East of Oakland

The fog bank of hypertension has paused and parted, yielding an unexpected vista. Palpable peace and earnest reflection are just where they were dropped in the heat of labor. Ministry of Pain is an important novel, though its total absorption is contingent, I imagine, upon some sort of proximity to the strife and displacement of the detailed events. It isn't a question of the indigenous, so to speak, but an awareness of the complex issues filtered through the prism of the expatriated.