5 comments about On Mexican Time: A Home in San Miguel.

1. Author has a nice touch, however, half way through he seems to run out of much to say except reportage. Reports about fixing a centuries old house can be about as dull as being there. No duller. There are interesting reflections, along with descriptions of people and places in the first half of the book, making it worth the cost of the book and your time reading at least half of it.



2. When I was 16 years old, I traveled to San Miguel de Allende under the kindly watch of a young teacher-couple that I knew through my church. After two weeks in their rented home on Calle del Chorro, they set me up in a casa de huéspedes on Pila Seca Street. It was the most formative adventure of my young life! The introverted and frightened-of-his-own-shadow kid that I was disappeared rapidly as I was enveloped into the fold of the guests at Domingo and Pita's place. I really grew up that summer and made San Miguel my home. I returned home an older and more confident person. My stay in San Miguel de Allende changed my life and is responsible for my love of Mexico and my chosen profession: high school Spanish teacher.
   
   Tony Cohan caught the essence of San Miguel de Allende and I was transported back through his wonderful prose to those days. It was such a thrill to recognize the places he wrote about and the experiences (both frustrating and exhilarating)that time and travel in Mexico provides.
   
   If you want wonderful writing, a deeper understanding of Mexican culture and a view of one of the most beautiful towns in Mexico, I highly recommend On Mexican Time!



3. I have lived in San Miquel and this is a good book on the city and the people. Things have changed a lot in the past forty years and we need another update.



4. I bought this book 7 years ago and am currently reading it yet again. This is one of those books I can't read enough. I never get bored with this book. Cohan uses all the senses to bring the reader into the story and paint the most beautiful mental portrait of Mexico.
   -Jodi: age 24



5. I absolutely loved this book!! The writer's style was such that I could vividly imagine myself in SMA during the mid-eighties to the mid-nineties. The characters were so real and full of life: the gardener who had a mistress, the man who killed someone twice, the young girls who helped around the house and grew to be women with their own girls, and many many more characters came to life. The book was like a great movie you don't wish would end and when it does it leaves you sad that it's over. Luckily for us Tony Cohan has another book, Mexican Days: Journeys into the Heart of Mexico, on his life in Mexico which I'll be quickly ordering to pour through just like I did with "On Mexican Time".

3 comments about Resident Alien: The New York Diaries (Penguin Audiobooks).

1. You cannot help being interested in Mr Crisp. Very eccentric and funny and I agree with wanting to be as far away from the UK as possible.! Viva NY!



2. If you have read the book with Mr. Crisps droll, flat voice in your head....you can begin to imagine how much fun the audio version of this book is. His dry wit is very much in evidence here as he shares his unique perspective on life in the "smile and nod racket".

   I think this recording belongs in the Smithsonian Archives.




3. Crisp has done it again! Just when you think you're a maven on things-BOOM- he publishes his diaries! What a scandal, although I am sure some blue nosed puritan proofreader somewhere omitted some of the more "Corrupting evidence", Mr. Crisps personality and always charming style and wit still manage to rise above the parchment at every turn. This is an ideal "Holiday" gift for a freind to take along when on a long flight or travel to make the time seem to "Fly by", as it did for me when I enjoyed it the first time...My Word!,...I think I shall go and read it again now. Mr. Crisp is timeless and indefatigable... and like "Miss Jean Brodie", still in his "Prime"time! Kudo's once again and, Bravo, Mr. Crisp, You are "La Divine'" indeed!

2 comments about McCartney Yesterday & Today.

1. As with all of Ray Coleman's books, this one is accurate and informative, but somewhat irritating in its obvious adoration of McCartney. Still a definitive account of the history of one of the most famous songs of all time. Also, it includes a comprehensive account of how Paul McCartney lost the chance to get the rights to the Lennon/McCartney songs when he was outbid by a former collaborator, Michael Jackson. A must-read for any Beatles fan, for this information if for nothing else.



2. After reading other Coleman books I expected to read something new and informative about Paul McCartney. Instead I was spoonfed a repetitive and boring story of the development of the song "Yesterday". Pass on this one - it's definitely not worth the money.

5 comments about The Oath: A Surgeon Under Fire.

1. This book is far more than a memoir -- it is a page-turning narrative of the wonderful and terrible drama of life and war in a region about which we think little and know even less, written by a man of exceptional bravery and humanity. I met Dr. Baiev shortly after his arrival in Washington, DC, where my girlfriend (working for Physicians for Human Rights at the time) coordinated PHR's assistance to Dr. Baiev in Washington. At the time I had little appreciation for just what this man had been through, although it was obvious he had survived a harrowing ordeal. To read now the full story behind the brief weeks in which his life intersected ours has been both fascinating and deeply moving. His account of living as a Caucasus youth in the Soviet Union, his struggle to become a doctor, and his extraordinary dedication to his profession, his people and and his faith through two protracted and brutal wars is by turns fascinating, inspiring and heartwrenching. You will not find a more intimate account of the conflict in Chechnya, nor a better illustration of the way that such conflicts have become simultaneously global and local. If you care about peace, if you care about the prospects for a free and prosperous world, you cannot afford not to care about the gross violations of human rights that accompany conflicts increasingly economic, sectarian and cultural all at once. Dr. Baiev's gripping account puts a profoundly human face on the complexity and the urgency of coming to grips with the destructive conflicts that need not and should not continue into the twenty-first century.



2. If you are interested in war, modern politics, news, or human rights, you need to read this book. It shows what warfare is really like, what happens to people after governments make decisions. And it is heartbreaking, but you cannot put it down.
   
   The conflict in Chechnya is mostly forgotten and then often miscontrued topic for most of the world. Dr. Khassan Baiev's memoir sheds a light on the horrors of life in Chechnya since 1994, what this ghastly, genocidal war means for the common people and Russian grunts. Baiev is a surgeon with a big heart, and never turned anyone away. He explains casualties from the rather disturbing anatomical perspective of a surgeon, illustrating how fragile bodies and how much pain people can suffer.
   
   The book starts with his life before the war: of the ancient and beautiful Chechen traditions, of the extreme and often brutal Russian racism. As you read the book, the cultural differences between the ancient highlander Chechens and the rest of the Western world seem dwarfed by how lovely their life was, and how, as you read it, you can see yourself in their world. What stays with you is that once you empathize on this level, the eruption of war and desolation is utterly heartbreaking. Because Baiev lived it we see an intimate world being shattered, not a headline.
   
   Baiev (narrowly) survives years of war until both the Russians and Chechen guerillas are out for his head because his clientele includes everyone (and mostly civilians) so he has to escape to America, and eventually moved to Boston. His observants description of coming to America, seeing how peaceful it is here, how people of many races coexist, and how a town in Vermont took care of his family, gives you a deeper appreciation for what we have in this country and that many take for granted.
   
   I've never read anything that captures so vividly and personally the heartbreakingly human face of war. I think everyone should read it just to be educated on something that is going on at this moment, but that many people do not know about or simply don't understand. It speaks of overwhelming swaths of cruelty and evil, but also transcendent moments of grace and joy, humanity between enemies. Baiev treated anyone who needed help, so we see souls, not sides.
   
   What steals the breath from you, what made me rather emotional, is how war is revealed here as so useless, so tragic, so profoundly evil because we are all people, and war destroys and perverts this sacred life that we all share in.



3. If you plan on investing your time in reading one book this year make it this one. It is a remarkable tale of an honourable man trying to survive in barbaric times under the tyranny of Putin's Russia. Hassan Biev states that one in every five chechens has been killed as a result of the conflict. However after all this carnage the war stills continues and the state still exits in the hearts of men like Dr. Biev. Perhaps the actions of people like him will ultimately lead to peace in that most violent of places.



4. Let me begin by saying that if everything in this book is true Dr. Baiev has my total respect and admiration. It's inspiring to realize that people of his caliber do exist.
   
   There are, however, one or two disquieting features of this book that I feel compelled to mention. After having read the initial reviews I had expected not only a compelling story of human strength amidst tragedy, but a book of high literary accomplishment. That has not come to pass. Whatever Dr. Baiev's own writing style, it has been submerged in the journalistic style of Nicholas and Ruth Daniloff. Nick Daniloff is he of the famous Soviet espionage sting of the 1980's when he was arrested in Moscow in an apparent KGB set-up. Ronald Reagan himself is reported to have been involved in getting Daniloff released. I just wish Dr. Baiev had been able to choose a more literary writer to assist him in developing this book.
   
   Another point I'm almost embarrassed to make is that Dr. Baiev comes across in this book as almost too good to be true. Not only is he an heroic doctor, brave humanitarian, and loyal son, brother, and friend, he is also described a medical entrepreneur, a doctor who not only moonlights as a cosmetic surgereon, but who is also a national martial arts champion! If this book is made into a film I can only imagine Harrison Ford playing the part of Dr. Baiev. It almost seems as if some of Dr. Baiev's financial and sports successes were included in the book just to appeal to the certain segment of the community that might find those aspects of his life as compelling as the humanitarian work of saving lives and limbs amidst war and destruction.
   
   Nevertheless, the book is full of unique tid-bits. While many people reading it will be aware of Russia's halting attempts to convert its military forces from a large army of draftees to a smaller one of professional soldiers this is the first time I'd seen such a negative depiction of these new contract soldiers. I don't think I'd have gotten this insight anywhere but in this book. Likewise, it was also very interesting to read that in addition to the fight between the Russian military and the Chechen rebels there is a criminal, opportunistic element also actively engaged in exploiting the tragedy of Chechnya and which appears to be much more influential than I would have imagined. I think that this insight is very valuable, not only in the context of the Chechenya, but in understanding the influence of criminal opportunists in other conflicts. For me this insight itself was worth the price of the book.
   
   I certainly recommend The Oath, worts and all.



5. This book opened my eyes to the tragedy in Chechnya, and now I want to know more. A compelling, first-hand narrative of the situation in Chechnya that everyone should read.

5 comments about Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life (Audio Editions).

1. This biography is not great literature. It's centered in the most complex and violent regions of our times but rarely scratches the surface. Noor's diplomacy in describing people and events - always the high road, even in the midst of deceit and betrayal - is maddeningly constant and obscures rather than reveals. So what's to like about the book? It's an extraordinary story of a young western woman who embraces the east: it's people, culture, religion and thought. It's the story of her love for King Hussein, who in a world of the powerful, is largeless powerless but for his integrity in the struggle for peace. Her perspective, is that of the Palestinian Arab. Their voice needs to be heard. This book is a thoughtful start.



2. Unfortunately the autobiography is boring and somewhat distant and impersonal. Actually, overall the writing is uninspired and quite frankly, flat. Queen Noor, obviously a beautiful, intelligent, well-educated woman uses the book as a platform for spouting some pretty blatant untruths about the modern history of the Middle East. I guess I should have expected that, but it was disappointing nonetheless. I might have gritted my teeth and gotten past her politics if the love story was interesting. But it wasn't simply because the writing was so unemotional and disconnected. As I read the book, it was as if I could hear someone speaking in a monotone voice and it was almost sleep-inducing.



3. Leap of Faith is interesting from the young all American becomes Queen standpoint. It really is amazing that a fairly regular young American woman gains the attention of the King of Jordan and becomes Queen.
   
   It is too bad she was not willing to be more real in her telling of a great story.
   
   The book ends up preaching about Queen Noor's view of the political world and quickly becomes tiresome and boring.
   
   It could have been a very exciting story given her exciting life but she had to go preach to us instead.



4. Here is a glimpse into Middle East history from someone who was there! My own family members have enjoyed reading it as much as I have; I think shall too!



5. I must admit; I didn't get very far, but this book is a self serving pack of lies by an apologist for the intransigence of the Arab world. For example, she refers to the "forced migration" of 1948 without ever mentioning that the ones doing the forcing were Arabs who promised their people that if they would get out they would "push the Jews into the sea". Nor does she mention the origin of the name "Palestinian" (hint: it is a Hebrew name).
   
   The saddest thing about the Arab world is that 1000 years ago they had the most advanced civilization on earth, and entirely due to problems of their own making they now preside over one giant hell hole.
   
   But if she came out and admitted this the Hashemite family would be in danger of losing their position of privilege in Transjordan.
   
   I would recommend that anyone who reads this book should also read "Warrior" by Ariel Sharon. At least he knows the history of Israel, Syria, and Egypt.

No comments about Iacocca Tapes an Autobiography, the AUDIO CASSETTE.

1 comments about Chosen by a Horse: How a Broken Horse Fixed a Broken Heart.

1. I bought this book for my daughter (10) for a present. I decided that I should read it first to make sure it was appropriate. I found this book so moving, captivating. Not only can horse lovers relate to the story but any audience who finds comfort in the most unlikely of companions. I highly recommend this book. I plan on reading it again after my daughter has finished it.

5 comments about Lines and Shadows.

1. I have read this book over and over again. It combines drama, humor, and enough social commentary that you won't feel it is frivolous. Based on fact, it is a great read. Presently, I am trying to follow up on what happened to the "characters" after the book ended. Can't go wrong with this book.
   
   Sabes que, Wambaugh at his best!



2. because it DOESN'T read like fiction; it's a true story with Wambaugh applying his direct understanding of how cops behave & what happens when they act out because of stress that returns night after night & can't be eased. There's the usual Wambaugh mix of booze, women, blurs between right & law. As usual, there's no insight or development for female characters, who are cardboard cutouts. But this time, instead of playing with character & language, as in other books, he projects his insights into those he depicts, without modifying their character. It's docudrama, despite its gunslinger theme, like Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood," a form Wambaugh is good at, maybe because it relieves him of tense necessity of creating a plot. Oddly, this book isn't cynical, even when describing disappointed moral objectives; but it does prove what Aristotle said, "We become what we do repeatingly." A police department that sends men to work in Hell shouldn't be surprised if they turn into devils.



3. I'm both in awe and suspicious of this book. It purports to tell the true-life story of a group of undercover police officers, most of Mexican descent, who work steathily to entice robbers preying on the heavy illegal alien traffic flowing into San Diego County from Baja California into attacking them, then turning the tables on their would-be victimizers.

   I'm in awe because it reads like fiction, with deep insights into the professional and personal lives of each of the policemen who are part of the BARF (Border Alien Robbery Force) team. We find out how they spend their off-hours, drinking and cheating on their wives with the sort of abandon of the cheerfully doomed. We discover how much they come to dislike one another, and particularly their leader, a hotshot in disco chains named Manny Lopez. The action sequences are riveting, and you get a real flavor for the desolate highlands these officers probe, and the desperate characters, both deadly and vulnerable, that they come across.

   But it reads too much like fiction. These guys either opened up to Wambaugh to a degree few ever do, not even to a very good, empathetic writer who asks all the right questions, or else the writer went the New Journalism route and extrapolated a lot of the inner monologues each of these officers have from time to time. I wonder about the former approach (cops are notoriously taciturn, even with each other or someone like Wambaugh who's obviously skilled at drawing them out) and question the validity of the latter, if used.

   Despite the numerous offenses against man, society, and God cataloged here, Wambaugh apparently didn't leave these guys so much out to dry that they got angry. It wouldn't be a good idea angering these guys, but how did he manage it, given the story we have here? I just wish there was some Author's Note explaining the access issue. All we have is the firm statement at the outset "This Is A True Story." Yes, sure, but are these the real characters? Did he do one of those magazine-writer tricks of folding in multiple characters to create fictional hybrids? Did he use pseudonyms? I'd love to know.

   The dialogue is brilliant, the writerly asides masterful and witty, and a crisp narrative pulls you through quickly while asking the question of when a good impulse (protecting aliens who are being savaged by gangsters while trying to illegally enter your country) become a really bad practice. By the final third of the book, the cops are strung-out adrenaline junkies probing into Mexican territory and looking for conflict, not the sort of characters you want representing your country in a sensitive border region.

   Was this really what they were like? And what happened to them after the book was published in 1984? I'd love to know.




4. The philosophical setting of this book is littered with "ifs." If the United States government would protect the US from invaders, as it is charged to do, this book never would have been written. If other nations were governed by constitutions conceptually similar to that of the United States, establishing freedom and individual rights everywhere -- such that people would not feel it necessary to flee their home governments, and seek freedom in the United States -- this book never would have come into being. If, if, if.

   This excellent book is a well-written tragedy about good law enforcement people who took the initiative to overlook one crime (illegal immigration) and proactively fight other crimes -- robbery, assault, battery etc. The story is compelling and riveting. It is good guys versus bad guys.

   Unfortunately, both sides lost.




5. Mr. Wambaugh as always, is able to catch the true flavor of what it was really like to be a cop and be a man. How hard is/was to "keep" a marriage, capture the essence of another culture and still tell a story as if we were all sitting in a bar listening to the ones who saw it all. The Seventies were ripe with blurried lines of two countries, two cultures forever linked in land of sometimes chaos. Those guys were the cowboys of the Seventies. It wasn't just a "Mexican" thing,... it was a Cop thing.

5 comments about Eminent Victorians.

1. In 1918, the Victorian Era was the visitable past, but World War I had wrenched the British far from their former frame of mind. According to Michael Holroyd's concise, non-spoiling introduction to the Penguin edition of EMINENT LIVES, author Lytton Strachey belonged to the camp that largely held the Victorians responsible for delivering the younger generation to the horrors of that war. So it is that Strachey, one of the Bloomsbury crowd, felt free to break with the tradition of sober, deifying biography and produce critical profiles of icons of Victorian culture. He went looking for the humans behind the legends of Cardinal Manning, Florence Nightengale, Dr. Thomas Arnold and General Gordon . . . . and found them wanting.
   
   Strachey provides more than enough evidence that his four subjects were driven by ego, ambition and the certainty of moral superiority. Cardinal Manning's story reflects the 19th century religious debate as the Evangelists and Catholics battled for England's soul. Manning followed his mentor Dr. Newman and capitulated to Roman Catholicism, after which he rose to prominence in Rome, helping to ratify church dogma (especially, the infallibility of the Pope), all the while marginalizing his original mentor. Florence Nightengale's achievements are not in doubt, it is how she pushed them through, probably bringing her friend and colleague Sidney Herbert and cousin Arthur Clough to early deaths. The Victorians called her an angel, Strachey thought her a demon. Dr. Arnold was sentimentalized as the headmaster of Rugby in TOM BROWN'S SCHOOL DAYS, but in the long view, he squandered the opportunity to make real educational reform by limiting curriculum to morally instructive classical texts in their original languages. General Gordon brings up the rear, his own ambition and ego the perfect catalyst for igniting the proclivities of Gladstone's government by doing things his imperialistic way in the Sudan, causing untold casualties and getting himself executed (not to mentioned dismembered) in the process. In a way his ending speaks for Strachey's overarching theme: General Gordon, faced with the final rebel attack at his door, did not take the moment left to escape. He used it to change out of his dressing gown and into his proper dress whites.
   
   Strachey trolled public record, personal journals and letter and eye-witness accounts to elucidate his subjects, their thinking and the effect of such. True, he shapes the facts to fit his vision, but all the same, they are facts and rather telling. Sometimes the text is dense with historical detail, but mostly it flows. I found it to be not only a valuable perspective on the Victorian era and the mood of the world in 1918 but a cautionary tale about cultures creating their icons. It is irresistible, and frightening, to draw contemporary parallels.



2. It is difficult to imagine anyone actually reading nineteenth century biographies. If encountered today, say in dusty archives, these works commemorating the dead - typically two thick volumes of "ill-digested masses of material" - are notable for their tediousness, seeming lack of design, and "lamentable lack of selection".
   
   With this book, Eminent Victorians (1918), Lytton Strachey deliberately set out to revitalize biography. His subjects - Cardinal Manning, Florence Nightingale, Dr. Arnold, and General Gordon - were all legends in their time, archetypical Victorians. His incisive style, sense of drama, and subtle irreverence made Eminent Victorians an immediate success, and one that remains fascinating today. Florence Nightingale and perhaps General Gordon have retained some eminence, but Dr. Arnold and Cardinal Manning have faded into the background, at least from the perspective of American readers.
   
   In his introduction Strachey wrote: "That is what I have aimed at in this book - to lay bare the facts of some cases as I understand them, dispassionately, impartially, and without ulterior intentions." Be that as it may, readers will undoubtedly discern some passion, some partiality, and some unstated objectives. Regardless, Eminent Victorians is an enjoyable, entertaining, intellectual adventure that brings life to Victorian biography.
   
   Henry Edward Manning at age thirty-eight was a rising man in the Church of England. He had many powerful connections: he was the brother-in-law of Samuel Wilberforce, who had lately been made a bishop; he was close friend to Mr. Gladstone, who was a cabinet minister; and he was becoming well known in influential circles in London. Within two years Manning - later to become Cardinal Manning - resigned his position and was received into the Roman Catholic Church.
   
   The real Florence Nightingale, not the saintly, self-sacrificing, delicate maiden lady of popular legend, was, according to Strachey, more interesting, but also less agreeable too.
   
   Dr. Thomas Arnold acquired the position of headmastership of Rugby School in August, 1828, and subsequently changed the face of Public School life.
   
   General Gordon is remembered for his death at Khartoum. Strachey's controversial account is great biography. (In the 1966 movie Khartoum, Charlton Heston played the role of General 'Chinese' Gordon.)



3. I just don't see that Strachey made Florence Nightingale and General Gordon look as foolish as he made Cardinal Manning and Thomas Arnold appear in "Eminent Victorians". I suppose that impression comes from having been brought up reading 20th century 'warts-and-all' biographies rather than the 'if-you-can't-say-something-nice-don't-say-it-at-all' biographies of the 19th century. Although Strachey made Manning and especially Arnold seem pretty icky, Nightingale and Gordon come through as pretty admirable human beings -- not perfect (i.e. human) but on the whole admirable.



4. Some of Lytton Strachey's choices of subject for the four scathing biographical essays contained in _Eminent Victorians_ may seem rather strange. Florence Nightingale was an obvious choice for any biographer, but who cared about Matthew Arnold in the post-war era when Strachey was writing these essays? Who gave a thought to Cardinal Manning or Chinese Gordon? And why combine their biographies into one book?
   
   The answer may be that all four shared one unusual character trait, one so reminiscent of the Victorian age that even the thought of it brings the scent of lavender to mind: extreme earnestness. Each figure cared very, very deeply about something, but for each that earnestness also masked a corresponding personal craving. Like many young Britons in the post-WWI era, Strachey was deeply distrustful of earnestness, often seeing it as an excuse for personal gain or fulfillment. This was especially true when one man's deeply held beliefs sent others to their deaths, as it often had during WWI. He had no time for official incompetence, ignorance, or inaction, but often found the opposite just as dangerous.
   
   The first essay in _Eminent Victorians_ is that of Cardinal Manning. Manning was a priest in the Church of England who became involved in the Oxford Movement, a group of churchmen who disliked the increasing secularization of the C of E and who wished to bring it back to its Catholic roots. Most of those involved remained in the Anglican communion, forming the nucleus of the "High Church" movement of the late 19th century. Manning found that he could not stop at that, though; unable to reconcile his belief in a Church Universal with his membership in a church that existed basically because Henry VIII was a serial adulterer, and unable to 'take back' the text of a tract he had written that was deeply critical of the Anglican church and which eliminated any chances of his gaining higher office, Manning found himself eventually in the arms of Rome. Strachey paints Manning as a weak, vacillating, impulsive man of great ambition whose conversion to Roman Catholicism was as much a political and career move as one of the heart and soul. Had Manning remained in the Church of England, Strachey implies, he would have been an archdeacon until death; only conversion to Roman Catholicism allowed him to fulfil his ambitions towards higher office. It's a masterful biography, one that explores not just its purported subject but also the birth of Anglo-Catholicism.
   
   The third essay, of Rugby school headmaster Matthew Arnold, reveals Strachey's hatred of the English public school system (or what we in North America would call the private school system). He skewers Arnold for failing to make the educational reforms he was hired to make and for delegating the discipline of younger students to the senior class, thereby condoning and even encouraging the type of severe bullying that caused many young men to consider suicide. Arnold, whose earnestness in creating 'Christian gentlemen' did not go so far as to allow him to teach them himself, refused to update the school curriculum ostensibly because gentlemen didn't need science, maths, or English literature, but really (as Strachey contends) because Arnold had studied Latin and Greek himself and didn't want to feel his own learning was unnecessary. Strachey points out that Arnold did little at Rugby except pronounce the Sunday sermon, intimidate students, and foster a personality cult that eventually made him the father of modern education in many Britons' eyes - even though he made no changes to the educational system itself. His reforms in discipline and in religion (and his lack of reforms in curriculum) were copied by most public schools, to the great detriment of the British people.
   
   In Strachey's essay on General Gordon, Strachey shows how a brave man with a strong belief in the rightness of his cause and an overwhelming desire for adventure may have been used to precipitate a war and to advance the cause of imperialism. Gordon, a war veteran and former colonial administrator (and a rather unstable fellow), was sent to the Sudan during a revolt to report on conditions there and to evacuate civilians who were loyal to Egypt, which was then controlled by the British. Gordon did none of the above; he instead tried to wipe out the insurrection, and for his troubles was killed and his staff and allies massacred. His death was used by the imperialist factions in the ruling party as a call to arms. Strachey wonders: was this deliberate? Was Gordon given alternate instructions by the imperialists? Did they intend for him to die, so that his death could be used as a rallying point for further imperialism? He argues his point well, and the essay is definitely worth reading.
   
   Strachey's portrait of Florence Nightingale is not quite as successful as the rest. Nightingale was born into a wealthy family, and like all young women of her class and time was expected to marry young, have children, and generally be nothing more than a society lady. Florence wanted more: she wanted to work, to make a difference, to change the world, and she wanted everybody around her to work as hard as she did. After many years of waiting, she finally had her chance; her efforts to reform British military hospitals and eventually the practice of medicine in the Empire did in fact change the world. Strachey seems to have thought that she pushed her colleagues too hard, that her own drive was so abnormal that her friends and family could not keep up. Granted, she did push some of her colleagues very hard, and one may have even died from overwork, but they chose to work with her because they believed in her, and given what she was able to do I think they were right to believe in her. It also appears that Strachey may not have been comfortable with a woman refusing to hide her intelligence or personal strength when dealing with men. I had the distinct impression while reading this essay that Strachey was sneering at those men who took orders from Nightingale or who assisted her in her work. Another reviewer mentioned that Nightingale is portrayed here as a 'pushy woman' - and she certainly is; however, most of Strachey's implied criticism seems to be directed towards the men who treated her as the intelligent, hard-working, valuable human being she was. Strachey also seems to have viewed her invalid status as something of a neurotic problem, which in the light of recent research (showing that she likely had undulant fever) may not be accurate.



5. Lytton Strachey gives us a revealing look at four prominent Victorian personalities: Cardinal Henry Edward Manning, Florence Nightingale, Dr. Thomas Arnold, and General Charles George Gordon. Personally, I most enjoyed learning more about Florence Nightingale and General "Chinese" Gordon. Manning and Arnold are simply more steeped in their own times and have, perhaps, less to offer to modern readers.
   
   The section on Gordon is the best. It covers the end of his life at Khartoum in a much more interesting fashion than that portrayed by Charlton Heston in the movie. The modern problems in Darfur show that in many ways little has changed there in the last 120 years.
   
   Strachey's style is to get behind the events of his subjects' lives to delve into their psychological motivations, and he is often less than kind to them. He frequently punctures their balloons and exposes their foibles in a very entertaining way.

5 comments about Generally Speaking: A Memoir by the First Woman Promoted to Three-Star General in the United States Army.

1. I read this book as a retired Army officer, and I was enlisted before I became an officer. First, the book is terrible. I might suggest reading it only as a historical document. This kind of writing would not get you through college. Only Colin Powell had a worse author. Schwartzkoff's author set the standard for works of this type. Kennedy unwittingly appears incredibly naive in her book. When as a full colonel she has to ask a JAG officer several times about the role and extent of her authority before she confronts a lower ranking other service officer reveals her to be inept and incapable. I knew better than this as a captain. However, the story continues, and she appears as a mindless drone who only is sad and pathetic. Her soundbite claim to fame is "selfless service." Too bad it sounds like a cheap rationalization and justification for her not having a life outside of the Army. I think that that was the best she could come up with, and that was merely something someone probably once wrote on her OER, and she never forgot it. It is quite obvious that the Army kept promoting her to keep her unrealistically representing the face of women in the Army when there are legions of more deserving female soldiers who deserve more than this rag. The book is uninteresting, and she even more so.



2. The reviews seem to fall into two opposing groups, those who think the book is a great commentary on management and women in management, and those of the old hard core military that think a soldier must have been in combat to be called a soldier. I only bother to add my two cents because it has a little different perspective. I thought the book was interesting, easy and enjoyable to read. But then we get to the issue of substance and I am absolutely appalled, there is none! As a management text it is trivial, there is nothing of and real substance, but so what, I wasn't looking for management advice, I read it because it was written by a woman who was the head of signal intel in the army and a Lt. Gen. at that. I thought it might give some special insight into the world of intel because of the unique perspective a woman might have. What I found was nothing, absolutely nothing. Here is a person responsible for one of the most important functions in the military today and she seems about as well qualified as Mary Kay would be for Sec. of Defense. None of her background seems to indicate that she should have achieved this position. She has nothing to say about what is going on in the intel world. I know she can't say much about the day to day activity but I thought she would have some opinion on something more than sexual harassment. It seems to me that every serious woman officer, who has had to prove herself above and beyond to be taken seriously should be highly offended at the impression this officier leaves with the reader about both the Army and women in the Army.



3. Not as poorly written as some reviews have said, although there is nothing in this book I agree with.
   
   Please don't call yourself a soldier, LTG Kennedy. You never served with the grunts, cav troopers, tankers or gun bunnies. You were never near any shot and shell. You were a bureaucrat, a chair-borne ranger, who with other militant feminists helped inviscerate the United States Army and transform it into something between Gidget and Camp Grenada.
   
   If you want to read the story of a real warrior, buy About Face by David Hackworth, or Dick Winters' new book. Company Commander is another fine work, as is Hal Moore's classic, We Were Soldiers, Once and Young.



4. I had the great pleasure of meeting General Kennedy when she was still a captain. Even then, she displayed an amazing dedication to her troops - male and female alike. Of all the officers I worked with over my military career, General Kennedy stands out as the best of the best.

   General Kennedy's story is unique, but it's also the story of today's military - right down to the barenuckled, back room politics that have always been evident in political decision making. Far more interesting is her unswerving loyalty to the Army and her country despite the petty rumormongering and questionable tactics used against her.

   One thing is certain: General Kennedy is a soldier's general. Her story is the story of today's army and the end of the obsession with personal power that's dominated the military since World War II. This is a story, not just of the coming of age of a woman soldier - but the coming of age of the US military.




5. This book presents an excellent road map for people interested in understanding how we have arrived at where we are today--women coming home from a war in body bags.