Tag: writing

PARENTS

William Wilde, Jane Wilde, and John Stanislaus Joyce fit the description of “Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know”. However, John Butler Yeats seems somewhat less dangerous while contributing to the life and intellectual development of W.B. Yeats.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know

Author: Colm Tóibín’s

Narrated By: Colm Tóibín

Colm Tóibín (Author, Booker Prize winner in 2006, journalist, essayist and short story writer.)

“Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know” as an audiobook is a bit difficult to understand because of Colm Tóibín’s Irish accent but as one adjusts to its cadence and inflexion, it offers interesting information about the families of Oscar Wilde, W.B. Yeats, and James Joyce.

William and Jane Wilde (Parents of Oscar Wilde.)

William Wilde, the father of Oscar, is an important figure in Victorian Ireland. He was a renowned eye-and-ear surgeon who aided the medical profession by compiling statistical information about diseases and mortality of medical treatments as a gauge for human health. His wife, Jane Wilde (pen name-Speranza) was a nationalist poet and political writer. Some characterized her as a radical in comparison to her establishment husband.

Jane Wilde’s husband is accused of sexual misconduct in the treatment of a young female patient in his practice. Mary Travers had accused Dr. Wilde of drugging and seducing her when seeking help for a medical problem. Dr. Wilde is indirectly drawn into court to settle a lawsuit filed by the female patient’s father because of a publicly exposed letter by Jane Wilde about Ms. Travers. The court finds that Dr. Wilde’s wife libeled Ms. Travers in a publicly exposed letter that criticizes her sexual assault claim. The court found Jane Wilde guilty of libel and awarded Travers a symbolic sum of 2 pounds for public humiliation.

In the 19th century, Eibhear Walshe writes a book about the trial brought against Jane Wilde for libelous comments about the sexual abuse of Ms. Travers.

Though Oscar’s father never faced criminal prosecution, his reputation and standing in the community declined. Despite the blow to Dr. Wilde’s reputation, Tóibín argues Ireland’s medical profession benefited from William Wilde’s statistical analysis of medical practice in 19th century Ireland. Nevertheless, the Travers’ trial infers gender discrimination was then and remains a serious problem in modern times.

The Travers’ trial reminds one of gender discrimination in modern times.

Oscar Wilde (1854-190o, the son of Dr. Wilde and Jane Wilde died at the age of 46, Oscar Wilde was an Irish author, poet, playwright who wrote “The Picture of Dorian Gray”. He became famous in London and around the world, convicted in 1895 for gross indecency for homosexual acts.)

John Butler Yeats (1839-1922, W.B. Yeat’s father.)

The next family examined by the author is John Butler Yeats. Little is said about J.B.’s mother but his father was an aspiring portrait artist. This is an equally interesting story. J.B. is characterized as an artist but with a gift of gab and an interesting philosophy of life. John Butler Yeats is identified as a procrastinator that often started painting a portrait but as often failed to finish it. He and his wife had four children, i.e. two girls and two boys. Each contributed to Irish cultural life. Jack, their first son, became one of Ireland’s most celebrated painters. He also illustrated books and wrote plays and novels. He painted in the expressionist style. Susan Mary Yeats was a leader in the Arts & Crafts movement in Ireland. She co-founded the Cuala Press that published works by W.B. and other writers. She helped revive Irish decorative arts but was overshadowed by the brothers. Elizabeth Yeats was a co-founder of the Cuala Press. A little research shows the children had some formal education but as Tóibín suggests, with the exception of W.B.’s formal training at the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin, the other 3 children were largely self-trained in art, writing, and Irish crafts.

Tóibín shows W.B. had a somewhat rocky relationship with his father when he was younger, but it evolved into a respect for his father’s philosophical view of the world.

When his father lost his wife, he chose to move to New York. Tóibín explains John Butler Yeats was more than a portrait artist. Though he was undisciplined in completing his artistic works, he scraped by with the help of his children’s support. John Yeats had attended Trinty College in Dublin studying the Classics and Law. He used that education to write letters to his children and friends after he moved to New York. The author infers some of W.B.’s poetry is based on ideas gleaned from his father’s philosophical musings. Tóibín notes several books have been published that compiled many of W.B.’s letters.

Rosa Butt portrait painted by J. B. Yeats.

Tóibín characterizes John Butler Yeats as emotionally and financially unreliable but a deeply influential father in W.B.’s life. J.B. exposes W.B. Yeats to the aesthetic and intellectual currents of the time. Tóibín infers J.B. had an extramarital affair with Rosa Butt. Ms. Butt was an acquaintance J.B. made when he painted a portrait of her in his studio. J.B. wrote many letters to Ms. Butt that reflect on his emotional attachment. However, he never returns to Ireland despite many intimations that he would. John Butler Yeats dies on February 34, 1922, in New York City. He was 82 years old, living in a boarding house at 317 West 29th Street. As true to his habits in life, he is said to have died with an unfinished self-portrait beside his bed. He is buried in Chestertown Rural Cemetery in Chestertown, New York.

James Joyce, leaning on his mother, with his father at the right (John Stanislaus Joyce).

John Stanislaus Joyce (1849-1931, died at the age of 82

The final chapters of Tóibín’s book are about James Joyce’s family. His father is John Stanislaus Joyce. Tóibín suggests James had an ambivalent opinion of fathers and particularly his own father. John Joyce is characterized as an abusive, alcoholic husband, and incompetent manager of his inheritance. With ten children and a wife, John Joyce loses his inheritance and effectively drives his son away from Ireland. James is the oldest, born in 1882. Tóibín explains that his voice and personality are ever present in James Joyce’s famous characters in both “Ulysses” and “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man“. Both books take a dim view of fatherhood while exemplifying an erudite father who projects a “man about town” image. However, Tóibín shows John Joyce to be an incompetent money manager and abusive family man.

James Joyce (1882-1941)

In “A Portrait…” Stephen’s biological father is depicted as charming but irresponsible. Like James Joyce’s father, his main character’s father is financially unstable and an emotionally distant, abusive parent. In “A Portrait…” Stephen Daedalus is alienated and chooses a life independent of the Catholic Church because he views it like a surrogate father that imposes moral and spiritual authority without justification.

In “Ulysses”, James Joyces’s main character argues paternity is a fiction while maternity is merely a biological function. At best, one sees James Joyce is ambivalent about his dad. James experiences episodes of camaraderie when socializing with his father as a drinker and as a tenor singing partner. Both are supporters of Parnell, the Irish nationalist leader who supported Home Rule and independence from England.

Tóibín suggests James Joyce’s feelings about his mother are marked by guilt, presumably for not protecting her from her abusive husband but also because of her belief in God and patriarchal authority. In reading Joyce’s works, particularly “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” and “Ulysses”, one can see James Joyce’s as a son of a loving, religious mother and abusive father who drank too much. James knew his mother loved him, but his father could not manage his or his family’s welfare.

May Murray Joyce (James Joyce’s mother, 1859-1903, died at the age of 44.)

William Wilde, Jane Wilde, and John Stanislaus Joyce fit the description of “Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know”. However, John Butler Yeats seems somewhat less dangerous while contributing to the life and intellectual development of W.B. Yeats.

HOSTAGE NEGOTIATIONS

The disturbing message of “Swap” is that human beings are currency, i.e., nothing more than a dollar bill, a euro, a yen, a pound, a franc, or a renminbi. Like a hot war, the Cold War monetizes human lives.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Swap (A Secret History of the New Cold War)

Author: Drew Hinshaw, Joe Parkinson

Narrated By: Keith Brown

Drew Hinshaw (on the left) is a senior reporter at The Wall Street Journal.

Joe Parkinson is also a reporter at The Wall Street Journal. Both are Pulitzer Prize finalists and nominees.

Human life is viewed in this new Cold War’ era as economic transaction.

“Swap” is a detailed explanation of how human beings are just bargaining chips. Hinshaw and Parkinson argue that the Cold War has been resurrected by Russia. Russia uses accusations, sometimes lies, and unreasonable charges against foreign travelers and native dissidents to gain leverage in a blood sport that convicts, incarcerates, imprisons, or murders alleged internal spies, dissidents, and foreign citizens. The authors of “Swap” have researched the 2024 hostage exchanges between Russia and the U.S. to illustrate how crude and transactional hostage-taking has become in a new Cold War.

Hinshaw and Parkinson note that 24 prisoners and 2 children were swapped in what is called the “Rubik’s Cube” hostage exchange of 2024.

“Rubik’s Cube” is meant to describe the complexity of a 2024′ human exchange of prisoners between the West and Russia. The most publicly known hostage release from Putin’s Russia was Brittney Griner (the WNBA star) who was the first to be released when Paul Whelan (a former U.S. Marine), Trevor Reed (also a U.S. Marine), Evan Gershkovich (a Wall Street Journal reporter), and Alsu Kurmasheva (an American journalist visiting her family in Russia) were also hostages but later released in a complicated exchange between many nations’ leaders. This later group was released through the work of the American State Department during the Biden administration which had been criticized by some because of Griner’s celebrity being more important than others. Whether true or not, Hinshaw and Parkinson explain the political reality of hostage taking and exchange has evolved since the earlier Cold War.

Vadim Krasikov (a Russian assassin convicted in Germany), several Russian spies, smugglers, and hackers were released to Russia in exchange for a mega-swap of Americans after Griner’s exchange. The mega-swap was highly complicated and a dramatic example of what negotiated hostage exchanges really mean in the 21st century.

Paul Whelan (Canadian-born U.S. Marine arrested in Russia in 2018.)

This complicated “Rubik Cube” transaction began in 2018 when Paul Whelan had been jailed and convicted in a Russian court for alleged spying. (Interestingly, Whelan had been dishonorably discharged from the Marines for bad conduct related to larceny in 2008.) Along with Whelan’s arrest, Trevor Reed’s conviction and incarceration was in 2019, Brittney Griner in 2022, and Evan Gershkovich in 2023. Each arrest was for different alleged transgressions which added to the negotiation difficulties.

Evan Gershkovich (American journalist and reporter for The Wall Street Journal.)

Brittney Griner (American professional basketball player.)

It was the Wall Street Journal’s hostage (Evan Gershkovich) and the WNBA player (Brittney Griner) that intensified negotiations and public awareness of hostage exchange. The authors of “Swap” explain why awareness is only the beginning of understanding. Whelan’s twin brother is identified as one of the most relentless advocates for Paul Whelan’s release. Whelan’s entire family became “accidental diplomats” by injecting themselves into the American government’s ponderous efforts to get Paul Whelan released. The family injected themselves into the American government’s process by becoming squeaky wheels in the negotiating offices of the government.

Several different countries participated in a multiple hostage swap after Griner’s release. Germany, UK, France, Netherlands, Poland, Lithuania, and the Czech Republic were persuaded by the U.S. government to exchange a convicted assassin and several alleged Russian cyber operatives and spies to gain release of Whelan, Reed, Kurmasheva, and Gershkovich.

This negotiated human exchange is a complicated transaction that involved many governments’ participation and agreement. It required coordinated release of eight Russian operatives, one of which was a convicted assassin, and seven others, either proven or suspected spies or smugglers, to be exchanged for Russia’s imprisoned hostages. Along with the U.S., Germany agreed to release a convicted assassin, while the UK, France, Netherlands, Poland, Lithuania, and Czech Republic agreed to return several alleged Russian cyber operatives and spies. The releases were coordinated by the CIA and MI6 with the transaction to take place in Turkey. This was an amazing operation that required agreement and coordination by 8 nations to secure an agreement with the President of Russia.

The disturbing message of “Swap” is that human beings are currency, i.e., nothing more than a dollar bill, a euro, a yen, a pound, a franc, or a renminbi. Like a hot war, the Cold War monetizes human lives.

Hostage taking has changed human beings into a commodity like money. War and now hostage release dehumanize society.

LIFE IS LIQUID

Miodownik explains liquids are everywhere and influence every aspect of life on earth. As a scientist, Miodownik explains understanding liquids is understanding life.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Liquid Rules: The Delightful and Dangerous Substances That Flow Through Our Lives

Author: Mark Miodownik

Narrated By:  Michael Page

Mark Miodownik (Author, British materials scientist.)

Mark Miodownik offers some interesting information about liquids in “Liquid Rules”. It seems Miodownik had some spare time on a long plane trip. Though many know some of what the author explains, it is interesting for listener/readers who don’t think about the importance of liquids in our lives. For example, Miodownik notes how and why Kerosene is the fuel that powers jets.

The qualities of kerosene make it an optimum choice for jet propulsion.

Kerosene is safer to handle because high temperatures are required for ignition which makes it safer than gasoline. It has a low freezing point that allows high-altitude flight where sub-zero temperatures exist. Its viscosity allows it to flow in cold or hot conditions which reduces risk for fuel line’ clogging. Kerosene carries high energy production per unit of volume for longer flights. It is cheaper to refine than other fuels. And most importantly, it is chemically stable which reduces risks of vapor lock or premature combustion.

As Miodownik wings his way across the earth, he casually mentions Susan is a passenger on the same transatlantic flight who is offered a glass of wine.

She suggests wine testing is really a performance art. Her remark is an introduction to Miodownik’s more scientific examination of the sensory and symbolic dimensions of wine tasting. Miodownik explains the role of tannins, taste, and the rituals around drinking a glass of wine. He explains a connoisseur’s way of swirling a glass of wine before his/her nose to sense the bouquet of the libation. One imagines Susan looking askance at Miodownik’s academic review of her off-the-cuff remark. Who is this guy? Is he hitting on me?

Presumably, Miodownik sits back and contemplates the creation of a book about liquids.

Miodownik seems slightly discomfited by his seatmate’s look at him. Does he regret his forwardness in addressing her comment like a nerd? There is a sense of humor and a touch of irony in Miodownik’s choice of subject. One wonders what a woman’s response might be to a person she does not know explaining what she intended when she spoke of wine tasting as an art. In any case, Miodownik has introduced his subject.

As Miodownik’s thoughts move on about a book about liquids, he recalls the invention of ink.

Here is an invention with purpose. He notes the creation of ink that is made to flow predictably, dry quickly, and remain legible for years. The idea of a liquid that makes history, science, and art for the ages, i.e., an eternal gold mine for future generations. Ink reaches back to the caliphs of the Maghreb, rulers of Islamic caliphates in 7th century, northwest Africa. Ink connects with the evolution of the colors of red, green, and blue. From fountain pen writings to pointillist art the creation of ink plays a critical role in modernization of the world.

Water is the foundation of life.

Most know water is an essential need for life as we know it. What is often less thought of is that water is a universal substance that underlies world climate and biological life. Miodownik notes that water is a universal substance that underpins life and the climate systems of the world. It is the vehicle of human metabolism, emotional expression of fear, pain, happiness, and the world’s climate.

Production sweat shops.

Humans produce sweat and a quart of saliva per day. Saliva aide’s digestion, hygiene, health, and emotional expression like crying, anger, or embarrassment. Sweat regulates the bodies temperature. Water plays a role in the advance of technology with the creation of liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and OLEDs that power modern screens in phones and aircraft panels. Digital watches, cell phones, movies and general entertainment are a result of liquid’s existence. The irony of water as a liquid is that it can nurture as well as destroy. It refreshes life through cleaning, and food production, but also floods land, drowns life, and erodes soil upon which life depends. Water is an agent of comfort as well as chaos.

Miodownik explains liquids are everywhere and influence every aspect of life on earth. As a scientist, Miodownik explains understanding liquids is understanding life.

Aside from global warming, Miodownik notes the growing issue of plastics pollution and potable water availability will plague humanity. He argues humanity needs to come to grips with earth’s need for natural sustainability. Roads, houses, food, and potable water need to be designed to renew themselves without introduction of new materials or resources.

SCIENCE & ART

Science is unquestionably dependent on precise measurement while art or literature may have little to do with it.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Perfectionists

Author: Simon Winchester (How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World)

Narrated By: Simon Winchester

Simon Winchester (British-American author and journalist)

The beginning of “The Perfectionist” has an interesting vignette about Simon Winchester’s father that sets the table for his book. Simon’s father is characterized as an engineer that was asked to investigate why ammunition being used during WWII was misfiring. Bernard Winchester went to the production’ plant and precisely measured the ammunition that was being manufactured. Its quality was found to be well within specifications required to fire properly when used. Simon’s father followed a shipload of the ammunition to its destination to re-measure the specifications after delivery. The on-board jostling of cargo boxes caused miniscule damage to ammunition resulting in misfires in the field. Simon’s father’s discovery led to better packaging of the ammunition. Simon notes his father is highly praised by the military for his diligent investigation which made corrections in the way ammunition was packaged for transport to the front.

Simon’s father followed a shipload of ammunition to its destination to re-measure the specifications after delivery.

Simon Winchester’s story of his father is the subject of “The Perfectionist”. There are many ways of categorizing the advance of civilization. Manufacturing precision is Simon Winchester’s category of choice. Simon explains how improvements in precision, reaching as far back as the 18th century, led to technological advancement in the modern world. To Winchester, much of that advancement came from the needs of the military.

Winchester notes that John Wilkinson standardized and precisely measured cannon barrel rifling in the 1770s to improve accuracy.

The inaccuracy of weapons like cannons, mass production of reliable weaponry, and strategic advantage for military commands were founded on improvements in precision. Winchester notes that John Wilkinson standardized and precisely measured cannon borings in the 1770s to improve accuracy and reliability in battle. In the 1800s, the French began standardizing gun parts to allow interchangeability when field weapons were damaged or just quit working. In visiting France, Thomas Jefferson recognized the value of that interchangeability during America’s civil war when weapons often broke down and could only be repaired by craftsman who understood how a uniquely designed gun could be repaired.

Eli Whitney chose to hoodwink the American government during the War of Independence when he falsely claims to have a manufacturing plant that could produce standard gun parts.

Around 1801, Whitney contracts with the government and is paid but never produces any standardized parts. Whitney puts on a false show of interchangeability with parts that were manufactured by craftsman rather than a standardized process of production. (Whitney is neither penalized or required to repay the government.) The consequence of mass production of precise gun parts and ammunition is to kill more people in war which started an arms race that continues through to today. Progress in weapon design and manufacture is a harbinger of good and ill. Moving away from weapon production to the rise of industrialization, precise measurement remains a critical component of societies’ modernization.

Though there are precursors to the steam engine that reach back before the 18th century, James Watt (pictured here) revolutionizes its design with the help of Matthew Boulton.

Winchester explains how refinement of the steam engine enables the Industrial Revolution. Watt is obsessed with refining the containment of steam from an operating engine. Watt knows leakage of steam is correlated with loss of steam engine power and potential. The key to achieving better efficiency comes from John Wilkinson who develops a machine that could bore a precise hole through solid iron. With that level of precision, Watt recognized he could produce an engine with perfectly cylindrical, leak-proof chambers that could more efficiently power pistons to produce energy. Watt, Boulton, and Wilkinson open the world to the industrial revolution. Winchester suggests precision is the pursuit of perfection, i.e., a preeminent turning point in history. One may take issue with that conclusion because invention and innovation seem more important than precision, which is a tool rather than a cause for modernity.

The remarkable story of the jet engine is told by Winchester.

It is surprising that the jet engine became a reality as early as the beginning of WWII. Like nuclear bomb invention, Germany’s Hitler initially fails to grasp the importance of jet engine propulsion. However, Germany becoming the first to create a jet plane, the Heinkel He 178, to fly with jet propulsion. Hitler is more focused on refinement of the V-2 rocket as a revenge weapon against England than on jet propulsion for airplanes.

Frank Whittle (1907-1996, English aviation engineer and pilot who invented the jet engine.)

The original idea for the jet engine came from Frank Whittle, a British engineer in the early 1930s. Whittle realized Newton’s laws of energy could propel an airplane without propellers. Newton’s third law says for every action in one direction there is an equal but opposite energy reaction. Whittle acquired a patent on the idea of a jet engine but because of the five-pound cost of patent renewal and lack of any financial support for his brilliant idea, his patent expired. As a result, no single entity holds a patent on jet propulsion. It is not until May of 1941, that Frank Whittle’s turbojet engine first flies a plane.

1945 Gloster Meteor British jet.

There are many issues to be resolved for the idea of a jet engine to propel an airplane. There is the extreme pressure and heat generated by fuel being ignited within a turbine that must be designed with precise measurements, i.e., measurements within millionths of an inch. Winchester notes that the slightest deviation in blade shape, alignment, or material composition could cause vibration, inefficiency, or worse–engine failure and pilot death. The jet engine components had to endure extreme temperature changes and withstand metal fatigue while operating with high-speed rotating parts. Thousands of parts had to be precisely designed and integrated to provide the propulsion necessary for flight.

Whittle’s ultimate success leads him to be Knighted in 1948.

Whittle is recruited in 1937 by British Thomson-Houston, an engineering firm, to build a prototype of a jet engine. With money to create a prototype, Whittle turned his design idea into reality. With the help of two retired RAF officers, Whittle formed a company called Power Jets Ltd. In 1944, Britan nationalized Power Jets Ltd and Whittle was compelled to resign from the board in 1946. However, Whittle was ultimately recognized and knighted in 1948 for his contribution to Jet engine development.

The next big area of change addressed by Winchester is computer chip manufacture.

Transistors like these in the early years of computers are used in computer chip manufacture.

Winchester’s primary subject is Moore’s law postulated in 1965 by Gordon Moore, the co-founder of Intel. Moore predicts microchip computing power and efficiency would double every year and then every two years with continued miniaturization of chip transistors. His prediction, as of today, holds true. The size of computer chip transistors is measured in millimeters in the early 1960s. Today, measurement is at an atomic level, trending toward the use of quantum theory to continue Moore’s law prediction.

The last chapter of “The Perfectionist” is about measurement as a tool. Ironically, understanding measurement evolves through history. It may be a standard of change, but it is also a subject of change. The idea of distance measurement has evolved from an organic explanation that only imperfectly describes the visual world. That imperfectness leads to an obsession with exactness that boggles the mind.

As a caution, Winchester suggests the pursuit of precision may blind us to other values. The aesthetic beauty of a musical composition, architecture, a great novel, or mere thoughts of human beings may have little to do with precise measurement but can change the world. What one sees or feels is what we discount or respond to with emotion and/or appreciation, regardless of measurement analytics. Science is unquestionably dependent on precise measurement while art or literature may have little to do with it.

LIBERALITY

The conclusion one may draw from “Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine” is that government liberality is better than authoritarianism

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

Author: Gail Honeyman

Narrated By: Cathleen McCarron

Gail Honeyman (Author, Scottish writer and novelist, won the 2017 Costa First Novel Award for “Eleanor Oliphant”.)

“Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine” is a commentary on life’s loneliness which seems a self-imposed choice. There is a comic and mysterious quality to Honeyman’s story. Genetics and life experience inherent in every life is what the story of Oliphant is about. As an observer of life, one may believe experiences of life only reinforce genetic predisposition. If one accepts that belief, little of who we become is under our control. Honeyman’s story infers that is only partly true.

Waxing hair removal.

Life is a struggle for Eleanor. It is not that Eleanor does not make choices about life but that her choices appear other directed rather than inner directed. Life may be just a matter of chances and circumstances rather than inner directed motivation. Her story begins with a visit to a salon for an intimate waxing of her labia majora. (Hot or cold wax is applied to her intimate parts that pulls the roots of pubic hair off.) Eleanor is shocked by the experience. One presumes she is shocked because of the pain but surprisingly Eleanor explains it is because of the appearance it leaves of her naked woo-hoo. She thinks she now looks like an infant rather than a fully mature woman. This is a somewhat comic beginning to the author’s story. On the other hand, it shows Eleanor’s life seems more determined by society than inner direction.

Eleanor is a bookkeeper in a small business.

There is a mystery in this story that is slowly revealed by the details of Eleanor’s life. She lives alone in what is a subsidized apartment paid by social services. She is visited by a case worker and there appears some mysterious reason for her receiving help from the State. The mysterious reason is implied by the interview of Eleanor by a social case worker who pauses as she looks at the last part of a file as she interviews Eleanor. The case worker’s pause is about something written about Eleanor’s past. That past is made more mysterious as one finds Eleanor’s mother is institutionalized for some reason not disclosed.

Cultural differences.

The striking point made by this case worker’s visit to an American reader is the difference between Great Britain’s philosophical and cultural differences in regard to social policy. America rejects socialism while Great Britain endorses it. Great Britain practices democratic welfare capitalism while American democratic welfare is more limited. Healthcare is publicly funded in Great Britain while it is mostly private in America. These differences do not change the truth of Eleanor’s life story but it contextualizes Honeyman’s view of a life in a democratic socialist system rather than a democratic capitalist country.

The waxing incident is a comic beginning to Honeyman’s story, but it reflects on urban life as emotionally isolating despite being surrounded by other people.

Eleanor drinks half or more of a bottle of vodka alone in her apartment at the end of a work day. Her life is depressingly humdrum with hints of a trauma earlier in life. Whatever that trauma may have been urges one to keep listening or reading the author’s story. One’s interest is heightened by a young man that seems interested in Eleanor as a future companion. The young man is Raymond, a co-worker. Raymond is a loved son which is quite different from the family in which Eleanor appears to have been raised

Nearly half way through the book, one finds Eleanor has a scar on her face.

Like stepping into a darkened room, Honeyman shines a light on humanity. We become who we are from genetics and life experience. Honeyman gives many hints in her story that suggest there is a connection between Eleanor’s appearance, her reclusive and withdrawn behavior, her alcohol consumption, her mother’s confinement, and the aid she receives from Great Britain’s welfare system.

The perspective one gains from this story ranges from the horror of human selfishness to the value of caring for others.

One may compare American Capitalism with British Socialism thinking of their strengths and weaknesses or view the story of Oliphant as something that can occur in any social system of government.

Oliphant is rescued from a horrible family environment by Great Britain’s social welfare system to become an independent and productive British/Scottish citizen. One wonders if the same could happen in America with a less liberal system of welfare that relies on self-interest to change people’s lives. Of course, that is an unanswerable question because Oliphant could have been rescued in either country. On the other hand, would more citizens be saved by a more socialist system of democratic capitalism?

The details of Oliphant’s life are horrific. The cruelty of family life is real in every culture, whether authoritarian or democratic. The conclusion one may draw from “Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine” is that government liberality is better than authoritarianism.

FAME

As a son of a strong mother, one is impressed by Tina Knowles’ character in her enlightening memoir. She shows how women are the backbone of society despite their treatment in a patriarchal world.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Matriarch (A Memoir)

Author: Tina Knowles

Narrated By: Tina Knowles & 4 more

Celestine Ann Knowles aka Tina Knowles. (Author, American businesswoman, fashion designer, and mother of the famous performer, Beyoncé.)

This is an intelligent well-written memoir of the mother of two famous performers, Beyoncé and Solange Knowles. Celestine Ann Knowles is born in Galveston, Texas on January 4, 1954. Her two famous daughters are the singer Beyoncé and the composer, Solange Knowles.

Beyoncé
Mandatory Credit: Photo by Andrew H. Walker/Shutterstock (10569848bu)
Solange Knowles
Black composer & performance artist.

The mother of these two famous women tells a story of what it is to live in the 1950s as a young, poor Black American. Tina (a diminutive of Celestine) Knowles becomes a successful businesswoman, fashion designer, philanthropist and mother of two highly successful women in the 21st century.

Galveston’s in the 1950s.

Living in Galveston, Texas in the 1950s as a person of color is starkly and clearly explained in Tina Knowles’ memoir. Tina’s father works as a longshoreman. His work is sporadic because of a mining accident that ruined one eye and made him hard of hearing which limited the work he could do as a longshoreman. With the aid of his wife, Tina’s mother as a seamstress, their meager income is enough for them to get bye. Tina’s mother is the foundation of the family. Tina grows up as a force of nature before reaching adulthood. She grows up in a family ruled by a “Matriarch” as the power in her family and neighborhood. Even in her pre-school years, as the youngest of seven children, Tina understands her mother is the person who holds the family together and eventually makes Tina the matriarch of her future family.

White American’ opposition to equality in the 50s.

Tina adventured where many young Black children timorously dealt with life in an unfair world. Despite its unfairness, Tina ventured forth.

Tina tells the story of her childhood companions who would not go into an ice cream store in Galveston when white children were being served. Tina ignores their timorousness, goes into the store and is told to get out by the store manager. She finds what her friends were saying is true, but she had to experience it herself. Tina goes to a Catholic school where she is treated harshly by the teachers but continues on to graduate despite their strict rules. Nearing graduation, she becomes ill and is treated by a white physician who presumes she is lying about never having premarital sex. The white physician and an aide strap her down and conduct a physical exam that leaves blood on the table because of her hymen being broken by the exam. Her mother calls the physicians to complain about the treatment of her daughter and takes her to another hospital to find her illness is unrelated to the doctor’s presumptive and unnecessary pelvic exam.

Tina is raised in the time when Black discrimination is finally beginning to change. Brown v. Board of Education is decided in 1954.

Tina graduates from high school, presumably in the early 1970s, and goes on to college. While in high school, she joins a local singing group that is inspired by The Supremes. They call themselves the Veltones. That experience leads her to work in fashion and entertainment. She becomes a designer, and entrepreneur, and eventually the “Matriarch” of her own family. In 1980, Tina marries Mathew Knowles. They were married for over 30 years but divorced in 2011.

In the Knowles’ marriage (1980-2011) they have two daughters, i.e., Beyoncé and Solange Knowles.

Tina Knowles explains how the birth of Beyoncé ignited her ascendence as the “Matriarch” of her generation. From taking care of Beyoncé to remodeling her house to creating her first business, Tina created her own world. Tina built the foundation for her life and raised one of the most famous singers in the world.

“Headliners”–Tina Knowles first business.

At 32 years of age, Tina decides to start a business. With financing from what is to become her former husband, she decides to open a salon. Tina is pregnant with her second child, Solange. Matthew involves himself in Tina’s business in financial ways that challenge its success. Tina starts “Headliners” in the early 1990s to offer make-up and beauty services in Houston, Texas. Beyoncé is now around nine years old while Solange is nearing four or five years of age.

Matthew and Tina Knowles file for bankruptcy.

Her husband, Matthew decides to quit his six-figure job to join Tina in her business. For unclear reasons, the family files for bankruptcy, sells their home, and rebuilds their lives while Tina focuses on her salon business. Tina explains she decides to divorce her husband because of his infidelity and mishandling of their dwindling wealth. She holds her life together by focusing on the burgeoning career of her girls and her salon business. Tina shows herself as the guiding force of her talented daughters. She has become the “Matriarch” that her mother had developed her to be.

Beyoncé’s 2025 concert in London.

Though most interest in Tina’s story may be because of her daughter, Beyoncé, her memoir suggests the “Matriarch” of the next generation of Knowles will be her daughter, Solange. She does not diminish the great success of Beyoncé as an incredible talent who runs her musical productions, but it seems Solange is the worker bee that is driven to become her generation’s “Matriarch”.

Agnéz Deréon (Tina Knowles’ mother, the “Matriarch” of the Knowles’ descendants.)

At the end of Tina’s book, she has reached the age of 70. She maintains a clear picture of the story of her life. Married and divorced twice, she is in charge of her life and appears to influence all who surround her. As a survivor of breast cancer and a firm grasp on life, she uses her strong belief in God and the love of her family to believe the best is yet to come. As a son of a strong mother, one is impressed by Tina Knowles’ character in her enlightening memoir. She shows how women are the backbone of society despite their treatment in a patriarchal world.

MARK TWAIN

Chernow’s biography is a mirror of Twain’s time and life. Chernow implies Twain could see imperfections of society without seeing his own. Twain’s genius to entertain America and readers around the world is not diminished by Chernow’s well written book.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Mark Twain 

Author: Ron Chernow

Narrated By: Jason Culp

Ron Chernow (Author, journalist, biographer, winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and the American History Prize for his 2010 book “Washington: A Life”.

No stranger to historical biographies, Ron Chernow has written an interesting biography of the peripatetic humorist Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain. Samuel Clemens was born in Florida, Missouri, two weeks after Hailley’s Comet passed Earth in 1835, he died in 1910 when Hailey’s Comet made its closest approach to Earth in 1910. Chernow’s biography explains how Clemens became a steamboat pilot, frontier journalist, author, and American gadfly in his journey through 74 plus years of life.

Chernow’s biography of Mark Twain reminds one of Donald Trump without the power of the Presidency.

Clemens is noted as a stretcher of truth who told stories of his time that illustrated the contradictions of race, slavery, and morality that live through today. Twain is shown to express himself in humorist ways that challenged racial norms and societal conflicts which made some laugh, and others cringe with disgust or anger. Chernow argues Twain’s use of language shaped American literature. He gave American literature a unique voice that blended humor with criticism. Twain humanized the Black community and the iniquity of slavery, but Twain’s upbringing suggests he did not escape the false belief of innate Black’ inequality. Chernow painted a picture of Twain that showed how society was filled with the promise and pitfalls of Americans’ character.

Chernow shows how Clemens reinvents himself, not from formal education but from life experience.

At 21, Clemens begins training himself as a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi river, a highly praised, prized, and well-compensated position. Chernow suggests Clemens found his nom deplume, Mark Twain, based on the language of riverboat pilots. (“Mark Twain” is the 12 feet of depth needed for safe navigation of a riverboat.) As material transport changed after the steamboat era, Twain had to find a new career. He traveled to Nevada with the hope to become rich as a silver baron during the gold and silver rushes of the late 1850s. However, he never struck it rich, lost other people’s money, and turned to earlier work experience in newspapers when he lived in Missouri. He had learned the typesetting business and had written a few articles for the paper in his hometown. He settled in Carson City, Nevada, eventually becoming a journalist. On the one hand his stretching of the truth got him in trouble as a journalist but, on the other, it opened him to another career. His wit and way with words led to a role as lecturer and performer.

Chernow shows Twain changes jobs based on his innate abilities and external events.

The development of mass media, America’s Civil War, the industrialization of America, and the growth of a celebrity’ culture influence Twain’s life and made him a cultural symbol of America in the same way Dickens, Dostoevsky, and Chinua Achebe became symbols of their countries. Twain exemplified American life, its contradictions, its greed, and its biases that were blended into the personal tragedies and experiences of his own life. He turned his life experience into an art that reflected America’s growth as a nation. He became a writer and lecturer.

Chernow explains how Twain did not just read his lectures, i.e., he performs and acts their meaning to an audience.

Twain blends storytelling with satire and theater to entertain his audience. His reputation as a public speaker is made in California, but he becomes a global star. He performs in London, Berlin, and Bombay with what became cultural events about American humor and American foibles. His lectures are folksy with tinges of intellectualism that make him revered, respected, and laughed about by his audiences. Chernow believes he created an image of one who speaks truth to power about imperialism, religion, and human folly.

Chernow does not sugar coat truth about Twain.

Like all human beings, Twain had his blind spots. He was silent about lynching and its immorality, and he was trapped in his vision of racism by treating it as a troubling fact of American life despite his championing of civil rights. At best, he appears to be an agnostic when it comes to religion. There is criticism of Twain’s close relationship with teenage girls that he dismisses as a public concern by saying “It isn’t the public’s affair”. Twain is reckless with other people’s and his own money and investment. He exhibits behavior that suggests a gambler’s view about getting rich quickly. Twain could be vindictive, and melancholic because of his gloomy view of humanity. His family life suffers from his impulsivity and emotional distancing toward his wife and daughters. In one sense, Chernow makes Twain more human by noting he is like most of us except for his insightful sense of humor and talent for extemporaneous public speaking.

The archive of Twain’s letters is in the thousands which spans his entire adult life.

Chernow gathers much of his understanding of Twain from his personal letters rather than his books. He does note a number of Twain’s family members and friends are models for characters in his novels. However, Chernow’s focus is on Twain the man who appears morally inconsistent, a poor manager of other people’s money, and prone to anger when aggravated by other’s opinions. Whether this is fair or not, it describes many people today.

Chernow’s biography is a mirror of Twain’s time and life. Chernow implies Twain could see imperfections of society without seeing his own. Twain’s genius to entertain America and readers around the world is not diminished by Chernow’s well written book.

HUMAN FLAW

A not surprising irony in “They Made America” is that great innovators like the rest of us are flawed. Ford is widely considered an antisemite, Edison is too opinionated to countenance differences of opinion, Rockefeller is an elitist, Singer is a misogynist and so and so on

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

They Made America (From the Steam Engine to the Search Engine: Two Centuries of Innovators)

Author: Harold Evans, Gail Buckland & 1 more

Narrated By: Harold Evans

Harold Evans (Author, 1928-2020, British journalist died at age 92.)

“They Made America” is partly about inventions but mostly about innovations that transform society. He writes of America but his explanation of making any successful economy requires innovation. Invention may be a beginning while innovation has no end. He writes of mostly American men whose imagination leads to innovations that transform America’s economy. The generation of power, and advances in communication, transportation, finance, and culture are the consequence of innovation that may or may not be based on original invention. Some of a nation’s economic and social advancement is from unique invention but all of a nation’s success is a result of innovation.

During the Obama administration, America’s economic growth began to decline and accelerated with the Covid 19 pandemic.

Evans and his co-authors identify many who have contributed to the success of America’s economic growth. Most of those he identifies are Americans but a few like Leo Baekeland, Reginald Fessenden, and Herbert Boyer show that innovation is not just an American phenomenon. Baekeland is a Belgian who invented Bakelite and became a U.S. citizen. Bakelite is the first fully synthetic plastic that revolutionized design and manufacture of consumer goods. Fessenden was a Canadian who pioneered radio transmission technology and Herbert Boyer and Robert Swanson were Americans who collaborated with many international scientists to create Genetech, the first biotech firm in the world that commercialized recombinant DNA for life-saving medicines like insulin.

Though British innovator, James Watt, did not invent the steam engine he radically improved it by adding a separate steam condenser.

The invention and innovational changes of the steam engine led innovators like Robert Fulton to see how a steam engine could power a steamboat. The invention of the automobile led to Henry Ford’s innovations in assembly line work that reduced the cost of production to make cars available to almost every working American. Ford also increased wages of his workers so they could buy Ford products. The founder of Bank of America, A.P. Giannini, innovated lending with idea of consumer banking giving workers a way to secure their paychecks in a bank that could provide a means to pay for services and possible credit based on accumulated wealth in their checking account. Innovations in communication by Ted Turner, Page and Brin, and Jobs and Wozniak changed the media communications industry.

Thomas Edison (1847-1931).

The recounting of the many American innovators in “They Made America” is not a picture of idealized human beings. Thomas Edison, who is among the greatest innovators in America, created a team of experimenters at Menlo Park in New Jersey. Edison created an “Invention Factory” that led to the electrification of the world. Though he did not believe in alternating current (AC) as an improvement over direct current (DC) in the use of electricity, he envisioned an electrical system that would light the dark streets of the world. Edison is a perfect representation of inventor and innovator in Evans’ American story. Edison’s belief in himself, his drive for accomplishment, and risks he was willing to take, exemplify the best an American entrepreneur can be.

Isaac Merritt Singer (1811-1875).

Isaac Singer innovated sewing machine manufacturing and sale but led a profligate life as a seducer of women with a volatile reputation that often erupted in anger toward others. Singer is alleged to have fathered 24 children from wives and girlfriends. Like his name, Singer was a showman who demonstrated his machines and built a brand that remains popular today. He was flamboyant and accused of bigamy and adultery but is noted to have created a global sales and service company with an installment purchasing plan for his machines. He carries the same force of nature as Edison but with the development of a singular product.

John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937).

In contrast to either Edison or Singer, Rockefeller is primarily focused on increasing his wealth and power. He revolutionizes the oil industry through monopolization while raising prices of oil to increase his wealth. He brands his product, reduces his costs of operation by building oil pipelines to reduce delivery costs and develops a corporate strategy to eliminate competition. His focus is on creating an industrial empire.

Malcolm Purcell McLean (1913-2001)
Ted Turner (Born in 1938, now age 86.)

Evans notes other innovators like Ted Turner and Malcolm McLean and their innovations in media and global shipping. The lesser-known McLean introduced and launched the first container ship in 1956 that dramatically reduced loading times, labor costs, and cargo theft in the shipping industry. Ted Turner created CNN and TBS to revolutionize the news and entertainment industries. Page and Brin, and Jobs and Wozniak unleashed the internet to offer wider knowledge to the world but also provided a network that spread lies and misrepresentations of truth.

Dr. He Jiankui is an example of human blind spots. (Jiankui claims to have conducted the first human genome-editing of a human embryo with no oversight and a botched process that embarrassed the scientific community.)

The common denominator of these and many more innovators described in Evans’ book (though Jiankui is not mentioned) is their ambition, ego, and human blind spots. Edison is domineering and ruthlessly competitive. Ford’s antisemitism is reflected in his support for Adolph Hitler and being the only American cited in “Mein Kampf” as a model of antisemitism. Rockefeller shows the same traits as Edison as a corporate hegemon while using his innovative skill to dominate competitors and corner the market price for oil. Singer improves the utility of sewing machines through innovation and salesmanship while living life as though his personal ego is all that matters.

A not surprising irony in “They Made America” is that great innovators (like all of us) are flawed. Ford is widely considered an antisemite, Edison is too opinionated to countenance differences of opinion, Rockefeller is an elitist, Singer is a misogynist, Jiankui is a scofflaw, and so and so on. On balance however, innovators make a contribution to the success of America while most of us go along to get along.

BECOMING god-LIKE

Before the invention and advance of science, Fry’s reminders of mythological beliefs level up to the brilliance of science in the world. One leans on the hope left in Pandora’s jar to arrive at a time when all human beings are treated equally.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Mythos (The Greek Myths Reimagined.)

Author: Stephen Fry

Narrated By: Stephen Fry

Stephen Fry (Author, British actor and comedian.)

Most reader/listeners are familiar with the Greek gods associated with Zeus and some with his domicile on the island of Crete. It seems odd that Crete would be his chosen home unless one has been there and seen the beautiful island, walked the hills. and felt the warm breeze from the Mediterranean Sea. Stephen Fry fascinates his audience with cultural tales of Greece that meld the myths of gods before and after the birth of Zeus. His writing and narration are like a dramatic, terrifying, unfolding movie in one’s mind.

Theory and Truth.

The origin of life myth is that earth and sky are married in human forms named Gaia (earth) and a father, born of Gaia, named Uranus (sky). They are the calm and storm of human life that is yet to be created. Gaia, the source of life, prophesizes the loss of power by Uranus at the hands of one of his children. To avoid the prophesy, when two of their offspring are ferocious beasts, Uranus forces them back into Gaia’s body to keep himself safe. Gaia is outraged by his cruelty and forges a sharpened sickle and chooses Cronus, a later son, to use it to kill Uranus. Cronus accepts Gaia’s order and attacks Uranus who defends himself but is castrated rather than killed by the first swing of the weapon. That castration severs Uranus’ rule of the cosmos with the dispersal of his privates and sperm that become today’s universe. He no longer rules the cosmos.

Cronus, the son of Gaia is the God of Time in Greek Mythology.

Cronus now becomes ruler of the universe but is also prophesized to fall at the hands of his offspring. Cronus marries Rhea, the sister of Gaia. Cronus knows of the prophesy and chooses to eat every child born by Rhea to avoid his fate. Rhea secretly wraps a stone in a blanket when she births Zeus and Cronus swallows the stone thinking another who might kill him is gone. Of course, Rhea is angry because of her lost children in Cronus’s stomach. Zeus plans to have Cronus drink a specially prepared potion that will cause Cronus to vomit up the siblings he has swallowed. Zeus imprisons Cronus after the freed siblings are returned to life. This begins the rise of the Olympian’ gods with Zeus as their leader.

Athena (The Goddess of Knowledge and Wisdom.)

One of the many gods of Zeus’s time is Athena, the goddess of wisdom and power. Athena’s father was the Titan of wisdom. Zeus had swallowed Athena’s father because of a fear that a child would be born that would surpass him as the all-powerful leader of the gods. There is a story of Athena’s birth from a blow to Zeus’s head because of a headache that would not go away. Athena bursts full grown out of Zeus’s head.

Fry explains Zeus is now becoming bored with his all-powerful life. He and Prometheus, another child of the gods, discuss creating mortal human life as a way of providing a new source of adventure and entertainment for the gods. These created humans become toys of the gods. Zeus and Prometheus search for the best source of clay to create humanity. Prometheus explains Zeus must provide some spit to create these new forms of life. So, humanity is formed from the spit of Zeus and the clay of earth. Prometheus is an artist who is described as a god of forethought and crafty counsel.

Prometheus and the Vulture.

However, Prometheus exceeds his authority by giving fire from the gods to man. Zeus is incensed and punishes Prometheus by chaining him to a rock. An eagle is initially planned to tear Prometheus apart every day to feast on his liver, but Zeus decides an eagle is too majestic for the task and turns the fowl to a buzzard. This occurs every night because of Prometheus’s immortality. Zeus treats people as toys for his amusement because he is incensed by their arrogance for having a power that only gods were to have. At this point, there are no female humans. With the creation of women, Zeus becomes threatened by humankind from increased procreation and capabilities that might grow to compete with the power of the gods.

Zeus (Leader of the Olympus gods.)

Zeus asks other gods to create woman, in part to complicate human life, which is a myth one could argue sets the table for gender inequality. The first woman is Pandora. This newly created woman is given a jar by Zeus and told not to open it for any reason without telling her what is inside the jar. She marries Prometheus’s brother and buries the jar under a sundial. However, her curiosity which is a “gift” given to her by Hermes, overturns the sundial, digs up the jar, opens it and releases the evils of life on the world. The only thing remaining in the jar is hope.

Before the invention and advance of science, Fry’s reminders of mythological beliefs level up to the brilliance of science in the world. One doubts life will ever be fully explained by science. One leans on the hope left in Pandora’s jar to arrive at a time when all human beings are treated equally.

CARTOON

Nadel reports Robert Crumb’s life and antics without criticism which seems appropriate because he is simply recounting a human beings’ life. Nadel does not act as a judge but as a reporter of a lived life.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Crumb 

Author: Dan Nadel

Narrated By: Ron Shapiro

Dan Nadel (Author, curator-at-large for the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles.)

“Crumb” is a well written biography of Robert Crumb, the cartoonist. The subject matter is of interest to me because of the remarkable talent of a disheveled young man with coke bottle glasses that has a gift of drawing. That gift provides him wealth and success despite coming from a troubled household that gives him an eye for the weirdness of life. He and his brother, Charles who was 1 year older, began a monthly hand-drawn comic book when he is 15 years old. They sold it door to door in the late 1950s. Charles wrote the stories and Robert illustrated them. Nadel shows how that early life experience sharpened Robert’s artistic skills and planted the seeds for his future success.

R. Crumb drawing of himself.

Nadel notes how Crumb’s drawings are deeply personal and sometimes disturbing because they capture the inner conflicts within Crumb’s life while tapping into the undercurrents of postwar America. Crumb’s work delves into the male id and its impulses exposing sexual obsession, neurosis, and human alienation. Crumb’s life story borders on a confessional and makes one confront their own obsessions. His comics delve into consumerism and conformity about race and gender with a biting satire that makes one realize the absurdity of American, if not all, human life. Nadel suggests Crumb’s work is an unfiltered chronical of the life he lived and lives.

Robert Crumb gained fame in the 1960s counterculture when Zap Comix was released in 1967.

“Mr. Natural” and “Fritz the Cat” became cult icons illustrating the absurdity of life. Nadel suggests Crumb’s subjects are expressions of his working through his personal demons. Some of his images are racist and misogynistic which paints a picture of a troubled society. His subject matter ranges from popular music, counterculture, the history of comics, to graphic satire.

Fritz the Cat

Nadel explains Crumb is married twice. His first marriage to Dana Morgan falls apart in part because of Crumb’s emotional volatility, but also because of the cultural upheaval of the 1960s. Nadel explains Morgan was the first woman Crumb had sex with which is complicated by Crumb’s confusion about sex. Crumb’s fame increases. He experiments with LSD. These dramatic changes in his life increase his discontent. There seems no single reason for the divorce. Crumb moves to San Franciso in 1967 to immerse himself in a counterculture and the comix scene.

Crumb meets Alaine Kominsky in 1972, and they marry in 1978. Their creative partnership blossoms with the creation of autobiographical comics that reveal the quirks, conflicts, and affections of their relationship. Their joint work is “Dirty Laundry Comics”. Ms. Kominsky dies in 2022.

Nadel notes that Crumb insisted on honesty when he agreed to have his biography written. Aline Kominsky is acknowledged as a stabilizing force in Crumb’s life. Crumb lived through America’s wars, the psychedelic age of the 60s and has now has reached the age of 81. Nadel explains much about Crumb’s turbulent life and how that turbulence shaped him and his art. Nadel offers a layered and empathetic portrait of R. Crumb, the ups and downs of his life, without excusing or condemning the beliefs, actions, or art of his long life.

Crumb’s behavior like jumping on the backs of women for piggyback rides and his racially charged imagery is uncritically reported.

Some of what Crumb illustrated in his art and what he did with his piggyback rides undoubtedly insults the public. In many ways, Crumb marginalizes society with his racist and misogynistic comics. Nadel reports Robert Crumb’s life and antics without criticism which seems appropriate because he is simply recounting a human beings’ life. Nadel does not act as a judge but as a reporter of a lived life.

Crumb’s parents were poor. He lived in poverty but overcame its limitations with the art of drawing that opened the world of commerce to him. From comics to greeting card drawings and back to comics, Crumb became a maven of the art of irreverent behavior.