A transcript of Into The European Mirror; critical commentaries; John Kipphoff interviews Julian Samuel

Rana Kabbani: "...the idea of the "other," the stranger, the Muslim, the Arab, the Saracen, the Moor, the Jew, the Blackamoor - you do not like them, you're afraid of them, you despise them, you throw them out, or you burn them at the stake. There is no other solution: the European mind has still not come up with any philosophical solution. That is why we have a holocaust every few decades.

Passage to Lahore is a no-holds-barred telling of the Pakistani-Canadian-British-Indian-Québecois experience, challenging conventional history with frequent outbreaks of scathing satire. Fractious, erudite, and raunchy, Samuel's narrative takes us from Montréal to Lahore to Algeria to Hong Kong to China to Surrey, in search of ways to comically damage the suicidal sterility of The Correct and of the tribal debates raging today.

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Récit de l'errance et de l'immigration, Julian Samuel nous entraîne dans ses souvenirs d'enfance et d'adolescence, de Lahore jusq'en Angleterre, puis Toronto, pour aboutir à Montréal, où l'auteur vit désormais. Cette expérience de vie, Julian Samuel ne craint pas de nous la narrer avec l'emportement, les idées et les impairs qui lui sont propres. Julian Samuel irritera certains âmes sensibles, surtout parce qu'il a toupet d'émettre des opinions dont certaines seront très mal reçues, mais ses critiques et le tir groupé de Julian Samuel sont atténués par son sens de l'humour, quelque peu cabotin certes, mais qui se révèle le plus souvent perspicace et sonne juste.

The Raft of The Medusa, Black Rose Books (1993)

A transcript of The Raft of The Medusa and critical commentaries;

"Amin Maalouf: I would say that the whole story of Chirine, and the manuscript, [the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam lost with the Titanic] is a sort of allegory for what the Orient becomes when it is at once taken in hand, and misunderstood, by the Occident. I would say that the Orient is a victim of two factors, itself and the Occident, and there is a fringe of people in the Orient, a fringe which I myself belong to, who want to see things evolve, but who always find themselves caught between the rise of fanaticism in their native religion, and the wall of incomprehension in the Occidental world. And I can feel this every day. Every day I have to ask myself, is it really necessary to speak up? Is it worth it to speak? Are people going to understand one day? And I often avoid it, I avoid speaking about Islam. I think that there is such a climate of distrust, of intellectual terror, that subtle ideas, conciliatory ideas have less and less place."

Lone Ranger in Pakistan, Emergency Press (1986)

poems by Julian Samuel

"In the tradition of American Black poet Langston Hughes, who combined political militancy with artistic creativity, Julian Samuel's original poetry represents a challenge to Canadian Literature. He speaks the idiom of hope, alienation, rage, and humanistic dignity. As in his films, the style here is to challenge conformity, to break with the mountain of lies and cultural distortions which comprise the contemporary bourgeois value system. Samuel's work represents the cutting edge of cultural and social change."

Manning Marable, Professor of Sociology, author, How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America.