The Protocols of the Elders of Sodom : And Other Essays

Written over the last four decades, these provocative essays and diary entries explore the links between literature, history and politics. Training a critical, imaginative and occasionally a satirical eye on the works of varied writers including Cervantes, Tolstoy, Proust, Joyce, Musil, Roth, Powell, Platonov, Solzhenitsyn, Grossman, Munif, Goytisolo and Rushdie Ali discusses common themes as well as polarities, first impressions and re-readings, always seeking to contextualize the text in the political and historical milieu of its creation. Inviting the reader to share in the frustrations and pleasures of world literature and showcasing Ali s range and polemical verve, this collection will be sure to attract critical attention and a wide readership.

Provocative and witty essays on the giants of world literature.

The Barnes & Noble Review

The acceleration of the global news cycle and the boom in its consumptionthe Al Jazeera effect, if you will, have assured that these are inescapably political times. The point of return in Tariq Ali's collection of essays and journalistic pieces, The Protocols of the Elders of Sodom, that politics and literature favor the same springs, is hardly novel. What makes the Lahore-born novelist and intellectual's musings substantive, however, is the discernment he brings to the oscillating, tangled, and sometimes inverse values pinned to storytelling and statecraft in the West and Middle East. Spread among the essays and journalism pieces in this collection are remonstrations against those too lazy to see the politics in their aesthetics, or vice versa. For instance, there is a scolding of Harold Bloom for omitting in his introduction to Edith Grossmans translation of Don Quixote an excavation of the political, historical, and religious conflicts that gusted around the book's inception, and an intriguingly argued supposition about why the spirit behind the fatwa against Salman Rushdie was political, not religious. There is also a refreshingly prickly assessment of Tolstoy's patriotism. With regard to the book's title essay, which provides a day-glo indicator of the author's political bearings, Ali takes a look at Proust's linking of Zionism and Sodomism. This mushrooms into a radical gay liberation argument as articulated by a righteous heterosexual. Because the persecution of homosexuals continues, Ali writes, the Sodom Question will not go away -- ergo, the establishment of a Sodomstaat (the State of Sodom or Sodomistan) in the area close to the Dead Sea where the cities first existed has become an urgent necessity. As evidenced by that statement, retiring essays these are not. --Christopher Byrd

These provocative essays explore the links between literature, history and politics, through an examination of the work of Cervantes, Tolstoy, Proust, Musil, Roth, Platonov, Soltzhenitsyn, Grossman, Munif, Rushdie and others. Tariq Ali draws out common themes as well as polarities, and in each case locates the writer and his or her work in the appropriate political and historical context. The title essay is inspired by one of Proust's lesser-known reflections: if Zionism seeks a biblical homeland for the Jews on the basis of persecution, why not also look for a biblical homeland for gays and lesbians? This collection, showcasing Tariq Ali's range and polemical verve, will be sure to attract critical attention and a wide readership. Provocative and witty essays on the giants of world literature. Written over the last four decades, these essays and diary entries explore the links between literature, history and politics. Training a critical, imaginative and occasionally a satirical eye on the works of varied writers