Editor's notebook
Baumann, Paul
was formed and a fierce war has raged ever since. The crimes of both the government and the SPLA are legion. In particular, there is a religious war being waged against non-Muslims. In January 1992,...
...But as Sudanese Bishop Paride Taban remarked recently in New York, pressure on the Sudanese government must be generated on many fronts: "Feeding people is not enough if tomorrow they are to be slaugh- tered like cattle in the war...
...It is to this green, summery, weekendish Atlantic outpost that the [female protagonist]...come[s] in search of relief from the cruelties of Manhattan...
...foreign aid funds from military accounts for both emergency relief needs and long-term development projects...
...A Cardinal Blackie Ryan Novel...
...A "thinking reader's Jackie Collins....Only an insider could bring to life the dazzling and treacherous high-stakes players of New York, Downing Street, and Capitol Hill...an explosive mix of sex, violence, and ruthless ambition that brilliantly cap- tures the behind-the-scenes world of today' s power elite...
...I live in New York and Hooterville, Connecticut, but I haven't written a novel...
...kidding...
...We need something more...
...In August the Sudanese bishops persuaded the bishops of East Africa to call on the Organization of African Unity to deplore the violations of human rights in Sudan, and to bring pressure on the various factions in the war for a peaceful settlement...
...AN EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK NOW IT CAN BE TOLD CONFESSIONS OF A BLURBOMANIAC ne of the best things about this job~aside from the privilege of defending Cardinal Ratzinger' s position in editorial debate--is paging through the book catalogues we receive from publishers...
...Indeed, these blurbs are a venerable genre, and when they are accompanied by the usual small, black-and-white picture of the author looking both ethereal and as if she'd been suck- ing on a lemon the total impression induces merriment...
...Here in the United States, Bread for the World and the Center of Concern, among others, pressed for the passage of The Horn of Africa Recovery and Food Security Act...
...I'm as much for angst and sexual torment as the next guy, but squeezing these status markers into a paragraph or two makes for a cer- tain lack of subtlety when appealing to the prospective buyer's basest instincts...
...The Commonweal...
...In February, the government expelled 400,000 southern refugees from the capital, driving them into the winter desert...
...This is meant to be mischievous, and I trust that faithful Commonweal readers will understand the controversies and cast of characters to which I gently allude in these fake titles...
...In January 1992, the government seized all copies of a pastoral let- ter of the Sudan Catholic Bishops' Conference that criticized Khartoum's holy war...
...In the South, it captured the city of Juba, displacing 250,000 peo- ple in July, and expelling all expatriate missionaries in August in an attempt to remove any independent witnesses...
...Bishops have been forced to appear in the capital for questioning and church workers have been tortured and killed...
...It is time for us to raise our voices...
...When the Vatican recently protested "the flagrant violation of human rights" in Sudan, a Khartoum official responded threat- eningly: "The Catholic church has become the enemy of the Sudanese government, and we know how to deal with it...
...I will not be denied...
...Enter a well-remembered figure from her past....the world's most heartbreaking man...
...Surrounded by a circle of writers and radical thinkers, the young utopians hope to launch a revolutionary way of living...
...Which all adds up to a subtle and unnerving inquiry into one marriage's descent into crime and fear...an acute and mov- ing portrait of what can happen when a couple become tired of the life they share and jump at the first chance for change, no matter what the price--deceit, venality, adultery, violence...
...I hope you enjoy them...
...Doubtless these prfcis are composed by overworked, underpaid, and sexually harassed minions, and the authors should not be held strictly accountable...
...Or they live in New York and London, or New York and Istanbul, or New York and Putney, Vermont...
...Frank McConnelh A Media Critic's Life...
...Mario Says, "No "--Again...
...From flop pads in New York's East Village to the Bhag- wan Rajneesh's sex commune in India, from Provincetown to Santa Cruz, he tries to recapture contentment, and invar- iably finds its opposite...
...Of course I'm jealous...
...Lies...
...Below I have excerpted actual book blurbs from a number of recent publishers' catalogues...
...kidding...
...The biographical tags strain for similar effects, and usually read something like, "Alexander Blaze, a native Oklahoman, stud- ied at Bennington and the Sorbomne, and now lives in New York...
...Leafing through the catalogues can also be entertaining, 4:6 November 1992 especially the brief synopses of the latest novels with their angst-ridden, sexually tormented protagonists...
...Now It Can Be Told: The Real Commonweal Story...
...Just kidding...
...It was signed into law in April 1992, and allows for the shift of U.S...
...That "more" is concerted pressure on Sudan from abroad...
...A stunning novel, brimming with romance and political in- trigue...a fire storm then ensues, fueled by the enmity that has always raged between the town's leading families....at its vor- tex are the protagonists...
...In the interest of not arousing the enmity of the authors of the books described I have made up alternative titles to suit each blurb...
...Lies...
...In Bishop Taban's view, it must come from the UN Security Council and from the United States...
...Dan and Marilyn Quayle : The Untold Story...
...Over the year we see their ideal of personal and political libera- tion shattered...
...In March, it launched a massive offensive, displacing 50,000 Nuba [non-Arab] tribesmen in the North...
...I have a fetishistic attachment to books-- if I can't read it at least I can hold it in my sweaty little palms for a minute--and letting me order books "for review" is a lit- tle like letting Ronald Reagan order weapons systems or Elizabeth Taylor husbands or Ross Perot rescue missions...
...Lies...
Vol. 119 • November 1992 • No. 19
