Recent Reads

I'm not going to do justice to these books, but I am behind.

Supercapitalism by Robert Reich. Book group for August. Unfortunately, the meeting was postponed by a week, and I was already on vacation when it happened. Reich decomposes the logic of capitalism to explain the continuing globalization of world markets. Capitalism has expanded at the expense of democracy and the good of the citizenry. Everything, and he mean EVERYTHING, that a company does is centered on the bottom line and profits. He doesn't believe that corporate responsibility should be expected--it isn't built into the logic of capitalism--or that we should expect companies to behave honorably for the common good. Instead, he argues that we need government intervention to support the environment, fair labor and wages, and to reduce inequality. A pretty good read. The first part of the book was slow, I thought, but it picked up. It was long on the description of the problem, and short, though, on any kind of public policy or individual response. He does have some strong words about corporate lobbyists and the enormous influence they wield, and his soundest suggestions revolve around reducing corporate cash in the political system.

So Brave, Young, and Handsome by Leif Enger. Wow, did I love this one. When I first heard about it, I wasn't too excited--the setting is the declining Wild West and two main characters are figures from an earlier time: the train robber, long on the run from the law, and the detective who has spent years of his life tracking him. But, I really liked Peace Like a River and so I decided to read this too. Enger is a master at characterization; the figures in the book were so real and believable. The writing is gorgeous. So many great scenes. I want to read it through again to cherish his turns of phrase and the way he makes his story sing. I liked this review on Amazon:

Monte Becket should have been happy, with a doting wife, adventuresome little boy, and a place by the river. Not to mention a bestselling novel to his credit. But something's missing and he can't seem to write a second. Then Glendon Hale shows up--courtly, charming, talented, and a self-confessed rascal--a man who walked out on his wife, the love of his life, many years before. Now he envisions a quixotic journey of redemption--to find his lost wife and apologize--and he asks Monte to go with him. So begins the road trip to end all road trips. Monte gets in deeper than he ever expected, and soon runs afoul of Charles Siringo, the detective/bounty hunter who has been pursuing Glendon for many years. Will they ever find the long lost Mrs. Hale? Will Glendon receive forgiveness? Wlll Monte ever make it home again? Or will both men end up in jail? Or worse? Of course, I won't tell you what happens, only that this trip becomes longer, darker, and more costly than Monte could ever have dreamed. And that both men suffer and lose a lot, and that they end up touched by an odd kind of grace.

Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai. This was also a book with beautiful writing, but in the end, unlike Enger's So Brave, there is no grace, no redemption. If you read this, you must bookend it with cheerful books, because I was left feeling hopeless and depressed by the end. This is a book about inequality and the dividing and tearing consequences of globalization. Inequality as manifest within a country--both in the US and in India--and between countries. The NYTimes review of this is entitled Wounded by the West, and every character who experiences the west, both in Europe and the US is cut off from their Indianess and culture. Here's an example, from the Times review.

As a student, isolated in racist England, the future judge feels "barely human at all" and leaps "when touched on the arm as if from an unbearable intimacy." Yet on his return to India, he finds himself despising his apparently backward Indian wife.

Desai's descriptions of poverty and its attendants are gruesome and haunting. Her characters are disempowered and unable to shape their lives into something that satisfies them--they are unhappy, unmoored, and humiliated.

Strong Poison by Dorothy Sayers. This is a Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane mystery, written in 1936. I have heard good things about Sayers, but I didn't love this book. The characters were a bit wooden (save for the elderly spinster and her gang of single and efficient secretaries who do undercover detective work for Wimsey). The story seemed old fashioned and a little quaint. Wimsey's determination to marry Harriet so early in the story seemed strange. Eh, it was ok. I think I will still read Gaudy Night at some later point, but it didn't suit for a good vacation book. Oh, well. I had the cheaply made small paper back edition that fared well in spite of a diet coke spill in my bag and provided a diversion while I was standing with baby Z in the back of the plane.