Lost Paradise by Kathy Marks

I heard the author of this book interviewed on NPR and was so interested that I decided to take it out of the library. The book is about the Pitcairn Island, where the Mutiny on the Bounty crew settled. In the past ten years, a storm of sexual abuse accusations by adolescent and pre-adolescent girls on the island have erupted, and Marks' book covers the ensuing trials and fallout. Over time, the truth emerges - sexual abuse of young women by older men is a multi-generation problem within Pitcairn, tacitly accepted by men and women alike, hidden behind false morays of Polynesian promiscuity.

The first several chapters of the book relay Marks' experience as one of the six journalists credentialed to cover the trials on this island of just 50 people. In a community that small, journalists can hardly remain the outsiders who do not impact the story, so Marks does her best to report on her experiences as a visitor, describing both the efforts to reach the remote island as well as the lukewarm reception she and her coworkers received. Over the course of the book, she covers a history of the island, the events leading up to the trials, and the impact the trials have had on this tight-knit community.

It would be interesting to read a trained sociologist's view of the same events, although Marks' book was delightfully readable. She discusses themes of control and power - not just as they relate to sexual assault but in how they are used in the community. She also keeps revisiting the idea of "the myth of Pitcairn Island", thought to be an Polynesian idyll without any of the negative aspects that exist. Her openness to report on the critiques of her own coverage was commendable but didn't tone down her obvious (and seemingly justified) disgust with the treatment of the case: the accused men were charged and sentenced leniently, then returned back to society early, easily returning to their positions of power. Meanwhile, the accused women were ostracized by the community, including their families, and pressured into recanting.
Towards the end of the book, she explores all the categories of people in the community who let down generations of women by letting sexual abuse go unchecked. She also addresses several potential theories for the abuse, as well as other similar communities without this problem. I think she tries too hard to draw conclusions and make recommendations rather than just tell a story that speaks for itself. That said, I liked the book overall and continue to reflect on the story.

Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan

In preparation for starting Infinite Jest, I was committed to finishing Omnivore's Dilemma ("OD"). Laura and I had decided to have a long-distance book group on this book so we had been trading emails about different sections for the past several months. This was a good way for me to read a book - always get more out of discussing my reading with other people and Laura is an excellent corresponder with a smart point of view. I also enjoy reading more than one thing at a time and this became a good background process.

OD, like Pollan's In Defense of Food, exposes some of the unhealthy and illogical parts of our food production system. This book is structured in three main sections - the first covers the 'military-industrial complex" of food, following a single cow through the mass beef industry to a meal that ends at a McDonald's. The second section explores organic and sustainable eating. And the final section covers Pollan's experiences hunting and gathering all the ingredients for a single dinner he prepares.

I liked that Pollan went and experienced each of the types of food production first-hand, reporting and not just researching. While it did not have the same impact on me that IDOF did, OD was a good read.

In the first section, he covered the science and economics around corn production, including, I kid you not, a large section on 'corn sex'. He also covered a history of fertilizer and general efficiency in our food chain. The sections on the beef industry immediately reminded me of The Jungle.

Pollan fascinated me with his examination of the organic food industry. He drew a distinct line between organic and local, which really made me think about where my food comes from. He also presented a different model of running a farm that varies the vegetation and animals in different locations year to year, providing a long-term sustainable model that generates far more yield and far less waste than how we farm now.

I was a little more disappointed with the last section, where he hunts and gathers, finding it to be more condescending and self-aggrandizing than the rest of the book. That said, there were some good points about how hunting one's food can change one's relationship with eating. He also gave an extensive and weirdly fascinating background on mushrooms. But overall by the time I got to the meal he prepared I really found the premise to be kitchy and more about making his point than anything. His anecdotes were fun to read but I had kind of stopped learning by the end.

The two points he made in the (too-short) denouement was that there should be "transparency" in our food and he recognized that both McDonald's and his homegrown meal are outliers in how we can really eat. I agree with both of those and see them as reasonable conclusions to his book. I think that if I had not read IDOF first, this book would have had even more impact on me. That said, I'd recommend it to both readers of IDOF and those who have never read Michael Pollan.

Beginning Infinite Jest

So I am trying to commit to this Infinite Summer program on the web where a set of smart people help me read David Foster Wallace's 1000+ page Infinite Jest this summer. I am intimidated by the book. I am sad to lose some of the time I would otherwise spend reading other stuff. I am concerned that I don't know enough about Hamlet. I am heartened that Jason Kottke says I don't need to worry about the Hamlet stuff. I am loathe to get one of the Infinite Jest readers' guides that is recommended because the 1000+ pages is enough to worry about. Having started the book (barely) I am impressed by the density of his writing - DFW does not waste a single word. And I keep thinking, what the heck is he doing?? with all his characters.

That's a lot of feelings for being on page 37 of a book I am kind of worried is going to ruin my summer.

The Gathering by Anne Enright

Sara Coe recommended this book to me, so I put it on my library queue. It was the story of an Irish family who come together when one of the 12 adult children dies. I expected it to be an easy read with familiar themes. Instead, it was an incredibly unusual book.

The writing reminded me of what happens in my head when I am alone in the car for several hours - the narrator meanders through several years and interactions and episodes in no discernible order. But by the end of the book a cohesive story had come together. Like with a few books lately, I was tricked into thinking the book was about one character (the dead brother) when actually the protagonist emerges as the narrator as the story unfolds. If pressed, I'd describe it as a coming-of-age novel about a middle-aged woman.

This book won the Man Booker Prize in 2007 - I liked it but didn't think it was the best thing I had read all year. I wonder if I could have identified it as a prizewinner if I hadn't known.

Weekend at the Vineyard

Web and I went to the Vineyard (that's Martha's for the benefit of those of you not from New England) this weekend to visit Jamie who is living there this summer. While cleaning out the boarding house that she is managing, she found piles and piles of old books. I love the variety & juxtaposition. Also the colors of the pages - check out these pics.






I also checked out two bookstores in Vineyard Haven, one of the small downtown areas on the island. Unfortunately, I don't remember the name of the first store we wandered into - it was a stationary store with books in about the first third of the area. The most notable thing was that the books all had current event and political themes, even most of the fiction. Webster and I chuckled at how much the bookshelves looked like the ones at our house! From Michael Lewis to Ascent of Money, Descartes' Bones, Krugman's latest book, and for fiction, Edgar Sawtelle, both of Khaled Hosseini's books, Wally Lamb, and plenty of other favorites of ours. It was kind of uncanny!

Next we went to Vineyard Haven's more well-known bookstore, Bunch of Grapes. This bookstore burned down last year and just re-opened last week, so I was fortunate to get a chance to visit.

I'm not sure I would have known that there was a fire had I not been told, but knowing it I am pretty sure I could smell both paint and smoke. The selection was great - and a wonderful selection of new trade fiction that grew my reading list by about a mile. The upstairs had expansive ceilings with exposed wooden beams, ceiling fans, and a huge stained glass window. I exercised extreme willpower and did not purchase anything, but that would not be scalable were I to spend a summer on the island.

In the spirit of books this weekend, I also finished two more I had been in the middle of that I'll review shortly - The Gathering and Omnivore's Dilemma. Jamie also lent me Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society which I'll get to later this summer. Starting tomorrow night I crack into Infinite Jest. And I'm not afraid to admit that I am scared.

The Gardner Heist by Ulrich Boser

This book is subtitled, "The True Story of the World's Largest Unsolved Art Theft" and is about the robbery of millions of dollars worth of art from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. The robbery took place on St. Patrick's Day in 1990, and the author was interviewed on NPR around the anniversary of the heist.

Boser does a fine job of describing many of the facets of the robbery. He covers all the facts from the night it happened and profiles many of the suspects and law enforcement officials involved in the case. He also discusses other significant art heists and provides a detailed personal history of Gardner herself and the origins and guiding principles of the museum. Many of these sections read like good spy or mafia novels - it was hard to remember this was nonfiction.

Later in the book, Boser becomes a central character, as his reporting on the heist turns into a consuming quest to solve the crime. We see the author's life put on hold as he travels around the world and meets with less-than-savory characters to try and solve the case. While his book claims to have made a major breakthrough in uncovering the identities of the art theives, what is more interesting is his obsession with the story and ultimate ability to walk away from the investigation.

Someone in the book comments that if (when) the art is finally returned, there will be a line from "here to downtown" to see the pieces. I will surely be on that line.

Random Acts of Heroic Love by Danny Scheinmann

I enjoyed reading this book although I also had some major problems with it. There are two stories - one of a young man traveling in South America whose girlfriend gets killed in the early 2000s, and the other of a young soldier during WWI. Each of the narratives is interesting enough and the characters were well-written.

The stories alternate and ultimately tie together in a familiar, almost formulaic way. I don't think I've grown tired of every book written in this way (see A Brief History of the Dead and The Blind Assassin) but I think Scheinmann's execution was unimpressive. It was like he had two books in him and decided to find a way to tie them together.

Two factors, however, soften my opinion of the book. One is that this is a first novel and the other is that the WWI story is based on his own grandfather's story. It was kind of cool to find that out in the end and realize that this was a way for him to be closer to family history.

The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester

This was a fascinating book about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary. While that might sound dull, the story wasn't - one of the main contributors to the OED was an American imprisoned in an insane asylum in England.

I learned a lot reading this book. First of course was the realization that there was a point in history when there were words but no dictionaries. I was also interested to find out that the OED was compiled in a very collaborative way that reminded me of Wikipedia. The general public was solicited to read different works and submit examples of words used in different ways. I also hadn't known that the OED was unique in that it always sought examples from literature, rather than relying on sentences purpose-built for the dictionary.

The writing was enjoyable to read, with each chapter beginning with an entry from the OED about some relevant subject matter. The only criticism I have of the book is that the climax is incredibly weird. However, as someone who ready as much as I do and still lugs out the dictionary to look things up (Webster's, not OED), it was a treat to find out how the most famous one was conceived and delivered.

The Appeal by John Grisham

After fighting with a book of Carlos Fuentes' (and its winning), I needed something easy to read. John Grisham to the rescue. This book was about a chemical company who loses a major personal injury case and decides to fund the campaign of a supreme court judge who will guarantee their winning on appeal. The concept was fun to follow and I enjoyed reading the back-room machinations that were necessary to craft his campaign.

However, I became disintereted in the story about 2/3 of the way and did not even really care who won the case in the end. Grisham let his desire to make a political statement come at the cost of the storytelling.