5 comments about Gellhorn: A Twentieth-Century Life.

1. Outward calm, inward extreme disorder of mind were characteristics of Gellhorn's self-description. In her sixties she stopped traveling and determined to live in London in Chelsea. She liked people who shaped their own lives. She hated liars and sitting on the fence. She was a bad cook. Her metaphors belittled unhappiness. She was beset with self-doubt, a strain of failure, loneliness. The Gellhorns of St. Louis had been a talking family. Martha left Bryn Mawr after her junior year and became a cub reporter to the ALBANY TIMES UNION. In the same year, 1929, she returned to St. Louis, moved on to New York City, and by spring, 1930, she was in Paris. France was the leading economic power of Europe.
   
   In 1934 Martha returned to America and was hired by the Roosevelt administration to investigate the conditions of the textile workers. Seeking to turn her material into a book, Martha stayed at the White House. She grew distracted, however, and moved to New Hartford, Connecticut. By 1937 Martha was back in Paris, the jumping off place to cover the war in Spain. She wrote for COLLIER'S. When she studied the Munich Pact, she felt she had uncovered dishonesty, cowardice. Czech democracy was lost.
   
   In 1939 Martha stayed with Hemingway in Cuba and Sun Valley, Idaho. She became fond of the three Hemingway sons. She wrote a ninety thousand word novel, LIANA, and dedicated it to her mother. Gellhorn sought to report on World War II even without formal military accreditation. She returned to Europe, England, in 1943. The city was full of journalists and many American ones. She became friends with Irwin Shaw. Except for Edmund Wilson and Cyril Connolly, the writers had succumbed to having a sincere and earnest tone.
   
   COLLIER'S appreciated Martha's gift for showing vivid images. After writing six articles she departed for Algiers. When she returned to Ernest Hemingway the couple fought over money, drinking, work, and the house in Cuba. They were openly unhappy. In order to witness the Normandy Invasion, Martha crossed secretly on a hospital ship. When found out, (she wrote two articles about the crossing), she was arrested by the military authorities. Afterwards she used energy and charm to travel with the regiments to glean information for her stories.
   
   After its liberation, Paris wasn't much changed except that everyone was starving. Martha was drawn to absolute professionalism and to James Gavin, the youngest divisional commander. She reported that she understood the true evil of man at Dachau. She covered the Nuremberg trials. Later Martha Gellhorn settled in Mexico for several years, followed by Rome, Africa, Wales and England. She married again, in 1954, and before that date adopted a son, an Italian war orphan. By 1998 she could no longer read, work, or travel. Her need to witness and record events had become impossible.
   
   This is an excellent book about a distinguished writer.



2. I have been reading Gellhorn's non-fiction and am generally dispondent that I have found myself at the end of what is readily available. I picked up a copy of Travels with Myself and Another at random and became fascinated by Gellhorn. On the strength of another reviewers recommendation, I selected this book rather than others. I was not disappointed. It is a strange thing to read someone through their own eyes and then to see them without their own filter. Her own professional writing portrays her as a strong woman at ease on her own, while excerpts of her private letters suggest that she was very lonely. In any event, I zipped through the book and was surprised at the manner in which her life ended. Although, on reflection, I shouldn't have been.



3. I found this book thoroughly absorbing, a meal for the intellect and the soul.
   
   Martha Gellhorn was a woman ahead of her time. Carolyn Moorehead does a good job of chronicling each chapter of Gellhorn's illustrious life as a war correspondent and writer. And what an amazing span of history Martha witnessed, from the Spanish Civil War up to the invasion of Panama. A rather fearless woman who "ran with the wolves", Gellhorn had friendships and love affairs with legends. Of course, she is known for having been married to Ernest Hemingway... but she was also friend and confidant of H.G. Wells, Eleanor Roosevelt, Leonard Bernstein... and she crossed paths with Diego Rivera, Colette, Adlai Stevenson, and many other notables of the 20th Century.
   
   Marha really had two great loves in her life: being where the action was, where the great issues of the century were being decided, and secondly , escaping to colorful places where she could find solitude. She best loved the places that afforded freedom and sun, like Mexico, Cuba and Kenya.
   
   Of course,she was full of contradictions, personally, and unsuited for motherhood. I wish only that this book had exposed more of her acute observations about the way that the world works, and her true courage. This is a woman who at 85 yrs. of age, suffering from macular degeneration and other maladies, made a valiant effort to continue speaking for the oppressed.
   
   She was sharp until the end of her days. Moorehead has of this writing published a book of Gellhorn's letters which better illuminates Martha's character, and should serve as a good companion to this biography.
   
   Christiane Amanpour, Lara Logan et. al. owe a great debt to this woman, though they can hardly hope to match her reportorial savvy and brilliance. As Moorehead acknowledges, Martha inspires nostalgia for the days when a reporter went to the core of things, with words honestly written in simple notebooks--words that could be believed.
   
   She believed all governments inexorably abused power. She said of Lyndon Johnson: "Never trust a Texan further than you can throw a rhino."
   
   Martha, you rocked.



4. Caroline Moorehead captures the passion of trend-setting journalist Martha Gellhorn in this biography. She follows Gellhorn through the Spanish Civil War, a turbulent marriage to (fellow friend of Spanish loyalists) Ernest Hemingway, and Gellhorn's success in breaking tradition by accompanying the invading Allied armies in World War II. Moorehead's sense of history is acute and she avoids the pitfall of over-dramatizing.
   
   The book falls short only in its failure to resolve the contradictions of Gellhorn's personality...the promiscuous woman who was ambivalent toward sex...the egalitarian who cultivated the high and mighty...the compulsive wanderer and adventurer who cherished the companionship of her mother and close friends. We want to like Gellhorn, but we don't understand her well enough to get there.



5. Martha Gellhorn was a controversial journalist, and as anyone can see, this biography is either loved or hated without a lot of opinion in between.I fall in the love camp.The book is a good job at capturing the subject, warts and all.The author has clearly gone to great lengths to gather information that allowed her to capture the public and private essence of Gellhorn.Moorehead backed up her presentation many times with quotes from Gellhorn's voluminous correspondence.This is not the author's first biography and it shows;it is a first class job at piecing together the subject's long and complex life.The author is frequently clever in her wording and general handling of the book.If I have any criticism it is that the narrative occasionally moves forward without preparing the reader for a change in subject.
   I did not find this book boring.It is a book that would interest most readers that enjoy reading about 20th century history.Gellhorn's strong personality,wartime reporting,travel episodes ,love and sex life,marriage to Hemingway,and general passage through life offer a lot of spice for the reader. Though Gellhorn was a bit prickly or "difficult" at times,she was a witness to a substantial number of historical events.Her reports were first class and continue to be popular today within the reading public (The Face of War,Travels with Myself and Another, etc).Unquestionally she was a controversial character, but she counted and is an appropriate subject of interest.

5 comments about I'll Always Have Paris.

1. This is the third book by Buchwald that I have recently read.
   The books were the ones identified in his last column in the Washington Post a month or so ago.
   Leaving Home reminded me of my "up bringing" though I had it much better that Buckwald in most respects and I was too scared to join the Marines in June 1950 though I now regret that decision!
   Buckwald's books are humorous, heartwarming and most enjoyable, even "Too Soon to Say Goodbye" which I sent to my 86 year old sister who has lived alone since her husband died 25 years ago. Recommended reading for those who need a break from novels and non-fiction "stuff".
   George



2. Art Buchwald deserves a place alongside Mark Twain, Will Rogers, Robert Benchley and Erma Bombeck as the creme de la creme of American humorists.
   
   Speaking of creme de la creme and other things French, Buchwald's career began in the City of Light, where he went in 1948 on the G.I. Bill, hoping to become a great writer in the style of his hero, Ernest Hemingway. Instead, he became a great writer in his own style and has long been a hero to other humorists (including yours truly) who wish they had even a fraction of Buchwald's talent.
   
   "I'll Always Have Paris!" is not a collection of newspaper columns, as most of The Master's 33 books have been. It is the second part of his classic memoirs, the first being the wonderful "Leaving Home."
   
   In "I'll Always Have Paris!," Buchwald wittily recounts talking his way into a dream job as a columnist for the European edition of the New York Herald Tribune, despite having had almost no professional experience.
   
   He then recalls his exploits as a bon vivant and a humorist nonpareil. Best of all, he tells a magical love story -- his wooing of and marriage to Ann McGarry, a redhead from Pennsylvania who made the most romantic city on earth even more heavenly for the kid from Queens.
   
   Whether the tears are from laughing or crying, you'll shed them. I've never been to Paris, but I hope to get there one day. Until then, thanks to Art Buchwald, I'll always have "I'll Always Have Paris!"



3. I picked up this book at the used bookstore not knowing anything about Art Buchwald; I was more interested in reading about a person living in Paris than I was about Mr. Buchwald himself.

   I thought the book was delightful and I came away liking Art. His stories are funny, touching and sad, but always mixed up enough to keep the book lively and fun. I consider it light reading; a great escape from the office at lunchtime.




4. Heard the taped version of I'LL ALWAYS HAVE PARIS: A
   MEMOIR, written and read by Art Buchwald . . . Buchwald has
   always been one of my favorite humorists/columnist, though I
   regret that he doesn't appear in my local paper.

   This book is a follow-up to his earlier LEAVING HOME . . . it is a witty tribute to 1948 Paris, a city he fell in love with as he began his quest to become a great writer . . . there are a lot of cute stories, plus much name-dropping (Hemingway, Bacall, etc.).

   I also liked hearing about how he met and fell in love with
   his wife . . . his trials and tribulations as a father also had me laughing . . . as he notes, "..."

   Overall, I enjoyed it . . . though this is one time where
   a professional reader would have helped . . . Buchwald's voice
   is not the easiest to understand--or at least not on these tapes.




5. I first read this book last year after a trip to Europe which included a brief and wonderful trip to Paris. Buckwald has captured the essense of life in Paris. For those not in love with the city, this might lead to the thought that this would be a dull book. However, this book is a witty scream which left me at times reading with my mouth hanging open in amazement and at other times laughing out loud as I read turned the page. I wish I could have met him - or better yet, been able to attend one of the parties mentioned in the book. I would recommend this book to anyone. It is fascinating, irreverent and jovial. A great read.

1 comments about Unplanned Parenthood:: The Confessions of a Seventy-Something Surrogate Mother.

1. Just when you think Liz Carpenter's eventful life (as war-time journalist, Lady Bird Johnson's press secretary, best-selling author)must surely settle into some smooth sailing, she inherits her brother's three noisy, undisciplined teenagers. Unplanned parenthood, indeed!
   
   At 73, Liz is a mom again, opening her home and her heart, helping these kids chart the course to a new life--across a generation gap she says is "wider than the Grand Canyon." Facing drugs, sex, fast cars, punk rock, junk food, and the Bay of Pigs (her house), she manages to keep her cool, holding social discussions at the dinner table, confronting Puff the Magic Dragon (marijuana) head-on and no-holds barred, and managing to have a significant talk about the meaning of life with a 14-year-old on an exercise bike.
   
   The job this surrogate mom took on isn't for everybody. Only someone as stout-hearted, quick-witted, nimble-footed, and smart-talking as Liz Carpenter could have done it. Thank heavens she did--and lived to tell the tale. It's nothing short of inspiring.
   
   by Susan Wittig Albert
   for www.storycirclebookreviews.org
   reviewing books by, for, and about women

1 comments about The Lives of Agnes Smedley.

1. Just finished reading THE LIVES OF AGNES SMEDLEY. What a tremendous achievement! I was moved, fascinated, inspired, and impressed by it. Every bit of the years of the research by author Price comes through. I knew nothing about the Chinese Revolution, yet the history is as vivid as Agnes Smedley's humanity - her hopes, joys, loves, despairs, fears, and most strikingly - her growth as a human being. It's a life and a book I will never forget.

5 comments about The Journalist And The Murderer.

1. This is another book I read because it is on the Modern Library's Top 100 non-fiction list. The overall topic of the book is the journalist/subject relationship, which was interesting, but I thought Malcolm could've gone a lot more in depth on the issues. She stuck only to one particular case and seemed to have been discussing more of the innocence or guilt of the subject, Macdonald, rather than fully delving into the broader issues. I thought the book would've been much more powerful if she had worked more on proving her thesis, rather than detailing the accounts of the murder trial.
   She seems to barely touch on the ideas of the original thesis, therefore ending on a very weak note.
   The only reason I would suggest this to anyone is if you are itching for a quick and somewhat-interesting, and definitely thought-provoking read.



2. Joe McGinniss put himself on the map writing the classic 1969 book, THE SELLING OF A PRESIDENT. That book detailed how Richard Nixon was sold to the public like any other consumer product. It's worth reading if you can find a copy. The Nixon book was such a hit and McGinniss was so young he couldn't find material good enough to follow it up and his next few books were mediocre.
   
   Determined to find another worthy subject, he tackled the case of Dr. Jeffrey McDonald, a man accused of killing his wife and children. That story became the bestselling FATAL VISION and this book, THE JOURNALIST AND THE MURDERER, chronicles the techniques that McGinniss used to get close to McDonald, and how he pretended to support McDonald through the years of legal proceedings although he always thought him to be guilty and wanted a guilty verdict for a better book. McGinniss' technique led to unfettered access to legal files, evidence, but most importantly access to McDonald. They'd drink together, strategize together and were pals during the experience.
   
   The central question is how far can a journalist go to get the story? Although a jury found McDonald guilty of murder, a later jury found in favor of McDonald in his suit against McGuinniss because they felt that his techniques were so underhanded and self-serving that even a murderer deserved better. The book shows the divide between the win-at-any-cost media and the public that grows weary of the techniques used against people to create news. Does the public have the right to know enough that journalists can lie to subjects to bring the story to press?
   
   This short book makes you question a number of journalistic techniques and it doesn't hurt either that McDonald has strong supporters and could possibly be innocent of the murders, at least in the context of this book.



3. Ms. Malcolm slices off the hand that feeds her
   
   With regard to item "a)" from "...pointless exercise," MacDonald v. McGuiness was over when Ms. Malcolm got involved. According to Fatal Justice by Palmer & Bost, McGuiness's lawyers threw a post-trial press conference for the court of public opinion: only Ms. Malcolm showed up.
   
   Otherwise, Journalist & Murderer is mainly about journalistic ethics, if there are any. Here, McGuiness insinuated himself into the defense team (he was privy to trial strategy) of Jeffrey MacDonald, with the promise presenting him in the best possible light. When McGuiness sours on MacDonald, he puts up a cheery front & presses on. After Fatal Vision, MacDonald felt betrayed.
   
   Of course, in our Cartesian-dualist society, since it's always either-or, we ask why he should feel betrayed? Guys convicted of killing their families have no reason to feel betrayed. They're bad guys; they deserve betrayal.
   
   However, when McGuiness concluded that MacDonald was guilty, trial evidence just wouldn't do. McGuiness shamefully proved himself a member of the old Star Chamber (maybe Joe expected some votes as Cheney's heir @Halliburton?) by trundling out Cleckley's (1941) old psychopathology checklist & diagnosing Dr. MacDonald an incurable, speed-fueled sociopath. Dr. Phil's forbearer: super!
   
   Ms. Malcolm is my favorite contemporary writer: she is foremost literate & like my favorite noncontemporary writer Mencken, she can be vicious without being vengeful. However, when you read, say, 1999's Sheila McGough, you may well wonder what sort of journalistic ruse Ms. Malcolm might cook up while slicing vegetables in the McGough kitchen. The Journalist & the Murderer is a blueprint for any such ruse. Better news is that after reading J&M, you can laugh without a twinge of guilt @gaudily & nightly paraded notions like "journalistic integrity."



4. I'd have a bit more respect for Ms. Malcolm if:

   a) she had actually attended MacDonald vs. McGinniss, so that she could write from an informed viewpoint instead of relying on second- and third-hand accounts;

   b) she had spent less time oohing and ahhing over MacDonald's personal magnetism, and stuck to the facts of the case at hand;

   c) she had bothered to read the literary releases to McGinniss's publishing company, SIGNED BY MACDONALD HIMSELF, that gave McGinniss license to write any type of book he wished (including, one presumes, a book that might actually say that McGinniss himself had concluded that MacDonald was guilty, despite the friendship the Journalist may have felt for the Murderer);

   d) she hadn't stated - repeatedly - the total fiction that the jury hung 5-1 in MacDonald's favor. The fact is, the jury hung on ONE QUESTION OUT OF THIRTY-SEVEN, never actually voting on the other 36, because one juror believed that MacDonald had violated his agreements with McGinniss by cultivating other journalists and by ignoring his agreement not to sue McGinniss.

   Or is MacDonald next going to sue Malcolm, because in her very title, she herself calls him a murderer?

   Let's call an egg an egg, Dr. Jeff. You killed them. Pay the price. Be done with it.




5. In 1970, a respected army physician named Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald claimed that four strangers broke into his home in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and killed his wife and two daughters. Although an army tribunal tried Dr. MacDonald and cleared him, years later the case was reopened. This time, MacDonald was convicted and sent to prison, where he still is today.
   
   Janet Malcolm does not reopen the MacDonald case in her book, "The Journalist and the Murderer." Rather, she examines the issues behind a libel suit that MacDonald brought in 1984 against his supposed friend, Joe McGinnis, author of "Fatal Vision." Joe McGinniss posed as an ally of Jeffrey MacDonald for years. McGinnis lived with MacDonald for a while and even joined his defense team. McGinniss sent MacDonald sympathetic letters in support of his cause. In these letters, he frequently expressed his belief in MacDonald's innocence.
   
   It was only after "Fatal Vision" was published that MacDonald discovered the truth. McGinniss did not believe in MacDonald's innocence; on the contrary, he portrays MacDonald as a psychopathic murderer. The author posed as a friend for the sole purpose of keeping MacDonald in the dark so that McGinniss would continue to have access to his subject. "Fatal Vision" became a huge bestseller and it eventually became a miniseries.
   
   Malcolm's book, written in 1990, takes on added significance in 2003, when the ethics of journalists are under fire as never before. Time and again, a small number of journalists have been accused of plagiarizing and fabricating stories. The public is beginning to recongnize that reporters are fallible people who suffer from the same pressures, ambitions, and even psychological disorders as other ordinary mortals.
   
   Malcolm's book is not merely a condemnation of McGinniss's behavior towards MacDonald. Her premise is that the journalist's relationship to his subject is, in its very essence, a perilous one. The gullible subject babbles away to his "sympathetic" listener, revealing more of himself than he realizes. When all is said and done, only the journalist and his editors have control over the final product. They are sometimes tempted to distort the facts to make the piece more interesting.
   
   Malcolm asserts that certain journalists are con men who prey on people's loneliness, credibility, and narcissism to get a good story. Journalists have their own agendas and the "truth," which is elusive at best, is not always their top priority. Malcolm's book is a warning not to believe everything that is printed in a newspaper or a magazine, since each story is only one version of reality.

5 comments about Margaret Fuller, Wandering Pilgrim.

1. As acknowledged by the author, I was involved in the early going, but years later, now that I can sit down with Meg Murray's Fuller biography, I am thrilled. Very few books about literary giants do justice to the narrative. It either seems cooked or perhaps worse lumpy and raw. Murry's story is riveting. I recently needed stories about the Tiber Island hospital where Fuller served as a nurse during the Roman seige and found Murray's account very worth quoting. This is a superb work of scholarship AND a compelling story about one of America's most neglected giants.



2. Wandering Pilgrim is an excellent study of one of America's most important and neglected literary figures. Murray writes of Margaret Fuller with compassion, complexity and professionalism. Her account of Fuller -- a bold and brilliant woman who enthralled both Emerson and Hawthorne, who used her as a model for Hester Prynne - is a lively and original reading of this memorable woman.



3. Margaret Fuller for Everyone
   
   Margaret Fuller, Wandering Pilgrim manages to be both a page-turning
   read and a richly dense one. The clear narrative will please and
   inform readers who know little about Fuller, a fascinating nineteenth-
   century author and thinker; at the same time, Murray's extensive
   research and careful analysis will be invaluable to scholars of both
   American literature and women's studies. The book balances
   psychological, historical, and literary background in a wonderfully
   successful attempt to explain the life and achievements of the complex
   woman who made a pioneering case for American women in her classic
   Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1845). Even as Murray astutely
   prepares us for the ending of Fuller's life, we keep reading to find
   out both what will happen, and why.



4. Murray's study of the 19th century American feminist author and intellectual Margaret Fuller ,a creative,richly talented,conflicted, even bedeviled New England Romantic, is nothing short of brilliant. Murray weaves into the warp and woof of her complex Fuller tapestry a blend of criticism, history, literature, psychology, religion and theology, which together yield a finely nuanced picture of a brilliant but profoundly troubled woman who struggled valiantly though unsuccessfully to break free from the constaints of her strict puritanical upbringing and the oppression of a domineering father. Some may wonder whether anything worthwhile can be added to our understanding of Margaret Fuller after the publication of Prof. Capper's second volume. The answer: an emphatic "Yes". Murray's "Wandering Pilgrim" deserves a distinguished place alongside Capper's and the best of the other scholarly volumes on Fuller. A long time birthing, it should stand well the test of time. Murray's controversial interpretation of Fuller will not win acceptance by all Fuller scholars, but they can ill afford to ignore her. Her provocative biography is a must-read .



5. Murray analyzes Margaret Fuller's achievements as "America's first full-fledged intellectual woman," from child prodigy to crusading journalist to revolutionary agent in Italy, always struggling to make sense of the world around her and her own divided nature. Careful consideration of this Romantic woman writer's "gender / sex identity crisis" makes the book an original contribution to Fuller scholarship and brings us as readers face to face with a conflicted soul, never able to resolve all the contradictions of her mind and body. I recommend this biography to anyone with a serious interest in women's and gender studies.

5 comments about Bernard Fall: Memories of a Soldier-Scholar.

1. I took a break from coding, wandered over to the internet and googled 'Bernard Fall'. I ended up at a website that asked for reminiscenses from any people who might have known the great scholar-journalist-soldier. I had never met Bernard Fall but always felt a kinship so I sent an e-mail and the next day received a reply from Dorothy Fall, his widow. She told me about her book and now I have read it.
   
   Mrs. Fall's account of Bernard's falling out with his professor brought home to me a truth that I have learned in life: once harsh words are spoken, something breaks inside that can never be repaired. Yes, you can reconcile but the trust -- the true friendship -- that was there is gone never to be regained. I have seen this too many times. Never humiliate or let your angry words cross the line that separates communication -- however heated -- and personal attack. If you do, your friend will become your acquaintance. If it is your spouse, your child, your mother or father, brother or sister, you will acquire a sadness and a regret that stays with you until you die.
   
   Except for my father and elderly relatives, I have never lost a loved one and the prospect has always been my greatest fear. But Mrs. Fall lost her dear one in such an abrupt way and at such a young age. The greatness of the man never diminishes but his fame does diminish with time. I can't imagine what it is like to live with the memory of such a man after over 40 years. I am grateful that she wrote this book to help keep his memory alive and I hope that it will point some young people in the direction of his books and thus carry his legacy to future generations.
   
   To the extent that Bernard Fall's major works can be described as scholarly in nature, they are of an extremely engaging and accessible type. If they can be called journalism, they are a rare form of scholarly journalism. I know his books are read widely in the military. I wonder if his works and his methods are studied much in journalism schools. They should be. The point here is that his observations were delivered not as simple reportage or advocacy but as the result of careful and thorough research. Would that all reporters today took that approach. Would that the men in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations had given him the time that he deserved. Some had a bunker mentality born of the realities of the cold war. They correctly saw that many on the anti-war left were not just against the war but were ideologically in sync with communism and hoped for an American defeat for its own sake. Their error was that they could not see that Fall was not one of them. He could have helped so much. Others were just arrogant.
   
   Another aspect of Fall's writing is his acceptance of the nature of war. Read 'Hell In A Very Small Place' and reflect on the affection that the French soldiers had for their 'quad 50's'. Fall understood that affection and related it to the reader unalloyed by moral reservations. Up until the end of the seige, French voluteers jumped into the valley and likely death. Again, Fall understood what motivated these men and this understanding comes through in his writing. Had he been in the service at the time, I am sure that he would have been among those who jumped.
   
   So why would a 61-year-old programmer end up googling Bernard Fall? I was a history major but went to study in Thailand in '66 while under the influence of the finest teacher I have ever met, political science professor Ralph Fretty. I bought Fall's books from a bookstore in Bangkok and read them all in my spare time. Professor Fretty taught me what true scholarship is and I immediately perceived that in Fall's writings. When I read the affectionate accounts of Fall's former students that Dorothy Fall included in her book, everything clicked. I hold Bernard Fall's memory dearly because he is, for me, a Mr. Chips. Like professor Fretty, he taught me the true meaning of scholarship. When the teacher is of such greatness, the devotion never dies.
   
   
   



2. I'll never forget that February day in Saigon when the message announcing Bernard Fall's death crossed my desk. It was unbelievable that Viet-Nam had finally consumed this man. All of us who'd been there in the early '60s and involved in our counterinsurgency effort had read his books and to us he was the one person who really knew something about the country. When Lee Lanning and I wrote our seminal book on the communist Vietnamese soldier we relied heavily on Dr. Fall's writings. Although his criticism of our government's policy in Viet-Nam put him into the company of some people whose anti-war motives I've always considered far more sinister than "educating" the public, Bernard Fall was always a loyal American, an honest scholar, a friend of the American soldier, and no communist. I knew that 40 years ago but it came as a shock to me to read Mrs. Fall's account of how the FBI spied on him. I was also unaware that he tried to bring pressure on the VC through Prince Sihanouk of Cambodia to release Capt. Humbert R. Versace from captivity. I knew Capt. Versace when he was an advisor to the Vietnamese 5th Infantry Division. Dr. Fall's intervention on Rocky's behalf, albeit unsuccessful, was an outstanding act of humanity typical of Bernard Fall. Those are only two of many fascinating insights this excellent biography brings to light about this extraordinary scholar-soldier. There are areas where one may disagree with Mrs. Fall's opinions about certain Vietnamese leaders and her husband's views on how we should've dealt with them. She does not seem to understand that the Viet Cong were nothing more than an extension of the North Vietnamese Politburo whose agenda and strategy were dictated from the very beginning by Hanoi. Also, the South Vietnamese people never rallied to the Viet Cong and the war was not won by popular resistance to Saigon but by North Vietnamese tanks and artillery after the United States Congress cravenly withdrew U. S. military support from our Vietnamese allies. Are there parallels here to events of the present day, as Mrs. Fall suggests? You bet there are. But this is not a critical biography in the way others have written about famous people or an analysis of the Viet-Nam war. It is the intimate, honest, and compelling story from an unique perspective of Bernard Fall's life. I've often wondered what Dr. Fall would've thought of the events that occurred after his death, the great Tet Offensive of 1968, the Paris peace talks, the final collapse of South Vietnam, the hundreds of thousands of desperate refugees fleeing communism, and the concentration camps into which the Vietnamese who trusted us were thrown. I don't think any of that would have surprised him. I don't think he'd have been very happy about it either.



3. This is a wonderful book. This judgment is with the knowledge that I would most probably not have liked Bernard Fall (French resistance fighter, scholar, writer, historian, professor) had I been privileged to have known him. He was too much the adventurer, often arrogant, too cocksure, and hell-bent in pursuit of the passions which cost him his life. But I admire his intellect and most of all the integrity through which he doggedly stalked the facts from which he drew unpopular conclusions and expressed, without reservations, what he perceived as the truth about the quagmire that was Vietnam for both France and the United States. For this, I believe, his work will live on for as long as nations fall prey to the lure of empire.
   
   All that aside, I fell almost in love with Dorothy through the words of this memoir in honor of the soldier-scholar who was her destiny. While she is a canvas artist by profession, she is equally an artiste when it comes to words in print. "Bernard Fall" is, at its roots, the story of a marriage, if sometimes a frustrating one. In its opening pages she candidly recognizes the competition of his mistress: the bizarre, baffling, and enigmatic attraction to Vietnam and to warfare into which it led him. At first it seemed a strange methapor by which to open a biography. But Barnard's love of both war and Indochina was so great that there was no better choice. She had married not only a husband but a mistress as well. And so there was no extraction. Even as she powerfully describes considerations of divorce, we know that it could never have happened. They are, as the writing of this book so long after the events which propels it illustrates, tied together beyond "until death us do part."
   
   The book, however, is more than a biography and a love story. It is a travelogue offering stunning descriptions of the sights, sounds, and essences of locales where she and Barnard lived or visited in Southeast Asia, a compendium of quotations from his writings and from their letters, and a book of art and photographs. A piece of Dorothy's art heads each chapter and numerous photos are scattered throughout. Of particular interest is a chapter on the FBI's investigations and surveillance of Bernard and Dorothy; phones tapped and agents parked for hours near their home in the quiet Hollin Hills neighborhood in Northern Virginia not far from where I have lived for years. Eerie when so close to home. J. Edgar Hoover thought him a French spy. But to the FBI's credit they seem to have finally cleared him and given up the chase. Yet it remains an example of the paranoia of our age.
   
   Perhaps, I am a little too harsh on Barnard for his cock-sure adventurism and his attachment to warfare even while so keenly analyzing the foibles and follies of both France and America in dealing with it in Vietnam. We are fascinated by and too often attracted to evil of which war is the epitome. More than forty years after experiencing deadly combat during World War II, I felt its seductive enticements again as I researched and wrote a memoir about it. Even Bernard Fall's scholarly bent failed to shield him from war's come-hither siren song. It seems doubtful if humankind shall ever learn to flee its alluring call.



4. If only the policy makers had paid attention to Bernard Fall during the run up to the full American combat involvement in the Vietnam war. So many lives could have been saved from destruction. Both Vietnamese and American. The basic ignorance and willfulness of the American leadership and their advisers led to this disastrous outcome.
   
   Dorothy Fall has written a very loving and realistic account of her life with the great French/American war journalist, Bernard Fall. He was a man of great courage and many accomplishments. However, she also gives a full picture. Not only his virtues, but some of his shortcomings as well, are depicted in book.
   
   I served briefly in Vietnam during 1968. I did so grudgingly with my eye on the exit sign during my abbreviated tour. Even at that time when I was at a very young age, I thought that the war effort by our side was probably doomed. The obvious hostility of the base workers from the local village--and this was supposedly a "friendly village"--did not bode well for the future. The lack of trust was a mutual condition. The average GI's attitude to the Vietnamese, that I heard, was often one of contempt colored with racist overtones. I think I heard "gook" used more often than "Vietnamese" in describing the Vietnamese. Hardly the stuff of "winning hearts and minds."
   
   The winning of hearts and minds, though, was the only way the war was going to be won by our side. We won the battles with our great military power, but the Vietnamese, in general, did not want to abide us or the corrupt South Vietnamese government.
   
   Bernard Fall understood all of this well before I had ever heard the name, "Vietnam." He knew that the French had lost their colonial war and that the Americans were making a colossal blunder of stumbling into the former role of the departed French. Ho Chi Minh was revered by most Vietnamese as the nationalist freedom fighter of Vietnam--much in the manner that we view George Washington. I think, we, the Americans were viewed by most Vietnamese as the new intruders and invaders of Vietnam. They saw us as the new, white colonialists. We really weren't though.... Instead, we were the great anti-Communist crusaders and containers of the Chinese. This motivation of ours is amusing given the great distrust and dislike of the Chinese by the Vietnamese because of the Chinese's long history of trying to control Vietnam. Another case of historical illiteracy on our part. Given the fierceness of Vietnamese nationalism and pride, I believe there really could only be one likely outcome from our involvement in the war.
   
   Relating this to the Iraqi war, it's also tragic that we've had such incredibly poor leadership in this country from the Bush administration. A competent administration would have informed themselves more thoroughly about Iraqi culture and history and understood likely outcomes. An honest administration would not have lied the country into the Iraqi war in the first place. A similar, if less blatant charge of lying, could also be directed to the Johnson administration for our entry into Vietnam.
   
   Dorothy Fall had a front row seat to view much of the follies of that Vietnam War era. Her husband, Bernard, should be honored by all of us who value hard work, clear and insightful thinking, courage, and absolute integrity. He was really an inspirational man. A very good book, well recommended.



5. This intimate portrait of Bernard Fall by his wife is a detailed reflection on the author and his collected works that will be read for generations by many of the world's military as well as politicians, reporters and others. It offers a personal vantage point into Fall's insights regarding the nature of insurgency warfare in Vietnam. This work leads the reader to reflect on why American leaders did not have the foresight to heed the author's warnings about the necessity to learn the history, culture and politics of a nation before leaping into war. In the latest case, Iraq. The profound depth and originality of Fall's work is confirmed by the detailed insights into the man and motives by his wife. One powrful aspect of this book is that is not pretentious. Jack Casserly longtime war correspondent and author of 10 books

2 comments about Riding The Unit.

1. Spitzer's newest collection of shorts is a mad melange of frank, gritty, and hilarious tales filled with insight and candour. It thematically holds together with thrust and cohesion. This collection sports both classic and new pieces by an authorial voice one cannot trust, but cannot help but to enjoy.



2. This book cost me a job.
   
   Well, a volunteer position, really. Until recently, I was the president of the Literary Nonfiction Haters' Club. To me, literary nonfiction was the written equivalent of the "day-old" table at your local bakery--cold, hard collections of diary jottings, college lecture notes and, ahem, book reviews. My belief in this estimation of literary nonfiction was as firm as yesterday's bagels.
   
   Then I read Riding the Unit: Selected Nonfiction 1994-2004 (188 pages, $10.99, Six Gallery Press) by Mark Spitzer. Spitzer is a poet (The Pigs Drink From Infinity)/novelist (Chum)/Rimbaud translator (From Absinthe to Abyssinia) extraordinaire. His book was so fresh-from-the-oven hot, it was steaming.
   
   I braced myself for half-baked journal entries. Instead, in "Dinner with Slinger", Spitzer provided an engaging and even-handed account of his college days spent studying with a noted poet turned boozy blowhard. Spitzer skillfully picked through the besotted b.s. to find the bard's point--why we, as a people, have lost the "consciousness" to truly appreciate art (8).
   
   I expected prim pages torn from the family album. In "Dinner at My Mother's", Spitzer surprised me with a considerate, hilarious description of a day he spent with his literary biography-interpreting mother and his famous potter stepfather. The piece hinged on critics' habits of analyzing artworks to hell and back. It was like an episode of "Married with Children" co-written by Woody Allen and Eugene O'Neill.
   
   I was set for stale memoranda. Instead, Spitzer delighted me with "Fakos in France", an insightful remembrance of his time as Writer in Residence at the Shakespeare and Company bookstore in Paris, and his stint as a stagehand at a poetry reading there for two Beat Generation icons who'd turned into kudos-collecting squares.
   
   I anticipated a professorial review of some obscure anthology. A review, I got--of Bob Dylan's notorious and notoriously difficult Tarantula. Spitzer solidly and lucidly defended Dylan's poem, laying the blame for its bad rep on critics' failure to recognize Tarantula for what it is, rather than on Dylan's challenging, but purposeful, use of allegory.
   
   Above all else, Mark Spitzer's humor and energy made Riding the Unit a memorable read. Whether taking the piss out of Allen Ginsberg, arm-wrestling Jean Genet's literary executrix or ribbing his stepdad by hyper-analyzing everything like an English major amped on caffeine, Spitzer kept the pace brisk and the overall experience entertaining and informative.
   
   With my view of literary nonfiction turned upside-down, I resigned from my post as the president of the Literary Nonfiction Haters' Club. But since it was due to a great book by a fine writer, I was happy to do so.

5 comments about Betting on Myself: Adventures of a Horseplayer and Publisher.

1. Great read for anyone even casually interest in playing the ponies. Horse racing is the only betting opportunity were all of the answers are given to you in the Daily Racing Form, before you make a bet. All one has to do is factor in what's important and throw out what's not. That is the trick.
   Crist has a great conversational writing style and makes it a fun read.



2. Crist took the racing form into the present & future. It was in the hands of guys frozen with a 1930s outlook (sorry Saul Rosen et al)and Crist pumped his energy and intelligence into a moribund product. Congratulations Steve.



3. Steven Crist, Betting on Myself: Adventures of a Horseplayer and Publisher (DRF Press, 2004)
   
   Crist's surprisingly readable "my life thus far" autobiography is probably stuck with a built-in limit to the numbers of readers who are going to be intrigued by it. This is a mistake not by Crist, but by those readers who don't think they're going to like a "horse book."
   
   Crist traces the path he took from his years at Harvard, when he first discovered greyhound racing, to his present position as the owner of the Daily Racing Form. In between there's a lot of other fun stuff to interest both the horseplayer and the general reading audience: a stint with the New York Times, various discussions of economics (as it pertains to horse racing, granted, but money is money), the political scene in Albany, and all the other good stuff a dirt-dishing autobiography is supposed to have. (Kitty Kelley readers, however, will be depressed to note that Crist has been married to the same woman since Methuselah was a pup, and if there's any steppin' out involved, it never gets mentioned. Which may explain why Crist, and not Kelley, wrote this book.) It's also exceptionally readable for non-fiction, and a lot of fun in the bargain. A lot of fun. ****



4. The nearby review - Well Written Memoir from a Fascinating Person - got all the details of a review right, so I don't need to repeat them. Enthusiastic individual believes in himself, makes good, but fails (hardly by accident) to reveal some of the "secrets" of parimutuel betting success. Kind of like that magician who just won't explain how he cut the lady in half.



5. It's always interesting to read and learn about the behind-the-scenes action that takes place during the business ventures of which the general public is not usually aware. In BETTING ON MYSELF, Steven Crist is a horseplayer who had ideas to improve the information provided to gamblers by creating an alternative publication to The Daily Racing Form (DRF). Instead, as this well written memoir details, Crist became chairman and publisher of DRF. His story serves as another example of a person who fulfills his goals and proves that luck is directly proportional to hard work applied to opportunity.

1 comments about William Maxwell: A Literary Life.

1. There are few biographers who know/knew their subjects as well as Barbara Burkhardt. She has been a professor of mine for fours years and I can tell you first hand she is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to Mr. Maxwell. Her interviews and friendship with Mr. Maxwell make her writing more real and personal. I can't think of a better person to ask (or read from) than Barabara about William Maxwell and his life and works!