1 comments about From Fields of Fire and Glory: Letters of the Civil War.

1. There are not many books that bring the Civil War to life in such a way as this one does by Rod Gragg. To read the actual letters written by Civil War soldiers - both North and South - in their own hand is one of the most humbling experiences this social historian has ever had in studying history. Letters describing battles, life in camp, camaraderie between soldiers, and a particularly gruesome first person account by a Quaker nurse's experiences during surgery. One very sad letter written by a dying soldier (who's own blood stained the letter itself) told his father of "the particulars of my death. I would like to rest in the grave yard with my dear mother and brothers...Let us all try to reunite in heaven..."
   First person accounts such as these gave me quite a humbling experience. Then to have the photographs and a bit of biographical information of those who wrote these vignetts of a long ago time just about brings it all home.
   I cannot recommend enough this truly amazing book. It gives one a whole new perspective of the War Between the States (as it was known then), every bit as much as Ken Burn's documentary.
   If there ever was a book that brings the past to life, this is it.

5 comments about Eisenhower.

1. Simply put, this biography is average. I read a lot and while this isn't the only Perret biography book I've read, I can't help but feel that the author has no respect for his readers. I myself, enjoy an author who treats the reader as an equal and I can't help but feel that Perret views all of us as literary-morons with a third grade reading level. I feel the prose is substantially lacking in grace and eloquence in addition to the most important thing: subject matter. Eisenhower was a player on the world's stage at some of the most crucial moments in human history (ex: D-Day) yet after reading this book I didn't feel that my curiosity about Eisenhower's life was satisfied. I couldn't really tell you what I learned after reading this book besides coming to the conclusion that I wasted my time flipping through some dull page-filling text. There has to be a better biography of Eisenhower out there, this one just isn't worth the time or minimal effort required to read it.



2. In "Eisenhower" Geoffrey Perret gives an outstanding biography of a very interesting and important historical figure. Here we meet Ike from birth to death.

   The reader is treated to an introduction to the Eisenhower family, to the father who could never be close to his sons, the mother who had little influence over them and the brothers with whom Ike grew up and continued his mutually supportive relationship through their highly successful careers.

   The relationship with Mamie, their lost son, and son John, all reflect Ike's personal strengths and limitations.

   Perret does equally well in telling the stories of the junior officer and the commander as well as those of the President and senior statesman.

   Eisenhower's evaluations of many of the characters who crossed his path add to the allure of this book. Ike's admiration, followed by his contempt for MacArthur, his dislike of FDR, his lack of respect for Truman and his lack of affection for Nixon, all add to the insight into Ike's times. Omar Bradley, George Marshall, John Foster Dulles, Henry Cabot Lodge and Joseph McCarthy are just a sampling of the world characters who played on Eisenhower's stage.

   Perret thoroughly reports each phase of Ike's life in a way as to maintain interest throughout. He comments on Eisenhower's rights and wrongs in a way which provokes thoughts, without seeming to be opinionated. I believe that this is what makes this biography superior so many others..




3. In "Eisenhower" Geoffrey Perret gives an outstanding biography of a very interesting and important historical figure. Here we meet Ike from birth to death.

   The reader is treated to an introduction to the Eisenhower family, to the father who could never be close to his sons, the mother who had little influence over them and the brothers with whom Ike grew up and continued his mutually supportive relationship through their highly successful careers.

   The relationship with Mamie, their lost son, and son John, all reflect Ike's personal strengths and limitations.

   Perret does equally well in telling the stories of the junior officer and the commander as well as those of the President and senior statesman.

   Eisenhower's evaluations of many of the characters who crossed his path add to the allure of this book. Ike's admiration, followed by his contempt for MacArthur, his dislike of FDR, his lack of respect for Truman and his lack of affection for Nixon, all add to the insight into Ike's times. Omar Bradley, George Marshall, John Foster Dulles, Henry Cabot Lodge and Joseph McCarthy are just a sampling of the world characters who played on Eisenhower's stage.

   Perret thoroughly reports each phase of Ike's life in a way as to maintain interest throughout. He comments on Eisenhower's rights and wrongs in a way which provokes thoughts, without seeming to be opinionated. I believe that this is what makes this biography superior so many others..




4. This biography, written with an obvious affection for its subject, focuses largely on Ike's activities in WWII and immediately after. I would have liked a little more about his early life - Perret uses only about 1/5th of the book to get to Ike as a senior officer preparing for US entry into the war in 1940. That was, after all, the first 50 years of his life. By moving through them so quickly, I don't think that Perret gives as much insight as he could into the man.

   The war years and just after are covered well. Perret gives sketches of the other major figures Ike dealt with. MacArthur is portayed as an egomaniac and comes off rather badly; Patton and Marshall are seen more positively. Perret is rough on Ike's alleged lover, Kay Summers, who he concludes lied, but he's roughest of all on Bernard Montgomery, who is presented as insubordinate, afraid to commit troops to battle, and incompetent to use them properly when he does. I don't recall anything positive that Perret has to say about Monty.

   The post-war years are interesting, but I was not really satisfied with the coverage of the Presidential years. The story hits the main points - Little Rock, the Sherman Adams scandal, the Checkers speech, Sputnik, the U2 incident, but doesn't give enough of an insider perspective to give any new insight on most of them. One thing that is covered fairly thoroughly, and the only real surprise I got from this section, is finding out how weak Ike was in standing up to McCarthyism, even when McCarthy and his supporters went after Ike's old friend George Marshall.

   In summary, this is hardly a great biography, but it is easy to read despite the considearable size, and has enough value that you'll get a good return for the time spent reading it.




5. Very well written, it lends itself to being read in a few days. It portrays Ike as a very complex and multifaceted man, much more than I had expected before reading it. I remember, not being able to wait until Ike goes to war in Europe. But actually the African Campaign is the most tedious reading in the book. The most entertaining part of the book, was the political intrigue of the presidency, which I enjoyed immensly. Still, I wish that there had been more about Ike's relationship with Nixon and more explanation of his mysterious final address, in which he spoke of the growing power of the military-industrial complex.

No comments about Famous Confederate Generals and Leaders of the South: A Myreportlinks.Com Book (The American Civil War).

No comments about Scandals Of The Civil War.

5 comments about The Lion's Pride: Theodore Roosevelt and His Family in Peace and War.

1. This is an excellent work about Theodore Roosevelt as a father. Although the author discusses his children throughout the book, the focus is on TR himself. One thing I have admired about President Roosevelt is that he loved being a father (although his relationship with his oldest daughter, Alice, was strained), and this drew me to read this book. I was not disappointed.
   
   The author also gives us a glimpse into TR's father, Theodore Roosevelt, Sr., who was a very generous man with his time and money. After reading about him, I understood why TR valued public service.
   
   Because the author focuses on the president, the reader will see how TR influenced his children to value public service. For example, all of his sons served in the military. Indeed, Quentin Roosevelt died as a pilot in a dogfight in World War I. The elder son, Theodore Roosevelt II, led the first wave on Utah Beach in Normandy on D-Day during World War II. He died of a heart attack some weeks later. Archie was declared 100% disabled in both World War I and World War II. Kermit also served well in both wars, but suffered from alcoholism and depression (TR's brother, who was Eleanor Roosevelt's father, also suffered from the same). Also, TR's youngest daughter, Ethel, served as a nurse in France in World War I.
   
   This book is definitely worth reading to get a view of Theodore Roosevelt as a family man. I wish we had more elected officials like him today.



2. Completely understanding TR is impossible without considering his children, or his own childhood for that matter. These are the foci of the "The Lion's Pride: Theodore Roosevelt and His Family in Peace and War." TR was deeply influenced by his father, a wealthy and generous, many would claim great man whose most glaring defect and regret was what amounted to a buy out of his Civil War service obligation. TR called him the "greatest man I ever knew." Yet, in many respects TR spent the rest of his life attempting to overcome and reverse this blemish upon the family record through extraordinary patriotism and service. Leading at the apex of conflict and danger was the duty of a great and privileged family. This credo was embraced wholeheartedly by his children, which makes for fascinating reading. While some would argue this compulsion became excessive and detrimental, the Roosevelt's had no regrets and curiously embraced their family tragedies in the midst of great pain. This phenomenon is particularly evident in the death of the youngest, Quintin while flying patrol over German lines in WWI. On the other hand, if you are looking for an in depth look at any one or more of the children this book will not suffice. Indeed, the early chapters focus on TR's life leading up to WWI, while the latter chapters are largely dedicated to his offspring's activities in young adulthood, particularly those related to the Great War. There is little regarding TR's close and often tender relationship with his children during their childhood in the White House or at Sagamore Hill. As a result, while I greatly enjoyed this book, I was hoping for more breadth and insight into the children's upbringing and their lives after TR's death.



3. Renehan's accounting of the last years of Theodore Roosevelt Jr. is condensed and fascinating. Mostly covering 1898 and 1910-1919, the book provides insight into the southern New York high society of the early 20th century. Famous names, including Vanderbilt, Roosevelt, Cowles, and Coolidge, parade across the pages.
   
   Nuggets include the mention of Harvard in that time as a conservative and pro-military bastion (compared to today's institution fighting military recruitment in court), Woodrow Wilson viewed as an appeaser, a coward, and an appointer of bigots in his administration (in contrast to a reputation as being a visionary negotiator), observation by Gen. George Patton that Theodore's eldest son, Brig. Gen. Theodore Roosevelt III, was a courageous commander- but no soldier (both father and son won the Medal of Honor...a feat perhaps not matched by any other American family), and the contrast highlighted between Kaiser Wilhelm's non-combat patronage of his sons (during WWI) and the former president Roosevelt's sons participating in front line combat. Another interesting fact: three of Roosevelt's four sons died in military service--one killed in action, one dead of a heart attack a month after D-Day and one day before he was to be promoted to major general, and one a suicide). The fourth suffered from the long term effects of severe war wounds.
   
   Roosevelt is also revealed as a founding father of the original progressive movement...born out of the Republican party, no less. "Progressive" used to mean advocating sensible capitalism through the restraint of unlimited power of large corporations (through the Sherman Act) and the promotion of sound environmental policy and conservation. It also demanded the U.S. government uphold its main role--that of national defense. This is in stark contrast to today's "progressive" thinking--complete rejection of market economics and corporations, radical environmentalism, and pacifism. Roosevelt must spin in his grave.
   
   All in all a great primer of the former president. Makes you want to immediately run out and read more.



4. I read any book on TR. This one I was hoping would reveal more about his family. It still is a good read about TR.



5. This book made me want to be a better, more involved citizen. It really gets at the heart of this incredible family.

No comments about Padre on Horseback (The American West).

5 comments about Lost Years: A Memoir 1945 - 1951.

1. This book is a very important piece of our Gay History. People seem to forget that there were Homosexuals before 1978. This Memoir is very insightful, and really brings to life what gay life was like back then.
   Homosexuals seem to ignore where we came from and how far we have come. Authors like Christopher Isherwood and Gore Vidal need to be read (as well as many others). On top of that it is a fun read.



2. Though I read and enjoyed Christopher Isherwood's "Diaries, Volume One", I was bored by these recollections,"Lost Years, A Memoir", which were composed by him some thirty years after their occurrence. Apparently he had abandoned his daily practice of keeping a diary between the years of 1945-1951, and this is his attempt to cover those lost years. There are some mildly interesting stories here, and also includes little tid-bits about the people you'd expect it to, Garbo, Vidal, Williams....but I found it very repetitious. Also, though I am far from a prude, and am just as much of a horn-dog as anyone else, I found the very graphic description of his sexual escapades to often be tasteless and vulgar. Tennessee William's "Memoirs", for example, included many accounts of sexual situations, but they were usually recounted with such humor that it only made them very comical. Not only are many of Mr. Isherwood's sexual memories told without any comical hindsight that one could maybe even identify with, or, in fact, any sensuality, but, they are beyond bad taste. I mean, there are some things I just don't need to know. Though I respect Mr. Isherwood and his literary legacy, and know he is remembered as a good person and friend, the overly prurient, if I may use such an old fashioned word, tone of this book really turned me off. The contents of these rememberences were just not interesting enough for me to get past the self-indulgent drivel. I guess there IS such a thing as too much honesty. Sex "in your face" is a bore, and so was this book.



3. If your looking to know the real "Christopher Isherwood" this is the book to read first. I really enjoyed this memoir called "The Lost Years" 1945-1951 because of its openness & honesty. If your interested in Christopher's daily life in every detail, from his friends, sex partners, lovers, and acquaintances it's all here. I expected to get details about all faucets of his daily life from this memoir and that's exactly what I got. If your looking for a sugar coated boring sexless book, look elsewhere. Christopher is very honest in laying out in graphic detail his sexual conquests. But that's not to say the book is just about his sexual life, it's like I said about all the daily details of his everyday life for those years. There's a wonderful Chronology in the back of the book for a quick history lesson of his life, and a glossary that is outstanding that contains all the bio's and history of his friends, partners, and relatives.

   This book really opened my eyes to this wonderful writer, who happened to be gay. I thought the 90's were gay but after reading this book, things weren't much different back in the 40's. Gay life as we call it today, was really just as gay back then. Katherine Bucknell has done a wonderful job in editing this book, and gives us a wonderful introduction. Getting to know Christopher Isherwood as a writer and a human being has been a wonderful experience for me. Highly recommended.




4. This is the most embarrassing book I know written by a writer of literary reputation. It is a mean-spirited, self-aggrandizing work that will only detract from the author's standing as a serious author. There are repetitive renditions of affairs, including intimate details that make one wonder why this book, not finished, was published posthumously at all. Gossipy, and spiteful, awkwardly written, this is a shameful document, not literature.



5. This memoir raises the bar for sexual candor way above what we are used to, and that is a good thing. Isherwood, in commenting and elaborating on his sketchy daily calendar notes for these years, takes a fiercely critical view of himself and his obsessions and, in the process, reveals the very funny and humane man behind the suave, mannerly one we have been familiar with up to now. From what he describes, gay life in Los Angeles during these years was covert yet very, very wild. He was a busy guy, both professionally and personally. His portraits of his friends, lovers, tricks, flirtations and coworkers in the film industry are vivid and viscerally engaging. When Isherwood wrote this memoir in the 1970s he no longer had any use for euphemisms and politesse and, consequently, he simply calls a three-way a three-way and says who did what to whom in what order and whether he later went back for more. What comes through loud and clear is that Isherwood loved the sex he had, and that he had no time for those suffering Saras and Sams who claimed that shame and suffering lurk behind the lure of sensuality. The body was a temple to him and he attended services every day and often more than once a day. When he set out to have fun with the boys, he had fun with the boys. When he had lunch with Garbo, he had a GREAT lunch with Garbo; and when he talked with Ava Gardner as a pal, he dedicated 100% of his attention to her. Does knowing this much intimate detail diminish Isherwood-the-writer? If anything, this brilliant, dishy and hilarious memoir deepens my regard for the Isherwood who produced the fiction classics like The Berlin Stories and A Single Man. I am in awe of his honesty.

5 comments about The Singular Mark Twain: A Biography.

1. Trying to reconcile the public perception of Mark Twain, the jovial raconteur and "Great American Author", with the significantly flawed Samuel Clemens, a particularly inept businessman who may have squandered his greatest gift in his endless pursuit of "easy money," is a difficult task. Kaplan does an admirable job working to heal this dichotomy; he sticks to focusing on Clemens the man, with all his qualities for good or ill. Kaplan does fine work developing the reader's understanding of how Twain's early years of wandering created the necessity of Twain the writer. The gradual evolution of Mark Twain is an interesting and at times riveting tale and Kaplan supplies all the details needed to experience this transition. As Twain ages and his focus shifts from writing to his pursuit of financial success at the level of America's richest men, Kaplan maintains his ability to tell Twain's story in an interesting fashion, but Twain's life becomes less interesting. Bogged down in bad business decisions and family health issues Twain becomes someone the reader will find less patience with. Kaplan does have some difficulty here, with choices that occasionally lead to judgmental writing. Phrases like "his flawed best," "He would shamelessly upstage anyone," and mentions of his self-centered nature and megalomania make their appearances periodically. Kaplan is particularly harsh when considering Twain in his final years when his daughter's influence was significant on an old man who was ill and afraid of losing any more family. But there is an overall sense that Kaplan is just showing an actuality based on his research.
   The book does come up a little short when discussing Twain's literary output. Kaplan makes judgments on what was significant, but there definitely needed to be a more complete look at Twain's output and discussion of the literary merits of his work. It may have added a number of pages to the work, but I felt twain's work needed a closer examination, perhaps at the expense of some of the financial minutiae of Twain's bad business decisions. Overall Kaplan does an excellent job of examining Twain the man; I just wish a bit more time had been spent on Twain the writer.



2. Several years ago Justin Kaplan sundered Sam Clemens and Mark Twain. It was an almost iconoclastic "psychological" study, typical of the times and thus immensely popular. It changed sharply the image of Clemens held by most Twain readers. Which one were they reading? Now Fred Kaplan has attempted to suture the parts and bring us a fresh picture of a whole man. Using new material and thorough analysis, Kaplan has produced a enduring biography of America's greatest writer. This study is comprehensive in scope and ably presented for long-time Twain aficionados. Newcomers to Clemens' work may be staggered by the wealth of information.
   
   Pseudonyms were common among 19th Century journalists, Clemens' starting point in his writing career. Kaplan demonstrates that the detachment Clemens enjoyed as a "reporter" was transformed into a strong, unified character in his later writing. Factual works outlining his travel experiences later took second place to his fiction. While these books still carried the "Twain" banner, Kaplan shows it as an enlargement of his image, not a branching off. Fiction also enabled Twain to incorporate his linguistic attainments to a degree unmatched in his day. His portrayal of Mississippi Valley patois often led to critics labeling him "common", but Kaplan counters that Twain had a more comprehensive view of his fellow Americans than did most of his contemporaries.
   
   Most contemporary readers of Twain were captivated by his humour, which was innovative and spirited. Kaplan, while recognising Twain's the appeal to his audience, gives little further acknowledgement to this aspect. Why, we wonder, did Twain, whose life was long beset by tragedies and the struggle for financial stability, continue to write with his unique form of wit. Even the latest works Twain produced were lively presentations, often heavy with irony. Kaplan relates this, but offers no explanation for its tenacity. Even Twain's inspired soliloquy of Belgium's King Leopold was laced with Mississippi Valley expressions. Reading any of the writings from Twain's long career, the light touch is always present, but it seems to slip by Kaplan with but scant notice.
   
   Kaplan deals well, however, with Twain's serious side. Finances, in almost overwhelming detail, dominate the book. The problems with family - illness stalked the Clemens clan for decades - are thoroughly related. How many of these ills might be related to their economic plight? Twain saw firm links, described fully, but the biographer declines to judge their validity. Kaplan is stronger in description than in analysis. While this keeps him detached, the reader is offered few insights. No diagnosis of any of the family's illnesses intrude on the narrative. Kaplan also follows Twain's travels in detail, but the background panorama remains subtly hidden. A thorough knowledge of world events is a clear prerequisite for reading this life in context. The result is a straightforward relation of Twain's life, readable, thorough in personal details, but fails to place those intimacies within a broader scene.
   
   The book will be welcomed by academics and those already well versed in Twain's life. Kaplan successfully refutes the claim that Clemens and Twain were separate personas, Twain shedding the intrusions of Clemens' financial worries or family illness when taking up his pen. Beyond that, Kaplan offers only descriptions of that background to Twain's successful writing career. A fine book, but limited in scope.
   [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]



3. I read about 200 pages of this, and quit when I realized that what was most interesting about the book was trying to figure out how the author managed to make Mark Twain, of all people, seem so tedious. The reader is often told how funny Twain was, but rarely given an example. The relationship of detail to big picture is shaky and inconstant. Get this from a library and skim it, but spend your time and money on Twain's own writings.



4. The Singular Mark Twain by Fred Kaplan builds an intimate relationship for readers with the itinerant journalist who became one of America's most prolific authors, most humorous commentators and most entertaining public speakers. Kaplan arranges Twain's experiences, his relationships and his attitudes into a foundation beneath his extraordinary literary output. The result is a fascinating history of 19th century American culture.
   
   Kaplan seeks to establish Twain as the American literary figure who looms above all others. He also shows him as an often irascible curmudgeon who frequently outraged people with whom he found fault. Like many creative giants, Twain didn't suffer fools gladly and employed his talent for sarcasm and satire to skewer self-righteous politicians, remorseless racists, hypocritical churchmen and many others, regardless of their status.

   Samuel Langhorne Clemens' childhood in Florida, Missouri and later in Hannibal on the Mississippi River was spent in wild, imaginative play with a multi-ethnic neighborhood of kids all of ages. Sam's father, John Marshall Clemens, was a stern, physically unwell attorney and unlucky land speculator who died when Sam was 11 and of whom he was later to say, "My own knowledge of him amounted to little more than an introduction." His mother smothered frail Sam from infancy with love and helped him fight health problems with homeopathic remedies. Fire and brimstone sermons at Hannibal's Old Ship of Zion church were a regular feature of young Sam's week. In fact, Kaplan says Sam heard a steady litany at church and at home that "Satan was real, and he visited Hannibal often."

   Sam spent his childhood summers at his aunt and uncle's farm near Florida where he found subsequent literary inspiration from adventures with his nine cousins and storytelling by his uncle's oldest slave, Uncle Dan'l. "I can see the white and black children grouped on the hearth, with light playing on their faces ... and I can feel again the creepy joy which quivered through me when the time for the ghost story was reached." Back in Hannibal, Sam harvested more memories from a gang of friends like Tom Blankenship who Twain described as "ignorant, unwashed, insufficiently fed; but he was as good a heart as ever any boy had. His liberties were totally unrestricted ... We liked him; we enjoyed his society. And as his society was forbidden us by our parents ... we sought and got more of his society than of any other boy's."

   After his father died, Jane Clemens apprenticed 11-year-old Sam as a printer's devil to the publisher of the Hannibal Gazette to help earn money for the family. His young entry into the labor force undoubtedly affected his character, contributing to his driving ambition, extraordinary productivity and the sarcasm that seasoned much of his writing.

   Another local paper, the Hannibal Journal, was offered for sale after many residents left town to escape a yellow fever outbreak and headed for the gold rush in California. Sam's older brother Orion borrowed $500 from a local farmer, bought the paper and hired Sam at $3.50 a week. Sam never saw a penny. The Journal failed after four years, partly because of a poor economy and partly because it wasn't very good. Sam described his brother, his editor and his boss as "full of blessed egotism and placid self-importance ... (who) wrote with impressive flatulence and soaring confidence upon the vastest subjects."

   Armed with a concise style and a valise full of satire, Sam spent several years chasing work as a travel writer in St. Louis, New York, Philadelphia, Keokuk, Iowa, Carson City, Nevada, San Francisco, Hawaii and back in New York. Building fame along the way, Sam continued to harvest themes for subsequent stories. Especially fertile were the ideas Sam hatched from 1857 to 1861 while working as a pilot on Mississippi riverboats between St. Louis and New Orleans and writing articles for the New Orleans Picayune.
   
   Twain shared his weak constitution with Olivia Langdon, daughter of a wealthy Elmira, New York businessman with whose family he stayed on a weekend visit to Elmira in August, 1868. He was smitten with Livy and probably also by her father's wealth. Their February, 1870, marriage sparked the genesis of Mark Twain's most famous work. He recalled telling Livy as a two-day-old bridegroom how "The old life has swept before me like a panorama; the old days have trooped by in their old glory, again; the old faces have looked out of the mists of the past."

   From the late 1870s to the early 1890s, Twain came to fancy himself an astute money manager. Amidst that delusion, he dedicated much of his considerable wealth to speculative investments that evaporated in the 1893 depression. Twain's financial losses coincided with his evolution away from any semblance of Christian commitment. His antipathy toward organized religion is reflected in his irritation with George Washington Cable, an anti-slavery New Orleans writer and avowed Christian with whom he partnered on a lecture tour promoting Huckleberry Finn. "Mind you, I like him; he is pleasant company ... but in him & his person I have learned to hate all religions. He has taught me to abhor & detest the Sabbath-day & hunt up new & troublesome ways to dishonor it."

   Because his life was so rich in such an exciting era and because so much of his work is autobiographical, Mark Twain is a fascinating character. Along with his intellectual brilliance, prodigious output and skillful self-promotion, Kaplan also shows us many of Twain's human frailties, including his addiction to tobacco, his affinity for Scotch whiskey and his brittle temper. If there is a criticism of Kaplan's work, it occasionally crosses the line between valid interpretation and unnecessary minutiae. In any case, The Singular Mark Twain is a tour de force that weaves Mark Twain's remarkable life and times into his brilliant work. It is a most interesting read.




5. Fred Kaplan's perceptive and entertaining biography of America's premier writer brings to life not only the familiar Mark Twain the humorist and man of letters, but all of his other manifold aspects (or "selves," as the author liked to call them, perceiving himself as the plural Mark Twain) as well: the versatile riverboat pilot, panner for gold, and inventor of mucilage; the devoted family man who (like all successful men, according to Dwight David Eisenhower) had married above his station and remained faithful and passionately affectionate to a loving, responsive woman who joined him in defying Victorian strictures to the extent of occasionally holding hands in public, and who, like Abigail Adams, shared his professional life, reading and vetting everything he wrote, and also raised and disciplined their daughters, managed the household, tolerated and sometimes even enjoyed his profanity, and to a degree came to share his indifference to religion; the self-made writer who won acceptance into the highest ranks of the nation's literary, cultural, political, and professional life; the world traveler who became widely venerated abroad; the impulsive, chronically unsuccessful businessman who lost a fortune investing in printing "compositors" and hairpins but rebuffed an invitation to purchase shares in the nascent telecommunications industry; the political liberal, who loved "Negro" culture and often sang "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" and, in bereft moments, Stephen Foster's "Why Do The Beautiful Die," and who deplored actual slavery in America, virtual slavery in the Belgian Congo, feudalism in Russia, anti-Semitism in Austria, and aggrandizement in religious institutions; the sensualist who admired the unselfconscious naturalness of uninhibited peoples in Hawaii, Fiji, and Nicaragua; the iconoclast who believed that Jesus was born but not raised and would never return to a randomly cruel world in which one incarnation was sufficient for anyone, and who agreed with an overheard slave's prayer, "Come yo'self, Lord, an' doan be sendin' yo' son, 'cause this ain't no time fo' chillun"; and the survivor, who saw his infant son and eventually his fragile wife succumb to heart disease, a daughter to meningitis, and a second daughter to epilepsy, leaving only a third daughter to survive him - and, even more sadly, although unknown to him, one whose own daughter was to commit suicide at age fifty-four, ending the line, and lending retrospective pathos to his geriatric admiration and acculturation of bright young girls as ersatz granddaughters.

5 comments about Overworld: The Life and Times of A Reluctant Spy.

1. I read this from curiosity about the relationship between the father and the son. The first third of the book, in which Larry observes his father and other spies, is fascinating. But the rest, pfui! Celebrity name-dropping, fawning over the wealthy (and never a concern about how they got and kept their riches.)



2. Kolb is a better writer than he was a spy I think. The story grabbed me from page one and even though this is a huge tome, I was pouring through it at every free minute I had until the end.
   
   The stories he tells that aren't directly about "spy" work are the most interesting parts of the book. His experiences with Muhammad Ali were fascinating. And I'll admit I read on in some places wondering who's name who get dropped next: we go from his connections with Jan Stephenson to Muhammad Ali, Jesse Jackson, and Al Sharpton to Daniel Ortega, Imelda Marcos (mix a little Rudi Guliani into that plot), everyone who was every prime minister or aspired to be prime minister of India, 1/2 the ruling class of the middle east, Stewart Copeland (drummer for The Police), and Dodi al Fayed in a matter of a few hundred pages. And yes, I went to google and did a search for ""muhammad ali" "jesse jackson" photo elvis" as well as ""rajiv gandhi" kolb" after reading this to convince myself that maybe at least some of it is true.
   
   But what I was baffled by as I got to the end was this: did the author deliberately telegraph the ending so the readers would see it coming easier than he did? Or was it just this obvious who was setting him up and for all of his connections and sophistication, he missed it?
   
   This is a must read for any lovers of spy novels or thrillers of the Clancy genre, with the added benefit that despire the "hero" stepping in something too big of, the story and characters are real.



3. I also know Larry from the 80s (during the Eddie V/Jan S days). He was quite a character and very much the poet and writer. I wasn't surprised when I read what he has been doing and that he lived to write about it. Although he was certainly able to tell a great story.... I bet this stuff is true as he was always able to ingratiate himself into places and situations in ways that were shocking. I can't wait to read it!
   
   "Mary"



4. Larry Kolb is like one of those interesting people you meet and you hear them telling their stories and you say to them, "You should write a book." Only Larry Kolb actually does go write the book--and you're very glad he did. He's like a brilliant Forrest Gump. A genius instead of stupid. But how he gets himself into situations! Wonderful!



5. Five stars because this is an amazing life story beautifully written. Not only does Kolb have a wonderful eye for the telling detail, his writing is transparent and accessible in a way that for the first time demystified spying and intelligence for me. Finally I understand what it's all about, in all its complexity and yet also in very simple and human terms. Beyond that, this book is an astute character study of several remarkable men who've shaped Kolb's life: his father, a Cold War spymaster; Muhammad Ali, one of Kolb's closest friends; Adnan Khashoggi, the mysterious Saudi dealmaker and statesman who in his prime was the richest man in the world; Miles Copeland, one of the founders of the CIA and perhaps its most colorful operative ever, who was Kolb's guide into the secret world; and Chandraswami, Indian holy-man-and-snake-oil-salesman extraordinaire. It's written like a novel, and its even got good sex scenes. How Kolb ever survived it all to write about it is a mystery to me. But I'm glad he did.

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