Tag: books

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.

LIFE’S LUCK

Tana French’s story is a thriller that exposes the illusion of life’s predictability. Control of one’s life is shown to be a fiction. Life is unpredictable regardless of one’s economic circumstances, physical appearance, apparent health, education, or power.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Witch Elm (A Novel)

Author: Tana French

Narration by: Paul Nugent

Tana French (Author, America-Irish writer and actress, born in Burlington, Vermont, lives in Dublin, Ireland.)

In “The Witch Elm” Tana French ponderously begins with a young man considering a change in jobs. As one continues reading/listening, it gains momentum and specificity as a story of a handsome, financially secure, young white man who is attacked and nearly killed in a home invasion. The attack is brutal; nearly ending his life. The details of his recovery and his family’s history expose the social and moral blindness of humanity. “The Witch Elm” reveals many truths about people who consciously or subconsciously bury facts about themselves, their families, and their past to happily live their lives.

Human identity.

We do not see ourselves or others as we are because of human nature, culture, and social conditioning that begins with birth and ends at death. French writes “The Witch Elm” to explain how human beings keep secrets from their consciousness and conceal their human acts in a hollow of their mind, i.e., like things placed in the hollow of a “…Witch Elm” tree.

The patience of Job.

French’s writing is excellent, but her book requires the patience of Job. The author gives listener/readers an insightful view of life. However, the theme of her story is too repetitive. The story of her hero, Toby, is not “everyman” because of the wealth of his family, the privilege of being white, good looking, and employed in the prime of his life. With the exception of being white, all of these privileges are lost when he is nearly beaten to death.

Human control.

In recovery, Toby is physically damaged, fearful, confused, and, at times, loses control of himself. He returns to his family home which gives him the illusion of safety but finds something happened in his past in which he played a part that accidently killed a playmate. Though he did not remember the incident, two siblings had hidden a young boy’s body in the hollow of a tree in front of the family home. When Toby is confronted, in his diminished mental condition (from the home invasion beating), he gets into an argument with his uncle about the earlier unremembered accident and wraps his hands around his uncle’s throat and strangles him to death.

Life’s luck.

Every life is filled with good and bad luck, but most are blind to the privileges they have over others. Being white, rich, handsome, or beautiful is taken for granted which creates a moral blindness toward those who do not have those characteristics. Toby’s life seems perfect before he is attacked in his home. He is nearly killed and rendered mentally damaged in the beating he receives from unknown assailants.

The illusions of life.

Life is mostly taken for granted. The consequence of that truth is humans have a distorted view of life. We measure everything we know and do against a distorted view of ourselves and measure others against that false image. French gets close to what leads to the cause of social dysfunction in the world.

French’s story is a thriller that exposes the illusion of life’s predictability. Control of one’s life is shown to be a fiction. Life is unpredictable regardless of one’s economic circumstances, physical appearance, apparent health, education, or power. The title of French’s book alludes to the folkloric myth of a “…Witch Elm”, i.e., associated with secrets, spirits, and things concealed in the hollow of a tree.

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?

HUMAN NATURE

“The God of Small Things” is a revealing and disturbing telling of the human condition.


Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The God of Small Things 

Author: Arundhati Roy

Narration by: Sneha Mathan

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

Arundhati Roy gained fame with “The God of Small Things” because of its originality. It is in the big and small things of colonialism and culture that expose the flaws of all societies. “The God of Small Things’ is a criticism of the world in which we live. Roy creates a fictional story that helps one understand the emotional, social, and political failings of India that are, in reality, repeated in societies throughout the world.

Rather than disrupting the caste system of India, Britain created an Anglophile elite that competed and supported Brahman aristocracy.

In some ways, British colonialism reshaped India’s culture. Britain’s colonization of India created a level of class superiority that hardens the administrative functions of India’s government. That hardening became an integral part of Indian culture. The English language became a symbol of superiority. Schools, courts, and government offices emulated British customs that copied systems of hierarchy, and labor control that continued after the British abandoned colonialist control of India. In visiting India, British influence is seen in country estates that travelers stay in when they ride trains from the north to the south.

The more encompassing truth of Roy’s observations is that the flaws in India’s society exist in all societies.

Like most places in the world, sexual inequality pervades India’s society.

Ammu, one of Roy’s main characters, is a Syrian Christian woman who marries a man from a lower caste. Her husband comes from the so-called “Untouchable” caste. He turns out to be a brutal abuser of his wife and is eventually divorced by Ammu, but she continues to suffer from discrimination for her religious belief and her breaking of the caste taboos of India.

Religious beliefs.

Roy’s characters like Baby Kochamma, a young woman obsessed with English manners and Catholic respectability is mocked by others in her community. Having an Oxford education became a badge of status with Englishness at the top of the hierarchy of Indian culture. Roy’s novel is set in the 1960s. A moral code of sexual guilt, fear of sin, belief in purity, and policing of desire are exemplified by India’s women who are influenced by catholic proselytizing. In today’s India, the most endemic religion is Hinduism. Rules of marriage, the norms of purity, the stigma of divorce, and association of sin with female desire are tied to Hindu social beliefs. As a Catholic, Baby Kochamma has the additional burden of believing in a minority religion which exacerbates her isolation.

Caste system of India.

Caste system’s endurance in India is undoubtedly reinforced today by the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi and its President, Droupadi Murmu, who are Hindu adherents. Though Roy shows there is little theological hostility between Catholic and Hindu influences, there are inherent tensions between these two religions. Roy infers caste system is reinforced by Hindu beliefs while Catholicism is less concerned about caste than morality or guilt. The irony is that Catholicism rejects caste in theory while accepting it as a part of India’s culture. The two religions compete while reinforcing similar authoritarian beliefs on India’s citizens.

A point made by Roy is that societal, religious, and political dysfunction is not limited to India. Dysfunction exists in all nations.

When Roy’s character Ammu succumbs to the sexual desire of a male, she is criticized more for the caste difference than the sin of entering into an intimate relationship that ultimately falls apart with the abuse of her husband. The physical abuse compounds her violation of Hindu’ caste belief. The fact is that Ammu divorces her husband because he is an abusive alcoholic, not because of caste difference.

Roy shows India is a microcosm of the world, weighted down with sexism and discriminatory inequality that grows from ignorance, and societal dysfunction which often turns into human violence within and between societies and nations that can engulf the world.

“The God of Small Things” is a revealing and disturbing telling of the human condition.

HUMAN INTROSPECTION

Brianna Weist philosophical book is worth listening to as a guide but not as an authority of how one should live their life.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

101 Essays That Will Change the Way You Think 

Author: Brianna Wiest

Narration by: Abby Craden

Brianna Wiest (Author, earned a BA in English and received an Honorary Doctorate in Literature from Elizabethtown College.

This is an odd book because it is written by someone who is not a psychologist, psychiatrist or therapist but presumes to know how one can understand themselves, think differently and become a more psychologically heathy human being. “101 Essays…” has become a popularly read and listened to book by the public. Of course, one can take her observations like one would take the meaning of many non-fiction authors who have a point of view about life and living. They are called philosophers.

One finds Wiest’s essays make sense, but her formal education makes one uncomfortable with her expressed beliefs.

On the other hand, what formal education was there for Socrates? (A. I. generated image of Socrates as a young man.)

a youthful Socrates in ancient Athens, standing in a sunlit agora, wearing simple Greek robes, with thoughtful expression and strong features, classical style portrait

Weist is straight forward in her opinions, and she taps into a human wish for one to be psychologically and physically as good as they can be. Changing “…the Way You Think” is no easy task but the idea of consciously understanding ourselves is an oxymoron that limits one’s ability to change. We are as likely to lie to ourselves about who we are or what we believe as to have a true understanding of ourselves.

Daniel Kahneman is a renowned psychologist and Nobel laureate.  He is an American citizen that served in the Israeli military and used his education, research, and experience to write “Thinking Fast and Slow”.  His observations explore many aspects of human decision-making.

Weist logically argues one can become a better human being by changing the way they think. She is not acting as a clinical psychologist but as a philosopher of life and how one may make the most of it. If one understands Weist from that perspective, she is like Marcus Aurelius, Soren Kierkegaard, or Simone de Beauvoir. She has a philosophical point of view but not necessarily a happier or more fulfilling life.

The meaning of experience on one’s life is often too opaque for one’s understanding without the help of others.

Weist writes we should see what hurts others and ourselves and quit doing those hurtful things by changing our mind. This seems a good idea but denies the subjectivity and the unique experiences in one’s life. Many people are unable to understand the impact of experience on their lives. They are unable to change the way they think because they are unable to understand how or why an experience has affected their lives. Only with the help of a qualified psychologist, psychiatrist, or trained therapist can most people objectively understand themselves to constructively change their mind.

Nevertheless, Weist philosophical book is worth listening to as a guide but not an authority on how one should live their life. Most human beings are not introspective enough to find their way through life without the help of a person trained to elicit what we do not know about ourselves. On the other hand, it appears Weist has a genius beyond her years of life.