Immigration and fiction

It would seem that with all the talk of immigration policy in Europe today, a novel touching on the arduous journey thousands make to the continent's shores every year would be fertile ground for fictional exploration. Sadly, in the hands of France's Laurent Gaude, it's not.

My review of Gaude's recent novel, ElDorado, appears in Pop Matters.

Happy August, a few days early.

Cheers.

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Obama-mania taking on Europe

Barack Obama is winding down his world "listening" tour, and passed through Berlin yesterday in a much-hyped appearance that, no matter where your politics fall, you'd have to give a nod to whoever on Team Obama dreamed up this Berlin stopover. There's a lot you can say against it, but being there, it was certainly a spectacle.

I've published a shorter version of a diary I kept during the day on Gadling.

I also wrote an essay/report about Obama's speech, which appears today in World Politics Review.

Lastly, I did radio interviews after the speech, for NPR in Los Angeles and WDEL in Delaware, and I will be a guest tomorrow morning on the Warren Pierce Weekend Morning Show, broadcast on ABC radio. Perhaps they can be found online.

Cheers,

Jeff

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Albania, Albania

O.K., so I'm re-imagining the Clapton song, but that Balkan country really has been the theme of the publication news during the past month.

Another, fuller piece regarding Albania's problem with blood feuds appeared very recently in the English version of Der Spiegel.

Other than that, I recently completed a series of "Letters from Albania" for AOL's travel blog, Gadling. The pieces are certainly not meant to be the last word on Albania -- far from it. Rather, I wanted to record my impressions and reactions to the place and try, however unsuccessfully, to connect the dots between what I saw and where the country has been and is going. 

As I say, if you want pretty much the most interesting travel experience Europe has the offer right now, head to Albania. But realize there is another side to the nice sheen travel guide books like to put on the place -- and you're likely to hone in that first, I'm sorry to say.

Cheers. 

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