Review: The Reluctant Fundamentalist

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From The Reluctant Fundamentalist, by Mohsin Hamid:

Come, tell me, what were you looking for? Surely, at this time of day, only one thing could have brought you to the district of Old Anarkali -- named, as you may be aware, after a courtesan immured for loving a prince -- and that is the quest for the perfect cup of tea. Have I guessed correctly?"

So begins a conversation between a young, bearded Pakistani and an unidentified, nervous American at a cafe in Lahore. After the jump, my review.

POTD: Check out the Rolls

From 2015 03 21 Saigon

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Saigon. See that woman selling some kind of rolls from a pan perched on the back of her bicycle? That's not the Rolls mentioned in the headline. Do you see what is? Behind the bike? That's a Rolls Royce parked in the street in Saigon. Luxury Rolls and bread rolls side by side. Such jarring images are everywhere in today's Saigon.

This isn't your father's Vietnam. It's hard to tell that the US didn't win the war. South Vietnam may have fallen, but the dominoes didn't. Look around Saigon today. Western culture is pervasive, not Russian or Chinese. Free market reforms are everywhere.

What Happened, Miss Simone? (2015)

IMDB

What Happened, Miss Simone? (2015): Moving portrait of a singer who not only reflected her times, but shaped them. Tragic personal life. A-

POTD: Cambodian School Bus

From 2015 03 20 Tonle Sap Lake

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the waterway northwest of Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia. It was taken in the afternoon in a floating village. School had just let out and the kids are headed home.

Ida (2013)

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Ida (2013): Poland 1962. Orphan about to become a nun seeks her family, discovers she is Jewish. Tragic. Stoic. Lonely. Moving. "Then what?" B+