Envy Apartment

A novelist hunts for complicated narratives at the sites of historical atrocities I learned to snorkel mid-winter in an indoor pool in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio. The air was stifling, thick with the smell of chlorine. There was nothing to see in the pool and no explanation given for the purpose of this middle school gym unit ; maybe our teachers dreamed we’d go on island vacations. I don’t remember ever snorkeling again until 2010 when I traveled to a research station on San Salvador Island in the Bahamas where I’d teach a Caribbean literature course and where I’d start writing a novel about the sediment of history’s layers. The water shimmered aqua closer to shore, deepened to a dark blue farther out. In spite of how clear the water seemed, you had to beware rocks and lionfish, and you couldn’t know where the reefs were without sticking your head beneath the meniscus of the ocean. Locals and research station staff would give instructions for different reefs around the islan...

Last week, we sponsored the 11th annual Points Summer Book Club , a community discussion of Matthew Desmond's piercing Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City . We debated the causes of eviction, the effect on children, how to view landlords' role, and what this discussion means for a city like Dallas. The book club also included an event with the author, in a partnership with Southern Methodist University 's SMU Reads program . On Thursday, Desmond spoke to a crowd of more than 900 people, laying out his research and his experience with evictions' damaging effect on people's safety, family, jobs and mental health. "When you add all that up, we have to conclude that eviction -- which used to be rare in this country, which used to draw crowds — it's not just a condition of poverty, it's also a cause of it. And it's making it worse. It's leaving a deep and jagged scar on the next generation — which means that we can't fix poverty in A...

Employees at We-no-nah Canoe are used to working on boats. They don’t usually have to use them to get to work. The morning of Aug. 19, 2007, We-no- nah Canoe workers had to paddle to the Bundy Boulevard facility . The canoe finishing area and warehouse were underwater. So was much of Winona County . The floods claimed seven lives in Winona and Houston counties and damaged thousands of homes in the region. Dozens of roads and bridges were impassable as a result of high water, downed trees and mudslides. Starting late Saturday night , Winona County authorities began evacuating residents from Stockton, Elba, and campgrounds near Whitewater State Park . Areas of St. Charles, Goodview and Minnesota City were evacuated as rainwater rushed out of the bluffs and hills, turning creeks into torrents that washed away whatever was in their paths. Winona County Assessor Steve Hacken ’s office reported to the state in October 2007 that Winona County ’s flood-related property losses totaled $28.4...