Laila Lalami

Okay, so it’s happening in a week. Let’s see if I can put it succintly*. So. Davis is a crook. Arianna is a hypocrite. Bustamante is a casino whore. Arnold hates women. Camejo is a tree-hugger. McClintock is a party pooper. And the other 130 candidates, well, let’s just say they have a pulse (I think. I’m not sure about some of them.) Meanwhile, the budget is out of whack, our schools are falling apart, our prisons are gleaming, and traffic is bad.

I ask you: whom would you vote for and why?

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Oprah has chosen Alan Paton’s book for her next book club. I remember reading it when I was fifteen or sixteen and really loving it. I wonder what I would think about it now. The book was made into a movie a few years ago. Haven’t seen it.

The Paris Review is going forward with their fiftieth anniversary celebration.

Moroccan human tights minister meets head of UN HR commission.

Forgive the cliche. And forgive the lack of accent on ‘cliche’ while you’re at it. Anyway, the new issue of Small Spiral Notebook is up. Check it out.

I was going to post a rant about that Zoe Heller profile in the Guardian (you know, the kind where they spend half the article talking about what she’s wearing) but Jessa beat me to it.
Update: La Muselivre also has a go at it.

of Who Killed Daniel Pearl: one in the Guardian by Peter Guttridge and the other by Christopher Hitchens in Slate.

David Guterson talks about getting writer’s block after September 11.

“I was totally absorbed in the real world, the politics, the history, the news, and I just couldn’t find my way into the fictional world. … When I finally could return to writing the novel, it was in fits and starts. It was a real struggle. I lost a whole year, and it was not a good year. … I assumed there were other people, other artists in a similar state. Besides, writer’s block is a well-known phenomenon. Other writers have had it. I finally figured this was my time.”

Guterson’s new novel, Our Lady of the Forest, comes out this week.

It looks like the Wilson/Plame story is getting some traction. Even CNN is now reporting on the former US ambassador to Niger, who publicly criticized the Bush administration for (falsely) claiming that Iraq sought to buy uranium in Africa, and whose wife, Valerie Plame, was subsequently identified as a CIA officer (potentially endangering her safety) by Robert Novak, a Republican columnist. Time magazine has a brief recap of what’s been going on since the “end of major combat.” Meanwhile, in Britain, Blair might have to contend with a new inquest into the death of David Kelly.

George Plimpton has died. The multitalented Plimpton was a journalist, a writer, a football player, a boxer, a trapeze artist, and an actor. His legacy, though, will unarguably be the Paris Review. I don’t think I’ll look forward to my rejections from them in quite the same way.

It’s been one of those weeks. I think I might take an early break today.