Department of Book Reports: Summer for the Gods

About a year ago, I did a book report on the Lawrence/Lee play, Inherit the Wind, a drama loosely based on the Scopes trial of 1925 that featured the battle between William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow, an opening salvo on what we now call the Culture Wars. So recently, and belatedly, I picked up a copy of the history of that time, Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate over Science and Religion by Edward J. Larson (Basic Books $16.95).

The book itself is an amazing social history, and winner of the Pulitzer Prize in History in 1998. Of course, Larson discusses the backgrounds of the participants in the trial. Bryan, "The Great Commoner", is all too easily dismissed these days as a fundamentalist crank, but he of course headed the Democratic Party ticket for President in 1896, 1900 and 1908, and for all the bluster of his orations in Dayton, Tennessee in 1925, he was a great force for progressive political ideas throughout the early part of the 1900's, opposing the banks, supporting working peoples causes and vehemently anti-imperialist. He served as Woodrow Wilson's Secretary of State, until 1915. In fact, Clarence Darrow, liberal lawyer, supported the candidacies of Bryan during those times. And there was John Scopes, erstwhile school teacher, mild-mannered, socialist, who volunteered to test the state law banning the teaching of evolution in public schools.

The case itself was set up to be that: a test case. Many towns in Tennessee wanted to "host" such a trial. The ACLU wanted to test the law and advertised for a teacher who would break the law. In the town of Dayton, a group met at the local drugstore with both sides desiring a hearing on the matter. Scopes, who actually only taught science in the High School occasionally, affably agreed to do so.

Summer for the Gods is much more than a summation of the ensuing trial. Larson discusses the background of both politics, those of the country as well as the state's internal issues. He reports on the science of the time, with illuminating background on the state of evolutionary biology in the 1920's. He also gives a history of textbook publishing, the ACLU as well the on-going academic struggle for Academic Freedom. And with the current attacks in our fair land on Labor Unions, Planned Parenthood and on women in general, this book resonates loudly. Originally published by the Harvard University Press, it is well written, well documented and important. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Visit us on Facebook Jackson Street Books. Order books at Jackson Street Books and other fine Independent bookstores.As always, books ordered here will have a freebie publishers Advance Reading Copy included as a thank you to our blogosphere friends.

Department of Book Reports: A Kidnapping in Milan

A Kidnapping in Milan, The C.I.A. on Trial (Norton $26.95) While this book reads like a thriller novel, Steve Hendricks shows how ineptness and perhaps plain laziness on the CIA's part made it relatively easy for the Italian authorities to prosecute and convict 23 agents in the extraordinary rendition of Abu Omar in 2003. Armando Spataro, an Amerophile who thought the US Constitution a most elegant document, led the prosecution. His dedication to justice is well served in this case.
Abu Omar was under Italian surveillance at the time of his abduction on his way to the Mosque on Viale Jenner, and the CIA operation surely damaged the case they were constructing against terrorists in Italy. Hendricks goes into great detail about the treatment of Omar, and along the way gives history lessons on the CIA (originally conceived in Italy to make sure that Democratic elections after WWII did indeed elect the most right wing candidates), the covert Rendition programs (begun in 1883, when Pinkertons captured a larcenist in Peru), and torture (both detailed accounts of Omar's treatment and historic practices) and the ways which both Bush and now sadly Obama continue the program.

The carelessness on the part of the CIA made it easy for Hendricks and his researcher to find many of the agents now returned to their American lives. Cell phones were registered to addresses near Quantico headquarters. Some were even re-cycled phones from operations earlier in the year. Agents stayed in posh hotels and had the Mileage points awarded to their personal credit cards. While there are instances of agents sharing a room, it looks doubtful that this was done with the *ahem* goal of saving the American taxpayer money.

Omar was held and tortured in prisons in Egypt. I kept thinking back to these parts of the book while watching events unfold these past 2 weeks in Egypt. The newly appointed Vice President Suleiman was the US' main connection to the torture prisons and should give us all reason to loudly object to our governments facile acceptance of him. I applaud the peaceful Lotus Revolution and dearly hope the people of Egypt can keep the American influences from interfering.

Steve writes eloquently at his website on his reasons for writing this book:

“The barbarisms of America’s ‘War on Terror’ appalled me, as did reporters who went along with the barbarisms,” Steve says. “I was particularly taken aback by the Bush (and now Obama) claims that torture-by-proxy makes us stronger. I wrote A Kidnapping in Milan because few reporters have shown what torture really looked like, because the Italian magistrate who was prosecuting the CIA kidnappers was a charismatic figure, and because I wanted to see if he would succeed in his struggle against American lawlessness. Also, before the CIA kidnapped Abu Omar, the Italians seemed to have had him under thorough and fruitful surveillance, and the snatch appeared to have badly damaged Italy’s work against terrorists. This case, in other words, looked like a good example of how the ‘War on Terror’ made the West less safe. I was also intrigued because the victim was probably a terrorist, not an utter innocent, which added a shade of gray to a story that might otherwise have been more black and white. I wanted to see if I could make a convincing case that torture was wrong no matter who its victim was.”

I wish I could make that last line even bolder.

Some of you may remember when we gave the General a copy of Steve's first book, Unquiet Grave for xmas. If you don't, I urge you to go back and read both the General & Steve's guest post.

Visit us on Facebook Jackson Street Books. Order books at Jackson Street Books and other fine Independent bookstores.As always, books ordered here will have a freebie publishers Advance Reading Copy included as a thank you to our blogosphere friends.

Department of Book Reports

We're both feeling a bit under the weather this week, so I'l show you a video of a book I'm really looking forward to. Talk amongst yourselves & tell us what you're reading in comments.

Sean Beaudoin's You Killed Wesey Payne


Visit us on Facebook Jackson Street Books. Order books at Jackson Street Books and other fine Independent bookstores.As always, books ordered here will have a freebie publishers Advance Reading Copy included as a thank you to our blogosphere friends.

Department of Book Reports: The Galton Case by Ross MacDonald

I first discovered Ross MacDonald in, of all places, Paris. It was my first visit, and I needed to pay my homagne to the great literary bookstore, Shakespeare and Company, founded by the legendary Sylvia Beach, the first publisher of Joyce's Ulysses. What I should have done is purchase a copy of some Sartre tome and repaired to the nearest cafe, where I could somehow establish my American intellectual cred. Instead I purchased some paperback copies written by Ross MacDonald, whereupon passing French intellectuals could pass by me, seated at the cafe and snicker. I knew, of course, of MacDonald, having read Hammett and Chandler by this time, and had heard that MacDonald's writing rivaled those big boys.

I don't remember exactly which one I read first, or in what order I read them, but I devoured MacDonald's Lew Archer series. The book that struck me as the best (and apparently was MacDonald's favorite as well), was the Galton Case. It was the eighth of the Archer novels of the eighteen MacDonald ended up writing. The plot is fairly intricate (MacDonald was a master of plotting, much better than either Hammett or Chandler). It involves Archer (named for Sam Spade's murdered partner in The Maltese Falcon) being hired by a lawyer, Gordon Sable, to track down a missing person, the son of Maria Galton, who disappeared some twenty years previously. Mrs. Galton is dying, and wants to be reconciled with her prodigal. During the course of Archer's hunt, he also becomes involved in the problems of the attorney Sable and his wife, as well as their "houseboy" Culligan, who is no Jeeves, and not nearly as nice as Gielgud's butler to Arthur... The novel deals with, as so many of MacDonald's books do, with fractured families, alienated adolescents, and the times in which Archer lives and investigates. One of the more remarkable scenes in the book is the beating Archer takes from some gangsters that lays him in the hospital for sometime. It is vividly described by MacDonald. As our his characters, which include the town of Santa Teresa, where most of the Archer novels take place and is based on MacDonalds hometown of Santa Barbara. And there is a parody of the then au currant Beat poets in the character of Chad Bolling.

Ross MacDonald was the pseudonym of Kenneth Millar. He decided to use a nom de plume as his wife, the mystery writer Margaret Millar, had already established her career in the genre and he didn't want to trade on the name. MacDonald himself had suffered through painful years as a teen, and many of the situations Archer encounters are semi-autobiographical. By all accounts, he was a fine gentlemen, an early proponent of social causes, especially the then burgeoning Ecology movement. He was the kind of man who could have literary friends like Eudora Welty, with whom he corresponded for many years; and also be the kind of man Warren Zevon could turn to when Zevon's life needed some redirection. MacDonald succumbed to Alzheimer's Disease in 1983.

Some of you may know that two films were made from the Archer novels. Both starred Paul Newman. The first was called "Harper". Newman, at the time, was having a lot of success with movies that started with the letter H, like The Hustler and Hud, and so the title character was renamed from Archer to Harper. The eponymous movie was based on the first Archer novel, The Moving Target and was released in 1967 with a screenplay by William Goldman, who'd later do Newman's Butch Cassady and the Sundance Kid. The other was "The Drowning Pool", with Newman once again playing Harper, and it was produced in 1975.

Read some Ross MacDonald. It'll do you some good. Many of his titles are available atJackson Street Books and other fine Independent bookstores We have used copies but new editions have been published by Vintage Crime.

Department of Book Reports: Lanterns & Lances, Credos & Curios

I was between books this week, so I picked up a couple James Thurber collections. I figured I could do an easy Book Report, but I was stumped beyond "*grunt* Yeah, man... Thurber is a great man of American letters." What could I possibly say? I'd venture Twain lived before bread slicing machines, so I'll tell you Thurber is the best thing since they started slicing bread. I mean, I really liked that old show "My World & Welcome To It", but it really was Keith Olbermann that made me a fan.

I even had a quote I especially liked:

"The brain of our species is, as we know, made up largely of potassium, phosphorus, propaganda, and politics, with the result that how not to understand what should be clearer is becoming easier and easier for all of us."

And then the news hit tonight as I was writing this, Keith is shit canned??

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The intertubes are a-buzz and a-tweet. I suspect we'll have to wait a while to find out what happened tonight. In the meantime, have strength, friends. If you want to read some Thurber, we have a few copies.

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Good Night and Good Luck, indeed.

Department of Book Reports: Elmore Leonard, An Appreciation

SeattleTammy and I have both been reading Cuba Libre, a 2002 novel by Elmore Leonard which served to remind me what a treasure we have in this great writer. Leonard, who is still going strong at age 85, received his early fame in the Western genre and in Cuba Libre he combines features of the western and the caper novel, the genre for which he has achieved the most recognition. In 1898 Ben Tyler, who has just been released from prison, serving time for bank robbery, joins his friend Charlie Burke in running horses and guns to Cuba. The Battleship Maine has been freshly blown up in Havana harbor, and Spain and America stand at the brink of war. Tyler gets mixed up in the politics of the Cuban insurrection and Spain still trying to keep Cuba in its imperial yoke. Tyler, who has been a cowboy, ends up shooting a rather pompous Spanish officer and is carted off to the stockade to face execution and where he meets Virgil Webster, a survivor of the Maine's demise who has been kidnapped by the Spanish. But Tyler has other plans that don't include getting shot and there is someone who owes him a big debt.

Many of Leonard's books have been filmed, and filmed well. His earlier western, Hombre, starred Paul Newman in a 1967 movie and his short story 3:10 to Yuma has been filmed twice, once just recently. Most of you are probably aware of the caper novels that have been filmed. Mr. Majestyk featured Charles Bronson, Stick had Burt Reynolds, Get Shorty, both John Travolta and Danny DeVito. Most memorably, Rum Punch was directed by Quentin Tarantino as Jackie Brown, and had a wonderful performance by Pam Grier. And it is no wonder why the films are so memorable. Leonard's sense of timing, his adept and humorous dialogue, and his vivid imagery are hard to equal. For instance, take this piece of dialogue from Get Shorty:

Ray "Bones" Barboni: Let me explain something to you. Momo is dead. Which means that everything he had now belongs to Jimmy Cap, including you. Which also means, that when I speak, I speak for Jimmy. E.g., from now on, you start showing me the proper fucking respect.
Chili Palmer: "E.g." means "for example". What I think you want to say is "I.e.".
Ray "Bones" Barboni: Bullshit! That's short for "ergo".
Chili Palmer: Ask your man.
Bodyguard: To the best of my knowledge, "e.g." means "for example".
Ray "Bones" Barboni: E.g., i.e., fuck you! The point is this: is that, When I say "jump", you say "OK", okay?

(Bones was played by Dennis Farina, and Chili, by Travolta. h/t IMDB. Travolta insisted that the screenplay using Leonard's material be used before signing onto the film, instead of a watered down version the studio wanted to use). and

Probably my favorite of Leonard's novels is Swag (aka Ryan's Rules) which featured two armed robbers, one of whom was Frank Ryan, used car salesman, who partnered with an assoicate "Stick" Stickley Jr., a car thief. They successfully rob liquor stores and bars around the Detroit area using these rules:

Always be polite on the job and say please and thank you
Never say more than necessary
Never call your partner by name-unless you use a made-up name
Never look suspicious or like a bum and dress well
Never use your own car
Never count the take in the car
Never flash money in a bar or with women
Never go back to an old bar or hangout once you have moved up
Never tell anyone your business and never tell a junkie even your name
Never associate with people known to be in criminal circles.

There is one terrific scene where the two men are having a drink at local tavern when another armed gunman comes in to rob the place. The two men offer a long critique of the robbers style and technique that is absolutely hilarious.

Elmore Leonard has his own rules for writing, that he published a few years back. Mostly the rules involve trying to make the writer invisible. Leave out the parts that a reader will probably skip anyway. Never use any other verb than "said" when moving the story along and never use an adverb to modify "said", he wrote darkly. Above all, Leonard admonishes himself to the advice that if it looks like writing to him, he re-writes it. Sage advice. If you haven't read him before, you are in for a treat.

We have several volumes available at Jackson Street Books and of course they are available at other fine Independent bookstores.As always, books ordered here will have a freebie publishers Advance Reading Copy included as a thank you to our blogosphere friends.

Department of Book Reports: Provenance

Provenance, How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art, by Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo (Penguin $16.00 & $9.00 used HC) This is a fascinating look into the world of modern art and the archives that enable art galleries and museums to authenticate paintings. It really gives you a great history lesson while being a very readable art thriller.

John Myatt was a struggling single father artist who had advertised his "authentic fakes" in want ads, where he was noticed by John Drewe. Drewe is the ultimate chameleon scammer, able to spin out a story that convinced many of the art conservatories to allow him access to their records, the provenance that verifies a painting from the artist and a paintings subsequent owners. These libraries were closely guarded to prevent records from being taken, but there were no protections from records being inserted into them to prove the origins of the some 200 paintings Myatt eventually produced for Drewe.

Drewe became a skilled forger in his own right, faking sales receipts and catalogs. While some archivists noticed some anomalies, they were unable to bring a definitive case to the police. It was Drewe's spurned ex-wife who brought the police evidence that could bring the scam to light.

Ultimately, Drewe served 4 years of a 6 year sentence and Myatt less than a year. Drewe maintains his innocence to this day, in ever-increasing elaborate tales of conspiracies. Myatt was sentenced to far less time for his mostly un-witting contributions. Myatt vowed to never paint again, but resumed his Authentic Fakes art business at the prompting of one of the Scotland Yard detectives, producing paintings that are clearly marked as "fakes" and even had a BBC series explaining art forgeries.

Illustrations would have really helped this book, but Laney Salisbury has several of the Myatt forgeries at her website.

Provenance is available at Jackson Street Books and other fine Independent bookstores.As always, books ordered here will have a freebie publishers Advance Reading Copy included as a thank you to our blogosphere friends.