AMERICAN AMBITION

Keefe shows Arthur Sackler raised himself in America through grit and determination, i.e., little seems handed to him on a silver plate. This is not to suggest the drug industry or the Sackler’s of the world carry no responsibility for addiction but opportunity and a way to succeed in an American life is a choice.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Empire of Pain (The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty)

Author: Patrick Radden Keefe

Narration by: Patrick Radden Keefe

Patrick Radden Keefe (Author, investigative journalist, staff writer for The New Yorker.)

Patrick Radden Keefe’s book is a detailed examination of the Sackler family, and more specifically, the dynasty that grew after the life and death of Arthur Mitchell Sackler who died in 1987. Arthur Sackler was a trained physician who specialized in biological psychiatry. Through hard work, he built a family fortune with a company specializing in medical advertising and pharmaceutical marketing. With wealth created by advertising, the Sackler patriarch acquired interests in specific drugs that added to the wealth of the Sackler empire. One of those investments is made by the sons of Arthur Sackler. It became known as OxyContin which became a huge revenue producer controlled by Arthur’s heirs. Dr. Paul Goldenheim and Dr. Robert Kaico were the scientists who invented OxyContin while working for Purdue Pharma, a company owned by Arthur’s brothers. Arthur Sackler is characterized by Keefe as secretive about his ownership interests while becoming a very rich man. The structure of his business interests and its conflicts of interest are passed on to his heirs.

Arthur M. Sackler (American psychiatrist and marketer of pharmaceuticals.)

Arthur dies nine years before OxyContin exists. Despite the difficult life Arthur Sadler had with the bankruptcy of his father, he works his way through school, becomes a licensed physician and starts a pharmaceutical advertising company. He worked as a physician, a medical researcher, and owner of a company that advertised his and other medically researched and discovered drugs. This opened the door to profiteering from drug promotions and conflicts of interest in groundbreaking and potentially harmful drugs. As a physician, it put Arthur and other research physicians in position to market drugs and influence prescriptions for drugs that may or may not be safe or effective. As an advertiser of a physician/scientists’ own drugs, they could skirt independent judgement of their effectiveness or possible side effects. The FDA is created to avoid that possibility, but Keefe illustrates how that roadblock is compromised. Keefe recounts how a leader of the FDA is compromised by his relationship with the drug industry.

The Family That Built an Empire of Pain - Strength and Hope

Arthur’s wealth and investment interests are inherited by his divorced wife, his new wife, and his brothers, i.e., Ramond, Mortimer, and Richard who led the company after Arthur’s death. The brothers sell their patent on OxyContin to Purdue Pharma. The brothers start two branches of their business, one of which retains control of OxyContin’s manufacture, marketing, sale, and profit. Patent law is a legal ownership “smoke” screen that protects company owners from liability for harm from patents a company holds. A company may own a patent independently, without recourse to its company’s owners. Purdue Pharma grows and uses its wealth to influence politicians, government officials and doctors to endorse drugs like OxyContin.

OxyContin dosages.

As is known by many Americans, OxyContin has had a catastrophic impact on America. It its launch in 1996, OxyContin is considered by some to be a gateway to addictive drugs like heroin and fentanyl. In 2026, it is estimated that 200 deaths per day were happening from fentanyl overdoses. What Keefe argues is that when the structural conflicts of interest were introduced by the Sackler family (especially with the creation of Purdue Pharma) the lines between drug efficacy and profits were breached by the medical profession.

What Keefe reveals in his research is that pharmaceutical-physician relationships cross the line of conflicts of interest.

Doctors receiving “speaker fees”, continuing-education events, consulting positions, and industry-funded clinical guidelines are being lured into prescribing drugs that may or may not be safe or effective. Funding for medical research frequently comes from companies more interested in profit then drug efficacy. Government regulators are influence by lobbyist for a drug industry that is mired in potential conflicts of interest. Keefe notes there is a revolving door between the FDA and pharma employment. Keefe notes marketing has become a part of medical education. He infers philanthropy by the drug industry may be a bribe to influence public acceptance of drug treatments that are not effective.

Coming away from Keefe’s analysis of the drug industry, one is troubled by its corruption vulnerabilities in a society that prides itself on freedom and rule-of-law.

In one sense, Arthur Sackler is a tribute to how America became one of the wealthiest and most powerful countries in the world. One doubts that the Sackler family planned to create a drug that would addict and kill so many Americans. The Sackler family played a role but how many Americans have made mistakes in their drive for success. Keefe shows Arthur Sackler raised himself in America through grit and determination, i.e., little seems handed to him on a silver plate. This is not to suggest the drug industry or the Sackler’s of the world carry no responsibility for addiction but opportunity and a way to succeed in an American life is a choice.

A MANAGER’S JOB

One sees Blankfein growing as a manager in “Streetwise”. He realizes it is necessary to make an investment in the people that report to him and to focus on the synergy of different expertise in the complex world of investment.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Streetwise (Getting to and Through Goldman Sachs)

Author: Lloyd Blankfein

Narration by: Lloyd Blankfein

Lloyd Blankfein (American business executive and former chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs.)

Lloyd Blankfein believes being the smartest person in the room is a mixed blessing. “Streetwise” is a biography of his life. He is educated as a lawyer but becomes an employee of Goldman Sachs when a firm he works for is acquired.

A machine’s ability to recall billions of facts and historical precedence cannot be matched by the human brain.

One gathers from Blankfein that he believes he is usually the smartest person in the room. Considering his accomplishments, one is inclined to believe he understands his intelligence. However, he realizes being smart is not enough for him to be a good manager. Blankfein finds his intelligence and wit can undermine the effectiveness of his direct reports. As a manager of an organization, Blankfein grows to understand success in any company is based on performance of people who report to you.

The interdependence of cultures.

Every company has a culture. The growing success of Goldman is not because of any singular leader. It is the hiring of people who are ambitious and believe that they can do anything their employment requires. One who is hired by an aggressive company like Goldman has the expectation that they can add to the competitive advantage of its growth as a multinational investment and financial services company. Blankfein recognizes he is among managers that held abilities and ideas that often contradicted each other. The culture requires consensus building for the company to act on decisions to either continue or withdraw from corporate actions. Blankfein realizes persuasion rather than command is what has made Goldman successful. It is not one person’s sense of direction that makes a company a success. A good manager focuses on relationship-building to get the best results from the people who report to him or her.

Relationships are always a work in progress.

Blankfein finds he depends on the persuasive abilities of the people who work in the firm. He argues that being anxious about other’s opinions helps him make considered decisions about the direction of the firm. His role in the company became multifaceted with his recognition of different investments as complementary tools for successful growth. Blankfein realizes he does not know everything and that his style of management is to read people well, not to take his position as an entitlement, and to spot talent in others who have a positive track record in their discipline. One can imagine Blankfein’s personality violates those beliefs in his tenure, but what manager of others is perfect.

One suspects, Blankfein was a difficult person to work for but one who benefited the growth and survival of Goldman Sachs. Goldman Sachs and Blankfein, like many American companies and people, lived through the 2001 Trade Center disaster and the 2008 financial crises because of managers like Blankfein.

The importance of government, as well as corporate leadership.

One sees Blankfein growing as a manager in “Streetwise”. He appears to manage a hyper-vigilant temperament without killing messengers who fail by balancing their successes and potential against failure. He realizes it is necessary to make an investment in the people that report to him and to focus on the synergy of different expertise in the complex world of investment.

AMERICA’S JOURNEY

Today, it seems America has taken a step backward from human equality, but every 4 years gives America another opportunity to step forward. That step forward welcomes equality of opportunity for all who choose to become American.

America has come a long way since 1776, but it is far from the goals that it set for itself in the Constitution.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

American Grammer (Race, Education, and the Building of a Nation)

Author: Jarvis R. Givens

Narration by: Bill Andrew Quinn

Jarvis Givens (Professor and scholar of Education at Harvard)

“American Grammar” is a reminder of America’s past which shows the hard truths of what really made America great. In the 19th and 20th centuries, American government attempts to erase the cultural heritage of tribal nations. At the same time, America disingenuously encourages human slavery based on false claims of racial and gender inequality. This history lives on in America today with faltering efforts to compensate tribes for their cultural and economic losses, and its failure to provide equal opportunity for all.

Too many people fail to read or understand history. Not knowing history makes repeating it a likelihood.

America has become one of the most powerful nations in the world. Beyond the natural abundance of its land, Jarvis Givens explains the decision of America’s leadership to create an educational system to ensure white America’s political and economic success.

An educational system is a key to the door of American political and economic success.

Common education, focused on grammar, melds disparate cultures, races, and genders into one nation. The title of Givens’ book “American Grammar” is a testament to the method America uses to create an independent nation. Educational institutions became indoctrination centers designed to teach citizens a common language and the importance of conforming to a primarily white male system of governance.

American inequality.

All people, as implied by the American Constitution, deserve to have equal opportunity based on their innate ability, I.e., regardless of ethnicity, race, or gender. Givens shows how the wealth of native lands that were stolen, support of slavery, and gender inequality became culturally acceptable in America with an education system designed to indoctrinate the public. Givens’ history reminds listeners that building a great nation is a work in progress for every country. America’s Constitution recognizes the importance of human equality, and its leaders have made some progress toward that goal. However, America is far from the goal of equal opportunity for all.

America steps back and forward toward the goal of equality of opportunity in every political election.

Today, it seems America has taken a step backward from human equality, but every 4 years gives America another opportunity to step forward. That step forward welcomes equality of opportunity for all who choose to become American.

CONSCIOUSNESS & AI

A.I. is a tool of human beings and will always be a tool. If Pollan is right that human thought originates with emotion, A.I. regulation, and transparency must be aligned with human values of truth, right conduct, peace, and non-violence. If A.I. is used for military or authoritarian advantage, it may lead to the Armageddon of biblical prediction.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

A World Appears (A Journey into Consciousness)

Author: Michael Pollan

Narration by: Michael Pollan

Michael Pollan (American journalist, author, Lecturer at Harvard University, co-founded the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, received an M.A. in English from Columbia.)

Pollan is not a scientist, but he is a writer who has an opinion about consciousness based on detailed interviews with scientists and consciousness researchers. He defines consciousness as the subjective experience of being alive. Pollan interviews mainstream and recognized researchers like Roland Griffiths, and Robin Carhart-Harris while avoiding fringe theorists. He interviews scientists who are empirically grounded by experimental testing.

Roland Griffiths (Deceased American psychopharmacologist.)
Robin Carhart-Harris (British psychopharmacologist & Professor of Neurology.)
Giulio Tononi (Italian psychiatrist & neuroscientist.)
Stanislas Dehaene (French cognitive neuroscientist.)
Thomas Nagel (Retired American philosopher.)

Pollan also reads the works of Tononi, a neuroscientist who investigates “Integrated Information Theory”, Dahaene, a neuroscientist who researched “Global Neuronal Workspace Theory, and Thomas Nagel, a philosopher who coined the phrase “hard problem of consciousness”. He attacks the subject from multiple angles with experimental research done by plant and animal neurobiologists, AI researchers, and psychologists. What Pollan concludes from his interviews is that consciousness is the felt experience of being alive. This broad conception takes in all life based on interviews Pollan has with many science experts and philosophers who work in broad fields of human, plant, and animal life.

Stefano Mancuso (Italian botanist and writer, a professor at the University of Florence and the director of the International Laboratory of Plant Neurobiology.)

Stefano Mancuso explains vineyard-like plants exhibit consciousness in their drive for growth and survival with roots that behave with “swarm intelligence” to detect a pole nearby. A vinery’s root tips communicate with each other and make a collective decision to grow in a particular direction. Though this process is slower than in the animal kingdom, Mancuso’s experiments show vines preternaturally use their root systems to reach out to a planted pole to improve their growth through photosynthesis. The point of Pollan’s observation about plants is that a brain and neurons may not be required to show and sustain life, but plants appear to exhibit intelligence and sentience without a brain or animal-like nervous system. Plants seem to live without thought or emotion.

The easy part of consciousness is observed cause and effect. The hard part is knowing where cause comes from and why it arises in the first place.

Based on Pollan’s interviews of scientists and philosophers, he develops a central argument that animal/human consciousness comes from life’s need to maintain stability. However, his argument is that sentience does not come from initiated thoughts but from emotions that generate conscious thought. The implications of that belief are frightening because it may explain why consciousness leads to futile war. If thought process is a follower of emotion, reason plays second fiddle to action. Current events in the world show Pollan may be right. Fear of nuclear annihilation may be the cause of America’s futile war with Iran. Russia’s fear of becoming a lesser hegemonic power may be the cause of Ukraine’s territorial theft. If Pollan is correct, the futility of war will never end with emotion as precursor to thought and action.

Pollan’s interviews with representatives of the science and philosophical communities strongly implies human thought is as likely irrational as rational and may or may not be concerned about survival. The threat of A.I. is that it is used to reinforce the irrationality of emotion as a precursor to thought and action.

“Burn-In” is meant to reveal how human-machine integration challenges human society, both ethically and pragmatically.

What comes to mind is that A.I. might be able to assuage irrational decisions but A.I. is of no help if human thought is initially driven by emotions. A.I. only amplifies the harmful potential of irrational human decisions with thoughts only initiated by emotions. One comes away from Pollan’s book with fear.

Information is energy in today’s A.I. world., just as steam was in the industrial revolution.

Pollan ends “A World Appears” with a journey through philosophy that is interesting but unique to him. Some may become distracted by his personal journey, but his view of consciousness is enlightening and frightening.

A.I. is a tool of human beings and will always be a tool. If Pollan is right that human thought originates with emotion, A.I. regulation, and transparency must be aligned with human values of truth, right conduct, peace, and non-violence. If A.I. is used for military or authoritarian advantage, it may lead to the Armageddon of biblical prediction.

NATIVE AMERICANS

Pember’s story of her life is heartbreaking but it reminds one of the harshness of life for every ethnicity and gender that is unfairly treated in society. Regardless of one’s ethnicity–poverty and unequal opportunity are plagues in every society. They are infections with no known cure.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Medicine River (A Story of Survival and the Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools)

Author: Mary Annette Pember

Narration by: Erin Tripp

Mary Annette Pember (Author, national correspondent for ICT News, journalist, descendent of an Ojibwe family.)

Mary Annette Pember offers a firsthand, intergenerational perspective of America’s effort to assimilate native inhabitants of America. She details the 1950s brutality, hunger, impoverishment, humiliation, and emotional neglect that diminished the economic security and sovereignty of a distinct ethnicity (the Ojibwe) in America. From research of Indian boarding school records and her personal experience, she draws a picture of the ignorance, disrespect, and discrimination by white Americans of a culture different than their own. She notes the unmarked graves, survivor testimonies of boarding school experiences, and government investigations that fail to correct the misbegotten effort to destroy a native culture in America. (The name America came from a German cartographer’s labeling of a map to honor Amerigo Vespucci, a Florentine-born merchant, navigator, and explorer in the 15th and early 16th century.)

The multicultural world in which we live.

Her story is not particularly well written, but it clearly documents the ignorance and brutality of a growing white American culture. She presents an emotional truth about American government’s discrimination and why, in modern times, it is still trying to assuage its guilt. Pember’s harsh assessment of nuns who ran early schools for native descendants seems to unfairly discount a stern and punitive habituation that is true of all early “nun-managed” schools in America. In the mid-20th century, Catholic schooling relied heavily on strict order, corporal punishment, and cultural obedience. Their religious vocation reinforced an authority that applied to all students, whether native American or not. That is why the American government chose to create grants to the Catholic Church for indoctrination and education of the Ojibwe and other native Americans.

Protestant and Catholic religions in America.

The U.S. government funded native American Catholic Church schools because of their strict teaching habits. Their teaching style would demand language conformance, common spiritual belief, and reinforce Christian ideals that were acceptable to most of America’s non-native citizens. This is not to minimize the cruelty of these native American boarding schools but to suggest all Catholic schools exercised strict order that went beyond education and devolved into neglect and death in many native American’ boarding schools. The harsh disciplinary treatment of native Americans is worse, but the discipline and teaching methods of Catholic nuns set a horrible precedent that grew out of control in their schools.

Poverty and predation is widespread in the world.

The poverty and predation that Pember reveals in the story of her family’s life grows to be more widespread. The history of America’s treatment of native American tribes is recounted in many books. The constant tribal relocations of the government and murder of native Americans is well documented. Poverty and lack of equal opportunity is shown by Pember to be severe for native Americans just as it was for black Americans. One can only imagine how hard it would be for an Indian woman when all women are equally disadvantaged by poverty and lack of opportunity in the world.

Poverty in the middle east.

Pember’s story of her life is heartbreaking but it reminds one of the harshness of life for every ethnicity and gender that is unfairly treated in society. Regardless of one’s ethnicity–poverty and unequal opportunity are plagues in every society. They are infections with no known cure.

HISTORIES’ RELEVENCE

One cannot deny the relevance of Lowen’s recognition of histories’ distortions, but to infer they are not being corrected by modern times and today’s education is misleading.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Lies My Teacher Told Me, 2nd Edition

Author: Dr. James Loewen

Narration by: L. J. Ganser

James William Loewen (1942-2021, died at age 79, American sociologist, historian, and author.)

Revisiting “Lies My Teacher Told Me” in a second edition is interesting but not as rewarding as when it was first published. Contrary to James Loewen’s opinion in this second edition, the history of famous people and important events have significantly improved. Lowen did a great service to the public when he first wrote “Lies…” because history is written with more objectivity today than in 1995 when his original book is published. He lampoons the education industry by revealing the human fault of textbook historians making people and events of the past imprecise, sometimes wrong, and culturally misleading.

The truth of history is explained by many authors who more deeply invest their time in the history of people, times, and places than textbook summarizations.

Loewen reviewed several published pre-college history books that were being used before 1995 that distorted the importance of major historical events and people. Narrowing the discovery of a new continent to Christopher Columbus and distorting his contribution to exploration in the 15th century is unquestionably exaggerated and misleading. On the other hand, Columbus represents many mariners that risked their lives in sailing thousands of miles away from their known lands to explore the wonders of the earth and sea. The many distortions of the trials of native Americans and sanitized narratives of slavery are an appalling truth of early history books. Pre-college students should be educated on the truth of American Indian trials and the appalling history of slavery. However, even the worst history books in today’s schools show the displacement of native Indians and a Civil War that is about more than States Rights. The details may not be revealed but general events and people are disclosed so that further education can fill in blanks of misleading characterizations.

Abraham Lincoln proposes a plan to ship all American Negroes to another country to solve the issue of slavery.  That does not change the fact that Lincoln executes the emancipation proclamation that frees American slaves.

As one raised in the 1960s, the distortions of which Loewen writes have largely been corrected by revisionist histories. Anyone who has learned to read cannot help but recognize inaccurate information they received in their school days. Maybe today’s schoolbooks are still inaccurate and incomplete, but no one can escape the evidence offered by the media of modern times. The lies told in history books are revealed by our living in the 21st century. Today’s pre-college textbooks may still sanitize, simplify, and distort the truth of history, but education never stops as we get older. There are many Martin Luther King believers today that are spreading the truth of American slavery’s history and white America’s continued discrimination based on the color of one’s skin.

Gender inequality is revealed by many books and experiences of society in the modern world.

Believing men and women are equal is a work in process despite the distorted inequality illustrated in school textbooks. The evidence is in the growing importance of women in business and politics in America. Misinformation is still causing societal polarization but every successful woman and person of color in modern times shows that change is coming and it is inevitable. As the Declaration of Independence noted “all men are created equal” despite the existence of slavery and unequal treatment of women in America.

One cannot deny the relevance of Lowen’s recognition of histories’ distortions, but to argue they are not being corrected by modern times and today’s education is misleading.

There is little solace for people of color and women that continue to be discriminated against, but hope remains for tomorrow. There are setbacks but, as Martin Luther King said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

Decisions We Make

Our decisions, when faced with good and bad events, make us who we are in life.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Midnight Library (A Novel)

Author: Matt Haig

Narration by: Carey Muligan

Matt Haig (Author, English journalist.)

Looking back at one’s life one wonders what our lives may have been if we chose differently. “The Midnight Library” cleverly explores that idea with a character named Nora. Nora decides to commit suicide by overdosing. With the effect of whatever drugs Nora has chosen, she enters a state between life and death. The reader/listener and Nora enter a surreal library filled with books about Nora’s many lives. It is called “The Midnight Library”. It is a library of books about an infinity of lives that Nora has lived and different decisions she has made when faced with good and bad events in her life.

The decisions we make as we grow older change our lives in an infinite number of ways. Every book in “The Midnight Library” is based on different lives Nora has lived. Her age and experience in each book differ based on decisions she has made during each life she has lived. Her decisions and their consequences are recorded in the books of her “…Midnight Library”.

Nora enters an in-between world managed by a librarian named Mrs. Elm. Elm is a guide or gatekeeper of Nora’s many lives based on decisions she has made in each singular life. Mrs. Elm is a re-creation of Nora’s school librarian who had given her attention, advice, and care as a schoolgirl. Mrs. Elm becomes Nora’s guide in “The Midnight Library”. The library is filled with books of an infinite number of Nora’s lives based on different personal decisions she has made in her nuclear family, i.e., in each library book, Nora is a daughter with the same mother, father, and brother.

History of one person’s life with many different outcomes.

One’s life experience has consequences.

Mrs. Elm appears to be the embodiment of Nora’s will to live and would undoubtedly disappear if Nora dies from her attempt at suicide. It seems Elm is trying to show Nora life’ opportunities are infinite based on the smallest and biggest decisions she makes in her life. Of course, this is meant to suggest a truth about all lives. However, one wonders how human beings can know their future based on decisions they have made in their life. Knowing that one will either regret, despair, or benefit from big and small decisions seems dependent on too many variables for our intelligence or nature to know or predict.

The author argues every decision we make has a consequence in our lives.

A midnight library illustrates the value of knowing the results of our decisions in life, but it tells little about the cumulative impact of regrets that accompany those decisions. Making decisions in life may end with regret because of unexpected consequences to ourselves or those close to us. The result of decisions we make in our lives unfold slowly. In that unfolding, we change our minds, we adapt to new circumstances that were unforeseen. There are too many things that happen in the course of one’s life to assure any end result we seek. Perfect understanding of the consequences of decisions we make is impossible to know. What Haig infers is that life and living are imperfect, often filled with pain, and unanticipated consequences. It is how we deal with good and bad events in our life that make us who we become.

Nora risks her life to enter “The Midnight Library”. The consequence of overdose can be incapacity, brain damage, or death.

One continues to listen to Haig’s story and wonders if Nora survives her overdose. One may think this is a novel about a “many worlds” hypothesis created by Hugh Everett III in 1957, but it is not a story about alternative universes. It is a story about human beings on earth with a point of view about human decision making and its consequence in our lives. One comes away from “The Midnight Library” knowing no life is perfect. Just being alive and learning how to cope with what is good and bad in life is all that counts.

All humans make decisions based on incomplete information. Our ability to cope, our curiosity, and participation in life keeps us connected with society. Haig implies being connected to our humanity is the best we can do as human beings. Our decisions, when faced with good and bad events, make us who we are in life.

A CONSCIOUS WORLD

Van Pelt shows human connection comes from unexpected places. Her story shows what it means to belong to a family and how truth, as painful as it may be, is something one must accept and move on. One can imagine the book being read to or by all generations.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Remarkably Bright Creatures (A Novel)

Author: Shelby Van Pelt

Narration by: Marin Ireland, Michael Urie

Shelby Van Pelt (Author, debut novel for American author who was raised in the Pacific NW but now lives in the Chicago area with her husband and children.)

Van Pelt’s first book is an entertaining novel about every generation of conscious living things in the world. The main characters are Tova Sullivan, Cameron Cassmore (both of which are humans), and Marcellus who is an octopus living in an aquarium. One can imagine reader/listeners from children to adults being entertained by the author’s view of sentient life.

Van Pelt’s story is about every generation of life.

Tova is a 70-year-old widow who works as a cleaner for an aquarium in which Marcellus, the octopus, lives. Tova has lost her husband and son but chooses to work at an aquarium until she has a tripping accident that makes her realize it is time to retire. Tova learns of Marcellus’s consciousness when the octopus reaches out to grasp her arm. He leaves suction marks on her arm but does no harm.

Cameron Cassmore is 30, mostly unemployed and a directionless adult looking for a father he has never known. He is abandoned by his mother at age 9 to an aunt that looks after him and wonders about a father he knows nothing about. He finds his mother’s high school yearbook to find a picture that suggests his mother dated a boy that might be his father. The boy who might be his father had become a well-known and successful developer in the state of Washington, so he decides to track him down.

A story about life and living.

A reader/listener gets drawn into the story because of Marcellus, the octopus, that happens to be in the Washington town Cameron travels to in search of his father. Cameron is characterized as a person with high intelligence and a photographic memory. He needs a job when he arrives in Washington because his effort to find his father is taking more time than expected. He contacts his alleged father’s corporation, but contact is delayed by the corporation’s slow response to his request for a meeting. The reason for the delay is unclear but eventually they meet.

Octopus aquarium.

The job Cameron finds in the meantime is at the Washington aquarium while Tovah is recovering from an injury to her ankle that keeps her from her job as a custodian. Cameron is introduced to Marcellus who preternaturally knows about a secret about Tovah’s relationship to Cameron. Tovah is Cameron’s grandmother.

The story retains its interest because of the characterization of Marcellus and the fate of Cameron and his grandmother, but its complexity is a bit tiresome. “Remarkably Bright Creatures” is a story that suggests all life in the animal kingdom has consciousness that is underestimated by human beings.

FAMILY.

Van Pelt shows human connection comes from unexpected places. Her story shows what it means to belong to a family and how truth, as painful as it may be, is something one must accept and move on. One can imagine the book being read to or by all generations.

IRAN’S FUTURE?

This is a powerful story that shows the strength and importance of women in Iran despite their harsh and unequal treatment.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Lion Women of Tehran

Author: Marjan Kamali

Narration by: Mozhan Navabi & 1 more

Marjan Kamali (Author, Iranian-American novelist, born in Turkey to Iranian parents, lived in Kenya and Iran before moving to the U.S. in 1982, received a BA in English literature from U. of California, an MBA from Columbia, and MFA from NY University.)

Marjan Kamali’s book is an informed fictional view of Iran in its transition from monarchy to Islamic Republic to an unknown future, i.e., a future made more complicated by America’s invasion. Its two main characters are Ellie and Homa, two pre-school children that grow to adulthood in Tehran. It is written by an author with Iranian parents that gives some credibility to her story about women in Iran during rule by a former Shah and today’s ayatollahs.

Kamali describes an upper-class Iranian family that experiences a fall from wealth and a return to the upper middle-class during the Shah’s reign. Ellie’s mother loses her husband to tuberculosis and has to leave their upper-class home because of his death. They move to a home in a lower-class neighborhood near the beginning of Ellie’s grade-school years. Ellie’s mother is crest-fallen by her move but appears to make the best of what she seems to believe is a temporary circumstance. In their fall from wealth, Ellie meets a precocious young girl of the same age. Her name is Homa.

The ideals of communism is a preferred alternative to royal leadership by some Iranians.

Homa becomes Ellie’s friend and gives one an idea of the difference between families in the 1950s that have no wealth who might challenge monarchy for a different form of government. Homa’s father believes in communism and is imprisoned by the shah for his activity.

MOHAMMAD REZA SHA PAHLAVI (The deposed shah of Iran in 1979.)

Ellie, because of her upper-class upbringing, is initially reluctant to engage Homa but is lured into her orbit by her exuberant personality and Homa’s family’s friendliness. They become close friends despite their different economic backgrounds. What one gathers from Kamali’s story is an historical view of the circumstances of Iran before the revolution. Homa believes communism is a better form of government than rule by a King and chooses to follow her father’s beliefs. Homa is eventually imprisoned. However, her sentence includes being raped by her imprisoner. A daughter is born from that rape when she is eventually released. Iran of the 1950s is a country of the rich and poor with growing discontent with a monarchal government that seems to care little about the circumstances of the poor. An attempted coup in 1953 illustrates the rising dissent of the Iranian people.

Ellie’s mother remarries and returns to an upper-class life and Ellie loses touch with Homa. In the 1960s, Ellie pursues higher education and re-connects with Homa at a school that Homa attends because of her intelligence, her earned income from part time work, and help from her family that supports her interest in becoming well-educated. The renewed friendship becomes a focus of great changes that eventually lead to the 1979 revolution.

Kamali cleverly tells a story of three generations of women from Tehran who survive the 1979 revolution and the repression of the Ayatollahs in Iran. Ellie and Homa are the principal characters of “The Lion Women of Iran” but two girl descendants of Homa are meant to show the strength and continuity of Iran’s people. Whether Kamali’s fictional characters are real or not, the author’s point is that many Iranians are determined to have a country that is ruled better than by either a Shah or Ayatollah.

This is a powerful story that shows the strength and importance of women in Iran despite their harsh and unequal treatment.

Gender Inequality

Raising children is the responsibility of all, i.e., both mothers and fathers, and the society in which they live. The future depends on our children.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Lessons in Chemistry (A Novel)

Author: Bonnie Garmus

Narration by: Miranda Raison & 2 more

Bonnie Garmus (American author and former copywriter.)

Bonnie Garmus’s main character represents the truth of gender inequality in society. The author’s main character, Elisabeth Zott, is an example of a woman who achieves success despite gender discrimination. As an idealized character, Zott represents a brilliant woman who is smarter, more self-motivated, and confident than any other character in “Lessons in Chemistry”. Zott is a self-educated woman who overcomes the ignorance of personal and social inequality. She is an aspiring scientist who is derailed in her career by male associates who steal her research and claim it as their own. It is presumed by the research firm for which she works that her science papers come from association with her male partner’s accomplishments rather than her own work. Zott’s value is believed to be her attractive appearance rather than her intellect, personal work, and ambition.

Equal opportunity in society is a fiction.

Zott’s male partner is a renowned scientist in the same scientific research firm for which Zott is employed. They become an intimate couple with marriage on the mind of the man, but independence insisted upon by Zott. Her companion dies in an accident and Zott is left with what is an unexpected pregnancy. Alone with a child, Zott presumes she will continue to work at the research firm but is fired by the male director of the enterprise because of her having a baby out of wedlock. Zott uses what financial savings she has to create a research lab in her house, raise her child, and find another source of employment. The author illustrates how motherhood, particularly for a single woman, limit women’s opportunity in society. The responsibilities of life for a woman with child and no partner often trap women in poverty.

How Zott escapes a life of poverty is a meaningful fairy tale in Garmus’s story.

Zott is hired by a TV production manager to host a cooking show. Zott’s intelligence and experience as a chemist combine with her drive for independence to make the show a success. What Bonnie Garmus shows is the mountain for success one climbs as a single woman is steeper and more difficult than it is for men. The “Lessons in Chemistry” are that a woman’s right to think, work, and live independently are denied because equal opportunity and equal pay is thwarted by gender-related discrimination.

All in society, both male and female, need to step up to their responsibility for raising children.

The “Lessons in Chemistry” suggest men need to step up in society and take responsibility for gender inequality by providing an environment that allows women to achieve the same level of success as men–whatever that success may be to the individual. Raising children is the responsibility of all, i.e., both mothers and fathers, and the society in which they live. The future depends on our children.