The Tales of Chekhov (short story collection, late 19th century)

(620 pages)

Chekhov's reputation is so high that I've been looking around for collections of his short stories; bought this one on Amazon, it's a rather odd collection but nevertheless a fine introduction.

All I've previously read of Chekhov's work - this compilation of his longer stories.  I learn that he is mostly remembered for his short fiction (including items from this collection) and plays.

He must have been an entirely amazing fellow - medical practice, Sakhalin Island days, little things like that in addition to epic writing ability.

Recently saw a quote that seems apt - to the effect that the problem with short stories is that they are so difficult to remember.  That's certainly the case with this collection.  I genuinely looked forward to picking up the book every time I turned to it - that's typically the case, but ran at a deeper level with Chekhov's short stories, not sure why.  I'll stick with the usual explanation - "he sees us" - gently illuminating our foibles, and our wonderful-ness.

I much recall his ability to portray scenes in nature, or landscapes perhaps - the sun, especially when setting or rising; wind, specific birds offering sounds, clouds, bullfrogs, the scene changing as the sun moves, a hot day - this  is not important as his descriptions of his characters - but it helps make the stories entirely immersive.

Return of the Native (Thomas Hardy, 1878)

(275 pp)

I like this, though not as much as Hardy novels previously read (this one, and in particular this one).

Entirely set in village/rural/heath-country.  A countryside with which I'm not familiar, but I am pretty confident Hardy did an amazing job of describing - that part alone is captivating.

Diggory Venn is a "reddleman"; the book starts out as he assists Thomasin Yeobright (who had rejected his earlier marriage proposal); we meet her brother (Clym - who is the returning native), Damon Wildeve (proprietor of an inn), Eustacia Vye (thought perhaps to be a witch!), and various of their family members and the villagers.

The characters sort out their relationships.  I like that Hardy creates complex characters; no really bad ones, though the plot line is a little too tidy as it wraps up.

The Lost City of Z (David Grann, 2005)

(319 pages)

Book club selection (via Nick; session held 5 September 2018).

I like this genre.  But so far had only read about it in the context of the Nile (Alan Moorehead's White Nile and Blue Nile, biographies of Stanley and Livingstone, etc.

It was interesting to think about the differences - the Nile was impossibly difficult, but the Amazon seemed far worse. 

Another point of reference was Arthur Conan Doyle's Lost World - a great story, and modeled to some extent on this adventure.

Story is built around a fellow named Percy Fawcett; he rattles around in British colonial outposts; like famous African explorers, he seems immune to the hardships.  Fawcett becomes convinced that the Amazon formerly supported large cities (or at least one large one), and works to raise funds, launch an expedition, and hope to find it.  Takes his son and his son's best friend on the final effort.

He disappears without a trace; various folks go looking for him (generally with awful results); the author also goes out into the Amazon, after a fashion. 

Built - The Hidden Stories Behind Our Structures (Roma Agrawal, 2018)

(271 pages)

I saw several positive reviews so gave it a try.  Interesting but not compelling.

What the author is trying to do:  give non-engineering types enough basic information so that we can look at roads, bridges, buildings and think about some of the foundational principles involved in putting them up.  And it does have that effect, though I don't expect to retain much.

Interesting discussions about the incredible engineering and construction skills of the Romans. 

Didn't realize concrete was such a valuable product (mastered by the Romans, then their methods were lost for hundreds of years).

Pendulums atop tall buildings to offset swaying - who knew?

Interesting discussions of the Pantheon and Brunelleschi's dome.

Elevators can only travel about so far because the steel cables to move them become too heavy. Maybe that's why we had a stop-off on the way to the 80th floor of the Sears Tower back in the day?

The House of the Dead - Siberian Exile under the Tsars (Daniel Beer, 2017)

(378 pages)

While this overlapped with several other books (for example this one on the Decembrists - early exiles; Dosteovsky's exile here; Polish rebels in exile here; Solzenhitsyn here; Chekhov on Sakhalin Island), it was well worth reading - much additional information and perspective.

I hadn't realized the scope of exile in tsarist days.  In the early days - c. 1700 - it was a convenient way to get rid of political opposition - a few folks were sent far, far away.  Then the regime figured out that sending forced labor to Siberia might be a good way to exploit natural resources there (along with rehabilitating the exiles).  Then the regime started expanding the variety of offenses that gave rise to exile - a great way to get rid of undesirables.  But the system had very limited resources, and the numbers sent into exile simply overwhelmed it.  The goals were not achieved and, if anything, Siberian development was retarded.

For a long period, those exiled walked prodigious distances to their final destination -Tobolsk to the Nerchinsk silver mines was 3570 km (like walking from Madrid to St. Petersburg, or from Washington DC to Salt Lake City).  Lots of folks don't make it - limited accountability as exiles are handed off along the route.  (Compare Brits transporting folks to Australia - a single captain with a single medical officer on a single ship - survival rates improved dramatically once rules were put into place.)

Early arrivals sometimes found Siberia refreshing - people less beaten down than the serfs - but the flood of exiles and the constant exposure to doubtful types changed this over time.  Many political exiles who weren't particularly violent or dangerous - but many, many criminals who were.  A bad mix.

Often often no right of return - settle in Siberia after sentence, if survive - difficult.

As the 19th century proceeds and the numbers continue to increase - the Siberian experience produces flashpoints for resistance to absolutism.  This escalates into the early 20th century - many key figures in 1905 and 1917 were here.

Epilogue introduces how 1917 revolutionaries - ardent opponents of the exile system - adapted it for their own purposes after taking power.  With horrific efficiency.

The Forge of Christendom - The End of Days and the Epic Rise of the West (Tom Holland, 2008)

(413 pp)

Had recently read this book by the same author - it focused on what I'm calling "late antiquity".  I don't think the current book is part of a series, but it does pretty much pick up fairly shortly after where the prior book left off.

Something I notice - the titles of these two books are rather sensational; fortunately the content is useful, measured.

Europe as a backward dump compared to Persia, Constantinople, Spain, Baghdad, etc.  Charlemagne (following on the achievements of Charles Martel - Tours 732) - tries to restore a Roman empire - centered in the north but with affirmation in the south (Italy). Doesn't last long.

The papacy as a weak institution - not recognized as having much authority over anything - based in a town that had fallen into disrepair.

But perhaps this helped in the long run - separating religious leadership from civil - compare caliph, Constantine in an earlier era - theocratic structures don't birth innovation or free thinking.

The papacy starts to rise from its weakness.  Pepin/Charlemagne looking for validation - turn to the beleaguered bishop of Rome.  Over a few centuries, the pope takes control over appointment of bishops etc.  Takes a run at interfering in civil authority situations - but not nearly enough power.  But the administrative papacy is on its way (the build-up eventually contributing to the Reformation).

Author reviews various of the European kings in the run up to 1000 AD  and the years thereafter - an atmosphere where the end of the world was considered a live possibility.  Christianity making incredible territorial strides - huge land masses in Poland, Russia (though it apes Constantinople rather than Rome), eastern German areas.

These kings aren't all that powerful in their domains - civil order not in good shape in Europe - power ceded to castle-builders (this was new).  Exploitation of peasants; widespread violence; for all its warts the church does fairly regularly make a stand for the oppressed - the Peace of God is enforced after a fashion.  But states starting to be identifiable. 

I underestimate how important and influential the Norsemen, or Vikings, or whatever were in this era - they were traveling pretty much everywhere in Europe and settled down in some form or fashion in many areas (including southern Italy, Normandy, Russia).

1066 - discussion of Hastings.

1095 - Constantinople under stress; pope calls the First Crusade.

The Star Machine (Jeanine Basinger, 2007)

(553 pages)

Divided into two parts - the first discusses the rise and workings of the Hollywood studio system's "star machine" - as at least the author calls it - the second part (which is 75% of the book) goes into extensive discussions of individual stars - I barely skimmed this second part.

But the first part was quite interesting.  PJ and I much enjoy movies of the 1930s and 1940s as well as some of the 1950s stuff.  She's much more knowledgeable than me - much better exposure to this content in her growing-up years - in Iowa we only saw an occasional late-night movie.  I think our tilt toward this era reduces our interest in more modern movies - we're neither used to, nor looking for, graphic content (whether violence or otherwise).  Anyway, we continue watching lots of shows from this era.

Hadn't appreciated the factory-level scope of the big studios - they handled everything - author states that MGM could put out a full-length movie every nine days (1950).  In addition to the big-name folks - fleets of people ready to be put into a scene on short notice.  In a world without TV, the demand for the product was there.

Hard work for the most-used actors - in addition to full days on the set, time required at night to memorize the next day's lines.  Discussions of the seven-year contract, lack of control by the actors, etc. - probably tough, but seems like "first world problem".

Finding a "type" for each star - then putting that star in a movie where he or she could play to type repeatedly - this is what the audience wanted (or had been trained to want).  I've mistakenly criticized some of those stars along the lines of "he can only play himself" - but that was exactly how the studio wanted me to feel.

Author spends a lot of time on Tyrone Power (and they put him on the book's cover) - considered so handsome that he was a little hard to typecast (plus he later (perhaps too much later) wanted more serious roles, which wouldn't then have played to his "type") - anyway we're interested in Tyrone because EMG was compared to him pretty relentlessly in the 1940s.

The New Sorrows of Young W. (Ulrich Plenzdorf, 1972)

(139 pages)

Author does a take-off on Goethe's famous work.  Set (and written) in GDR days, and the story line includes Communist Party-era frustrations and jokes.  Somewhat uses the epistolary method (a la Goethe's Werther), though with cassette tapes.

Protagonist at first seems an annoying rebel-without-a-cause type, but turns out to be delightfully self-aware and an attractive character.  The hopeless love interest is handled just fine - she plus husband did track the original story quite a bit - Charlotte is a nice character here (kindergarten teacher), the husband more wooden than in Goethe's version.

The plot didn't track the original story as much as I had expected, which was a plus.

[Minor item:  protagonist liked joking/punning/offering up aphorisms with his buddy Willi - including "a loaf always has two ends" - reminded of Pete Kirsch humor in 1970s Iowa (among his sayings - he would solemnly intone "everything has an end" if a serious subject was being discussed; then the punch line:  "but the sausage has two ends.")]

Recommended by Martine Lanners; I'd recommend it as well.

Ants Among Elephants - An Untouchable Family and the Making of Modern India (Sujatha Gidla, 2017)

(306 pages)

This very recent book received lots of attention; it was billed as a valuable resource to learn something about "caste" in India.  I'm interested in the topic, haven't read much about it; "caste" wasn't evident during our two weeks in India, for what little that vanishingly small sample size is worth.

Not clear to me how much the caste system differs from societal sorting elsewhere (whether based on race or income or whatever).  Perhaps the system runs deeper given the longer history and because there is a religious aspect?  Don't know.

Anyway, this book ends up not helping very much on what I think of as traditional "case" issues, at least for me.  It is an interesting story of a family - Christian - where the lead figure (the author's uncle) becomes a Communist agitator.  All this is taking place in the turmoil of the 1940s and following.  Many difficulties for the family are attributed to caste and I don't doubt that it mattered for them - but I think it's difficult or impossible to separate caste issues from difficulties arising from the family's Christian and Communist characteristics in India at that era.

The lead family figure (author's uncle) seemed to have the usual crusader personality - self-centered.

Helps explain why Subhas Chandra Bose would have had appeal - typically presented as some version of "evil" in Western histories due to his dalliance with Nazi Germany and imperial Japan, but desperation (probably too strong a word but you get the idea) to escape British domination was real in the 1940s.  Author's uncle supported him.

So all in all the book has value to me:  it gave a different look at 1947 and the surrounding years in an area of the country I seldom read about - Andra Pradesh, with some of the action in Telangana (adjacent in south/central India); describes trying to work up through the educational system for those starting out without any advantages; poverty as very real and difficult; earlier generations in this area as "forest people;" zamindars under British rule; etc.

The Dog Stars (Peter Heller, 2012)

(319 pages)

Book club selection (via Zach; session held 11 July 2018).

Book club seems to find its way to dystopian-future books somewhat regularly.  I liked this version well enough.  Spare writing style that worked well.

We don't receive a lot of explanation, but earth's population has been decimated by plague; plus it's getting much warmer/dryer.  A few survivors seem to be doing fine health-wise.  But life has become nasty, brutish, short - civil order entirely broken down - folks doing what they need to do, or want to do.  A few survivors still have the disease.

Protagonist and his dog live with an older gent who goes about the business of survival with enthusiasm and, perhaps, coldness.  Older gent is well-armed.  Protagonist has a plane and does some flying around (with dog) - for enjoyment, and for perimeter control; lost his wife to the plague, has remained relatively normal, doesn't quite know how to approach the world in which he finds himself.  They encounter some additional folks and the story develops.

For some reason this book brought home, in a different (and effective) way, a familiar concept - that civilization is really fragile; that the order that has taken so long and required so much effort will break down so quickly under stress.  Simultaneously reading a Tom Holland book about Europe circa 1000 A.D. - Roman order had broken down, in many areas it was a free-for-all - made me think of this book.

Shantaram (Gregory David Roberts, 2003)

(933 pages)

OK it's long - but the author has a pretty good knack for story-telling and the tale does tug the reader along.

What I liked best - and perhaps this is because our recent visit to India is fresh - he gives what seems to me to be a pretty faithful description of how India (Mumbai in this case) would appear to a Western visitor.  (He's from Australia or New Zealand and supposedly spent 10 years in Mumbai on the lam following a prison escape while serving time for armed robbery.)

Mentions so many little things that resonate with what we saw: mango lassi; "challo!"; stainless steel cup and plate; driver with jasmine garland in his car; the head wiggle (if that's the right term); serve meal on banana leaf; he visits a village that seldom had non-Indian visitors; Mumbai street scenes; many more.

He also spends a bunch of time describing Mumbai slums - which I've never seen anything like - this felt a little idealized, the slum seemed to have better governance than most municipalities.

Two things I didn't love:  #1 - not that he did them badly, but he tried to do too many things - offering philosophical observations, taking the plot in all sorts of directions, so many characters.  Perhaps many readers like this, but I would have preferred tighter.

#2:  author comes across as narcissistic - pretty much everyone he encounters just loves him, several literally want to adopt him; plus he is consistently awesome at dealing with pretty much any situation (and there are a lot of situations over this many pages).

But I kept turning pages and was entertained throughout.

I think the author genuinely loved his time in India, which is kind of neat.

The Noise of Time (Julian Barnes, 2016)

(201 pages)

Author is imagining what Shostakovich felt during decades of compromising with the Soviet power structure.  Shostakovich goes from promising early career, to a failed opera that garners criticism ("formalism!") seemingly from Stalin himself, to interrogation that seemingly could lead only to the camps, to varying levels of rehabilitation, to I guess what one could call becoming a useful idiot; he even joins the Party (surrendering his final hold-out).

Intersection of art and socialist politics (former must serve the latter).

The book received lots of favorable buzz but didn't do much for me.  This book gave a more interesting overview of Shostakovich's situation.  And Solzhenitsyn did a better job of conveying how the system created fear, in books such as this, or this, or this.  Also Grossman. 

Though I suppose this book differs a bit by its focus on the effect of the socialist system on a composer (artist).

Short read, but not particularly recommended.

In the Shadow of the Sword - The Battle for Global Empire and the End of the Ancient World (Tom Holland, 2012)

(473 pages)

Author's writing style is unusual - often it feels like rambling, but in the end it feels conversational.  And informative.

This book - focused on what we can call late antiquity - has a couple main threads.  The common theme is the rise of Islam just as Rome (eastern half ) and Persia dramatically declined.

One of the threads:  how did these previously "backward" Arab folk become perhaps the most successful imperialists of all time?  And so incredibly quickly?  Why did the existing power structures collapse so rapidly?  As also discussed in this very useful work - some key reasons included (1) Rome (meaning Constantinople) and Persia were duking it out for a protracted period just prior to the time of the Prophet, to the detriment (and exhaustion) of both; (2) Rome (still meaning Constantinople) was burning resources trying to salvage something in Italy and elsewhere in the West; and (3) severe plague struck both Constantinople and Persia.  Suddenly - centuries of global power were beaten down.

And those factors do not belittle what the Arabs accomplished - the success is astonishing.  Author suggests that the idea that warriors dying in battle will achieve paradise was pretty much new with Islam - is that so?  I'm not aware of it on a wide scale previously, though certainly the idea appears later with the Crusaders.  (Not the key to Islam military success in those days anyway.)

Another thread - author explores the history of the Koran and its related religious texts - and goes into quite a bit of detail (some admittedly conjectural) that suggests, pretty strongly, that there is less direct connection between these documents and what may have been the Prophet's words than one might think.  For example - it appears that quite a lot of this material was written a couple centuries after the Prophet - with decided social/political considerations no doubt informing the writers.

He compares to the Old Testament - for a long time ascribed to Moses - but rigorous OT analysis reveals multiple authors, much of OT written much later, much of it speaking to specific contemporary political-social circumstances.  Sources that might permit similar analysis of Koran etc. generally have not been made available (or may not exist).  Intense self-criticism applied to the Bible; pretty much no culture of self-criticism as applied to Koran.

Oldest materials apparently don't emphasize the Prophet and raise questions about relative significance of Mecca/Medina; geographic sources seem to lie elsewhere (many farther north); it seems there was more borrowing of religious ideas than might be acknowledged if one wants to hold the position that everything was dictated to the Prophet by an angel (Gabriel as it turns out).  Discusses how Arabs were retained as mercenaries for both Roman and Persian, picking up lots of ideas (and serving in the north of the peninsula).  Jerusalem as an unlikely place of significance for Islam.

It's interesting to think about how religions get started - charismatic founder not writing things down; then the process of defining the religion plays out over a long period of time.  Christians fractious about theological details - Jesus certainly defined very little - but then with a Constantine - he can start ordering folks around - all of a sudden you have a Nicene Creed (325) - not that this ended the debates, but a structure was emerging after centuries.  Islam, Jews not really the same with this; author describes groups of scholars that develop materials (also centuries later!) and eventually gain control of the story (i.e. ultimately define the religion) - this is interesting if challenging to pin down.  Role of caliph in those days - combining temporal and spiritual leadership - confuses me.

Islam born in an atmosphere immediately permeated with local struggle/war and immediately expanding outward in an environment of conquest/war; and then needing to deal with handling subject peoples.  Christianity born with society's losers and core doctrines didn't get established from a war/conquest viewpoint; the warrior/imperial aspect really didn't launch until Constantine (312) (unfortunately it then seeped into the doctrinal).

And that is not to belittle the contents of the Koran or the Bible - these are pretty wonderful works no matter the provenance - it does suggest that it might be prudent to be a little less dogmatic on their contents!

Sometimes these "late antiquity" centuries feel rather lost . . . but there is lots of action . . . high points such as Constantine 312, Fall of Rome (in the west) 476, Hejira 622 . . . leading right to Tours 732 and Charlemagne 800 - and on it goes.

Being Mortal - Medicine and What Matters in the End (Atul Gawande, 2014)

(304 pages)

Book club selection (via PJ; session held 17 June 2018).

Author finds a highly useful way to talk about a group of related, oft-discussed topics that seldom (at least in my limited experience) receive this kind of clarifying approach.

Much of the book is based on what I'll call "case studies" of folks (often but not always elderly) facing extremely poor prognoses.  Including the author's father (also a physician).  This served to humanize the discussion without descending into just a series of anecdotes. 

Author goes through some of the background about the high expense and poor results on what has become conventional treatment for these folks - while putting them through debilitating side effects etc.  How many doctors are not well trained to explore alternatives; and financial incentives are misaligned - just keep doing procedures and prescribing medications.  Describes a way of thinking of doctors in three categories - paternalistic, informative, interpretive - this latter group is best prepared to engage in useful conversations with the patient and the patient's family members, rather than merely keeping up the interventions.

Author also goes through some of the history on hospitals; the rise of nursing homes; the rise of assisted care centers; hospice.

The most useful part of the book is the ideas about how (and when) to engage in critical discussions with the patient - questions such as "What are your goals? Where is your "line in the sand" when it comes to deciding how you want to live in your last weeks and months?" We need to be thinking and talking about this for the sake of our family members, and for our own sake.  With a more fulsome discussion - alternatives like hospice often start to make more sense.

This led to a quite interesting discussion during the actual "club" meeting - while most of our members are relatively young, everyone has faced up to this with relatives, many quite poignantly.

Recommended.

Death in Venice (1912) and Other Stories (Thomas Mann)

(313 pages)

Thomas Mann is one of my favorites, but this group of short stories didn't do much for me.

The centerpiece of this collection is Death in Venice - a story about which I've seen so many favorable references - I'm sure it's elegantly constructed and written, but the story line did nothing for me.  Aschenbach follows Tadzio around.

I preferred Tonio Kroger and Tristan.  Even Man and Dog:  An Idyll - Mann certainly could describe relationship between dog and master.

Read quite a bit of this on the planes to/fro India.