More Light
December 11, 2009
More Light
Chanukah begins at sundown on December 11. It’s a child’s holiday, with candles, songs, and, in the affluent west these days, presents. For adults, at least for me, it’s a bit more problematic–it’s a holiday that celebrates confusing things, the triumph of religion over reason, the cleansing of the Temple, the start of a theocracy […]
READ MOREDecember 2, 2009
A Quiet Week
in Lake Woebegone, Garrison Keillor’s home town, but not so much so in Chicago. We started with a gang of housebreakers who targeted our area. They would come to the front door; if anyone answered, they’d say they were looking for yard work. If no one answered, they’d hustle around to the back and break […]
READ MORENovember 22, 2009
The Wolf in the Garden
It was dusk when I finally drove into the city of W–. A series of mishaps had dogged my journey, making me feel almost as though the Fates themselves were conspiring to keep me from my destination. First, the cloak of fog that engulfed the airport and delayed our flight by nearly four hours, and […]
READ MORENovember 21, 2009
A Weighty Matter
I was a chubby kid. When we lived in town, a couple of boys in my school used to stand on the sidewalk and chant a rude verse at me on the way home (“Fatty,” it began. I sometimes worry that as my brain disintegrates with age, that verse will be the last thing I […]
READ MORENovember 18, 2009
Will Write For…
A violinist I know who’s part of The New Millennium Orchestra told me they’re working on a business plan these days. Up to now, if they had money they paid the musicians; if they didn’t, everyone played for free. The musicians are all young, energetic, and very hard working. They travel long distances to teach […]
READ MORENovember 14, 2009
Waiting for???
Earlier this year I was at a dinner for the Freedom to Read Foundation, and was privileged to be seated at the same table with a gifted Y/A writer, who is not only an outspoken supporter of freedom to read and write, but is also very popular. Her publicist was at the table and mentioned […]
READ MORENovember 9, 2009
Life and Death in Shanghai
Nien Cheng died on November 2. She’s been one of my heroes, ever since my son Tim introduced me to her work some 15 years ago. Cheng spent almost seven years in one of Mao’s prisons for the crimes of having worked for Shell, studied abroad, and for speaking fluent English. While she was in […]
READ MORENovember 6, 2009
How Much Is Enough?
I have a friend whose husband won the Nobel Prize. We were all thrilled, but he didn’t interpret it as success: he thought he needed two before the restless face in the mirror, the critical voice in the head, stopped saying, “You’re basically a failure.” I cringed at the time, mostly because I really did […]
READ MORENovember 4, 2009
Mad as Hell?
Or, Testosterone Fights Back. Publishers Weekly has published its list of the ten best books of 2009, and they are all by men. Some, like Richard Holmes’s Age of Wonder, are deeply thought and researched. Others, like Geoff Dyer’s Jeff in Venice, are tired old paeans to the Male Member–and I don’t mean of Parliament. […]
READ MOREOctober 25, 2009
A Nail and a Piece of Glass
Last night, I was at a benefit for the Marjorie Kovler Center, which helps treat survivors of torture, and works to try to end torture. One of the women who spoke had been a prisoner in Argentina, and survived torture there. She was presenting a vase of flowers to an honoree, and added a nail […]
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