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

Dorfman, Ariel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0745321739 ISBN 13: 9780745321738

Publisher: Pluto Press, 2004

Synopsis

'Over the years, Ariel Dorfman has written movingly and often brilliantly of the cultural dislocations and political fractures of his dual heritage. Dorfman has, in an impressive body of work, done justice to the two languages that have battled for his voice and the two countries that claim his allegiance.' Shashi Tharoor, New York Times Book Review Other Septembers, Many Americas: Selected Provocations, 1980-2004 is the first major collection of acclaimed novelist and playwright Ariel Dorfman's best shorter works, including essays, opinion pieces, poems and previously unpublished speeches. Gathered here are writings about America, North and South, that touch on topics as diverse as Scrooge McDuck, barbarians, Vietnam and video games, and as profound as redemption, forgiveness, art and memory. Over and over, in a literary career that has spanned almost a quarter of a century, Dorfman weaves together sentiment and politics with an unmistakable message to his readers that we must never forget to resist and to imagine. This collection forms a rich historical and social text essential for anyone who wishes to understand how the roots of our present crisis are embedded deep within the American psyche, documented by a writer who exists uniquely both inside and out of it.

About this title

Review:

[This book] is most riveting for its analysis of culture through its bifocal frame. ... This collection tells of the interwoven politics of the 'many Americas' [Ariel Dorfman] has experienced. (Jo Littler, Guardian)

Synopsis:

'Over the years, Ariel Dorfman has written movingly & often brilliantly of the cultural dislocations & political fractures of his dual heritage. Dorfman has, in an impressive body of work, done justice to the two languages that have battled for his voice & the two countries that claim his allegiance.' Shashi Tharoor, New York Times Book Review / Here are reflections on the meaning of America in a time of great crisis by a writer uniquely situated to offer us a perspective that is both familiar and constantly surprising. 'Let me tell you, America, of the hopes I had for you,' Dorfman writes after the fall of the Twin Towers, remembering back to an earlier September 11 in 1973, when he was on the staff of Salvador Allende, then president of Chile, the day he was removed from office and murdered in a coup in which the US government was complicit. 'Beware the plague of victimhood, America...Nothing is more dangerous than a giant who is afraid.'

/ Included in Other Septembers, Many Americas are major essays about the America south of the border, exploring the ambiguous relationship between power and literature and touching on topics as diverse as bilingualism, barbarians and video games. In the essay 'A Different Drum', Dorfman asks, 'Isn't it time, as war approaches yet again, to tell each other stories of peace over and over again?' / Over and over in these jewel-like essays, his best shorter work of the last quarter-century, Dorfman weaves together sentiment and politics with his sense of the larger historical questions, reminding Americans of our unique role in the world, so different from the one put forward by the current US administration: the power to resist and to imagine.

About this edition

• Publisher: Pluto Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0745321739
• ISBN 13: 9780745321738
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272