by Brian Whitaker ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 6, 2006
Strong, condensed, world-weary portrait infused with hope.
The distressing, archaic treatment of Middle Eastern homosexuals is addressed in straightforward, documentary fashion.
The persecution of homosexuals, described in Lebanese as “shawaadh” (“perverts”), continues to thrive. Interviews with a variety of gay Arabs, Syrians and Egyptians finds many depressed and lonely, with support and understanding as rare as rainbow flags in Lebanon. Conflicted by an intense sense of family loyalty and an awareness of the devastating, family-wide consequences of exposure, gay and lesbian Arabs often find suicide to be their only salvation. Some manage to outsmart the system and emigrate while others become ingeniously resourceful in manufacturing an outward appearance (marriage to a gay partner of the opposite sex) that will appeal to conventional domestic expectations yet enable them to cultivate covert homosexual affiliations. Coming out to family is often fruitless and considered a “high-risk strategy,” though often, Whitaker asserts, it is parents who will question their children’s sexuality, suggesting that it has become “time for marriage” and children: an inevitable, obligatory stipulation in Arab households. But all is not lost as the author deftly underscores cultural changes at play in places like Beirut, where members of gay-rights organization Helem hand-stitched a multi-colored flag for a ten-person marching contingent against the war in Iraq; where the gay dance club Acid flourishes; and where Dunkin’ Donuts remains a well-known (albeit controversial) gay hangout. Though Saudi Arabia is thought to be the most militant against open sexuality, the author proffers quotes from Saudi gay youth to the contrary. Many declare stories of gay persecution as being greatly exaggerated and point to the Internet as the ultimate resource for same-sex liaisons (and entrapment). Most interestingly, Whitaker takes into account the varied contradictions and evolutionary growth of Arab media, literature, cinema, etc., juxtaposing harsh current-day restrictions with notions of emerging freedoms. While directing readers toward the pinpoint of light at the end of the tunnel, Whitaker clearly demarcates tradition and family honor as two powerhouses eternally keeping Middle Eastern alternative lifestyles in the dark.
Strong, condensed, world-weary portrait infused with hope.Pub Date: Nov. 6, 2006
ISBN: 0-520-25017-6
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Univ. of California
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2006
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by David Grann ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 18, 2017
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
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Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorker staff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
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by Ta-Nehisi Coates ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 8, 2015
This moving, potent testament might have been titled “Black Lives Matter.” Or: “An American Tragedy.”
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The powerful story of a father’s past and a son’s future.
Atlantic senior writer Coates (The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood, 2008) offers this eloquent memoir as a letter to his teenage son, bearing witness to his own experiences and conveying passionate hopes for his son’s life. “I am wounded,” he writes. “I am marked by old codes, which shielded me in one world and then chained me in the next.” Coates grew up in the tough neighborhood of West Baltimore, beaten into obedience by his father. “I was a capable boy, intelligent and well-liked,” he remembers, “but powerfully afraid.” His life changed dramatically at Howard University, where his father taught and from which several siblings graduated. Howard, he writes, “had always been one of the most critical gathering posts for black people.” He calls it The Mecca, and its faculty and his fellow students expanded his horizons, helping him to understand “that the black world was its own thing, more than a photo-negative of the people who believe they are white.” Coates refers repeatedly to whites’ insistence on their exclusive racial identity; he realizes now “that nothing so essentialist as race” divides people, but rather “the actual injury done by people intent on naming us, intent on believing that what they have named matters more than anything we could ever actually do.” After he married, the author’s world widened again in New York, and later in Paris, where he finally felt extricated from white America’s exploitative, consumerist dreams. He came to understand that “race” does not fully explain “the breach between the world and me,” yet race exerts a crucial force, and young blacks like his son are vulnerable and endangered by “majoritarian bandits.” Coates desperately wants his son to be able to live “apart from fear—even apart from me.”
This moving, potent testament might have been titled “Black Lives Matter.” Or: “An American Tragedy.”Pub Date: July 8, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-8129-9354-7
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015
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