<i>Unreliable Memories</i> by Clive James

I am struck by how many personal histories of current British personalities include intensely remembered tales of mutual masturbation. at ages of about 6 to 10. Stephen Fry has such a mention in his autobiography. And Clive James, though really Australian, includes one here. I can swear I've read others, as well.

I hadn't heard of Clive James until recently when some essays and interviews by him began appearing on Slate.com. The recommendation for his memoirs also came from Slate.

The book covers James's boyhood, adolescence and young adulthood in Australia. I am reminded again, as I was when I read Bryson's In a Sunburned Country that it is purely by good luck that anyone survives in Australia. There are so many things that can kill you. James tells stories of his near misses, paranoid moments and petrified situations. Many of them, though, seem to be brought on by his own actions, inattentiveness or negligence.

James is a funny and engaging writer. He writes regrettably about his callous actions toward his motion, using his writing as a therapy for laying bare the insolence of his past. (I have a feeling that many writers use memoirs to do just this.) He is almost exasperated at his own past actions---seeing clearly his mis-steps and mistakes with the clarity of hindsight. Though he regrets some of his past, he has resigned himself to accept it---though not fully---placing blame on the circumstances rather than people (except for a few bad teachers).

The stories that make up the book are great. I particularly liked his tale of tunneling up the backyard ("Little kids ruin everything") and those from his stint in the National Service. He tells the stories with humor and comments on how these experiences still influence him today.

James spent much of his young life doing little but angering his mother. This work, in part, seems to try to make amends for that by bringing meaning to his own past; making it clearer for himself, while providing excellent stories for us to enjoy. Highly recommended.

10/10

<i>Katahdin: An Historic Journey</i> by John W. Neff

I purchased this book for my dad as a birthday gift. He read much of it while he was sitting on the edge of a lake in Maine. I read much of it while sitting on a bus between Providence and Pawtucket, RI. He enjoyed it, but thought it was a bit repetitive. I have similar feelings.

Neff collected and organized all the stories and histories he could find about Mount Katahdin. This starts with Native American stories and tales of the first explorers to the region. One of the more interesting things to note about this point in Katahdin's history is that the first recorded ascent of the mountain wasn't until 1804. As a comparison, Mount Washington in New Hampshire had its first recorded climb in 1642.

Neff continues from there, including the logging history, the background of every camp trail and road in the area, as well as a summary of the drive of Gov. Baxter to create a park around the mountain for everyone in the state to enjoy (he purchased much of the land with his own money then gave it to the state). He glosses over the holdouts to Baxter's purchases of land (my dad said he can now see why some Mainers aren't too keen on Baxter), choosing instead to show Baxter as an unerring (probably not) and deeply committed (very true) protector of Maine's north woods.

Neff does tend to repeat stories, mostly as a result of the way the book is split into sections and chapters; including history, campsites, trails and "inspiration." Thoreau's trips to Katahdin, for instance, are described at least twice: once in the history and once in "inspiration." The writing also reflected that Neff was gathering stories form all corners of the state: it tended to be choppy and a bit rambling.

All in all, I think this book would be a good companion for travel through the Katahdin area and better as a book where portions are read here and there rather than as a single narrative all the way through.

6/10

<i>Happiness</i> by Matthieu Ricard

The recommendation for this author came from my advisor. This book was much different than the other book on Zen Buddhism I have read: Watt's The Way of Zen. Watt covers more context and background for Zen Buddhism, where Ricard covers more of the application. Ricard includes exercises for improving one's thoughts and actions in context with the world. The exercises are good, but I would have to own the book (I got it from the library) so I could use it as a reference while practicing them.

Ricard focuses much of the text on compassion and using feelings of compassion to overcome negative emotions and generate true happiness for one's self.Partnered with that, is looking at negative emotions (anger, fear, jealousy, etc.) when they enter your mind as a way to break them apart. I've been trying the second and have found it to be some help as a way to stay focused on problems rather than people's attitudes/ignorance.

I would have liked for Ricard to have discussed further how to deal with more complicated judgements about producing happiness in others and showing compassion. For example, does engaging in aspects of modern society (marketing for example) increase happiness in the world? Also, I would have liked to see how one can resolve such actions with more compassionate goals or desires in life.

Otherwise, the book is well written. Ricard mixes in appropriate stories to demonstrate points that he is making. He also cites a number of modern psychological and brain imaging studies that support his statements and recommendations. Buddhism appears to have practices that are difficult to describe in text in a meaningful manner. Ricard, though, does well by adding the exercises to help the reader understand how the principles he describes can be used.

If you want to learn the context, history and tradition of Buddhism, pick up Watt's The Way of Zen (I may have an e-copy around if you are interested). If you are looking for more practical application and the relevance to today's society, read this book.

7/10

<i>The Diamond Age</i> by Neal Stephenson

I really liked this book. I really disliked the ending. It reminded me of the ending of Fahrenheit 451---sort of the idea that nothing bad can end up coming of this. All will be well because we deem it so. Frankly, though, I am not sure what type of ending I would have preferred. Maybe tragedy---with Nell dying or sacrificing herself---like 100 Years of Solitude or Stranger in a Strange Land. Maybe it would have been better to know the end from the beginning, like with Vonnegut or The Virgin Suicides.

The Primer was an awesome imaginary creation. Its ability to teach, learn, incorporate and adjust was very, very cool. This is what computers should be doing. It was too bad, in some regards, that there needed to be a human doing the work behind the scenes. But the consistency of the human seemed to make the difference, giving Nell the ability to stick with the Primer and learn more than the other girls.

The mix of Victorian and SciFi elements is always a fun juxtaposition for my mind. It think instantly of Jules Verne, H.G. Wells and The Wild, Wild West (the TV show, not the movie with Will Smith). With all of these, and especially here, the mix of elegance with technology is very appealing to me. The Victorian imagery (not necessarily its rigidity) with its detail and elegance seems to be the perfect visualization of complex thoughts that are intricately and beautifully put together. It could be argued, though that the Victorians provided a complicated exterior when one wasn't needed (form not following function), but it provided an aesthetic of thought, which today could be, maybe best represented by a circuit board.

Overall, the writing was strong and the characters were well established. I, of course, liked the engineer (but not how he and his group treated women: their place was in the home). The ending, though, was hurried. I liked the tale told by the Primer and was often looking to get back to it when I was reading about the real world. I loved watching Nell learn. This is well recommended.

8/10

<i>American Gods</i> by Neil Gaiman

I liked the plot (well, except for the end) and the ideas, but the writing was horrible. Gaiman is the complete opposite of Vonnegut in style---he described in detail the character's apperaence, mind-set and actions. He provides details for the most mundane activities that a few words could easily convey. I felt myself wanting to pick up a pen and start editing the paragraphs. I did rewrite a few sentences in my head.

I was considering that Gaiman provided the detail to slow the reader down or to draw a distinction between Shadow's life and those of the gods. There is, though, much better methods for slowing down a story rather than giving intrecate stage directions. He also described the actions of the gods and their details in a simliar manner as he did those of Shadow's.

I did like the interludes---sort of background stories of the gods---that Gaiman added. Those were much crisper and better constructed in terms of detail than the rest of the rest of the book. I would have liked to read more of them.

The story, though, was good. I like the idea of gods floating around in modern times, trying, much like the rest of us, to find a place to fit in an always changing world. I had trouble, though, identifying many of the characters mythology. Gaiman was drawing from so many traditions, it was hard to keep track. I guess that is partly the point---that so many gods were brought to the US, that it is hard to keep track of them.

Overall, reasonably paced, poorly written, but a good story. Maybe a good book for a long plane flight where you can do little more than sit and read.

4/10

<i>Galapagos</i> by Kurt Vonnegut

I think this book typifies what I like about Vonnegut beyond his cynical nature. It took me reading part of a Wikipedia entry (warning, spoilers) on this book to realize that the big things that get me---why I keep coming back to his books---are his non-linear plots which tend to imply events rather than state them directly and his character descriptions, which are mostly done through the actions of the characters themselves rather than through formal descriptions. I guess I like to have room for my imagination to fill in the details of both the plot and character descriptions. I feel more invested in the book this way.

In this book, the narrator is a ghost explaining how the human race ends and, more importantly, how it is saved by a group shipwrecked on the Galapagos Islands. The ghost follows the group and their descendants for 1,000,000 years (not much of the middle is described, more the before and the after). The humans end up evolving much like their animal counterparts on the Galapagos, to a stasis point. Humans no longer have big brains. They live only to eat fish and lay in the sun and procreate. They still laugh when some one farts.

Definitely Vonnegut is questioning our modern society (the main portion of the book is set around 1986), showing us that so much of it is there merely to occupy our big brains, which have little to do since we are regularly safe from danger, hunger and cold. The resulting humanoids are safe, full and warm as well, but have lost what we consider a fundamental human quality: curiosity. The curious ones get eaten by sharks. They have reached a point where evolution stops (much like with the animals currently on the Galapagos), maybe similar to our current time with our big brains. But, the humanoids of Vonnegut's future have no charge to make things better. They have become a perfect fit for their geographic location. They are in their heaven and could imagine nothing further.

9/10

<i>The General and His Labyrinth</i> by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

This is a historical novel set in 1830 in South America as the Spanish are being ousted and the countries we currently know are being formed. Marquez handles the material well, balancing the historical fact with extrapolation of the characters' thoughts and actions. I didn't get the feeling that any part was patently untrue---his interpretation of the events were quite believable. In both the balancing and believability, I think Marques comes quite close to matching Shaara in The Killer Angles---one of the best pieces of historical fiction I have read.

Marquez's style here was as engaging as in 100 Years of Solitude, despite the historical setting. I like how the General was portrayed: as a man dedicated to an ideal even through sickness and lack of support. Most of the supporting characters---other than Jose Palacios and Manuela---tended to blend into each other and I was often forgetting who was who.

One of the best aspects of this book was the descriptions of the countryside and people. The General is moving about northern South America for much of the book and it is interesting how the reaction to him changes as he travels and how the description of the countryside tends to mirror those reactions: poor reactions in a swamp area, great reactions in the mountains. I really got a sense of the variety of political and environmental landscapes that existed during that time.

I was loaned this book by my thesis advisor. I'm not quite sure if he was trying to say anything with it. The General's labyrinth is his life's work: freeing and uniting all of South America. It seemed that as hard as he tried he was not able to find the way through to the ending he wanted. I hope my advisor isn't trying to say the same about my research---this method, though, seems a bit too subtle for him.