Reorganizing My Books
I'm taking this July 3rd to write a few longer pieces (for other forums I hope) and to reorganize my books. I've also just updated my "Currently Reading" list. First, Tom Wolfe's novel A Man in Full is the best conceived novel by any contemporary writer, period. In some ways the execution is equally superb. I try to explain to my girlfriend that I just read the most exciting chapter of a novel in my life. "What's it about?" - A meeting between a lending bank and a real estate developer where they discussed the state of his financial holdings and how to recoup the principle on their loan.
Could anything sound more boring for a novel? Yet Wolfe makes this scene a titanic conflict between two beasts. Amazing! That said, could anything mar this work more than Wolfe's churlish (and not THAT funny) names for law firms: Wringer, Fleasom & Tick or Paddet, Skynnham & Glote. This reminds me of the names J.K. Rowling invents for her fantastic Harry Potter novels - yet in Wolfe's hyper-realistic novel of Atlanta politics, football, sex and real estate - he includes these cartoonish flourishes. Less annoying, but notable is Wolfe's taste for somewhat bizzare references to a young woman's "loamy loins."
Thomas Fleming's book on WWI, The Illusions of Victory, is not quite as revisionist as his history of WWII in which FDR is a manipulative, bulying, lying jerk. Fleming's particular talent is in demonstrating what the characters in history thought they were doing, and thought about their historical situation - rather than treating history as a neat story of rational players and events (which is the very Illusion time forces on the present). Of course I am reading this in part to understand the history of American foreign policy and our "noble wars". Bush is compared to Wilson as frequently as he is to Reagan - so what is it about America that produces leaders who set about to "make the world safe for democracy"?
I've not dipped too deep into the two volume series The House of Rothschild. Understanding economics, banking and its history is so vital to understanding the politics of our time. Niall Ferguson is a fascinating character by himself - but the breadth and depth of the footnotes in these volumes has earned my trust. I can't wait to pay them proper attention.
Michael Brendan Dougherty
in Under the Influences
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