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Arts & CultureBooks
John Updike
John Updike's reflection on faith and writing upon his reception of America's Campion Medal in 1997.
FaithVantage Point
Paul Farmer

Graham Greene's The Comedians is surely the most famous novel set in contemporary Haiti. The book, published in 1965, introduced the English-speaking world to the methods of governance of président-a-vie Francois Duvalier. Following the novel's publication, both Greene and his book were banned in Haiti. Papa Doc was furious with the expose, certainly, but he was also vexed by the ethnographic detail of the novel. Trained as an anthropologist, the dictator knew that careful observers like Greene are always more difficult to discredit. Duvalier did his best, however, going so far as to produce a glossy bilingual pamphlet, Graham Greene Demasque, which depicted the writer as "unbalanced, sadistic, perverted ... the shame of proud and noble England." Although Greene would later term this assessment "the greatest honor I've yet received," Duvalier was not joking. The Comedians, travelers to Haiti were warned, was a book that even the luggage-rifling thugs at the airport could recognize.

Politics & SocietyVantage Point
Elias D. Mallon
From 1989: The controversy surrounding 'The Satanic Mysteries' is a paradigm of the difficulties that have existed over the centuries between Islam and the West.
Arts & CultureVantage Point
Flannery O'Connor
From 1957, a classic essay by Flannery O'Connor, who died 50 years ago on Sunday.
Arts & CultureVantage Point
Richard McLaughlin
The novelist had a driving conviction that ran roughshod over our weak-kneed answers.
Arts & CultureBooks
John Matteson reviews "The Fate of the West" by Bill Emmott