Boyne writes an enlightening story about human judgement and feelings and how one may respond to memories of horrific events in one’s life.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
“All the Broken Places” (A Novel)
Author:John Boyne
Narration by: Kristin Atherton & 1 more
John Boyne (Irish novelist and writer.)
“All the Broken Places” is a creative story about guilt, memory, responsibility, and redemption. It jumps back and forth in time with too many characters. However, it reflects on the terrible consequences of WWII and its survivors who are victims of Nazi Germany’s holocaust. It is about one woman’s long life who is a child when her father is a German Commandant and a mother, who is aware, if not complicit, of holocaust’ crimes at Auschwitz.
Photo of victims taken in a 2024 trip to Auschwitz.
There seems an injustice to punishing a 12-year old’s growth to adulthood for the crimes of her father, despite his horrific acts as a commandant at Auschwitz. The pain of those who lost their loved ones from WWII and the atrocities of Germany in death camps is unimaginable to most who are alive in the 21st century. The injustice of the main character’s punishment from those who lost loved ones is equally unimaginable, but John Boyne writes a fictional story of Gretel who is a young girl punished by WWII allied survivors when she and her mother move to Paris.
Teenager on the cusp of sexual awakening.
Gretel is at the age of development that has enough understanding of guilt to feel it for what her father did during the war. She is also at the age of sexual awakening. The story is about Gretel from the age of 12 to 91 when she is living in London near the end of her life. At the age of 12, she is aware of her father’s role as a commandant at Auschwitz. A reader/listener is put in the position of asking oneself if that makes Gretel complicit in the horror of the holocaust? Because her mother relies on her husband for their financial well-being, is she guilty of the crimes her husband is perpetrating at the order of the Nazi government? Can one think a 12-year-old is complicit?
Can one be guilty of events for which they have no control over, or responsibility.
The life of Gretel is an exploration of one’s guilt, memory, and responsibility for the holocaust and deaths from WWII. Gretel keeps her childhood connection to Nazi Germany secret throughout her adult life. She is the older sister of Bruno, her brother, who dies as a child during the war. His death occurs at Auschwitz in circumstances that reinforce the horror of the camp. Elsa is Gretel’s mother who searches for a husband to take care of them in their move to Paris. As Gretel matures, her guilt about her father’s role in Nazi Germany rises.
As Gretel’s mother finds a match for a husband, Gretel is experiencing the teenage years of maturity where sexuality increasingly occupies her thoughts.
Gretel becomes obsessed with a handsome young boy whose father owns a small business in Paris. She puts herself forward to the boy as a possible companion for her sexual awakening. Ironically, this young boy becomes an accomplice to a punishment organized by the community to attack Gretel and her mother for being associated with the Auschwitz’ commandant. Gretel and her mother are attacked and brutally scalped by an organized mob of local residents.
The author recounts Gretel’s years of life and travels that take her from France to Australia and a retirement home in London. She never escapes her feelings of guilt and memories of a life unhappily lived. To complicate her life, she sees one of the German officers who worked for her father when she lives in Australia. Kurt Kozel, whose name is actually Kurt Kotler, has survived the war, hidden his war identity, is married, and has a young son. What happens next draws one further into the theme of the author’s story about guilt and how it can affect one’s behavior.
Boyne writes an enlightening story about human judgement and feelings and how one may respond to memories of horrific events in one’s life.
H.G. Well’s interesting message is that human beings may not be able to save themselves from a technologically superior foreign invasion, but established societies and culture are more enduring than technological superiority. Wells is suggesting an invasion by a technologically superior force does not eradicate a society but changes it.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
“The War of the Worlds”
Author: H. G. Wells
Narration by: Christopher Hurt
H. G. Wells (1866-1946, English novelist, journalist, sociologist, and historian.)
“The War of the Worlds” is an odd book. Published in 1898 when the British Empire was near the height of its global power and prestige. It shakes the foundations of world hegemonic ambition. Listening to the book in the 21st century, it has relevance but in today’s hearing it seems too long and melodramatic. Giant fighting machines, heat rays, black smoke chemical weapons, city panic, and refugee flight are too familiar in today’s world. The shock value of a Martian invasion is lost. However, in the reality of a horrific war by Russia on the Ukrainian people, America’s bombing of Iran’s citizens, and Iran’s brutalization and torture of its people make “The War of the Worlds” as important and relevant today as when it was written.
H.G. Well’s Martian Invasion
Most of Wells’ book appears to say an invasion by technologically superior Martians will dominate the earth. What Wells shows is that technological superiority is not enough to conquer the world. As the British army and its weaponry fail to defeat the Martians, Earth’s natural pathogens and environment is shown to seriously challenge Martian’ survival. Technological superiority is not enough to win a war. A combination of nature’s pathogens and human resistance are challenges that suggest, despite technological superiority, singular societies ultimately prevail. History shows that eternal domination of an independent distinct society is unlikely to prevail. A distinct society may change from the influence of an invasion, but it does not disappear, it adapts. Glasnost is evidence of that truth when the former nations that were part of the U.S.S.R. reestablish themselves as independent societies that do not entirely abandon the influence of Russian domination. Native tribes that lived in what became the United States retain much of their social identity despite America’s English occupiers.
H.G. Well’s interesting message is that human beings may not be able to save themselves from a technologically superior foreign invasion, but established societies and culture are more enduring than technological superiority. Wells is suggesting an invasion by a technologically superior force does not eradicate a society but changes it.
Eric Weiner’s book is an interesting and entertaining journey through philosophy by traveling the world and offering brief vignettes of one obscure writer, and several famous philosophers.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
The Socrates Express (In Search of Life Lessons from Dead Philosophers)
Author: Eric Weiner
Narration by: Eric Weiner
Eric Weiner (Author, American journalist, former NPR correspondent.)
“The Socrates Express” is an entertaining writer’s understanding of important historical philosophers. Though Weiner is not formally educated in the discipline, his wide knowledge from reading their written works is summarized in language that can be understood by anyone interested but not steeped in philosophy. His wide travel exposes him to many of the environments in which great philosophers created their known works. What makes “The Socrates Express” entertaining is Weiner’s clever writing and the countries he travels to, some of which he has lived in for a time. He travels to Athens, Kyoto, Frankfurt, Delhi, and the home of Henry David Thoreau who lived at Walden Pond in Concord, MA.
The “Socretes Express” explains the author’s trips to Athens, his trip to Kyoto for Sei Shōnagon’s (a lesser-known philosopher), to Frankfurt for Schopenhauer, to Delhi for Mahatma Gandi, and Massachusetts for Thoreau. There are many other philosophers Wiener touches upon but these four are good examples of the span of Wiener’s understanding of their philosophies. Not being schooled in philosophy, what Wiener explains is entertaining and interesting to its listeners and readers.
A description of Socrates is given by Weiner as one of the Greeks in Athens who earned a reputation as great warrior in war and a close friend of many important Greeks of his times. He allegedly never wore shoes and walked around Athens teaching old and young citizens about the meaning of life. Many of Socrates’ opinions resonate with the philosophy of life.
As most know, Socrates never wrote his thoughts down but became a foundational philosopher revealed by writings of Plato and later teachers like Archimedes. Weiner explains the foundational philosophical beliefs of Socrates are in Plato’s stories of Socrates life and death. Those beliefs, though not precisely listed by the author, are an unexamined life is not worth living, virtue is knowledge, the soul is the true self while its care is life’s highest priority, it is better to suffer injustice than to commit it, no one is wise including Socrates self-recognition, philosophy is preparation for death, and moral order is real and knowable through reason. Though these beliefs are only summarized in “The Socrates Express”, they are revealed by Plato’s writings about Socrates imprisonment and death.
Socrates parable of the cave is detailed by Weiner. It still means as much about humanity today as when Socrates walked the streets of Athens.
Socrates is saying human beings live in a cave seeing only the shadows of life while only a few, maybe like Einstein, see the foundations of nature that are still largely unknown.
Sei Shōnagon (966-1017 or 1025, Japanese author, poet who served the Japanese Empress Teishi around the year 1000. Shōnagon wrote a book titled “The Pillow Book”.
It is interesting that Weiner chooses to include Sei Shōnagon in his list of philosophers because she is not considered a philosopher but had written a book titled “The Pillow Book” that shows a distinctive way of thinking about life experience. Though not systematic she shows a philosophical view of life, she notes how close observations of ordinary moments in life are a source of insight to the meaning of human attention, aesthetics, and social behavior. In Weiner’s trip to Kyoto, one who has visited Japan appreciates Shōnagon’s understanding of Japan’s culture. Shōnagon explains beauty has a serious social value. She sees how seasons shape daily life in Japan and shows that women, like men, have powerful intellectual voices. She notes a good life depends on paying attention to nature and human relationships.
ARTHUR SCHOEPENHAUER (1788-1860 DIED AT 72)
Weiner travels to Frankfurt and briefly summarizes the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer. He notes how Schopenhauer believes most people to not really listen to their environment. He believes humans create their own suffering by always wanting something more. Like Shōnagon, Schopenhauer believes human beings need to notice and appreciate the small things in life to be happy in order to achieve some level of fulfilment in life.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948, Lawyer, Leader of India’s independence from British Rule.)
Weiner travels to India with an encomium on travel by rail. That mode of travel mirrors his journey through philosophy to give the book its title; i.e., “The Socrates Express”. With Gandhi’s brief history, we enter the philosophical belief of nonviolence as an active philosophy. Gandhi explains violence is an inadequate answer to injustice. To Gandi, knowing the truth is rarely, if ever, fully understood by human beings. Human understanding, in Gandi’s philosophy, is always limited by a human’s knowledge. The whole truth is too complicated for complete human understanding. This philosophical belief is the source of Gandi’s adherence to non-violence. Facing injustice requires moral courage; not physical force. Non-violence obviates the need for perfect knowledge while offering opportunity for human comity, self-restraint, and behavioral change.
David Henry Thoreau (1817-1862, writer, environmentalist, ecologist, philosopher.
Weiner travels to Massachusetts to visit Thoreau’s cabin site on the northern shore of Walden Pond in Concord, Ma. The original cabin no longer exists but is rediscovered in 1945. The site is marked by granite posts and memorial markers. Weiner explains Thoreau believes most people move through life half-awake and rarely notice the world deeply. He moved to Walden Pond to experience seasonal changes, the behavior of local animals, the sounds and colors of a life in the world. He defined the importance of simplicity and independence of one’s thoughts. The real currency of life is time. Thoreau is not characterized as a hermit fleeing society but as a human seeking a clearer vision of life on earth. He explores life as it is rather than as a habit of existence.
Eric Weiner’s book is an interesting and entertaining journey through philosophy by traveling the world and offering brief vignettes of one obscure writer, and several famous philosophers.
“The Black Shield” is a disjointed story that inexpertly reveals the truth of organizational discrimination in American society. Inequality based on sex and race is a fact of American life and most, if not all, nations of the world. Cooper’s story is not revelatory but a sad truth about human nature.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
The Black Shield (An American Memoir of Family and Power)
Author: Wilbert L. Cooper
Narration by: Wilbert L. Cooper
Wilbert L. Cooper (Author, graduate of Ohio University and New York University with a master’s degree in publishing.)
As a writer for national publications like The Guardian, The New York Times, and the Wall street Journal, Wilbur L. Cooper investigates a “2020 police killing” in his former hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. He profiles the president (Vincent Montague) of a Black police organization called Black Shield. Surprisingly, the leader of the Black police organization shoots a young unarmed Black man he thought would run him over. He is not charged. The shooting is ruled as justified and Montague is suspended for one-day for using poor tactics and unreasonable force. What Cooper reveals in “The Black Shield” is partly about Black discrimination despite recruitment that is presumably meant to reduce police force discrimination in Cleveland.
Police training is no joke despite it being often-represented humorously.
Cooper argues the long-standing pattern of hiring and promotion in Cleveland’s police force reinforces Black discrimination in its training and recruitment of both white and Black officers. To be promoted in the department, whether one is Black or white, is influenced by an officer’s reputation as a believer in stereotypes of people based on the color of their skin more than their character. Cooper argues it is a socio/political and acculturation feature of Cleveland’s police recruitment that undoubtedly exists in all human organizations.
Cleveland’s population is approximately 50% Black, but the police force is nearly 75% white.
Cooper notes the department fails to hire minorities based on changing demographics in Cleveland. Cleveland’s population is approximately 50% Black, but the police force is nearly 75% white. His Black father is a Sergeant in the police force who is ironically in the department of “Office of Professional Standards”. (Cooper notes his mother also sought employment in the police department but is rejected. In fairness, that could be based on something other than discrimination.)
Cooper’s point is that experience of living as a white person in America fails to understand or fairly address the socio/economic realities of being Black in America. He believes Black discrimination is embedded in the recruitment and advancement opportunities of the Cleveland police department. Cooper notes that early Black applicants to the Cleveland police had to sue to be hired or promoted in the Department. He suggests his mother’s rejection from being hired is because of her sex and color. He argues his father’s career advancement is inhibited by the management structure of the department. The story of Sergeant Victor Montague is more complicated because of his deadly force use in the death of a Black citizen.
Sergeant Victor Montague (fired by the Cleveland Division of Police in 2021 for ethical violations.)
Cooper tells the story of Victor Montague, a charismatic and outspoken Black leader in the department. He became the public face of “Black Shield” and spoke openly about racism in the department. He pushes for accountability and reform but comes up against entrenched power in the police department. Montague became a target of internal hostility and is closely supervised by his immediate superiors. His confrontational attitude and unwillingness to play politics offended the Department hierarchy. Montague set himself up for a second policy violation by putting himself in a position with a private company that offered to donate to Black Shield in return for security service for a bar owner’s business. This would have been a violation of department policy. It also appears as a potential avenue for bribery of Montague. Similar arrangements had been considered by white officers without noted consequences according to Cooper. This episode undermines leadership in “The Black Shield” organization.
A measure of race and ethnic inequality.
“The Black Shield” is a disjointed story that inexpertly reveals the truth of organizational discrimination in American society. Inequality based on sex and race is a fact of American life and most, if not all, nations of the world. Cooper’s story is not revelatory but a sad truth about human nature.
Banville’s brief memoir successfully makes one wish to walk Dublin’s streets, countryside, and city to experience an environment that created some great writers.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
Time Pieces (A Dublin Memoir)
Author:John Banville
Narration by: John Lee
John Banville (Author, aka Benjamin Black, Irish novelist, screenwriter, and literary stylist.)
John Banville’s memoir makes its listener/reader interested in visiting Dublin. The narrator, John Lee, has an Irish sounding brogue that offers a false authenticity to Banville’s memoir even though Lee is not Irish. Banville’s story is entertaining because it gives one some understanding of why so many famous writers came from Ireland. The list is long but the most well-known are James Joyce, W.B. Yeats, Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, and Samuel Beckett. It seems from Banville’s memoir there is something about Ireland’s environment that creates great writers who become Nobel Prize winners, famous playwrights, and/or dramatists.
Location of Dublin in Ireland, accross from the west coast of the United Kingdom.
Banville implies there is something about Ireland that encourages self-reflection. He focuses on Dublin because it is where he is born and raised and has a son who still lives there. Banville, having left Dublin at 18, shows a love and longing for something that made him a writer of some fame. He reflects on his love for books to the point of stealing one from a library as a rascally but studious boy in Dublin; presumably because of the book’s appeal to his sense of self. His description of Dublin makes one wish to visit the places he describes. His peripatetic journey through his boyhood haunts undoubtedly helps him understand how and why he became a writer. Despite his recollections, one comes away from his memoir with few clues other than reading and being interested in books that makes Dublin a seedbed for great writers.
In mid-book Banville details some of Ireland’s Kings and leaders. One nearly puts Banville’s book aside but the poignant story of his courtship of a young Irish girl draws one back into his view of Dublin.
Famous Irish Medieval Kings
One gathers from Banville’s memoir that it is the environment of Ireland, particularly Dublin, that made him who he became. One imagines a city teaming with people in a wet-weather, gray-skyed city that offers an education from books, teachers, and schools in Dublin. Banville encapsulates his view of an Irish life in “Time Pieces”. He paints a picture of Dublin that he implies made him who he became. He illustrates Ireland’s culture that formed the character of many famous literary men. Banville’s brief memoir successfully makes one wish to walk Dublin streets, its countryside, and city to experience an environment that created some great writers.
Roth shows acculturation is both an opportunity and danger in “The Plot Against America”.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
The Plot Against America
Author: Philip Roth
Narration by: Ron Silver
PHILLIP ROTH (WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION, MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE AND MORE)
Roth’s “The Human Stain”, and “The Plot Against America” are troubling fictional stories of American society. Roth’s imagination seems somewhat out of control in “The Plot…” but his point is that American democracy, like all forms of government, is flawed by the nature of human beings. Popular election is no guarantee of government probity because the public is as easily led by lies as the truth; i.e., something we see in today’s American government. “The Plot Against America” creates a fictional story of the advance of a racist to the Presidency of the United States at the time of Hitler’s government putsch in Germany.
Charles Lindbergh (Famous aviator who expressed suspicion of Jews and is characterized as a supporter of Hitler.)
America had several famous supporters of Hitler’s ascension in Germany; i.e., not only Charles Lindbergh, but Henry Ford, Father Charles Coughlin, and Jospph P. Kennedy Sr., to name a few. Lindbergh believes in white supremacy but excludes those of Jewish ethnicity because he believes Jews are not a part of the American or Western racial community. He believes Jews are a separate people with separate loyalties. This conforms to Hitler’s view of German society as superior to all others. Added to Lindbergh’s racism is his belief that communism threatens individual liberty, a foundational democratic belief. Lindbergh is vociferously anti-communist even though Russia is led by white rulers. Lindbergh believes centralized state control, state suppression of dissent, and forced conformity are anti-American. This is an ironic view because Hitler insists on state control, suppression of dissent, and a forced conformity; i.e., beliefs Lindbergh infers he abhors.
Roth writes a story suggesting Lindbergh run against Franklin Roosevelt for President. Lindbergh wins in this fictional story. In truth, Lindbergh never runs for President. History actually shows the Republican party approaches Lindbergh in the late 1930s to run against Roosevelt because of his celebrity, anti-war message, and isolationist beliefs. However, Lindbergh turns the Republicans down.
Wendell Lewis Wilkie becomes the nominee for President by the Republicans in 1940. (1892-1944, an American lawyer.)
Wendell Willkie is the Republican Party’s choice for President. What makes Roth’s story interesting is his concern for loss of Jewish ethnic identity from the influence of Americanization. Two fundamental points are made in the title of the book. There is the obvious “…Plot Against America” with Lindbergh as an America candidate for President who supports Hitler. A less obvious point is Roth’s more subtle “…Plot…” by American society to diminish ethnicity. In Roth’s story, Lindbergh is elected as President of the United States.
Drawing the line between cultural disintegration and acculturation is different in an autocracy than in a democracy. A perfect democracy allows ethnicity to flourish within the boundaries of common societal norms while an autocracy demands conformity to specific societal norms that, in some autocratic countries, become demands. Roth’s point in “The Plot Against America” is that ethnic identity is a fundamental right of human beings that should not be denied by any government. This is not to say that ethnic identity is not influenced by society, but that ethnicity should only be a natural, not governmentally enforced influence. Roth’s story shows a fine line that is crossed by America in influencing Jewish culture to become less ethnic. He tells the story of a government endorsed program to offer Jewish children the opportunity to become laborers on American farms. That experience leads to a Jewish child’s exposure to eating pork which is explicitly forbidden by the Torah because it is considered unclean. Roth shows “old world” ethnic’ cautions are sometimes abandoned because of life experiences that diminsh ethnic taboos.
Discrimination based on ethnicity, race, or sex diminishes democracy.
Roth shows acculturation is both an opportunity and danger in “The Plot Against America”. One may read into Roth’s story that he regrets the Americanization of Jewish ethnicity. To the extent that the discipline of education may be harmed by acculturation, one is inclined to agree with Roth. On the other hand, ethnic identification has led to unequal opportunity based on ethnicity, race, or sex which should have nothing to do with innate capability.
“There is Simply Too Much to Think About” is a time-consuming read with a depth of understanding about writing that gives one “…Too Much to Think About” because of its author’s humbling intelligence. The fundamental point Bellow makes is that art is as important as science for the advance of society.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
There Is Simply too Much to Think About (Collected Nonfiction)
Author: Saul Bellow
Narration by: Malcolm Hillgartner
Saul Bellow (Author, Canadian-American novelist who has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, and the Pulitzer Prize.)
This is a daunting book by an accomplished novelist who explains what makes reading fiction and nonfiction worth one’s time and attention. The range of subjects Bellow covers is immense. He not only writes about literature but politics, philosophy, Jewish identity, American culture, history, and other subjects that overwhelm a reader/listener. Bellow suggests good nonfiction and fiction are about characters who write about life that makes them important enough to have meaning to readers and purpose for writers. A writer creates an understanding of characters in the context of a society in which they live. A good writer’s attention is given to the contradictions and complexity of living life. What Bellow means by nonfiction writers is those who witness life unfolding and relate that understanding from a perspective which may or may not resonate or at least be understood by a reader.
Though Bellow mentions few female authors, he shows strong opinions about famous male authors.
Bellow offers a tour of twentieth century writers he believes are examples of good nonfiction writers. He notes Ralph Ellison, Phillip Roth, and J.D. Salinger as examples of great nonfiction writers. At the same time, Bellow explains how deeply his life feeds into his writing. He reveals his own strengths and weaknesses. He acknowledges being drawn into trendy ideas of others that gloss over truth and mislead readers with contradictions. Like all human beings, Bellow can be misled by second-hand assertions about historic events and characters that lack verifiable truth. The result may be misrepresentation and sometimes cruel judgements about private lives and the history of humanity. Written misrepresentations reveal as much about the writer as the subject.
Ralph Ellison (Author of “Invisible Man”)
Bellow offers some warnings to readers of both good and bad writers. He suggests a reader should be careful about reading too much into writer’s characters or experience in a story. One thinks of Ellison’s “Invisible Man” and how it reshaped many readers understanding of race and identity. Ellison is not writing a protest novel. It is about social invisibility, Black identity, politics, and the meaning of life. Phillip Roth’s Colman Silk is accused of racism and forced to retire but he is not a racist. He is obviously falsely accused because he is secretly African American passing as white. Truth of a story is revealed in detail created by good writing.
Though not having personally read Bellow’s books, he notes that his writing is largely based on episodes from his own life.
Being born in a Montreal Jewish slum and raised as an immigrant in Chicago he experiences discrimination as a baby born in a Montreal slum and as an immigrant on Chicago streets. The working-class environment of Chicago streets gave Bellow a level of freedom and exposure to life as just another young boy finding his way in life. He could measure himself against more diverse life experiences in Chicago without losing his Jewish identity. As an immigrant, it added to his identity and broadened his understanding of life as a human being. He became streetwise in responding to the world.
The experience of life.
Bellow clearly illustrates a personal belief and understanding about life. He is an obvious master of American language. His intellect and curiosity are overwhelming. There is an emotional and moral seriousness that is sometimes funny and at others quite confrontational. He masterfully turns lived experience into art. There is a level of overconfidence in his judgement and personal contradictions crop up in his writing. On the one hand he distrusts ideology but writes a highly ideological view of writing. He defends the importance of art but criticizes culture. He lauds intellectual independence while insisting on his own beliefs. He is a bit combative toward academics, critics, and seems somewhat dismissive or impatient with those who struggle with his opinions. The title of Bellow’s book says it all–“There is Simply Too Much to Think About”.
Bellow believes the arts are the essential ingredient of what Martin Luther King’s quote depends upon.
Bellow is very judgmental about the writers he reviews in his “…Much to Think About” book. His greatest praise goes to Ralph Ellison, Phillip Roth, James Joyce, and Franz Kafka. His sharpest criticism is of Updike, Hemmingway, T.S. Eliot, Salinger, and James Baldwin. Updike is called too polished, Hemingway too emotionally shallow, Eliot too culturally conservative, Salinger too mystical, and Baldwin too damaged by ethnic prejudice. Despite his criticism, Bellow finds their works have power and meaning implying they are worth reading. Most who recognize or have read some or all of these authors will likely find them worth the time and effort to read them and come to their own conclusions.
“There is Simply Too Much to Think About” is a time-consuming read with a depth of understanding about writing that gives one “…Too Much to Think About” because of its author’s humbling intelligence. The fundamental point Bellow makes is that art is as important as science for the advance of society.
Robert Frost wrote “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.” That is the essential truth of “The Vast Enterprise” about the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
The Vast Enterprise (A New History of Lewis & Clark)
Author: Craig Fehrman
Narration by: Jason Culp & 5 more
Craig Fehrman (Author, journalist, historian of Presidents and American history.)
Craig Fehrman writes an excellent history of the Lewis and Clark expedition. It entertains and informs reader/listeners of the lives of Meriwhether Lewis, William Clark, an enslaved man named York, and a tribal native named Sacagawea. From President Thomas Jefferson’s reasoning and his decision to create an expedition from Kentucky to the Pacific, one learns something new, old, and troubling about America.
Thomas Jeffereson (1743-1826, President of the U.S. 1801-1809.)
Thomas Jefferson is characterized as a shrewd, partisan, and forceful political operator who had a clear vision for the future of continental America. That prescient vision of America by Jefferson hides his blindness to the truth of human equality of Black men and women as inferior to white men. However, Fehrman notes Jefferson believes natives of this continent had the potential to be the equal of white Americans. Jefferson’s shrewdness and forceful opinion is illustrated by his understanding of the importance of trading posts as a way to expand control of land possessed by native inhabitants and held by Spanish and French interests. Lewis and Clark’s western expedition is, in Jefferson’s opinion, critical to America’s future land interests.
Meriwhether Lewis and William Clark (American Explorers.)
Both Meriwhether Lewis and William Clark are characterized as relatively educated colonial citizens suited for an expedition from Kentucky to the Pacific. Though both leaders for the expedition were heroic, their personalities, leadership styles, and temperaments were quite different. Lewis is characterized as brilliant but an inwardly volatile man, while Clark is a steady, self-confident manager of people. Lewis is the visionary who works in the Jefferson’ administration as secretary to the President while Clark is former military officer who gets things done with people who report to him. Lewis clearly understood Jefferson’s objective in exploring the west, its diplomatic purpose, and geopolitical importance. Clark’s frontier experience, military discipline, and surveying skill served Lewis’s understanding of Jefferson’s objectives.
Lewis & Clark Expedition
Both Lewis and Clark understood they were not only entering a wilderness but a continent full of other nations which made them effective negotiators and intermediaries with native tribes. Lewis’s intellectual understanding of Jefferson’s objectives is complimented by Clark’s skill in managing native tribe relationships. With the help of a Black slave owned by Clark and a native Shoshone woman married to a French trader, this former military man manages to gain the aid of the Lakota, Shoshone, and other tribes to save the Lewis and Clark expedition from failure.
Image of York (Slave owned by William Clark.)
The history of York (Clark’s owned slave) in the expedition is interesting. What the author, York, and enlisted members of the expedition show is that Lewis and Clark were dependent on their crew for the success of the mission. Men like York provide the labor and skill needed to complete the journey. As a young adult, York shows the value of all human beings to the success of the expedition while being a slave. The sad fact is that York is never released from his bondage to Clark. Despite York’s alleged inferiority, Clark relies on him for his field abilities and reminds reader/listeners of the importance of other cultures and ethnicities that make America. Fehrman infers York is a symbolic bridge between ethnic worlds; i.e. not just the Black and White world but the native and English American world. York is an example the difference of human beings in America; i.e., from people of color to native tribes in a dominant white culture. Fehrman’s story infers human difference reinforces belief that native tribes (Black, white, or other) could co-exist though not be treated as equal human beings. This is no stretch of a reader/listener’s imagination based on America’s history of Indian/American wars and slavery. There is one native American that travels with Lewis and Clark. She is Sacagawea, the only woman on the expedition. Her story reflects on America’s view of women as property despite their contribution to life and their contribution to social and economic society.
Image of Sacagawea on the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
Fehrman suggests Sacagawea is a full participant in the expedition. To Fehrman she represents a symbol of Native nations. Sacagawea and York became part of the diplomatic fabric of the journey demonstrating the truth of human equality. Sacagawea became pregnant from her husband, Toussaint Charbonneau, a French-Canadian trapper. Her baby is born on the expedition. Charbonneau had two native wives, the first of which did not accompany them on the expedition. Sacagawea had been kidnapped by the Hidatsa tribe in a war with the Shoshone when she is 12. Charbonneau is 20 years older than Sacagawea. Sacagawea is 13 when she is forced to marry Charbonneau by the Hidatsa. The tribe had traded goods with Charbonneau. Sacagawea and Charbonneau are reluctantly hired by Lewis and Clark for the expedition. Both act as interpreters on the expedition but Fehrman argues Sacagawea represents more than being a translator because of her heritage and knowledge of the territory through which they will travel. Sacagawea’s Shoshone tribal heritage had diplomatic value beyond mere language interpretation. On the other hand, Charbonneau seems more a liability than asset to Lewis and Clark.
Shoshone Tribe in western America.
Fehrman shows the expeditionary Americans were not dominant actors in their relationships with native tribes. In the wilderness, they acted more as guests or supplicants in their dealings with various tribes. They recognized they were outsiders that needed political alliances with native tribes because they had meager knowledge of the territory and customs of indigenous tribes who controlled the river lands they explored. Their need for food, horses, guides, and knowledge of the land depends on their relationships with indigenous tribes. Without tribal help and guidance, they would have no protection or chance of safe passage. Native tribes provide horses and information that kept them on their course to the west and saved them from starvation and death. It is a combination of Jefferson’s somewhat arrogant plan for the country’s consolidation for the expeditionary force to be dependent upon indigenous tribes who are repeatedly deprived of their land in America’s growth as a nation. It is the explorer’s humbleness and humility that allows Lewis and Clark to succeed in growing an American continent that historically suppresses indigenous land ownership and use.
Most Shoshone Tribes appear more southwestern than northwestern.
Indigenous tribes were politically naive in their aid to American explorers. Without tribal’ naivete, the early days of America’s influence and growth as a singular nation would have failed. One presumes, the continent would have remained a land of tribal ownership and internecine conflicts over land and natural resources. In the early years of American government, it is humbleness, humility, and the growth of trade between natives and early Americans that transform a land of native tribal presence into a singular nation among nations. In Fehrman’s opinion the prime mover of that accomplishment began with Thomas Jefferson and “The Vast Enterprise” of explorers like Lewis and Clark.
The last chapters of Fehrman’s book leave listener/readers with notes about Lewis, Clark, York, and Sacagawea that are sad to read or hear. Lewis becomes an alcoholic and commits suicide. Clark refuses to give York his freedom. York dies from cholera while Clark lives a life of success and power. Clark becomes governor of -Missouri Territory and Superintendent of Indian Affairs. Sacagawea is leaves her French husband and dies at Fort Manuel in 1812.
Robert Frost (1874-1963.)
Robert Frost wrote “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.” That is the essential truth of “The Vast Enterprise”.
Kenneth Davis does more to add than subtract from one’s understanding of what others have written. Davis’s reviews of non-fiction books seem objective, but they are subjectively chosen.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
The World in Books (523 Works of Great Short Nonfiction)
Author: Kenneth C. Davis
Narration by: Adenrele Ojo & 2 more
Kenneth C. Davis (Author, lecturer, contributor to The New York Times, Newsday and other publications.)
A criticism of Kenneth Davis’s “The World in Books” is its spartan overview of nonfiction. On the other hand, these reviews are an important overview of many of the most politically and socially important subjects of life.
Religion, humanism, sexism, and racism are the most eminent of Davis’s subjects. Like all brief summaries of important writers of the past, one’s personal views interfere with fundamentally important subjects. Of course, our personal biases seep into our own writing and understanding of other’s beliefs. What seems missing from Davis’s book is not wide analysis of different political and social beliefs but a perspective on the negative consequences of known forms of government or societal beliefs. Of course, criticism of his choice of works is unreasonable because of the wide number of non-fiction books from which to choose. Fairness is in the eyes, ears, and memory of the beholder.
The aristocracy of government.
On the one hand, one sees Davis’s view of communism, democracy, authoritarianism, and humanism as important constructs of society. On the other, Davis offers little consideration of their societal impact. One may argue societal impact is not Davis’s objective. He alludes to race, gender, and climate consequences but does not explore connections with a broad analysis of government or society. As with all writers of history, his own bias is in his choice of non-fiction books. He writes of Socrates, Plato, Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, James Baldwin, Elie Wiesel, Malcolm X, George Orwell, Virginia Woolf, Alice Toklas, Gertrude Stein, Mary Wollstonecraft, Ernest Hemingway, and others. He recognizes liberal humanists for their ideological and social contribution to human understanding, not for expressed personal opinion but for broad exposure to good or great writers.
General criticism of Davis seems unfair because he offers historical information about a “…World of Books” that are often ignored by reader/listeners of non-fiction writers. How many of us have read ancient texts, or modern writers like Elizabeth Kolbeert, Frankl, Harriet Jacobs, Isabel Wilderson, Simone de Beauvoir, and other less well-known writers about human society. Davis seems to represent a host of lesser-known works to simply offer enlightenment to reader/listeners. He provides excellent summaries of many books this reviewer has never read or listened to.
All reviewers bring their own biases in reviewing another’s book.
Davis does more to add than subtract from one’s understanding of what others have written. Davis’s reviews of non-fiction books are objective, but they are subjectively chosen. The author may have had a curation bias. How could he not; i.e. there are too many non-fiction books for one person to know; let alone review. Davis may or may not have an ideological liberal humanist bias, but it is because of the sheer volume of published non-fiction books. Every person has a point of view. The point is that a reader/listener is benefited by an author like Davis who intends to be objective about what non-fiction authors hope and try to tell reader/listeners.
“Yesteryear” is a hard book to complete because it reveals the many mistakes’ human beings make in their lives that repeat themselves in future generations
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
Yesteryear (A Novel)
Author: Caro Claire Burke
Narration by: Rebecca Lowman
Caro Claire Burke (Author, social media influencer, co-host of politics and culture podcast.)
“Yesteryear” is a book about human society. One may see Caro Burke’s story as a picture of society from a woman’s perspective. She shows how life can fall off the rails in America or any culture. In identifying the prejudices of gender, Burke shows how an educated, intelligent woman can become psychologically unhinged by memories of her life experiences.
Gender inequality is a worldwide phenomenon.
Gender inequality is highly destructive in all societies. Burke is not suggesting all people are equal. Every human being is equal in the sense of being human. A person may be born rich, poor, and become formally educated, or remain uneducated. Some are highly intelligent; others not, but as a living person we are all human. Human beings have potential to bare hardship and grow to challenge, succumb, or overcome bad experiences and memories. Of course, hardship is greater for some because of their gender and/or color of their skin. Burke addresses the first form of a harder life rather than the second.
A story of a family.
“Yesteryear” is the story of an Idaho family and a young woman named Natalie Mills. Natalie is described as an attractive young woman of modest means who is doing well in college. She meets a handsome fellow student who comes from a rich family. They “fall in love” and marry. Her husband to be is Caleb Mills whose father is running for President while a member of the United States Senate. Burke’s story is of the relationship of Caleb and Natalie and how it changes from being two college students who become a married couple to what seems an irreconcilable marriage.
Wealth.
The Mill’s families’ wealth, political status, and family structure influence their son to believe marriage is a way of perpetuating his family’s future. Caleb’s father instills that belief in his son and makes a bargain with Natalie to ensure her role as a bearer of babies to perpetuate the family name. The bargain she and Caleb’s father strike is in funding the purchase of a farm in return for having more children. The name of the farm becomes “Yesteryear” and is meant to give Caleb an opportunity to thrive as an independent farmer.
Caleb and Natalie are two young college students who learn more about each other after they become married.
Natalie’s family background is different. Her mother has a quiet coldness that is non-protective toward her two daughters with no fear of loss of the family name. Natalie is blessed with intelligence and a desire to become better educated. Natalie’s sister is married and has children from an abusive husband whom she plans to divorce without a means of financial support once she divorces. Their mother seems oblivious to the consequences of her daughter’s divorce. Natalie sees her sister’s life as an imminent financial disaster. As the story progresses, one sees Natalie exhibit the same coldness and non-protectiveness toward her own children from memories of the way her mother raised her family.
The inheritance patterns of life; some of which are genetic while others are learned experiences that become our memories.
What Caleb and Natalie learn about their relationship comes from memories of experiences they have had in their respective families. Caleb is a young man trying to find his way in life. Natalie is a young woman who chooses to marry someone who offers a way of life much grander than her own. Caleb is characterized as a poor lover with no particular goal in life. As Natalie realizes Caleb’s directionlessness, she searches for a way to instill ambition in her husband and stability to their marriage. Natalie convinces Caleb’s father to invest $5,000,000 into a farm that could be made prosperous by the hard work of the newly married couple. For Natalie to convince her father-in-law to make the investment, she agrees to Caleb’s father’s demand for more children in her marriage to his son. Intimacy becomes a means to an end of having children to meet the demands of Caleb’s father’s bargain with Natalie.
Twenty first century farming is not for the faint of heart or uneducated.
The trouble with this arrangement is that Caleb seems unsuitable for a life of farming and Natalie is a failure as a nurturing mother of her children. The farming experience magnifies Caleb’s and Natalie’s weaknesses. Caleb cheats on his wife with a farm employee and becomes abusive toward his wife. Natalie injures herself, fails to nurture her children, receives little support from her family or Caleb’s father, and falls into a life of despair. Caleb compounds negative aspects of their marriage by becoming physically and mentally abusive toward Natalie. Their match made in college becomes a horror story of memories that diminish the joys of marriage, having children, or living life with either purpose or joy.
“Yesteryear” is a hard book to complete because it reveals the many mistakes’ human beings make in their lives that repeat themselves in future generations.
