A Certain Slant of Light

What I've Just Finished Reading

Or I suppose I should call this "What I've Read Over the Last Three Weeks," because it's been a while since I posted it.

I read Jane Mayer's The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals, which is a good book to read if you want to be reduced to seething rage about the level of mendacity and fear that turned torture (sorry, "enhanced interrogation") into official American policy. The book presents a fairly compelling argument that in the aftermath of September 11th, Bush and Cheney both took it as an article of faith that the war on terror would demand the use of torture, and therefore reached out for any advice that bolstered this belief with both hands. Any contrary advice, they ignored, even when it came from lifelong Republicans who were military lawyers or experienced FBI interrogators and therefore had no political reason to oppose Bush's policies and also had the legal knowledge and on-the-ground experience to realize that torture was illegal and wrong and also didn't work, if by "work" you mean produce useful intelligence rather than reduce the victims to gibbering wrecks, which it tends to do pretty well.

This would be bad enough if all the people arrested were genuine terrorists, but in the early months especially hundreds of innocent people were arrested - this is according to internal investigations within the military, by guys who figured that this was a problem someone might actually want to fix. HA. Release suspected terrorists? Even though there was absolutely no evidence that this suspicion had any basis in fact? That would mean admitting to making a mistake! Much better to keep them there as along as possible.

It's worth reading, but it's probably not good for your blood pressure.

Otherwise, I read Mary Stewart's The Stormy Petrel, which is very similar to her Rose Cottage: both are atmospheric books with beautiful descriptions of small communities in beautiful countryside with thriller/mystery elements that never gather enough momentum to become properly thrilling or mysterious. They heat up a certain amount, but the plot never quite boils, if you will. But they're both pleasant comfort reading.

I also read Dick Francis's To the Hilt, which I enjoyed but not so much that I think I'll be seeking out his other books.

And finally, Maureen Johnson's Shadow Cabinet. I was under the impression that this was the final book in the Shades of London trilogy, rather than the third book in an ongoing series, which as you can imagine is a misunderstanding that made for an unnecessarily frustrating reading experience. I suspect that made my judgment of the book unnecessarily harsh, but I also think that the series as a whole is just moving in a direction that is less interesting to me than the place where it started. I really liked the combination of boarding school story and ghost mystery in the first book, but the series has moved entirely away from the boarding school plotline and I think I was, unfortunately, actually more interested in that than the ghosts.

I'll probably check out the next book when it comes out, though, because this book did introduce a quite interesting pair of villains.

What I'm Reading Now

Varlam Shalamov's Kolyma Tales, which I'm actually finding less soul-destroying than The Gulag Archipelago, if only because they're short stories and therefore offer a natural breaking point to walk away from the book every few pages. I would definitely recommend them if you want to know more about the gulag but don't feel like committing to 1,500+ pages of Solzhenitsyn. There's definitely a spiritual affinity between the two works, even though Shalamov's interpretation tends to be more hopeless than Solzhenitsyn's. Or hopeless isn't the right word, necessarily; his characters are often too exhausted even to feel despair.

I've also, on the much brighter side, been reading Malcolm at Midnight, the story of a classroom pet rat who has taken to sneaking around the school. I've started volunteering at the library once a week to process and mend books, and I saw this book's sequel and was charmed by the footnotes (I am such a sucker for novels with footnotes), so I picked up the first one. It's cute.

What I Plan to Read Next

Marie Brennan's The Voyage of the Basilisk. Yay dragons!

I enjoyed Maureen Johnson’s The Name of the Star so much that I ran to the computer immediately after reading to discover whether it has a sequel. Lo, it does! I’m hoping it chronicles Rory Deveaux’s further adventures in London, although I suppose she could go home to Louisiana and have adventures there too.

It's a lovely, fast-paced book, with less focus on romance than a lot of modern YA. It reminded me a bit of Ally Carter's Gallagher Girls series - they share an interest in female friendship and in action - but this is only an echo, a similarity in sensibility, if you will. The Name of the Star is very much doing its own thing.

There is no way to discuss this book without spoilers, so ( Spoiler cut. )

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

Maureen Johnson’s The Last Little Blue Envelope, a rather peculiar choice, given that I pretty much panned the book it’s a sequel to, Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes. However, Johnson has either become a better writer or this latter book plays to her strengths better, because I enjoyed it a lot more. For one thing, Johnson has improved remarkably at place description, which is an absolute must in a travelogue.

Ginny is still not interesting enough to carry a book by herself, but this time Johnson gives her traveling companions. This not only takes some of the narrative-bearing weight off Ginny’s shoulders but gives her other people to react to, which throws her personality into higher relief.

Plus I like the boy in this one better than the boy in Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes, who was kind of a jerk. A charming jerk, but still kind of a jerk.

Also Adam Gopnik’s Angels and Ages: A Short Book about Darwin, Lincoln, and Modern Life. I have more to say about his argument about moral judgment and history - he argues that “We should judge the past by the standards of the best voices that were heard within it,” which I think is basically right (and would cheerfully tape to a lot of historians’ computer screens) - and indeed, I think he’s right about many of his subsidiary points.

But ultimately the basic thesis of his book doesn’t cohere. It feels as if, having argued for a meaningless universe where humans are less than knots on the wind, he flinched; and tried to salvage some hope by arguing that we can create our own meaning. But he dwells too too preponderantly on the side of despair for him to pull it off.

Still, it’s a good book for thinking with, and worth reading for that reason.

What I’m Reading Now

Adam Gopnik’s The Steps Across the Water, which is set part in New York City and part in its magical mirror city, U Nork. I would have thought that inventing a city would fit Gopnik’s skill set exactly - I love his book Paris to the Moon because he makes Paris feel palpably real and yet also magical - but actually, the New York parts of the book are far more vivid and magical than the U Nork parts.

In between this and Angels and Ages, I am beginning to feel gloomily that Gopnik may be a one-book wonder, although I really love that one book.

Also, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s This Side of Paradise, which includes a couple of minor characters who are...actually decent human beings! I was beginning to worry that Fitzgerald could only see other people as reflections of his own narrow-minded insecurity, but no, it turns out that he can see goodness if it’s obvious enough.

What I Plan to Read Next

Eva Ibbotson’s The Dragonfly Pool.