No comments about Man from Babel (Henry McBride Series in Modernism and Mo).

3 comments about 66 Frames.

1. READ THIS BOOK!
   Gordon Balls' intimate recollection of a fascinating time in American history allows a vicarious experience for those unwilling or unable (due to age) to participate. I know of no better writing from a personal perspective on the exploration, freedom, generational misunderstandings and sometimes, excesses, of the 1960's. Perhaps Ball will consider an autobiography of his early teenage years, 60s experiences, and later periods and indicating how those have shaped him. One may drop acid AND love baseball, right?



2. The best books about the 1960s were written by people who disliked much about the time: Joan Didion and Tom Wolfe. For those who want to know why one might miss the decade, what it was like to be young and arts-oriented and practice free love, I recommend Gordon Ball's book.



3. Gordon Ball's fine little memoir of the distant past is a bitter sweet account of growing up to a world that was not what we told it was. I guess, self discovery of the world, is always narcissistic and solipsitic. I admire so much his persistance and devotion to those that influenced and guided him in that discovery. He continues to do a great service to the legacy of that era. We may discover that the 60's are not over. Not by a long shot.

2 comments about Dreams Die Hard.

1. This book gives a great insight into the excitement of the late 60's, and their less pleasant aftermath. It's written by David Harris, the famous SDS leader from Stamford who was one of the few to actually go to prison for draft resistance-- in the midst of which he married Joan Baez. Two other people are described in fascinating detail: Allard Lowenstein, an anti-war Congressman elected in the late 60's, and speaker at my Harvard commencement in 1969; and Dennis Sweeney, activist and Lowenstein protege-- who later murdered Lowenstein.
   
   This is a terrifically writen, hard to put down, account of the hopes and disappointments of the sixties.



2. In 1980 Allard Lowenstein was assassinated by a former "protege" named Dennis Sweeney. The two men first met in the early 60s when Sweeney was a 19yr old undergrad at Stanford. Lowenstein was a prof of Govt at Stanford and "Dean of Men". Sweeney was judged to be incompetent to stand trial by virtue of his schizophrenia. His whereabouts today is not clear but Lowenstein was buried in Arlington National Cemetery a few yard from JFK.
   
   The early 60s was a time of great change and ideological fervor and the interactions of Lowenstein and Sweeney are chronicled for us here by David Victor Harris. Lowenstein was what we today would describe as a motivator and a charismatic speaker who helped wake up the youth of the New Frontier and inspired them to go out and make our world a better place. Harris was one such youth who fell under Lowenstein's spell as a "protege" and is perhaps best known today for later marrying folksinger and human rights advocate Joan Baez. [Baez stands alone as one of the few anti Viet Nam War protestors who spoke out against the brutal postwar human rights record of the conquering North Vietnamese in the South] Of course to David Harris him for that achievemt alone would be a disservice. He like so many young idealistic and presumbaly well-off young collegians (from Stanford but also from Yale and other Ivies back east) saw first hand the segregation and hatred of pre Civil Rights Act Mississippi. Their experiences of southern racism and the establishment liberal Democrats who sought to compromise and negotiate with racist Dixiecrats of that time radicalized these students and paved the way for the antiwar counterculture.
   
   What I found most interesting about this book was the psychodynamics of the relationships Lowenstein formed with his many largely un-named "proteges". The young men like Sweeney presumably gravitated to the fatherlike figure of Lowenstein for understandable reasons. Lowenstein was in his 30s and his appeals to these young men met profound psyche needs: ie he sought out young men with "leadership potential" and then counted on them to provide him with transportation/chaueffeur services whenever he hit town on one of his many lectures to likeminded cause groupies.
   In the case of Sweeney we see a young man who never really knew his own father. Lowenstein ably stepped up to fill that role. And protege Sweeney was as dedicated and idealistic as any young impressionable altar boy could ever be in the presence of Lowenstein, a veritable high priest of mid60s Liberalism.
   Here we learn that my priest/altar boy comparison is apt indeed!!
   Allard would ask a student if he could drive Allard to a student gathering/teach-in at any of the various campii of that era which were aflame with aroused ideological passions. Allard certainly knew how to work up a crowd and the young men were eager to do whatever they could to help spread the word of their priest/father figure.
   Invariably the acolyte and Lowenstein would drive late into the night to reach their destination and eventually Lowenstein would suggest to his tired young chauffeur/protege that they stop for the night. Lowenstein would instruct the young man to wait in the car while he went in to get a room. Surprise surprise surprise!! They have only one room left and only one bed.
   So the naive and unsuspecting youth would strip down to underwear and tee shirt and lie down on his half of the bed. Lowenstein would have the other half.
   
   You can figure out what happened next. Lowenstein would invariably hug and get close up to the young man. Remember this was 1965 (or in Sweeney's case 1964!) Homosexual conduct was not as favorably or benignly viewed then among intellectuals as it is today. We cant know how many such "proteges" of the great Lowenstein endured such a maneuver since Harris seldom names them outright. Harris himself experienced a similar setup and learned that he and Sweeney werent the only young men Allard was able to manipulate into this arrangement.
   
   Lowenstein's sexuality was never clearly revealed. He expressed great solidarity with Florida homosexuals battling against Anita Bryant but never actually came out himself even though as Harris narrates many young campus activists spoke of trysts with Lowenstein.
   After Lowenstein's death Harris wrote about the "great work" Lowenstein and Sweeney had done with their voter registration drive in Mississippi. Lowenstein's fans and friends chafed at the evidence suggesting he was a sexual predator. He eventually married a gal and fathered 3 kids. One son today is a lawyer activist like his dad and worked on the disastrous John Kerry Presidential campaign.

No comments about Carlos Lacerda, Brazilian Crusader: Volume II: The Years 1960-1977 (Dulles, John Wf//Carlos Lacerda, Brazilian Crusader).

1 comments about Events Leading Up to My Death: The Life of a Twentieth-Century Reporter.

1. This warm and insightful 1997 memoir by Howard K Smith (1914-2002) is worth reading. Smith describes his Louisiana upbringing, his Depression-era studies at Tulane and as a Rhodes Scholar, and his 60-years in journalism. Smith also describes covering Nazi Germany for Ed Murrow and CBS Radio during the war (1940-1941). Leaving Germany just before Pearl Harbor, Smith kept broadcasting from neutral Switzerland, writing LAST TRAIN FROM BERLIN about his experiences. After the war, the author helped usher in television news, moderated the first Kennedy-Nixon Presidential debate, covered civil rights protests, etc. Smith also describes leaving CBS in a dispute, and moving to ABC, where his fatherly voice and reasoned commentaries made him a fixture. Readers also learn his views on LBJ, Vietnam, Nixon, etc. Some criticized Smith for tilting rightward from his early liberalism (he was pro-Vietnam), but he was usually a voice of calm and reason.
   
   This book never took off in sales, but it is as warm and informative as the author. Readers might also enjoy memoirs from other CBS journalists like William L. Shirer, Walter Cronkite, Eric Sevareid, etc.

1 comments about The Real F. Scott Fitzgerald Thirty-Five Years Later.

1. I really enjoyed how this book showed the other side to F. Scott Fitzgerald. I thought the view was a bit biased because of the fact that Sheilah Graham had been so close to Fitzgerald. Some of the stories may have been tainted because the perspective came from her. But overall, it was an interesting book that I enjoyed.

No comments about The Autobiography of S.S. McClure.

5 comments about The Soccer War.

1. This is very worthwhile reading for residents of North America or Europe to gain a better understanding of conflict and politics in other parts of the world, even if it dates back to the 1960s and 70s. Kapuscinski describes events and situations that most of us will never experience, fortunately. His style is direct, immediate, sometimes blunt, but especially effective in conveying what war is like on the ground. He was an "official" journalist for a Communist country. He had the privilege of traveling abroad, but everything he wrote for publication was censored. Presumably Kapuscinski's masters wanted him to paint a picture of brave Third World peoples fighting for freedom against capitalist exploitation. But there is little or nothing here that you could call Communist propaganda. Instead it is engaging reporting of historic events in conflict zones (Africa, Central America, Syria, Cyprus) by an intelligent, humane observer who has good insights.



2. It is a striking book. Mr. Kapuscinski is a great writer and the narrative is simply wonderful.
   
   It is a great account of the cold war, as fought in Africa and Latin America.



3. Kapuscinski is the master of international journalism. Often he prefaces his accounts by saying something to the affect of, "Everyone told me that trying to get into the Congo was suicide. I had to do it." The result is a perspective that no one else is able to give, a sometimes brutal but eye-opening account of the effects of war.
   The best part of The Soccer War to me is Kapuscinski's ability not only to report on war, but to capture the humanity of the people involved. He is in this way an anthropologist as much a journalist. True, this book covers extensive topic matter: Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, Algeria, Congo, Burundi, Cyprus, etc, but Kapuscinki's voice is powerful enough to unify these seemingly disparate stories.
   If you are curious about world history, if you want a humanistic and first-hand view of events that have shaped our world today, this is your book. There were times when I was literally on the edge of my seat wondering if Kapuscinski would make it out alive. Of course, we know he did because he pubished a book about these experiences.
   
   Visit my blog: http://www.writingup.com/blog/namingame



4. It's almost impossible to process the news with the same perspective after reading this book...what was true in the 60s still rings true today. I picked up this book while simultaneously reading articles in Esquire and The New Yorker about people (Bill Gates, Bill Clinton...) trying to make a difference in Africa. While I was made hopeful by the observations in today's mainstream press, I grew increasingly frustrated when confronted with the dark reality that Kapuscinski exposes.



5. As somebody who once lived in Honduras before the infamous soccer war of 1969, I long had Kapuscinski's book on my "must read" list. Though I bought it five years ago, I didn't get around to reading it till just now. I'm glad I did. THE SOCCER WAR is another sterling volume from this master of description.
   
   THE SOCCER WAR isn't a book about the absurd war between El Salvador and Honduras, triggered by World Cup qualification matches, but really caused by El Salvador's overpopulation and the subsequent overflow of Salvadorenos into much-emptier Honduras. The war may also be ascribed to the fact that neither country has been able to tame its landowning classes, who continue to this day to run rampant over the poor masses of people. In any case, this war, which happened decades ago, occupies only 30 pages of a 234 page book. The rest of the book contains vignettes from Ghana, Nigeria, Congo, Burundi, Algeria, Tanganyika, Syria, Cyprus, and Ethiopia. I think another title would have given readers a better idea of what the book is about. Anyway, I would not say this book is about particular societies or countries, rather it is about the human condition. Kapuscinski, if you have read any of his other (excellent) work, specializes in inserting himself into extreme situations----war, rebellion, conflict, and abnormal behavior. Where the strictures of daily life have fallen down, we find him reporting, usually at considerable risk to his person. He is nearly burned to death in Nigeria, nearly executed in Burundi, nearly lynched in the Congo, nearly blown up in Honduras. In every case, he manages to portray some participants as humane and decent, or as simple people caught up in events beyond their control. He never writes off groups of people as `wild' or `barbarous', but manages to `read' them even as he faces almost certain death. The absurdity of all this violence, the violence that never ends on this planet, comes through loud and clear. Ryszard, you wrote your best, but nobody in charge listened. Readers of the book, however, will come away with a better understanding of human nature and its universal similarity on every continent, among every race and religion. From the stupidity, waste, and blood, we can learn. We just don't.

1 comments about Happy Days: Mencken's Autobiography: 1880-1892 (Bumcombe Collection).

1. H.L. Mencken temporarily resigned from his job as a newspaper columnist before the Second World War, deeming his political opinions too controversial for print. In the ensuing interregnal period, he focused his attention on writing a series of memoirs, which later turned into a three volume autobiography, of which Happy Days is the first part. In its pages, he relates his early fascination with police officers, food, literature and pedagogues, subjects that forever interested him. He also, astonishingly, recounts successful athletic exploits (astonishing because he grew into a rotund and stumpy man, who considered sports "nonsensical"). Readers familiar with Mencken's caustic columns will enjoy learning how his strong opinions were formed. Readers unfamiliar with him should still find this book highly palatable, for it is colorfully written, interfusing "the language of the free lunch counter" with latin phrases and searing adjectives. This memoir is as well-written as later newspaper columnist Russell Baker's "Growing Up," but is a hell of a lot funnier.

No comments about Honorable Exiles: A Chilean Woman in the Twentieth Century.