Euphoria by Lily King

This is a great fun read about the end of an era of anthropological discovery (European Empires 1890-1940).  The Brits and other empires claimed academic ownership rights to the myriad peoples of the Earth, never before exposed to the rest of the “known-world”. 

It’s comical, poking fun at the British mostly, but also Americans and Aussies.  I am thoroughly enjoying the book.  I feel a little “bait-and-switched”, the book being touted as a Margaret Mead biography; then again, how can one expect a biography in 200 pages with large print.?

So, let us not go to that level; the book never does.  I mean there are a lot of geographical references, so many in fact, that you’d have to have a detailed map of the area, and the time to plot the scenes of action.  But no one, unless a professional anthropologist, would read and plot maps.  It is at the superficial level that this book is a funny, sometimes incisive read.

All the talk of Cambridge reminds me pleasantly about Smiley’s People, Alec Guinness, Oxford Dons, and good times in England.  So, what makes this book fun, and readable, is the relationships between the three scientists:  Bankson, Nell, and Fen.  For such a short book, it’s amazingly fulfilling and delicious, a gourmet meal in text, a hearty main course of anthropological ideas, spiced up with everyone’s sexual proclivities, and served with a salad of exotic international adventures.

I can’t wait for the movie.

 

The Invention of Wings by Sur Monk Kidd

This was a suggested possibility when our Sonoma Book Lovers Group was getting into Black History month this past spring. 

I’m don’t particularly like the book yet.  I’m about fifty pages into this 300-page novel.  I did like Kidd’s book on Bees, so I’ll keep going, but at a slower pace.  .

We Are Pirates

A fun summer read – a bit silly at times, then again, a dark tale of misadventure; a totally believable story.  The author bases the action in San Francisco, which is always that much more interesting for Northern Californian readers. 

A media arts/radio broadcaster is trying to launch a nation-wide project, while his teenage daughter (14) is testing her separated parents, and herself with a crazy scheme to become a pirate(s) with some friends. 

It’s still silly and doesn’t cross the line, even midstream when the father is having it off with his new secretary in L.A. while pitching his new show.

It does cross the line, for me, when the kids go piratanical.  Murder does not cross my line; many people commit this crime with varieties of reasons.  Mayhem crosses my line.  It involves controlled passion, not a fit of … ..

Mayhem is evil, inexcusable.  As in the old testament, the righteous judgement is an eye for an eye; an arm for an arm.  The kids go beyond mayhem,

And the book ends without judgement.

The Elephant's Journey

 

This book is written in the “Cervantes” tradition.  It’s a quixotic adventure story.  There are long, rambling explanations, with many side commentaries.  But I assure you, it is not boring.  You read with pleasure and a smile on your face.

The Road to Character

An excellent non-fiction book.  I think David Brooks is slowly, over time, becoming a liberal Democrat as he ages.  This is a philosophical/sociological book reviewing the struggle people go through, between making their place in the world, and finding themselves in the world.  He posits that we change goals as we grow older. 

Initially the drive is strongest to find a career, a partner, create children.  But as we achieve those goals, we move on to doing good, becoming more moral, searching for and establishing our legacy. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Being Mortal by Atul Gawnde

This guy touches a sensitive spot when writing about our generation, his parent’s generation; sometimes our parent’s generation

It can be a depressing book!  This is “stuff” we don’t want to talk about.  But there’s nothing here that my family didn’t go through with our Mother, even Dickie, our father.  No new news; but a different perspective, maybe a slightly more positive one. 

He holds out a bit of hope for those of us who are: smart, committed to healthy living; and willing to follow Doctor’s orders – to the end.   He acknowledges that the real fear is of an ugly, painful death, not death itself.  After 80, death is a foregone conclusion.  The question is: “Can it be a peaceful passing” at home with hospice friends and family?  Or will it be a stressful event, in a hospital or “rest home”, with strangers administering drugs and injections, hoping to receive a gold star for keeping your body alive for another 24-hours?

The author gives his recommendations for end of life scenarios.  He cites many case histories, selected to exemplify his points.  But there is no denying that “care homes” are not the solution.  Hospitals are not the solution.  Even the “old school” grand-kids taking care of their elders, are no longer the solution.  The world has moved on beyond that solution, pleasing as it was for the elders.

I’m only half thru – it’s a short “message” book; an easy read; it’s worth a few days’ time.

I’ll add more comments when I finish.

 

Sparta by Roxana Robinson

Wow! This author has taken on a huge and risky task: writing a fictional memoir, putting herself in the head of a Marine officer, a returning Iraq war vet

O.K.

Does she get into his head?

This is what it’s all about.

No.!  I don’t think so.  And she, Roxana the author, has to, or this isn’t really a “novel” at all; maybe only an overdone weekly supplement article.

It is suspension of disbelief that fiction is all about.  It’s the creation of a writer’s mind.  If it’s not, it might be great research, a journalistic success and a wonderful story for a monthly or an in-depth TV study, but it’s not a fictional novel.

Roxana tries too hard, and paints a passable picture of Conrad’s problems from the Mom’s point of view; the sister’s point of view; even the girl-friend’s point of view.

And all for naught.  It might have been a more valiant offering if there had been a developed dad’s point of view and/or the brother’s point of view, mysteriously missing until the end, where an entire life shifts after 380 pages, right on the very last page.  If she’d balanced the story with male characters, then it might have become more of a dramatic novel, but I’m thinking, that would have been too much for Roxana to handle.

This was clearly a single message story – PTSD is real and it sucks.

So again, the author doesn’t suspend my disbelief.  As I read the thoughts of Marine Lieutenant Conrad Farrell, I didn’t believe his character.  It’s not that I question the facts: the episodic fears; the rage, the psychedelic time & space shifting of the modern world.

The author took all these well-researched episodic, symptomatic behaviors and repeated them, in scenes, again and again.  It became word filler for the weary reader – we got the point in the first few pages.  There was nothing new to offer here – the generic PTSD story has been well-documented and extensively written about.  That’s not to say that the public ever tires of war stories – they’re still making movies about WW-II.

The need for psychiatric care is obvious to all around, but missed by everyone with whom he comes into contact.  Wouldn’t somebody along his year-long pathway give him a handful of Prozac?  If I mention the words: “nervous”, “anxious”, when I’m at Kaiser; there’s a prescription in my hand without me even asking.