“Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis” by J.D. Vance (HarperCollins, 2016)

I read through the best-seller list in the WSJ every week.  Mostly, I don’t recognize the books, sometimes I do know the authors, but it keeps me in tune with the top of the book market in which I work.  Repeatedly, my eye was drawn to the book Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance which has remained on the non-fiction best sellers for months.  I was attracted by the unique title, but most of all by the author who I erroneously assumed was J.A. Jance, best-selling author of many mysteries set in the states of Washington and Arizona--great recreational reading.  I realized my cognitive error (old age) and looked up J.D. Vance—and ordered the book.

This is a memoir from childhood through early career of a boy born into a hillbilly family in Kentucky who migrates to Middletown, OH.  They move from rural poverty to urban factory jobs, along with other Kentucky families.  J.D. has a miserable childhood:  15 father figures who rotate in and out of his mother’s life, an unstable mother, and eventually, poverty.  But he is blessed with a loving and level-headed older sister, a mentoring aunt and grandparents who, though thoroughly hillbilly (a culture that he defines through example), love, nurture and guide J.D.  

It’s difficult for those of us who are middle-class white to empathize with poor whites.  I saw a bit in the 1950’s Ozarks where my grandparents had a 600-acre rock farm.  They were made poorer by the depression, but the rock farm was originally their hunting lodge, where they were now forced to live full-time.  Compared to our neighbors, the O’Mally’s, the DeVeaux’s, the Hogan’s, we were royalty.  And, since these neighbors owned farms, they were higher on the pecking order than most hillbillies in the book, and they were of a different generation. When U.S. Army Fort Leonard Wood opened 20 miles away, many flocked to the steady government jobs and likely upward mobility.  

The kernel of J.D.’s memoir is that lower class whites feel they have been abandoned by both Democrat and Republican politicians and governments.  Traditionally Democrats, lower class whites feel abandoned by elite liberals from the East, much like they have been ignored by traditional Republicans who focus on the role of profitable business to float all boats.  And along comes Trump, who usurped the Republican party and paid attention to lower and middle-class whites and their plight of closed factories and disappearing jobs.  Combine that with distrust of print media and willingness to believe conspiracy theories about Obama, Clinton, health care, voting so enough changed parties to elect a man who really has no substantial understanding of the lower classes, black or white.  

The refreshing point of this memoir is that J.D. does not point fingers at the local, state or national government or the politicians for his childhood problems.  In true conservative style, he proves through his life that we all contain within us the ability to “move up”, make reality of our dreams.  He acknowledges the critical roles played by the mentors in his family, his universities, the Marines, his religion and his wife.  Conversely, he feels there is much more that can be done by government and middle and upper class individuals to focus on the core problems of poverty:  single mothers, a flood of cheap and available narcotics, underperforming schools, and the loss of religion.  

I can’t say I enjoyed this book – most of it is too bleak to be enjoyable.  It is well written; it’s a quick read; it isn’t didactic, and it makes you think.  If you are interested in one man’s insight into why the U.S. is foundering, you should read it.

I recommend that after you finish the book, you read this interview of J.D. Vance with Rod Dreher of “The American Conservative”.  It drills a bit further into Vance’s point of view.
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/trump-us-politics-poor-whites/

And if you want some good reading for a mental holiday enjoy any of J.A. Jance’s books.  
 

“The Illegal” by Lawrence Hill (W. W. Norton & Co, 2016)

I listened to this book and the best thing about it is the narrator, Gideon Emery.  As many great audio book readers do, he created a voice for each character, making a rather dull book into a masterpiece.

Lawrence Hill also wrote The Book of Negroes which I reviewed several weeks ago.  I was interested to see what he would do with a contemporary novel.  

It’s the story of a young black marathon runner from Zantoroland, living illegally in Freedom State.  Why Hill thought it necessary to make this a slightly dystopian plot with fictional national entities, I don’t know.  Why not just use Somalia or Nigeria and South Africa?  Doing so would have required a lot more careful research, but it would have been so much more compelling.

In reading through the Amazon reviews, I noted that one Canadian reviewer thought the book depicted the condition of African-Americans.  That never crossed my mind.  Yes, Hill portrays problems of illegals, but they are universal problems today, and African-Americans are citizens, not illegals.  That said there are significant problems in the U.S. regarding the treatment of minorities and illegals.  Canada has a much better track record. 

I can’t find much to recommend The Illegal.  Not a bad read, just not good enough to merit the investment of time.  Listening to it in my car as I drove around Tucson was the perfect way to fill those boring minutes. 
 

“Any Human Heart” by William Boyd (Vintage International, 2004)

William Boyd rarely disappoints.  This epistolary novel pulls you into the intimate journals of Logan Mountstuart, born in Uruguay in the early 1900’s where his father was a corned beef baron.  It ends in 1991 with Mountstuart’s death at age 85 in France.  

In between, Mountstuart and family move to London and the adventures begin.  I felt that my protagonist was somewhat of a Zelig figure, in and out of every major event in the 20th Century.  But, isn’t that somewhat the point of writing a novel covering 85 years? Your main character gets to do interesting things:  public school, Oxford (Jesus College, a third in history), a moderately successful writer, a bad husband and father, then a good husband and father, a spy in WWII, family lost in the Blitz, art dealer in New York, bad husband again, professor in Nigeria during the Biafrian war, penniless quasi-revolutionary in London, finally a peaceful death alone at his home in France.

There’s a marked contrast between his privileged youth and middle-age and his more enlightened older, destitute days.  He learns to settle, to cope, to need friends, to be a friend and to be at peace.  

Boyd is an excellent writer.  Each of his books is a unique experience—well researched and a pleasure to read.  Highly recommended if you want to lose yourself in the world of Logan Mountstuart for a week or so.  
 

“The Book of Negroes: a novel” by Lawrence Hill (Norton, 2008) originally published in the U.S. as “Someone Knows My Name”

Lawrence Hill’s books were recommended to me by a friend living in Nova Scotia who is directing me to good historical fiction about the Maritime Provences of Canada.  We will be visiting there this summer.  

Hill is the son of a black father and white mother who emigrated from the U.S. to Canada in the 60’s.  Both parents were active in the Canadian civil rights movement and influenced Hill’s life work as a journalist and author.  He continues to live and work in Canada.

The Book of Negroes is the story of the Black Loyalists—slaves in the North American colonies who were promised freedom for remaining loyal to the British during the War of Independence.  They worked for the British in the military and in all sorts of skilled and unskilled trades. The story centers around the fictional life of Aminata Diallo, from her childhood in Mali, through capture, slave life, runaway life in New York, emigration to Nova Scotia, emigration to Sierra Leon, and final emigration to London.  As befits a heroine, Aminata is clever.  She becomes literate and numerate, speaks several languages and manages through a long, difficult and sad life.

There were about 3,000 slaves listed in The Book of Negroes, which is the hand-written list of former slaves given their freedom and transported to various places in the Maritimes of Canada.  They did not flourish.  The British government did nothing for them and the locals hated them.  You can’t say these former slaves would have been better remaining in the new United States.  To even return would have risked capture and re-enslavement.  In the 1790’s, British abolitionists funded a colony in Sierra Leon and invited former Black Loyalists settle there.  Life was ultimately no better, as they were abandoned by the abolitionists.  

When we visit Nova Scotia, we will be able to visit Birchtown, the original settlement of the Black Loyalists.  Because of the upcoming trip, I enjoyed this book immensely. Like most historical fiction, the story had to bend to reveal the events.  So, there is a feeling of a contrived plot, but it is all for a good purpose.   


 

“The Horseman: a novel” by Tim Pears (Bloomsbury, 2017)

Oh, what a lovely book!  The time is January, 1911 through June, 1912.  The place is the estate of Lord Prideaux in south-central England.  The main protagonist is Leo Sercombe, 11, youngest son of Alfred Sercombe, the carter on the estate.  Leo’s stoic, quiet demeanor is enlivened only by horses.  He barely endures school, often truant to be with the horses.  

Leo’s same age is Lottie Prideaux, only and willful child of Lord Prideaux, who is widowed.  She is an excellent horsewoman and hunter – a little tomboy.  This book is the first of a trilogy taking Leo and Lottie from adolescence through the end of WWI.  

What makes this book special is the loving detail with which Pears describes life on the farms of the estate through the year and a half.  We witness the intense labor involving horses, machines and labor pools that expand and contract among the neighbors as needed.  We learn the roles of the carter, the grooms, the wheelwright, the farmers, the gamekeeper and other trade specialists that keep the estate producing.  Woven throughout are the personalities of these people and Leo’s immediate and extended family.  

Highly recommended for readers who enjoy a good historical novel based in early 20th century England.  
 

"The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu And Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts" By Joshua Hammer, (Simon & Schuster, 2016)

As part of the history of Spain, we’ve heard how the Muslim conquerors from Northern Africa had a flourishing culture of literature and science—and that much of it was lost when the Arabs were driven out of Spain.  But wait!  All was not lost.  Some of those priceless books, written in Arabic and other North African languages were hidden away by families and clans living in the desert and in the cities.  As were manuscripts written in Africa about astronomy, agriculture, religion, and poetry.  These were considered so valuable they hadn’t seen the light of day for centuries.

From the Simon & Schuster site:
“In the 1980s, a young adventurer and collector for a government library, Abdel Kader Haidara, journeyed across the Sahara Desert and along the Niger River, tracking down and salvaging tens of thousands of ancient Islamic and secular manuscripts that had fallen into obscurity. The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu tells the incredible story of how Haidara, a mild-mannered archivist and historian from the legendary city of Timbuktu, later became one of the world’s greatest and most brazen smugglers.

In 2012, thousands of Al Qaeda militants from northwest Africa seized control of most of Mali, including Timbuktu. They imposed Sharia law, … threatened to destroy the great manuscripts. As the militants tightened their control over Timbuktu, Haidara organized a dangerous operation to sneak all 350,000 volumes out of the city to the safety of southern Mali.”

There are three parts to the book:  the first describes the history of the texts and Haidara’s harvest.  The second details the political background for the rise of Al Qaeda in Mali.  The third tells the story of the rescue.  It’s easy reading except for the middle, where the similar Muslim names continue to challenge me.  

The author, Joshua Hammer, spent years in Mali.  In 2014, he wrote an account of the manuscripts in National Geographic.  Here you can see a few photos to enhance the story.  The book itself has only one unreadable map and no photos.  What a shame.  It’s an interesting book that I recommend for history buffs. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/innovators/2014/04/140421-haidara-timbuktu-manuscripts-mali-library-conservation/

“Conclave” by Robert Harris, (Knopf, 2016)

Continuing my light reading spree, I enjoyed the world of Conclave.  It’s about the election of the Pope, following the sudden death of a Pope with the liberal leanings of current Pope Francis.  The protagonist is Cardinal Lomedi, Dean of the College of Cardinals—a man who the former Pope declared his “manager”, but Lomedi doubts his personal spirituality.  There are 118 cardinals, various lesser administrators, the Sisters of Holy Something or Other, who handle the cooking and housekeeping at the hostel built to house the cardinals.  It’s a vast cast of characters and Harris does a good job of not confusing the reader with too much background on such rich personalities.

The main plot is the election, with various sub-plots on why prime suspects for election have clay feet.  The winner is not a total surprise, but Harris does pack a good punch into the end.  As a Catholic, I enjoyed revisiting the rituals of the Vatican and all the inter-Nicene conflicts between European, new world and third world cardinals.   Best of all, a great map of Vatican surrounding St. Peter’s begins the story.  
 

“The Whistler” by John Grisham (Doubleday, 2016)

I enjoy a good Grisham thriller.  They aren’t too thrilling, but have enough complexity and great characters to make them enjoyable “popcorn” for the mind.  This one not so much.  I disagree with the NYT and Wash Post which gave The Whistler rave reviews.  Enjoyable and informative, yes.  Among Grisham’s best, no. 

The plot involves the Florida Board on Judicial Conduct, a corrupt judge and an Indian casino.  The FBJC is a state agency that endeavors to uncover state, county and municipal judges engaging in corruption and maleficence.  I assume most states have such bodies.  The protagonists are all charming, the antagonists suitably despicable.  My problem with the book is that Grisham “tipped the wink” as to who was guilty and why within the first third of the book.  From that point, it was must a nice narration of how the case played out, all tied up in a neat bow at the end. 

“The Private Life of Mrs. Sharma” by Ratika Kapur (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015)

The intimacy of Ratika Kapur's writing drew me into a spellbinding conversation with the protagonist, Mrs. Sharma.  She is perhaps typical of a modern Indian woman, educated, but not too well because her family ran out of money.  She is married with a 15-year-old son, but her husband, a physiotherapist, works in an Arab country so they can save money to purchase their flat.  Her son, Bobby, is not in sync with his parent’s goals for him and listless in that undirected adolescent manner.  What’s a respectable woman to do?

Mrs. Sharma has an affair.  Written in an intimate first person voice, the book reads like a good friend sharing something, than a bit more and yet a bit more.  She meets a nice man.  They have ice cream.  They visit the mall.  They visit his flat when his mother is out.  Oh, by the way, we slept together three times.  Kapur’s descriptions of Mrs. Sharma’s physical longing for her absent husband is tender and beautiful.  

Is this the essence of the East Indian woman today?  I can’t say because I only visit the culture. But it is a well written book.  Short.  Some reviewers did not care for the ending.  I felt it was unimportant to the overall beauty of the writing and the story.  
 

“Max Perkins: Editor of Genius” by A. Scott Berg, originally published 1978 by Dutton, re-released in 2016 by New American Library, and “Genius” a movie based on the book, starring Colin Furth, 2016

I didn’t know what to expect of this book.  It was recommended by an author-friend as a worthy read.  How could editors have a life worth writing about?  They are the background people who nurture a book to maturity.  

Max Perkins nurtured genius.  He began working for Scribner’s in New York shortly after graduating from Harvard.  His genealogy is full of tough New Englanders, who forbore rather than enjoyed.  His gift was connections; his talent was loyalty and the ability to shape a manuscript.  Through connections, he brought the cream of the Jazz Age, the Depression, the Recovery, and WWII to Scribner’s--F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Alice Roosevelt, Thomas Wolfe, Sherwood Anderson, Erskine Caldwell, James Jones, William Faulkner, Ring Lardner, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings—the list goes on and on.  

Perkins did not have a happy personal life—a loveless, long marriage and a stoical approach to any adversity or rejection.  He did revel in his five daughters and in his mercurial clients who counted on his devotion and guidance.  This is a worthy read, especially if you want to understand book development.  Berg won a well-deserved National Book Award for biography.

Aghhh, the movie, Genius, starring Colin Furth as Perkins, Jude Law as Wolfe, and Nicole Kidman as Aline Bernstein—and a host of other luminaries.  I could only endure one hour during which the movie agonized over the “lover’s triangle” among Perkins, Wolfe and Bernstein.  Could watch no more because it would have completely trashed the memorable images from the book.  Forget it.
 

"Knight with Armour" by Alfred Duggan (Cassell & Company, 1950)

Alfred Duggan was born in 1903 in Argentina.  The family moved in 1905 to London where Duggan enjoyed an upper-class environment and education.  His first love was archeology and he visited and excavated at many of the famous middle-eastern sites.  Knight with Armour is his first book, so he came to writing at 47 and wrote a book a year until his last in 1971.  Scanning his bibliography, most deal with the Middle Ages either in Britain or the Crusades in the Middle East.  

Knight with Armour is an good read if you love history.  Meticulously researched, Duggan excoriates the false patina of courtly love and Catholic faith, exposing the realities of the First Crusade—boredom, filth, starvation, rivalries among the troops, dismemberment, death and no salvation. Our Norman knight, Roger, is an 18 year old second son who must leave his family’s small holding in newly conquered Britain to seek fortune elsewhere.  He is earnest and naïve.  But he is a knight and is given the family warhorse, his personal cache until the horse is killed.  And so it goes. Roger is now only a bit above a foot soldier, saved repeatedly by his heavy armour.  

There is a love story, which was off-putting at first.  But, true to form, our Roger is cuckolded by his trusted friend.  Most interesting were the battle strategies and their execution and the role of the war horses.  They were trained to battle, not just deliver the knight to engagement with the enemy.  

It’s likely I will read more of Duggan’s books. I only wish there had been a map in this one showing the Crusaders’ journey.  
 

"The Lower River" by Paul Theroux (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012)

Reading a Paul Theroux book is like a visit with an old friend—no matter when you see her, you pick up where you left off, even after many years.  We have read most of Theroux’s books (46 of them), from his great, misanthropic travel adventures (The Great Railway Bazaar), through his excellent fiction (The Mosquito Coast) to his more recent, and often less satisfying books.  

Theroux began writing fiction about his experiences in Africa as a Peace Corps volunteer in Malawi.  He loved his work, but viewed situations through a fatalistic lens. He became politically active and was deported from Malawi and the Peace Corps. He returned to Uganda as a teacher for two years, then again left during political turmoil. In the last ten or 15 years, he returned to Africa. First with the starkly realistic and depressing journey from North Africa to Cape Town, Dark Star Safari.  He found no hope or joy to report.  The Lower River is the fictionalized account of a Peace Corps volunteer who returns to his “home” in Africa as a retiree and finds no hope or joy. It is traditional, dark Theroux.  

On the good side, Theroux is an excellent writer and you sink into his easy prose style and float through the journey in the hands of a master.  It’s a dark story well told, and so much better and meatier than what passes for Best Sellers today.

"Incarnations: A History of India in Fifty Lives" by Sunil Khilnani (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016)

What an interesting way to explore complex history.  Each biography is about six pages long. There are a few representative photos in the middle (more would have been appreciated).  An outline map of India in the front identifies birthplaces.  An actual map of contemporary India with major cities and states would have been helpful.

My interest in this book never flagged.  From Buddha through Dhirubhai Ambani (one of the world’s richest men today), the author illustrates the nature of the complexity of contemporary India and Pakistan by examining briefly the lives of those who shaped it.  You see how traditions in locations still influence economics and politics–the everyday lives of citizens.  Though no one endorses the caste system today, it is still reinforced by special benefits from the government for lower caste members. 

If you enjoy history, this is a good read.