Month: February 2004


Escape Lit

Ted Conover’s Newjack, an account of his life as a rookie prison guard at Sing Sing, was used by inmates to plan an escape, according to this article.




Mostly Foggy

I finally went to see House Of Sand And Fog last night and didn’t care for it much. In the book, you shift allegiances with each point of view and yet you can still feel for each character. In the movie you don’t. They all end up coming across as hateable, starting with Behrani. I like Ben Kingsley a lot, but in this movie Behrani was quite dry for a while then overly melodramatic at the end. Blah.



Khadra’s Latest

Algerian novelist Yasmina Khadra (alias Mohammed Moulessehoul) has a new novel coming out in the U.S. Unlike his previous works, which were set in Algeria where Islamists continue to battle the military-backed government, this new work is set in Afghanistan and tells the story of an educated, once-prosperous couple struggling under the Taliban. The Christian Science Monitor has a review of The Swallows of Kabul.