Please, recall the SG spent a year in solitary confinement before being presented with DOJ pleas deal.
Plea bargainin in US is unjust
Saturday, December 30, 2017
Monday, May 1, 2017
James Clavell
Shogun, his masterpiece to many, he cribbed from another author . Some say James Clavell was inspired by the true life adventures of the English sailor William Adams who became an advisor to a Japanese ruler in the 16th century when he wrote the captivating story of an English captain and his crew making contact with Japan in 1600 while only the Portuguese had the contract to do so. Their adventures that followed, the rise of the protagonist to assimilation with the Japanese culture and the picture of Japan at that time is so thrilling that it was made into a TV movie in the late 1970's. The largest ever American film production in Japan to this day, and featuring some of the very best Japanese actors of the time, _Shogun_ is still replayed around the world almost forty years later. It is a love letter to a most unique country, one whose past continues to entrance and influence.
After the success of Shogun, Clavell decided to continue writing historical fiction epics (these are not thin books, averaging over 1000 pages each) calling his series the 'Asian saga' but went forward for his second to 1841, specifically the ongoing trade between Japan and the European traders it allowed to be based there.
His third novel, King Rat, his slimmest volume, is the story of Singapore when, after the largest surrender of the war, it was WWII's largest POW camp. Told with heart-rendering detail, and praised by veterans, it is his best stand alone novel and one that should be included in courses on the Pacific theater in WWII.
Continuing with his focus on the Pacific rim and European/Asian contact, he based his fourth book, Noble House, in 1963 Hong Kong and on the post WWII Pacific growth miracle. With an operatically large cast , many of whom were descendants from his previous novels, he charts the end of British political empire but the continuing relevance of British and European commercial relations to the East.
For his final novel, Whirlwind, he switched from Asia to Iran and the 1979 Revolution with his cast being both Iranians and the European helicopter firm that services all their oil rigs. Having grown attached to the families and fortunes of the Pacific as he so majestically laid them out for so many hundreds of years, many fans wish that he had stayed in Hong Kong or elsewhere in the Pacific for the final novel but it is worth reading for an understanding of the motivations of the Iranian people in their revolution.
Any of his novels can be read alone, though together they truly do form as he said, a saga.
After the success of Shogun, Clavell decided to continue writing historical fiction epics (these are not thin books, averaging over 1000 pages each) calling his series the 'Asian saga' but went forward for his second to 1841, specifically the ongoing trade between Japan and the European traders it allowed to be based there.
His third novel, King Rat, his slimmest volume, is the story of Singapore when, after the largest surrender of the war, it was WWII's largest POW camp. Told with heart-rendering detail, and praised by veterans, it is his best stand alone novel and one that should be included in courses on the Pacific theater in WWII.
Continuing with his focus on the Pacific rim and European/Asian contact, he based his fourth book, Noble House, in 1963 Hong Kong and on the post WWII Pacific growth miracle. With an operatically large cast , many of whom were descendants from his previous novels, he charts the end of British political empire but the continuing relevance of British and European commercial relations to the East.
For his final novel, Whirlwind, he switched from Asia to Iran and the 1979 Revolution with his cast being both Iranians and the European helicopter firm that services all their oil rigs. Having grown attached to the families and fortunes of the Pacific as he so majestically laid them out for so many hundreds of years, many fans wish that he had stayed in Hong Kong or elsewhere in the Pacific for the final novel but it is worth reading for an understanding of the motivations of the Iranian people in their revolution.
Any of his novels can be read alone, though together they truly do form as he said, a saga.
Monday, April 24, 2017
Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov
Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov, born in 1891 in Kiev, Ukraine, was the greatest Soviet playwright, novelist and short story writer. He died in 1941 and many of his works were published posthumously. He is justly famous for his humor and penetrating satire. Yes, I said the greatest, and I have read quite a few Soviet-era Russian authors. His incomparable masterpiece, The Master and Margarita (1967) is on my 'desert island book list'. It is a combination of rigid discipline and wild imagination with which Bulgakov was able to situate Jesus' world in Soviet Moscow, but more on this in a moment.
Beginning his adult life as a doctor, he gave up medicine for writing when his first novel The White Guard (1925) was published as a serial (not published in book form during his life). It was a realistic and sympathetic portrayal of the motives and behavior of a group of Anti- Bolshevik White Russian officers during the civil war and was met with a storm of criticism for its lack of a communist hero. Reworking it into a play in 1926 entitled Days of the Turbins, it was staged to subsequent acclaim but immediately banned.
Moving on to satirical fantasies implicitly critical of Soviet communist society. Just as obviously, this work was quickly denounced. In the same year he completed Heart of a Dog (1968) which was also suppressed and not released to the public for four decades, twenty-eight years after his death. A scathing comic satire on pseudoscience, my second favorite of his works is still applicable in today's' internet conspiracy theory fueled society. Only Bulgakovs' incredible humor kept Stalin laughing and thus Bulgakov from the gulag, seriously, Stalin was quoted as saying as much.
Because of their realism and humor, his works enjoyed great popularity but their trenchant criticism of Soviet mores was increasingly unacceptable to the authorities. By 1930 he was effectively prohibited from publishing. He pleaded to emigrate and multiple countries were eager to accept him, but Stalin refused. During the following period of literary ostracism which continued until his death in 1940, he created his masterpieces.
The first of these, a play, was a tragedy on the death of Moliere entitled Moliere (1936) which had a one-week run before being banned due to its thinly disguised attack on Stalin and the Communist party. I confess that I found this entertaining and the political messages beautiful in their subtlety but I unfairly compare it to The Master and Margarita as I had read that first, just so, I unfairly compare any Soviet writer to Bulgakov once I'd read Bulgakov. C'est la vie.
The second of his masterpieces is his dazzling Gogolesque fantasy The Master and Margarita (begun in 1928, published in 1966). Witty and ribald, it is simultaneously a penetrating philosophical novel wrestling with the profound and eternal problems of good and evil, juxtaposing two planes of action - one set in contemporary Moscow and the other in Pontius Pilates Judea. The central character is the Devil, disguised as 'Professor Woland', who descends upon officially atheistic Moscow in the 1930's with his purgative pranks that expose the corruption and hypocrisy of the cultural elite. His counterpart is 'The Master', a repressed novelist who goes into a psychiatric ward for seeking to present the story of Jesus. The work oscillates between grotesque and often ribald scenes of trenchant satirical humor and powerful and moving moments of pathos and tragedy. My favorite line which I will tease with by not describing the context, only the speaker, is haunting; "What would the Earth look like if all the shadows disappeared?" asks the Devil.
It was not finally published in the Soviet union until 1966 and then only in heavily censored form. Published in its entirety outside the Soviet Union it quickly became renowned and then adapted for the stage, attempted often but only one legendary playwright was ever thought to have brought it to the stage correctly (his name escapes me but he died since I was in prison and I read his obit in _The Economist_ and that was his epitaph; "the only one to bring The Master and Margarita to the stage to critical acclaim") One of my life's regrets is that I never saw it, but I hope there's a video of the performance somewhere.
Beginning his adult life as a doctor, he gave up medicine for writing when his first novel The White Guard (1925) was published as a serial (not published in book form during his life). It was a realistic and sympathetic portrayal of the motives and behavior of a group of Anti- Bolshevik White Russian officers during the civil war and was met with a storm of criticism for its lack of a communist hero. Reworking it into a play in 1926 entitled Days of the Turbins, it was staged to subsequent acclaim but immediately banned.
Moving on to satirical fantasies implicitly critical of Soviet communist society. Just as obviously, this work was quickly denounced. In the same year he completed Heart of a Dog (1968) which was also suppressed and not released to the public for four decades, twenty-eight years after his death. A scathing comic satire on pseudoscience, my second favorite of his works is still applicable in today's' internet conspiracy theory fueled society. Only Bulgakovs' incredible humor kept Stalin laughing and thus Bulgakov from the gulag, seriously, Stalin was quoted as saying as much.
Because of their realism and humor, his works enjoyed great popularity but their trenchant criticism of Soviet mores was increasingly unacceptable to the authorities. By 1930 he was effectively prohibited from publishing. He pleaded to emigrate and multiple countries were eager to accept him, but Stalin refused. During the following period of literary ostracism which continued until his death in 1940, he created his masterpieces.
The first of these, a play, was a tragedy on the death of Moliere entitled Moliere (1936) which had a one-week run before being banned due to its thinly disguised attack on Stalin and the Communist party. I confess that I found this entertaining and the political messages beautiful in their subtlety but I unfairly compare it to The Master and Margarita as I had read that first, just so, I unfairly compare any Soviet writer to Bulgakov once I'd read Bulgakov. C'est la vie.
The second of his masterpieces is his dazzling Gogolesque fantasy The Master and Margarita (begun in 1928, published in 1966). Witty and ribald, it is simultaneously a penetrating philosophical novel wrestling with the profound and eternal problems of good and evil, juxtaposing two planes of action - one set in contemporary Moscow and the other in Pontius Pilates Judea. The central character is the Devil, disguised as 'Professor Woland', who descends upon officially atheistic Moscow in the 1930's with his purgative pranks that expose the corruption and hypocrisy of the cultural elite. His counterpart is 'The Master', a repressed novelist who goes into a psychiatric ward for seeking to present the story of Jesus. The work oscillates between grotesque and often ribald scenes of trenchant satirical humor and powerful and moving moments of pathos and tragedy. My favorite line which I will tease with by not describing the context, only the speaker, is haunting; "What would the Earth look like if all the shadows disappeared?" asks the Devil.
It was not finally published in the Soviet union until 1966 and then only in heavily censored form. Published in its entirety outside the Soviet Union it quickly became renowned and then adapted for the stage, attempted often but only one legendary playwright was ever thought to have brought it to the stage correctly (his name escapes me but he died since I was in prison and I read his obit in _The Economist_ and that was his epitaph; "the only one to bring The Master and Margarita to the stage to critical acclaim") One of my life's regrets is that I never saw it, but I hope there's a video of the performance somewhere.
Wednesday, April 12, 2017
Nelson Demille
'Airport novels'. Easily a derogatory term thrown at mass market authors had its original connotation as a descriptive adjective for the good clean easy fun that comes from a master storyteller appealing to the masses via the airport kiosk. A book you can buy, enjoy reading, and pass on with no fear of offending whomever you give it to or who may find it in their next seat. It's why they sell millions and their authors have no reason to hang their heads, though many a bibliophile - confession; I, for one, do it a lot (sorry David Baldacci, Brad Thor, etc, but your formulaic ad-libs don't inspire me) - deride them.
Nelson Demille is, though, the very best of these authors, never having written a bad book and always delivering in a pinch. Often I have run out of reading material in the 'pre-kindle' days where I traveled extensively, and I always knew that if I could find one of his that I had not read, the day would be saved and no flight delay would be intolerable. My favorite of his books is The Gold Coast (1990), the tale of old money petering out on his native Long Island and merging with new capital and the old traditions of la cosa nostra, which spawned a sequel a decade later, The Gate House (2008), which was just as riveting. Supposed to have become a movie, The Gold Coast even had Al Pacino attached to play the mobster but a series of sales of rights and lawyer shenanigans kept it from ever being made and we are all the poorer for it.
At the height of the Cold War, Demille wrote The Charm School (1988)about a KGB training facility in Russia staffed by captive US POW's from Vietnam who were used to train Soviet deep cover agents. It was harrowing, entertaining and better than any of the other stories related to that possibility.
Demille was a U.S. Army infantry officer in Vietnam and his hard-earned knowledge lends verisimilitude to any novel with a US Army protagonist. In Word of Honor (1985) his central character is a former US Army officer who had resigned his commission after service in Vietnam but is called back involuntarily for a war crimes investigation. Intelligent and accomplished, it was a fitting discussion of some vital experiences of that sad war on both sides.
In a series featuring an Army Criminal Investigative Division (C.I.D.) character, Paul Brenner, Demille exposes the very best and worst that the US Army and the DOD perpetrated in the war, giving the reader insight into a normally hidden world. One of these novels, The Generals Daughter (1992) became a hit movie with John Travolta, but there are others in the series with my favorite being Up Country (2002) as our hero goes back to Vietnam in 1997 after being recalled to CID and not having been there since his service in the war.
There are other serial novels too, such as the John Corey Series' exemplified byPlum Island (1997) that stand out, but I must confess he does hit some old tropes. For example, in one series built around a Federal anti terrorism agent which simply failed for novelty in an over worked genre and did not fill me with joy. Generally, though, but I am more than willing to overlook their predictability as, after all, he saved me when I could get nothing better at many an airport. Thank you sir.
Nelson Demille is, though, the very best of these authors, never having written a bad book and always delivering in a pinch. Often I have run out of reading material in the 'pre-kindle' days where I traveled extensively, and I always knew that if I could find one of his that I had not read, the day would be saved and no flight delay would be intolerable. My favorite of his books is The Gold Coast (1990), the tale of old money petering out on his native Long Island and merging with new capital and the old traditions of la cosa nostra, which spawned a sequel a decade later, The Gate House (2008), which was just as riveting. Supposed to have become a movie, The Gold Coast even had Al Pacino attached to play the mobster but a series of sales of rights and lawyer shenanigans kept it from ever being made and we are all the poorer for it.
At the height of the Cold War, Demille wrote The Charm School (1988)about a KGB training facility in Russia staffed by captive US POW's from Vietnam who were used to train Soviet deep cover agents. It was harrowing, entertaining and better than any of the other stories related to that possibility.
Demille was a U.S. Army infantry officer in Vietnam and his hard-earned knowledge lends verisimilitude to any novel with a US Army protagonist. In Word of Honor (1985) his central character is a former US Army officer who had resigned his commission after service in Vietnam but is called back involuntarily for a war crimes investigation. Intelligent and accomplished, it was a fitting discussion of some vital experiences of that sad war on both sides.
In a series featuring an Army Criminal Investigative Division (C.I.D.) character, Paul Brenner, Demille exposes the very best and worst that the US Army and the DOD perpetrated in the war, giving the reader insight into a normally hidden world. One of these novels, The Generals Daughter (1992) became a hit movie with John Travolta, but there are others in the series with my favorite being Up Country (2002) as our hero goes back to Vietnam in 1997 after being recalled to CID and not having been there since his service in the war.
There are other serial novels too, such as the John Corey Series' exemplified byPlum Island (1997) that stand out, but I must confess he does hit some old tropes. For example, in one series built around a Federal anti terrorism agent which simply failed for novelty in an over worked genre and did not fill me with joy. Generally, though, but I am more than willing to overlook their predictability as, after all, he saved me when I could get nothing better at many an airport. Thank you sir.
Graham Greene
Graham Greene was a giant of twentieth-century English literature. Novelist, short story writer, journalist, and playwright, when he passed in 1991 I remember my English teacher mentioning it at the beginning of class with a lump in her throat. His novels treat life's moral ambiguities in the context of what was then contemporary political settings but give those of us reading him now incredibly insightful portraits of some twentieth-century seismic shifts in politics and culture, and it his novels that I will concentrate on here.
Greene's first published work was Babbling April (1925), a book of verse and his first novel was The Man Within (1929). The success of these two publications saw him quit his job at the venerable Times of London and go to work for The Spectator his base for three decades traveling the world as freelance journalist spending and using the expense paid travel to search out locations for his novels
.
Greene's first three novels are commonly referred to as his teething time and not generally renowned. He came into his own though with The Stamboul Train (1932) known more popularly as The Orient Express in which he played off various characters against each one another as they ride a train from the English Channel to the Bospheus. This would be the first of a series of novels he would refer to as 'entertainments', works similar to thrillers in their spare, tough language and their suspenseful, swiftly moving plots, but possessing greater moral complexity and depth. Stamboul Train was also the first of his novels to be made into a film. It was followed by three more 'entertainments' that were equally popular with the world; A Gun for Sale (1936, filmed 1942), Confidential Agent_(1939 filmed 1945) and the Ministry of Fear (1943, filmed in 1945). A fifth 'entertainment', The Third Man, published in novel form in 1949 was originally a screenplay for a film directed by Carol Reed.
Greene's first published work was Babbling April (1925), a book of verse and his first novel was The Man Within (1929). The success of these two publications saw him quit his job at the venerable Times of London and go to work for The Spectator his base for three decades traveling the world as freelance journalist spending and using the expense paid travel to search out locations for his novels
.
Greene's first three novels are commonly referred to as his teething time and not generally renowned. He came into his own though with The Stamboul Train (1932) known more popularly as The Orient Express in which he played off various characters against each one another as they ride a train from the English Channel to the Bospheus. This would be the first of a series of novels he would refer to as 'entertainments', works similar to thrillers in their spare, tough language and their suspenseful, swiftly moving plots, but possessing greater moral complexity and depth. Stamboul Train was also the first of his novels to be made into a film. It was followed by three more 'entertainments' that were equally popular with the world; A Gun for Sale (1936, filmed 1942), Confidential Agent_(1939 filmed 1945) and the Ministry of Fear (1943, filmed in 1945). A fifth 'entertainment', The Third Man, published in novel form in 1949 was originally a screenplay for a film directed by Carol Reed.
Sunday, April 9, 2017
Cormac McCarthy
Cormac McCarthy is one of the greatest American storytellers ever, acclaimed by some as our greatest living storyteller, which I am inclined to agree with. He is certainly the very best writer of the area known as the borderlands between the US and Mexico with his novels that range from the beginning of European exploration to the pressing issues of drugs and immigration in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
His 'Border Trilogy', consisting of All the Pretty Horses (1992), The Crossing (1994) and The Cities of the Plain (1998) is magnificent in every way, telling the story of a protagonist from a poor farming background whose life along both sides of the border as a real cowboy through the early to mid-twentieth century is a vivid and telling picture of an America long past. Terse prose eerily accurate to the patterns of speech of the weathered characters of these settings echoes long after reading.
All the Pretty Horses was made into a film in 2000 by director Billy Bob Thornton, though we have never seen the film he made as the studio gutted it to a 'standard run length' alienating along the way the genius creator of the custom musical score (among others), so that what was released, starring Penelope Cruz and Matt Damon, was a two hour Hollywood cookie cutter that ran lukewarm to the critics. It was, before cutting room butchery, a beautiful adaptation of an excellent novel, and many hope the studio someday will let the 'Directors Cut' be sold and with the original musical score attached. I, for one, am willing to pre-order it right now so that I may just have the 'someday' of seeing it and am sure tens of thousands of others will as well. the handful of people who have seen it whisper of it with the reverence of ancient Dionysian mystery cult initiations long faded into myth.
Thank the cult status of All the Pretty Horses, Hollywood had a great many McCarthy fans when in 2005 he published No Country For Old Men which quickly became a highly successful film in 2007 with multiple Oscars awarded, including to Javier Bardem. A wonderful read and an equivalently enjoyable film that lives up to being a rather tough act to follow after such a great book. His post apocalyptic novel of a father's struggle for survival while guarding his young son in an America that is barely recognizable, entitled The Road (2006). It won a Pulitzer for and it was about G D time the committee recognized this genius. I was disappointed they didn't award him one for his westerns, but happy they finally did give him the beginning of the credit he deserves. Made into another successful film this time starring Vigo Mortensen, I have not seen it yet as I am incarcerated, but it is high on my list of 'to view a.s.a.p.'. Sving the best for last, let me say that my favorite western ever from any author and my favorite book by McCarthy is his masterpiece Blood Meridians or the Evening Redness in the West (1985). Innovative in style, brutal in composition and subject matter, influential across a myriad of authors worldwide (even Johnathan Ferris gives this work a shout out in the afterwards of one of his hilarious modern day comedies, but more on him later), it is absolutely riveting and is on my 'desert island' book list. For those who have not read it, prepare to be amazed, but be forewarned, it will haunt your memories and you will never read or write the same again.
Thank the cult status of All the Pretty Horses, Hollywood had a great many McCarthy fans when in 2005 he published No Country For Old Men which quickly became a highly successful film in 2007 with multiple Oscars awarded, including to Javier Bardem. A wonderful read and an equivalently enjoyable film that lives up to being a rather tough act to follow after such a great book. His post apocalyptic novel of a father's struggle for survival while guarding his young son in an America that is barely recognizable, entitled The Road (2006). It won a Pulitzer for and it was about G D time the committee recognized this genius. I was disappointed they didn't award him one for his westerns, but happy they finally did give him the beginning of the credit he deserves. Made into another successful film this time starring Vigo Mortensen, I have not seen it yet as I am incarcerated, but it is high on my list of 'to view a.s.a.p.'. Sving the best for last, let me say that my favorite western ever from any author and my favorite book by McCarthy is his masterpiece Blood Meridians or the Evening Redness in the West (1985). Innovative in style, brutal in composition and subject matter, influential across a myriad of authors worldwide (even Johnathan Ferris gives this work a shout out in the afterwards of one of his hilarious modern day comedies, but more on him later), it is absolutely riveting and is on my 'desert island' book list. For those who have not read it, prepare to be amazed, but be forewarned, it will haunt your memories and you will never read or write the same again.
J.G. Farrell
Reading historical fiction is almost always profitable for the reader. In exchange for just a basic knowledge of the period in question, the reader reaps the benefits of the author's extensive research into the nuances and details often found as too dry to make an impact in non-fiction texts. An intimate feel for the period and its peoples leads one to understand so much better what really shaped an event. There is no better author of historical fiction than was J. G. Farrell.
J.G. Farrell's Empire Trilogy (1970-78)ranges from the Sepoy Mutiny in India, through World War I and Ireland's Easter, 1916 rebellion, and then on to World War II in the Far East. In these three novels, Ferrell paints an unequaled portrait of the folly of empire.
The Siege of Krishnapur (1973), which won the Man Booker Prize in 1973, takes place in India in 1857 and tells the story of the Great Mutiny when Muslim soldiers turned in bloody rebellion on their British overlords. Set in an isolated Victorian outpost on the subcontinent, this novel exposes colonial ambitions that is all at once brutal, blundering and wistful. And, as it followed Ferrell's earlier work on the Irish mutiny one can't help understanding that Ferrell saw these events as linked in concept if not in time and place. Troubles (1970) is at once a hilarious and heartbreaking master work which takes place in Kilnalough, Ireland set during the 1916 Easter Rebellion. It is a sad, tragic and very funny tale exemplifying the human heart of insurrection. The last of the trilogy, The Singapore Grip (1978), is a love story and a war story, a tragicomic tale of a city under siege and a dying way of life. It explores the boundaries between classes and nations through the figures of the business community in Singapore directly before the Japanese invasion.
It is always audacious to explain a two hundred and fifty-year span of history but Ferrell's ambition seems to be more an attempt at explaining the human failings of the British Raj than any actual history. The Brits, in Ferrell's estimation, watched the Sun set over their empire owning class blinders and arrogant disdain for any who let them rule.
Perhaps ironically, in 1979 while fishing, a rogue wave not unlike the Sepoy Mutiny or the Rising, or the inevitable defeat arising from a lack of foresight, as in Singapore, swept Ferrell, age 44, off of a rock and to his death in the Irish sea. His death stunned the literary community and one cannot help but mourn the many great works died with him.
J.G. Farrell's Empire Trilogy (1970-78)ranges from the Sepoy Mutiny in India, through World War I and Ireland's Easter, 1916 rebellion, and then on to World War II in the Far East. In these three novels, Ferrell paints an unequaled portrait of the folly of empire.
The Siege of Krishnapur (1973), which won the Man Booker Prize in 1973, takes place in India in 1857 and tells the story of the Great Mutiny when Muslim soldiers turned in bloody rebellion on their British overlords. Set in an isolated Victorian outpost on the subcontinent, this novel exposes colonial ambitions that is all at once brutal, blundering and wistful. And, as it followed Ferrell's earlier work on the Irish mutiny one can't help understanding that Ferrell saw these events as linked in concept if not in time and place. Troubles (1970) is at once a hilarious and heartbreaking master work which takes place in Kilnalough, Ireland set during the 1916 Easter Rebellion. It is a sad, tragic and very funny tale exemplifying the human heart of insurrection. The last of the trilogy, The Singapore Grip (1978), is a love story and a war story, a tragicomic tale of a city under siege and a dying way of life. It explores the boundaries between classes and nations through the figures of the business community in Singapore directly before the Japanese invasion.
It is always audacious to explain a two hundred and fifty-year span of history but Ferrell's ambition seems to be more an attempt at explaining the human failings of the British Raj than any actual history. The Brits, in Ferrell's estimation, watched the Sun set over their empire owning class blinders and arrogant disdain for any who let them rule.
Perhaps ironically, in 1979 while fishing, a rogue wave not unlike the Sepoy Mutiny or the Rising, or the inevitable defeat arising from a lack of foresight, as in Singapore, swept Ferrell, age 44, off of a rock and to his death in the Irish sea. His death stunned the literary community and one cannot help but mourn the many great works died with him.
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