The Book Thief

--Spoiler Alert--

Takes a while to warm up to this book but then the reader has 433 pages to do so. Takes even longer to figure out exactly what is happening, who is doing the acting, and to whom it is happening. The narrator would appear to be the Grim Reaper who continues the story throughout. Just what part the book thief plays in all this is not immediately apparent. Transpires we are transported to a small working class enclave in a suburb of Munich at the outset of WW#2. Hitler’s treatment of the Jews plays a large part in the story. Interesting to learn the experience of ordinary German citizens during the Allied carpet bombing of Germany. The writing style and formatting would probably be best appreciated in hard copy rather than as I read it in e-Book format.

The Burning of Brenham by Sharon Brass

Essentially a boosterish history of 19th Century Brenham, Texas, the great fire of 1866 being a significant milestone. Texas was not the site of fighting during the Civil War but having fought on the Confederate side it came under Federal Reconstruction, The Freedman’s Bureau, and Federal Troop occupation. To this day Texans do their best to ignore the existence of a Federal Government and the imposition of Sheridan’s Black troops was not well received.

The success of any community depends on existence of men who can make things happen and rally others behind them. In Brenham the name Giddings stands out. The Railway they helped build gave local products access to a world market. The system of cisterns and fire-fighting was ahead of its time and a model that has yet to catch on in the rest of Texas. The local newspaper man is a model for many a frontier movie opus.

It is obvious that the writer had access to and permission to use well-preserved archives. This 70-page booklet stands out among so many examples of its genre in having been printed in colour. The quality of the reproductions is exemplary.

When Everything Feels Like the Movies

Cross-dressing Jude/Judy’s Mother is an exotic dancer with enhanced bosom. His step-father doesn’t get Jude and favours Ray the son he fathered. When Jude isn’t spaced out on alcohol and drugs he lives in an imaginary world in which he is a film star. He shares his basement bedroom with a pet cat name Stoned Hairspray. The book is written from his point of view and makes extensive use of movie references and hip language that will probably date quickly. It fantasizes sexual encounters and has other adult situations and some violence. 

Boy Toy

The book begins with 13-year-old Josh Mendel playing spin the bottle in a basement closet, the girl bolts when Josh gets aroused. Five years later cut to Josh decking his baseball coach. The background is of a boy molested by his middle-school teacher. Josh, a senior of above average intelligence, narrates the story.

In the arrogant, self-centred, naïveté of childhood the victims of sexual abuse often hold themselves responsible for their sufferings just as the children of divorce often blame themselves for their parent’s breakups. Every boy should have a best friend as understanding and loyal as Zik and a girl friend willing to wait 5 years for their beau to get over himself. The book tackles a delicate subject with deep if rather mature understanding. It is rather full of baseball statistics for anyone lacking the interest but otherwise it is well-written. It seems to be current style to write stories in a non-linear fashion but given Josh’s costant flashbacks it seems only appropriate and here it is easy to follow.

The Day of Battle

Atkinson spices up what could be a dry military history with biographical information on the principal players, historical background on the lands they invade, and notes from diaries, letters, and memoirs that draw on the experience of the people back home. Ike’s chief challenge was running interference between Monty and Patton, FDR and Churchill. To quote one of his generals: Running a war seems to consist in making plans and then ensuring that those destined to carry them out don't quarrel with each other instead of the enemy. Reading this account one comes to understand that ‘military intelligence’ become a term of derision. In so many ways this became a war of attrition in which men’s lives were thrown away in battle plans that had little chance of success. The terrible human cost of war both to the soldiers who fought and the civilians whose homes were the battleground is made plain. Even in WW#2 the financial costs of war are staggering. When an artillery captain reported that one million dollars worth of ordinance had been thrown at the enemy he was reportedly told to throw a million more. Those were 1944 dollars, today a single jet costs $20 million. Interesting to read that racism made black soldiers a rarity whereas today poor blacks complain that war is a black man’s trade as white boys evade service and draft boards. Everything old is new, Allied troops killed by their own mine fields and by friendly fire.

We know the outcome of the battles described here but even so the author manages to generate suspense in describing them. The overall impression the reader receives is one of the futility and terrible human cost of this campaign. Hundreds of thousands of lives were thrown away in a war of attrition in an effort to divert German troops from the Eastern Russian Front and the eventual D-Day invasion of Western Fortress Europe. The Generals who oversaw this campaign learned on the job at the cost of the lives of the men they led. Those who had fought in North Africa were unprepared for the mountainous terrain that was the Italian Boot where uneven ground made the use of tanks ineffective and the shock and awe bombing campaign used later by a general named Schwartzkopf less devastating. I would not presume to claim that reading the 677 pages that constitute the account equates with the emotional impact on the men who suffered disease, hunger, bombardment, injury, emotional stress, and death but no caring individual can read this account and not feel its effect. Those who ignore history are fated to repeat it.