RAVE!
May 2024
This novel is a triumph. James respects her audience, presenting a complex tale without oversimplifying. Centered around the actual V&A's "Tippoo's Tiger", she interweaves colonial-era perspectives, a mechanical tiger's secrets, and treacherous ocean voyages into a tapestry of fully-realized characters. The title "Loot" brilliantly captures the story's duality—both the English card game where winners claim all, and its Sanskrit origin meaning theft.
Poem from Gitanjali (37)
I thought that my voyage had come to its end at the last limit of my power,
—that the path before me was closed, that provisions were exhausted and the time come to take shelter in a silent obscurity.
But I find that thy will knows no end in me.
And when old words die out on the tongue, new melodies break forth from the heart; and where the old tracks are lost, new country is revealed with its wonders.
Poem from Gitanjali (81)
On many an idle day have I grieved over lost time.
But it is never lost, my lord.
Thou hast taken every moment of my life in thine own hands.
Hidden in the heart of things thou art nourishing seeds into sprouts, buds into blossoms, and ripening flowers into fruitfulness.
I was tired and sleeping on my idle bed and imagined all work had ceased.
In the morning I woke up and found my garden full with wonders of flowers.
PBS: Abacus
September 2017
If you've ever questioned "Too Big To Fail," the anthem of 2008, consider the flipside: "small enough to jail." Abacus Federal Savings, a Chinatown bank led by 80-year-old Thomas Sung and his daughters, was the only U.S. bank prosecuted for mortgage fraud during the crisis. Watch as the model minority myth turns sinister, with their success making them targets in a system desperate for blame. This isn't just a legal thriller; it's a testament to immigrant resilience, caught between Chinese values and American justice, family obligation and personal ambition.
Places for Prompts
May 2025
One of my favorite communities and digital magazines that runs weekly contests is:London Writer's Salon.
Poet and visual artist Bernadette Mayer's List of Journal Ideas.
Fiction Dealer on Substack - Daily doses of Fiction + Fiction prompts.
What Now? on Substack - Weekly prompts (great practice for developing fiction characters.)
Gibberish on Substack - Flash Fiction Friday prompts.
Article
April 1999
Anthony Bourdain's "Don't Eat Before Reading This" - a bruised gem of expression in the wake of his restaurant’s collapse. With wit and precision, Bourdain strips away the kitchen's romance - the butter, the bravado, the disdain for brunch and vegetarians. We, the devoted fools who pine for reservations, guiltily count calories, unknowingly indulge in recycled bread, stand corrected. And those who request well-done steaks? Outed. One suspects the restaurant world has only grown more peculiar since 1999, making Bourdain's revelations all the more poignant given his untimely departure.
Article
November 2019
Ellen Barry's "The Jungle Prince" masterfully dissects a family's elaborate royal fiction without sacrificing compassion. Her investigation navigates post-Partition India's fractured histories where truth becomes malleable and belonging uncertain. Most compelling is Barry's examination of delusion's seductive power - how fabricated nobility can become both sanctuary and prison, raising unsettling questions about the stories we choose to believe when reality offers less comfort than fiction. You'll find yourself asking: Was it deception, or the lure of a distorted legacy?
A Doll's House
December 2017
I am fascinated with novels inspired by museum pieces (like Loot). One of my favorites is The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton, based on a late 17th century doll's house in the Rijksmuseum!
