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swaggle's reviews
54 reviews
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
3.5
If you care about a story being believable you will not like this book, as every step the book takes makes it feel more fantastical and romantic until the epilogue. A failed terrorist plot thriller which transforms from Lord Of The Flies into a love story. A lot of the characters are only mentioned briefly and hardly feel relevant to the story, and we get marginally more depth and background for the main characters, primarily Gen, Roxanne Coss, Mr. Hosokawa and a few peaks at the Generals of the terrorist cell who have the place occupied.
The plot is a fun sort of thought experiment and makes for an enjoyable enough read. The characters all get sucked into this fantasy world they've created and this builds a very creeping and hardly noticeable tension before the ending smacks you in the face with it.
Patchett doesn't spend a lot of time on the ending which some might argue makes it feel rushed. The ending makes sense to me, and the groundwork was layed out several pages before the twist or surprise. The epilogue is kind of funny because it gives the perspectives of the main characters as well as some background characters, and tells you the main characters have an easier time transitioning back to a "normal" life whereas the background characters end up never wanting to be in the country again because of their memory of the events. It's a pretty interesting part of the book if you think about it from a psychological standpoint of the characters.
The book didn't blow my mind or change my life as far as I'm aware, but it was fun and absurd and I'd recommend it. Pretty easy to read as well, you never have to strain to understand what's going on.
The plot is a fun sort of thought experiment and makes for an enjoyable enough read. The characters all get sucked into this fantasy world they've created and this builds a very creeping and hardly noticeable tension before the ending smacks you in the face with it.
Patchett doesn't spend a lot of time on the ending which some might argue makes it feel rushed. The ending makes sense to me, and the groundwork was layed out several pages before the twist or surprise. The epilogue is kind of funny because it gives the perspectives of the main characters as well as some background characters, and tells you the main characters have an easier time transitioning back to a "normal" life whereas the background characters end up never wanting to be in the country again because of their memory of the events. It's a pretty interesting part of the book if you think about it from a psychological standpoint of the characters.
The book didn't blow my mind or change my life as far as I'm aware, but it was fun and absurd and I'd recommend it. Pretty easy to read as well, you never have to strain to understand what's going on.
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
4.0
I thought this book was quite funny which I haven't seen anyone mention. The characters all have a natural sense of humor to them, which made it fun to read. Beagle was clearly having a laugh when he wrote the characters talking past each other and making fun of his poor wizard by having seemingly every character say "you couldn't turn cream into butter". I think the sense of humor and the fun Beagle had writing this is where the book really shines. There are also plenty of references the characters make to the story that they're in and how their fate relates to how the story must progress or is progressing, which is kind of funny in a breaking-the-fourth-wall kind of way.
The plot centers around the themes of mortality and legacy. One of the main characters of the book, Schmendrick the Magician, introduces himself by saying that you would never had heard of him, despite the fact that he's an immortal wizard. Schmendrick eventually evolves as a wizard, finding himself and realizing "Whatever can die is beautiful--more beautiful than a unicorn, who lives forever, and who is the most beautiful creature in the world." And what becomes of the unicorn is that "she is a story with no ending, happy or sad. She can never belong to anything mortal enough to want her."
This book does have a certain je ne sais quoi, but the descriptive language, poetry that evokes lore, the atmosphere and world building I think all comes together to make this book a classic, and something I could imagine reading to my imaginary future child during bed time.
The plot centers around the themes of mortality and legacy. One of the main characters of the book, Schmendrick the Magician, introduces himself by saying that you would never had heard of him, despite the fact that he's an immortal wizard. Schmendrick eventually evolves as a wizard, finding himself and realizing "Whatever can die is beautiful--more beautiful than a unicorn, who lives forever, and who is the most beautiful creature in the world." And what becomes of the unicorn is that "she is a story with no ending, happy or sad. She can never belong to anything mortal enough to want her."
This book does have a certain je ne sais quoi, but the descriptive language, poetry that evokes lore, the atmosphere and world building I think all comes together to make this book a classic, and something I could imagine reading to my imaginary future child during bed time.
Natchez Burning by Greg Iles
3.5
Greg Iles novel Natchez Burning is the first in a trilogy, but also follows the stories of protagonists of earlier books which I will admit I haven't read before this book. However I think Iles does a good job of catching us up to speed with these characters and what motivates them, as complicated as their motivations sometimes are.
I think there are several things which make Iles' characters in this book compelling: he finds a good balance between showing a character's flaws or lapses of judgment with obvious sympathy for their cause (at least in the case of the protagonists). The antagonists' causes are less sympathetic for obvious reasons, but they are still complicated nonetheless, and I think this is owing to Iles' own personal grief and relationship with mortality, which is a major theme running through this book. Another thing which makes the characters compelling is that he is inspired by real people, the obvious example being Stanley Nelson, an investigator of civil rights cold-cases and Klan murders in Louisiana reporting for the Concordia Sentinel, this investigative journalism making Nelson a contender for a Pulitzer in 2011. The obvious connection being Henry Sexton (even the name sounds somewhat similar).
The book features only a few black characters although the historical background and setting emphasizes their stories, black characters are mostly in the background rather than the foreground of this novel. Greg Iles suggests it is because he "had nothing to teach black readers" about racism. I still found these characters compelling and equally complicated, but you can decide for yourself if these characters are believable or compelling, or about where they fall in the cast.
I think there are several things which make Iles' characters in this book compelling: he finds a good balance between showing a character's flaws or lapses of judgment with obvious sympathy for their cause (at least in the case of the protagonists). The antagonists' causes are less sympathetic for obvious reasons, but they are still complicated nonetheless, and I think this is owing to Iles' own personal grief and relationship with mortality, which is a major theme running through this book. Another thing which makes the characters compelling is that he is inspired by real people, the obvious example being Stanley Nelson, an investigator of civil rights cold-cases and Klan murders in Louisiana reporting for the Concordia Sentinel, this investigative journalism making Nelson a contender for a Pulitzer in 2011. The obvious connection being Henry Sexton (even the name sounds somewhat similar).
The book features only a few black characters although the historical background and setting emphasizes their stories, black characters are mostly in the background rather than the foreground of this novel. Greg Iles suggests it is because he "had nothing to teach black readers" about racism. I still found these characters compelling and equally complicated, but you can decide for yourself if these characters are believable or compelling, or about where they fall in the cast.
Utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill, George Sher
2.5
A good overview of the basic principles of Utilitarian ethics, worth a read if you want a textbook defense of Utilitarianism. It may not answer all your questions but some of the general ideas are there. Would recommend coupling this with a visit to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy which explains in more detail objections and weaknesses in J.S. Mill's argumentation.
The Making of a Stormtrooper by Peter H. Merkl
4.0
In this book Professor of Political Science Peter H. Merkl critically examines the Stormtroopers (SA) of Weimar Germany from multiple facets including class-based analysis, psychology, sociological factors, history and political influences and even religion. He repeatedly refers to the 581 autobiographical statements of early Nazis collected by Theodor Abel, the principle and primary source for this work. This source allows us to understand the motivations "straight from the horse's mouth" if we can believe these Nazis had no reason to lie. Merkl at one point brings this up, stating that many of the testimonies are so blunt about certain things that it almost seems ridiculous to believe they might omit something in their testimony, I think the example he used was regarding their antisemitism being a motivating factor for joining the SA (which according to the data extrapolated from the Abel group, these numbers were surprisingly not high on the priority list for these young Nazi street fighters, usually instead they claimed it was the allure of camaraderie, cult surrounding Hitler or the "utopian" visions of Nazi ideology which drew them in.)
This book highlighted a number of key things about the SA for me:
Members of the SA were on multiple occasions former members of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD)
Many of the people interviewed in the Abel group were part of Youth groups as children (more than 80%) ranging from extreme left like Communist Youth (KJVD) or Rote Jungfront to nationalist right wing voelkisch groups like Jungstalhelm or Kyffhaeuserjungend, which were youth associations of prominent veterans leagues, and many Organized Catholic youth groups. "Whole generations of Weimar youth had been politically mobilized without developing a democratic political consciousness" (p. 70)
The SA was a diverse group of individuals ranging from blue collar rural-to-urban sons of farmers and agriculturalists, to socially respectable sons of merchants, former veterans of WWI and poorly educated troubled youth who grew up without the presence of fathers in the home looking for any way to legitimize their violent urges or tendencies.
It seems like for a lot of these young men, they often decided to join and continued being part of the SA despite whatever negative consequences would occur as a result. (getting in fights, losing contact with former friends/family, sometimes even their jobs, although Merkl seems to raise an eyebrow at this last point.)
Merkl concludes their is really not one easy "monocausal" explanation for the motivations of a Stormtrooper, rather a complex mixture of "causes" is often at play and what is emphasized in one may not be for another. Those who lived in the French-occupied Rhineland cited that as a motivation, others cited red scare and opposition to international bolshevism, young people who had nationalistic/voelkisch parents or teachers, or a hyper-patriotic German youth who felt veterans of WWI were treated poorly. Some people saw the party as a potential career and chance at social mobility in a time where the Great Depression severely affected the country, "a good one-third of them...were unemployed, bankrupt, or otherwise suffered severe damage by the Depression." (p. 191) Merkl ends on the note that "reconstructing the world of meaning as the stormtroopers saw it goes a long way towards explaining their decision to march and fight and proselytize, as long as we remember that it was still their free decision to join and work for the movement." (p. 308)
This book highlighted a number of key things about the SA for me:
Members of the SA were on multiple occasions former members of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD)
Many of the people interviewed in the Abel group were part of Youth groups as children (more than 80%) ranging from extreme left like Communist Youth (KJVD) or Rote Jungfront to nationalist right wing voelkisch groups like Jungstalhelm or Kyffhaeuserjungend, which were youth associations of prominent veterans leagues, and many Organized Catholic youth groups. "Whole generations of Weimar youth had been politically mobilized without developing a democratic political consciousness" (p. 70)
The SA was a diverse group of individuals ranging from blue collar rural-to-urban sons of farmers and agriculturalists, to socially respectable sons of merchants, former veterans of WWI and poorly educated troubled youth who grew up without the presence of fathers in the home looking for any way to legitimize their violent urges or tendencies.
It seems like for a lot of these young men, they often decided to join and continued being part of the SA despite whatever negative consequences would occur as a result. (getting in fights, losing contact with former friends/family, sometimes even their jobs, although Merkl seems to raise an eyebrow at this last point.)
Merkl concludes their is really not one easy "monocausal" explanation for the motivations of a Stormtrooper, rather a complex mixture of "causes" is often at play and what is emphasized in one may not be for another. Those who lived in the French-occupied Rhineland cited that as a motivation, others cited red scare and opposition to international bolshevism, young people who had nationalistic/voelkisch parents or teachers, or a hyper-patriotic German youth who felt veterans of WWI were treated poorly. Some people saw the party as a potential career and chance at social mobility in a time where the Great Depression severely affected the country, "a good one-third of them...were unemployed, bankrupt, or otherwise suffered severe damage by the Depression." (p. 191) Merkl ends on the note that "reconstructing the world of meaning as the stormtroopers saw it goes a long way towards explaining their decision to march and fight and proselytize, as long as we remember that it was still their free decision to join and work for the movement." (p. 308)
The German Opposition to Hitler by Hans Rothfels
challenging
reflective
3.0
Hans Rothfels argues in this essay that there was a widespread opposition to Hitler. Although for obvious reasons this opposition could not manifest as a "mass movement", there were many local underground cells and significant resistances to Hitler's war aims before the war had even started, and throughout the war, dispelling notions that it was the threat of defeat which spurred resistance to action.
Rothfels argues resistance was a very nuanced and diverse, yet concrete program of resistance and ideas of a post-war Germany. Various players in the opposition are mentioned, each with unique methods of how to act against Hitler. Johannes Popitz, for example, who tried to convince Goering and Himmler to move against Hitler; or Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, whose religious morality led him to act to undermine Hitler in a radical new vision for Germany, knowing a return to Weimar era Germany would be a mistake, and a fresh approach based in Christian spirituality would need to completely uproot the challenge brought by Hitler's apparent secularism. Some of these men believed in a State Socialism for Germany while others argued for as little change to economic life as possible and keeping a neo-liberal economy in new social and international times. However all, from conservative, liberal, christian, socialist, young and old, shared the ideal of restored order and human dignity.
Religious elements of the opposition are highly emphasized in this work, even many of the socialists are a mixture of strong Catholics, Protestants and Evangelicals and that major leaders of the Kreisau circle such as Helmuth James Graf von Moltke would claim that purely moral principles were insufficient and that a belief in God was necessary to be an enemy of Hitler's regime. (p. 114) It may be that Rothfels is potentially biased towards religious opposition in his narrative. Otherwise he would have you believe nearly all of the valuable opposition to Hitler rallied around a Christian ethos of morality and all plans for a post-war Germany were infused with Christian ideals and morals.
Rothfels argues resistance was a very nuanced and diverse, yet concrete program of resistance and ideas of a post-war Germany. Various players in the opposition are mentioned, each with unique methods of how to act against Hitler. Johannes Popitz, for example, who tried to convince Goering and Himmler to move against Hitler; or Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, whose religious morality led him to act to undermine Hitler in a radical new vision for Germany, knowing a return to Weimar era Germany would be a mistake, and a fresh approach based in Christian spirituality would need to completely uproot the challenge brought by Hitler's apparent secularism. Some of these men believed in a State Socialism for Germany while others argued for as little change to economic life as possible and keeping a neo-liberal economy in new social and international times. However all, from conservative, liberal, christian, socialist, young and old, shared the ideal of restored order and human dignity.
Religious elements of the opposition are highly emphasized in this work, even many of the socialists are a mixture of strong Catholics, Protestants and Evangelicals and that major leaders of the Kreisau circle such as Helmuth James Graf von Moltke would claim that purely moral principles were insufficient and that a belief in God was necessary to be an enemy of Hitler's regime. (p. 114) It may be that Rothfels is potentially biased towards religious opposition in his narrative. Otherwise he would have you believe nearly all of the valuable opposition to Hitler rallied around a Christian ethos of morality and all plans for a post-war Germany were infused with Christian ideals and morals.
A Naked Singularity by Sergio De La Pava
5.0
What a bizarre and enthralling book. Moby Dick if it was written by a lawyer. So much natural and observational comedy in this book that it almost makes you forget how serious and how high the stakes of the plot often are.
As the author himself states, this book shows a reality that most people aren't privy to. Our protagonist, Casi, aligns himself with the type of characters who most readers would cross the street to avoid or try to get away from. Ironically these characters are much more compelling and evoke far more sympathy than other members of the cast that Casi is "supposed" to like, such as the doctor who he went on a date with, or the people that keep repeating the lines you might expect a public defender to get barraged with: "Why become a public defender instead of a lawyer which gets better pay" or "You must be stressed out" or "How can you defend people who are criminals and deserve to be locked up" etc. Even his fellow public defender/lawyer friends will not understand Casi's idealism and why he tries so hard to represent his clients. But how could you not feel sympathetic for Jalen Kingg, or topple over laughing from any number of hilarious circumstances that occur because of one of the clients behavior? They bring so many memorable moments and bring this book to life. The author himself having many years of experience as a public defender is probably a good part of the reason why this novel is so convincing and believable in the first couple hundred pages.
There are some points where the book felt very over the top and on the nose about things, but it all felt like it coincided with the unbelievable nature of the plot so I'm not knocking it for that, just saying. I liked the character Dane but from the very first moment he was introduced I thought he was an absolute idiot. Like you couldn't write a more flawed character, I felt like he was on the wrong side of every issue in the book the entire time. And there's probably some point being made there, I guess. Or just establishing him as the Mephistopheles in the Faustian bargain arc of the book. His takes on psychology just seem so wrong, I remember he said something like "What you are perceived by others to be is what you are." And Casi, an otherwise smart guy, lets this dude get in his head constantly, which for the life of me I cannot fathom why.
I was also quite fascinated by the parallels the author drew between Casi and Wilfred Benitez, the young world champion hall of fame boxer of the 1980's. I've read other novels that try to do this type of thing and it doesn't always work, but I think it allowed really interesting story telling and was a useful narrative device here. I'm sure Casi feels like he's defending a world champion belt when he gets a case like the guy who got caught breaking into the van. The ironic thing is that while the rules for a boxing match usually serves to level the playing field between the fighters, it seems like the opposite is true in the courtroom, at least in this novel. Casi always seems to be fighting an uphill battle against the rules and what gets accepted as evidence. Since I'm not a big boxing fan I hadn't heard of Wilfred Benitez prior, makes me wonder if De La Pava could write a whole novel about boxing, I'd probably still be enthralled.
You'll like this if you like long monologues/tangents, obsessive characters, sub-plots, large casts of characters, interest in law from a public defender's perspective, stream of consciousness writing and plot/writing that becomes increasingly entropic.
As the author himself states, this book shows a reality that most people aren't privy to. Our protagonist, Casi, aligns himself with the type of characters who most readers would cross the street to avoid or try to get away from. Ironically these characters are much more compelling and evoke far more sympathy than other members of the cast that Casi is "supposed" to like, such as the doctor who he went on a date with, or the people that keep repeating the lines you might expect a public defender to get barraged with: "Why become a public defender instead of a lawyer which gets better pay" or "You must be stressed out" or "How can you defend people who are criminals and deserve to be locked up" etc. Even his fellow public defender/lawyer friends will not understand Casi's idealism and why he tries so hard to represent his clients. But how could you not feel sympathetic for Jalen Kingg, or topple over laughing from any number of hilarious circumstances that occur because of one of the clients behavior? They bring so many memorable moments and bring this book to life. The author himself having many years of experience as a public defender is probably a good part of the reason why this novel is so convincing and believable in the first couple hundred pages.
There are some points where the book felt very over the top and on the nose about things, but it all felt like it coincided with the unbelievable nature of the plot so I'm not knocking it for that, just saying. I liked the character Dane but from the very first moment he was introduced I thought he was an absolute idiot. Like you couldn't write a more flawed character, I felt like he was on the wrong side of every issue in the book the entire time. And there's probably some point being made there, I guess. Or just establishing him as the Mephistopheles in the Faustian bargain arc of the book. His takes on psychology just seem so wrong, I remember he said something like "What you are perceived by others to be is what you are." And Casi, an otherwise smart guy, lets this dude get in his head constantly, which for the life of me I cannot fathom why.
I was also quite fascinated by the parallels the author drew between Casi and Wilfred Benitez, the young world champion hall of fame boxer of the 1980's. I've read other novels that try to do this type of thing and it doesn't always work, but I think it allowed really interesting story telling and was a useful narrative device here. I'm sure Casi feels like he's defending a world champion belt when he gets a case like the guy who got caught breaking into the van. The ironic thing is that while the rules for a boxing match usually serves to level the playing field between the fighters, it seems like the opposite is true in the courtroom, at least in this novel. Casi always seems to be fighting an uphill battle against the rules and what gets accepted as evidence. Since I'm not a big boxing fan I hadn't heard of Wilfred Benitez prior, makes me wonder if De La Pava could write a whole novel about boxing, I'd probably still be enthralled.
You'll like this if you like long monologues/tangents, obsessive characters, sub-plots, large casts of characters, interest in law from a public defender's perspective, stream of consciousness writing and plot/writing that becomes increasingly entropic.
The American People: Volume 1: Search for My Heart: A Novel by Larry Kramer
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
this book is a lot. not only in length but its depth as well, very dense. like gay pynchon. gravity's rainbow if it was about the "Underlying Condition". there are stretches where this book is a beautifully written love story, and other parts grim history lesson. requires patience and probably note taking.