Fatima Gholizadeh Gholizadeh itibaren Nagharpur, Uttar Pradesh 221712, India
I really enjoyed this book. Certain literary elements are lacking - each of the characters' personalities seem similar and it's difficult to tell if each narrator is a man or woman without being explicitly told, for example - but the overall message of the book, and the numerous insights that the characters provide, is so powerful that I was thoroughly impressed. The book is a collection of short stories that are all thematically related. Each story centers around a character who's trying to understand him or herself and who's had to overcome some sort of existential crisis. One man deals with the loss of innocence after returning blind and scarred from Vietnam. Another man tries deal with the failed relationship with his parents whose traditional ideals are different than his own. All of the stories deal with the resistance to governments, peoples, and ideologies that seek to control and censor free-thinking individuals. There's little doubt that Lopez has an agenda in writing these stories, but he doesn't hide it and the message he's trying to get across is unequivocally noble. Not everyone is going to dig his flavor of Kool-Aid, but for the open-minded, accepting individual this is great stuff. While I think some of the topics in the book are a direct response to Bush-era policies (the book was published in 2004), it's every bit as relavent today. If you're the type of person who questions the perceived wisdom of American and Western policies, or any ideology that tries to define what you need and want without your consent, then you'll probably dig this as much as I did.
This is a very poignant memoir of Gershom Scholem's friendship with Walter Benjamin. Scholem narrates the troubled life of his friend with deep tenderness.
Not game to rate this one - it's a classic!