Showing posts with label political. Show all posts
Showing posts with label political. Show all posts

Dude, Where's My Country? Review

Dude, Where's My Country
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Dude, Where's My Country ReviewHey folks, this is place for book reviews, not just somewhere to hammer your political stakes. If I want to know a good restaurant in which to eat, I don't get much help from people who say "that place sucks," or "it's awesome, maan." Those are not restaurant reviews. They are inarticulate blanket statements that tell me very little about culinary establishments. If some moron who doesn't like Italian food, but loves Chinese food, even if it is bad, makes those statements, I am not in a very good position to find a good restaurant.
But, hey, Moore's book is not exactly fine literature either, nor is it supposed to be. It is the stuff that touches nerves and induces one or two sentence leftwing or rightwing rants. While this may be bad for the Amazon book review section, it is good for political discourse.
And that is where many "professional" reviewers (or the publicists who pick abridged comments) fare little better than the guy who likes lousy Chinese food. The first splash review on the back of the book exclaims "Moore is a comic genius." This comment is like a court reporter exclaiming "Kobe Bryant is a basketball genius" after covering a pretrial hearing.
Well, Moore is damned funny, but the book is not primarily a comic work. Chapter 10 is hilarious, granted, but this is a book of serious political and social commentary peppered with quips and sarcasm. Moore fans already know that model, and they aren't the ones reading these reviews for the purpose of finding a good read.
The book is a Bush-bashing of epic proportions, but the weapon for the beating is not weird conspiracy theories as some might want to claim. Sure, Moore suggests that the war in Iraq is about oil, that the terrorist threat is a Republican political tool to exploit patriotic sentiment, and other ideas that put grins on the faces of liberals and frowns on the faces of conservatives. But the plain well-documented facts in the book do the talking (as they do in any decent piece of research).
Startling revelations of the Bush family's intimate business and social dealings with the Saudi Royal family are Moore's most powerful weapon. And, no, he is not relying on innuendo or rhetoric. Actually, he is using mainstream media sources, even those owned by arch-conservative Rup Murdoch. Moore describes how the Saudis were overtly protected from scrutiny after 9/11 by Ashcroft and company (to the great dismay of the FBI), while hundreds of other Arabs on American soil were rounded up like Japanese Americans during WWII, despite the fact that 15 of the 19 highjackers were Saudis. And that is just an appetizer.
In all, the book effectively discredits Bush and his agenda - from tax cuts to the Patriot Act to foreign affairs. Moore is persuasive in describing Bush's presidency as an absolute disaster for the country (our country if you were wondering which one).
On the disappointing side, Moore wants to have his cake and eat it too (the common pitfall of most political discourse). While Moore doesn't sketch out theories, he asks questions that imply, for example, that Osama wasn't perhaps as responsible as the Saudi establishment for 9/11. But he then asserts his desire for Osama to be caught and held responsible. This is a bit of a trap for Moore. He asks a lot of questions of Bush - legitimate questions that need to be answered. But the reader (particularly the unlikely conservative reader) may see these as rhetorical questions for which Moore is implying answers. The easy leap for the critic is "conspiracy theory." For those less likely to make that judgment, the problem may be more like the Osama one: Innuendo A is not consistent with Assertion B.
Perhaps inevitable, this flaw is the soft underbelly for those wishing to dismiss other parallel arguments which are well crafted and well researched.
Finally, does this book "suck" or is it "awesome?" Well, I read it in one sitting, which rules out "sucks." It is not awesome as in "awesome dude-meister!" It is awe inspiring for the plain questions it asks and the startling revelations it makes. Strip away all of Moore's prose if you wish, and you will be left with a body of research that should leave you sickened not only by Bush and his puppeteers, but by Congress, and maybe even your brother-in-law.Dude, Where's My Country Overview

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The Secret Keeper Review

The Secret Keeper
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The Secret Keeper ReviewFreetown, Sierra Leone is a haunted place for Danny Kellerman. He was sent to Freetown as a war correspondent in 2000--during the civil war--and it was the defining moment of his life, both professionally and personally. He met and fell in love with an American woman, Maria Tirado, who operated an orphanage for child soldiers, and realized a professional dream.
It is four years later and Danny is back in London. He lives with his current girlfriend, but his life has slipped into one of self-pity and loss. His job is unfulfilling and his personal relationships, specifically the relationship with his girlfriend and father are breaking down into sullen desperation. Danny is a haunted man. His past haunts him. Freetown haunts him, as does the loss of Maria.
Then one morning Danny receives a handwritten note from Maria. She is in trouble and asks Danny for help. She asks him to come to Freetown. He is stunned. It has been four years since they have spoken, now this. He decides to call her, but when he begins the search for a telephone number he finds an article about her death. She was murdered in Freetown three days earlier.
This plea for help prods Danny into action. He convinces his editor to send him to Sierra Leone to do a piece on the recovery of the nation after its civil war, but what he really wants is to investigate Maria's murder. When he returns to Freetown he finds the place nearly unrecognizable. The two sides of the civil war share power, and while the economy is thriving, the past is a cloying danger no one wants to revisit, and there is a simmering anger and fear in the city. And no one, on either side, wants to investigate Maria's murder: what's done is done.
THE SECRET KEEPER is a literary thriller that is stunning in its simplicity and power. The story is haunting and melancholy. It is told in two separate time lines. The first is in the year 2004 and it chronicles Danny's search for answers to Maria's death, and the second is his original trip to Sierra Leone in 2000 as a newspaper war correspondent.
The story and prose is saturated with regret and darkness. There is an overriding sense of fear and loss. Danny is a man who has defined himself by one moment of weakness--a weakness that did not seem like weakness when it occurred, but over the months and years that followed it has dragged Danny down with self-pity and, to a lesser extent, shame.
Freetown is captured perfectly as a city re-inventing itself on the ashes of its past. Its inhabitants know the past, but they do not discuss or want to remember it. The only thing worthy of contemplation is the future and the past will only harm that future. Danny is a remnant of Freetown's darkest moments and his investigation represents a very real threat to the leadership of Sierra Leone. An issue that will threaten both Danny and the few friends he has in Freetown.
THE SECRET KEEPER is a terrific novel. It is very much comparable to the work of Graham Greene, both in its thematic style and plot, but it is also a unique piece of fiction that captures the spirit and challenge of both Sierra Leone and the African continent--nothing is simple, the culture, the people, or the place. It is haunting, beautiful and ugly all at once. In a sense it is a snapshot of all humanity and the complexities that are inherent to modern civilization.
-GravetappingThe Secret Keeper Overview

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Disturbing the Peace Review

Disturbing the Peace
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Disturbing the Peace ReviewSome have said this is Yates' weakest work, and I suppose it might be, but I think credit has to be given to Yates for even managing to pull this off. This is a tough story to write, a man's journey from sanity to insanity. Yates stays in his usual third person narration all the way, even when the main character goes completely nuts, so his delusions become our delusions.
It's not a pleasant experience by any stretch of the imagination - we get a no-holds-barred view into Bellevue and the complete breakdown of the protagonist. There isn't a likeable character in the entire novel, which isn't that different from Yates' other works, but the problem here is that it's very tough to have any sympathy for the main character, John Wilder. In Yates' more successful books, no matter how nasty the characters, we can't help but to feel for their faults. Not so here.
Disturbing the Peace may not have the amazing pace of The Easter Parade or the driving power of Revolutionary Road, but it's still a pretty good read. It's a tough book to find nowadays, so if you can get your hands on it, pick it up.Disturbing the Peace Overview

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