Word: assassins
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...Vassanji's The Assassin's Song is a more complex but ultimately less satisfying examination of similar turf. The central character, Karsan, is destined to be the latest in a centuries-long familial line to inherit the Shrine of the Wanderer, an important place of Sufi worship in India's Gujarat state. But as a young man he falls out with his father and loses his faith, escaping to North America instead. When he returns, after the riots that ripped apart Gujarat in 2002, Karsan is forced to re-examine his beliefs, his family and himself...
...longer of the two books, The Assassin's Song jumps between the late 13th century and the past half-century, and while the technique adds some emotional heft and spiritual context to the story, it ultimately distracts from the central plot. Vassanji captures important moments in Indian history - the war with China in 1962 and the 2002 riots - in wonderful detail that links to the personal tale at the center of the novel. But the undoubtedly painstaking research can also grow too heavy and sometimes leaves one wanting more story and less history lesson...
...nearby monastery to march downtown. But first came a chilling display of the people's anger - and the monks' moral influence. A man on a motorcycle rode up. Most motorcycles have been banned for years because, the story goes, the paranoid generals feared being shot by an assassin riding one of them. Those few people who can tool around on motorcycles are therefore assumed to be government spies. The mob pounced on the man, pulling him off his bike and raising their wooden sticks. "Beat him," they cried. "Kill him." Quickly, the monks intervened and hustled...
...assassin Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) has come to Tangier to - I forget the whats and whys, and, honestly, The Bourne Ultimatum doesn't much care either - but he's trying to find his lone ally, government agent Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) before she's caught and killed by rival hitman Dash (Joey Ansah). While a police posse is chasing Bourne, he's hopscotching across rooftops, wrapping a sheet around his hand to vault over a wall with shards of glass on it, and somehow keeping track of the elusive Nicky in a big, unfamiliar city. Maybe our super...
...this summer's globe-galloping thriller The Bourne Ultimatum without a finished screenplay. "I didn't know where I had come from. I didn't know where I was going--which are things you really need to know as an actor," says Damon, who reprises his role as conflicted assassin Jason Bourne for the third movie in the series. Luckily, Damon and Greengrass share a shorthand from collaborating on the second Bourne film, as well as certain personality traits unusual in their trade, like flexibility and a lack of ego. And in a Hollywood besotted with robots and wizards, this...