February, 2013--Staying warm by the fire with a good book

Started off February with NIXONLAND by Rick Perlstein.

Very good thus far.

How a man like Dick Nixon could win two presidential elections (one by a landslide) says more about the dark aspects of the American character than all their foreign policy blunders and hypocritical posturing about "freedom" and "democracy" put together.

The man was venal.

Perhaps you haven't watched FOX-TV lately. Both the political swill and the so-called "entertainment" make Nixon and his crew look like Jesus and the Disciples. I suspect FOX plays at-least as well North of the Fourty-Ninth as below. Related to that, I would gently admonish you about the phrasing "American character". I think we can safely broaden that to "North American". Consider the goons and bozos of whom Harper is merely the most recent; I won't even speak of some of the Provincials (especially in Quebec, Alberta, and Newfoundland).

I'm a leftie but I just don't view Harper with the same baleful horror as many of my political pals. He doesn't surround himself with thugs like Kissinger, Haldeman or, more recently, Rumsfeld and Cheney. Can you think of anyone on the contemporary Canadian political scene that are their equivalents? A milquetoast like Peter McKay?

Nope, the Yanks are just plain different from us, historically and philospophically. I've spent a fair amount of time over the border in the last few years and neither Canucks nor conservatives come even close to "American lite".

As for FOX News...we don't have cable TV, only 1/2 a channel works. Thankfully...

1: "I have spoken hitherto of the possibility that democracy may be a self-limiting disease, like measles. It is, perhaps, something more: it is self-devouring. One cannot observe it objectively without being impressed by its curious distrust of itself—its apparently ineradicable tendency to abandon its whole philosophy at the first sign of strain. I need not point to what happens invariably in democratic states when the national safety is menaced. All the great tribunes of democracy, on such occasions, convert themselves, by a process as simple as taking a deep breath, into despots of an almost fabulous ferocity." — H.L. Mencken

The problem is, Cliff, you think too highly of American culture to begin with. Remember, this is the land that has enshrined Larry the Cable Guy, Jeff Dunham, Mitt Romney, The Tea Party, and a nation of allegedly red-blooded American males who, it turns out, seem fearful and disgusted whenever a female bosom appears on TV, and the God-fearing Christian bravery to heckle Newtown survivors:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2013/01/30/msnbc-reviewing-ne...

We're a nation that prizes our possession of AR-15s over the safety of elementary school children. Yet what Nixon did was shocking? Hardly. Nixon was a Law and Order president who nearly succeeded in creating a Police State. But as long as you don't slap a "Communist" label on it, Nixon's electorate would have hardly noticed or else would have cheered the Old Quaker Demagogue as he constructed a viable American fascism. As long as you don't raise the temperature too quickly, frogs don't notice they are being boiled to death.

What America needs is more cynicism, not less. America needs its own Thomas Bernhard

"America is just a nation of two hundred million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns and no qualms about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable."

-Hunter S. Thompson

I haven't read a lot about Nixon but I have the impression that he was a different kettle of fish from the Republican ideologues today...in essence, I think Nixon was only interested in Nixon, not the party. This played out in some interesting ways. He passed some legislation that most Republicans would disavow today, but his megalomania destroyed him -- probably had destroyed him as a person long before he became President.
It has always been my opinion that the Republican Party underwent a huge change when Reagan was elected -- they discovered then that they could elect a figurehead-type who was popular with the people and didn't interfere behind the scenes. Thus the subsequent Bushes, etc. Their problem lately has been that such figureheads are in short supply...McCain had too many independent opinions and Romney lacked popularity. After years of this, they have run themselves into the ground and have no real leadership in the party.

In re #6. Much turns on your sense of "leadership", both in your post and in your view of the world. Make no mistake, no matter the apparent disarray of the GOP, including such amusing instances as the (Republican) Governor of Louisiana calling it "the stupid party", there is plenty of purpose, structure, and vision there. Unfortunately, they're all ugly and destructive. I recall Jay Gould's immortal remark that he was Republican in a Republican precinct, Democrat in a democratic one, but always for the Erie Railroad. The classic corporate/militarist types who used to define the GOP have, so-to-put, taken their business elsewhere. Why do they need a traditional GOP when they get almost everyrthing they want under a nominally Democratic administration? The social/ideological issues, though certainly of great significance to the citizenry, have gladly been dumped into the laps of the idiots like Sean Hannity et al, while the big issues (environment, foreign policy, public finance, civil libeties, unions -- or lack thereof --, energy) are being handleds pretty-much the way they have been since Carter's day, regardless of who hold the White House or the Congress (and the relative power-balance between them). The situation is grave practically beyond the telling of it -- which is, of-course, precisley why it needs to be discussed in whatever forum is available.
Remember the slogan, "a mind is a terrible thing to waste"? Well, that remains true, but I would add a companion-idea: a mind is a terrible thing to poison. Thirty years after the fact, the Great American Public still hasn't figured out that despite all the talk of tax-cuts, it's paying more now, directly and indirectly, than it ever has, and that process has been a gleeful, bipartisan gang-bang. More mind-poisoning? The Great American Public mostly jumped-up and down and laufghed when Reagan attacked PATCO as they first shot in a war to the death on unions. He won that one, and people still think they're better off now because they can buy stuff on the cheap @ WalMart rather than making good money at meaningful work here in the USA, funding a secure retirement, and building a decent future for their kids.
Hope this doesn't spoil your weekend. Beside, I suppose I'df better leave a little ground for my on-line pal ksw to till. Peace to ya! -- Goddard

It is easy to find fault in the leaders or the rich. But for the amount of power the US has had in the past 70 years the results are certainly alright for the rest of the world. They were reasonably responsible during the 'pax americana'. I don't think we would be able to say the same if the Japanese, German, Russian, Cuban or Chinese were in their position.
Is the US perfect? Of course not. But despite their shortcomings the world has fared very well.

"But despite their shortcomings the world has fared very well."

I think a substantial proportion of the world's population--and the planet's ecosystem--might take issue with that contention.

But, I fear, we're getting off track and it's partially my fault.

Back to February reads.

In re #9. Thank you for trying to re-direct the discourse -- and for taking respectful exception to Post #8. . . . February reads? Despite its many shortcomings, I may take another turn around the block with our LT pal Shawn StJean's CLOTHO'S LOOM. Look for my Review -- but not for a while.

On the same thread as massive bios, The Last Lion: Defender of the Realm by William Manchester and Paul Reid, is a real page-turner, especially once the US gets into the war. The authors find a nuanced way to weave the minutiae of Churchill's life with the grand canvas of global politics and war. It is fascinating seeing how the "Atlantic Charter" came about.

And let's leave Nixon/Republican/Tea Party talk for the Human Monsters thread.

I'll keep my comments on Nixon and the Republicans short, but Nixonland is a hell of a great read with some great insights on how the US political system became what it is today.

Anybody read The Public Burning, speaking of Nixon?

Reading The Fan Man by William Kotzwinkle. Stoner satire. Also finishing Jurgen and beginning The Cream of the Jest by James Branch Cabell.

Having just finished my obligation to read my latest Early Reviewer book, I'm going to slip back into my Herman Melville mode: Typee is next, though first I think I'll dig out and re-read Guy Davenport's essay, "Ishmael's Double", from his The Geography of the Imagination.

Os.

Just started The Spy Who Loved Me, the book that allegedly proves Fleming could write. I'm 40 pages in and I've found no evidence of it so far.

13: The Public Burning is awesome. And as far as fictionalized versions of historical figures, there's the charismatic villainy of Roy Cohn in Angels in America

In re #15. Yepp. I agree with you, Ian. You'll likely still feel that way after another fourty pages. Actually, I was going to add this to my "Read But Not Owned" list, but only to give it a half-star ranking as a warn-off. -- Goddard

#13 FAN MAN is wonderful. You're in for a treat. Hope it hasn't dated since I read it (about 16-18 years ago).

I'll also refrain from bogging down in politics but will echo praise for Nixonland. Despite the appearance of having advocated policies that appear moderate by current Republican standards, Nixon laid the groundwork for today's nastiness and sharp divide and Perlstein deftly shows how.

An interesting juxtaposition to talk of Nixon is the book I just finished: Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by the poster boy for late bloomers, Ben Fountain (first novel at 54). Razor-sharp skewering of the culture of celebrity, politics, patriotism, power and more; heartbreaking depiction of the instant-hero young grunts on their way back to Iraq. Not flawless but very impressive.

Now back to WWI with Pat Barker's Toby's Room.

19: I would also recommend the Brethren by Bob Woodward, since it is a probing investigation into the Nixon-era Supreme Court. It also gives a fascinating look into the inner workings of important decisions like The Pentagon Papers, Roe v Wade, and Nixon v US.

#19 I thought BILLY LYNN was okay, but over-rated. Particularly detested the conclusion.

But, yeah, I'm with you: let's hear it for late bloomers.

On the Nixon front, a quick but insightful read is E. J. Dionne's Our Divided Political Heart. Dionne describes what he calls the "Long Concensus" in the US between the Populists and Progressives, which began to form at the end of the Robber Baron era and early days of trade unions and began to crack around the time of the Goldwater candidacy. Dionne connects the loss of the Long Concensus to the bitter political environment of today, and suggests that the Long Concensus began to form in reaction to a similar political environment. America's rise to become the political/military/economic power in the world coincides with the Long Concensus, and it's loss is a major contributor to our apparent loss of the ability to take on and succeed in the really big challenges (my read of what Dionne's work suggests).

I've not read Nixonland yet, but it sounds like Dionne's work would be a good follow-up read.

Os.

18> It's been a treat so far, man. It's definitely dated, yes, but being so over the top, so whimsical and wacky, at times simultaneously appealing and appalling, I don't think it matters, at least not for those old enough to remember those 80s-you-had-to-be-there-documentaries lionizing the altruism and ethos of the hippie generation. It elicits a similar feel and effect on me that The Magic Christian did.

"Horse Badorties"

The name says it all.

Slouching Towards Bethlehem has picked up a bit, thankfully. I'm keeping notes as I go and it is oddly more interesting to talk about than it is to read.

Excited to get my Stories of J.F. Powers and Collected Stories of Ivan Bunin in the mail.

Finished Didion. It improved toward the end, or perhaps I just got used to her arid style. It made up quite the self-portrait when all was said and done - even Hawaii couldn't cheer that woman up (but Alcatraz managed it). Not a book I'll soon forget but no way am I reading another by her.

Heard Dead City Radio last night. I can't fault Burroughs but man o man do I wish Tom Waits had done the background music. He actually knows how to accent spoken word. The faux Les Baxter strings and vocals really got on my nerves at points -"What are you here for?" indeed.... On the good side, Burroughs was awesome. A couple parts made me laugh out loud and he never lost my attention.

Really settled down and read last night. Finally finished Zadie Smith's White Teeth. I do love those multi-generational novels about families and fathers and sons and mothers and daughters (see: East of Eden, Little Big, 100 Years of Solitude) and while this doesn't quite measure up to that pantheon, it was a funny and bewitching read. Few books really grab me and make me feel like I know the characters (though LIKING them is a different problem altogether) but this one did. Also, it amused me to see that Salman Rushdie gave this a glowing blurb when there's a farcical scene about one of the young Muslims protesting in London about some evil writer's book against Islam.

Then, in about one sitting, I read Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles. Holy crap, I always thought I'd read Bradbury (might be a kind of cultural osmosis thing, like how I know most Jules Verne plots without ever having read the guy) but I must have forgotten most of this - man, this was absolutely amazing. It's surreal and dreamlike, yet it has some incredibly personal and touching stories. "There Will Come Soft Rains" was a standout that could stand alone, but the entire book is a great twist on the European settlement of the New World and its devastating consequences on the natives.

I also got a decent bit of Flaubert's Sentimental Education read, after having stalled out in it a few weeks ago. Many of the side characters are political activists, and I'd gotten bogged down in reference after reference to scandals in 1840s France. Still, I pushed through and got to the 1848 revolution - hopefully things pick up after this. It's well-written, but I don't see it toppling Madame Bovary for my favorite Flaubert.

I'm reading The Carpet Makers by Andreas Eschbach and Narcissus and Goldmund by Hermann Hesse with book groups. The Eschbach novel actually reminds me a lot of The Martian Chronicles with its narrative structure and writing style.

Today I started the David Foster Wallace biography, EVERY LOVE STORY IS A GHOST STORY by D.T. Max.

Very good, thus far.

Just downloaded Shogun to my Nook.

Started Alan Turing: The Enigma--just great so far. Turing was the fellow at the center of cracking the Enigma code, but he seems to have been thinking and doing interesting things right from the beginning. Right now, 20 pages in, he's in English public school turning in "disgustingly dirty" work in his Latin class and running chemistry experiments over candles in his dorm room.

Plowing through the Last Lion: Defender of the Realm by William Manchester and Paul Reid. Epic and readable, not an easy trick to pull off. Reading about the build-up to Operation Overlord, aka D-Day. There were some utterly surreal moments with American GIs cavorting with London's "tarts" amidst blacked-out buildings and London turned into a strange babel of languages from the Dominion troops. The UK as a massive staging area recalls / foreshadows Orwell's "Airstrip One" in 1984

Love those big, fat history books. I'm still dying to dive into LEGACY OF ASHES, the award-winning account of the CIA's many (mis)adventures since its inception.

But right now I'm working my way through Dexter Palmer's DREAM OF PERPETUAL MOTION. A good book, quite original, well-written...but there's a remoteness and a sense of detachment to the characters that makes it impossible to really root for (or care about) any of the people in the story. So while the world may be well-executed, it's hard for readers to feel anything more than mildly involved in what's taking place. To my mind, a serious flaw.

34: I have Legacy of Ashes somewhere on the TBR pile, along with Imperial Life in the Emerald City -- which, BTW, is the coolest title ever!

Kafka on the Shore, my first book by Murakami. Very entertaining so far. Still nibling on Arguably by Christopher Hitchens. I love his writing on literature. His more political stuff is less interesting to me.

Just started The Explorer.

Still working on Alan Turing: The Enigma. It's excellent, though the math is usually above my head.

Taking a break from Infinite Jest to finish Debt: The first 5000 years which is getting really interesting.

I've fallen way behind in my reading between being sick and having headaches (like Maurice Sendak's Alligators.) Last night finally finished a set of the letters of C.S. Lewis going up to 1931. Probably too many letters, a lot of repetition, and as he was a student and then a don in those years he writes a lot about what he is reading and less about his personal life. This morning started Stasiland.

Quickly read 84, Charing Cross Road, a charming and poignant little work but too slight for further comment to be necessary.

Finished Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson. Isaacson's style wasn't great but it was readable and chatty, suiting the subject matter. Franklin is one of my heroes even though his vision for America didn't pan out very well. I'm determined to make time for McCullough's John Adams later this year and maybe some Thomas Paine as well.

Since my next nonfiction shall be a re-read of The Journal of John Woolman, which I remember being an epic bore, this may offer me some time to concentrate on novels by Wallace and Durrell still criminally unfinished. And since I'm trying to read more poetry this year, A Coney Island of the Mind.

Reading Richard Russo's memoir Elsewhere. It's almost like reading his fiction. You can see where many of the scenes and characters from his work came from. One of my favorite writers.

Reading The Secretary by Kim Ghattas, about Hillary Clinton's first years as Secretary of State. Illuminating read, especially in light of trudging through 5000 pages of Kissinger's memoirs.

The Last Lion: Defender of the Realm continues to be exciting in its Post-D-Day chronicle of WW 2. Two words: Operation Bagration

Finished off Balthazar. Not the book's fault I took so long to have enough time to properly immerse myself in it. More philosophical than Justine, a little less "dramatically" satisfying but as technically impeccable as the first book. On to Number Three.

A Coney Island of the Mind has a nice unique style (closest cousin is cummings, perhaps?). A little bit light for my taste and there's a strongly musical cadence to many of the poems that makes me wish I could hear Ferlinghetti reciting rather than struggling to impose a rhythm myself. "I Am Waiting" is the centerpiece and nothing else is likely to wow me like that one does but it's pleasant stuff and has worn better than the works of many a Beat poet.

#42 That one goes on my (swelling to bursting) interlibrary loan request list.

Russo's one of my ten or fifteen favorite writers to read.

Finished off the Ferlinghetti. Nice stuff, particularly in the Pictures of the Gone World selections.

Always loved his "Populist Manifesto":

http://www.poemhunter.com/best-poems/lawrence-ferlinghetti/populist-manifesto-no...

Read a really good J.F. Powers short story last night, "The Forks." Anyone here read his novel Morte D'Urban? It's one of my favorites. I'm working my way through his complete stories now.

Powers is one of those writers who makes me want to chop up my desk with an axe--a high end literary writer with more brains than any four conventional writers combined. His complete short stories would probably drive me into a frenzy of envy and rage. You've got guts to tackle him, Geoff.

49: Powers is one of those writers who makes me want to chop up my desk with an axe--a high end literary writer with more brains than any four conventional writers combined. His complete short stories would probably drive me into a frenzy of envy and rage.

Jesus, calm down! Don't you ever read anything, ya know, for fun? I think there are psycho exes with less jealousy issues. Life is too short to waste time measuring up to things we put on very high pedestals.

VE Day came and went with The Last Lion: Defender of the Realm, with Europe in post-apocalyptic ruins, Britain in full rationing mode, and Aneurin Bevan, a Labour diehard, wanting to kick Churchill's ass in the upcoming parliamentary election.

The Secretary by Kim Ghattas is also very good, showing how the modern Dept of State operates and Hillary Clinton's tireless efforts to repair the foreign policy disasters created under the misrule of Dubya. The scheduling of foreign correspondents covering the Secretary of State are totally insane. Between jet lag, long hours, and schizoid accommodations -- one day a luxury hotel, the next day they sleep in the motorcade vehicles -- it would drive most people around the bend. On top of the demands of filing regular stories and being good at the word-writing and stuff.

44 Mountolive was my favorite. Let me know what you think!

#50--I like to keep the bar raised high, Karl. There are certain writers who just wipe the floor with the rest of us and I can't help envying what they can do with language, the thematic and stylistic leaps they can make. There aren't a lot of writers I truly envy, the list is actually rather short. But the good ones make the rest us work harder--who the fuck wants to be just another hack?

52: I agree with everything you said. But don't let the threat of becoming another hack drive you around the bend. I don't want you to end up like Antonin Artaud or taking a swan dive off a cruise ship like Hart Crane In that same regard, book reviews by Dorothy Parker, Anthony Burgess, and James Wood are awe-inspiring, finely crafted artistic miniatures ... as opposed to the vulgar hackery of any local newspaper. I refuse to lower the bar in my book reviews, refusing to temper my opinions to the vast middlebrow hordes who seek to not be challenged, offended, or enlightened.

Just, ya know, be safe and stuff. (Granted, your bombastic posts are in contrast to your staid Canadian lifestyle.) Keep calm and carry on. Don't go all Dave Sim on us, crossing the line from opinionated eccentric and literary maverick to fundamentalist crackpot hermit.

And buy a snow-blower for gosh sakes! I don't want to read the news that "Indie Author Dies from Shoveling-induced Heart Attack." We need you alive when you're shortlisted for a Man Booker Prize.

Just finished Jean Giraudoux''s Choice of the Elect, and was blown away. Really wonderful.

Halfway through 101 POEMS AGAINST WAR, published in aid of charity some years back. Afterword by Andrew Motion.

A mixed bag but mostly solid verse. Edna St. Vincent Millay's "The Conscientious Objector" was particularly powerful.

27> even Hawaii couldn't cheer that woman up (but Alcatraz managed it). -- Great line. You really nailed Didion's distinctive outlook there.
30> curious if you finished that D.T. Max bio, and if altered anything you'd previously thought about Wallace.

Reading a bio myself, Some Sort of Genius: A Life of Wyndham Lewis. Hardly an endearing figure, but what a talent.

The Wallace bio was very good, very sound and balanced. Good intro to the work as well. A sympathetic portrait but, as even his pals conceded, DFW was no saint. Some episodes will almost certainly make you cringe.

Definitely recommended.

I think what impresses me most about Powers is the naturalness of his style and intellect. He isn't showing off anywhere, ever--he's just really, really quietly good, and everything is always in the right place. And he's really funny (again in an understated way). But even Powers stumbles--not all of the stories are great.

58 - I agree, although he's one of those writers I wish had written more. I think I said here once that I liked Wheat that Springeth Green better than Morte D'Urban. I've never read the stories.

Lcanon: I haven't read 'Wheat,' but you've convinced me to give it a try. Morte D'Urban is one of my faves.

Okay, you've convinced me to move Morte D'Urban to the top of my 'to read' list. It's been languishing in the middle regions for years. First I must finish Clarke's Rama II, though.

Os.

Me too. I'd never heard of Powers. Rubbing shoulders with you snobs can lead to some interesting discoveries.

Just started The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Kundera. Is it me or you hardly hear from him these days?

He had some citizenship issues some years back--I think that's the last I heard of him. But I do like his work, from what I've read (and that was awhile ago).

He had been accused of being an informant during the Communist period but the controversy was not resolved conclusively. At least that is what I gather from my exhaustive investigation of one Wikipedia article.

65: The charges of being a Communist informant would put his literary authenticity under the crossfire, especially in regards to something like The Unbearable Lightness of Being Then again, devil's advocate, Elia Kazan and Budd Schulberg also named named on our side of the Atlantic. The charges complicate Kundera's literary legacy and force us to see him in a different light, rather than the usual Heroic Artist Struggling Under Political Oppression.

More fascinating things from The Last Lion: Defender of the Realm Manchester/Reid note how Churchill, a longtime anti-Communist, never referred to the Reds as "godless" or "atheist", since his criticism wasn't about Christian dogma -- a particularly American fetish -- but his championing the concept of liberty over oppression. The volume is peppered with Churchill's irreligious and anticlerical behavior. Churchill has some wonderfully nasty things to say about religious leaders, especially if they were leftist.

Finished two books in the last couple of days. HAWTHORN & CHILD is an intriguing, though not altogether successful literary crime novel and FLYPAPER is an odd little selection of stories by German scribe Robert Musil.

So I will preface this general comment with the statement that I don't know much about Kundera per se (less than Mejix' Wikipedia research, that is). But this kind of thing has often bothered me.

People in countries where their speech could result in - at WORST - blackballing and embarrassment should not be purity trolls about people in countries where speech can result in going to gulags or execution. My dad used to go off on people who were safely in the West criticizing people like Shostakovich etc. for being too cooperative within their very nonfree system.

Even during the McCarthyite era in the US we didn't have it that bad and it is too easy to criticize others' choices from a safe distance. Not to mention these countries didn't have free information and lots of the organizations and the people within them had incentive to lie about well known people and their involvement in politics - so that rumor and innuendo often become enough rope for such facile condemnation - and they never should.

68: People in countries where their speech could result in - at WORST - blackballing and embarrassment should not be purity trolls about people in countries where speech can result in going to gulags or execution.

Couldn't agree more. Hence my comment about it "complicating" his literary legacy. Nothing gets in the self-righteous craw of a purity troll (either left wing or right wing variant) than the idea of complication. Purity trolls can only exist within their simplistic worldview and complications would render their black-and-white assessment of things meaningless.

Roberto Bolano is probably the best contemporary author in exploring these complicated issues, especially with his profiles of artists cooperating with the military juntas in Latin American nations. It's also tricky parsing those who "collaborated through fear" and those who "cooperated through desire." Kundera vs. Ferdinand Celine

Started Underworld on the weekend. It's as good as I was told.

Read an absolutely fantastic J.F. Powers story, "The Old Bird, A Love Story," last night.

Short and sweet - Virginia Woolf's A Haunted House

Summer Lightning by P. G Wodehouse

Just quickly popping in here to say thanks to @nymith, who I believe introduced me to Erskine Caldwell, via this forum. I read A House in the Uplands in about one sitting yesterday.