I hereby confess...

...that I have only read one of the shortlisted IMPAC Dublin Literary Award books:
The Believers by Zoë Heller (which I really liked)

Which is one less than Obama (a fact that becomes quite sad when you realise how much less time he probably has for novel-reading!)

The other contenders are:
The Twin by Gerbrand Bakker
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
In Zodiac Light by Robert Edric
Settlement by Christoph Hein
Netherland by Joseph O’Neill
God’s Own Country by Ross Raisin (title in Canada and the U.S.: Out Backward)
Home by Marilynne Robinson

The winner will be announced on June 17th.

I can't pick any of these up right now; I'm reading my way through the Orange list (completed The way things look to me by Roopa Farooki last week - brilliant; on to Savage Lands by Clare Clark this week - which so far reads like a Dear Canada children's novel, but I am only at the very beginning and I have high hopes).

Thoughts on terrorism

Well, that's quite the weighty post title... and I may now disappoint you. I have no intention of taking a real stand here, but this recent review in Bookforum (thanks, Michael!) really struck home with me, and reminded me of my favourite moment from Obama's inauguration speech.

The Dynamite Club: How a Bombing in Fin-de-Siècle Paris Ignited the Age of Modern Terror, by John Merriman, is about the rise of anarchism in France in the 1870s and 80s. In his review of the book, Christopher Cox writes that "terrorism has proved to be a minor theme in the history of the Third Republic. Could the same eventually be said about terrorism in this republic?" Cox highlights Merriman's own admission about the temptation of drawing parallels (it's "irresistible") and ends the review by quoting from Merriman's final chapter, where he notes the French government’s move, after the death of Emile Henry, "from executions to amnesty for most radicals, from the use of repression to “the power to convince.” That alone, rather than the thud of the guillotine’s blade, ended the cycle of violence."

Indeed. We will extend a hand, and all that. It's all a matter of who does what first.

What would James Baldwin think about President Obama?

Usually, I find these types of speculations idiotic, and, at the very least, it's a lazy interviewing question, but I must admit that Toni Morrison's answer when the WP asked her made me tear up. She said, "I think he would be desperately, desperately in love."

I am a very big Baldwin fan, and I concur.