Rubin on Roth's 'Exit Ghost'
Martin Rubin reviews Philip Roth's new novel in the Sept. 30 Washington Times:
EXIT GHOST
By Philip Roth
Houghton Mifflin, $26, 292 pages
REVIEWED BY MARTIN RUBIN
So Nathan Zuckerman is back. Philip Roth has once more brought that particular alter ego to us, apparently for the final time. But the title "Exit Ghost," with its reference to "Hamlet," is a little misleading, for Zuckerman in this novel is no ghost but a fully flesh-and-blood character as full of salt and vinegar as ever, battered by physical and emotional demons but definitely not extinguished by them. He is identifiably the Philip Roth we have come to know in recent years, withdrawn from public life but still famous and, crucially, turning out novel after novel, one more splendid than the other....
For the full review, click here
---Posted by Katherine Hyde
Rubin on India Partition
In the Wall Street Journal, Martin Rubin reviews two accounts of the birth of India and Pakistan 60 years ago:
Passion and Partition
By MARTIN RUBIN
September 27, 2007; Page D8
"The 60th anniversary of the 1947 partition of the Indian subcontinent into India and Pakistan has occasioned sweeping punditry and a host of narratives tracking the subcontinent's fate, both political and economic, from that time to this. Indian Summer and India Remembered are, by contrast, intimate portraits of the partition moment itself. As such, they offer the compressed drama of a pivotal moment in 20th-century history, featuring oversize personalities and conflicting motives more than poverty statistics or geopolitical designs. ...
To read the full review, click here.
Rubin on 'Lenin's Private War'
In today's Washington Times, Martin Rubin reviews LENIN'S PRIVATE WAR: THE VOYAGE OF THE PHILOSOPHY STEAMER AND THE EXILE OF THE INTELLIGENTSIA by Lesley Chamberlain (St. Martin's Press):
"The 20th century had more than its share of ruthless despots, but it's a pretty good bet that Vladimir Ilyich Ulianov, better known by his soubriquet Lenin, will always have a place near the top of any list of them. When the writer Maxim Gorky, himself a supporter of the Bolsheviks, went to plead with Lenin for the life of one of the Romanov Grand Dukes, who were then being shot en masse on the grounds that he was a fine historian, Russia's new ruler told him that the revolution had no need of historians.
"Apparently, Lenin's twisted worldview also had no use for free-thinking intellectuals in general, and Lenin's Private War, the latest book by Lesley Chamberlain, that most insightful of historians now studying the newly revived history and culture of Russia, tells the extraordinary story of the mass expulsion from their motherland of its finest economists, philosophers, scientists and thinkers. In short, the intelligentsia, that word so associated with Russia, was no longer wanted there after the Bolshevik Revolution."
For the full review, click here.
---Katherine Hyde
Joe Barna in 'Sputnik' Oct. 4
Joe Barna writes (9/21/07):
Here's the flyer info for a one-night one-man show I'm doing Oct 4, to which I'm inviting any or all classmates who might be in the area. Not solely about the years at Yale, but they will be part of it.
SPUTNIK - A Personal Journey
Fifty incredible years and the satellite that launched them.
What do a UFO, Little Red Riding Hood, the Fillmore East, a
rollercoaster-riding dog, the Yale School of Drama, the gay political
underground in the Soviet Union, and hundreds of funny signs have in
common? Come to this monologue performance piece on the perfect
randomness of life, a Spaulding Gray meets Garrison Keillor
look at the joys and mysteries of hurtling through space on a fragile
ball of rock, as lived, written, and performed by Joseph T. Barna.
Sometimes, something happens that drives the rest of your life.
For me, that moment was seeing Sputnik.
8:00 pm Thursday, October 4, 2007 $5.00
at The Medicine Show Theater, 249 W. 52nd Street (between 10th and
11th Avenues.)
10:30 abbreviated late show for those in other productions
Martin Rubin in LA Times
From the LA Times:
--------------------
'Eden's Outcasts' by John Matteson
--------------------
The book illuminates the loving but often embattled relationship between the author of 'Little Women' and her father, renowned transcendentalist Bronson Alcott.
By Martin Rubin
Special to The Times
Aug 24 2007
IT is an inevitable byproduct of the Harry Potter phenomenon that people look to the past for books that have similarly engaged young readers. At the top of most of these lists is Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women" (1868), which was an immediate bestseller and has certainly stood the test of time. On both sides of the Atlantic, youthful readers still thrill to the story of the March family in mid-19th century New England; in a recent survey of books that have influenced contemporary writers, it was among those most frequently cited.
The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.calendarlive.com/books/cl-et-book24aug24,0,3830648.story?coll=cl-books-features
Golf Outing Aug. 27
Class Golf Outing at the Yale Golf Course on August 27, 2007
Dave Vogel has arranged for us to play the Yale course on Monday morning August 27th. We have several tee times beginning at 9 am and we plan to have lunch together after golf.
Alumni green fees are $75 and the cart charge is $18 per bag. Please contact Dave at david.vogel@yale.edu asap if you would like to join the
group.
---Harry Levitt
Martin Rubin in WSJ
Enjoy a Martin Rubin (BK) book review in the Aug. 10 Wall Street Journal--see below, and here's a link to the full review: Martin Rubin Review WSJ 8/10/07
The Past, Another Country
By MARTIN RUBIN
"In an age when it is fashionable inside and outside the academy to deny the very existence of truth, it is refreshing to encounter a novelist intent on using fiction to reach historical reality.
"Justin Cartwright's 'The Song Before It Is Sung' takes us from contemporary London and Germany back to the cloistered world of Oxford University in the 1930s and to the blood-soaked horrors of Nazism. In the novel, the bequeathed papers of an Oxford scholar, Elya Mendel, prompt one of his former students -- a man named Conrad Senior -- to begin an enigmatic quest. Conrad finds himself gathering letters and collecting testimony to sort out Mendel's long, ambivalent friendship with Axel von Gottberg, a German aristocrat tortured and hideously executed following the unsuccessful 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler.
"Real-Life Models
"When we meet him, Conrad is barely managing a parlous existence as a journalist and would-be author.... [His] investigations into Mendel's papers -- and life -- are the heart of the story.
"They reveal a great deal about Mendel himself and raise disturbing questions about Mendel's German friend. In short, Conrad serves as a useful lens for readers as they try to understand the novel's two main characters -- both of whom, Mr. Cartwright writes in an afterword, are based on real people"--Mendel, on Oxford philosopher Isaiah Berlin, and von Gottberg, on one of the members of the 1944 plot.
Again, a link to the full review is at the top of this posting.
--Katherine Hyde (BK), web editor
Private 'In Memoriam' Page
We're pleased to announce the launch of our first private, registered-classmates-only page, 'In Memoriam.' We invite you to share your thoughts and memories of those we have lost.You can access the page by clicking the 'In Memoriam' link at right. PLEASE NOTE the following:1) ONLY registered users can access the Private Areas pages, AND2) If you are a registered user, you must be LOGGED IN.3) If you are NOT logged in, you will be taken to the Log In form --after you log in, the site will directly load the page you were tryingto access.--Yale Class of 1971 Website Editorial Board
Alexis Krasilovsky Film
Alexis Krasilovsky writes (7/21/07): I'm excited to invite you to see my new feature film, "Women Behind the Camera."
The World Premiere will be at the Globians World & Culture Festival in Potsdam, Germany on August 15, with a U.S. Premiere at the Moondance International Film Festival, Universal Studios CityWalk Theater, Hollywood, California, September 7-9. It's the first documentary to examine the lives, work and challenges of camerawomen around the globe, from Hollywood to Bollywood, Afghanistan, Canada, China, England, France, Germany, India, Iran, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Senegal ...
The camerawomen in the film range from top pioneers like Shu Shi Jun, who traveled throughout the New China as Mao Ze Dong's cinematographer...to Ellen Kuras, ASC ("Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind")...to Rozette Ghadery, one of the first camerawomen in Iran, who shot a film about chemical warfare in Kurdistani Iraq. Also included is an interview with Hollywood producer Sarah Pillsbury (YC '74).
Thomas McKenny of the International Cinematographers Guild has called it "an important film for everyone who collaborates on motion pictures and all who watch them. The most world-wide film since 'Winged Migration.'"
For more information, please visit our new website at www.womenbehindthecamera.com. There's a special section called "A Career Path for Women" which is great for daughters and friends considering this field. And please let me know what you think of the film!Best,Alexis (BK 71)
Jim Kaplan Tour July 4
Bob Shapiro writes:If you haven't been to one of Jim Kaplan's walking tours, you're missing a treat! Spend a Class of ' 71 4th!Watch Alice Young on Channel 13 at 9, and then head on downtown for Jim's middle of the night walking tour. [SEE NY POST ARTICLE below; starts at 2 a.m. at Trinity Church, Broadway.] And then give yourself a break - sleep late on the 4th!All The best,BobP.S. Remember, no Class Table this month or next (even Jack Bauer "goes dark" occasionally!) We're back in September. See you then!*****DEAD OF NIGHT: SPEND INDEPENDENCE DAY REVISITING WAR HEROESBy LARRY GETLEN 
[Caption] NOW THIS HERE'S A CHURCH:For 12 years, James Kaplan has been conducting an unusual historical tour of lower Manhattan at 2 a.m. on July Fourth. One of his stops is the Trinity church on Broadway at Wall Street.July 1, 2007 -- If the excitement of fireworks, barbeque and beer is too much for you on July Fourth, here's a potentially thrilling alternative. How about a leisurely, four-hour stroll through lower Manhattan spent listening to lectures on the unsung heroes of the Revolutionary War - that starts at 2 o'clock in the freakin' morning!Read more