Author Archives: mkevane

About mkevane

Economist at Santa Clara University and Director of Friends of African Village Libraries.

Excession, by Iain Banks

Posted on January 4, 2020

First of my Christmas sci-fi books to be finished was Excession, by Iain Banks. Enjoyable but unlike others I found the exchanges between ship-minds to not be very interesting. They seem modeled entirely on message board banter of computer programmers. … Continue reading →

Posted in Book and film reviews

I listened. The Republicans are not saying much. Rep. Sensenbrenner (R,WI) offers an oped in the New York Times

Posted on December 21, 2019

I posted this on Twitter and though I would have as coherent paragraph. A quick response to  Rep. Sensenbrenner (R,WI) oped. Sensenbrenner purports to explain why he voted against the articles of impeachment. I wanted to carefully review his argument. … Continue reading →

Posted in Burkina Faso, United States

Greatest song ever recorded, for its voice, and lilting but complex melody: Myan Myan by Coupé Cloué

Posted on December 14, 2019

One of the comments: “J’en ai les larmes qui coulent, je pense à mes parents, notamment à mon tendre et cher papa, toute mon enfance se résume dans ses chansons.” “Jean Gesner Henry (May 10, 1925 – January 29, 1998), … Continue reading →

Posted in Burkina Faso, Music

“Sevastopol” by Emilio Fraia in The New Yorker

Posted on December 14, 2019

A very intellectual meta short story about the nature of stories. Some Borges, some Tolstoy, some Rayuela. I read it with intellectual interest, but at the end there was (for me) no emotional resonance. So what does one do with … Continue reading →

Posted in Book and film reviews

Recent reading

Posted on December 12, 2019

Elnathan John, Born on a Tuesday. I wrote this on Twitter, which seems enough: Finished Elnathan John’s novel Born on a Tuesday yesterday. Very powerful, great straightforward prose, keen insights. A tiny bit derivative of Allah n’est pas obligé but … Continue reading →

Posted in Book and film reviews

Gnomon by Nick Harkaway

Posted on November 13, 2019

Very long. For the first 300 pages I was really enjoying it. My kind of novel: some science fiction (AI surveilled society), some time travel (to ancient times), some style (I had just finished Chandler, and as first Harkaway channeled … Continue reading →

Posted in Book and film reviews

Remembering the hope of 2011 in Sudan and South Sudan

Posted on November 8, 2019
Posted in Sudan