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SATI

WIDOW BURNING IN INDIA

When 250,000 people gathered in 1987 in the Indian town of Deorala to watch an 18-year-old widow immolate herself on her husband's funeral pyre, achieving glory for herself and honor for her family, the Indian government passed yet one more law against the immolation ritual of sati. The power of this brutal rite—its economic, political, and social significance—is the major concern here of acclaimed Indian journalist Narasimhan. There is no scriptural basis for sati in any Hindu text, but since A.D. 370, when it first appeared in India, it has acquired religious status and, though it was officially outlawed in 1829, is often defended on the grounds of religious freedom. In fact, Narasimhan contends, sati reflects the persistent trivialization of women: often aborted simply because they are female, or abandoned after birth, seldom educated, exchanged in childhood marriages, secluded in purdah for most of their lives, married for their dowries or murdered if their dowries are insufficient—women, in addition to all this, are, upon the death of their husbands, encouraged to destroy themselves in order to avoid being burdens and to release their husband's inheritance for their children. If they agree, they are celebrated; if they don't, they are often coerced into sati or are ostracized. Fear, male domination, tradition, lack of alternatives in a society that does not allow widows to remarry, fascination with the mystique, or simply the opportunity to appear heroic in a life of degradation—each may convince women, some highly intelligent, to perform sati, which, in turn, enhances its power. Narasimhan recognizes the irony: How can an essentially pacifist society, one that discourages the sacrificing of animals, burn women alive and justify it? Clearheaded, informed, and persuasive, Narasimhan makes her points with a quiet yet powerful indignation. (Eight-page photo insert—not seen.)

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1992

ISBN: 0-385-42317-9

Page Count: 224

Publisher: Anchor

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1992

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BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME

NOTES ON THE FIRST 150 YEARS IN AMERICA

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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THE LAST OF THE PRESIDENT'S MEN

Less a sequel than an addendum, the book offers a close-up view of the Oval Office in its darkest hour.

Four decades after Watergate shook America, journalist Woodward (The Price of Politics, 2012, etc.) returns to the scandal to profile Alexander Butterfield, the Richard Nixon aide who revealed the existence of the Oval Office tapes and effectively toppled the presidency.

Of all the candidates to work in the White House, Butterfield was a bizarre choice. He was an Air Force colonel and wanted to serve in Vietnam. By happenstance, his colleague H.R. Haldeman helped Butterfield land a job in the Nixon administration. For three years, Butterfield worked closely with the president, taking on high-level tasks and even supervising the installation of Nixon’s infamous recording system. The writing here is pure Woodward: a visual, dialogue-heavy, blow-by-blow account of Butterfield’s tenure. The author uses his long interviews with Butterfield to re-create detailed scenes, which reveal the petty power plays of America’s most powerful men. Yet the book is a surprisingly funny read. Butterfield is passive, sensitive, and dutiful, the very opposite of Nixon, who lets loose a constant stream of curses, insults, and nonsensical bluster. Years later, Butterfield seems conflicted about his role in such an eccentric presidency. “I’m not trying to be a Boy Scout and tell you I did it because it was the right thing to do,” Butterfield concedes. It is curious to see Woodward revisit an affair that now feels distantly historical, but the author does his best to make the story feel urgent and suspenseful. When Butterfield admitted to the Senate Select Committee that he knew about the listening devices, he felt its significance. “It seemed to Butterfield there was absolute silence and no one moved,” writes Woodward. “They were still and quiet as if they were witnessing a hinge of history slowly swinging open….It was as if a bare 10,000 volt cable was running through the room, and suddenly everyone touched it at once.”

Less a sequel than an addendum, the book offers a close-up view of the Oval Office in its darkest hour.

Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2015

ISBN: 978-1-5011-1644-5

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: Oct. 20, 2015

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