The Brooklyn Rail
Critical Perspectives on Art, Politics and Culture
JUNE 2009
Express
The Anti-Bloombergistas and the City in Exile
by Matthew VazExpress
Just make him stop speakin’ Spanish. That’s all I’m sayin’. We can’t go on like this son. Wit’ this guy speakin’ Spanish everyday in his press conferences man. Givin’ directions about Swine Flu in Spanish.
Letter from India: The Platform of Hope
by Tabish KhairExpress
The most predictable thing about national elections in India seems to be their relative unpredictability. At least opinion and exit polls get it vaguely wrong almost every time, and this time they were sometimes glaringly off the mark.
Love in the Time of Swine Flu: David Lida’s Affair with Mexico City
by Mark DeryExpress
Smell that? It’s the smell of Deep Time. Not in the scientific sense of the fathomless vastness of geological time, but in the mythic, plumed-serpent, under-the-jaguar-sun sense. The Mexican sense.
Hope for Justice at the World’s Court? Pamela Yates with Williams Cole
by Williams ColeExpress
For 20 years now, the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival (June 11th-25th at the Walter Reade Theater) has programmed documentary, narrative and animation from all over the world—including the U.S.—that engage issues and present stories that are often only blips in the American mainstream news.
Something About Histories in Berlin
by Joseph RiippiExpress
Five years ago, I tried to kill myself. At least I think I did. I was very drunk; I had taken a lot of pills.
Down in Jamaica: A Journey to the Calabash International Literary Festival
by Hirsh SawhneyExpress
The smell of wet garbage and puke permeates the 3:30 a.m. West Village air. Crossing the street to avoid a tipsy homeless man, I pass by some students jamming on a discarded piano, trying to conjure up the artistic frivolity and earnestness that has long since disappeared from this pocket of Manhattan.
A Global Look at Women’s Rights
by Kaitlin BellExpress
Regardless of their stance on abortion, Westerners often have no problem dismissing as backward and misogynistic the practice of routinely aborting female fetuses.
The Great Game
by James ArnettExpress
In the immediate aftermath of September 11, one thing seemed perfectly clear. Whether one was a Republican or a Democrat, a pacifist or a hawk, nearly everyone I knew agreed that some sort of military foray into Afghanistan was the best and most direct method of both eliminating the threat of further terrorism sponsored by al-Qaeda and also meting out some justice and retribution to the perpetrators of the September 11th attacks. Several of my acquaintances volunteered for the service during this period.
The Pre-Fast Food Era: The Food of a Younger Land
by Chris MichelExpress
Mark Kurlansky’s new book, The Food of a Younger Land might have a better back story than any book that has come out in the last several years.
Addictive, Ephemeral Stories in a Digital Age
by Ian CrouchExpress
Susan Boyle was introduced to the world on Saturday, April 11. You may have already forgotten her, but most likely she’s still kicking around somewhere in your head.
Lost and Found in Bangkok
by Nicholas DeRenzoExpress
Lawrence Osborne is not your mother’s travel writer. Ironically, he may be your grandmother’s. This is not to suggest that his new book, Bangkok Days: A Sojourn in the Capital of Pleasure, is stodgy or uptight.
An Interstate of Words
by Chris MichelExpress
It Might Do Well With Strawberries, a new book by David Matlin, sits at the blurry edges between diary, polemic, poetry, and essay collection. For the most part, Matlin, a West Coast poet who has previously written about the American prison system, constructs the book as a set of excerpts from his journals from early 2004 through the end of 2005.
