In her 1952 work Giant, Edna Ferber chose the novel form rather than a long, boring trilogy, she says, to help us understand Texas. She presents an intimate and sweeping panorama of this sprawling state–its past, its more recent development and its future. In an era when politics has become …
When she illustrates history’s personal costs, Barbara Kingsolver, in her 2007 historical novel The Lacuna, makes history come. alive. She tackles Mexico’s culture from the sixteenth century Aztecs’ battles with Montezuma to the exile of L. D. Trotsky in Mexico during the 1930s and beyond, into twentieth century North American …
Why a Plea Deal for Freedom? You’ve already got a plea deal for freedom as a citizen. It’s called the social contract. “Hey!” you say, “What did I do wrong to need a plea deal?” Simple fact: without a government, you were out for yourself alone in what they call “the …
