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Trezza Azzopardi: "The Hiding Place" |
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Robert Adams gives a brief history of Malta, the backdrop
for Trezza Azzopardi's first novel, The Hiding Place. Covering
30 years in the lives of an impoverished Maltese family eeking out an
existence in Cardiff, Wales, the novel shows how those three decades have
been marred by secrets and lies. 07DR Level 1 - JSCA 30 min. Level 2 - SCA 80 min. |
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J. M. Coatzee: "Disgrace" |
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Robert Adams' thumbnail histories of white South Africa and
Apartheid segue into a discussion of Booker Prize-winning writer
J. M. Coatzee, whose book, Disgrace, examines by way of fable
the nature and exercise of power, as it affects those who exercise it and
those upon whom it is exercised. 07DR Level 1 - JSCA 30 min. Level 2 - SCA 83 min. |
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Chang-Rae Lee: "A Gesture Life" |
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Robert Adams examines Chang-Rae Lee's A Gesture
Life, a novel about a Japanese immigrant's need for acceptance in
small-town America and the insecurities behind that need. An engaging
discussion of Japanese social history ensues. 07DR Level 1 - JSCA 30 min. Level 2 - SCA 74 min. |
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Alistair MacLeod: "No Great Mischief" |
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Told from the point of view of an existentially lost man
from Windsor en route to Toronto, Robert Adams describes how Alistair
MacLeod's novel, No Great Mischief, returns again and again to
the theme of people being displaced-physically and emotionally-by economics
or circumstances of history. 07DR Level 1 - JSCA 30 min. Level 2 - SCA 90 min. |
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Zadie Smith: "White Teeth" |
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Set in modern London, White Teeth tells the story of
minorities and mixed families living through the self-imposed racial
segregation of the 1970s to the much more integrated communities of the late
1980s. Robert Adams inspects the astute social observation at the heart of
Zadie Smith's highly regarded novel. 07DR Level 1 - JSCA 30 min. Level 2 - SCA 90 min. |
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Robert Sole: "The Photographer’s Wife" |
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Writer of a story of love, marriage and infidelity set in
Egypt from 1891 to 1898, Robert Sole grounds his story, The
Photographer's Wife, in the political events of the time. Robert Adams
traces the roots of this political upheaval, and the presence of the British
in 19th century Cairo, all the way back to 632 B.C. 07DR Level 1 - JSCA 30 min. Level 2 - SCA 87 min. |