Letter from America Nov 14, 2008
"Everywhere I've been this year - from Jerusalem to Japan to Colombia to Italy and back again - I've heard people essentially say that America is an overweight white plutocrat who is not only out of touch with the world but also shows no signs of wanting to grow closer to it," the British writer Pico Iyer wrote in an essay in Time magazine. The image, he said, was unfair but potent. (International Herald Tribune)
Next week the Boomers go bust Oct 30, 2008
He is a "transit lounger" - a phrase coined in 1997 by the writer Pico Iyer to describe a globalised generation. "We pass through countries as through revolving doors, resident aliens of the world, impermanent residents of nowhere. Nothing is strange to us, and nowhere is foreign. We are visitors even in our own homes "We become professional observers, able to see the merits and deficiencies of anywhere, to balance our parents' viewpoints with their enemies' position Fervour comes to seem to us... (The Age, Australia)
Thubten Jigme Norbu dies at 86; symbol of Tibetan independence ... Sep 11, 2008
Chinese soldiers invaded eastern Tibet, where Kumbum was, and turned the province into what Dalai Lama biographer Pico Iyer called "the largest gulag in the world." As Iyer reported, Mao Tse-tung's soldiers imprisoned 1 in 10 Tibetans and caused the deaths of 1 in 5 -- more than 1 million people -- through starvation, torture and execution. The Chinese authorities placed Norbu under house arrest and demanded that he travel to Lhasa to denounce the Dalai Lama and kill him if he refused to step... (Los Angeles Times)
Boycott the Olympics -- Aug 6, 2008
Go fishing, have a catch, take a walk, rent a movie -- such as "Kundun," "Seven Years in Tibet," perhaps visit a museum -- Rubin Museum of Art in New York City, or read a book -- "The Open Road" by Pico Iyer or "Why the Dalai Lama Matters" by Robert Thurman. Please consider spurning these tainted Olympics. (NJ.com -- Times)
Teaching Auschwitz to the Palestinians Jul 13, 2008
Eighteen years ago, TIME contributor Pico Iyer watched a California wildfire destroy his home. Now, he waits to learn whether history has repeated itself. (TIME)
The lives of the Dalai Lamas Jun 7, 2008
Mick Brown reviews Holder of the White Lotus by Alexander Norman and The Open Road: the Global Journey of the 14th Dalai Lama by Pico Iyer ... As Pico Iyer demonstrates in his thoughtful and beautifully written portrait, this chequered history has endowed the present Dalai Lama with an impossibly complicated legacy: to Westerners enamoured of the romance of Tibet, he appears as an almost magical figure; to the Chinese, he is a perpetual thorn in their side, a man whose glad-handing of Western... (Telegraph.co.uk)
AMAZON: The Kindle online store Jun 2, 2008
Pico Iyer's exceptionally intimate portrait of the Dalai Lama takes us beyond global celebrity image and into a true private audience with a leader of tremendous complexity. Without ever losing compassion or respect for his subject, Iyer peels away layer after layer of illusion, revealing critical truths about this man at every possible level. (USA Today -- Tech)
The Open Road May 28, 2008
Journalist and author Pico Iyer's insightful and thoughtful book is timely ... Society/Politics Pico Iyer Bloomsbury 2008 32. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
The Sunday Times review by Patrick French May 11, 2008
Holder of the White Lotus The Lives of the Dalai Lama by Alexander Norman The Open Road The Global Journey of the 14th Dalai Lama by Pico Iyer ... It is this interplay between different eras in the person of one man that Pico Iyer examines in The Open Road ... Holder of the White Lotus by Alexander Norman Little, Brown 20 pp464The Open Roadby Pico Iyer Bloomsbury 12. (Times Online)
San Francisco Chronicle Best-Sellers May 4 / May 5, 2008
THE OPEN ROAD, Pico Iyer (Knopf; 288 pages; $24): A portrait of the Dalai Lama as a monk, politician and philosopher. 9. (San Francisco Chronicle)
A timely look at the life of the Dalai Lama Apr 16, 2008
The Open Road: The Global Journeyof the Fourteenth Dalai LamaBy Pico Iyer Knopf, 275 pp, $24 ... Moreover, he listens: Pico Iyer presents him as open, deeply curious, committed to truth even at the expense of doctrine. (Boston Globe)
The Dreamer-In-Chief Apr 13, 2008
Pico Iyer is always marvelous as a guide to faraway places. The Dalai Lama, even if he ends up on your screen saver, remains as mysterious to us as many of the places Iyer has been to. (San Francisco Chronicle -- Entertainment)
S Tharoor: 'Change from within' Apr 13, 2008
Pico Iyer's elegant and intensely personal new book, The Open Road, attempts to explore some of these contradictions ... Politics is an activity for which Pico Iyer has not quite the same feel as the other topics on which he has brought his intelligence and erudition to bear, and it shows; the Dalai Lama's relationship (or lack thereof) with the Chinese government, and the complications this has caused him as an international political figure, are barely mentioned ... The Dalai Lama's focus,... (India Times, India)
Harmony in Tibet can't come at the barrel of a gun: Pico Iyer Apr 12, 2008
NEW DELHI: When writer-journalist Pico Iyer last saw the Dalai Lama five months ago in Japan, the Tibetan leader said he fully supports Chinese President Hu Jintao's slogan of a harmonious society. " "But harmony cannot come at the barrel of a gun," says Iyer, whose latest book, The Open Road, released last month explores the global journey of the 14th Dalai Lama. "This is a perfect moment for world leaders to try to urge Beijing's leadership to talk to the Dalai Lama, who is after all... (India Times, India -- Community News)
Bestsellers list Apr 9, 2008
The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama - Debut Pico Iyer, Knopf, $24, 9780307267603 A fascinating look at the political and spiritual leader of Tibet. 1. (Scranton Times, PA)
Books: Pyco Iyer's 'The Open Road': The Dalai Lama and life of paradoxes Apr 5, 2008
The Open Road The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama By Pico Iyer 275 pages ... " a journalist asked Pico Iyer after both men left a speaking event by His Holiness. We know what he's getting at. At a certain angle, the chirpy aphorisms, the generous stream of book forewords, the Hollywood entourage, all conspire to cast a hue of superficiality that few global pop icons escape. In that light, it is possible to forget that the Dalai Lama is, in fact, a titan: a head of state, a doctor of... (International Herald Tribune)
A timely question Rudd should raise Apr 3, 2008
The current 14th Dalai Lama is arguably the world's longest-serving leader who, as the writer Pico Iyer has pointed out, he has led his people longer than Queen Elizabeth II, King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand or Fidel Castro. And although he appears to be in robust good health - and active enough to plan a return trip to Australia later this year - at 71, he cannot live forever. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Opinion)
REQUIRED READING Mar 23, 2008
by Pico Iyer (Knopf) Given current events in Tibet, the release of this personal look at the Dalai Lama could not be more timely. "> Sunday, March 23, 2008 Last Update: 06:45 AM EDT lect> REQUIRED READING By BILLY HELLER March 23, 2008 -- The Open RoadThe Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama by Pico Iyer (Knopf) Given current events in Tibet, the release of this personal look at the Dalai Lama could not be more timely. Author Iyer, a veteran journalist, has known the exiled Buddhist... (New York Post -- Opinions)
The great escape Jun 23, 2007
To read part two click. Saturday June 23, 2007. (Guardian Unlimited -- Books)
Pico Iyer: Travel writer opens eyes to 'globalism' Jun 5, 2007
Pico Iyer: Travel writer opens eyes to 'globalism. Essayist and novelist Pico Iyer is widely considered one of the greatest travel writers of his generation ... For information on Pico Iyer's visit, see www. (Jakarta Post, Indonesia -- Features)
A case of mind over grey matter Jun 1, 2007
Souls in Motion Authors Pico Iyer, Claire Scobie and Andrew Mueller share their travelling experiences with journalist Joyce Morgan ... Souls in Motion Authors Pico Iyer, Claire Scobie and Andrew Mueller share their travelling experiences with journalist Joyce Morgan. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
travel writer Jan Morris May 18, 2007
Find yourself a job as a reporter on a local newspaper and write to me again. " A few years later, after Winchester became a successful journalist, he visited Morris' home in Wales. "Hello, you must be Mrs. Morris," Winchester said, when a woman wearing a necklace, skirt and pumps answered the door. " 'I'm James,' she said. (San Francisco Chronicle -- Travel)
Bangkok Vice: Buddhas, Boxers, and Bar Girls: Apr 4, 2007
In "Love in a Duty-free Zone," Pico Iyer chewed through the entire Western canon, as is his wont, before giving up. In "Fooling Yourself for Fun," Ian Buruma detected opportunism in those smiles. (Slate)
Announcing RECCE, New Online Travel Magazine Mar 14, 2007
The inaugural issue features a conversation with travel writer and essayist Pico Iyer; reflections on Australia by author Jan Morris; a photo portfolio of Patagonia by David Samuel Robbins; and excerpts by Sir Edmund Hillary, Peter Hillary, and Ian Baker from the new book "Himalaya." RECCE () is edited by award-winning travel writer and editor Don George. "RECCE is an abbreviation of reconnoiter or reconnaissance, a scouting trip undertaken to get to know an unexplored territory," said George. (PR Newswire)
Of Mothers and Sons, and a father long gone Mar 8, 2007
"The short story is a craftsman's form, and Toibin's craft is immaculate," said Pico Iyer, reviewing the work in The New York Times. "Not many writers in Britain and Ireland are working at this level of intensity and seriousness, with not a slack sentence in 270 pages and nothing shoddy or easily sardonic throughout.". (Globe and Mail -- Entertainment)
Bands' new releases capture modern anxieties Mar 1, 2007
1, 2007 12:00 AM Travel writer Pico Iyer once described jet lag as the sensation that your mind is "moving as with a phantom limb." He wrote, "I feel, when lagged, as if I'm seeing the whole world through tears, or squinting; everything gets through to me, but with the wrong weight or meaning. I can't see the signs, only their reflections in the puddles. I can't follow directions, only savor the fact of being lost.". This traveler's condition is common now, even for those of us who rarely leave... (AZCentral -- Entertainment)
Measure for measure Feb 26, 2007
The magnitude of Walcott's achievement as the preeminent voice of what Pico Iyer has heralded as "Tropical Classical" literature is on lavish display in his updated "Selected Poems," which spans a half-century of his protean output and highlights the formal prowess of the progressively ambitious work he's produced over the last 20 years. The volume is edited by the Jamaican poet and critic Edward Baugh, and his task is an unenviable one: Walcott's poetry asks to be read as an unfolding odyssey... (Boston Globe)
Hope grows in this wide, wide world Jan 4, 2007
Pico IyerJanuary 5, 2007 ... Pico Iyer is the author, most recently, of a novel, Abandon, and a set of essays, Sun after Dark. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Opinion)
