Peter Carey. Parrot
& Olivier in America. Unlike
Alexis de Toqueville’s Democracy in
America, this is definitely not a political science treatise. The author imagines a young French
aristocrat dispatched to America to study the prison system just as de
Toqueville was in 1831, but instead of sharing his responsibilities with
another aristocrat, Olivier travels with Parrot, a clever gentleman’s servant
of many talents including writing a beautiful script. Parrot is given control of the purse strings
for the journey by their patron and this plus a quarrel over Parrot’s mistress
causes friction and eventually a break between Parrot and Olivier. This all makes a grand vehicle for describing
life in New York City in the 1830s and the foibles of its citizens, all the
while telling a rollicking good story. August 2012
.
Jennet Conant. The
Irregulars, Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington. Who knew that the British spied on us just
before and during WW II? Their purpose was
to stay ahead of what was known to the public and to use this information to
persuade America to come into the war. When
we think of British spies, we tend to dwell on Kim Philby et al who betrayed
their country, but these spies were dedicated and patriotic Brits who performed
a great service by helping America to see that it must rearm and enter the
conflict. August 2012
.
Jared Diamond. Collapse,
How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. In Guns,
Germs and Steel, Diamond used environmental factors to show why some societies
developed and prospered over the last 13,000 years. In this book he concentrates on the failure or
success of individual societies. The
common and most important element in each failure or success seems to be the
imbalance or balance between environmental resources and the populations that
depended on them. August 2012
.
Alan Furst. Mission
to Paris. The setting is familiar, Paris in 1938. Frederic Stahl is an American actor on loan
to Paramount to make a film in France.
The Nazis are making every effort to penetrate French institutions to co-opt
as many French officials as possible to weaken France’s resistance when the
inevitable invasion begins. They notice that
Stahl was born in Vienna and try to enlist him as a collaborator. The pressure they put on him is incredible and
eventually he seems to go along, but he is also talking to a “second secretary”
at the American Embassy. Stahl is able
to pull off a couple of missions and still escape back to America. Along the way we run into some characters who
have appeared in other novels by Furst.
The NYTimes review says this is one of the best of Furst’s 12 spy
novels. I’m more inclined to some of the
others. August 2012
.
Jane Mayer. The
Dark Side. In this book Jane Mayer pulls together her
earlier articles and her research on the war on terror, enhanced interrogation techniques,
and the Bush administration’s efforts to sell torture to the American people as
a necessity so as to avoid the consequences, i.e., prosecution for war
crimes. I was struck by the incredible
pressure that Cheney and his Chief of Staff, David Addington, and Donald
Rumsfeld brought to bear on other government officials to stifle dissent. It is not a pleasant read, but whether you
attempt it or not, you might want to look at “Six Questions for Jane Mayer,
Author of the Dark Side” by Scott Horton in Harpers,
July 14, 2008. It will give you a view
of the intensive research that Mayer did to make her case against “enhanced
interrogation techniques” and the decision makers on this issue in the Bush
administration. August 2012
.
Daniel Silva. The
Defector. This is the 8th book in a series
about Gabriel Allon, an Israeli agent who has many kills behind him and
apparently many more in the future. He
works under cover in Italy as an art restorer and is activated whenever Israeli
intelligence resources in Western Europe seem to be under attack. At the end of this one, he has to go home to
Israel. A good read. August 2012
.
Daniel Silva. A
Death in Vienna is the 4th book in a series about Gabriel
Allon, an Israeli agent who lives under cover as in art restorer in Italy. When a holocaust research center in Vienna is
firebombed, Gabriel is activated.
Through many twists and turns he is able to identify the instigator as a
former SS officer living and working under an assumed identity. Another good read. August 2012
.
Colm Toibin. The
Master. Toibin recreates 5 years
of Henry James’s life and writes in something close to James’s style. I’ve never liked James and I found this book
so depressing that I quit after a few chapters.
I had to look at a review in the Observer to find out what it was all
about. The review was very positive and
suggested that this book would become one of the prime sources on James. August 2012
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