A writer, Jeff also enjoys reading. In fact, he has hundreds of books in bookcases around the house: in the kitchen, in the living room, in the bedroom, in the bathroom, in his office and in my office. Also, as he reads enormous amounts of materials from papers, magazines and trade journals, you can see evidence of them also.
CYRANO DE BERGERAC: Heroic Comedy in Five Acts
by Edmond Rostand, translation by Brian Hooker
This play's translation from the original french offers willing readers so many emotionally moving speeches of heartrending beauty and casual wit. Its use of the language is one of the finest examples I know. (Often there's a puzzle with translations: is the beauty found in the language of the original french or in the english of the translator as other translations do not read nearly so well?) I am amazed it is not better known and more widely read.
I have always enjoyed LeCarre's stories where he creates a world of espionage adventurers, masters of bureacratic maneuver and bureaucratic dinosaurs, where people and national treasure are used and misused, spiced with the many details of spycraft. His works are all wrapped in his bleak outlook for their motives and their outcomes, both for the disheartening outcome of their efforts and for the people involved.
I am attracted to his writing style. Perhaps this is only an American easily responding to the English of an Englishman, particularly the way he crafts his moments of passion and humor. However, with Russia House, I think he also gives us the gift of an intelligent romance cloaked as a espionage thriller. In the end, to my surprise, I found it to be about one man's passionate commitment to a woman; and how he works, really labors, to save himself, her and her family in the appalling world of espionage and the self-absorbed organizations which Le Carre has been informing us about for decades.
CITIZEN SOLDIERS:
The U.S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany
by Stephen Ambrose
Jeff's Book Comment
What an amazing and wholely engaging portrayal of the U.S. military experience in europe during1944-45! By interview and quote, the author gives us the reality and effect of this intense conflict, from the lone rifleman to frontline officers. His coverage of the strategic decision-making and tensions in the command structure is limited to setting the context and illustrating the effect of command decisions.
Ambrose's focus is, however, on how we "citizen soldiers" successfully adapted, how we survived and eventually won (apparently, because we were more flexible, as individuals and as groups). For we very quickly learned to fight and to fight successfully - in the face of enormous loss, or perhaps because of our willingness to take the losses - for more about this willingness, see Eisenhower in the index.
Please, pay no attention to the Ken Burns' mindless quote on the back of the book jacket: "Ambrose's arsenal is imposing and effective; his pen is a machine gun: detached, hot and devastating." This promotional purple prose, is more suited to Mickey Spillane. Ambrose's writing is almost style-free and is heavy with detail. He is at his best when he lets the participants tell their own stories. His analysis of situations is excellent (it should be, this is what he has been doing most of his life, writing about soldiers and war - see his excellent Notes and Bibliography). Everyone should read it, and learn that the life we so enjoy today (with our modern economic, political and social wellbeing) had an enormous cost more than 50 years ago.
THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED
by M. Scott Peck
I have read this book twice and it seems every time I reread it, there is something that I had missed before, but I learn something new each time I return to it. I am looking forward to a third reading to learn even more about myself.
PARTNERS IN POWER: The Clintons and Their America
by Roger Morris.
You don't have to be a stauch Democrat to like this book. In fact, you may not like it at all if you are a Democratic party faithful for some of the honest comments and quotes and the many interesting stories about how our president and first lady led their lifes prior to entering the White House. Their early childhood experiences, I am sure, you will see reflected in their present day decisions and actions. i dare you to pick up this book and try to put it down. Like me, you may feel a mixture of sympathy and revulsion for President and First Lady.
