Poor Reading, Like Poor Writing, Is Imposing

I No Longer Believe That We Can Keep Silent. We Never Really Do, Mind You. In One Way Or Another We Articulate What Has Happened To Us Through The Kind Of People We Become.

For More Than 30 Years The Islamic Regime And Its Apologists Have Tried To Dismiss Women's Struggle In Iran As Part Of A Western Ploy.

What Dazzles Us In Stacy Schiff's Cleopatra Are Not The Alluring Mythologies About The Evasive Queen, But The Astonishing If Rare Historical Facts That Schiff Has Meticulously And Lovingly Excavated. Schiff Offers Not Just Cleopatra's Story But The Story Of An Amazing Era, One That Has Vanished But Still Affects Us, Questioning The Way We Look At Myth, History, And Ourselves.

Imagine You Are Walking Down A Leafy Path...the Sun Is Receding, And You Are Walking Alone, Caressed By The Breezy Light Of The Late Afternoon. Then Suddenly, You Feel A Large Drop On Your Right Arm. Is It Raining? You Look Up. The Sky Is Still Deceptively Sunny...seconds Later Another Drop. Then, With The Sun Still Perched In The Sky, You Are Drenched In A Shower Of Rain. This Is How Memories Invade Me, Abruptly And Unexpectedly.

Once Evil Is Individualized, Becoming Part Of Everyday Life, The Way Of Resisting It Also Becomes Individual. How Does The Soul Survive? Is The Essential Question. And The Response Is: Through Love And Imagination.