The Glass Palace book by Amitav Ghosh
Kirsti Potter
Amitav Ghosh occupies a rather curious place in the landscape of contemporary English-language authors from the Indian subcontinent. At fifty-five years of age, he can’t be classed with the younger…
Kirsti Potter
Hiding the Elephant: How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear book by Jim Steinmeyer reviewed by Kirsti Potter
From time to time, magic and its modern practitioners still steal into the spotlight—even without counting the wily tricks of Sly Saddam, Baffling Bin Laden, or Presto the President. Sometimes…
Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith book by Jon Krakauer reviewed by Kirsti Potter
On a hot and sticky Saturday morning this August, a massive crowd—possibly even 10,000 people—gathered in Montgomery, Alabama to protest, praise, and pray. They had bussed in en masse from…
Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White book by Frank H. Wu
It is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day at Yale. I am attending one of the accompanying lectures when a graduate student comes up to me, an Asian American, and asks…
Political Fictions book by Joan Didion
Something about Joan Didion’s writing makes me almost believe every word. She’s so acridly disarming, so apparently prescient in her observations on American political life that I found myself doubting…