Manan Desai
Books: Gitmo Chic
Manan Desai - April 19, 2012
Gilvarry reels us into what at first seems like an absurdist, post-modern satire on the endless “war on terror.”
Portrait of the Artist as a City
Manan Desai - February 9, 2012
Between the lines of Carlos Villa's artwork is a
Filipino American history of migrants, empire, and selfhood -- but only if you look closely.
Books: Japanese Picture Brides and 9/11
Manan Desai - November 23, 2011
The Buddha in the Attic does far more than recover Japanese American history; it gestures toward a broader critique of US national culture.
How to Be South Asian in America. (Not.)
Manan Desai - October 13, 2011
In June 2002, Schenectady’s mayor set out to recruit Indo-Guyanese immigrants from Queens to his rust-belt city three hours North. What did it mean for city officials to be actively “looking for a new ethnic group”?
Book Review: 'Dhaka Dust' by Dilruba Ahmed
Manan Desai - September 14, 2011
Home is both everywhere and nowhere in Dilruba Ahmed’s debut collection of poems, Dhaka Dust.
Review of Maxine Hong Kingston's 'I Love a Broad Margin to My Life'
Manan Desai - June 8, 2011
Maxine Hong Kingston’s latest memoir, I Love a Broad Margin to My Life, attempts to deconstruct the memoir form by playing on the central tension between preservation and erasure.