About Blogcritics
Recent Reviews
Archives
RSS Feed
Books Central
Movie Nation
Off the Shelf: Get the latest blog posts from Boston Globe book critics and writers. Go to the Off The Shelf blog.
|
« April 6, 2008 - April 12, 2008 |
Main
| April 20, 2008 - April 26, 2008 »
April 16, 2008
Reviewed by Lisa Damian
On the anniversary of his death, Kurt Vonnegut's son, Mark Vonnegut, released this latest collection of the famous author's early short stories, as well as an essay, a speech, and a letter to his parents written from a prisoner of war repatriation camp in France towards the end of World War Two. Armageddon In Retrospect opens with an introduction written by Mark Vonnegut, providing a brief glimpse into the writing habits and lifestyle of Kurt Vonnegut. The book includes a written copy of Vonnegut's speech presented at Butler University's Clowes Hall. Always a joker, this speech provides a taste of some of the vintage Vonnegut sense of humor. In the speech, he provides advice to new writers: "Don't use semi-colons!" Perhaps the most moving sample included is a simple letter, written by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. to his parents, after he was released as a prisoner of war during World War Two. During this time period, Vonnegut witnessed the fire-bombing of Dresden by American troops. These two events, being a P.O.W. in WWII and witnessing American troops bomb Dresden, seemed to be the primary pivotal events that shaped and influenced much of the recurring tone throughout Vonnegut's writing. They provide some of the framework for Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions, among others. The short stories included in Armageddon In Retrospect are further examples of the impact of these themes throughout Vonnegut's work. They serve as his early attempts at creating tales from his memories of these tragic events.
From Wailing Shall Be In All Streets: The occupying Russians, when they discovered that we were Americans, embraced us and congratulated us on the complete desolation our planes had wrought. We accepted their congratulations with good grace and proper modesty, but I felt then as I feel now, that I would have given my life to save Dresden for the World's generations to come. That is how everyone should feel about every city on Earth.
A couple of the short stories included in the book, specifically Great Day and Armageddon In Retrospect (for which the book is named), venture into Vonnegut's more whimsical fantasy or science fiction settings.
Although perhaps not the best examples of his work, this collection does provide a framework for some of Vonnegut's recurring underlying themes. I would venture to guess that one reason Vonnegut did not seek publication for these stories during his lifetime was that most were early exercises in honing his own voice. For someone new to Vonnegut's work, I would recommend starting with one or two of the novels that better represent both his writing style as well as his satire, such as Slapstick or Sirens of Titan.
I expect that this book would be appreciated by loyal Vonnegut fans as further insight into the work and musings of the author who experienced much in his 84 years and felt compelled to write about his, as he put it, "disgust with civilization" in a way that caused many of his readers to seriously reflect yet still laugh about the dismal state of affairs.
Posted by nbennett at 04:45 PM
April 16, 2008
Reviewed by Steven van Lijnden
In the context of Parsell’s book, Fish: A Memoir of a Boy in a Man's Prison, the term “fish” means first-timer or new arrival in prison slang. It is the story of the truth behind all those “dropping the soap in prison” jokes, and the memoir of T.J. Parsell, who was locked up in 1978 for a couple of years when he was a fairly naive 17-year-old boy.
Parsell's family was poor and uneducated. His crime -- robbery with a fake gun -- was misguided and stupid, more than anything else; but even if his crime had been more severe, he did not deserve to be gang-raped early on during his stay and systematically forced into sex throughout his time in prison.
Many years after his release, Parsell was the president of Stop Prisoner Rape and he is currently a consultant to the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission. His experience in prison is rule rather than exception; that much is clear from the beginning of the book.
Lock up a rowdy group of men together without a sexual release and they turn into sexual predators, the strong preying on the weak. 'Boys' are forced to find a 'man' to protect them in return for sex. This is not loving sex or erotic sex; it is a business-like transaction at best, a violent transaction at worst. If they don't find a man to protect them, they are more likely to be assaulted and raped on a regular basis. Both straight and gay 'boys' find themselves pushed into this role, or 'turned out' (to stay with prison terminology).
Parsell's story becomes more complex because he was starting to realise that he was gay around the time he was locked up. Just as he was beginning to be aware of sexual feelings for men, he was forced to act on them against his will. For a long time he stayed in the closet however, as there are odd double standards in prison.
Effeminate gay men are seen as precious commodities, as they are the closest a lot of the inmates will get to a real woman until they are released. If you are known to be gay, flamboyant or not, it is assumed you won't mind having sex with pretty much any guy, meaning you are fair game. Following this logic, a heterosexual woman would want to have sex with any and all men she encounters.
Boundaries between gay and straight blur in prison. Most straight men there do not mind getting a blowjob from a guy or being on top, and do not consider this to make them gay in any way. They are simply taking care of a basic need. It is a very 'down low' way of thinking.
To be on the receiving end of oral or anal sex, or to masturbate a guy, would make you gay and would be a blow to your manhood and reputation. Therefore the 'boys' who have been 'turned out', be they straight or gay, are seen as fundamentally lacking in masculinity because of what they do. Two 'boys' having sex together would not be seen as a threat to their men because it would be seen, in a deeply twisted way, as 'lesbian' sex.
Parsell's story is well written and gives a fascinating glimpse into the world of sexual politics in prison. The story gets more complex as things turn semi-romantic with his 'man'. Later on in the book, Parsell falls in love for the first time with another 'boy'. Racial relations and well-intentioned but illogical laws also factor into the story.
The memoir has a somewhat open ending, stopping at a point that makes narrative sense, but leaves you wondering what happened during the last years in prison. There is a short follow-up, telling us what the most important people from the memoir are up to these days, but the last years in prison remain a blank spot. There is also a bittersweet correspondence between Parsell and his first real lover, and a short explanation of the reason why Parsell decided to drop his previous career to become the poster child for prison rape.
What I missed was a more extensive update on the state of affairs in prisons these days, many years after Parsell's incarceration. From what he does say, however, the things he wrote about still go on because the guards are lacking in numbers or turning a blind eye, and because sexual offenders are not prosecuted. People's psyches are still being violated and not just their minds: rates of HIV infection among prisoners are estimated to be five to ten times higher than outside of prison.
Parsell's book serves its purpose, both as a gripping read and a call to action. Let's hope the people in charge will be able to get over their secondhand shame, stop averting their eyes, and start facing the problem.
Posted by nbennett at 04:44 PM
April 15, 2008
Reviewed by Friend Mouse
Mount Everest is Earth’s highest point: 29,028 feet at the summit. It is a brutal place where temperatures at –50F are common; where fingers, toes and noses can quickly freeze solid, and where there is only one-third of breathable oxygen available as there is at sea level; where the cold and hypoxia can lead to madness, coma and death. It takes months to acclimate your body to attempt the climb, and it can cost tens of thousands of dollars to hire the right guides to help you survive a summit attempt. But despite the danger and the hardship, climbers flock to Everest from around the world, determined for whatever reason to reach “the roof of the world.”
In 2006, Mount Everest claimed the lives of eleven people, the highest number of on-mountain fatalities since 1996: three Sherpas, Tuk Bahadur (a Sherpa kitchen boy), Vitor Negrete (Brazil), Tomas Olsson (Sweden), Sri Kishan (India), Jacques-Hughes Letrange (France), Thomas Weber (Germany), Igor Plyushkin (Russia), and David Sharp (England). A twelfth, Australian Lincoln Hall, was left for dead but managed to survive overnight at 28,200 feet with no shelter or food.
Some of these deaths were immediately recognized as accidents -– falls, or people succumbing to pulmonary or cerebral edema. Others were viewed more suspiciously: some other climbers near Thomas Weber at the time of his death believed that his guide took too long to respond to Weber’s distress; later investigations suggested that Weber may have climbed Everest as a means to commit suicide.
The saddest story was that of David Sharp: a solo climber, not affiliated with any of the big outfitters and purposely attempting the ascent without oxygen, Sharp died alongside the trail as reportedly forty other climbers trudged past him on their way to the top. While the rest of the world erupted in outrage that no one rescued Sharp, the reaction of most high altitude climbers was that it was all most of the other climbers could do to keep from dying themselves, much less drag another sick climber down to safety.
Lincoln Hall should have been another tragedy. After failing to reach the summit, Hall became very sick, delusional and exhausted. His team of Sherpas tried for nine hours to bring him safely down to camp, finally leaving him when he lay on the snow, completely unresponsive (the Sherpas were snow-blind and nearly dead themselves when they returned to camp, having been above 28,000 feet for more than twenty-two hours). By some miracle, Hall was found the next morning -– alive but crazy and badly frostbitten -- by a team of ascending climbers.
A climber himself, author Nick Heil first wrote about the devastating 2006 Everest season for Men’s Journal. After the article was published, however, it was evident that there was much more to the story, and this book is the product of his investigation. While not quite as compelling as Into Thin Air (Heil was not a first person observer/participant as Jon Krakauer had been in 1996), Dark Summit is a fascinating and horrifying book.
I do not in any way share the compulsion these high altitude mountaineers have to struggle and suffer so in reaching such great heights. I do not understand why it is worth nearly killing yourself to stand for twenty minutes at the top of the world. At the end of Dark Summit, the author confesses that he doesn’t understand it either, but his own compulsion to bring the stories of the people who survived and who perished on Everest in one of its harshest seasons, is well worth reading.
Posted by nbennett at 04:42 PM
April 15, 2008
Reviewed by Miriam
Fans of Patrick O'Brian's Jack Aubrey series will love Ian W. Toll's Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy. It is beautifully written non-fiction that reads like an adventure novel, and covers a very crucial period in our nation's early history.
The founders of the new nation were strongly opposed to creating a navy, realistically fearing becoming embroiled in Europe's perpetual wars. But the export trade was a large and vital source of revenue, and had to be protected from the Barbary pirates, who were highjacking American merchant vessels and either enslaving passengers and crew or holding them for ransom. At first, the nation paid "tribute" -- actually protection money -- to keep the peace. But the Barbary rulers, like blackmailers everywhere, kept raising the ante. Their continually escalating demands made it more expensive to buy them off than to fight them.
After much wrangling in Congress, the president was authorized to order the building of six frigates, and the American navy was born. The Tripolitan War was the first battle fought and won by the United States Marines.
But the most feared adversary was the British Navy. Brittania ruled the waves at the time. It was not long before the United States was forced to take on the Royal Navy, a prospect which they approached with trepidation. The motives which caused the war were complex, but the immediate pretext was the impressment of American citizens from American shipping. The truth was, we were interfering with them and they with us, and a showdown was inevitable.
The accounts of the battles in Six Frigates are hair-raisingly vivid. I, a landlubber from way back, learned a lot about how difficult it was to navigate in the age of sail and how much skill was needed to manuever and to fight naval battles. The battle scenes are bloody and might upset the squeamish, as no detail is spared. Many on each side were wounded, often horrifyingly, and many killed.
The war was costly on both sides. It ended inconclusively. Great Britain was fully occupied in fighting Napoleon, and the fight against the Yankees was a costly distraction. The Royal Navy no doubt could have taken out the Americans in a full out, no holds barred war, but they were otherwise engaged. This said, the American Navy gave a good account of itself, chalking up some amazing victories. In a sense, this war established a true national identity among the former colonies. It has sometimes been called "the Second War of Independence."
I cannot praise the Toll's style more highly. The narrative moves swiftly, yet everything we need to know is conveyed. A superior book.
Posted by nbennett at 04:29 PM
|
