Too devoted to the conventions of travelogues past, but offers an unexpectedly enlightening introduction to an unfairly...
After quitting his job, open-minded author Maslin loaded a backpack and hitched to Iran, where he spent nine weeks debunking Western misconceptions.
Travel narratives often conclude that preconceived notions about exotic lands are often absurdly erroneous, a grand tradition that Maslin’s debut enthusiastically perpetuates. Unsatisfied with life in a cubicle, the author decided to take a sojourn to Iran, despite warnings and admonitions from friends who, under the influence of Western media, denigrate the country as little more than a safe haven for terrorists. Casting aside those prejudices upon entering the country, he quickly discovered that, rather than being hated, he received the royal treatment from nearly everyone he met. So enthusiastically welcoming were the residents, in fact, that they generously purchased food and drinks, offered their beds and provided recommendations for and transportation to places of historical interest. The unexpectedly universal hospitality was accompanied by widespread disdain among the people for politicians ranging from the former ruling Shah and current President Ahmadinejad to George Bush and Tony Blair. Conversely, Irish pop singer Chris de Burgh, one of the only non-Iranian artists sanctioned by the government, is revered. Maslin provides a balanced blend of social commentary—including discussions of the role the United States and Britain played in manipulating the Iranian government, and younger Iranians’ fascination with Western culture, including rap music and pornography—and travel guidance, including notes on various bazaars, historical sights and churches). Occasionally the author’s good-natured attempts at humor veer off track and transform his well-meaning hosts into stereotypically crazy foreign caricatures worthy of Sacha Baron Cohen.
Too devoted to the conventions of travelogues past, but offers an unexpectedly enlightening introduction to an unfairly misunderstood country and culture.Pub Date: Nov. 3, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-60239-791-0
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A dense examination of the complexity of lesbian identity. Card (Philosophy/Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison; Feminist Ethics, not reviewed) introduces Lesbian Choices as the result of learning ``to speak with [her] own voice as a lesbian feminist philosopher with a certain set of histories.'' While the subject of this volume is highly personal to Card and is born from her identity as ``a semi-rural white-anglo woman, a woman-lover, and a survivor of domestic abuse,'' her book is by no means a memoir. It is in fact ruthlessly academic and may prove difficult for the general reader. Card explores lesbian culture, ethics, and friendship and expands this more personal construction of identity onto a broader societal panorama through her discussion of lesbians in the military, closeting, and homophobia. Card is at her most insightful in a chapter that explores sexual agency; she observes there that in patriarchal society lesbians are more likely to actively choose their sexuality while heterosexual women are less conscious of the decision they make vis-Ö-vis their sexual preference. She offers a lesbian ``genealogy'' from ancient Greek and Roman Amazons to 19th- century ``passionate friends'' as a means of grounding this choice historically; she also references the lives and work of writers Mary Wollstonecraft and Virginia Woolf, among others, as examples of an early awareness, though not explicit, of lesbian possibility. Card is delicate and brave when speaking out about lesbian battering and stalking and female incest, giving voice to what some feminists want left unspoken. Her breaking the silence around mother-daughter incest is especially important in that much of the writing on this is found in personal narratives and is left out of academic and clinical literature. A learned inquiry into lesbianism, more useful to Card's colleagues in academia than to popular readers.
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-231-08008-5
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Columbia Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1994
President Clinton's pollster charts a course for US politics through the current turbulent period and beyond. Greenberg, former Yale professor of political science and now Clinton adviser, says we've lived in this century with two political visions: the Democrats' ``bottom up'' promise of aid to working people and the Republicans' ``top down'' promotion of business for the general prosperity. The pollster says both visions have been discredited, the Democrats' approach now seen as little more than favoritism toward minorities, Republican policies as benefiting the rich at workers' expense. He offers a brief political history of the century, including the ``Great Republican'' (18961928) and ``Great Democratic'' (193264) eras, concentrating on the rhetoric of those periods and how it contributed to current political beliefs. The key to future political and economic progress, Greenberg says, lies in aiding a hard-pressed and increasingly angry middle class, people like those in Macomb, Mich., a longtime Democratic bastion whose voters turned overwhelmingly to Ronald Reagan in 1980—and where Greenberg has done extensive political research. Though he questions whether anyone can lead us during this period when ``the old is dying and the new cannot be born,'' Greenberg saw promise in a young Bill Clinton's disavowal of old orthodoxies, in his advocacy of efficient, activist government whose policies ``had the breadth to reach the middle class.'' He describes Clinton's rise, the campaign-trail development of his message, and how it was eventually made to click with voters. This book will serve as a reminder, for those stunned by Clinton's struggles, of the premises of his candidacy and how his subsequent actions have missed their mark. Greenberg offers a succinct diagnosis of the current political malaise and a prescription for mainstream political renewal. His book is most likely to be read by Democrats, but its lessons should be taken to heart by all who care about our nation's future. (Author tour)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-8129-2345-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Times/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1994
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