Violent and timely, contemporary and historical, true and fantastical, Bharati Mukherjee's work has been a windstorm sweeping up the major flavor of her times. Born into a wealthy, traditional Calcutta family in 1940, Mukherjee was raised and schooled in India, Great Britain, and the U.S. (where she

Eclectic, Intense, Pioneering, Political, Post-colonial literature, Women's literature

"I have made London my home. For ten years, I avoided thinking about the China I had left behind. Then in 1988, my mother came to England to visit me. For the first time, she told me the story of her life and that of my grandmother. When she returned to Chengdu, I sat down and let my own memory surge

Intense, Political, Sincere, Spare, Women's literature

Geometric, Intense, Kinetic, Machinistic

If Britain had a blacklist during the Thatcher era, Ken Loach was on it. Pound the pavement though he might, he couldn't persuade anyone to fund his films. His made-for-TV documentaries met with steep resistance -- in fact, his depiction of the 1984 coal miners' strike was banned outright. Why? Loach

British documentary movement, Gritty, Industrial, Intense, Political, Sincere, Violent, Young british/kitchen sink/free cinema