Tag: book-review

COMPATIBILITY

What one finds in “Funny Story” is that human relationships are always works in progress. Nothing in a long-term relationship is without conflict.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Funny Story

Author: Emily Henry

Narration by: Julia Whelan

Emily Henry (Author, American writer of NYT’s bestselling romance novels.)

This is a “Funny Story”, written with the same skill that is noted in a previous review of this author’s writing in, “Great Big Beautiful Life“. “Funny Story” reminds one of human relationships when one is young and unattached. Of course, it is written from a woman’s point of view, but it reveals some truths about love, partnering, and marriage.

Every life is a world.  Paulo Coelho’s The Winner Stands Alone magnifies the ephemeral nature of money, power, and fame. 

For some people, living life alone is liberating but emotionally unfulfilling. Living with or marrying someone is like placing a bet on a roulette table. It can reward or deprive you of some level of joy. Henry’s story begins with a single woman, with modest ambition and little money, who falls in love with a wealthy, handsome man whom she marries. The woman’s name is Daphne. Her new husband, Peter, buys a house but soon chooses to leave and divorce Daphne to marry another woman. The other woman, named Petra, is a childhood friend raised in a family of similar wealth. Petra had been living with a male lover named Miles, a working man of modest means who is employed at a winery. Miles is a friend of Peter and sexual partner of Petra but is yet to meet Daphne.

Love and marriage.

Once one knows of the relationships between the main characters, the story moves along with the jilted wife, Daphne, and Miles’s becoming housemates after the abrupt departure and divorce by Peter who believes he is in love with Petra. The author creates a “Funny Story” with an odd arrangement with Daphne becoming a house mate with Miles because she is broken hearted and too broke to be able to live on her own. One can quit listening to the book because the table seems set to show the jilted wife will fall in love with Miles and live happily ever after.

One who believes “birds of a feather flock together” presumes two wealthy families are more likely to have offspring who marry each other because of their similarities of experience and wealth in their families’ backgrounds. One may either quit the book or keep listening to the story in expectation of a “happy ever after” ending.

What “Funny Story” says about life is that marriage between people of similar backgrounds is more likely to be happy than marriage of people with different backgrounds. Of course, this is not a hard and fast rule. Good relationships or marriages can be based on complimentary ways of dealing with life where two people make each other more complete human beings. The accoutrements of similar wealth and education aid compatibility but are not sole determinants of intimate relationship success. A listener/reader stays with “Funny Story” to find out which social relationship the main characters achieve, i.e., complimentary partners, partners in misery, or single unattached loners.

What one finds in “Funny Story” is that human relationships are always works in progress.

Nothing in a long-term relationship is without conflict. Those who recognize their complimentary compatibility are more likely to remain attached through marriage, partnership, or long friendship. Those who have too much in common and too little that complements their differences seem more likely to part company.

LIFE’S MEANING

John Green explains in “The Anthropocene Reviewed” that learning how to cope with life when its hard or joyful is what it is to be human.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Anthropocene Reviewed (Essays on a Human-Centered Planet)

Author: John Green

Narration by: John Green

John Michael Green (Author, Indianapolis native, raised in Florida, now living in Indianapolis, graduated from Kenyon College, with degrees in English and religious studies.)

“The Anthropocene…” is a clever series of essays that reveal a biography of John Green’s beliefs and how they have been affected by the world. Born in Indianapolis, he is raised in Florida and returns to Indianapolis when his wife is offered a job as an Art Director. These essays are drawn from his life experience, candidly revealing beliefs about himself and human activities that shape the earth’s climate, ecosystems, and geological processes. Green writes about his understanding of the diversity of things ranging from cosmic events like Halley’s comet to his obsessive consumption of Diet Dr Pepper. Along the way, Green reflects on the big and small events of life that reflect on many Americans lives.

Defining anxiety in oneself.

Green appears to be more anxiety driven than most people. His growth as a writer is shown to be related to his childhood memories, his personal illnesses, and his life encounters. That seems true for all human beings which is why his essays appeal to listener/readers of his famous stories like “The Fault in Our Stars” and “Turtles All the Way Down”. Of course, writing success in life, like all achievements, come with cost. Personal emotions and the environment in which we live shape our lives in good and bad ways. Greens self-analysis reflects on his anxieties, vulnerabilities, and wonderment. He writes of close relationships that helped him get through his school years. His illnesses are partly brought on by anxiety and depression which are not uncommon in any society. The difference is that Green is able to write about them with candor and humor to make reader/listeners more comfortable with their own experiences.

Life is life.

What Green reminds this listener of is a saying that my daughter hates to hear. “Life is life”. We deal with life in our own way, i.e., colored by who we are from our genetic inheritance, our personal strengths and weaknesses, and the way we deal with the circumstances in which we live. Green creates a 5 star rating system for experiences in his life. Histories of the bubonic plague and the world’s most recent experience with the covid pandemic receive 1 star. Natural sunsets, the song “You’ll Never Walk Alone”, and the Lascaux ancient cave paintings get 5 stars in Green’s opinion. These ratings are Green’s way of explaining suffering, healing, and the beauty of art in our lives. The beauty of nature, civilization’s artful adaptation, the closeness of family, professional help, and music have helped him cope with anxiety and depression. They also show what he finds beautiful, what he fears losing, and what he believes is worth saving.

What is the meaning of life?

The depth of a person’s feelings are not the same for all human beings, but we all have a rating system for what life means to us. Humans need to understand they are not alone in happiness or sorrow. John Green explains in “The Anthropocene Reviewed” that learning how to cope with life when its hard or joyful is what it is to be human.

2 + 2 = what?

Democratic socialism is a great ideal but offers no solution for the flaws of human nature. The slim hope for Orwell’s democratic socialism is “The Ministry of Truth” which ironically is its greatest danger.


Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Ministry of Truth (The Biography of George Orwell’s 1984)

Author: Dorian Lynskey

Narration by: Andrew Wincott

Dorian Lynskey (Author, journalist, based in London)

Dorian Lynskey has written an informative biography of George Orwell’s most well-known book, “1984″. Orwell, a 6’ 3” political activist and theorist, shakes the foundations of communism and democracy. He argues both systems of government fail their citizens. Orwell argues the power of the few in communism and rising authoritarianism in capitalist democracy create an environment of inequality that victimizes the powerless and poor of society.

Orwell believes government run by the few is seduced by personal interests. Lynskey argues that Edward Bellamy influenced Orwell by showing how the utopian visions of all governments, however well‑intentioned, become authoritarian when they demand total social conformity. From that insight, Orwell writes “1984”

Edward Bellamy (American author, journalist and political activist, died at the age of 48 in 1898.)

Orwell’s “1984” becomes more relevant and threatening today because of artificial intelligence. The potential of A.I. for thought manipulation by purveyors of misinformation, and its surveillance capabilities threaten societal norms.

Personal convictions of Orwell’s political beliefs are exemplified by his participation in Spain’s civil war.

Lynskey argues that 1984 is relevant today because the forces of communism and democracy manipulate truth, are authoritarian, and define language in ways that harm society. Lynskey’s view isn’t that we live in Orwell’s world, but that we live in a world where Orwell’s insights may help us understand what is happening around us.

George Orwell (1903-1950, died at age 46.)

Orwell pillories the Soviet Union and communism in his satirical book “Animal Farm” which he wrote between 1943 and 1944. He had experienced Stalinist-like repression in the Spanish Civil War. Those who have travelled to the Baltics and listened to families that lived under Stalin’s reign over their countries will understand Orwell’s view of communism. Pigs in Animal Farm are Stalin’s apparatchiks that become the ruling class in Animal Farm, just as they did in the Baltics. They claim leadership, privileges and exempt themselves from labor. As “…Farm” leaders they squeal propaganda, censor activists that resist their piggish control and manipulate language to exploit the working class of the farm. The pigs lie among themselves by believing sacrifice of everyone is necessary for the “greater good” while the pigs feed on farming production and others grow hungry.

“1984” does not directly attack democracy but it reveals its weaknesses, illusions, and vulnerabilities.

“1984” is written near the end of Orwell’s life and becomes his most successful publication. He shows how democracies can sleepwalk into authoritarianism. Some would argue that is happening today in the guise of immigration policies that deny basic rights guaranteed by the Constitution. Agencies designed to serve America are being dismantled by today’s government. The idea of “it can’t happen here” is happening here. Propaganda and misinformation distort what is actually happening across America. Many Americans are becoming complicit with the rhetoric of a punitive federal government.

The rhetoric of misdeeds.

Lynskey explains “1984” is relevant today because the struggle over truth, language, surveillance, and authoritarian thinking has intensified, making Orwell’s warnings seem like a toolkit for understanding the present.

Orwell went to Morocco primarily for his health—specifically to recover from severe lung problems that are later recognized as tuberculosis. Morocco was a cheap place to live with a warmer climate that eased his respiratory illness. He left Morocco in 1939 and returned to Britain during WWII. After the war, he spent his last years (1946-1949) writing “1984” in Jura, Scottland. He died in London on January 21, 1950.

Lynskey explains Orwell, like Martin Luther King, believed in socialist democracy.

What is missing in “The Ministry of Truth” is an Orwellian solution to capitalist greed in western culture. Human nature interferes with the ideal of socialist democracy. “The Ministry of Truth” shows how prescient Orwell is about the ills of government but discounts the dark side of today’s democracies, i.e., namely capitalism. The underlying weakness of capitalism is the consequence of a permanent underclass because of economic inequality. Lynskey notes Orwell rejects capitalism because of its flaws, but socialist democracy is no answer because of human nature. Orwell seems to acknowledge that material life with capitalism is better, more freedom is inherent, but less perfect. However, socialist democracy offers no solution to that part of human nature that is human greed. He criticizes democracy without offering any alternative.

The ubiquitous internet and iPhone are not foreseen by Orwell.

The internet is a medium for “alternative facts” that can as easily offer lies as truth. When power speaks with “alternative facts” truth is lost and the public is misled. Society is diminished. Democratic socialism is a great ideal but offers no solution for the flaws of human nature.

Inequality in America.

The slim hope for Orwell’s democratic socialism is “The Ministry of Truth” which ironically is its greatest danger. A “…Ministry if Truth”, with the potential of A.I., can aid or destroy democratic socialism by focusing on concrete recommendations to mitigate inequality. On the other hand, A.I. in the hands of an unchecked tyrant can increase inequality.

HUMAN TRUST

Susan Choi shows how trust and experience change human lives. She illustrates how power, desire, memory, and storytelling are engines of that change.


Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Trust Exercise (A Novel)

Author: Susan Choi

Narration by: Adina Verson, Jennifer Lim, Suehyla El-Attar

Susan Choi (American novelist, received the Nation Book Award for Fiction with “Trust Exercise”)

Susan Choi attended a High School of Performing Arts in Texas. “Trust Exercise” is a reminder of life as a teenager in America. There are a number of High Schools of Performing Arts in America. Having personally visited Las Vegas’s High School, Choi’s story reminds one of the remarkable students who choose to supplement their education in a performing art’s school.

Choi’s story shows the hyper emotional character of teenage life. Placing her characters in a Performing Arts’ high school makes her story somewhat more plausible but teenage sex in a school hallway when classes are in session seems more imagination than reality. On the other hand, it reminds one of fantasies that run rampant in one’s teenage years.

The importance of teachers in the world.

Getting past Choi’s sensationalism, there is an underlying truth in her story. Teachers in our high school years can have a great impact on who we become as adults. Choi creates a charismatic teacher who conducts a theatre class for high school students. His influence demonstrates how power shapes teenager’s lives in both good and bad ways. The memories of childhood are shown to be unreliable, but their impact on a mature adult’s life is immutable whether their memory is accurate or not.

Growing to adulthood.

From high school and other life experiences a teenager grows to adulthood, in part, through exercises in trust. Often children consciously or unconsciously note power imbalances between themselves and others. One thinks they are not as smart, sexually attractive, or capable as someone else. Choi shows human nature grows based on relationship trust even though trust is ambiguous. Trust begins between parents and children, grows between friends, our teachers, lovers, book readers and listeners. Choi’s point is that adults become who they are through trust relationships.

Versions of who we are.

Choi creates versions of people to show how they process trust with others. Choi’s main characters are Sarah, David, Karen, and Mr. Kingsley. Sarah is a secret keeper who is highly vulnerable to what others think of her. David is closed into himself and looks to others for what life can offer him. Karen is a steady observer who becomes confrontational in accordance with her perception of other’s beliefs or criticisms. Mr. Kingsley is a manipulative and, at times, coercive teacher. He challenges his students to expose their emotions to strengthen their character but creates dependence on himself more than themselves.

There is a sense of being back in high school in Choi’s novel.

High School Year Book Albany Union High School, Albany, Or. 1965.

Choi’s novel shows people, even in a high school for the performing arts rarely achieve fame. Presuming Choi is telling a story of people she knew in high school, none appear to become famous. Neither Sarah, Karen, David, nor Mr. Kingsley seem to achieve much public recognition. Karen becomes a therapist. David seems to have exceptional talent, charisma, and potential in high school but becomes another faceless American worker. Interestingly, the most successful character is Sarah who becomes a published novelist. Choi infers the scale of her success is ambiguous at best, but she does have a career that seems more successful than many who are classmates. (Good for Sarah or is her name Susan?) “Trust Exercise” reminds reader/listeners of their high school years and makes one wonder what happened to their classmates.

Choi shows how trust and experience change human lives. She illustrates how power, desire, memory, and storytelling are engines of that change. Teenagers trust too easily, some adults exploit trust, and some story tellers manipulate the truth. One can only learn from life and experience what we should or should not trust.

AMERICAN IDENTITY

One can appreciate Vuong’s picture of two immigrant Americans lives but his story is too maudlin for this listener.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Emperor of Gladness 

Author: Ocean Vuong

Narration by: James Aaron Oh

Vương Quốc Vinh (Author, poet, professor at NYU and the University of Massachusetts, born and raised in rural Vietnam who is now an American citizen.)

“The Emperor of Gladness” is like “Alice in Wonderland”. The author’s story draws one down into a rabbit hole of personal experience and imagination. It tells what life is like for people who become lost to themselves because of advanced age or youthful experiment with drugs and addiction. It begins with a young addict who is teetering on suicide and is rescued by an old woman nearing senile dementia. It is largely the backstory of two immigrants and their lives in America.

American immigrants.

The old woman is from Lithuania. The young boy is a Vietnam immigrant brought to the United States by his family near the end of America’s misbegotten war. Both live in poverty in America. Their stories tell how they survive the grief and trauma of their lives. The elderly woman has lost her husband, lives alone, and had a social services person visit her for a time but is never replaced. Some of the trauma that occurs in the boys and aged mother of a daughter is brought on by themselves, particularly with the young boy. For the elderly woman, it seems brought on by living in poverty in a country that has great wealth but is unable to offer adequate care for the elderly poor.

Story of Stalin’s occupation of Lithuania.

One who has traveled to Lithuania has some understanding of the tragedy of Stalin’s dictatorial control and displacement of the Lithuanian people. That is partly what draws one to stay in the story. However, it is not enough to maintain this listener’s interest in the story. The young boy is raised in poverty and succumbs to addiction which is hard for some to understand because they have not fallen into that addictive trap. The author does a fine job of showing how these two characters meet each other and become a family that cares for each other. The growing dementia of the old woman is managed by the young boy in a way that is endearing and insightful for those who do not have the patience to deal with infirmity and elderly dementia.

There are lessons about being poor in America in Vuong’s story.

Vuong notes immigrants who have reached a certain age in their native countries are faced with learning a new language and culture when they arrive in a foreign country. All human beings gain understanding from the experience of living, but post-infancy immigrants are faced with translating language and experience understood in their home countries that are different in American culture. That by itself is a struggle.

Immigrants often grow up in silence because they are unsure of unaccustomed experiences that native-born children take for granted. Translation seems a matter of survival for an immigrant whereas a native feels experience is just part of living life that one runs from or towards.

The details of being a poor immigrant in America seem the same as a natives’ views of life but Vuong explains why they are not. To those who have been born and raised in a white privileged but economically challenged society, discrimination associated with being an immigrant minority or drug user is too unrelatable. The underlying message by the author is that in the age of “Make America Great Again”, being an immigrant makes one feel even more of an outsider.

SURVEILLANCE’S EDGES

The story of Israel Keyes’ crimes, his eventual capture, and the trial of a United Health CEO killer make one realize how today’s surveillance technology is important, even in a relatively free society.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

American Predator (The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century)

Author: Maureen Callahan

Narration by: Amy Landon

Maureen Callahan (Author, journalist, columnist with a BA from the School of Visual Arts in New York City.)

This is a chilling history of a serial killer named Israel Keyes who lived in Alaska with his girlfriend and daughter. Callahan gathered facts from FBI files, interviews with investigators, court records and conversations with people who knew Keyes. Callahan begins with the story of an 18-year-old girl working at a coffee drive up as its sole occupant and worker. Ms. Samantha Koenig is stabbed to death the morning after she is abducted but her body is preserved by Keyes for days after her death. The cold of Alaska keeps the body from decomposing for an estimated two weeks in which it is kept in one of Keyes’ two sheds. Keyes then sinks her remains under the ice of an Alaskan lake.

Samatha Konig’s gruesome death leads to the capture of Israel Keyes.

When Keyes is captured, Callahan notes there were three primary interrogators. Jolene Goeden (an FBI investigator in the Anchorage, Alaska Division), Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank Russo, and FBI Agent Jeff Bell. Their interrogations reveal Keyes travels, his “kill kits”, victims of his demented mind, his final confessions, and the details of his reported murders. The actual number of his murders will never be known because of the many missing and unsolved disappearances in the United States. Surveillance of his mode of transportation led to his arrest in Texas and an eventual confession to three murders. It is estimated that there were at least eleven murders but in the opinion of the author, it could be many more.

Keyes created “kill kits”, hidden packages with tools, money, and weapons that could be unburied in his many travels across the United States. His travels around America from Alaska, south, east, and west seems to have given him license to kill.

The three murders that were directly tied to Keyes were Samantha Koenig (age 18) and a married couple named Currie (Bill age 49 and Lorraine age 55). Keynes admits raping all three. The concrete evidence of these three murders, independent of what Keyes admitted to the FBI, were his possession of Samatha’s cell phone, debit card, pictures he had taken of her, details about the murder of the Curries, and DNA evidence found on Koenig’s body when recovered from a nearby lake. In the case of the Curries which he also admitted killing, the facts of the murder were explained with a detail of one who could only have been the murderer, and finally corroboration of his rental car mileage which showed he could have been there at the time of the murders. Keyes refused to offer details of other murders of at least 11 people that could not be documented well enough for American law to prove guilt beyond a doubt.

Israel Keyes (1978-2012, Keyes is the son of a family of 10 children raised in the states of California and Washington. He is found to be a serial killer, bank robber, burglar, arsonist, and kidnapper who is believed to have killed 11 people between 2001 and 2012.)

Keyes is a fanatically controlling person, militarily trained, athletic, and intelligent. Keyes lost his control of life when he is put in prison. That loss of control appears to lead him to commit suicide with a razor blade and garrote to ensure death by his own hand, a last act of his need for control. Callahan notes Keyes lived with two women during his life with a daughter born from his first relationship. Naturally, their lives are hidden from the public based on Keyes’ horrible and despicable crimes.

Many Americans discount the value of living in a country where surveillance technology is used to protect citizens and fairly adjudicate the guilty for crimes against society.

The story of Israel Keyes’ crimes, his eventual capture, and the trial of a United Health CEO killer make one realize how today’s surveillance technology is important, even in a relatively free society. Admittedly, surveillance can be taken to an extreme when used to control human behavior as shown in China, Russia, and North Korea. Israel Keyes would still be murdering and raping men and women without American surveillance that eventually leads to his arrest and conviction.

America’s system of justice is not perfect. It can be abused in ways that today’s President is showing. All human beings are flawed. Like Presidents of the United States, surveillance can be a curse or a blessing. Too much power, like too much surveillance, is a danger to society.

SCHIZOPHRENIA REDUX

The boon and bane of a brilliant mind is that it can correlate facts with causes to reveal the mysteries of the universe but also the demons of false correlation and belief.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Best Minds (A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions)

Author: Jonathan Rosen

Narration by: Jonathan Rosen

Jonathan Rosen (Author, Yale graduate, writes for The Jewish Daily Forward, and the Free Press.)

As a person who has lived through the same generation as Jonathan Rosen, his story is interesting partly because it tells what it is like to be born a Jew in America. In many ways, one finds life as a Jew is no different than it is for any American. Most Americans are born into a family that cares for them and influences who they become as adults. Children are born with innate abilities that are either cultivated or ignored by their parents. Some parents are too busy with their own lives to offer care a child may benefit from with more attention. It appears Jonathan Rosen is born into a family that cultivates his abilities despite their busy lives. One wonders if that is a matter of ethnic tradition or inherent nature. One suspects it is a little of both.

In “The Best Minds”, an important part of being raised a Jew is education that encourages and reinforces Jewish identity through rituals like the bar mitzva.

The bar mitzva and bat mitzva (for girls) is a coming-of-age ceremony at age 13 (sometimes 12 for girls) where a Jewish child memorizes and recites passages from the Torah. On the one hand it reinforces one’s identity with a particular ethnicity. On the other, it is one of many exercises of memory that reinforces one’s ability to succeed academically. Much of one’s success as an accomplished adult is recall of information whether a doctor, lawyer, or merchant chief. From a young age, memorization is an important skill for Jewish children. One wonders how much tradition has to do with the brilliance of Einstein, Oppenheimer, Salk and so many other Jews of the world. This is not to suggest being raised in a Jewish family is not as traumatic and unpredictable as any child born but to recognize ethnic customs make a difference in children’s lives. The great contributions to science and art by Jews makes one wish they might live life over again with more positively ritualized cultivation.

Michael Laudor (Yale graduate, subject of “The Best Minds)

However, there is much more to Rosen’s story. His life is intertwined with the life of Michael Laudor, a close childhood friend who is raised in a similar environment and recognized as a prodigy. However, Lauder succumbs to schizophrenia. This is not to suggest Jews or any ethnicity is prone to psychological imbalance. Psychiatric imbalance is not defined by ethnicity but exists as a potential for every human being. One doubts there is any defense against psychological abnormality whether Jew, gentile, or other.

Laudor and Rosen as childhood friends.

Laudor and Rosen were close friends. Rosen recognizes his friend has a superior mind, i.e., one of “The Best Minds” of Rosen’s high school’ years. Rosen struggles to understand what happened to his childhood friend. Both Rosen and Laudor are accepted at Yale. Laudor chooses law as his course of study. Rosen goes on to California to get a PhD in literature. Their dual biographies make Rosen’s story impactful. Rosen explains how intelligence, ambition, and success can be destroyed by mental illness.

Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.

Laudor is a wunderkind who performs at a level far beyond his age group. He graduates from Yale and decides wealth is a goal to be achieved. He is hired by an investment consulting firm which offers him an opportunity to become super-rich. Rosen infers Laudor succeeds. From the outside, Laudor appears to be highly successful, but he becomes dissatisfied with his life and quits the firm that hired him. Rosen stays in touch with Laudor and writes “The Best Minds” to reveal what he thinks he knows about what happened to his childhood friend. The beginning of Laudor’s imbalance appears to Rosen when Laudor explains he is being followed, monitored and targeted by unknown malefactors. Before that conversation, the erratic behavior of Rosen’s friend seemed like a matter of burnout from his high-flying experience as an investment consultant. The intensity of Laudor’s paranoia makes Rosen believe something more serious is at the root of his friend’s behavior.

Rosen stays in touch with Laudor–talking to him about what is going on in his life. He tries to get Laudor to see the falseness of his delusions without triggering defensiveness. Rosen avoids contradicting Laudor by trying to be supportive and encouraging him to seek help. On the one hand one wonders what more could Rosen do. How else could he intervene in Laudor’s spiral into what is later diagnosed as schizophrenia? A reader/listener wonders what they would or could have done.

Michael Laudor murders his fiancée, Carrie Costello, in 1998. She is pregnant at the time of her death.

Laudor had grown to believe his girlfriend had become a part of a conspiracy to harm him and that he needed to defend himself despite her trying to care for him. His brilliant mind manufactured a false reality. His delusion leads to the fatal stabbing of Ms. Costello. After the homicide, Laudor calls 911. He is arrested and transferred to a psychiatric facility and later found guilty by reason of insanity. He died in 2022 at the age of 56 in a New York State psychiatric hospital, never recovering from severe schizophrenia.

“The Best Minds” is Rosen’s effort to understand how genius and madness can be intertwined. The boon and bane of a brilliant mind is that it can correlate facts with causes to reveal the mysteries of the universe but also the demons of false correlation and belief. Correlation is not causation without objective and repeatable experimental proof.

The question one asks oneself after finishing Rosen’s book is what one can do differently to keep someone from losing their way in life whether he/she is a genius or not?

LIFE’S MEANING

The story of McCandless’s life is that meaning in life comes from people and nature, not one or the other but both.


Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Into the Wild

Author: Jon Krakauer

Narration by: Philip Franklin

John Krakauer (Author, mountaineer, raised in Corvallis, Oregon.)

The main character in “Into the Wild”, tuned in and dropped out. His “tune in” is not to drugs but a wish to understand the meaning of life. Christopher Johnson McCandless chose, after graduating from Atlanta, Georgia’s Emory University, to live off the grid of society, i.e. particularly capitalist society. His degree is a BA in history and anthropology. McCandless chooses to drive around the country, working at dead-end jobs to sustain himself until he finds a place to live in a natural habitat, without the aid of society which he believes keeps him from understanding the meaning of life. He began a “walk about” from Georgia with a plan to explore survival in the frigid wilds of Alaska. McCandless kept a journal of his search for life’s meaning. His journal became the guiding source for Jon Krakauer’s book about McCandless’s brief life.

Christopher Johnson McCandless (1967-1992, died at the age of 24.)

The McCandless family picture with Christopher either before or after enrollment at Emory University.

McCandless came from a solidly middleclass family but rejected capitalism defined by the desire for money, power, and/or prestige. He obviously loved the outdoors and wished to explore the possibility of living off the land with whatever nature had to offer. McCandless rebels against capitalist beliefs when graduating from college. He begins a search for the meaning of life beyond the principles of a capitalist society. He sought understanding by experiencing the attractions and dangers of the American wilderness. McCandless wishes to be free of materialism, his familial relationships, and the conventions of a middleclass capitalist life.

(One wonders if McCandless’s story is part of today’s rising homelessness with people living in tents, sleeping in business doorways and on sidewalks of American cities? Are Americans becoming disillusioned with capitalism because the gap between rich and poor is rising and pushing the middleclass into poverty? Some argue the cost of living is climbing faster than the wages of employment.)

McCandless graduation form Emory University in Atlanta Georgia.

With a BA in history and anthropology, McCandless graduates from Emory in 1990 and leaves Atlanta, heading west. Rather than look for a job or extending his education, he donates his savings to charity, cuts off communication with his family, and journeys to the west in a 1982, B210, Datsun. He heads southwest, traveling to Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and New Mexico. He spends some time in Arizona with odd jobs and becomes stranded when his Datsun is disabled by a flood. He hitchhikes to California via Las Vegas, goes through South Dakota with his determined destination being Alaska in 1992. Nearly two years have passed since graduating from Emory.

Map showing McCandless’s two years of travel from the East to the West, mid-West, and on to Alaska.

McCandless kept a journal of his travels. The author, John Krakauer, interviews some of the people McCandless meets and/or works for that are noted in his journey. All say he was a nice person and hard worker who dependably showed up for work. However, one employer noted he had to be told to take a shower and wear socks when he came to work at their fast-food restaurant. McCandless was obviously homeless and had no shower facilities in which to bathe. He reluctantly complied as best he could but soon left to find his way to Alaska.

Sample of McCandless’s journal when he called himself Alex Supertramp.

McCandless arrives in southern California. He meets an older (80 something) American named Ronald Franz, a leatherworker, who tries to convince McCandless to give up his wandering life. They become friends but McCandless leaves Franz without saying goodbye as he heads north. The importance of their relationship is shown in a letter sent to Franz by McCandless that explains his inner conflicts. McCandless explains his need for independence and the freedom it gives him to personally connect with himself. By abandoning materialism, wealth, and social expectations, McCandless believes it makes him free. The tension created by McCandless’s belief in social isolation versus human relationship is expressed in his letter to Franz. Being alone is no answer to the conflict one feels toward their family or those who are part of society. Part of one’s identity, belief in who they are, and belief in oneself is reinforced by other people, not in wilderness isolation. This is a lesson of life that McCandless refuses to see or understand. The well-known poet, John Donne, recognizes “No man is an island”. All humans are interconnected which is a truth McCandless refuses to see.

McCandless dies in a Fairbanks city Transit bus he used as a shelter in Alaska. John Krakauer speculates on the cause of death being inadvertent poisoning from eating potato seeds because of McCandless’s hunger, emaciation, and lack of nourishment. If there is meaning in life, McCandless search and isolation is in vain. The story of McCandless’s life is that meaning in life comes from people and nature, not one or the other but both.

MOTHERHOOD

Like being raised in India by a single parent, Roy shows parallels of what it’s like to be raised in America. We all become who we are by genetic inheritance, socialization, experience, choice, and chance.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Mother Mary Comes to Me 

Author: Arundhati Roy

Narration by: Arundhati Roy

Arundhati Roy (Author, Booker Prize for Fiction awarded in 1997 for “The God of Small Things”.)

Born in India in 1961, Arundhati Roy offers a memoir of her life. Roy is born into a Christian family in a country that is 79.8% Hindu while only 2.3% Christian. Roy suggests her early life is shaped more by instability than penury. Her mother is a teacher who becomes a founder of a school. It seems Roy’s young life is filled with emotional turbulence with a fierce and complicated mother who greatly influences her.

The poverty of India.

The facts of Roy’s memoir are straightforward but the presentation and supporting examples of a mother who is fierce and complicated are both humorous and foreboding. One can understand why Roy is capable of overcoming the hardship of life to become an accomplished writer.

Arundhati Roy’s mother Mary.

Roy explains her mother and father were divorced when she was two years old. Her father was a Bengali Christian who managed a tea plantation but appears absent from most of Roy’s young life. Her mother, Mary Roy, seems a great part of who she became and what she believes. Her mother seems both a source of terror and inspiration. Her mother’s rages and criticism had an immense impact on who Roy became as an adult. Her mother had a reputation as a celebrated educator, and a women’s rights activist who was politically active in Indian rights. Her mother’s education and activism became a gravitational center for Arundhati Roy.

Cremation preparation for burial in the Ganges River in India in 2018.

A part of what makes Roy’s memoir interesting is her perspective on India’s culture. Having traveled to northern India, the harsh climate, overcrowded streets, Ganges burial ceremonies, and obvious poverty juxtaposed with fine hotels and great restaurants is disturbing to a traveler who can afford to see the world.

Single parent homes in America.

However, Roy’s story shows being raised by a single parent (most often a single mother) is not uncommon and the influence of a one parent family appears the same in India as in America. The unique experience Roy has in India is interesting because of its similarity to a single-parent child’s experience in America. Roy is highly influenced by the mother who raised her. Roy is reflecting on truths that apply to children’s experiences in America. Though a single parent to a child is a primary influence, there are others like teachers, mentors, friends, and extended family members that influence who we become. However, being raised by a mother who is responsible for your education and survival tempers your feelings about parenting. You realize how hard a single parent’s life can be with responsibilities beyond taking care of themselves.

A circle of life statue in Norway reflects the importance of mothers in raising children in the world.

Roy, as an adult, recognizes her mother as a sun around which her life revolves. Roy’s mother divorces when Arundhati is two years old. Her father is characterized as an alcoholic and not part of Roy’s life as a child. Her mother is a model of independence, activism, and defiance. Her mother understood, despite male dominance in Indian society, a woman must have grit, political courage, and belief in their role in society. That attitude shaped Roy as a writer and activist. Roy’s mother gave her a sense of self, partly from love but also from respect for independence from the harsh realities of life. Roy’s mother died in 2022 which undoubtedly explains a part of why this memoir is written.

Women’s impact on the world.

Roy explains her mother was intense, intelligent, and emotionally volatile. In Roy’s life, her mother is a source of terror and inspiration. On the one hand, her mother frightened her and her brother but on the other she fueled Roy’s courage and creativity as an independent human being. As she approaches her own adulthood, fear of her mother changes to overt resistance. Roy leaves home at the age of 18 which undoubtedly represents her drive for independence, but she fully realizes her mother’s example made her the adult she became.

Not surprisingly, Roy objects to Hindu authoritarian nationalism represented by India’s political leader, President Narendra Modi.

Roy feels Modi’s BJP party discriminates against women and uses religion as a political tool to weaponize Hindu nationalism that shapes its authoritarianism. She argues dissenters, and minorities are being silenced when seeking equal rights for all. Roy is not writing about her spiritual beliefs but about India’s use of religion, politics, and its legal system to restrict equal rights for all. Roy shows she is her mother’s daughter who is a fierce and opinionated feminist.

Raising children of the world.

In pointing to life in India and Roy’s upbringing, she humorously addresses her mother’s contradictions, her theatricality, and the chaos of her upbringing. What is missing are examples of personal relationships her mother had with others after her divorce from an alcoholic husband. (The truth is that the book is long enough as it is.) Like being raised in India by a single parent, Roy shows parallels of what it’s like to be raised in America. We all become who we are by genetic inheritance, socialization, experience, choice, and chance. It is the parent who stands with us through our childhood that gives us what is good and bad about who we become.

Imagining a single mother raising a child, working full time, and trying to be happy is an arduous task in itself.

Roy’s mother prepared her daughter for the hardship of life with a decent education and the toughness needed to cope with both failure and success. Roy shows her mother succeeded in making her daughter a tough independent adult in “Mother Mary Comes to Me”. Roy’s life seems to repeat some of the mistakes of her mother’s life while forging her own success as a writer and opinionated activist.

GUILT

In the end of “The Life We Bury”, the mystery of a murderer is solved. However, the real reveal of the story is how every human being is guilty of self-absorption.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

THE LIFE WE BURY (A Novel)

Author: Allen Eskens

Narration by: Zach Villa

Allen Eskens (Author, former defense attorney who lives in Minnesota.)

Reading/listening to a book is motivated by one’s ignorance, public popularity, author reputation, or subject of interest. “The Life We Bury” is similar to an earlier murder mystery by Allen Eskens. “The Life We Bury” deals with a crime but has no famous historical allusions like the mystery in “The Quiet Librarian”. However, it does have a similar theme. “The Life We Bury” is about injustice and a human desire to right what is wrong. As a popular author and an attorney by profession, both novels show Eskens intimate knowledge of the legal system and its faults.

The characters of life.

The main characters of “The Life We Bury” are Joe Talbert, a 21-year-old college student working his way through college, Carl Iverson, a Vietnam War Veteran convicted of raping and murdering a young girl, and Lila Nash, a next-door neighbor to the college student. Hardship of life is illustrated by Joe who lives 2 hours away from a younger autistic brother that lives with their mother. She is an alcoholic. Their mother’s addiction makes care of the younger brother perilous. The mother’s alcoholism and her social life often leave the autistic boy at home to fend for himself. Joe deals with his mother’s neglect as well as he can with a job as a bouncer and college student who lives two hours away from the family home.

Assisted living facility.

An assignment from college for Joe is to interview a senior citizen who is living in an assisted living facility. Joe visits a retirement community near his apartment and asks the manager if he could interview one of their elderly occupants for his college assignment. They agree and Joe meets a terminally ill resident who is staying at the care facility from a prison which could not care for “end of life” needs of an imprisoned inmate who is convicted of rape and murder of a teenage girl.

Autism.

Lila, Joe’s next-door neighbor, becomes aware of Joe’s younger brother’s autism and is drawn into their awkward lives. She goes to the same college and by happenstance has some knowledge of the American justice system which leads her to help Joe with his interview and writing assignment. With her knowledge of the justice system, Joe is able to get the police file of the convicted rapist/murderer. The file is damning but a friend of the convicted and terminally ill patient tells Joe that his interview subject would not and could not have murdered the young girl.

Influence of others on our lives.

“The Life We Bury” is a person we know from our past that we no longer know but who has had a profound influence on our lives. “The Life We Bury” are people we know but often never reconnect with for either thanks or explanation of their effect on our lives. Eskens creates a story that on the one hand reveals how ignorant we are of other people’s lives and on the other how little we realize the impact others have had on our lives.

We all have some kind of guilt.

Carl Iverson is not guilty of killing and raping a young girl for which he is convicted and imprisoned. The search for the real killer is what moves Esken’s story along, but its theme is about guilt, and our ignorance about others and ourselves. Human beings live in their own worlds and often are unable to see others with the same clarity we think we see in ourselves. Eskens shows we neither understand ourselves, the people we think we know, or what impact they have on our lives.

In the end of “The Life We Bury”, the mystery of a murderer is solved. However, the real reveal of the story is how every human being is guilty of self-absorption. The race is on to arrest and convict the guilty rapist and murderer before the death of Carl Iverson. The last chapters of Eskens’ book are a nicely written denouement of his interesting story.