Category: FICTION

FREE WILL

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Brothers Karamazov
By Fyodor Dostoevsky

Narrated by Walter Covell

Fyodor Dostoevsky (Russian Novelist, 1821-1881)

Twenty years before Sigmund Freud’s “…Psychopathology of Every Day Life”, Fyodor Dostoevsky penetrates man’s subconscious to reveal unnamed frames of mind that influence human behavior. 

Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis (1856-1939)

All of Dostoevsky’s writing probes the human mind allowing listener/readers to hear unspoken thought and vicariously experience the consequence of singular deliberation.

Human aggression, compassion, love, and hate possess “The Brothers Karamazov”.  The origins of these feelings are nakedly exposed in the murder of “The Brothers…” hedonistic father.

One of four brothers is suspected to be a murderer.  The oldest brother is a student intellectual, a middle brother is an effusive pleasure seeker, and the youngest is a pious seminarian.  A lurking illegitimate fourth son (aged somewhere between the oldest and youngest) adds to Dostoevsky’s tale of parricide.

The irony of isolated thought and deliberation is that it can lead to genius or horrendous crime. The first might be a Paul Dirac or Volodymyr Zelensky; the second a Ted Bundy or Vladimir Putin.

Theodore Robert Bundy was an American serial killer, kidnapper, rapist, burglar, and necrophiliac (1946-1989) Electrocuted–1989 in a Florida prison.

“The Brothers Karamazov” introduces Ivan Karamazov, an intellectual agnostic. Ivan’s agnosticism and misanthropy contrasts with his younger brother, Alyosha.  Alyosha is a character reminiscent of an earlier Dostoevsky’ work (“The Idiot”) who exemplified man’s goodness in a life lived in contemplation and moderation.

“The Brother’s Karamazov” illustrates life’s contrasts with Alyosha, a saintly hero and Ivan, a deluded manipulator of human events. Both live lives of contemplation but one chooses to become a monk; the other an intellectual misfit.

God, free will, lust, innocence, guilt, and responsibility play out in thoughts and actions of the four brothers.  If free will exists, where does it begin and end?  Are we free?  Are we driven by human nature or by God’s plan to become who we are; and to do what we do? 

If you teach someone to hate as Ivan teaches Smerdyakov, his illegitimate brother, are you innocent of actions taken by those whom you teach?  Does a teacher have any guilt; any responsibility for bad actions of the student? 

As an intellectual, Ivan explains he does not believe in God.  And later, he denies any responsibility for his father’s murder.  His beliefs lead him to despair when he realizes Smerdyakov is the murderer. 

Ivan eventually takes moral responsibility for his father’s death.  At the end, Ivan seems on the verge of reassessing his belief in God; i.e. an assessment dear to Dostoevsky’s life and a subject espied in all his work.

The question of free will is challenged by the history of the Karamazov family.  Every characteristic of the brothers is reminiscent of a part of their father’s strengths and weaknesses. 

All of the brothers in varying degrees are molded into who they are by their paternal father and their Holy Father.  The evidence of their Holy Father’s role is exhibited by the guilt ridden consciences of everyone but Smerdyakov. Finally, with Ivan’s final acceptance of responsibility for his father’s murder, Dostoevsky concludes an argument against free will.

Fyodor Dostoevsky brilliantly expands the value of literature with his insight into the relationship between thought, instinct, and action. Ivan’s broader intellect, and Smerdyrkov’s lesser intellect informs their actions. Instinct informs Mitya’s action. Religious belief informs Alyosha’s action.

The characters in Dostoevsky’s imagination are incarnations of religious belief. In “…Brothers Karamazov” each character’s life is prescriptive. Life is either designed by genetic inheritance or fulfillment of God’s plan. One suspects Dostoevsky believes the second more than the first.

ROBERT FROST

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Fall of Frost


By Brian Hall
Narrated by Dick Hill

BRIAN HILL (AMERICAN AUTHOR)

If you are not presently an Audio book fan, this is a book that might expand your literary horizon.  Without any intent to diminish Brian Hall’s skill as a novelist, “Fall of Frost” is a better book to listen to than read. 

ROBERT FROST (AMERICAN POET 1874-1963)
“Fall of Frost” is a fictional portrayal of “four time” Pulitzer Prize winning American poet, Robert Frost.  Dick Hill’s narration smoothly transitions from prose to poetry in his beautiful presentation of Brian Hall’s fascinating rendition of Robert Frost’s life.

This is not a biography.  It is a work of fiction grounded in historic events of a poet’s life.  It is an author’s projection of what Robert Frost thought when he wrote a poem; when he met world movers and shakers, or when he gave speeches at famous gatherings.

Hall escapes tedious fact reporting by capturing moments of Frost’s life.  When Frost meets with Khrushchev in 1962, he is nearing the end of his life. 

The story makes a listener feel Frost’s age by describing a long flight and revealing ruse’s of old age; i.e. like saying “what did you say” when what you really want is more time to think of a response.

Hall speculates on what might be going through Frost’s mind.  When Frost offered a poetry reading at Kennedy’s inauguration, he missed a line of his own poem; Hall writes like he knows Frost’s thoughts showing Frost’s frustration over his mistake.

“Fall of Frost” entertains and informs by revealing events in Frost’s life that influenced his poetry.  By shedding the category of non-fiction, Hall manages to create believable circumstances of a life that created famous poems like “The Road Not Taken” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”.

No, this is not a biography but it gives a context to events in Robert Frost’s life that can be found in history books.

The prose of Hall and poetry of Frost are wonderful to hear, regardless of the precise facts of Frost’s life.

Amanda Gorman seems a youthful replacement for Robert Frost–her poetic presentation at the Biden/Harris Inauguration is beautifully rendered on a page of the WSJ in 2021.

After listening to Fall of Frost, an audiophile or bibliophile will have a better appreciation of who Robert Frost was and what he represented in America and the world.

NIHILISM

Book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

The Winner Stands Alone


By Paulo Coelho

PAULO COELHO (BRAZILIAN AUTHOR, WRITER, LYRICIST)

Every life is a world.  Paulo Coelho’s The Winner Stands Alone magnifies the ephemeral nature of money, power, and fame.  After reading “The Winner…” one might conclude–in life, we stand alone; in death, we die alone.

However, Coelho suggests something different, i.e., we stand or die but are accompanied by either a good or bad angel.  It seems Coelho believes human existence is a fulfillment of destiny. Coelho implies there is no free will.

The Winner Stands Alone is a love-it or leave-it experience.  If it is a first exposure to Coelho, a reader will likely leave it.

Coelho also wrote “The Alchemist” which is a preordained destiny story but it is more hopeful in the sense that when one dreams, dreams can become reality. It speaks to the power of conviction, self-understanding, and never giving up.

“The Winner Stands Alone” is a dark tale, cleverly written about the world of glitz, glamour, fame, and fortune.  Set in Cannes during Festival, the vacuity of a nihilist’s life is stripped bare.

In “The Winner Stands Alone” Coelho cleverly reveals an evil protagonist’s nihilism.


Coelho’s “Winner…” is a nihilist who believes that existence has no objective meaning or intrinsic value. His belief inures to nothingness. 

Coelho’s main character, Igor, is a Russian millionaire.  Igor is a “Heisenberg-like” character with skills of a killer, passions of a romantic, and intelligence of a savant.  Igor lives by instinct, like a viper with a human brain.  He creates a demented plan to recover the love of his ex-wife. 

Igor’s plan is to destroy worlds (the lives of others) to demonstrate depth of love for a woman who has abandoned him.  Igor murders several of Cannes’ rich attendees and one poor shop girl with each victim losing their personal world of experience and existence. 

Igor sends IMs to his ex-wife at the end of each murder.  Each destroyed world punctuates Igor’s arrival and pending reunion with his lost love.  The reunion caps Coelho’s story.

NIHILISM : THE BELIEF THAT ONE LIFE, OR ANY LIFE IS MEANINGLESS.

“So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year.

Trump’s nihilist view of life & the economy–Earlier this year, there were 3,428,462 confirmed cases of Corona Virus, with 137,613 American deaths. Today, over 1,000,000 Americans have died.

What is Vladimir Putin’s destiny? He and Donald Trump seem fellow travelers.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin shake hands as they hold a joint news conference after their meeting in Helsinki, Finland, July 16, 2018. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger

An aspiring Cannes’ police detective, like Hercule Peoirot, recognizes a serial murderer is at work before Igor’s reunion takes place.  The detective recounts former serial murderer cases to reveal common threads of intent.  Igor’s intent is seen by the detective as a message that, once delivered, will stop the serial killing at the Cannes’ festival.

What may keep a reader reading “The Winner Stands Alone” is the desire to know how the story will end.  Will Igor be caught?  Is human existence a fulfillment of destiny or life lived by instinct? Is there a difference?

BEING AND NOTHINGNESS

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand

By Helen Simonson

Narrated by Peter Altschuler

Helen Simonson (English author)

“Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand” is Helen Simonson’s literary debut.  The book begins like a locomotive chugging up hill but ends as a journey well taken.

This is a love story. It is also a story about an age demographic inelegantly described as a “pig in the python”; i.e. baby boomers that are born after the end of WWII (between 1946 and 1964).  Major Pettigrew is a fictional father of a baby boomer. 

Pettigrew believes in an internalized moral code and endeavors to live by it.  Emulation comes from one who sees a person act with reasoned opinions based on lived life.  Denigration comes from “boomers” that see a person trapped in the past and unwilling to change with the times.

Though Major Pettigrew is a retired English military officer, widowed and living in a small town in England, he represents what human’s emulate and denigrate. 

Pettigrew’s adult son is what David Reisman, in “The Lonely Crowd”, calls an “other directed” person that lives by a code based on perceived values of the day.  The code is highly malleable.  It is created by friends, family, business and societal influence.  The son’s conduct changes with his perception of other’s beliefs.  In contrast, the Major lives by an internalized code based on personal life experience. This difference creates conflict. 

One of Simonson’s examples of father/son conflict is in the sale of a matched set of antique guns.

The son wants to sell; the father does not.  The son acts from consciousness of societal norms that value things in dollars and cents.  The father acts from consciousness of what the guns mean to him in life experience.

Simonson creates a love story that makes the same point.  Jasmina Ali comes into Major Pettigrew’s life.  She is a Pakistani widow at age 50, several years younger than the Major.  The son is shocked by his father’s dalliance with a non-English widow.  His son is more concerned about how the village views the relationship than how his father feels. 

Simonson elaborates on this view of love by showing the son engaged to a young American woman that idealizes the English countryside.  She envisions having an idyllic country refuge, away from the city, to emulate English aristocracy.  The American asks the son to co-purchase a cottage near his father.  Major Pettigrew sees that the purchase is based on an image of English nobles oblige; not the substance of a home.

The son compounds “boomer” generation “other directness”. He changes his mind based on what society may think of him. He distances himself from his American fiancé to court an English aristocrat. The aristocrat offers higher social and financial reputation.  Major Pettigrew is mystified by his son’s fickle change of heart.


The climax of this story is skewed toward an appreciation of the “inner directed” nature of Major Pettigrew.  Major Pettigrew acts with courage and conviction to save a life, though it costs one of his beloved personal possessions.  He also rescues his paramour from the refuse of English and Pakistani prejudice.  Pettigrew makes his “…Last Stand”.

In 1950, David Reisman writes in “The Lonely Crowd” that “other directness” is a symptom of a civilization’s incipient decline.

FAULTS OF HUMANITY

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Illustrated Man
By Ray Bradbury

Narrated by Paul Michael Garcia (this version not available at Audible)

Ray Bradbury (1920-2012, American Author and screenwriter)

Flights of imagination sparkle and spin in this updated 1950s classic by Ray Bradbury, “The Illustrated Man” and its accompanying short stories.

Bradbury writes stories that remind one of late night re-runs of Rod Serling’s “Twilight Zone”.  (Serling died in 1975.) Every episode sparkles with stars and planets, habitable by man but riddled with fear, death, and destruction. 

Bradbury grasps human nature and turns it against itself by writing stories that illustrate man’s selfishness, insecurity, wantonness, and aggression.

Tattoos come alive on rippling skin to act out a series of plays about mankind’s future.  Everyone fears the illustrated man because his tattoos expose the worst in man. 

Bradbury writes a story showing nuclear cataclysm will end life on earth.  Traveling to other planets changes mankind’s environment but man’s nature remains the same.

These are not happy stories but they are great flights of imagination.  Bradbury tells a story of human exile and deprivation that heightens human selfishness.

When personal reward is dangled in front of exiled and deprived human beings, the dangled reward is stolen by one to keep it from the many. In the end the reward is destroyed by the selfishness of each against the other.  

As the psychologist Erich Fromm notes: Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction. 

Insecurity and envy are devouring beasts in the story of a planet blessed by an appearance of a Visitor (presumably Jesus) just before a rocket ship lands on the planet that has been visited.

The ship’s captain disbelieves it has happened. The captain who lives here is living in paradise. He is driven to track down this Visitor rather than settle in the secure surroundings of a blessed world.  The captain is left to wander the universe, never to arrive in time to actually see the Visitor. 

Wantonness is illustrated by the husband that is unhappily married.  He duplicates himself.  His duplicate takes his place beside his wife so so the real husband can buy a ticket to Rio to exercise his fantasy. 

The duplicate is so perfect it becomes as human as the husband.  When the wanton husband returns from Rio, the duplicate puts him in a box to die. The duplicate then buys a ticket for the wife to accompany him to Rio. 

Human kind is aggressive.  Humans conquer and destroy civilizations.  Bradbury creates a world of the future invaded by humans. The humans destroy its civilization.

The remnants of the destroyed civilization prepare for a second visit from mankind. The remnants of the city devour the humans of the second visit and assume their bodies. These doppelgangers plan to return to earth to destroy those who had destroyed them.

Bradbury is a master story teller.  Paul Michael Garcia’s narration is a tribute to Bradbury’s skill.

UNBRIDLED CAPITALISM

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

White Tiger

By Aravind Adiga

Narrated by John Lee

ARAVIND ADIGA, INDO-AUSTRAILIAN AUTHOR, Winner of the Booker Prize in 2008 for “White Tiger”.

“White Tiger” pictures the chasm between haves and have-nots. It reminds one of “Native Son”.  Like “Native Son”, “White Tiger” speaks about the ugly consequence of discrimination and poverty. 

A big difference between “White Tiger” and “Native Son” is in the tragi-comic rendition of “White Tiger” on Netflix. One wonders if “White Tiger” is meant to be satire or a reflection on a flaw of capitalist self-interest. Maybe both.

A visiting dignitary from China is given a note by a former Indian servant who describes his entrepreneurial success in India.  The servant tells the story of his rise from the second lowest caste in India to successful entrepreneur. He is from a lower caste of the poor, but now he is rich.

The caste system remains strong in India. Having traveled there in 2018, our tourist guide notes his family is from the warrior class.

undefined

In speaking of his daughter, he explains that though he has limited control over whom she marries, his biggest concern is that she marry within her class. Caste ancestry still binds and defines much of India’s culture.

In “White Tiger”, Balram is the main character. Balram is an uneducated but clever observer of society. He is acutely aware of his position in life. 

Balram is destined to be a breaker of social convention. 

In India (and around the world) changing sociopolitical ideals, collapsing religious belief, deteriorating family ties, and human nature’s “good and evil” amplify the chasm between rich and poor.  

An irony of Balram’s story is that it is between two countries that have different political philosophies; i.e. one, democratic; the other communist. Their socioeconomic maladies are similar.  Both countries have dense populations, high industrial growth, and consequential environmental degradation. The common thread is China‘s and India’s drive toward capitalism.  

Balram considers himself a social entrepreneur who becomes a successful capitalist by breaking social convention. His broken convention is murder.

As the Indian servant’s story progresses, Richard Wright’s “Native Son”  and Adiga’s “White Tiger” metaphorically meet. Both carry out wanton murders of sociologically ignorant human beings. 

Bigger Thomas (the main character in “Native Son”) and Balram are one side of a capitalist’s coin, minted by poor education, poverty, and discrimination.  Their capitalist reality corrupts thought and action.

“White Tiger”, like “Native Son”, is a world warning about the consequence of the growing chasm between rich and poor; i.e. as long as societies believe that “a rising tide lifts all boats”, discontent and hostile action of the poor is the main thing that will rise.

Lack of prudent regulation of capitalism leads to the worst in human nature. Even though “prudent” is in the eyes of the beholder, ignoring the poor is a monumental failure of any society, whether capitalist or communist. Equality of education and opportunity are capitalism’s saving grace but grace is not natural to man; i.e. prudent regulation of human nature is required.

“White Tiger” is a credible warning of the danger of unbridled capitalism.

MEN

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Sports Writer
By Richard Ford
Narrated by Richard Poe

JOHN FORD (AMERICAN AUTHOR)

Selecting books from book lists like Random House’s Modern Library is not a full proof method for making good choices.  The decision to listen to Richard Ford's “The Sportswriter” came from one of those lists.  "The Sportswriter" deserves its place on the list because it offers societal insight.
The initial impression of "The Sportswriter" is that it is a story about wandering through life.  But as it progresses, the listener begins to realize that Richard Ford is writing about men and how some view life.
The main character is a guy's guy because he has the ability to charm women into thinking he is the man of their dreams.  He does not convince every woman of his commitment and interest but he manages to touch all the bases before he is called out.     
This is not a story that makes one proud to be a man but it offers insight to why the cliché "men are from Mars" has some truth. Ford's main character is a guy's guy named Frank Bascombe.  He is a traveling sports writer and a divorcée of his own making, a fool that fails to understand what is important in life.  After his marriage break up, he is cast adrift to find the next best thing which never turns into anything important.
Relationships for Bascombe become momentary escapes from real life, real life where good and bad things happen.  Real life for Bascombe is romance and break up without commitment.  What he does not understand is commitment helps humans work through the bad things in life to get to the next good.  Women seem to understand that better than men.  Women may wonder why men think seduction skill is the key to paradise.  Some would say it is 3000 years of genetic inheritance and experience.  Of course, that is a Martian's perception of reality.
The irony of a guy's guy skill to seduce is that it leads to a lonely and empty life. David Riesman characterized this phenomena as people becoming "other directed" rather than "inner directed"; i.e. looking to society to determine who you are; rather than looking within oneself. 
 
In Ford's story, “The Sportswriter”, Bascombe drifts through life from relationship to relationship to nowhere.  He never comes to grips with what is wrong with his life.  He drifts to Retirementville, Florida to think about the next best thing.  That is how the story ends.  It is a rather depressing exploration of how vacuous life can be. 
This is a book that gives a concrete explanation of what some men are looking for in life.
When listening to The Sportswriter, you may find someone you know; hopefully not you.

HUMAN FRAGILITY

Though cultures around the world are different, honesty and respect level cultural differences, and reveal how human justice is universal.

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

A Passage to India
By E. M. Forster

Narrated by Sam Dastor

E. M. FORSTER (ENGLISH NOVELIST 1879-1970)

Considered by some to be one of the best novels ever written, “A Passage to India” exposes human fragility.  The story is beautifully narrated by Sam Dastor but the poetry of E. M. Forster’s writing shines best in its reading.

Published in 1924, “A Passage to India” is a primer on colonialism, ethnocentrism, and discrimination. 

Forster shows human nature is immutable and omnipresent, a force of good and evil.

Forster introduces Dr. Aziz, a Muslim Indian physician, Cyril Fielding, a British school master who teaches at a college for Indians, Mrs. Moore, the mother of a British magistrate governing India, and Adela Quested, a school teacher considering engagement to the British magistrate.  There are many more characters, but these four characters exemplify the best and worst of being human.  They carry the principle thread of life and what it means to be human.

History is replete with stories of nations, governments, leaders, and corporations that believe they know best for those they dominate.  Because self-interest (a lauded and reviled quality of human beings) pervades society, it distorts nations’, governments’, and corporations’ actions and decisions.

In the early the 20th century, the British govern India’s people by imposing their own vision of what is best for India.  The British leadership is convinced that their culture is superior to India’s; not unlike America’s belief that Anglo/American culture is superior to American Indian culture in centuries past and present.

When Adela Quested and Mrs. Moore ask to meet local Indians, a British city collector arranges a party for newcomers to India to meet locals.

The party is depicted as a crashing bore by British wives who gather on one side of the dance floor, demean Indian dress, habit, and intelligence.  On the other side of the floor, Indian wives wish they were somewhere else.  The British city collector mingles with Indian leaders as a duty of office. The city collector feels he offers high recognition; first, by inviting Indian guests and then by crossing the floor to say hello.

Ethnocentrism is clearly pictured in Forster’s book. The newcomers to India, Mrs. Moore and Ms. Quested, feel they are not seeing the real India at the party. They suggest a visit to an Indian household. 

Cyril Fielding, an admirer of Indian culture, suggests an outing be arranged for Mrs. Moore, Ms. Quested, and Dr. Aziz.  Fielding offers the idea of a visit to ancient caves outside of town. 

Arrangements are made for the next day.  In exploring the caves, Ms. Quested and Dr. Aziz are separated from Mrs. Moore.  Ms. Quested enters a cave by herself; she feints and thinks she has been assaulted.  Dr. Aziz is arrested. 

In the course of a trial for the alleged assault, discrimination is on display.  Ms. Quested is faced with great pressure from her British compatriots to verify details of the assault. She realizes she has made a false accusation and recants. Dr. Aziz is vindicated.

The ugliness of colonialism (cultural domination), ethnocentrism, and discrimination is exemplified in Forster’s beautifully crafted story.

Thankfully, the characters of Mr. Fielding, Mrs. Moore, and Ms. Quested give a sliver of hope for mankind’s redemption, a hope for cultural respect and truth.  Though cultures around the world are different, honesty and respect level cultural differences, and reveal how human justice is universal.

BLINK OF THE EYE

Audio-book Review

By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)

Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Overstory

THE OVERSTORY

By Richard Powers

Narrated by Suzanne Toren

RICHARD POWERS (AUTHOR, AMERICAN PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH)

RICHARD POWERS (AUTHOR, AMERICAN PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH)

Humanity’s years of life are but a blink of an eye.  Richard Powers, like Cervantes’ Don Quixote, tilts at a windmill that neither generates power, grinds corn, or pumps water.

You love Powers way with words but come away from “The Overstory” feeling like Quixote’s relatives–mourning his loss of sanity but rejoicing in his belief of love and life.

Humans think themselves the center of the universe.  To we puny creatures, no life is more important than human life.  Powers argues otherwise.

Humans are not the center of the universe.  Humans are part of an ecosystem; a system millions of years older.  A conclusion drawn by “The Overstory” is that the earth’s ecosystem will live millions of years after humans are gone.

TREE HUGGER

Powers tells a story that offers slim hope for humanity.  A congregation of misfits grow to understand the frailty of humanity and its essential need to support nature.  “The Overstory” begins in seemingly random stories of disparate characters who become part of a group of revolutionaries.  In some parts of the country, they are called “tree huggers”.

Powers forcefully develops the argument that trees are the foundation and future of life.  Every tree tells natures’ story of birth, life, death, and rebirth.  Every character in Powers’ story either supports forest preservation through protest or example.

TREE OF LIFE

Powers’ story is about the preservation of all life.

In Power’s story, a protest results in an accidental death.  It is a story of a husband and wife who symbolize the importance of a singular tree that cannot speak in a language that people can understand.

ECO-TERRORIST INCIDENT IN CALIFORNIA 2006

ECO-TERRORIST INCIDENT IN CALIFORNIA 2006

The protest is by a disparate group of eco-terrorists who sabotage a lumber harvesting company’s property.  One of the rebels dies from a firebomb meant to stop the harvest.  The consequence is the death of one, and the guilt carried by surviving rebels.  Those who survive, get on with their lives.  Many years after the incident, two of the participants are caught.  One chooses to implicate another to receive a lighter (7 year) sentence.  The other is sentenced to two seventy-year life sentences.

Powers’ symbolic example of human ecological ignorance is a highly successful corporate lawyer who has a stroke and cannot communicate with his wife.  He deeply loves his wife, but she insists on being free of any ownership by another, whether from love or physical possession.

The lawyer reminds one of trees that live but cannot communicate with humans.  His wife chooses to stay with him in his tree-like existence and begins to realize how he sees and understands without being able to clearly communicate.  She is free and begins to comprehend what freedom means when she looks out the window and interprets what her husband sees.

If there is revelation in Power’s story, it is not human centered.  The only slender hope Powers offers is for the language of trees to be understood by humanity.  The disparaging term “tree huggers” implies there is no hope.

In travels around the world, one sees our world in crises. Indigenous Chinese drink bottled water. An India’ guide notes his country is on the brink of ecological catastrophe. Why worry–our American President says global warming is a hoax.   It seems unlikely the world will wake up before it is too late.

THE LANGUAGE OF TREES

THE LANGUAGE OF TREES

Trees may have a language, but technology is unlikely to provide any translation that humanity will accept.  One hopes Powers’ imaginative story is a Cervantes’ tale;  not a prophecy.

BUNGLING ASSASSINS

 

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Secret Agent, A Simple Tale the secret agent

Written by: Joseph Conrad

Narrated by: David Horovitch

 

JOSEPTH CONRAD (ENGLISH AUTHOR, 1857-1924)
JOSEPTH CONRAD (ENGLISH AUTHOR, 1857-1924)

TED KAZYNSKI (UNA-BOMBER, MATHEMATICIAN EDUCATED AT HARVARD AND UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, SERVING LIFE SENTENCE WITHOUT PAROLE)
TED KAZYNSKI (UNA-BOMBER, MATHEMATICIAN EDUCATED AT HARVARD AND UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, SERVING LIFE SENTENCE WITHOUT PAROLE)

The uni-bomber, Ted Kaczynski is said to have read The Secret Agent as a coda for his decision to murder and maim innocents. Kaczynski’s craziness and the atrocity of 9/11 are most often referred to in modern reviews of The Secret Agent.

The Secret Agent is about a middle-aged, over weight secret service agent named Adolph Verloc.  Verloc lives in England and is a spy for an un-named country.  Verloc is called into his employer country’s Embassy to tell him that he is going to be fired unless he provides some actionable service for his pay.  Verloc is upset with the news because he is dependent on the income received from the foreign country.

Verloc lives with his wife, mother-in-law, and brother-in-law; none of which know that he is a spy.  The brother-in-law is mentally challenged but idolizes Verloc.  Despite Verloc’s ownership of a small business, his family depends on his income as a spy.  Verloc is a cypher, a character that must mean more than he seems.  He seems less than smart.  He is selfish.  He cares for others but only in proportion to what they can do for him.  He has infiltrated an anarchist organization as a principal officer but seems frozen in place.  As the story progresses, Conrad never dispels the feeling that this character is too dumb to be a spy.

TED KAZYNSKI (A QUINTISENTIAL NIHILIST)
TED KAZYNSKI (A QUINTESSENTIAL NIHILIST)

The anarchist organization members are made up of nihilistic agents; in particular, a con man named Ossipon and a bomb maker called The Professor.  Verloc asks The Professor to make a bomb for him based on a plan suggested by the Embassy that Verloc visited earlier.  The plan is to blow up the Greenwich Observatory near London.  Verloc chooses to use his mentally challenged brother-in-law to carry the bomb.  Once again a reader/listener is confronted with the feeling that Verloc is too dumb to be a spy.

 

What is to be made of re-publication of and public interest in The Secret Agent?  After all, it was published over 100 years ago.  Is it a satire that reveals the absurdity of secret service organizations?  Is it a primer for terrorist wannabes?  Is it a rejection of capitalism?  Is it about the vacuity of me-ism (life is all about me)?  Does it reveal the secrets of a terrorist’s philosophy?  Is it about the aftermath of a terrorist event?  It seems the book is partly about all of the above.

Trump-Putin summit in Helsinki
U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin shake hands as they hold a joint news conference after their meeting in Helsinki, Finland, July 16, 2018. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger

It’s relevance today reminds one of the poisoning in 2018 of a defecting Russian spy and his daughter in London.  Sergei Skirpal and his daughter are poisoned by a Novichok nerve agent in their home.  The bottle in which the Novichok is stored was discarded and picked up by two innocent bystanders who think it is a perfume bottle.  Dawn Sturgis, a 45 year old woman, dies in the hospital.

Putin denies ordering the poisoning and suggests the evidence for his denial is that the bunglers who handled the poisoning could not have worked for the Russian spy agency because they are professionals.

The Secret Agent is only marginally interesting because of Horovitch’s narration.  However, in light of Putin’s 2018 denial and the murder of Adnan Khashoggi, foreign agent’ bungling is more than an ironic joke.

PRESIDENT TRUMP AND THE CROWN PRINCE OF SAUDI ARABIA
PRESIDENT TRUMP AND THE CROWN PRINCE OF SAUDI ARABIA (MEETING TO DISCUSS THE MURDER OF ADNAN KHASHOGGI IN 2018)