One More Book: “Victory in my Hands” by Harold Russell

This book, written in 1949, provided an uplifting end to my 2008 reading.  Harold Russell, who won two academy awards for his role in “The Best Years of Our Life” in 1946, wrote this memoir a few years later, when he decided to forego further theatrical work, and instead work for organizations that supported racial, religious, ethnic, and disability-status tolerance, first joining the Anti-Defamation League as a spokesperson.  He died in 2002.

A self described “loser” (although I would not describe him that way, he was more of the kind of guy who just never stood out, and maintained an exaggerated feeling of inadequacy, in his early years), Russell matured in the army, where he became a parachutist and demolitions expert, and an instructor at Ft. Benning, Georgia.  A training accident left him a double amputee, with the loss of both of his hands.  At Walter Reed Hospital, he was fitted with and from then on used, hooks, which enabled him to do just about anything (“anything but pick up the dinner check”, he would say), and his sense of determination helped him overcome his inborn feelings of lack of accomplishment.

The book, written with co-author Victor Rosen, is an archtypical easy read (one day here, for 277 pages), but there is so much chocked into it (life in high school, meeting the girl of his dreams, joining and succeeding in the army, the accident, the rehabilitation in the World War II army medical system, learning to cope physically and mentally, making a film for army use, being “discovered” by Samuel Goldwyn, making the film (directed by William Wyler, with Myrna Loy, Frederic March and Dana Andrews) in Hollywood, winning the two Oscars, becoming famous, developing a sense of disgust for any form of discrimination and wondering why the United States could come together as one in times of war, but fall into opposing groups in times of peace, and deciding on his future career.

In the early 1980s, Russell wrote an updated memoir.  I wonder if it as good.

The Best of 2008

By popular demand (one person), I have done a quick review of the books read, movies and plays seen, and concerts and events attended in 2008, and will list my favorites.  (In 2007, I also had restaurants as a category, which I do not have this year, perhaps because food didn’t seem quite so important in the scheme of things, because I did not keep sufficient records of meals.)

I also need to preface this by saying that I did not spend a lot of time compiling this list.  Which means to say, when I saw a blog posting that said that I saw Movie X, if I didn’t remember it, I didn’t go back and try to figure out what it was about (or why I couldn’t remember it).  For that reason, I am not labeling these categories as “the five best of….”, but simply “here are five I really liked”.  As usual, many of the items cited are a bit out of the mainstream.

1.  Books (Fiction):

a.  Birds Without Wings by Louis De Bernieres

b.  Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton

c.   The Unlikely Spy by Daniel Silva

d.  Ninochka by Svetlana Boym

e.  The African Queen by C. S. Forester

2.  Books (Non-Fiction)

a.  The Orientalist by Tom Reiss

b.  When the Going Was Good by Evelyn Waugh

c.  The Oregon Trail by Francis Parkman

d.  The Accidental Empire by Gershon Goremberg

e.  The Nixon Memo by Marvin Kalb

3.  Movies (documentary)

a.  The Comedian Harmonists

b.  Refuseniks

c.  Desperate Hours

d.  Nanking

4.  Movies

a.  Beau Jest

b.  Cosy Dens

c.  Empties

d.  Four Months, Three Weeks, Two Days

e.  The Savages

5.  Exhibits

a.  Pompeii and Herculaneum at the National Gallery

b. The Folger Library Tour

c.  The Treasure Ships of China at National Geographic Society

d.  Hidden Treasures of Afghanistan at the National Gallery

e.   Zaida ben Yosuf photography exhibit at National Portrait Gallery

6.  Theater

a.  The Last Days of Judas Iscariot at the Forum

b.  Honey Brown Eyes at Theater J

c.  Henry IV, Part 1 at the Folger

d.  The Price at Theater J

e.   The Brothers Size at the Studio

7.  Music

a.  Winard Harper Sextet at DC Jazz Festival

b.  Leon Fleischer birthday concert at Strathmore

c.  Netanel Draiblate and Victor Goldberg (private concert)

d.  Little Red and the Renegades in Annapolis

8.  Events

a.  Talk on the Bedouins in Israel at Library of Congress

b.  Smithsonian weekend program on Turkey

c.  Smithsonian weekend program on Italian opera

d.  The Garden of the Righteous Ceremony on Tunisian rescuer

This also does not include anything out of Washington DC.  The museums in Madrid, and the Archeological Museum in Istanbul were of course extraordinary.  There was a Goya exhibit at the Prado which would have been at the top of anyone’s list, and seeing a piece of the Code of Hammurabi in Istanbul was very special.  Also, purposely not ranked, but not ignored and most enjoyable, were the Playdoh Golem at Theater J (and the Kennedy Center) and Damn Yankees at Har Shalom, where there were some personal connections.

John Lukacs’ “Budapest 1900″

Historian John Lukacs was born in Budapest in 1924. A Catholic, Lukacs’ mother was Jewish, so he was targeted by the Nazi racial laws but, after spending some time in a work camp, he was able to survive the war in Budapest. His biography on Wikipedia I recommend highly.

“Budapest 1900″ is not one of his better known books, but I also recommend it highly. Part city description, part demographic study, part political analysis, and part intellectual history, it provides a remarkably well rounded description of Budapest at the end of the 19th century, with just enough history to let it all make sense.

Now, would most people enjoy the book as much as I did? I am not sure. If you are not a native Hungarian, so many of the names, not only of the politicians, but also of the literary figures, are totally foreign, although Lukacs speaks as if knowledge of them is commonplace, while admitting that the uniqueness of the Hungarian language is a major isolating factor.

Also, I have traveled twice to Budapest, in 1972 and 2005, so I have seen it under very different circumstances, and I like the city, feel very comfortable there, although I know nothing of the language (oh, yes, the word for ’store’ is ‘bolt’). This also made the geographic description of the city much more meaningful to me.

Budapest has gone through quite a bit. Ottoman rule, Austrian rule, 1848 revolution, joint Austro-Hungarian empire governance, independent republic, home grown communist state, fascist government, Nazi occupation, Soviet bloc communism, 1956 revolution, and finally social democratic/capitalist state. Just think of that.

Lukacs does spend a fair amount of time discussing the position of the Jews of Budapest – they at one time constituted a sizable section of the population, and in 1900 constituted 40% of the voters. As would be expected, they were lawyers and doctors and teachers and journalists and bankers. And they by and large anxious to assimilate and become Hungarian speaking citizens, and were, for the most part welcomed, until everything fell apart.

So, if the topic interests you (or if you are interested in turn of the century Europe in general), this is a book you should strongly consider.

2007 – A Little Compulsive (1 cent)

At the end of 2007, I counted up certain things (looking at the blog and elsewhere). I don’t think I can do quite the same for 2008, because I don’t think that my blogging was quite as compulsive.

In 2007, I apparently read 74 books, ate at 62 different restaurants (don’t counting fast food, etc.), had 32 different museum visits (not counting vacations), went to 36 movies, went to 33 theatrical performances, went to 11 concerts, and attended 32 other events.

I kept fairly busy in 2008, but my guess is that my numbers were down everywhere. On the other hand, I was out of town more (Turkey, Spain, Israel, Florida, California, Washington State, New York, North Carolina, etc.).

Maybe I should try to keep 2009 figures more accurately?

Thoughts on Israel and Gaza

Israel has the habit of knowing when to start, but not when to stop.  One must worry about whether this pattern will repeat itself now.

The hope, when Hamas won the Gaza elections, was that the responsibility for governing would lead to a degree of maturity on behalf of the leaders of Hamas and result in a moderation of the positions taken by the organization regarding Israel.  Unfortunately, this did not happen, as Hamas continued to make known its absolutely animosity to “the occupiers”.  And by occupiers, Hamas meant the occupancy of the State of Israel on Palestinean lands, not something having to do with Gaza.  It became clear that Israel would always have a southern neighbor bent on its destruction.

In addition, even with a temporary truce in force, Hamas either permitted, or did not prevent, a continual barrage of rockets across the border into Israel, causing some casualties and extraordinary stress.

So, what to do?

When we were last in Israel, listening to some speakers talk about the situation in Sderot, the Israeli community closest to Gaza, the attendees had very different views as to what should happen.  One man seemed to be getting increasingly frustrated.  He was someone who seemed to be known to many in the room.  He described himself as a member of the army reserve, who had been (or maybe still was) in charge of the southern command.  He clearly looked the part.

His position was clear.  We know where the weapons are, we know where the bombs are, we know where the leaders are.  If the government would only give us the freedom to move, we could get rid of the threat.  Completely.

Well, maybe he is getting his wishes.  From the press reports, the first few days air attacks (as horrific as they are) were pretty surgically orchestrated.  They hit Hamas institutions, police and security stations, weapons storehouses, tunnels to Egypt.  The majority of those killed (I don’t know about the injuries) appear to be Hamas officials or agents.

Of course, because of the chaos and the death and injuries, there is an outcry, especially from the Moslem Middle East.  You would expect this.

But, and I certainly cannot say that I have followed everything in detail, perhaps there are some differences here.  Perhaps, the government of Egypt and the Palestinian Authority are being moderate in their comments.  The PA would like to get control back in Gaza, so that progress for a two state solution can in fact be made.  Egypt certainly is not happy with Hamas on its back door.  So, I would not be surprised if there is a little collaboration here, with the PA tacitly approving Israel’s move as the best of bad possibilities.

If this is the case, and if it turns out that Israel is successful in fatally wounding Hamas, and if the PA can re-exert governing control in Gaza, maybe things can in fact wind up for the best.  But this goes to the old question of whether Israel ever knows how to stop.  If they can stop without unnecessary carnage, if they can work with the PA to reinstate PA authority in Gaza, and if they can help coordinate a reconstruction program that would deal with rebuilidng destroyed structures and roads, rebuilding infrastructure, helping Gaza to expand its port facilities and become independent of Israel for its energy and utilities……

Of course, we are a long way from winning hearts and minds, in Gaza and throughout large segments of the Middle East, but this could be a start.

And there are other obstacles.  Israeli Arabs could become increasingly radical in their demonstrations against the government.  Pressure could grow against the neighboring moderate governments, including Egypt and Jordan.  And of course Iran is meddling in nearby waters, threatening to send ships with ‘humanitarian assistance’ to Gaza.  No one would, or should, trust the Iranians not to include much more than food and medication in the cargo holds of its ships, so that any attempts to approach Gaza by sea could wind up with an Iranian/Israeli confrontation, and we know where that can go.

So, it is too early to tell how this will end.  Clearly, there is a lot of pain involved.  But, with the right diplomacy, the right goals and a little luck, this could wind up as an overall long term, or even mid-term, positive.  But you can’t escape the fact that, much of the time, Israel does not know when to quit.

A Little Thinking About Time

Samuel Huntington died yesterday at age 81.  I was in college between 1960 and 1964.  Huntington was already a distinguished professor.  He was in his mid-30s.  To me, he was a mature, adult, all grown up.  Today, I don’t view anyone in their 30s quite that way.

Which reminds me of my high school.  My high school principal’s son was in my class.  I saw him at our 40th high school reunion, and asked him how his father was.  He told me that he had just turned 80.  I attended the same high school for six years (grades 7-12).  That meant that, my first year, the principal was 34 years old.  This is astounding to me, for the same reason.

I was born in 1942.  A friend had a baby yesterday.  This means that this child will look at me as I would look at someone born in 1876.

I had better starting thinking about something other than time.

What a Day Yesterday Was!

From today’s news:

**Man dressed as Santa Claus kills 8 in California
**14 hurt as car crashes into Hannukah party on Long Island
**Woman in Hagerstown MD hits two deer, gets out of her car, and is killed by passing car.
**Annapolis MD man driving a flatbed truck kills his 8 year old daughter, who fell off.

And, I am sure much more (not to mention the deaths of Earth Kitt and Harold Pinter, two very talented people who happened to take strong public positions against two unpopular wars).

But….there is always humor.

For example, I went into a new Goodwill Store’s book section this morning. It is large and well organized. I saw a nice copy of Barbara Kingsolver’s novel “The Poisonwood Bible” carefully positioned in the “Religion and Bible” section.

And, on C-Span this morning, during a call in show on problems in Africa, a serious sounding man phoned in and complained about the media using the term “New Guinea” as being prejudicial to Italians.

The Zookeeper’s Wife, the French Lieutenant’s Woman and the President’s Daughter

“The Zookeepers’s Wife” is Diane Ackerman’s book about the zookeeper of the Warsaw Zoo, who was an active member of the Polish underground during World War II, and who, with his wife, provide shelter for numerous Jew during the Nazi occupatino of the city. It is quite an extraordinary story – the zoo itself had been ruined through German bombing raids, transfer of some of the animals to zoos in Germany, and lack of funding and resources. The zookeeper and his wife remained in their “villa” and, in the heart of the city, and in full view of passers by, were willing to risk death, and to provide shelter for innumerable “guests”, some for a short time until other housing could be located, some for longer periods of time, and were able to obtain access to the ghetto and to help a few individuals escape the ghetto.

Some of my friends have had reservations about this book. I am not sure why. Assuming that the book is accurate (and Ackerman of course was not a participant), it provides a unique view of Warsaw during the war. The city is destroyed, the Jews (1/3 of the city population, almost 500,000 people) are put in the ghetto, and shipped from the ghetto the work and death camps, and the ghetto itself is destroyed after a long and deadly battle with the remaining ghetto survivors. And while this is going on, and the entire city is suffering, there is an active underground working to liberate Poland from the German occupation and to save Jews and political opponents. This is a book to be appreciated, well written, and evocative of a time not soon to be forgotten.

“The French Lieutenant’s Woman” was a novel written by English author John Fowles, and made into a movie in the mid-1980s. Who is this mysterious woman? Was she the immoral mistress of a long-gone married French lieutenant? Or is there a misunderstanding? And if it is misunderstanding, what can she do about it? Or what about her would-be suitor, who is engaged to a wealthy young woman? Should he believe her? And why did she disappear? What were her own internal demons that permitted her to wallow in her sorrow?

Sure, this story is about gender, and the treatment of women in 19th century England, but it is also about the psychological make up of a woman who is incapable of fighting back.

We saw the movie, with the screenplay by Harold Pinter (who died in England yesterday). It is not a perfect movie, but is worth watching.

The president’s daughter is Camelia Sadat, daughter of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat. She is one of three daughters of Sadat’s first wife; Sadat divorced his wife to marry Jehan Sadat, who bore him several more children and remained with him until his death. Of course, Moslem men can have more than one wife, but Jehan would have none of that, forcing Anwar not only to divorce his first wife, but to a large extent to disassociate himself from his older children.

This is a terrible story (the book, “My Father and I” is quite interesting). Sadat of course is known for his trip to Jerusalem, the Camp David accords, and the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. This was an extraordinary accomplishment.

But Sadat was also Nasser’s vice president, president of Egypt when Egypt attacked Israel in 1973, and quite vicious when dealing with opponents or possible opponents in Egypt.

And, until shortly before he was assassinated, he treated his daughter terribly. Beyond terribly. He married her off at 12 (legal age was 16), and forced her to remain with a brutal husband for six years. He quite often refused to see her or her full sisters, refused to help them with their problems. He let them live in an impoverished condition for much of this time, although his actions with regard to money, as well as so many other things, changed day to day, year to year. He didn’t invite them to important celebrations, instead only inviting his children with Jehan. He mistreated his first wife (who strangely remained loyal to him) horribly.

How common this treatment is in Egyptian Moslem families, I am not sure. But I certainly would not have wanted to be part of the Sadat family.

One more Siberian posting

1.  “40,000 Against the Arctic”.  I didn’t want to leave the impression that the Soviet attempts to populate and develop the Siberian north were all unsuccessful.    The town of Novilsk, for example, which Smolka describes as a new settlement created to explore recently found nickel deposits (and also then a prison camp, part of the Gulag system), has in fact grown to a population of over 100,000.  But, according to Wikipedia, it lost about 25% of its population during the 1990s.  The Wikipedia suggestion is that it was closed because of the sensitivity of the mining activities, but it is also noted that there are nearby ICBM silos and, equally important, that it has been designated one of the ten most polluted cities in the world!

But I think that it must be true that the problems with heavily populating the arctic regions of Siberia are overwhelming and that it takes (in a “free economy”, such as today’s Russia, where at least mobility is not controlled) a lot for someone to voluntarily live under these climactic and air quality conditions.

The highlight of Siberian settlement today seems to be Yakutsk, which is even more remote (at this level of remoteness, perhaps this is irrelevant), but whose population has steadily grown and is now over 200,000.  Yakutsk is also a mining center, with large quanties of  gold and diamonds be excavated.  It is also an educational center, the home of permafrost and mammoth museums, and more.

It is also a very cold place, and largely inaccessible by land.  There is a highway that will take you to the western side of the broad Lena River, but there is no bridge, and the city is on the east bank, accessible only by ferry and only for a few months each year (unless you are willing to take your vehicle on the ice during the winter months).  For five months of the year, the average high temperature is below zero, fahrenheit.  In January, for example, the average high is 39 below zero, and the average low is 51 below zero, although it has gone down as low as 84 below.  The record high in January is 22 fahrenheit.

On the other hand, July is not so bad.  It normally gets up to 77 degrees fahrenheit, and the normal low is 53.  It has reached 101 degrees on occasion.

And they eat horse meat there as a regular matter, an indigenous food of the area’s native peoples.

If you go, you really have to fly.  I have to quote, from ‘Wikitravel.org’, an explanation of the highway to town:

“The only road that is passable year round, connecting Yakutsk to the rest of the world, is the M-56 from Never [true] to Yakutsk.  The road is in a dilapidated condition and not entirely paved……In 2006, this road won the dubious distinction of “worst road in the world”…..The other road is to Madagan.  Heaven help anyone who foolishly sets out in this direction.  Unimproved dirt roads (paths) wandering off through Siberian taiga for approximately the length of the United States. Reports (presumably from people crazy enough to go this way) suggest that a 30 km section of the trip is prone to natural gas seepage, which can call drivers to fall asleep and, well, not wake up.”

I would love to go to Yakutsk, in spite of the cold (or in part because of it, perhaps).  I’d like to see the country side, and believe it or not, the museums (which include art museums, historical museums, archeological museums, the mammoth musuem, and the cryogenic museum) would be fascinating.

Maybe for my next birthday.

Alas, Poor Nordvik (21 cents)

I recently picked up a book titled “40,000 Against the Arctic”, the story of the steps taken by the USSR in the 1930s to settle and develop its far north. The book was published by William Morrow & Co. in 1937. I had neither heard of the book, nor of H. P. Smolka, its author. From the book’s introduction, I gathered that Smolka was a London based journalist who happened to be given the opportunity to travel to parts of Siberia not previously visited by western journalists. From Google, though, I see that in fact he was (is? he may still be alive at 98) an Austrian Communist, who must have been some sort of a spy in England and a friend of Herbert Philby. But that’s another story…..

The book clearly shows sympathy for the Russians, but does not read as if it is a propaganda piece. Clearly, the difficulties of taming such a vast and inhospitable land are laid out, as are some of the shortages of equipment and funds. What is equally clear is how the pioneering spirit of those selected to settle this country (mainly young university graduates and scientists, mostly male) is appreciated by the author.

One of the places he describes is the new settlement of Nordvik, on the Arctic Ocean, where recent expeditions had located extensive salt deposits and the possibility of significant amounts of oil. The town of Nordvik was expected to grow to 40,000 with a decade or so, and house the workers in these extraction industries as well as providing port facilities. The spirit of optimism and determination was pervasive.

Alas, it was not to be. Checking various internet sources, I had a hard time learning anything about Nordvik. Finally, I saw why. The oil turned out to be non-existent, the salt deposits were exhausted, and in 1956, the entire town was abandoned. Alas, poor Nordvik.

Of course, this book is not only about Nordvik and, even though dated, is not without interest in what it shows about the difficulty in settling an area with such a difficult climate, and – equally important – of such expanse.