Gordon’s Good Reads appears in the July-August issue of VENU Magazine now available at choice cultural and retail establishments in Fairfield and Westchester Counties. This issue of VENU also contains a fabulous review of the Woody Allen movie Midnight in Paris among other great articles on art, automobiles, entertainment and fashion. Enjoy!
Midnight in Paris, Hemingway, Hadley, The Paris Wife
Several months ago on this blog I posted a review of Hadley by Gioia Diliberto. ( Biography blog archives February 11) Hadley is a wonderful biography of Hemingway’s first wife and their early life together including their move to Paris in 1921. Woody Allen may well have read the book before writing Midnight in Paris the newly released movie receiving rave reviews, including mine! I saw it this week and it is a wonderful movie, even better having read Hadley first! The irony is that Hadley Hemingway does not appear in the film but the scenario set by Deliberto in her book makes the movie all the more impactful. All the characters are there, Ernest , LuTrec, Gertrude Stein, Picasso , T.S. Eliot, et al!
Another book on Hadley Hemingway which I have not read as yet, The Paris Wife by Paula McLain, is also appearing on best seller lists and receiving good reviews. Hadley Hemingway is receiving much attention from both the new book by McLain and from Midnight in Paris . In the past week it has topped all hits on this blog! Not bad for a book published in 1992!
Personally, I am delighted to have read Hadley before seeing Midnight in Paris because it set the scene for the movie’s Moveable Feast, in a sense reincarnated in the Woody Allen film. I am sure that reading The Paris Wife would work in the same manner. It is a Hemingway renaissance! Enjoy the new but if you have not already done so, please go back to the originals! There lies the prose including a wonderful lines by Hemingway in the movie that begs you to read or re-read The Sun Also Rises and For Whom The Bell Tolls!
Her2 by Robert Bazell. Similarities to the Avastin Controversy
A book on the subject of breast cancer does not properly fall under the category of Good Reads and therefore for the purpose of this blog allow me to change the appellation to Important Reads.
The Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy is a national organization based in Connecticut that funds research and clinical trials to find new treatments for all types of cancer through gene and cell therapy. (acgtfoundation.org) The organization has in excess of $25-million dollars invested in research. A friend at ACGT brought to my attention an important book, written 15 years ago by NBC’s Chief Scientific Journalist Robert Bazell. The work is Her2 The Making of Herceptin, A Revolutionary Treatment for Breast Cancer. Her2 is the name of a cancer-causing gene. The book renews its relevance today in light of the current controversy over FDA withdrawal of Avastin as a treatment for advanced breast cancer.
Her 2 is the story of the development of the breast cancer treatment drug Herceptin, developed in conjunction with and manufactured by Genentech, the same company that is making news today with Avastin. Like Herceptin, Avastin was taken to human clinical trials and made available to cancer patients after a long and arduous process. The FDA has withdrawn Avastin as a treatment for advanced breast cancer, and emotions ran high as the FDA listened to testimony from patients. “I owe my life to Avastin,” said Patricia Howard, age 66, of New York, who has been treated for breast cancer since 2005. “I’m not just a piece of anecdotal evidence. I’m a wife, mother, sister, aunt, friend, and grammy.” Sadly, you will find dozens of similar quotations in Her2 before Herceptin was made available to terminally ill breast cancer patients.
If you have a personal connection with breast cancer, I urge you to read Her2, The Making of Herceptin. Bazell places in laser focus the science, politics, ego’s, emotion, corporate and government bureaucracy, jealously and the economics of getting a drug from the laboratory to market. It is both a clinical and human story written with extraordinary care. It is a very human story indeed.
When you read Her2, you will recognize in the Herceptin story the same emotions as being played out with Avastin and you will find it difficult not to share the frustration of those scientists, patients and doctors who are desperately waiting for new cancer fighting drugs to become readily available.
THE WINGS OF THE DOVE/ HENRY JAMES IS PRODIGIOUS!
Those of you who have paged through Gordon’s Good Reads know that I have a penchant for playing catch-up with great writers who have escaped my time and attention.
Henry James, the American born novelist ( 1843-1916) whose most prolific years were spent living and writing in England, is a classic example of a novelist for whom anyone who has a love for the form will find his work a Good Read. In making my “classic” Henry James selection I chose The Wings of the Dove (1902) a book credited by many as among the best novels of the 20th Century.
Henry James writes in a unique style. His sentence and paragraph structure is complex and his character development is intricate. The characters are the narrators of the story. The Wings of the Dove is typical of many James novels in that it pits American and British traditions and values against one another. James creates eight central characters that interact in life’s dramas of love, greed, envy and deception. The book travels from America to England and Venice.
Henry James has been described as an “Impressionist” in his ability to create characters and then with the minutest attention to personality cast them in relationships and enviornments that are so complex that they sometimes defy a “Now I understand!” moment. One is constantly required to turn yet another page for answers which often lead to more questions.
The reader of Henry James ought to be prepared to traverse a hundred pages to become accustomed to the rhythm of his prose. However, once you find the tempo the paragraphs become lyrical. You will come to be accustomed to sentence structure where a half-dozen commas and a few added semi-colons are commonplace! The complexity has a magnetic effect that draws the reader to make every word count. No skimming in reading The Wings of the Dove!
James wrote his greatest works during three periods, the 1880s, 1890s and 1900s. The first period culminated with The Portrait of a Lady (1881), which remains his most popular work of fiction. In 1886 James wrote The Bostonians themed around the early feminist movement in America. Following The Wings of the Dove, James wrote The Ambassadors (1903), and then the famous short story The Turn of the Screw, later adapted for the stage.
I have often said in these pages “The best new book is one you have not read.” Henry James, The Wings of the Dove is no easy literary undertaking but I found it to be worth every minute.
Like many writers, James has favorite words which reappear throughout his work. In The Wings of the Dove you will come upon “prodigious,” again and again. It is a fitting description of The Wings of the Dove. “Impressively great in size, force and extent. Marvelous.”
THE FINAL STORM-JEFF SHAARA
During this week as we reflect upon the 67th anniversary of D-Day I completed the fourth book in Jeff Shaara’s historical novels on World War Two.
The Final Storm, which has just been released is the story of the War in the Pacific culminating and with the greatest emphasis on the battle for the island of Okinawa. Okinawa was to be the last stepping stone before an invasion of Japan. The Japanese land invasion was of course preempted by the decision to drop the Atomic Bomb.
Shaara , as always, magnificently tells his war epochs by placing the reader in the boots of the soldier, slogging through the life and death drama of war. It would be impossible to put down The Final Storm without the greatest empathy and understanding of the men who gave everything to defeat the Japanese, not only on Okinawa ,but on all of the Japanese held Pacific Islands. The book also provides dramatic personalized insight into the decision and the actual dropping of the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima.
The earlier books in this Shaara collection concern the North Africa Campaign and an introduction to Eisenhower and Rommel in The Rising Tide, the European Invasion and D-Day in The Steel Wave, and the great march across Europe including the Ardennes and the Battle of the Bulge in No Less Than Victory.
It would be difficult for anyone with an interest in WWII to overlook these four volumes.
Shaara’s portrayal of the reality of war through the prism of historical fiction is in my view unequaled. Then again, having read his father Michael Shaara’s Killer Angels, you know it is in the genes.
If your interest lies with the Civil War you will want to read Jeff Shaara’s Gods and Generals and The Last Full Measure. Also do not overlook his great novel on the American Revolution, Rise to Rebellion.
Here is a promise. After reading a Shaara novel you will regard all service men and women with awe, respect and gratitude. An important thought during this period encompassing Memorial Day, D-Day and the Fourth of July.
CHANGES AT THE NEW YORK TIMES! WHAT WOULD MCGOWAN THINK?
The announcement of Bill Keller stepping down as Executive Editor of the New York Times makes reading McGowan’s Grey Lady Down even more timely! See my earlier post of May 15. Keller will be replaced by Jil Abramson. The news makes reading McGowan’s writing even more compelling. America needs a strong, vibrant, objective New York Times and time will tell if Abramson is up to the task. It will also be very interesting to read Keller’s work as an op-ed contributor.
TABLOID CITY, PETE HAMILL
Long ago I joined the chorus calling Pete Hamill a New York City Treasure. I enthusiastically expand the geography to a National Treasure! Pete Hamill again earns those accolades with his new novel Tabloid City! If you have an ounce of New York City in your DNA you will be captured by Hamill’s intimacy with his beloved turf.
Tabloid City is set within 24-hours of life in New York. Terrorist plot, a daily afternoon newspaper in its last days, the legendary editor, typewriters, reporters who can not write without a cigarette, society ladies, an embittered disabled veteran, lost love, misplaced affection and a very old man who in his dying days does the right thing! There is a line in Tabloid City that perfectly describes Hamill. The copy refers to Sam Briscoe, editor of the The World. ” You’re such a lucky man, Sam. You didn’t get the world secondhand. You didn’t take a course in it. You Lived it! ” That is Pete Hamill! The Wood! ( You will see).
There are three other Pete Hamill books which I relished with wonder. Downtown, My Manhattan. The title says it all! A moving memoir of Hamill’s days and nights in New York from Times Square to the tip of Manhattan. Street corners, movie theaters, the pulse of anger, rebellion, hope, enterprise, greed and celebration. The writing of a newspaperman. Not a wasted word!
One of Pete’s greatest treasures is PIECEWORK (1996) a compendium of his best writings dating back to 1970. Men and women, small pleasures, lost cities within the city, Gotti, Sinatra, Vietnam, Lebanon, Tyson, Madonna, cigarettes, typewriters, linotype , deadlines and headlines.
Hamill’s novel Snow in August, ( 1997) is a fabulous read. A story that could only unfold in New York where people who shouldn’t get along do so and where relationships blossom out of fear and mis-understanding. Snow in August is about Catholics and Jews, hope and transformation through the creation of characters in a plot that is entwined in the culture of Hamill’s town. These are just four of Pete Hamill ” treasures.” Others include North River, Forever, A Drinking Life and Why Sinatra Matters. Summer is coming. Go for them all!
THE HELP , NOW THE MOVIE, BUT READ THE BOOK FIRST!
The Help by Kathryn Stockett has been on the New York Times Best Seller List since its publication in 2009! The Help has enjoyed its incredible success despite an unfavorable initial review by the Times Janet Maslin.
This August, Dream Works releases the movie The Help starring Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, Octavia Spencer and Emma Stone. Just as I suggested for Water for Elephants, if you are not one of the millions who have already read the book, do so before seeing the movie ! This may not be an easy screen play. There is no traditional love story as in Water for Elephants but the book is filled with villains, heroes, secrets, relationships, compassion drama and of course the underlying theme of race relations. Considerable material for the big screen.
I read The Help when the ink was barely dry and Stockett told her story with incredible insight! The Help and their struggles within an imposed social structure are vividly reflected in what in reality is a memoir. As in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, there is redemption!
Read the book and then see the movie. We will have answers in August! I am hoping for a blockbuster!
Gray Lady Down by William McGowan
GRAY LADY DOWN, WHAT THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE NEW YORK TIMES MEANS FOR AMERICA (2010) by William McGowan leaves little optimism for the newspaper that for generations has set the standard for American journalism.
In this book, McGowan longs for a return to a New York Times under the stewardship of the legendary Executive Editor and newspaperman A.M. (Abe) Rosenthal and Publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger.
McGowan lays the continuing problems at the Times squarely at the feet of Arthur Sulzberger Jr. who began his reign as publisher in 1991. The author establishes through reference after reference that the Times continues an ethos of reporting with an “attitude,” something that Rosenthal would never allow. For decades, Rosenthal with the full support of Arthur Ochs Sulzberger established and cherished independent news reporting at the Times, “clearly and sometimes defiantly separate from the editorial and opinion pages.”
Arthur Sulzberger Jr. according to McGowan brought his personal 1960s political views and attitude to the Times and hired and promoted reporters and editors who clearly supported his personal focus. “The newspaper left the American mainstream to become obsessed with causes and societal change” to the point where McGowan establishes through the Times own reporting that during the 1990s the line between news and opinion was clearly crossed. The “reporting with attitude” not only determined what was covered by the Times but who covered it and from what point of view.
As you read Grey Lady Down, you may think it to be a “hatchet job.” Sadly, as you progress through example after example from the Times own pages you will see otherwise. The reporting of the Duke University Lacrosse Team rape accusation according to McGowan is one of dozens of unsettling examples of how a story was covered by the Times based upon reporter’s perceptions. McGowan makes strong cases in story after story that the “point of view” came from the “attitude” established in the corner office.
McGowan strongly believes that now more than ever America needs the Times of A.M. Rosenthal. He correctly states that the New York Times continues to set the daily national news agenda. Whoever reports the news, print, broadcast, or cable ,the day begins with what is on the front page of the New York Times. “ The Times will continue to wield enormous influence over what the average American reads, hears and sees. Whether it appears in the paper or on a digital screen, it will continue to be the polestar for American journalism.”
Quoting Times Columnist Thomas Friedman from Grey Lady Down, “The reason why Rosenthal was obsessed with keeping editors and reporters from putting their ‘thumbs on the scale’ was because he believed a ‘straight’ New York Times was essential to keeping democracy healthy and our government honest.”
McGowan does not see a return to the “Golden Age” during Times Executive Editor Bill Keller’s watch.
McGowan also wrote Coloring the News, How Political Correctness Has Corrupted American Journalism ( 2001)
Another book of this genre I would commend to you is Bernard Goldberg’s Bias, (2002) an inside look at CBS News. Goldberg spent three decades at CBS and came away with the belief that a CBS liberal slant on its reporting is not intentional but institutional! Goldberg castigated television news reporting and reporters as being a product of the closed society in which the reporters themselves live and work. The entire cast of TV news is present in Goldberg’s book and nearly all of the reviews took him seriously.
HEARTSTONE/C.J. SANSOM
Heartstone, the latest in the C.J. Sansom Shardlake, Tudor England mysteries carries forward the authors great images and twists and turns of the reign of Henry VIII and the characters developed that are always tangential to the Throne, the Queen and the Court.
Heartstone is no exception and those of you who were introduced to this series by my earlier blog ( April 2, 2011) will not be disappointed. Sovereign, and Revelation are also excellent reads but my choice from among the series remains Dissolution.
From a historical point of view, Heartstone is set against a background of Henry VIII embarking on yet another war with France. Yes, there is the usual Sansom twist in the plot that I doubt you will guess until the very end.
Gordon's Good Reads 