Ideas and Information for Readers
th Dear Friends, September 2004 “Our 14 Year” Reviews in This Issue FORMALITY (CONTINUED). While reading the delightful Eats, Shoots & Leaves (see inside), I was again • The Shadow of the Wind (Zafón) reminded of the progressive breakdown of the manners, protocols, niceties, and decencies of our society. Many of • Coal Run (O’Dell) the little rules that add decorum and a degree of sophistication to our society, to say nothing of providing some • Shadow Divers (Kurson) structure and defining limitations, have crumbled. Don’ts don’t seem to mean don’t anymore! Do’s prevail and it’s • Eventide (Haruf)) all just fine because you are, of course, “doing your own thing”! Dressing for dinner, speaking the language • Here is New York (White) • A Question of Blood (Rankin) correctly, opening the car doors for the ladies, taking your hat off indoors, and practicing good table manners, to • The Narrows (Connelly) name a few, should be taught religiously, perhaps saving a few good souls from the number of those who • Absolute Friends (le Carré) have dropped their guards and slipped into the abyss of mediocrity. • Sweet Land Stories (Doctorow) OBSERVATIONS OF AN AIRLINE TRAVELER. Airline travel used to be special. We looked forward to • Father Joe (Hendra) • Eats, Shoots & Leaves (Truss) getting on the plane (I always wore a sport coat, and still do) and enjoying the thrill and the special occasion • Outposts (Winchester) of air travel. The trip itself was special, not just the destination. Not now. With security checks, crowds, • Skeletons on the Zahara (King) something less than caring service, poor food, baggage-laden passengers (please check it in the next time!) • The Outlaw Sea (Langewiesche) carrying water, coffee, cell phones, and computers, and a bevy of travelers dressed (it would appear) for • Relative Danger (Benoit) • Brunelleschi’s Dome (King) digging clams, a beer bust, or Halloween, air travel is an ordeal and sends a negative message about our • A Good Year (Mayle) society. It does, however, provide a great opportunity to read (remember that activity?) so you can convert • Lullaby of Birdland (Shearing/Shipton) what could otherwise be a drag to a satisfying reading experience. Many other passengers, I’ve observed, are • Death on the Nile (Christie) either asleep (dog-tired from the rat-race), staring into space, watching a lousy movie, or fidgeting because • Skinny Dip (Hiaasen) • Cole Porter (McBrien) their cell phones have to be turned off. Life is just full of frustrations! • Public Enemies (Burrough) WHO ARE THE INTELLECTUALS? The words “intellectual elite” or just “intellectual” are often used in • Inside the Kingdom (Bin Ladin) the media and the notion seems to be that these people know it all, are rightful arbiters of public issues, and • The Jane Austen Book Club (Fowler) that their pronouncements are highly relevant. Well, not entirely. The term(s) appear to mean largely the • . . . and more Features academics and perhaps also selected members of the media and this group is supposed to be blessed with • Exchanging Thoughts leading-edge thinking. Let’s analyze this. The word “intellect” is defined in the dictionary as “the ability to • Tony Turner’s “A” List learn and reason” and “the capacity for knowledge and understanding.” It is also “the ability to think • Jane’s Selections abstractly and profoundly.” If my thesis is correct, these definitions just might preclude many professors from • Selection From The Archives • Music To Our Ears being “intellectual.” Many live sheltered, protected lives and their ideas rarely have to stand the test of reason • TRE Favorites…A Decade Ago and practicality. They get a free pass. The epitome of intellectualism, it is argued here, is the combination of • Have You Ever Wondered? a keen ability to think and reason along with a real-world experience factor to effectively balance the process • Little Gems From The Past and the conclusions reached. Thinking in the abstract does, of course, have its place, as long as it’s billed • . . . and more accordingly and the thoughts are not promulgated and accepted as the gospel and used to “sell” a particular ideology. I do esteem real intellectualism and know people from all walks of life who could be regarded as THE “intellectuals”, but isn’t it really about “wisdom” that suggests a blend of knowledge with insight and QUARTERLY judgment? So, when you hear the term “intellectual elite” or “intellectual” bandied around in the media as PUBLICATION though their thoughts should carry some special weight, just discount it appropriately and use your own FOR
READING. . .BETWEEN THE LINES thought processes to reason out the issues. You probably have your feet planted much more firmly on the READERS ground than the “elite intellectuals.” BY Sincerely, READERS Fall 2004 Volume XIV Issue 3 Stephen H. Ackerman Publisher ©2004 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.
THE SHADOW OF THE WIND The Shadow of the Wind, written by Carlos Ruiz Zafón and translated from the Spanish by Lucia CARLOS RUIZ ZAFÓN Graves, is the best novel I’ve read in some time. The book spent more than a year at the top of the (2001, 487pp, Spanish bestseller list and is being published in over twenty countries. Dust jackets of books are Penguin) certainly not the most objective in their commentaries, but this one hit the mark with “an uncannily 10 absorbing historical mystery, a heart-piercing romance, and a moving homage to the mystical power of books, The Shadow of the Wind is a triumph of the storyteller’s art.” At almost 500 pages of great writing, the book will take some time, but it’s worth it. In Barcelona in 1945, 10-year-old Daniel Sempere is taken by his father, and antiquarian book dealer, to an unusual library where he is allowed to select one book for himself. He selects a novel entitled The Shadow of the Wind by Julian Carax, and later sets out to find other books by this author. He quickly learns that all books by Carax have been destroyed, torched by a stranger obsessed with completely erasing his literary legacy. Daniel’s quest to learn about Carax begins to expose murder and a host of secrets long forgotten, and his own life is threatened. The evolving story of this exceptional story has everything: Mystery, love, great characters, powerful narrative, intrigue, and surprises, all couched in superb prose. This powerful literary effort is a must for those readers constantly searching for those exceptional works of fiction. (SHA)
COAL RUN Coal Run is one of those rare novels that combines great storytelling with characters that are brought TAWNI O’DELL alive and leap off the pages, resulting in a riveting read. Tawni O’Dell’s first novel Back Roads, was a (2004, 351pp, New York Times bestseller, an Oprah Book Club selection, and a Main Selection of Book-of-the-Month Viking) Club. It will soon be a motion picture from DreamWorks Pictures. Coal Run is a tiny coal-mining 10 town in southwestern Pennsylvania, and the novel opens with a flashback telling of the tragic underground explosion which took the lives of 97 miners. Ivan Zoschenko was 5-years-old at that time and his immigrant father was one of those killed. Ivan, we learn later, became an All-American back at Penn State and was drafted by the Chicago Bears, but shortly thereafter his knee is crushed in a freak accident at the mine, ending his playing days. Ivan ran from all of this (to Florida) and, as the story begins, he returns to Coal Run upon learning that his teammate Reese Raynor is being released from prison. Reese had been convicted for beating his wife Crystal into a coma and had his term extended when he killed another inmate. Despite his drinking problems, Ivan is hired as a deputy sheriff and reconnects with his sister Jolene, a very attractive single mom with three kids, Reese’s troubled twin Jesse and his family, and his boyhood idol Val, who lost a leg in Vietnam. Ivan’s re-emergence and his relationship with family and friends are sharply told as old ghosts are uncovered, demons are dealt with, and surprises occur. O’Dell gives the reader a great portrayal of the coal-town community, the magnets that bring us home, and the changing tenor of relationships over time. This is a wonderful story with lots of emotional wallop and is highly recommended. (SHA)
REFLECTIONS ON GOVERNMENT I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always the facts… Will Rogers depend on the support of Paul… George Bernard Shaw I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity Govern a great nation as you would cook a small fish. Do is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself not overdo it… Lao-Tsu up by the handle… Winston Churchill Giving money and power to government is like giving No man’s life, liberty, or property is safe while the whiskey and car keys to teenage boys... P.J. O’Rouke legislature is in session… Mark Twain
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COLOSSUS: THE PRICE OF This provocative book should be required reading. Niall Ferguson is a Professor at the N.Y.U. Business AMERICA’S EMPIRE School, and Senior Fellow at both Oxford and the Hoover Institute at Stanford. As an historian, he NIALL FERGUSON presents a concise worldview with authority and conviction. As an economist, he writes with surprising (2004, 384pp, clarity. His straightforward and troublesome prognosis of the United States can be summarized as follows. The Penguin Press) An imperial nation is one that exerts its power over those beyond its borders, and thus creates an empire. A “liberal empire” is one that brings to those it controls more advantages than disadvantages: security, 10 infrastructure, commercial development, improved standard of living – the Victorian British Empire, for example. The United States has been an empire since its inception – manifest destiny – with varying degrees of success and failure, and never without anti-imperialist sentiment. FDR hypocritically denied our imperialism while he demanded that our allies abandon their colonial empires. We then occupied German and Japan for more than ten years – examples of successful, imperial nation building, as was South Korea. Yet the United States remains an empire in denial. We were comfortable in denial as long as we opposed the imperialism of the USSR. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, we have emerged as the most powerful nation in the history of the world – Colossus, wondering what to do with ourselves. Careful analysis reveals that neither the European Union nor China will really be able to challenge us for power. In order to safeguard and expand the obvious benefits of democracy and capitalism, we should accept our position and undertake the burdens and responsibilities of a “liberal empire” by exerting power over rogue dictatorships and failed states whose only other option is civil war. We cannot do this alone, and will need help and support, particularly from the European Union. Ferguson doubts that we will assume the long term commitment this leadership role demands, or devote the economic and human resources necessary for success. We have, or can develop, those resources. The expense would be manageable, and would be offset by positive economic benefits and international security. But we are addicted to consumption, entitlements, and debt. Although the barbarians have struck, and declared their intentions, the United States is “unlikely to be an effective liberal empire without some profound changes in its economic structure, its social makeup and its political culture.” The alternative is a transient empire, decaying from within. (Contributing Editor Hugh Evan, Los Angeles, CA)
HERE IS NEW YORK 10 E.B. White (1999, 56pp, The Little Bookroom) While ambling up Lexington Avenue in New York, we stopped for a visit at The Neighborhood Bookstore and I saw this tiny book by the cash register. It can easily be read in one sitting and it is simply wonderful: A true “little gem.” This edition of Here is New York, which includes an Introduction by Roger Angell, was published in 1999 to mark the 100th anniversary of E.B. White’s birth. This essay about New York was written in the summer of 1948 during a hot spell in the city. It is a remarkable piece written by one of America’s foremost literary figures. I savored it from start to finish and have since purchased a number of copies to give as gifts. The essay is penetrating, humorous, and nostalgic as White escorts the reader around Manhattan. Here is New York was written over 50 years ago, and, although many things have changed, it beautifully captures the essence A TRIBUTE TO and the spirit of the city. Every New Yorker and everyone who loves to go to New York should read this superb piece. E.B. White was awarded the National Medal for Literature, a Presidential Medal of Freedom, and membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1978, he was awarded the Pulitzer NEW YORK Prize for the body of his work. He died in 1985. (SHA)
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SKINNY DIP Carl Hiaasen has earned his stripes as one of the top comic novelists in the business and CARL HIAASEN Skinny Dip, his eleventh novel, will fortify that position. As with his prior efforts, Skinny Dip (2004, 355pp, is populated with the usual assortment of screwballs, eight balls, and crooks playing out their Knopf) lives in the swamp of South Florida. This caper begins with a young, attractive heiress being 8 thrown overboard from a cruise ship by her no-good, cheating husband. The motive for this is not for money but because he thinks she is on to his crooked actions in support of his boss, a big-time, ruthless, multi-millionaire with political connections, who is polluting the Everglades. The young woman, Joey Perrone, does not drown, however, managing to survive by grabbing hold of a bale of marijuana and staying afloat until rescued by an ex-cop who lives alone on a tiny island. These two set out to seek revenge for the murderous act of her husband, who believes she has gone to her maker. They are aided by a suspicious cop who can’t wait to leave South Florida for Minnesota and who keeps two pythons as pets in his apartment. Get the idea? In this laugh-out-loud book, Hiaasen’s characters are, as usual, over- the-top (especially the hirsute brute, Tool, sent by the tycoon to keep an eye on Joey’s husband) and the reader is entertained while waiting to see how the bad guys will get their come-uppance. I took points off for the fuzzy, mixed-up ending. (SHA)
Ronald Reagan: American — 1911-2004
Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States, died in early June after a long battle with Alzheimer’s. The summer issue of TRE was at the press at that time and we were unable to pay our respects to him in that edition. No one is immune from criticism, and everyone has their detractors, but there was something truly special about Reagan, perhaps best exemplified by the results of his re-election in 1984. Reagan won 49 states in that election (all but Minnesota), obviously appealing to voters of all political persuasions. One of the countless tributes to Reagan explained this rare popularity in a profound manner by stating that Reagan’s character and make-up was naturally “with the grain” of what America and its people were all about. Aided by his likeability and keen communication skills, he found the pulse of America: Optimism, religiosity, capitalism, patriotism, and individualism. The alternatives to these rock-bed American characteristics – pessimism, secularism, socialism, anti-Americanism, and statism - are certainly not appealing to the vast majority of Americans. Shortly after Reagan’s death, I had a long lunch with my good friend and Contributing Editor Armand Deutsch. Ardie had been a friend of Reagan‘s for over 50 years and he shared a few of his many remembrances of “Ronnie.” Reagan, Ardie said, used to announce the Rose Parade and invited him to be with him on these occasions. It did, however, require him to be up very early in the morning so, on one of these occasions, Ardie said: “Ronnie, it must feel good to have a friend who will get up so early in the morning to keep you company.” To which Reagan quipped “And it must feel good to have a friend who will get you a such good seat for the Parade!” In Ardie’s book, Me and Bogie: And Other Friends from a Life in Hollywood and Beyond, there is a chapter entitled “Me and Nancy Reagan.” He notes therein that, when the Reagan’s flew home to Californian for good after Ronnie completed his second term, they were at a small dinner party a few nights later. On that occasion, Reagan told this story: “When I went to my first Economic Summit shortly after going to Washington, I noticed that everyone was on a first- name basis. It was ‘Margaret, Helmut, Francois, Brian, etc.’ Everyone but me. I was the new kid on the block. They all called me ‘Mr. President.’ Finally, I had the opportunity to say to them, ‘Look ladies, and gentlemen, my name is Ron. And I’m saying exactly that to all of you now.’” So, thank you, “Ron”. Thank you Mr. President for your service and your remarkable accomplishments for America and the world, and thank you for advocating and living the values of which we can all be proud. God be with you.
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EVENTIDE There is something eminently satisfying about reading Kent Haruf. After reading his book Plainsong a KENT HARUF few years ago, I felt the urge to say more than our usual single paragraph and wrote a full page review (2004, 300pp, (see TRE Spring 2000). Plainsong won the Mountains & Plains Booksellers Award and was a finalist Knopf) for the National Book Award, The Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and The New Yorker Book Award. 10 He has also won a Whiting Foundation award and a special citation from the PEN/Hemingway Foundation. Haruf writes about people and relationships and humanity, and the reader is enveloped in his works. His people in Eventide are simple folks, very simple folks, living their lives in the small town of Holt in the high plains of Colorado. The McPheron brothers, Harold and Raymond, cattlemen, see the single mother they had “adopted” leave to go to college, creating a profound sense of loneliness. An eleven-year-old boy lives with and takes care of his crabby grandfather while helping out a neighbor, a woman with two young girls who has learned that her husband is not returning. A dirt-poor, disabled couple with two children are barely eking out a life while being helped by a welfare worker, and are endangered by a violent, no-good relative. Sound interesting? Maybe not, but in his simple, warm prose, Haruf weaves a wonderful story that will move you and leave an impact. Using the small, remote town of Holt as his laboratory, Haruf shows how the destinies of the residents come together and how life’s challenging events are dealt with as they look to each other for resolution. Like Plainsong, Eventide is a wonderful novel that most readers will enjoy. (SHA)
SKELETONS ON This book was very well reviewed by Leilani Adams Maguire (Honolulu, HI) in the June TRE but, in THE ZAHARA the interim, I had a chance to meet Dean King in Los Angeles and to listen to his excellent presentation DEAN KING about this book, subtitled “A True Story of Survival.” In 1815, the American cargo ship Commerce, (2004, 334pp, caught in heavy fog, deviated from its course to the Cape Verde Islands and ran aground on the Atlantic Little, Brown & Co.) coast of northern Africa in what is now Mauritania. Making their way to the shore of this decidedly inhospitable coast, Captain James Riley and his eleven-man crew were almost immediately captured 10 and taken as slaves by hostile native tribesmen. The American seamen were separated and taken out into the punishing desert environment by the captives, enduing some two months of intense heat and sunstroke, severe dehydration and hunger, sickness and torture. The degree of privation suffered by the sailors was almost unbelievable as they were led around and mistreated by the barbarous nomadic tribes. Referencing Captain Riley’s own account of these events as well as that of one of the crewmen, King deftly traces their ordeal and provides the reader with an excellent cultural and historical background of the Western Sahara. As part of his research for the book, King traveled to the area, and boarding camels, retraced some of Riley’s journey to get a flavor for the people, the customs, and the environment. Skeletons on the Zahara is a captivating, well-written, true tale of adventure, a clash of cultures, and a tribute to man’s will to survive. King’s riveting account of this survival tale is highly recommended for all readers. (SHA)
THE NARROWS Michael Connelly, currently president of the Mystery Writers of America, has written fourteen novels, MICHAEL CONNELLY ten of which feature LAPD detective Harry Bosch. In "The Narrows," Bosch has retired, but a call (2004, 416pp, from the wife of an old friend who has died of what appears to be natural causes brings him into a very Little, Brown & Co.) difficult and complex situation. (The old friend was Terry McCaleb, who was played by Clint 10 Eastwood in the recent movie made from Connelly's book "Blood Work.") Bosch hooks up with FBI agent Rachel Walling in a hunt for a serial killer (a former FBI agent) who was presumed dead in another earlier Connelly book, "The Poet." Combining plot strands from earlier novels is usually a recipe for disaster, but the author pulls it off in great style. There is plenty of action and the plot moves along rapidly, and the locale moves easily between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Bosch is cynical and intelligent, but above all he is persistent, and the deception and intrigue kept me reading late into the night. Rival crime author George Pelecanos calls Connelly "The best mystery writer in the world," and his series on Bosch will be a treat for those who have not already read them. This is a masterful piece of crime writing, and I give it a 10. (Contributing Editor Rod McPhee, Honolulu, HI) 5 BOOK REVIEWS
SHADOW DIVERS Shadow Divers is an exceptional, real life, chills and thrills story about the recreational activity of scuba ROBERT KURSON diving at the extreme level – 200 feet to shipwrecks off the northeast coast of the United States. The 200 (2004, 344pp, or so divers who risk their lives in this weekend hobby are a rough, tough lot from Brooklyn and Jersey. Random House) For most of them, the goal is a trophy, perhaps a china tea cup from the luxury liner Andrea Doria that 9 went down off Nantucket Island in 1956. For a few, like John Chatterton, the greater goal is to be the first to discover and identify a wreck – their own under sea Mount Everest. Chatterton, character-driven to challenge himself against the elements, meticulous in his preparation and attention to detail, leads a group of divers who find an unidentifiable German submarine 200 feet beneath the Atlantic, 65 miles off the New Jersey coast. During a six-year adventure to identify the U-boat, Chatterton and his partner, Richie Kohler, develop an unusual bond of friendship and understanding. There are vivid descriptions of the rigors and dangers of their persistent under sea search that claims the lives of several divers. The search continues on land, as Chatterton and Kohler explore the extensive war archives – official and unofficial - in the Untied States, Germany and Great Britain. Their relentless pursuit for the U-boat’s identity eventually rewrites incorrectly recorded history. In the process, Kohler develops a sensitivity toward the German crew. What were they like? How did they live and die in their steel coffin? He finds answers from their relatives and from U-boat survivors in Germany. Robert Kurson, author by way of Harvard Law School, includes an appendix that confirms he has been scrupulous in his accuracy, never giving way to hyperbole or imagination. Throughout the story, he sustains a style that is consistent with his tough-guy characters: Chatterton, “Chokeholded his imagination,” Kohler, “barrelrolled into his collection of U-boat books.” (Movie music by Springsteen, please.) Kurson describes Chatterton and Kohler as his partners in writing the book. Their collective honesty inevitably raises issues to balance against the heroics: Obsession? Social disconnect? Effect on family? Is the game worth the prize? These are questions that draw the reader further into the story. Shadow Divers is narrative non-fiction at its best. (Contributing Editor Hugh Evans, Los Angeles, CA) Publishers Note: In July of this year, a team of deep-sea scuba divers from the Canadian-based TV series The Sea Hunters found the wreck of U-215, 270 feet below the surface, 150 miles off the coast of New England and south of Nova Scotia. In July of 1942, U-215 was on its way to mine Boston Harbor when it attacked and sank a U.S. liberty ship, but was counterattacked with depth charges by the British warship HMS Le Tiger. U-215 was presumed sunk but, until now, unconfirmed. Incidentally, I too read Shadow Divers and wholeheartedly agree with Hugh’s review. (SHA)
A QUESTION OF BLOOD Ian Rankin lives in Edinburgh, Scotland and is the #1 bestselling mystery writer in the United IAN RANKIN Kingdom. In this book, the 14th Inspector Rebus novel by Rankin, Rebus is called out of his (2004, 406pp, jurisdiction to investigate a school shooting in which two students are killed and another is wounded Little Brown) before the killer turns the gun on himself and takes his own life. On the surface, this appears to be an 8 open-and-shut case, an act of sheer madness, but the real question is “why?” Why did this ex-soldier go on a rampage, why was the third victim only wounded, and why have two Army investigators shown up to look into the case? As Rebus and his side-kick, Detective Sergeant Siobhan Clarke, tackle the investigation, Rebus is plagued with problems of his own. It seems he is under suspicion for the murder of a man who was harassing and menacing Clarke. The man was killed in an apartment fire and Rebus has a weak excuse for his heavily bandaged, burned hands. A Question of Blood evolves into a fine police procedural with a somewhat complex plot. Rankin's style here is different from the typical mystery turned out by the popular American writers in this genre. Not only is it longer, but there is emphasis on character and setting as well as plot and I got the distinct feeling of knowing the characters portrayed here. DI Rebus himself is a great character: He is middle-aged, a drinker and a smoker, short-tempered, a loner, defies authority, and is only tolerated because of his excellent detective work. This is a good, well-written novel (perhaps a bit long) that connoisseurs of mystery writing will enjoy. (SHA) 6 BOOK REVIEWS
PUBLIC ENEMIES Journalist Bryan Burrough was the co-author of Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco. In BRYAN BURROUGH Public Enemies, subtitled “America’s Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34,” he (2004, 555pp, brings to life one of the most spectacular series of criminal events in the nation’s history. It was during Penguin) this two year period, square in the middle of the Depression, that some of the most notorious criminals 9 in American history were operating: Bonnie and Clyde, John Dillinger, Baby-Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd, Machine-Gun Kelley, the Barkers, and many others and it was during this period that a small, rudderless, inept Federal agency headed by an ambitious bureaucrat named J. Edgar Hoover cut its eye- teeth on the chase for these criminals and set its course for the FBI we know today. Burrough has obviously done extensive research in putting together this true crime history in which he adroitly pieces together the robberies, the movements, the hideouts, and the chases to capture these infamous characters and their gangs. I had not been aware that these high-profile criminals were all operating at the same time and that, for the most part, they knew each other. This is a well written account of this crime wave and the efforts by the police and FBI to stop it, but you will occasionally have to move through some mind-numbing detail to complete the various episodes. (SHA) TRE’S FAVORITES…A Decade Ago Books Selections from The Readers Exchange of September 1994
A MAP OF THE WORLD (Jane Hamilton) In this excellent novel, a woman in a small midwestern town is charged with watching her neighbor’s two small girls along with her own children. She is distracted for a moment and her neighbor’s daughter drowns in a pond. She is grief-stricken and paralyzed with guilt and her family begins to unravel. A Map of the World is an exceptional novel, provocative, emotional and very well written. The story made me think about the thin line between a life of happiness and contentment on the one hand, and a life of tragedy on the other. THE SOLACE OF OPEN SPACES (Gretel Ehrlich) Gretel Ehrilich suffered a tragedy in the mid-70’s and moved from New York to Wyoming to heal and discover a new life. She wrote this book about her early experiences in Wyoming where she was able to get in touch with herself, and with her life, and achieve peace and a new outlook. She is a wonderful writer and has that rare ability to capture the essence of a time and place, and of the people. Here’s an example of the prose: “So much in American life has had a corrupting influence on our requirements for social order. We live in a culture that has lost its memory…The changing conditions of life are no longer assimilated back into a common watering trough. Now with our senses enlivened-because that’s the only context we have to go by-we hook change onto change ad nauseam.” The book is a little gem. THE JEWEL THAT WAS OURS (Colin Dexter) While visiting a bookstore in the Cotswold village of Bourton-On-The-Water, I asked the elderly owner for his opinion on the best English crime fiction authors of the day. The first name out of his mouth was Colin Dexter. Thus advised, I purchased The Jewel That Was Ours, read it, and became an enthusiastic fan of Colin Dexter. This book, and the subsequent Dexter stories we read and reviewed, are well-crafted, entertaining English police procedurals featuring Inspector Morse and his loyal sidekick Sergeant Lewis. LOYALTIES (Thomas Fleming) Loyalties is a novel of World War II, spanning the entire term of the war in Europe. The story is built around a German couple and an American couple, and the unraveling of their marriages as the war unfolds. The American man is a Naval officer who becomes an operative at the embassy in Madrid. While there, he meets the German woman, who has been sent to Spain by the Abwehr. Her husband is a highly decorated U-boat commander who included among his kills the destroyer skippered by the American Naval officer. Through the ensuing love affair and the espionage and activities in Washington and Berlin, we are given a glimpse of the major forces driving America’s involvement in and political strategies shaping the conduct of World War II. Loyalties is an excellent, well-researched, historical novel.
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INSIDE THE KINGDOM Carmen Bin Ladin is Swiss, born in Lausanne to a Swiss father and a Persian mother. Just a few CARMEN BIN LADIN years out of high school, she met and later married Yeslam Bin Ladin, a Saudi, and one of (2004, 206pp, Osama’s older brothers. Yeslam graduated from college (USC) in 1976 after which they moved Warner Books) to Jeddah so that he could participate in the family business and take advantage of the new 9 business opportunities that had arisen as a result of the steep price increases for crude oil subsequent to the 1973 embargo. Setting up a household outside of Jeddah, Carmen was forced to live the barren and highly restricted life of a Saudi woman. For a woman brought up in the West, this represented an extreme change of behavior and lifestyle. Carmen relates the events of her life in Saudi Arabia, describing the loneliness and subservience of Saudi woman and how it is so deeply ingrained in the culture. After the Iranian revolution in 1979 and the Saudi support of the Afghans in their war with the Soviets, the Saudi society (after a brief period of some liberalism) drifted deeper into rigid fanaticism (the Wahabi version of Islam) to the point where Carmen feared that her daughters (she had two by this time and a third came later) would never be able to live in freedom. As the distance began to grow between she and Yeslam, she feared that she could easily lose her daughters. Carmen goes on to tell of their departure from Saudi Arabia and the ultimate split from Yeslam, who completely broke off from his daughters. I thought this short book was an excellent read and an inside view of the repressive fundamentalist society that is Saudi Arabia and the oppression of women there. Carmen Bin Ladin, now living in Switzerland, is a courageous woman who stood firm on breaking with the powerful Bin Ladin family and achieving freedom for her daughters. (SHA)
EATS, SHOOTS & LEAVES Who could have predicted that a book about punctuation would become a number one bestseller in LYNNE TRUSS the UK? Certainly not the author, Lynne Truss, who notes in the Preface that “no one involved in (2004, 204pp, the production of Eats, Shoots & Leaves expected the words ‘runaway’ and ‘bestseller’ would ever Gotham Books) be associated with it, let alone upon the cover of an American edition.” Truss is the author of three 8 novels, was the television critic of The Times (London) and spent four years as a sports columnist for the same newspaper. She now reviews books for The Sunday Times (London) and is a familiar voice on BBC Radio 4. Proper punctuation is an endangered species and Truss has proclaimed with emphasis that, in the UK, “standards of punctuation are abysmal.” Does anyone really care? Apparently yes, since over 500,000 in the UK bought the book and we have the TRE network (and others like us) in America taking a great interest! We really do respect these little “traffic-cops” of the written word! So, in East, Shoots & Leaves, we learn the rules for using apostrophes, colons and semicolons, parentheses, exclamation marks (“points” in America) and dashes, all delivered in a humorous manner with little slices of history. This is a delightful read even if you are not a “stickler” and are content to go on without a clue on punctuation. And please do not call if you find a little slip in TRE. We are “sticklers”, but do occasionally make mistakes! (SHA)
OUTPOSTS I have enjoyed several of British author Simon Winchester’s books and have found them all to SIMON WINCHESTER be highly interesting and enjoyable. I have also heard him speak on two occasions in Los (2004, 353pp, Angeles (first when he was on tour for The Professor and the Madman and then later for The Perennial) Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary) and he is an articulate, 9 humorous, and entertaining speaker. This paperback edition of Outposts is a reprint of the book first published in 1985. Subtitled “Journeys to the Surviving Relics of the British Empire,” the book is about Winchester’s journey to discover exactly what was left of the once-vaunted British Empire. A new introduction by the author covers some of the major events that have occurred since the initial publication. It is noted that, at Queen Victoria’s Jubilee in 1897, about 400,000,000 people lived in the Empire, which at that time, included India, Canada, Australia, and South Africa. By 1985, however, it had become a small and ragged Empire. In the last
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colonial census in 1981, there were 5,248,728 people in the Crown Colonies, and 5,120,000 of those lived in Hong Kong. After Hong Kong reverted to the Peoples Republic of China in 1997, it became a small, diverse, and far-flung group of colonies. Some are well known – Bermuda, Gibraltar and the Cayman Islands, for example – but most are much smaller and out of the mainstream. So Winchester takes us to the likes of Ascension Island, The Falkland Islands (which, of course, hit the news big in 1982 when the Argentines attempted to regain sovereignty there), the British Indian Ocean Territory and Diego Garcia, St. Helena, Tristan, and more, to see first-hand just how the Empire was managing. The result is a well-written and interesting glimpse of these Colonies (a travelogue of sorts) with dashes of history and local color combined with the typical Winchester humor, which I found to be entertaining and informative. (SHA)
THE WORDS WE USE.. . AND MISUSE
The shape of the English language is not rigid. We often confuse meanings and develop bad word usage habits. Here are a few examples taken from The Writer’s Art by James Kilpatrick CARE LESS (he could) This is interesting only as an example of the reverse spin that sometimes affects phrases of the clearest meaning. Common sense tells us that The senator could care less about the president’s criticism is not what is meant at all. What is meant is that The senator could not care less. That is, the senator cares not at all; therefore he couldn’t care less. The mystifying could care less ought to be banished. I couldn’t care less if I never ran into the phrase again. MEDIA Media, which so often and so vexatiously is pronounced mejia, is the plural of medium. This means that media are, media are, media are! Why is it so difficult for people in the media to get this through their heads? It is beyond understanding. But time after time, in publications edited by professional journalists, we find: “The media is entitled to” … “The Washington media is concentrating this week on” … “The national media increasingly is exercising its influence…” The same elementary rule applies, of course to data, which is the plural of datum. Like media, data are, data are, data are! COMPONENT PARTS I had never thought about component parts until I received a letter from a professor emeritus at a small Southern college. A true Southerner, he began by buttering me up for five paragraphs of praise for my columns. These amenities out of the way, he inquired, “But why, sir, do you persist in writing of component parts? Parts are components and components are parts.” Against so gentle a charge, I could plead only nolo contendere. AFFECT/EFFECT To affect something is to influence it, to shape it, to bring about a change in it. To effect is to produce a result. Fowler offers as an example, “A single glass of brandy may affect his recovery,” meaning to alter his prospects for recovery. “A single glass of brandy may effect his recovery” means that the brandy could make him well, a pleasant thought. TRY AND In the name of domestic tranquility, let us not try and do something. Let us try to do it. When we write that negotiators in Geneva “have the assignment to try and write an arms control agreement,” we write gibberish. We should try to remember this.
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SWEET LAND STORIES I have read a number of E.L. Doctorow's books over the years and have had uneven E.L. DOCTOROW experiences, ranging from the superb Ragtime to the so-so Billy Bathgate. He has earned a (2004, 147pp, position, however, as one of America’s premier writers, so I set aside my usual reluctance to Random House) read story collections to read this latest offering from Doctorow. The title of this collection is 8 laced with irony since the principal characters in these stories are all estranged and desperately trying to achieve the “sweet” life. The misfits in Doctorow’s five stories include a murderess and her compliant son in rural Illinois (“House on the Plains”), a young couple who kidnap a baby (“Baby Wilson”), and a member of a religious-cult commune in Kansas (“Walter John Harmon”). The two best stories, I thought, were “Jolene: A Life” and “Child, Dead, in the Rose Garden,” with the nod for best-in-collection going to the latter. In “Jolene,” a young girl is in quest of a life and, in a series of relationships is consistently victimized, but perseveres and leaves the reader rooting for her. “Rose Garden,” probably the most compelling narrative of the five, describes a secretive and arrogant presidential administration in their attempt to cover up the death of a child and the attempt by an FBI agent to expose the truth. This is a good collection by Doctorow which will be enjoyed by short-story aficionados, but others can safely pass. (SHA)
FATHER JOE Father Joe, subtitled “The Man Who Saved my Soul,” got my attention when a review of the TONY HENDRA book began on the cover of The New York Times Book Review (in large print), giving it the (2004, 352pp, impression of something very special. The review noted that “this extraordinary, luminescent, Random House) profound book shows us something wonderfully unexpected and deeply true.” Although titled 8 Father Joe, this book is really a memoir by Tony Hendra about his life and his spiritual journey. When Hendra was 14, he befriended a young married couple living near his hometown in Hertfordshire, north of London. The lonely wife fell for him and he was ultimately caught by the husband fondling his wife. A strict Roman Catholic, the husband took Hendra away for some old-fashioned spiritual discipline to the Benedictine brothers at Quarr Abbey on the Isle of Wight. Fearing the worst, Hendra meets Reverend Joseph Warrilow, or Father Joe, an odd-looking man, whose kind, open, and thoughtful manner captivated him. So begins Hendra’s lifelong struggle to come to grips with his spiritual fate, his early desire to become a monk, his long career as a satirist and, among other things, an editor of the National Lampoon and traveling full circle to again embrace the Church. The story becomes much more about Hendra, known for “left-wing screeds and biting satire,” than Father Joe, with whom Hendra has only infrequent contact during the bulk of his career. Although Hendra writes well and his journey was often interesting, I kept hoping for less about him and more about Father Joe, who was supposed to be the real star of this story. (SHA)
RELATIVE DANGER I read this mystery because of a highly favorable review in a usually reliable source. That review CHARLES BENOIT contained such comments as “Benoit’s smashingly good action-packed first novel” and “with (2004, 256pp, much wit and invention,” and concludes with “Benoit is a rare discovery, and one hopes that he Poisoned Pen Press) plans to produce more adventure-oriented mysteries with the same skill and energy that propel 7 this excellent debut.” Regrettably, Relative Danger did not live up to this advance praise. A thief by the name of Russell Pearce is murdered in a hotel room in Singapore in 1948. Turning immediately to the present-day, young Doug Pearce, nephew of Russell, is fired from his job in a brewery and, shortly thereafter, receives a letter from a friend of his long dead uncle inviting him to Toronto. With nothing else to do, he goes and meets the glamorous Edna Bowers, who has a mission for him. With clues she has assembled and the money to finance the trip, she launches him on a trip on which he must play detective to solve the murder of his uncle. This takes him to Casablanca, Cairo, Bahrain, and Singapore during which he rubs elbows with a variety of
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characters who become quite interested in his activities, has an affair with a gorgeous young woman, does time in an Egyptian jail, and has several life-threatening episodes. At the last stop in Singapore, Doug’s improving detective activities come to fruition and he is able to provide all the answers about the murder and the lost jewels. The storyline here was weak and not credible, and never really resonated with me. (SHA)
TONY TURNER’S “A” LIST Contributing Editor Tony Turner (Paradise Valley, AZ) is a great reader who, for many years has written book reviews for a long list of his friends. He reads a variety of books and has a great sense for books of quality. Here are Tony’s notes on his recent favorites. A- PRIVATE SECTOR (Brian Haig) A serial killer is loose in Washington, DC. Separately, a high profile law firm and a telecom giant are involved in money laundering and invading top-secret data bases throughout government. The two become connected and a JAG major has to resolve both, or die trying – literally. Suspenseful, entertaining and some of the dialogue is hilarious. THE VANISHED MAN (Jeff Deaver) A An excellent mystery about a magician who is murdering people in Manhattan. He is an illusionist, an escape artist, and much more. The plot has more twists and turns than almost all in the police suspense genre. The matching of wits between the murderer and the police team is terrific. A SECRET SANCTION (Brian Haig) The JAG major, Sean Drummond, is given a no-win case in Bosnia. Green Berets have murdered thirty-five Serbs and everyone including the Joint Chiefs and White House want this to “go away.” Drummond is driven to get the truth for many reasons, including that he is also a highly decorated combat veteran. He is also irreverent and the dialogue has great energy. Well done.
CROSSFIRE (David Hagberg) A- Russia is in turmoil and the hard-liners want to take over from Gorbachev. Their assassin blows up the CIA’s Paris headquarters and Kirk McGarvey is framed for this deed. Hagberg develops an ever-changing scene and the action and pace are very good. D-DAY (24 Hours That Saved The World) (Time-Life) A Words and pictures that depict the Normandy invasion. Introduced by Tom Hanks, this is a well-done history of that crucial day. It seemed a good summary of the 60th Anniversary memorial, particularly as it involved the passing of President Reagan, who gave one of his most memorable speeches on 6 June 1984 at Point-du-Hoe. BEACHWALK (Audrey Schumacher Moe) A This is a very different work and all the more interesting because it is unique. The author (a long time friend as is her husband) finds details of creatures and things along the beach that the casual observer will always miss. She illustrates her discoveries and relates how we can better appreciate the world in which we live. COLOSSUS (Naill Ferguson) A+ This is one of the best written and well-researched history books I’ve ever read. The author’s intent, however, was not a history test, but a treatise on America as an empire. There are hosts of definitions of “empire” and they are evaluated and defined in this book. The question is, in Ferguson’s view, not whether America is an empire – it is. The more interesting question is will it endure. The author hopes so, but fears not. The end will not be the result of exterior forces, but from internal faults. One should definitely read this work.
11 Music to Our Ears COLE PORTER William McBrien (1998, 397pp, Knopf) 8 We enjoyed the movie “De-Lovely” starring Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd, and it prompted me to read this biography of Cole Porter (1891-1964). Porter was born in Peru, Indiana of wealthy stock (his grandfather, J.C. Cole, was extremely successful), went to private school in the East and then to Yale. He wrote music early, including the Yale songs “Bull Dog” and “Bright College Years.” He traveled abroad extensively and, after meeting the beautiful, charming, and well-placed divorcee Linda Lee Thomas at a wedding reception at the Paris Ritz (a great hangout of Cole’s), they were married. Linda, aware of Cole’s gay tendencies, accepted that and they were crazy about each other. Porter struggled a bit with his music in the early 1920’s but he began to hit his stride in the late 1920’s with songs like “You Do Something To Me” and “What Is This Thing Called Love?” But it was the 1930’s that belonged to Porter. Writing both music and lyrics, his 1930 musicals included The New Yorkers (1930), Anything Goes (1934), Jubilee (1935), DuBarry Was A Lady (1936) and others. But the songs from the 1930s were his best: “Night and Day,” Begin the Beguine,” “Just One of Those Things,” “Easy to Love,” “I Get a Kick Out of You,” “Anything Goes,” “You’re the Top,” “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” “My Heart Belongs to Daddy,” and many, many more. Although the 1930’s were Porter’s best years, perhaps his greatest hit, “Kiss Me Kate,” debuted in 1948 with “So in Love,” “Always True to You in my Fashion,” “Why Can’t You Behave,” and others. Cole lived the high life in Paris, Venice, New York, Los Angeles, London and his gay life became much more overt as time went on. But the continued problems from his crippling fall from a horse in 1937, Linda’s death in 1954, and his mother’s death, made his life progressively more painful and lonely until he died in 1964. His life is well told in this biography and, of course, the legacy of his music lives on, as we were so well reminded in “De-Lovely.”. (SHA)
“JUST ONE OF THOSE THINGS” It was just one of those things If we thought a bit of the end of it Just one of those crazy flings When we started painting the town One of those bells that now and then rings We’d have been aware that our love affair Just one of those things Was too hot not to cool down It was just one of those nights So goodbye dear and amen Just one of those fabulous flights Here’s hoping we meet now and then A trip to the moon on gossamer wings It was great fun, but it was just one of those things Just one of those things Cole Albert Porter From Jubilee (1935)
LULLABY OF BIRDLAND: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF GEORGE SHEARING George Shearing with Alyn Shipton (2004, 243pp, Continuum) 7 I bought and read this book simply because I love George Shearing’s music. Born in 1919 in London, Shearing is still performing at age 85. His accomplishments are all the more remarkable because he was born blind. Shearing established himself as one of England’s most popular and accomplished jazz pianists and then, in 1947, emigrated to the United States, knowing that the real action in his field was here. The famous George Shearing Quintet was formed in 1949 and played together for some three decades. I remember that signature “Shearing sound” so well, that soft, wonderful, romantic jazz with such beautiful pacing. As a music enthusiast, especially in the classical jazz area, a book like this is appealing for the trip down memory lane in music. In reading about Shearing, you are treated to a roll-call of his many colleagues that included such names as Joe Williams, Nancy Wilson, Dakota Staton, Mel Torme, Count Basie, Ray Brown, Charlie Parker, Lionel Hampton and many more. And as I read about Shearing, the melodies of “Lullaby of Birdland” (which he wrote) and “September in the Rain” kept running through my mind. The book will win no prizes but the memories and the music made it worthwhile. And, of course, I went for the new CD compilation entitled “Lullabies of Birdland.” (SHA)
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A GOOD YEAR The setting for Peter Mayle’s ninth book (fifth novel) is, of course, Provence. It seems hard to believe PETER MAYLE that his first book, the popular A Year in Provence, was published fourteen years ago in 1990. You will (2004, 287pp, find that A Good Year (as in wines) is a simple, light story that will entertain you but has little or no Knopf) depth. Max Skinner is axed from his job in London and has no money, but he simultaneously learns 7 that he has inherited his Uncle Henry’s property in Provence, a farmhouse and a 40 hectare vineyard. His best friend and former brother-in-law, a wine connoisseur, urges him to become a vintner and lends him some money to get started. He goes to Provence and finds the house to be run-down and the wine being produced to be undrinkable. His spirits are elevated, however, by the highly attractive local notary, Nathalie, and the lusty Fanny, who runs the local bistro. He hires a strict housekeeper to help keep order and is then visited by a young California girl who knows something about wine. It turns out that this girl, Christie Roberts, is the long-lost daughter of Uncle Henry. This discovery sends Max into a tizzy about her claim on the property and, while this is going on, Christie looks at the vines and is troubled by some of the things she observes. Meanwhile, we are taken to a winemaker in Bordeaux that is selling its rare boutique wine at $40,000 a case and up. The plot in A Good Year seems somewhat predictable and all of this really does come together after a pleasant little romp in the South of France. So if you’re looking for a non-challenging little appetizer, this might be your answer. (SHA)
ART: A NEW HISTORY Paul Johnson is an eminent world historian who has recorded the ups and down of civilization in PAUL JOHNSON a number of exceptional books. His lifelong studies quiet naturally include art, as his father was a (2003, 752pp, painter and headmaster of an art school. In this exhaustive art history, he presents his Harper Collins) observations of architecture over the centuries, as well as his impressions of painting, sculpture 10 and artifacts from public and private collections throughout the world. He does not provide a bibliography, but includes hundreds of illustrations, even a sketch of the author by David Hockney. Johnson begins by defining art as a natural element in man’s ordering instinct, his determination to understand and master the wild world of nature. Art forms, he tells us, develop based upon fundamental principles within which there is opportunity for individual expression. For example, the classic Greek temple demands a simple, consistent form, but allows for innovative sculptural decoration. Artistic styles inevitably become more complex and encrusted over time; artist must then choose between conformity and the freedom to create new and simpler forms. Thus art cycles from century to century, driven by the cultural climate of religious and secular beliefs. Johnson describes works of art with style and substance as though he is standing in front of them. His brief anecdotes about the artists enliven our interest. Some artists whom history has elevated to heroic levels, Johnson examines with a more moderate appreciation. Others who are not as well know – including several Americans – he raises to the level of genius. There is very little in the art of Western Civilization that he does not appreciate until he comes to the 20th century, when art becomes driven by commercialism. At that point, he finds that fashion, a useful but subordinate part of art, usurps order and threatens a cultural breakdown. Fashion art, as opposed to fine art, he defines as constant change for the sake of change, intended to startle and disrupt. Johnson is not enthusiastic about the Impressionists (a misused term, he says), but he approaches them artist by artist. For example: he admires Degas, whom he defines as a realist, but not Monet. Johnson reserves his harshest criticism for Picasso, whom he disdains as both an artist and a man. Johnson is not a pessimist, however. He describes Andrew Wyeth as the “only narrative artist of genius during the second half of the twentieth century.” And he assures us that the best is yet to come. In anticipation, he advises us to train and trust our eyes as we study art, rather than allow self-styled academic experts to mediate our appreciation. If you place this book where you can stop and read a few pages whenever you have a free moment, you may find yourself visiting more museums, extending your knowledge and expanding your ideas. (Contributing Editor Hugh Evan, Los Angeles, CA)
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ABSOLUTE FRIENDS Ever since George Smiley came in from the cold, le Carré has been writing up the spy JOHN LE CARRÉ game with literary flare. His recent books, following Communism’s collapse, have veered (2004, 464pp, narrowly: drug manufacturer predations in Africa (The Constant Gardener), Central Little, Brown & Co.) American malaise (The Tailor of Panama), international arms trafficking in Switzerland (The Night Manager), and revolt in the Caucasus (Single & Single). But here in this grand yet very personal book, le Carré returns to the backdrop of the cold war and its flash points in Germany, where some of his earliest novels were set. This is the story of ‘friendship’ between two aging cold war warriors –former spies for the UK and Soviets— who come together in present day, on the altar of the Anglo-American alliance to influence central Europe on the war against Iraq and terror. The book opens with the protagonist, Ted Mundy, whose father was a Brit officer in old Pakistan, disillusioned and giving English-speaking tours in Bavaria at Mad Ludwig’s old castle. In re-wind technique, le Carré spends the next three fourths of the book telling Mundy’s history and how, as a radical British youth in post-war Berlin, Mundy had met and become fast friends with Sasha, the crippled son of a Nazi doctor. Sasha was a rabid anti-capitalist and over the years morphed into a Soviet spy, while Mundy became a double agent for the West, ostensibly touring for the arts with the British Council but providing information all the time to MI-6, and keeping tabs on his friend Sasha. This is the heart of the book and is a study of that friendship and the times that spawned it. In the last quarter of the tale, in post-9/11 and post-Iraq war present day, Sasha returns to Mundy’s life promising to introduce him to a mysterious new benefactor with grandiose world solutions. Yet Sasha and Mundy are being played by the larger geopolitical puppeteers in Washington and London, a typical le Carré conceit, and their sacrifice is cruelly delivered. Some might find the undisguised anti-American subtext and the end a bit over the top as the superpowers stage a terrorist incident in Germany to swing Bonn and Brussels toward the fight in the middle-east, but le Carré never hits you over the head and rather even the ideology plays like poetry. (Contributing Editor Rob Bunzel, Piedmont, CA)
SAINT-EXUPERY Antoine de Saint – Exupery took off in a Lockheed P38 on a mapping mission to Lyon, STACY SCHIFF France on July 31, 1944, never to return to base. A few months ago his plane was found (1994, 451pp, in the Mediterranean. Closed at last the final chapter in the life of this author-aviator and Borzoi Books) my motivation to learn more about this life of 44 years. The author brings Tonio to life 9 through her fine research, humor, and realistic portrayal of this complex and controversial Frenchman. Flying was his first love, but he enjoyed his liquor, women, and putting his adventures in the sky on paper. All his books reflect his deep attachment to flight whether flying mail from France to Africa for Aeropostale (the forerunner of Air France) or dangerous night flying in South America. Living in Paris in 1930 he spent most of his time at Brasserie Lipp and Café des Deux Magots where Wind, Sand and Stars was written. That fall he met widowed Consuelo Gomez Carrillo whom he married in 1931: a rocky marriage, although they shared a lasting affection. He spent time in the United States were he was greatly admired by Anne and Charles Lindberg, their friends, and many in the literary world. The Little Prince (a magical, much loved tale) evolved in New York while he was recovering from surgery. Stacy Schiff has written a very readable, lively biography of this remarkable author-aviator. I thoroughly enjoyed the trip as will you wherever your summer takes you. Good reading by Saint-Exupery Night Flight, Flight to Arras, Southern Mail Wind, Sand and Stars, The Little Prince (Contributing Editor Ann Petroni, Santa Ynez, CA)
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THE JANE AUSTEN This is a book for English majors and Jane Austen fans. On the surface, it’s a story of six BOOK CLUB Austen readers who meet monthly to discuss Austen’s novels. More specifically, it’s the life KAREN JOY FOWLER stories of six interesting individuals and their love relationships. Five of the club members are (2004, 288pp, women: Bernadette, a 67-year-old much-married free spirit; Sylvia, whose husband of 32 years G.P. Putnam’s Sons) recently left her for another woman; Sylvia’s lesbian daughter, Allegra; Sylvia’s college room- 9 mate and best friend, Jocelyn, who has lots of boyfriends but never married; and Prudie, a school-teacher who is restless in her marriage. The one male is Grigg, younger and attractive, who reads Austen but is passionate about science fiction. Jocelyn hopes he will become a romantic interest for Sylvia. Fowler focuses on each book club member in turn, as she describes the meeting at his/her home. The narrative is in the third person, but there’s an unidentified commentator who gives a first-person analysis of each character. Bottom line: this book reads more like a collection of short stories than a novel. The life histories are interesting and at times quite funny, but the connections between the characters are thin and slightly confusing. Unless you really, really remember your Austen, the references to her works seem an interruption to the story line. Fowler gives a synopsis of each Austen novel (as well as comments on them from 1812 to the present) but not until the end – by then, it’s too late. (Contributing Editor Judith Jones, Pacific Palisades, CA) 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 The Facts On File Dictionary of Clichés (Christine Ammer) PDQ Abbreviation for “pretty damn quick,” indicating something that has occurred or will or should occur, with considerable speed. This cliché dates from the late nineteenth century. The earliest citation listed by the OED is dated c. 1875, when B. Woolf, in the play The Mighty Dollar, had a character say, “That’s right, you’d better step P.D.Q., pretty damn quick.” THE PRIMROSE PATH The way of easy self-indulgence. Shakespeare used this term in two ways – as a path of pleasure (“the primrose path of dalliance,” Hamlet, 1:3) and as an easy but dangerous course of action (“the primrose way to the everlasting bonfire,” Macbeth, 2:1). The former meaning survives in the current cliché. TO WARM THE COCKLES OF ONE’S HEART To gratify; to make someone feel good. This term comes from the Latin for the heart’s ventricles, cochleas cordis, and has been used figuratively since the late seventeenth century. “This contrivance of his did inwardly rejoice the cockles of his heart,” wrote John Eachard (Observations upon the Answer to Contempt of Clergy, 1671). A RED-LETTER DAY A special occasion. The term comes from the practice of printing feast days and other special holy days in red on ecclesiastical calendars, from the fifteenth century on. Charles Lamb used the expression in describing Oxford during the long vacation: “The red-letter days now become, to all intents and purposes, dead-letter days” (Essays of Elia, 1823) LOCK, STOCK AND BARREL The whole thing; all of something. Originally this term meant all three elements of a firearm – the lock or firing mechanism, the stock or handle, and the barrel or tube. It began to be transferred to the entirety of anything in the early nineteenth century, although for a time it was also put as stock, lock, and barrel. THE PATIENCE OF JOB Long-suffering and forbearing. In the Old Testament Book of Job, the protagonist is the personification of both poverty and patience, subjected to numerous trials. His poverty has been referred to from time to time, but not nearly so frequently as his patience. Shakespeare used both in Henry IV, Part 2 (1:2): “I am as poor as Job, my lord, but not so patient.” And Jonathan Swift put it in rhyme (The Beasts Confession, 1732): “While others of the learned Robe would break the patience of a Job.”
15 SELECTIONS FROM...... THE ARCHIVES
Much of our time in book selection is devoted to reading reviews and evaluating new publications. This section of The Readers Exchange is offered to remind us of the many wonderful books published in the past.
DEATH ON THE NILE 10 is France or London is England.” He discovered that he Agatha Christie (1937, 307pp, Berkley Books) did not know his own country and was determined to look again, “to try to rediscover this monster land.” He Agatha Christie was born Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller in thus fitted a little cabin on a three-quarter-ton pick-up 1890 and became perhaps the most well-known (and truck (he named it Rocinante, the name of Don prolific) mystery writers ever. She authored some 80 Quixote’s horse) and took off with Charley to see the novels including romantic fiction under the pseudonym nation and report his findings. Travels with Charley is Mary Westmacott, but her stock-in-trade was the his account of the trip, a delightful foray along the detective novel featuring the clever Belgian Hercule interstates and county roads from East to West along Poirot and the shrewd spinster Miss Jane Marple. She northern routes and then a return through the southwest also wrote numerous plays including Mousetrap (1952) and the southeast to his home in Sag Harbor. I loved his the longest-running play in theatre history, one that many comments along the way about such subjects as “roots,” of you have seen in London. Christie received Britain’s America’s loss of “localness,” the desert, breakfast, the highest honor when she was made Dame of the British kindness of strangers, and the turning of the leaves, to Empire, and she died in 1976. Death on the Nile is the name a few. All of this instilled in me a form of story of a honeymoon cruise on the Nile River which wanderlust to see America. Many of us seem to head for turns murderous. Linnet Ridgeway is beautiful and rich Italy and Chile and New Zealand and other such far- and with her new husband Simon Doyle embark on this flung places when there is so much to see and experience trip after she “takes” Simon from her best friend close to home. (SHA) Jacqueline de Bellefort, to whom he was engaged. The jealous Jacqueline shows up for the Nile trip out for GOD SAVE THE MARK revenge and they are joined by an assortment of Donald E. Westlake (1967, 268pp, Forge) characters with various backgrounds, and motives that Poirot, also a passenger, cleverly unravels as he takes The Edgar Award is the highest honor given to mystery charge of the murder investigation. Our familiarity with writers since it is awarded by The Mystery Writers of Death on the Nile was enhanced by the wonderful movie America. This organization, along with Forge released in 1978 with Peter Ustinov as Hercule Poirot publishing, is launching a reprint series of Edgar and featuring in the great cast the likes of Bette Davis, Winners and Donald Westlake’s God Save The Mark is Angela Landsbury, David Niven, Maggie Smith and the first to be issued. This book, which won the Edgar George Kennedy. Naturally, I had to get the DVD to Award for the best mystery novel of 1967, features the watch it all over again. This is a great mystery by the hapless Fred Fitch, who is every con man’s favorite incomparable Christie. (SHA) patsy. The fun begins when Fred’s long-lost Uncle Matt dies and leaves him $317,000, which makes him the TRAVELS WITH CHARLEY target for everyone. In addition, it seems that Uncle John Steinbeck (1962, 277pp, Penguin Books) Matt was murdered and that they are now after him. John Steinbeck (1902 – 1968) is, of course, best known Mix in a company of other characters – cops, dames, for his Tortilla Flat (1935), Of Mice and Men (1937), con-men and bad guys and it’s a riot. Westlake is and The Grapes of Wrath (1939) among his numerous generally regarded as the greatest writer of comic crime books. Travels with Charley, In Search of America is an fiction of all time (Carl Hiiasen, I believe, challenges account of his driving trip around the country with his him for this honor). He has won three Edgar Awards and French poodle Charley. Steinbeck notes at the outset been named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of that he has been a world traveler and that he lived in America. This book subtitled “A Novel of Crime and New York “but New York is no more America than Paris Confusion” is a highly entertaining read. (SHA)
16 Jane’s SELECTIONS By Jane Ackerman
SIRIO: The Story of My Life and Le Cirque Sirio Maccioni and Peter Elliot (2004, 399pp, Wiley) Sirio Maccioni is the owner of Le Cirque in New York, with restaurants now in Las Vegas and Mexico City as well. This book is the story of his life, beginning with his humble beginnings in Tuscany during World War II and the events that motivated him to seek out success in the restaurant business. This journey will take him to Paris, Hamburg, Cuba, and finally to New York. Handsome and captivating, he possessed many winning ways which attracted people famous and powerful, but the best thing about him was that he treated everyone equally, especially those who worked for him. During a time when kitchen help were treated unkindly and in a denigrating fashion, he was determined to change all of that and make his restaurant a happy place to be and to work. Sirio would call his favorite patrons and ask them to come in for lunch or dinner and he would make numerous friends because he was simply interested in everyone. No one worked harder than he did to make his restaurant a success. I found his book to be just as captivating on the first page as on the last, as I did the article about the book in Town and Country. I recommend it highly. You will learn a lot from this charming, and very, very nice man.
CHATSWORTH: THE HOUSE The Duchess of Devonshire (2002, 235pp, Frances Lincoln Limited) No one likes coffee-table books better than I do, and this one is a true winner. Several years ago, I did a review on Sisters, a story about the Mitford sisters. The Duchess of Devonshire is the youngest sister and was named Debo. She married Andrew Cavendish in 1920 who, due to the death of his brother, became the 11th Duke of Devonshire. This is a fabulous book on the private and public rooms and the story of Chatsworth. There is so much to see in this book while at the same time learning about the history of the house. Simon Jenkins, author of England’s Thousand Best Houses (a must have for anyone interested in traveling to England’s country homes) describes Chatsworth as “merely magnificent” with its tapestries, wall hangings, books, and paintings, to say nothing of the porcelains and the fabulous view. He considers it a house in a landscape with rooms that are “like eating an over-rich box of chocolates.” Not only will this book grace your table, but it will be one that you will pick up and enjoy time and time again.
TRE’S CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Our Board of Contributing Editors was formed in 2001 to expand the reach of coverage and opinion in The Readers Exchange. We have come to rely on our CEs and believe their efforts have had the desired objectives. They are a diverse group of men and women who have different reading preferences and bring varying perspectives to the newsletter. We have added to our Board over time and will continue to do that in the future. Robert H. Bunzel (Piedmont, CA) Judith G. Jones (Pacific Palisades, CA) Ernest Chambers (Sherman Oaks, CA) John D. Kyle (Ponte Vedra Beach, FL) Victoria V. Corbell (Santa Monica, CA) Kathryn McFarlane (Toluca Lake, CA) Armand Deutsch (Los Angeles, CA) Roderick McPhee (Honolulu, HI) Mary Doggett (White Sulphur Springs, MT) Donna Mellenthin (Studio City, CA) William Dohrmann (Stonington, CT) Ann Petroni (Santa Ynez, CA) Hugh Evans (Los Angeles, CA) Tony Turner (Paradise Valley, AZ) Pete Wilson (Los Angeles, CA) 17 Have You Ever Wondered…?
From Ever Wonder Why? By Douglas B. Smith WHY OYSTERS MAKE PEARLS? The type of oysters that make pearls spend most of their time on the sandy bottoms of tropical seas. When a grain of sand, or other foreign particle, gets inside of the oyster’s shell and becomes an irritant, the oyster’s system automatically begins coating the particle with a protective layer of nacre – mother-of-pearl. As layer after layer is added, the pearl is formed. WHY SO MANY WEATHER VANES ARE TOPPED WITH THE FIGURE OF A ROOSTER? In the middle of the ninth century, the Pope declared that every church steeple should display the image of a cock (or rooster). The cock was to symbolize St. Peter’s denial of Christ three times before the cock crowed twice, as discussed in Mark 14:30. Since church steeples were already adorned with weather vanes, the cock was placed on top of these, thereby establishing the trend. WHY WE CROSS OUR FINGERS? Crossing one’s fingers is a way of secretly making the sign of the cross, and it was done by early Christians to ask for divine assistance without attracting the attention of pagans. WHY ONIONS MAKE YOU CRY? When a fresh onion is sliced, a gas called propanethiol-S is released into the air. When this gas reaches the eye, it mixes with the water in the eye to form a weak acid. This acid irritates the eye and causes the tear-producing glands to flood the eye with water in an attempt to wash away the irritant. These tears make it appear that the person slicing the onion is crying. WHY CORNED BEEF IS CALLED CORNED BEEF WHEN IT CONTAINS NO CORN? The “corned” in corned beef has nothing to do with the vegetable corn. It means “preserved in salt.” The salt pellets originally used to preserve this type of beef were called salt “corns,” and beef preserved in this way was called corned beef. 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.
ACCOUTERMENT uh-KOO-tur-mint, not uh-KOO-truh-mint or ACCOUTREMENT Also, do not say a-KOO-truh-MAWN, a Frenchified pronunciation unrecognized by English dictionaries. BUCKINGHAM BUHK-ing-um. There is no ham in Buckingham. CHILEAN CHIL-ee-in (rhymes with Lillian). Do not say chi-LAY-in. For Chile, the nation, the English pronunciation is CHIL-ee (like chilly). The Spanish pronunciation is CHEE-le, which a native English speaker usually turns into CHEE-lay, a false hybrid that is neither English nor Spanish. HEGEMONY Hi-JEM-uh-nee.
18 EXCHANGING THOUGHTS
WHAT THE EXCHANGE IS ALL ABOUT. This section of TRE is designed to report reading comments and ratings from the members of the TRE network. As with movies, restaurants, hotels, etc., the best opinions and thoughts about books often come from our friends and acquaintances. When you’ve completed a book, please jot down your comments and a rating and either mail them to 3275 Oakdell Lane, Studio City, CA 91604, fax them to (818) 769-2367, or Email them to [email protected]. NETWORK REVIEWS. . . THE ART OF THE STEAL 5 Christopher Mason (2004, 376pp, G.P. Putman’s Son’s) Christopher Mason’s new book, The Art of the Steal, has the ingredients of a great novel: A near death struggle between the two venerable titans of the art auction world – Christie’s, run largely by Eton Old Boys, and Sotheby’s, run by an improbable American couple, a street smart real estate near billionaire and a Yale educated Long Island aristocrat who becomes one of U.S.’s most prominent businesswomen. As Adam Smith predicted over 200 years ago, the struggle was resolved by collusion, the modern version of which included a furtive meeting in the backseat of the aristocrat’s Lexus at British Airways’ short term parking lot at Kennedy Airport. But the book isn’t fiction, and it isn’t much of a book either as Mason tells the story without flair. And the story was very well told two years ago in excellent newspaper coverage of Taubman’s trial. To paraphrase a Dorothy Parker theater review: bring your knitting when you read this book. (Don Roberts, New York, NY)
THE GOLDEN GAME: The Story of California Baseball 10 Kevin Nelson (2004, 448pp, Heyday Books) The book covers baseball from the Gold Rush to the formation of the coming of the Dodgers, Giants, Angels, Athletics and Padres…Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Jackie Robinson and integration, “Casey at the Bat,” crusty Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth and Hollywood movies, Satchel Paige vs. Dizzy Dean, Kenichi Zenimura and the Japanese American experience, Sparky Anderson, Gene Autry, Willie Mays, Tommy Lasorda and many others and their stories are all part of the incredible saga of California baseball and how it has shaped the national pastime. Kevin Nelson has written over a dozen books on sports and in this book he presents 150 years of baseball history (plus more than 150 photos) and about California that has been the birthplace and proving ground for more major leaguers than any other state. (Mike McCone, San Francisco, CA) ADDING TO YOUR WORKING VOCABULARY The key word here is working. There are many words that seem to fall on the fringe of an average vocabulary. We think we know the meaning of these words, but when we read or hear DICTIONARY 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.
VERMILION Bright red (vur-MILL-yun) MOUNTEBANK A hawker of quack medicine; a charlatan; a fake (MOUNT-uh-bank) REFULGENT Radiant; resplendent (rih-FUL-junt) FECUND Fruitful or fertile; prolific (FEE-kund) LEGERDEMAIN Slight of hand; a show of skill or deceitful cleverness (lej-ur-duh-MANE) EUPHONIOUS Pleasing to the ear (you-PHONE-ee-uss) VAINGLORIOUS Given to self-absorption; boastful (vane-GLORE-ee-uss) TRADUCE To slander or defame; malign (truh-DOOCE) VERACIOUS Honest; truthful (vuh-RAY-shuss)
19 EXCHANGING THOUGHTS
NETWORK REVIEWS. . .
BOOKS ABOUT EGYPT
Planning a trip to Egypt or interested in immersing yourself into Egypt with bedside reading? Here are some ideas. Start with Max Rodenbeck's widely acclaimed Cairo, The City Victorious, a lively portrait of Cairo, its peoples and environs from ancient Egypt to the present. . . Try Nobel Prize laureate Naguib Mahfouz' Akhenaten, a short wonderful historical novel about the peculiar Pharaoh who tried to impose a single god upon Egyptians from the point of view of his family members, military chiefs, aides, and finally his wife, Nefertiti. Equally interesting is Mahfouz' The Day the Leader Was Killed, set in Cairo at the time of President Sadat's assassination. And consider Mahfouz' Cairo Trilogy: Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, and Sugar Street, the story of a Muslim family during the British occupation of Egypt in the early 20th Century. . . . Ismail Kadare's short book The Pyramid, not all that gripping, does paint an interesting picture of the Egypt of Cheops during the building of the great Pyramid of Egypt some 4,000 years ago. . . . A little heavy sledding is required to read ex-nun Karen Armstrong's Muhammad, A Biography of the Prophet, nevertheless, it is an eye-opening explanation of much of today's struggles between Islamic fanatics and the rest of the world. Wilbur Smith's long but fascinating novel River God, once a New York Times best-seller, creates the setting and mood of ancient Egypt and its pharaohs. . . . Joyce Tyldesley's Hatchepsut, the Female Pharoah is a definitive work about this amazing woman but is more of a college textbook than a story that keeps you awake. And, there are scores of similar books about Ramses II. . . . Wife Betsy strongly recommends a re-read of Agatha Christies' Death on the Nile, which gives a strong sense of the world of Victorian travelers at Aswan and on the River Nile in the context of a great mystery. . . . She raves even more about Alev Lytle Croutier's The Palace of Tears which portrays the palace intrigue of Pharaohs Ramses I and his more famous son Ramses II. . . . We think Fodor's Exploring Egypt gives the best practical tips for hotels, restaurants, and sites. (George Link, Los Angeles, CA)
Jane Says. . . “SHA is always carrying on about ‘balance’ in life. Now if my bag allowance was anything like his book budget – I’d be carrying a Birkin!! Time for a little ‘bling-Bling’ over here!”
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