Citizenship | Literature
Select novels, short stories, and nonfiction on contemporary life.
What began as a bold experiment in grassroots service produced future ambassadors to help guide U.S. diplomacy through seven decades of global upheaval.
Read, Listen, Watch
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Five weeks of surfing stretched out before me off the white beaches of northern Brazil. On the bus from Salvador to Ilheus, a teacher on summer leave, a young man with no duties, I felt the ultimate exhilaration of liberty. A peak experience, anticipating surf in the mornings and writing in the breezy shade of…
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I don’t know what it is, but I’ve observed a natural tic in my writing lately. I wish I could call it a style, but it isn’t. It isn’t something pretty. It’s a tic. If I had a tendency to do something that made my writing stand out—Raymond Carver, T.C. Boyle, Zora Neale Hurston—it would be…
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Gun violence isn’t the only systemic failure of the federal government to be yodeled at with doomed futility in Patchworks. Furloughs and government shutdowns also pepper a story full of recurring small deaths. There comes a point—moments before the plot’s big turn—when two sympathetic colleagues must choose: which of them will take a round of furloughs instead of…
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Best to look at the problem from the other side. Not aliens on earth—earthlings in space! By far the most memorable version of Space Oddity for me is the one recorded by Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield during his long sojourn aboard the International Space Station. The lyrics are somewhat different from the original, and so…
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What to read this week? Paul Theroux’s The London Embassy, of course! This day in history U.S. diplomacy with England took over a new location. Our landmark perch in Grosvenor Square is no more. I visited the location once—an aside to the controversy going on right now, and one that makes this move feel deeply…
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The rhythm is familiar. Rhythm and familiarity make the work sublime. It can also be a grind but I’ll get to that. I’ve got the bit in my mouth on my latest novel (I, Fisheye) for a little over a month now. December was the swirl of possibilities, the slow whittling or careful nurturing of…
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Work in progress. Banging out chapters for a middle grade audience. I’ll want to tweak the title and synopsis, but here’s a start: Soon after Christopher Fischer (a.k.a. Fish) meets new fifth-grader Monty Peregrine, a man dressed in underwear enters the Sweet Life Cafe and orders pants. Who is this half-naked stranger? And what’s his…
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Only in our currently defiled situation could an unpaid intern have the gall and patience to assert moral power… This month’s Foreign Service Journal features an incisive review of Patchworks by author and retired Foreign Service Officer Dan Whitman. Generous praise from a great writer. Dan served as French interpreter for the State Department’s International…
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Resolution: Let’s be deliberate in the year ahead. Let’s choose our time and our course and our actions with a certainty in what we hope to achieve. I’ll begin January working on the novel that will serve as a gift for my second son, who turns eight in July. That work will continue steadily during…
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I’ll end 2017 on a high note. A mighty effort in the last weeks of December pushed my page views for the year over 6,000. That’s nothing compared to the many blogs who get 6,000 views in a month, a week, a day, but it was my goal for 2017. A sincere Thank You to…
Ben East Books 