul (Sartre). After all, she is believed to have been reading his volumes before they were sent further for publishing. Plus, she’s got verve.

The high interest and cultivated background in philosophy provided her the fertile ground for tackling a subject of this nature. And there’s plenty of fictional history inside, epic narrative sequences and colorful dialogues. As a mere plot spoiler, the main characters are a young actress and an immortal man whose voyage through time left him with countless memories to tell and plenty of reflective thoughts to share. So we are faced with an existentialist array of ideas, not novel ones at all, but none the less the book wraps up into a nicely told story.

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