The Man Without a Country by Edward Everett Hale is a short story about LT Philip Nolan, a US Army officer who was caught up in the adventure that led to Aaron Burr’s treason trial winding up with a treason trial of his own in 1807. When asked by the court whether he had anything to say before sentencing, he replied: “Damn the United States! I wish I may never hear of the United States again!” the court granted his wish by consigning him to a series of US Navy warships with instructions that no one was ever to mention or discuss the United States with him and that he was never to be permitted within 100 miles of the American coast. The book is told from the perspective of a retired Naval officer who had sailed with Nolan on several cruises and sympathized with his plight as the years wore on and Nolan matured and came to regret his youthful outburst.
I had read the book in elementary or middle school many years ago and seen the TV movie but I was very intrigued by a recent piece in the NYT’s “Disunion” Blog which described the background of the book. It was written in the midst of the US Civil War to bolster support for the Union. So I decided to re-read it. It was even better than I remember it. I recommend it whole-heartedly, it’s a very powerful 32 pages!
Monty’s Men by John Buckley is an account of the performance of the British Army in the Post D-Day campaign for Northwest Europe in WWII. Buckley’s purpose is to disprove the notion that the British Army was inept and lacking in aggressiveness when compared to the Germans and Americans. It was an interesting book that essentially proved the author’s assertions. The key is the context that Buckely provides for the doctrines and configuration of the British Army. Essentially, they knew they had very limited manpower, so they set out at the beginning to minimize casualties using firepower whenever possible. To this end, they had excellent artillery and a far higher proportion of mechanization than the Germans. And at the end of the day their doctrines served them well. They made a significant contribution to defeating the Germans in North West Europe, and still managed to maintain enough troop strength to fulfill their obligations as a “great power” in the postwar world. An excellent book, and thanks to Doug Dery for turning me on to it!
Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan as an interesting book that attempts to place Jesus in the proper historical context based on what we know about Palestine in the 1st Century of the CE. Aslan’s position seems to be that Jesus was primarily a political activist whose main interest was in supplanting Roman rule of Palestine with a “new order” of Judaism that was based on individual behavior rather than on the highly centralized and stylized worship at the main Temple in Jerusalem. He cites numerous contemporary sources about the political hierarchy and climate in Palestine during that era and is especially convincing that early Christian scholars manipulated the scriptural record to transform Jesus’ message from what he intended, to what it became. I don’t honestly have enough depth of knowledge to judge his accuracy, but it seems well thought out and argued, and is certainly worth further investigation. I recommend it highly.
A Blind Goddess by James R. Benn is the latest of the “Billy Boyle” mysteries. For those of you know don’t know, Billy Boyle (now a Captain) was the youngest detective in the Boston PD when his family arranged for him to commissioned onto his “Uncle” Ike’s (as in Eisenhower) staff to keep him out of harm’s way. Ike uses Boyle’s police skills as a sort of a trouble shooter to solve crimes that might impact Allied solidarity. This is the eight book, and its set in pre-D Day England, involving an old friend from Boston, strained race relations, and murder in an English village. As with the other books this one involves little known historical facts from WWII, in this case, Operation Double Cross, during which British Intelligence totally compromised the entire NAZI intelligence network in Britain and used it to feed misinformation back to Germany. Fans of Band of Brothers will be amused to see the CAPT Herbert Sobel makes a cameo appearance as the CO of the 101 AB jump school at Chilton Foliat. Anyway, it was a good book. It moved right along and was consistently entertaining. If you’re following the series, you’ll enjoy this one, if you’re not, start at the beginning.
Floaters by Joseph Wambaugh is a nifty little police procedural with a bit of a surprise ending. This one is based in San Diego during the 1995 America’s Cup regatta and features several interlocking plot lines involving street hookers, out call escorts, a couple of horny harbor patrol cops, and skullduggery against the New Zealand challengers team. The book is vintage Wambaugh with a jaundiced and cynical look at life, decent characters and a pace that moves right along. I recommend it as a very entertaining couple of hours of mind-candy.
So that beings me to 95 books for the year which is, for some reason, far off of last year’s 132. But stay tuned as I’ve already started a couple of fascinating non-fiction books. Thanks for reading and we’ll see you next year!
BillP's Book Blog 