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Book Rate
A
digested book "review": cheap shots, glib commentary,
shameless advocacy of insidious ideology of social and economic
justice and idiosyncratic and totally arbitrary choices of books
that come our way via our gallant and steadfast UPS drivers and
other routes...
Maybe.
Note: (RB) = Robert
Birnbaum; (RLW) = RL
Whalen; (JT) = Janice Tsai; (AK) = Angie
Kritenbrink; (MB) equals Matt
Borondy; and soon enough there will be other abbreviations to
deal with. Links go to Amazon.com.
Last updated: December 16, 2004
Autrefois, Maison Privee –
Bill Burke with an essay by Bernard Fall Letter by Prince Sirik
Matak (Powerhouse, 176 pp)
Boston-based photographer Bill Burke has traveled to Indochina
annually since the early 1980s. Though in large part a portraitist
(thankfully he does not abandon pictures of people in this book),
he has gradually become transfixed by the architecture and its reflection
of this region's history--beginning with the French colonial municipal
offices of the mid-nineteenth century, the railroad stations and
post offices built in the 1930s, up to the present day. This tome
records Indochina as an architectural museum with 104 tri-tone,
good-sized, well-printed images. Bernard Fall, who served as a journalist
in Indochina until his death in 1967, provides a poignant anecdote
dating from 1953, as well as a letter Prince Sirik Matak wrote to
the American Ambassador as the U.S. abandoned Cambodia, is provided
as a chilling historical footnote. This smartly designed book is
full of subtle visual and historical resonance. (RB)
The Godfather Returns – Mark Winegardner
(Random House, 460 pp)
It is no doubt a signal of the subjectivity of judgements on literary
matters that I differ with the comedically challenged reviewers
at the New York Times in offering that Mark Winegardner,
author most recently of That's True of Everyone, has written
a funnier, more socially aware, and morally acute book than the
still-deceased Puzo. This is a much better book than the last attempt
I read by an author to continue another writer's story--Robert Parker's
inept and soulless Poodle Springs (a failed effort to replicate
Raymond Chandler). One thing, though--Jon "The Pencil"
Karp might have lived up to his name and trimmed a few pages from
this opus. (RB)
The Nobel Lecture 2003 – J. M. Coetzee (Viking,
22 pp)
This handsome little volume would be an indulgence for anyone interested
in Coetzee's remarks, as his Nobel
lecture is freely available online (as are all the Nobel valedictories).
But the point here is that this is a handsome little volume, with
an embossed caricature of Coetzee (by Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich)
adorning the naked (un-dust jacketed) cover boards. From the text,
entitled "He and his Man," an extended riff on Daniel
Defoe (and one of the more accessible passages), here is a taste:
"He does not read, he has lost the taste for it; but the writing
of his adventures has put him in the habit of writing, it is a pleasant
enough recreation. In the evening by candlelight he will take out
his papers and sharpen his quills and write a page or two of his
man, the man who sends report of the duckoys of Lincolnshire, and
of the great engine of death in Halifax, that one can escape if
before the awful blade can descend one can leap to one's feet and
dash down the hill, and of numbers of other things. Every place
he goes he sends report of, that is his first business, this busy
man of his." All right then. (RB)
A House On Fire: The Rise and Fall of Philadelphia
Soul – John A. Jackson (Oxford University Press, 352
pp)
You're going to have to put up with some turgid prose and some
quaintly obvious historical commentary if you are drawn to this
story. But this account of the geniuses Leon Huff, Kenny Gamble,
and Thom Bell, black hit-makers from Philadelphia who created the
Philly International record label and a treasure chest full of great
music, is a compelling story if you have any love for that music.
This is no Boogaloo, Arthur
Kempton's idiosyncratic but brainy survey of black popular music
of the twentieth century. But it fills in some of the spaces that
Kempton disregarded. Hats off to the Oxford University Press music
editor for taking on this book as well as some other nifty titles
(see below). (RB)
Nixon at the Movies – Mark Feeney (University
of Chicago Press, 422 pp)
One of the few reasons to the Boston Globe resides in
the columnists that ply their narrative craft within its pages.
Alex Beam, Katherine Powers, and Steve Bailey are reminders of the
power and ingenuity of that dwindling craft. Mark Feeney is also
a member of that small group. He takes a little-known fact, that
Richard Nixon watched about five hundred films while he was in the
White House--nearly two-and-a-half a week--and builds a fine story
from it. It is Feeney's argument that Nixon was the first true cinematic
president; his tenure in office infused with movies, and to make
that case Feeney unpacks the films and characters with which Nixon
identified. Needless to say, but it must be said, this is a fresh
and unorthodox look at Nixon's person and presidency. As venerable
biographer Robert A. Caro observes, "A thought provoking and
truly original book--a work filled with incisive insights into a
fascinating figure." (RB)
Love All the People: Letters, Lyrics and
Routines – Bill Hicks (Soft Skill Press, 340 pp)
Bill Hicks Live! – Bill Hicks (Rykodvd 220 min)
Bill
Hicks ("Think of me as Chomsky with dick jokes"),
who was acclaimed by those who knew of him as a great comic genius,
died at the age of thirty-three in 1994. He came to national prominence
when he was banned from the Letterman
Show for an unaired tirade against pro-lifers and the Pope:
You know who’s really bugging me these days?
These pro-lifers . . . (Smattering of applause.)
You ever look at their faces? . . . “I’m pro-life!”
(Here Bill makes a pinched face of hate and fear; his lips
are pursed as though he’s just sucked on a lemon.)
“I’m pro-life!” Boy, they look it, don’t
they? They just exude joie de vivre. You just want to hang with
them and play Trivial Pursuit all night long. (Audience chuckles.)
You know what bugs me about them? If you’re so pro-life,
do me a favor--don’t lock arms and block medical clinics.
If you’re so pro-life, lock arms and block cemeteries. (Audience
laughs.) ... I want to see pro-lifers at funerals opening
caskets--“Get out!” Then I’d really be impressed
by their mission. (Audience laughs and applauds.)
I’ve been traveling a lot lately. I was over
in Australia during Easter. It was interesting to note they celebrate
Easter the same way we do--commemorating the death and resurrection
of Jesus by telling our children a giant bunny rabbit ... left
chocolate eggs in the night. (Audience laughs.)
Gee, I wonder why we’re so messed up as a race. You know,
I’ve read the Bible. Can’t find the words “bunny”
or “chocolate” in the whole book. (Audience laughs.)
I think it’s interesting how people act on
their beliefs. A lot of Christians, for instance, wear crosses
around their necks. Nice sentiment, but do you think when Jesus
comes back, he’s really going to want to look at a cross?
(Audience laughs. Bill makes a face of pain and horror.)
Ow! Maybe that’s why he hasn’t shown up yet.
(As Jesus looking down from Heaven) “I’m
not going, Dad. No, they’re still wearing crosses--they
totally missed the point. When they start wearing fishes, I might
go back again.... No, I’m not going.... O.K., I’ll
tell you what--I’ll go back as a bunny.”
No surprise coming from a mind that asked, "Ever
noticed that people who believe in Creationism look really unevolved?"
This compendium includes a foreword by John Lahr, the piece he wrote
for the New Yorker ("The
Goat Boy Rises") on Hicks. Here, from its closing passages:
My son wandered into the kitchen and lingered to
eavesdrop on the conversation. At one point, he broke in. “I
don’t know how you have the courage to say those things,”
he said. “I could never talk like that in front of people.”
Hicks smiled but had no response. Saying the unsayable
was just his job. He analyzed the previous night’s performance,
which had been filmed for an HBO special. (It was broadcast in
September to good reviews.) “People watch TV not
to think,” he said. “I’d like the opportunity
to stir things up once, and see what happens. But I’ve got
a question. Do I even want to be part of it anymore? Show business
or art--these are choices. It’s hard to get a grip on me.
It’s also hard for me to have a career, because there’s
no archetype for what I do. I have to create it, or uncover it.”
To that end, he said, he and Fallon Woodland, a standup from Kansas
City, were writing “The Counts of the Netherworld,”
a TV comedy commissioned for England’s Channel 4 and set
in the collective unconscious of mankind. Hicks was doing a column
for the English satire magazine Scallywag. He was planning
a comedy album, called “Arizona Bay,” a narrative
rant against California with his own guitar accompaniment. Should
he stay in England, where he was already a cult figure, or return
to America? He recounted a joke on the subject by his friend Barry
Crimmins, another American political comedian. “‘Hey,
buddy,’ this guy says to him after a show. ‘America—love
it or leave it!’ And Crimmins goes, ‘What? And be
a victim of our foreign policy?’“
Bill Hicks Live! presents three of his filmed
performances: One Night Stand from the Old Vic Theatre in Chicago
(approx. 30 minutes), Revelations from the Dominion Theatre in London
(approx. 65 minutes), and Relentless, Bill’s breakout performance
at the Montreal Comedy Festival (approx. 70 minutes). This DVD focuses
on his act, with Hicks "hilariously assaulting the stage and
the audience with a non-stop cornucopia of insights into our twisted
world; the government, the military, the police, religion, smoking,
pornography, drugs and of course a couple of dick jokes." Hicks
was good. Really good, and the book and the DVD are strong evidence.
Yes, indeed. (RB)
Django: The Life and Music of A Gypsy
Legend – Michael Dregni (Oxford University Press, 272
pp)
Who has a better name that legendary Gypsy guitarist Jean Baptiste
"Django" (which means "I Awake") Reinhardt.
I remember as an adolescent coming to his music via a
composition named for him by John Lewis. He had written it for
the Modern Jazz Quartet and I had heard it on an album with Sonny
Rollins sitting with the MJQ. When I heard Django's signature tune
"Nuages" I was hooked. For life. Apparently, Reinhardt's
music is referred to as the soundtrack for Paris (Dregni states
this book is as much about Paris as it is about the gypsy guitarist),
frequently used in film soundtracks. Not much has been written about
his life except that he almost died in fire that paralyzed his left
hand, requiring him to relearn how to play his instrument with two
fingers. He died of a stroke in 1953. Among other things Michael
Dregni tracks down Django's first wife and conducts numerous other
first-person interviews. Better this bio than the hundredth Mark
Twain or George Washington biography. Nes pas? (RB)
Bacacay – Witold Gombrowicz (Archipelago,
272 pp)
Witold Gombrowicz's
life is a story unto itself. Archipelago
books presents this, the first published English language translation
of his legendary story collection. You haven't heard of this author,
whom Milan Kundera calls one of the great novelists of the twentieth
century? Not to worry, that's why I’m here. Louis
Begley opines "that he is one most original and gifted
writers of 20th century: he belongs at the summit with kindred spirits,
Kafka and Celine." This well designed book contains twelve
stories by Gombrowicz (seven first published in 1933) and as Bill
Johnston, who we are told admirably translated this volume maintains,
"There can be no doubt whatsoever that the stories in this
book are brilliantly original works that deserve a permanent place
in the canon of world literature. From the very beginnings of his
writing career, Gombrowicz was driven by an ambition to produce
literature of significance on the scale of not just Poland but of
Europe and the world. The stories published here show clearly that
from his first published works this ambition was realized."
(RB)
An Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire – Arundhati
Roy (South End Press, 156 pp)
The CheckBook and The Cruise Missile: Conversations
with Arundhati Roy – Arundhati Roy, David Barsamian (South
End Press, 178 pp)
Arundhati Roy is perhaps best known as the author of the Booker
Prize winning novel (1997) The God of Small Things. Most
recently she won the Sydney
Peace Prize, which champions nonviolence. (She has proposed
donating the $50,000 prize to Australian aboriginal activists campaigning
for Land Rights and social justice in Australia). Acknowledging
this honor, Roy responded, "Today, in a world convulsed by
violence and unbelievable brutality the lines between 'us' and 'the
terrorists' have been completely blurred… We don't have to
choose between Imperialism and Terrorism, we have to choose what
form of resistance will rid us of both. What shall we choose? Violence
or nonviolence? …We have to choose knowing that when we are
violent to our enemies, we do violence to ourselves. When we brutalize
others, we brutalize ourselves. And eventually we run the risk of
becoming our oppressors'." The Ordinary Person's Guide
is a collection of speeches Roy has given and as the unabashedly
progressive South Press maintains "are an impassioned call
to arms against 'the apocalyptic apparatus of the American empire'."
Or to quote Roy, "At a time when opportunism is everything,
when hope seems lost, when everything boils down to a cynical business
deal, we must find the courage to dream. To reclaim romance. The
romance of believing in justice, in freedom, and in dignity. For
everybody. We have to make common cause, and to do this we need
to understand how this big old machine works--who it works for and
who it works against. Who pays, who profits." The Checkbook
and the Cruise Missile is a collection with David Barsamian,
the well-regarded host of Alternative
Radio and the man Howard
Zinn calls the Studs Terkel of his generation includes conversations
between February 2001 to May 2003, with Roy. Here's a small sample:
David Barsamian: Let's talk a little bit about
the mass media in the United States. You write that "thanks
to America's 'free press,' sadly, most Americans know very little"
about the U.S. government's foreign policy.
Arundhati Roy: Yes, it's a strangely insular
place, America. When you live outside it, and you come here, it's
almost shocking how insular it is. And how puzzled people are--and
how curious, now I realize, about what other people think, because
it's just been blocked out. Before I came here, I remember thinking
that when I write about dams or nuclear bombs in India, I'm quite
aware that the elite in India don't want to know about dams. They
don't want to know about how many people have been displaced,
what cruelties have been perpetrated for their own air conditioners
and electricity. Because then the ultimate privilege of the elite
is not just their deluxe lifestyles, but deluxe lifestyles with
a clear conscience. And I felt that that was the case here too,
that maybe people here don't want to know about Iraq, or Latin
America, or Palestine, or East Timor, or Vietnam, or anything,
so that they can live this happy little suburban life. But then
I thought about it. Supposing you're a plumber in Milwaukee or
an electrician in Denver. You just go to work, come home, you
work really hard, and then you read your paper or watch CNN or
Fox News and you go to bed. You don't know what the American government
is up to. And ordinary people are maybe too tired to make the
effort, to go out and really find out. So they live in this little
bubble of lots of advertisements and no information. (RB)
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