For January, we have selected The Eaves of Heaven: A Life in Three Wars, by Andrew X. Pham. A few years back, we read and greatly enjoyed Pham's Catfish and Mandalaand I am looking forward to reading this critically-acclaimed book about his father,
Once wealthy landowners, Thong Van Pham’s family was shattered by the tumultuous events of the twentieth century: the French occupation of Indochina, the Japanese invasion during World War II, and the Vietnam War. Told in dazzling chapters that alternate between events in the past and those closer to the present, The Eaves of Heaven brilliantly re-creates the trials of everyday life in Vietnam as endured by one man, from the fall of Hanoi and the collapse of French colonialism to the frenzied evacuation of Saigon. Pham offers a rare portal into a lost world as he chronicles Thong Van Pham’s heartbreaks, triumphs, and bizarre reversals of fortune, whether as a South Vietnamese soldier pinned down by enemy fire, a prisoner of the North Vietnamese under brutal interrogation, or a refugee desperately trying to escape Vietnam after the last American helicopter has abandoned Saigon. This is the story of a man caught in the maelstrom of twentieth-century politics, a gripping memoir told with the urgency of a wartime dispatch by a writer of surpassing talent.
This month we are reading Your Republic Is Calling Youby the South Korean novelist Kim Young-ha. The author has a website with biographical information and an overview of his other books and a Facebook page which offers a few links to interviews and events. Interviews and material in English are a little scarce, but there is this PEN American Center panel appearance--you may want to start around the 37 minute mark for where Kim comes in:
For the nickel summary of this panel check out this blog post from 3%.
Much of the material from this interview in the Beijinger deals with works other than Republic, but there are some interesting insights, like this:
Between a widespread diaspora and the division of North and South, Korean identity is wrought with questions of nation, race, belonging ... how much does this background influence your desire to write, and your choices for the topics of each book?When I was a child, my father was an army officer. My family had to live near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), where I was always hearing the North Korean propaganda speeches. That experience made me think a bit about strange themes like border, nation, prohibition, death, belief and so on. Growing up near the DMZ, one of the most dangerous areas in the world, is quite a rare experience. I think my childhood was the most crucial thing for my ability to write novels. Your Republic Is Calling You, my fourth novel, is the story about a forgotten North Korean spy. It is not just a coincidence that I pick this kind of 'borderline' character. He lives half his life in the North and the other half in the South. I have always felt myself standing on that border.
A few more nuggets might be gleaned from this KBS interview.
This month we are reading the Enemies of the People: My Family's Journey to Americaby Kati Marton. After finishing this memoir about her parents' struggles as journalists in Cold War era Hungary and noting Marton's own career as a journalist it is unsurprising to learn that she serves on the Board of Directors for the Committee to Protect Journalists and that she recently won an award from the United Nations Association for her human rights advocacy work. Her acceptance speech makes a good, brief self-introduction and is worth checking out. She draws parallels between the Hungarian Uprising and the Arab Spring, explains her motivations for her work with CPJ, and presents how she aims to connect past and present in her books. The Millions has an interview with the author where she summarizes,
This is a book about terror and surveillance and how the terror state functioned… which is by fear, which is by implicating the whole population, making everybody in a sense complicit in the way that it turned even our closest friends and relatives into informers. I think that is the theme. And how these two people, my mother and father, survived. More than survived. They survived with their heads held high.
Also, this short interview from Hungarian Watch shows Marton's attentiveness to on-going human rights issues in Hungary. Amnesty covers current concerns here.
Below is a video interview from ForaTv. You may also want to check out a couple of interviews available as free iTunes downloads from the New York Public Library and Chautauqua Podcasts. I especially enjoyed the Chautauqua interview because it skipped past the information you already know if you've read the book kicking off, for example, with a question about the reception of the book in Hungary.
Finally, from a few months back, Marton contributed an editorial to the New York Times upon the capture of Ratko Mladic, the butcher of Srebrenica, reflecting on the bittersweet nature of this event, "a very good day for humanity" coming after the death of her husband, Richard Holbrooke, who had negotiated the end of the Balkan conflict.
At long last I have fixed the Group 22 slideshow feature in the sidebar and have filled it with mostly "vintage" examples of our activist exploits over the years. Because these photos were scanned, the resolution is a little fuzzy, but they are still fun. I hope to add more recent pictures soon. If you are present or former member of our Pasadena chapter and have photos to add, let me know!
I'm highlighting a few pics from a China campaign from around 1993 in which we created a "Democracy Wall" collage of actions, quotes, pictures and graphics which was posted for the benefit of the Caltech community. Perhaps this will serve as inspiration for our current work on the 'disappeared' Chinese human rights lawyer, Gao Zhisheng. Please take action for Gao here!
For December we have chosen Haruki Murakami's short story collection, After the Quake,
The six stories in Haruki Murakami's mesmerizing collection are set at the time of the catastrophic 1995 Kobe earthquake, when Japan became brutally aware of the fragility of its daily existence. But the upheavals that afflict Murakami's characters are even deeper and more mysterious, emanating from a place where the human meets the inhuman.
An electronics salesman who has been abruptly deserted by his wife agrees to deliver an enigmatic package?and is rewarded with a glimpse of his true nature. A man who has been raised to view himself as the son of God pursues a stranger who may or may not be his human father. A mild-mannered collection agent receives a visit from a giant talking frog who enlists his help in saving Tokyo from destruction. As haunting as dreams, as potent as oracles, the stories inAfter the Quake are further proof that Murakami is one of the most visionary writers at work today.
This month we are reading Blood of the Wicked by Leighton Gage. The author has a website and Facebook page and contributes to a group blog, Murder is Everywhere. (He and his fellow bloggers have not worked out the most efficient labeling system, so here's a shortcut to get you to his posts highlighting his broad interest in Brazilian culture.)
Blood of the Wicked certainly stands out in the way the issues brought to the fore dovetail with Amnesty's human rights concerns. For an overview of Amnesty's human rights concerns in Brazil, consult the country page. There are several Brazil actions currently available including one involving threats to landless workers by gunmen hired by a local farmer where police have failed to take adequate steps to investigate the incidents and protect the workers. See this Human Rights Now blog post and this press release for more information. Another blog post from August 17 relates to the murder of a judge who had received threats from both criminal gangs and police officers. Yet another post relates the fate of environmental activists José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva and his wife Maria do Espírito Santo da Silva. That case is also described in this New Yorker blog post which also mentions the murder of Dorothy Stang, the American nun Gage references in his author's note.
Finally, for a look at what an occupation by the landless movement looks like I recommend this great little 2005 PBS Frontline documentary. In addition, the film includes a nod to both liberation theology, and a passing reference to 'political theater' of the kind we became familiar with through our friend Hector Aristizabal (The Blessing Next to the Wound). Worth a look!
How does moral progress happen? How are societies brought to repudiate immoral customs they have long accepted? In The Honor Code, Kwame Anthony Appiah explores a long-neglected engine of reform. Examining moral revolutions in the past--and campaigns against abhorrent practices today--he shows that appeals to reason, morality, or religion aren't enough to ring in reform. Practices are eradicated only when they come into conflict with honor.
In gripping detail, Appiah begins his work with a portrait of the often-deadly world of aristocratic Britain, where for centuries gentlemen challenged each other to duels. Recounting one of the last significant duels in that world--between a British prime minister and an eccentric earl--Appiah shows a society at the precipice of abrupt change. Turning to the other side of the world, Appiah investigates the end of footbinding in China. The practice had flourished for a thousand years, despite imperial attempts at prohibition, yet was extinguished in a generation. Appiah brings to life this turbulent era and shows how change finally came not from imposing edicts from above, but from harnessing the ancient power of honor from within.
In even more intricate ways, Appiah demonstrates how ideas of honor helped drive one of history's most significant moral revolutions--the fast-forming social consensus that led to the abolition of slavery throughout the British empire, and recruited ordinary men and women to the cause. Yet his interest isn't just historical. Appiah considers the horrifying persistence of "honor killing" in places like Pakistan, despite religious and moral condemnation, and the prospects for bringing it to an end by mobilizing a sense of collective honor--and of shame.
With a storyteller's flair and a philosopher's rigor, The Honor Code represents a new approach toward moral inquiry. Ranging from a great mandarin's abandonment of an ancient Chinese tradition to Frederick Douglass's meetings with Abolitionist leaders in London, Appiah reveals how moral revolutions really succeed.
For January, we have selected The Eaves of Heaven: A Life in Three Wars, by Andrew X. Pham. A few years back, we read and greatly enjoyed Pham's Catfish and Mandala and I am looking forward to reading this critically-acclaimed book about his father,
by Leighton Gage. The author has a 
) it offers a brief introduction to the author and the Mario Silva series:
by Kwame Anthony Appiah,