28 Dec
When solid ice speaks
to acknowledge your weight, fear
hardens, just in case
Miles from the lightning,
the seconds tense and await
thunder’s measurement
Leaves promising fruit,
devoured by a voracious
hunger not your own
Your stubble no match
for an entire landscape now
bearded with hoarfrost
A snake waiting for
spring’s molt, ambition too proves
to be cold blooded
23 Dec
David Foster Wallace, who committed suicide in 2008 after battling major depression, is considered by many critics to be one of the most innovative writers in the latter half of the last century. Some years ago I spent months plowing through Infinite Jest, his best known novel, first published in 1996. It proved to be a trudge to get through, a book notable for brilliant writing, numerous indecipherable sections, and footnotes that stretched for pages or more. By comparison, this collection of essays and “arguments” published a year earlier is much more accessible, and it stands as proof that he indeed deserves critical acclaim.
Its seven essays and arguments cover a wide range of topics, including tornadoes, TV programs, tennis, literary theory, and David Lynch’s movies. Some seem outdated some twenty-five years on, and a number of them will only appeal to those interested in the specific topics addressed. But what elevates this collection are its two centerpiece essays. Both are lengthy pieces that Wallace wrote on assignment for Harper’s Magazine. In one, he describes events taking place at the 1994 Illinois State Fair The other is an account of a one-week Caribbean cruise trip he took. Both capture the good, the bad, and the ugly of each event in a humorous but respectful fashion. For anyone who has attended a state fair or taken an ocean cruise, these essays will resonate.
Wallace is known for his dark and satirical analyses of American culture. His prose at times dazzles; often it simply maddens. But this collection is a good introduction to his talents as a writer. The pieces included here are indeed often satirical, but the darkness is almost entirely absent. And despite a footnote laden account of the sea cruise, his gift as a storyteller is showcased in these essays, supporting just why the critics have long sung his praises.
20 Dec
How shy miracles can be.
Their presence
so commonplace that they
go unnoticed.
Balance somehow recovered
after a slip.
The car speeding through
a red light
before yours can accelerate.
Nonetheless,
day after day, they multiply
as if a given.
Dull as winter sparrows
at the feeders,
like tonight’s filling meal,
such miracles
are seen less a gift than
what’s expected.
Noted only in their absence
when tomorrow’s
plate fails to materialize.
18 Dec
Disappearing Earth’s thirteen chapters all feature a different female character and can stand as separate stories. In the opening chapter, two young sisters are abducted and driven off by a man who pretends to be injured to lure them into his car. The girls’ disappearance reverberates throughout the rest of the book. That is because all of the characters share one thing in common, they all live in Kamchatka, a fairly inaccessible peninsula in the Russian Far East. All have an interest in the kidnapping and theories about what may have happened to the girls. But they also have their own stories to tell as they deal with the sexism inherent in Kamchatka’s patriarchal society.
It is no exaggeration to say that Kamchatka itself plays a major role in Julia Phillips’ novel. With no major roads connecting it to the rest of Russia, its volcano studded landscape is separated from Moscow by nine time zones. While the majority of the population is Russian, its minorities include Ukrainians, Koryaks and Evens. These last two on the list are collectively known as Kamchadals, and they are the region’s original natives. This blending of unique cultures supplies the background to all of this book’s stories.
The abduction haunts each chapter, showing how such an event affects individuals and an entire community. But each chapter’s female character dominates center stage when in the spotlight. I can think of no higher praise than to say that each of these chapters could be spun into an interesting novel of its own. Phillips lived on the Kamchatka Peninsula while writing her book, and her knowledge of the place and its people pays dividends. This is the author’s debut novel, and it heralds the arrival of a promising writer worth keeping an eye on.
16 Dec
An emeritus professor of biology at the University of Vermont, Bernd Heinrich has written over thirty books that focus on the natural world around us. In Summer World he concentrates on a single season, illuminating what plants and animals do to survive and thrive during this time period. Having spent his life studying insect physiology and behavior, he takes the reader by the hand as he ventures through the wetlands and forests that surround his rural home in Maine. When he sees something that he cannot explain, ever the inquisitive scientist, he conducts experiments to confirm his hypotheses. His explanations are clear cut and informative.
This is not a field guide, which attempts to describe every creature and plant found outside his back door. Rather, it is more a diary that describes what was encountered when tromping through the woods with his notebook or perched atop a tree waiting to see what might turn up. And what a parade he describes; the list includes rats, moths, birds, frogs, beetles, bees and wasps, with fauna and trees thrown in for good measure. While at times he can get a bit carried away with run-on sentences, his enthusiasm is nonetheless contagious. No matter the season, it makes for delightful reading. This book will encourage a good many people to head into the woods or their own backyards to discover secrets they’ve been blind to all their lives.
15 Dec
Trigger happy
and evidently licensed to carry,
eager to take aim,
the number of shots taken no
longer matters.
Cropped and subtly enhanced,
likely manipulated,
who can tell if the evidence has
been tampered with.
Drawing a bead on any target
that catches our eye,
cameras today have become
automatic weapons,
with limitless magazines, ever
ready to be fired.
7 Dec
Bedded and preserved
beneath a towering pine’s shadow,
premature in October,
now cloud-abandoned, what’s left
of last night’s dusting
is cradled on a swing set seat,
wind rocked and
lullabied by a rusty chain’s creak.
For now, cold sheathed,
it resembles more a cocoon than
winter’s first true birth,
but what’s harbored within will not
survive to take flight
despite a shadow’s brief parenting;
this drumbeat of drips
forebodes this chrysalis’ demise.
6 Dec
Having read a series of rather gloomy books since the pandemic began, I decided I needed to take a break and choose something a bit more carefree to lift my spirits. My choice was The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien, a book originally published in 1937. I first read it at age seventeen, and it held me spellbound from beginning to end. Over the decades, I revisited the novel numerous times, indulging in the company of the familiar characters I’d grown to love as a teenager. But now a good twenty years have passed since I last accompanied Bilbo on his grand adventure. I wondered if it would still delight me as it once had. After all, it is the only book of fantasy that I’ve read since that has completely wowed me.
This story of good battling evil is filled with adventure and heroism, but what makes it so special is its use of subtle humor and the main character’s lack of bravado. This story sets the stage for Tolkien’s trilogy, The Lord of the Rings, and features a number of key characters that appear in both books. The protagonist is Bilbo, a Hobbit, who, being half the size of humans, sets out on a grand adventure with a group of dwarves to recover treasure stolen from their ancestors by a fearsome dragon. An unlikely hero, throughout the story Bilbo uses his wits rather than strength to defeat foes encountered along the way.
As the band travels from the Shire, the pastoral homeland of the Hobbits, along the way they encounter Elves, eagles capable of speech, Trolls, and giant spiders. Throughout, it is Bilbo who saves the day as the dwarves in the party prove to be bumbling, greedy, and rather cowardly. While all of this might seem rather grim, Tolkien focuses on the lighthearted aspects of the story. Ultimately, it charms while keeping the reader on the edge of their seat.
To today’s younger generations, The Hobbit is probably best known because of Peter Jackson’s movie adaptations of The Lord of the Rings and its prequel. I found those movies to be heavy-handed and overbearing, focusing on the battle scenes while ignoring the clever character interplay. The humor in its story is almost left out entirely. In rereading this book some fifty years after my first discovery, I found myself charmed all over again. During life in “lockdown,” it made for a magical escape from the current troubled world. For those who have only seen the movie version, cracking open the book reveals depths the film failed to capture. The seventeen year old boy in me was delighted all over again.
5 Dec
In his account of the Troubles in Northern Ireland that raged from the late 1960s until the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, Patrick Radden Keefe focuses primarily on the actions of the Irish Republican Army. He begins by describing the IRA’s abduction of Jean McConville, a widowed mother of ten. Accused of being a “tout,” supposedly having collaborated with the British Army, her body was not found until 2003. By concentrating on her murder by the IRA, Keefe uncovers the numerous crimes committed by the IRA to prove they were basically a terrorist organization.
To do so, he focuses on a number of active participants in the IRA cause. This includes Dolours Price and her younger sister who, as part of the IRA, were involved in robbing banks and a later bombing in London, which led to their arrest. Once in jail in Britain, both engaged in a lengthy hunger strike that brought them close to death and which won worldwide sympathy for the IRA cause. But as Keefe’s investigation shows, the Price sisters and a number of other key members of the organization were likely involved in the killing of Jean McConville.
The question he seeks to answer is who actually ordered McConville’s murder. Drawing on the Boston College’s oral history of the conflict, conducted afterwards with various IRA members, he attempts to unravel the involvement of Gerry Adams. A leading member of the IRA, Adams went on to create Sinn Fein, the political arm of the IRA and a popular political party to this day. Ever since, he has denied being involved in McConville’s murder and other touts during the conflict. Yet in the evidence that Keefe presents, it was Adams who actually ordered her death as well as those of other Catholics accused of collaborating with the British.
While I was aware of the IRA activities during the Troubles, at that time I was sympathetic to their cause. In this excellent and highly readable account of the organization’s actions, Keefe dispels the myth that the IRA were merely freedom fighters trying to overthrow British rule. While he also highlights the Protestant paramilitaries, police and British Army involvement in illegal killings, his detailed history proves that the Irish Republican Army was also guilty of extrajudicial punishment of innocent Catholics. He traces the blame for this to the top leadership of the organization and specially to Adams himself. This is a must-read for anyone wanting a better understanding of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
Robert Up At Dawn 