Two movies open in the next week that I am hopeful are worthy of the book Water for Elephants and the subject of many great reads the Lincoln assassination. Robert Redford’s The Conspirator opens on April 15 and Water for Elephants opens on April 22. Should be good films from good reads! I know, it is not always the case but lets be hopeful.
Author Archives: gordonhastings
Civil War/ Lincoln Assassination/ Anniversary Week
Today, April 12, marks the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War with the firing on Fort Sumter, South Carolina. April 15, Friday, marks the 146 anniversary of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Earlier this week I commended to you Jay Winik’s April 1865, an important work of non-fiction on the assassination and the tumultuous period that followed.
Hundreds of volumes have been written on the Civil War. On this anniversary I suggest to you three writings of fiction that I believe will give the reader the most vivid portrait of this monumental period in American History. If you choose to read them all, I would suggest the following order. Jeff Shaara’s Gods & Generals, Michael Shaara’s Killer Angels ( The battle at Gettysburg) and then Jeff Shaara’s The Last Full Measure. Jeff Shaara is the son of Michael Shaara.
These three historical novels describe the Civil War from the viewpoint of those who fought in and directed the great battles. You will be present at the siege of Richmond, at Pickett’s Charge and on Little Round Top with the 20th Maine at Gettysburg and at the Confederate surrender at Appomattox Courthouse .
The knowledge of the Civil War that you will gain from these three works of historical fiction is priceless!
Jay Winik, April 1865 The Month That Saved America
Robert Redford’s latest offering as a movie director, The Conspirator opens across the country on April 15, which is the 146th anniversary of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. The movie encompasses the trial of four accused conspirators including Mary Surratt. The publicity surrounding the release of this film, which I intend to see, caused my immediate recall of Jay Winik’s fabulous 2001 book April 1865, The Month That Saved America.
Winik’s insightful analysis of what really happened during that last month of the Civil War and following Lincoln’s assassination is frightening. He writes in detail of what occurred as the country fell into chaos and how a few statesman turned to the United States Constitution to maintain order and establish a transition not only of the presidency but for the country itself.
Whether you read April 1865 in conjunction with the movie or separately it is most worthy of the time of all who have a passion for American History.
C.J. Sansom-Masterpeice Mysteries-Historically Impeccable
C.J. Sansom, the fabulous British writer of the Shardlake Mysteries, is out with a new book, Heartstone which my bookseller placed in my hands just yesterday. It reminded me to share with you my experience with this wonderful series.
I have read and enjoyed three of the Matthew Shardlake Mysteries. The first in the series is Dissolution, published in 2003. Shardlake is a retired attorney turned investigator charged with solving the murder of one of Thomas Cromwell’s commissioners during King Henry VIII’s closing of all of the monasteries in England. Sansom’s attention to historical detail is so excellent that the book could qualify as a historical novel! You will also meet Shardlake’s able assistant Jack Barak. What a team indeed! The characters Sansom developes and the localities he describes place you firmly in Sixteenth Century Tudor England. Sansom kindly publishes for the reader maps of the setting of the plot!
Move on to the second Shardlake Mystery, Sovereign published in 2006. Shardlake and Jack Barak are called upon to solve yet another murder this time within King Henry VIII’s Court. They undercover a plot against the King Himself! You will meet the fifth wife of Henry the VIII, Catherine Howard, and be plunged into a question of the legitimacy of succession to the English Throne! It only gets better and better.
Want more? In Revelation, published in 2008, King Henry VIII is wooing his sixth wife Catherine Parr. Archbishop Cramer is suspicious that Lady Catherine has reformist sympathies. She is also resisting the King’s affection ! Sansom’s physical descriptions of the King leave little wonder as to why it is a hard choice for Catherine. Add to the plot a young boy who because of his religious zealotry has been placed in the Bedlam hospital for the insane. If he is released he will be burned at the stake as a heretic! Enter Shardlake and Barak who while investing the murder of a personal friend discover a direct connection to the imprisoned boy! One more Sansom mystery that will lead you page by page into the late evening, enjoying every minute.
There is a fourth in this series titled Dark Fire ( 2004)but I am now so consumed with the opening pages of Heartstone that Dark Fire will have to wait. Sansom authored another novel, Winter in Madrid (2006) set during the Spanish Civil War. Some reviewers have called it a Hemingway without the romance! I have not read that work .
I commend C.J. Sansom to lovers of extremely well written mysteries and don’t discount the value of his accurate historical perspective. A painless way to discover the world of Sixteenth Century Tudor England and the life and wives of Henry VIII>
DUSTING OFF FOUR SINCLAIR LEWIS CLASSICS
Browsing the “Classics” section in the local library can be truly rewarding and it is a very private place! I promise, you will have a “I always wanted to read that” moment! Move along the shelf to the “L” section and pull four of the very best from Sinclair Lewis. Main Street, Elmer Gantry, Dodsworth, and Babbitt. The stories are timeless.
Babbitt, a man in “mid-life crisis” before anyone had coined the term! Dodsworth, the least likely expatriate, an adoring husband following his adventurous wife into a The Sun Also Rises escapade in Europe. Elmer Gantry invents and reinvents himself listening to his own voice stepping into the world of traveling tent evangelism. Main Street, back to small town America and Minnesota roots with a dash of Prairie Home Companion, long before Garrison Keillor was born.
We all look to the New York Times Best Seller List but obviously so many of the great ones have already been written. Visit or re-visit Sinclair Lewis and you will quickly forget that these books were published in the 1920s. They are equally if not more relevant today and the beauty of the writing is nourishing to the mind and soul.
WATER FOR ELEPHANTS, READ IT BEFORE SEEING!
Did Sara Gruen, author of the novel Water for Elephants, grow up in a circus family? Was she an equestrian center ring star or a master trainer of elephants? Did she and the other members or her family leave her father largely alone with his memories in a “respectable nursing home?” The answer to all of the previous questions is no!
How then did Sara Gruen create two marvelous parallel stories packed with the intricate details and broad panorama of a Great Depression era travelling circus and the daily routine of a ninety-three year-old man spending his last days reminiscing in a nursing home? My observation is that Gruen has a vivid imagination, wonderful story telling skills, and sought out the correct research to bring realistic detail to the story.
After devouring this book ( that is what you will likely do) I think you will agree that there is little wonder why it has been on the New York Times Trade Fiction Best Seller List for 111 weeks!
I don’t know which story I like better. Is it Jacob in his old age making every effort to maintain his dignity and self-esteem? Or is it Jacob the young would-be-veterinarian out of Cornell before graduating , running away from a family tragedy and in the dead of night hopping a circus train ? Is it the beautiful young Marlena the equestrian circus star stuck in a hopelessly abusive marriage? Is it Rosie, an elephant that only understands Polish that becomes the glue in a love story? Is it the collection of humanity that populates a travelling circus stuck in a daily struggle for survival?
I wonder if the up-coming movie can possibly create the color, smells, smiles, sadness, humanity and empathy that Sara Gruen has done so beautifully in WATER for ELEPHANTS. I hope so. I will be there but I am sure glad I read the book first!
One final thought, buy WATER for ELEPHANTS in hardcover. It will stand the test of time in your library!
FOR DAVID BROOKS, A DEBT OF GRATITUDE
The writing in the dust cover of David Brook’s The Social Animal concludes with these words ” The Social Animal is a moving and nuanced intellectual adventure, a story of achievement and a defense of progress. Impossible to put down, it is an essential book for our time. ”
That brief summary, though accurate, misses thousands of emotion packed paragraphs and words that help the reader understand the human condition and the conscious but more importantly the unconscious actions and perceptions of the human mind. You will ask yourself time and again, ” Is that me?”
You may keep turning back to the cover just to check if David Brooks wrote this book! That is not criticism but rather a joyful revelation into the depth of a writer whom I have always admired but on a more superficial level. The Social Animal, among all he has written , is in my view the most profound of his literary accomplishments.
It is sheer brilliance that Brook’s enlightens the reader on the evolution of human emotion , combines theory with impeccable research and tells the story in the narrative of the lives of two very different people, Erica and Harold. Just when the facts and scientific detail becomes almost overwhelming, Erica and Harold reappear and alas reality, at the breakfast table , the office, in bed. I see now! I get it!
Here is my The Social Animal index but do not look for page numbers. You will make the discoveries yourself. Love, Sex, Marriage, Children, Pride, Fear, Career, Egos, Bosses, Corporations, Politics, Glass Ceilings, Retirement, Aging, God.
During your The Social Animal journey you may quip to yourself, ” Am I reading Dr. Spock or Alvin Toffler? Did David McCulloch ghost write a paragraph or two? Is this book auto-biographical?”
I have sent a fatherly note to all of my children titled ” Command Performance” which is usually a reference to appearances at holiday dinners. This command is to read The Social Animal!
I was moved to leave you with a few lines from the last page of The Social Animal . Erica and Harold are in the autumn of their years and Harold is near death. Brooks writes, “In his last moments there were neither boundaries nor features. He was unable to wield the power of self-consciousness but was also freed from its shackles. He made some gestures and twitches, which the doctors would call involuntary but which in this case were more deeply felt than any other gesture could be. And one of them was a long squeeze of the hand, which Erica took to mean goodbye. What had been there at the start was there at the end, the tangle of sensations, perceptions, drives, and needs that we call, antiseptically, the unconscious. “
I’VE ONLY READ 250 PAGES BUT GET THE SOCIAL ANIMAL NOW!
I will admit that I have forever been a fan of David Brooks’ columns in the New York Times and his ubiquitous television appearances. I am now an even greater fan after consuming the first 250 pages of his new book The Social Animal. You would never guess that David Brooks wrote this book! Is it a self-help book, business book, child rearing book? That will be your decision. I will further report upon completion which at the current pace of consumption will be shortly!
Emotion and the role it plays in our lives and how important it is in our decisions. Upon this basic premise Brooks creates a composite couple Harold and Erica and the wonderful journey of understanding ourselves begins.
Head for the bookstore and begin seeing your own life unfold. The Social Animal becomes more absorbing with each page!
Kane & Able If You Missed It Read It Now!
Bestselling author Jeffrey Archer’s Kane and Able is truly a fabulous novel that follows the lives of two boys born worlds apart on the same day in 1906. They grow into manhood to intersect each others lives in most incredible ways. Kane and Able from my perspective is Jeffrey Archer at his very best but of course that is a personal observation about an author who has written success upon success.
The scion of a noble New England banking family and a Polish immigrant born of unknown parentage are each determined to excel beyond the hopes and dreams of their probable and improbable backgrounds. Archer developes the characters and the plot and weaves a story that is impossible for the reader to predict but satisfying in every single chapter. If you need more detail check out the hundreds of on-line reviews. Hard to find a bad one!
You will have to dust off the paperback version of this 1979 Archer best seller if you go to the local bookstore but it comes dust-free on-line.
If you want a great Gordon’s Good Reads recommendation enjoy this book now! Everyone that I have passed it along to has been grateful!
BIRKEBEINER
The American Birkebeiner is the largest Nordic ski marathon in North America. Jeff Foltz of the University of Southern Maine and a resident of Camden has participated in the 32-mile race five times. He committed to writing his first novel BIRKEBEINER after seeing the famous Norwegian painting Skiing Birchlegs Crossing the Mountain with the Royal Child by Knud Larsen Bergslein.
Fascinated with the legend portrayed in Berglstein’s work , Folk travelled to Norway to research the thirteenth century folklore of an incredible trek by a young mother, her child and two soldiers across 7000-foot mountains, snow choked valleys and sub-zero temperatures to save the life of her infant boy who would one day be king of Norway.
Eight hundred years ago the Croziers and Birchlegs were engaged in a brutal war over who would control the Norwegian throne. As the legend unfolds, Croziers overrun the Birchlegs at Lillehammer. Desperate to save the life of their two-year-old son King Hakon of the Birchlegs, dying from the wounds of battle, dispatches Prince Hakon and his mother Inga along with two loyal medieval Birchleg Soldiers on an impossible nine-day trek to safety in faraway Nidaros.
The trio is pursued by a force triple their size led by none other than the Crozier heir apparent, Magnus! His mission is to kill Prince Hakon to prevent his possible ascension to the throne and preserve his own legacy. Only a Nordic skier like Folk could attempt to accurately recreate this near impossible ordeal in an environment both breathtakingly beautiful and as hostile as one can imagine. The descriptions are mindful of the detail in the epic true story The Endurance, Ernest Shackelton’s Antarctic sailing from Elephant Island then climbing across the impossible terrain on South Georgia Island to reach the whaling station and ultimately save every member of his crew.
Underlying the suspense and adventure is the time-honored story of motherhood, war and a mothers love for her child. In this novel Folk pursues one version of the royal child legend and makes the mother Inga the heroine. Bergslein’s painting tells the other version of only the two Birchleg Soldiers skiing the child to safety.
BIRKEBEINER could easily be overlooked but once you open the cover, whether or not you are a Nordic skier, you will be enveloped in the story.
Gordon's Good Reads 
