Andrew Reads, Writes, and Reviews.

My thoughts, praises, critiques, and recommendations on the books that I have read. 

[andrewreadsandwrites]

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

            The Testaments by Margaret Atwood is proof that not every sequel is a cash grab or a bad idea. Set an indeterminate number of years after the end of the narrative found in the text of The Handmaid’s Tale, The Testaments follows the lives of three women whose lives are shaped by the Republic of Gilead.

            Agnes is a daughter of a Commander and his wife Tabitha, and has a privileged life, for a girl at least. Being female Agnes is not allowed to learn to read or choose her future husband, but her father’s position does afford prestige, there are three Marthas to do the housework, and Agnes is deeply loved by her mother Tabatha.

            Daisy is more familiar to the reader. She is a resident of Canada, and while she has learned about the patriarchal theocratic dictatorship that now occupies Canada’s southern border in school, Gilead factors little into her daily life. The Pearl Girl missionaries and their pamphlets are annoying but not fearsome.

            The third is one readers of The Handmaid’s Tale will recognize, Aunt Lydia. A minor character in the first book, Aunt Lydia is greatly fleshed out this time around. As an “Aunt” she is one of the women who is responsible for keeping the rest of the female population of Gilead in line. The Aunts are a religious order in all but name. They are prohibited from marrying and live communally for the sake of a religious mission. They also have the privilege of literacy, if only as a matter of pragmaticism.

            I was a little weary when I heard that there would be a sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, as a story that is ended well should not have another narrative forcibly grafted onto it. The result is literary septic shock most of the time. This was not the case, to my immense relief, with The Testaments.

            Looking back though, The Handmaid’s Tale ends with enough uncertainty, even with the epilogue, for the story to continue.

            The characters are all well written and highly interesting, even the ones that the reader is not meant to like. Commander Judd comes to mind. Having three narrators provides us with a broader view of the world the characters are living in. I frequently found it hard to put this book down. I had to see what happened next!

            There is plenty of detail to make the setting feel like a real place. This is doubly important given how different Gilead is from the world that the reader is familiar with. The school, if you can call it that, that Agnes attends teaches young girls sewing and painting, but not reading, writing, math, or history.

            All of the same historical and societal reflection that the first text inspires is summoned forth by this one. Gilead and the events up north in Canada will feel uncomfortably close, as they are no doubt meant to.

            To anyone who has read The Handmaid’s Tale I implore you to read The Testaments. If you have not read either book it would be best to start with The Handmaid’s Tale first, which is more than worthy of a recommendation by itself.

[andrewreadsandwrites]

The Future is History How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia by Masha Gessen

            The Future is History How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia by Masha Gessen is an exhaustive, in terms of both depth and length, look at the history of Russia from the collapse of the Soviet Union to the consolidation of power by despot Vladimir Putin. Gessen focuses on the lives of more than half a dozen individuals from the early and mid-nineteen eighties, when most of them were born, up through the year 2017.

            Gessen looks at a broad range of society, from the top, bottom, and middle of the societal power structure. The reader gets to look at life growing up towards the top of the old Soviet hierarchy was like with its multiple literal and metaphorical walls, spacious living arrangements, and multiple KGB watchers, to the poverty and subsistence level survival of those at the very bottom.

            Everyone followed by the narrative is given a full and detailed description of both their lives and persons. The reader gets to walk through life with these people.

            This work is comprehensive. It covers every major era from the waning days of the Soviet Union up to the year 2017. There is no skipping around or of different eras.  

            My only complaint was that I had trouble keeping everybody straight throughout the book. Gessen thankfully provides a dramatis personae at the start of the book which includes a chart that explains the relationships that connect different people who either appear in the book with the main actors or are referenced by them.

            One thing that struck me was that a significant portion of The Future is History is dedicated to sociology, psychology, and the other social sciences. One of the people that the book follows is Marina Arutyunyan, a psychoanalyst, so this aspect of the book is not forced or out of place.

            Learning what usually happens to the social sciences under totalitarian regimes, was both fascinating and insightful. I had only given this topic limited thought before reading but now find myself wanting to know more about how dictators both seize and crush the social sciences to suit their needs. It also helped to learn what some professionals make of the mindsets and coping mechanisms that develop on both an individual and national level in response to constant oppression.    

            I found Gessen’s writing style to be easy to understand, highly informative, and enjoyable to read all at the same time. It took a little while to get though the nearly five hundred pages, but I never wanted to put The Future is History down.

            This book is essential for understanding the current state of affairs in Russia. The iron heel of Putin did not create itself ex nihilo. The Future is History goes into great detail to help the reader learn how totalitarianism has come to control the ship of the Russian state twice in less than one hundred years time.

[andrewreadsandwrites]

The Gates of Europe A History of Ukraine by Serhii Plokhy

            The Gates of Europe A History of Ukraine by Serhii Plokhy is a well written work of history that manages to balance minute details as well as the broad historical picture of Ukraine.

            I have studied the history of Europe and some European nations both in detail and in general, but I had very little prior knowledge about Ukraine before picking up The Gates of Europe. There is a considerable amount of ground to cover, but Plokhy never left me feeling confused or overwhelmed.

            The Gates of Europe is truly compressive in its scale. Although there is little concrete information to go on at the start, Plokhy begins his history with the earliest evidence of human settlement thousands of years ago in what is now Ukraine, and continues through the year 2015. No single section of this book felt neglected or as though it was focused on at the expense of one of the other sections. Plokhy succeeds in providing a broad but still detailed overview of the long history of Ukraine.

            The book provides information about the lives, situations, and motivations of all of the actors involved whether they are rich, poor, soldiers, civilians, invaders, conquers, natives, foreigners, victims, or villains. The imagery provides a tantalizing picture of both the events and environments that people lived through.  

            Plokhy also does well be avoiding the trap of focusing on only one driving force in history. He studies both the effects caused and suffered by different driving forces from religion, to war, and economics. History is complicated.

            That same overview does not at any point feel rushed or generalized. I do not know every detail of Ukrainian history, but I now consider myself equipped with a firm starting point from which I can dive into different episodes of Ukraine’s past for more details.

            Plokhy also helpfully provides appendices including a timeline, glossary, maps, and a dramatist persona of important figures. These go a long way to keeping order.    

            If someone is looking for a more in-depth examination of a particular point in Ukrainian history, like the Second World War, or the appearance of the Mongols, they will need to look elsewhere, but that should not be counted against the book, as the goal of this work is a broad view of a very long history.

            The Gates of Europe A History of Ukraine by Serhii Plokhy is more than suitable to sate the historical appetite of both the long-time historian and the first-time taster. Be aware that this is an eight-course meal though, not a light snack.    

[andrewreadsandwrites]

The Book Thieves The Nazi Looting of Europe’s Libraries and the Race to Return a Literary Inheritance by Anders Rydell

            The Book Thieves The Nazi Looting of Europe’s Libraries and the Race to Return a Literary Inheritance by Anders Rydell introduced me to a part of history that I was wholly unfamiliar with. I was already aware the infamous scene of book burnings in Nazi Germany, and the theft of art and cultural artifacts by the Nazis leading up to and during the Second World War. What I did not know was that among those stolen artifacts were millions of books.

            As murderous totalitarians the Nazis wanted to control and have power over everything, and there is a great power in books. Rydell recounts how the Nazis looted everything from national and academic archives, to libraries and private collections. Jewish individuals and organizations were hit particularly hard. Collections of material centuries old vanished in wooden crates bound for Germany, and most would never return to their rightful owners. A number of them are still out there.

            Rydell does an excellent job showing the human element in this story. This is not a recounting of paper and bindings. This is a story of people trying to save their literature and culture, and therefore their history. He provides examples from large libraries that were looted, smaller archives from different nongovernment organizations, and books that were the property of individuals. Rydell also makes sure to provide plenty of background for the different victims of the looting, for this makes it easier to understand the pain that the loss of this material meant to people.

            The Book Thieves also takes the time to examine the Nazis’ motivations for the looting. They were willing to take anything and everything, including Jewish writing, if they thought that they could somehow manipulate it into serving their delusional narratives of history and reality. Certain materials were taken because they might have value as state or military intelligence, but most of the time the motivation was subtler. It usually boiled down to using the legitimacy of the written word to add legitimacy to the Nazis themselves.

            The only complaint I have is a minor one, and it makes sense that it is this way. Proper names of institutes, libraries, and other organizations are in their respective languages. Only speaking English, myself, I did encounter a lot of long names, particularly in German, that I could not understand without an outside reference. This is just something to be aware of before diving in.

            And I do think that the reader should dive into The Book Thieves. The theft of books was a huge part of the Second World War, but it is not nearly as well known as it needs to be. Books are living pieces of history.    

[andrewreadsandwrites]

The Napoleon of Notting Hill by G. K. Chesterton

            The Napoleon of Notting Hill by G. K. Chesterton is the first work of his that I did not like. The book is one of Chesterton’s earlier works. It was published in 1904, and thus proceeds his later more polished writing like The Man Who Was Thursday and the Father Brown series.  

            The story takes place in the year 1984, but not everything has changed with the dates on the calendar. Technology, fashion, and society appear almost identical to the way they were in 1904. There are differences in government though. The British Empire still has a king, but it is no longer a hereditary monarchy. The king is chosen at random from the populace.

            There are also major geopolitical differences in this hypothetical future. Although the details are few, it is said that there are no longer any small nations left, as they have been all conquered by large states like the British Empire. The exact composition of the world is unknown, but Nicaragua was the last small independent nation before it was conquered by the Americans.

            People on the whole are fine with slow and gradual change, or simply keeping things as they. Routine and repetition rule the day. There is a sort of quiet monotonous peace over London until a new king is randomly chosen. Auberon Quin is selected as the new monarch, and he gets to work immediately on his grand practical joke.

            King Auberon decides to create a system wherein each London neighborhood acts as a feudal fiefdom, complete with heraldry, pageantry, their own militaries, medieval halberds for said militaries, coats of arms, and all the rights and powers due to independent cities. King Auberon loves his joke, and almost everyone else hates it. The problem is one young man from Notting Hill takes this all very seriously, Adam Wayne.

            I did not find myself invested in any of the major characters and did not particularly care what happened to them. I had a difficult time getting invested in this book overall.

            Auberon, who is followed for a good portion of the story, is completely insufferable in my opinion. I never found his foolery as anything but annoying, although that does put me in sympathy with his associates and subordinates. That by itself was not enough to keep my interest.

            Adam is a more interesting character. His reflections on the deeper mean of Notting Hill, particularly the shops along Plum Street, are the best parts of the book. In these sections I could see Chesterton’s talent and genius shinning through just as they do in his later works.

            Adam was annoying in his own right too. His utter devotion to the seriousness of independent cities, a seriousness that at first only exists in his own mind, was wearing after a short while. I think that I understand part of the message that Chesterton was conveying: that there is a great meaning and power in even small everyday things and places if we are willing to look at them from the right angle. I wish this could have been conveyed through a better story though.

            The Napoleon of Notting Hill is not without its own merits, but it is not a well written piece of literature. I only recommend this book to those who are already fans of Chesterton’s work. The novel will provide some interesting philosophical ideas, and will show how far Chesterton came in his work as a writer.            

[andrewreadsandwrites]

The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien

            The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien is a companion to his epic The Lord of the Rings, and to his first work The Hobbit. Tolkien worked on The Silmarillion both before and after writing The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion was published only after his death.

            The Silmarillion is an exhaustive piece of literature. It is not the longest book ever written, but it is a very full one. The Silmarillion chronicles the entire history of Middle-Earth up until the end of The Lord of the Rings, and I do mean the entire history.

            The first thing to note is that this book is a reciting of events in the form of history. The work is less character driven than Tolkien’s other books. There are sections that focus more on individual characters like the lives of Beren and Luthien, but even these sections do a great deal of telling rather than showing. This does make The Silmarillion less engrossing that The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit, but Tolkien was trying to make something different from either of those works. This book is more a fictional volume of history than a novel.

            The style of the book reminds me of the Histories of the ancient Greek historians like Herodotus, who described large scale events, and also stopped to focus parts of his work on individuals who took part in them. Given Tolkien’s study of languages, literature, and history I would be surprised if these similarities are accidental.

            The individuals that the story looks closer at are compelling, and this is especially true for the ones who get the most development, like Beren, Luthien, and Turin. I was happy to finally get the full story on characters, again like Beren and Luthien in particular, whose stories have either only be told in part or hinted at until now.

            I would recommend The Silmarillion only to someone who is already a fan of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Starting with this book would more likely turn someone new away. The cast of characters was far too long to ever try and keep track of any more than a couple at a time, there are many words that will be unfamiliar to even veterans of the books, and an outside reference for events and characters is a necessity. Thankfully these can easily be found online.

            I did like learning more about events and characters that are only referenced in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. It is always nice to get more background and details about the settings, and there are certainly plenty of both to be found.

            Although The Silmarillion is not my favorite book I am happy to have read it, and I do feel that I understand the land of Middle-Earth better than I did beforehand. This book fleshed out the universe that Tolkien created, and thus left me with a deeper appreciation for the other works in the same mythos.

[andrewreadsandwrites]

The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick

            The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick is a novel that I have a hard time wrapping my mind around.  The story takes places in an alternate version of 1960s America where the Axis powers won World War II and divided the entire world between themselves. The two main locations are in San Francisco which is now in the Pacific States of America, a Japanese puppet state, and in the Rocky Mountain States, a buffer nation left in between the Japanese controlled west coast, and the Nazi controlled east coast.

            The strength of the story lies in its characters. They are complex, attention holding, likeable, and dislikeable all at the same time.

            Robert Childan is empathetic in his struggle to survive in a world where as a Caucasian he is now considered a second-class citizen, but at the same time he is disgusting in his contempt for those he sees as beneath him. Childan does not want equality. He only wants to be the one at the top of the societal latter. He is fine with the oppression of everyone that is not him, and is willing to do whatever this knew society demands of him if it means he might advance himself. However, there might be a strand of if not morality pride in his old nation buried beneath the surface.

            Nobusuke Tagomi is a Japanese man who is perfectly fine with the status quo in San Francisco, and enjoys a decently high rank in the machinery of the Imperial government, but he soon finds himself caught up in a situation that will test both his will to endure and the limits of his own morals. The status quo for all of the good and bad that it maintains is in serious danger, and Tagomi find it leaning on his actions more than he thought possible.

            Frank Frink is only trying to survive. His birth name was Fink, and he has changed it to hide the fact that he is Jewish. Discovery of this will mean deportation to Nazi controlled territory and death. Frank is easy to identify with as he has no grand schemes for climbing the social latter or struggles for power. He is an ordinary man trying to get by in an unreal and very often hostile world.

            Frank’s ex-wife Juliana lives in the Rocky Mountain States now, and is trying to move on with her life after leaving Frank. The events that await her prevent this from being simple though. Juliana too gets dragged into power struggle over what is left of the soul of the world, and she too will have to decide how to proceed when none of her options are at all good.

            Placing a character in a situation with no easy answers is a great what to learn what they are made of.

            Let there be no mistake that the world the characters are living in is a horrify dystopia. The Axis won the Second World War. The Holocaust never ended, the entire population of Africa has been murdered, any one of African descent still alive is enslaved, and the power of the Nazis shows no signs of waning. Non-Japanese living in the Empire of Japan and its territories are second class citizens when they are not slaves, and any Jews found hiding there are deported to the Nazis.

           Every character is in for an uphill battle on a ninety-degree slope.

            The Man in the High Castle has a tremendous emotional power over the reader. I had trouble even thinking about living in this world. I have no idea how most of these characters have managed it. Not only does the narrative find its strength from being character focused, but it also keeps the reader from drowning in despair. For all of the darkness though there are bits of light to be found, often within the characters themselves.  

[andrewreadsandwrites]

Galileo’s Mistake A New Look at the Epic Confrontation between Galileo and the Church by Wade Rowland

            Galileo’s Mistake A New Look at the Epic Confrontation between Galileo and the Church by Wade Rowland is a book that left me with a number of questions. While it is good for writing to make us ask questions and to think anew, however it is not typically good for what we have read to leave us with questions spawned from confusion.

            As Rowland discusses, the mythologized version of the story of Galileo is that he was wrongfully suppressed by the ignorant and dogmatic Catholic Church when he presented them with his discovery of heliocentrism. The truth is far more complicated than that. The more detailed elaboration that Rowland provides of this historical episode is wherein both the strength and weakness of this book lie.

            First, it should be understood that Galileo neither discovered nor proved that the solar system was heliocentric. He argued for and tried to prove heliocentrism, but he was never able to do so. The proof came far later. Secondly the Catholic Church has never been the enemy of science or reason. The Church has and continues to be the patron of both. Thirdly Galileo appears to have run into trouble more so when he began making pronouncements on the interpretation of Sacred Scripture when he was neither a clergyman nor a theologian.

            I say “appears” because this is where the book became harder to understand.

            Rowland argues that Galileo’s collision with the Inquisition occurred when he advocated not heliocentrism but the superiority of scientific observation over the interpretation of Scripture. Rowland says that Galileo’s being charged with violating a statute to not talk or write about heliocentrism was nothing but an excuse to punish him, albeit very mildly, for the advancement of this philosophical point of view.  

            Now that does not justify a restriction of Galileo’s freedom of speech, a freedom that was recognized nowhere on Earth at the time, but it does change the story from a battle between brilliant science and unreasoning faith to one of two opposing philosophical ideas. Going against the religious establishment would have led to similar results in almost any part of the world during that time period.

            This is at least what I was able to gather from my reading. The philosophical details Rowland discuses are not as easy to follow. I wish that Rowland had given more definitions of the terms that he used. When he talks about “scientific realism” I think that he is referring to a world view that advocates that knowledge can only be reliably taken from observation of the material universe, I think.

            Galileo’s Mistake also feels disjointed. Half of it is a recounting of history, and half of it is a series of dialogues between the author and two other people. I think that this book would have been stronger if it stuck to only one of the two styles. The transitions between them did not feel smooth. The book also end rather abruptly in the historical section. The dialogue was less abrupt, but it too would have benefited from more of a conclusion.

            The weakness of this book lies in the fact that it was confusing part of the time, but that is where some of its strength lies as well. It left me with questions that I now what to find the answers to, and I can say confidently that is a good thing. Galileo’s Mistake is flawed, but not without merit.    

[andrewreadsandwrites]

Barbarians to Angels The Dark Ages Reconsidered by Peter S. Wells

            Barbarians to Angels The Dark Ages Reconsidered by Peter S. Wells brings new light onto the period of history in Europe between the Fall of Rome and the Height of the Carolingian Empire.

            It is typical to regard this period as a “dark age” where civil order collapsed, invading of barbarian hoards sacked unchallenged, people starved, learning died, and interregional connections and communications evaporated. The reason this period of history is call “dark” is not to describe the times though. They are “dark” because there was a significant reduction in writing and literature, leaving far few written records to examine than other points in history.

            Wells point out that textual evidence is only part of how we learn about history. There is also material culture and evidence to examine. Material culture is anything physical that has survived in some form. That could be a building, a grave, or pot shards. Using material culture available to archeologists Wells paints a very different picture of Europe.

            Wells concludes that civilization was far from struggling or collapsing during this period. It was noticeably different from the Roman culture that proceeded it, and produced fewer written records, but neither of those facts make the period desolate or backward. A culture does not need to have a system of writing in order to prosper.

            Differences included the using of wood as a primary building material as opposed to Roman concrete, the mingling of Christianity, old Roman paganism, and local beliefs, and even improvements in agriculture that allowed more food to be produced more easily by fewer individuals. International trade and communication were far from atrophied. Material goods from every corner of Europe and beyond have been found in every other corner of Europe.

            Analysis of remains in graves indicates that people had diets that were healthy overall, so it is safe to discount the image of mass starvation. Rome did not fall overnight. The end of Roman hegemony was a long time coming and gradual most of the time, and therefore a power vacuum did not appear suddenly.

            Wells’ writing style is enjoyable to read and easy to understand. He makes sure to provide plenty of background information on the subjects that he addresses both to make his own points clearer and to be certain that the reader will have all of the data they will need if they are not already familiar with this part of history. The book is never overly complicated or condescending.      

            Barbarians to Angels is an excellent book for someone who is less familiar with this point in history. My only real complaint was that it was too short. I would have happily read another hundred or more pages.

            Wells does an excellent job of illuminating a part of history that was not so dark after all. The Dark Ages were be no means perfect, but they were in no way apocalyptic.

[andrewreadsandwrites]

Alexander the Great Failure The Collapse of the Macedonian Empire by John D. Grainger

           Alexander the Great Failure The Collapse of the Macedonian Empire by John D. Grainger brings a more nuanced perspective to the subject of one of the most famous conquers in history. Grainger argues that Alexander’s posthumous glory is heavily unwarranted, and after reading his book I am inclined to agree with Grainger.

            Alexander the Great Failure examines the historical record to highlight that although Alexander was an accomplished military commander, but that was the only area of his reign that he truly succeeded in.

            Alexander only performed the bare minimum amount of governing both in Macedon and in his Asian conquests. He appointed satrap governors in the Persian style, but this did not solve the long term problem of creating an effective government administration for the whole of his empire. After securing the throne in Macedon all that ever occupied Alexander was his next military campaign. These campaigns are where all of his energies went, not the actual ruling of the three continent spanning empire he created.  

            To make matters worse he never bothered to see to the problem of his succession, even as he was on his deathbed. His only legitimate heir had not even been born yet, and he did not pass the reins of power to one of his subordinates. This failure to provide for a successor was particularly glaring when Grainger explains the problems is royal successions in Macedon.

            Grainger does an excellent job of providing all of the necessary background of the land of Macedon and the life of Alexander’s father Philip II. Both of these subjects are needed in order to comprehend the difficulties that Alexander and his empire faced.

            Succession in Macedon in particular was rarely if ever smooth. The typical result was armed revolt and civil war between rival claimants to the throne, and often foreign invasions while the kingdom tore itself apart. Alexander never bothered to find a way to prevent this, and this is exactly what happened when he died.

            Grainger also go to lengths to describe the events of the next several decades and centuries after Alexander’s death. It is easier to see where the fault lines in the Macedonian Empire where when the reader is shown where the empire fractured.

            One thing that Grainger could have done better was related to the problems of administrations. He states that Alexander’s empire and the Macedonian Kingdom before lacked a strong administrative and bureaucratic structure to support them, but Grainger does not give any examples of what this system might need to look like. He explains that Macedon was a personal monarchy, as the king dealt with the majority of problems himself. However, the reader is left to wonder what kind of administration would have worked better. Grainger does mention some administrations of certain Successors being more effective, but he provides few details about them.

            Alexander the Great Failure does not set out to say that there was nothing that Alexander did that was successful. The man did conquer the Persian Empire and beyond, but Grainger shows that this did not mean that Alexander was a success everywhere or even anywhere else. The empire that he largely ignored after he conquered it was fragile and Alexander did nothing to try and preserve it.        

[andrewreadsandwrites]

Carrie by Stephen King

            Carrie by Stephen King was a book that turned out to be more moving and poignant that I thought it might be going into it. At this point the story of Carrie has almost become a cliché. The abused and torment girl who is finally pushed too far and takes her revenge through her new found telekinetic powers. Even the image of the pigs’ blood dumped on Carrie at the prom has found a place in the halls of popular culture.

            The novel is composed in a number of different styles. There are sections that are in the third person limited point of view from different characters, excerpts from fictional books and articles that discuss the events in the story, and transcripts from a fictional government inquiry. This style might sound disjointed, but King makes the sometimes radically different sections flow together seamlessly.

            A large number of events are either foreshadowed, mentioned in passing, or outright told of long before they occur in the text, but the story does not suffer because of this. That goes to explain why the book was not a letdown even though I previously knew the meat of the story. Knowing future events does not ruin the experience of reading them.  

            It would not be fair to say that I had low expectations when I picked up this book, but I was waiting to see if it lived up to the mythos around it. I am happy to say that it does, but not for the reasons that people might think at first.

            The strength of Carrie does not come from the raw scenes of destruction of the innocent and guilty alike. Those scenes certainly have their places, but it was the thoughts and emotions of the characters that pulled at my soul in several directions at once.

            I felt terrible for Carrie as she suffered at the hands of her peers and mother, I identified with her isolation and loneliness, her anger, and to a small extent even her desire to take out her anger on people around her. However, I also recoiled in horror as she rained death indiscriminately, and was taken aback in the level of retribution she unleashed on those individuals who had no connection to her torment.

            I admired Sue as she did her best to do the right thing in regards to Carrie, understood her guilt over how she treated Carrie, and was able to empathize with her own understanding that her desires were motivated in part out of altruism and in part out of a desire to just stop feeling guilty about her past actions.

            Margret White, Carrie’s mother, is a disturbing, abusive, overly religious zealot, but there does prove to be a kernel of truth to the fear that Margret has about Carrie’s telekinesis.

            Carrie by Stephen King is first and foremost a story that focuses on its characters. The reader gets to see every side of the story as we follow and learn about everyone from Carrie herself, to Sue, to Carrie’s mother, and the students to tormented her. I did not come to sympathize with every characters, but I was able to see them more as people the more I learned about them.

            Carrie is a book worth the time if you think you might be interested. It is a well written and character driven story.

[andrewreadsandwrites]

Carthage Must Be Destroyed The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization by Richard Miles

            Carthage Must Be Destroyed The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization by Richard Miles is primarily a history of Carthage, but it is also a history of Rome, the rise of the respective cities to power, and the conflicts that lead to their two histories becoming irrevocably interwoven.

            Carthage Must Be Destroyed is an easy to read and understand text, for both veteran and newcomer historians alike. Miles succeeds in keeping the work from becoming bogged down in the minute details of history. I am more than willing to hear a short summary of some aspects of Carthaginian history. A long and drawn out examination of individual grave goods from several decades gets old quickly.

            Miles begins his history of Carthage by focusing first on that of Carthage’s mother city Tyre. Carthage was founded as a colony of Tyre, and the settlers took their Punic culture, religious practices, and language from their point of origin. This focus also makes sense since Carthage maintained strong ties with its metropolis throughout most of its history. This greater background in the Levant helps to illustrate the culture and world that Carthage was born out of. Miles thus keeps Carthage from feeling like an interloping foreigner in the central Mediterranean, and also shows the contrast between eastern Punic Carthage and the Greek and Latin west.

            The other city that Carthage created strong connections to was Rome, albeit these ties were usually of a decidedly different nature to those with Tyre. Through a mixture or trade, culture, colonialism, imperialism, and religion Rome and Carthage found themselves both intentionally and unintentionally set up as antipodes. What the Carthaginians saw Rome as is harder to gauge, as Rome has written the histories, but it is clear that Rome presented Carthage as the vice filled opposite of virtuous Rome.

            Rome’s history is the focus of a sizable portion of the book, but this is to be expected when so large an amount of that history intersects, often violently, with that of Carthage. It is also the origin of some of the written accounts that have survived. Learning about both the Roman and Carthaginian sides in these conflicts lets the reader look from a vantage point above the chessboard of the Mediterranean. History is rarely if ever as straightforward as either side would like us to believe. Carthage Must Be Destroyed reminds the reader that events are complicated, and neither side is without fault.

            Although Carthage Must Be Destroyed does not give as many details on certain events or people, this is only to provide enough room for an overview of an incredibly long and multifaceted part of history. The reader will need to look elsewhere if they are seeking something in the nature of a biography of Hannibal or a full account of the Second Punic War.

            On the whole Miles’ book provides a first class overview of the history and life of the ancient city of Carthage, and emphasizes one key lesson: more will be learned from history when it has all of its warts on full display, be they Roman or Carthaginian warts.      

[andrewreadsandwrites]

O Pioneers! by Willa Cather

            O Pioneers! by Willa Cather is a short novella that surprised me by the end of it. I have read Cather before, so I was looking forward to her writing style going into the book, and I was not disappointed, but I was caught off guard by the emotional power between these one hundred some pages.

            The story of O Pionners! focuses on the lives of the Bergson family, particularly Alexandra and her youngest brother Emil. The Bergsons are Swedish immigrants to the United States who have settled on the Nebraska prairie. With father John Bergson’s untimely illness and death oldest child Alexandra becomes the de facto head of the household. What separates Alexandra from her three brothers, other than her age, is that she is more willing to take risks and try new things.

            As the youngest, and significantly so at that, Emil remains at home with his sister and mother as his brothers quickly marry and strikeout on their own. After their mother dies Alexandra becomes Emil’s guardian and maternal figure. The two siblings are far closer with each other than they are with either of the middle brothers Oscar and Lou.

            All of the principle characters are complex and multifaceted. One example is the old man Ivar. Ivar is a deeply religious man who refuses to wear shoes and has a deep love of animals. He may or may not suffer from some kind of mental illness that gives him “episodes”, but he is far more intelligent about both plants and animals than people give him credit for. Ivar is also an incredibly gentle soul.

            There is almost no action to speak of in this book, but there does not need to be. Cather was telling the story of decidedly ordinary people. That does not make the characters any less compelling though. One does not have to slay dragons or climb mountains that touch the sky to get the reader invested. I also thoroughly enjoyed Cather’s full and rich descriptions of day to day places and things. The meals always made me hungry when I read about them.

            As I was nearing the end of the book I was coming close to losing interest or at least depart without any notable impression. I will not spoil it here, but my mindset changed very quickly before the book was done with me. I did not realize how strong of a grip these characters had on me until then.

            There is a certain economy of words in O Pioneers! There is often not a great deal said, but there does not have to be. Actions and the poignant descriptions that go with them are sufficient and by themselves.    

            This book yanked the breath out of me and left me with a vastness in my gut. It is a quick read, and it might feel slow at times, but O Pioneers! by Willa Cather is worth picking up.  

[andrewreadsandwrites]

Socrates by Robert Silverberg

            Socrates by Robert Silverberg was a bit disappointing. The book is a biography of Socrates and in this regard it does deliver. The author provides a clear and understandable retelling of the major events in Socrates’ life. The tone of the book is where the problem lies.

            Silverberg is too romantic and simplified in his discussion of the history of Athens and to a lesser extent of Socrates himself. The Golden Age of Athens was a very prosperous time for the city in terms of both wealth and culture, but Silverberg glosses over or excuses the darker aspects of Periclean Athens.

            While he acknowledges that the League of Delos became nothing more than an Athenian Empire he focuses only one what he sees as the positive aspects of the empire. Silverberg points to the Athenian navy making the seas safer from pirates, which is certainly good, but then he goes on to claim that the cities of the League were not oppressed by Athens. The act of being subjugated, no matter how gently, is in and of itself an act of oppression. Besides that, the preventing of cities from leaving the League, the forced payment of tribute, the forcing of cities to join the League, and the violent repercussion that resulted from a refusal to cooperate more than qualify as oppression too.

            The author’s portrayal of Socrates himself is also a little troubling. Silverberg describes Socrates as a man who was always searching to learn about and understand the truth, and this is both accurate and admirable. Silverberg glosses over Socrates’ faults though. One example is when Silverberg raises no objection to the fact that Socrates’ refusal to work, as it would have interfered with his constant search for the truth, meant that his wife and children were forced to spend their lives in poverty alongside him. Poverty was a choice for Socrates, but not for his family.

            I am not asking that Silverberg hate or condemn Socrates, but I do wish that he had been a bit more balanced in his assessment of him. Not even the most righteous of men are perfect, and neither they nor we can improve upon on our characters if those faults are not addressed. Passing over them with little or no comment does everyone a disservice.

            People are also more compelling when we look or read about them as complete persons. Human beings whether righteous or wicked are made of many interconnected parts. Looking at these interconnections both gives us a better understanding of their character, and is frankly makes them more interesting.    

            Although I was glad to get a more complete chronicle of the life of Socrates, I do not recommend Socrates by Robert Silverberg. The book is too simplistic in its moral and ethical judgements to provide a realistic picture of either the man or the times that he lived in.

[andrewreadsandwrites]

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.

            A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. is a work of religious science fiction that takes place after a nuclear war that destroys civilization. The novel is divided into three sections that were originally published as third separate novellas, but form one story. The sections take place after gaps of six hundred years, with the first “Fiat Homo” set in the twenty-sixth century.

            The story and action are focused on a Catholic monastery located somewhere it what used to be the American West. The monastic order that runs the abbey is dedicated to the preservation and spreading of knowledge, particularly the little that was preserved from before the nuclear war. The order was founded by Isaac Leibowitz, a Jewish convert to Catholicism, priest, and intellectual dedicated to the preservation of knowledge.    

            By the start of “Fiat Homo” civilization is still struggling to recover, and only achieving a level of technological development equivalent to Europe during the Early Middle Ages. The Catholic Church is the only institution or organization to survive the nuclear war, and has reestablished itself in North America.

            There is no shortage of character development in this book. Brother Francis of “Fiat Homo” is a well-meaning if rather naïve man desperately trying to find his place in order to survive in a harsh and confusing world. He hopes to join the abbey as a monk, as his ability to read and write will be of little use elsewhere. Abbot Dom Paulo of “Fiat Lux” is forced to both keep the abbey from danger and see that the order adapts appropriately to a rapidly changing and often hostile political world. Abbot Dom Zerchi of “Fiat Voluntas Tua” must confront the violence of his age while knowing that there is only so much that he can do against it.

            Even antagonistic characters like the doctor that Zerchi confronts or Thom Taddeo are not flat strawmen. The doctor is trying to do what he believes is right, and Taddeo’s hostility to the order is understandable given the circumstances of his early life.

            I do recommend one of the online guides for A Canticle for Leibowitz, as Latin is used frequently throughout the book without English translations. The heavier use of Latin in the Catholic Church is a reflection of the Church before the Second Vatican Council in 1962, which was the Church that Miller knew of when he wrote the book.

            A Canticle for Leibowitz is a religious book, but the reader does not need to be. The character development and interactions are what the book is built on. Humanity’s struggle against its own darker impulses is compelling on its own.

            This is one of my favorite books. Reading it I want these characters to succeed. I also love the rich backstory and settings. As a Catholic I found a deep appreciation for the religious elements as well. I know that alone with make some potential readers turn away, but do not judge this book until you have read it for yourself.  

              A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. is wonderfully rich and enthralling piece of storytelling.  

[andrewreadsandwrites]

It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis

            It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis is as an important a work of literature as Nineteen Eight-Four, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Brave New World. Lewis wrote It Can’t Happen Here in 1935, and the story begins in 1936. The book chronicles the rise of totalitarianism and fascism in the United States of America. The charismatic demagogue Senator Buzz Windrip wins the presidential election through his appeals to the American underclasses, his use of scapegoats for the nation’s woes, and good old fashion violence and paramilitary intimidation.

            The novel’s protagonist is Doremus Jessup. Doremus is in his sixties, lives in Vermont with his wife and youngest daughter, and is the editor of his own newspaper, “The Informer”. While most of his family and neighbors either take little notice of or rationalize away any fears that Buzz Windrip may inspirer, Doremus is greatly concerned about both Windrip and Windrip’s campaign promises.

            Windrip wins the presidency partly through his own supporters and partly through the apathy and division that neuters his opposition. Windrip immediately seizes control of the government with this Minute Men, a paramilitary organization similar to the Nazi Brownshirts, and things only get progressively worse from there.

            Doremus is an ardent supporter of democracy and human rights, but that does not make it easy to oppose the regime. The threats of violence and death against himself are one matter, but the potential danger to his family is another entirely. Beyond the problem of finding some meaningful way to resist, Doremus does not exactly have a list of rebels in the back of the phone book, and he knows that if anything were to happen to him he would be leaving his family by themselves at best, and sending them in front of the firing squad at worst.

            I appreciated the fact that Doremus is not a young heroic man with no attachments who is thus free to challenge the tyrant knowing that he has nothing to lose other than his life of enslavement. Almost everyone has some loved ones that totalitarians so love to exploit. Far more people under dictatorship face Doremus’ dilemma than do not.

            As a character Doremus is interesting. I both like him and dislike him. I admire his genuine dedication to freedom and his will to go on surviving as the world crashes down around him. Doremus also does have a sense of compassion and duty towards his fellow oppressed man.

            He is not faultless though. Doremus is an adulterer, and has been for some time. I can understand that his relationship with his wife Emma is difficult at times, particularly as she either fails to notice or ignores what is happening to America, but that does not make it right for Doremus to cheat on her. He is still married. This major fault does make Doremus more realistic though, and realism is a cornerstone of this book.

            Life under and the struggle against totalitarianism is hard to say the least. The state and the cruel and corrupt people running it can and will steal, abuse, and kill for any and every reason. A beating and execution hang over every person night and day. Resisting may or may not accomplish anything and is ten times as dangerous, but no one can claim that the defense of democracy and human rights is either simple or easy.

            I would recommend It Can’t Happen Here to everyone, but to American readers in particular. Its setting in America is both shocking and sobering.  

[andrewreadsandwrites]

Ghost on the Throne The Death of Alexander the Great and the War for Crown and Empire by James Romm

            Ghost on the Throne The Death of Alexander the Great and the War for Crown and Empire by James Romm examines and chronicles what became of the legacy that Alexander the Great left after he suddenly died in his thirties. Alexander in his lifetime had reaffirmed Macedonian control over nearly all of Greece, conquered the Persian Empire, expanded into territory the Persians never controlled, and was making further plans to add more to his empire when he died.

            Romm explains that Alexander’s death, which many suspected was a covert assassination via poison, left a massive power vacuum. Alexander had to no living heir, save one unborn child, and one illegitimate son that he never acknowledged. His only brother was mentally handicapped. Alexander also left no clear second in command. He had tried to keep his immediate subordinates in roughly equal standing to one another. No one knew or agreed what should happen next.

            The history that followed was a complex web of constantly shifting power, alliances, factions, loyalties, and players. Romm does an excellent job of keep names and places clear for the reader. He proceeds the sections of each chapter with the names, dates, and places that he discusses therein. There are more than enough names to keep track of, so this was an excellent form of organization on his part.

            Another admirable trait of this book is Romm’s efforts to keep his character studies reasonably balanced. Some judgements from the writer are inevitable, and there is no reason to exclude them completely, but Romm does not set out to either vindicate or condemn anybody. He explains that we have to be careful with many of the ancient sources, as those authors often wrote with their own often very biased agendas, even if they were also interested in recording history in the process.

            Romm’s preferred method is to explain what information has come down to the present, mention the plausible motivations and events, and allow the reader to come to their own conclusions. A written work whether it is fiction or non-fiction should be a dialogue between the author and the reader, not a lecture from the author at the reader.

            This book avoids the pit fall of dry and motivating history. The events and people are neither sensationalized nor dramatized, history already provided plenty of both, but the reader does get to walk alongside each character as they try to navigate the quickly filling power vacuum in Alexander’s empire.  

            Ghost on the Throne can be picked up and read by both the seasoned historian who has followed Alexander from Thebes to the Hyphasis, and someone looking to see what makes this one Macedonian king so “Great”. Those who are completely new to Alexander will benefit from reading a brief overview of his life and career though, so as to better understand the context at the start of the book. A detailed history is not necessary, as Romm provides details from Alexander’s life when they are needed, but any prior familiarity will benefit the reader.