Poet Pamela Sneed, posting on Facebook, recently recommended Canadian novelist Lawrence Hill's The Book of Negroes. I did a little searching for it and discovered that, in the US, Australia and New Zealand, it was published as Someone Knows My Name (W.W. Norton & Company, 2007)--an interesting title change.
A first-person narrative of the life of a African Muslim girl captured and sold into slavery in South Carolina, it is exquisite and moving, with writing of original style and beauty, from its first, stunning paragraph. At 486 pages, it should keep me good company for a fair chunk of this summer!
I've just finished Frank Rich's poignant childhood memoir, Ghost Light (Random House, 2001) which--among other fascinating things--details the enormous love and drive, as well as the influence of family and friends, that went into his growing up to be a prominent theater critic (New York Times). Now, I'd like to find out just how this theater critic transformed himself into such a kickass political columnist! Recommended.
Okay, so that's me. What are you reading this summer? Comment here and on Facebook!
Just finished City of Thieves by David Beniov, a buddy movie of a novel (the memoir-like frame story is po-mo fictitious) about two ill-matched guys trekking through Leningrad during the Nazi siege looking for a dozen eggs. It's easy to be envious of the author's remarkably charmed life but the book is delicious.
ReplyDeleteI'm reading "Cutting for Stone"
ReplyDeleteby Abraham Verghese