Jerusalem - The Biography (Simon Sebag Montefiore, 2011)

Book had received glowing reviews - and clearly deserved them.  This is one of the more helpful things I've read recently.  Bought it. Will use it for reference.

Author is a descendant of one of the leading Jewish families in Jerusalem (his great great uncle plays a prominent role).  Author - I hadn't heard of him previously - apparently he is known for writing popular histories.  But in his case this is a plus - as best I can tell, he's managed to write useful, balanced books that also are highly readable.

Jerusalem is a relatively small, remote town.  That somehow became ground zero for the three Abrahamic religions.  The history is simply unbelievable.

Hopefully any government official with any decision-making authority about sending Americans into this part of the world will have read this book carefully.  (And plenty of other materials.)  The issues run deep here in ways we cannot really fathom.

I like how he handles the Old Testament era - it's interesting how archaeology continues to confirm some of the Biblical figures (plenty others remain in myth-status).  David.  Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians.  Herod.  Paul of Tarsus - labeled "The Creator of Christianity" here - which is a pretty interesting thought.

Muhammad's seemingly tenuous connection to Jerusalem.  Turned into something big.  Crusaders.  Byzantines.  Richard the Lionhearted.  Saladin.  Ottomans, and periods of obscurity.

Napoleon's ill-fated Mideast tour spawns bestsellers and renewed Western interest.  Christian evangelicals - many in U.S. - see linkage to the last days.  Russians pour in.  Mark Twain.  WWI, Zionism.  1948.  1967.

Useful discussion how the Christians, Muslims and Jews all have so many sub-sects floating around, often at odds with each other.  The conflicts aren't just among the three major strands.

A city absolutely unlike any other.

The Song of Achilles (Madeline Miller, 2012)

I liked this, and would recommend it.  But the reviewers were so enthusiastic that I think my expectations were set too high.

This is the story of Achilles - with the twist being
that it is told from the perspective of Patroclus (who was a significant character in the Iliad, but not that big a deal).

In this book, the boy Achilles selects Patroclus to be his special friend - an unlikely choice.  Achilles has a goddess-mother who doesn't care for Patroclus.  Achilles is fated to be the best warrior of his time, and there are some other unpromising prophecies about his future.

The two grow up together, including a couple years being trained by a centaur.  Patroclus and Achilles do turn out to be special friends.  Then comes the abduction of Helen and the Trojan War.

Quick read, creative approach, I liked the last couple chapters.

Hadn't realized that the story of Achilles' unprotected heel (targeted by archer Paris) was a later add-on (not part of the original Greek story).

Demons (Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1872)

I find that I like Dostoevsky more and more.  There is so much going on in this particular novel - I won't try to summarize the plot or characters - all that's available on wikipedia and elsewhere.  Characters are interesting, nuanced, surprising.  Might be my favorite work of his.

Mostly in this work, it seems Dostoevsky was looking around at a rapidly-changing Russia - behind the West in many ways and grappling with a raft of ideas originating from the West - and was able to see that utopia (or even simply "here's the path to fundamental change and improvement") is often promised by folks who turn out to be the most dangerous type of charlatan.  The pitch - as offered today but typically in a more disguised fashion - is that the promiser knows what is good for all, better than the "all" could ever figure out on their own.  Dostoevsky also saw that these proclaimers of extreme change, nihilism and the like can so easily end up as "demons" in the society.  All of this might sound obvious now - but certainly mustn't have seemed that way for change-promisers and their hearers in the 1860s and early 70s.

He also observed the futility of the responses of the conservative ruling classes and government authorities in dealing with the new ideas.  

I loved how he started with an epigraph (from St. Luke's Gospel) and then brought the 700-page novel back around to it via a glimmer of sad understanding by Stepan Trofimovich ("Now a large herd of swine was feeding there on the hillside; and they begged him to let them enter these.  So he gave them leave.  Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.")

Stepan's son is a key character - trying to organize a revolutionary cell.  Nikolai Stavrogin - enigmatic, cold, ultimately capable of experiencing guilt.

The discussions (most interesting) among the cell members and others go over many of the political philosophy ideas of the day.  And typically sound incredibly modern.  

With hindsight knowledge of how things turned out in Russia, it's pretty easy to call Dostoevsky more-than-prescient in this book.

A few others thoughts:

1.  Behaviors by some characters reminiscent of Turgenev's Bazarov.  I learned Dostoevsky thought very little of Turgenev, even caricatured him in this novel (via the writer Karmazinov).

2.  Stepan Trofimovich is perceptive:  "why is it that all these desperate socialists and communists are at the same time such incredible misers, acquirers, property-lovers, so much so that the more socialist a man is, the further he goes, the more he loves property?"

3.  His son is honest about these so-called people's revolutions:  "No, this democratic scum with its fivesomes [the cells were divided into groups of five] is a poor support; what we need is one splendid, monumental, despotic will, supported by something external and not accidental . . . then the fivesomes will also put their tails of obedience between their legs, and their obsequiousness will occasionally come in handy."  Lenin, Stalin, Castro et al would heartily concur.

4.  Very touching moment when Shatov's wife returned, and he borrows tea from Kirillov.

5.  The overriding mindset of too many of these social engineering types (who profess that goal while simply seeking power):  "We alone will remain, having destined ourselves beforehand to assume power:  we shall rally the smart ones to ourselves, and ride on the backs of the fools . . . This generation must be re-educated to make it worthy of freedom."  Exactly the discussion from this Communist-era novel.  

Birthday gift from Nedda and Paul Jr.  A good one.

Between Man and Beast - An Unlikely Explorer, The Evolution Debates, and the African Adventure that Took the Victorian World by Storm (Monte Reel, 2013)

Easy read, not terribly enlightening.  Biographical regarding Paul du Chaillu - something of an outsider with West African/French roots, then spent some time in the U.S.  Got the idea of forming an expedition into west Africa - his old stomping grounds in Gabon - with primary purpose (if undisclosed) of bringing back gorilla skins.  Gorilla largely unknown at this time - 1856 - (author says du Chaillu encountered "lowland" gorillas; the "mountain" gorillas of Diane Fossey fame weren't known to whites until around 1900).

His timing overlapped precisely with the finalization and publication of  Darwin's "Origin of Species" and accompanying debates.  He was an amateur explorer - though apparently brave and effective - with a gift for recounting tales.  And tales about gorillas couldn't have fit better with the debates about evolution, man compared to apes, etc.  He was accepted and sponsored by some of the big names in the Royal Geographical Society (England) - panned by plenty of others.

The "Gorilla Quadrille" - oh wow.

One of my main reasons for reading this is a desire to get a better handle on Victorian England - it had some value in this regard.  For example, it explained Charles Mudie's lending library and its effect on novelists - even the big names modified their approach to fit his demands.

I've read plenty of other books about African exploration that were more interesting, however.  Not particularly recommended.

The Winter of our Discontent (John Steinbeck, 1961)

This was a recommendation from CPG, who has been going through various Steinbeck novels.  I liked it - it's one of Steinbeck's later works, and I think it was rather complicated and interesting.  Definitely worth reading.

I had gotten a bit tired of Steinbeck - found him a bit preachy, negative - but need to re-think that.  East of Eden certainly was a good work.

This book included a taste of Steinbeck's judgmental side - looking askance at American society entering the '60s with a streak of materialism; and Steinbeck does love to find bad behavior in business persons.  I think he, like plenty of others, mistakenly believes in some mythical time when we were free of materialism (whatever that means).  The way I wrote that sentence makes it obvious how I feel - every modern society has its pressures.

And I recognize there are plenty of instances where business persons cut corners - for all sorts of reasons.  But I do not think it's rampant, certainly not in my experience.

Anyway - the protagonist resides in a New England village; has a dual heritage (Pilgrim/pirate); lost the family money and is struggling as a grocery clerk; sees opportunity to improve his financial lot.  But this involves a series of unpleasant decisions involving his employer, his childhood friend, his buddy who works at the bank, etc.  And his high school aged son turns out to be a corner-cutter.

The book is titled after the opening line in Richard III, so that's pretty neat.

Darkness at Noon (Arthur Koestler, 1940)

I liked this quite a bit.  Koestler was Hungarian but lived in various countries; this was published in English while he lived in England.  He was familiar with the Soviet system and had spent some time in a Franco prison in Spain in the 1930s.

The novel is set in an unnamed country, but it's obviously Russia - with reference to 1930s show trials.  Protagonist is Rubashov - a hero of the early Bolshevik days.  But now "No. 1" - meaning Stalin - is purging the old guard, the military, the intellectuals, etc. - welcome to 1930s USSR.

Rubashov communicates with the next-door prisoner (a Czarist officer) via a tapping system known to all the prisoners.  Brief communication with other prisoners on occasional walks in the yard.  Rubashov is interrogated by an old comrade from the early days; then later by a young, cold, Stalin-raised officer.

Very interesting discussions about power, Communism, the endless tropes about "the ends justify the means" and the fiction of the supposedly well-intentioned smart folk looking out for the masses who don't know what they really want.  Like a big progressive state in so many ways, only somewhat cruder.  Same fawning press, however.  Ugh.

Rubashov discusses Crime and Punishment with the second interrogator; needless to say, Dosteovsky fell out of favor with the Communists (Raskelnikov was on the right track, but wavered).  Part of the discussion here reminded me much of Demons, which I happened to be reading concurrently.

Much worth reading but - maybe because I read those other works earlier - it didn't seem to have quite as much punch as the Solzhenitsyn works (such as this).

Johann Sebastian Bach - Life and Work (Martin Geck, 2000) (translated 2006)

Bach seems impossible.  How could he produce so much high-quality art?

I rather like this reviewer's take on this question:  "Consider: A professionally competent 18th-century burgher raised a very large family, came and went as a busy and productive musical technician, associated himself for nearly three decades with a church in Leipzig whose school of 55 boys he taught music while also training a choir. He provided his employers with the cantatas they required for Sundays and feast days and was active in the civic musical collegium. He traveled, though sparingly, and spent tedious hours copying out his own material. He was disputatious about a lot of things but was finally submissive to the requisite councilors, dukes and princes. When the end came, he left behind, in the city of 32,000 souls, a huge family, an indigent widow and a library of compositions which would ordain him as the greatest musical artist who ever lived."

So what happened here?  The author provides all sorts of interesting information, but I guess there's no figuring out how Bach did it.  Bach was anything but the lonely-genius-artist - he was an engaged family man with a demanding day job.

As I get older, I spend more and more time with Bach's music.  And I'm pretty sure the greatest concert I've ever attended was  this presentation of the B minor mass).  (Interesting to read that Beethoven bought his own copy of this work a century after it was written.)

The last portion of the book focused on technical details - for me, sort of like reading a foreign language - I just don't anything about composition or theory.

I'm pretty sure I need to attend a Bach concert at this church in Leipzig.

Two and Three-Part Inventions
Well-Tempered Clavier
French Suites
Goldberg Variations
The Musical Offering
The Art of Fugue
Cantatas, Motets, etc. (thankful for youtube access)
Brandenburg Concerto
St. Matthew Passion
St. John Passion
B minor Mass
Etc.
Etc.

A Time to Keep Silence (Patrick Leigh Fermor, release date 2007)

Fermor's two unique "travel" books are quite justifiably highly-regarded (discussed here and here).  So I bought them - probably will haul them along if we ever actually visit those areas in Europe.

This book is entirely different - I bought it because it was essentially a throw-in with the other two.

Short, interesting, but less interesting to me than the other two works.  Not sure how it came about, but Fermor settled into the Abbey of St. Wandrille as a place to take a break, do some writing, whatever.  Good discussion of the history of the place; interesting discussion of the process of transitioning into monastic life (even if only as a guest), and then back into the "real" world.

Later, he stays at a Trappist monastery - incredibly austere.  Finally, he visits a rock monastery in Cappadocia - no longer occupied - literally hewn from stone way back when.

He is respectful of these versions of what just seems to be an incredibly odd life; also knows that he is an outsider not really capable of knowing "what it's really like."

Short easy read, so worthwhile.

Krakatoa - the day the world exploded - August 27, 1883 (Simon Winchester, 2003)

Light reading, very interesting discussion of a volcanic eruption that would have dwarfed the Mt. Pinatubo eruption that made such headlines in 1991 (and allowed us to see some wondrous sunsets over the Pacific while visiting Oxnard, CA that summer).

The author gets a little carried away, trying to make a case that the eruption was a catalyst for Islamic extremists in that part of the world at that time.  Something about the traditional gods (definitely nothing to do with Islam) being displeased with the white man.  Whatever.  Otherwise, this was interesting throughout.

Dutch were still in charge in this part of the world, though Britain taking over.  The story line reminds that the Dutch East India Company was one of the first stock corporations (1602).

Useful explanation of the Wallace Line - not difficult to grasp, but I had never paid any attention.

Very interesting explanations of plate tectonics and the way in which scientists developed the theory, then confirmed it.  The process was all new to me.

Krakatoa's eruption was one of the first big events following worldwide linkage via telegraph - newspapers worldwide followed the story.  One of the first international stories in a shrinking world.

The power of the eruption was simply unbelievable.  They figured out that sounds reported as distant gunfire on an island 2,968 miles away - were the sounds of the Krakatoa eruption.  That seems absolutely unbelievable - would you think any event in San Francisco could be heard in New York City (about 500 miles less distance)?

"Barographs" in London recording barometric pressure changes . . . all over the city (and, upon follow-up investigation, all over the world) - massive changes linked to the eruption.

Landscape artists are inspired - Hudson Valley school.

Anyway - the blown-away mountain is again rising.

The Eve of Destruction - How 1965 Transformed America (James T. Patterson, 2012)

Good enough - but I didn't get much new out of this.  Already pretty familiar with much of the information presented.  Very few dog-eared pages, which is not a good sign.  Very quick read.

One basic item the author clarified was that when we think of the '60s as an era of turmoil, protest, etc. - all this really started in 1965.  Pretty tame prior.

When I think back - it was a rather crazy time to be growing up - I turned nine in 1965.

Euphoria over passage of civil rights legislation and the war on poverty - with prompt onset of disillusionment.  (Not that this has broken the cycle of trying to slough off our issues to over-promising popularity contest winners, a/k/a politicians.)

The Road Back (Erich Maria Remarque, 1930)

Remarque is of course famous for this classic WWI novel; also wrote this excellent novel about life between the wars.  

“The Road Back” has a similar feel but in a different setting - moreso focused on immediate post-war years in Germany.  The novel starts in the trenches as the war winds down in 1918, and follows the protagonists as they try to cope with postwar life.

In some ways quite modern in terms of soldiers adjusting to being back home (many of the issues sound familiar in accounts of contemporary struggles); in other ways quite specific to post-WWI Germany – so that was a good combination.  

The immediate disappointment that "back home" - so eagerly anticipated - was really a place where "Life has moved on . . . it is leaving us behind almost as if we were already superfluous."  

Hard to imagine how that must have felt, especially for the few survivors that had been in the war from 1914 on.   Remarque does a good job working with the behaviors of this group - who had left civilization pretty far behind in some ways.

Interesting discussion of the readiness of the German population - including many disaffected vets - to look for solutions in socialism etc. (this was written before the rise of the Nazis).

Gift from PJr and Nedda for birthday #57.  Nice.

The Good Soldier Svejk (Jaroslav Hasek, 1923)

I had never heard of this book until reading Patrick Leigh Fermor describe his travels through central Europe in the 1930s (wonderful book, discussed here).  Fermor said reading Svejk was very helpful for him in getting a handle on Bohemia.  Fermor's recommendation - and my interest in Bohemia (based on bloodlines for my wife and children) - motivated me to track this down.  Phoenix library didn't have it; on Amazon, all I found was a pretty beat-up version stamped "Leeds Metropolitan University - DISCARDED".

I hope, for LMU's sake, that it has replaced the book.

The author died without finishing the book (though this translation runs 750 pages).  Hasek apparently was quite the colorful character.  But not as colorful as Svejk - typically described as an "everyman" caught up in a vast bureaucracy (this one being military).  It's consistently funny, and consistently observant of WWI eastern front absurdities.

Best I can tell, Svejk remains very famous in Bohemia - now 90 years later.

Part of what the reader starts to appreciate is that Bohemia - then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire - later part of Czechoslovakia - now divided among successor states such as Czech Republic and Slovak Republic - has for big chunks of its history been a lesser entity within polyglot empires.  It had its proud/independent phase earlier on.  By the time of WWI, it was dragged along into conflict by its Austro-Hungarian masters, who in turn were dragged along by their German masters (I'll call them).  Leaving the Bohemians - at least those of Svejk's ilk - generally somewhat less than highly motivated to throw away their lives on eastern front battlefields while being bossed around by incompetent Austrian officers.

Svejk deals with the situation with a combination of cunning and humor (not to mention prodigious drinking capabilities).  Epic run-ins with Lieutenant Dub, a secret policeman, the good-natured Vanek (who he serves as "batman"); the ever-hungry Balloun; and plenty of others.

A useful and very different take from a soldier/common man perspective looking at WWI's eastern front.

Svejk's classic line:  "Humbly report, sir . . . "

Agent Garbo - the brilliant, eccentric secret agent who tricked Hitler and saved D-Day (Stephan Talty, 2012)

Gift from PJ (as was this book on a closely-related topic).  Much enjoyed both.

As noted in the description of Double Cross - declassified information has given authors some new - and fascinating - material to work from regarding the WWII battle of spies between England and Germany.

Agent Gargo was the Spanish chicken farmer discussed in Double Cross - which focused on five different agents.  This book goes into quite a bit more detail about him.  So this was an excellent pair of books - one provided more of an overview, one went into depth on the key actor.

Hadn't realized Graham Greene worked in Lisbon for M16 (gathering material for books like this).

It seems pretty clear that the British double agents - the most important of which had been code-named "Agent Garbo" - succeeded in their primary goal - heading off the positioning of Nazi forces on Normandy and, more importantly, delaying the sending of Nazi reinforcements to the area in the critical days right after D-Day.  The Calais ruse was believed.

Readable, interesting throughout.

Doesn't look very dangerous, does he?

The First Four Notes - Beethoven's fifth and the the human imagination (Matthew Guerrieri, 2012)

The author came up with the idea of building an entire book around the first four notes of Beethoven's 5th Symphony.  277 pages, plus extensive notes and a detailed index.  Some reviewer made it sound interesting to me.

I'll agree that pretty much everyone recognizes the four-note sequence, that Beethoven was of course a very important figure, etc.  But the author was really straining to connect all sorts of events in political, cultural and musical history to this sequence - which quickly became tiresome to me.

So I blew through this one rather rapidly, and didn't learn much.

Postscript:  watching Diamondbacks play Dodgers for parts of a series on May 6 through May 8 - not sure if this happens regularly at Dodger Stadium - but quite often during these games the stadium sound system was booming out "The First Four Notes."

Buddenbrooks (Thomas Mann, 1901)

After years of reading focused moreso on England and France (not to mention the USA), I'm trying to get a better handle on Germany (and elsewhere in Central Europe).  I continue to find Thomas Mann very compelling.

This is a very different book than the two of his later works that I've had a chance to read (here, and here).  Mann was only 26 when this was published in 1901.  The story "chronicles the decline of a wealthy north German merchant family [the Buddenbrooks] over the course of four generations, incidentally portraying the manner of life and mores of the Hanseatic bourgeoisie in the years from 1835 to 1877.  Mann drew deeply from the history of his own family, the Mann family ob Lubeck, and their milieu."

Interesting to me for a number of reasons:

1.  Mann's world when this was published (1901) was unimaginably different from his world when writing The Magic Mountain (post WWI) or Doctor Faustus (depths of WWII).  Germany was confident, rising.

2.  Interestingly different perspective than all of the French or British novels.  Even if the same 19th century background events - Napoleonic era (here, via memories of the older generation), 1848 revolutions, Franco-Prussian War of 1870, etc.

3.  The earliest generations portrayed - close contact with France, including Napoleonic domination - often spoke French.  Later generations only spoke German - reflecting Germany's ascendance (including unification).

4.  Old Johann - successful, builds large new house.  Next generation Johann - does well, more religious, less inclined to merchant values, doesn't reach old age.  His three children are major characters in the book.  Daughter Tony (Antonie) has some bad luck in well-intentioned marriages (accepting marriage proposals that would assist the family business rather than for romance).  Thomas carries on the family business well (but not as well as prior generations) - perhaps it was not to his natural inclinations - I felt I could identify with Thomas in many respects.  He had a ne'er-do-well brother (Christian).  Faced down some near-riot conditions in '48.  Also died relatively young.  Final generation - Hanno - musically inclined, helpless to conduct the family business, dies as a child.  So that's it for the four generations.

5.  Thomas's wife is an excellent musician, while he has little appreciation . . . she is speaking to him about pop (for want of a better term) music " . . . which, if you met with it in literature, would make you throw down the book with an angry or sarcastic comment.  Easy gratification of each unformed wish, prompt satisfaction before the will is even roused - that is what pretty music is like - and it is like nothing else in the world.  It is mere flabby idealism."  Mann is good at describing music (particularly in Doctor Faustus).

6.  Tony's second husband lives in Munich, where she resides following the marriage (but only for a year or so).  Interesting discussion about how Munich was in many respects a foreign country to folks in northern Germany - different speech patterns, different food, different religion (more Catholic down there).

Long-ish book (600 pages), interesting and worthwhile throughout, I much like Mann's novels.