Ideas and Information for Readers Dear Friends, December 2007 “Our 17 th Year” TAKING STOCK. As each year ends and a new one begins, always a high-profile time marker, many of us Reviews in This Issue are inclined to think about the last year, ponder the new one, and simply take inventory of ourselves and the • Stanley • Legacy o(JfeAals) hes (Weiner) world we live in. A reckoning in this respect always seems to result in a mixed bag. This citizen is highly • Indian Summer (Von Tunzelmann) concerned about the diminishment of core values—family, faith, and duty/accountability—in America, elated • Tipperary (Delaney) • Cool It by the overwhelming generosity and kindness of so many people, distressed by the stinging, destructive (Lomborg) partisanship by elected officials of all stripes, comforted by the love of family and friends, and profoundly • Running the Table • Statecraft (Ross) (Wertheim) grateful for our countless blessings… and for being born and living in America. • The Wild Trees (Preston) BEING BUSY. A common response when you ask someone, “How are you doing?” includes a rolling • Priest (Bruen) of the eyes, a little body language, and a comment such as, “I’m really busy!” I’ve seen this so much • The Tenderness of Wolves (Penney) • Power Play (Finder) that I’ve begun to wonder exactly why everyone is so busy. Are we busier now than we were 10, 20, 30 • Lone Survivor (Luttrell) years ago, and if so, why? Remember all the talk about a 35-hour work week on the heels of major • The Phantom Warrior (Johns) technological improvements and better productivity? I started asking people these questions and, to a • Containment (Shapiro) person, the responses were: (1) Yes, we are busier and (2) the principal reason is cell phones and other • It Never Rains in Tiger Stadium (Bradley) electronic paraphernalia. If this is true I presume we can conclude that the gadgets designed to free us • End Games (Dibdin) • The First Wave (Benn) have snarled us? Could be, but I think it’s a little more complicated than this, perhaps centered on the • Playing For Pizza (Grisham)

S availability of so many choices, a bloated menu of options, and the attempt to partake in too many things. • Songs Without Words (Packer)

E Overprogramming. And with so many distractions, time is a precious commodity and where busyness • Agent Zigzag (Macintyre)

N overwhelms and the cries of “I don’t have time!” persist, I think about the following in Life’s Little • Ike: An American Hero (Korda)

I • The Age of Turbulence Instruction Book (Brown): “Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of (Greenspan)

L • Exit Ghost (Roth) hours per day that were given to Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Helen Keller, Leonardo da Vinci, • The Great Upheaval (Winik)

E Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.” • Dead Heat (Francis) • What Hath God Wrought (Howe) H THE ART OF LISTENING. Yes, listening is an art and, yes, people simply are not very good at it. • Fieldwork (Berlinski) T Without effective listening, there is no communication and, for this reason, exhortations to listen are ages • Two Years in St. Andrews (Peper) old, right from the Old Testament’s “They have ears but listen not.” Boredom is certainly a barrier to • Play Dirty (Brown) N good listening (some folks simply go on endlessly, usually about nothing), but the biggest hurdle for us is • Eat, Love, Pray (Gilbert) E that while ostensibly listening, we are inwardly preparing a statement to stun the audience when we get • The Heir (Bradford) E • A Much Married Man (Coleridge) the floor, formulating our own brilliant response. While we’re doing this, of course, we are simply not • Tony Duquette (Goodman/Wilkinson) W tracking. I still have an old term paper (yellowing at this point) from college on the subject of listening • . . . and more T and the following quote appears on page 1: “Our lives would be longer and richer if we were to spend a

E Features greater share of them in the tranquil hush of thoughtful listening. We are a noisy lot; and of what gets said • The Sports Page B

. among us, far more goes unheard and unheeded than seems possible. We have yet to learn on a grand • Jane’s Selections scale how to use the wonders of speaking and listening in our own best interests and for the good of all • TRE Favorites. . . A Decade Ago . • Historical Novels our fellows. It is the finest art still to be mastered by men.” (Your Most Enchanted Listener, Wendell • Philip Roth on Cell Phones . Johnson, 1956). We were, apparently, created with two ears and only one mouth for a purpose. • Latin Expressions G OUR WISH LIST. • . . . and more

N The number of items on our wish list seems to grow each year, perhaps a sign of the

I times. We are wishing for your health and happiness, for a fireplace, a quiet evening of conversation with THE D family and friends, and a great book to take you a world away, for peace and understanding among QUA RTERLY A people throughout the world, for more displays of gratitude and grace, for more laughter, and for more

E adherence to Henry James’ advice when he listed the three most important things in the world: “The first PUBLICATION

R is to be kind. The second is to be kind, and the third is to be kind.” We send our best wishes for a Merry FOR Christmas and a Happy New Year! READERS Sincerely, Subscribers-Only Password: BY AUSTEN READE RS Winter 2007-2008 Until March 2008 Stephen H. Ackerman www.the-readers-exchange.com Volume XVII Issue 4 Publisher ©2007 The Readers Exchange BOOK REVIEWS

TITLE Reviews and Ratings: Book reviews are written by the Publisher (SHA) or by one of the Contributing AUTHOR, NO. OF PAGES, Editors and attributed accordingly. The 0-10 rating system was developed to provide some sense of YEAR OF PUBLICATION, the level of satisfaction of a book compared with other books. This is not a sophisticated evaluation. PUBLISHER AND RATING The rating is based on writing, storytelling ability, and the overall impact of each reading experience.

STANLEY Stanley Subtitled, “The Impossible Life of Africa’s Greatest Explorer,” is an exceptional biography of TIM JEAL Henry Morton Stanley (1841-1904). There have been many biographies of Stanley, but this one by (2007, 475pp, British author Tim Jeal, who profited from an immense amount of new Stanley material, has to be the Yale University) best informed and the most complete and readable. Jeal makes it clear that much of what we have been 10 told about Stanley and, in fact, much of what he wrote himself, was wrong. His real name was not Henry Morton Stanley, he was not an American, he did not actually utter the famous line, “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” (he made it up later for effect), he did not commit heinous crimes against the people of the Congo, and he was only an unwitting accomplice of King Leopold II of Belgium in establishing the brutal rule of the Congo. He was born John Rowlands in Denbigh, Wales and spent most of his youth in a workhouse. He made his way to America where he worked, joined the Confederate army, fought at the battle of Shiloh, was captured and imprisoned, later fought for the Union, returned to Wales, and The New York subsequently, at age 31, got a break when he persuaded James Gordon Bennett II of Herald that he could make headlines by finding David Livingstone. The book then covers, in riveting detail, Stanley’s three major African expeditions: (1) The search for Livingstone (1871-72), (2) the great Trans-Africa journey (1874-77), traversing the continent from east to west to learn the secrets of the central African watershed, and (3) the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition (1887-89), traversing African from west to east. The story of Stanley’s explorations, the advent of colonialism, his exposure of and public opposition to the brutal Arab-Swahili slave trade, underscores his enormous accomplishments in the charting and opening of Central Africa. Great book and highly recommended. (SHA)

LEGACY OF ASHES: Legacy of Ashes In November, it was announced that had won the National Book Award for THE HISTORY OF THE CIA Nonfiction. At the final gathering of President Eisenhower’s National Security Council in early TIM WEINER 1961, CIA Director, Allen Dulles claimed that he had corrected the deficiencies in the clandestine (2007, 516pp, service and that everything there was now well in hand. Eisenhower exploded in anger and Doubleday) frustration, stating that, “The structure of our intelligence organization is faulty,” that, “I have 10 suffered an eight-year defeat on this,” and that he would, “leave a legacy of ashes” to his successor. Author Tim Weiner, who has written on American intelligence for 20 years and won Legacy of Ashes the Pulitzer Prize for his work on secret national security programs, explains in Author’s Note, that the CIA has been dysfunctional right from the start. In his Weiner states Legacy of Ashes that “ is the record of the first 60 years of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). It describes how the most powerful country in the history of Western civilization has failed to create a first-rate spy service. That failure constitutes a danger to the national security of the United States.” Tracing its history from its origins as a successor to the OSS after World War II, Notes Weiner meticulously (there are 154 pages of appended) describes the CIA’s adventures and misadventures under a stream of CIA directors and 11 presidents. The book, a riveting read, represents a ringing indictment of the CIA that has continued to this day. Mismanaged and misdirected by a number of ill-suited directors, and pressured by presidents, the CIA went astray by devoting a disproportionate share of its assets to covert actions rather than securing information. Weiner states that the CIA’s proper functions of gathering intelligence languished, leading to serious consequences for the country, while the Agency took actions to topple presidents, influence elections, plan assassinations, and generally to change the world without fully understanding the Legacy of Ashes implications. is an excellent work, well-researched, highly readable, and strongly recommended. (SHA) 2 BOOK REVIEWS

THE GREAT UPHEAVAL: Jay Winik is an historian of spellbinding talent. He combines a flair for seeing the biggest of AMERICA AND THE BIRTH pictures, asking the biggest of questions, describing the most engaging of personalities, and— OF THE MODERN WORLD best of all—of telling a grand narrative with exquisite drama. While he clearly has superior JAY WINIK innate skills, he also is blessed with extensive formal training in history (he has a Yale Ph.D. (2007, 659pp, in the field) and he has seen governments in action both from the ground and from the Harper) decision-making level (he worked in the Defense Department for Secretary Les Aspin, 1993- 9+ 1994, with special responsibility for managing revolutions, then in South America and the Mideast). Hence he is a student and a practitioner of revolutions. And he is always, whether quietly or frontally, asking what is for him the big question: Why do so many revolutions fail, ending in bloodshed or despotism or both, and why is the American Revolution, even with the April 1865 Civil War, such a rare success. In 2001, Winik’s (a marvelous book) gave his answer as to how the American Revolution could withstand something as massive and terrible The Great Upheaval, as the Civil War. Now in 2007 with he gives a number of answers as to how the fragile American Revolution’s baby years could survive the turmoil that gripped the world from 1788-1800, first in France (a terrible revolution and then a terrible despotism) and then in Russia (where a feeble attempt at enlightenment gave way to full-scale repression), all of these upheavals punctuated by continuous warfare in Europe, the Mideast, and the seas. Winik’s huge geopolitical canvas stars some of history’s greatest figures—Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, Robespierre, Marie Antoinette, Danton, Catherine The Great, and Potemkin to name but a few, including of course, and playing a leading role, Napoleon. The book’s structure alternates repeatedly from America to France to Russia; the reader has the choice of reading it as three books or, as Winik would have you believe, one seamless tapestry wherein the events of one country bleed into the other. (Contributing Editor William Lilley III, Washington, DC) Pronunciation...... FOR THE CAREFUL SPEAKER The Big Book of Beastly Mispronunciations, is an enlightening and enjoyable reference work by Charles Harrington Elster. Readers, we believe, really do care how to pronounce words as well as how to use them. Many of us mispronounce words frequently and other people do notice. So, here are a few of Elster’s entries to build your confidence in the art of pronunciation. PARAPLEGIC Paraplegic par-uh-PLEE-jik. Do not say par-uh-puh-LEE-jik. has four syllables. Do not add a fifth. VERTEBRAE VUR-tun-BREE, not VUR-tuh-bray. WILLAMETTE (Oregon River) wi-LAM-it. The accent is on the second syllable. Do not say wil-uh-MET. TYRANNICAL ti-RAN-i-kul, not ty-RAN-i-kul. THEATER THEE-uh-ter. Properly, this word has three syllables, but when pronounced quickly in the flow of conversation it often comes out in two THEER-tur. TÊTE-A-TÊTE TAYT-uh-TAYT (recommended) or TET-ah-TET (“more French”). Both pronunciations are acceptable EBULLIENT Ebullient i-BUHL-yint or i-BUUL-yint. should be pronounced in three syllables. u bulk or bull. In the second accented syllable, the u may have the sound of the in

3 BOOK REVIEWS

INDIAN SUMMER Subtitled, “The Secret History of the End of an Empire,” British writer Alex Von Indian Summer ALEX VON TUNZELMANN Tunzelmann’s chronicles the events leading up to and those immediately (2007, 323pp, after Indian independence from Great Britain. At midnight on August 15, 1947, 400 Henry Holt) million people were liberated from the British Empire and, with the loss of India, 9 Britain’s empire was substantially diminished. The transfer of power from Great Britain to the new nations of India and Pakistan was an epic event, but also, a tragic one as some one million people died in sectarian violence among the Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs. Historians will no doubt look elsewhere for the more detailed accounts of events surrounding Indian independence since Von Tunzelmann, while outlining the historic events, focuses on the personalities and relationships of the political figures involved. These were, notably, Mohandas Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Mohammad Ali Jinnah (who would lead Pakistan), and British Viceroy Louis “Dickie” Mountbatten and his dynamic wife, Edwina, who were sent to get Britain out of India. Included in these relationships was the passionate love affair that unfolded between Nehru and Edwina, well known by Indian Summer and, in fact, endorsed by Dickie. was a lively and enjoyable read, a fine combination of historical reporting and personal observations and analyses of the people who were at the center of these epic changes. India remained a Dominion of the Crown until 1950 when it became a Republic. Pakistan proclaimed itself a Republic in 1956, but continued in turmoil until the 1971 Pakistan Civil War and the splintering off of East Pakistan into the nation of Bangladesh. (SHA) THE WILD TREES: In 1923, British adventure writer John Buchan complained that the “morning freshness has A STORY OF PASSION gone out of the business of exploration.” He would have been as shocked as I was to learn AND DARING that there is a whole new geography—unexpected and unexplored—right at the heart of New Yorker RICHARD PRESTON one of our most densely populated states. writer, Preston writes about four (2007, 320pp, decades of death defying canopy trekking and exploration in the new mini-continent at the Random House) top of California’s redwood forest. An odd-ball group of college kids and hippies began 8 climbing these trees in the 60’s with nothing more than a thrill and a good view in mind. Until then, everyone thought tree tops were deserts. Instead they found unheard of biodiversity—a “coral reef in the air”—fern gardens, huckleberries, salamanders, sea insects, and legions of unknown species fed by nitrogen and water in the atmosphere. Totally captivated, Steve Sillett becomes a botanist and the closest thing to our ancestral primate. Using spider rigs and tree boats, he sleeps, makes love, and marries in a tree while mapping the canopy. His colleague, Michael Taylor, sells kitchen knives and trades on EBay to support his obsession with finding the world’s tallest tree. This is tame stuff for Preston, who is best known for writing meticulously researched science thrillers like Hot Zone about ghoulish diseases and bioterrorism. But he has fun here making us gasp at the many horrific ways there are to die falling out of a tree. The book sags a little under the weight of uninspired dialogue and I never care as much as I’d like to about any of his characters. But he injects so much excitement and wonder into the story of exploration that I began to think “morning freshness” may be in the eye of the beholder. (Contributing Editor Connie Rogers, Brooklyn, NY)

4 Historical Novels

Many TRE subscribers have told us of their love of historical novels. There is certainly something appealing about the combination of history and fiction, enlivening the history through the author’s imaginings of the human factors. Historical novels can be highly satisfying, and we have listed below a few of our favorites for your reference. (SHA)

THE END OF THE HUNT combination of reading well as a novel and informatively as (Thomas Flanagan) a textbook. Tsar Nicholas II was the last of the Romanovs The events in this wonderful historical novel occur between and his wife Alexandra was a German princess, a fact 1919 and 1923, first following the course of Ireland’s war which was to do her great harm during World War I. The for independence from England and then the Civil War. book is about their love affair, their children, their life in Flanagan gives us a vivid historical interpretation and a Imperial Russia, and their ultimate murder. Massie tells how well-drawn portrait of Ireland. Through the principal Alexandra’s life was consumed with their son’s hemophilia characters, the reader gets an insight into just how a small and how she turned to the evil Siberian faith healer Gregory group of poorly armed rebels were able to bring the British Rasputin for help, and ultimately for advice on governing Empire to the bargaining table, the negotiations leading to Russia as well. the Treaty, and finally to the tragic Civil War. THE KILLER ANGELS DEPTHS OF GLORY (Michael Shaara) (Irving Stone) Winner of the Pulitzer This is just one of numerous wonderful books by Irving Prize for Fiction in 1974, this great Stone ( Agony and the Ecstasy, Lust for Life, and Those Who novel of the Civil War describes the Battle Love, to name a few others), who was certainly one of the of Gettysburg through the eyes of the best historical novelists. Depths of Glory is about the great officers and men who fought on that artist Camille Pissarro, a leader of the French Impressionists battlefield. The battle at Gettysburg was who came to Paris in 1855. Stone evokes the character and fought over three days (July 1-3, 1863), life of Pissarro, and life in France in the second half of the and was perhaps the most important 19th century. battle of the Civil War. The book provides a personalized account of the NAKED CAME I; war, the reasons for and the human aspects of the war, and A NOVEL OF RODIN excellent character portrayals of the key commanders. (David Weiss) Gettysburg, where 55,000 Americans died, took on new This is a superb historical novel which meaning for me after reading this book. simply brought Auguste Rodin to life for me. The book is about his life, his THE LAST HERO and LORD OF THE KONGO obsessions and intractability, his (Peter Forbath) relationships with family and I first read Peter Forbath’s The Last Hero, a superb friends, and about Paris and the arts historical novel about a Henry Morton Stanley Congo in the late 19th—early 20th century. expedition in 1887 to rescue Emin Pasha, governor of His life (1841-1917) and artistic struggles Britain’s only province in Central Africa, and then went on coincided with those of his friends and to read Lord of the Kongo, also an excellent historical novel fellow artists Manet, Degas, Fantin-Latour, set in Africa in the 1482-1502 period. While seeking a route Monet, Renoir, and many others, and the portrait of this era around the southern tip of Africa to the Indies, Portuguese in France is beautifully drawn in Naked Came I. explorers discovered the Kongo and this story is about a Portuguese cabin boy who is stranded when his ship sails NICHOLAS AND ALEXANDRA without him, but he survives and wins the trust of the (Robert K. Massie) natives. When the Portuguese return years later, there is a Robert Massie is a great historical novelist ( Peter the Great, fatal collision between European and African culture and Dreadnought, and others) and this book has that wonderful the advent of slavery.

5 BOOK REVIEWS

PRIEST Priest was a rare, one-sitting read for me, and thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish. Irish KEN BRUEN writer, Ken Bruen lives in Galway and has been a finalist for the Edgar, Anthony, and Barry Priest, (2006, 290pp, Awards; and has won a Macavity Award and a Shamus Award for the Jack Taylor series. St. Martin’s Press) another installment in the Jack Taylor series, starts with Taylor’s release from an asylum 9 where he had been recovering from his paralyzing guilt over the death of a child he had been charged to watch. He learns that a pedophilic priest, Father Joyce, has been beheaded in the confessional booth and, at the request of another priest, begins an unofficial investigation to locate the killer. Taylor, an ex-cop and fighting alcoholism, is joined by an eager, young, would-be investigator and, together, they move the case toward resolution. Fighting his demons, Taylor’s investigation reveals grim insights into life in modern-day Ireland and Priest secrets the murdered priest took to the grave. is Irish noir at its best, a novel of excellent pacing, surprises, and wonderfully descriptive of time and place. (SHA) POWER PLAY Power Play is another fast-paced thriller from author Joseph Finder, who is a member of JOSEPH FINDER the Association of Former Intelligence Officers and writes extensively on espionage and (2007, 366pp, international affairs. In this book, the senior officers of the Hammond Aerospace Corporation St. Martin’s Press) go on a weekend “off-site” meeting at the remote Rivers Inlet Lodge, an upscale retreat on 8 the coast of British Columbia. Jake Landry, a junior executive at the company, is a last- minute addition to the group as a replacement for his boss who is unable to attend. Jake is knowledgeable about aircraft engineering, is resourceful, and brings a turbulent past from his low beginnings. He is asked by Hammond’s unpopular new female CEO, Cheryl Tobin, to help identify what appears to be some shady dealings within the executive group. While at dinner on the first night of the retreat, a group of heavily-armed hunters crash the festivities, take them hostage, and look to stage a high-tech hold-up of Hammond’s vast treasury. As the “hunters” bind the executives and interrogate them, it becomes apparent that they are quite knowledgeable about the business and operations of Hammond. The hunters turn vicious, and Landry takes the lead in determining the identity and purpose of these toughs and to rescue the group. The executives are useless under these circumstances and the reader is treated to the actions of this young, former juvenile delinquent taking charge. I thought this was an entertaining read, somewhat implausible, but great action focused on the exploits of the irrepressible Landry. (SHA) LONE SURVIVOR Subtitled, “The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of Seal Team 10,” MARCUS LUTTRELL Lone Survivor is a powerful story of modern war. In late June 2005, four U.S. Navy SEALs WITH PATRICK ROBINSON departed the big U.S. air base at Bagram, Afghanistan for a remote location in the Hindu Kush (2007, 390pp, Mountains on the Pakistan border. Their mission was to take an important Al Qaeda leader reported Little, Brown) by intelligence to have a small army in a Taliban stronghold. Shortly after landing, they were 10 attacked by a huge Taliban force and, 24-hours later, only one of those SEALs, Marcus Luttrell, remained alive. This is the story of Marcus Luttrell and his teammates who fought ferociously until only Marcus remained, blown over a cliff by a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG), but still alive and armed. Over the next four days, the seriously injured Luttrell fought off his pursuers and crawled through the mountains until he was taken in by a Pashtun tribe who took huge risks to protect him until he could be rescued. The first part of this book describes the unbelievably rigorous training undergone by SEALs at Coronado (CA), the relentless rite of passage that only a small percentage of candidates can handle. The balance of the book describes Operation Redwing, the heart-stopping battle to survive by the four-member team, and then Marcus Luttrell’s individual battle for survival. Lone Survivor is a great story of courage and sacrifice, well-deserving of its spot high up on the nonfiction bestseller list. (SHA)

6 BOOK REVIEWS

THE TENDERNESS In the middle of the 19th century, a French Canadian trapper is found murdered in his cabin. OF WOLVES Neighbors and investigators take turns narrating the search for the murderer. These narrators STEF PENNEY and their stories quickly captivated me. I couldn’t put it down. Some of the narrators are (2007, 384pp, Andrew Knox, an elder statesman, Donald Moody a clumsy young Company representative, Simon & Schuster) William Parker, a half-breed Native American trapper, and 17-year-old Francis Ross (who is 10 accused of the murder). I know this doesn’t sound fascinating, but it is. One by one, searchers set out looking for the murderer. I felt enveloped by the snowy landscape and gripped by the beautiful writing and effortless storytelling. This is not just a very good mystery—this is a terrific novel. (Contributing Editor Donna Mellenthin, Studio City, CA) THE PHANTOM WARRIOR In May of 1945, Private John McKinney’s unit was assigned the mission of defending a small FOREST BRYANT JOHNS outpost at Dingalan Bay on the Philippine island of Luzon. The Japanese were on the run and (2007, 311pp, their position was selected to cut off Japanese soldiers escaping to the Northern part of Luzon. Berkley Caliber) Just before dawn on May 11, their position was attacked by a force of about 240 enemy

8 soldiers, far outnumbering the Americans and Filipino guerillas. After recovering from the

Continued on page 8

ND MISUSE

THE WORDS WE USE. .. A The shape of the English language is not rigid. We often confuse meanings and develop bad word usage habits. Here are a few comments on the subject taken from The Elements of Style (Third Edition) by William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White. CONSENSUS UNAWARE, UNAWARES Consensus is a combination of the Latin con , together A question that is posed occasionally is whether it and sentire, to think or feel. It means, therefore a is ever proper to use unawares, with a final s. It is thinking together, a concord or general agreement. proper when the word is used to mean unexpectedly For that reason consensus of opinion is redundant or or suddenly or by surprise, as in “to take someone repetitive and is frowned on; consensus tells it all by unawares.” It is not proper, however, when a phrase or a itself. An error is often made in the spelling of the word clause leads out of the word. For instance, you would and that, too, can be avoided by recalling the root idea not—or should not—say, “He was unawares of my of sense or opinion. The word has nothing to do with presence,” or, “I was unawares that she was married.” census. It has to do with a common sense and therefore is spelled consensus. VIABLE The word viable, possibly because it is important- WOULD HAVE (OF) sounding, has been subjected to considerable use— What bothers us is the use of would of instead of would and misuse—in recent times. Basically and primarily it have. When people speak, the contraction would’ve means able to live or capable of taking root and growing. often sounds like would of, so you can’t blame some Beyond that it has been extended to mean workable, and schoolkids for writing it that way—once. But if teachers still further to mean real in the sense of alive. are doing their job properly, that first time should be the last time. TRADITIONAL, USUAL Traditional is not the same thing as usual. Something CREDIBLE, CREDITABLE that is traditional is handed down unwritten from These two words have different meanings. Credible generation to generation; something that is usual is means believable and creditable means reputable or simply of common occurrence. There is a tendency worthy of esteem. Oddly enough, however, at one time, among some writers to use traditional when all they creditable meant the same thing as credible, but its use mean is usual or common or customary. in that sense is now obsolete.

7 BOOK REVIEWS

Continued from page 7 surprise, McKinney and his unit went into action. The battle lasted less than 40 minutes and, when the Japanese had been defeated, observers counted well over 100 Japanese bodies killed by McKinney. For his heroism, he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, presented at the White House in January of 1946 by President Truman. The story of McKinney’s incredible stand in the battle at Dingalan Bay was riveting, but this used only about 30 pages of the book. The balance was about McKinney’s growing up as a nearly illiterate son of a Georgia sharecropper, his enlistment and training, his unit’s involvement in New Guinea and the Philippines, American and Japanese weaponry, and an overview of America’s campaign in the Pacific. Heroism, we are reminded here, emanates from surprising sources. McKinney died in 1997 leaving no personal papers, so the author had to rely on interviews and official documents and his own imagination. Phantom Warrior is a story of extraordinary heroism, but the book’s construction and the excess of “filler” around the 30 pages of battle (pages 222-252) left something to be desired. (SHA)

THE FIRST WAVE: Billy Boyle: A In December 2006 TRE, I gave a rave review to the debut book in this series, World War II Mystery. A BILLY BOYLE WORLD This is the second volume in the series which, quite obviously, has great WAR II MYSTERY promise—the veteran mystery stars Robert Parker and Lee Child (you cannot reach much higher JAMES R. BENN in that pantheon) all rave about the series. The series has two strengths: The author and the (2007, 294pp, Soho) protagonist. The author, James Benn, is the computer scientist specialist for the West Hartford 8 School Library System (not necessarily what one expects in a first-rate thriller writer) but he also is a self-pronounced World War II buff, and Benn’s expert knowledge of the War provides the core strength to the series. Benn’s protagonist, Billy Boyle, makes the wartime mystery plots work, and while this plot is not as good as its precursor, it is good enough. Boyle is a tough Irish kid from “Southside” Boston, a city cop from a cop family, who graduated to detective from street beat ranks. He is a dogged mystery solver, who, by happenstance is the nephew of Supreme Allied Commander Eisenhower. Ike uses Billy, a newly-minted lieutenant, to solve mysteries that threaten the different allied invasions. This case involves Ike’s risky but successful African landings (1942) to retake Algeria and its environs from the collaborationist Vichy French government before Rommel can reinforce the area. Muddling the Allied efforts is the successful theft of vital American drugs (notably the then-miracle Penicillin), drug-related murders of American and loyal French soldiers, and the capture of French rebels by the French fascist militia. How Billy gets the job done makes the book a good read. (Contributing Editor William Lilley III, Washington, DC)

PLAYING FOR PIZZA Playing for Pizza , an unusual offering from John Grisham, will not win any awards, but I JOHN GRISHAM thought the novel was a delightful, entertaining read. A third-string NFL quarterback named (2007, 262pp, Rick Dockery becomes one of the all-time goats by throwing three late interceptions and losing Doubleday) the AFC championship game. Unable to hook-up with another team he finds refuge with the 9 somewhat inept Parma Panthers of the Italian football league. John Grisham notes that when he was in Bologna several years ago doing some research on another book, he discovered the American football league in Italy. Most of the players in this league are Italians who have other jobs, and play strictly for the fun of it. Each team has a few American players who could not make it in the NFL and who receive very modest wages. The ensuing story of Rick Dockery and the Parma Panthers, their growing camaraderie, and their struggle to challenge the perennial Playing for powerhouse Bergamo Lions for a shot at the Italian Super Bowl, was delightful. Pizza is also an ode to Italy as Grisham describes the wonderful Italian cuisine, introduces Rick to the opera, and immerses this fish-out-of-water in the daily life of an Italian. This offering was panned in many reviews, but if you are looking for a satisfying, light-hearted story of food, love and football Italian-style, I’d suggest you sample this pizza. (SHA) 8 BOOK REVIEWS

SONGS WITHOUT WORDS With an extraordinarily keen ear and eye for the ease and plenty of a particular American milieu, Songs Without Words, ANN PACKER Ann Packer, in tells her story from the perspectives of childhood friends, (2007, 322pp, Sarabeth and Liz, as well as Liz’s husband and daughter, Brodie and Lauren. They are well- Alfred A. Knopf) educated (Stanford), athletic (tennis, yoga), and affluent (Brodie, a Wi-Fi company; Sarabeth, an 7 inheritance). They buckle their seatbelts and eat a good breakfast (blackberries, cut-up pear, and toasted Challah). But even here, in the beautiful Bay Area, depression ripples the surface rhythms of family and friendship. What is the opening line of Anna Karenina? “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” We hear first from Sarabeth in 1976, living with Liz’s family to finish high school after her mother’s suicide and wondering if she is “friend,” “honorary sister,” “near orphan,” “beggar,” or “leech.” Thirty years later Sarabeth, who stages houses in Berkeley and whose affair with a married man is over, remains a satellite to Continued on page 10 ORIGINS OF WORDS AND PHRASES

The derivation of words and phrases we use in conversation is an interesting study. The following entries are taken from Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins . CAUGHT RED-HANDED. In the phrase caught red-handed, the analogy is to a murderer trapped so soon after committing the crime that his hands are still smeared with blood. The expression appeared in print first around 1800 but the idea is as old as Lady MacBeth’s anguished cry, “Out, damned spot.” APPLES OF ONES EYE. The first apple of the eye was the pupil, which in ancient days was thought to be a round object similar to the apple. As recently as Anglo-Saxon times, the same word, aeppel, meant both “eye” and “apple.” It goes without saying that the pupil of one’s eye is very precious indeed—and that’s how the express the apple of one’s eye came to mean something greatly treasured. ARTICHOKE. The first artichokes were Arabian and call al-kharshuf —which, said aloud is more like a sneeze than a choke. The Italians made this word into articiocco, from which comes our artichoke. In present-day Italy the artichoke is known by the name carciofo. Incidentally, the artichoke is technically an herb, not a vegetable, but is cooked and served as vegetable. BERSERK. In Norse legend, a berserkr was a warrior who fought with the fury and ferocity of a wild beast. He was said to wear a coat of bearskin, from which he got his name ( ber for “bear” and serkr for “coat”). As a matter of fact, Berserker was the name of a legendary hero of the 8th century, who was so named because he refused to wear the traditional protective coat of mail. We inherited the word as berserk and we use it as an adjective or adverb meaning, “in or into a state of wild or violent frenzy.” AMBULANCE. During Napoleon’s campaigns, medical men devised a means of bringing help to the wounded— a light, readily portable, covered litter, fitted out with bandages, tourniquets, and other first-aid equipment. This was called an hôspital ambulant, literally a “walking hospital.” Because of the speed with which they functioned, these portable aid stations became known as ambulances volates (flying travelers). When the British Army adopted the system, the name of the vehicles was shortened to ambulances. ANONYMOUS. Our unknown friend “Mr. Anonymous” goes all the way back to ancient Greece, where the word anonumos, from an, “without,” and onoma, “name,” was used as the by-line for a work whose author was unknown. FIN, meaning five-dollar bill, was originally underworld slang, derived from the Yiddish finnuf or finnif, meaning a British five-pound note. It first appeared in the argot of English thieves at about the time Charles Dickens was chronicling the adventures of Fagin and his band of child criminals. Fin first appeared in the language of our native hoods during the roaring 20’s and was popularized by the gangster pictures of the 1930s era.

9 BOOK REVIEWS

Continued from page 9 Liz’s family. It’s no accident she’s reading Anna Karenina aloud to a group of seniors. Her horizon is “…all mist… the girl and the woman walking, and the girl looking up but not speaking…” While Sarabeth slides into inertia and isolation, 15-year-old Lauren becomes so preoccupied with her perceived social and academic failures that she attempts suicide. After some impatience at the Dive From Clausen’s Pier. novel’s glacial pace, I went back to Packer’s first novel, While this opens with a big splash—literally—it is equally slow going. Is it because finding words, speaking up— is what kindly, klunky Dr. Lewis elicits by listening and understanding— slow? Yet as these people begin to recover and reaffirm themselves and their relationships, I became hooked. Finally. (Contributing Editor Jenny Lawrence, New York City, NY) AGENT ZIGZAG The Man Who Would Be King, The Englishman’s Daughter, English writer, Ben Macintyre ( and London Times. Agent Zigzag, BEN MACINTYRE others) is associate editor of the In subtitled “A True Story of Nazi (2007, 310pp, Espionage, Love, and Betrayal,” he tells the story of Eddie Chapman, criminal, con man, and Harmony Books) philanderer, but who was also one of the most remarkable double agents Britain has ever 8 produced. Chapman, on the run from English law enforcement, offered to work as a spy for the Germans upon his release from a prison in the Channel Islands (Jersey), then occupied by the Germans. He was taken to occupied France and meticulously schooled by the Nazis in the art of espionage and in the tools employed by spies. In December of 1942, he was parachuted into the English countryside to sabotage a De Havilland Aircraft factory outside London that was producing the “Mosquito,” a revolutionary military aircraft that had become a lethal nuisance to the Nazis. He surrendered to the British shortly after landing and was subsequently doubled by MI5, Britain’s counterespionage service, and given the code name “Agent Zigzag.” He was used to feed vital information to the Germans and was elusive enough to effectively carry out his duties until the end of the war. The Nazis awarded him the Iron Cross and he was pardoned for his crimes in England. 60 years after the end of the war, and ten years after Chapman’s death, MI5 declassified all of Chapman’s files, allowing the full story to be told. This is a well-researched, well-told story of the enigmatic Eddie Chapman and his intriguing role in World War II. (SHA)

IKE: AN This graceful, meticulous, and approving biography of Eisenhower explained to me—after 38 AMERICAN HERO years—a dramatic event I watched on television very early on a cold morning in the last days MICHAEL KORDA of March 1969. Eisenhower’s body lay in state in the Capital Rotunda, the room empty except (2007, 778pp, for the solitary guards from the four services. Only the lone network pool camera was live. Harper) Suddenly General De Gaulle entered the room and strode to the standard-issue GI coffin. He 8+ was completely alone and in full World War II uniform. He stood at attention for several minutes, and then snapped a perfect salute to his fallen comrade in arms, held it endlessly, snapped it down, and left the Rotunda. This biography explains why De Gaulle, so obstreperously contemptuous for so many years of so many other American and Allied leaders, would pay such a unique tribute to this American leader. Michael Korda, author of many books, including a biography of Ulysses Grant, has cleverly chosen to write a biography of Eisenhower that focuses almost entirely on what he was and what he was not as a person. Hence, this is not a book about Eisenhower as military strategist or as political tactician—though these subjects are much discussed. Instead it is a book about why De Gaulle was deferential, why Churchill famously called Ike “a prairie prince,” and how Eisenhower could get towering, difficult egomaniacs (De Gaulle, Churchill, MacArthur, Montgomery, Roosevelt, and Stalin among others) to agree with Eisenhower’s wishes in the belief—however fleeting—that their self- ordained preeminence was not being degraded. It is a long story, wonderfully told, with reduced emphasis on the Presidential years, and constant emphasis on what Eisenhower always was—a 19th century man from Abilene (KS), modest, hard working, decent, and loyal. (Contributing Editor William Lilley III, Washington, DC)

10 BOOK REVIEWS

THE AGE OF TURBULENCE The high-profile Alan Greenspan was elevated to demigod status during his stint as ALAN GREENSPAN Chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1987 to 2006, and conversations about the market (2007, 505pp, over this period were regularly dotted with questions about just what Greenspan might Penguin) do about raising/lowering interest rates. Since the level of interest rates is such a critical 8 component of economic activity and has such an impact on equity markets, Greenspan’s public comments and his remarks before Congressional Committees were always closely The Age of Turbulence, followed and carefully analyzed. at the top of the nonfiction bestseller list when I read it, seemed like two books to me. The first half of the book amounts to an autobiography, wherein he tells the story of his life, his loves, his maturation as an economist, and his relationships with, and opinions of, the presidents he served. This first half is by far the most interesting part of the book. I was not aware that Greenspan was an acolyte of Ayn Rand, who stood beside him when he was sworn in as Chairman of the Presidents Council of Economic Advisers in 1974 in the presence of President Ford. One of the commentaries on the book noted the irony of Greenspan’s path running from libertarian to interest-rate fixer. The second part of the book, much less scintillating, contains Greenspan’s ruminations on public policy issues and will try your The Age of Turbulence patience. is well written, yet Greenspan seems to hold back in telling much about himself and he does not reflect on his miscalculations within the financial community. There are some mixed feelings about his performance as Fed Chairman, notably the perpetuation of very low interest rates into 2004, his underestimation of the severity of the credit problems of 1990, and his failure to see the sub-prime mortgage troubles that have now surfaced. (SHA) BUILDING YOUR Y R

A WORKING VOCABULARY N O I

T The key word here is working . There are many words that seem to fall on the fringe of an C I

D average vocabulary. We think we know the meaning of these words, but when we read or hear them, are not quite sure. They are, therefore, not regularly used in our writing and in conversation. The purpose of the TRE vocabulary section is not to stump you, but to sharpen your knowledge and use of words frequently used in books and/or heard in conversation. Here are a few such words, with abbreviated definitions and some rough pronunciation guidance.

CORPOREAL Material; tangible, having substance, like the body. (cor-POOR-ee-ul) GRATUITOUS Without cause or justification, uncalled for; unwarranted. (gruh-TOO-uh-tuhs) INELUCTABLE Inescapable; incapable of being resisted or avoided. (in-uh-LUK-tuh-bul) MAWKISH Overly sentimental; maudlin. (MAW-kish) PUNCTILIOUS Meticulously attentive to detail; scrupulously (and sometimes annoyingly) exact. (pungk-TIL-ee-us) STOLID Not easily roused to emotion; impassive. Apathetic; phlegmatic. (STAHL-id) SCHISM Division, separation; discord or disharmony. (SIZ-um or SKIZ-um) TEMPORAL Of this world; worldly, not spiritual. (TEM-puh-ruhl)

11 BOOK REVIEWS

EXIT GHOST Exit Ghost, After reading Philip Roth’s I went back and re-read my review of his last book, Everyman PHILIP ROTH , which appeared in the June 2006, TRE. There are similarities between these two books (2007, 292pp, as both deal with the ravages of aging and the irreversible, somber march to the grave. Roth, in Exit Ghost, Houghton Mifflin) fact, seems to be obsessed with this subject. In he brings back his alter ego, Nathan 8 Zuckerman for the ninth (and presumably last) time. Nathan, now 71, has been living in seclusion in rural New England for 11 years and returns to New York to see a doctor about a prostate problem that has left him incontinent and impotent. Shortly after his arrival, he makes three connections which shatter his protected solitude and jolt his sensibilities. He encounters Amy Bellette, the one-time lover of his idol, writer S.I. Lónoff, a young novelist and his wife, Jamie, with whom he makes a deal to swap homes for a year (his rural refuge for their NYC apartment), and a would-be Lónoff biographer who enrages Nathan with his brash attitudes. He is completely taken with the attractive Jamie and the book becomes sexual in this regard as he fantasizes about her in several “he” and “she” conversations Exit Ghost while, in the real world, he is despondent about his impotence and incontinence. seems Everyman, more personal than the former personified with Zuckerman whereas the latter features a nameless, increasingly angry, and lonely man frightened by the advent of death. Roth is, of course, one of America’s best writers and I have always found his novels provocative, allowing the reader room to question and reach his own conclusions. “Art” it seems, is often thought to be made more poignant by exaggeration, and perhaps Roth is using his author’s license in this regard. But, as Everyman, I noted in my earlier review of in his portrayal of the ravages of aging, he does not recognize the “reserves” many have built through their spiritual base, their relationships with friends Exit Ghost and families, and the profound satisfaction attendant to a life of depth and compassion. Everyman, and seem to this reader to be “appetizers” compared with the grand scale of his other works, and rueful in that they promise no relief from the aging process. (SHA)

END GAMES: American aficionados of the mystery-thriller genre, especially the police procedural sub-genre, AN AURELIO ZEN MYSTERY have d elighted in the splendid exploits of three Italian inspectors—Guido Brunetti in Donna MICHAEL DIBDIN Leon’s Veni ce, Salvo Montalbano in Andrea Camilleri’s Sicily, and Aurelio Zen in Michael (2007, 355pp, Dibdin’ s several, wayward Italian towns. These are all marvelous series, and Dibdin has led the End Games Pantheon) way with Aurelio Zen’s exploits. Sadly, is the last in the Zen series, as Dibdin died 9+ in March. The good news is that he saved the best for last; Dibdin has bequeathed to his huge readership a one-of-a-kind farewell. Dibdin’s imminent death hangs over the novel, signaled in the many hints that Zen is due for early retirement, his hopelessly bureaucratic bosses finally fed up with his rebelliousness, however brilliant and successful the results. In Italy, bureaucracy and process are the true end game. In this installment, Zen courageously and ingeniously pushes through the outer edge of the envelope—and in the end he is sent packing to his home and wife in Lucca, the beautiful town in Tuscany. But not before the reader suffers with Zen through his posting to Cosenza, the semi-sea coast town in Calabria in the God-forsaken region of Italy’s boot—arid, mountainous, hot, hopelessly impoverished, and still wracked by the vestiges of the latifundo system of aristocratic agriculture which is Italy’s version of the pre-Civil War slave latifundo economy in the American South. Of course, in Italy, especially deep southern Italy, the End Games, lasted into the 1950’s because in Calabria little changes and nothing improves. In centuries of many past cruelties coalesce with a brutal contemporary kidnapping and murder of an advance man for a fake American movie production company that secretly plans to find and plunder the legendary (and doubtless apocryphal) tomb of the Visigoth warlord Alaric, who ravaged Italy in the 4th century. The tomb, and its putative treasures, is allegedly buried in a now-arid river bed in the Calabrian mountains. Zen deals simultaneously with solving the murder (itself entwined in other past murders), and with solving the successive crimes triggered by the unscrupulous Americans and the marvelously sleazy, local Calabrians whom they have enlisted in their scheme. (Contributing Editor William Lilley III, Washington, DC) 12 TRE FAVORITES… A Decade Ago Book Selections from The Readers Exchange of December 1997

THE UNDERTAKING (Thomas Lynch) The little gem was a real sleeper, and a book you would more than likely miss if you were not prompted (as I was) by someone else. This book of nonfiction, subtitled, Life Studies From The Dismal Trade, was written by Thomas Lynch, a Milford, Michigan, funeral director, who is also a poet. The use of death as a central theme and the stories of his life as an undertaker do not, however, cloak this offering with gloom and doom. This is a lively, well-written, sometimes humorous book which also comments extensively on life issues. This is a highly satisfying read which was nominated for a National Book Award. MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA (Arthur Golden) This excellent first novel by Golden is presented as the memoir of a celebrated geisha named Sayuri. Her story beings in 1929 when, as a nine-year-old, she is sold by her impoverished father to a geisha house in Kyoto. Here she begins her transformation, learning the arts (the gei of geisha means “arts”) of the geisha; make-up and hair, dance and music, wearing kimono, pouring tea and sake, and how to be conversant and beguiling. The author, a scholar of Japanese culture, describes the arduous path she follows in becoming one of the Kyoto’s top geishas, the conniving and competition among geishas, the sale of her virginity to the top bidder, the teahouses and streets of Gion (the geisha district of Kyoto), and the manner in which they dealt with World War II when the geisha houses were closed. RUNNING THROUGH THE TALL GRASS (Thomas Givon) This excellent literary novel is set in an historical context and examines the plight of the pied noirs (or “black feet”), Algeria’s French colonials. The Author’s Note at the beginning provides the background and explains that this, “assorted mélange of political, economic, religious, and cultural refugees” felt betrayed by France when Charles de Gaulle negotiated a settlement with the Arab-led National Liberation Front (FLN) in 1962. The story is about Robert Aron (fictional), a pied noir of Jewish descent and former soldier in the French Foreign Legion, as well as a veteran of Dien Bien Phu in Indochina in 1954. Aron is a demolition expert in the underground terrorist group, OAS, and after blowing up a hospital in Algiers in 1962, decides that the cause is pointless and attempts to break free by fleeing to Marseilles. He is stymied in this, however, by his fanatical comrade Jojo and he finally realizes that he will never be free of his bloodstained past. This book has cumulative impact as it moves along to a stunning and moving conclusion. WHITTAKER CHAMBERS (Sam Tanenhaus) This is a superb biography of Whittaker Chambers (who was most famous as the accuser of Alger Hiss), the smooth, well- connected former State Department official who was convicted of perjury (read espionage) in 1950. Chambers himself had been a member of the Communist Party, but defected in 1938, after which he became an anti-Communist crusader. Hiss and his wife denied the charges for the rest of their lives, insisting that Chambers was a sociopathic liar out to malign the patriotic left-wing. The brilliant, enigmatic Chambers, a senior editor at Time Magazine drew little public support because of his sloppy appearance and his prior Party affiliation. The Chambers-Hiss confrontation transfixed the nation in the late 1940s much as the Simpson case nearly a half-century later. A National Book Award finalist, one reviewer called this, “biography at its best.” THE ANGEL OF DARKNESS (Caleb Carr) Caleb Carr’s superb book The Alienist was reviewed in the summer 1994 edition and this excellent sequel brought together the same crime-busting group headed by psychiatrist Dr. Laszlo Kreizler (psychiatrists were formerly called “alienists”). The novel is set in New York in 1897 and the group’s target here is the monstrous Libby Hatch, whose kidnapping of an infant gets Kreizler and his associates on her trail. As in The Alienist, Carr brings in famous people of the era, most notably Clarence Darrow, a rising courtroom wizard from Chicago who is engaged to defend Libby Hatch. Carr is an excellent writer and storyteller and, although on the long side for this genre at 629 pages, you will be eagerly turning the pages. Like The Alienist, this book is great mix of period detail (New York at the turn-of-the-century), psychological sleuthing, and the beginnings of the now commonplace police procedures of fingerprinting, lie detecting, ballistics, and police-artist sketching.

13 The SPORTS PAGE

IT NEVER RAINS IN TIGER STADIUM downstairs— John Ed Bradley (2007, 293pp, ESPN) much too slowly— This book is a 9, a high grade, and just as suitable for women as and assuaging his wife, men. Notwithstanding that it is mostly about football in who is not a golfer, to put up Louisiana, not everyone’s favorite interest; it is really a book with this new life. The Royal and about the culture of the swath of Gulf States (Florida to Texas) Ancient Golf Club, while not owning where high school and college football mania has reached such or managing the Old Course, sits at the pinnacle of golf epidemic proportions that it shapes the culture. In today’s in Great Britain. It is akin to the United States Golf America, you cannot grasp how that part of America is different Association in that it makes the rules of golf and operates the in kind, not degree, from other parts without understanding this Championships in Great Britain. The membership jealously football mania. Michael Lewis, in his excellent book The Blind guards the privacy of the club and was so upset that the book Side (2006), mined this vein but it is Bradley who gets the gold. revealed the inner works of the club that they believed should His narrative structure is straightforward: John Ed Bradley (the have been kept private, that they were able to cause a reprinting author) grew up in Opelousas (20 miles north of Baton Rouge); for distribution in England. But the American version still has the his father coached the high school football team where John Ed so-called offending material, which I did not believe was that Bradley starred; he reaches the pinnacle of Opelousas success offensive. George Peper has a gift for making things funny and winning a football scholarship to all-mighty Louisiana State my wife and I found ourselves laughing out loud throughout this University where he captains the team and is voted all-SEC book. Anyone, golfer or not, will thoroughly enjoy this book. center. He breaks with the dominant culture, abandons football It is easy reading, easy to put down, and easy to start again. I to become a writer, even leaves the state and writes for such personally would rate this a 10! (Dan Ridder, Hobe Sound, FL) northeastern powerhouses as the Washington Post and Sports Illustrated. So successful is he that some of his pieces are show- RUNNING THE TABLE cased in “best of” sports writing anthologies. But his life is L. Jon Wertheim (2007, 248pp, Houghton Mifflin) hopelessly schizophrenic; he is at once a famous national writer, In Running The Table, Senior Sports Illustrated writer, on glamorous assignments around the country, yet he is still Wertheim takes us on a highly entertaining tour of the pool halls locked remorselessly into his days on the LSU team. This past, of America. Subtitled “The Legend of Kid Delicious, the Last and for him always the present, is so powerful that when the Post Great American Pool Hustler,” the book tracks the life and career assigns him to cover the LSU-Alabama game, he cannot watch it of Danny Basavich, aka “Kid Delicious” a New Jersey kid who and locks himself in the men’s room until it is over. Taken on its went from being a suicidal, overweight (300 pounds plus) teen to face, this sounds irrational, but when you read this book, and you reach the top of the world of pool. Basavich and his buddy/setup grasp first hand the power grip of football on this region, as man, “Bristol Bob” Begey hit the road together and canvass the Bradley so movingly tells it, then it is not irrational. It is their hot pool halls around the country looking for action, learning the America. (Contributing Editor William Lilley, Washington, DC) art of the hustle, and experiencing the ups and downs of life on the road. Following this twosome on their nightly adventures, TWO YEARS IN ST. ANDREWS seeking the players known to be ready to play and bet, nego- George Peper (2006, 299pp, Simon & Schuster) tiating the terms of their matches, meeting the cast of characters The jacket of the book starts with “The Old Course at St. at the top of the pool world, and rubbing elbows with the Andrews is to golfers what St. Peters is to Catholics or the “railbirds” and backers was, for this reader, a highly entertaining Western Wall to Jews: Hallowed ground.” And it is hallowed trip. Wertheim graphically evokes the subculture of pool and the ground, not only to golfers, but also to the people who live in the characters who populate this world, where the big action occurs town of St. Andrews. George Peper, former editor-in-chief of in the wee hours and the dark, smoky malodorous rooms set the Golf Magazine writes a hilarious tale of living for two years in stage for the hustle. As Delicious becomes well-known for his the town of St. Andrews, meeting the townspeople, joining the prowess, and loses his anonymity, it becomes more difficult to local golf clubs including the Royal and Ancient, and becoming hustle and he eventually turns to the much less profitable pro part of the life. He bought a house on the 18th hole of the Old tour for his living. Running The Table was a well-written Course, sold his home in the United States, and moved his wife entertaining book, getting a look into a sometimes shadowy and dog… leaving his two sons in the U.S.A. at college. He world while following the unusual Kid Delicious and his humorously writes of the trials and tribulations of trying to live unlikely success. It’s now being made into a motion picture. upstairs in his rundown house while the workers are renovating it (SHA)

14 BOOK REVIEWS

DEAD HEAT The large world of mystery readers has enjoyed Dick Francis’s horse-racing thrillers for almost 50 DICK FRANCIS years, captivated by the improbable Francis background (he was once a great steeple-chase rider, rode & FELIX FRANCIS for the Queen Mother, and was badly injured) and then went on to churn out an annual race thriller for (2007, 342pp, 38 consecutive years, many of the thrillers featuring a Francis-like, badly injured former jockey Sid Putnam: NY) Halley. For the last six years he has been absent from the best-seller lists. Now he is back at age 87, Dead Heat. 8 collaborating with his son Felix, and their maiden voyage is It is a very good read, doubtless written much by the master himself—a Francis aficionado can sense his hand at pacing, dialogue, and tension—but the subject matter is only one-third horseracing, the remainder split between food preparation and restaurant management (the food and restaurant material is well done Dead Heat’s and necessarily so since protagonist is a rising culinary star who caters to the upper-crust racing scene) and the protagonist’s love affair with a viola player, unwittingly ensnared in the plot (the ever-stoic Dick Francis never had front-and-center love affairs). The plot, typically fast paced, revolves around a suspicious food poisoning outbreak at the chef’s popular Hay Net restaurant at the famed Newmarket track, the several attempts on his life as he tries to unravel the attacks on the restaurant and himself, his desperate flight for safety with his new love (the viola player), and ultimately a series of confrontations (all involving the horse racing business and horse breeding business) with a Russian crime syndicate and the South America cocaine trade. If you are a fan of Dick Francis, and so many are, then this book, while different in degree from a typical “Francis,” is not different in kind. (Contributing Editor William Lilley III, Washington DC) WHAT HATH What Hath God Wrought This book exemplifies the writing of narrative history at its best. has elegant GOD WROUGHT: writing, comprehensive research and clear thematic organization and at the same time provides the THE TRANSFORMATION reader (academic as well as lay) with the full encyclopedia of forces transforming America from 1815 OF AMERICA, to 1846—politics, economics, technology, religion, diplomacy and warfare as well as transformative 1815-1848 changes in literature, morals and ethnicity. Howe’s book is another stellar example of what the DANIEL WALKER HOWE Oxford History of the United States already has done in three other prize-winning volumes—Robert (2007, 904pp, Middlekauff’s on the American Revolution, James McPherson’s on the Civil War, and David Kennedy’s Oxford) on the Depression and World War II. A word is in order about what the Oxford series books aim to do: 9+ in clear narrative form, they attempt to cover everything important for their assigned era. Thus, they inherently are very big books invariably filled with material that everyone might not be interested in; e.g., the devotee of political history (and Howe’s many chapters on politics and politicians are both colorful and insightfully revisionist) might not care much about the transformations occurring in the country’s religious life. So be it, read what interests you, skim or skip what does not, there is plenty here for everyone. In the Howe book, the thematic structure revolves around what he sees as the dominant transformative forces shaping the era. He argues convincingly that the driving changes are in communications and transportation. His is a nuanced revision from those who have argued that the dominant change force was either the rise of Jacksonian Democracy (and the Democratic Party), or the emergence of a full-blown market economy, or the imperial thrust of our “Manifest Destiny” to acquire and settle the entire continent. Howe does not belittle any of the above, and he covers them quite fully, but his book argues that they were enabled by the ongoing changes in communications and transportation. (Contributing Editor William Lilley III, Washington, DC) FIELDWORK This graceful, funny, sensual, and cerebral first novel is about the struggle between an anthropologist MISCHA BERLINSKI and a missionary for the souls of the Dyalo, a minority people in northern Thailand. The book begins (2007, 320pp, when an unknown American anthropologist, Martiya van der Leun, commits suicide in a Thai prison Farrar, Straus and Giroux) where she is serving a 50-year sentence for murder, and a freelance journalist decides to pursue her 9 story. The quest takes him to the hubris-filled halls of Berkeley where an eminent anthropologist, Martiya’s advisor and lover, recommends that she pursue her fieldwork among the Dyalo: “The food is good, the climate’s swell. There are lots of flowers and butterflies. Nobody’s going to try to eat you.” The reality is less idyllic: Her hut smells like a gerbil cage, curious children fall through her roof, her repulsive host, Farts-a-lot, spits a large looghie onto her field notes, and the answer to all her questions 15 Continued on page 16 BOOK REVIEWS

Continued from page 15 seems to be “because it is our custom.” Eventually she befriends—and then finds herself pitted against the murder victim—David Walker, whose missionary family has spent four generations living among and preaching to the Dyalo. Their two opposing points of view are so intelligently and sympathetically explored that I, ordinarily in the anthropologist camp, ended up respecting the missionaries and understanding their appeal to the Dyalo. This novel of ideas is deeply grounded in the details of place; I could see the bougainvillea draped like a crimson curtain over the huts, taste the wild honey perfumed with orchids and jasmine, feel the stillness surrounding a villager’s sad song, and smell the sweat, alcohol, and pig fat on her informant. Each character has an obsession: Mine was reading this book. (Contributing Editor Connie Rogers, Brooklyn, NY)

STATECRAFT Dennis Ross was the Middle East envoy and the chief peace negotiator in the presidential DENNIS ROSS administrations of George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton and is currently a distinguished fellow at the (2007, 341pp, Washington Institute for Near East Policy. I understand that his name is being mentioned as a candidate Farrar, Straus and for Secretary of State in the new administration beginning in 2009. If this is true, the content of this Statecraft Giroux) book suggests that he certainly should be considered, and I would recommend to all readers. 9 Ross conceives of statecraft as the use of assets or the resources and tools (economic, military, intell- igence, and media) that a state has available to it to pursue its interests and to effect the behavior of others, whether friendly or hostile. The book is a rebuke of the Bush administration’s foreign policy and how it has been weakened by the absence of statecraft, but he goes on to offer an overview of statecraft, how it has worked in past circumstances (German unification, the first Gulf War, and Bosnia) and why it is especially needed today. I cannot recall reading as clear, coherent, and interesting explanation of the processes of international diplomacy. The center of the book provides a tutorial on negotiating and mediating strategies, always enhanced by reference to actual situations. Ross’ call for statecraft is Continued on page 17 Book Notes From The Santa Ynez Valley By Contributing Editor Ann Petroni FIRE IN THE BLOOD (Irène Némirevsky) 9 A small Burgundian village is the setting for this sensitive love story by the author of Suite Française. Through Sylvester, the narrator, the life and secrets of the community are revealed, particularly the relationships between Helene, Silvio and François. Completed in 1941 prior to the author’s death in Auschwitz, this sensitive novel reflects the daily lives and emotions during a time of great tension. OTHER COLORS: ESSAYS AND A STORY (Orhan Pamuk) 9 This perceptive, controversial Turkish Nobel Prize-Winner continues his stories of Istanbul with keen observation and a passion for his homeland. These collected essays, contain speeches he has given, “The Anger of the Damned” (his reaction to the 9/11 attack) plus the 2005 Paris Review interview when Pamuk was to stand trial after being accused of telling a journalist that thousands of Kurds and over a million Armenians had been killed by the Turks, are some of the highlights of this collection. A fine writer who speaks the truth as he sees it. THE ASSASSINS’ GATE: AMERICA IN IRAQ (George Packer) 10 So much has been written about the invasion of Iraq, the decisions and the consequences, The Assassin’s Gate is the definitive book for me on our controversial venture into the Middle East. George Packer has been there, knows many of the principal players, understands the cultural complications that embrace the region, the neoconservatives agenda, and the painful pitfalls of American foreign policy in Iraq. 16 BOOK REVIEWS

Continued from page 16 accompanied by detailed suggestions for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Iranian nuclear ambitions, and China. This is a thoughtful and judicious dissertation on foreign policy (and a great education for this reader) that should be widely read and debated. (SHA) “It’s a long way to Tipperary, it’s a long way to go.” TIPPERARY So goes the song written in 1912 by Jack Judge FRANK DELANEY and Harry Williams, a marching song popular with the British military in World War I. Speaking in “And I’ll never more (2007, 445pp, Ireland in 1984, President Reagan quoted from this famous song as follows: roam, from my native home, in Tipperary so far away.” Random House) Tipperary is a small town in County Tipperary Tipperary 9 in south-central Ireland. So much for the trivia. Frank Delaney’s novel is a wonderful story of Ireland during its formative years in the late 19th—early 20th century, and it has an epic feel to it. The story focuses on the life of Charles O’Brien, born well-off in 1860 of Anglo-Irish descent, who has written a memoir which was discovered in a trunk some 75 years after his death. The memoir, a “history” of Ireland as well as of his own life as a sometime journalist and an itinerant healer provides the backbone of the story, with intervening comments by a narrator, questioning some of Charles’ entries while becoming aware that he is connected to the history being told. In 1900 at the age of 40, Charles is called to Paris to treat the dying Oscar Wilde where he meets the beautiful 18- year-old English girl, April Burke. He is instantly smitten but callously rejected and his obsession with her frames the story. In Ireland, Charles undertakes the preservation of the great but long- abandoned castle at Tipperary which, he later learns, may belong to April and her father. Charles meets the great figures of the day, including Charles Parnell, William Butler Yeats, George Bernard Tipperary Shaw, and later, as the Revolution unfolds, Michael Collins. is a wonderful, smoothly- written tale of Charles’ unremitting passion for April and the revelation of family secrets against the backdrop of the rebuilding of the castle and Ireland’s emergence as a nation. (SHA) PHILIP ROTH… On Cell Phones We have often commented in TRE about the proliferation of cell phones, the apparent need to always stay connected, and, of course, with their invasion of public spaces. In his novel Exit Ghost (reviewed herein) Philip Roth’s alter-ego Nathan Zuckerman returns to NYC after living in rural isolation for 11 years and notes the following:

“What surprised me most my first few days walking around the incessant talking into a telephone preferable to walking about city? The most obvious thing—the cell phones. We had no under no one’s surveillance, momentarily solitary, assimilating reception as yet up on my mountain, and down in Athena, the streets through one’s animal senses and thinking the myriad where they do have it, I’d rarely see people striding the streets thoughts that the activities of a city inspire… To eradicate the talking uninhibitedly into their phones. I remembered a New experience of separation must inevitably have a dramatic York when the only people walking up Broadway seemingly effect. What will the consequences be?… I understood that talking to themselves were crazy. What had happened in these background silence had long been abolished from restaurants, ten years for there suddenly to be so much to say—so much elevators, and ballparks, but that the immense loneliness of so pressing that it couldn’t wait to be said? Everywhere I human beings should produce this boundless longing to be walked, somebody was approaching me talking on a phone and heard, and the accompanying disregard for being overheard… someone was behind me talking on a phone. Inside the cars, the I did not see how anyone could believe he was continuing to drivers were on the phone. When I took a taxi, the cabbie was live a human existence by walking about talking into a phone on the phone. For one who frequently went without talking to for half his waking life. No, those gadgets did not promise to anyone for days at a time, I had to wonder what that had be a boon to promoting reflection among the general public.” previously held them up had collapsed in people to make

17 BOOK REVIEWS

COOL IT It is difficult to review even a short book when you have marked almost every page for BJORN LOMBORG important data. Bjorn Lomborg was named on the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine (2007, 253pp, in 2004. As his title implies, he does not subscribe to the apocalyptical view of Knopf) global warming, nor to Al Gore’s faith-based sermonizing about global warming as, “a moral 9 and spiritual challenge.” Rather, he suggests that we prioritize environmental and human issues, and subject them to a rational cost benefit analysis. He devotes much of his book to such an analysis of the Kyoto Protocol for reducing carbon dioxide emissions, and finds that at enormous expense (from lower and unproductive economic activity), Kyoto might reduce the temperatures in 2100 by only 0.3ºF. Although global warming and Kyoto are the foremost issues for developed nations, those in the underdeveloped world have different priorities: Poverty, malaria, starvation, water stress, HIV/AIDS, malnutrition, free trade, drinking water, and sanitation. Kyoto, even if everyone does as hoped, would have little effect on these human problems. If those issues are approached directly, however, we can achieve far greater results at much less expense. On page 5, Lomborg draws you in to his cool, rational analysis with a discussion of polar bears, those poster children for end-of-the-world global warming: “…of the 20 distinct subpopulations of polar bears, one or possibly two were declining in Baffin Bay; more than half increasing were known to be stable; and two subpopulations were actually around the Beaufort Sea. increased Moreover, it is reported that the global polar-bear population has dramatically over the past decades, from about 5,000 members in the 1960s to 25,000 today, through stricter hunting regulation… Two populations in decline come from areas where it has actually been getting colder over the past 50 years, whereas the two increasing populations reside in areas where it is getting warmer.” From there you can’t stop reading. He never attacks doomsday advocates, he just analyzes their errors and lets them speak for themselves. His quote from Stanford University climatologist, Stephen Schneider is an example: “We need to get some broad base support, to capture the public’s imagination. That, of course, entails getting loads of media coverage. So we have to offer up scary Continued on page 20 Understanding Those Latin Expressions

sui generis One of a kind. (soo-ee GEH-neh-rihs). ad astra per aspera Literally “to the stars through difficulties,” the motto of Kansas. (ahd AH-strah per AH-speh-rah) amor vincit omnia “Love conquers all,” the famous line by Virgil. He goes on to say e t nose cedamus amori, “and let us yield to it (love).” a posteriori From effect to cause. (ah PAW-steh-ree-OH-ree) Reasoning a posteriori, literally “from what comes after” is also called “inductive reasoning.” a priori From what is already known. (ah pree-OH-ree) A priori, literally “from what comes before” is also called “deductive reasoning,” based initially on assumptions that derive from prior knowledge. aqua vitae Whiskey. (AH-kwah WEE-ti) Literally “water for life”. videlicent Namely. (wih-DAY-lih-keht) Commonly abbreviated VIZ. Literally, “it is permitted to see,” also “to wit.” tabula rasa A clean slate. (TAH-buu-lah RAH-sah) Literally “a scraped writing tablet,” most often used to denote a mind devoid of misconceptions. rara avis A rarity. (English pronunciation RAIR-ah AY-vis) Literally “a rare bird”. sine qua non An indispensable condition. (SIH-neh kwah nohn) Literally “without which not.” sub poena Under penalty. (English pronunciation sa-PE-na). lux et veritas Light and truth. (Lucks et WAY-rih-tas) The motto of Yale University.

18 Jan e’s SELECTIONS By Contributing Editor Jane Ackerman

A MUCH MARRIED MAN 1970’s and deals with love, marriage and the difficulties that Nicholas Coleridge (2007, 464pp, St. Martin’s) come with power and a big family business. As in all of A Much Married Man is about Anthony Anscombe, a Bradford’s books, I think she has a unique style of character member of the British upper class who has everything a description. I felt like I knew them and moved in with the man could want; social standing, a large inheritance, and an family for a week or so. In the last part of the book, tragedy enviable career in banking. With all of this, the only thing strikes. Edward has a heart attack and his two young sons he really wants is the perfect woman, and the perfect mysteriously disappear, setting up the final book on the marriage. He is totally besotted by his first wife, Amanda. Ravenscar family. The Heir did not get good reviews, hinting However, Amanda, after one child, does not take to country that this book would just tide over Bradford’s fans until her life, and leaves him and the child for a more glamorous next one. I like the feeling that reading Bradford gives me. lifestyle. He then marries Sandra, a serious, predictable homemaker type. They have two children, but she leaves him EAT, LOVE, PRAY when she is confronted in the village by his mistress, who Elizabeth Gilbert (2007, 352pp, Penguin) also has a baby. Now comes his third wife, Dita, socially Subtitled “One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, ambitious and organized to a fault. She exhilarates him by India, and Indonesia,” Eat, Pray, Love is a most enjoyable redecorating the manor, entertaining, introducing him to the memoir. When in her mid-30’s, Gilbert realizes she does right people, and energizing his banking career. I particularly not want to be married any more, does not want to be the enjoyed this part of the book; reading about how she turned bread earner, and does not want to have a baby. Following his home into a masterpiece. However, true love does not run a painful divorce and a disastrous love affair, she decides smoothly, and particularly with his and her children all living what she really wants to do is to take a soul-searching trip to in the same village. This is an engaging, funny satire on the Italy to eat, to India to pray and find God, and to Indonesia life of a man of privilege, who really wants to do the right to have balance in her life, and maybe love. Even when thing, but he’s just in over his head. A most enjoyable read! fighting loneliness and depression, Gilbert rattles on and one has to marvel at her ability to make every sentence so clever TONY DUQUETTE and amusing. She gets more serious as the book moves along Wendy Goodman and Hutton Wilkinson (2007, 367pp, Abrams) and I had to admire her courage, openness, and humor in her No Christmas is complete without a new and wonderful search for wisdom. coffee table book. This year there is no contest… this is the one! American artist and design legend, Tony Duquette PLAY DIRTY (1914- 1999) was known for his over-the-top style in interiors, Sandra Brown (2007, 404pp, Simon & Schuster) jewelry, costumes, and set design. There is so much in I just had to save the best for last! It is football season after this book showing his sensational style! I was fortunate to all! Having served five years in federal prison for throwing be able to attend a lunch where Hutton Wilkinson spoke the game, no one, I mean no one is happy to see Griff about Duquette and this incredible book. There are no Burkett. No one has forgotten and no one has forgiven. words to describe it! There is so much magic, such Oddly enough he receives a call to visit Foster Speakman, creativity, the theatrical costumes, his homes, and the way owner and CEO of SunSouth Airlines. Once there, he he and his beautiful artistic wife Beegle entertained are discovers that Speakman is a paraplegic and the reason he all celebrated in this book. It is no wonder that Bergdorf has been asked to come is that Speakman wants to hire him Goodman chose to feature him in their November, December, to impregnate his wife Laura, the “natural way.” He has been and Christmas Holiday windows this year. What a winner! selected because of his incredible body, good looks, strength and stamina, and even perfect eyesight. With this comes an THE HEIR incredible amount of money, first upon signing and then on Barbara Taylor Bradford (2007, 480pp, St. Martin’s) completion, with a pledge never to reveal the secret. There This is the second novel in the Ravenscar trilogy, featuring are a lot of contingencies here because, after all, this is a Edward Deravenel as head of the family business empire. murder mystery, and there are a lot of people out to get Griff It is a story of his life with his wife, Elizabeth, his mistress, Burkett, in particular a detective by the name of Rodarte. Jane, his mother, Cecily, and in particular, his favorite This book has everything and is just pure pleasure to read. daughter, Bess. The book begins in 1918, takes you into the I defy you not to finish it in two days!

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Continued from page 18 scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements, and make little mention of any doubts we might have.” Apparently, not all of the faith-based doomsday believers are interested in rational analysis. In assessing the cost of Kyoto from reduced and misdirected economic activity, Lomborg uses big numbers without providing a detailed analysis, including effects from non-carbon emitting energy Cool It sources. Nevertheless, his argument is valid, and provides a timely response to the over-heated rhetoric of the “crisis” zealots. (Contributing Editor Hugh Evans, Los Angeles, CA)

CONTAINMENT Ian Shapiro is Sterling Professor of Political Science and Henry R. Luce is Director of the MacMillan IAN SHAPIRO Center for International and Area Studies at Yale University. Subtitled, “Rebuilding a Strategy Against (2007, 133pp, Global Terror,” Shapiro makes the case in this book for a policy of containment. The doctrine of Princeton) containment he points out, was originally developed by George Kennan after World War II to 8 combat the emerging Soviet threat. Kennan and the other advocates/architects of containment held the conviction that, “patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies” would eventually result in Soviet implosion as their imperial ambitions became unsustainable. Shapiro acknowledges that there are major differences between the Soviet threat and threats confronting the U.S. and the world today, notably the “transnational character” of modern terrorist organizations which critics of containment believe would render this policy ineffective. He agrees that terrorist groups might not themselves be feasible targets of containment but “enabling regimes,” on Containment, whom terrorists rely, certainly can be. Though a brief dissertation, while a critique of both the Bush administration and many of its Democratic opponents, is a thoughtful addition to the debate about foreign policy in the post-9/11 environment. (SHA)

Jane Says: “SHA and I have negotiated a settlement! In exchange for me getting real excited about this “project,” reading my books early and getting my reviews in on time, he will remember that old saying ‘Diamonds are a girls best friend!’ Sounds pretty good, huh? Even better if it was retroactive!” TRE Contributing Editors

Jane Ackerman (Studio City, CA) John D. Kyle (Ponte Vedra Beach, FL) Robert H. Bunzel (Piedmont, CA) Jenny Lawrence (New York, NY) Ernest Chambers (Los Angeles, CA) William Lilley, III (Washington D.C.) William Dohrmann (Stonington, CT) Donna Mellenthin (Studio City, CA) Hugh Evans (Los Angeles, CA) Ann Petroni (Santa Ynez, CA) Judith G. Jones (Pacific Palisades, CA) Connie Rogers (Brooklyn, NY)

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