Category: Reading and Books

Profile of Jessa Crisipin, founder of Book Slut. She used to hang out at the Central Booking forums. I knew her when.

We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda by Philip Gourevitch

Backstory: I caught the trailer to Hotel Rwanda and decided that I had to see it. I also decided I wanted to know a bit more about the Rwandan genocide before I saw it. I did a search on “Rwandan Genocide” and came up with this book. I had heard about it on This American Life many moons ago.

Notes: As a reporter, Gourevitch is second to none. Voluminously researched, expertly focused on people rather than politics, his book hasso much good material that 350 pages barely seems to contain it. Gourevitch also chooses to finish up the events of the genocide by around page 100 and leaves the remainder to explore the racist ineptitude of the international community’s response. It’s a wise decision which seems to argue that horror, now matter how black, is by definition, brief. What truly tests our humanity are our responses in the aftermath.

Sadly though, this isn’t where book shines. Gourevitch’s look at the power plays between the UN, neighboring countries and a still bitterly divided Rwanda, is well-reported to a fault. Meticulous instead of passionate, careful rather than headstrong, it reads like a well-compiled case study instead of the indictment he had build up over the earlier chapters. The lack of vigor would have also been helped had acknowledged the complexity of the situation though a single cogent arguement (i.e. The international community messed up big time) and then built out from there. Instead he pauses akwardly for macro views that sometimes work but often fall flat.

Verdict: A great learning experience rather that a great read. There isn’t a book out there that will teach you more about Rwanda and the abject failings of the West than this one. But Gourevitch runs out of gas before he delivers on the promise of first 100 pages. Lord, would this book benefit from a second edition. Ten years after perhaps?

Salinas, California, birthplace and muse of John Steinbeck, is closing its three public libraries. The city claims a severe budget shortfall, which has already led to the closing of a rec. center and civil servant wage cuts, as the reason. In November, voters turned down a half-cent sales tax increase that would have funded the library systems. The citizens of Salinas, a mostly working class argicultural town with a large Latino population, rely on the library system for computer access, literacy and job resources.

So what’s the take away lesson here? Several.

1) Read your ballot at election time. You never know what you’re voting for. Or against.

2) Libraries are no longer dim book warehouses where grumpy librarians say “shhhh.” In the 21st century, libraries are community centers, information resources, and one of the few great equalizers in an increasingly expensive digital age. The poor, kids, the homeless and the elderly depend upon libraries for job leads, access to municipal services, homework help and Internet access when they can’t afford computers at home. Just because you don’t think need them, doesn’t mean someone else does.

3) Nobody likes to pay taxes. Nobody thinks government is any good at managing money. That said, society needs money to run and the way the system works is that everybody pays in. If you’d prefer a setup where everybody only pays what they use, fine. Then starting tomorrow, I will no longer pay public school taxes since I have no children. I will no longer pay into veterans funds because I’ve never served in war. I won’t pay highway taxes since I don’t commute and won’t pay for the free clinic in my neighborhood that provides health care to the poor since I’m not poor.

See how fast this logic unravels? Does this sound like the society you want?

This sucks. It just plain sucks (via Readerville).

The Rosewood Hotel chain is planning to have a poolisde menu of advanced copies of books for guests to chose from while they lounge. Five major publishers are participating in the program. Although I’m guessing the books will be the usual bestselling clutter, I still really like the idea (via Readerville).

Little Children by Tom Perrotta

Backstory: I had been keeping a slight eye on Tom Perrotta since enjoying Election, the film adaptation of his novel. When I heard him on Fresh Air a few months ago talking about his latest, it raised an antenna and I ended up buying the book in a fit of hardcover lust. Reading it rather than shelving it was me trying to justify that indiscretion.

Notes: Perrotta is an amazingly skilled writer. Although he doesn’t really give his characters voice beyond his own, his narration isn’t intrusive but rather, just over your shoulder. It’s a resigned whisper, perfect for the vaguely empty suburban stage where the story plays out. In it, two couples with young children contemplate infidelity and succeed on a knot of unexpected levels. There’s a former child molester in the neighborhood as well, which grounds the novel in the present day hysteria of Megan’s Law and raising kids in a world where “anything can happen” if you really want you imagination to go there. By description it’s Updike/Moody territory, educated white people bored with being educated white people and curious about out-of-bounds play. But unlike their verbal acrobatics–a strained attempt to squeeze meaning from novels about people who lack it-Perrotta’s language in deft, confident, and sad, a storyteller’s voice interested in entertaining rather than wowing you. His ending sputters out and left me unsatisfied. But the novel that preceeded it was like a hearty meal and a nap afterward.

Verdict: Although you’ve got to find around what happens to everyone, the ending probably won’t do it for you. Knowing that, read on. This is a great book.

UPDATE: Fresh Air has just named it one of their Favorite Books of 2004.

What’s the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America by Thomas Frannk

Backstory: I had heard of this title several times as an explanation of why the Dems lost on Nov. 2. Then my dad recommended it to me and I was trying to avoid reading another book I really need to finish. A trip to St Mark’s Bookshop sealed the deal.

Notes: Funny, smart and personal, like everything Frank (founder of the legendary humor magazine The Baffler) does. The analysis is a little repetitive at times and is weak on exactly why former leftists have gone conservative. Perhaps he would have been aided by looking a little beyond Kansas, to put the tranformations of his home state in a larger social and political context. It’s a delicate balance here, between the personal and the political. Frank almost gets it.

Verdict: Great for post Nov. 2 ire but probably not one for the ages.

The Toughest Indian in the World by Sherman Alexie

Backstory: Sherman Alexie is one of maybe a dozen authors where I try to read everything they’ve written. These days I’ve been making a concerted effort to chip away at those author’s bibliographies. Alexie begins with “A” so that’s where I started. Plus I rationalized buying the book used on a week when I was particularly low on funds that I would read it right away. That was years ago.

Notes: Was marketed as a short story collection in which Alexie examined Indians in urban settings instead of on reservations. That’s only half true. Many of the stories lead back to the fictional Wellpinit reservation featured in his earlier novel Reservation Blues and short story collection The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. A few of the stories (“Class”, “Dear John Wayne”) are as good as anything Alexie has done. A few too many of them feel wandery and less taut than they should.

Verdict: Still great because it’s Alexie but probably his weakest book.

Fascinating article about author Cynthia Ozick, who, at 76, has written 13 books, and is going on her very first book tour to support her new novel Heir to the Glimmering World. Oddly this is not a case of writer’s reticence but rather her publisher’s simply never figured her then touring type (via Readerville).

Yes, I know Yasart Arafat is dead too. There will be plenty of time to talk about that. But I just found out this morning that Iris Chang, author several books about China and Chinese Americans was found dead in her car yesterday from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. She leaves behind a husband, a 2-year-old and a shocked Bay Area literary community.

I met Irish at Litquake 2 years ago and liked her right away. She was poised, smart and friendly. I had planned to read some of her books simply because I liked her as a person. I never got around to it.

The reasons for her suicide are unknown at this point. The polic will not disclose if she left a note. Not yet, anyway.

So sad. So very very sad.

Mobylives, the mother of all literary blogs is back. No rss feed though. Dennis, what up with that (via Written Road)?