edwebb's reviews from LibraryThing

Why Read? by Mark Edmundson

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 12:54:59 -0500

edwebb's review: "A passionate exhortation to teachers to make the humanities relevant to the lives of their students - indeed, to help make their encounter with great works of artistic production a life-changing event. There is some wisdom here, and some entertaining and thought-provoking discussion of certain works - he's good on Wordsworth, in particular. But the whole is marred by an unfortunate tendency to generalize negatively about certain categories of activity. He is almost entirely dismissive of cultural studies and the value of critical examination of popular culture in teaching. And he starts with some rather hackneyed alarmism around the effect of digital technologies on the present generation of students - short attention span, easily distracted, demanding entertainment rather than searching for knowledge etc. Some of that may be true for some students, but the point is to mobilize the technology to guide students to those life-changing experiences, not to fear it. Just like books, digital media are learning technologies that can be used well or badly."
Bloomsbury USA (2005), Paperback, 160 pages

The Medium is the Message: an Inventory of Effects by Marshall; Agel McLuhan, Jerome

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:47:06 -0500

edwebb's review: "Utterly essential to understanding not only the television age, but also the age we inhabit now, of social networking via digital technology and all the other good stuff going on around us. The work is utterly contemporary, very fresh, speaks to the now. Particularly powerful insights on education (and for educators). Read it!"
Bantam Books (1967), Paperback

The Uncommon Reader: A Novella by Alan Bennett

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 18:03:31 -0500

edwebb's review: "Much what one would expect from Mr. Bennett. Which is to say, wry, witty, gently mocking and yet utterly uncynical. Much like George Bernard Shaw's play "The Apple Cart", this novella gives the impression that it has been written by a republican who nevertheless has some sympathy, even admiration, for those who have to perform the monarchical role. You can read any number of synopses elsewhere, so I won't bother you with that here. I think the point is that if you love books - and if you are reading this, chances are you do - then you will appreciate the quiet passion for reading displayed here (and projected onto an uncommon subject). A quick read - a literary snack rather than a feast - but a very pleasing one."
Picador (2008), Paperback, 128 pages

Iraq Through A Bullet Hole: A Civilian Returns Home by Issam Jameel

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 22:47:00 -0400

edwebb's review: "A book that promises more than it can deliver. Issam Jameel's return to post-invasion Iraq should provide us with insights from street level into the rearrangement of social life, the day-to-day struggles of people trying to get by in a ruined economy, the increased salience of sectarian identities, and the other crucial details that will affect whether Iraq will bounce back as a viable state. What Jameel's book offers in fact is some disjointed observations and rather superficial impressions of these matters. But two factors get in the way of the narrative: language and religion. I read and write Arabic, but would not attempt to write a book-length memoir in it, so I can only applaud Jameel's efforts to write his observations in English. However, were I to attempt such a task, I would ask competent native speakers to review every aspect of my manuscript, or insist that my publisher do so. The introduction thanks a Ms Salmon and a Mrs Babbage for their work revising the manuscript, but the thanks is ill-deserved, sad to say. Often the language is stilted and retains what to any speaker of Arabic are obvious word-for-word translations of Arabic grammatical forms. The reader can get past this, if dedicated enough. But surely, if the book is worth publishing at all, it is worth getting things like that right. A competent editor would also have given the author some pointers on structure and pacing that would have gone a long way toward letting the power of the situation and the struggles of the country he returned to as a semi-foreigner shine through more strongly. The religious factor is more subtle, but important nonetheless. Jameel is a convert from Islam to Christianity, which he tells us a little about. What is possibly not clear to a general audience, at whom this book is presumably aimed, is what the ramifications of that are, and he does not help us much. There are descriptions of his debates with his brothers Sami and Mohamed about religion, in which he shows scant regard for Islam, characterizing their positions as 'radical' and 'fundamentalist.' Well, OK, maybe they are radicalized by the occupation - there's a lot of that about - but it would have been much more helpful to explore their views, rather than to write them off in the way he does. In sum - there are some moments in here, some nuggets worth digging for. But the whole is disappointing, let down by a banal writing style and a lack of editorial guidance. We need more eye-witness accounts from Iraq; but we also need better ones."
Modern History Press (2008), Paperback, 212 pages