1 comments about The George Seldes Reader.

1. For over 70 years George Seldes(who lived to be over 100)fought the establisment,the establisment press,and big business,to bring "the truth",as he saw it,to the American people.America is a better place because of the tireless work of such men as George Seldes.This book reprints and dissects his writing.A GREAT addition to your library.Highly recommened.

No comments about I Remember.

2 comments about Orwell: The Authorized Biography.

1. Orwell's life was not very mysterious. He left ample traces in his early novels, his essays, journalism and published letters. Still, if you want it as a coherent story instead of a jigsaw puzzle, this book is the place to go. And you get some surprises into the bargain.
   Like: I had not realized that what Eric's father did as a professional in the India colonial service throughout his life was the most obnoxious work that he could possibly have done: he was a minor official in the opium authority, which was in charge of maintaining the official opium cultivation and exportation to China.
   That, combined with Eric's own 5 years as a policeman in Burma must have put a heavy load of guilt on the young man's mind and conditioned him towards his urge for self-destructiveness that led him to live as a bum and to volunteer for a civil war. Shelden writes that Blair/Orwell had a deep sense of inadequacy throughout his life. Sounds about right.
   As an admirer of Orwell's prose, I found the tales of Blair's poetic struggles in young life quite enlightening. Orwell was a man who loved the sound of words. Much of his criticism was about poetry. May that be the foundation for the clarity and simplicity of his writing?
   A nice little anecdote (not that many of them in the book): Shelden says Blair was always an aggressive critic, as demonstrated by his habit of using disliked books for target practice as a police officer in Burma.
   This bio is the 3rd attempt to write a complete one (i.e. other than the ex-girlfriend's or younger sister's partial view). The first one was seriously hampered by Sonia's refusal to cooperate and even to let the authors (Stansky/Abrahams) quote Orwell's work. The second one (Crick) was 'official', i.e. approved by Sonia, but then it displeased her strongly. Shelden's was written after Sonia's death and with approval by the literary executor.
   I am not sure it is the last word, it came out in 91, but it is not a waste of time.



2. Professor Shelden's biography of Orwell is outstanding and well-researched. Prof. Shelden provides the important details of the molding of Eric Blair- boyhood, school, service in Burma for the Empire- and explains how each experience influenced young Blair yet he doesn't try to feed the reader psychobabble hogwash. Orwell's fitful rise as a writer is especially interesting. Prof. Shelden explains Orwell's various ideological wars and paints a portrait of a non-doctrinaire, humanist socialist who was a more astute critic of Stalinism or ideological socialism than anyone to his right. What I found refreshing about Prof. Shelden's account is that the reader finishes the bio without really knowing the writer's own politics. He allows Orwell to speak for himself.

No comments about Bury me in an old press box;: Good times and life of a sportswriter,.

5 comments about Drinking the Sea at Gaza: Days and Nights in a Land Under Siege.

1. I first saw Amira Hass in a joint presentation with Ahdaf Soueif at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, NM several years ago. It was almost a full house, most were in awe of the quiet demeanor of this most courageous and unusual woman. She was a reporter for the Israeli newspaper, Ha'aretz, is the daughter of Holocaust survivors and a person of remarkable empathy for the dispossessed.
   
   She conveyed her mother's memories of Sarajevo before the Second World War, "a tolerant city, almost idyllic..." where Muslims, Christians and Jews lived together peacefully. Her book was for sale in the lobby after the lecture, and in it she explains her reason for choosing to live in Gaza, a place name many Israelis use interchangeably for "Hell." "In the end, my desire to live in Gaza stemmed neither from adventurism nor insanity, but from that dread of being a bystander, from my need to understand, down to the last detail, a world that is, to the best of my political and historical comprehension, a profoundly Israeli creation."(p. 7). Her approach is the antithesis of the "Big Man" theories of history, stating that: "... it has always been my conviction that history is made more in the currents of ordinary life than it is by rulers and their ceremonies."
   
   She documents that ordinary life unflinchingly, in achingly painful detail. The daily humiliations that Palestinians endure in dealing with the Israeli bureaucracy she calls appropriately "Kafkaesque." For example, she says: "Israel's profound need to rewrite Palestinian history was evident in the identity cards issued to refugees born before 1948. If the card holder was born in the Gaza Strip, the space for `Place of Birth' was filled in with the name of a specific town or village, such as Khan Yunis or Jabalia. But if the card holder was born within the borders of what had since become the new Israeli state, then only one word appeared in that space: `Israel.' (p179). She describes the sadism that Yigal Amir, an Israeli soldier, practiced on the Palestinians, and which he eventually turned on Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli Prime Minister he assassinated. (p 23).
   
   She is equally meticulous in documenting the economic inequalities and injustices committed on the Palestinians, the higher taxes they must pay compared to their Israeli counterparts, and the pitiful governmental services they receive in return. She explains the infamous "life" tax, even if you have no income, you must pay a tax for simply being alive - you must have income is the "reasoning" of the bureaucracy, otherwise you would be dead! She sums up these arrangements with that word that Jimmy Carter has also had the courage to use: "apartheid." (p148)
   
   She lived in the Gaza for three years, never having her personal safety threatened. During this period, she also documented the corruption of the senior Palestinian leadership, which was a prime cause of the rise of various Islamic fundamentalist groups. It is even sadder to realize that this was during the "optimistic period" immediately following the Oslo Accords of 1993. Conditions today must be much worse than what she has described, and no hope is really in sight.
   
   She deserves all the journalist and peace awards available for illuminating what she calls "terra incognita" for Israelis (but also for the world) "and easier now to demonize as a breeding round for terrorist intrigue and fundamentalism." (p342). This book should be read in every school, "war college," and diplomatic post.



2. Written in the wake of the Oslo peace process, Drinking the Sea at Gaza vividly describes the unrelenting hardship that characterizes life in the Gaza Strip. Amira Hass, a journalist for the liberal Israeli newspaper Haaretz and a daughter of Holocaust survivors, shocked friends and colleagues when she became the first Israeli correspondent to live in the Strip. While there, she witnessed grinding poverty, the collective frustration that exploded into the first Intifada (uprising), and the hope instilled by the peace process, which gave way to desperation as it failed to assuage the suffering of the average Palestinian. "In the long run," Hass writes, "[Palestinians] will judge the Oslo Accords...by measuring the breadth of their freedom as a people and as human beings." The book demonstrates how, ultimately, Oslo achieved neither, and Hass' account in many ways foreshadows the current crisis in Gaza.
   
   Hass begins with an account of conditions under the Israeli occupation, ranging from the military presence, mass arrests, and curfews to the economic burdens of heavy taxation and decaying infrastructure. She describes the largely grassroots uprising that sprang from these conditions in December 1987 and the military reprisals, including the imprisonment of a large part of the Palestinian population. Hass does not feign objectivity. She condemns the occupation in no uncertain terms and clearly sympathizes with the Palestinian plight, although her characterizations of Israeli troops show both cruelty and kindness, from a soldier who beats a young boy to a prison guard who surreptitiously brings a cake for a prisoner.
   
   Much of the book, however, deals with the aftermath of the Intifada and the peace process, focusing on the economic stranglehold caused by frequent border closures, long waits at checkpoints (causing worker absenteeism and the spoiling of exported products sitting for hours in the sun), and the practice of banning males under 40 from working in Israel (the only source of income for most Gazans). Besides the economic repercussions of Gaza's isolation, Hass describes the inability of many Gazans to access adequate health care (available only in Israel) and inability of students to travel to their universities in the West Bank.
   
   The book does not overlook the internal problems within Palestinian society. Hass describes the pervasive gender inequality in Gaza and the plight of its women. She also discusses Arafat's widespread corruption and his suppression of dissent. Crucially for understanding the current crisis, she portrays the inverse correlation between hope and religious extremism. Though written a decade ago, this book sheds important light on the situation in Gaza and how it got to be this way.



3. A very moving account of daily life without the politics, written with care and compassion.



4. I have spent the last summer reading numerous books on the Palestinian perspective of the MidEast crisis, and Hass' 'Drinking The Sea At Gaza' is perhaps the finest and most comprehensive account I have come across to date. Mixing the intellectual depth of Edward Said with the readability of Wendy Pearlman (of 'Occupied Voices'), Hass, in painstaking detail, recounts the daily struggle for Palestinian self-determination within the occupied territories, specifially Gaza, and reveals an intensely human drama not often revealed in the world press. This book is a must read, as are all of Hass' Ha'aretz (Israeli daily newspaper) articles on the conflict.



5. Amira Hass is an Israeli Jewish reporter living in Gaza with the Palestinians. When I first read this book about a few years ago, I became fascinated by this woman not only an Israeli Jew but the daughter of Holocaust survivors and her life in Gaza of all places by her choice. Amira Hass helps us to understand the life in Gaza even as an outsider. She helps us to understand the Palestinians' life better than any other reporter or author. Of course, there is always politics and the war between Israel and Palestinans. But as of today where Gaza is under seige. You begin to feel compassion for both sides and wonder when will there ever be peace. It's interesting that the author is an atheist or agnostic. Believe me, the book is the worth the read and the price. For all it's worth, the book is probably important to read more than ever.

1 comments about Expat: Survival of an Expatriate in Latin America.

1. Doing business in Latin America is not just a job. It's an adventure!
   
   Or at least it was for the author of this memoire, who recounts his days as a publishing executive in South American during coups d'etat, kidnappings, union problems, etc.
   
   The prose reads like the author is having a conversation with his readers. I know because I know the author, and he talks very much like he writes. This is a good thing, because that keeps the narrative fast-paced and full of colorful anecdotes that make the book hard to put down before it's done.
   
   Anyone who wants insights into doing business in Latin America will want to peruse this book. Great reading and lots of fun.

No comments about Home Truths: Life Around My Father.

No comments about Dear Bill: A Memoir.

5 comments about In the Rose Garden of the Martyrs: A Memoir of Iran.

1. This memoir reads like a compilation of thorough newspaper articles or short stories, I never quite knew where the book was going next. It contains snapshots of Iranian life, histories of people involved in the Revolution and people who oppose its growing hypocrisy, and the reflections of a foreigner trying to understand and be understood. I found it very enjoyable to read, an absorbing glimpse into the lives of people who are motivated in ways foreign to my experience and a testament to the difficulty of turning a revolution into a stable government worthy of its citizenry.



2. The book opens and closes with descriptions of scenes from an Iranian festival celebrating the martyrdom of the Imam Hossein, hero of Iran's Shia Islam. Sandwiched in between are snippets of the country's history, snatches of the personal experiences of the author's life as a Westerner in Iran and descriptions of the lives of ordinary Iranians and their experiences of the Revolution, the Iran-Iraq war and life in post-revolution Iran. The theme of martyrdom seeps through all of these encounters and experiences, and we are presented with an assortment of attitudes to the sometimes senseless, sometime noble aspects of martyrdom in Iranian history. The book has moments of thought-provoking brilliance as the author presents us with some of the dilemmas and paradoxes faced by ordinary Iranians. It also has moments where things become disjointed and it is easy to lose the thread. In the end, the idea of martyrdom is not enough to hold together a loosely structured narrative that jumps back and forth in history and alternates historical explanations with the anecdotal stories of a large number of diverse characters.
   
   De Bellaigue never claims to have no personal opinions on the issues he is writing about and in fact he presents his own biases plainly on occasion. This does not prevent him from offering up alternative points of view, however, and these are the moments that become thought-provoking. It is a struggle to give this book a star rating. At some points it deserves 5 and at others 2. The author's masterful command of language rates a 5 throughout. All in all though, I would say it is a worthwhile read.



3. This is a well-written and engaging book. It provides a close look at Iranian society and culture. When it comes to politics it is not as relevant and clear as it could have been.



4. Thumbing through Christopher de Bellaigue's "In the Rose Garden of the Martyrs," I smelled a rat.
   
   Riddle me this: How is it that an Englishman who wrote what is being billed as a "searingly honest portrait" of life in modern-day Iran is not in, uh, jail?
   
   How is it that he is permitted, to this day, to reside in unmolested luxury and comfort in a tony suburb north of Tehran? Wouldn't anybody "honest" be either imprisoned or shoved on a plane?
   
   Answer: because his memoir is not "searingly honest." Or any kind of honest, for that matter.
   
   That's right. de Bellaigue, who about a decade ago converted to Islam and married an Iranian, has managed to write a book about Iran that, while lovingly describing colorful characters, quaint locales, and heart-wrenching situations, never actually takes the trouble to specify where all the grief in this society is coming from! While he is competent at turning a phrase, his book ends up just flitting from anecdote to anecdote; he never manages (or bothers) to stitch his material into a more coherent (and therefore more condemnatory) narrative.
   
   What's worse, de Bellaigue is, without hitting you on the head about it, apologizing for the mullahs, for the oppression, for the blood. Not that he does this directly, no. But every description, every episode in the book, each island of woe that drifts into view is allowed to drift right back out of view without our cicerone's ever clarifying the serpent in the basement. Well, no, sorry: not in the basement anymore.
   
   If I were Iranian, I'd be fuming.
   
   I'm not even sure why de Bellaigue wrote this thing. I charitably stuck through the whole tour, waiting for it to take off, but it never did. In fact, I only realized what de Bellaigue really was when I was about halfway into it: a whitewasher of atrocities.
   
   Chris, if you're reading this: Shame.



5. 'In the Rose Garden of the Martyrs' is more or less enjoyable to read, but not quite as advertised. It is definitely a personal account which adds much flavor to the book but tends to be choppy and seems to lack any real purpose.
   
   While it does focus to some degree on the difficulties that the revolution now faces in Iran, it fails to tie these accounts together in any meaningful fashion. If this was the first book one was to read about Iran, it may prove difficult as it is taken for granted that one has a fair amount of background knowledge regarding Iran.
   
   If you are one who reads about Iran often, this book would also be worth reading. If you want your first picture of Iran- choose something different such as 'Persian Mirrors' by Elaine Sciolino.

No comments about Coincidences.