EVER WONDER WHY THE OTHER BILLION MUSLIMS AREN'T BLOWING THEMSELVES UP?:

The lessons of love: a review of The Book of Trouble: A Romance By Ann Marlowe (Steven Martinovich, April 10, 2006, Enter Stage Right)

The Book of Trouble: A RomanceThere are few of us today who don't have a love affair in our past that had we stood outside of ourselves and observed as a disinterested third party, we couldn't have quickly come to the conclusion that it was doomed to end catastrophically. That kind of love, however, is -- to risk a hoary cliché -- like a hurricane; we may see the storm clouds swirling around us but for the moment we feel safe.

Ann Marlowe's romance with a man she identifies as Amir, as she chronicles in The Book of Trouble: A Romance, is one of those affairs. Marlowe, who is Jewish, in her late 40s, an ex-heroin user who loves sex with strangers, is drawn to Amir, a man ten years younger, Muslim and an Afghan expatriate. Had The Book of Trouble merely confined itself to her physical affair it would have been suitable only for the Sex and the City demographic, but Marlowe's ambitions range further than detailing a romance gone wrong.

Indeed, her ambitions in the book are huge and, though not always realized, it's a tremendous read. You can find a good short podcast interview here

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 10, 2006 8:41 AM