First, Brandon Hicks criticizes parental hypocrisy in “Colorful Language.”
Meanwhile, in the Saturday Review, Joe Sacksteder offers a detailed portrait of the film 99 Homes, by director Ramin Bahrani. The 2008 mortgage crisis serves as the backdrop of a fraught storyline that brings together its protagonist, a victim of the recession, and antagonist, the real estate broker who caused his eviction. Though a “tidy” ending poses problems, 99 Homes makes a concerted attempt to provide a “concise” moral statement on the housing crisis.
Then, Damon Ferrell Marbut reviews prize-winning Slovenian poet Ales Debeljak’s collection, Smugglers, translated by Bryan Henry. “Smugglers,” Marbut attests, “is… difficult to lend out or give away.” The author’s tactful use of repetition contributes to formally consistent poems that are “quiet,” yet “dazzling.”
Finally, in the Sunday Interview, Laurie Jean Cannady discusses her memoir, Crave: Sojourn of a Hungry Soul. In conversation with Remica Bingham-Risher, Cannady touches on her mentors and influences, family, community, and the particular challenges of writing nonfiction, the publication of which has real consequences for real people. “’I’ve always thought about my family members and whether I have the right to tell their stories,” she confides. “I felt like people in my family I never got a chance to know, were speaking to me.”
