David Schwinghammer's Blog, page 15
September 18, 2015
Lafayette In the Somewhat United States
Lafayette was a married nineteen-year-old with a child who happened to be the richest orphan in France when he purchased a ship and sailed to America to join up with Washington and the American Revolution. The French tried to stop him as they had a precarious treaty with England after losing the French and Indian War. They were also in dire need of money.
To say that Lafayette was an idealist about the Americans is an understatement. He was not aware that there may have been just as many loyalists in America as revolutionaries. What he did have was a degree of humility. Vowell psychoanalyzes Lafayette quite often. The young orphan was looking for a father, and he found one in Washington, who was willing to overlook his pandering and impulsiveness. The humility was something the other French mercenaries, whom Franklin and the French foreign minister had recruited, under the table so to speak. They wanted high command. Most of them were sent packing or left on their own.
Vowell reviews several of the early battles. Two that stand out are Brandywine and Germantown. At Brandywine Washington forgot to cover or didn't know about some of the fords in the river and the British were able to get behind him and attack his flank. He was lucky to get away with most of his army intact. Germantown was another blunder, but when the French found out about it, they were impressed that Washington was willing to take the fight to a modern European army, and they were more inclined to agree to an alliance. That inclination became a reality when Benedict Arnold and Mad Anthony Wayne defeated Gentleman Johnny Burgoyne at the Battle of Saratoga.
Sarah Vowell is as much a satirist and smart aleck as she is a writer of popular histories. I first saw her on C-Span doing a reading and answering questions for her burgeoning fans. She insulted those wearing ugly sweaters in the front rows. She does that in this book as well. After the early battles of the Revolution, some of the members of the revolutionary government wanted to try one last time to get the king to intervene with Parliament. This effort was called the Olive Branch petition. George III never even read it. John Adams and John Dickenson stopped speaking to each other over the matter. Vowell interjects, “If two of the most distinguished, dedicated, and thoughtful public servants in the history of this republic could not find a way to agree to disagree, how can we expect the current crop of congressional blockheads to get along?”
The comparison to modern dysfunction comes up again when Vowell makes a case that the American rebels could not have won without France entering the war (It was their idea to blockade Yorktown from the sea; Washington wanted to recapture New York). Vowell was outraged when neocons during the Iraq war wanted to change the name of French fries to Freedom fries because the French voted against invading Iraq.
The book starts with Lafayette returning to the United States in 1824. He was the last surviving general to have fought in the Revolution. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were still alive. Two-thirds of the population of New York City showed up to cheer and shower him with accolades and mountains of swag. As many historical enthusiasts know, Lafayette rose to the rank of major general in short order after he arrived; he was also influential in convincing other European mercenaries, such as Von Steuben (who whipped Washington's army into shape) into coming to America. He also commanded two brigades at Yorktown.
To say that Lafayette was an idealist about the Americans is an understatement. He was not aware that there may have been just as many loyalists in America as revolutionaries. What he did have was a degree of humility. Vowell psychoanalyzes Lafayette quite often. The young orphan was looking for a father, and he found one in Washington, who was willing to overlook his pandering and impulsiveness. The humility was something the other French mercenaries, whom Franklin and the French foreign minister had recruited, under the table so to speak. They wanted high command. Most of them were sent packing or left on their own.
Vowell reviews several of the early battles. Two that stand out are Brandywine and Germantown. At Brandywine Washington forgot to cover or didn't know about some of the fords in the river and the British were able to get behind him and attack his flank. He was lucky to get away with most of his army intact. Germantown was another blunder, but when the French found out about it, they were impressed that Washington was willing to take the fight to a modern European army, and they were more inclined to agree to an alliance. That inclination became a reality when Benedict Arnold and Mad Anthony Wayne defeated Gentleman Johnny Burgoyne at the Battle of Saratoga.
Sarah Vowell is as much a satirist and smart aleck as she is a writer of popular histories. I first saw her on C-Span doing a reading and answering questions for her burgeoning fans. She insulted those wearing ugly sweaters in the front rows. She does that in this book as well. After the early battles of the Revolution, some of the members of the revolutionary government wanted to try one last time to get the king to intervene with Parliament. This effort was called the Olive Branch petition. George III never even read it. John Adams and John Dickenson stopped speaking to each other over the matter. Vowell interjects, “If two of the most distinguished, dedicated, and thoughtful public servants in the history of this republic could not find a way to agree to disagree, how can we expect the current crop of congressional blockheads to get along?”
The comparison to modern dysfunction comes up again when Vowell makes a case that the American rebels could not have won without France entering the war (It was their idea to blockade Yorktown from the sea; Washington wanted to recapture New York). Vowell was outraged when neocons during the Iraq war wanted to change the name of French fries to Freedom fries because the French voted against invading Iraq.
The book starts with Lafayette returning to the United States in 1824. He was the last surviving general to have fought in the Revolution. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were still alive. Two-thirds of the population of New York City showed up to cheer and shower him with accolades and mountains of swag. As many historical enthusiasts know, Lafayette rose to the rank of major general in short order after he arrived; he was also influential in convincing other European mercenaries, such as Von Steuben (who whipped Washington's army into shape) into coming to America. He also commanded two brigades at Yorktown.
September 9, 2015
Mr. Mercedes
I'm not a big horror fan, but Stephen King has always had the ability to hook the reader on the first page, so I've read my fair share of his novels and short story collections. MR. MERCEDES isn't really horror anyway. King's son, Joe Hill, must have influenced him to try the mystery genre, and that's what this book is.
King hooks us with these two likable characters, Augie Odenkirk and Janice Cray, who are both standing in the rain waiting for a job fair to open. A thousand people are to be hired and they're both desperate for work. Janice is so desperate she's brought her baby with her and it needs to be changed and fed. Augie loans her his sleeping bag. Just when she's all set, a Mercedes plows into the crowd. We're hoping Augie, our hero, and Janice and her baby aren't hurt, but that rat King won't let us have our way. So then who's this story about? King is a lot like John Sandford in that he lets you follow the killer throughout the book. This killer is a computer repairman, part-time ice cream salesman (That's how he gets to know the real hero of the book, a retired cop, named Bill Hodges, who's thinking of eating his father's hand gun). Brady Hartfield has seen him through the window. and he intuitively knows that's what Bill is doing. So he writes Bill a letter, signing it Mr. Mercedes. (BTW, that's a flaw in the book. Newspapers don't give serial murderers nicknames anymore like the Zodiac killer or Son of Sam. That's what they want, publicity. If they do, they'll hear from the police.) Brady's new target is Bill Hodges, and he wants to drive him to suicide, just as he's done with the owner of the Mercedes.
Brady Hartsfield is one sick puppy. He's got an Oedipus complex for one thing. He still lives with his mother, and he's got a man cave in the basement where he torments his future victims via the dark Internet. He's trying to get Bill to sign on to a site called “Debbie's Blue Umbrella”, but actually he's done Bill a favor; Bill now has a reason to live besides watching Judge Judy on TV: to track down this monster before he hurts somebody else.
Often divorced Bill also meets the owner of the Mercedes's sister, Janey. Mr. Mercedes has sent her sister a letter similar to the one Bill received. Bill is 62; Janey is 44 and beautiful. For some reason, she likes him, despite the age disparity. She hasn't had much luck with men, and Bill is a very nice man. She wants in on the search for the killer. So does Jerome, Bill's lawn boy, who also happens to be an all-American boy bent on being accepted at an Ivy league school. But he likes to pretend he's a field hand around Bill as he's an African-American. He's also adept at computers, and he helps Bill check out “Debbie's Blue Umbrella.” The last member of the group is Holly, whose mother was Mercedes owner Olivia Trelawney's sister. Holly ia forty-four years old but her mother, along with other bullies, has driven her to bat city She's got more ticks than a Rocky Mountain forest, but she's also computer literate, and she's brave and smart, despite her condition.
This book will keep you on the edge of your chair until the climax is over, and you'll keep reading to find out what happened to everybody after that. It even ends with a cliffhanger of sorts. Usually that's a no-no for me, but I would have read the next King mystery anyway.
King hooks us with these two likable characters, Augie Odenkirk and Janice Cray, who are both standing in the rain waiting for a job fair to open. A thousand people are to be hired and they're both desperate for work. Janice is so desperate she's brought her baby with her and it needs to be changed and fed. Augie loans her his sleeping bag. Just when she's all set, a Mercedes plows into the crowd. We're hoping Augie, our hero, and Janice and her baby aren't hurt, but that rat King won't let us have our way. So then who's this story about? King is a lot like John Sandford in that he lets you follow the killer throughout the book. This killer is a computer repairman, part-time ice cream salesman (That's how he gets to know the real hero of the book, a retired cop, named Bill Hodges, who's thinking of eating his father's hand gun). Brady Hartfield has seen him through the window. and he intuitively knows that's what Bill is doing. So he writes Bill a letter, signing it Mr. Mercedes. (BTW, that's a flaw in the book. Newspapers don't give serial murderers nicknames anymore like the Zodiac killer or Son of Sam. That's what they want, publicity. If they do, they'll hear from the police.) Brady's new target is Bill Hodges, and he wants to drive him to suicide, just as he's done with the owner of the Mercedes.
Brady Hartsfield is one sick puppy. He's got an Oedipus complex for one thing. He still lives with his mother, and he's got a man cave in the basement where he torments his future victims via the dark Internet. He's trying to get Bill to sign on to a site called “Debbie's Blue Umbrella”, but actually he's done Bill a favor; Bill now has a reason to live besides watching Judge Judy on TV: to track down this monster before he hurts somebody else.
Often divorced Bill also meets the owner of the Mercedes's sister, Janey. Mr. Mercedes has sent her sister a letter similar to the one Bill received. Bill is 62; Janey is 44 and beautiful. For some reason, she likes him, despite the age disparity. She hasn't had much luck with men, and Bill is a very nice man. She wants in on the search for the killer. So does Jerome, Bill's lawn boy, who also happens to be an all-American boy bent on being accepted at an Ivy league school. But he likes to pretend he's a field hand around Bill as he's an African-American. He's also adept at computers, and he helps Bill check out “Debbie's Blue Umbrella.” The last member of the group is Holly, whose mother was Mercedes owner Olivia Trelawney's sister. Holly ia forty-four years old but her mother, along with other bullies, has driven her to bat city She's got more ticks than a Rocky Mountain forest, but she's also computer literate, and she's brave and smart, despite her condition.
This book will keep you on the edge of your chair until the climax is over, and you'll keep reading to find out what happened to everybody after that. It even ends with a cliffhanger of sorts. Usually that's a no-no for me, but I would have read the next King mystery anyway.
August 27, 2015
The Girl on the Train
The three principal characters in THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN have much in common. They're not very likable, they're depressing, and they don't have much taste in men.
Rachel is the girl on the train. She's lost her job for drinking on the job. Her husband has left her for another woman, and to top matters off, he's had a baby with his new wife, with whom he was carrying on an affair while still married to Rachel. That's what broke up Rachel's marriage; she couldn't have a baby. She takes the train to work every day to fool her land lady roommate (the nicest woman in the book) into thinking she still has a job. The part about the train has to do with two people she sees almost every day on their veranda. She doesn't know them, but she convinces herself they're the happy couple. She even gives them names. They live a few doors down from where she used to live with her husband Tom.
The second woman is Megan. Megan lives with a horrible secret I won't reveal here. Let's say, psychologically, it has affected her. She's the woman in the ideal couple, but she's far from ideal. She sleeps around; she even makes a move on her therapist. It's not clear whether he sleeps with her, but Rachel does see them kissing from the train. Megan also winds up dead. That's the best part of the book as far as suspense is concerned. I read a lot of mysteries, and usually I can tell who did it within the first fifty pages, but there are several candidates here, and I didn't know who killed Megan until the author told me.
The third woman might be the creepiest of all. She had an affair with Tom and she knew he was married. She even reveled in it. The woman is close to a sociopath. She only cares about her own little world, her husband and her baby. When she is confronted with a physical threat she runs away. Some might argue that she's only protecting her baby, but it seems to be more than that. She also does something creepy during the denouement to someone who can't defend himself/herself.
I really don't see how this book has stayed on the best seller list for most of the year. As I said above, about the only redeeming quality is the “who done it” aspect. It's also hard to believe that Megan, who worked at an art gallery before it closed, would babysit for people she barely knew, that is unless you consider that the author needed her to. Her horrible secret also involves a baby. This is called author intrusion, and it's a bad “no no” for literary critics.
Rachel is the girl on the train. She's lost her job for drinking on the job. Her husband has left her for another woman, and to top matters off, he's had a baby with his new wife, with whom he was carrying on an affair while still married to Rachel. That's what broke up Rachel's marriage; she couldn't have a baby. She takes the train to work every day to fool her land lady roommate (the nicest woman in the book) into thinking she still has a job. The part about the train has to do with two people she sees almost every day on their veranda. She doesn't know them, but she convinces herself they're the happy couple. She even gives them names. They live a few doors down from where she used to live with her husband Tom.
The second woman is Megan. Megan lives with a horrible secret I won't reveal here. Let's say, psychologically, it has affected her. She's the woman in the ideal couple, but she's far from ideal. She sleeps around; she even makes a move on her therapist. It's not clear whether he sleeps with her, but Rachel does see them kissing from the train. Megan also winds up dead. That's the best part of the book as far as suspense is concerned. I read a lot of mysteries, and usually I can tell who did it within the first fifty pages, but there are several candidates here, and I didn't know who killed Megan until the author told me.
The third woman might be the creepiest of all. She had an affair with Tom and she knew he was married. She even reveled in it. The woman is close to a sociopath. She only cares about her own little world, her husband and her baby. When she is confronted with a physical threat she runs away. Some might argue that she's only protecting her baby, but it seems to be more than that. She also does something creepy during the denouement to someone who can't defend himself/herself.
I really don't see how this book has stayed on the best seller list for most of the year. As I said above, about the only redeeming quality is the “who done it” aspect. It's also hard to believe that Megan, who worked at an art gallery before it closed, would babysit for people she barely knew, that is unless you consider that the author needed her to. Her horrible secret also involves a baby. This is called author intrusion, and it's a bad “no no” for literary critics.
August 18, 2015
Go Set a Watchman
I wouldn't say GO SET A WATCHMAN is a rejected manuscript the author never would have wanted to publish, but it does need an edit, and it obviously got one. The result was TO KILL A MOCKINBIRD, and it was exponentially better.
The problems start when twenty-six-year-old Jean Louise returns from New York City to Maycomb for a two-week visit, as she does every year. The real Scout, Harper Lee, actually worked in New York as an airline clerk before her success as a novelist. The Supreme Court has just ruled on Brown vs. The Board of Education, and her relatives, including Atticus are not acting like they did when she was growing up. The Tom Robinson case is even mentioned, and that Atticus is not this Atticus. Uncle Jack is more of a featured character in this novel; he's a retired doctor who lives in his own world. He tries to explain to Jean Louise what is going on.
No only does the story need editing, but the writing could use some work. In one scene Scout is attending his first dance. Henry Clinton, a senior has asked her. She thinks it was Jem's idea, but he already has a crush on her. Anyway, Scout refers to the principal as Miss Muffett; she's really referring to Mr. Tuffett. Either that or she got confused during the first draft. We have all had nicknames for our principal, but Miss Muffett just doesn't work. Perhaps Old Lady Tuffett would have made her intentions more clear.
Calpurnia makes a brief appearance as well. At times she's the same old house keeper and substitute mother for Scout and Jem. She still calls Jean Lousie “Baby,” but at other times she looks straight through Jean Louise as if she's not there. You see, her grandson, Frank, is in trouble with the law. He ran over the town drunk and was arrested for manslaughter. Henry Clinton, Atticus's law partner, doesn't want to take the case. Atticus does want the job, to convince him to plead guilty and keep the NAACP lawyers from getting him off. Doesn't sound like Atticus, does it?
The ending is another disappointment. Not only is the Frank conflict go unresolved, but we get a bunch of hooey about how Jean Louise must learn to stand up to Atticus, and he's proud of her when she does. But the race question goes unanswered. I just thought it was unrealistic.
I have taught TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD sixteen times over my teaching career and never got sick of it. I was even criticized for not switching to another book. But I never found one that was half as good, and that includes some of the classics. After reading GOD SET A WATCHMAN we should all realize that we're dealing with one hell of a revisionist, or her editor was another Maxwell Perkins.
The problems start when twenty-six-year-old Jean Louise returns from New York City to Maycomb for a two-week visit, as she does every year. The real Scout, Harper Lee, actually worked in New York as an airline clerk before her success as a novelist. The Supreme Court has just ruled on Brown vs. The Board of Education, and her relatives, including Atticus are not acting like they did when she was growing up. The Tom Robinson case is even mentioned, and that Atticus is not this Atticus. Uncle Jack is more of a featured character in this novel; he's a retired doctor who lives in his own world. He tries to explain to Jean Louise what is going on.
No only does the story need editing, but the writing could use some work. In one scene Scout is attending his first dance. Henry Clinton, a senior has asked her. She thinks it was Jem's idea, but he already has a crush on her. Anyway, Scout refers to the principal as Miss Muffett; she's really referring to Mr. Tuffett. Either that or she got confused during the first draft. We have all had nicknames for our principal, but Miss Muffett just doesn't work. Perhaps Old Lady Tuffett would have made her intentions more clear.
Calpurnia makes a brief appearance as well. At times she's the same old house keeper and substitute mother for Scout and Jem. She still calls Jean Lousie “Baby,” but at other times she looks straight through Jean Louise as if she's not there. You see, her grandson, Frank, is in trouble with the law. He ran over the town drunk and was arrested for manslaughter. Henry Clinton, Atticus's law partner, doesn't want to take the case. Atticus does want the job, to convince him to plead guilty and keep the NAACP lawyers from getting him off. Doesn't sound like Atticus, does it?
The ending is another disappointment. Not only is the Frank conflict go unresolved, but we get a bunch of hooey about how Jean Louise must learn to stand up to Atticus, and he's proud of her when she does. But the race question goes unanswered. I just thought it was unrealistic.
I have taught TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD sixteen times over my teaching career and never got sick of it. I was even criticized for not switching to another book. But I never found one that was half as good, and that includes some of the classics. After reading GOD SET A WATCHMAN we should all realize that we're dealing with one hell of a revisionist, or her editor was another Maxwell Perkins.
August 11, 2015
The Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin
BLOODLANDS is about Stalin and Hitlers murder of fourteen million non-combatants between the early 1930's and 1945. The Bloodlands refer to the lands between eastern Germany and the part of Russia that Hitler invaded in 1941 when he broke the alliance with Russia.
Where to begin. Ideology and megalomania, if not psychosis, play a role. In the early thirties Stalin began his five-year plans by creating agricultural communes in the breadbasket of the Soviet Union, the Ukraine. Private farmers called kulaks lived there; it's not clear whether Stalin even asked them if they wanted to join communes. He just starved them out. Author Timothy Snyder claims 3.3 million peasants were murdered during that time. Stalin wanted to industrialize the USSR, and the big factory cities needed the grain. He also exported grain while his people were starving. Coincidentally perhaps (although I doubt it) his wife committed suicide at the same time.
Next came the great Terror of 1937-38. Westerners are familiar with the purge of intellectuals and political adversaries during this period, but Stalin also eliminated a further 700,000 national minorities. If you were sent to the Gulags in the early thirties you were lucky, but if you returned to the Ukraine in 1937, having served your time, you were targeted again.
Hitler had a utopian idea that he would invade Russia, kill or starve the Slavs living there and move German farmers into the area. That's the principal reason for breaking the pact, besides hating communists. The first part of the invasion of Russia was a blitzkrieg, just like his rapid defeat of the lowlands and France. Hitler's army took hundreds of thousands of Soviet prisoners and starved them to death in prison camps, that is unless he needed slave labor. Prior to the invasion of the USSR, Hitler had invaded Poland. He had to split Poland with the Soviets, but they both tried to eliminate the leadership: politicians, university professors, scientists, high school and elementary teachers.
Hitler had originally planned to deport the Jews. Snyder mentions Madagascar as a possible destination. That became an unrealistic destination once the war started because England ruled the seas. Something Americans don't realize is that there were very few jews in Germany, not even a million, but once Hitler invaded Poland and Russia he suddenly held sway over five million of them. Shooting Jews was the principal method of extermination during the original invasion of the USSR; they then moved to gassing them, using portable vans and carbon monoxide.
Around 1941, Hitler realized he wasn't going to be able to defeat the Soviets; they were starting to push back. But he could get rid of the jews, by gassing them. That was Himmler's idea and Hitler approved. Americans soldiers did release prisoners at several concentration camps where jews were gassed, but according to Snyder they didn't see the worst of it. That happened in the Bloodlands. Treblinka was not a concentration camp; it was built to kill jews. Auschwitz, the most famous of the concentration camps, was originally intended to be a work camp. I.G. Farbin needed slave laborers; only later were the gas chambers and crematoriums added. To realize the significance of the fourteen million number, which doesn't even include soldiers, that number is thirteen million more people than all of the deaths in all of the wars America has fought in its entire history.
At one point Snyder tries to explain how this mass murder could happen. He criticizes himself in that numbers are mentioned too much; the nazis killed eleven million people, about six million jews, and five million others, but the human mind can't grasp such a large figure. After a while it doesn't mean anything. Snyder recommends we try to individualize the people that died, and he makes a half-hearted attempt at doing so. A Jewish girl leaves a message for her mother on the wall of a synagogue as she's being burned alive. There's too little of that in this book. It's mostly depressing. The poor Ukrainians were massacred four times, in the early thirties by Stalin, again during the Great Terror, by Hitler who wanted “living room” for his farmers, and once again by Stalin who was afraid the Ukrainian partisans would be hard to control after the war.
You really can't explain how two monsters like Stalin and Hitler happened to exist at the same time in almost the same place, but several authors have taken a crack at it. Snyder recommends Hannah Arendt, author of ORIGINS OF TOTALITARIANISM and novelist Vasily Grossman, author of LIFE AND FATE and the incomplete EVERYTHING FLOWS. Grossman especially has become more and more popular throughout the years. LIFE AND FATE was published abroad in 1980.
Where to begin. Ideology and megalomania, if not psychosis, play a role. In the early thirties Stalin began his five-year plans by creating agricultural communes in the breadbasket of the Soviet Union, the Ukraine. Private farmers called kulaks lived there; it's not clear whether Stalin even asked them if they wanted to join communes. He just starved them out. Author Timothy Snyder claims 3.3 million peasants were murdered during that time. Stalin wanted to industrialize the USSR, and the big factory cities needed the grain. He also exported grain while his people were starving. Coincidentally perhaps (although I doubt it) his wife committed suicide at the same time.
Next came the great Terror of 1937-38. Westerners are familiar with the purge of intellectuals and political adversaries during this period, but Stalin also eliminated a further 700,000 national minorities. If you were sent to the Gulags in the early thirties you were lucky, but if you returned to the Ukraine in 1937, having served your time, you were targeted again.
Hitler had a utopian idea that he would invade Russia, kill or starve the Slavs living there and move German farmers into the area. That's the principal reason for breaking the pact, besides hating communists. The first part of the invasion of Russia was a blitzkrieg, just like his rapid defeat of the lowlands and France. Hitler's army took hundreds of thousands of Soviet prisoners and starved them to death in prison camps, that is unless he needed slave labor. Prior to the invasion of the USSR, Hitler had invaded Poland. He had to split Poland with the Soviets, but they both tried to eliminate the leadership: politicians, university professors, scientists, high school and elementary teachers.
Hitler had originally planned to deport the Jews. Snyder mentions Madagascar as a possible destination. That became an unrealistic destination once the war started because England ruled the seas. Something Americans don't realize is that there were very few jews in Germany, not even a million, but once Hitler invaded Poland and Russia he suddenly held sway over five million of them. Shooting Jews was the principal method of extermination during the original invasion of the USSR; they then moved to gassing them, using portable vans and carbon monoxide.
Around 1941, Hitler realized he wasn't going to be able to defeat the Soviets; they were starting to push back. But he could get rid of the jews, by gassing them. That was Himmler's idea and Hitler approved. Americans soldiers did release prisoners at several concentration camps where jews were gassed, but according to Snyder they didn't see the worst of it. That happened in the Bloodlands. Treblinka was not a concentration camp; it was built to kill jews. Auschwitz, the most famous of the concentration camps, was originally intended to be a work camp. I.G. Farbin needed slave laborers; only later were the gas chambers and crematoriums added. To realize the significance of the fourteen million number, which doesn't even include soldiers, that number is thirteen million more people than all of the deaths in all of the wars America has fought in its entire history.
At one point Snyder tries to explain how this mass murder could happen. He criticizes himself in that numbers are mentioned too much; the nazis killed eleven million people, about six million jews, and five million others, but the human mind can't grasp such a large figure. After a while it doesn't mean anything. Snyder recommends we try to individualize the people that died, and he makes a half-hearted attempt at doing so. A Jewish girl leaves a message for her mother on the wall of a synagogue as she's being burned alive. There's too little of that in this book. It's mostly depressing. The poor Ukrainians were massacred four times, in the early thirties by Stalin, again during the Great Terror, by Hitler who wanted “living room” for his farmers, and once again by Stalin who was afraid the Ukrainian partisans would be hard to control after the war.
You really can't explain how two monsters like Stalin and Hitler happened to exist at the same time in almost the same place, but several authors have taken a crack at it. Snyder recommends Hannah Arendt, author of ORIGINS OF TOTALITARIANISM and novelist Vasily Grossman, author of LIFE AND FATE and the incomplete EVERYTHING FLOWS. Grossman especially has become more and more popular throughout the years. LIFE AND FATE was published abroad in 1980.
July 17, 2015
The Annunciations of Hank Meyerson
Hank Meyerson has a problem with his brother, Carlton. Carlton is not only his step-father's favorite (he runs the family toy business); he was also a great athlete, although he falls short of making the majors.
Hank is also in love with Carlton's wife, June, and in the process of divorcing his own wife, Carol Ann. He handles the situation, in the middle of building a new bathroom for Carol Ann, by running away to Montana. Most of the story is set in Minnesota.
Hank is nowhere near the lout he thinks he is. He beat his brother, resoundingly, at tennis. He also has a masters degree in literature and is a professor, although he throws up in the middle of a lecture and never goes back.
The book is also about religion in a roundabout way. Hank and Carlton's real father deserted the family. Their step father is Jewish. Late in life, Hank learns he and Carlton were baptized Catholic and that Carlton is now taking Communion.
I forgot to mention that June loves Carlton back and while decorating a shower curtain they have sex. This is indirectly witnessed by a mentally disabled character who tells Carlton about it, only because he doesn't understand what they were doing. Terry is also an artist; his favorite thing to do is go to a museum and look at the Annunciation of Mary. It's a painting by a minor Renaissance artist depicting Mary being impregnated by a cloud (God); there's also a dove in the picture, but Hank thinks it looks like a duck.
Hank is also an expert on Emily Dickenson. She writes a peom or letter to a supposed lover she calls her “Master”. Dickenson did have a relationship with a Judge Lord but it's not clear whether it was ever consummated. She also had some kind of relationship with three other men. Hank thinks the “Master” is a composite. Hank arrives at the opinion that she was psychotic and he writes a paper on it.
Hank may be the one who's psychotic. He sees dead people, primarily his mother, who died in a car accident. He sees her and one of the other deceased characters in an airport, returning from delivering his paper on Emily in New York City. It's not clear whether he thought she was really there or a delusion, but she certainly sounds real.
If this sounds like a mishmash of a novel, it is, but it did win the Parthenon Prize, and author Scott Muskin makes sure the reader knows it.
Hank is also in love with Carlton's wife, June, and in the process of divorcing his own wife, Carol Ann. He handles the situation, in the middle of building a new bathroom for Carol Ann, by running away to Montana. Most of the story is set in Minnesota.
Hank is nowhere near the lout he thinks he is. He beat his brother, resoundingly, at tennis. He also has a masters degree in literature and is a professor, although he throws up in the middle of a lecture and never goes back.
The book is also about religion in a roundabout way. Hank and Carlton's real father deserted the family. Their step father is Jewish. Late in life, Hank learns he and Carlton were baptized Catholic and that Carlton is now taking Communion.
I forgot to mention that June loves Carlton back and while decorating a shower curtain they have sex. This is indirectly witnessed by a mentally disabled character who tells Carlton about it, only because he doesn't understand what they were doing. Terry is also an artist; his favorite thing to do is go to a museum and look at the Annunciation of Mary. It's a painting by a minor Renaissance artist depicting Mary being impregnated by a cloud (God); there's also a dove in the picture, but Hank thinks it looks like a duck.
Hank is also an expert on Emily Dickenson. She writes a peom or letter to a supposed lover she calls her “Master”. Dickenson did have a relationship with a Judge Lord but it's not clear whether it was ever consummated. She also had some kind of relationship with three other men. Hank thinks the “Master” is a composite. Hank arrives at the opinion that she was psychotic and he writes a paper on it.
Hank may be the one who's psychotic. He sees dead people, primarily his mother, who died in a car accident. He sees her and one of the other deceased characters in an airport, returning from delivering his paper on Emily in New York City. It's not clear whether he thought she was really there or a delusion, but she certainly sounds real.
If this sounds like a mishmash of a novel, it is, but it did win the Parthenon Prize, and author Scott Muskin makes sure the reader knows it.
July 3, 2015
Where'd You Go, Bernadette
Maria Semple was a writer for “Arrested Development,” “Ellen,” and “Mad About You” before becoming a novelist.
“Where'd You Go, Bernadette” is an epistolary novel with lots of back and forth e-mails, letters, and journal entries. The main characters are Bernadette and Elgin Branch and their daughter, Bee. They live in the Silicon Valley; Elgin works for Microsoft, as one of their brightest innovators. Bernadette gave up her architecture career to marry Elgin. She was so good she received the genius grant, and her “20 Mile House” was a precurser of the green movement. She basically used only materials from a twenty mile radius.
Bernadette had several miscarriages before a successful pregnancy with Bee. Bee had a heart disease, however. Bernadette and Elgin used Bernadette's genius money to buy a former school for troubled girls that stood high on a hill overlooking the city. Bernadette was not an easy person to get along with. Blackberry bushes grew below the house. A neighbor wanted them gone, but they served a purpose; when it rained in Seattle, they absorbed mud slides. Bernadette agreed to remove the bushes, but she also knew what would happen if she did. Bernadette refers to her neighbor and all the other mothers who go to Bee's school as “gnats”.
Then Bee gets the equivalent of all A's on her report card, and Elgin and Bernadette had promised she could pick where they went on vacation if she did. She picked Antarctica. They go but not in the order that one would expect. As the title implies, Bernadette disappears after Elgin has a tepid affair with one of the gnats, who now has a job working for him as an administrator.
The rest of the book deals with Antarctica, a cruise ship, several research vehicles, some of the scientists who work there, the different kinds of penguins, some of which are really mean, believe it or not. Don't try to pet one.
The theme of the book has to do with genius; Bernadette is the way she is because she gave up what she was good at, architecture, and Elgin didn't realize it until it was almost too late. Bernadette isn't always plotting against the gnats. She treats Bee more like a sister than a daughter and she can be funny, calling Bee a “little rotter.”
There's a blurb on the cover from Jonathan Franzen. Remember him? He didn't want to be picked for Oprah's book club because he was a literary writer. He says about WYGB, “I tore through this book with heedless pleasure,” pretty high praise from someone who is so self-absorbed. I didn't like it that much, but I thought Bernadette was an original character, somewhat of a rarity these days on the best-seller list.
“Where'd You Go, Bernadette” is an epistolary novel with lots of back and forth e-mails, letters, and journal entries. The main characters are Bernadette and Elgin Branch and their daughter, Bee. They live in the Silicon Valley; Elgin works for Microsoft, as one of their brightest innovators. Bernadette gave up her architecture career to marry Elgin. She was so good she received the genius grant, and her “20 Mile House” was a precurser of the green movement. She basically used only materials from a twenty mile radius.
Bernadette had several miscarriages before a successful pregnancy with Bee. Bee had a heart disease, however. Bernadette and Elgin used Bernadette's genius money to buy a former school for troubled girls that stood high on a hill overlooking the city. Bernadette was not an easy person to get along with. Blackberry bushes grew below the house. A neighbor wanted them gone, but they served a purpose; when it rained in Seattle, they absorbed mud slides. Bernadette agreed to remove the bushes, but she also knew what would happen if she did. Bernadette refers to her neighbor and all the other mothers who go to Bee's school as “gnats”.
Then Bee gets the equivalent of all A's on her report card, and Elgin and Bernadette had promised she could pick where they went on vacation if she did. She picked Antarctica. They go but not in the order that one would expect. As the title implies, Bernadette disappears after Elgin has a tepid affair with one of the gnats, who now has a job working for him as an administrator.
The rest of the book deals with Antarctica, a cruise ship, several research vehicles, some of the scientists who work there, the different kinds of penguins, some of which are really mean, believe it or not. Don't try to pet one.
The theme of the book has to do with genius; Bernadette is the way she is because she gave up what she was good at, architecture, and Elgin didn't realize it until it was almost too late. Bernadette isn't always plotting against the gnats. She treats Bee more like a sister than a daughter and she can be funny, calling Bee a “little rotter.”
There's a blurb on the cover from Jonathan Franzen. Remember him? He didn't want to be picked for Oprah's book club because he was a literary writer. He says about WYGB, “I tore through this book with heedless pleasure,” pretty high praise from someone who is so self-absorbed. I didn't like it that much, but I thought Bernadette was an original character, somewhat of a rarity these days on the best-seller list.
June 22, 2015
Gathering Prey
John Camp recently moved to New Mexico. As a result we can expect to see some drastic changes regarding Lucas Davenport and THE PREY series, but not quite yet.
One of the original complaints about the series was the high body count involved. Would a Bureau of Criminal Apprehension agent with that much blood on his hands be tolerated? Lately Lucas has been standing on his head, trying to avoid killing too many of the miscreants he deals with. Not in this one, and there's a reason for that which I'll get to later.
One of the recent developments in the series has been the addition of Letty, Lucas's adopted daughter, as a major character. She's a lot like Lucas and would like to be involved in law enforcement in some capacity. In this case, she meets a young girl, named Skye who is a Traveler. An old time word for her might be drifter. She and her friend Henry move from place to place doing odd jobs, singing on the streets and begging, then moving on to the next place. Originally I thought the synopsis meant Lucas was involved with the Irish Travellers, a group of Irish conmen and women, who ascend on unsuspecting homeowners in the North during the spring, offering to do roofing jobs and other home improvement jobs, such as sealing the driveway. But if you pay them, beforehand, they disappear. Skye and Henry would be more the drifter type.
The villain of this episode is a Charles Manson type named Pilate, who likes to hurt people. Pilate lures Henry into the group by promising him an acting job. Skye warns him that Pilate is evil, but he won't listen. What happens to Henry and ultimately Skye, brings Lucas into the picture. Here's another unfamiliar group for you, the Juggalos. Think the Grateful Dead. The Juggalos dress up in clown make-up and costumes, listen to music, take drugs, and bascially party. Lucas and Letty follow Skye to Wisconsin and ultimatley to the Upper Penisula in Michigan, first to save Skye (and Lettie), then (for Lucas) to deal with Pilate's violent cult.
Now for the ending. The new director of the BCA is a weasel named Henry Sands. He's upset about the body count and he wants Lucas gone. He's called a meeting to discuss this, but Lucas has already told him to stick it where the sun don't shine. As a result, I would expect the next Prey novel may be set in someplace like New Mexcio. I realize Tony Hillerman has already done that, but there's nothing that says Lucas (and Letty?) have to work for the state cops.
One of the original complaints about the series was the high body count involved. Would a Bureau of Criminal Apprehension agent with that much blood on his hands be tolerated? Lately Lucas has been standing on his head, trying to avoid killing too many of the miscreants he deals with. Not in this one, and there's a reason for that which I'll get to later.
One of the recent developments in the series has been the addition of Letty, Lucas's adopted daughter, as a major character. She's a lot like Lucas and would like to be involved in law enforcement in some capacity. In this case, she meets a young girl, named Skye who is a Traveler. An old time word for her might be drifter. She and her friend Henry move from place to place doing odd jobs, singing on the streets and begging, then moving on to the next place. Originally I thought the synopsis meant Lucas was involved with the Irish Travellers, a group of Irish conmen and women, who ascend on unsuspecting homeowners in the North during the spring, offering to do roofing jobs and other home improvement jobs, such as sealing the driveway. But if you pay them, beforehand, they disappear. Skye and Henry would be more the drifter type.
The villain of this episode is a Charles Manson type named Pilate, who likes to hurt people. Pilate lures Henry into the group by promising him an acting job. Skye warns him that Pilate is evil, but he won't listen. What happens to Henry and ultimately Skye, brings Lucas into the picture. Here's another unfamiliar group for you, the Juggalos. Think the Grateful Dead. The Juggalos dress up in clown make-up and costumes, listen to music, take drugs, and bascially party. Lucas and Letty follow Skye to Wisconsin and ultimatley to the Upper Penisula in Michigan, first to save Skye (and Lettie), then (for Lucas) to deal with Pilate's violent cult.
Now for the ending. The new director of the BCA is a weasel named Henry Sands. He's upset about the body count and he wants Lucas gone. He's called a meeting to discuss this, but Lucas has already told him to stick it where the sun don't shine. As a result, I would expect the next Prey novel may be set in someplace like New Mexcio. I realize Tony Hillerman has already done that, but there's nothing that says Lucas (and Letty?) have to work for the state cops.
June 12, 2015
Jack of Spades
JACK OF SPADES is an unusual mystery, even for Joyce Carol Oates. It's about an author of best-selling, traditional mysteries, a rung below Stephen King, whom he envies.
But then he begins writing noirish type mysteries that push the envelope. Andrew J. Rush uses a pseudonym to write them, Jack of Spades. He writes them after he's finished working on his Andrew J. Rush novels, well past midnight. He tells no one, not even his wife. They're much easier to write. It's almost as if they write themselves. Worse yet, Jack of Spades begins to talk to Andrew.
Then he gets a summons to appear in court. He's being sued by a woman who claims he's broken into her house and stolen her work, publishing it as his own. His publisher furnishes him with a lawyer, who makes good on his promise “to bury her.” But before the court date, the lawyer tells him not to call C.W. Haider. At this time, Andrew doesn't know why she's suing him. He calls her anyway, and she has a conniption fit.
What makes things easier for Andrew is that C.W. Haider has sued other famous authors: Stephen King, Peter Straub, even John Updike. John Updike? Come on lady! Andrew's lawyer tells him this sort of thing is par for the course; it's surprising he hasn't been sued before. Andrew gets unsolicited manuscripts all the time; he even reads them sometimes, and offers advice. He's asking for it, in other words.
Oates has a reputation for not answering all the questions a reader might have about what's going on in her stories, and that's the case here, too. Is this guy nuts? Does he have a split personality? It seems so. After the case is thrown out of court, he can't help but drive by C.W. Haider's house. Is this the sensible Andrew J. Rush who labors over almost every word, or is it Jack of Spades whose books Andrew barely remembers writing?
To further complicate matters, we learn that Andrew once had a brother who died under suspicious circumstances in a diving accident. Some people thought Andrew was responsible. Jack of Spades even writes about it.
Okay, here's the part that really bugs me. Andrew talks his way into C.W. Haider's house. He has a present for her, MISERY, one of Stephen King's books, with a snarky dedication to C.W. Haider, forged by Andrew or Jack or whomever. He finds all kinds of first editions in her library. Bram Stoker's DRACULA. THE IMP OF THE PERVERSE by Edgar Allen Poe. FRANKENSTEIN. Andrew collects rare books, but he doesn't have anything close to this. He takes some of them. He also finds Haider's old manuscripts and journals. Some of them sound an awful lot like the books she claimed other authors stole from her, and they predate the best sellers. Stephen King's THE SHINING; Peter Straub's GHOSTS; even John Updike's THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK, all under different titles but definitely the same ideas. There's even one of Andrew J. Haider's novels there, with a slightly different title.
What are we supposed to believe here, that John Updike stole THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK from an obscure old woman who's only publication was released by a vanity press? Andrew's answer is that she had the ideas but not the talent to make them publishable. That might happen with one book, but not with several different famous authors. Oates leaves this thread hanging.
I do like the theme that we are all plagued by childhood events, if not quite as traumatic as Andrew's, and that we all have a perverse nature like Jack of Spades. Think about it. Do we behave because we're afraid we'll get caught if we don't? Freud had a theory that the personality is made up of the id, the superego, and the ego. Most of us are rotten little kids at heart, but our conscience, the Superego, keeps us under control. But sometimes the Id needs to get what it wants, or we'd be miserable. We fall off our diet. We start smoking again after quitting for a year.
I think it's Andrew's Superego that wins out; he doesn't think he deserves what he has, and that's why Jack of Spades gets stronger and stronger.
But then he begins writing noirish type mysteries that push the envelope. Andrew J. Rush uses a pseudonym to write them, Jack of Spades. He writes them after he's finished working on his Andrew J. Rush novels, well past midnight. He tells no one, not even his wife. They're much easier to write. It's almost as if they write themselves. Worse yet, Jack of Spades begins to talk to Andrew.
Then he gets a summons to appear in court. He's being sued by a woman who claims he's broken into her house and stolen her work, publishing it as his own. His publisher furnishes him with a lawyer, who makes good on his promise “to bury her.” But before the court date, the lawyer tells him not to call C.W. Haider. At this time, Andrew doesn't know why she's suing him. He calls her anyway, and she has a conniption fit.
What makes things easier for Andrew is that C.W. Haider has sued other famous authors: Stephen King, Peter Straub, even John Updike. John Updike? Come on lady! Andrew's lawyer tells him this sort of thing is par for the course; it's surprising he hasn't been sued before. Andrew gets unsolicited manuscripts all the time; he even reads them sometimes, and offers advice. He's asking for it, in other words.
Oates has a reputation for not answering all the questions a reader might have about what's going on in her stories, and that's the case here, too. Is this guy nuts? Does he have a split personality? It seems so. After the case is thrown out of court, he can't help but drive by C.W. Haider's house. Is this the sensible Andrew J. Rush who labors over almost every word, or is it Jack of Spades whose books Andrew barely remembers writing?
To further complicate matters, we learn that Andrew once had a brother who died under suspicious circumstances in a diving accident. Some people thought Andrew was responsible. Jack of Spades even writes about it.
Okay, here's the part that really bugs me. Andrew talks his way into C.W. Haider's house. He has a present for her, MISERY, one of Stephen King's books, with a snarky dedication to C.W. Haider, forged by Andrew or Jack or whomever. He finds all kinds of first editions in her library. Bram Stoker's DRACULA. THE IMP OF THE PERVERSE by Edgar Allen Poe. FRANKENSTEIN. Andrew collects rare books, but he doesn't have anything close to this. He takes some of them. He also finds Haider's old manuscripts and journals. Some of them sound an awful lot like the books she claimed other authors stole from her, and they predate the best sellers. Stephen King's THE SHINING; Peter Straub's GHOSTS; even John Updike's THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK, all under different titles but definitely the same ideas. There's even one of Andrew J. Haider's novels there, with a slightly different title.
What are we supposed to believe here, that John Updike stole THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK from an obscure old woman who's only publication was released by a vanity press? Andrew's answer is that she had the ideas but not the talent to make them publishable. That might happen with one book, but not with several different famous authors. Oates leaves this thread hanging.
I do like the theme that we are all plagued by childhood events, if not quite as traumatic as Andrew's, and that we all have a perverse nature like Jack of Spades. Think about it. Do we behave because we're afraid we'll get caught if we don't? Freud had a theory that the personality is made up of the id, the superego, and the ego. Most of us are rotten little kids at heart, but our conscience, the Superego, keeps us under control. But sometimes the Id needs to get what it wants, or we'd be miserable. We fall off our diet. We start smoking again after quitting for a year.
I think it's Andrew's Superego that wins out; he doesn't think he deserves what he has, and that's why Jack of Spades gets stronger and stronger.
June 8, 2015
Our Souls at Night
Kent Haruf recently died, but not before he left us with one last effort, OUR SOULS AT NIGHT, more of a novella than a full blown novel. In this work, Haruf offers the same compassion as he did in the first book of his that I read, PLAINSONG, one of the best books I've read since I retired in the nineties.
Once again the setting of the story is Holt, Colorado. In a bit of humor Louis Waters, one of the main characters, mentions PLAINSONG, claiming the unnamed Haruf used the town name and street names but that Louis had never heard of any bachelor farmers taking in a pregnant girl.
This work is about Louis and Addie Moore, two senior citizens who decide to live together. Addie can't stand the loneliness and wants someone to sleep with at night, although not in the traditional way, at first anyway. When she asks him, Louis doesn't know what to say, but it doesn't take too long to answer in the affirmative. She's a goods-looking woman for seventy-something, although she's a little thick in the middle.
The story picks up steam when Addie's son, Gene, leaves his son, Jamie, to live with his grandmother, while he deals with a separation from his wife and his business which is nearing bankruptcy. He doesn't like it one bit that Louis is living with his mother. Louis teaches the boy to play catch, gets him a dog from the Humane Center. He'd been crying when he first arrived, but they cheer him up quite a bit.
It's rather hard to believe that the town gossips and busybodies would object to two senior citizens living together, but some of them do. We learn why Gene is the way he is. Who doesn't play catch with his kid? Connie, Addie's daughter was run over and killed by a car when Gene was only a little boy, and he blamed himself; he'd been chasing her with a water house during a hot day, and she ran into the street. From that moment on Gene's father lost interest in him and his mother; it had been ten years since she'd been with a man when she came to see Louis. Louis has some blips in his background as well, having cheated on his wife. But they definitely fit; fate is a sly dog when it comes to romance. Why couldn't it have arranged for these two to meet when they were young?
Haruf has a few other lessons for us. The two go skinny dipping, for instance. Undignified, you say. I guess you haven't heard that seventy is the new fifty.
If Haruf's spirit is still hanging around someplace, I'd just like to say thank you for PLAINSONG and his other three books, which are almost as good. Waters says there are theatrical versions of four of his novels. I wouldn't doubt it a bit.
Once again the setting of the story is Holt, Colorado. In a bit of humor Louis Waters, one of the main characters, mentions PLAINSONG, claiming the unnamed Haruf used the town name and street names but that Louis had never heard of any bachelor farmers taking in a pregnant girl.
This work is about Louis and Addie Moore, two senior citizens who decide to live together. Addie can't stand the loneliness and wants someone to sleep with at night, although not in the traditional way, at first anyway. When she asks him, Louis doesn't know what to say, but it doesn't take too long to answer in the affirmative. She's a goods-looking woman for seventy-something, although she's a little thick in the middle.
The story picks up steam when Addie's son, Gene, leaves his son, Jamie, to live with his grandmother, while he deals with a separation from his wife and his business which is nearing bankruptcy. He doesn't like it one bit that Louis is living with his mother. Louis teaches the boy to play catch, gets him a dog from the Humane Center. He'd been crying when he first arrived, but they cheer him up quite a bit.
It's rather hard to believe that the town gossips and busybodies would object to two senior citizens living together, but some of them do. We learn why Gene is the way he is. Who doesn't play catch with his kid? Connie, Addie's daughter was run over and killed by a car when Gene was only a little boy, and he blamed himself; he'd been chasing her with a water house during a hot day, and she ran into the street. From that moment on Gene's father lost interest in him and his mother; it had been ten years since she'd been with a man when she came to see Louis. Louis has some blips in his background as well, having cheated on his wife. But they definitely fit; fate is a sly dog when it comes to romance. Why couldn't it have arranged for these two to meet when they were young?
Haruf has a few other lessons for us. The two go skinny dipping, for instance. Undignified, you say. I guess you haven't heard that seventy is the new fifty.
If Haruf's spirit is still hanging around someplace, I'd just like to say thank you for PLAINSONG and his other three books, which are almost as good. Waters says there are theatrical versions of four of his novels. I wouldn't doubt it a bit.
