Richard Crasta, Author

When Americans refer to people like me as "East Indian," we sometimes resent the historical silliness that has resulted in someone calling us that. "We're not East Indian, we're just Indian," we think. And yet, American Indians have far more reason to feel pissed off at how accidents of history (aided by superior firepower) have ended up not only in making them live in reservations inside their own country, but in making them think of themselves as "Indian." What surprised me on reading my first Sherman Alexie book (just 80 pages through, a startlingly good book, "The Toughest Indian in the World"--wise, complex, funny) is that Native Americans also think of themselves as brown (Indians--some Indians--think of themselves as brown, because, though India is a mixture of many races and a rainbow hue of colors, a majority of us do indeed have skin that is neither very pale or red nor very dark or ebony, but somewhere between wheat and co...

I have recently decided to make more of my digital books available as paperbacks, as I realize many readers either refuse to read e-books or greatly prefer physical books. I, too, delight in the pleasure of turning pages, making markings, and the smell and feel of a new book; and, deep in my heart, I have always known that the paper book will never die. If I could afford them, I would have both kinds at my disposal. Below, for your convenience (as the search function may not turn up all my books), are the links to my paperbacks on Amazon (also available at a few other sites). However, I would greatly prefer (if you could afford it) that you buy my books direct from Createspace including my " Benny Profane " books, as Amazon and other retailers take a big cut out of an author's royalties, and independent writing is a tough profession for all but the top 1% by sales (who are often very different from the top 1% by quality): FICTION AND NONFICTION: The Last Catholic C...

When a young Indian named Mohandas Gandhi went to South Africa as a fortune-hunting lawyer, he, thanks to an inbuilt sense of fairness and justice, refused to back down when slapped on the face with an unfair law: “No blacks and Indians allowed in First Class railway compartments.” The incident changed his life. A rising yuppie lawyer, he was transformed into a freedom fighter heedless of his personal wealth, and interested purely in battling injustice and gaining freedom for oppressed people. I, who am no saint in most aspects of my life, did, over a longer period, come to a certain discovery that changed my literary career and perhaps my life.  I came to America to study and for the freedom to be who I really was.  American universities were spacious, generous, and open-minded. Until I arrived in America, I did not know how to distinguish between good literature and trash; I had read very few of the great works. In America, at two different universities, one of wh...