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Book excerpt: “Mother Mary Comes to Me” by Arundhati Roy

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Book excerpt: “Mother Mary Comes to Me” by Arundhati Roy


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Arundhati Roy, the Booker Prize-winning author of “The God of Small Things,” is now publishing her first memoir.

In “Mother Mary Comes to Me” (to be released September 2 by Scribner), Roy explores her formative and tumultuous relationship with her mother, and how it shaped her life and career.

Read an excerpt below. 


“Mother Mary Comes to Me” by Arundhati Roy

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She chose September, that most excellent month, to make her move. The monsoon had receded, leaving Kerala gleaming like an emerald strip between the mountains and the sea. As the plane banked to land, and the earth rose to greet us, I couldn’t believe that topography could cause such palpable, physical pain. I had never known that beloved landscape, never imagined it, never evoked it, without her being part of it. I couldn’t think of those hills and trees, the green rivers, the shrinking, cemented-over rice fields with giant billboards rising out of them advertising awful wedding saris and even worse jewelry, without thinking of her. She was woven through it all, taller in my mind than any billboard, more perilous than any river in spate, more relentless than the rain, more present than the sea itself. How could this have happened? How? She checked out with no advance notice. Typically unpredictable.

The church didn’t want her. She didn’t want the church. (There was savage history there, nothing to do with God.) So given her standing in our town, and given our town, we had to fashion a fitting funeral for her. The local papers reported her passing on their front pages, most national papers mentioned it, too. The internet lit up with an outpouring of love from generations of students who had studied in the school she founded, whose lives she had transformed, and from others who knew of the legendary legal battle she had waged and won for equal inheritance rights for Christian women in Kerala. The deluge of obituaries made it even more crucial that we do the right thing and send her on the way she deserved. But what was that right thing? Fortunately, on the day she died the school was closed and the children had gone home. The campus was ours. It was a huge relief. Perhaps she had planned that, too.

Conversations about her death and its consequences for us, especially me, had begun when I was three years old. She was thirty then, debilitated by asthma, dead broke (her only asset was a bachelor’s degree in education), and she had just walked out on her husband—my father, I should say, although somehow that comes out sounding strange. She was almost eighty-nine when she died, so we had sixty years to discuss her imminent death and her latest will and testament, which, given her preoccupation with inheritance and wills, she rewrote almost every other week. The number of false alarms, close shaves, and great escapes that she racked up would have given Houdini pause for thought. They lulled us into a sort of catastrophe complacency. I truly believed she would outlive me. When she didn’t, I was wrecked, heart-smashed. I am puzzled and more than a little ashamed by the intensity of my response.

     
Excerpted from “Mother Mary Comes to Me” by Arundhati Roy. Copyright © 2025 by Arundhati Roy. Reprinted with permission of Scribner, a division of Simon & Schuster.


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“Mother Mary Comes to Me” by Arundhati Roy

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Royal Expert reveals truth about Prince Harry’s rumoured Diana documentary

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Royal Expert reveals truth about Prince Harry’s rumoured Diana documentary


Prince Harry unlikely to revisit Diana’s story despite Netflix rumours?

Prince Harry is unlikely to move forward with a solo documentary about Princess Diana, despite growing rumours, claimed an expert.

Ever since the news of the Sussexes new Netflix deal broke, there are rumours that the couple might work on a new documentary surrounding Diana’s life.

If made, this documentary or film could threatened any hopes of reunion between Harry and Prince William, several royal experts have claimed.

Royal expert Jennie Bond dismissed the claims as “just rumours and wishful thinking by Netflix,” adding that Harry is unlikely to commercialise his mother’s life and death.

“I suspect these reports are just rumours and wishful thinking by Netflix. I doubt whether Harry would really want to commercialise his mother‘s life and death,” Bond told The Mirror.

She added, “August 31 will forever be a day of intense sadness for William and Harry,” adding, “You might imagine that, after all their shared pain at losing her, they would want to talk to one another about their feelings on such an important date.”

“No one else in the world knows what it was like to be the son of an iconic princess who died so tragically on that day,” she said, referring to Diana’s death anniversary.

“Sadly, however, I think their rift has become too deep and their lives so separated that they’ve become used to marking their mother’s death in their own, private way.

“I don’t think they will be sharing their thoughts or their feelings with each other. I don’t think there will be any phone calls or texts, even on such a sad day.”





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Big update on ‘The Devil Wears Prada’

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Big update on ‘The Devil Wears Prada’


‘The Devil Wears Prada’ major update on streaming service 

A sequel to The Devil Wears Prada is in the works, whose photos and clips often went viral on social media.

However, the update is not related to the upcoming film but to the original movie, which, over the years since its release, has become a cult classic.

According to Collider, the film is now available to stream on Hulu. Its logline reads, “An aspiring journalist, Andy (Hathaway), who has no idea what she is getting into while taking up an assisting job for New York’s biggest magazine editor, Miranda Priestly (Streep).”

“Andy quickly finds herself at the mercy of her diabolical editor and the power play of the fashion industry,” the synopsis said.

In the meantime, Emily Blunt, who has opted for red locks for the sequel’s shooting, said in 2018 about the forthcoming movie, “If everyone did it, I would be up for it. I almost hope it doesn’t because I think sometimes when you sequel everything kind of dilutes how special the original is.”

But in a later interview with The View, the actress clarified that she “would do [a sequel] in a heartbeat just to play with those guys again.”

Besides Emily, Anne Hathaway as Andy, Stanley Tucci as Nigel, Simon Baker as Christian, and Adrian Grenier as Nate.

Moreover, Gisele Bündchen as Serena, Tracie Thoms as Lily, Rich Sommer as Doug, Daniel Sunjata as James Holt, and James Naughton as Stephen.

The Devil Wears Prada sequel is expected to come out in 2026.





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“John’s Version”: John Fogerty on re-recording Creedence Clearwater Revival hits

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“John’s Version”: John Fogerty on re-recording Creedence Clearwater Revival hits


“It was life and death,” said musician John Fogerty. “I used to tell myself that phrase: ‘This is life and death.’ You’re against the whole world.”

He felt that as a young man: “Yes, oh yes. I mean, there’s a million records out there. It’s me against everybody that’s every recorded and ever will record. You’ve got to do a great job. It was either be great, or go home!”

You know how it turned out for Fogerty. “Great” is something of an understatement. That voice … that guitar … and those songs, so many of which became hits that are now classics. But Fogerty, who recently turned 80, says every time he steps up to the mic, he still has something to prove – and still feel a little nerve. “Oh yeah, yeah, every time!” he laughed. “But I think the nerves is what gives you the edge.

I asked, “How do you do that? What’s the magic there?”

“I wish I had a really great, contrived answer for you, but I don’t!” he laughed.

The answer seems quite simple when you watch Fogerty rehearse. There is love of craft, and love of family. (His sons, Shane and Tyler Fogerty, help lead his touring band.)

John Fogerty performing at the Beacon Theatre in New York City earlier this summer. 

CBS News


The group that put Fogerty on the charts was Creedence Clearwater Revival, which got its start in the late 1950s. Though a native of Northern California, Fogerty soaked up the rhythms of the South, giving birth to his so-called “swamp rock” sound, which he honed in the mid-’60s.

He recalled: “I received my honorable discharge from the Army. And the first line I wrote was, ‘Left a good job in the city, workin’ for the man every night and day.’ Well, of course that was the Army. I mean, it had just happened. But as I begin to strum, I started singing this phrase: ‘Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’ on the river.’ And at that point I’m, Well, what is this song? What is this? And I went to this songbook that I had just started keeping, and on the very first page, the very first entry, I had written the words ‘Proud Mary.’

“And I actually understood right then that I’d written a classic song, a really great, American song,” he said. “And a few moments later, ‘Oh my God. What if I never get to do this again? What if this is the only one that ever happens, and I’m a one-hit wonder?'”

proud-mary-notebook.jpg

CBS News


Turns out, Fogerty was anything but that. Yet, after the 1972 breakup of Creedence, his solo career became mired in legal battles. He was stunned to discover he no longer had control over the use of the songs he wrote – and a limited share of the profits.

Fogerty has looked on as others have endured similar challenges, and pain. The most famous current example: Taylor Swift, who earlier this year purchased the rights to her compositions, and won back control of her music.

I asked, “If you could pull her aside, John, and give her a piece of advice about how to get over the pain of a fight over your own music, what would you tell her?”

“Well, I don’t think you get over that kind of fight,” he replied. “What happened to me is, I stopped touring, and I stopped singing my own songs. I don’t recommend that move to anybody. You become invisible. You’re just forgotten about. It’s like you died.”

I asked Julie, his wife of 34 years, if she ever doubted that he would be able to pull himself out of that anger. “I think it was more sadness than anger,” she said. “And all he ever wanted to do in life was make music. That was his love. That was his best friend. And having that taken away and turned so bad was really hard for me to understand.”

Fogerty gives Julie credit for turning his life around. And she encouraged him not only to buy back the rights to his Creedence catalog, but to re-record those songs with his sons.  The result: a new album, “Legacy: The Creedence Clearwater Revival Years (John’s Version).”

Julie said, “Having those songs and being able to put his fist in the air and go, ‘I own those songs,’ I couldn’t think of a better gift than having him record these with friends and family.”

You can stream John Fogerty’s album “Legacy: The Creedence Clearwater Revival Years (John’s Version)” by clicking on the embed below (Free Spotify registration required to hear the tracks in full):

Since they were children, sons Shane and Tyler learned guitar from their father.  The new album is a family affair, but it’s also serious business. “I have the feeling that somehow Julie knew, she knew that at some point, the life-and-death John would kick in and I would have to roll up my sleeves,” Fogerty said. “‘Cause that’s what happened. And literally, this was kind of when the record was done, I think she told me, she said she could see me going back in time. With each one of these tracks, especially when I was doing the lead vocal, I had to remember what I felt like when I sang it the first time.”

And what a time it has been. For John Fogerty, the highs and lows have landed him here: at peace with it all, and lucky enough to have his songs still playing.

I asked, “What’s it like for you to hear your music everywhere, even now?”

“I don’t know the exact right words; I can almost not believe it actually happened, or that that was me,” he said. “It’s a prideful thing. I think it makes you feel really happy that you are able to tune into the radio station that God delivers, you know, and receive a song like ‘Proud Mary,’ and write it down, and even take credit for it, right? And then have it go around the world like that? It’s kind of too much to really be able to grab hold of.”

WEB EXCLUSIVE: Watch an extended interview with John Fogerty, and a performance of “Proud Mary”:



Extended interview: John Fogerty

21:43

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Story produced by Ed Forgotson. Editor: Jason Schmidt.

     
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