September 2019 book review part 2

UNDERLAND, by Robert McFarlane

In his latest book, McFarlane takes us on a dizzying journey into the depths of the Earth. He rightly points out how little we think about what lies beneath our feet, yet there is a whole world down there- or in fact many worlds. He shows us round a few of them: a dark matter detector in a salt mine half a mile under the Yorkshire dales, the labyrinthine corridors of now disused limestone quarries beneath the streets of central Paris, into a moulin, or sinkhole, in a Greenland glacier that leads hundred of metres down to the bedrock, and many, many others.

What struck me most vividly about this book, as with David Attenborough’s latest TV series Our Planet, is the way Mcfarlane drums into us, page after page, the jeopardy we have placed the Earth in, and how something MUST be done, and done NOW, to avoid an unprecedented catastrophe. There is a wonderful section on what has been called the ‘Wood-Wide-Web’, the underground connection between trees which is mediated through fungal networks, which benefits the trees as well as the fungi. Apparently trees are actually capable of helping each other by transferring nutrients to diseased trees through the network. Incredible, but true, yet all is under threat from ignorant and cynical exploitation of the Earth’s resources. 

This is a wonderful book, beautifully written as always with McFarlane, but deeply disturbing too.

I for one will never look at a tree, at a copse, or a forest, in quite the same way again.

PALM BEACH FINLAND, by Antti Tuomainen

A developer has the brilliant idea of creating a Florida-style beach resort on the southern coast of Finland. Only two things stand in his way: the fact that, as he admits, there are only 7.5 hot days in Finland per year, and a recalcitrant homeowner who won’t sell her beachfront house so he can expand. He gets two loser employees to put the frighteners on her, but that goes wrong and someone ends up dead. An undercover cop is brought in to investigate on the QT, but things get a bit complicated when he falls for the rather attractive homeowner. Later things get a lot more complicated than that...

With his quirky, jokey style overlaying some very dark events, Tuomainen has created a cracking little thriller, good character building and plot development being his great strengths. I charged through this book at great speed, and enjoyed every minute. Strongly recommended if you like a bit of Nordic noir.

September 2019 book review part 1

THE NARROW ROAD TO THE DEEP NORTH, by Richard Flanagan
A young Australian man does well at school, qualifies as a doctor and is about to carve a successful career for himself when two things happen: first he falls in love with a married woman, then, war breaks out and he is called up to serve in the Far East. Taking a lot of emotional baggage with him, he soon finds plenty of things to distract him, most notably that he is almost immediately taken prisoner by the Japanese, who regard P.O.Ws as cowards and therefore not worthy of any of the human rights guaranteed them by the Geneva Convention. As senior officer as well as the only doctor, he has to stand by as his men fall prey to beri-beri, pellagra, cholera and, worst of all, the cynical and extreme cruelty of their captors.

Finally he is released at the end of the war, irretrievably scarred by his experiences, he resumes his medical career, but there is always something missing in his life. Like love, for example...

This book is stunning. Full of beauty as well as horror, I found it quite the most powerful piece of writing I have encountered in some years. The reader is completely immersed in the lives of the characters, feels the heat and humidity of the jungle, suffers with the prisoners through their terrible ordeal. Carries my highest recommendation.

THE NARROW ROAD TO THE DEEP NORTH, AND OTHER TRAVEL PIECES, by Matsuo Basho
Basho was a poet who lived in Japan in the latter part of the 17th century, and is now regarded as the greatest exponent of Haiku, the 3 line, 17 syllable format by which poets express some special insight about the natural world, and sometimes themselves. And this story, which mixes prose with haiku, takes us on a journey the poet took to visit important Buddhist shrines, other poets and ascetics, like himself, and generally undertake a journey of the mind and spirit as much as the body.

It’s a very human story. On one occasion, for instance, he takes a long detour to see the full moon rise over a Buddhist temple, only for it to remain cloudy all night, thus denying him the experience he has dreamed of for so long. Or when he returns from one trip, and writes:

Shed of everything else,
I still have some lice
I picked up on the road-
Crawling on my summer robes.

Note this does not conform to the format I mentioned above. The translator, Nobyuki Yuasa, has made a decision that in order to bring the full character and beauty of Basho’s haikus to life in English, he needs to use this format of his own design. But it’s not “wrong” to do this. The Japanese poets themselves used a variety of different formats when it suited them. Finally, I cannot resist quoting one more haiku for you, this one being regarded as possibly the ultimate flowering of his skill:

Breaking the silence
Of an ancient pond,
A frog jumped into water -
A deep resonance.

Obviously Flanagan borrowed the title of his book from Basho, and I believe we are meant to take from this the fact that the protagonist of the novel is himself on a spiritual journey of his own- which in a way, he is. But what I found as I read Basho’s account of his travels, his gentleness, his love of beauty and peace, his supreme insight into the human condition that all the greatest poets have, that fast forward three centuries, his own countrymen, no different in essence from Basho himself, would be committing some of the grossest atrocities against their fellow human beings the world has ever seen.

Bolsonaro: the new Trump

We all worried when we heard Trump got elected, with his disregard of  any environmental concerns and his love of big money (these, of course, go together like beans on toast). But unfortunately, and just as some of us feared, the politics of the whole world took a lurch to the right, nowhere better personified than in Brazil, with the election of arch-populist Bolsonaro, who early on in his rule said he would be happy to pave over the Amazon if that would aid ‘progress’.

We thought he was joking, but unfortunately for the indigenous peoples of the Amazon rainforest, he wasn’t. He has allowed legal logging and development of this unique and precious place to proceed apace, and turned a blind eye to the even more pernicious practices of illegal mining projects. In their frantic greed for gold, these people are pouring toxins such as mercury into the watercourses, an agent which is poisonous to all forms of life. Mercury is part of the process of the extraction of gold, and gold fever has gripped Brazil. Who cares, as long as a profit is made? Not the mine owners certainly, and not Senor Bolsonaro either.

I was thinking yesterday that normally we like to think of the world moving gradually forward to a better, more enlightened place. But recent evidence, in Brazil and in a Trump administration that refuses to admit the reality of climate change and human involvement in it, we are actually moving backwards into a new dark age. Don’t say I didn’t warn you...

Jo takes a step too far

When Jo Swinson, leader of the LibDems, announced that should they win the next election they would cancel Brexit without even the recourse to a second referendum, I felt she made a serious error.

The LibDems have made major strides in recent months, constituting as they do one of the major bulwarks against the arch-right-wingers of the Brexit party. Many people voted for them rather than their usual fall-back position of Labour or Tory because of their ambiguous posture on Brexit. And they would, I believe, have made a terrific showing in the next election on that strength alone. Now, though, I’m not so sure.

I wish we’d never held a referendum in the first place. I wish David Cameron had held out against the Brexiteer ‘bastards’ in his own party in the same way as John Major did - basically by telling them to go and fuck themselves. But he didn’t, and 17 million people, 52% of the voters, voted leave. Certainly I would like to see a second vote- what’s wrong with testing public opinion again after a 3-4 year gap in a decision as important as this? But defying the wishes of those 17 million people altogether, ignoring them in fact, could have terrible consequences, for the nation, which might see not only the worst civil disorder this country has seen since the Civil War should such a thing come to pass, but to the LibDems themselves for even suggesting such a thing.

I foresee a dramatic downturn in their fortunes now because of it. Change your mind on this one, Jo, and do it quick, before you run your party onto the rocks.

Media review August 2019

BOOKS

THE DRAGON KEEPER, by Robin Hobb (Margaret Lindholm Ogden)

In a mythical world, there are humans, Riverwild folk, who have claws for toes and areas of scales where they should have skin, and Elderlings, who have evolved an intimate relationship with the dragons. I didn’t mention them? Perhaps I should have, because they lie at the heart of this fascinating little tale. These dragons can communicate telepathically with the humans (and ‘humanoids’), and can usually fly and breathe fire. Unfortunately, these ones can’t do either, because of some issue with their early lives as sea-serpents. In fact they’re a bit of a liability. Then some humans and Riverwild people get together to help them find their ancestral lands. Will they get there? We don’t know yet, because at the end of this entertaining romp, they’ve barely started on their journey. Don’t worry, there are 3 other books in the tetrad, enough scope to answer all questions.

Robin Hobb has chosen wisely to focus on dragon myths, considering the world-wide success of Game of Thrones. But she has created her own unique world, nothing like the Seven Kingdoms, and reading her is addictive. People I know can’t stop reading her books, of which there are many. Will I do the same? You know, I think I might...

HELTER SKELTER, By Vince Bugliosi and Curt Gentry

On August 8th 1969, a group of three women and one man burst into a Los Angeles townhouse and murdered five people who were unfortunate enough to be there at the time. One of them was Sharon Tate, wife of film director Roman Polanski, who by a lucky chance was in Europe at the time. The following night the same killers invaded another home and butchered a husband and wife. They then melted away into the Hollywood Hills. They might never have been caught, because they left virtually no clues, but then one of them was arrested on unrelated charges and blabbed to a cell mate about the terrible things she had done. 

Vince Bugliosi was the assistant DA assigned to prosecuting them, and once he began his investigations it began to emerge that the killings weren’t the idea of the killers themselves, but of a certain Mr Charles Manson. And he kept going on about something called “Helter Skelter”, his name for an apocalyptic war he foretold would take place between blacks and whites, which, hopefully, would be precipitated by the murders he planned. Crazy stuff? Damn right. Don’t expect a lot of cold hard logic from these people, either from the guru himself, or his followers, who saw Manson as the second coming of Jesus Christ. I kid you not. And where did Manson get his inspiration for all this bloodlust? From reading between the lines of Beatles songs, apparently, particularly the famous White Album, in which the song Helter Skelter is included.

Helter Skelter turned out to be the most successful nonfiction crime book in publishing history, partly because of the content, which is truly sensational, and partly because it is actually a very well written book. It’s all there; the investigation, the tracking down of witnesses, several of whom were threatened with murder if they spoke, the forensic evidence, and finally the extraordinary 6 month trial. 

I have made nonfiction books on the subject of murder something of a special interest over the years, probably read over 200 of them. This, in my opinion, is among the top three or four.

DON QUIXOTE, by Miguel Cervantes

In late16th century Spain, a gentleman is obsessed by the idea of medieval chivalry and the idea of ‘Knights Errant’, those who wandered the land rescuing damsels in distress and righting wrongs wherever they find them. His library is filled with books on the subject, but then all rather goes to his head when he takes it upon himself to adopt just such a role for himself, taking on a squire to assist him, in the shape of one Sáncho Panza. The latter is offered the governorship of an island if he does his job well, and who’s going to turn their nose up at a carrot like that? Not Sancho, certainly, even though he, and indeed many others come to seriously doubt his master’s sanity.

But is he mad, or is he, like some renaissance vision of RD Laing, the only sane one in an insane world? You decide. Or don’t, and just let this incredible story wash over you, as the ‘ingenious gentleman’ sallies forth on one astonishing quest after another. Try not to get totally involved with him and his hapless assistant. Try to keep a straight face. You won’t be able to.

Don Quixote has been called the ‘first modern novel’, and it is true that despite its vintage, in the 2003 translation I read by the American Edith Grossman, it comes over as remarkably modern in its feel. And it is saying something that some of the foremost writers in history, Laurence Stern, Balzac, Proust and Joyce among them, all counted it among their favorite books.

I thought it would be hard to read this book. I was wrong. It was as easy and delightful as drinking fine champagne.

MOVIES

A STAR IS BORN (2018) P/D- Bradley Cooper

An entertainer (Bradley Cooper, who does just about everything in this movie, including singing and playing his own instruments, so we certainly know, as I like to say, who to blame) is on a slow downhill arc in his career when he meets another (Lady Gaga) whose star is very much on the rise. What can go wrong? Turns out, everything. And you’ll know that if you’ve seen either the original 1950s version of this story with James Mason and Judy Garland, or the remake in the 70s with Kris Kristopherson and Barbara Streisand.

Not content with these two perfectly acceptable efforts, apparently Bradley Cooper became obsessed with bringing his own take on an old story to the screen, and spent years persuading the money boys to play along. Eventually he won them round, and everybody made a lot of money and, to be fair, a pretty good film got made. Cooper is good, as is the good Lady, and also Sam Elliott as Cooper’s long time friend and manager. And the music’s great too. I’m just left wondering why he didn’t go for something completely original, rather than yet another remake.

THE ANGEL’S SHARE (2012) D- Ken Loach

A probation officer in Glasgow has the idea of taking his charges to a whisky tasting session as a change of pace from picking up litter. Surprisingly, they take to it and one of their number becomes something of an expert. Ah, but there’s a hidden agenda here. For these recidivists soon realize that some whiskies, if rare enough, can be worth a fortune. Now you see?

In this film Ken Loach spins a yarn which might be called “Once Upon a Time in Glasgow”, because what happens is far from the gritty, realistic tales he usually spins, and resembles a kind of fairy tale for the Gorbals. But it’s all done with Loach’s legendary skill, and his main protagonist Paul Brannigan makes us believe all this could really happen. Even though it couldn’t.

ONCE UPON A TIME... IN HOLLYWOOD (2019) D- Quentin Tarantino

A western movie star (Leo DiCaprio) who’s slightly past his sell-by date is given another chance to make his mark, this time in spaghetti westerns. But he can’t take his long-time stunt double and closest friend (Brad Pitt) along for the ride. It’s the end of an era... Brad, a very laid-back guy, tries not to get too upset as he finds little DIY jobs to do for his friends. But there’s something going on in the background of this movie (there always is with Tarantino), and we’re not sure it will be a McGuffin, that is something that’s bigged up but actually not the point of the movie at all, or whether it is going to turn into something really big.

I’m a little reluctant to spoil the plot of what is Tarantino’s best films for years, so I’ll just say this one is really worth seeing, for the acting, for the cleverness of the story, and for Tarantino’s quite extraordinary observational skills.

Why he really tried to buy Greenland

In my last blog I wrote about Trump’s ridiculous offer to buy Greenland from its owners, Denmark. I said that he’d heard how the ice cap is rapidly melting, exposing all manner of treasures, coal, copper, etc that lurk beneath its surface.

Turns out there was another agenda, which explains why he cancelled his planned visit to Denmark, apparently in a fit of pique. As it happens, Barack Obama is due to visit Denmark next month, and can expect a joyous reception there, as he does almost wherever he goes. You can imagine the contrast with Trump’s reception when he arrives. Talk about a stark contrast... And faced with this contrast, Trump simply decided to find a reason not to go.

Why don’t you go to Russia instead, Donald. You’d get a much more positive reaction there, with rentacrowd out in force. Or North Korea. They’re all over you too, I understand. Or are they? No, wait. It’s got to be Brazil. There, President Bolsonaro has taken several sheets from your playbook to justify his burning of the Amazon rainforest, all in the name of progress. Apparently even among local landowners, who stand to make a great deal of cash out of exploiting the forest, there is disquiet about the rate of pillage. Never mind. This pres, like the other one, has his base, and we now know they’ll both do almost anything to keep them loyal- even raping their own most precious resource. Hey! Haven’t you worked it out yet? It’s about power, stupid.

Psst! Wanna sell your island? I give good price

Who says Donald Trump is ignorant about the effects of global warming? Not a bit of it. He’s heard that Greenland has just ‘enjoyed’ its warmest summer since the end of the last Ice Age. The extraordinary July heat wave in Europe extended far into the Arctic, leading to temperatures of 30 degrees being recorded in Thule, high above the Arctic Circle. 12 billion gallons of meltwater a day have been draining off the rapidly dwindling ice cap in Greenland’s interior. And Donald’s heard about it.

Well informed guy that he is, he’s also heard that Greenland is a source of all kinds of mineral wealth; copper, molybdenum and to him perhaps, most importantly, huge coal deposits. He doesn’t care that the rest of the world is moving away from coal as an energy source, that using it is accelerating the retreat of the ice fields that sooner or later, and now it seems sooner, will lead to a catastrophic rise in sea levels. If all the ice melts from Greenland, sea levels will rise by 9 metres. That’s enough to put most of the ports of America, New York, Washington DC, San Francisco and the rest, under water. We used to think melting off Greenland's ice would take hundreds of years. No longer. Already changes are being seen that were not predicted to occur until 2070. As the Yanks like to say, you do the math.

So, no wonder an opportunist like Trump seeks to take Greenland off Denmark’s hands. What would he give for it? A trillion dollars? More? It sounds like a lot, but remember it’s less than a month of America’s GDP. Thank goodness the Danes are a sensible people, and are well aware that as Mark Twain pointed out, land is the one thing they’ve stopped making. So they are not about to let nearly 900,000 square miles of real estate fall into his hands, ice covered or not. Thank God.