The Postmistress

Sarah Blake's book is the best novel I've read in years. Compelling and passionate, it's grounded by strong, interesting, and predominantly female characters. In fact, three women's stories are braided together to form a thoroughly believable look at what people at home experienced during World War II.

One is the postmistress of Franklin, MA., a small town far out on Cape Cod--one of the first sites the Nazis might attack with U-boats. Iris James loves order, precision, and correctness, and although a newcomer to Franklin, she soon becomes a daily part of people's lives. Also new to town is Emma Fitch, recently married to Franklin's one doctor. Emma, an orphan, who lost all her family to influenza as a child, does not feel whole without someone looking out for her. And that someone is Dr. Fitch, who is trying desperately to revive his family's reputation after it was ruined by his alcoholic father. The third strong character and the one who almost steals the book is radio gal, Frankie Bard, who lives in London and through hard work, persistence, and sheer talent has become the first woman to broadcast about the Blitz. The London bomb scenes--both above and below ground--are so realistic that you almost feel the earth shudder and buildings shake.

What Blake does expertly is to capture the emotional resonance of living through a war through the small, myriad details: Lucky Strikes, gramophones, the feel of a letter inside a pocket, bucolic dune scenes, a cafe where customers grouse about the Nazis, the big bus rumbling in from Boston--all feel amazingly authentic. Edward R. Murrow is Frankie's boss. He reluctantly allows her to board trains in Europe and record the voices of displaced Jews--refugees racing to escape Germany and Eastern Europe to survive. Frankie thinks that one of the "impossible absurdity of war was that the trains between countries still ran."

There are love stories here, but what The Postmistress centers on is our need to pay attention, to not look the other way when horror, prejudice, and murder happen. Also, the novel teaches us to live each moment fully, passionately, and with honor. And it's not only soldiers that should do that but all of us.

Other books that focus on World War II at the home front are The Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Society and Helen Humphrey's Coventry.

Abraham Lincoln: With Malice Towards None

by Stephen B. Oates


I had originally decided not to read a Lincoln bio since Lincoln is one president that I know something about but the Fillmore and Buchanan bios gave such a "peculiar" perspective towards Lincoln, Seward, Weed, and other so-called "black" or "radical" Republicans, that I needed to get their side of the story. Also this book popped off the shelf when I was idly looking at recently published history at the library.

There were a few surprises. Considering how the South reacted to Lincoln's election I definitely didn't realize how far Lincoln and his administration were willing to compromise. His line was drawn at the spread of slavery, not its existence. Yet he went farther than anyone except the Abolitionists in embracing the quintessential American ideal: "...all men are created equal..."

It's very much a lesson in how people shape reality to fit their expectations rather than the other way around. It didn't matter what Lincoln said, the South always took it the way modern political opponents twist the meaning of everything Obama says. It would be funny if it wasn't so unnecessary.

Lincoln, though, was incredible. He learned from his mistakes—which were plentiful—endured personal tragedy and inconstant support by his loved ones, and harnessed some of the premiere prima donnas of American history. Should he have bothered? I don't know. The North and South probably would have fought over expansion anyway. But he took a stand for what was right.

The Lincoln story is so huge that this book is at best a well-informed overview. It's well written and sympathetically evokes Lincoln the man, not the icon.

I've still got a few antebellum presidents to clean up—Zachery Taylor and the 2nd volume on Pierce, and maybe Madison. I'd like to know more about Thomas Hart Benton, Sam Houston, Seward and Weed, and the Abolitionists. I'm also heading South to read about the folks who started the whole shebang, maybe read a full bio of Jefferson Davis, Alexander Stephens, and a little more on Toombs, Rhett, Cobb, and their ilk. Sadly, I'm starting to think that conventional wisdom is right and that the issue was slavery all along. It takes hubris to be a slave owner, an autocratic, unyielding state of mind that can't admit mistake. I've gone a long way to come back to the beginning.

Books Plus September: Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar

College students are returning to Bloomington as the first of autumn’s leaves begin to turn. It’s time to sink deep into a good book and visit other lands, for example, India—bright, vibrant, and pulsing with life. On September 5, I will lead the discussion of Thrity Umrigar’s The Space Between Us.
This novel examines contemporary life in Bombay from the eyes of two women who are separated by class and circumstance. Bhima, a domestic, cleans Sera’s floors and does other housekeeping tasks for her, yet both share the challenges and opportunities of their gender as they caretake and sacrifice for their families. This book is about the ties that bind us as well as the circumstances that keep us apart, even as we stay intimately connected to each other’s lives. Having just returned from visiting India, and I am looking forward to sharing some details of my trip and discussing this book.
For more details, see below. Hope you can make it.

Books Plus meets the first Sunday of each month. All are welcome. Join the discussion or simply come to listen. No registration necessary. Drop in.
2 p.m., First Sundays

September 5 – The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar
Discussion Leader: Sarah Bowman
“The author prevents her story from descending into emotional soup by tackling many of the issues affecting India today: poverty engendering poverty; the power of privilege and wealth; domestic violence; class; education; women's rights; AIDS. This adds richness, making The Space Between Us far more than an analysis of fate and a portrait of the bonds of womanhood. It is also a powerful social commentary on the glorious and frustrating jigsaw puzzle that is modern India.” – The Economist

October 3 – Brooklyn by Colm Toibin.
Discussion leader: Dory Lynch
"Every once in a while a book appears to remind us why we love fiction. Colm Tóibín's "Brooklyn" is about a young Irishwoman who immigrates to Brooklyn, N.Y., shortly after World War II... It is an enormously absorbing, nuanced read that steeps us in its character's world - and gradually surprises us with its moral resonance.” --San Francisco Chronicle

November 7 – The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman
Discussion Leader: Wendy Rubin
Award-winning author Anne Fadiman weaves an eloquent tapestry about the clash of cultural beliefs and practices of a Hmong family and the American medical community in this haunting piece of even-handed reporting. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is literary journalism at its finest.

The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers

While I am generally skeptical about any book with a title that purports to expose the "secret history" or "secret world" of anything, Richard McGregor's The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers turned out to be an unnerving delight.

McGregor, an Australian journalist who has worked extensively in China, does his best to explain China's secrecy-laden political environment to a Western audience, and, despite how cliche I may find the title, it is definitely a secret world. He examines the Communist Party's role in economic and social matters, touching on everything from recent reforms permitting limited entrepreneurship on one hand to the strict media controls exercised by the Party's propaganda arm on the other.

McGregor has certainly done a comprehensive job of reporting on a state in which journalistic freedoms are often severly limited. Further, the book is written very well and the more complex aspects of the Chinese state and Party government aparatus are made much clearer by the author's judicious use of comparison to Western governments.

What stands to be particularly striking to the observant reader are the many reverse parallels to the U.S. system of government. As I read through the numerous examples McGregor presents to illustrate the extent to which business in China is beholden to the Party I kept thinking about the manner in which corporate interests are often entrenched in the U.S. government, just the reverse of the Chinese situation in some ways. The author does not make this comparison explicitly, though. In fact, one gets the sense that he is personally more critical of the Party than he expresses, perhaps as a result of experience gained over years of working in the country.

While slightly more academic at times than the similarly interesting and illuminating portrait of Iran painted by Hooman Majd in The Ayatollah Begs to Differ (also highly recommended), this is an excellent read for anyone interested in history, politics or economics, or anyone who just wants to know a little bit more about an often mysterious country in charge of a significant amount of U.S. government debt. If China's rise to the status of a global power is frequently confusing and/or seemingly contradictory, McGregors books should help clear up a lot of confusion.

The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them

Anna Karenina is one of my favorite books, and as someone who has read many Russian novels and memoirs, I can relate to Elif Batuman's passion for Russian literature. This book is a love story, not to a particular person but to a whole culture and its prized books. Like many people, it took Batuman some time and many detours to find her life's calling. (Imagine explaining to your parents why you are studying Uzbek.) For anyone who has ever longed to travel to the birthplaces of famous authors and experience their homeland firsthand this is their book.

Batuman is passionate about Russian authors and incredibly knowledgeable. And she's the rare academic (she now teaches at Stanford), who can dig up funny, quirky, and amazingly interesting stories. Exhibit A: did you know there is a connection between Isaak Babel and King Kong?

One very amusing chapter describes her trip to a Tolstoy conference at his former estate, Yasnaya Polyana. Here, Batuman details the papers presented by other scholars all the while musing how Tolstoy may have been murdered. The author had to wear her flannel shirt and sweatpants (donned for sleeping on the overnight plane) for most of the week because her suitcase never arrived. This convinced the other researchers that she was a Tolstoyan, a follower of Tolstoy's beliefs about living simply with as few material possessions as possible.

I love books that inspire journeys, even if they are only arm-chair ones for the reader. The Possessed certainly fits that bill. Experience St. Petersburg's Ice Palace and wild, remote Samarkand. And if you love the great Russian authors, this book will only reinforce why you find that literature so appealing. Recommended for those who enjoyed accounts of reading in various cultures: Ann Fadiman's Ex Libris, Edmund White's Our Paris, Schlink's The Reader, and Nafisi's Reading Lolita in Tehran.

"A Government of Our Own": The Making of the Confederacy

by William C. Davis

This book is about three months in the life of a small Alabama town when the Confederacy was born. I kept thinking it would make a moderately less violent television series ala Deadwood. Lots of compelling personalities with itchy trigger fingers.

I liked this author's book Three Roads to the Alamo, about William Travis, Jim Bowie, and Davy Crockett. This is a far denser read. Even with my interest in the subject I found myself lagging at times.

The Confederates liked to think they were statesmen on par with the Founding Fathers, but in fact they were more akin to the bootblacks who shined Ben Franklin's shoes. It's almost funny when it begins to dawn on a few of them that they can never fix what's wrong with government when the real problem is what's wrong with themselves.

I have two complaints with the book. The first is about Davis's use of "Little Aleck" to describe the Confederate vice-president and moderate Alexander Stephens. The similarity to the name of the Clockwork Orange protagonist is disconcerting enough, but it also diminishes a brilliant man who overcame cruel physical deformity. Stephens was one of the few people (besides Jefferson Davis) who saw clearly the danger they'd placed themselves in.

My second complaint is that Davis often uses Mary Chesnut's judgment about a character without seeming to consider that occasionally she may have been wrong. I'm not saying she was, just that I would have liked corroborating evidence.

That said, the book sets the scene very well and is a good introduction to a society at its peak, right before they drove their Cadillac off the cliff.

Bonobo Handshake: a Memoir of Love and Adventure in the Congo

Vanessa Woods, a journalist and primate researcher, spent her twenties trying out various jobs and travelling, especially around Africa. She volunteered at a chimp rescue center and discovered how much she enjoyed working with primates, particularly one young male, Baluka, whom she raised (mostly on her left hip) through infancy. On a return trip to the chimp center, she met a young American researcher and fell in love. This is the story of their odyssey together to a bonobo sanctuary in war-torn Congo.

Vanessa, an Aussie, is irreverent and saucy, and, at first, not scientifically minded. To help with her husband's research, she must learn to be exacting and follow protocols. And help she must. The bonobos at this sanctuary in the Congo, unlike chimps, will have almost nothing to do with male humans. They live in a French speaking country, and Vanessa must interpret for her husband. Vanessa, too, has other preoccupations. Her Dad was a Vietnam vet, divorced from her Mom, and for years, Vanessa has tried and failed to understand his interpersonal problems and fears. She decides that living in a war-zone will give her some insight into how the war affected her father and changed his life.

The bonobos themselves are endearing--smart, playful, cooperative, and highly sexual. The latter point is most striking. "Make love not war" has been used to describe bonobo culture. Sex is one way they deal with conflict and forge cooperative ties with other bonobos, making them the most peaceful of primates

Bonobos share 98.7% of their genes with humans. They are also endangered with only about 5,000 left in the world. Her account reminds one of the wildlife narratives of Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey, but has more of a personal and travelogue focus. Woods shows us why this loving and lovable species is so important to us. She believes that the work, that she, her husband, and the other scientists are doing might eventually help humans understand our own warlike nature.