Christmas 2020

The Hope of Glory: Reflections on the Last Words of Jesus from the Cross (2020)

By John Meacham 

Christmas would lose its meaning if Jesus had not died on the cross, and risen three days later.  

Historian Meacham initially presented these reflections on Jesus's last words at Trinity Church, Wall Street, where he was a vestryman.  He thinks of the gospels not as biographies, but apologetic arguments ("These are written that you may believe...and that believing you may have life in his name.")  What is important is that the writers felt their audience believe Jesus said these words.  In reflecting on Jesus's words, and scripture in general, Meacham adds the caveat that he believes that "literalism is for the weak; fundamentalism is for the insecure.  Both are sins agains God," implying that we are in exclusive possession of truth about things beyond time and space, putting ourselves in the place of God (p 69-70).

The cross is a reminder that self-giving love - not hate, grace - not rage, mercy - not vengeance - are at the heart of the Christian story.  That is at least one answer to Pilate's question.  "What is truth?"

1. "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." This word is found only in Luke, who wrote for Gentiles.  Luke is possibly seeking to make Jesus more accessible to those who may have felt complicit in his death (eg. Romans, Temple establishment).

2. "Today you will be with me in Paradise."  His mercy is available to all.

3. "Woman, behold thy son! Behold your mother!" A reminder to do good to God's other children (Matt 25)

4. "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Shows Jesus's humanity - also God's victory over death.  

5. "I thirst." Jesus is seen here as the Passover lamb (hyssop was used to sprinkle toe blood not eh doorposts).

6. "It is finished" [tetelestai = accomplished, completed].  Meacham points out that Jesus has completed his work but, for the believer, doing God's work continues until the new Jerusalem of Revelation comes down to heave to earth.

7. "Father, into thy hands, I commend my Spirit." Jesus surrendered to pain and mortality.  We are asked to surrender to Jesus - to find the means of grace.

The Corrosion of Conservatism: Why I Left the Right (2018)

By Max Boot 

Conservative columnist and military historian Boot immigrated to the US from the USSR when he was only six.  He writes of how he came to love his adopted country, a nation that was anti-communism, supported human rights and seemed optimistic and inclusive.  Writing for his school paper, and later the Daily California at Berkeley, Boot used every opportunity to hone his writer's chops and political experience through interviews, opinion pieces, and even work on political campaigns.  But the moderate Republican party of Reagan and GHW Bush, which he came to identify with, eventually became too centrist and a far right movement, first as a "Tea Party" in the Obama years, eventually made way for Trumpism.  Conservatives liked that Trump would push through a tax cut to benefit them, but Boot was stupefied by evangelical support for some one of Trump's character and politics.  Boot weighs the cost of capitulation by the Republican party:

1. Racism - White anxiety about the reality that whites will become a minority in American drove Republicans to vote for a candidate who emphasized reestablishing the status hierarchies of the past.

2. Nativism - Trump rejects immigrants who don't look like him, driving fear of "the other".

3. Collusion - Republicans have been willing to follow Trump wherever he leads, including defending him against charges of colluding with Russia.

4. Rule of law - Trump fires those who put loyalty to country above loyalty to him (e.g., James Comey, Jeff Sessions, Andrew McCabe).  He demonized the FBI for doing its job.  Republicans endorsed this behavior.

5. Fake news - Trump makes stuff up, and his toadies fall in line.  He says something one minute ("I fired Jim Comey over Russia"), then denies it the next. The free press is "the enemy of the people" (Feb 2017) - almost a direct quote of both Hitler and Stalin.

6. Ethics - Corruption far exceeds Teapot Dome, Credit Mobilier, or Watergate.  Many cabinet secretaries were ousted for travel or other expense abuse.  Many aides (Manafort, Cohen, Flynn, Stone) convicted of crime and imprisoned. Nepotism-Kushners. Trump's tax returns were never exposed - why? Emoluments galore (suggest China was bribing Trump, among other things).  Sexual allegations, bribes, misogyny, bullying, name calling...

7. Fiscal irresponsibility - cut taxes in times of prosperity

8. End of Pax Americana - e.g., imposed tariffs and other trade barriers on allies.

While there were precursors (Goldwater-extremist, racist; Phyllis Schafly-against ERA), none were as ignorant or crude.  Boot warns that Trump won't be the last, and another right wing extremist could be even worse if he lacks Trump's ignorance and lack of discipline.

An enlightening story - tracing Boot's own immigrant history, education and career - and the rise of the far right.

December 4 2020

 The Razor's Edge (1943)

By W Somerset Maugham

This complex novel is set in the years following World War 1.  The author makes himself the narrator as well as a character in the story, which opens in Chicago, where he is visiting his good friend the prominent decorator Elliott Templeton, along with Elliott's socialite sister Louisa Bradley and her pretty daughter Isabel.  The late Mr Bradley had been a US ambassador and the family is very at home in the European capitols, where much of the story takes place.  The story centers around Larry Darrell, Isabel's childhood friend and now her fiancé, but their relationship faces difficulties as Larry has changed following his experience as a pilot in the war.  While attractive and pleasant he has no apparent ambition except to "loaf" - as he puts it, content to live off a small inheritance, read, and travel.  When Isabel can't persuade him to get a job - an offer has been made by Isabel and Larry's friend Gray Maturin's father - Isabel finally gives up on Larry and accepts Gray's offer of marriage. They are destined to stay in touch, however, as the Maturin's firm goes bankrupt in the Great Depression and Isabel, Gray and their daughters go to live in Elliott's Paris apartment.  Larry goes in and out of their lives, working in a coal mine, then on a farm, a monastery in Germany, an ashram in India, but often in Paris in between trips.  Larry seems at peace - though his friends can't understand his constant moves and searching.  He tries to help a couple of women associated with the author (Sophie and Suzanna) though more for humanitarian reasons than romantic notions.

Despite Larry's aimlessness, it's obvious Isabel still wants him (reminiscent of Scarlett O'Hara's lust for Ashley Wilkes).  Perhaps others vets felt as Larry did, but lacked the independent means to pursue their restless feelings and instead were obligated to set goals, make a living, support themselves and possibly a family, and find hope again.  

The story offers a few surprising turns but all of the players remain true to character throughout, and in the end - as the authors suggests - each of them got what they wanted.

November 25 2020

Quentin and Flora: A Roosevelt and a Vanderbilt in Love During the Great War (2014)

By Chip Bishop

A young couple whose families are among the most famous and influential in the US (or the world) fall in love just as the US gets dragged into the great War.  Quentin takes leave from  his studies at Harvard to train as a pilot.  He writes copious letters to his beloved Flora "Foufie", daughter of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, and it is these letters that form the basis of Bishop's account.

While Flora's family isn't thrilled with a prospective match with a Roosevelt, she finally breaks the news, even as Quentin is away in Europe.  The Roosevelts, on the other hand, adore Flora, and often host her in their home, including her as a part of their family.  They try to arrange for Flora to join Quentin in France, but the US government has just made a rule barring American women from joining a husband or fiancé abroad, if they also have a brother in the service so, although the war ended before "Sonny" Whitney completed his basic training, Flora never got to see Quentin again.

While we learn about Flora's and Quentin's growing up years, the story mostly concerns the couple's engagement and the move towards its inevitable conclusion, through different assignments in France (where Question is one of the very few Americans who is fluent in French), more training, billeting with French families, and to the tragic day in July 1918 when Quentin's plane is shot down, bringing such sorrow to the group gathered at Sagamore Hill.

The author adds an aftermath, in which Flora retreats to Sagamore Hill,then to the Maine coast, with the grieving Roosevelts.  She later puts her typing skills to work, doing some projects for Teddy, then working briefly for the government.  Sh marries a friend of Quentin's but the marriage is short-lived.  She met businessman/artist McCulloch "Cully" Miller, with whom she had a long and happy marriage and raised their 4 children, also succeeding her mother as directory of the Whitney Museum, a post to which her daughter Flora Miller Biddle would later succeed.

The French people erected a special memorial to the son of the beloved American's president, near where he was shot down in Chamery.  37 years later, his remains were moved to the American cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach, where he was interred next to his brother Ted, who died shortly after leading the highly successful American landing at Utah Beach.

November 23 2020

Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man (2020)

By Mary L Trump

As both a family member and a trained clinical psychologist, Mary Trump brings unique credentials to help Americans understand what makes their president the boastful, cruel and dishonest person he is today.  Fred Trump Sr made a fortune in real estate.  Through his connections to politicians and discrimination against non-whites, he managed to create an empire worth ~$1B at his death in 1999.  When Fred Jr (Mary's father) struggled with alcoholism, Donald became the favored child and heir to the empire, shutting Fred's children out of their share of the inheritance.  Fred provided funding for Donald's first project (turning an aging hotel into a classy Hyatt) and bailed him out of many unsuccessful efforts, especially in Atlantic City where Donald found that, without Fred's political clout, his efforts failed.  Donald still managed to squeak out a fortune, thanks to choosing not to repay investors, stiffing contractors, and creating fake opportunity zones where he could pretend he was building housing for needy renters.  Other efforts beyond real estate, such as Trump University, Trump airlines and Trump wine also failed, but Trump had become a huge media success with his flashy lifestyle, and so left his creditors to pick up the pieces.

I appreciate Mary Trumps insight - but it's still hard for me to see why people voted for a man who is so personally dishonest and unkind, and who has no experience in leading nor trying to building a consensus.

November 20 2020

 Having Our Say:The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years (1993)

By Sarah Louise Delany and Elizabeth Delany (with Amy Hill Hearth)

Sarah Louise "Sadie" (age 103 at time of writing) and Elizabeth "Bessie" (101) are two of the older siblings among a highly accomplished family of ten African-American children [though they use only the terms "colored" and "Negro" to describe themselves.]  Their father, Henry Delany, is an Episcopal bishop and priest at St Augustine (Historically Black) College in Raleigh.  Their mother, Nanny James Logan, whose ancestors are mostly white, raises the children on the campus, where they get a good education and good values.  Both Sadie and Bessie go on to earn degrees at Columbia University - Sadie as a teacher and Bessie as a dentist (their siblings included another dentist, a doctor, piano teacher [trained at Julliard] and a judge).  All of the siblings, except Lemuel who practiced medicine in Raleigh, ended up living in Harlem at the hight of the Harlem renaissance.  Their circle of friends included Cab Calloway, Marian Anderson, and Ethel Waters, among others  Though they relate incidents where they were mistreated, they write without rancor.  But they do note that, if you are colored, everyone is aways looking for your faults.  You have to be "entirely honest, clean, brilliant and so on.  Because if you slip up once, the white folks say to each other, 'See, what'd I tell you?'"

On one occasion, the sisters argue about the prospect of a Negro president.  Sadie thinks there will be - but Bessie doesn't think it could happen for 1000 years!
 

October 23 2020

White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in

American Christianity (2020)

By Robert P Jones

Jones, religious scholar and founder of the Public Religious Research Institute (PRRO) opens his argument with examples from the late 19th century that seem more like accounts from before the Civil War.  Rev Dr Basil Manly Sr, who helped wrest the new Southern Baptist denomination for the regular Baptists in 1845 over the issue of slavery, was found of the Southern Baptist Seminary and became a prominent voice justifying slavery.  Even into the 1960s, southern governors and local media defended segregation.  Many churches refused to admit blacks.  (Martin Luther King Jr's son, MLK3, was denied admission to Atlanta's Lovett School, affiliated with the Episcopal Church, in 1963.)

Disturbingly, Frederick Douglass wrote that, "...being the slave of a religious master the greatest calamity that could befall me... Religious slaveholders are the worst... the meanest, the basest, the most cruel and cowardly." (p 88)

After losing the Civil war, many confederate Christians compared their lot to biblical figures who were wrongly imprisoned (e.g., Paul) or even to the crucifixion...assuming their cause would triumph in the end.  Yet, I was surprised to read that most monuments to white supremacy (e.g., statues of Lee, Davis, Jackson) were erected not after the Civil War but in the mid 20th century - as a reaction to black civil rights.

Jones especially cites the Scofield Reference Bible for a massage shift in interpretation.  Scofield, a confederate veteran, asserts that the world is evil [true!] and beyond redemption.  Social justice is therefore futile, and the only focus should be on saving souls and discipleship.  Scofield believes Jesus thus died not for a cause or for humankind, but for each individual.  The key ministry is "letting Jesus come into your heart" and not worry and about institutions (e.g., slavery, racism, segregation) as they are beyond redemption.  This perspective thus frees me from working to establish justice and equality.  [I don't see a black and white - no pun intended - dichotomy as Jones asserts.  I believe the two aims can work in tandem.  The more we grow to be like Jesus, the greater should be our concern for others in need.]

According to the PRRI's research, the probability of Christian affiliation with racist attitudes is strongest where those groups are most culturally dominant.  Thus, although racism is thought to be strongest in the south, Catholics and mainline Protestants are not off the hood for racist attitudes.  Jones ends his book with stories of a few churches that are trying to reconcile their past with justice today, but clearly much work remains.

October 10 2020

 Lady in Waiting: My Extraordinary Life in the Shadow of the Crown (2020)

By Anne Glenconner

Anne Coke (pronounced "Cook"), daughter of the Earl of Leicester, grew up on Holkham, an estate adjacent to Sandringham, and counted the princesses Elizabeth and Margaret among her friends.  She had a happy childhood, even during the 3 years when her parents were off doing war duty and she and her sister Carrie were sent to live with a relative in Scotland.  In her early 20s, Anne travelled to America to market Holkham pottery, manufactured on her family's estate, but was unexpectedly called home to serve as a maid of honor in Elizabeth's II's coronation.

Not long after the coronation, Anne married Colin Tenant, Baron Glenconner.  Though subject to temper tantrums and very impulsive, Anne learned to cope with Colin and their family grew to include 3 sons, followed by twin girls.  On a trip to the Caribbean, Colin learned of Mustique, an island in the Grenadines for sale for £45,000 and bought it sight unseen.  He would go on to develop the island, which became a retreat for Princess Margaret and other royals and notable Brits.

Following the birth of her twins, Anne was asked by Princess Margaret to be one of her 5 ladies-in-waiting.  While not a full-time position, it was nevertheless a considerable responsibility requiring a lot of travel, assessing and addressing Margaret's needs.  Anne writes of some funny adventures while on official royal business, such as where to pin a medal on an African leader who wore only a loin cloth.

The Tenants' oldest son Charlie suffered from drug abuse, including heroin, for many years.  Unlike his brother, second son Henry was a high achiever who married and fathered a son - only to realize he was gay, and developed AIDS in the 1980s when it was very stigmatizing and little was known about the disease.  Third son Christopher nearly died as a result of a motorbike crash, but recovered after long years of therapy, mostly administered by Anne.

I listened to the audiobook version, narrated by Anne herself, making the story personal and affecting. She truly has lived an extraordinary life - not only because of her royal connections.  Somehow she has weathered a storm of sadness - thanks to faith and friends.  Currently 88, she writes of so many events that I only saw on the news, and it was fascinating to hear an insider's perspective.

October 6, 2020

The Education of an Idealist: A Memoir (2019)

By Samantha Power 

Samantha Power, Obama's ambassador to the UN in his 2nd term, brought crucial skills and relevant experience to her position. Born in Ireland, Sam was brought to the US by her mother at age 8, settling initially in Pittsburgh, then Atlanta for her high school years, along with Sam's brother and stepfather Eddie.  Both parents are physicians and both supportive of Sam throughout her education and career.  A basketball player and star student, Sam attended Yale, then took a few years to work as a journalist, especially in the war torn Balkans, an experience that would shape her career.  She went on to Harvard Law School and accepted a teaching position at Harvard's Kennedy School, taking a year off to write a book on genocide in the 20th century, a thick tome that won a Pulitzer prize.

Power is never afraid to be honest, exposing her faults as well as her successes, whether her grief and disappointment over her beloved alcoholic father, her unintentional disparaging of Hillary Clinton during the 2008 presidential campaign, or a painful car accident by her motorcade driver that killed an African child during her campaign to fight Ebola.  Working moms will be inspired by Sam's efforts to raise two young children while holding demanding positions, and while her husband was commuting to his teaching post at Harvard Law School - where Ani was among Dr Sunstein's students!  There were big challenges at the UN, with consequences on the home front: the killings of an American ambassador and his staff in Bengazi, the Iran nuclear agreement, the Paris climate accord, the eradication of Ebola (thanks to a US led effort to bring funding and personnel to the most affected areas).  Power notes that, while several Americans contracted Ebola while volunteering in Africa, there were only 2 transmissions within the US, and all persons recovered, despite dozens of tweets by citizen Trump to scare Americans to the contrary.

On one occasion, Power was invited to an embassy of a small African nation and learned she was the first ever American guest to set foot inside the 2-room mission.  She then set out to invite every ambassador to her NY resident over the course of her term, becoming an especially close colleague of the Russian ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, with whom she frequently conferred on behalf of their two nations.  She especially worked with her female ambassador colleagues to improve women's rights.  How helpful to have an American ambassador who was selected not because she gave $2M to an election fund but because she had the skills and experience.

I listened to this story as an audiobook read by the author - she is dynamic and engaging in her narration.

October 2 2020

Parable of the Sower (1993)

By Octavia Butler 

This story opens in southern California in 2024, in other words, just a few years from now.  Lauren Olamina, who narrates her story in diary passages, is the 15-year-old daughter of her town's pastor.  Her state is suffering from a heat wave and 6-year drought, and there is an epidemic.  Jobs are scarce, education is uneven and police are unreliable, even if they are bribed.  People are forced to take the law into their own hands - nearly everyone owns a gun - as burglary and theft have become a way to survive.

Lauren enjoys some measure of security as her family lives in a walled community.  But she sees the desperation around her, and decides to escape at some point.  She studies farming, takes target practice, and prepares a bag of supplies.  A few years later, her brother escapes beyond the wall - but he is killed by drug dealers.  Then her father disappears.  Eventually the wall is breached, the community is attacked and people are shot, buildings are burned, and Lauren is the only survivor in her family.  She grabs her survival bag and gun and heads north with two other survivors, walking along a main highway.  The small party grows to ten, as more desperate survivors seek safety in numbers.  One of them, Bankole, owns property north of San Francisco, and the group members all commit to head north together and try to make a new community on Bankole's property.  Lauren (now 18) is the natural leader and she has been working out a new religion which she calls "Earthseed"; she hopes it will be a way for her to understand God and a way to unite the community.  The band suffers many calamities en route, and after arrival at Bankole's land, but the story ends on a note of hope.

2024 California is too eerily like 2020 California.  

September 25 2020

Afterlife (2020)
By Julia Alvarez

Prof Antonia Vega has just retired from her teaching position at a VT college and has made plans to meet her husband Sam, an eye doctor, for a celebratory dinner, but he doesn't show up.  He suffered a sudden aortic aneurysm, leaving Antonia a widow just as she is about to start a new chapter in her life.  How will she survive with the loss of both her husband, and her work?

Antonia's well-meaning neighbor decides to send his farm hand, Marco (an undocumented immigrant) to see if he can help Antonia with some outdoor maintenance, and Antonia ends up helping Marco get his girlfriend (also undocumented) to VT.  Meanwhile, Antonia is invited to a get-together in Chicago with her 3 sisters (all born in the Dominican Republic, but now professionals in the US).  One sister, who has a history of erratic behavior, however, never shows up, and does not answer phone calls. When the sisters finally track Izzy down, it's apparent some medical intervention is needed.  In the middle of the search for Izzy, Estela shows up on Antonia's doorstep, pregnant and now rejected by Marco.

For Antonia, grieving her husband, she struggles to know how to respond to the many needs around her, and what is her responsibility.  (Am I my brother's keeper?)  This is a short but very thoughtful story about the aftermath of the death of a spouse and the ongoing demands on a person's life.

September 20 2020

A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War: How J R R Tolkien and C S Lewis Rediscovered Faith, Friendship and Heroism in the Cataclysm of 1914-1918 (2015)
By Joseph Loconte

I've read only parts of Lewis's and Tolkien's most well-known books, but I have gained great insight into the motivation and theme of The Chronicles of Narnia and Lord of the Rings, thanks to Prof Loconte's study of the two writers.

Tolkien and Lewis, both Oxford scholars, found common ground in their shared love of myth.  But both men served in the Great War, suffering the loss of close friends as they saw first hand what modern science and technology could do: unprecedented butchery with no good outcome.  Even the Treaty of Versailles disappointed all parties.  A new cynicism about liberal democracy, capitalism, Christianity, and the achievements of western civilization took hold.  Loconte speaks of 3 "epidemics" that grew out of the war:
1) Spanish flu
2) communism
3) fascism
that helped further lead to a loss of hope and what many considered a failure of religion.  Tolkien's war experience is reflected in Lost Tales (started in 1917), the Silmarillion, and The Lord of the Rings - violent contests of good against evil, moral tales.  "The sheer destructive power of the war, the unimaginable number of dead and wounded...the apparent futility of the outcome - all of this instigated a new season of religious doubts and experimentation.: (p 124)

In Lewis's case, his conversations with J R R Tolkien and Hugo Dyson about myth and faith led him to observe, "the difference between Christianity and all the pagan myths is that this Dying God actually entered into history, lived a real life and died a real death... a myth that has really happened?  In that case, says the skeptical Lewis, "I begin to understand." (p 133)  He felt a great sense of relief and gratitude, as he came to embrace a common faith with his fellows.

In discussing the writers' themes, Loconte notes that an "encounter with the presence of evil: the deep corruption of the human heart that makes it capable of hunting and destroying millions of lives in a remorseless war of attrition" (p 145) was central to Tolkien's and Lewis's experience.   Yet their writings reflect
-a "longing for goodness and joy, so palpably alive in the best and noblest of the characters" (p 150).  "They are haunted by a memory of eden" that enables their moral vision.  The characters in Lord of the Rings had lots of chances, like us, of turning back from a painful path, only they didn't. This freedom [to either fulfill or evade the calling on ones life] is central to Tolkien's work - and to his understanding of the human condition.
-heroic quest: As veterans Tolkien and Lewis choose to recount "not only the horror and sorrows but also the courage, sacrifice and friendships that made it endurable" (p 170).  They shared a strong bond, based on the war experience, writing and faith.  Their stories help readers find the grace and strength to play their own part in the story, however long it endures and wherever it may lead them.  They "sought to make sense of a conflict that claimed so much in blood and treasure and delivered so little to the cause of human happiness" (p 186).

Their stories might have reflected the futility of the war in which they'd served, but these writers instead chose hope.  Yet, unlike our modern tales of heroism, no superhero like Superman could save the day - their only hope came from beyond the characters' own strength, whether it was the unlikely loss of the ring that had started to work its evil spell on Frodo, or the return from death by Aslan.  Today, it is clear that our salvation is not through our own strength, but in God alone.

September 14 2020

Little Bee (2009)

By Chris Cleave

"Little Bee" is a teenage refugee from an oil-rich region of Nigeria.  She has experienced unimaginable trauma as her village was overrun by oil thugs who burn the village and continue on to chase Bee and her sister, witnesses to the crime.  Her sister is horribly murdered (as we learn later in the story) - after a chance meeting on the beach with a British couple on vacation, Sarah and Andrew O'Rourke.  The O'Rourkes assume both girls are killed, but are haunted by the encounter two years later, when the story opens.

Astonishingly, Bee is able to escape her captors and stow away on a ship to England.  As an undocumented immigrant she is sent to a detention center, where she hones her English skills, eventually escaping with three other women.  She had retrieved Andrew's driver's license from the beach and sets out to find the address on the license.  Her encounter with the couple will have unexpected consequences.

We hear of these abductions and atrocities (eg. Boko Haram kidnapping of Nigerian school girls, Rwandan genocide), but this story makes it human, and heartbreaking.  Every refugee whose story I've heard has escaped a horrible experience.

September 11 2020

Forbidden Diary: A Record of Wartime Internment, 1941-1945 (1980) by Natalie Crouter (ed by Lynn Z Bloom)

Natalie, a well-educated Boston woman met and married her businessman husband Jerry in the Philippines while on vacation.  Jerry hailed from Colorado, and the Crouters raised their two children, June and Frederick, in Baguio, where their many friends included not only American and Brit expats but also Filipinos and Chinese.  Jerry recruited workers for the sugar fields of Hawaii, as well as operating a gas station and insurance agency in the Philippines.  Natalie volunteered with the Red Cross.  But their pleasant circumstances started to deteriorate, especially with the bombing of Pearl Harbor and American declaration of war.  Along with the other Americans, the Crouters were moved to a concentration camp, albeit in a beautiful location and with a fairly benign director, but still facing shortages of food and privacy as the war dragged on.  She describes "the beauty of the pieces, blue sky, clouds and moutons...we do not notice the barbed wire, fence, or guards, bayonets or guns" (Feb 6, 1942), the thoughtful acts "stronger arms doing the personal washing for older or weaker people; sharing of food packages with those who got none..." (Feb 26, 1942) - but also of escalations of war, a funeral of a premature baby in the camp and of "using so many of the Red Cross garments ourselves" that they had made for the relief of others.  Of course conditions will deteriorate further as food becomes scarcer.  I didn't finish the 500+ pages diary (hope to borrow it again!), and note that the editor had condensed it from over 5000 pages of notes originally compiled by Natalie on bits of envelopes or margins of book ages and hidden among supplies (keeping a diary was forbidden).  Natalie's family's experience is yet another look at war from the civilian perspective.

I learned of this diary from my old friend Roy Katz, who was a student in Frederick Crouter's social studies class in Fair Lawn, NJ (before the publication of Mr Crouter's mother's diary).  I was glad the book was still available in a RI library.

September 7 2020

1984 (1946)
By George Orwell

Winston Smith is little more than a cog in a wheel, obligated to perform his drudge job of revising the truth and eliminating facts of which "Big Brother" disapproves.  Winston, like all residents of Oceania, must pay homage to Big Brother, and show the proper degree of enthusiasm.  The thought police have not yet been able to penetrate what's on his mind, but he must keep his face unreadable.  If not, he will be subjected to questioning and possible torture and death.  And there is no escape when he goes home; he can be seen by a "tele screen" or a helicopter that hovers at people's windows.

The meaningless and tedium of work, lack of passion, and lack of faith - along with the date of this novel - point to a warning against the horrors of communism and/or fascism.  But many would draw parallels to the current political climate, where truth is ignored or denied by the US president who likewise demands loyalty, not to the country, but to him.  This is a very depressing story, all the more because parts of it have come true in modern America.  God help us!

September 3 2020

Disgrace (1999)

by J M Coetzee

Nobel prize winner Coetzee has written a novel set in modern, post-Apartheid South Africa.  David Lurie is a 52-year-old professor, been through 2 failed marriages, and finds his students show little interest in his classes on the romantic poets, now that his university has become more of a tech college.  Unfortunately he is a philanderer whose lust has finally gotten him in serious trouble, as he seduces a student and finds charges brought against him.  When he loses his job, David seeks refuge with his daughter Lucy, his only child, a single woman whose weight and lifestyle (managing a small farm, caring for dogs) he disapproves of.  They tolerate each other and David even starts working for a local vet.  But when Lucy is robbed and attacked by black vandals, David can't understand why she doesn't press charges and just move away.  But there is yet another change for David to accept, or not.  And, back in his former life, a flicker of generosity as well.   This is a sad story, with little bits of light, but lacking the hope and promise of a South Africa finally rid of Apartheid.

August 20 2020

The Professor's House (1925)

By Willa Cather

Professor St Peter is facing what we'd call a midlife crisis toddy.  Though successful and happily married, he is dissatisfied.  His family has moved to a grand, new house -- but he can't give up his shabby attic study in the old house and continues to rent the house retreating to the place he feels most comfortable.

His two daughters are married, he seems to like both sons in law, enjoys his younger daughter Kitty, but struggles with his older daughter Rosamunde.  Prof St Peter's most successful student Tom Outland, had died as a soldier in WWI, but Tom plays a major role in the story.  We learn he had been engaged to Rosamunde, and that he created a successful product, the proceeds of which were willed to Rosamunde, and we learn more of Tom as the story proceeds.  Though the writer leaves some questions unresolved (e.g., how St Peter will relate to his family going forward, whether Dr Crane will get any share in the Outland money, is Louie a gold-digger or a decent guy, etc).  Still, this is an interesting story, fun to read, and a product of its time.

August 18 2020

Cry, the Beloved Country (1946)

By Alan Paton

As a college freshman I saw "Lost in the Stars", the musical based on Cry, the Beloved Country, and the mournful cries of "Absolom, my son, my son..." still haunt me.  Now, half a century later, I have finally read this classic story of the lives of black nationals in Apartheid era South Africa.

Stephen Kumalo, an aging Anglican priest, serves an impoverished "native" African community in the Ndotsheni valley of South Africa.  Their only child, Absalom, had gone to Johannesburg to visit his cousin, but has not been heard from in ages.  As the story opens, Stephen is heading out to track down their son as well as Stephen's missing sister Gertrude.  He travels by train, bringing along his meager savings to finance the trip.  Stephen meets the kindly Rev Msimangu, with whom he has corresponded.  Msimangu helps him finds lodgings and they manage to locate Gertrude who, like a prodigal daughter, has been living off the sale of liquor and sleeping around.  Once Stephen brings Gertrude and her son to board with him, he and Msimangu start searching for Absalom, who seems to always be a step ahead, the men just missing him as he moves around the city.  Eventually, the mean learn that Absalom had been a student in a reformatory, but was released on good behavior and to support his pregnant girlfriend.  Meanwhile, Stephen is alarmed to hear that a prominent white civil rights activist has just been shot by a native.  His worst fears are then realized when he finally catches up with Absalom, who has confessed to the crime.  Stephen's sorrow and his dignity are heart-wrenching and, although Absalom is condemned to die, Stephen's life and the future of his village will become richly entwined with that of the dead man's family. 

This is a tender story of life for native South Africans under apartheid, a policy that would endure for nearly another 50 years.  As Rev Msimangu observes, "I see only one hope for our country, and that is when white men and black men, desiring neither power nor money, but desiring only the good of their country, come together to work for it." (p 71)

August 17 2020

Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore (2018)

By Elizabeth Rush

Climate change is affecting nearly every aspect of nature: from rising temperatures to wildlife endangerment to rising seas...  Nature writer Rush travels to sections of the Atlantic coast that have seen a rise in the water level, especially inundating vulnerable marshlands with tree- and plant-killing salt water.  (I learned a new word: rampike is the term given to these dying trees.)  Rush starts her tale in nearby Jacob's Point in Warren, RI, before moving north to the Maine coast, then to the Oakwood neighborhood of Staten Island.  Some of the people she interviews have roots to their communities going back centuries, such as a Pensacola, FL neighborhood settled by escaped slaves and the Isle de Jean Charles, home to Choctaw Indians for hundreds of years, but now shrunk by encroaching seas to just a tenth of its former size.

Many of these communities have neither the funds nor expertise to fix their problem, some of which are due not just to rising seas but to rampant development over former wetlands dating to the Swamp Act of 1850.  In Oakwood, Staten Island, nearly all of the residents agreed to sell their homes through a govt buyback program, and move to higher ground, giving the former marshland the chance to recede back to its natural state.  Rush also points to efforts around San Francisco Bay where wetland mitigation (after decades of salt mining) is having some success.  

While the story (rising seas and destroyed coastland) is alarming, Rush's interviews with local residents are interesting and heartfelt, and it is not without hope - but there is a sense that this is an emergency.  Rising is the Reading-Across-RI book for 2020 - and I hope the word gets out there!

August 14 2020

 

The Paris Architect (2013)

By Charles Belfoure

This novel is reminiscent of Anne Frank's diary of her family's years in hiding in Amsterdam and of Corrie Ten Boom's memoir of her family's efforts to keep their Jewish neighbors safe.  In 1942 Lucien Bernard is a French architect who is just trying to keep under the Gestapo radar in occupied Paris.  Hardly a member of the resistance, he is more interested in maintaining a playboy lifestyle than saving Jews.  But work is scarce, and he is intrigued by an offer to design a hiding place for a wealthy Jew.  Knowing that any effort to help Jews could cost him his life, Lucien is persuaded only when the offer is accompanied by a much more lucrative offer to design a munitions plant outside Paris for the Germans, a move that could label him as a collaborator.

Lucien thrives in his double life, enjoying a growing friendship with Captain Herzog, the urbane German counterpart of his French employer, but getting more commissions to hide Jewish leaders.  At each location, Lucien surveys each room, finally deciding on the least obvious location for a hiding place.  At one point, he is asked to take in Pierre, a 12-year-old Jewish orphan.  Against his better judgment, Lucien acquiesces and his life is changed as he becomes a devoted father to Pierre.  Eventually, however, an architectural intern begins to suspect Lucien, and his position becomes ever more dangerous.

This book is not for the fainthearted, featuring some terrifying scenes.  But it was a page-turner, and I was not surprised to learn that the author is an architect by profession, and has published a number of other architect thrillers, as well as architectural histories.

August 3 2020

The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family and Defiance During the Blitz (2020)
By Erik Larson

As always, Erik Larson highlights not only events but personalities and relationships in his fascinating documentary of the Battle of Britain, and mainly about the leader who was faced with daily agonizing decisions amid new horrors of war.  From the unlikely British evacuation at Dunkirk to America's finally coming aboard as a full ally, Prime Minister Winston Churchill is truly the right man at the right time in history.  Initially one of the few leaders (in the UK and on the continent) to face up to Hitler, Churchill leads his people as they face near nightly bombing raids and ever alarming events abroad.

Among the case of characters is the very effective Max Beaverbrook (in charge of production of aircraft and a fierce ally of Churchill's), war minister "Pug" Ismay, John Colville (one of Churchill's secretaries, whose notes are an important source of personal information for this book), and two American representatives of FDR: sickly (but sharp) Harry Hopkins and dashing Averill Harriman, who keep the president up to date on the war efforts and try to convince FDR to join the allied cause.

Churchill's family, especially Clementine, daughter Mary (those diary also provides important material) and daughter-in-law Pamela - who are mostly present at the PM's three residences : 10 Downing St, Checquers (PM retreat), and Ditchley (country getaway and home of Lord and Lady Tree) - play supporting roles, with Mary (whose diary relates much of her 17-year-old's crushes and concerns) coming aboard as a war officer manning an actual gun in southern England.  English citizens were invited to keep personal diaries of the war, and Larson also draws on several of these, giving his account a fresh and personal feel.

Larson also brings the German leaders alive, particularly the vain Herman Goerring and propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, as well as a German ace pilot trying to do his job in a horrible war.

My respect for Winston Churchill continues to grow.  He is portrayed as having odd personal habits (he was a late riser and an early drinker) but he was surely the man of the hour.   If not for Churchill, most of Europe might be fascist or Nazi today.

August 1 2020

Fatal Majesty: The Drama of Mary Queen of Scots (1998)

By Reay Tannahill

This lengthy (618 pp) well-researched story traces the life of Mary Queen of Scots from her arrival in Edinburgh in 1561 (at age 18) to her death in 1587, but concentrates on her years in Scotland, which ended in 1568, with her arrest          in England.  Many is the only legitimate child of King James V, and was betrothed as a child to Francois the French Dauphine.  Raised in France, she marries Francois, only to lose him 6 months later to an early death at age 16.  When Mary's mother (acting as regent) dies in Scotland, Mary returns to claim her throne, and it is at this point that the story opens.

Initially welcomed by enthusiastic subjects, Mary alienated may by her practice of her Catholic faith.  sensing she must marry again, and produce an hear, she opts for someone to whom she is physically attracted (Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, several years her junior) rather a political alliance or a man with wisdom nd connections.  the marriage is a disaster, with Henry drinking and chasing after other women - although the union does produce an hear.  Mary's advisers can see Darnley is a problem - he keeps insisting Mary make him the king matrimonial (giving him the right to rule equally with her or - in the case of her early death - to rule in her place) but Mary is wise enough to resist.  One advisor in particular (Earl of Bothwell) wants Darnley out of the ay, and orchestrates Darnley's murder, annuls his own marriage, and convinces Mary to marry him.  But Bothwell does not last long, either, implicated in Darnley's murder and causing speculation that Mary was a party to the  murder of her 2nd husband, an assertion which this author's research does not support.

Other figures are at work against Mary, including the pious Kohn Knox and Mary's own half-brother, James Stewart - eventually they will form a plot to implicate Mary against her cousin Elizabeth I of England, where she has recently sought protection (in 1568).  While her young son is king with the aid of a succession of regents, Mary languishes in various remote English castles under house arrest, until her execution in 1587.  While the charges were trumped up, Mary was a tragic figure, an unwise ruler who rarely chose to follow the best advice.

Although the book is a novel, the author is faithful to the historical record, creating dialogue but not actual persons or events.  We meet Mary's closest friends, her "four Maries" who have served as her ladies in waiting since their childhoods, and her faithful secretary of state, William Maitland, Lord Lethington, who marries "Marie" Fleming.  Mary's most important contribution was producing an heir, James VI, who would becomes James I of England, following the last Tudor monarch Elizabeth I and uniting the two countries.

The author paints a picture of an uncivilized, almost medieval Scotland, lacking in culture and amenities - a far cry from Mary's beloved France - and that Mary was a fish out of water, suffering several personal losses and unprepared for the realities of a wild and unfamiliar country.  Though I knew how the sage would end, the story was nevertheless fascinating, tragic, and perhaps not so far-fetched.

July 13 2020

Re-Post:

Big Stone Gap (2000)
By Adriana Trigiani

A friend recently handed me this book.  I'd never heard of it, nor the author, but found the story very engaging.  Ave Maria Mulligan has just lost her mother, turned 35, and decided love is not for here  This is the late 1970s in Big Stone Gap, a small coal-mining community in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains.  Ave Maria is the town's pharmacist, having inherited the business from her parents; she serves on the town's Rescue Squad and directs its local summer pageant, the one thing for which the town is celebrated.  Life is predictable, peopled by a cast of memorable townspeople, including: Iva Lou (sexy librarian, who operates out of a bookmobile), Fleeter (Ave Maria's chain-smoking opinionated assistant); Pearl (Ave Maria's shy, high-school student part-time assistant), Theodore (conductor of the high school's stellar band and A-M's best friend), "Jack Mac" MacChesney (kind coal miner who grew up with A-M) and Otto and Worley (2 handyman brothers).

When Ave Maria meets with the lawyer handling her mother's estate, she is handed a letter that will change her life, changing what she thought she knew about her parents, and leading her to her late mother's family in Italy.  Maybe she is not destined to always be the independent woman who disdains those who don't measure up to her standards.  This is a sweet story that takes some good twists and turns.

I was happy to learn that the author wrote several sequels and that the story was made into a move in 2016.  I want to see it!

July 9 2020

Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope (2020)
By Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn

Across our country, it's obvious that Americans, especially children, suffer from poor health care, drug and alcohol abuse, and other issues related to poverty, but never have I seen it described so clearly as in Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn's new book.  NYT columnist Kristof opens the book in his hometown of Yamhill, OR, sharing the life stories of the kids who rode with him on the school bus.  There are close friends like the Knapps, whose future had looked so promising, except that they struggled with a father who drank and abused their mother.  The authors show how these types of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can drastically affect a child's brain development and ability to cope.  In fact, all but one of the five Knapp kids died of drug abuse or related accidents.  The authors make a convincing case for the US to invest in early childhood intervention programs, paid family leave, free preschool, and other measures to help launch our kids to more fulfilling lives.

Hypocrisy in government and politics makes the needs worse.  The authors state that, "so often in America, we increasingly saw, our end point depends on our starting point" (p 249), e.g., those lucky enough to be born into high earning families that value education and social capital (e.g., group and community connections) have a hugely better chance to succeed, rather than drop out of school or become dependent on drugs.  Yet for those at the bottom of the economic ladder, the government punishes them in ways that make it harder to rebound, e.g., deadbeat dads in four states get their drivers' license revoked for nonpayment of child support - so how do they get the jobs to help with paying support?

Additionally, the government has hedged at providing health care for all, or at least for poor families.  Ironic that the US offers single payer health care (Medicare) for the elderly (the most expensive sector) but not for kids (the least expensive).  The government cut funding for cancer screenings, breast exams, family planning offered through Planned Parenthood - because conservative politicians refused to fund that organization.  "It's puzzling that many politicians fear that poor people are trying to milk the system, while they don't seem to fear rich people doing the same with far more dollars at risk." (p 69)

Some families were poor but raised their children to succeed by emphasizing education and responsibility and, as the authors asserts, many had a faith in God.   "Children raised in religious households were less likely to suffer what it called the 3 big dangers of adolescence: depression, substance abuse, and risky behavior." (p 170)

I'd never heard the expression "talking right, walking left" (p 196-197), espousing traditional values like marriage and family, while engaging in premarital sex and having many sexual partners - nor its converse "talking left, walking right", those who tend to be better educated and less judgmental of more promiscuous life styles, yet themselves being more likely to live a traditional life style and encourage their children to do so.  But the authors see this contradiction as driving much of our politics.

In almost every area the Kristofs discussed (health care, maternity leave, child care, etc), America is alarmingly far behind the rest of the industrial world.  The hopeful times of post-WW2 when the US government invested in programs like free college to GI's has given way to the judgmental "lift them up by their bootstraps" philosophy.  Yet the authors do not give up hope, citing "escape artists" who are able to overcome hardships to lead productive lives.  The book ends with a challenge to readers to work for change (contact a congressman, become a mentor, support an NGO that is having an impact).

June 30 2020

Abigail (1970) by Magda Szabo
Translated from the Hungarian by Len Rix (2020)

Written 50 years ago, and only now translated into English, Abigail is a war story unlike any I've read before. Gina Vitay, the 14-year-old heroine, is the beloved only child of a prominent widowed military leader in World War II Hungary.  Educated at home by a French tutor and accustomed to concerts and other cultural events in her native Budapest, Gina is naturally upset when in the fall of 1943, her father brings her to a strict religious boarding school far from home.  Initially furious with her father, she alienates her fellow students and runs away.  Fortunately, she is caught by one of the teachers and returned to the school.  Eventually, she learns that her father is in some danger and the only way to keep Gina safe is to hide her whereabouts.  Eventually she endears herself to the other girls, after much soul searching, but she constantly fears for her father's safety, and she inadvertently compromises her own safety more than once.  She learns about the mysterious Abigail, a garden statue who helps the girls when they're in need, and wonders who is behind Abigail's notes and help?

This is a suspenseful story on many levels, but as a coming-of-age story has many humorous and endearing moments involving the girls' camaraderie, first love, and their relationships with the teachers.  Gina is a feisty, likely heroine.  Magda Szabo, who was herself a teacher in Hungary during the Germany and Russian occupations (1944-45), writes compassionately and very well.   Len Rix has produced an excellent translation that neither feels like reading through a foggy lens nor in simplistic language, as is the case with many translated works, but feels fresh and immediate.  I could hardly put this book down!

June 12 2020

The Seine: The River that Made Paris (2019)
By Elaine Sciolino

NY Times foreign correspondent Elaine Sciolino writes about the Seine in a book that is part history and part tribute to this famous river.  She offers a couple of chapters on the source of the Seine, both geographically in Burgundy and historically around the origin of the name (from the Roman goddess Sequanna).

Each of the chapters on the Seine's relationship to Paris covers a specific phase of river life: Paris by night, art, the river brigade, the river and song, etc. I especially enjoyed the chapter on bridges - all 37 of them!  Each bridge has a connection to a historical figure or event, from the Pont Neuf built by Henry IV to the modern pedestrian span named for the 20th century feminist Simone de Beauvoir.

The chapter on river barges notes that only a thousand of the 15000 bargemen of 1950 operate barges today, replaced mostly by truckers.  These barges have a huge capacity, actually carrying many truckloads worth of grain, sand or whatever product they are bringing downriver.  Sciolino interviews several bargemen and women to give a picture of their hard life.   She also interviews a cruise ship captain, a 4th generation bargeman who has given up the hard life for a more cushy existence as a cruise ship captain (just like the young man I met on a Viking Seine cruise a few years ago).   I was also fascinated by the chapter on bouquinistes, the booksellers whose shops line two miles of Seine riverfront; they have plied their trade for a couple of centuries.  Their business is highly regulated, and their inventory often includes historic treasures.

Sciolino moves north to Rouen, the international shipping port that is also the site of Ste Jean d'Arc's martyrdom.  She concludes with an afterward describing the Seine's importance as a water supply to fight the April 2019 Notre Dame Cathedral fire.

June 6 2020

A Summer in Sonoma (2010)
By Robyn Carr

Sometimes chick-lit is just the antidote for hard times.

This delightful novel follows four women, now in their early 30s, but friends since high school.  Julie is happily married to her high school sweetheart, Billy; they have three kids and Billy works two jobs to help cope with their massive debt, including college loans.  Marty is married to Joe; they have a young son and both have good jobs, but the flame has gone out of their marriage and they don't communication well.  Beth is a physician who was jilted by her fiance when she was diagnosed with breast cancer.  And Cassie has been through dozens of boyfriends looking for Mr Right and now mainly wants to concentrate on her job as an ER nurse.  As the story opens, Cassie is dating a new guy; he seems nice but, when Cassie rebuffs his advances in his car, her screams bring rescue in the form of Walt, a big burly biker guy.  Through he's totally not Cassie's type, the two develop a friendship, enjoying picnics and motorcycle rides, opening up a new world of fun and trust for Cassie.

While this novel is about the relationships, it is even more about the love and commitment the four friends share, the support and encouragement through thick and thin that is the story's strength.  Even the men help one another with advice and mechanical know-how.  These are the kinds of friends we all need!

June 5 2020

Shadow Network: Media, Money and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right (2019)
By Anne Nelson

Veteran journalist Nelson delves into how the evangelical movement became aligned with big oil, the NRA and gun rights, and the war against civil rights and the planet.  In part, it's a deal made among those who need access to the media (developed by the fundamentalists through radio stations in local areas abandoned by newspapers), those who need funding (provided by big oil, who in turn want EPA rollbacks to protect the fossil fuel industry, as do wealthy neo-cons like the Devos and Prince families, who also endorse a radical fundamentalism), and those who need organizing/technical skills (Republican tacticians like Paul Weyrich and Richard Viguerie, who create strategy groups with pro-democracy sounding names like Center for National Policy [CNP] and Citizens for Community Values).  As to the NRA, it's all of the above - appealing to the rural/mostly "evangelical vote" and well-organized and well-funded.

The Southern Baptist church began in 1845, as a reaction to slave-holders being barred from missionary service.  They were confined mostly to the confederate states, but grew in power, assuming the concept of church control to extend to school and state.  By 1967, wealthy Paul Pressler III had teamed up with pastor Paige Patterson to foment a fundamentalist takeover of the Southern Baptist Church. The would soon employ tactics to elect far right conservative congressmen, using their tax exempt church as a power base.  Initially enthusiastic over Jimmy Carter, the fundamentalists abandoned him for supporting the ERA and civil rights.  By 1988 the religious right and the political right had formally wed, per Nelson.  The new organization, People for the American Way, endorsed corporal punishment and said gays were deserving of death, a theme that became a lynchpin of conservatism.

Paul Weyrich, Republic "pawnbroker" and TX fundamentalist, was invited to a pastors' meeting by Jerry Falwell Sr, a southern Baptist preacher who endorsed Pressler and Patterson's movement.  He would become a founder of the powerful CNP, which would recruit and train fundamentalist activists,  use political technology and dispense with "the need to be right".  One of their early activities was to raise funds to support the Contras fighting against the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua, garnering huge amounts through their church network (because the federal would not fund the effort) and leading to the death of Archbishop Oscar Romero, an advocate for the poor.

Just as the CNP was seeking a platform to promote their far-right tactics Christian broadcasters had started to move into the news vacuum created by the retreat of local newspapers in the midwest and southern states.  Salem Christian Broadcasting, in particular, whose media star was James Dobson (of Focus on the Family), teamed with Weyrich, giving the far right and CNP a mouthpiece that would grow in number of outlets and power.  The Christian broadcasters and organizers worked with financiers, many from big oil, particularly the Koch family (but also including the criminal Cullen Davis).  THE NRA became another financial partner, thus uniting fundamentalism, climate change deniers who wanted no restrictions on the fossil fuel industry, and gun rights advocates.  The platform sought to fight abortion, LBGT rights, gun control and any efforts to save the planet.  Their women's group, Concerned Women for America, even opposed the Violence Against Women Act of 2012, saying that it created "protections for homosexuals".

Grooming Ted Cruz as their ideal candidate in 2016, the CNP instead ended up with Donald Trump.  Offering their support for his compliance on issues such as appointing conservative judges and rolling back climate controls, Trump's campaign notably greed to every element in the CNP's platform.

* * *

"And here we are," as foreign affairs specialist Fiona Hill once famously said.  It seems to me that the very same goals that Christians are - or should be - pursuing, like good health care for families, gun control, racial equality, and better living standards for marginalized populations - are the very things that the CNP/fundamentalists are fighting against.  While there have been Christians who rejected the fundamentalist position, like Jimmy Carter and Billy Graham, their message of loving God and loving others was eventually squelched by the fundamentalist position.  I don't get it.  No wonder some people think we Christians are a bunch of hypocrites.

May 24 2020

Travels with Charley: In Search of America (1962)
By John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck is already a well-known, prize-wining author and journalist by 1960 when he sets out "in search of America". He stars in his home in Sag Harbor, Long Island, heading north to Maine, before starting a circuit around the continental US, a trip that will take about four months, in a truck concerted to a small RV.  He has a few must-see destinations: Deer Isle, ME [?]; Niagara Falls; Chicago; his home town of Salinas, CA; his in-laws' home in TX; New Orleans.  The rest of the trip, he stops when he's tired, sometimes staying at a roadside hotel for a shower, but usually living in "Rocinante" (named for Don Quixote's horse) with his large poodle Charley for company. Interestingly, it seems that the planned stops are disappointing (especially Steinbeck's hometown, which has mushroomed from 4000 residents in he's childhood years to 80K in 1960 - but particularly difficult was the stop in New Orleans where Steinbeck sees the effects of school integration firsthand when white adults harass a small black child accompanied to the school door by police officers).  Much more enjoyable are the author's serendipitous meetings with locals.  None seem to recognize the famed author; the story really shines when he meets a farmer or hunter, often inviting them to share a whiskey-laced coffee on Rocinante's dining table.  In the end, while Steinbeck opines on may topics - environmental issues, the interstate highways, wealthy, prejudice - he doesn't offer so much a finding of America as a fear that it is becoming too homogeneous and urbanized.

Like Steinbeck, I spent the year 1960 on the road.  Actually, it was 1959-1961, living all around the US with my parents and two siblings, as my dad had taken a 2 1/2 year position as a traveling auditor for his company.  I can identify with so much of what he sees, especially in CA and, to some extent, New Orleans.  The old US highways, with their greasy-spoon cafes and mom-and-pop motels hadn't yet given way to the interstate systems.  Wish I'd thought to write a book!

May 14 2020

The Lost Gutenberg: The Astounding Story of One Book's Five-Hundred-Year Odyssey (2019)
By Margaret Leslie Davis

Fewer than 50 Gutenberg Bibles are known to exist today - almost all in museums or universities.  Author Margaret Davis traces the history of "No 45" - from its journey through several private collections to its current home in Japan.

The tale opens in 1950 with No 45's arrival at the home of its last private owner, Estelle Doheny, in Los Angeles.  Estelle is the widow of Edward Doheny, an Irish American oil millionaire who "struck it rich"in the late 1800s but was later implicated in the infamous Teapot Dome scandal in 1923, accused of bribing US Interior Secretary Albert Fall.  He is eventually cleared, although Sec Fall is implicated and imprisoned, becoming the "fall guy".  During the ordeal of the decade-long trial, Estelle is given a book about American authors and finds solace in collecting these writers, eventually acquiring first editions, and then becoming a serious collector.  She hears that the LC is buying a Gutenberg Bible and sets out to buy her own copy, though it will take decades.

Davis provides tidbits of history about Gutenberg and his famous book, which probably had a run of about 180 copies.  He would have printed only the words of scripture, leaving each owner to provide a cover and enlist illuminators to provide decorations if they wished.  Thus each Bible was unique.  Most were printed on good quality paper with a high rag content, but a small number were printed on vellum.  The paper versions were bound in 2 volumes, vellum in 3.  Many of the known Gutenbergs today are missing a volume, as is No 45, which contains only Genesis - Psalms.

From its creation ("sometime before Aug 15, 1546") until 1836, No 45's owner(s) are unknown, but it was likely part of a seminary or church scholar's collection.   But by the early 1800s, there was a growing interest in rare books, and Gutenbergs were starting to be sold and collected.  Davis introduces No 45's private owners:

Archibald Acheson, 3rd Earl of Gosford
1836-1884
paid: L45, sold for: L500 to book dealer James Toovey

Lord William Tyssen-Amherst, bibliophile
1884-1908
paid: L600 to book dealer James Toovey; sold for L2050 to book dealer Bernard Quaritch

Charles Wm Dyson Perrins, heir to Lea & Perrins and Royal Worcester Porcelain
1908-1947
paid L2050; sold for L22000

(briefly owned by Sir Philip Beaumont Frere, a London solicitor)

Estelle Doheny, CA book collector
1950-1958
paid: L25000 (~$72000); donated to St John's Seminary, along with most of Estelle's collection, with a restriction that the collection cannot be altered for 25 years following Estelle's death.

The first 3 owners all had to liquidate their book collections to settle debts: Gosford to pay for debts his father incurred in trying to build the largest castle in Ireland; Amherst to pay creditors when his trusted financial manager embezzled the lion's share of his family's fortune; and Perrins to rescue the failing Royal Worcester company.  Estelle, a multimillionaire when her husband died, became a generous philanthropist, endowing schools and health care, in part to redeem her husband's name from the scandal of Teapot Dome.  While No 45 is housed at St John's Seminary, the church is approached about doing a chemical analysis, using a cyclotron (the same kind of machine that split the atom).  Surprisingly, the caretakers at St John agree, and amazing new information is revealed, eg,   the ink, always thought to be composed of carbon, was instead made of lead and copper (so that's how it kept its blackness all these years!); the number of pieces of type were far more than originally thought.

Sadly, the Catholic church opted to sell all of Estelle's collection, and the Gutenberg alone goes for $5.4M (and this was right after Black Monday in 1987).  The new owner is Maruzen Ltd, the Japanese publishing conglomerate, and No 45 becomes the first Gutenberg to find a home in Asia.  Maruzen gives (or sells) it to Keio University, which becomes a pioneer in digital bibliography, digitizing the entire volume, initially in 1997, then updated in 2017, as new technology became available.  Thus, No 45, with its beautiful illumination, is probably the most widely known copy, due to its atomic analysis and its digitization by Keio University.

I have seen the 3-volume set at the Library of Congress, and it is amazing!  Hard to believe it is in such beautiful condition after all these centuries.  While looking at the digitized version may not be as unique as seeing the real object,  I have to thank Keio for making it possible to see every page (not just the open pages) in perfect and minute detail...

May 10 2020

Strong and Weak: Embracing a Life of Love, Risk, and True Flourishing (2016)
By Andy Crouch

Jesus had the greatest possible authority and yet made himself vulnerable.  Flourishing people are both strong and weak.  While we often either grasp for power or withdraw into safety, Crouch asserts that true flourishing (being fully alive) requires both strength and the vulnerability to show weakness.  We see this in the best leaders - those who use authority to recognize and address failure rather than using it to conceal and minimize their weaknesses and mistakes.   While exposure to possible failure is always a risk - it can increase, not diminish - one's authority, and that applies to our own actions as well as delegating authority to others: "Turning over power to others, giving them authority to act on their own behalf - to cultivate and create in their own right rather than just implementing our vision" (p 175).  We see these facets in Jesus, who exposed himself to ridicule, torture and death.   Yet walking this path lets the image of God shine through us and blesses others.

My review does not do justice to Crouch's points; his arguments are worth a read to truly understand the value of vulnerability and, from a Christian perspective, to trust ourselves fully to God, the ultimate authority.

May 6, 2020

There There (2018)
By Tommy Orange

Though the language is sometimes coarse and the characters down on their luck and often hostile, this story by Cheyenne tribal member Tommy Orange gives me a good sense of the struggles of urban American Indians.  Orange includes a prologue about the native Americans sad history after European arrival: from King Philip's war through Wounded Knee - basically a summary of loss and death.  While I tend to think of today's Indians as "on the rez", many Indians have flocked to cities, and Oakland, CA is host to a large native community, as well as host to one of the largest annual powwows, an event that becomes the main event for which all of the various characters are preparing.  Some, like Tony, a victim of fetal alcohol syndrome, are looking for a chance to make a quick buck.  Dene wants to interview participants to record their stories.  Edwin is an intern working with the powwow's organizer, while 14-year-old Orvil looks forward to his first opportunity to dance.  In all, about a dozen different speakers share their stories, some from a first person perspective, some 3rd person, and one even in 2nd person.  It took 2 readings for me to appreciate all of the connections in this book, as well as the poignancy of the struggles faced by Americans Indians today, the descendants of our land's first stewards, now sidelined and many with substance abuse and other health problems, some without hope.

April 28 2020

American Oligarchs: The Kushners, the Trumps, and the Merger of Money and Power (2020)

By Andrea Bernstein

Journalist Bernstein goes back several generations to show how the Trump and Kushner families started from impoverished immigrant roots to rise to the pinnacles of financial and political power, via tax breaks meant for middle class Americans, borrowing from shady foreign sources when American banks would not loan them money, and using secrecy, intimidation and machine politics to gain their objectives.

Friedrich Trumpf left Germany in the 1890s, heading to Washington state, then to Alaska for the Yukon Gold Rush, making a fortune from taverns and brothels that served the miners.  Returning to Germany to marry, he was unable to stay due to not fulfilling his military duty, so Friedrich and Mary came to Queens, where he started working in real estate development until he died likely of the Spanish flu in 1918 (at age 49).  Mary was industrious and kept the family afloat while young Fred worked, eventually building up his Queens real estate empire.  While not as unscrupulous as his son would become, Fred nonetheless discriminated against black tenants and circumvented estate laws to turn over his holdings to his children.  Donald would move business to Manhattan, bribing officials to get huge tax breaks, hiring non-documented workers but not paying them (and what recourse do they have? [and courting hundreds of lawsuits from disgruntled employees, contractors, and vendors]), lying about occupancy rates to qualify for loans, and building what would be failed hotels in Atlantic City, Toronto, Soho, etc - but he would still profit from the failures; it would be his investors who would lose their money (Bear Stearns being a good example when Trump defaulted on a huge loan).

The Kushners (Jared's grandmother's family) and Berkowitzes (grandfather's family - he took her name) were Polish holocaust survivors who ended up in New Jersey in the late 1940s.  (Thus both Trump and Kushner families benefit from immigration opportunities that Donald Trump would close off to future immigrants.)  Seeing the need for post-war housing, the Kushners brilliantly started building and selling houses, eventually 1000s of single family homes - but money does not buy happiness and Charles (Jared's father) ended up trying to implicate his brother-in-law through taping him with a prostitute, and instead is sent to prison, compliments of federal NJ prosecutor Chris Christie.  Charles made a $2M gift to Harvard, payable when his son is accepted.  As a Harvard grad, Jared buys the New York Observer financial news, using it to take down his enemies and elevate his own agenda.  When Trump is elected (despite a 3M popular vote loss to his opponent), Jared is brought on as his go-to guy.  Chris Christie, whom Trump had tasked with putting together a transition team, is then sacked by the vengeful Jared and his extensive work is literally thrown in a dumpster.  Together, Jared and Ivanka follow in their parents' footsteps, as Ivanka and Don Jr's lawyer (Kascewicz?) makes a huge contribution to DA Cyrus Vance's campaign, and a truth-in-lending suit against them is mysteriously thrown out.  Today's White House is an extension of the Trump-Kushner style of doing business via vendetta [eg, lifting of all environmental protections proposed by perceived Obama], lies [I don't know anything about hush money paid to Stormy Daniels], and corruption [emoluments, emoluments, emoluments].  God help us.