The Swan Song that Truman Capote Did Not Intend to Write
Capote’s Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era By Laurence Leamer G.P. Putnam’s Sons Reviewed by Steven Boyd Saum “For years, Truman Capote had been proudly telling anyone within hearing that he was writing ‘the greatest novel of the age,’” begins Laurence Leamer’s latest biography, a tale of the literati and glitterati. Capote’s book “was about a group of the richest, most elegant women in the world. They were fictional, of course … but everyone knew these characters were based on his closest friends, the coterie of gorgeous, witty, and fabulously rich...
Andy Warhol’s Cats, a Floating Subway Map, and More NYC Delights
Art Hiding in New York AN ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO THE CITY’S SECRET MASTERPIECES By Lori Zimmer | Illustrated by Maria Krasinski Running Press Reviewed by Steven Boyd Saum In this compendium of delight, illustrator Maria Krasinski brings playful color and a lightness of touch to an exploration of art and artists whose work populates dedicated spaces and so much more in Manhattan. She teams up with writer Lori Zimmer to traverse unexpected places and limn faces of the artists. Works range from Alexander Calder’s “Janey Waney” in Gramercy Park to Francoise Schein’s “Subway Map Floating on a New...
Afghanistan: For an Educator, a Journey Back to a Time of Peace
Afghanistan at a Time of Peace By Robin Varnum Peace Corps Writers Reviewed by Jordan Simmons Friends en route to a provincial school. Photo courtesy Robin Varnum Afghanistan at a Time of Peace traces Robin Varnum’s years as a Peace Corps Volunteer, 1971–73. Varnum chronicles her journey into learning the place she came to call home: adapting to the chilly weather in Ghazni, southwest of Kabul, and understanding why she and other foreigners are mocked as “Mister Kachaloo” (literally, “Mr. Potato” in Dari), and traversing the length and breadth of the country — from Jalalabad to Mazar-i-sharif. As a Volunteer...
Two Years in Afghanistan with the Peace Corps for Parents. And Two Deployments in Afghanistan for their Son.
A Few Minor Adjustments TWO YEARS IN AFGHANISTAN: A PEACE CORPS ODYSSEY By Elana Hohl Independently Published Reviewed by Jordan Simmons Before Elana Hohl and her husband, Mike, traveled to Afghanistan to serve with the Peace Corps 1971–73, she had only been beyond her native Midwest a handful of times. The journey filled her with constant amazement — at the smells and tastes of foods, the splendor and beauty of the land in which she found herself. That includes her first trip north with an Afghan friend, Faiz, to the Salaang Pass in the heart of the...
A Study of Land, the State, and War in Afghanistan Raises Some Big Questions. For Starters, Could It All Have Gone Differently?
Land, The State, and War: Property Institutions and Political Order in Afghanistan By Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili and Ilia Murtazashvili Cambridge University Press Reviewed by Steven Boyd Saum Could it all have gone differently in Afghanistan? That was the premise for a conversation last September with Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili about her recently published book, Land, The State, and War: Property Institutions and Political Order in Afghanistan. Surveys, fieldwork, and historical analysis point to this conclusion, among others: Imposing Western-style institutions is not a panacea. Rather, as Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili distilled in another conversation: “It wasn’t because Afghan social norms don’t...
Scholar and Human Rights Activist, She Was Also Invited to Play Piano with Elvis Presley’s Band. A Remembrance of Jan Knippers Black.
Jan Knippers Black (1940–2021) wrote the definitive book on U.S. interference in post-colonial Brazil. By Catherine Gardner Photo by Elëna Zhukova Professor emerita, world traveler, beloved role model and mentor to thousands of students, singer and songwriter, advocate and ally: These are just some of the many terms one could use to describe Jan Knippers Black, a prominent scholar and human rights activist. She wrote the definitive book on U.S. interference in post-colonial Brazil — some years after she was invited to play piano in Elvis Presley’s band. She was well known for her expertise on political dynamics within Latin America,...
Lines of Joy and Memory, Death and Rebirth: DEMO by Charlie Smith
DEMO | Poems By Charlie Smith W.W. Norton Reviewed by Steven Boyd Saum Early on in Charlie Smith’s recent collection comes the poem “Samsara,” lines of joy and memory and death and rebirth. How it begins: “The ocean, uncomfortable with itself, bangs and slurs, / mixing flavors, holding its own against infinity, scarred with ice.” Before it ends, he assesses, “I’ve caught up lately on everything / but time.” In between, the poem traverses continents and piano concertos, seasons and marriages, plum flowers and the first pear blossoms. The images summoned are in a voice at once exuberant and...
He helped inspire the Peace Corps, then became a Volunteer: Douglas Kelley
In Memoriam: Douglas Kelley (1929–2022) By Catherine Gardner Photo courtesy the family of Douglas Kelley. Douglas Kelley holds a special place among those who helped inspire the Peace Corps. As a student at Berea College in Kentucky, he was committed to international cooperation and civil rights. In his senior year in college, in 1951, he began laying the groundwork for the International Development Placement Association, a program to promote humanitarian service by placing people internationally in jobs with indigenous organizations and governments in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Within three years the program had sent 18 young Americans abroad and had...
Juliane Heyman Escaped the Holocaust in Europe. In the U.S., She Became the First Woman to Serve as a Peace Corps Training Officer.
In Memoriam: Juliane Heyman (1925–2022) By Catherine Gardner Photo of Juliane Heyman courtesy Alana DeJoseph Born in the Free City of Danzig, now Gdansk, Poland, Julie Heyman was 12 years old when she fled her home due to increasing Nazi persecution. After months of being disconnected from her parents, she and her family were reunited in Brussels. They fled again when the Nazis invaded Belgium. In 1941, Heyman arrived in New York by freighter. She graduated from Barnard College before earning master’s degrees in international relations and library science from U.C. Berkeley. In what she calls one of her “most...
‘A Virtual Explosion of Colors, Textures, and Life’
Coral Reef Curiosities INTRIGUE, DECEPTION AND WONDER ON THE REEF AND BEYOND By Chuck Weikert Dayton Publishing Reviewed by Steven Boyd Saum Chuck Weikert served as a Volunteer in the Kingdom of Tonga 1977–79. He recounts a snorkeling excursion to the windward side. “The reef opened up in a virtual explosion of colors, textures, and life that stretched into the deep blue beyond. It was mind boggling!” So begins a love affair with the undersea world — captured here in 25 chapters tracing the lives of creatures that inhabit coral reefs, and weaving in the history of humans’ interaction...