A Few Good Books

TO END ALL WARS -- by Adam Hochschild -- (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt -- 2011)

In my current crush on the high-brow soap opera, ‘Downton Abbey,’ the Earl of Grantham says in passing: ‘War has a way of making it clear what’s really important.’ It’s one of those lines that sounds profound, but really is offering a veneer of seriousness to what is essentially a juicy family drama with great costumes, handsome actors and characters we can all admire. Since World War I is the historical backdrop that adds in a salt-shaker of gravitas, it got me scurrying back to my college texts for a good explainer of what started the Great War and what made it so horrendous, in the scale of human destruction and the reach of resulting change, political and social. Reaching instead for something new, I found ‘To End All Wars,’ which appealed to me immediately because the author, Adam Hochschild, wrote history beautifully in ‘King Leopold’s Ghost’ a few years ago. This time, he approaches WWI by factoring in the role of war protesters and political activists in Britain, while telling the larger story of the what and the why of the War. For a general reader, this is a very effective approach. Beyond the essential story loom the real long-term questions about why human beings keep committing war, over and over, when the costs are so high and the benefits are elusive.

MOBY-DICK by Herman Melville -- (1851; Pengiun Classics Version - 2009)

A meditation on biblical influence by Marilynne Robinson, printed in the New York Times Book Review, got me thinking about ‘Moby-Dick,’ a book I have had on my mental reading list for more than 30 years. My appetite for a serious novel was growing. It took four or five days to build up the courage, and then I took it down off the shelf (Penguin Classics recently issued an attractive new edition.) I girded for tough journey, recalling friends' comments like ‘impenetrable,’ ‘endless,’ and ‘overly detailed.’ So, Call me Ishmael. To my utter surprise, the story drew me in and held my attention from teh start. I reilshed the build-up, in the narrator’s venturing from lower Manhattan up to New Bedford, where he has to share a bed with a strange tattoo-ridden man from the Pacific Islands, knowing that the Big Journey was coming. And boy, does it come. Even more impressive thatn the journey, which is actually somewhat uneven, the context is fascinating. The whaling world, so unknown to me, was a shock to my understanding of US history in the 1800s. Oil from whales was what lighted the streets of New York and other cities? A small ship would hunt and bring home 20-50 whales in a single journey? Whalers would descend their small ship into rowboats to harpoon the enormous mammals, at tremendous personal risk? Melville considered whales to be ‘fish’? These facts amazed me, and couched the narrative in a rich historical setting that kept me reading voraciously. Captain Ahab was far less of a character than I expected, hidden mostly. His conflict with Starbuck both deeper and less dramatic than I thought. The mindset, of chasing evil as though it can be personified in a whale, so revealing about human nature and mental habits. Equally amazing, the circumstances of Melville’s life. Took one grand whaling voyage as a young man, and did well writing potboilers. Knew he was writing a masterpiece. Yet when Moby-Dick was published, it drew little praise. Melville then worked in the US Customs office in New York, and the book only became popular after his death, and after the world of whaling had receded far enough that it became of interest again. An introduction by Nathaniel Philbrick opens this edition, and offers perspective.

SHANGHAI TANGO -- A Memoir -- by Jin Xing -- (Atlantic Books, 2007)

A different way of looking at China. This story, about a dancer/​choreographer's journey from male to female, is sprightly and entertaining. Jin Xing has a strong personality, and her inner confidence allows her to perceive sharply. I wrote about her in my own book. Her voice takes fuller form here. Memorable.

THE MARRIAGE PLOT by Jeffrey Eugenidies -- (Farrar, Straus - 2011)

A deeply absorbing and involving novel. Very satifying. Captures the hazy, idealistic, all-knowing, immature mindset of life in one's early 20s, just out of college. For me, the early 1980s setting took me right back to my own wayward experience of those days. But more deeply than that, the story here is strong and persuasive. Highly recommended.

SIDETRACKED by Henning Mankell (1996)

Prime airplane reading. A good detective story, told mostly from the viewpoint of our overweight, overstressed Swedish detective named Kurt Wallander. Intriguing political context, in Scandanavian debate over growing immigration of brown and black people. Recognizable human drama, in the plausible daily frustrations of a middle-aged cop who wrestles with purpose in life. A solid narrative thread, which turns satisfyingly on Wallander's intuitive ability to read human beings -- when they are lying, when they hiding something -- and take those clues to solve the initally mystifying lay-out of crimes. In this book, Mankell also offers the serial killer's point of view, minimally and effectively. A pleasure.