Bohdan Hodiak

The First Year of the War In Depth. Very Readable

Revisado: 08-23-23

I have been obsessed with the war and sought out every bit of information I could. But it was Professor Plokhy who brought out the human story, filled in a lot of gaps in my knowledge and put it all in context. Folks ,we are living in historical times: the decline and fall of Russian imperialism. The agony and bravery of the Ukrainians has ripped Russia's mask off and shown the world what it is: inefficient, hugely unequal economically, corrupt, brutal and alcoholic. The reader does a fine job.

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Worth the journey. Exceptional prose,

Revisado: 12-19-22

Before I got n The Passenger, I watched a few You Tube reviews and they were very helpful in orienting me. I may have missed , at the beginning , that it is 10 years since Bobby’s beloved sister committed suicide at a sanitarium called Stella Marris. She wanted a total relationship with him, essentially a marriage, but he demurred. Now he is filled with loss, guilt and grief Also, the sister has many conversations with an abusive entity called The Kid. It took me a chapter to realize The Kid was her hallucination.
The general report of the You Tube reviewers, I viewed, was that this is a great novel and McCarthy is today’s best writer in English. . He is 89 years old and apparently spent decades working on this novel, and its adjunct novel, Stella Maris, which is essentially a coda to the Passenger.
Although McCarthy was always a respected writer it wasn’t until his early 70s that he became a huge bestseller internationally. I totally loved his novel “The Road.” You could say Bobby is also on the road, a passenger on Spaceship Earth.
McCarthy likes short, staccato sentences. There were pages I thought he was reading a lot of Raymond Chandler. He is a brilliant descriptive writer and some of his pages are really poetry. We forget many of the novels we have read but I assure you, you will remember this one. McCarthy is a great observer and he can make scenes unforgettable.
He is not afraid to have aa character ask: “Do you believe in God?” Nor write a couple of pages on quantum physics, which I did not understand, but know enough about it to know he had mentioned all the greats of quantum and theoretical physics. Bobby is a salvage underwater diver and McCarthy put in so much technical detail about this work that I felt he was almost boasting about his knowledge. There are also a couple of pages where one character takes apart the Kennedy family and why Oswald could not have killed President Kennedy. Maybe this was s put in to tell us we cannot be sure of anything in life. McCarthy is a fellow at the Santa Fe Institute, a think tank whose members are mostly scientists with decorates and with much published work. I had the feeling that McCarty hoped, or Alicia hoped, if we could totally understand numbers, we would finally discover what life was and what our life meant. Well, there was Pythagoras and Plato, who said God was geometrician. .
This is a novel that asks a lot of questions but has no answers. Bobby’s family name is Western and I guess this is an echo he of Western Civilization, which according to another character, is going to hell and is doomed. He is John Sheddan and we see him do a lot of drinking and pontificating. Obviously educated and a brilliant speaker he looks on the world with contempt. A sign of a good novel is where you want to argue with its characters. Hey John, what if you are wrong. You really have no proof. You have made a lot of assumptions. . Maybe the world is not going to hell; maybe humanity will find a way. Maybe yours is a coward’s way out. With this type of thinking, being brave or taking risks is useless.
Bobby, though, has proved he is brave. The book never explains why Bobby could not break the incest taboo. Alicia was his one true love. It really does not explain how Bobby and his sister developed such a barren world view. There is wit and jokes but no laughter . Nor does it explain why the IRS has taken so much trouble to get Bobby arrested. Bobby’s father had help ed develop the atomic bomb. But this is the 1970s and the Russian Soviets had already stolen all the atomic secrets they needed. Yet a sinister government organization burgles the family home, stealing everything on paper, including family photo albums. This is a plot device and unconvincing. That was also true for me about All the Pretty Horses. Our hero, not yet a fully-grown teenager, is supposed to win the heart of an older woman, well-educated, and the daughter of a rich Mexican land baron. I could see him serving as a Boy Toy but not a serious lover.
In the book, creating the atomic bomb seems like a great sin against humanity . . It seems to have cursed the physicist father and his children. But their real problem, I think, is the inability to give up their egos, although intellectually they know it doesn’t have reality. They cling to rationality and reason., and science, essentially materialism. . They fear the Great Emptiness.
I cannot resonate with their despair. I am an adult Christian and God has spoken to me. God speaks to everyone who truly searches and wants to listen. . I said “adult Christian,” which means I have given up childish Christianity, for a mystical Christianity. That is what many scientists, the overeducated, the privileged and the cowardly, cannot do. A memorable ride but I don’t buy the arguments of the passengers. Maybe McCarthy should have joined a Zen Center instead of the Santa Fe Institute.

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Some interesting thoughts but...

Revisado: 10-25-20

It is best to read the book first and then listen to this audio. This is not a reading of the book but an edited chat session Hillman had with some people, mostly therapists, at a seminar. He reads a few excerpts and comments on them and some in the audience make their own comment or ask a question. But none of this is developed. Hillman fans, who have read his books might like this but may also know the material. I was disappointed. P.S. I listened to parts of the audio again and my dissappointment lessened. Hillman was a rebel and was prescient about America's stagger toward decline, years before Trump.

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Will save you from major mistakes

Revisado: 09-23-20

Before I comment on the book I want to mention the narrator. Colleen Marlo is beyond praise. Her voicing adds a lot to the book and nobody could have done it better. The book also teaches how to be more mature with more courage. I was of the school of "Maybe I was a bit too harsh but he knows I love him.." Wrong and Tina explains why. The book is very well written, covers everything and is very down too earth. If you have a friend lamenting an estrangement this could make a much valued gift. But as Tina would say, first query your friend to get permission for the gift. Superb. I will listen again.

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Dissappointed

Revisado: 09-13-20

I bought this because of an NPR review, very positive. It seems to me Ms. Smith just turned on the recorder and started talking. A bit stream of consciousness. No preparation, organization, revision. Nothing to remember. Lazy.

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At last! A doctor fixated on health

Revisado: 07-11-20

If there were more doctors in the USA like Dr. G. this country would not be listed 37, 37th !!! in health by the World Health Organization. Why? Too many pill pusher M.D.s; too many millions without health care as offered in England, France, Germany. "That's Socialism!" I have no doubt that anyone who listens to this book carefully will improve their health. Even those like me, who are pretty well informed. I could do a little nit picking in that some of the advice could be more nuanced. But then it would get too complicated. It would be nice if a professional reader delivered this information. Dr. G's voice is not mellow and her delivery jerky, kind of stop and start. I guess she is looking at her notes so a professional reader is not possible.

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Useless

Revisado: 06-13-20

I listened to this a month ago and don't remember details why I really disliked it. I know something of the Kabballah and if you think you'll get a decent introduction, forget it. This was the first audiobook I wanted to return. If you want an outstanding book on the K get Cypher of Genesis by Carlo Suarz

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Superb book; poorly read

Revisado: 01-31-16

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

This is THE essential book for anyone who wants to understand Ukraine and learn why Putin is so hot and bothered by it.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Too many interesting characters to list

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Ralph Lister?

Almost anybody else. Book is great; Lister's reading is terrible. He hasn't bothered to learn how to pronounce Ukrainian names and places and mangles them. When he quotes someone he goes into a strange, strangled voice.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

The Gates of Europe is a perfect tagline

Any additional comments?

Professor Plokhy is an honest blunt historian and he goes into events some Ukrainian writers have downplayed, like the pogroms against the Jews. He gives clear explanations of complex events. He doesn't whitewash the Ukrainians and shows their bad fortune was often due to an inability to cooperate, to shrewdly plan, to a willingness to be deluded. This is the best book on Ukrainian history I have read.

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Pure gold!

Revisado: 12-24-08

This audio book is pure gold. I have purchased more than a dozen fine audiobooks and this one is now number one on my list. Wolf reads his own book and some of the strait-laced may be a bit put off by a herr professor who in spots sounds like a manic comedian. And maybe a few aspects of the argument could have been more developed and the point underlined. But this is a popular introduction on how quantum physics relates, or has similarities, to a spiritual understanding of the world and as such, I think, is a spectacular success. Wolf uses metaphor, analogy and word pictures to bring his point across, signs of a very good writer. He deals in profound ideas and though he may make it seem like a sleigh ride, it aint that easy to do. There is speculation here and assumptions so if you are looking for a scientific explanation of quantum physics this audiobook is not for you. Materialists, you'll hate it! But for me, Wolf is a supremely wise old coot full of vim and vigor and joy of life. A gem.

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A wonderful half failure

Revisado: 05-07-08

This is one of those frustrating books which had the potantial to be absolutely first-rate, but which the author messed up. There are many wonderful and moving things in it and I wondered with so much rich material why was I often irritated and bored. Some parts are unbelievable, some suffer from overkill and "soulful" writing, some don't integrate. It's like two novels interrupting each other. Still, Ms. Horn has talent, originality and important subject matter. This novel is struggling to be born. Also, I'm not sure she got the ending right. We seek the Tree of Immortality after we are born, not before, and we do it because of the whack the angel gives us before birth.

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