Yes, it’s that time again, to consider books as gifts, coming and going. Consider these.
NON-FICTION. Benjamin Franklin (973.3 FRA) is a biography by Edmund S. Morgan, Professor of History Emeritus at Yale. It is a surprisingly small book, 314 pages, because Morgan writes so well he wastes no words, and because he has chosen to deal with Franklin’s role, not as the noted scientist he was, not as the organizer of one of Philadelphia’s first hospitals, of the first library (the Library Company of Philadelphia continues to flourish today), of the volunteer fire department and an academy which became the University of Pennsylvania, nor as a printer whose Poor Richard’s Almanack became famous, but as a pivotal figure in the birth of our nation. Franklin wrote his mother in 1750 (he lived from 1706-1790) that on his death “I had rather have it said, he lived usefully, than he died rich.” He truly placed public service above all other callings. A short biography, of course, denies readers some of the intimate details: What was his wife, Deborah Read, like? Who was the mother of his beloved oldest child, William, born before Franklin’s marriage? We are told that Benjamin and William were estranged permanently when William remained loyal to the British. This book centers on Franklin and the War of Independence. Morgan says Franklin was the most esteemed man in Europe and America at the end of his busy life. In his 50’s Franklin wrote, “I Love Company, Chat, a Laugh, a Glass, and even a Song, as well as ever.” This is somehow comforting to read.
Small Wonder (814 KIN) is a book of 23 short essays by Barbara Kingsolver, known to most of us as a good novelist. The first two pieces were written when she was asked to say something about 9-11. She does this, but these pieces lack the spontaneity of her comments about nature, such as her report on the scarlet caws of Costa Rica….only 100 breeding pairs remain and only there. “Letter to a Daughter at 13” and “Letter to My Mother” are moving. “The One-Eyed Monster and Why I Don’t Let Him In” is about the absence of a TV in her house. Kingsolver is wise and witty, and she practices what she preaches.
If you read Confederates in the Attic, which explored the reenactment of Civil War Battles, you will understand the enthusiasm about Tony Horwitz’ new book, Blue Latitudes, subtitled Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before. (910.92 HOR) This would be James Cook, 1728-79, whose three world-circling voyages in the last half of the 18th century explored more of the earth’s surface than any man before or since. Cook redrew the map of the world, and some of his charts remained in use until 1994. Horwitz begins with a week’s voyage on a replica of Cook’s Endeavour, built in Australia. He learns quickly about the crowding in the below-decks mess room, where each hammock is allowed 16” of horizontal space, how to climb up in the rigging, and to swab decks. He muses that if he were on the original Endeavour (97 ft. long), he would be gone 1052 days. Only 60% of that crew survived. Next Horwitz sets out to visit as many of the areas Cook went to as he can: Arctic and Antarctic waters, New Zealand and Australia (then called New Holland), and a host of Pacific Islands, where Cook is remembered as the bearer of small pox and syphilis. James Cook knew this and tried to prevent it. On a lighter note Horwitz learns that a tortoise given by Cook to the People of Tonga had lived until 1994. Finally Horwitz describes Cook’s murder on the island of Hawaii on Feb.14, 1779. Along with such dark episodes our author finds much to laugh at; here he is helped by a hard-drinking Australian mate who accompanies him on many of his trips. Over all the voyages looms the complicated Cook, whose 4-volume journal has enriched our knowledge of our world. He sailed over 200,000 miles in his career, which is almost enough to go to the moon.
Confederacy of Silence is a first book by Richard Rubin, who writes for Atlantic Monthly, the New Yorker amd the New York Times, among others. Its subtitle is A True Tale of the New Old South. It deals with Rubin’s two experiences with Greenwood, Mississippi. In the first part of this memoir Rubin has just graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, in 1988, knows he wants to be a writer and can’t find a job..He answers an ad for the Greenwood Commonwealth, the newspaper for this town of 20,000 set in the middle of Mississippi’s Delta, where 14 year-old Emmet Till was brutally murdered in the ‘50s. Rubin is well aware that he is an outsider, a New York Jew from an Ivy League school. His first contact with his new colleagues and neighbors is warm and reassuring; he is welcomed and helped. Only gradually does he realize the all-pervading racism in his new hometown, from his landlord to some of his fellow reporters, and even to a Jew whose family had lived in Greenwood for generations. Rubin is horrified and fascinated by these good people with a terrible flaw, and after a year he feels he must leave.
One of the brighter spots in his time as a reporter was covering a brilliant African-American high school quarterback, Handy Campbell, whose sights are set on the NFL. Instead, Handy ends up on trial for the murder of a friend, and in 1996 Rubin returns to cover the trial. Once again, Rubin’s assumptions are challenged. This is partly a coming-of-age memoir but also a look at some brutal truths about the U.S. It reads like a suspense tale.
FICTION: Now for a weird and wonderful book, The Autograph Man, by Zadie Smith. You know it will be different when the first page is devoted to Lenny Bruce’s famous routine about Jewish vs goyish. (Pumpernickel is Jewish, white bread is goyish; Eddie Cantor is goyish, Ray Charles is Jewish. You get the idea.) The young hero of this book is captivated by the essence of ethnicity. He himself is a Chinese-English Jew. Alex-Li Tandem is also an autograph man, meaning he sells and trades autographs and memorabilia. He knows how rare a Garbo signature is, and that Ava Gardner signed everything that came within reach, so Alex also meditates on symbol vs. reality. His girlfriend is black, his best friend is black (and Jewish), and 3 rabbis keep showing up. Alex has a cat named Grace, who stands on two feet on the sideboard, “either stretching or making some last ditch attempt to evolve.” This is the author’s second book, at age 26; the first was White Teeth and it did very well. Remember her name: Zadie Smith.
Paulette Giles is a poet; she has won Canada’s highest literary award. Giles was born and raised in southern Missouri, which is the setting of this first novel, Enemy Women. Her principal character is 18-year-old Adair Collie, whose mother is dead. Her father (a judge) has tried to stay neutral during the Civil War, but the Union Militia seizes him and burns their home. Adair takes her two younger sisters and sets out to find relatives, only to be arrested by Union forces. Adair is sent to a horrific wartime women’s prison in St. Louis. There she and the Union major, who has to interrogate her, fall in love. He is transferred but aids in her escape, and they agree to meet when the war lets them at Adair’s old home. We follow her dangerous trip. It is April of 1965. Certainly Enemy Women is reminiscent of Cold Mountain (by Charles Frazier), and of Ulysses trying to get home from the Trojan War, but Giles has given Adair her own unique voice. It’s a voice that verges on poetry. Here’s an example as Adair muses about her southward journey: “As they traveled she felt the month of April going past them as if it were a slow-moving stream.”
AND A MYSTERY! John Katzenbach’s latest book, The Analyst, was described by one reviewer as a page-turner and the beach book of the summer. If you missed it, and maybe the beach, read it now. Dr. Frederick Starks is a psychiatrist who lives alone in an apartment that includes his office. His wife is dead; they had no children. He has become used to solitude. On his birthday Ricky (the name he prefers) receives a typed letter. “Happy 53rd birthday, Doctor. Welcome to the first day of your death.” That’s the first line. The sender goes on to say that Ricky must find out his persecutor’s name or kill himself or be killed in 15 days. It is made clear that this threat grows out of something Ricky did, or failed to do. The letter is signed Rumpelstiltskin, who turns out to be diabolical indeed. Ricky must use his analytical skills to find out who and why. Maybe the beach isn’t vital, if the book is good.
Happy holidays, and may you get some good books and the time to read
them.
-- Alice Racher