“(Our hero’s name gets no points for subtlety either.)” – Karen Olsson reviews Mohsin Hamid’s book starring a young Pakistani man named Changez.
{ 2 comments }
April 2007
A response by William Dalrymple Manan just looked through the amazingly long discussion your review provoked- very flattering to see people engaging with the book. A few small points, and please feel free to post any of this that you want to: 1. Re your comment: There is plenty to call Dalrymple on – 1. [...]
{ 32 comments }
Attended a talk yesterday on Hindi cinema after which the conversation turned to cinema and the imagination of an Indian nation. Later, I went to imdb.com to find out about a Mani Ratnam movie and came across the following forum-message attached to Ratnam’s in-production Mahabharata. I don’t know what the online etiquette is of quoting [...]
{ 8 comments }
I am vexed by a conversation today on Fresh Air about historian Robert Dallek’s new book Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power. I am vexed because I consider my perceptions of Nixon’s memory more positively than I do my present perceptions of 43. I’m a former movement conservative, and a fan of Hunter Thompson, which [...]
{ 3 comments }
There is an obvious point that can be made about contestations over the meaning of 1857′s Ghadr [Rebellion] in history and memory of South Asia by simply listing the various terms attached to that event: Sepoy’s Mutiny or Rebellion, First War for Independence, The War/Rebellion of India, Jihad for Freedom, and most recently, The Uprising. [...]
{ 49 comments }
{ 3 comments }
I have a long standing desire to wallop Deborah Soloman. Her latest conversation with writer Mohsin Hamid: Like your novel, this interview is a conversation between an American listener and a Pakistani man with a beard. Are we also doomed to misunderstanding? Do you think I’m a C.I.A. agent? If you had short hair and [...]
{ 10 comments }
As part of the Year End Clearance®, below are posts that I started at some point in last year, never finished, and will never finish. I would like them to stop haunting my Write tab – so I am deleting these half-finished, half-started thoughts and giving them a public burial. Below are the dates, topic [...]
{ 6 comments }
It all began on April 8th, 2004….this Chapati adventure. Year One. Year Two. And now it is the end of Year Three! That it still continues is rather astounding to me. My wholehearted thanks to the amazing contributers – lapata, farangi, dacoit, bulleyah – and to all of my thoughtful, engaging and gentle readers and [...]
{ 9 comments }
Formally announcing the establishment of a parallel judicial system, the pro-Taliban Lal Masjid administration on Friday vowed to enforce Islamic laws in the federal capital and threatened to unleash a wave of suicide bombers if the government took any action to counter it”.
{ 6 comments }
You can purchase, for delivery around the world,