The Maze Runner

This book reads like the script for a reality TV programme. Or a riff on Golding’s Lord of the Flies. Teenaged Boys lacking any knowledge of their past lives save a first name arrive disoriented in the glade which is surrounded by a maze with 50-ft rock walls not unlike a lab rat’s maze. We learn of this organized society through the eye’s of its latest arrival Thomas. Takes a while to warm to this book but it grows on one as the read progresses. As usual best to read the book before seeing the related flick.

The maze has its own jargon but the substitutes for profanity such as klunk for ‘shit’ in a book aimed at young adults tends to get tiresome quickly. This  book is volume one of a series. Book one is enough for me.

American Sniper

The Author Chris Kyle died in his 39th year proving once more the strains of returning from the field of battle can be more stressful than the fight itself if not for this individual then for the fellow soldier he tried to help. Here we have a lover of guns who literally wrote the manual on Navy Seal Sniper Fire plus a History of the US in 10 guns for good measure. A good old boy from Dallas Texas who shoots best with a wad of chewing tobacco in his cheek; his friends were military and law enforcement. Lets be up front, this reviewer is a pacifist whom the NRA would term an ardent enemy. There are those who would not feel safe without a handgun in their night stand, having one in my home would make me feel uneasy.

The author has the ego and arrogance of the true believer but he can also laugh at himself and invites the reader to laugh with him. He is good about translating the military jargon into plain English or his editors and advisers have prompted him to.

An Army at Dawn

“An army at dawn” appears on page 64 as the expeditionary force leaves Hampton Roads. “Young men,... ....would remember this hour, when an army at dawn made for open sea....” What stands out as in every military history I’ve ever read is the utter incompetence and chaos that surrounded this action. Attention to detail in loading the ships is totally lacking helped little by the need for secrecy. Makes it appear that the winning side did so because their planners made fewer errors than the enemy. The other salient point involves leaders more interested in promoting their own careers than in advancing the cause, who would do nothing to correct a situation if it could be used to make their competition look bad. Or, as a friend puts it, “Wars are lost not won.” The French in North Africa regarded the British with equal antipathy as the Germans, the British looked down their noses at their American Cousins.

Wars may be lost rather than won but as a props person in theatre I would say they are lost on supply lines and logistics. Without food, water, proper clothing, fuel, ammunition, and weapons soldiers cannot fight. Why should reality interfere with policy. High Command demanded that Rommel hold onto the African Front but failure to supply replacement troops and materiel told another story. The ineptitude and lack of communication on the Allied Side threw away thousands of soldier’s lives to no good purpose. Hindsight may be 20-20 but these military planners ignored good tactical advice when they were given it. Obviously they’d never played chess. At 830 densely packed pages this is a major undertaking. The last 230 pages contain footnotes and captioned photos. For War Buffs a good read.

The Horse Boy

Science understands little of how our minds work. Autism is a malfunction of the mental system about which there is no clear knowledge of cause, treatment, or outcome. There are no experts in the field and most evidence is anecdotal. Among those who have studied the syndrome there are conflicting opinions on all counts leaving the parents of children so affected to fend for themselves leading to a pragmatic, if it works lets keep doing it, approach. Dealing with a growing energetic six-year-old who refuses to be toilet trained, throws screaming, flailing tantrums for hours, and cannot communicate his/her needs, fears, desires is beyond exhausting. It obviously takes over one’s life. Little wonder 80% of parents’ marriages end in divorce.

One facet of the syndrome is an affinity for animals which is mutual in this case a bond being forged between boy and a particular horse. We’ve read of horse whisperers but here we have a boy who communicates with animals on a non-verbal level. His parents travel to the ends of the Earth to ride horses and find Shaman whose own people have largely ignored whose prayers and rituals work an uncanny healing. There is no cure for this condition but anything that can ameliorate the stress and help parents and child cope is welcome. Reading the book will take you along for the ride.

The Giver

Jonas’ is a controlled and regimented society. Birth mothers produce children raised by Nurturers. The babies turn One in December and are assigned to a couple--one boy and one girl each--50 per year. At Eight a child’s comfort toy is taken from them. At Nine they are assigned a bicycle and at Twelve their life’s assignment. Anyone not conforming to societal norms is released. Although I realize this is a fictitious world the children seem severely genetically altered to mature in a rather accelerated manner--walking and talking in their first year of life, being selected for careers at 12. The horror of a world devoid of choice, of love and emotion where positive eugenics is the norm and euthanasia is given euphemistic innocuous terminology. As the receiver of memories Jonas becomes the vehicle by which we learn the menace that underlies this ordered society.