Roy is author of the Booker-winning The God of Small Things as well as a keen observer of the worldwide social and economic shakeup known as globalization. Here she sets aside her usual role as essayist and appears in four long conversations with Alternative Radio journalist Barsamian. The interviews, conducted between February 2001 and May 2003, cover the period's dramatic political confrontations and her own beginnings as an activist and writer. The work's title refers to a comment of Roy's about a new kind of imperialism: "When people have realized that the project of corporate globalization is doing them no good, then it has to be forced down people's throats. If the checkbook doesn't work, it's the cruise missile." Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)