News

Over at Salon, Christine Smallwood reviews Rich Cohen’s Sweet and Low, a history of his family, and their invention: the sugar substitute.

The book is an absolute pleasure: expansive, fascinating, funny and full of historical tidbits to be read aloud to anyone around. It takes readers from the diner where his grandpa Ben worked to the factory where Sweet ‘n Low was packaged; from regulatory agencies and labs to the tony Long Island neighborhoods where embezzling higher-ups in the company had built themselves $2 million mansions; from his grandmother Betty’s funeral to the bedroom that his crazy Aunt Gladys never left.

More here.

Sumita Sheth sends word that she and a group of other writers and artists are starting a new literary magazine, called DesiLit, which is committed to “creating a forum for exceptional contemporary writing and art focused on South Asia and the diaspora.” Contributors do not have to be of South Asian origin to submit.

The Guardian‘s Xan Brooks (What kind of a name is Xan? A cool name, that’s what) interviews several Palestinian filmmakers about their work, and their challenges.

Feted by the critics and public alike, Palestinian cinema remains a culture in exile, an industry without a home. “Let me tell you about the Palestinian film industry,” says actor-director Mohammed Bakri, who made the documentary Jenin, Jenin after the demolition of the refugee camp. “Very simply, we do not have one. We have some very talented film-makers, but that’s about it. We have no film schools and we have no studios. We have no infrastructure because we have no country.”

From the sound of it, they have no distribution network either. “There is one cinema in Ramallah, and nothing anywhere else,” Bakri says. “And this is probably the biggest problem. We are not reaching the people we are talking about. For me it’s very painful, because obviously I want my people to see my films.” The irony is clear: visitors to the Palestine film festival in London will have had greater access to Palestinian films than the vast majority of Palestinians.

And yet, Palestinians directors still manage to release films, somehow. Read the full article here.

Thanks to David for the link.

Alan Cheuse reviews Camilla Gibb‘s Sweetness in the Belly, about a British-born Muslim woman’s life in both London, England, and Harar, Ethiopia. (Morocco also serves as the backdrop of a section in the book.) Of course I’m already intrigued.

Another good review for Wole Soyinka’s memoir, You Must Set Forth At Dawn, this time from the Christian Science Monitor.

It was a time, Soyinka tells us, when “the gods were still only in a state of hibernation.” As the recipient of a Rockefeller fellowship, Soyinka was given the means to travel throughout Nigeria, studying traditional festivals and forms of drama. Soon, however, he tells us, political tyranny (along with increasing Westernization) began to threaten what he cherished about his homeland.

Most of this book, in fact, is about Soyinka’s struggle to preserve the land and culture that he loves. “You Must Set Forth at Dawn” does not so much tell the tale of Soyinka the playwright and Nobel laureate, or even that of Soyinka as the adult extension of the child in “Aké” (although the humor, charm, and curiosity of the young boy do recur throughout the narrative). Rather this is the story of Soyinka as a Nigerian, a descendent of the Yoruba people, an African, and a world citizen – a man for whom public events overshadow the private.

Read the rest of Marjorie Kehe’s review here.