January 2011
3 posts
4 tags
New review: Dezso Kosztolányi →
For The National. Kosztolányi’s worth checking out — a writer with a great comic sense who was passionately apolitical in a time of political extremism. (I hope to get to his Anna Edes sometime. I’ve heard good things.) Though I liked Skylark quite a bit, I didn’t find it to be “perfect” as Deborah Eisenberg did. But it’s a poignant, funny, and gracefully...
3 tags
New review: Rachel Polonsky's "Molotov's Magic... →
Over at The Daily Beast. Probably would appeal to fans of Elif Batuman or Ian Frazier’s books.
3 tags
Kenya Journal: Ali and Ali of Lamu
On first meeting, Ali Samosa sounds like a Swahili Ron Burgundy. “I’m famous,” he says. “I am very well known here.” He adds, with a proud grin, “You can read about me in Lonely Planet.”
Ali is a restaurateur, who serves lunch and dinner, by appointment, at his home in Shela village, on Lamu Island, Kenya. His wife does the cooking, but Ali is the...