Tuesday, May 29, 2007

9/11 Fiction, Haleh Esfandiari, Khaled Hosseini's new novel

My brother recently got married, and I've been away from my computer for about a week. (Congratulations, guys!)

I'm starting to catch up on some of the recent "bloggable" reviews. Here are some things to read:

1. Michiko Kakutani's positive review of Khaled Hosseini's new novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns.

2. After reading Pankaj Mishra's long review of Don DeLillo's new novel, Falling Man, I'm contemplating teaching a class (this coming fall?) on 9/11 Fiction. A number of the potential authors for such a course are talked about in Mishra's review -- Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist might be included, as might Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections (published on 9/11, it's technically a 'pre 9/11' text, but its subject matter goes nicely with the topic).

3. I'm not sympathetic to the overall conservative/hawkish point of view expressed in this recent piece in the New York Times, but I'm very unhappy about the recent arrest of the Iranian-American intellectual Haleh Esfandiari in Iran.

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2 Comments:

Anil P said...

The Kite Runner was good most ways through until the end, when it became way too contrived, with pieces falling into place at alarming regularity, and quickly too. The ending fell on its face.

I would be curious to see how he has strung out the narrative in his new book.

11:03 PM  
clutzclemens said...

I recently read Foer's book (link below) and of all books about 9-11, I think this does the best job of tapping into the American psyche. It made me start to think about a 9-11 fiction class for next spring!
http://www.amazon.com/Extremely-Loud-Incredibly-Close-Novel/dp/0618711651/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-2161912-0846463?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1180661050&sr=8-1

8:26 PM  

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