Slaughterhouse-Five

by Kurt Vonnegut
1969

Billy Pilgrim, fatalistic ex-soldier injured in a plane accident, psychologically scarred in the Dresden bombing, gets “unstuck in time” and flickers back and forth through all points of his own past, present and future – which include a stay on the planet Tralfamadore. Or, he may be a nut; he lived through the firebombing of Dresden, and it scarred him.

Based loosely on Vonnegut’s own experiences, this is a remarkable book, both for its detached wisdom in discussing the Dresden massacre, and for its fantastic, careening imagination.  Though I wonder how useful Vonnegut’s meta- textual self-commentary is – a typical moment is when he stops his narrative to explain the epigraph of his book – Vonnegut is clearly a philosopher and a great writer with an eye for catchy phrases and scenes (“fizzing with rabies;” “among the things he could not change were the past, the present and the future;” “so it goes”).  A wonderful testament to the absurdity of human existence.  So it goes.

[read twice]

five stars

Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology

by Eric Brende

The author, a graduate of Yale and MIT, moved with his newlywed wife to an Amish-like community (that he calls “Minimites”) and lived for eighteen months with no electricity or running water.  They plowed their field and grew and sold crops, helped the Minimites (but much less than they got help from the community, of course), and learned about themselves.

Brende has written a fairly interesting book about the experience.  As Jon Krakauer said in a blurb, he certainly does not come off as a “sanctimonious scold,” which would be boring.  Instead, he quietly asks a series of questions about how we use technology and how technology takes from us (in terms of time, money and social skills).  He argues that technology is a not a tool, but a sort of organism, because it grows and uses fuel, and therefore we should be wary that it can be a drain on us, or worse, a competition with human endeavor.  I liked Brende’s conclusions on labor, on how in its pure state it frees the mind and shapes the body and promotes socialization; in fact, the work was less strenuous than he’d feared it would be, and they had what he calls a lot of leisure time.  It’s certainly an interesting line of thought, and Brende lives it, because despite his education he works as a buggy driver and soap maker. 

four stars

Sharpe's Gold

by Bernard Cornwell
2004

Sharpe, immediately after winning accolades for capturing a French Eagle, is ordered by Wellington to steal a fortune in Spanish gold.  This is in the care of El Catolico, a devious and selfish Spanish partisan, who wants it for himself.  Naturally, Sharpe means to take it – and El Catolico’s fierce, beautiful lover, of course.

Cornwell surprised me in this book: Major Kearsey, the strict, rather uptight official whom Sharpe has difficulties with, did not, to my great amazement, turn out to be traitor, merely somewhat of a boob.  I got the sense that Cornwell did intend Kearsey to be a traitor, but a shrewd editor told him that Sharpe had faced a few too many traitors in a row, so he rewrote the character a bit – though El Catolico is, in some ways, a traitor, since he’s nominally a British ally – so Cornwell got a turncoat in after all.  Whew!  In any case, whether it’s the less formulaic characters, the rather questionable morality of Sharpe’s mission, or just the exciting climax during the siege of Almeida, this is the first Sharpe book in a while to hold my interest from beginning to end.


four stars

Pride And Prejudice

by Jane Austen
1813

In early 19th century England, a family of five girls is marked for marriage by their rather silly mother, Mrs. Bennet. More than one suitor comes calling; Elizabeth, the second oldest, is courted by the wealthy and arrogant Mr. Darcy, but she finds him insupportable. Will his snooty relatives crush her sister’s chance of marrying their friend Mr. Bingley? Will the foolish youngest sister, Lydia, lead them into ruin with her wanton ways? Will Elizabeth never find happiness with Darcy? The answers, of course, are obviously negative – but this delicate, intricate novel kept me turning the pages (all 375 of them) eagerly. Written with a superb verbal dexterity, laced with rich and subtle wit, this novel is truly a classic.

five stars

Wake Up, Sir!

by Jonathan Ames

2004

Alan Blair, a neurotic, alcoholic Jewish writer, goes to a writing colony in Saratoga Springs. He brings along his valet, Jeeves, who may or may not be Alan’s own ego personified, the result of Alan’s depression and “an overdose” of P.G. Wodehouse’s books as a remedy.

Either way, this is a stunningly insightful book. Since it’s about a man writing a novel, it’s full of mostly unrelated ruminations — bits of scenes and ideas for novels, for examples — but they are always interesting, if not hilarious. The dialogue is an homage, respectfully lifted straight from Wodehouse, but with a modern, Woody Allen-esque bent. Alan tries to tackle the Homosexual Question, the Jewish Question, Buddhism, thanatos, eros, suicide, and the rest of the usual Deep Thought suspects, always with interesting and amusing insight. I’ve never before read Ames; he’s a terrific writer. 

five stars

The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World

by A.J. Jacobs

The author, an editor at Esquire, reads the entire Encyclopedia Britannica, A-Z.  He breaks the books down into alphabetical entries, relating each heading to some event in his life or reading.  Along the way, he and his wife succeed in their quest to become pregnant, he goes on “Who Wants To Be a Millionaire,” they travel, and he meets people such as Mensa members, Alex Trebek, and the editors of the EB.  This is truly a hilarious book, absolutely laugh-out-loud funny, and not without a few poignant moments on the nature of learning and life itself.  Excellent.

four stars

Dear Mr. Henshaw

by Beverly Cleary

A young boy writes letters to an author and in his diary, detailing his parents’ divorce and his adjustment to a new school.  I found this to be an interesting and poignant kids’ novella, but it ended very abruptly.  I know it’s a slice of life type of book, but the utter lack of resolution surprised me.