Introduction to the Qur'an (W. Montgomery Watt and Richard Bell - 1970)

I would love to have a little better sense of the Koran (using spelling I'm most familiar with); have tried to approach it via a book or three (here, for example); not making much headway.  This book was favorably reviewed in part because it was released before the escalated tensions that seem to make authors overly cautious with their wording in more recent works.

But this one didn't help me much.  It was very focused on the text - pulling out various points at a greater level of detail than I could (or perhaps wanted to) handle.   There was quite a bit of discussion around historical context, but I would have preferred more.

Little or no progress based on this.

Year Zero - A History of 1945 (Ian Buruma, 2013)

Another look at the immediate aftermath of WWII - the amazing year of 1945 - insights into how countries tried to start over.

Often with significantly different demographics than obtained prior to the war.

I rather expected this to cover similar ground as this so-helpful work by Tony Judt - but the overlap isn't all that much - Buruma covers more countries (Asia, for example) but in less detail than Europe-focused Judt.  And he pretty much sticks to his "Year Zero" theme; Judt covers a longer time span.

There was a significant amount of "retribution" - but also a practical viewpoint - plenty of people who hadn't behaved all that well now were needed to make these countries work - an active process of forgetting, or overlooking, was pursued in so many cases.  As Judt discussed, this did lead to some backlash later.  But I don't know how these places could otherwise have functioned.

Returning POWs or campers often not all that welcome - or sympathized with - home front folks had their own problems (and opportunities!)

Useful discussion of a difficult situation that I think tends to be overlooked - huge decisions with corresponding consequences came down as WWII closed and the postwar period commenced.

The Sun Also Rises (Ernest Hemingway, 1926)

Book club selection (via Nick; session held June 12, 2016).

Last read back in 2005, per here.

While I wouldn't change the ranking expressed in 2005 regarding the three Hemingway novels most familiar to me - I will say that I found this novel quite a bit more interesting than I did back then.  Not entirely sure why.  Brett and Jake with a quite-nice love story even if it never would work; other men more or less used by Brett, if perhaps willingly. Robert Cohn; the count; Mike; sidekick Bill. Romero, Montoya.  Details around Paris; contrast with Spanish national character elements.

The bullfighting sequences are entirely foreign to me - can't imagine why folks enjoy - but then there's American football, boxing, etc.

The Transylvanian Trilogy - Volume I - They Were Counted (Miklos Banffy, 1934)

This sounded interesting, and I was willing to give it a try as part of an ongoing effort to get a better picture of eastern Europe, Balkans, etc. (for example, this, this and this within the last few months).

Quick read; debatable whether I'll go on and read the last two parts of the trilogy.

Author is telling a story of Hungarian aristocracy in the years just before World War I (as a result of which their world broke, irretrievably).  Two cousins are the main characters:  Balint Abady and Laszlo Gyeroffy.  They are headed down different paths.

Sometimes draggy but generally interesting discussion of early 20th century politics in this corner of the world - feeling pushed around by the emperor in Austria; the "Dual Monarchy" not seeming very well balanced.  Some are dreaming of incorporating Balkan states into the empire.  References to 1848 and 1867 episodes and influence on Hungary, Transylvania; Kossuth; but no references reaching back to Turkish occupation etc.

A reminder of how closely integrated this world was with all of western Europe; perhaps now the effect of the Iron Curtain is fading a bit and that integration is somewhat restored?  Romanian minorities (including folks on Balint's estates).  A sense of the geography of Transylvania - hinterlands even by the standards of these countries.

So much of the talk by the politicians would sound right at home in 2016 presidential campaign - phony patriotic appeals, identity politics, payoffs, etc.

Descriptions of of old houses - originally built with fortifications.

Balint interested in Adrienne and Laszlo interested in Klara.  Author burns a lot of time on this and it's the weakest part of the book - these portions are how I imagine a Harlequin romance would read.

Midnight's Furies - The Deadly Legacy of India's Partition (Nisid Hajari, 2015)

Interesting, useful.  Seemed like a good follow-on to this novel.

August 15, 1947.  Nehru, Jinnah, Gandhi, Patel.  Mountbatten.  Focuses on the run-up to, and aftermath of, the "Partition" - with enough background to help make sense of this for general readers like me.

Perhaps it's just this author's presentation - but in the un-resolvable discussion about the relative importance of individual leaders and what I'll call larger historical-social movements - as applied to these years, the role of the leaders seems unusually important.

Reactions:

1.  Of course everyone involved here can be subjected to criticism, and the author almost goes out of his way to balance his criticisms of the each "side."

2.  But I keep thinking that the fundamental error here was Jinnah insisting on a separate country for Muslims - even though he perhaps didn't even think it realistic in the early going - but when Britain faded and the opportunity came, he stuck to the "separate state" principle.  By definition, that results in the leadership (ultimately on both "sides") practicing the worst kind of identity politics - educating the public that the two groups can't get along and must be separated; endless opportunities to demonize the "other" - all the bad things about mixing state-and-religion that so much of the rest of the world (though certainly not all!) had largely worked through centuries ago.

3.  And it's a hopeless struggle in any event - as one starts dividing by religion, where does it end?  Among other examples, check out the role of the Sikhs here.  If religions need a state, why not Sikhistan?

4.  Still - had Britain retained any type of staying power - seems that partition likely would have been avoided.  Britain simply out of resources in the immediate aftermath of WWII.  It was obvious to Britain that things were proceeding down a dangerous path, but - in response - Britain accelerated its departure.  Quickest path "out" was to accede to partition despite the dangers.  Such an unusual situation.

5.  Lots of detail about the refugees, the slaughters, etc.  That part gets a little tiresome but helps explain why the two countries remain at odds.

6.  Gandhi past his prime, trying to stop the violence, still capable of swaying public opinion.  Assassination comes from Hindu right-wing.

7.  (Courtesy of KHG), I've been reading big chunks of Steve Coll's Ghost Wars - where among other things he explains Pakistan's role in radicalizing, funding, arming fundamentalist Islamic groups across the Afghan border - including the Taliban and OBL - Pakistan started using these folks for proxy wars against India going all the way back to Kashmir in the first year post-Partition - some very real and very negative consequences.  This author gets into the same subject matter.

8.  So much negative energy between the two countries from Partition down to the present.

Seems a shame that the leadership couldn't find a way to create a federal (or whatever term applies) structure that encouraged folks to work together inside a single country - without demonizing any "other" group or individual.  That should have happened.  No doubt there would have been plenty of growing pains, but it doesn't take much imagination to see what actually happened as far worse.  Now to make the best of it . . .