ANGUS REID, ANDY HEDGECOCK and MARIA DUARTE review On The Sea, A Useful Ghost, Brunello: The Gracious Visionary, and Pinocchio Unstrung
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Letters from Latin America
Reviews of works by Latinx poets Natalie Diaz and Eduardo C Corral
'I AM DOING MY BEST TO NOT BECOME A MUSEUM': Natalie Diaz
[James Stroud]
RON JACOBS enjoys a great tale, told by a US communist, of the lives of working-class New Yorkers
BRENT CUTLER searches a new history of contemporary Iran for an understanding of the Islamic Republic, finding both interesting detail and glaring omissions
MARIA DUARTE recommends the true story of the remarkable woman who sued Donald Trump for sexual assault not once, but twice
KENNY MacASKILL is disappointed by a polemical, rather than factual, account of the Lone Star State and its political path since the civil war
PAUL DONOVAN is fascinated by the lives of Charles and Mary Bagot, and the insight this biography shines on the morals of pre-Victorian society
GORDON PARSONS appreciates fine performances and a feel for ambiguity, but misses the music of the dialogue
POSTCOLONIAL LOVE POEM (Graywolf Press, £14) is Natalie Diaz’s second poetry collection after her prizewinning debut When My Brother Was an Aztec.
Her new book is a remarkable exploration of Mojave culture, with oppression, bodies of water, queer desire, ancestry and family history all featuring in a journey of thought-provoking discoveries.
In American Arithmetic, Diaz writes: “Native Americans make up less than/1 percent of the population of America./0.8 percent of 100 percent./ O, mine efficient country./I do not remember the days before America—/I do not remember the days when we were all here./Police kill Native Americans more/than any other race. Race is a funny word./Race implies someone will win,/implies, I have as good a chance of winning as — /Who wins the race that isn't a race?”.
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