August 2, 1993
Readers who rose to the challenge of Peter Dickinson's AK and Frances Temple's A Taste of Salt will be engrossed by Haveli 's intoxicating blend of heart-pounding adventure and significant social issues. Hunger for land, arranged marriage and the venerable tradition of shutr keena (literally, ``camel vengeance'': the stern law of death for dishonor) are among the potent forces that drive this stirring sequel to Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind. Married at age 13 to the powerful clan chief Rahim, Shabanu has spent more than half a decade keeping herself and her beloved daughter Mumtaz safe from the malice (``the scorpion in her bed, the rabid bat in her cupboard'') of her husband's three senior wives. She is willing to sacrifice almost anything to ensure that Mumtaz receives a good education: the financial independence afforded by a professional degree is one of the few ways in which a Pakistani woman can control her own destiny. The cruel arranged marriage of Rahim's idiot son to Shabanu's closest friend disrupts the indomitable heroine's plans and sets in motion a dramatic chain of events. Staples's portrayal of Pakistan is remarkably even-handed: she acknowledges the society's inequities while celebrating its beauty and warmth. The sights, sounds and even some of the smells of the Pakistani landscape are described in eloquent, unpretentious language. Ages 12-up.
February 2, 2004
In a starred review, PW
praised the "eloquent, unpretentious language" and "intoxicating blend of heart-pounding adventure and social issues" of this sequel to Shabanu
. Ages 12-up.
March 1, 2004
Coogan, the respected biographer of Eamon De Valera and Michael Collins, takes a fascinating in-depth look at the country that went from colony in 1900 to economic dynamo by the advent of the 21st century. Coogan takes illuminating looks at De Valera, who gave a face to Irish nationalism, and Collins, who, through his superb intelligence network and the handiwork of his personal assassination squad, terrorized the British out of Ireland. Although no fan of De Valera, Coogan shows what a master politician he was during WWII as, under threat of invasion by the British, he stood firm for Ireland's neutrality, while at the same time accommodating the British by returning downed airmen. One of the heroes of the Irish century is Seán Lemass, who went from being one of Collins's gunmen to being prime minister, starting to bring Ireland out of its economic doldrums. During his regime, from 1959 to 1967, Lemass instituted many changes in education and laid the groundwork for Ireland to join the EEC (which became the EU in 1993). Coogan compares the government of Northern Ireland and its policies toward Catholics to "South Africa under apartheid." He shows how, by gerrymandering, the Unionists stripped Catholics of all power in the "Six Counties." This powerlessness resulted in the civil rights marches of the 1960s, which, when repressed, nourished the long-dormant IRA. Coogan goes through the long process that led to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement and fully credits the work of Bill Clinton, U.S. Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith, Sinn Féin
leader Gerry Adams and Prime Minister Albert Reynolds. The politics and culture of Ireland changed dramatically in the 20th century, and Coogan has done a masterful job of taking a very complicated history and making it lively reading.