5 comments about The One that Got Away: A Memoir (Lisa Drew Books).

1. Even though I was not going to write a review about this book, the many critiques posted by other reviewers made me pause and then decide to add my thoughts. For the fisherman who has done any amount of fishing, you find that sooner or later, you discuss just about everything on your mind with your fishing buddies.
   
   This book does meander over quite a bit of territory, both, literally and figuratively. Howell travels the world to engage in his beloved flyfishing hobby and catch the elusive fish of wherever he lands. He also muses on his career, life, and personal values.
   
   The forward and backward in time writing technique seems a little forced sometimes and towards the end it does seem that there has been a little repetition, but, overall this is an interesting book written by a man who has seemingly made peace with himself and life.
   
   To any potential readers, if you are a neo-conservative that can't stand a sentence or two of criticism of Fox News and the Bushies, then maybe you should pass. However, if your skin is not so thin, you wonder about what a smart man thinks when in his 50/60's, and you enjoy a fish tale or two, then read this book.
   
   The reader is engaging and the story is pretty good.



2. Author is a major liberal, and there is way too much politics and way too little fishing. Not a bad book, but certainly not a good book...



3. If you're looking for a journalism memoir, you've come to the wrong place, really. You'll have to wade through much tedium about fishing, through which Raines tries to come to epiphanies about life and loss. I found myself flipping through about 85 percent of the book to get to what I thought were the good parts: his recollections of how Jayson Blair wrecked his NYT career. Raines paints himself as a saviour of what he thought was a hidebound newspaper. There may always be a debate about what he really achieved. He should have stuck to either fishing or journalism to make this book work. One wonders if something this muddled could ever make it past the gatekeepers at the evolving Times of today.



4. Howell Raines' memoir, The One That Got Away, is a sequel to his best selling Fly Fishing Through the Midlife Crisis, and is an account of the latest years of his life including his remarriage and his career as executive editor of The New York Times.
   
   It is also a book about fishing. If you're looking for a lot of details about the plagiarism scandal that ended his 25 years at The Times, you will be disappointed. On the other hand, if you love fishing, especially fly fishing, you will be in heaven.
   
   In The One That Got Away, Mr. Raines takes you around the world to a series of well-known (and little-known) fishing spots, where he describes his equipment and explains his techniques for catching the elusive salmon or bonefish or trout. You'll discover his love for this catch-an-release sport, especially in the tale of his epic battle with a marlin that he hooked in the South Pacific and fought for over seven hours.
   
   You also might find yourself speculating about the absolute veracity of these fish tales as well as the other events he describes in his book. After all, aren't "fish stories" synonymous with "lies" in the English language?
   
   His credos on journalism ("to see events wholly and coldly and try to write about them for the informational benefit of the Republic"), and The Times newspaper (to deliver high quality fact-based information and analysis about news that is found out, rather than imagined") were sorely tested when that "small, amiable, brown-skinned young man known as Jayson Blair" was exposed for publishing lies in The Times.
   
   Howell Raines says he had "no way of knowing and no cause to be consulted" about Jayson's rapid promotion from trainee to reporter, his lack of professionalism, or his frequent errors. But, as the guy "at the end of the chain of command," he took personal responsibility and demanded a complete disclosure. When the dust settled the "Gray Lady's" reputation was saved, but the editor found himself without a job.
   
   The One That Got Away is a book about confronting loss, be it fish or career. Howell Raines learned that in relinquishing his former identity as a newspaperman, he actually got what he wanted. As much as he loved journalism, the dream of escape was always there.
   
   As far as his relinquishing that marlin...what do you think?



5. Raines uses the metaphor of hooking and losing a large fish to describe his career; the surprise of getting a job that was beyond his expectations (hooking the fish), the long tedious years of work (fighting the fish), and his unexpected firing (losing the fish). Raines' first fishing book outlined his political agenda. In his second book, he explains his management oversight that resulted in his dismissal. I prefer fishing literature that makes an environmental point, an ethical fishing point, or is just an entertaining story. I am finished buying Raines' books because I do not care to spend my entertainment money to listen to his personal agenda. Raines' books are editoral pages thinly wrapped in fish.

3 comments about The Spy Who Loved Us: The Vietnam War and Pham Xuan An's Dangerous Game.

1. This relatively short book is easy to read in a day's time. This is not because it lacks substance--indeed, the author does a good job of presenting his subject, a man who was a long-time agent of the Vietnamese struggle against American subversion and aggression against their country. What is most striking about this is the common humanity of the man whose life and personality are presented to us: on multiple occasions, he went out of his way--even at cost and danger to himself--to save people from imprisonment or death. Contrast this, if you will, with the smirking sadists who too often occupied our government then and now, for whom out-of-hand killing is simply business as usual. This spy for Vietnam provided intelligence that helped win battles, but he never celebrated the deaths of anyone. Indeed, he saw no way out of the dilemma he faced: that he loved and wanted to defend his country and its people, while at the same time being genuinely fond of the Amercians he befriended.
   
   The complexity and the contradictions that he embodied are part of the value of a book of this type. It shows life as more than the good-vs.-bad cartoon that we typically get from politicians and our kept press. Mr. An lived a life of hard choices, and it is to his credit that, though he chose to serve his country first, he did not simultaneously discard his responsibility to do what he could to save from harm those threatened by the surrounding conflict.



2. Americans can be, it seems, simplistic saps in both love and war. This is the message of THE SPY WHO LOVED US, a new book by Thomas Bass, which describes the amazing career of Pham Xuan An, a man who served as both a senior reporter for Time Magazine in Saigon, and one of North Vietnam's top spies.
   
   An's saga is a cautionary tale, however, that raises serious questions about the American press during the Vietnam War. More on that later, but this review should note from the beginning that this book describes the life of an incredible man who successfully bridged the gap between Vietnam and America during one of our most contentious wars.
   
   An was a man of conflicting loyalties. He was, most of all, a Vietnamese nationalist. But he was also a communist whose mission was to love America - in order to destroy its military adventure in South Vietnam. Because he became immersed in the American way of life (on orders from Hanoi, An spent two years at a California college in the late 1950's), he was able to provide valuable guidance to the North Vietnamese hierarchy in Hanoi (and elsewhere) as they fought to defeat America in Vietnam.
   
   The author, Thomas Bass, a journalist and college professor, gives An full credit for the American defeat in Vietnam. An not only gave Ho Chi Minh valuable insights into the American psyche, the North Vietnamese agent also provided tactical and strategic planning for the battle of Ap Bac in 1963 (where the Viet Cong first defeated the South Vietnamese army that were equipped for the first time with U.S. helicopters) and the 1968 Tet offensive (An actually played a key role in identifying the targets in the communist attacks). In addition, An's analysis of American bargaining strategy at the Paris peace talks laid the basis for the eventual North Vietnam takeover of South Vietnam. That he did this while working full time for Time Magazine only enhances the legend that An, who died in 2006, left behind. Certainly Time Magazine founder Henry Luce must be spinning in his grave. One also has to wonder about Henry Kissinger's opinion of An's role in the war.
   
   An got away with his secret role because he established himself as a savvy, bon vivant reporter working for foreign news organizations in the war-time Saigon. He had high-level contacts within both the South Vietnam and American communities (including a close relationship with American counter insurgency expert Edward Lansdale). He held court daily at such hangouts as the Continental Palace shelf bar and the Givral Café where key players from the government, diplomatic and press communities hung out to exchange gossip. And, of course, he provided valuable reporting of the war and Saigon politics for Time Magazine (An worked for Reuters before moving to Time).
   
   But that was his daytime job. At night, An wrote lengthy reports (in invisible ink) analyzing events in Saigon for the Hanoi leadership who eagerly looked forward to his voluminous reports. A courier, and sometimes An himself delivered the reports to the Viet underground base at Cu Chi, which neighbored the massive U.S. airbase at Long Bien, 25 miles outside Saigon. An was extremely disciplined and smart enough to realize that he could not compromise himself by fiddling with the truth - in either of his jobs as a reporter or a spy. He constantly worried about getting trapped by a misstep, in either his reports or his activities.
   
   One decisive intelligence report that originated at a Saigon dinner party alerted the North Vietnamese to the overthrow of Cambodian Prince Norodom Sihanouk and the invasion of Cambodia by South Vietnamese forces. The North Vietnamese evacuated their strongholds inside Cambodia so that the SVN invasion went for naught.
   
   So how was it that Pham Xuan An was able to establish his dual role of a Time Magazine correspondent and his spying for North Vietnam? In the aftermath of the North Vietnamese victory, many have said that the American press in Saigon was both naïve and gullible, or both, to allow one of the highest ranking North Vietnamese agents to establish himself among their ranks.
   
   If truth be known, however, An was an excellent reporter, for both Time Magazine and Hanoi, and his success in both journalism and espionage was due to the fact that he reported the truth. One has to wonder about the moral implications of deceiving the Americans in such a role, given that tens of thousands of Vietnamese and Americans were killed due to his undercover work. But one also has to remember that An was a dedicated Vietnamese nationalist who believed that communism offered the best avenue towards independence, even if it was dominated by the North Vietnamese.
   
   Bass reports that some American reporters were suspicious of An (Ray Herndon of UPI, for one); others were disappointed, once they discovered the truth. Peter Arnett told Bass, "Even though I understand him as a Vietnamese patriot, I still feel journalistically betrayed. There were accusations all throughout the war that we had been infiltrated by the Communists. What he did allowed the right-wingers to come up and slug us in the eye. For a year or so, I took it personally. Then I decided it was his business.'
   
   But there were several prominent Americans journalists who counted An as among their most important Vietnamese contacts. Bob Shaplen of the New Yorker was one of the most influential correspondents covering Vietnam who spent inordinate amounts of time with An when Shaplen was in Saigon. David Halberstam of the New York Times was another who was close to An, as was Neil Sheehan of UPI. These journalists were the most prominent critics of the American conduct of the war in Vietnam. Did An turn them against the war effort as part of his Hanoi portfolio? That's a subjective question, and we'll probably never know the true extent of his influence on the American journalists.
   
   But the real failure by the Americans was not inside the media. One has to ask what happened to the American CIA that played a dominant role in the Vietnam War? How is it that the best and the brightest American spies failed to undercover a top agent who was operating right under their noses? Indeed Bass quotes American CIA agent Frank Snepp as saying that the U.S. intelligence service used An to feed information to American journalists. As such, An was the beneficiary of invaluable intelligence from the CIA itself -- which he, of course, passed onto Hanoi.
   
   In his introduction to the book, trying to explain the man he has chosen to write about, Bass makes the following analysis that pretty well sums up An's role in the war:
   
   "During the twenty years it fought the Vietnamese, the United States never understood the people or the culture of Vietnam...America's disregard for its enemy cost it dearly. It lost the war with fifty-eight thousand soldiers killed and hundreds of thousands wounded, and it lost its naiveté about its invincible military might. America's enemy did not make the same mistakes. The Vietnamese studied their adversary. They cultivated an agent who could think like an American, who could get inside the American mind to learn the country's values and believes...They needed a strategic spy, a poetic spy, a spy who loved Americans and was loved by them in return."
   
   Bass's new book is not the only study of An's role in the Vietnam War. In 2007, Larry Berman wrote THE PERFECT SPY: THE INDREDIBLE DOUBLE LIFE OF PHAM XUAN AN, which gives perhaps a more strategic view of An's career as a double agent. Both Berman and Bass had direct access to An in the 1990's and early 2000's, so there are plenty of valuable insights in both books from the man himself.



3. He passed information about American troop movements and strategy which he gathered while posing as a journalist for Time and other US media to the VC and NVA, enabling them to win several major engagements and kill thousands of US troops. The American journalists he worked with think there was nothing wrong with this and started a scholarship fund to benefit his son and enable him to study in America. This book inadvertently tells you an awful lot about the bias of the media in Vietnam which was a major contributing cause to the abandonment of South Vietnam and the ensuing misery suffered by millions of Cambodians. Laotians and Vietnamese which followed 1975. Don't forget them or the troops killed by Pham Xuan An's treachery when you read this book, as it is very one-sided. Ask yourself as you read through it what the author would have said about an ethnic German working for the US press in 1939-45 who passed valuable military intelligence on to Hitler.

4 comments about Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain: A Biography.

1. Wordy in places, but still the best, most comprehensive biography of Samuel Clemens.



2. It's no wonder this book won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. This is a serious, entertaining and informative treatment of one of the greatest American writers, and, in terms of his life and attitude, one of the best representations of 19th century America. In detail that becomes adornment to its subject, the author proceeds to map out the course of Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain, as he progresses as a writer and as a person. Great insights are revealed of his social behavior and, inasmuch as possible and believable, his thoughts. This is a great book; a must for any serious reader.



3. Kaplan's National Book Award and Pulitzer winner starts with Samuel Clemens' arrival in the East already quite famous due to the popularity of "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County." Almost immediately Clemens sets off to earn his living as a humorous lecturer. Kaplan shows us the many techniques he used such as the extended pause and how carefully he orchestrated his performances.
   
   Clemens' first literary success was INNOCENTS ABROAD about his trip accompanying a group of pilgrims to the Holy Land. It was always one of his most successful books. It was also published by subscription, which means that it was sold pretty much door-to-door.
   
   For me, one of the most entertaining parts of the book was Clemens' courtship of coal heiress Livy Langdon, whose brother, Charlie, had been one of the pilgrims on the INNOCENTS ABROAD trip. She rejected him, telling him she could never love him. He convinced her theirs could be a brother/sister relationship. Then he fell out of his carriage and she had to nurse him back to health.
   
   Much of the book details Clemens' obsession with James W. Paige's typesetting machine, which eventually bankrupted him. According to Kaplan, Clemens always led a duel existence (hence the title), with Mark Twain, the famous writer and social critic, and Samuel Clemens, the incompetent entrepreneur, always at loggerheads.
   
   Kaplan is almost offhandish when it comes to the early deaths of Clemens' daughters Susy and Jean. Clemens never recovered from Susy's death and Jean's preceded his own by just a few months. His wife Livy had been an invalid several years before her death, partly due to heart problems and partly because of nervous prostration brought on by her relationships with Clemens, but they were married for thirty-four years.
   
   The pictures leave a bit to be desired. We never get a good look at Livy as an adult and Jean and Clara are not shown at all, somewhat surprising since Ken Burns found several for his PBS documentary.



4. This scholarly and readable life of Twain begins with his thirties and carries the master humorist through the glorious successes and bitter tragedies that would haunt him. Well written and full of insightful analysis into his real character this book brings to life a persoanlity so large that it took a new era (Gilded Age) and two centuries to contain it! For his boyhood try Deep Waters- an equally good review of his wit and life.

4 comments about My Fathers' Daughter: A Story of Family and Belonging.

1. I loved this book! I'm not sure what I was expecting...maybe I had low expectations?...but it was an engaging, entertaining and informative read. We are in the process of adopting a daughter from Ethiopia. I felt like I could have been reading my daughter's journal 30 years from now. I highly recommend it!



2. I am a "birth" mother who has been affected by adoption and reunite. I married the father two years after relinquishing my rights to my first born son and then later had two more kids together. I loved how real Hannah Pool was in retelling her story. She explanned in such great detail the emotions and feelings that come over you when you are reunited with your lost one through adoption. These feeling ARE real, feelings that I too didn't know exist until going through them myself. We can't change what has happened...Thank you Hannah for sharing your story. Hearing the adoptees feelings so candid, validated to me how much my first born son DOES truly love me.
   Keri Stone



3. though I think the telling has merit. If you are the kind of person who enjoys knowing every little thought and action that goes with the story this book will really appeal to you. And, perhaps, if the reader has a similiar experience it may actually be a compelling read.



4. Great read! Very insightful information about an african adult adoptee growing up in a predominantly white family and area. Very interesting to hear her inner thoughts and feelings as she returned to the country she was born in, and to meet with people who are her blood relatives. I highly recommend this book.

5 comments about So Many Books, So Little Time: A Year of Passionate Reading.

1. Sara Nelson's delightful memoir on the sheer joy of books is at once a very personal commentary and a salute to inveterate book fiends at large. Lifelong reading addicts will feel an immediate affinity to Nelson's insatiable lust for the written word. We can also well relate to her frustration that there are many, many more books out there than we will ever have time to read in a lifetime!
   
   Written with humor, wit, and candor, "So Many Books, So Little Time" is a delight for all book lovers. If nothing else, it's comforing to know we're not the only ones who willingly find ways to prop our eyes open until late into the night, oblivious to the impending alarm clock, in order to finish "just one more chapter" of a book we've absolutely fallen in love with.
   
   Sarah Bruce Kelly
   Author of THE RED PRIEST'S ANNINA



2. I had high hopes for this book, and as I read it I began making a list of books she cited that I might want to read. It's not a very long list. While I can tell Nelson is an avid book person, her writing style comes across like the latest in what even she calls "chick lit." My wife is not as much a book person as I am, but I think she might like this even more than I do, simply because it is so relentlessly written from a chick's eye view. I did find one book she mentions that I've put into my Amazon basket - David Gilmour's HOW BOYS SEE GIRLS. It looks very intriguing, and I have recently read Gilmour's pseudo-memoir, THE FILM CLUB, which I enjoyed, so ... I did finish Nelson's book - it's a pretty quick read - but, like I said, I was a bit disappointed, particularly in view of the fact that its title has long been my own personal mantra. It's not that I didn't like SO MANY BOOKS...; maybe it was just a bit too irreverent and flip - and yes, female - in its overall attitude. I am sure that most women readers would like this book very much. - Tim Bazzett, author of PINHEAD: A LOVE STORY



3. Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2X945F8JOXSX6



4. When I first heard about this book, I was intrigued by its premise, as I never go anywhere without at least one or two books in my bag and am a confirmed book lover and avid reader. If I go on vacation, I pack a bag just for the dozen or so books that I simply must take along with me. I am most comfortable when I am surrounded by books. In fact, I look forward to retirement, so that I will have more time to read. I simply love to read! I cannot imagine a world without books and, quite frankly, I have never understood people who say that they do not care to read.
   
   So, this book seemed to be right up my alley. Well, the author does not disappoint, as she takes the reader along with her on her very personal journey. Her goal, not an overly ambitious one, is a book a week for fifty-two weeks. She does not necessarily stick to her list of books, and she meanders along, changing course in mid-stream sometimes, as many of us so often do. Yet, she always keeps up an entertaining discourse on the book that she is reading or has read, remarking upon its place in her world. She interweaves snippets of her personal life with her thoughts on those books that she reads. She talks about authors and the impact that some of their work has had on her, as well as her reading likes and dislikes.
   
   The author writes in a light and breezy conversational tone, so that, at times, it almost seems as if one old friend were talking to another about some books she had enjoyed. I was delighted to discover that we liked many of the same books for many of the same reasons. Within the pages of this book, I also happily discovered some new titles that piqued my interest. Moreover, the author, knowing how insatiable some book lovers are, even appends three lists at the end of her book, which lists consist of books she had planned to read during that year of reading, books she actually did read but did not discuss in her book, and books in her must read pile. What book lover is not familiar with that ubiquitous must read pile of books! Anyway, I did enjoy perusing through her lists, looking for books of interest.
   
   This book is a light-hearted sojourn into the world of reading and books that is meant to be a sharing of a wonderful passion. It is a funny and charming work of non-fiction. I thank the author for sharing her thoughts and insights, as I very much enjoyed reading them. It is, as always, a pleasure to come across such an enthusiastic fellow book lover.



5. Sara Nelson, So Many Books, So Little Time: A Year of Passionate Reading (Putnam, 2003)
   
   I had this book on my goal list for three years before getting to it. Then I finally started reading it on January 31... and did not finish it until March 20. To say that I understand the book's title (and recognize the irony in my own approach to it) would be, perhaps, understating the case.
   
   I'm not one for memoirs, but it was impossible for me not to pick up a memoir about a woman whose goal is to read one book a week for an entire year and keep a journal about it. I mean, that's just perfect fodder for a bibliophile, right? And it helps that Nelson's narrative voice is keen and witty. This book is a collection of conversations I'd hope to have with someone I was tandem-reading books with; there's a lot about the books, of course, but Nelson also ties the books into her life (usually during musings on why a particular book jumped out at her at the particular time she read it), current and historical events, and all sorts of other ephemera. Well, ephemera to the book lover, anyway; who needs life when you have a bushel of cherry shelves crammed with books whose spines are calling out to you every minute of the day? Oh, yeah, I grok where Sara Nelson is coming from, I surely do.
   
   I will warn voracious readers that, like Nancy Pearl's Book Lust, So Many Books, So Little Time is the kind of book that will add any number of titles to your to-be-read stack. Even books that don't sound interesting in the least are written up by Nelson so well that I felt the need to add them to the list, just because she makes them sound so enchantingly bad. So while ultimately this book might lead you to a much thinner wallet, I wholeheartedly recommend it. ****

5 comments about When All the World Was Young: A Memoir.

1. Nostalgically deep yet painfully honest account of a young girl who never quite fit in set in the halcion days of America's golden age.



2. WHEN ALL THE WORLD WAS YOUNG is an immensely readable book. Barbara Holland's story kept me interested from start to finish. She left me wanting to know more about her writing career, her marriages and mostly her children. The story had added interest to me because, like Barbara, I also grew up in the Washington, D.C. area.
   
   I could also identify with the distress that she experienced during her school years. So many children are happy until they start school. I guess it's a major awakening when the world intrudes into our lives for the first time. We're on our own with opinionated teachers and other children who may not like us for reasons that we don't understand.
   
   This is a memoir and so not everything is answered, but the true measure of any good story is not wanting it to end.



3. "Growing up is the process of learning how many things you can't do and how many people you can't be. When you've winnowed them out, what's left is you." - Barbara Holland
   
   I've said before of author/essayist Barbara Holland that she has a remarkable talent for perceiving the small details of life and living. Or rather, a talent for remembering what she perceives and subsequently bringing it to the attention of the lumpish rest of us.
   
   In mid-2006, Holland wrote a piece for the magazine AARP, "Being 70: The View from Up Here." So, published in 2005, WHEN ALL THE WORLD WAS YOUNG can perhaps be taken as Barbara's final word on the subject of her formative years. Somehow, I don't expect a sequel.
   
   This volume is Holland's episodic narrative of her life from shortly before the beginning of World War II, at which time she was about six, to her first job in the display department of the Hecht Company in her (apparently) very early twenties. Measured against the comparatively happy memoirs of other female writers - Laura Shaine Cunningham (Sleeping Arrangements) and Doris Kearns Goodwin (Wait Till Next Year: A Memoir) come to mind - WHEN ALL THE WORLD WAS YOUNG is surprisingly bittersweet. The author is not reticent about her sternly authoritative stepfather, a self-absorbed mother disengaged from maternalism, her shoplifting phase, her high school abortion, and her wretched first marriage.
   
   As in all of Holland's books that I've read to date, her wry, iconoclastic humor is a joy. She relates how, in the fourth grade, she was given the assignment of reading a passage from the Bible to the class every morning.
   
   "I read my classmates a psalm a day, looking for the most rousing ones to hold my audience. ('Thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies, that I might destroy them that hate me. They cried, but there was none to save them: even unto the Lord, but he answered them not. Then did I beat them small as dust before the wind. I did cast them out as dirt in the streets.' Psalm 18, perfect for the playground.)"
   
   Because of her talent for perception, she comes across with unorthodox snippets of insight, such as: "Peculiar relatives make good stories in later life, but to a child they're a wobbly rudder." Or this: "Down below the grownup eye level, even the best-kept suburb seethed with action."
   
   I wished WHEN ALL THE WORLD WAS YOUNG was two, three, four times as long. As a child, Barbara was an awkward loner who found companionship with only one or two really close friends, and who otherwise found escape in books. I soon realized that she and I, when growing up, were much alike. And my affection for her has grown accordingly.



4. I wish it hadn't ended -- but it ends, just the way it begins, with the perfect sentence. OH my gosh, where to begin. I can only say that I adore Barbara Holland's phrases and analogies. This is memorable stuff, turning me right into an annoying cheerleader along the lines of "You HAVE to read this book!" I feel it's my duty, as a friend and relative, to recommend it to others, especially my three sisters. We were born in Washington, D.C. (post-war), raised in the Virginia suburbs, and frequently visited our aunts in Maryland, in what's now a neighborhood more dangerous than Fallujah, so "When All the World Was Young" has the added allure of familiar nostalgia. But mainly, it's just a perfect memoir: rich, comic, dark, fearlessly honest, revealing, highly comforting. With two children in public high school in the much-touted Fairfax County School System, I feel great heaps of despair over the whole shebang (for lack of ability to better describe our personal education woes and utter lack of "school spirit"). Just reading Ms. Holland's reminiscences about school has bucked me up enormously, really more than anything else ever has. For this alone, I owe her much gratitude, but I'm also thankful for laughing my head off over subjects like the 1950 government's instructions on dealing with nuclear attack. I don't want to give anything else away; incidentally, be forewarned about reading Lynn Harnett's review because she basically gives the whole book away - yikes! For me, "When All The World Was Young" is right up there with Betty MacDonald's memoirs and Cornelia Otis Skinner's "Our Hearts Were Young and Gay", and that's high praise. Highly recommended; thank you, Barbara Holland! (Please keep writing)



5. Unlike many autobiographies, this one avoided two frequent mistakes. First, it did not read like a boring recitation of events which plaques so much nonfiction. Barbara Holland is a gifted and interesting writer. But more importantly, she does not make excuses for, sugercoat, or gloss over her sometimes none too stellar behavior. She avoids the mistake of portraying herself as a heroine, always right, at the mercy of the mistakes of others. Her hobby of shop lifting as a young child is described and explained forthright, not excused. Even at the end of the book as life whirls out of control, she never whines. She always accepts responsibility for her behavior. Although she explains why she was misunderstood or why she was just plain acting badly, she never (like so many autobiograhers) blames anyone and everyone else for her troubles. This is an insightful look into the disturbed life of a sometimes happy, but mostly unhappy childhood, and a brilliant portrayal of the times. Growing up in the late fourties and fifties myself, this book jogged my memory over and over. It truly was a time like no other, an atmophere in American that our children and grandchildren, unfortunately, can never experience. Kids went out to play without supervision and had free rein of the neighborhood. We did not wear bike helmets and knee pads and globs of suntan lotion, and we certainly didn't carry music and cellphones. An innocent (and, as one reviewer says) a not so innocent time, when the world was neither more glorious nor less evil, but truly simpler, quieter, and incredibly, gloriously different.

5 comments about Waiting for an Ordinary Day: The Unraveling of Life in Iraq.

1. Title: Waiting for an Ordinary Day: The Unraveling of Life in Iraq
   Author: Farnaz Fassihi
   Rating: ****1/2
   Tags: iraq, war, insurgency, daily life
   
   I wish every American would read this book. It is about the daily life of Iraqis from the time the U.S. invaded into 2006. The author is Farnaz Fassihi, an Iranian American journalist.who covered Iraq for the Wall Street Journal. She traveled around Iraq and told the stories of everyday Iraqis.
   
   If it an't broke, don't fix it. Iraq was broken, but it wasn't our responsibility nor in our power to fix it. Instead we brought death, sectarian violence, poverty, forced migration, loss of basics such as electricity, adequate hospitals and schools... and so on. One particularly effective chapter imagines what New York would be like if it had gone through what Baghdad has.
   
   Fassihi shows the complexities of the situation. There were Iraqis who welcomed the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. For the Sunnis, though, Saddam's overthrow meant a loss of power and prestige. After the invasion, Iraqis knew that the U.S. Army protected only the oil ministries, and it led them to conclude the war was for oil. As their lives descended into chaos and terror, hatred for Americans grew.
   
   Here's Fassahi's summary of her time in Iraq:
   
   "I've borne witness as people's lives have unraveled around me. I recall a poignant quote from Martha Gellhorn, a pioneer female war reporter, from her book The Face of War: "War happens to people, one by one." War doesn't just happen to the military, whose soldiers are fighting, or to the government, who wages it. It happens to people, one by one, house by house, and family by family. I have not met a single Iraq whose life hasn't been touched by tthe war or altered because of everyday violence. I have heard this sentence from Iraqis, over and over, "until now, we are waiting". What are they waiting for, I wonder. Perhaps for just an ordinary day." (p. 272-3).
   
   Too much war coverage in Iraq has focused on America, and seems to not consider Iraqis as important. They are. They are human beings who have suffered at our hands. We need to be reminded of that, whenever we thing we know what is best for the world, and whenever we think we have unlimited power to change the world.
   
   Publication PublicAffairs (2008), Edition: illustrated edition, Hardcover, 304 pages
   Publication date 2008
   ISBN 1586484753 / 9781586484750



2. 
   The daily life in Iraq as described by Farnaz Fassihi shouldn't surprise those who are disposed to reading this book. I think it would be a surprise to those who only experience the Iraq War through cable TV news.
   
   The overwhelming TV reporting on Iraq has been sound bites on the US troops, individual heroic efforts, sports, smiling people with purple fingers and the effectiveness of "the surge". If there are stories about the total loss suffered by people Amal al-Khudeiry or how people like Fatin cope after a twin sister has been "gunned down" they are drowned out by the frequency of the "experts" who talk about winning, tactics, strategies and politics. We've read about high profile kidnappings but has there been a story about a middle class family who sold everything only to have a dead body returned to them? Has there been a personal follow up story on a released Abu Ghraib inmate? I read in this book and elsewhere that there have been two million refugees, but do not recall one TV media story on any refugee in these past 5 or so years.
   
   The Wall Street Journal has Farnaz Fassihi who faced enormous risks and Daniel Pearl who did not return. They did their part and Fassihi praises her company. On p. 208 another picture emerges. Her editors ask how can she call Iraq a "disaster" with the US election at hand. They tell her she would "validate" the "critics". This is Orwellian logic. A 5 car auto wreck can be called a "disaster", but the destruction of total neighborhoods cannot because there is an election at hand. The news should be cleansed or withheld so criticism will not seem valid. This, for me crystallized the state of our media. It has great technology, courageous reporters and access to support (security, translation, etc.) but its self censorship distorts its accuracy. As long as accurate reporting is considered "validating" "critics" the public will never get a straight story.



3. Farnaz Fassihi is a great reporter with an eye for all the details that transform an ordinary narrative into something superb. She tells the story of a "cursed ambulance", whose driver laments that since the American invasion, people die in his vehicle regularly. It only takes her a few carefully chosen words to describe how Iraqi shoulders seem more relaxed in the immediate aftermath of the invasion, or how the exhiliration of one of her Iraqi co-workers at voting in Iraq's first "free" elections fades and he wraps his purple-stained finger (the sign that he has voted) in a bandaid so that Sunnis in his neighborhood won't kill him for collaborating. She also deftly draws attention to the more familiar issues -- reported everywhere from her own contributions to the Wall Street Journal to the New Yorker -- such as the different definitions of "security" and "democracy" held by American administrators and the Iraqis themselves.
   For all those reasons -- and many more, including Fassihi's ability to chronicle not just what she sees around her but also be a memoirist, writing about her own life and its gradual deterioration (from restaurant outings and parties to life under siege in a hotel suite ultimately destroyed in a bombing) -- this should have been an extraordinary book. The author has the reporting skills, the insight and the courage to step outside the boundaries imposed by North American journalism -- the rule of objectivity at all costs -- to call it as she sees it, a trait first noticed publicly when an e-mail decrying the real state of affairs in Iraq to friends and family became public in the fall of 2004. Perhaps it is unrealistic in view of her youth and relative inexperience compared to this veteran, but I had hoped I would find something as powerfully moving as Robert Fisk's recent opus, The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East. I didn't.
   Fassihi has been badly let down by her editors at Public Affairs on a number of fronts. At the most basic level, very obvious and jarring errors in spelling and grammar have crept into the narrative repeatedly. Husayn and his "aids" (rather than aides) are slaughtered by Sunnis, people have an opinon "on" Saddam (rather than of), she "diffuses" a compliment. Even more frequent are awkward phrases that jar or sometimes simply don't make sense, from "electronic-mailing websites" to her description of the words "jihad" and "resistance" as being, simultaneously wobbly ideas and profound words. (It's hard to imagine those descriptions coexisting.) She gives a "smiley explanation", while "palm groves swish". (Well, the fronds of palm trees may do that, but swishing groves eludes my imagination.) These aren't occasional; they are omnipresent.
   I don't lay these problems at Fassihi's door -- many great reporters are less-than-great editors. (And while Fassihi learned English while a child, her first language is Farsi.) Which is why the Wall Street Journal has at least three editors and one copy editor read, if not thoroughly review, every bylined story by any staff reporter that is published in the paper. That level of care wasn't taken here, with the result that anyone who is conscious of these spelling, style and grammatical issues will find their level of irritation growing.
   Another problem is the structure. Fassihi doesn't get into her stride until about a third of the way into the book, after the American invasion. A good editor would have caught that and found a way to incorporate the earlier material -- which serves as a great contrast to the crumbling lives of ordinary Iraqis -- within the rest of the narrative, rather than adhere to a strictly chronological approach. It's a tried and tested strategy for just this kind of writing problem in narrative non-fiction.
   Finally, there is the vignette approach. While we get to know some characters throughout the book (mostly Fassihi, her staff and her partner, although also one Iraqi Christian family), each chapter reads like dressed-up material from her reporter's notebook. One literary agent I know would describe this as being too "episodic", meaning that while each of the chapters individually is compelling, they don't contribute as much as each needs to to the overall narrative arc.
   I feel like Scrooge or the Grinch mentioning these issues in this review. But they felt all the more jarring because of the overall merit of this book and Fassihi's reporting skills. This could have been a great book -- should have been a great book. It's not. That does not mean that you shouldn't read it, however, because the experiences she recounts will drive home to you as few others have managed, what it is like to live, day by day, in a war zone as a civilian -- those who, in modern warfare, tend to suffer disproportionately with little or no control over the horrifying events with which they must cope.
   Fassihi concludes by wondering, as so many others who have experienced war have done, what can possibly be accomplished by so much carnage? For anyone interested in delving further into that perennial question, I strongly recommend a book that appeared immediately prior to the invasion of Iraq by another war correspondent, Chris Hedges. War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning



4. In her book, Waiting for an Ordinary Day: The Unraveling of Life in Iraq, Farnaz Fassihi presents a heart-wrenching portrait of the Iraqi people as they come to terms with the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and the rebuilding of their war-torn country. Drawing on her experiences as a Wall Street Journal senior correspondent living in Iraq, Fassihi portrays a compelling story of the struggles of the regular citizens and their families. At first they cheer the Americans for tumbling a brutal dictator, but then weep in despair as the free life they dreamed about becomes a nightmare.
   
   This book is not a discourse on military tactics and political blunders, but readers need to know that many of the Iraqi people interviewed relate disturbing stories with heavy overtones of anti-Americanism and criticism of the President, and at times, Fassihi finds herself voicing her agreement. Descriptions and conversations, framed by the author's own pain and compassion, focus on the lives of people she has befriended. Many are affected by the overthrow, occupation and subsequent collapse of an Iraqi society that blames not only the two major ruling religious sects (Sunni and Shi'ite), but also the foreign occupiers. In Fassihi's words, "Sometimes I find myself wanting to cry while I'm interviewing people and other times I feel detached, like a machine recording misery and death."
   
   During all this turmoil, Fassihi finds love with a fellow correspondent in this war-torn land. When they are on separate assignments, she is tormented by fears of separation. Her family begs her to come home and give up her position as head of the Baghdad bureau of the Wall Street Journal, but she is drawn in by the plight of the Iraqi people and was even accused of being addicted to the job's constant threats of bombings, shootings and bloodshed. She is persecuted as a woman, shunned for being American, but loved because of her compassion for the people. Under threats of kidnapping, murder, torture, Farnaz attempts to take care of her workers and friends while dodging bullets and car bombs.
   
   The Iraqi people dedicate their lives to regaining their dignity, preserving their art and culture, sustaining their religious beliefs and most of all hoping that some day they will indeed see an ordinary day. Their homes are bombed and searched while loved ones are forcefully detained and spirited away at the slightest rumor. Those detained often don't return, leaving families desparate to know their fate. If they do return, months later, the tales of torture, persecution and deprivations are horrendous. Fassihi's employee, Munaf, sums up their daily lives with the comment, "We are like animals in the wild. We eat, sleep and try not to get killed each day."
   
   This powerful account of life in Iraq helps us understand why stability has been so elusive to the people of a beleaguered country. The details are rich, the story well written, and throughout the book, the true voices of the Iraqi people are heard because of the an empathetic, insightful woman who is not afraid to put herself into the middle of the story.
   
   by Rhonda Esakov
   for Story Circle Book Reviews
   reviewing books by, for, and about women



5. Farnaz's account of events are heart breaking. I have been following the incredible sad story of Iraq before the war started. No news of the war over the years have brought the sadness and misery of the war home so clearly. Farnaze's understanding of the culture, traditions and religion particularly makes her account of the events easier to understand. The fundamental factors which the war architects have so badly overlooked and foolishly underestimated and as foolishly they continue the rhetoric's for an even worst war with Iran.

5 comments about Eleni.

1. fascinating piece of investigative reporting by the son of eleni who was killed by the communist guerilla insurgents during the civil war. more than a war story, a story that illuminates all wars and especially civil insurgencies. also a gripping read from start to finish.



2. I'm Greek-American and read that book in about 2 days, with little sleep. The movie was horrible. Gage is an excellent writer, always has been. The schism between the children and father was common for that generation, since the fathers came to the US to begin busnesses and build a life here so they could have their families with them. My paternal pappou came, but in the early 1900's, and was very successful. He and his brothers all got out before WW II and more Turkish slaughters.
   
   Gage is very open about the feelings for his father since, as in many Greek families, the "mana and yia yia", were everything. The father was an anonymous figure far away. It was the women who were the strong ones at that time... they had to protect hearth, home, and teach the Greek way of life. Their roles were all-encompassing and the execution of Gage's mother, which couldn't even be truly adknowledged properly, out of fear, shaped his entire life.



3. Excellent book, I would like to find it in English also so my daughters can read it



4. I am a high school history teacher and had never realized the impact of the Greek civil war following WWII. This book is a must read for those interested in the communist influence following WWII.



5. I started this book thinking that probably it would be a bit over dramatic and sentimental since it was written by the son. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is dramatic, but in a way that places you right in that village, fighting alongside the village people, outraged and helpless. It is sentimental. Gage paints vivid characters you feel as if you've met. An amazing and heart-rending story. A well-written and interesting history. A piece of Communist injustice. Definitely worth reading.

2 comments about Conversations with Hunter S. Thompson (Literary Conversations Series).

1. If you are looking for the gonzo journalist that the majority of his books contain, you won't find it but this book is one that's even better in my opinion...
   
   
   While I LOVE his journalism I always wanted to find out what Hunter S. Thompson was as the man...
   
   He always talked about always having a burden on his shoulders, as everyone thought he was the stereotype of an outlaw that lives by his standards and not society's. This resulted in that whenever he made a public speech or met fans in the streets, they expected the 'crazy' Hunter when in reality he wasn't. He wasn't putting on a front, but he exaggerated it because he knew it would give him an advantage, one that could (and did) significantly help his career, especially considering all the competition in the journalist field at the time.
   
   I always wondered how that effects him, how it effects his writing, and most importantly, WHO IS HUNTER S. THOMPSON the man???
   
   
   If you are curious about anything I just listed, this book is for you.
   
   It will show you who Hunter was underneath the skin and away from the cameras.... just and ordinary person with problems like all of us....



2. Torrey and Simonson have given us insight into Thompson's mind and methods not found in any other book. "Conversations with Hunter S. Thompson" is more than mere echos of the man and rememberences of others rehashed over and over again. It is the voice of Thompson himself speaking clearly and understandably to the reader with intimacy and frankness.
   
   This book has value beyond it's collectable worth (thought it certainly belongs in everyone's collection). It is a reference, a reflection and a revelation.

No comments about The Bag Lady Papers: The Priceless Experience of Losing It All.