The High Crusade (1960) By Poul Anderson

  

The year was 1345 and the English were preparing for yet another attack on the French as part of the Hundred Years War … and then on to the Holy Land! All of a sudden, a flying ship appeared in the sky landing at their feet. They’d never seen anything fly before other than birds and the arrows from their modern crossbows. The English were terrified, and curious.

 

As their leader, Sir Roger, Baron de Tourneville, realized the ship had made no aggressive motions. He slowly made his way toward it. The door to the craft opened and out came several blue-skinned aliens. A communications problem occurred almost immediately, resulting in an alien shooting a “magical” weapon killing a soldier, and then the English archers responded. They rapidly discovered that these blue-skinned “devils” could be killed, and a melee ensued with the English capturing the ship, and killing all but one of the aliens, an engineer. 

While celebrating their victory, Sir Roger realizes this flying machine could be decisive in their battle against the French. But how to operate? They coerced the alien engineer to train them by threatening him.  Then Sir Roger assigned an educated Abbott of the church to work with the prisoner to learn his language. (The friar will be the narrator of the book). 

Cutting to the chase, the engineer agrees to fly them to France and all of the soldiers and their wives, children and supplies are loaded unto the ship.  Once all are aboard, the engineer betrays them by hitting what amounts to an “automatic pilot” control button which will return the ship to Tharison its home planet in another solar system. When they arrive on the alien planet they are informed they will be slaves.  The English rank and file riot, rapidly discovering this alien race with its advanced weapons has forgotten how to fight in hand-to-hand combat. Sir Roger and his forces capture the new planet – considered a victory until they realize they have no way to return.

The story continues through several twists and turns, with allusions to the Fall of Rome, the feudal system, the Holy Roman Empire, and Christian theology.

The year this novel is written, 1960 is important.  It is 15 years after the first use of atomic bombs, three years after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, and nine years before Americans will land a spacecraft on the relatively nearby Moon. The question of the weaponization of space is demonstrably at hand. And one must ask, using this story as a guide, will long range rockets, and now drones, ever completely replace tanks and ground troops?  Will any of us live long enough to know the answer?

Poul Anderson is a writer whose works often appeared first in serialization in the legendary Astounding Science Fiction Magazine (now a subscription website). The High Crusade is the first of four novels collected into the Library of America’s volume titled American Science Fiction: Four Classic Novels, 1960-1966 published in 2019. 

Recommendation:  Good summer read.

A Study in Scarlet (1887) By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

 

Screen writing, a mystery indeed…

A week ago, I opened up Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s first (1887) Sherlock Holmes full length novel, titled: A Study in Scarlet. The first half of the novel was what we have come to expect from Sherlock Holmes detective stories. The plot is simple, Scotland Yard’s crack detectives can’t seem to figure out a murder. They turn to Holmes for help. By mid-book Holmes has figured out that it is a revenge murder, and who the killer is, but “revenging what” remains unclear.

It is then that Doyle’s book moves into flashback, and a dramatic shift it is. Gone is London, Scotland Yard and in fact England itself. The set has moved a few decades back, and to the western U.S., where a pioneer man named John Ferrier and his daughter Lucy, have been rescued from death in the desert by Brigham Young who is leading the mass migration of Mormons to what will become Salt Lake City. 

The author then begins what can best be described as a unthrottled attack on the Mormon Church, particularly on the subject of polygamy.

When Lucy grows up, she falls in love with a young man named Jefferson Hope. Problem is, Hope is not a Mormon. Church leaders have decided Lucy will go into an arranged marriage with one of their own.  Hope, Ferrier and Lucy will flee in the middle of the night, and when church leaders discover them missing, they send a party to capture them. Two days later, while Hope is away from camp hunting, the Mormon posse will find the camp, kill Ferrier and return the girl to Salt Lake City where she is forced into marriage. She will die a month later, broken hearted. Hope will vow revenge, which brings us back to London many years later.

The book displays an amazing versatility in writing by Doyle, who seamlessly switches from London-speak, to American pioneer western-speak.  Impressive.

As I often do, I decided to watch a couple of the several movies based on this book. The first was actually an animation (1983) with Peter O’Toole providing the voice of Sherlock Holmes. It was fun, however it made one big change in the script – while it kept the love-revenge theme, it totally eliminated all mention of the Mormon Church. 

    

1983 Animated Version

1933 Black/White Movie Version

  

Script writers of the second movie (1933) I watched, starring Reginald Owen and Anna May Wong, took even more liberties. In fact, aside from the title, the “based on” credit to the author, and a couple of the clues, nothing, absolutely nothing, about the movie plot has anything at all to do with the book plot. In the movie, the “revenge” is based on greed relating to a smuggled Chinese imperial jewel. LOL

Recommendation:  Book, definitely. Animated Version, maybe - it is sort of fun, 1933 Movie Version, No.

The African Trilogy: Arrow of God (1964) By Chinua Achebe

 

The Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe is considered the second book of what has become known as The African Trilogy, independently written books which collectively create a timeline of colonialism in Nigeria.

I read and blogged the first book Things Fall Apart about a year ago.  In it, the arrival of Christian missionaries in Nigeria, is revealed as “the advance team” of colonialism.  Arrow of God represents the second act; English colonizers have arrived and established their military superiority over the country.  The conquerors then begin the groundwork of establishing “indirect rule” by anointing local villagers with government titles, largely bypassing the traditional Igbo village leadership structure. Of course, their selections are based on a loyalty test, not to the villages but to British magistrates.

In the book, Ezeulu, the Chief Priest of the six villages of the (fictional) Umuaro people, is the key protagonist.  He recognizes what is happening and resists the destruction of their way-of-life.  Yet, he also realizes his resistance is futile, the country having been militarily conquered will be completely colonized whether he likes it or not.  This is the source of the book’s title: Arrow of God, roughly and fatalistically translated from “God’s way.” So being, he sends one of his sons to missionary school to learn the way of the white man.   

This gets complicated. Ezeulu at first declines an invitation to come meet with the British Administrator, saying that he should come visit him in the village. He changes his mind the next day.  By then however, the Administrator has become seriously ill and hospitalized. In a comedy of errors, and as further proof of British arrogance, the Administrator’s subordinates, not knowing why he wanted to see Ezeulu, hold him as a prisoner for over two months. By the time the Administrator becomes well and offers to make Ezeulu a government appointed leader, the damage has been done.  Ezeulu declines.

The story ends with the Christian missionaries sabotaging Ezeulu’s power as Chief Priest with power over the planting/harvesting cycle of the village, by creating a Christian Harvest Festival to compete with/replace the traditional New Yam Festival.

The third book in The African Trilogy, No Longer at Ease, is on my reading list for later this year.

Recommendation:  Yes, an interesting primer on colonization.

Bobby Kennedy: A Raging Spirit (2017) By Chris Matthews

 

Despite my interest in politics, I did not rush to read Chris Matthews’ biography of Bobby Kennedy when it was published on the 50-year anniversary of the Senator’s assassination. I felt at the time Matthews was too close to the Kennedy family to be objective.  On reflection, I realized John Kennedy, with brother Bobby as his campaign manager, was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1952, the year before I was born. The Kennedy clan has been in the headlines my entire life, as any American my age can attest, it can be said we are all “too close” to be objective.

Without meaning, my first political act (at age 7) involved John Kennedy’s 1960 presidential campaign. One of my classmate’s Aunt was a precinct captain working the polling place at Crisman Elementary School where I was in second grade. When my classmates and I went out for recess Aunt Honey taught us to serenade voters with: "Kennedy, Kennedy, he’s our man. Nixon belongs in the garbage can."  A few years later, JFK’s assassination, when I was in fifth grade, was the first significant world event in my life I can recall, and like most people at the time, I can recall it in great detail.

By the time I hit high school I was a confirmed current events junkie, and what a tumultuous time it was: Freedom Marches & police dogs across the South. White flight to the suburbs across the North. The USS Pueblo. The crushing of Prague Spring when the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia. The Vietnam War with its patently racist draft policy. The TET offensive. The massive anti-war demonstrations which divided the country at the family level. The New Hampshire primary where Gene McCarthy garnered nearly half the vote against an incumbent President, prompting LBJ's famous “I will not seek, nor will I accept” statement. The delayed entry of Bobby Kennedy into the Presidential race. The emergence of segregationist Governor George Wallace as a political force. The assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King, followed by riots across the country. The assassination of Bobby Kennedy after his decisive win in the California Primary, and the ensuing collective grief of a nation in shock. And then the Democratic National Convention riots in Chicago. All of this mind you in one horrendous year, 1968, which climaxed the exhaustive backstory of Chris Matthew’s book. 

My concern about the author being too close to the Kennedy family proved to be overstated.  That closeness allowed for many insights on the family. The Kennedys were not angels, far from, neither on the policy front, nor the political front -- they definitely weren't classic liberals. Clearly, Bobby excelled at the “toughness” that is a requirement of American politics.  He held a grudge and had a vindictive streak in him.  There is a reason he was known as JFK’s enforcer.  Yet, Bobby also had a philosopher's vision of America and the World, the way it could be.

A Tiny Ripple of Hope

The book ends with Bobby’s burial. It includes excerpts from Bobby’s most famous speech, A Tiny Ripple of Hope,  given to the National Union of South African Students at the University of Cape Town exactly two years prior to his assassination. The speech provided hope and a historical perspective to problems that then plagued the world, and still do. 

Recommendation: Yes, enough time has passed. It is also a good choice for younger readers who may not quite understand America's enduring fascination with the Kennedys.

To hell with Cronje (2002 Afrikaans, 2007 English) By Ingrid Winterbach

 

To understand the novel To hell with Cronje by Ingrid Winterbach, it helps to know a little something about the Boer War(s).  When I began reading the book I knew next to nothing, so I watched this documentary on YouTube to bring me up to speed: Boer War documentary.  

In a simplification, the Boer Wars were between the descendants of Dutch settlers in South Africa who were primarily farmers, and the next set of colonizers, the British. Before the war, the coastal settlements of the English had expressed little interest in the interior farmlands. That changed with the discovery of large deposits of gold in the Transvaal region.  With their superior numbers the British won using a slash and burn strategy directed not only at military targets, but also civilian. The Boers (the Dutch) however proved to be not easy to defeat, maddeningly using a guerilla fighting strategy, inflicting a high casualty cost on the invaders.

The book tells the story of two men, a botanist and a geologist, who joined the civilian Boer fighters. Their descriptions of the countryside throughout the book are fascinating and at times beautiful. When the war began turning against the Boers, they like many of the other volunteers, while adamantly anti-British, began to become disillusioned. After one particularly horrific battle, they are assigned to escort a young teen boy back to his mother’s house after he has witnessed the battle death of his older brother. On the way they get encamped with another Boer contingent who suspect they were not on assignment but are possibly deserters.

The topics covered in the book are many, including post-traumatic shock, suffered not only by the boy, but by others.  The impact of long separation from one’s family and not be able to get word to them, or from them, also plays an important subplot, as does the death of comrades who died protecting gold mines they did not own, while losing their farms to the cause.  Foremost is the internal debate between those ready to give up the war, and those who want to fight until the last death.

One of the more interesting subplots was when the botanist and geologist are caused to give descriptions of their respective fields of education (it was a mere 40 years since the publication of Charles Darwin’s explosively controversial On The Origin of Species). They were being called upon to explain evolution to men who were turning to religion to get them through the chaos of war and had known only the creation story from the Bible, which for many of them was the only book they had ever read.   

To hell with Cronje is decidedly a futility of war book. Through my read of it I had a desire to contrast it with All Quiet on the Western Front, perhaps the most anti-war book ever written.  It compares well, yet I found the extensive personal subplots in To hell with Cronje more complete, and even more frightening.

Recommendation: Yes.  Be forewarned, you will utilize the glossary in the English translation version.

A Piece of the World (2018) By Christina Baker Kline

 

When A Piece of the World by Christina Baker Kline was published in January of 2018, it went straight to the top of the New York Times Bestseller List, and for two good reason: the author’s proven fan base from her #1 Bestselling book Orphan Train, and legions of art museumgoers wanting to know more about one of America’s best-known artists, Andrew Wyeth. 

Kline’s book is a fictional narrative built around the young woman pictured in Wyeth’s famous painting Christina’s World.  

Christina is the daughter of a Swedish sailor named Olson who leaves the sea to settle down with a farm girl.  Her family’s linage dates back to the Salem Witch Trials, one of her ancestors was the sentencing judge. To escape the shame of that fundamentalism, her predecessors changed the spelling of their surname and moved to rural Maine.  Christina will grow up on a farm along with two brothers. As they age, Christina will begin to feel the impact of a steadily worsening unknown congenital disease that will leave her unable to walk.  She will not get better, she knows it, and she knows the farm will forever be the extent of her world.

She will develop only one real friendship, that with a young woman named Betsy, whose family spend their summers in Maine.  When Betsy meets and marries Andrew Wyeth, he too will begin spending his summers in Maine.  Already a successful artist, Andy will need a studio to work in.  Betsy will introduce him to Christina, suggesting that he can use the third floor of the old farmhouse as his workspace.

That arrangements goes on each summer for the rest of their lives.  Wyeth, observing respectfully but not judging Christina medical condition and her farm family’s apparent poverty (they have no electricity or in-door plumbing). Some of Wyeth’s most famous paintings will be of the farm, her family and of her – including Christina’s World, which now is part of the Museum of Modern Art permanent collection.

When I finished this book, I wanted more.  There is not a movie of the book, at least not yet.  What I did find (on Amazon Prime Video) was a very good PBS documentary American Masters: Andrew Wyeth. 

Recommendation:  Definitely, book and the Wyeth documentary.

Pickwick Papers (1836) By Charles Dickens

 

Like everyone educated in an English-speaking country, I have read or been exposed to multiple works by Charles Dickens, one of if not the most prolific writers of all time.  His body of work contains several literary classics, including Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Tale of Two Cities, and A Christmas Carol.

In 1970 to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of his death, Heron Books published his complete works in green and gold faux leather bindings.  I subscribed to that centennial publication while still in high school, and still have all 36 volumes -- of course, they are a little worse for wear, I have been moving them around with me all these years. 

Many I have read at least once, but not all.  Yesterday I finished reading the first of the two volumes of Pickwick Papers, Dicken’s first novel.  It was printed in serialization before being collected in book form in 1836.  It was an immediate commercial success. It is also completely funny – even some 185 years later.

The Pickwick Papers are the records of The Pickwick Club, named after its founder and President, Mr. Samuel Pickwick.  The club is a fictional cross between garden variety literary clubs, and a spoof of the Royal Geographic Society.  Its members travel the English countryside and make their observations of the culture and livelihood of its residents, to further the knowledge of club members and for posterity. 

If you begin Pickwick Papers taking it seriously you will soon discover that is not the point. It is entertainment and it is very funny, with a touch of knife-between-the-ribs thrown in for social commentary. 

If I may be so bold, one could call Pickwick Papers a precursor of Laurel & Hardy, and Monty Python making its movie adaptation a natural.  The 1952 version is priceless.  

1952 Movie

Recommendation:  Yes, book and movie.