Freedom From Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945
Author: David M Kennedy 1999 858 pp
My rating: 4.5*
Started January 9 2009, Finished January 15 2009.
Another excellent volume in the Oxford History of the United States, this work is essentially a history of the Roosevelt years with a surprisingly sympathetic prelude on Herbert Hoover’s failed administration, which despite its length could well have been much longer -- perhaps even two volumes one covering the depression years and the other World War II -- as it leaves the reader wanting to know more about FDR. While Freedom From Fear clearly depicts the enormous struggles and accomplishments of FDR’s presidency, the man himself remains something of a cipher as when in describing Roosevelt’s death, the author mentions in passing that he was attended by the mistress he had renounced 27 years earlier. The book’s greatest strength is its straightforward clarity but I docked it half a star for some editorial sloppiness such as incorrect diction e.g. immanent used where imminent was meant and the dubious claim that the Hood was larger than the Bismarck.
Recent Social Trends, a scholarly report on social conditions commissioned by Hoover and published in 1933 “feared that the old-stock, white, urban middle class would be demographically swamped by the proliferation of the rural and immigrant poor, as well as blacks.” (28)
Together with expenditures for veteran’s benefits … interest payments composed more than half the federal budget through the postwar decade. Expenses for a modest army of 139,000 men and a navy of about 96,000 sailors accounted for virtually all the rest. (30)
Hoover on 25 Oct 1929: “the fundamental business of the country, that is, production and distribution of commodities , is on a sound and prosperous basis” (39)
As the depression thickened in 1931 and 1932, the main purpose of Garner, Robinson, and Raskob [leaders of the opposition Democrats] was to obstruct the president and prepare to reap the political reward in the upcoming presidential election. (62)
Talk was Roosevelt’s passion and his weapon. None of his associates ever knew him to read a book. It was in conversation that he gained his prodigious, if disorderly store of information about the world. (112)
Gross national product had fallen by 1933 to half its 1929 level. (163)
Elected to the U.S. Senate in 1930, Long refused to vacate the governorship for nearly two more years, holding both offices simultaneously. (236)
Roosevelt’s dream was the old progressive dream of wringing order out of chaos, seeking mastery rather than accepting drift, imparting to ordinary Americans at least some measure of the kind of predictability to their lives that was the birthright of the Roosevelts … (247)
[In 1938] Louisiana’s Allen J. Ellender declared: “I believe in white supremacy and as long as I am in the Senate I expect to fight for white supremacy.” (343)
[The New Deal’s] cardinal aim was not to destroy capitalism but to devolatilize it, and at the same time to distribute its benefits more evenly. (372)
“Let us turn our eyes inward,” declared Pennsylvania’s liberal Democratic governor George Earle in 1935. “If the world is to become a wilderness of waste, hatred and bitterness, let us all the more earnestly protect and preserve our own oasis of liberty.” (386)
P430 Refers to 1935 Army Chief of Staff Malin Craig as Malin.
Re US strategic bombing of Germany: Accidents claimed nearly as many airmen’s lives (approximately thirty-six thousand) as did combat (approximately forty-nine thousand) (606)
Only 18.1 percent of American families contributed at least one member to the armed forces. (636)
All told, American war plants delivered some 18,000 B-24s … while building 12,692 B-17s and 3,763 B-29s … (654)
Every American combatant in the last year and a half of war in the Pacific islands could draw on four tons of supplies; his Japanese opponent, just two pounds. (668)
(703) Incorrect diction: use of immanent where imminent is the correct word. “… sensing the immanent vindication of the airmen’s cherished strategic doctrine …”
Wartime cartoons and posters routinely depicted the Japanese as murderous savages, immature children, wild beasts or bucktoothed, bespectacled lunatics. (811)
The Japanese army’s Field Service Code [1941]: “Never give up a position but rather die.” (812)
Okinawa: In early June what was left of the Japanese garrison tried to mount a counterattack. Some six thousand men, armed only with sidearms and bamboo spears, Banzaied forwards. They encountered “millions of shells from the enemy’s formidable fleet, planes, and tanks,” Yahara recorded. “All vanished like the morning dew.” (834)
[Upon notification of final Japanese surrender] Among the American troops on Okinawa, unconditional jubilation broke out. The fired every available weapon skywards. The subsequent rain of shell fragments killed seven men. (851)
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Free Lunch
Free Lunch
Author: David Kay Johnston 2007 293 pp
My rating: 3*
Started December 31 2008, Finished January 7 2009.
While this book’s accounts of how the wealthiest Americans enrich themselves at the expense of the rest of us is nearly guaranteed to outrage the reader, and while I often reacted that way to tales of, say, how George W Bush made his fortune almost entirely through tax breaks that were only available to him and his fellow owners of the Texas Rangers, much of the indignation I felt while reading this was at the book itself which I found a pretty slapdash affair, anecdotal and weakly sourced. I was expected the book would reveal a systematic assortment of recently enacted policies designed to transfer wealth to the wealthy and which could be reasonably remedied, but instead the examples it provides cover such a broad range from state business incentives, quirks of municipal laws, lack of federal regulation and even court interpretation of existing laws that the conclusion I was left with is that of course the system isn’t perfect.
Chapter One, the introduction, felt unfocused, wandering and extemporaneous.
Chapter Four doesn’t demonstrate that US government policies are responsible for job migration overseas.
Chapter on home security claims that the local police force responds to home security alarms; this is contrary to my experience which is that home security companies have their own agents.
Chapter on title insurance states that Iowa has a unique system which is “better and cheaper” but the rate he lists for title insurance in that state is more than I paid for the title insurance on my house.
Chapter 18, on the west coast electricity crisis of a few years back stirs outrage which is undercut but its simplistic inference that market manipulation by Enron was fully responsible for the crisis.
Chapter 21, a summary of the deficiencies of the US health care system (which the author points out exists as a business, not a service, contrary to most other first world countries) is concise and effective.
Chapter 22 is 20 pages long and filled with factual assertions, yet has only three foot notes.
Cites Alpha magazine as reporting that in 2006, the top 25 hedge fund managers averages $570 million in salary. (246)
Author: David Kay Johnston 2007 293 pp
My rating: 3*
Started December 31 2008, Finished January 7 2009.
While this book’s accounts of how the wealthiest Americans enrich themselves at the expense of the rest of us is nearly guaranteed to outrage the reader, and while I often reacted that way to tales of, say, how George W Bush made his fortune almost entirely through tax breaks that were only available to him and his fellow owners of the Texas Rangers, much of the indignation I felt while reading this was at the book itself which I found a pretty slapdash affair, anecdotal and weakly sourced. I was expected the book would reveal a systematic assortment of recently enacted policies designed to transfer wealth to the wealthy and which could be reasonably remedied, but instead the examples it provides cover such a broad range from state business incentives, quirks of municipal laws, lack of federal regulation and even court interpretation of existing laws that the conclusion I was left with is that of course the system isn’t perfect.
Chapter One, the introduction, felt unfocused, wandering and extemporaneous.
Chapter Four doesn’t demonstrate that US government policies are responsible for job migration overseas.
Chapter on home security claims that the local police force responds to home security alarms; this is contrary to my experience which is that home security companies have their own agents.
Chapter on title insurance states that Iowa has a unique system which is “better and cheaper” but the rate he lists for title insurance in that state is more than I paid for the title insurance on my house.
Chapter 18, on the west coast electricity crisis of a few years back stirs outrage which is undercut but its simplistic inference that market manipulation by Enron was fully responsible for the crisis.
Chapter 21, a summary of the deficiencies of the US health care system (which the author points out exists as a business, not a service, contrary to most other first world countries) is concise and effective.
Chapter 22 is 20 pages long and filled with factual assertions, yet has only three foot notes.
Cites Alpha magazine as reporting that in 2006, the top 25 hedge fund managers averages $570 million in salary. (246)
Friday, January 9, 2009
The Trillion Dollar Meltdown
The Trillion Dollar Meltdown
Author: Charles R Morris 2008 169 pp
My rating: 4*
Started December 18 2008, Finished December 22 2008.
A concise and convincing explanation of the credit crisis that precipitated our current economic woes and a good primer on things like CMOs and CDOs. This book which blames the crisis on deregulation and prolonged easy credit gets points for prescience as it was written in November of 2007, well before the shocks of September 2008 when the extent of the financial rot became apparent to most of us. Note on the severity of the crisis: the author has written a new edition scheduled to be published in February of 2009; that edition is going to be entitled The Two Trillion Dollar Meltdown.
“ … relative values funds ‘eat like chickens, shit like elephants.” (50)
“The relentless deregulation drive that started during the Reagan administration steadily shifted lending activities to the purview of nonregulated entities, until by 2006, only about a quarter of all lending occurred in regulated sectors, down from about 80 percent twenty years before.” (54)
William McChesney Martin, Chairman of the Federal Reserve for eighteen years from Truman through Nixon, “The function of the Federal Reserve is to take away the punch bowl just as the party is getting good.” (62)
“Refis jumped from $14 billion in 1995 to nearly a quarter-trillion in 2005, the great majority of them resulting in higher loan amounts. (67)
Suprime lending jumped from an annual volume of $145 billion in 2001 to $624 billion in 2005, more than 20 percent of total issuances. More than a third of subprime loans were for 100 percent of the home value -- even more when the fees were added in. (69)
The notional value of credit default swaps -- that is the size of portfolios covered by credit default agreements -- grew from $1 trillion in 2001 to $45 trillion by mid-2007. (75)
Almost all the top one-tenth’s share gains, in other words went to the top 1 percent, or the top ‘centile’ who doubled their share of the national cash income from 9 percent to 19 percent. (140)
It is the transparency and integrity of American financial markets that has made them such a magnet for foreign investment … (161)
Author: Charles R Morris 2008 169 pp
My rating: 4*
Started December 18 2008, Finished December 22 2008.
A concise and convincing explanation of the credit crisis that precipitated our current economic woes and a good primer on things like CMOs and CDOs. This book which blames the crisis on deregulation and prolonged easy credit gets points for prescience as it was written in November of 2007, well before the shocks of September 2008 when the extent of the financial rot became apparent to most of us. Note on the severity of the crisis: the author has written a new edition scheduled to be published in February of 2009; that edition is going to be entitled The Two Trillion Dollar Meltdown.
“ … relative values funds ‘eat like chickens, shit like elephants.” (50)
“The relentless deregulation drive that started during the Reagan administration steadily shifted lending activities to the purview of nonregulated entities, until by 2006, only about a quarter of all lending occurred in regulated sectors, down from about 80 percent twenty years before.” (54)
William McChesney Martin, Chairman of the Federal Reserve for eighteen years from Truman through Nixon, “The function of the Federal Reserve is to take away the punch bowl just as the party is getting good.” (62)
“Refis jumped from $14 billion in 1995 to nearly a quarter-trillion in 2005, the great majority of them resulting in higher loan amounts. (67)
Suprime lending jumped from an annual volume of $145 billion in 2001 to $624 billion in 2005, more than 20 percent of total issuances. More than a third of subprime loans were for 100 percent of the home value -- even more when the fees were added in. (69)
The notional value of credit default swaps -- that is the size of portfolios covered by credit default agreements -- grew from $1 trillion in 2001 to $45 trillion by mid-2007. (75)
Almost all the top one-tenth’s share gains, in other words went to the top 1 percent, or the top ‘centile’ who doubled their share of the national cash income from 9 percent to 19 percent. (140)
It is the transparency and integrity of American financial markets that has made them such a magnet for foreign investment … (161)
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Hearts of Darkness
Hearts of Darkness
Author: Frank McLynn 1992 359 pp
My rating: 3*
Started November 31 2008, Finished December 3 2008.
“To face hostile tribesmen, to witness the horrors of the slave trade, and to endure Africa’s diseases would have pushed to the limit the mettle of the bravest adventurer alive. When we add to this the ordeal by wild animals faced by the white pioneers in Africa, it is hard not to conclude that in their insouciant disdain for danger, the explorers were either a genuine breed of supermen or perhaps clinically insane.” (300)
This study of the history of African exploration is organized as and reads like an academic monograph which is a shame as this approach results in details of the explorations themselves receiving short shrift. The first section of the book covers each of the significant explorations in a prosaic fashion (“explorer X went from A to C via B”) omitting most of the details of the attendant adventures which are what make such accounts compelling; the maps that accompany this section leave much to be desired, lacking captions, dates and track arrows. The in-depth examination of the difficulties encountered by Stanley in his three year long crossing of the continent, the subject of the chapter entitled “An Object Lesson in Obstacles” provided the level of detail and human drama that I desired and was for me the highlight of the book. The chapter on “Explorers and Imperialism” seemed particularly muddled.
In spite of these major shortcomings, I give this book an overall positive grade because it still manages to convey a sense of the continuous hardship experienced on virtually every expedition and instill a strong sense of disbelief in the reader that anyone who survived such an ordeal would be willing to have any more to do with the continent, let alone return for ever more ambitious explorations, as nearly every explorer did.
Galton’s Art of Travel, published in 1855 “advised mountaineers to carry a cat with them as a barometric gauge, since felines were alleged to go into convulsions at precisely 13,000 feet about sea level”. (56)
Livingston’s last journey in 1873: “The crossing of the Chambezi brought torments from mosquitoes, poisonous spiders and ants to compound the pain from dysentery and haemorrhoids.”
Stanley’s 1874 expedition “ … saw a veritable roll-call of African diseases: dysentery, bronchitis, pneumonia, ophthalmia, rheumatism, sciatica, asthma, dropsy, emphysema, erysipelas, elephantiasis.” (99)
The first coast to coast crossing of Africa, completed by Stanley in 1877 took 999 days. (101)
Cloth, beads and wire were the staples of African commerce … (138)
For Africans labour’s role was primarily social: that of strengthening a kinship group by shared experiences or consolidating a hierarchy for reasons of social system. (155)
Stanley would not even allow his porters to stagger away into the jungle to die of smallpox; he insisted that they carried their loads until they dropped dead. (155)
In the eighteenth century it was estimated that between 24 and 75 per cent of the military died in their first year on the Guinea coast. (228)
Author: Frank McLynn 1992 359 pp
My rating: 3*
Started November 31 2008, Finished December 3 2008.
“To face hostile tribesmen, to witness the horrors of the slave trade, and to endure Africa’s diseases would have pushed to the limit the mettle of the bravest adventurer alive. When we add to this the ordeal by wild animals faced by the white pioneers in Africa, it is hard not to conclude that in their insouciant disdain for danger, the explorers were either a genuine breed of supermen or perhaps clinically insane.” (300)
This study of the history of African exploration is organized as and reads like an academic monograph which is a shame as this approach results in details of the explorations themselves receiving short shrift. The first section of the book covers each of the significant explorations in a prosaic fashion (“explorer X went from A to C via B”) omitting most of the details of the attendant adventures which are what make such accounts compelling; the maps that accompany this section leave much to be desired, lacking captions, dates and track arrows. The in-depth examination of the difficulties encountered by Stanley in his three year long crossing of the continent, the subject of the chapter entitled “An Object Lesson in Obstacles” provided the level of detail and human drama that I desired and was for me the highlight of the book. The chapter on “Explorers and Imperialism” seemed particularly muddled.
In spite of these major shortcomings, I give this book an overall positive grade because it still manages to convey a sense of the continuous hardship experienced on virtually every expedition and instill a strong sense of disbelief in the reader that anyone who survived such an ordeal would be willing to have any more to do with the continent, let alone return for ever more ambitious explorations, as nearly every explorer did.
Galton’s Art of Travel, published in 1855 “advised mountaineers to carry a cat with them as a barometric gauge, since felines were alleged to go into convulsions at precisely 13,000 feet about sea level”. (56)
Livingston’s last journey in 1873: “The crossing of the Chambezi brought torments from mosquitoes, poisonous spiders and ants to compound the pain from dysentery and haemorrhoids.”
Stanley’s 1874 expedition “ … saw a veritable roll-call of African diseases: dysentery, bronchitis, pneumonia, ophthalmia, rheumatism, sciatica, asthma, dropsy, emphysema, erysipelas, elephantiasis.” (99)
The first coast to coast crossing of Africa, completed by Stanley in 1877 took 999 days. (101)
Cloth, beads and wire were the staples of African commerce … (138)
For Africans labour’s role was primarily social: that of strengthening a kinship group by shared experiences or consolidating a hierarchy for reasons of social system. (155)
Stanley would not even allow his porters to stagger away into the jungle to die of smallpox; he insisted that they carried their loads until they dropped dead. (155)
In the eighteenth century it was estimated that between 24 and 75 per cent of the military died in their first year on the Guinea coast. (228)
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Great Bridge
Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge
Author: David McCullough 19722 562 pp
My rating: 4*
Started November 5 2008, Finished November 20 2008.
“In another time and in what would seem another world, on a day when two young men were walking on the moon, a very old woman on Long Island would tell reporters that the public excitement over the feat was not so much compared to what she had seen “on the day they opened the Brooklyn Bridge.” (542)
This book of is a piece with McCullough’s history of the construction of the Panama Canal, The Path Between the Seas; readers who enjoyed either book are likely to enjoy the other. Of historians I’ve read, McCullough does as good a job as anyone of both poring through the archives and identifying the compelling storylines in order to make history both authoritative and readable. This book which details the building of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1870s and 80s has two major components: the technical details of building the bridge -- one of the great engineering challenges of its time -- and the personnel and personal elements behind it, particularly the struggles of the eccentric genius, John Roebling who conceived and designed the bridge but died (of lockjaw!) before construction began, and his son, Washington, who possessed a remarkably different and complementary set of gifts than his father and who, as “chief engineer”, oversaw virtually every detail of construction during the 14 years required, even though he was a housebound invalid for almost all of that time.
A particular highlight for me was Chapter Nine’s recounting of existence in the pressurized caissons wherein the bridge’s foundations were laid despite the ravaging effects of “caisson disease” (the bends) which were previously unknown to mankind.
A couple of minor complaints:
The book could have used more technical illustrations to depict construction techniques that the author made great attempts to describe in words; this is a case where a one of the former would have been worth a lot of the later.
A three sentence footnote on P390 briefly mentions that “about one out of every four [bridges] build” in during the period when the Brooklyn Bridge was under construction “failed.” Given that this is a book about building by far the most ambitious bridge ever constructed at that point, the issue of contemporary bridge failures deserves more than a brief footnote.
[Roebling Sr.] drank vile concoctions of raw egg, charcoal, warm water, and turpentine (39-40)
Hegel on America: “It is a land of hope for all who are wearied of the historic armory of old Europe.” (42)
By the time it would be finished, in 1871, Tweed’s courthouse would cost more than thirteen million dollars, or nearly twice the price paid for Alaska. (133)
Horatio Allen “who had never built a suspension bridge [and] who knew little about the subject” was a high-paid “consultant” on the bridge (147)
Roebling Jr.: History, teaches us that no man can be great unless a certain amount of vanity enters into his composition … For a man to be important it is also necessary to have a good opinion of one’s self, even if for no other purpose than to impress others.” (149)
The day before elections the Executive Committee would grant to each of the families of the deceased payments of $250, or a little better than three month’s wages. (260)
Roebling Jr.: “not once in all fourteen years [of construction] did he ever set foot on the bridge.” (515)
Author: David McCullough 19722 562 pp
My rating: 4*
Started November 5 2008, Finished November 20 2008.
“In another time and in what would seem another world, on a day when two young men were walking on the moon, a very old woman on Long Island would tell reporters that the public excitement over the feat was not so much compared to what she had seen “on the day they opened the Brooklyn Bridge.” (542)
This book of is a piece with McCullough’s history of the construction of the Panama Canal, The Path Between the Seas; readers who enjoyed either book are likely to enjoy the other. Of historians I’ve read, McCullough does as good a job as anyone of both poring through the archives and identifying the compelling storylines in order to make history both authoritative and readable. This book which details the building of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1870s and 80s has two major components: the technical details of building the bridge -- one of the great engineering challenges of its time -- and the personnel and personal elements behind it, particularly the struggles of the eccentric genius, John Roebling who conceived and designed the bridge but died (of lockjaw!) before construction began, and his son, Washington, who possessed a remarkably different and complementary set of gifts than his father and who, as “chief engineer”, oversaw virtually every detail of construction during the 14 years required, even though he was a housebound invalid for almost all of that time.
A particular highlight for me was Chapter Nine’s recounting of existence in the pressurized caissons wherein the bridge’s foundations were laid despite the ravaging effects of “caisson disease” (the bends) which were previously unknown to mankind.
A couple of minor complaints:
The book could have used more technical illustrations to depict construction techniques that the author made great attempts to describe in words; this is a case where a one of the former would have been worth a lot of the later.
A three sentence footnote on P390 briefly mentions that “about one out of every four [bridges] build” in during the period when the Brooklyn Bridge was under construction “failed.” Given that this is a book about building by far the most ambitious bridge ever constructed at that point, the issue of contemporary bridge failures deserves more than a brief footnote.
[Roebling Sr.] drank vile concoctions of raw egg, charcoal, warm water, and turpentine (39-40)
Hegel on America: “It is a land of hope for all who are wearied of the historic armory of old Europe.” (42)
By the time it would be finished, in 1871, Tweed’s courthouse would cost more than thirteen million dollars, or nearly twice the price paid for Alaska. (133)
Horatio Allen “who had never built a suspension bridge [and] who knew little about the subject” was a high-paid “consultant” on the bridge (147)
Roebling Jr.: History, teaches us that no man can be great unless a certain amount of vanity enters into his composition … For a man to be important it is also necessary to have a good opinion of one’s self, even if for no other purpose than to impress others.” (149)
The day before elections the Executive Committee would grant to each of the families of the deceased payments of $250, or a little better than three month’s wages. (260)
Roebling Jr.: “not once in all fourteen years [of construction] did he ever set foot on the bridge.” (515)
Monday, December 1, 2008
The Devil Wears Prada
Author: Lauren Weisberger 2003 360 pp
My rating: 2*
Started November 19 2008, Finished November 23 2008.
“… incredibly unfunny, uninteresting, wholly uninspired …” (310)
This may be the first book I’ve ever read which can be classified as pure chic lit and now there is another genre I will avoid. From the standpoint of general literary worth, specifically quality of prose and development of believable, three dimensional characters, this roman a clef is easily the worst fiction I’ve blogged so far. However, it is saved from a really savage rating by it’s overall readability -- it generates just enough interest to keep the pages turning -- and by its one interesting character, the loathsome Miranda Priestly, the narrator’s boss, editor of a big deal fashion magazine who is apparently closely modeled on Anna Wintour of Vogue where the author once interned. This book would probably appeal to fashionistas -- the Sex in the City crowd -- but not to literistas, which is somewhat ironic since the narrator/protagonist, Andrea, repeatedly claims she is not of the fashion world while expressing a devotion to and desire to work for The New Yorker. It seems unlikely that Devil’s prose which consistently reads like a cross between email and journal entries would qualify her for a writing job at that magazine with its state-of-the-art writers. Some samples of Prada’s uninspired and hackneyed prose:
“Lily’s New Year’s party was good and low key.” (96) If she’d tried, Weisberger would have been hard pressed to find a less descriptive adjective than good.
“The boy genius who’d first been published at the ripe old age of twenty.” (118) An Ivy League English major ought to have sense enough to avoid a bled-white phrase like “ripe old age.”
Further complaints are that the protagonist’s supporting cast, her boy friend and best friend, and her relationships with them are unconvincingly depicted and subject to the whims of plot convenience. The book’s climax when Miranda suddenly appreciates Andrea’s devoted slavery to her every whim and offers to help her obtain a position at The New York occurs at the same time as Andrea’s friend is hospitalized after a drunken car wreck is purely contrived melodrama. The ensuing fully predictable happy endings are Hollywood pat.
Like everything else at Elias-Clark designed to make employee’s lieves better, it just stressed me out. (129)
Miranda … had deliberately created a persona so offensive on every level that she literally scared people skinny. (217)
Author: Lauren Weisberger 2003 360 pp
My rating: 2*
Started November 19 2008, Finished November 23 2008.
“… incredibly unfunny, uninteresting, wholly uninspired …” (310)
This may be the first book I’ve ever read which can be classified as pure chic lit and now there is another genre I will avoid. From the standpoint of general literary worth, specifically quality of prose and development of believable, three dimensional characters, this roman a clef is easily the worst fiction I’ve blogged so far. However, it is saved from a really savage rating by it’s overall readability -- it generates just enough interest to keep the pages turning -- and by its one interesting character, the loathsome Miranda Priestly, the narrator’s boss, editor of a big deal fashion magazine who is apparently closely modeled on Anna Wintour of Vogue where the author once interned. This book would probably appeal to fashionistas -- the Sex in the City crowd -- but not to literistas, which is somewhat ironic since the narrator/protagonist, Andrea, repeatedly claims she is not of the fashion world while expressing a devotion to and desire to work for The New Yorker. It seems unlikely that Devil’s prose which consistently reads like a cross between email and journal entries would qualify her for a writing job at that magazine with its state-of-the-art writers. Some samples of Prada’s uninspired and hackneyed prose:
“Lily’s New Year’s party was good and low key.” (96) If she’d tried, Weisberger would have been hard pressed to find a less descriptive adjective than good.
“The boy genius who’d first been published at the ripe old age of twenty.” (118) An Ivy League English major ought to have sense enough to avoid a bled-white phrase like “ripe old age.”
Further complaints are that the protagonist’s supporting cast, her boy friend and best friend, and her relationships with them are unconvincingly depicted and subject to the whims of plot convenience. The book’s climax when Miranda suddenly appreciates Andrea’s devoted slavery to her every whim and offers to help her obtain a position at The New York occurs at the same time as Andrea’s friend is hospitalized after a drunken car wreck is purely contrived melodrama. The ensuing fully predictable happy endings are Hollywood pat.
Like everything else at Elias-Clark designed to make employee’s lieves better, it just stressed me out. (129)
Miranda … had deliberately created a persona so offensive on every level that she literally scared people skinny. (217)
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Middlesex
Middlesex
Author: Jeffrey Eugenides 2002 529 pp
My rating: 3*
Started October 27 2008, Finished November 4 2008.
This book could have been a lot better if it had had more rigorous editing. Problem areas include both plot and style. Eugenides often digresses from his story, the hermaphrodite narrator’s, Callie, coming to terms with his/her gender, to provide a poorly integrated history of the city of Detroit through much of the 20th century. Equally bothersome is the frequently joking tone he uses which clashes with Callie’s often poignant identity struggles. The attempt to mix comedy and tragedy is unsuccessfully Garp-like, while the attempt to weave an urban history into the story seems a clumsy attempt to emulate what Roth did so well in American Pastoral. Another big problem is the gap in Callie’s story: the book consists primarily of a detailed first hand account of the Callie’s first 16 years interleaved with observations from the middle aged, gender-determined Callie. While the youthful Callie is a believable, often compelling creation, the middle age Callie is rarely either and, worse, not a fully plausible grown up Callie.
Chapter One is simultaneously jokey and portentous, an uncomfortable and discordant combination.
Book seems overstuffed and extroverted
Too digressive: The depression chapter has asides about the development of photography, smut of the era and Fard Muhamad, the founder of the Nation of Islam, turns out to be Jimmy Kizma, Callie’s grandfather, thought to have died in a bootlegging, a revelation which is utterly preposterous and irrelevant to the plot.
On P 169 the Willow Run automobile plant is said to have produced “B-52s” during WWII. The B-52 was not developed until after the Korean War.
Middlesex is in part of eulogy for the Detroit of the middle of the 20th Century, in the same way that American Pastoral is for the Newark of the same era; this element of the book seems forced and awkward, unlike in Roth’s book where it seamlessly seems part of the narrator’s consciousness. The plot is often contrived in order to reveal some detail of Detroit’s history e.g. the riots and the house in Grosse Point.
The scene of seven year old Callie following tanks on her bike across town into intense gunfire during the riots is beyond preposterous.
Chapter Eleven’s return from college is stock, clichéd 70’s era rebellion.
The death of one of Callie’s schoolmates during a school play is a pointless bit of melodrama.
The later third of the book, which concentrates on Callie’s teenage years and the discovery of her hermaphroditism, improves considerably. The in the cabin in the chapter “Flesh and Blood” is very effective.
P442 - More lack of editorial thoroughness: watching a football game on TV ona Wednesday AM.
Omniscient first-person narrator doesn't really work -- knows too much about what others are thinking
Too much of a gulf between the Callie we last seen at age 15 and the adult telling the story at age 40 -- what happened in between. In fact the entire adult thread is halfhearted and unconvincing.
Mother’s bras are “fire retardant” (6)
“The only way we know it’s true is that we both dreamed it. That’s what reality is. It’s a dream everyone has together.” (343)
German wasn’t good for conversations because you had to wait to the end of the sentence for the verb, and so couldn’t interrupt. (7)
Author: Jeffrey Eugenides 2002 529 pp
My rating: 3*
Started October 27 2008, Finished November 4 2008.
This book could have been a lot better if it had had more rigorous editing. Problem areas include both plot and style. Eugenides often digresses from his story, the hermaphrodite narrator’s, Callie, coming to terms with his/her gender, to provide a poorly integrated history of the city of Detroit through much of the 20th century. Equally bothersome is the frequently joking tone he uses which clashes with Callie’s often poignant identity struggles. The attempt to mix comedy and tragedy is unsuccessfully Garp-like, while the attempt to weave an urban history into the story seems a clumsy attempt to emulate what Roth did so well in American Pastoral. Another big problem is the gap in Callie’s story: the book consists primarily of a detailed first hand account of the Callie’s first 16 years interleaved with observations from the middle aged, gender-determined Callie. While the youthful Callie is a believable, often compelling creation, the middle age Callie is rarely either and, worse, not a fully plausible grown up Callie.
Chapter One is simultaneously jokey and portentous, an uncomfortable and discordant combination.
Book seems overstuffed and extroverted
Too digressive: The depression chapter has asides about the development of photography, smut of the era and Fard Muhamad, the founder of the Nation of Islam, turns out to be Jimmy Kizma, Callie’s grandfather, thought to have died in a bootlegging, a revelation which is utterly preposterous and irrelevant to the plot.
On P 169 the Willow Run automobile plant is said to have produced “B-52s” during WWII. The B-52 was not developed until after the Korean War.
Middlesex is in part of eulogy for the Detroit of the middle of the 20th Century, in the same way that American Pastoral is for the Newark of the same era; this element of the book seems forced and awkward, unlike in Roth’s book where it seamlessly seems part of the narrator’s consciousness. The plot is often contrived in order to reveal some detail of Detroit’s history e.g. the riots and the house in Grosse Point.
The scene of seven year old Callie following tanks on her bike across town into intense gunfire during the riots is beyond preposterous.
Chapter Eleven’s return from college is stock, clichéd 70’s era rebellion.
The death of one of Callie’s schoolmates during a school play is a pointless bit of melodrama.
The later third of the book, which concentrates on Callie’s teenage years and the discovery of her hermaphroditism, improves considerably. The in the cabin in the chapter “Flesh and Blood” is very effective.
P442 - More lack of editorial thoroughness: watching a football game on TV ona Wednesday AM.
Omniscient first-person narrator doesn't really work -- knows too much about what others are thinking
Too much of a gulf between the Callie we last seen at age 15 and the adult telling the story at age 40 -- what happened in between. In fact the entire adult thread is halfhearted and unconvincing.
Mother’s bras are “fire retardant” (6)
“The only way we know it’s true is that we both dreamed it. That’s what reality is. It’s a dream everyone has together.” (343)
German wasn’t good for conversations because you had to wait to the end of the sentence for the verb, and so couldn’t interrupt. (7)
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