BEST AUTHOR BEST : EDAN LEPUCKI

The writer, whose new novel is '' Time's Mouth, '' reads in the tub.

.-  What books are on your night stand ?

'' The Book of Goose,'' by Yiyun Li ; '' Lighthead,'' by Terrance Hayes ; '' Reich for Beginners,'' by David Zane Mairowitz ; '' Froodle, '' by Antoinette Portis; '' Stories I've Been Meaning to Tell You, '' by Andy Romanoff.

Beneath this pile lies an unbound manuscript of Marie Matsuki Mockett's forthcoming novel, '' The Tree Doctor.'' I loved it so much that I can't bear to toss it.

.-  Are there any classic novels that you only recently read for the first time?

In 2022 I read Larry McMurtry's '' Lonesome Dove'' and told anyone who would listen how beautiful, moving and immersive it is. What a sense of place!

I've since been making my way through his oeuvre; the man wrote a lot of books, so it'll take me a while. McMurtry reportedly had a sweatshirt made for himself that read MINOR REGIONAL NOVELIST. I'd like one too, please.

.-  Can a great book be badly written? What other criteria can overcome bad prose?

I'm more of a plot bound than some other writers I know, but not so much so that I can overlook a rash of clunky sentences or a cliche pileup.

.-  What's your favorite book no one else has heard of?

The late Carolyn See wrote unique novels that were always surprising and somewhat deranged - in the best way.

I wish more readers would rediscover the vicious mother-daughter relationship in '' Rhine Maidens. '' It's 1970s California [ and Coalinga, Calif, no less! ], which is basically catnip for me.

.-  Which writers working today do you admire most?

Margaret Atwood, Rachel Aviv, Brit Bennett, Anne Carson, Dan Chaon, Ted Chiang, Jennifer Egan, Jonathan Franzen, Gillian Flynn, Angela Garbes, Katherine Heiny, Michelle Huneven, Samantha Irby, Edward P Jones, Patrick Radden Keefe, Lydia Kiesling, Laura Lippman, Attica Locke, Ling Ma, Wesley Morris, Sharon Olds, Parul Sehgal, George Saunders, Danzy Senna, Diane Seuss, Diana Spiotta, Susan Straight, Jia Tolentino, Charles Yu ........ oh, I could go on.

.-  Has a book ever brought you closer to another person, or come between you?

I had a shirt made with a picture of Joy William's story collection '' Taking Care '' printed across the front. Imagine my surprise when, at Chuck E. Cheese with my three kids on a Saturday, a random dad came up to me to discuss my shirt, and Joy Williams.

.-  Which subjects do you wish more authors would write about?

I love when writers write about bodies, about how it feels to carry those bodies through the world.

.-  Which genres do you especially enjoy reading? And which do you avoid?

I love good old literary fiction where scene is just an excuse for characters to think about their lives, where revelation counts as plot. I also love a genre I'll call ''viciously clever woman makes bad decisions '' as well as the '' funny / sad '' genre.

.-  What's the best book you've ever received as a gift?

The summer before my junior year of college, I returned home to Los Angeles and worked at Book Soup bookstore in West Hollywood. My coworker Patrick and I became fast friends, going to the movies, to dinner, to parties, and, of course, sharing book recommendations.

Right before I left to go back to school, he gave me a copy of, ''Goodbye, Columbus,'' by Philiip Roth. On the title page he wrote, '' Edan, For the summer - Thanks.'' I was done for. We're married now.

.-  You're organizing a literary dinner party. Which three writers, dead or alive, do you invite?

Every couple of months my favorite group of Los Angeles women writers gets together for dinner and drinks : Jade Chang, Janelle Brown, Rufi Thorpe, Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney and Stephanie danler.

Their talent is staggering, as is the love I feel for them. 

We are supportive of each other, and transparent about sticky career stuff, and we always laugh so hard - and eat so well. I'm taking our confessions and trash talks to the grave.

.-  Who would you want to write your life story?

Robert Caro, call me!

The World Students Society thanks The New York Times.

Headline, August 12 2023/ NATIONS : ''' '' TIME'S DROWNING TEARS '' '''

NATIONS : ''' '' TIME'S

 DROWNING TEARS '' '''

'' IN THIS SPA '' SAID THE PRIME MINISTER OF PROUD PAKISTAN - esteemed Mohammed Shebaz Sharif  : '' WE ARE ALL NAKED. '' A hush and a drowning shame fell over the crowd and the entire nation.

The concept and practice of great '' Pakistani values '' came to the fore. These very brave and utterly true words must be enshrined and engraved in and on in every Pakistani's heart. How I wish that the dead could also speak, if for once.

What the honourable Prime Minister actually meant was : THAT every single one of us - every single one of us, should be terribly ashamed of what he and she has not done, - measured against what we could do and accomplish.''

IN GRIEF AND SORROW - the Pakistani Founder Framers of The World Students Society rise to give Prime Minister Shebaz Sharif a standing ovation and thank him for his sincere services for the nation and the highest respects and regards in which he held his beloved nation, the students and The World Students Society.

The Pakistani Founders wept as I steeled myself to speak to them : '' I allow you to mourn and I mourn with you. But in the real world, 'emotions cannot be a policy. Our hearts, souls and beings maybe heavy, but what we need is a clear thinking, unity and discipline, sacrifices, patience, and unrelenting hard work.''

AS DARK CLOUDS of economic crisis, political chaos and mass protest loomed over Sri Lanka a year ago, optimists saw silver lining. So incompetent and corrupt was the soon-to-collapse government of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, it had united the country in anger, crossing the ethnic divide that had blighted its post-independence history.

But hopes that this might lead to a lasting rapprochement between the island's Tamil, and largely Hindu, minority and its Sinhalese Buddhist majority have proved to be short-lived.

This is illustrated by the fragile state of the latest efffort at communal bridge-building. In May Sri Lanka's current government, run by Ranil Wickremesinghe,opted to form a  South African style '' Truth and Reconciliation Commission'' [TRC] to look at the history of Sri Lanka's civil war.

It started 40 years ago last month and ended in May 2009, with a slaughter of thousands of Tamil civilians on a bloody beach during the Sri Lankan army's final victorious assault.

The vexed and unimpressive efforts of other Asian countries to confront darker chapters of their recent pasts suggested that Sri Lanka's would not go well. That looks increasingly likely.

Yet the particular horrors of its civil war, and the terrible scars it has left on Sri Lanka's divided society, cannot easily be glossed over. This was underlined last month in a report by local NGOS on efforts to deal with one of the war's grimmest legacies :

A large number of mass graves dotted around the country's lush forests and paddy-fields. A small fraction -about 20- have been uncovered and hundreds of bodies dug up.

One report documents so many failings in the way exhumations were conducted and potential criminal investigations handled that they look less like a process of unearthing the truth than an attempt to rebury it deeper than ever.

TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION : The South African model is not the only option. An alternative is offered by Nepal, which is also grappling with the consequences of a civil war - in its case a ten-year Maoist insurgency that ended in 2006.

The peace agreement that ended its conflict  promised both ''reconciliation'' and ''justice''.

More than 60,000 complaints have been lodged with its TRC concerning alleged human-rights-violations and breaches of international law, leading to a few prosecutions. A bill now in Nepal's parliament would strengthen the TRC with a special court.

At the other extreme is Indonesia. For nearly 60 years it has stifled discussion of the national trauma that surrounded the birth of the 32-year-Suharto dictatorship in 1966, during which hundreds of thousands were killed in massacres of suspected communists.

Only in 2016 did public debate on the violence begin. Now President Joko Widido has announced a programme of reparations for victims of Suharto era and later human rights abuses [ up to 2003 ],including mass killings of 1965-66. ]

Whatever materialses from that effort will be far too late for the victims and their families. And most of the perpetrators will be dead or otherwise beyond justice.

It is the kind of outcome Sri Lanka's government seems to aspire to. It should aim higher. As Ms al-Nashif put it : 

'' As long as impunity prevails, Sri Lanka will achieve neither genuine reconciliation nor sustainable peace.''

The Sadness of this Master Publishing continues. The World Students Society thanks most profoundly Banyan / '' The Economist .''

With most loving and respectful dedication to the people of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Pakistan. And then Mankind, Students, Professors and Teachers of the world.

See You all prepare for Great Global Elections on The World Students Society - the exclusive and eternal ownership of every student in the world, most lovingly and respectfully called, !WOW! : wssciw.blogspot.com and Twitter !E-WOW! - The Ecosystem 2011 :

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless