A Feeling of Belonging in Malaysia
A review by Geeta Sharma-Jensen
First novelists often get missed in the cacophony of new books from established or popular writers. And so it was with Preeta Samarasan, a Malayasian native and a recent graduate of the University of Michigan whose sweeping novel about a Tamil family in a changing Malaysia moved quietly along book circles this year, overshadowed by new works from such brilliantly popular names as Jhumpa Lahiri, Salman Rushdie, Manil Suri and Amitav Ghosh. Samarasan, however, managed an admirable first showing with Evening Is the Whole Day. She followed, though in her individual style, in the outsize footsteps of V.S. Naipaul whose 1961 work, A House for Mr. Biswas, remains a cornerstone of the Indian diasporic novel. Naipaul, whose ancestors left north India and moved to Trinidad as indentured laborers generations ago, wrote of subsequent generations of Indians living unassimilated traditional lives in that island nation. Samarasan plumbs a similar territory, detailing the intricate and...
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Previously Reviewed by Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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The Night of the Gun: A Reporter Investigates the Darkest Story of His Life. His Own. by David Carr
 While cementing his life as a substance abuser in Minneapolis during his teen years, David Carr crossed the state line to enroll at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.
"My crowning achievement came early," Carr writes. "As a freshman, I won the beer-chugging contest, drinking five 12-ounce...
Three Decades of Quality Writing and Criticism
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