Jon of Havana

Jon Lee Anderson phones home from Havana: "Leonardo Padura, Cuba's best known novelist, told me about his frustrated efforts to buy a home power station for his elderly mother-in-law, to provide light when the electricity goes out."

 

Jon Lee Anderson returns to Haiti

Jon Lee Anderson's most recent dispatch from Haiti is worth reading. At L.U.S.K., his presence there was noted at least once before. Haiti needs help.

jon lee anderson is in haiti

I'm trying hard to save money and remain a lapsed New Yorker subscriber, but Jon Lee Anderson sure doesn't make it easy. I'd say his international reporting from the past ten years has been my favorite of all the stuff I've read; as you may know, he has written from Iraq, Afghanistan, and other war-torn countries. Well, at least this text-messaged interview is online.

To me, he communicates a humanity that overcomes any sense one could get of "professional gawking" from the war correspondent; also, he must have endured numerous dangerous moments along his journey to completed stories, and I don't recall ever getting a sense of machismo, false bravado, or any other dislikeable traits that end in "o." With my own occasional tendency to brag--about the goofiest things imaginable, like frisbee throws and fiction translations, he reminds me of what a ridiculous joker I can be.