Catching up with my reading...

I have read quite a bit since my last post. I finished Rule of Four. Then I read Martin Cruz Smith's December 6. This was quite an interesting book. There's not much plot - Harry Niles, our protagonist, is an American resident of Tokyo on December 6, 1941. Will he get out of Japan before Pearl Harbor? And what exactly does he know about Pearl Harbor and the Japanese navy's interest in the Hawaiian islands?

Above all, December 6 is a character study. Characters like Harry don't come along very often. Harry is flawed, charming, smart, and yet cannot get out of his own way. He understands the Japanese culture in a way few westerners could at that time, and manipulates his Japanese friends mercilessly. Harry is not a "good" guy, he is at times downright ruthless and heartless.

And since the Harry Potter book 7 will be released soon, I have started my journey through the world of Harry Potter again. I have finished Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and am now reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I had forgotten how well crafted the first book was, our first introduction to this now world famous character. But it really was a delightful read. Harry's discoveries of the wizarding world are our discoveries as well, and there is a freshness to the first book that is sheer pleasure.

Brilliant Creatures

Finished Brilliant Creatures by Clive James. Honestly, don't read this one. It's dated and full of pretensious references that the author gives a reference to at the end of the novel! Unbelievable! A novelist writing his own Cliff notes.

So now I am rereading The Rule of Four. I loved this book when I read it three years ago; it made me wish I had gone to Princeton. A more sophisticated and frankly, more interesting novel than The DaVinci Code. Same sort of puzzle for the intelligentsia, though.

I do enjoy this genre. Rule of Four and Cryptonomicon are the height of this smart puzzle/history novel.

The Jury

I finished The Jury by Steve Martini last night. Very well plotted and entertaining, but not a lot of depth. Sometimes that's fine!

I have picked up Beautiful Creatures by Clive James and started reading that. The characters are so self-conscious and hyper aware of themselves. It is interesting and strange to read about a character observing himself - as you, the reader, observe the character. It is very disconcerting.

Finished the Iliad

Finished the Iliad yesterday and it was a long journey. What I felt most in reading this epic is the contrast between the wars our country is fighting now in Iraq and Afghanistan and the ancient war of Greeks versus Trojans. In the Iliad there are graphic descriptions of warfare, primitive warfare fought with spears and swords, where guts are spilled and injuries detailed. War is horrific and brings out both the worst and the best in the men fighting.

Our country is fighting a war that I am completely out of touch with. And it's not that I don't pay attention - I do. I read two newspapers every day, a local and a national, and would say coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is paltry. The only coverage on fatalities in the local paper happens when a local soldier is killed. And the coverage, aside from a few stories in Newsweek, is sanitized. Emphasis is on good medical response for the soldiers, and how many lives are saved by it, rather than the debilitating injuries and fatalities.

Homer describes every death in the Iliad; there is no such person as an unknown soldier. When a warrior dies, Homer names him and his foe, and he also describes the fallen. Perhaps we learn of his parents, or where the warrior hailed from. Sometimes we learn of deeds or accomplishments of the warrior. This aspect of the poem has really struck me.

I remember from history classes in college descriptions of the television coverage of the Vietnam War, and the way the networks would scroll the names of soldiers killed in action. I don't see that now, except in the Memorial Day Roll run by the comic Doonesbury!

I think we have sanitized war and distanced ourselves from it, and this is not a good thing. How are we ever to realize how horrific war is and how terrible and irrevocable the consequences are? Homer understood this, and I think modern man had the chance to understand this, but we've let it slip away.

Anyway, after reading that, I felt the need for something light, so I picked up Steve Martini's The Jury. Good plotting so far, thin on descriptions, heavy on conversation. Not always my thing, but a good read right now