In History Rechanneled, Roland Merullo reviews Tony Horwitz's A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World in today's Boston Globe. Master of the beginning and end, Roland's conclusion (I posted final words from his Agni essay, Visions of Gerard, yesterday) five stars Horwitz's book:
...Which only serves to prove the author's point. Our story, our real story, is as painful, shameful, and grim as it is uplifting and grand. We have doctored the events of the past to make ourselves feel good about them. All cultures employ this collective denial mechanism, ignoring crimes and failures both ancient and recent in the name of an upbeat patriotism. It makes you wonder what we will say about ourselves 100 years from now. And it makes you think that "A Voyage Long and Strange" - disturbing, honest, wonderfully written, and heroically researched - should be required reading in every high school in the land.
Roland Merullo's political novel, "American Savior," will be published this summer.
And Ron Currie's pictured in today's NY Times SundayStyles at the NYPL Young Lions event. Unfortunately, the Times doesn't run these photos online...but the subhead today on the "Evening Hours" section where a full page of NY nightlife photos runs each week is "Town and Gown." An inspiring aspect of Ron's story is that he is just a writer. No college degree, no MFA. Just a writer.
