Catching Up

The lack of book reviews on this allegedly bookish site in recent months might make you think I’ve stopped reading; Jonathan Franzen notes in one of his essays that the tendency is for many people who were readers early in life to stop reading as they age. Nothing could be further from the truth for me! Here’s a quick rundown of all the books I should have reviewed these last several months.

Paul Krugman, The Great Unraveling
Bill Maher, When You Ride Alone, You Ride With Bin Laden
Arianna Huffington, Pigs At The Trough

Each of these three books takes President Bush to task. Krugman’s book is mostly composed of his columns for the New York Times, arranged according to theme and painting a damning picture of an economic policy gone horribly awry. Huffington’s focus is narrower; she takes aim at corporate criminals, a topic Krugman gives only a few chapters. Huffington makes a strong case for improved regulation of large corporations and effectively points out the dangers inherent in giving CEOs compensation packages based on stock prices they can manipulate. Maher’s book, released soon after 9/11 and the end of his ABC show, is the briefest and funniest of the three. Maher restyles WWII-era government posters to reflect the “war on terror” and argues that victory begins at home—and that the government should encourage the same spirit of effort and sacrifice in today’s Americans that prevailed during WWII. Back then people patriotically cleaned their plates because food was a weapon, dealt with rationing because we needed supplies for the troops, reused things to get by, and planted victory gardens—and they believed, rightly, that their actions were helping the nation. What if this spirit returned? What if conserving energy were the patriotic thing to do, rather than flying a flag on your SUV? Maher argues that we could eliminate our dependence on foreign oil if the government made us feel patriotic about it, dramatically changing our role in the global community.

Sarah Vowell, The Partly Cloudy Patriot and Take the Cannoli

Vowell’s wry take on life seeps in. Without consciously loving either book, I consumed both of these collections of essays in mere hours. Understated humor and careful observations reveal noble human truths as Vowell ponders Abraham Lincoln, insomnia, The Godfather, the Trail of Tears, firing a gun, being a reader in a TV world, and goth culture, among a great many other things. Vowell also makes a compelling argument that Al Gore would be president today had he embraced his inner nerd rather than shunning it. Highly recommended—I’ll read anything Vowell publishes from here on out.

Dan Brown, The DaVinci Code and Angels & Demons

Succumbing to the pop phenomenon that is Dan Brown—who looks suspiciously like he should be Ralph Reed’s evil successor at the Christian Coalition—I tore through these two page-turning, Catholicism-obsessed bestsellers recently. The interest of the plot is undeniable, and the twists are deft; some were actually surprising, and the ones that aren’t almost work as instruments of dramatic irony. Don’t expect a literary meal, though; this is beach reading and brain candy, but not something to be pondered at great length. They’re perfect between-books books. I’d recommend reversing what I did and starting with A&D rather than DaVinci; this is the order the books were written and the plot runs in this direction as well—though I’m unconvinced that the two books, despite sharing a main character, are internally consistent with one another.

Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake

You can’t love a book as much as I loved Interpreter of Maladies and not seek out anything else by the author. Lahiri’s new book, published in 2003, is a novel rather than a collection of short stories, and I can’t help but note that despite my preference for the novel form, Lahiri was in the right line of work before. Namesake has moments of breathtaking beauty, and I enjoyed it—very much, in fact. Indeed, it feels like one of Lahiri’s short stories about an Indian immigrant expanded to fill a novel, or even like a series of short stories about the same people, but disjointed. Rather than following a plot, Lahiri follows a life; this is a brave and admirable choice that causes the novel to meander just as a life does. My fear is that some readers will find it unexciting; Lahiri’s stories each pack a punch within pages, but this is a slow burn. Still, well worth the time; you’ll care deeply about the namesake by the time you’re through.

Dean Monti, The Sweep of the Second Hand

This book kept me company in Hawaii. It was originally recommended to me by my insurance agent because his son wrote it. Little did I know that I’d soon be working down the hall from Dean Monti! While reading this novel has given me perhaps more insight into my coworker than I should have, you face no such concern and should seek it out. Very thoughtful, the novel is also very funny, putting the hero in a variety of quite bizarre situations that include having a hornet’s nest in the wall of his apartment, attempting to date both a woman he calls at a help line and a dirge singer, and being caught pleasuring himself in the projection room of the movie theatre he runs. Get on the bandwagon now; Dean is shopping his second novel around and will no doubt be the toast of the literary town before long—and you can say you read him before he was famous.