Freudenberger On Ali

Departing from the opinions of other reviewers, Nell (Lucky Girls) Freudenberger appears to find much to praise in Monica Ali's Alentejo Blue. In The Nation, she calls it "a genuine departure, a bold experiment in narration that presents a multitude of complex characters within a relatively short book." The rest of the piece, alas, is available only to the magazine's subscribers, so if any kind soul out there belongs to that category, do let me know how it all turned out.

(Ms Freudenberger herself has a new book out soon, her first novel. Entitled The Dissident, it's about the predicament of a Chinese performance artist in Los Angeles.)