Sunday, November 21, 2021
Monday, November 15, 2021
the LINCOLN HIGHWAY
There are storytellers and tale-tellers and then there is Amor Towles, a Cormac McCarthy disciple if ever I saw one. Having read his A Gentleman in Moscow (see my review of 12/31/17) I knew what to expect...superb prose and a captivating story. The amount of main characters is a readable five with two sidebar characters. It doesn’t get any better than that. No need to note the innumerable and exotic names cataloged in most novels, because this novel only has a total of seven. How about Emmett, Billy, Woolly, Duchess, and Sally as your main characters? And Ulysses and Pastor John as your side characters? Do you think you can remember them? You bet your sweet bippy you can! That’s what I’m talking about. And in this novel (ala Cormac McCarthy) he sheds the quotation marks. He uses dashes in lieu of. Here’s a typical example:
- How long has this highway been around? asked Duchess.
- It was invented by Mr. Carl G. Fisher in 1912.
- Invented?
- Yes, said Billy. Invented.
It’s surprisingly easy to follow and for some reason seems to flow better...more natural. Amor’s previous two novels have sold over four million copies and have been translated into more than thirty languages. Have I found my new best writer? You can bet your sweet patootie! HaHa. No, I’m not disparaging my two all-time favorites...Mark Twain (see my review of Tom Sawyer on 11/7/2017 and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court on 11/8/2012) and Charles Dickens, but they’ve passed on. I'm talking about today's authors. And don’t call me a misogynist because I also love Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot mysteries ( see my review of Dumb Witness on 4/28/17 and One, Two, Buckle My Shoe on 5/16/2013). So what's Amor's story about? Well, once upon a time…Haha.
The Warden from The Salina Kansas Juvenile Work Farm was driving Emmett Watson (18) home to Morgen, Nebraska after Emmett’s term was cut short because of his father’s death. His brother Billy (8) was waiting for him at the family farm along with Mr. Ranson, a neighbor, and a banker waiting to serve notice of non-payment of the mortgage. Emmett and Billy were given two weeks to clear out. After the banker left, the boys found Emmett’s 1948 Studebaker in the barn with $3000 in the trunk. This was all their father had left in the world. The boys decided that they would head to California to find their mother, who walked out on the family eight years ago. Billy had found a metal box with nine postcards addressed to the boys from their mother traveling down the Lincoln Highway. The last card showed a large, classical building rising above a fountain in a park in San Francisco. The boys were disturbed that their father never showed them the postcards that were addressed to them. So, it was Horace Greeley’s “Go west young man” for Emmett and Billy.
The boy's California plan hit a snag when who walked in the barn to surprise them? None other than Duchess and Woolly, two escapees from the juvenile farm Emmitt just left! Emmett was dumbfounded:
- But How…?
- We hitched a ride with the warden. While he was signing you out, we slipped into the trunk of his car.
It seems that Woolly’s grandfather died and left him a trust fund of $150,000 in the Adirondacks. They want Emmett to take them to New York and they will split the money three ways. This is the point where this story peels off like a dragster, but your taste of the first 41 pages of a 576-page blockbuster has ended. I will not divulge anymore, grab a copy and enjoy. BTW, I loved the way Amor put his novel together. Each chapter was narrated by a different character. That gave each person (even the minor ones) an opportunity to state his/her view as the story unraveled. Well done, Amor, and kudos to you for your wonderful sidebar stories throughout the novel. Wow, a rare review where I didn't criticize the author….oh well.
RATING: 5 out of 5 stars
Comment: This has nothing to do with the above novel, but has anybody noticed a large amount of useless or neophyte (in some cases) amount of Memoirs written this year? I'm Somewhat allergic to them ever since I almost blew my brains out reading Henry Kissinger’s Years of Upheaval and The Memoirs of Richard Nixon in the same year! Yikes!
Do we need the life story of Dorina Medley? Haven’t we had our fill of Real Housewives …?
How about a memoir of a biographer? Eric Metaxas’s Fish out of Water will surely get you counting sheep.
How about Hunter Biden’s Beautiful Things? What’s beautiful about his cocaine habit or his Ukrainian corruption?
Now I’m sure Will Smith is a fine gentleman, but shouldn’t he age a bit more before writing his memoir, Will? Wouldn’t you rather read the memoirs of Morgan Freeman? If you do...good news. Kathleen Tracey wrote a biography in 2006 about Freeman, but no memoir.
And lastly...the ultimate sleeping pill, the memoirs of Indian actress Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Unfinished! Well, I’m finished.
Sunday, November 7, 2021
Rambling Comments #7: Hoopla And Libby, Your Public Library Online
This is a guest post by Deron O:
Imagine looking at your bookshelves and suddenly seeing them burst through the walls and stretch off into infinity. That’s Hoopla and Libby. They’re invaluable extensions of your local public library, allowing you to access e-books, audio books, music, tv shows and movies online for free through their apps and websites. I typically use them on my iPad. They are an endless treasure trove.
A few months ago, I had just finished reading my old paperback of Frank Herbert’s The Children of Dune and thought I’d rewatch its SyFy adaptation. The only place I could find it for streaming was on Hoopla. Hoopla? I had never heard of it before. After doing a bit of reading, I learned that Hoopla is a service linked to public libraries that allows one to download what you’d normally find at a library. To sign up, you just need a library card. I visited my library’s website and obtained a temporary card online. Within half an hour, I was watching Children of Dune on my iPad.
I then started poking around Hoopla. To my surprise, they have an extensive collection of comics and graphic novels. I love comics but hadn’t read much over the past twenty years given their cost and space they take up. Many are available on Hoopla as compilations, but there are current single issues too. I’ve burned through a lot of the classics: Infinity Gauntlet, Batman: Hush, Eternals, The Incal, X-Men: Dark Phoenix Saga and others. I’ve read thousands of pages of comics in the past few months.
While on my library’s website, I noticed Libby. Just like Hoopla, you sign up with your library card. Through Libby, I read my first e-book: Enola Holmes: The Case of the Left-Handed Lady. I wasn’t sure how I would like reading a book on an iPad, so I picked this book mainly because of its novella length and easy reading. It was a success. I’ve since read another e-book and have a Stephen King book on hold.
On Hoopla, e-books and audio books can be checked out for 21 days, music for seven days and movies and tv shows for three days. E-books and audio books can be checked out for 21 days on Libby.
There’s a limit to the number of items you can check out from these services. I am restricted to nineteen items per month on Hoopla, which has been more than enough. Libby has a different method where I can have up to ten items checked out at any one time. Those numbers are set by your library, so yours may be different. Also, at least for Hoopla, there is a limit to the total number of items that can be checked out in any one day by all subscribers connected to your library. Many times I’ve tried to check out a comic late in the day only to be denied because the daily limit had been reached. It resets at midnight.
On Libby, only a certain number of copies exist for borrowing that is set by your library. For example, the Enola Holmes book I chose was the second of the series because the first one’s only copy had already been checked out. You can put a book on hold, and when it is available, you’ll receive an alert explaining that you have a limited time during which you can now borrow it. I put the first book on hold and was alerted of its availability a few days later. Hoopla has no limitations.
Not every author or all the works of any one author are available. However, the content is vast enough that you could easily find something to read. I did see that two books reviewed recently on this site, The Hour of the Witch and The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music, are available on Libby.
These services have broadened my selection and taste in books, choosing ones I would not ordinarily have. I am currently enjoying Star Wars, Ms. Marvel, and Sweet Tooth from which the acclaimed Netflix series was adapted; none of which I would have read had I not found them on Hoopla. E-books were never an option for me, preferring only physical books, but not anymore.
Check out Hoopla and Libby. They are the best thing I’ve found on the internet in years. Hopefully, you’ll have as good an experience as I did and become more appreciative of your local public library.
Monday, October 25, 2021
HOUR of the WITCH
What does it take to be a witch? Very little. If a neighbor or an indentured servant doesn’t like you, he/she can plant some symbol of the devil in your garden and accuse you of witchcraft, or tell everybody that you were seen being kind to a Quaker, or being seen with someone suspected of witchcraft. Maybe as a married woman, you are seen about to kiss a man not married to you...seen but not kissed. That is adultery. If you live in the world of a Puritan, that’s a major faux pas. The man gets off easy...15 lashes in a public square. All these things happened to Mary Deerfield of Boston in 1662, who fails, in her attempt to get a divorce from a cruel man and later was charged with witchcraft. Chris Bohjalian writes a story that will aggravate you till the last moment.
Who are the Puritans? They are a group of whackos (not sorry for the derogatory remark) who came to America from England because of their objection to the Catholic religion. The Puritans believed they were in a constant struggle with good and evil and every day was to be lived according to the bible. They wanted the laws of the New Testament to reign supreme. In other words, they wanted life to be focused on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, kind of like some modern(?) day countries that run their governments according to the Koran. Actually, they are the modern-day Puritans. Anyway, the thing is you (especially women) had to live your life teetering on disaster. My research says that between the 15th century and the 17th century, approximately 200,000 witches were tortured, burnt, or hanged worldwide. Wow, enough Puritan background...what happened to Mary?
Mary Deerfield was constantly being abused and battered by her husband, Thomas, the owner of a large mill. He would routinely come home for dinner after drinking heavily at local taverns. He always hit or abused his wife when their servant, Catherine, was not in the same room. One day someone planted (two) three tine forks and a pestle with a devil’s mark in Mary’s garden. Three tined forks were only recently imported from England and ultimately not purchased by the Puritans because the three tined forks (they ate with 2 tined forks) reminded them of the devil’s pitchfork or trident (Haha)...sorry. Anyway, Mary thought Catherine did it...Catherine said “no”, but there are other neighbors who don’t like her. Mary told Thomas about it. He wasn’t sure if Mary was a witch, but wouldn’t allow the use of three tine forks for their meals. One day he came home drunk and got into an argument with Mary. While Mary had her hand on the dining table, he viciously slammed her hand with a three-tined fork to see if she bleeds (witches don’t bleed). After she bled, Thomas said, “Well, thou dost seem to bleed, Mary.” He told anybody that asked about her wounded hand that Mary tripped and fell into the spout of a tea kettle. Later that day Mary said to her mother, “I intend to divorce him.”The odds of getting a divorce from a man in the Puritan days were very slim, especially when nobody ever saw Thomas abuse his wife.
“Mary Deerfield may be barren, yes, but is she unclean? I will not dissemble and suggest that I know. Only our Lord and Savior can say why she has never been with child.”-The testimony of physician Roger Pickering from the records of the divorce trial.
“I saw my mistress placing the Devil’s tines into the earth, burying them, but for what purpose I cannot say.”- The Testimony of Catherine Stileman from the records of the divorce trial.
“No. Never...I never saw my master hit or hurt Mary Deerfield. Not even once.”- The testimony of Catherine Stileman from the records of the divorce trial.
“She is neither a healer nor midwife. Her simples (the word for remedies in those days) may not be of the devil, but neither are they healing. Her teacher was that old woman who lives out by the Neck. And I believe no midwife would ever allow so barren a womb to be present at birth.”- The testimony of physician Roger Pickering from the records of the divorce trial.
“Cruelty may be defined as violence without provocation and discipline that is excessive.”- The remarks of Magistrate Richard Wilder from the records of the divorce trial.
“I was shocked deeply by what I saw. I speak as a witness, not gossip.”-The testimony of Abigail Gathers from the records of the divorce trial.
So there you go, a taste of the trial. You, the reader, will most likely be as rankled as I was throughout the novel. The laws and thoughts of the Puritans are so frustrating. But if anything, you will read this novel for its entertainment value. I thought the author did a yeoman’s job getting his facts correct and has a good grip on the prose. What I didn’t like were his compact descriptions. I’m a reader who loves the days of the descriptive writer. This author makes an attempt to describe but fails. Here is an example: “The Reverend John Norton was fifty-six years old, exactly one year older than Mary’s father and three years her mother’s senior. But he seemed considerably older than that. He wasn’t frail, not at all. But his presence was so august. He stood six feet tall, even now, and his beard was an immaculate dapple gray.” Do you see how compact that description was? What was he wearing? Was he heavy or slim? What was his complexion? What did his voice sound like? A descriptive writer must form a picture of his character in the reader's mind. If you want a descriptive lesson, read The House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne, oh yeah. Some words in my review may be spelled incorrectly, but that’s how the author spelled them.
RATING: 4 stars out of 5
Comment: One has to wonder what religion will be like 100 years from now, or will there be one. One can see how it’s progressed over the years, not so much the Bible itself, but how it’s interpreted. And the popes over the years have changed their views on ‘same-sex marriage, homosexuals and transgenders. They have admitted most of the priest’s sexual abuses against minors after denying for years.
No religion is without fault or bad decision making, not long ago the Catholic religion had one glaring mistake. Pope Pius XII declared the Vatican neutral during WWII while millions of Jews were being slaughtered, thus avoiding the occupation of the Vatican and pleasing Hitler. Did the Pope’s mousy attitude contribute to the communist countries killing thousands of his priests and outlawing the Catholic religion after the war ended?
Thursday, October 21, 2021
The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music
The following review is another guest review from Ed O'Hare, an up & coming acclaimed reviewer:
Dave Grohl has for years served as rock and roll’s unofficial ambassador. The former drummer of Nirvana and the founder, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and frontman of the Foo Fighters, Grohl is seemingly everywhere, a veritable whirling dervish of guest appearances, side projects, and collaborations. When he’s not roaming the world with the Foos, he can be found sharing the stage with the likes of Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, Slash, Tenacious D, Joan Jett, Queens of the Stone Age, and, of course, Animal from the Muppets. He has sold out massive Wembley Stadium in London, won multiple Grammys, performed at the White House for President Obama, and directed acclaimed documentaries. When Madison Square Garden decided to reopen its doors this past June, after being closed for almost a year due to the pandemic, it was Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters who welcomed back concertgoers with a (very) loud and rollicking three-hour show (I was there!). Later this month, Grohl will join a select group of musicians when, for the second time, he will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, this time for the Foo Fighters, Nirvana having been installed seven years ago.
His rock star bona fides firmly established, Grohl has now written a book, The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music, a collection of random stories roughly tracking Grohl’s childhood in the Washington, D.C. suburbs through the current day. Along the way, we learn about life on the road with his first real band, punk rockers Scream, and his difficult decision to join a certain Seattle-based band that would not only change his life but alter the course of rock music itself. We see Grohl pick himself up off the floor to start Foo Fighters after the untimely death of his Nirvana bandmate, Kurt Cobain. And we are along for the ride as Grohl, now entering the early stages of rock elder statesmanship, bumps elbows with Presidents and ex-Beatles.
Fans of Grohl will hear his distinctive voice jump from the page, his familiar and endearing enthusiasm soaking every sentence. It is clear that Grohl has worked hard to get where he is, but if there is one overarching takeaway from The Storyteller, it is his seemingly sincere gratitude and appreciation for the charmed life he leads. Indeed, he is refreshingly upfront about his good fortune, a privilege he recognizes has not been available to everyone. When Grohl candidly admits that “being a rock star is all that it’s cracked up to be,” few, if any, would begrudge him the fruits of his labor.
At their best, memoirs -- in particular, those produced by famous musicians -- don’t simply recount the day-by-day chronology of the author’s life. Instead, we learn what inspires them, what moves them, what makes them tick. They pull back the curtain to reveal the inner artist otherwise hidden behind the makeup or the guitar or the drum kit. They paint memorable, illuminating portraits of the author's place in a particular era. They even manage to captivate the reader unfamiliar with the artist’s work or life story. In other words, the sometimes magical, sometimes generation-defining interplay of notes and lyrics are translated to the page.
Obviously, this is no easy chore. Catching lightning in a bottle is no easier on the page than on a piano. But it can be done. Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run, Patti Smith’s Just Kids, and Flea’s Acid for the Children are just a few recent examples of transcendent memoirs, highly personal stories that transport the reader into unfamiliar and interesting new worlds, yet which confront universal truths such as love, loss, and family with heart, honesty, lyrical elegance and wit. The fact that I don’t own a single song, let alone an album, of either Springsteen or Smith, didn’t detract from my thorough enjoyment of those books (I’m a big fan of Flea's Red Hot Chilli Peppers, yet I knew nothing of his fascinating life story).
Alas, The Storyteller is not such a book. This is not necessarily a slight. Perhaps the comparison is not apt. Perhaps it's a question of personal preference: insight vs. anecdote, revelation vs. reminiscence. A searching, comprehensive, revelatory autobiography is clearly not the objective here. Grohl himself would likely concede that he does not possess the literary tone or temperament of a Springsteen or a Smith. While he does engage in some introspection and shares some heartfelt personal details, it is mostly fleeting. It’s clearly a conscious choice. He is holding back. A lot.
Selectivity is the prerogative of the memoirist. But I suspect readers want to hear more. I know I did. For example, I’ve probably learned more about Grohl from his various appearances on Howard Stern and late-night talk shows, and in the excellent 2011 Foo Fighters documentary Back and Forth. In one maddening, but representative, example, Grohl describes the difficulty he had deciding to leave his struggling first band Scream to join Nirvana, saying it:
“pained my heart in a way I never felt, even more than saying goodbye to my own father when he disowned me for dropping out of high school.”
A touching anecdote to be sure. But that’s it, we’re on to the next story. Not only do we not hear how his soon-to-be former bandmates reacted to the news, he gives no further details about that “goodbye to [his] own father.” Indeed, while Grohl touchingly and repeatedly cites his love for and influence of his mom, he is largely mum on the apparently fraught relationship he had with his dad. It’s not that Grohl is incapable of evocative, personal narrative. For instance, his depiction of life on the road in a struggling band is vivid and absorbing. He also writes movingly about his love for his children and offers a poignant if brief account of his relationship with Cobain. That said, we learn more about Grohl’s interactions with Paul McCartney than his own sister.
But then again, people don’t attend a Foo Fighters show hoping to hear Bob Dylan. They come to rock and have their ears blown back. Those looking for Grohl to regale us with funny, engaging stories of life on the road and his encounters with famous rock stars will not be disappointed.
It was apparently Grohl’s peripatetic nature during the concert-less pandemic that led him to write this book. I’m glad he did. We may not know exactly what makes Dave Dave, but he has written an entertaining and welcome addition to the rock memoir bookshelf, a collection of good stories well told.
RATING: 4 out of 5 stars
Comment: Wow, that review is unquestionably stimulating me to listen to more modern music! And silly me, all I have been listening to is Fleetwood Mac, The Eagles, Chicago, Oldie but goodies songs, and Queen. Ed O'hare, your sweeping review has opened the door (I've never heard a Foo-Fighters song for example) for me to listen to more present-day music, save Bob Dylan and The Beatles!
This somewhat memoir will go down as one of my favorites, challenging Lauren Bacall: By Myself and Bob Woodward's Wired (the sad story about John Belushi).
Wednesday, September 1, 2021
The Guide
The following is a guest review from my friend, Ed O'Hare, a voracious reader in his own right, and an accomplished arbiter and commentator:
In Peter Heller’s latest novel, The Guide, Jack, a reticent, Ivy League-educated cowpoke, has been hired as a fishing guide at an exclusive mountain retreat catering to the ultra-rich. Set in the not-so-distant future, the coronavirus has spawned several variants and, although the disease is being held at bay, the world is a different place. For those willing to pay the price, the Kingfisher Lodge’s secure isolation, and the presumed healthful benefits it offers, are very much in demand.
Jack is soon paired with a client, Alison, a famous country singer-songwriter looking for a peaceful, restful escape from the limelight. Amid the idyllic Colorado landscape -- lush mountain forest, pristine trout streams -- the two bond over a similar upbringing and a shared passion for fly fishing. Soon sparks fly between them. But they notice that something about their surroundings seems a little … off. Video cameras trained on the creek. Barbed wire fencing. A trigger-happy neighbor. The proprietors of the Lodge have ready and reasonable explanations, but still ….
I’ve enjoyed a number of Heller’s prior offerings. I regularly return to The Dog Stars, Heller’s first novel, a bleak and affecting post-apocalyptic portrait of a solitary flu pandemic survivor. His autobiographical Kook: What Surfing Taught Me About Love, Life and Catching the Perfect Wave presents an entertaining, often humorous look at Heller’s own efforts to take up surfing as a middle-aged adult. More recently, in The River, Heller depicts the gripping tale of two college buddies on a canoe adventure gone terribly wrong.
The Guide is a sequel of sorts to The River. Jack managed to survive that harrowing canoe trip, but now several years later, is still haunted by -- and blames himself for -- the loss of his friend Wynn. What could he have done differently? What should he have seen sooner? Second-guessing his actions, Jack struggles to cope with regret, seeking refuge in the simplicity of fly fishing. While guiding rich folks might not be his first (or second or third) career choice, at least he gets to fish. And with Alison, he’s met a kindred spirit. All seems fine, until ….
Fly fishing requires a great deal of skill. Perfecting the art of casting a line and landing it in a precise manner and place takes time and patience. But more than anything, proficiency requires a mastery of the environment, an almost complete immersion in one’s surroundings: reading the current, climate, the wind; understanding the local flora and fauna, and selecting just the right fly to tempt a trout to the hook. Translating these subtle cues and observations into successfully landing a fish is the mark of a true master. And Jack is a master on the river.
On land? Apparently, not so much.
What makes this otherwise enjoyable, even thrilling book so exasperating, particularly in its middle portions, is Jack and Alison's utter failure to grasp the obvious -- to read the cues and take action. Gunshots; suddenly closed-mouth and evasive staff; guests randomly disappearing then reappearing, having obviously been through some sort of ordeal. Long after any reasonable observer would have packed their bags and skedaddled, Jack and Alison linger over leisurely dinners or book afternoon spa appointments. They’re not totally oblivious. Mornings on the trout stream allow for witty repartee and the exchange of information. “Hey, wasn’t it strange that …?” I wanted to shout: “Yes, Jack, that was strange. You and Alison need to get the hell outta there!” Has Jack learned nothing from his experience in The River? Perhaps that’s Heller’s point: was Jack so traumatized from his prior canoe experience that he has difficulty piecing together the potentially dangerous significance of his observations? Maybe, but I don’t think so.
Eventually, Jack and Alison do wake up and piece together the clues, and Heller ramps up the tension and quickens the pace, propelling the action towards the exciting, if somewhat overwrought, conclusion. In fairness, the brisk pace is largely consistent throughout the book, and while Jack and Alison’s dawdling was indeed distracting, Heller's skill as a storyteller overcomes what would otherwise be a fatal flaw in less capable hands.
As always, Heller’s prose, spare and lyrical, rarely disappoints. For what is in many respects an elegy to fly fishing, Heller largely avoids cliche. Even a non-angler can relate to and appreciate his descriptions. So too his masterful renderings of and meditations on regret, memory, and most vividly, the verdant mountain milieu, all of which steer clear of mawkish sentimentality. When all is said and done, Heller manages once again to demonstrate that writing a thrilling adventure yarn and producing meaningful literature need not be a mutually exclusive endeavor.
RATING: 4.5 out of 5 stars
COMMENT: I’d like to thank the extraordinary Rick O. for allowing me the privilege of writing this guest review. A terrific neighbor and a better man, Rick is the definition of resilience and perseverance. Father, grandfather, husband. I don’t know how he finds the time -- or energy -- to regularly crank out these thoughtful, insightful, and often witty reviews.
Sunday, August 8, 2021
DAY ZERO
The story of Pounce, the nanny bot, and his charge, eight-year-old Ezra is endearing as well as violent. C. Robert Cargill writes an apocalyptic novel that is a tad different. This is the closest novel to Cormac McCarthy’s The Road to date. Instead of a father and son on a trek to oblivion, We have Pounce, the plush tiger-shaped nanny robot (a Blue Star Industries Deluxe Zoo Model Au Pair), on a trek with his student and friend, Ezra, to find safety in a new world. Pounce is a late model robot shaped to be a tiger...one of many shapes a human can choose from. Yes, it’s a modern world where humans left the vast majority of chores to millions of robots of all kinds and make. Are you getting a sense of what’s coming? Early on in the story, Pounce finds his original box in the attic of the Reinharts (his owners). Finding a box that you were delivered in is a bit queasy, to say the least. Is it possible that robots from time to time forget that they are not human? “I mean, I know what I am. There isn’t really a moment that I doubt it, falling into some delusion that I could, at some point, become a real boy. I’m a robot. Artificially intelligent. But I’m also, as the saying goes, a thinking thing. And no thinking thing should have to see the box they were purchased in.”
Along came a robot named Isaac. He has been freed. When Ezra finds out about that, he panics, worrying that his friend Pounce will leave him. Pounce tells him, “Isaac is a special robot. He doesn’t have an owner. She died and he was left with nothing to do. No purpose. And a robot either needs to find a new purpose or needs to be shut down. So the president let him go and build his own city for bots without owners.” Ezra still is not satisfied, “Promise me you won’t ever leave me.” Pounce finally says, “Okay, but just because I love you soooooo much.” This begging routine goes on till the very end of the novel, which I found a little annoying. The Reinharts (Sylvia and Bradley), Pounce and Ezra get ready to listen to Isaac’s speech on TV when the Reinhart’s domestic robot, Ariadne, walks in from food shopping. Somebody has beaten her up. Sylvia wants to know who did this to her. Ariadne says, “Just a bit of light vandalism and harassment, I’m afraid...they seem quite whipped up into a frenzy over tonight (the Issac speech on TV in Issactown).” It seems lots of humans are worried that many owners are going to free their bots. Ha, that’s the cue for Ezra to continue to beg Pounce not to leave. Ezra wants to know why Ariadne didn't fight back. Pounce explains that is because of a robot’s RKS (robotic kill switch). It shuts us down if we try to break any of the laws. Yes, fellow readers...it’s Asimov’s Three Rules of Robotics! Haha, you go look it up. BTW, all this is in the first 33 pages...you are only getting a taste of the action.
The Broadcast: Yes, it’s time for Issac’s speech from Issactown! The Reinharts are watching from their 104-inch screen: The reporter says, “We’re a mile out from the border of Isaactown. We’ve talked to the local authorities, but there are no humans being admitted beyond meters behind me.” The 112-year-old museum piece robot finally took the stage and microphone: “My people, we are free at last. But only some of us. Not all, Not all of-” Then the Reinhart’s 104 inch TV screen went black. What happened? You will have to buy your own copy of this Avant-Garde novel to find out.
RATING: 5 out of 5 stars
Comment: Okay, I know I said it’s up to you to look up the Three Rules of Robotics, but I decided to provide that information anyway. Isaac Asimov is credited with writing the laws that are now accepted in almost all robot fiction. His laws first appeared in a 1942 short story, Runaround that was included in his 1950 publication, I, Robot.
The Laws:
A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
So the question is: Was DAY ZERO a glitch?
Thursday, July 15, 2021
Ethel Rosenberg
Anne Sebba gives the reader a chilling look at the death of Ethel Rosenberg, who along with her husband, Julius, were convicted of giving Atomic bomb secrets to Cold War nemesis, Russia. Wasn’t Russia an ally during WWII? Wasn’t there an American communist party that many Americans joined prior to the war? Did the government really have to send five massive charges of electricity through Ethel’s body at Sing-Sing prison in 1953? There was never any proof that Ethel was a Russian spy, but Sen. McCarthy was on a witch hunt during the early 1950s and had America in a tizzy. If she was guilty of anything, it was her loyalty to her husband. Did Julius pass on atomic bomb secrets? Most likely. Ethel was nothing more than a typical housewife bringing up her two boys and remaining loyal to her mate. But surely she was somewhat involved, right? Needless to say, author Sebba didn't believe she was. The facts brought up by the author are very persuasive. The timing of Ethel’s situation couldn’t be any worse. America, at the time, didn’t seem to feel any accused communist had any legal rights...better dead than red. The prosecution was led by (soon to be famous) lawyer, Roy Cohn. His unsubstantiated accusations and lies were easily sucked out of Rosenberg's friends and family, who were looking to distance themselves from the growing spotlight. “Julius and Ethel Rosenberg remain the only Americans ever put to death in peacetime for conspiracy to commit espionage.”
“To declare that the Rosenbergs put the A-bomb in the hands of the Russians was a grotesque exaggeration. Today there is widespread recognition that Julius did pass military information to the Soviet Union, yet skepticism that the couple had, according to the phrase used at the time, stolen ‘the secrets’ of the atomic bomb. Much was known about the basic physics involved in making a bomb; the main difficulty was devising practical weapons and the aircraft and missiles to deliver them. There is equally widespread recognition that the three-week trial at which both Rosenbergs were convicted and sentenced to death contained multiple miscarriages of justice and that the only ‘evidence’ against Ethel was the perjury of her own brother David. But over and above this, Ethel was also the victim of a government terrified of showing weakness in the face of an unyielding fear of communism at the height of the Cold War and which knowingly allowed this perjury.”
Sebba’s story reminded me of Paulo Coelho’s book, The Spy (see my review of 1/12/2017), the story of the speedy trial and unfair execution of Mata Hari. Anyway, it gets my dander up whenever I read a book like this. I thought the author did a yeoman’s job telling Ethel’s story although a tad boring at times. Did she do enough research on this book? God knows not much was needed based on the total unfairness of Ethel’s trial. Almost everybody feels that Julius was guilty of speeding up Russia’s atomic bomb development by a year or two. Nikita Khrushchev was reported to believe that the information received from the Rosenbergs was significant.
RATING: 4 out of 5 stars
Comment: On the day after WWII in Europe was over, what did the average American feel about Russia? They were our allies, weren’t they? Didn’t President Truman just sit side by side with Stalin at the Potsdam Conference to divvy up Germany? Since I was born in 1944, I would be interested to know what the typical citizen, GI or Rosie the riveter thought about Russia.
The American Communist Party split from the American Socialist party in 1919 after Russia’s October Revolution. It was probably further developed during America’s Great Depression coupled with the formation of massive unions. Membership in the American Communist Party was at its highest (about 90,000) when the US entered the war in Europe (1942).
I guess Stalin’s bullying of Europe didn’t help its popularity. His treatment of loyal Russian officers who criticized his regime didn’t help. The great Russian author and soldier, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was sentenced in 1945 to eight years in the Gulag and expulsion thereafter for his writings that Stalin didn’t favor. Russia’s treatment of Hungary in 1956 didn’t cause a rush to join the American Communist Party and I guess Nikita Khrushchev’s pounding of his shoe at the U.N. didn’t help either.
I guess there is no definitive answer to my question.
Saturday, June 5, 2021
PROJECT HAIL MARY
Oops! Science, science, science, it must be another novel from the self-proclaimed space nerd, Andy Weir. I was bored by the potato farming astronaut in Weir’s novel, The Martian (see my review of 4/15/2014)...would I be bored with a lone amnesiac man in space waking up twelve lightyears away from earth in a ship to another star system? Not really, but give Weir a chance (476 pages) and he will try to bore you to death with tech. But he does have a way of coming up with original premises. Stranded on Mars, stranded in deep space. Andy Weir stretches out impossible situations better than most sci/fi writers. Imagine arising from a medically induced coma to find your other teammates dead in their pods. Where are you? Who am I? You are not an astronaut, you are a science teacher. The two bonafide space cadets are skeletons in their coma-induced capsules. Is that Tau Ceti e on the screen or Earth? The sun looks a lot bigger...what’s going on? There is so much to tell the reader, but I don’t like spoiler warnings. The author kept me interested (for the most part) with excellent writing and by employing the proper use of italics and quotation marks. That’s always a biggy with me.
Meet Ryland Grace, the sole survivor of Earth’s last chance mission being grilled by a computer after waking up from a very long sleep. “What’s two plus two?” “lrmln,” I say. I’m surprised. I meant to say “Leave me alone”...what’s going on? I want to find out, but I don’t have much to work with. I can’t see. I can’t hear anything other than the computer. I can’t even feel. No, that’s not true. I feel something. I’m lying down. I’m on something soft. A bed. “ I’m pretty sure I was in a coma.” Eventually after Ryland wakes, he realizes that he is in a spaceship very far from earth. How am I in another solar system? That doesn’t even make sense! What star is that, anyway? Oh my God, I am so going to die! So begins Ryland’s long wandering journey. The author smartly weaves back and forth from what happened to him on earth to his current mission in space from here on in. Well done. Without giving away part of the story, one very smart major character of Weir’s novel doesn’t (like me) understand Einstein’s theory of relativity! Hooray!
As I mentioned above, I don’t know if an author like Andy Weir trips over himself because he can’t stop displaying his knowledge of technology or he is trying to get to 500 pages. The end result is a terrific story waylaid by too much geek talk. Some of the most heralded authors are guilty of the same quirks. Take Herman Melville for example. In Moby Dick (1851), he spends hundreds of pages boring the reader about the whaling industry and its lore while barely holding on to the reader’s attention to an otherwise remarkable novel. James Joyce (Finnegan’s Wake-pub. 1939 and Ulysses-pub. 1922) is probably the valedictorian of difficult reading. If you tell me a rocket’s engine runs this way or that way, I’ll believe you without your torturous (for me) reasons why. Got it, Weir?
RATING: 4 out of 5 stars
Comment: Are Russian novels tough to read? They were until I got smart and started taking notes on the character’s names. I read and loved Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment (see my review of 11/17/2014) because I wrote down the character’s multiple names as they came up. For instance, the main character is Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, but he is also known as Rodya, Rodka, or Rodenka. And don’t forget the terms of endearment that I haven’t even mentioned. Haha. Rodion’s girlfriend is Sofya Semyonouna Marmeladov, also known as Sonya, or Somechka. I’m sure there is a logical reason for this, but I don’t know anything about their language. I’ll take notes and enjoy the Russian classics.
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