Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Author: John Le Carré

Category: I was inspired to read this after I saw the movie version with Benedict Cumberbatch, et al.

My thoughts: If I’m being honest, the basic idea of the Cold War—East vs. West; U.S. vs. USSR—was introduced to me by the cinematic classic…Rocky IV. Perhaps this did not present a balanced view of a complex, decades-long conflict. As someone born during, but toward the end of, the Cold War, I was only able to really view, or attempt to understand it, when I got older. And now I am incredibly fascinated by the Cold War, which could almost be called World War III. I mention all of this because Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is FULL of Cold War intrigue.

Another thing that inspired me to read TTSS is the letters of Jessica Mitford. In her letters, she mentions Michael Straight, who was involved in the infamous British spy ring. That spy ring inspired Le Carré to write TTSS.

So, the plot. TTSS takes place in 1973. Just to set the scene: at this time, there was East Germany and West Germany. Poland, the former Czechoslovakia, and Hungary were “satellite countries” of the USSR, which was still in formation. TTSS is set among the world of British intelligence officers who work at the Circus, Britain’s intelligence agency. At the beginning of the story, George Smiley is brought out of retirement in order to discover the identity of a mole in the Circus. He and his former boss Control, had previously been fired after a disastrous mission in Czechoslovakia. For his investigation, Smiley teamed up with Peter Guillam, another Circus guy. Peter was my favorite character. When the mole is ultimately revealed, Peter feels “not only betrayed but orphaned.” He looked up to the older Circus agents, one of whom was the mole, and he felt the sense that the grown-ups had failed him. 

TTSS is not an easy-breezy read. There is a pretty big cast of characters—I had to keep a list of them. Two of the most intriguing characters, however, are “off-screen,” so to speak—Ann, Smiley’s unfaithful wife, and Karla, Smiley’s adversary in Moscow Centre (the Russian intelligence agency). TTSS also highlights the idea that Britain was not exactly a central figure in the Cold War, whose chief “combatants” were the United States and the Soviet Union. Not only that, but by 1973, the British Empire was mostly a memory—a fond one for some of the characters. The idea of nostalgia for the faded Empire is a central one in the novel. TTSS is a very engrossing read. And certainly more nuanced than Rocky IV. 

Great passage: And his fancy that he was being followed? What of that? What of the shadow he never saw, only felt, till his back seemed to tingle with the intensity of his watcher’s gaze; he saw nothing, heard nothing, only felt. He was too old not to heed the warning. The creak of a stair that had not creaked before; the rustle of a shutter when no wind was blowing; the car with a different number plate but the same scratch on the offside wing; the face on the Metro that you know you have seen somewhere before: for years at a time these were signs he had lived by; any one of them was reason enough to move, change towns, identities. For in that profession there is no such thing as coincidence. 

Hons and Rebels

Author: Jessica Mitford

Category: I realized, as I was finishing Decca, that I would miss reading things that Jessica Mitford wrote. So I decided to read Hons and Rebels, her 1960 autobiography. Also, I decided to call it Hons and Rebels, instead of Daughters and Rebels, which was the original U.S. publication title. I think Hons and Rebels sounds better.

My thoughts: I loved it! Hons and Rebels covers Decca’s childhood and ends around 1940, when Decca was a young adult and her first husband Esmond Romilly was leaving to fight in World War II. She grew up really isolated in the Cotswolds, and mainly had her family and a nanny for company. The Mitford parents, Lord and Lady Redesdale (aka Muv and Farve), didn’t believe in sending the girls to school, so they were educated by Lady Redesdale, then a succession of governesses. The girls learned a rather skewed lesson in English history—they were taught that the U.S. was kicked out of the British Empire because of misbehavior (needless to say, that is not how I was taught the origin of the United States). Decca and her sister Unity developed a language called Boudledidge (Unity’s nickname was Boud), and Decca and Debo established the Society of Hons (hence the title, Hons and Rebels). As the 1930s dawned, Decca discovered socialism, while Unity became a rabid fascist. At their London home, Unity carved swastikas in the windows, while Decca countered by carving hammer and sickles. Their shared room was divided with Nazi and Communist material, and the two girls once got into a catfight about their views. In her letters, Decca makes it abundantly clear that she cannot stand Diana, her other fascist sister. But Decca can’t bring herself to hate Unity in the same way that she loathed Diana. In Hons and Rebels, she wrote, “Perversely, and although I hated everything [Unity] stood for, she was easily my favorite sister, which was something I could never have admitted in those days, above all to Esmond.”

One thing that I didn’t mention in previous posts was that Esmond Romilly was Decca’s second cousin. Esmond had joined the International Brigade in the fight against Franco’s fascist forces during the Spanish Civil War, which figures heavily in this story. Perhaps for the first time, I realized how that war was a bit of a forerunner to World War II. Decca originally consulted Esmond’s brother Giles about running away to Spain to join the fight against the fascists. She met Esmond at a relative’s house, they ran away together (first to France), fell in love, got married, spent time observing Spanish Civil War goings-on, and decided to move back to London. Here, the fact that these two are children of privilege shines through. They received an incredibly expensive electric bill, because “No one had ever explained to me that you had to pay for electricity; and lights, electric heaters, stoves blazed away night and day” at her house.

The Romillys always had their ears open to politics, and they decided to move to America in 1939, until the political situation in England became clearer. They felt like the climate at the time was in a sort of purgatory, with war imminent, but not yet declared. “There was already question about which side England might find herself on,” she wrote about the atmosphere in early 1939. One of her friends thought “there was a real possibility that the Chamberlain Government might go full circle, that England and Germany might team up against Russia.” I really think Hons and Rebels is a great book for understanding the time between the World Wars, and the lead-up to and early days of World War II (see the quote below).

After reading this, I really came to admire Decca and Esmond. After running away, they really choose to stick things out, even though at times their liv

es were not easy. They definitely had the pluck and stubbornness to attempt to carve out the lives they wanted to lead, and fight for causes they believed in. Hons and Rebels was a quick read, really enjoyable, and really informative from a historical standpoint. I will probably read this one again.

Great passage: Out of the wild confusion of those first few days of the attack, one fact emerged; the German rain of fire against these ill-prepared, disunited countries had illuminated in one vast flash the real nature of the danger confronting Europe, had exposed for all to see and understand the criminal stupidity of the years of shabby deals and accommodation to Hitler’s ambitions. Overnight, the appeasement policy was buried forever. 

Decca: The Letters of Jessica Mitford; Part 2

For part 2 of my thoughts on Decca, I’ve decided that the easiest way for me to break things down is by decade. So here goes.

During the 1960s, Decca continued with her muckraking efforts. She wrote an exposé of an Elizabeth Arden beauty retreat (and kicked Barry Goldwater’s wife, maybe on purpose, in the process). Also, Giles Romilly, Esmond Romilly’s brother, had a breakdown and committed suicide in 1967.

In the 1970s, Decca was pretty busy. She wrote a book about the trial of Dr. Benjamin Spockand others , became friends with Maya Angelou, and corresponded with George Jackson, Black Panther and author of Soledad Brother. Also during the 1970s was the rise of the “Mitford Industry,” or “Mit Ind” as Decca called it. A biography was written about Nancy Mitford after she died in 1973, but the real drama came over a book about Unity, published in 1976. A few words about Unity that I didn’t mention in the first post. Unity was obsessed with Adolf Hitler. She moved to Germany in the 1930s, and became part of Hitler’s inner circle. When Britain declared war in Germany, Unity shot herself in the head. She survived, was collected by her family, and lived in a brain-damaged state until her death in 1948. So in 1976, the most members of the Mitford family, including Debo, evidently did not want this dark family history brought up again. Decca felt that Unity’s biographer, David Pryce-Jones, was the best person to write about Unity. This culminated in a fight over a missing scrapbook from Chatsworth, Debo’s home, that played itself out over several letters. Debo and Pam accused Decca of stealing the scrapbook, and giving the author of Unity’s biography pictures from it. Decca was upset and hurt at being accused of stealing the thing, which was, in her words, the “size of a table.” The book about Unity also made Decca explore her feelings toward her sister. I think that Decca really mourned the Unity she knew before the latter became obsessed with Hitler and the dark side of history. By the way, Decca did NOT steal the scrapbook.

The 1980s brought some plot twists. During this decade, Kathy Boudin, daughter of Decca’s friends from her Communist days, was arrested in connection with a Brink’s armed robbery. Decca wrote about this in a letter to Maya Angelou, and really criticized Kathy. Decca was all for fighting against the Man, but she drew the line at actions that result in murder. Another letter written in the 1980s was to Michael Straight, who narked on a member of the British spy ring back in the 1960s. He, too, was a friend of Decca’s (and Esmond Romilly) from back in the day. Decca also exchanged letters with her nephew Jonathan Guinness, son of her enemy sister Diana, stating her refusal to cooperate with him on his book about the Mitford family. She made it clear that she had no time for him or his book. Yikes.  

Decca passed away in 1996. But her letters written in the 1990s are pretty awesome, especially viewed with hindsight. She wrote to Katharine Graham, giving her advice on writing what would be her acclaimed memoirs (published the year after Decca died). And she corresponded with Maya Angelou about the latter’s support of Clarence Thomas’ nomination to the Supreme Court. Decca thought her friend’s support of him was misguided, and told her so—leading to a brief falling out (I must say, I’m on Team Decca in this case). The two reconciled, thankfully, and we get a wickedly funny letter from Decca to Maya throwing shade at PrincessMargaret.

I must give a shout-out to editor Peter Sussman.  He did an amazing job as editor. He must have combed through so many letters, and his footnotes are so thorough. Mary Lovell, Mitford biographer, said that the Mitford ladies are so popular because they “seem to have taken the twentieth century by the throat.” In my opinion, Decca had the strongest grip.

Great passage (in which Decca gives writing advice to Maya Angelou before the latter’s poetry reading at Bill Clinton’s inauguration): “Idea: Spend some solid time re-reading every single one of your own poems. Simply read over each poem as though you were someone who was reading them for the first time—not as the author. Perhaps, if you did this, the unique Maya rhythm—or rather I shld say series of rhythms, as you vary everything depending on subject, and many of yr phrases within the poems may seem v. apt. Not, obviously, that you’ll repeat them, but just be inspired by YOUR work not somebody else’s.”

Decca: The Letters of Jessica Mitford; Part 1

Silly Decca

Author: Jessica Mitford; Editor: Peter Sussman

Category: This is the first time I’ve read this book.

My thoughts: I have decided to do two posts about this book, because it’s over 700 pages—it seems that Jessica Mitford spent a lot of her life writing letters. So far, I’m absolutely loving this book. Jessica, or Decca, as she was called, was funny and sarcastic, and seems like she would have been fun to hang out with.

 I had heard about the Mitford family over the years, and when I was in college, I read Decca’s sister Nancy Mitford’s novels The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate. Decca was the second-to-last child of Lord and Lady Redesdale, British aristocrats. Aside from Decca, the family consisted on Nancy (the novelist), Diana and Unity (the Fascists), Debo (the duchess), and relatively quieter siblings, Pam and Tom. Aside from Tom, who went to Eton, the siblings were not formally educated. Decca was a born rebel, and at 18 she eloped with Esmond Romilly, Winston Churchill’s nephew-by-marriage, to Spain during the Civil War there. The two of them later moved to the United States, and became friends with Virginia and Clifford Durr and Katharine Graham. When World War II began, Esmond joined the Royal Canadian Air Force and he and Decca had a baby, Constancia. The letters from Decca to Esmond when he was away during the war are seriously precious. Sadly, Esmond was killed in 1941. One letter in this section, written in 1943, is from Decca to Winston Churchill, in which she expresses disdain that her sister Diana and her husband Oswald Mosley, who was head of British Union of Fascists, had been released from prison (Diana and Oswald had been locked up in 1940, after Britain declared war on Germany). Indeed, Decca made it clear in many of her letters that she loathed Diana because of her politics. I think Decca blamed folks like the Mosleys for Esmond’s death. In one letter to her second husband Bob Treuhaft (from 1955), written when Decca was visiting her family in England, Decca expresses anger at her mother for having lunch with the Mosleys. Decca wrote that she told her mother that she and Constancia (who she calls Dinky, Dink, Donk, and Dinkydonk in various letters) won’t attend because they “do not care to break bread with murderers.” As the kids today would say, Decca knew how to throw shade.

Decca and Bob were also members of the Communist Party during the early 1950s. And in her letters she details the harassment she and her husband endured from “Red Hunters” of the time. She was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee and she and Bob had their passports confiscated. It makes one livid, as Decca would say, how folks were treated during this time. Decca was also really passionate about civil rights issues. In California, where she and Bob lived, she fronted for black couples who wanted to buy houses, in order to get around real estate discrimination. She once did this in a neighborhood that the District Attorney, her nemesis, lived in—he put his house up for sale when he found out a black couple was moving into his neighborhood. In the early 1960s, Decca was in Montgomery, Alabama, visiting the Durrs when the Freedom Riders also came to town. She visited a church where MLK was giving a speech and ended up being trapped inside the church with him and many others all night while an angry white mob surrounded them (the Durr’s car, which Decca borrowed to drive to the church, was destroyed in the melee).

Decca also writes about her efforts as an author. She worked on her autobiography, Hons and Rebels, while in England, and mentioned, in her letters, how curious her family was about the contents. In 1963, two things happened: Decca published her bestseller The American Way of Death and JFK was assassinated. The latter event is notable because Decca’s sister Debo, the Duchess of Devonshire, was friends with him—JFK’s sister Kathleen was married to Debo’s brother-in-law, Billy Hartington. Billy was killed in World War II, and Debo kept in touch with the Kennedys. In fact, Debo told Decca that Bobby Kennedy actually read The American Way of Death, and used a bit of advice from the book while choosing a casket for his brother’s funeral.

That’s a lot of information, and it’s only about the first half of the book! Stay tuned for part 2.

Great passage (from a letter to her mother-in-law in 1959): The dinner party was a riot. There were about 8 rather dullish people there, including Peter’s rather dullish wife, and his daughter who popped in and out between dances…We were invited for 7, and between then and 9 there wasn’t a sign of any food, just enormous drinks of whiskey. At 9, Peter set a table for 8, groaning and complaining bitterly as he did so about what a lot of trouble it was; on it he set a small platter of bought cold meats, legs of chicken and the like, and a tiny salad. As I was served first, I took almost everything. And that was all, except for some strawberries and cream (strawberries are currently selling for about 25 each). No coffee, bread, vegs, almost no nothing. Masses of wine, tho, with dinner, and brandy after. This is just what Cedric was telling us about that sort of English person; if they don’t have servants, or if the servants are out, they simply give up, and would rather starve than cook.

The Speeches of Fannie Lou Hamer: To Tell It Like It Is

Editors: Maegan Parker Brooks and Davis W. Houck

Category: I have a friend who asked, via Facebook, if anyone wanted to borrow this book. Of course I did.

My thoughts: If I had to use one adjective to describe this book it would be “powerful.” The strength—emotional and otherwise—of this woman is an amazing thing to think about. The main speech of Fannie Lou Hamer’s that I knew about prior to reading this book is the one she gave before the Credentials Committee at the Democratic National Convention in 1964. I heard that LBJ was so scared by the potential effect of her speech that he pre-empted it. I like the fact that the words of a sharecropper from Ruleville, Mississippi, could make the President of the United States shake in his boots.

However, this fierce woman, thankfully, gave several more speeches over the years. In some of them, she detailed the incredibly vicious beating that she suffered in Winona, Mississippi in June 1963—just a few days before Medgar Evers was killed. Her descriptions of her beating were really hard to read. She was arrested at night while on her way back to Ruleville from a voter registration workshop in South Carolina. She and other folks with her were detained in Winona, and while in jail the town sheriff told her, “We’re going to make you wish you were dead.” He then proceeded to force two black prisoners to beat her with a blackjack. How she survived that, I have no idea. There is a section of the book in which she gives testimony to the Justice Department about her assault. Spoiler alert: no one was ever convicted for what was basically her attempted murder. Dear reader, have things changed since that awful night in 1963?

The day after I borrowed this book, I went to Sunflower County, Mississippi (where my stepfather is from), which is composed of Indianola, Moorhead, and Ruleville. There’s a sign, as seen above, dedicated to Fannie Lou Hamer in Ruleville. Parchman Prison is also in Sunflower County, but that’s another story for another day. While in Sunflower County, I thought about the Great Migration, written about so wonderfully by Isabel Wilkerson. A lot of folks from that area of Mississippi left for Chicago or Detroit during the Great Migration. Reading this book, you can really sense the kind of brutal racial oppression that existed that make people want to leave. So it’s remarkable that folks like Fannie Lou Hamer had the courage to do what they did in such an environment. Personally, I think of people like her, who truly gave blood, sweat, and tears, every time I exercise my right to vote. And every time, I am thankful that people like her had the courage to fight.

Great passage: “Some of the white people will tell us, ‘Well I just don’t believe in integration.’ But he been integrating at night a long time! If he hadn’t been, it wouldn’t be as many light-skinned Negroes as it is in here. The seventeenth chapter of Acts and the twenty-sixth verse said: ‘Has made of one blood all nations.’ So whether you black as a skillet or white as a sheet, we are made from the same blood and we are on our way” (from a speech delivered at a mass meeting in Indianola, MS in September 1964)

Life

Even Rainbow Dash wants to read about Keith Richards.

Author(s): Keith Richards with James Fox

Category: I’ve wanted to read this for several years.

My thoughts: I had wanted to read this book years ago, but I think I was put off by the length.  But honestly, I believe that books come into our lives at the right time. And this book came at the right time. Although I am definitely more of a Beatles fan, there are several Rolling Stones songs that I really like: "Tumbling Dice" (great song to play while getting ready in the morning), "Gimme Shelter" (which is practically de rigueur for a Martin Scorcese movie soundtrack), and "Angie" (good for listening to while nursing a broken heart).

Years ago, I read a beautifully written article about Patti Hansen (Mrs. Richards) and her battle with bladder cancer. And of course, I heard all the stories about Keith’s drug use (the rumors are very very true, and it’s a wonder that he’s still alive). But his autobiography reveals that there is more to him than guitar solos and drugs. Keith Richards is basically a music nerd who has lived a really wild life. He writes about how growing up, he loved listening to blues artists from Chicago, and how he originally wanted the Stones to be a blues band. He was really influenced by Bo Diddley, Muddy Waters, and other Chicago blues artists, and has a tremendous amount of respect for his musical influences.

Keith is actually rather harsh on his bandmate Mick Jagger. I suppose that when you work with someone for the better part of fifty years, they are going to get on your nerves a few times. However, I think the shadowy figure in this story is Brian Jones. If there was one person I’d like to know more about after reading Life, it’s Brian Jones, although it seems like he was kind of a jerk. He was very gifted musically, but one gets the impression that Brian Jones more altered by the drugs than Keith Richards.

Keith Richards is pretty awesome, and this book is such a joy to read. It took me awhile to finish it, because it is rather long. It’s funny and filled with great stories. Toward the end, Keith tells of rescuing and adopting a stray but scrappy puppy in Moscow, getting him all cleaned up and naming him Rasputin. I like this little story because it shows how this guy who has been famous for most of his life is still human. After reading this book, you just want to hug Keith Richards, buy him a drink, and listen to all his stories. I bet there are some really good ones that weren’t included in the book!  

Great passage: What is it that makes you want to write songs? In a way you want to stretch yourself into other people’s hearts. You want to plant yourself there, or at least get a resonance, where other people become a bigger instrument than the one you’re playing. It becomes almost an obsession to touch other people. To write a song that is remembered and taken to heart is a connection, a touching to bases. A thread that runs through all of us. A stab to the heart. Sometimes I think songwriting is about tightening the heartstrings as much as possible without bringing on a heart attack. 

Rose Under Fire

By Elizabeth Wein

Category: This is the first time I’ve read this. I decided to read it because it has the same author as Code Name Verity, and I really loved that book.

My thoughts: This was hard to read, but really good—although, not as good as Code Name Verity. It was engrossing, but difficult to read because it was so heartbreaking.

The heroine of Rose Under Fire is Rose Justice, a young American transport pilot working in England during the latter half of World War II. The events in this book take place after those of Code Name Verity—Maddie Broddatt from Code Name Verity works with Rose. In late 1944, Rose is captured by the Germans and sent to Ravensbrück, a German work camp for political prisoners. There are French Resistance prisoners, Russian prisoners, and Polish prisoners. The Polish women are called “rabbits,” because they are subjected to gruesome medical experiments. Their legs are horribly misshapen as a result. Some of the monsters who performed those “procedures” were tried for War Crimes.

I never really thought about how many nationalities occupied the German concentration and work camps. In addition to American Rose, there’s Roza, a very young Polish prisoner who was one of the Rabbits, and Lisette, a French novelist (this isn’t portrayed in the novel, but I read that there were also British prisoners there). This blend of nationalities reminded me a little bit of Casablanca , how people from several different countries gathered in Morocco for refuge. Specifically, the scene where Victor Lazlo leads everyone in a sing-a-long to "La Marseillaise" sometimes popped into my head whilst reading about Ravensbrück —because in the camp, people from other nationalities came together against a common enemy. A very heartbreaking sidenote: I read somewhere that when the Red Army liberated Ravensbrück in 1945, Soviet soldiers raped some of the women in the camp. How horrible is that?

Ok, one thing about this novel is how brutally realistic it is concerning the day-to-day life at the camp. One horrid thing that I’ve never read anywhere else in any account of life in a German work camp…is about what happened with their bodily functions. Elizabeth Wein doesn’t shy away from mentioning this. The toilets at Ravensbrück had long stopped working by the time Rose was there, and the ladies had to go to the bathroom in a ditch. And because of the diseases that ran rampant in the camps and ravaged the women’s poor bodies—diseases that cause runny diarrhea…well, some folks liked to sleep on the top bunks so they didn’t get “rained” on.

There’s an ongoing refrain in this novel: “Tell the world.” The other day, there was a conviction for genocide that happened during the Bosnian War, which I remember hearing about on the news in the ‘90s but, like so many things, only began to understand during adulthood. World history has too many stories about mass tragedy (Cambodia, Somalia, Rwanda…). I am thankful for the fact that usually there are a few brave souls who do stand up and tell the world.

Great passage: Lift is made when the air pressure under a wing is greater than the air pressure over the wing. Then the wing gets pushed upward. That’s how birds fly. That’s how kites fly—a kite is basically just a solitary wing. That’s how airplanes fly.

But people need lift, too. People don’t get moving, they don’t soar, they don’t achieve great heights, without something buoying them up.

The Adventure of the Speckled Band

Author: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Background: I am a huge fan of Sherlock, with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. Recently, there was a “special episode” of Sherlock set in the Victorian period. It made me want to read the original Sherlock Holmes stories.

My thoughts: Good story! I kept reading until I was finished, because I had to know what happened—which is the mark of a good mystery, in my opinion. I read somewhere that this was ACD’s favorite Sherlock Holmes story. In “The Adventure of the Speckled Band,” Holmes and Watson are chilling at 221B Baker Street. A woman named Helen Stoner comes and tells them about the bizarre and unexplained death of her beloved sister. When her sister was alive, the two of them lived with their stepfather, a doctor named Dr. Grimesby Roylott (that names sounds like that of a Harry Potter character). Their stepfather had been living in India, but after he beat an Indian man to death and went to prison for it, he returned to England with a pet baboon and cheetah (oh, the Empire...)

The ending of the story was satisfyingly creepy. It reminded me of something one would see on the show Forensic Files. I’ve read a couple of things about “The Adventure of the Speckled Band,” and it seems as though there are parts that are not exactly rooted in biological truth. Oh well. It is a really good story. And, after reading the story (as happens after I watch the series Sherlock), I felt the need to be more observant of things. Like Sherlock himself.

Great passage: “So tall was he that his hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old bird of prey.” 

Hoop Dreams

Author: Ben Joravsky

Category: First time I’ve read this.

My thoughts: Every few years, I become a little obsessed with basketball (I grew up watching my brother play). And 2015 was one of those years. It started with watching an excellent ESPN 30 for 30 documentary about Christian Laettner , which brought back memories of watching early ‘90s basketball (I remember when Duke and UNLV were powerhouses in college basketball). Then I started listening to Jalen Rose’s podcast. All of this pretty much led me to read Hoop Dreams.

Full disclosure—I’ve never seen the documentary on which this book is based. Which is a shame, since I love documentaries. I will rectify this soon. But I really enjoyed the book. Hoop Dreams is the story of William Gates and Arthur Agee, adolescent basketball stars in inner-city Chicago who are offered enrollment at tony St. Joseph’s High School, the alma mater of Isiah Thomas. The background of the players’ families reminded me of the greatest book of all time—The Warmth of Other Suns. Both Arthur and William’s families have Southern origins. Hoop Dreams is ostensibly about William and Arthur, but Isiah Thomas is sort of a third protagonist. Like I said before, Isiah went to St. Joseph’s, and serves as an inspirational figure to William and Arthur. I vaguely remember Isiah Thomas’s basketball career—but truth be told, my brother was more into Michael Jordan, so that’s who I was more familiar with. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to appreciate scrappy point guards like Isiah Thomas, Bobby Hurley, John Stockton, and Memphis’ own Mike Conley. Actually, Isiah Thomas’ mother herself migrated to Chicago from Mississippi. Seriously, The Warmth of Other Suns rings so true in so many ways, literary and otherwise.

The fortunes of the two young men take different paths, and eventually Arthur has to leave St. Joseph because his parents failed to pay the tuition. William, however, shines at St. Joseph and at one point goes to a summer basketball camp with three members of the Fab Five —Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, and Jalen Rose. The city of Chicago also functions as a character in Hoop Dreams. In that instance, the book reminded me of the There Are No Children Here. Like There Are No Children Here, Hoop Dreams takes place in Chicago in the 1980s, when gangs struck fear in people and ruled with brutality and drugs ran rampant—Arthur’s father, Bo, was a drug addict at one point. William and Arthur both see basketball as a means to escape their bleak surroundings. At the time, their choices were limited—as the Notorious B.I.G. famously said about getting out of the ghetto, “Either you’re slinging crack rock or you got a wicked jump shot.”

Speaking of documentaries, there are two great ones that I came across while reading this book. One is another documentary from ESPN’s excellent 30 for 30 series, about Isiah Thomas’ tenure with the Detroit Pistons. The other one is about the Robert Taylor housing projects in Chicago. After watching the former, I wondered how the Pistons got away with so much pushing and shoving. After watching the latter, I wondered what happened to the family in the film. 


Great passage (which explains William’s feelings when he found out he’d be a teenage father): William had the opposite reaction: instantaneous joy. He had intentionally stopped using condoms because he wanted to make Catherine pregnant. He wanted to create life. William knew so many people who had been murdered. Death was becoming routine as gang wars erupted again around Cabrini-Green. He had nightmares of his own death—another innocent victim caught in the line of fire. “If I die without leaving behind a baby, it’s like I never existed,” he told Catherine.

Dark Places

Author: Gillian Flynn

Category: Ok, after I read Sharp Objects, I wanted to read another Gillian Flynn book.

My thoughts: Dark Places was just as good as Sharp Objects, but way creepier.

Dark Places is narrated by Libby Day, who survived a brutal attack on her family that left her mother Patty and two sisters, Michelle and Debby, dead. Her brother Ben, who was fifteen-years-old at the time, was accused of murdering his family as part of some sort of Satanic plot, and convicted of the murders. As an adult, Libby is contacted by the Kill Club, a group of true crime enthusiasts. Libby needs the money, so she agrees to work with them. Many of them believe that her brother is innocent. As her work/investigation goes deeper, Libby discovers the events that led to the murder of her family.

This novel reminded me of the murders of three young boys West Memphis in 1993. I remember that case vividly. I remember at the time there was a strong belief that there was Satanic worship involved. Dark Places definitely creeped me out in the same way that Night Film did. A colleague who read Dark Places said that it had a “Lifetime movie” sort of ending. And it sort of did. At some point I’ll read Gone, Girl—to complete the Gillian Flynn trifecta. Also, there’s a movie version of Dark Places, with Charlize Theron (who definitely looks nothing like the way that Libby Day was described as looking…)

Sharp Objects

Author: Gillian Flynn

Category: I saw the movie version of Gone, Girl a few months ago. I thought about reading the book, then I figured it would be a good idea to read a Gillian Flynn book about which I was unfamiliar with the plot. So I picked Sharp Objects.

My thoughts: Oh. My. Goodness. This book was really good, but incredibly disturbing. I finished it in about three days because I just had to know what happened. And now that I know…

The main character of Sharp Objects is Camille Preaker. Camille developed a habit of cutting words into her skin, a habit she began when she was thirteen. Words such as castle, blossom, yelp, and freak are etched over most of her body. Camille works at a third-rate Chicago newspaper, the Daily Post, and is sent by her editor to cover the murders of two preteen girls in her hometown of Wind Gap, Missouri. One little thing: Camille was released from a psychiatric hospital months just months prior to her return to Wind Gap. And Camille’s relationship with her hometown and her mother is complicated. But the more we get to know Camille’s family, we find out that Camille is the sanest one of them all.

There are some interesting characters in Sharp Objects. Upon her arrival in Wind Gap, Camille gets to know and becomes fascinated with her half-sister Amma, a popular thirteen-year-old who’s like Lolita with a very strong psychotic streak. Camille’s mother Adora is the kind of person who will smile in your face while stabbing you in the back. The specter of Camille’s dead sister, Marian, who died when Camille was thirteen, haunts the family. A detective from Kansas City, Richard Willis, is sent to Wind Gap, and he and Camille are intrigued by each other. The town of Wind Gap itself functions as a character in the novel.

The story is narrated by Camille, and the passages where she describes carving into her skin with a knife were hard to read—I had to grit my teeth while reading them. If I remember correctly, a character did this in Paradise (and I had the same reaction to reading that). At its heart, Sharp Objects is a mystery—a very disturbing one. This is why I had to finish it in a feverish bout of reading—I just had to know what happened to those girls. I’d like to read Gillian Flynn’s other novels, Gone, Girl and Dark Places. But I think I might space them out, and not read them back-to-back. Gillian Flynn is a great writer, but the stories that burst forth from her mind are disturbing.

Great passage: I didn’t mind the idea of spilling Wind Gap’s stories to Richard. I felt no particular allegiance to the town. This was the place my sister died, the place I starting cutting myself. A town so suffocating and small, you tripped over people you hated every day. People who knew things about you. It’s the kind of place that leaves a mark. 

Peter Pan

Author: J.M. Barrie

Category: I got the desire to read this after seeing a great performance of Peter Pan at Playhouse on the Square. Bonus: I know the actors who played Peter Pan and Captain Hook.

My thoughts: I’m glad I finally read this book. I think most people in the Western world have seen some version of Peter Pan, so the plot is not unfamiliar. I really liked how Peter Pan (the character) is the essence and manifestation of childhood itself. He forgets things quickly and is more than a little selfish. He has a strong sense of fairness but doesn't think about the feelings of others—it makes you wonder when, during our development, we develop empathy (some, of course, never do). Reading about Peter, I thought about how children have absolutely no filter and are brutally honest in ways that you can’t help but laugh at (most of the time).

I wonder if this book was one of the first portrayals of childhood and children’s wonder as an important thing. That wonder is epitomized by the moment of the book (and my favorite moment of the play) where Peter asks children if they believe in fairies. I remember being a child and seeing Peter Pan on stage and believing in fairies with every fiber of my being. As an adult watching the play and seeing the children around me have that same reaction…well, I cried. It reminds me of the response to Virginia’s letter about Santa Claus. That makes me cry too.

And the book hints with the first sentence (“All children, except one, grow up”) at the loss of innocence that happens when children grow up and don’t believe in fairies anymore. The end of Peter Pan, when Wendy mentions that she’s forgotten how to fly, reminds me of the song Puff the Magic Dragon. The novel of Peter Pan is actually a little more violent than the play and the movies versions I've seen. Or maybe I've gotten too used to sanitized children’s tales.

J.M. Barrie’s writing style is really good. The voice of the narrator is very cozy to the reader, and is akin to the narrator in Washington Square. I love this sentence: “In fanciful stories people can talk to the birds freely, and I wash for the moment I could pretend that this was such a story, and say that Peter replied intelligently to the Never bird; but truth is best, and I want to tell only what really happened.” Yes, truth is best. One not-so-great thing about Peter Pan is its uncomfortable portrayal of Native Americans as savages. It reminds me of the stereotypical portrayal of Jewish businessman Sim Rosedale in The House of Mirth.

Great passage: Quite near the rock, but out of sight, two heads were bobbing up and down, Peter’s and Wendy’s. Wendy was crying, for it was the first tragedy she had seen. Peter had seen many tragedies, but he had forgotten them all. He was less sorry than Wendy for Tiger Lily: it was the two against one that angered him, and he meant to save her. An easy way would have been to wait until the pirates had gone, but he was never one to choose the easy way. 

The Poisonwood Bible

Author: Barbara Kingsolver

Category: I had wanted to read this for awhile. Then I saw it at a used bookstore for 50 cents. I had to get it. Also, I just could not get into The Spy Who Came in From the Cold.

My thoughts: I really really liked this book. At the beginning of the novel, the Price family comes to Belgian Congo in 1959 at the behest of the patriarch, Nathan Price, an evangelical Baptist minister who wants to save souls on the “Dark Continent.” He’s married to Orleanna Price, and they have four daughters: teenagers Rachel, Leah, Adah, and little Ruth May.

Things in the Congo at this time are at a tipping point. The residents are demanding independence from brutal colonizer Belgium. Nationally, revolutionary Patrice Lumumba is gaining followers. Locally, in the village of Kilanga, Reverend Price is struggling. The locals aren’t embracing Christianity—perhaps because Reverend Price (like so many before him) never asked if the Congolese would be interested in converting in the first place. However, he chooses to dig in his heels and try to force the issue of conversion—at the worst possible time, because the political situation in the Congo is about to explode.

The Price family is dominated by the will of Reverend Price, but the story is narrated by the Price women. Rachel, the eldest, is the self-centered one. Leah is the sensible one who wants to be like her father, and her twin sister Adah was diagnosed with hemiplegia as an infant. And then there’s Ruth May, who’s the first one of the Price family to make any sort of connection with the Congolese. Eventually, we find out why Nathan Price is so hellbent on getting his way. But as a character, he’s very much a mystery.

Reading this novel, I was reminded of When We Were Kings, which was set in Zaire, nee the Belgian Congo. The documentary mentions Mobuto, the ruler (dictator, really) of Zaire after independence, but I never really got a sense of how brutal his dictatorship was until reading this book (interesting how it took a work of fiction to bring this to light for me). The novel paints Mobuto as a heartless dictator who perpetuated colonial conditions in a way, and lived in luxury while the residents of his country lived in a state of near starvation.

Once again, I was reminded about how much I abhor the effects of colonialism on the continent of Africa by reading The Poisonwood Bible. Greedy European men decided to carve up the map of Africa, brutalize its residents, and completely plunder its natural resources. It reminds me of the quote from The Great Gatsby: “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.” As I stated in the post about Things Fall Apart, the continent of Africa is still reeling from the effects of colonization. But at least The Poisonwood Bible is something of a tribute to the rich history of an African nation.

Great passage: In their locked room, these men had put their heads together and proclaimed Patrice Lumumba a danger to the safety of the world. The same Patrice Lumumba, mind you, who washed his face each morning from a dented tin bowl, relieved himself in a carefully chosen bush, and went out to seek the faces of his nation. Imagine if he could have heard those words—dangerous to the safety of the world!—from a roomful of white men who held in their manicured hands the disposition of armies and atomic bombs, the power to extinguish every life on earth.

Up next: Peter Pan

We Have Always Lived in the Castle

Coffee shop reading (notice a previous blog post topic,
Code Name Verity,  in the background)

Author: Shirley Jackson

Category: This is the first time I’ve read this novel. I selected it because I wanted something short to read.

My thoughts: We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a creepy little story. I wanted to read this because it was short and a little different than some other books I have read lately. Back in college, I read the Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, which was so unsettling to me that I had trouble sleeping the night I finished reading it. We Have Always Lived in the Castle isn’t quite as unsettling as The Haunting of Hill House, but it’s still pretty creepy.

The novel is narrated by 18-year-old Mary Katherine Blackwood, who lives with her older sister Constance and infirm Uncle Julian. Six years prior, Mary Katherine and Constance’s parents, brother and aunt (Uncle Julian’s wife) died as a result of arsenic poisoning—the arsenic was in the sugar that the family sprinkled on their berries at dinner. Constance was tried for and acquitted of their deaths. Constance herself wasn’t poisoned because she didn’t ingest the sugar, Uncle Julian had very little sugar (which spared his life but rendered him handicapped), and young Mary Katherine wasn’t at the dinner table at all. The three of them live a very secluded existence in the house where the deaths happened and are the subject of a lot of speculation by the townspeople. Then their cousin Charles arrives and things get stranger for the Blackwoods.

The setup, if you will, of the family’s deaths, reminds me of the beginning of an episode of Law & Order. The children in the village have a crude little rhyme that they taunt Mary Katherine with when she enters the village, which is reminiscent of the one about Lizzie Borden. Like I said, the book is creepy. We eventually find out who put the arsenic in the sugar, and the answer is disturbing and…well, creepy. I’m not sure if I’ll read this book again. But I may try to read another Shirley Jackson novel at some point. She was a fine writer.

Great passage: My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all could have been a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had. I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise. I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantagenet, and Amanita phalloides, the death-cup mushroom. Everyone else in my family is dead.

Up next: The Spy Who Came in From the Cold

Off topic: Birmingham

At the end of July, I went to Birmingham (or B-ham, as the locals say) to visit my BFF. I hadn’t been to the state of Alabama in about 20 years (since the obligatory sixth grade trip to the space center in Huntsville), but I had never been to B-ham. And, to be honest, I had a some stereotypes about the city because of its brutal history. However, the city seems to be trying to atone for past atrocities. 

We went to the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, where four young girls were killed in a bombing in 1963. The sweet folks at the church gave a small tour and showed a film to the groups who came to visit.

Across the street from the church is Kelly Ingram Park, which is has turned into a memorial of sorts to the people who were attacked during protests in 1963.

Vulcan Park and Museum was really cool. Fun fact: this statue was built in only seven months back in 1904.

Also, we ate really good food. This is from a lovely place called Taco Mama. 

Persuasion

Author: Jane Austen

Category: I was inspired to read this after I saw The Jane Austen Book Club

My thoughts: First, I’ll say that the reason for the long amount of time between posts is that your humble blogger has been really busy lately. So sorry. Now, about Persuasion…

Perhaps another reason for the long amount of time between posts is the fact that Persuasion isn’t a quick read. At least it wasn't for me. Reading this book was like reading The Portrait of a Lady . I liked it, and Persuasion has that sly Jane Austen humor in ample supply, but it was a slow process.

The main character of Persuasion is Anne Elliot, a young woman in her late 20s. Several years prior, Anne was in love with a man named Frederick Wentworth. But her friend Lady Russell convinced her to end the relationship. During the time the story is set, we find Anne Elliot still single, surrounded by horrible family members. Then Frederick Wentworth comes back into her orbit. But he’s now Captain Wentworth—and wealthy (those Napoleonic Wars created a lot of heroes and millionaires). And a newly acquired title and cash are like catnip to the ladies in Anne’s social circle. Anne realizes that she still has feelings for him. But he’s not so keen on her, for obvious reasons.

Relationships and the circumstances that bring them to fruition are a funny thing. This novel highlights the complexities of relationships, romantic and otherwise. Lady Russell gives Anne bad advice with the best of intentions. This reminds me a little of Washington Square. That advice resulted in heartbreak, but Lady Russell obviously cares about Anne more than members of Anne’s own family. Anne’s father and sisters, Sir Walter Elliot, Elizabeth, and Mary, are all half crazy.

Now, one thing I noticed about Persuasion is that it doesn’t seem to get a lot of love. I went to the library to check it out, and I believe there are only two copies at the main branch of the library. That’s just wrong. There are more copies of Northanger Abbey than of Persuasion, which I thought was peculiar because I have always heard that Northanger Abbey was the least popular Austen novel (it’s one that I didn’t finish reading when I was in college).

Great passage: Mr. Elliot was rational, discreet, polished, −but he was not open. There was never any burst of feeling, and warmth of indignation or delight, at the evil or good of others. This, to Anne, was decided imperfection. Her early impressions were incurable. She prized the frank, the open-hearted, the eager character beyond all others. Warmth and enthusiasm did captivate her still. She felt that she could so much more depend upon the sincerity of those who sometimes looked or said a careless or a hasty thing, than of those whose presence of mind never varied, whose tongue never slipped.

Up next: Respect Yourself 

Off topic: Walking in Memphis

I'm pretty smitten with my hometown. And I really love old buildings. Here are some interesting ones I've seen lately. 

The Chisca Hotel

The Chisca Hotel was in danger of being torn down, but is now going to be renovated. It's a beautiful old building.

Melrose School

The old Melrose building is in the Orange Mound neighborhood of Memphis. Apparently there's an awesome staircase inside. 

The Pontotoc Hotel

This may not look like much, but I bet a lot of interesting things went on here. I heard that people who performed at the nearby Orpheum Theatre used to stay here. 

Damn Right

Ok, this isn't an old building--it is, however, a supercool mural in Memphis' Soulsville neighborhood.

Happy Sunday!

Code Name Verity

Books and chocolate=Phenomenal duo.

Author: Elizabeth Wein

Category: I saw this book lying around my teenage cousin’s room for weeks. It looked intriguing, so I asked her if I could borrow it (I feel as though I made her become a reader, so it’s fitting that now I’m borrowing books from her).

My thoughts: Oh my goodness. What a great read! This book was marketed to teens, but it’s one of those books that I feel like should be marketed to adults. And it made me cry. And not just a single tear—I actually sobbed (at the time, I was in the safety of my own apartment, and not in public, thankfully). So, dear reader, do not expect a happy experience with this book. But it is well worth picking up.

Code Name Verity begins with a confession. During World War II, in occupied France, a British spy for the Special Operations Executive has been caught by the Gestapo and is imprisoned in a former hotel that they are using as their headquarters. The officer in charge of the “interrogations” (perhaps I should call it what it is—torture) Captain von Linden, gives her paper on which to write her story, including details of the British war effort. And thus we get the story of the strong friendship between our imprisoned spy, nicknamed Queenie, and Maddie Brodatt, a young female pilot. It was Maddie who flew Queenie to France in the first place.

As I said before, this novel involves some torture. And the torture scenes are quite graphic. These moments were difficult to read, but I feel as though they are necessary. You can’t have a book about a World War II prison without the ugly aspects, and such things happened to real people. Like The Book Thief, I love that Code Name Verity highlights the bravery of those who resisted the Nazis. People like Queenie (we eventually get her real name, but why spoil the surprise) and the French Resistance fighters rebelled against Nazi occupation—even though it could, at the very least, cost them their lives. They remind me of the civil rights workers in Coming of Age in Mississippi—other young people who decided to fight against unjust systems (some of whom died in the process). But Code Name Verity also highlights the fact that so many people got caught up in the whole Nazi machine, and this led them to do despicable, horrid things.

There are several references to Peter Pan and Macbeth (Queenie, as she reminds everyone, is a Scot, and woe betide anyone who calls her English). Also, there’s a reference to Admiral Horatio Nelson’s last words (“Kiss me, Hardy”). I have to admit, as an American, I’m only vaguely familiar with Admiral Nelson. Also, the friendship in this book reminds me the one in my first magical reading experience, the book that made me really fall in love with reading—Charlotte’s Web. That book depicted a strong friendship between two characters from different backgrounds. I don’t want to give too much of the plot of Code Name Verity away, because it takes some interesting turns. I kept having to turn back to previous pages and reread passages that were clues I’d missed the first time (I didn’t even know they were clues). Just read the book, and you’ll see what I mean.

Great passage: You know, I envied her. I envied her the simplicity of her work, the spiritual cleanness of it—Fly the plane, Maddie. That was all she had to do. There was no guilt, no moral dilemma, no argument or anguish—danger, yes, but she always knew what she was facing. And I envied that she had chosen her work herself and was doing what she wanted to do. I don’t suppose I had any idea what I “wanted” and so I was chosen, not choosing. There’s glory and honor in being chosen. But not much room for free will.

Up next: Persuasion—because I need to read something slightly cheerful.