As twilight was drawing to a close, I sat on the floor of the living room with a poet, a professor and eleven students. The poet talked in the gathering dark. His…
Author: Zimri Leisher
The Satisfaction of Simple Things: A Review of the NOMAD Ethnocenter
I think I’m bad at writing these reviews, because if I liked something I did, I tend to forget the bad parts. Considering this, you might be suspicious of the following review,…
I Fell in Love with Jamilya
Reviewing Jamilya, by Chingiz Aitmatov, is like reviewing The Brothers Karamazov. I’m 22 and I’ve written about three reviews since high school, and I am tasked with giving my thoughts on a…
The Street with the Broken Signs
I have never been shot at. Our tour guide has, though. She’s a little older than I am, a former student of my professor, with beautifully dyed hair, wearing an intricately patterned,…
The Uzbekistan They Don’t Want You to See
What comes to mind when you think of tourist destinations? Nepal might evoke images of vast mountains, Paris of course has the Eiffel Tower, and Australia might make one think of deserts,…
We Search
In 1997, the capital of Qazaqstan was moved from Almaty, where I am studying, to the city of Astana (“capital” in Qazaq), far in the north. Out there in the middle of…
Under Such a Vast Sky
It’s evening, before the sun has gone down. I’m lying in my bed in Forum Hostel, Astana and suddenly the entire city disappears. I fall five feet to the ground and hit…
A Shot in the Arm of Pure Meaning: A Review of The Illustrated Guide to the Meanings of Almaty
I’ve lived most of my life in small, boring towns in the US which nobody writes about. These pleasant but unremarkable places seem designed to pass by unexamined, acting just as a…
Coming to Life
What do you know about Qazaqstan? Where I’m from, most people know very little. There’s a sense it’s a big, Muslim, post-USSR country in Central Asia, but that’s about it. If you…
