Elie Wiesel. Night. Hill & Wang, 1960.
Review by Rebecca Stuhr
Wiesel’s slim autobiographical novel tells the story of the fate of the Jews in the small village of Sighet, Transylvania. Late in the war, the Nazis arrive in his village and begin the process of systematically restricting the movements of the Jewish citizens, moving them into ghettos and then deporting them to the concentration camps. Wiesel describes his community as living in denial, choosing not to believe the horrific stories that have come to them over the years of Nazi rule and the war in Europe. Even as the German soldiers move into their village, the Jews of Sighet hang on to their belief that these stories cannot be true. Eli is a devout child who studies the holy texts. His faith and connection to his religion and culture are strong. In Wiesel’s novel of deportation, imprisonment, and release, he also documents his loss of faith and his disaffection from God. But, even so, just as he cannot let go of his will to live, he never entirely loses his connection to God. Eli is ashamed when he feels the burden of his dying father, but even this guilt attests to the remnants of human feeling inside of him—surviving the everyday body and soul crushing horror of existence in Auschwitz and Buchenwald.
A recent essay in the New York Times by Rachel Donadio notes the novel’s recent 80 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list thanks to Oprah Winfrey’s recent promotion. Donadio provides a publishing history of Night. Wiesel originally wrote it in Yiddish and translated it into French before making it available to an American market in English. Wiesel’s is among the earliest of published memoirs of the Holocaust, and most publishers felt that their audiences were not looking for this kind of book. 15 publishers rejected his book before Hill & Wang took it on. Donadio writes that Wiesel received the criticism of not being Jewish enough—“universalizing” and “Christianizing” the suffering of the Jews during the Holocaust. It is hard to imagine that Wiesel sought to sanitize his experience or to produce something that would meet the approval of a mass audience for personal gain. His book sold modestly at first, and, as Holocaust studies became more common in schools and on campuses, teachers and professors adopted it for classroom reading.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Monday, February 25, 2008
A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited about Obama and Why He Can't Win
Shelby Steele. A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can’t Win
New York: Free Press, 2008.
Reviewed by T. Hatch
Shelby Steele, of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, has distinguished himself in a manner that should make thoughtful readers cringe. His slender tome Bound Man with its ebullient self-loathing argument is already – is this still February? – dead on arrival.
Steele asserts that black people have two options in dealing with white folks. They can put on the mask of a “bargainer” or that of a “challenger.” The latter intimidates while the former cajoles and allows whites the promise of redemption with “racial innocence” serving as the means of indulging their collective guilt. Once a bargainer has attained elite status, offering whites reciprocity as part of the deal, they then ascend to the level of “iconic Negro” e.g. Oprah Winfrey, Bill Cosby, Colin Powell, Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan et al.
Steele opines that Barack Obama is a pioneer because he is the first iconic Negro to bargain his way to the national political stage. But alas, Obama in his accomodationist role vis-à-vis white America threatens black identity. Following in the wake of last autumn’s canard that Obama (like other iconic Negroes) is not “black enough” Steele holds that “Consequently, it is his odd fate to threaten the identity of the group from which he needs almost unanimous support to be politically viable.” (p. 123) Viewing the exit polling of the recent Democratic primaries the question for Shelby Steele might be: is a ratio of 8 to 1 “almost unanimous” enough?
Another question or two comes to mind after choking down Bound Man. Would an antacid offer any relief and which mask exactly was Dr. King wearing?
This book is available at Stewart Library, Grinnell's public library.
New York: Free Press, 2008.
Reviewed by T. Hatch
Shelby Steele, of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, has distinguished himself in a manner that should make thoughtful readers cringe. His slender tome Bound Man with its ebullient self-loathing argument is already – is this still February? – dead on arrival.
Steele asserts that black people have two options in dealing with white folks. They can put on the mask of a “bargainer” or that of a “challenger.” The latter intimidates while the former cajoles and allows whites the promise of redemption with “racial innocence” serving as the means of indulging their collective guilt. Once a bargainer has attained elite status, offering whites reciprocity as part of the deal, they then ascend to the level of “iconic Negro” e.g. Oprah Winfrey, Bill Cosby, Colin Powell, Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan et al.
Steele opines that Barack Obama is a pioneer because he is the first iconic Negro to bargain his way to the national political stage. But alas, Obama in his accomodationist role vis-à-vis white America threatens black identity. Following in the wake of last autumn’s canard that Obama (like other iconic Negroes) is not “black enough” Steele holds that “Consequently, it is his odd fate to threaten the identity of the group from which he needs almost unanimous support to be politically viable.” (p. 123) Viewing the exit polling of the recent Democratic primaries the question for Shelby Steele might be: is a ratio of 8 to 1 “almost unanimous” enough?
Another question or two comes to mind after choking down Bound Man. Would an antacid offer any relief and which mask exactly was Dr. King wearing?
This book is available at Stewart Library, Grinnell's public library.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
The Complete Peanuts
Shultz, Charles. The Complete Peanuts. Seattle: Fantagraphics Books, c2004-
Reviewed by Sarah Marcum
Reviewed by Sarah Marcum
Last semester I read through the first eight volumes of Charles M. Schulz' "Complete Peanuts" collection, published by Fantagraphics. Two years worth of the strip, both dailies and Sundays, are bound together in each volume. The books are small and pleasant to hold (which often is not the case for comprehensive anthologies).
I am looking forward to the publication of the remaining 17 volumes.
3rd floor PN6728.P4 S2454x 2004
The Sleeping Buddha
Ghafour, Hamida. The Sleeping Buddha: The Story of Afghanistan through the Eyes of One Family. Toronto: McArthur & Company, 2007.
Reviewed by Rebecca Stuhr
Hamida Ghafour was born in Kabul, Afghanistan but moved to Canada with her family when she was four. She returns to Afghanistan not long after the U.S. invasion following 9/11 to learn about the country of her ancestors and to assess Afghanistan's current conditions. A journalist, she works with local people and the military to spend time in Kabul, Kunar, Bamiyan, and other important areas to her family and to her national heritage. Ghafour reviews
Afghan's history, both its progress and its failures; the disastrous effects of centuries of foreign invasion; and the mistakes of the current U.S. "hearts and mind" campaign. Ghafour discusses ethnic tensions, the plight of women, the tragedy of the large number of Afghan refugees within and outside of the country, and Islamic extremism versus Islam as it was traditionally practiced in Afghanistan.
This narrative while personal, is written with the perspective of a professional journalist. Ghafour is connecting with her homeland for the first time. Her parents were products of the more liberal and progressive 70s and were raised in Kabul, a place very different from Afghan's remote rural and mountainous villages. Ghafour provides both the broad historical perspective, but also offers personal stories including those of Debbie, a westerner, who runs a salon and trains women to become cosmetoligists and to open their own salons, the Khadr family who are Taliban supporters living in Canada, Dr. Tarzi, an archaeologist who hopes to locate and excavate the Sleeping Buddha, and Shahida, a cousin of Ghafour, who is one of 18 female candidates for the Wolesi Jirga or "the House of the People."
Not yet published in the United States, this books has been ordered for the libraries.
Reviewed by Rebecca Stuhr
Hamida Ghafour was born in Kabul, Afghanistan but moved to Canada with her family when she was four. She returns to Afghanistan not long after the U.S. invasion following 9/11 to learn about the country of her ancestors and to assess Afghanistan's current conditions. A journalist, she works with local people and the military to spend time in Kabul, Kunar, Bamiyan, and other important areas to her family and to her national heritage. Ghafour reviews
Afghan's history, both its progress and its failures; the disastrous effects of centuries of foreign invasion; and the mistakes of the current U.S. "hearts and mind" campaign. Ghafour discusses ethnic tensions, the plight of women, the tragedy of the large number of Afghan refugees within and outside of the country, and Islamic extremism versus Islam as it was traditionally practiced in Afghanistan.
This narrative while personal, is written with the perspective of a professional journalist. Ghafour is connecting with her homeland for the first time. Her parents were products of the more liberal and progressive 70s and were raised in Kabul, a place very different from Afghan's remote rural and mountainous villages. Ghafour provides both the broad historical perspective, but also offers personal stories including those of Debbie, a westerner, who runs a salon and trains women to become cosmetoligists and to open their own salons, the Khadr family who are Taliban supporters living in Canada, Dr. Tarzi, an archaeologist who hopes to locate and excavate the Sleeping Buddha, and Shahida, a cousin of Ghafour, who is one of 18 female candidates for the Wolesi Jirga or "the House of the People."
Not yet published in the United States, this books has been ordered for the libraries.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
We Disappear in Flight
Soltanzadeh, Mohammad-Asef. "We Disappear in Flight," in Another Sea, Another Shore: Persian Stories of Migration. Northampton, MA: Interlink Books, 2004
Review by Rebecca Stuhr
Soltanzadeh was born in Afghanistan and moved to Iran in 1986. The protagonist in his story is an Afghan immigrant living with his brother in Tehran when he learns from his uncle that his mother has died in a bomb blast in Afghanistan. Devastated, he now lives in fear of hearing bad news from home. His brother decides to return to Afghanistan, but the main character remains in Iran. He begins to lose his thin grasp on reality as he receives another visit from his uncle.
Soltanzadeh, who has been awarded Iran's Golshiri Literary Award, moved to Denmark in 2002 after Iran deported all Afghanistani immigrants. From what I have been able to find, this is his only work translated into English.
3rd Floor PK 6449.E7 A56 2004
Review by Rebecca Stuhr
Soltanzadeh was born in Afghanistan and moved to Iran in 1986. The protagonist in his story is an Afghan immigrant living with his brother in Tehran when he learns from his uncle that his mother has died in a bomb blast in Afghanistan. Devastated, he now lives in fear of hearing bad news from home. His brother decides to return to Afghanistan, but the main character remains in Iran. He begins to lose his thin grasp on reality as he receives another visit from his uncle.
Soltanzadeh, who has been awarded Iran's Golshiri Literary Award, moved to Denmark in 2002 after Iran deported all Afghanistani immigrants. From what I have been able to find, this is his only work translated into English.
3rd Floor PK 6449.E7 A56 2004
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Martin Stuhr-Rommereim, Grinnell High School '10
loves reading books by Max Brooks. He carried the Zombie Survival Guide around with him all last school year, and he is currently trying to find the time to finish:
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War. New York: Crown, 2006.
If you enjoyed Brooks's mock Survival Guide, this is a more serious look at the threat of Zombie attack world wide.
For those Zombiefiles on the Grinnell College campus, contact [rinaldi] for information about Grinnell Zombies, a Zombie movie a week during spring semester '08. (We just noted the poster in the library this morning--)
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War. New York: Crown, 2006.
If you enjoyed Brooks's mock Survival Guide, this is a more serious look at the threat of Zombie attack world wide.
For those Zombiefiles on the Grinnell College campus, contact [rinaldi] for information about Grinnell Zombies, a Zombie movie a week during spring semester '08. (We just noted the poster in the library this morning--)
Monday, January 21, 2008
Barry Byrne recommends the following books
Recently, I have enjoyed these books:
Lance Armstrong's War: One Man's Battle against Fate, Fame, Love, Death, Scandal, and a Few Other Rivals on the Road to the Tour de France by Daniel Coyle. New York: HarperCollins, 2005.
Cesar's Way: The Natural, Everyday Guide to Understanding Correcting and Common Dog Problems by Cesar Millan. New York: Harmony Books, 2006.
What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship and Love by Carole Radziwill. New York: Scribner, 2005.
No Heroes: A Memoir of Coming Home by Chris Offutt. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2002.
3rd floor PS3565.F387 Z474 2002
An Ordinary Man: An Autobiography by Paul Rusesabagina. New York: Viking, 2006.
On order for the Grinnell College Libraries
Breaking Clean by Judy Blunt. New York: Knopf, 2002
1st floor CT275.B57984 A3 2002
Myths to Live By by Joseph Campbell. New York: Viking Press, 1972
1sst floor BL315 .C27
The Library has several editions including a version on tape (Listening Room)
Lakota Woman by Mary Crow Dog (Mary Brave Bird) with Richard Erdoes. New York: G. Weidenfeld, 1990.
2nd floor E99.D1 M425 1990
(Also Ohitika Woman. New York: HarperPerennial, 1994 2nd floor. 2nd floor E99.B8 B733 1994)
A Monk Swimming: A Memoir by Malachy McCourt. New York: Hyperion, 1998
2nd floor F128.9.I6 M376 1998
Open Society: Reforming Global Capitalism by George Soros. New York: Public Affairs, 2000.
2nd floor HB3722 .S67x 2000
French Women Don't Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano.
New York: Knopf, 2005.
Lance Armstrong's War: One Man's Battle against Fate, Fame, Love, Death, Scandal, and a Few Other Rivals on the Road to the Tour de France by Daniel Coyle. New York: HarperCollins, 2005.
Cesar's Way: The Natural, Everyday Guide to Understanding Correcting and Common Dog Problems by Cesar Millan. New York: Harmony Books, 2006.
What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship and Love by Carole Radziwill. New York: Scribner, 2005.
No Heroes: A Memoir of Coming Home by Chris Offutt. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2002.
3rd floor PS3565.F387 Z474 2002
An Ordinary Man: An Autobiography by Paul Rusesabagina. New York: Viking, 2006.
On order for the Grinnell College Libraries
Breaking Clean by Judy Blunt. New York: Knopf, 2002
1st floor CT275.B57984 A3 2002
Myths to Live By by Joseph Campbell. New York: Viking Press, 1972
1sst floor BL315 .C27
The Library has several editions including a version on tape (Listening Room)
Lakota Woman by Mary Crow Dog (Mary Brave Bird) with Richard Erdoes. New York: G. Weidenfeld, 1990.
2nd floor E99.D1 M425 1990
(Also Ohitika Woman. New York: HarperPerennial, 1994 2nd floor. 2nd floor E99.B8 B733 1994)
A Monk Swimming: A Memoir by Malachy McCourt. New York: Hyperion, 1998
2nd floor F128.9.I6 M376 1998
Open Society: Reforming Global Capitalism by George Soros. New York: Public Affairs, 2000.
2nd floor HB3722 .S67x 2000
French Women Don't Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano.
New York: Knopf, 2005.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Heather Parker recommends two books that she read over winter break
The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards. NY: Viking, 2005.
The story takes place in the 1960s. A mother gives birth to twins, a son and a daughter. The father, a doctor, has delivered the twins himself with a nurse in attendance. The boy is healthy but the girl is born with Down Syndrome. The father tells the mother that their daughter has died, but in reality he has given her to a nurse expecting that she will take the child to an institution. The nurse, decides to raise the girl herself and disappears to another city. The story is about the different childhood's experienced by the children. The boy is raised in a family of secrecy while the girl is raised in an open, loving environment.
On order for the library.
Galápagos by Kurt Vonnegut. First published in 1985 by Delacorte Press (New York).
Lorrie Moore wrote in the New York Times in 1985: "Leon Trout, Mr. Vonnegut's doppelganger, speaks to us, moreover, from a million years hence, from the afterlife, whence he can best pronounce on what was wrong with us 20th-century folk - our brains were too big - and reveal what, through evolution and for purposes of survival, we became: creatures with smaller brains and flippers and beaks. Even if people of the future ''found a grenade or a machine gun or a knife or whatever left over from olden times, how could they ever make use of it with just their flippers and their mouths?'' Leon Trout asks. And: ''It is hard to imagine anybody's torturing anybody nowadays. How could you even capture somebody you wanted to torture with just your flippers and your mouth?'' For the full review: http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/09/28/lifetimes/vonnegut-galapagos.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Sounds as though twenty-plus years later, the premise of this novel is still relevant.
3rd floor PS3572.O5 G3 1986
The story takes place in the 1960s. A mother gives birth to twins, a son and a daughter. The father, a doctor, has delivered the twins himself with a nurse in attendance. The boy is healthy but the girl is born with Down Syndrome. The father tells the mother that their daughter has died, but in reality he has given her to a nurse expecting that she will take the child to an institution. The nurse, decides to raise the girl herself and disappears to another city. The story is about the different childhood's experienced by the children. The boy is raised in a family of secrecy while the girl is raised in an open, loving environment.
On order for the library.
Galápagos by Kurt Vonnegut. First published in 1985 by Delacorte Press (New York).
Lorrie Moore wrote in the New York Times in 1985: "Leon Trout, Mr. Vonnegut's doppelganger, speaks to us, moreover, from a million years hence, from the afterlife, whence he can best pronounce on what was wrong with us 20th-century folk - our brains were too big - and reveal what, through evolution and for purposes of survival, we became: creatures with smaller brains and flippers and beaks. Even if people of the future ''found a grenade or a machine gun or a knife or whatever left over from olden times, how could they ever make use of it with just their flippers and their mouths?'' Leon Trout asks. And: ''It is hard to imagine anybody's torturing anybody nowadays. How could you even capture somebody you wanted to torture with just your flippers and your mouth?'' For the full review: http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/09/28/lifetimes/vonnegut-galapagos.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Sounds as though twenty-plus years later, the premise of this novel is still relevant.
3rd floor PS3572.O5 G3 1986
Monday, January 7, 2008
More from Walter Giersbach '61
He writes, ". . . Wild Child has just published the second volume of stories in Cruising the Green of Second Avenue. [See November 15 entry for news about the first volume] The tales take up where Vol. I left off˜bringing back Klein the Biker, Straight Charlie and Sammy the Madman while introducing some new characters facing the difficulties encountered by life in the late 60s."
More information available: http://www.wildchildpublishing.com/content/view/426/125/
For an excerpt: http://www.wildchildpublishing.com/excerpts/cruising2.html
More information available: http://www.wildchildpublishing.com/content/view/426/125/
For an excerpt: http://www.wildchildpublishing.com/excerpts/cruising2.html
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Little Heathens by Mildred Armstrong Kalish
I've just completed Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression by Mildred Armstrong Kalish. It's an amazing little book with beautiful language and strong images -- making head cheese, among others! I was surprised that the NY Times named it one of the five best non-fiction books of 2007 -- surprised, but pleased.
Reviewed by Barbara Benda Jenkins '64
| 1st floor Smith Memorial | F627.B4 K35 2007 |
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