Words as weapon

A well-placed falsehood can instigate murder.

In  Kabul, a woman named Farkhunda was kicked and beaten, run over by a car, and then burned to death by attackers who accused her of burning a Koran, reports Sarah Kaplan for the Washington Post. Witnesses agree that "she got into an argument with a man who sold amulets in front of the Shah-Do Shamshera shrine," Kaplan explains. Islamic scholars disagree about whether amulets, even those inscribed with quotes from the Koran, are permissible for adherents.

Before long, another man claimed she tossed copy of the Koran into a fire pit. Kaplan continues:"Farkhunda argued that she didn't burn anything - and authorities later said they were unable to find a 'single iota of evidence' that she had set fire to the Korean - but the mob ignored her."

Authorities were at the scene, and the public is divided about whether the members of the mob should be investigated and punished. But as Kaplan concludes, at the very least, Afghans are questioning and debating the morality of Farkhunda's death.

As explained in a previous blog post, an antagonist in Allure of Deceit plots to destroy a rival in his life:

All he "had to do was point out that Rose was an atheist who had once desecrated a copy of the Koran - and yet the Western woman continued to enjoy the rewards of travel and vast wealth. [He] casually passed along cash and copies of a newspaper photograph of Rose to three young men. The most desperate of the three, a young man by the name of Qasim, managed to travel to India.

"The bomb had been intended for Rose alone."

Mishandling of any object does not justify murder under any circumstances. Yet those intent on a criminal behavior and power can concoct a rationale and spread a false rumor to convince others to attack and destroy a fellow human being. As American shipping magnate Alvin Adams, 1804 to 1877, once said, "Appreciate the power of rumor, often malicious, no matter how preposterous, within the local populations you are seeking to help."

Image  of lithograph of Afghan  shows foot soldiers at the entrance to the Valley of Urgundeh in 1841, courtesy of the British Library and Wikimedia Commons: "Amulets, relics and little bags full of texts and prayers were tacked about their clothes.... The men depicted here belonged to a British regiment called the Rangers, which was raised in Kohistan under the command of Lieutenant Maule of the Artillery, who said that he had his hands full trying to impose discipline among these 'wild, unruly, merry fellows.'"

Aid

The civil war in Syria has entered its fifth year. So far, with 210,000 dead and 10 million displaced, scattered to refugee camps or left to fend for themselves, the crisis seems overwhelming. 

"A lack of funding, coordination and international political will to guarantee aid access has meant that many people are not getting the help they need, particularly in hard-to-reach areas inside Syria," writes Justin Forsyth, CEO of Save the Children, for the New Statesman.


Save the Children works in 120 countries: "Across all our work, we pursue several core values: accountability, ambition, collaboration, creativity and integrity."

Forsyth offers specific recommendations including coalitions of governments and NGOs that can better coordinate aid, new strategies for reaching remote places, devising a system for nations to provide equitable funding, and empowering recipients. YaleGlobal points out that such strategies may "seem narrow in light of an expanding population, rising inequality, a decline in resources as basic as water amid so many longstanding conflicts."

As is often the case, readers' comments to Forsyth's essay reflect the challenges and even awareness of the complexities in the Middle East. Some readers offer small and hopeful recommendations; others argue the conflict is not the West's concern. YaleGlobal concludes by noting that the crisis could destabilize neighboring countries. The globe has reason to provide aid. Yet polarization among nations and within nations and organization, in addition to unnecessary politicization of countless issues and misinformation, not only prevent efficient distribution of aid but also the good governance and united effort that could keep such conflicts at bay in the first place.

The novel Allure of Deceit examines how charitable aid comes with an agenda by examining  a foundation's work on the ground in Afghanistan. A director uses programs to investigate the death of her son and wife while villagers are astounded to be regarded as recipients of aid. In the end, most parties are aligned, but not without deceit.

In the end, does aid from external sources help governments evade their responsibility? What kind of aid encourages responsibility? Priorities must be set.

Photo of Syrian children studying in Lebanon schools, with aid from the UK, Save the Children, and Unicef, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and Russell Watkins, Department for International Development.

Limits

The ideas for my books set in Afghanistan - a woman desperate to learn how to read, children running away to an orphanage, a would-be doctor with no patients and a village that gossips about a woman who performs abortions - emerged from my imagination, pure and simple.

As such, the ideas were based on my life experiences. That is probably why I regard Interruptions, Fear of Beauty and Allure of Deceit as my favorite books.

I wrote about the limits of research for Portland Book Review: 

"The stories of my characters are ... woven with my memories: The exhilaration of my mother reading aloud, transforming a nightly fairy tale into heart-wrenching moments. The hints that my brother, sister and I might be a burden after her death. Summers spent on an uncle's farm, running with cousins through fields and patches of woods. Sessions with students, adults and younger, who confided about their struggles to read. The confusion after a long wait in a clinic with a friend distraught over a pregnancy and sensing a change of heart. Arguments with my son and fears for his safety as he set off on more than one ill-considered adventure."

"My research does not aim to provide a travelogue on Afghanistan, but rather prompt an examination of the comforts and opportunities in my country."

I conclude by pointing out that imagination goes into research, unearthing new details, making careful choices and connections. Yes, imagination is required for research, but somehow many readers do not use the word that way.

And I certainly must admit to finding the courage to start writing my novels while examining old, old books deep in the stacks of Yale's Sterling Library.

Libraries are truly magical places, as discovered by Sofi in Fear of Beauty.

Photo of Sterling Memorial Library, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and Emilie Foyer; photo of Sterling stacks, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and Ragesoss, to whom I'm grateful for taking a photograph of the inside of this wonderful place.

Reading aloud

Reading is an activity that increases our knowledge and lifts our spirits. It's an exchange between writer and reader. The writer tries to persuade and convince, but every reader controls his or her interpretation of any text even if some must do so in secret. 

Among my favorite memories: my mother reading to me and years later reading books aloud with my son. Our family started when he was three months old. I propped him against the sofa beside me for endless repeats of rhythmical Each Peach Pear Plum and continued the nightly ritual into early high school when we both took turns. 

We analyzed the books and compared them to our lives. And we understood them better for both following the words on paper as well as hearing them or speaking aloud. 

"Shared bookreading can stimulation more verbal interaction between child and parent, and therefore children's language development is likely to profit more from reading aloud than toy play or other adult-child interactions," note E. Duursma, M. Augustyn and B. Zuckerman n "Reading Aloud to Children: The Evidence." 

The list of evidence is long: "Sharing books with children can also help them learn about peer relationships, coping strategies, building self-esteem and general world knowledge." 

Even for older children and adults, reading a key points out loud helps create a distinctive memory, notes Art Markman  in Psychology Today, writing about a paper by Colin MacLeod, Nigel Gropie, Kathleen Hourihan, Karen Neary and Jason Ozubko for Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning Memory, and Cognition. 

"The read-aloud process has enormous benefits to literacy learning," write Vanessa Morrison and Lisa Wheeler for Reading Rockets. 

Fear of Beauty is about a woman in rural Afghanistan who is desperate to learn how to read after the death of her so. In Allure of Deceit, she is trying to urge another son to attend reading sessions in their village. In both these mystery books about parent-child relationships, the characters read aloud.
Write to request a review copy.

Image of The Holy Family with the Virgin Teaching the Child to read, painted by Bartolomeo Schedoni, 1578-1615, courtesy of the National Gallery in London and Wikimedia Commons. The Italian artist who was known for his art with religious subjects, "quiet sentiment and vigorous painting" had a troubled life, notes ArtFortune.com.

2 sentences

In two books, two characters want to leave their home without disturbing other family members. Opening the door to make a quiet escape is essential for each, and here are the descriptions of opening the door from each novel:

    "In bed her only sensible thought was that he must have taken great care going along the hall without her hearing, and closed the front door inch by deceitful inch." Ian McEwan, The Children Act

    "Saddiq had to open the door without disturbing his father. The man was sensitive to changes in teh house and would hear the door scrape against the dirt floor for feel a draft form outside.
     "Crouching, Saddiq rubbed his hand back and forth, smoothing dirt near the doorway ...Then he turned full attention to the door. Using two hands, he slowly lifted the thick wooden bar and gave the slightest tug. Gripping the side of the door with both hands, Saddiq pulled steadily just enough to slip outside. The lower edge rubbed against the floor with the softest whoosh. Holding his breath, he stepped outside, gently closing the door.... 
    "His father did not storm outside with questions." - Allure of Deceit

McEwan's sentence is more concise.  One reason may be that he is the better writer! But another difference stems from each character's' age. The first sentence describes an unhappy husband and the second describes a child who wants to embark upon a quest without his parents' knowledge.

And another difference is point of view. The first sentence is described by the wife who has just realized her husband's secret departure. The stealth in the second sentence carries the point of view of the child who opens the door.

Both examples turn an ordinary routine, the opening of door, into anxious intrigue.

Request a review copy of Allure of Deceit.

Portrait of The Open Door by Helen McNicoll, a Canadian painter who died in 1915 at the age of 35, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, in the public domain of the EU, the US and countries with a copyright term of life of author plus 70 years or less. "Primarily a painter of working women and maternal themes in outdoor settings, McNicoll drew her subject-matter from the tradition of Impressionist women painters such as Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt, while acknowledging the “new woman” of the modernist age," notes Natalie Luckyj in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography.  

Rituals

Rituals are routines. Yet the first word carries an aura of meaningfulness and gravitas while the word "routines" may seem boring, rote and without thought. It's a good idea for each person, each family, to examine routines and decide which have meaning and purpose and which can be discarded.

"Romance is an ideal to which every married person should aspire," writes Francesca Di Meglio for About.com. She also argues society's definition of romance may be off. "We're making it be about grand gestures and things that require lots of work, which means time and/or money, neither of which any of us has. Romance doesn't have to be so hard. It can come in the form of a simple act..."

And then Francesca described one of my favorite rituals, my husband making coffee each morning. "It's a small gesture, maybe it's silly," I had explained to her, "but it's a habit that has built over time that matters as much as the gifts we've exchanged, trips we have taken, or activities we enjoy."

As Di Meglio reminds, the trick may be assessing our routines and turning them into pleasant and comfortable rituals. No couple does this more than Sofi and Parsaa in my novels set n Afghanistan. Fear of Beauty is Sofi's story, and Allure of Deceit describes Parsaa's reflections, his appreciation of his own marriage and thoughts about other romances that have gone wrong.

Request a review copy of either book by contacting Seventh Street Books.

The photo "Going Home" is courtesy of Iain Cochrane of Scotland, 2008, and Wikimedia Commons.

Places to go...

Books are wonderful companions for travelers, helping transport us to another land in person or spirit. Setting can be a key feature for some books, often performing as a character. Fiction and nonfiction can prepare readers for other cultures, adding special meaning to journeys that test our assumptions as readers: "writing images particular spaces onto the printed page, but just as writers invent places, readers are at the very least partners in the process of producing textual places," writes John Thieme in "Reading Places: The Geography of Literature," an essay that compares how R.K. Narayan and Amitav Ghosh handle cultural geography.

Amazon, Goodreads and other sites offer many lists on settings, but a map or table is really handy. Several websites focus on setting, connecting readers and writers with books set in all over the globe:

Few novels posted are set in
Afghanistan - or East Lansing 

Novels: On Location is the easiest and quickest site for posting location. Users can search by location or by novel. Those who want to add a book can zoom in on an location, add a pin, and type in the name of the novel. The site pinpoints most novels automatically with a thumbnail of the cover and description, allowing immediate purchase from Amazon or iBooks. It took less than 5 minutes to place Fear of Beauty on top of Afghanistan and explain how the setting of Laashekoh is a fictional village in northern Helmand. There is also a Reader Notes section, to add descriptions or quotes from the book. Results are posted immediately. 

The setting for both novels is a fictional and remote village. So I typed in "northern Helmand" as the location for both. Fear of Beauty is shown north of the capital in another province and Allure of Deceit is south of the Helmand provincial capital. Because the village is fictional, I can understood the tool's confusion.

Still, I agree with this self-assessment from the site's creators in the integration notes: "the Web's best way to find novels by setting. If you write a blog on literature, travel or, education, enhance the interactive experience for your readers by integrating Novels: On Location." Note of caution: Authors or readers may unintentionally inflate pin results by posting one book with more than one setting in multiple locations.

BooksSetIn relies on search engine methods and tabular results, with input provided by readers. This format accounts for both place and time. In searching for Helmand Province, one book emerges: Torn by David Massey, while a search for "Afghanistan" yields many more results. Again, it took less than 5 minutes to list the title, author, ISBN, and description for Fear of Beauty and Allure of Deceit. The site is inviting for travelers and readers both - and asks: "Taking a trip? Interested in another part of the world? Want to learn about another culture?" 

The tool easily permits multiple locations and also highlights a few places and books on its front page. Not much has been written about the site, but Facebook suggests it began in Pennsylvania.

Book Drum, from London, is the most thorough, elegant and yet complicated of the sites, inviting authors and other registered users to submit detailed profiles on authors and settings as well as background and new explorations of specific quotes. A map is promised but did not show up on this user's multiple  tries with browsers IE and Chrome (a message points out that Google has disabled its map tool for the application). Starting the profile is easy, logging on with Facebook, but some features such as adding coordinates or saving the page numbers for quotes do not run as smoothly. Books are not posted until all six sections are started. The site's self-assessment: "Book Drum is the perfect companion to the books we love, bringing them to life with immersive pictures, videos, maps and music." 

These websites are especially useful for countries and cities that are less common as literary settings. Cities like New York and London on these sites are teeming with books.

That doesn't mean the smallest villages of the world are not teeming with stories. 

Most authors and readers have not caught on to these sites just yet, and an avalanche of interest could arrive any day. 

Authors

Before a book is published, authors are expected to seek out blurbs from other authors to help readers in making a decision whether to read a book or not. So many authors are generous with their time, taking the time to read the books and craft a few lines about the story.

I'm honored by the four authors who agreed to comment on Allure of Deceit.

Mike Befeler
Author of Mystery of the Dinner Playhouse
“In Allure of Deceit, Susan Froetschel brings alive a country foreign to many readers. This provocative novel blends social conscience, long-held secrets, murder, and the reality of village mores.” 

Befeler is best known for his series about a elderly sleuth, which began with Retirement Homes Are Murder, published in 2007. His work was also nominated for a Lefty. 

 Likewise, the sleuth  featured in his Mystery of the Dinner Playhouse is retired and conducts the central murder investigation to escape boredom: "Gabe suddenly realized this retirement gig wasn't all it was cracked up to be." 

Befeler is an author and public speaker who addresses with eloquence and wisdom the secrets and art of growing old gracefully. 

I'm grateful for Befeler's assessment of Allure of Deceit because the leading male protagonist is a village leader who resists change but recognizes that the feelings stem from his own adjustments and fears due to aging. 

Peg Herring
Author of the Loser Mysteries

“Froetschel’s crystal clear picture of Afghanistan and its people fascinates me. Though her characters’ lives differ from ours, they are like us in the ways that really matter. They laugh, they love, they seek answers when things puzzle them. This is a mystery with a stunning sense of place.” 

Award-winning author Herring is a thoughtful colleague whom I've known since attending Sleuthfest in Boca Raton about six years ago. Her mysteries explore some of our society's most vulnerable citizens. She juggles three series, including the Loser Mysteries, the Dead Detective Mysteries and the Simon & Elizabeth Tudor mysteries. with the promise of "Strong women, great stories."

Such is the case with the three-book Loser Series, the haunting story of a woman who is homeless after traumatic deaths in her family. Herring is sensitive yet forthright with her insights into how bad memories complicate a life: "A person can say she's not going to think about something. She can resolve to put it into the back of her mind, slam the door, and lock it away. But it isn't that easy. My voices hadn't spoken or months, but that night, they invaded my sleep, constant and demanding."

I value comment from Herring because of her own ability to craft complex characters whose lives can quickly spin out of control.

Martin J. Smith
Author of the Memory Series crime novels
“Celebrity philanthropy. Baby trafficking. A mysterious compound in the Afghanistan mountains. Allure of Deceit is an IED of a novel. Trust no one, and step carefully.” 

Smith is an award-winning journalist and author of non-fiction and fiction. Both combine his sense for detail and knack for storytelling. For example, The Wild Duck Chase describes the Federal Duck Stamp Contest and competitive duck painting. In his Memory Series, Straw Men was nominated for an Edgar, and Disappeared Girl is the fourth in the series:

"He wondered again about his daughter's life before adoption, five years that were mostly a puzzle to him... this wasn't the first time Melissa had described strange and disturbing images of early childhood - scary strangers, angry voices, desperate adults.... Christensen was all too familiar with the psychological condition known as confabulation - when someone creates a false narrative of their past as a subconscious way of dealing with a contemporary trauma too painful to confront on a conscious level." 

Smith employs the direct, no-nonsense voice of a journalist for stories that explore the intricacies of family relationships. We were both raised in Pittsburgh, and while we did not know each other well, also graduated from the same high school and attended the same college to study journalism. To have received early comment from a writer who understands some of influences for Allure of Deceit is ideal. 

Daniel Stashower
Author of The Hour of Peril: The Secret Plot to Murder Lincoln before the Civil War 

“A smart, sharply plotted thriller that puts the reader on the ground in Afghanistan. Susan Froetschel delivers.” 

Stashower, two-time Edgar winner, writes mysteries, biographies and narrative histories that  have featured historical figures including Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Allen Poe, Harry Houdini, Allan Pinkerton and Abraham Lincoln. Stashower selects subjects whose lives are rich with activity, failures and successes, during periods of sweeping social change. Motivation is never a simple affair. A rich array of details on their communities, circumstances and personal histories offer clues as to why each may respond as they do: 

"The events of February 1861 continue to capture attention, however, not only for the drama of the plot and its detection, but also because Lincoln's handling of the crisis and its fallout would be a  fateful early test of his presidency, with many dark consequences. In charting the sweep of events that carried the nation into war, it is customary to focus on the landmarks of policy and social change, such as the Missouri Compromise, the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Dred Scott decision. Set against these milestones, the drama in Baltimore is often overlooked, pushed aside by the more pressing urgencies that were to come, and obscured by its own uncertainties and contradictions." 

Because Allure of Deceit focuses on the history and forces of globalization unfolding in Afghanistan, Stashower's assessment was particularly welcome.

Do check out the books from these four authors. And for a review copy of Allure of Deceit, contact Cheryl Quimba of Seventh Street Books, CQuimba@prometheusbooks.com.

Heart-breaking

Three Muslim students were shot to death near their home at the University of North Carolina campus, reports the Guardian. The suspect has been arrested.

The motive is not yet known, but Muslims are understandably worried that the three students known for their career aspirations and humanitarian work were targeted for their religious beliefs.

Hatred and violence directed at any one group is wrong. Those who fear Islamic extremism need to understand that Muslims have suffered terribly under the hands of extremist groups like Al Qaeda and the Islamic State. The world has more than a billion Muslims, and they are a diverse group in and of themselves. A few are extremists. Blaming an entire group for the crimes of a few will deliver the chaos of the Middle East to communities elsewhere, including those in the United States. The country is better than this.

Parents are on the front line in combating the petty resentments that fuel extremism and recruits: "Parents must raise their children to detest the swagger, coercion and ‘holier than thou’ attitudes," I noted for the US Daily Review. Parents must train their children to calmly stand up to bullies and haters because silence signals acceptance of their atrocities. This applies to those of any belief.

The University of North Carolina offers rich resources for understanding Islamic art, culture and influences with the Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations and professors like Glaire Anderson whose specialty is Islamic art and architecture during the caliphal period and artistic exchanges between Islam and Christianity, as well as female patronage.

Painting of Christian and Muslim Playing Ouds is courtesy of Alfonso X, the 13th century, and Wikimedia Commons.

Competition?

The intense clamor to cut costs won't stop with governments but could extend to charity, too. Some needs are too great to rely on resources delivered in an uneven way. A lack of food or shelter among large groups of people, inadequate education for entire communities of children, can pose a security risk.

Writing an opinion essay for Commonweal, Fran Quigley, a professor of law at Indiana University, proposes that the United States end the tax deduction for making charitable contributions, replacing the system with solid social welfare programs managed by government. Ending the deduction would provide an additional $50 billion annually to government coffers.

US citizens donate more than do citizens of other countries. "We Americans get to vote with our wallets on what kind of support we want to offer the poor, an arrangement hat suits our individualism as well as our suspicion of bureaucracy," Quigley writes, but adds, "The generosity of Americans, impressive though it is, does not meet the needs of America's poor." He goes on to describe research that suggests the recipients of charity often feel demeaned.

For some, certainly not all, the purpose of charity may be to alleviate guilt or instill a sense of superiority.

Rob Meiksins responds to Quigley's argument for NPQ, NonProfit Quarterly, pointing out that the deduction not simply addresses needs but also quality of life: "It is about ensuring that we have a deep and meaningful cultural base to our society that both entertains and challenges."

Such arguments inspired Allure of Deceit, a novel about charity gone wrong. Worries about inequality in charitable giving and misplaced priorities inspired an opinion essay, and work on the novel began soon afterward. Why does one school district get a windfall and not another? Why does society step aside from setting firm priorities?  "Tax deductions for charitable giving effectively put the public good in the hands of wealthy donors and pet causes – at the expense of government revenue for the fair and reliable provision of services," I wrote for the Christian Science Monitor four years ago.

Allure of Deceit picks up after the murder of a wealthy inventor and his wife while on their honeymoon. Their will and trust documents shock family and friends alike, and lead to creation of the world's largest family foundation to support programs in the developing world. The reason for the shock? The young wife had dedicated her research questioning the inequality of charitable giving as well as the connected history and etymology of "forgiving," "charity," and "wrongdoing," as detailed in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

The corrupt can give, too, and shape minds. Corruption and waste in government hurts all government programs, and the same applies to charities, too.

Photo of unemployed men, 1931, lined outside a soup kitchen, started in Chicago by gangster Al Capone, courtesy of US Information Agency and Wikimedia Commons. 

Contact Seventh Street Books for review copies of Allure of Deceit. 

Motives

Mystery writers and readers are among the most contented, stable, productive people I know, yet so many of our acquaintances question we feel compelled to read and write about crime and murder.

Rachel Franks offers an answer, in her essay, "Motive for Murder: Reading Crime Fiction," for the ALIA Biennial Conference - these stories teach us about ourselves:

"Crime fiction focuses on what it means to be human, and how complex humans are, because stories of murders, and the men and women who solve them, comment on what drives some people to take a life and what drives others to avenge that life which is lost."

And then she goes on to quote the late P.D. James and her 2009 book Talking About Detective Fiction:

"[N]ot by luck or divine intervention, but by human ingenuity, human intelligence and human courage. It confirms our hope that, despite some evidence to the contrary, we live in a beneficent and moral universe in which problems can be solved by rational means and peace and order restored from communal or personal disruption and chaos." (p. 174).

Readers of mysteries are determined to root out and destroy evil, to restore justice. The question "Why?" may be the most essential to solving problems and understanding others. The investigation is not so easy in the wake of cruelty and pain.

Silk Road

A number of cookbooks have focused on the Silk Road, the network of trade routes winding through Asia and Europe, but few are as ambitious as Silk Road Gourmet by Laura Kelley. She ties food and recipes of 30 nations with smart historical research and a keen sense of connections. Readers who enjoy a certain setting often want to try their hands at the cuisine - and for those who read about the Middle East, Central Asia, China and India, Kelley's books and blog are a treasure. She delves into historical records and editions in libraries and museums to explore crockery, processes, recipes. I first discovered her work by reading a BBC News article about onions that begins with a description of  Yale University's Babylonian Collection and the world's oldest known cookbooks on clay tablets. The article then goes on to praise Kelley's research and recipes.

"Exploring how food is a part of an ethnic group’s or nation’s material culture has always been a private interest of mine as well," her website notes. "Everywhere I went, I saw connections between cultures in their foods and big sweeping patterns of ingredients or methods of preparation sweeping across the Old World.  How the land and maritime routes of the Silk Road brought about an early period of globalization became the theme to express these ideas about food and the world."

One recipe from Kelley's widely acclaimed book that readers of Fear of Beauty will want to try: Chicken With Apricots in Lemon-Pepper Sauce. She notes the dish, spicy and sweet, is an example of the Persian influence on Afghan cooking. (Recall that the villagers of Laashekoh were refugees from earlier wars and migrated southeast through Afghanistan until settling in northern Helmand. Apricots have a role in the novel, along with pomegranates, cumin, saffron, raisins and other wonderful ingredients from the region).

Her recipe calls to mind an old favorite recipe from New England: roasted chicken with apricot-nut stuffing. The comparisons are not so outlandish considering that Kelley herself writes about "How Colonial Americans Were Inspired by Asian Spices": 

"When we think of the diets of our founding fathers and mothers, we imagine porridges, breads, fresh and preserved fruits and vegetables, and gently flavored roast meats.  What most people don’t realize is that the colonists had a taste for exotic fare from all over the world and would pay dearly for delicacies from India, China, Indonesia and other places far from the shores of North America. In addition to buying authentic food items, the colonists tried to recreate these dishes based on taste and the ingredients they had on hand."

The connections are constant in Kelley's work. Check out her blog for more recipes - and you won't be able to resist trying the entire collection! The love and attention that goes into her writing and research are inspiring.

Photo of women at an Afghan meal, courtesy of Wellcome Images and Wikimedia Commons.

Privacy

A caveat: In the midst of busy preparations for the release of Allure of Deceit, I have not seen the film American Sniper. Such war films have little to do with my books set in Afghanistan, even though a primary character of Fear of Beauty was an Army Ranger.

Chris Kyle, his story in American Sniper, stood apart among veterans for many reasons - a special skill, intense feelings, an ability to relay his story.

My stories address the workings of modern globalization by examining personal relations on the ground, eye to eye, along with village and family routines, the everyday and ordinary relations that are complicated enough without extra layers of social controls or conflict. Few of the American and Afghan characters in my stories seek out attention, and instead most strive to blend with their communities. They keep their motivations a secret and they grieve, plan, love, manipulate, dream in privacy - and that lends them a special strength.

Such characters often discover a special affinity with strangers.

Like my previous four novels, Allure of Deceit is story about parenting. Yet it's a story of several parenting styles, not just one. Parents make choices about how to raise their children and this influences entire communities. As such, the story is political and, like our world, the story is complicated and never one-sided.
Not to be missed: The essay "The United States of 'American Sniper'" by Kyle's teammate in The Wall Street Journal. Won't repeat and spoil his conclusion here, but will remind readers that many rights and privileges, challenges and conflicts, are tightly interconnected.

Photo of abandoned Afghan village, courtesy of Todd Huffman and Wikimedia Commons. The reason for the desertion is unknown, though Huffman speculates that occupants either fled to refugee camps in Pakistan or were killed during the war with the Soviet Union. Request a review copy. 

Hills

During heated arguments, some individuals keep their opinions to themselves, especially for the topics on which agreement is impossible.

On such topics, writers may strive for ambiguity by allowing - even encouraging - readers to reach their own conclusions. Abortion is one such topic.

The short story "Hills Like White Elephants," by Ernest Hemingway influenced the approach taken on abortion in Allure of Deceit. In either story, readers may not be sure about where exactly the writer stands on the topic. But one theme runs true - the urge for individuals to take control of another's life. Such quests are common even though men and women, too, often do not respect what they can readily control. For resolution of such stories, so much depends on a reader's own experiences and opinion.

"Hills" is about a couple engaging in what seems like a tired argument while waiting in a station bar for arrival of an express train to Madrid. The word "abortion" is not mentioned in the story, but the man exerts mild pressure, urging the woman to undergo a procedure, suggesting that it's "awfully simple" and "really an operation at all." The pregnancy, again not specified, looms over the relationship and, like it or not, will set the direction for its future course. The male character may recognize the decision is not his to make and demonstrates little responsibility for the outcome either way.

The story emerges through dialogue rather than characters' observations and description. "Hemingway's accurate ear for speech patterns duplicates the gender-linked miscommunications which exist between man and women in the real world," wrote Pamela Smiley for The Hemingway Review in 1998. As a result of these differences, there are two Jigs: the nurturing, creative, and affectionate Jig of female language, and the manipulative, shallow, and hysterical Jig of male language." Smiliey goes on to suggest there are also two sides to the male who is referred to as the American: "in the female language he is a cold, hypocritical and powerful oppressor; in the male language he is stoic, sensitive and intelligent victim."

Yet, the gender distinctions and who holds power may not be so clear-cut.

Another essential element of the dialogue in "Hills" are the questions and how they signal character transformation during the course of the story. There are 26 question marks in all. At first, most come from the female character, and they are shallow and needy, asking the man what they should drink, what the print says on a beaded curtain says, and whether her observation that the nearby hills look like white elephants is "bright."

Midway through the story, the man asks questions, too, as he nervously reaches understanding that Jig does not necessarily agree with him that the pregnancy should be terminated. Her questions continue, but they become more challenging, taking on the tone of orders: "What makes you think so?" "And if I do it you'll be happy and things will be like they were and you'll love me?" and "Can't we maybe stop talking?"

Toward the end, the man relies on questions to change the topic. Jig wants to nail down a description of the nearby hills, which she describes as "white elephants," and "lovely" and "with skin." The man interrupts by asking if she wants another drink.

In the end, the male character is left posing the final question, returning after re-positioning their luggage for the incoming train. He also stops for a drink alone in the bar, another sign that alcohol and time alone are methods for masking or dwelling on discontent. Upon his return, he asks if she feels better, hinting at the state of  hysteria described by Smiley. Jig's response, "There's nothing wrong with me. I feel fine," suggests her emotions run true. The female is not ill or damaged or fearful, and the pregnancy is not a leading problem for her.

The story is about a man pressing a woman who is initially uncertain about a course of action, and subtly demonstrates how the pressure strengthens her resolve. That could involve going ahead with the procedure or going ahead with the pregnancy and birth. Either way, Jig likely contemplates ending a relationship with the man who offers annoying lectures, as indicated by her plea for him to stop talking, accentuated by the word "please" used seven times.

The lack of trust and distance in the short exchange of dialogue is intense. Jig seeks reassurance that the couple can be happy again and resume their carefree ways. The male character's early confidence only increases her doubt about his role in her happiness. He focuses on immediate concerns, loving her "now" while insisting they cannot have "the whole world."

The male character presses her to take steps that will preserve their wandering ways, summed up in another pointed, judgmental question by Jig: "That's all we do, isn't it - look at things and try new drinks?" She is unsatisfied and yearns for more than an aimless life with a manipulative partner.

The story and dialogue take a sharp and ambiguous turn, as suggested in the long exchange without attribution toward the end when Jig talks about having the whole world and "everything." The man argues with her. By paragraph breaks and orderly dialogue progression, the line "We can go everywhere" should be Jig's and the line "once they take it away, you never get it back" belongs to the man. Yet someone speaks out of turn as the breaks do not show an even back or forth. The reader can only be certain about who is speaking again when the man urges the woman to "Come back in the shade" and chides that she "mustn't feel that way." If the dialogue had been orderly, that line should have been Jig's turn to respond. One character had two lines in a row, and this reader suspects it was the man toward the end of exchange.

The confusion is momentary as the characters speak in circles to the point of going into role reversal, seemingly for the sake of argument. Still, Jig's side of the dialogue offers keen recognition that, regardless of the decision, there is no going back.

Conservatives and liberals could embrace this story and yet neither can be exactly certain that the set of words will sway other readers to their way of thinking - and that is the story's power. Hemingway may have been undecided, too. He gives his readers the power to take their own stance.

~~~

The context for abortion in Allure of Deceit may be more manipulative - a tale about another procedure, supposed to be so easy and simple. Yet the attempt to exert control over another human does not work out as planned, sending out repercussions for others well into the future. Characters cannot control the feelings of others, unless of course those other characters want to be controlled.

Photo of the Ebro River in Spain courtesy of Nicola and Wikimedia Commons.

No limits

Pope Francis defends freedom of expression to a point.

"One cannot provoke, one cannot insult other people's faith, one cannot make fun of faith." The Guardian reports the comments were made during his travel from Sri Lanka to the Philippines. "There is a limit. Every religion has its dignity ... in freedom of expression there are limits."

Every faith may have its dignity, but each also is riddled with corruption and cruelties that accompany power over others. Dignity is not about killing shoppers in a Kosher grocery store, storming offices of a satirical newspaper and killing staff and the police who guard them, beheading journalists or imposing archaic rules on Muslims in Syria or Iraq. It's not about ignoring and hiding hundreds of reports of children abused by priests over decades.

The world's religions are in competition. Globalization ensures ongoing debate, and satire ensures that key questions are heard by many. Satire may be in poor taste or miss the mark, still the wide range of ideologies demonstrates that some religious beliefs must be wrong. More likely, any spiritual message interpreted by humans is flawed, as indicated by a timeline on the history of free speech, also provided by the Guardian:

1633: Galileo answers to the Inquisition for the claim that the sun does not revolve around the earth.

1859: Fundamentalists attack Charles Darwin for the theory of natural selection.

1989: The Iranian leader issues a fatwa against author Salman Rushdie over "blasphemous" content. the fatwa is withdrawn in 1998.

The inability to embrace free speech for one's opponents in the constant global exchange of ideas demonstrates a lack of confidence and faith, often leading to bullying and coercion. Progress requires free speech on all topics, especially religion. Any attempts at control invite defiance.

The 1857 portrait, Galileo Facing the Roman Inquisition, courtesy of Cristiano Banti and Wikimedia Commons.

 

Shadow aid

YaleGlobal summarizes  an intriguing article by journalist Elizabeth Dickinson for the Middle East Research and Information Project:

“Across the Middle East, the United Nations is coordinating the largest operation in its history to help nearly 3 million Syrian refugees at a cost of $4.2 billion in 2014 alone….But on the side, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of start-up charities and regional donors have built parallel networks of aid.” Distribution is uneven, relying on select connections and networks, manipulated by politics and corruption....Dickinson concludes that the piecemeal approach to aid based on individual whims results in inefficiencies, waste, new power structures, inequality and conflict – all of which threaten sustained giving. Refugees might receive dates during Ramadan but their children have no schools to attend.

As a journalist, Dickinson gets to the heart of human predicaments. The inefficiencies and piecemeal aid she describes are not limited to Syria or the Middle East and can be found in countries as secure as the United States. Charities elsewhere have come under scrutiny, too. Malfeasance by a few hurt legitimate charities.

Allure of Deceit is the story of a fictional  charitable foundation, huge and influential, and its director who uses funds and programs in Afghanistan and India to figure out why a young inventor and his wife were killed in a terrorist attack. Afghan villagers are dismayed to be regarded as recipients of zakat, and in the book, a foundation employee is distraught, too, as he tries to explain the disparities to an Afghan man: 

.... so much charity was based on whims. “I sometimes feel as if all that matters is an administrator’s last conversation with a donor. A donor hears a report that children are going without shoes and soon we’re unloading crates of shoes, every size and style imaginable, most of them inappropriate for this terrain. So we look for storage, often paying to lease the space.”

Lessons of Allure of Deceit: Needs are great and transform abruptly over time, with shoes and coats desperately needed one day and not the next. Motivations, whether for generosity or murder, also transform over time - and too often, some regret their choices.

Photo of US Navy officer delivering shoes to children in Dijbouti in 2010 is courtesy of US Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Joshua Bruns and Wikimedia Commons; photo of a US Air Force helping a young Afghan girl try on donated shoes at Parwan Refugee Camp in 2008 is courtesy of US Air Force Master Sgt. Keith Brown and Wikimedia Commons. 

Pressure

Attempts to censor and control minds can be readily found in democracies. After the initial shock of 12 slaughtered at the Charlie Hebdo offices, the controlling types have emerged, brusquely advising entire populaces how to mourn, how to react, how to tame others.

The Telegraph offers two examples.

"The Prime Minister agrees with Sajid Javid, the Culture secretary, that the Muslim community has a 'special burden' and that it is 'lazy and wrong' to say that the Paris attacks have nothing to do with Islam." The argument is that the extremism is a perversion of faith, that tackling extremism requires working closely with the Muslim community.

No mention in the article that a self-identified Muslim man hid victims in a freezer in the related attack on a Kosher grocery market in Paris or that a Muslim police officer was among the victims during the attack on the satirical newspaper. No mention that numerous Muslim leaders and organizations swiftly condemned the crimes.

Then, the same newspaper points out that "US media questions why neither Barack Obama nor top officials attended Paris Charlie Hebdo rally" and notes: "French President Francois Hollande and some 44 foreign dignitaries, including leaders from Germany, Italy, Britain, Turkey, Israel and the Palestinian territories, led up to two million people in what commentators said was the largest crowd in Paris since its liberation from Nazi Germany in 1944." 

Obama and other government leaders have plenty to do in securing communities and workplaces - not simply adding more guards and surveillance, but by being a voice of reason, improving education, being a role model for public discourse, while maintaining the stretched social safety net that provides security for so many families.

Government has much to do. In the meantime, citizens must grapple with the tragedy and knowledge that their communities are never as safe as they once had thought, and be allowed to grieve as they see fit. Pressure on how to think or behave is inappropriate so soon after such a tragedy. Anyone who has witnessed controlling parents can point out that children or other subordinates often  resist such pressures. Pressure does not persuade others to think alike. For families and communities, as suggested by Allure of Deceit, neglect may be more dangerous for encouraging extremism.

How to mourn, whether that's advice for an individual or all members of a religious group, is not the province of political commentators. 

Write to request review copies of Allure of Deceit. 


Photo of 1911 pressure cooker courtesy of Thesupermat and Wikimedia Commons.

Free speech

Terrorism starts at home, so suggests the tale of Fear of Beauty. The petty resentments, the irrationality, the scapegoating and complaints, the displays of anger, the bullying, fear of competition, marginalization, abuse and more.

Police quickly identified the three suspects accused of bursting into the offices of a satirical newspaper in Paris, Charlie Hebdo, and killing 12 with assault rifles. News reports describe them as two brothers and a brother-in-law. The case bears similarities to the bombing of a crowd at the Boston Marathon - with two Tsarnaev brothers named as suspects.

The three in Paris will not slow satire in the West. All they accomplished was to ignite interest in a struggling publication and unite diverse citizens to stand up for freedom of speech and embrace satire and other forms of scrutiny. The killers revealed their fears and have shown that ideas and pens wield power.

The Arab League and Al-Azhar have condemned the murders. Leaders of many organizations recognize, as we have said on this pages before, a faith is unsustainable if it cannot endure such scrutiny and tests.

By evening, the news reported the two brothers in the France killings were orphans.

Secret canon

An odd collection of books, a mixture of old and new, can change a person's life. Many novels on the lists of great literature are dated. Some authors aimed for provocation and other works were simply products of their era. Sady Doyle reviewed No Regrets for In These Times. In No Regrets,  women authors describe what they had read or avoided during their youth, and Doyle points to her favorite suggestion from Carla Blumenkranz and notes, "Maybe every woman writer has to create her own 'secret canon,' her own list of essential books, in order to survive the male-dominated cultural definition of 'great literature.'"

Of course, this could apply to others who feel marginalized for any reason. Every person should create his or her own canon of great works, the books that influenced a life.

In Fear of Beauty, an Afghan woman, a new reader, quickly discovers that she does not agree with her husband's interpretation of the Koran. Desperate to figure out why her son died on the night he was supposed to attend school, she must first learn to read. She studies in secret and keeps her observations a secret, but her life is more thoughtful and less routine.

As Doyle points out, any reader is qualified to decide what they need from literature and what literature should be, what influences that individual and what should influence society as a whole.

Interpretations vary. Most of us, like Doyle, can remember hearing an interpretation of a passage that did not mesh with our own. They may speak out or choose to remain quiet.

The finest literature is open to interpretation. One interpretation does not mean another's interpretation is necessarily wrong.

If  readers are candid and thorough, public reading lists, like Goodreads - simply admitting what we like and don't like and why - can expose our personalities, levels of socialization, character traits, fears, choices, and more. Of course, many readers do not list every book they read, and others tame their criticism. A book that provokes strong, negative reactions can be as influential and powerful as one that invites our praise.

Characters should be imperfect, and to paraphrase Joan Didion, rigid politics and rigid rules have no place in the literary realm.


"The Novel Reader," a painting by Vincent van Gogh, 1888, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. 

Celebrity charity

The whims of donors and fundraising ... Huffington Post's Lily Karlin reports that Keshia Knight Pulliam was fired from the US  television show Celebrity Apprentice for not reaching out to Bill Cosby for assistance in raising funds. She starred in The Cosby Show, 1984 to 1992.

Fundraising calls are difficult. The reason Knight Pulliam gave on the show was that she had not spoken with Cosby "in I don't know how long." The show's host, Donald Trump, described that refusal as a fatal business flaw. Trump later noted that the show was taped before accusations of sexual harassment and abuse from long ago surged against Cosby.

There are dangers in charity's piecemeal approach of delivering social benefits - almost like lotteries, as warned by Transnational Celebrity Activism in Global Politics: Changing the World? 

As noted by a 2011 review, celebrity activism would seem a win-win for worthy causes as celebrities attract attention. "Rising inequality, fast global travel and communications, have spurred the rush for global activism. The marketing successes of a few celebrities have drawn more celebrities to causes," the review notes. "The celebrity spotlight, intended to expose injustices and acts of humanitarianism, inadvertently reveals entrenched layers of inequality.

Editors Liza Tsaliki, Christos A. Frangonikolopoulos and Asteris Huliaras offer advice for celebrities: participation in activities that are less staged, educating themselves and others to raise awareness about major challenges, and motivating others to act.

The responsibility rests with fans, too, because they collectively choose and create celebrities.

Allure of Deceit, released in February, tells the story about a large and fictional charitable foundation whose staff members manipulate money and programs in Afghanistan for their own personal goals. Publishers Weekly writes: "Froetschel (Fear of Beauty) highlights the problems of charity in this subtle, thought-provoking mystery.... The truth behind Ali’s death proves far from simple in a novel that raises uncomfortable questions about Western efforts to assist people in the developing world."

Write to request review copies of Allure of Deceit.

Photo of Manhattan cocktail, courtesy of Joshua Hammond and Wikipedia Commons.