Other Septembers, Many Americas : Selected Provocations, 1980-2004

Rating:
Summary: Good Collection
Review: Ariel Dorfman's writings have meant a lot to me over the years, and Seven Stories Press has done us a service by printing this collection of pieces. It is stretching it, however, to call it a book of collected provocations. More like the same old miscellany every writer eventually publishes--his speeches, book reviews, catalogue essays for exhibitions, "second thoughts" on his greatest hits, etc. Provocations would describe about twenty pages of it, the rest would be ego. As I made my way through the book I thought to myself, "Next we'll be getting his commencement addresses," and then I turned a page and bang, there's one printed out in full.

That's not to say that among the many, many pieces here aren't some with permanent value. His review of Gabriel Garcia Marquez' novel CHRONICLE OF A DEATH FORETOLD imparts some biographical tidbits about GGM which you will find nowhere else (the two writers are chance acquaintances and are often called to speak together on panels about Latin American literature).

He is also a trustworthy observer of human nature whose insights into the mysteries of the heart are usually spot on. And his eye for other men's writing is very good. I would never have read THE LIGHTNING OF AUGUST if not for his perceptive review of it in The NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW in 1986. Even his analysis of Homer's Iliad has a weary sort of wisdom to it, the kind that Peter O'Toole wore so heavily on his brow in the recent blockbuster movie of TROY.

I shouldn't play the September 11th card, not to poor old Ariel Dorfman, but he really shouldn't be playing it either. he could have thought of some other title to sell his miscellaneous prose under. But in a way I don't blame him, his credentials are what he has to sell, and after having read Dorfman's DEATH AND THE MAIDEN many will be anxious to see what he has to say about Al Qaeda and about the torture village of Abu Ghraib. Good collection.