Double the Fun: Two Non-Fiction Reads

Due to being out of town, my blog wasn't updated last weekend with a new book review. To make up for it: Non-fiction times 2! Now first, non-fiction is not for everyone. Often it requires not only a great writer, but a significant interest in the subject matter (who wants to read 200 pages on the art of cheese grating? just saying!). While works of half-read non-fiction at times do pile up on my nightstand, overall I've found that reading a work that is full of surprisingly new information is simultaneously energizing and invigorating. It also requires extreme knowledge and dedication to the subject matter.

This describes the first book, I'm reviewing this weekend, Seth Rosenfeld's "Subversives: The FBI's War on Student Radicals, and Reagan's Rise to Power". Now let me just warn you, this book is DENSE. It is five hundred pages long, and has a bibliography that could be a novel in it's own right. Don't let that deter you. This is a fantastic read. Cowen gathered thousands of pages from secret FBI files that he got through the Freedom of Information Act, as well as, information he gained through private lawsuits against the FBI when they failed to respond to his requests. The lengths he went to get his information could be a novel in and of it itself.

Rosenfeld's book focuses on the 60's and the counter-culture movement. The primary thrust of the work, is the invasive tactics that politicians and mainly the FBI, would take to utilize surveillance and heavy handed threats against student protesters and any that were thought to be 'subversive'. The book focuses not only on the ways that the FBI would keep tabs on protestors around the country, but also how they would label these individuals as communists and socialists, effectively blacklisting them from any gainful employment or even acceptance as students at Universities. The books focused specifically on the epicenter of the Free Speech Movement at University of California Berkley and shares the personal history of 'student radicals' like Mario Savio.

What's fascinating about this book is the ease with which the FBI under Hoover and politicians like Ronald Reagan, used the subversive movement and threats of communism within the United States as a way to extend their political reaches and cripple their political opponents. It is also clear from the FBI files gained by Rosenfeld, how the FBI would purposefully distribute wrong or misleading information to the public in order to raise concern and turn public opinion against the protestors. While the 60's are not a distant look into the past, I was simultaneously in awe of where the Free Speech Movement 'started' and how far there is still yet to go. One of the early stories in the book, revolved around protestors being ticketed and even expelled for attempting to pass out information about politics on a University Campus- where today the recent presidential candidates made several stops at large universities along their campaign route. Another story recounts how a protestor was jailed for carrying a sign that utilized the 'f' word.

The book illustrates the struggle that was made on the part of concerned citizens to ensure that all individuals had to right to say what they felt or believed, regardless of how political or societal forces feel about it. While our culture has come along way, it is unnecessary to discuss all the ways that equality and free speech still need to be ensured in our country. This book illustrates the struggle and hard won freedoms that we do have, and is encouraging to those who are still working to make that same idea happen for all.

The second book this week is "An Economist Gets Lunch: New Rules for Everyday Foodies", by Tyler Cowen. This book was highly disappointing. The slow food, local food and general foodie movements have been highly popular in the last few years. Cities from Portland, to Milwaukee, to Atlanta have been championing a move away from processed foods to healthier, more natural foods. Restaurants have sprouted in cities across the country that now change their menus weekly depending on what is in season and available locally. With all this interest, Cowen's book regarding the food movement should have been an easy read, but the best word to describe it is bland. The book quotes heavily from Michael Pollan's, "In Defense of Food", but fails to offer any additional or new insights into the subject matter. The rest of the books is dull, lifeless and uninteresting. The book will make you want to put it down and get lunch, instead of just reading about it. Avoid this one at all costs.

**On a side note, Pollan's "In Defense of Food" is a great and fascinating read regarding modern nutrition, eating local and the food industry's vested interest in changing what we eat. A few year old, finding a cheap paperback won't be hard and worth it from both a foodie and a economic perspective.**

The Devil in Silver

The eyes he met were white and empty. They had no pupils. Just the white meat of the eye, faint red veins running just below the surface like the chicken wire running through the shatterproof windows...Was this a hallucination? Something brought on by the pills?

Victor LaValle's new novel, "The Devil in Silver" is the perfect choice for a creepy reading the week of Halloween. While the book was marketed as a new addition to the horror genre, this is no Stephen King novel. Readers who expect it to be similar or a more typical horror story will be highly disappointed, however, if you are willing to try something new, this book is unexpectedly sweet and thrilling.

The premise of LaValle's story revolves around a tough New Yorker, Pepper, who is repeatedly referred to early on in the novel as 'the big man'. Pepper, after an altercation with a group of police officer's outside of a school building, is taken to a psychiatric unit. The staff there admit to Pepper that police officers repeatedly drop off troublesome convicts for '72 hour holds', as a way to avoid the paperwork and time it would take to book and hold them. Pepper is left there by the officers, under the assumption that after his 72 hours in the mental institution he would be let free. If that was the case, LaValle's novel would have embarrassingly short and unfulfilling. Unsurprisingly, Pepper's 72 hours comes and goes quickly, with him still locked inside the institution.

Shortly into the book, the author introduces a host of characters, some with highly identifiable signs of mental illness, others that function normally (more or less) in the institution. Inside the psychiatric unit, issues of race and class fade away, though re-surface from time to time. As the book progresses, a devil seems to haunt the mental institution, breaking into the patients' rooms in the middle of the night, causing some violent harm and frightening all the others. For those who hover on the edges of madness, it is no surprise that it is difficult to tell what's real and what's not real. While this is main suspenseful thrust of LaValle's work, the book is not all despair and fear, but also spends a lot of time focused on the relationships built between patients and the animosity that rises amongst the staff.

What is most frightening of all, is the story's description of the cruelty of the staff to patients, including heavy use of restraints and medication as a means to keep order. The novel brings up "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" on more than one occasion and appears to use the institution in that famous novel as the basis for the one described here. While many mental institutions are still struggling to ensure human and ethical treatment, many laws and procedures have been put in place to ensure the ethical treatment of our city's poorest and vulnerable populations. Mr. LaValle's novel is almost out of another place and time in it's description of the mental institution, however, to his credit, he finds new ways to explore the idea of madness from the perspective of the 'sane'.

So this Halloween, you may find yourself wondering, does Pepper get out of the institution? Does the Devil exist? What IS the difference between madness and sanity? You will need to finish 'The Devil in Silver' to find out, but I promise you will not be disappointed.

The Age of Miracles

"At the beginning, people stood on street corners and shouted about the end of the world...The freeways were clogged immediately. People heard the news, and they wanted to move. Families piled into minivans and crossed state lines. They scurried in every direction like small animals caught suddenly under a light. But, of course, there was nowhere to go."

In these few sentences, author, Karen Thompson Walker, sets the stage for a novel about a middle school girl coming of age. The book chronicles the story from pre-teen, Julia's perspective, as life resumes in the face of a global crisis. Julia throughout the book describes the uncertainty of growing up, the fear of not being able to fit in, the fear of losing friends, and the fear of never impressing the boy in math class. What makes "The Age of Miracles" different from any other coming of age story, is that Julia's is taking place while it appears that the world is coming to an end.

The book presents the demise of humanity as a 'slowing' where the world increasingly becomes more uninhabitable for its residents. First, this occurs with longer periods of day and night, changes in the tides, and the devastation to many of the worlds' migratory animals, like the birds that Julia sees fall out of the sky. Earth's population scrambles to find answers, develop a sustainable food supply, and keep order in a time where people who no longer follow 'clock time' are considered dangerous.

The book is a wonderful read. On it's face, it is a book about a girl learning about the world around her as it drastically changes. Look deeper, and the book resonates to the core of our culture. In an age where fears of global warming are increasing and more evidence points to the changes happening to Earth's climate, the youth of a not so distant tomorrow may find themselves having a similar experience to the one, Ms. Walker describes for Julia.

A Journey Between the Pages: The Beginning...

So I have avoided the 'blogger' urge for a long time, now to succumb to it (finally!) with the hope that it will not only be enjoyable to myself, but also that others get some benefit out of it. It will not be a surprise to many that know me that I am an obsessive reader. It is not unusual to find me always with a book in hand. My reading has normally been diverse and eclectic, with a mix of classics and new literature. For a long time, I have kept a journal of what I have read and the impressions I have had while reading the book. This blog is an attempt not only to share those impressions, but to suggest titles to others. I also would like to encourage people to talk about books that they have read and how they feel about them on this site. I hope to start with a few recent titles I have read, and than add from there. Happy reading!