Mihal Ceittin

Even if you hate K-Pop...like me

Revisado: 04-12-23

To call this novel Pynchonesque in tone is not a slight on Ms. Yi's talent which is wholly original. On the surface the story seems to be a reflection on obsessive fandom but gliding underneath is a wonderful exploration of identity in the age of social media. What happens if people become their avatars? What if reality is evolving to a stage where only our avatars live and co-mingle in the 'real' world.
There is a fine European texture to these reflections and it seems no coincidence that Ms. Yi is based in Berlin. I can't wait to see what else she has up her sleeve.

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Herzog finds his perfect subject

Revisado: 06-27-22

Personally, I think this book is worth it's price simply to hear Herzog himself pronounce words like 'insect' or 'vileness'. It so happens I recently rewatched both Herzog's film Fitzcarraldo (1982) as well as Les Blank's film Burden of Dreams (1982) about the making of Fitzcarraldo. It was such a traumatic experience for Herzog that I can't help thinking he saw himself in the Japanese soldier who is the protagonist of this book. In other words this is something of a proto-autobiography, or at least we hear the echos of Fitzcarraldo throughout....which doesn't deter from the story one bit. I also love the fact that when Herzog was in Japan he declined an invitation to meet with the Emperor but instead chose to meet with Onoda. Herzog is the real deal in a universe of artistic phonies and marginal talents.I hope he films this book. He also does a superb job of narrating. No one could have done it better.

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Chronicle of a Disappeared World

Revisado: 04-13-22

To talk about Polish Jewry is to talk about a crime. The almost complete eradication of Jewish life in Poland by the Nazis and their collaborators is something that Polish nationalists would like to forget which is why Ms, Torkarczuk has come under criticism in Poland for this excavation of Jewish life in the 18th century. The main character at the center of this tale, Jacob Frank, is a charismatic kook...there is no other word for him. Sometime Jew, sometime Muslim, sometime Christian...polyamorous...polyglot...and opportunistic to a fault...Frank and his besotted followers are scorned by their fellow Jews and alternately harassed and embraced by the Catholic clergy who view them as a conversion 'prize'. Aside from it being an entertaining listen with a Dickensian cast of characters, it is also an example of magnificent translation and narration. There is nothing remotely like this being written these days and it certainly warranted the Nobel given to the author and the praise heaped upon Ms. Croft. My feeling is that the story could have been shortened some but that is a minor quibble. Listen to this book and be transported.

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Jawdropping

Revisado: 09-07-21

I, like many Americans, considered the war like wallpaper until I actually went on an assignment to Kabul in 2014. My job was to be a policy advisor to the Afghan government on certain economic development matters. What I experienced was a surreal blend of incompetence, corruption and perfidy that poisoned the entire system which included the Afghans, the Americans, the Europeans, the Pakistanis and a host of others. I couldn't understand how things could be so bad after 13 years of engagement and billions of dollars spent, but now that I have heard Craig Whitlock's account it has all become clear. The 'war on terror' and the 'hunt for Osama bin Laden' had morphed into a long-running ponzi scheme for military generals to get promotions and combat ribbons (and pay); for military contractors to make a bundle and keep the funds flowing to congressional people who supported the continuation of the war; and for one US president after another to lie to the American people about what exactly was going on. We thought it would never happen again after Vietnam. The lying that took place in Afghanistan makes Vietnam look like a model of transparency. Yet there has been no accountability. No big shake-up at the Pentagon. Many of the worst offenders have gone off to lucrative careers in the defense industry while thousands of young veterans deal with the scars of war and thousands of families grieve lost ones. The beauty of Mr. Whitlock's account is that he doesn't editorialize. Most of the words are taken from transcripts by the involved parties. It should be required reading for every citizen. It will be a painful exercise, perhaps even a shameful one but a necessary one to understand that even the military is not above the worse instincts of an increasingly corrupt and cynical public sphere.

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Cultural History at Its Best

Revisado: 08-06-21

Menand's slow moving, brilliant analysis of all the threads that constituted post WW2 American 'culture' should be required reading for every student in the country. I have been surprised and informed by each chapter and have had to reconsider almost everything I thought I ever knew. What a gift for a time when the meaning of American-ness is challenged on every front. This book is a kind of reset that allows us to reconsider where we came from and hopefully chart a path to a brighter future.

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Rom Com as Philosphical Novel

Revisado: 07-02-21

Mr St Aubyn asks all the right questions in various elite settings but in the end one expects Hugh Grant and Andie Mcdowell to jump out of the bushes. Liked the first 75% but the finale failed to deliver anything in the way of resolution...the problems of upper class white people really are boring...in the end. But Mr. Cumberbatch does a great job. Can see him in the movie.

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Winslow is the Tolstoy of the Drug Trade

Revisado: 05-27-21

This book has everything: sex, violence, humor, pathos, irony and such realistic detail one wonders who Mr. Winslow consorts with in his spare time. Aside from a few minor holes in an extraordinarily complex and satisfying plot that includes the Cartels, Colombian drug gangs, the FARC, the DEA, FBI, CIA, and the NY Mafia along with a very colorful Irish-American fellow traveller, hookers, priests, and the President of Mexico....well, they all have a role and it all hangs together. The narration is also first-rate. Mr. Porter brings every character alive and his accents and speech patterns are nearly pitch perfect. This is much more than genre fiction: it is an autopsy on the underbelly of U.S. /Latin American relations over the last 50 years and Mr. Winslow is spot-on on laying blame and shining a light on the hypocrisy, cruelty, and downright criminal nature of much of what went on and probably continue to this day.

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No John LeCarre

Revisado: 03-31-21

I ordered this based on great reviews but was put off immediately when one of the characters mentioned the new African nation of Zimbabwe in a story set in the early 1960s. It suggests laziness on the part of both author and editor. I also found the dialog wooden and the romantic/intimate conversations risible. Nevertheless there is an interesting story here so if you love spy fiction but are not too fussy about literature you might enjoy it.

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Love Triangle as Allegory

Revisado: 03-03-21

This is a famous book. It is supposed to be about the American despoilation of Vietnam in the pursuit of 'hearts and minds.' To my mind it is one of Greene's lazier efforts and a scrim for his anti-Americanism. The story is a love triangle between an ageing cynical British journalist, a naive American CIA agent and Phoung, a beguiling totally sexist/racistly draw Vietnamese woman who is the source of the key conflict in the story but who is really just a stand-in for the whole of Vietnam, with the tussle between the two men a field for Greene to let go with both barrels on American perfidy, ruthlessness and ignorance. When I first read this book in the 1960s it resonated. Now it seems dated, but there is no doubt that Greene can turn a phrase and the underlying issues are certainly worth exploring. Just with not such a ham hand.

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One of Roth's Most Philosophical Novels

Revisado: 03-03-21

If you haven't read/listened to Roth before this might not be the best one to start with. Nevertheless it is a moebius strip/fun house mirror of a novel that digs deep into identity and conflict: Jew vs. Jew, Jew vs. Gentile, Man vs. Woman, Fact vs. Fiction, Brother vs. Brother, Author vs. Character....It is also a deep dive into the moral responsibility of an author: How much can one derive from real life for material? Are characters in fiction deserving of any ethical treatment or are they just to be used and manipulated? You get the sense that the mature Roth struggled with all of these issues and he skillfully lays them out here with his usual blend of wit, sarcasm, irony and psychological insight. Why this guy never got the Nobel Prize is beyond me.

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