2011 Nat'l Book Critics Circle nominees

From the LA Times Jacket Copy blog at http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2012/01/national-book-critics-circle-announce-awards-finalists.html


"The National Book Critics Circle announced the finalists for its 2011 book awards at a public ceremony on Saturday in New York City. Two Southern California writers are among those up for the awards, which will be presented on March 8 in Manhattan.

"It Calls You Back," an intergenerational tale of life in and out of Los Angeles gangs by Luis Rodriguez, a follow-up to his classic memoir "Always Running," is among the finalists for autobiography. Jonathan Lethem, who holds the Roy E. Disney Chair in Creative Writing at Pomona College, is a finalist for his collection of critical essays, "The Ecstasy of Influence." Another finalist, the novel "Stone Arabia" by Dana Spiotta, is set in the San Fernando Valley.

Awards will be made in six categories: fiction, nonfiction, biography, autobiography, poetry and criticism. For 37 years, the National Book Critics Circle has annually presented awards to books of excellence. Previous winners include Cormac McCarthy, John Updike, John Ashberry, Jennifer Egan, Alex Ross, Roberto Bolano, Susan Sontag, Martin Amis and Junot Diaz.

The 30 2011 NBCC finalists include many who have been previously recognized for their work: two Pulitzer Prize winners, one winner of the Booker Prize, two previously NBCC award winners, and one author who has received the National Humanities Medal. Yet the NBCC board also recognized two debuts: Teju Cole's novel, "Open City," and "Pulphead," a collection of essays by John Jeremiah Sullivan.

L.A. Times book critic David L. Ulin and staff writer Carolyn Kellogg sit on the 24-member board of the National Book Critics Circle.

Fiction

Teju Cole, "Open City"

Jeffrey Eugenides, "The Marriage Plot"

Alan Hollinghurst, "Stranger's Child"

Edith Pearlmam, "Binocular Vision"

Dana Spiotta, "Stone Arabia"



Nonfiction

Amanda Foreman, "A World On Fire"

James Gleick, "The Information"

Adam Hochschild, "To End All Wars"

Maya Jasanoff, "Liberty's Exiles"

John Jeremiah Sullivan, "Pulphead"



Autobio

Diana Ackerman, "One Hundred Names for Love"

Mira Bartok, "Memory Palace"

Luis Rodriguez, "It Calls You Back"

Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts, "Harlem is Nowhere"

Deb Olin Unferth, "Revolution"



Biography

Mary Gabriel, "Love and Capital"

John Lewis Gaddis, "George F. Kennan"

Paul Hendrickson, "Hemingway's Boat"

Manning Marable, "Malcolm X"

Ezra Vogel, "Deng Xiaoping"



Criticism

David Bellos, "Is That A Fish In Your Ear"

Geoff Dyer, "Otherwise Known As the Human Condition"

Jonathan Lethem, "The Ecstasy of Influence"

Dubravka Ugresic, "Karaoke Culture"

Ellen Willis, "Out of the Vinyl Deeps"



Poetry

Forrest Gander, " Core Samples..."

Aracelis Girmay, "Kingdom Animalia"

Laura Kasischke, "Space, In Chains"

Yusef Komunyakaa, "The Chameleon Couch"

Bruce Smith, "Devotions"

The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo (Norwegian crime)

Translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett


I've heard his name over and over, but this was the first Nesbo title I've read.  Part of the draw was that it seems like everyone who reads his books raves about the detective Harry Hole, who features in several of the books.  I like characters who show up in series.  Arkady Renko, Kurt Wallander, Kinsey Milhone, Harry Bosch...all of these become so familar in series form that you can almost know how they think.  (I dropped the Javier Falcon series after awhile...just too gory, too ick!) 

So, I wasn't disappointed with The Redbreast, if anything, I was a bit surprised at just how complicated the storyline was. Nesbo mixes present day Norway with WWII fighting by Norwegian soldiers, and strings a thread from the fighting to a present day assassination attempt.  Stolen identities, a manipulative Secretary of Foreign Affairs, a group of skinhead Neo-Nazis, a rare rifle from South Africa, and departmental battles keep the narrative moving all over the place.  There is never a point when the reader can claim "I figured it out!"  Okay, maybe Bernadette could, but other than that...no way.

I'm not going to go into a formal review....I picked this up as part of my goof-off time reading and enjoyed it.  It's won of ton of awards, and for once I'd think someone could make a movie of this rather than the inevitable Larsson books.  Great mystery, great series, good stuff!

Purchased at the Book Exchange in Los Osos, California.

Grip, A Memoir of Fierce Attractions by Nina Hamberg

"I had to search for my voice.  It was hiding."

Yes, memoir.  It's important to note that because reading this feels much like a novel.  I was turning pages quickly, anxious to see what happened next.  Being that it is nonfiction, however, makes it that much more frightening. 

While the book is focused on violence committed against one woman, specifically, it raises questions about women and violence in general, especially in regard to victimization.  What makes someone a victim?  And does that label mark someone forever?

In the book, Hamberg recounts a childhood that isn't all bad.  Her parents don't get along, but she seems to have the necessities of life.  As she gets older, her parents divorce, and life gets far more complicated.  Yet, that in itself is not unusual either.  What is unusual is the attitudes that surround her life, especially when she seeks help from those most trusted to her and most responsible for her safety.

The first incident is a Peeping Tom outside her bedroom, rattling the windows.  She seeks help from her brother in another room, who ignores her pleas for help.  In the morning, footprints are visible.  Her sense of security was shaken, and the only question asked of her was "are you going to obsess about this all day"?  Not long after, she thought there was an intruder, and the police were called by her mother.  They didn't investigate much, just assuming she was jumpy.  Even her mother regarded her with "the same kind of tight smile she used when I was six and knocked over a glass of milk at the dinner table."

Shortly after this, Hamberg was attacked by a man in her bed who eventually stabbed her and left.  When the police came, they seemed disinterested in investigating the crime--they were sure it was an unhappy boyfriend that was responsible.  The perpetrator has never been caught.

What makes the book so riveting isn't that these crimes occurred-we are all exposed to endless reruns of Law & Order that spill the gory details.  More interesting is how Hamberg's family dealt with her.  Her mother was, for the most part, inconvenienced by her daughter's troubles, and any time they discussed them she either implied that her daughter was imagining things or she would flirt with the police officers who responded.  The attack that left Hamberg scarred turned into a situation where the mother made it all about herself and her own distress.

Hamberg then makes a conscious effort from then on out to protect herself, including becoming trained in self-defense.  Yet even with her physical power increased and her mind practiced on how to recognize and avoid harm, she discovers that those skills aren't enough.  As a film student, she rails against what is essentially a tradition in her classes: exploitation and violence of women as a way to generate interest.  Her classmates attempt to outdo each other in horrific scenes, that all are labeled as art so as to avoid censorship.

Even in her personal life, despite her awful experiences and a world-view that is wise to danger, she finds herself in precarious situations.  So awful that I didn't want to read any further.  I really wanted to put it away, because the nature of evil against women and children is not pleasant.  And I did, for a day or two. Yet I picked it back up, because I think there's a more serious question involved that needs to be evaluated.  Beyond what happened to her on an event by event basis, what about her emotional anchorage?  Where was her family?  Why were they so quick to demean her by ignoring her and minimizing events? 

As a parent, I had to continue to ask myself, why did no one listen?  Is there something I could be doing that is preventing me from hearing what my children are trying to tell me?  Especially mothers of daughters:  how much active listening takes place?  Could it be that our modern lives are so crazy busy and stressful that we tune out anything that could be "bad", just to avoid dealing with it?  Or does the violence we see thrown at us on television (Law & Order again) desensitize us to danger that could be present in the real world?

All the questions raised by this book make me think it would be valuable to use in a school setting.  In today's fractured families, perhaps there is a need for some sort of curriculum to let young women know that they are not crazy, not imagining things, and that they can reach out for help if others let them down.  Most of all, I appreciate that this book gives a former victim a voice: so often perpetrators of violence minimize their actions, or blame someone else (usually the victim), or manipulate the facts to portray themselves differently.  In fact, many criminals manage to use the same tactics as Hamberg's family (disinterest and distraction) to get away with terrible crimes. 

Seeing Hamberg step away from this pattern and how she did it is the takeaway that could be useful to many women. It's not a formula book, there's no "do this and you'll feel better".  But reading how she came through these experiences emotionally stronger makes for powerful reading.

Special thanks to Anna Shay of Route One Press for the Review Copy.

Irish Journal by Heinrich Boll (travel memoir)

Translated from the German by Leila Vennewitz

At a pub before evening mass, Heinrich Boll observes a shrewish woman harassing and threatening a hungry child that she thinks is using too much vinegar on his chips. By chance Boll notes that "the savior was approaching"...a banged-up brute who pretends to kiss her hand, offers her a ten-shilling note, then interjects, "May I request you, Madam, to regard these ten shillings as sufficient payment for the six drops of vinegar?"

The woman takes the money, embarrassed, and the man left her with one last reminder, "May I moreover remind you that it is time for the evening service? Please convey my respectful regards to the priest."

Oh snap.  Such a moment captured is one of the unforgettable scenes in Boll's Irish Journal, a collection of essays he wrote about his visit to the Emerald Isle in the 1950s that comes across much like a love letter to the Irish people.  In the event above, he doesn't just leave it at his own observation, he brings it to the reader's consciousness, by making us wonder about the benefactor:

"The man who lives poetry instead of writing it pays ten thousand percent interest. Where was he, the dark, blood-stained drunk, who had had enough string for his jacket but not for his shoes?"

Just outside, in the same scene as above, he depicts the buildings:
"King John's Castle reared grimly out of the darkness, a tourist attraction hemmed in by tenements from the twenties, and the tenements of the twentieth century looked more dilapidated than King John's Castle of the thirteenth; the dim light from the weak bulbs could not compete with the massive shadow of the castle, everything was submerged in sour darkness."

The image he creates mixes characters caught between faith and tradition and modern change, yet still capable of vast generosity in the face of poverty.  Anger mixes with empathy, and somehow the way he connects the fight over "vinegar" to the "sour" light makes it contain so much depth.  And of course, the bum's reminder to the woman about mass, a dig at her less-than-charitable spirit, shows how Boll could see the irony in the situation.

Many of the images that Boll writes about are not far off from our pop culture image of Ireland, a place romanticized by many as a place of quaint cottages and endless green.  (Those of us unfortunate enough to have seen the film, PS I Love You have further embellished that image with scenes of Gerard Butler and Jeffrey Dean Morgan meandering the countryside, spilling charm everywhere.  Neither of whom are Irish.) Having come off a semester of Irish Studies, I realize that the reality is far different, yet the timing of Boll's trip and his ability to write about the people of Ireland without delving into the politics make this a lovely read. 


In "Skeleton of a Human Habitation", Boll writes of the abandoned village he discovers on a walk with his family.  "Everything not made of stone gnawed away by rain, sun, and wind--and time, which patiently trickles over everything; twenty-four great drops of time a day, the acid that eats everything away as imperceptibly as resignation."  He describes the village much as a human body, with spine and heart and limbs--he puts the church as the head.  He observes that the town has been left alone and not plundered, and how the doorways and walls, while decrepit, still remain.  Only his own children, outsiders (the Bolls are German), attempt to raze what they can.  It seems that he's making a distinction between the identity of a nation towards its own things, and notes that "this, then, is what a human habitation looks like when it has been left in peace after death."  How many places permit this return to the soil?  Is it perhaps that the soil feels alive, a dignified presence deserving of respect?

Boll draws attention to generous train conductors that help out when they can't change money, and good-hearted people determined to help without question when they are short on funds.  He even describes something quite new to me:  the private drinking booth.  Inside it's leather curtain, "the drinker locks himself in like a horse; to be alone with whisky and pain, with belief and unbelief; he lowers himself deep below the surface of time, into the caisson of passivity, as long as his money lasts; till he is compelled to float up again to the surface of time, to take part somehow in the weary paddling: meaningless, helpless movements, since every vessel is destined to drift toward the dark waters of the Styx." 
 
Incidental details make Boll's journeys rich, and he describes them in a voice that is simple and clear.  I say that because I've been recently reading other German authors, namely Bernhard, Kafka, and Trakl, and at times I feel frustrated by my lack of understanding.  At the time I was reading this, Irish Journal, I also read Boll's The Bread of Our Early Years, just to see how different his memoir voice was from his narrative voice.  Both are deep reads, full of subtle clues, yet with surprisingly uncluttered prose.  Fortunately, Boll wrote a great many titles, and I'm eager to delve into more. 

As a side note, I found it interesting that the translator was the same for both books.  This led me to discover that Leila Vennewitz was pretty much the only English translator for Bolls, and received numerous awards for her translations.  In an interview in 2006, she stated that "she had always wanted to be a translator, she never made a major blunder in her work, she never had much trouble with editors and she preferred to take her time on each project. Vennewitz preferred to view the translator as "the boss," not unlike an orchestra conductor. She never had an agent and she pioneered the ability of translators to gain copyright for their own translations. She maintained she had always followed the early advice of a fellow translator: "Be bold." (BCBW 2007 archive, "Translation")

It should be said that while the essays were written in the 1950s, he did add an Epilogue dated 1967.  In this, he does acknowledge more of the political problems that were developing and the change present all over Europe, but seems focused on not taking a political position.  He has a bit to say about how the birth control pill will change Ireland, and it struck me as a bit unexpected, maybe naive.  Because of his love of all things Irish, especially the children, I wonder if he was heartbroken when some of the little children he so admired died in hunger strikes years later.  How pained he must have been.

From this all, of course, Ireland is still number one on my wish-list destination, and Boll's personal biography is the next thing I'm going to hunt for.

Special thanks to Nathan at Melville House for the Review Copy.

"Soundtrack of our Books" - article on coordinating music with literature

On the Millions website (http://www.themillions.com/), you can find all sorts of book-related discussions and reviews.  The following link is particularly intriguing. Sharon Steel wrote about publishers and authors who propose playlists that are directly (or indirectly) related to their characters and books.

What do you think?  Would you want your e-reader to pop up with music at certain moments of a scene?  Do you want to know what music the author was inspired by?  Is music too personally subjective to have presented as part of the 'package'?  In my case, I hate it when a book cover shows an actual person;  it interferes with how I picture things.  Along that line, I don't think I'd want a music tie-in necessarily...and I would especially dislike being pushed to understand a character by listening to their music (I would want that to be the writer's job).  Wouldn't it open up a whole new industry, catering to book interpretation, which would then be subject to costing the reader money?  Optional, maybe.  But required? No way.

Thoughts?

http://www.themillions.com/2012/01/the-soundtrack-of-our-books.html

The Joy of Books video..and why my Kindle can't dance

Sort of the coolest thing online, IMHO...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=SKVcQnyEIT8  This was on Jason Boog's Galleycat blog this morning.

My Kindle can't dance.

Surface Effects in Winter Wind, poetry by Tobi Cogswell

"Where kisses are given
and kisses received,
the charted course of
coffee and the smell
of jasmine outside
sweet as gold."

---from "This Kitchen"

Real people inhabit the world of Tobi Cogswell's poems in her collection, "Surface Effects in Winter Wind"---they breathe, eat, and sleep in a dreamy reality made beautiful by lovely word choices and unique images.  I loved the sense of life that the poems contain.  Not always happy life, but a life that is never lived with reluctance.

The most revealing is "Family Portrait," where Cogswell begins with the flat image of a staged family portrait: "They are frozen in time, not like the peeling wallpaper behind them, ticking off the years with nonchalant carelessness."  But she doesn't leave it there, in the place where "affection is not present."  Instead, she reveals what is happening off-camera and how the family history goes far deeper than the surface picture.  They are examined in past, present, and future, revealing that while "they are clean, stiff, poor and worn as the shirts", their future holds a certain stability made apparent in the sauce "always on the stove, the smiles always just out of reach".  In just a few verses, she's recreated their legacy and proved to be far more accurate than any superficial portrait could ever display.

The subject of family comes up often in her verses, such as when a generous tip becomes an emblem of "a good kitchen table with smiles, a pinch or two and misbehaving" in "Saturday at the Farmer's Market".  This poem journeys from the noisy market to a private room, capturing the sounds that start with a crowd full of noise that decreases incrementally until the last stanza is simply a whisper. She contrasts dandelions with roses, talks of music and avocados, and reveals a core of affection that travels the entire route.

"The Boy at Cannon Beach" is probably my favorite, simply for the images of a foggy California beach, with a sky like a "sodden marshmallow".  In it, a solitary boy, lost in thought, explores the beach in that singular way that can never be explained; a stream of consciousness that can be imagined but never shared or understood.  He examines "the hands that will save him, his own private clock in his own human time". As he continues, "damp footprints remind him and everyone that we love the best we can and then we're gone". The universal nature of the sea, the way it invites somber reflection and daydreams, seems to contrast with the what we may imagine as immature-the nature of a child-leaving us with a complicated depiction of age and time.  And given that the image is one of quiet, it's only afterwards that you realize she never actually uses the words "silence", "quiet", or "alone".  It's all inferred, not by synonyms but by images. 

The entire collection features a thread of romance that appears as a confident assurance of loyal companionship.  A hasty gambler, an angry waitress, and images of bacon make surprising appearances in poems that never feel too precious or aloof, but explored with warmth.

Special thanks to Kindred Spirit Press for the Review Copy.

Sick of the word "awesome"? He is too....

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-holland-20120106,0,246046,full.column

A British poet makes an excellent point about the pervasive use of a meaningless word...Los Angeles Times link.

January 2012 Australian Literature Challenge from Reading Matters

If you haven't signed up for the continuing Eastern European/Russian Reading Challenge for 2012 here, or the amazingly ignored 2012 Mediterranean Review Challenge (also here), shame on you!  Get with it!  You know you need that push to read more!

Russia is big this year:  Book Expo America made it the theme. The Mediterranean region is also full of topical events.  Jump in!  See the tabs up above for links to enter...

Now, if you'd prefer less committment, Kim at Reading Matters is hosting an Australian Literature Month Reading Challenge for January.  Just one month to read one or twenty titles from Australian authors or set in AU.  Sign up here: http://kimbofo.typepad.com/readingmatters/australian-literature-month-2012.html

Best of all, she has these cute little badges to show participation (you can select one or all of them):

I went with the Kookaboora bird...he looks like he's got some serious attitude!  Anyway, see the link to read instructions and find out titles you may enjoy.  A few that I'd recommend are below:

Murray Bail, Eucalyptus.  A quiet, peaceful book about a botanist determined to keep suitors away from his lovely daughter.  The games he plays rebuff most men, but she manages to keep amused in her own way.  Sweet, lovely, beautiful.  Textual Xanax.

Tim Winton (any and all).  Cloudstreet is probably his most famous, and appropriately so. Some scenes of pure joy and utter heartbreak, mixed with complicated times and intertwining families.  Dirt Music and The Riders are both my favorites too.  Breath was so-so.  Blueback was preachy. The Turning is an excellent collection of short stories, as is In the Winter Dark and Minimum of Two.  (Reviews of these are on the tab above for fiction, if you want more details)

The True Story of the Kelly Gang is a classic, you can't miss with it.

So, get out that new calendar and try to fit in more literature.  Your brain will get a break from ugly reality, you'll explore new places, learn some Aussie slang (just don't EVER EVER suggest putting a shrimp on the barbie---Aussies are not amused by Crocodile Dundee impersonators).

Tuck a paperback in your tote, or buy a Kindle and fill it up.  Just having it with you increases your reading all the more.  Even audiobooks count, so fill up a long commute with an audio book!

30 Under 30-An Anthology of Innovative Fiction by Younger Writers

The title alone tells me that I may be too old for this by about a decade, but I jumped into it eagerly.  And discovered I'm a lot dumber and decidedly less hip than I had hoped.

Edited by Blake Butler and Lily Hoang

The key is "innovative" and it really delivers on that end...the short stories that make up this collection bend all the rules, if not shattering them entirely.  Metaphysical thought mixes with concrete metaphors, and the result feels inspired and youthful, even if it all doesn't make sense.  Much of it went over my head, like hearing only the punch line of a joke and nodding amiably but cluelessly while everyone shrieks with laughter.

However, there is some dazzling writing here, and three I specifically want to mention, because they all lie outside the typical expectations about "good writing" may be.  For one thing, the iconic story of Robin Hood and his Merry Men gets an experimental twist in "When Robin Hood Fell with An Arrow Through His Heart" by Todd Seabrook.  The gang falls apart after Robin's death, not able to even kill themselves with their own arrows, despite trying.  "The form starts to go when it hasn't been used," warns Seabrook.  Having reached nearly the half-way point in the anthology, I couldn't help but think Seabrook was commenting on the very lack of variety and inventiveness in other forms of writing today, suggesting its "form" has already started to go from lack of innovation.

Joshua Cohen proves himself the master of killer lines in his part of the anthology, with seven short pieces all made visual and distinct with tight and compact wording.  "On Location" delivers the line "It is a common problem in our cities today -- When you don't know you're in a movie that you're in." After the unknown director repeatedly coaches the good-natured resident, not an actor, on how he wants the scene played, he finally tells him "Just do what you did.  You were so much better before."  This idea of playing along with a different reality and having the simple images of role-playing and direction juxtaposed, Cohen has created an amazing sense of truth to an unreal scene in just a few sentences, and concludes with the image of "a woman so vain she wants to look good even for the surveillance cameras."

My favorite of the anthology isn't even narrative;  it's a instructional/inspirational piece by Adam Good, entitled "Guided Walks".  In this he describes what can be taken from meta-guided walks, and how the randomness of phrases and word blends can create a new direction or seed of thought.  With supporting charts as documentation, he shows how reading, walking, or visiting with another person (or all combined) can create a new vocabulary that feels more real and vibrant than one expects.  Something along the lines of what Amazon used to call "statistically improbable" phrases that become a signature of a work. Mixing and musing become an exercise in creativity, but giving a starting point for a potential writer rather than an empty prompt.

The entire collection is quirky and bold, but it's in no way childish or immature.  From it's elementary-school picture day cover to the variety of ways text is manipulated, the collection offers a valid and respectable perspective of creative writing that is likely hidden from mainstream writing venues.  Margins, backgrounds, formatting:  all are subject to experimentation, with one entry by Zach Dobson actually looking exactly like a Mead Composition book that he filled in during homeroom.  While I admit much of it was outside my realm of imagination, I loved the concept of changing or questioning the status quo of what can be considered creative writing, and making something solid and real that can endure as well something more traditional and mainstream.

The Circle, fiction by Manolis

This is actually the second time recently that I've read a fiction novel written by someone I'd only known as a poet, and this departure for Manolis proves that a poet's eye  may add detail a novelist may initially miss.  The Circle is about the lives of many affected after 9/11 and how their actions are changed due to the event.  Yet, the narrative takes this outside the typical American perspective and looks at it from the viewpoint of Iraqis whose lives were altered by the bombings and warfare that followed.

Often, the poignant storyline becomes uncomfortable, because it's so different from how our media and Western mindset portrays the events.  Introspection seems inevitable, as characters, both from Iraq and the US, behave in ways that the reader has to question.  The underlying current of the novel looks at the CIA's involvement in Iraq pre-9/11, and how innocent citizens were affected so dramatically. 

Hakim is the protagonist, a student saved from the rubble and now a succesful American businessman.  He's a curious sort, because despite his wealth and success, he's categorically unemotional and distant.  The author intends for us to examine why that is the case.  The most fascinating character to me was that of his similarly wealthy uncle Ibrahim, who adopts him as a son when his parents were killed.  Throughout the story, I was debating with myself if Ibrahim was villain or hero, and of course, the answers are never that easy.

One thing that annoyed me a little was that both of the female characters that had significant roles in this novel were incredibly shallow and, shall we say, dumb as paint.  Given their own histories, their interaction with political circles, and being eyewitness to some of the horrors, it would seem they'd have more to say, or at least engage in some sort of meaningful interpretation.  To describe them as blindingly ignorant is not an exaggeration!  After giving it some thought, I suspect that was intentional  on the part of Manolis, and a way to subtly assert that many Americans may have a similar thought process when it comes to the more difficult questions and situations in life. 

In places, parts of the story are rough going as they demand the reader to consider the future in view of past history, and this can be disturbing to acknowledge.  Overall, however, I think this is a viable subject and angle to look at the post-9/11 world and disrupt any prejudices one may unwittingly hold.

Special thanks to Libros Libertad for the Advance Review Copy.

Dahlov Ipcar-two new heirloom children's books-One Horse Farm and Wild Animal Alphabet

I've raved about Islandport Press before, and fair warning, I'm going to do it again.  I found them a few years ago when a now-defunct children's magazine (called Cookie) had a rave review from author Dave Eggers for The Cat at Night, a lovely and unusual children's story book by an unknown-to-me artist, Dahlov Ipcar.  I ordered it immediately from an online retailer, and was delighted with the story about what the family cat actually does at night while everyone sleeps.  My little guy liked it too, but above the storyline, the art work is tremendous.  Ipcar creates an unusual world of colors and shapes that is all the more rare for children's books:  this is serious art. 

Ipcar uses bold colors in opaque "milk" tones with heavy lines and rough outlines.  What's more surprising is the use of black (until recently, practically never seen in children's books).  The result is a retro/vintage look that isn't a trend but the life art of an amazing and gifted artist.

So I was excited to get two of her newer titles:  One Horse Farm and Wild Animal Alphabet.

One Horse Farm is a simple story with a theme of loyalty that is woven around the childhood life of a boy on a country farm. Daily activities repeat as the child grows up and his perspective on the "small" farm changes.  Modern technology comes to the farm and changes things, but the sweet story is that some things can never become obsolete or tossed aside in favor of progress.  That the book says all this without being preachy is an art in itself....

The story itself is engaging for a three-year-old and up to understand;  younger than that, a toddler would likely love the photos and unique colors.  As always, this is a hardcover with pages printed on heavy stock with a quality look to it that makes it a likely heirloom in our family...seriously, there is a difference in quality among publishers of children's books.

The other title was a board book from Ipcar, Wild Animal Alphabet. This is the second Ipcar board book Islandport was produced with Ipcar's work (the previous was Farm Animal Alphabet).
The cover shows the kind of artwork Ipcar is famous for: cute but not overly sweet.  Bold colors and lots of interplay with shadows and light make each page interesting, even if it is "just" the alphabet.  I enjoy this difference from other children's book styles because when we read 4-5 stories before bed each night, I get really sick of cutesy pastels and pages that are over-saturated with random graphics.  Ipcar's work is easy on the eyes, simple, and unique.  Am I raving again?  Of course!  I only wish I could have decorated the baby's room around her artwork. 

Special thanks to Melissa Kim of Islandport Press for the review copies. 

Disclosure:  I loved this publisher and bought their books before I ever reviewed for them!

After reading Barbara's comment, I went to her website...her Ipcar work is stunning so the link is here if you are interested.  More heirlooms to collect (an obsession of mine since my only inherited treasures

consist of an icky old Avon bottle and an unfinished quilt)!!!

http://www.shopclassicrug.com/The-Dahlov-Ipcar-Collection-c14/

Call for Cash: year-end fundraisers at Rain Taxi, Three Percent (Open Letter)

Three Percent - Open Letter is the face of  translated literature right now, and as a nonprofit publisher, they could use some $$$$.  When planning year-end giving, consider going to the link to contribute to their annual fundraising.  They sometimes send out nifty little things like a car air freshener, just to remind you how generous you are!
http://www.rochester.edu/College/translation/threepercent/index.php?id=3759

Additionally, Rain Taxi literary magazine is hosting a series of Ebay auctions to raise money (they're a nonprofit too!).  Signed books and other literary stuff is on auction now: http://www.ebay.com/sch/raintaxi/m.html?hash=item3f1145a597&item=270872716695&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&_trksid=p4340.l2562

Copper Canyon Press is also finishing out the year attempting to raise funds at https://www.coppercanyonpress.org/pages/donation.asp.  Yep, they're a nonprofit.

Forgetting for a moment books in favor of children, the Jack and Abby Neonatal Foundation is working on getting a $25, 000 grant from Pepsi to provide a guest room for parents of critically-ill babies.  The details are at http://www.jackandabby.org/news.  Having spent several weeks away from home when my baby was in the NICU, having a place to crash nearby the hospital meant I could be with him at almost all times. The place I stayed was a block from the hospital, the guest room that Pepsi would provide would be right in the hospital!  More times for hugs and kisses!

Or, if you are more of an animal lover and would rather help them, consider the Pacific Wildlife Care Center's fundraising drive at http://www.pacificwildlifecare.org/supportus_donations.html.  This nonprofit is amazing:  they tried to save a poor hawk that was injured near our home. Several volunteers contributed funds and their time to try and get him back on his wings, but he didn't make it.  Yet, they tried and many are saved.  This last year from Jan through Nov, they treated over 1800 animals on the Central Coast, reintroducing them to the wild as soon as possible.

My Choices, top 2011 reads!

It's just the first week in December, but everyone's putting up their "best-of" posts so I guess I had better get busy!

This year was really fun for me.  Because I've been fairly insistent on maintaining my niche of Eastern European or Russian titles, these have arrived in abundance and there's so many treasures! 
       
 

Top 7 Fiction ---too many great titles to pare down any more:  5 of 7 were translations!

The Devil's Share by Kris Farmen, McRoy and Blackburn.  http://www.theblacksheepdances.com/2011/01/devils-share-by-kris-farmen-literary.html  Unusual protagonist, Alaskan wilderness, rapid-fire pace and a plot full of twists with nothing routine in it. 

Bandit Love by Massimo Carlotto and Europa Editions: http://www.theblacksheepdances.com/2011/09/bandit-love-by-massimo-carlotto.html  Italian crime, goodhearted criminals, and a dry wit that keeps it all moving forward

Frozen Time by Anna Kim, Ariadne Press: http://www.theblacksheepdances.com/2011/05/frozen-time-by-anna-kim-translated.html  Heartbreaking vision of the after-effects of the Balkan war, with unbelievable detail and real, flawed characters.

Heaven and Hell by Jon Kalman Steffanson, MacLehose Press
http://www.raintaxi.com/online/2011spring/stefansson.shtml 

The Sickness by Alberto Barrera Tyszka, MacLehose in UK, will release from Tin House in 2012 in US
http://www.theblacksheepdances.com/2011/08/sickness-by-alberto-barrera-tyszka.html

We, the Drowned by Carsten Jensen, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
http://www.theblacksheepdances.com/2011/08/we-drowned-by-carsten-jensen-translated.html

Waterline by Ross Raisin, Penguin UK
http://www.theblacksheepdances.com/2011/10/waterline-by-ross-raisin.html

Top 5 Poetry 3 of 5 were translations!

Before the Troubadour Exits by Jeffrey Alfier
http://www.theblacksheepdances.com/2011/05/before-troubadour-exits-by-jeffrey-c.html

A Fireproof Box by Gleb Shulpyakov, Canarium Books (Russian bilingual)
http://www.theblacksheepdances.com/2011/08/fireproof-box-by-gleb-shulpyakov.html

Signs & Wonders by Charles Martin, Johns Hopkins U P
http://www.theblacksheepdances.com/2011/04/signs-wonders-poems-by-charles-martin.html

These Hands by Per Aage Brandt, Host Publications (Danish Bilingual)
http://www.theblacksheepdances.com/2011/05/these-hands-per-aage-brandt-translated.html

Yannis Ritsos-Poems by Manolis
http://www.theblacksheepdances.com/2011/06/yannis-ritsos-poems-translated-by.html

Other categories:

Nonfiction Memoir:

Tramp by Tomas Espedal, The Art of Living a Wild and Poetic  Life, Seagull Books
http://www.theblacksheepdances.com/2011/06/tramp-or-art-of-living-wild-and-poetic.html translation

Maman's Homesick Pie by Donja Bijan, Algonquin
http://www.theblacksheepdances.com/2011/10/mamans-homesick-pie-by-donia-bijan.html




History:

Tashkent, Forging a Soviet City by Paul Stronski U of Pitt Press
http://www.theblacksheepdances.com/2011/02/tashkent-forging-soviet-city-by-paul.html

Shadows Walking by Doug Skopp (physician ethics, Holocaust) Technically a fiction novel but enough detail that I'm calling it history.

http://www.theblacksheepdances.com/2011/11/review-shadows-walking-by-doug-skopp.html

Favorite Publishers:  too many to list, but MacLehose, U of Pitt, New Directions, Archipelago, and Peirene are lovely to work with....

Favorite literary magazine:  Rain Taxi, of course!  But the PEN America journal is tied with Words without Borders for most fascinating coverage of unusual authors and themes.  World Lit Today and Tin House for their poetry coverage.

Favorite online book coverage:  HTML Giant, Galley Cat, and the Los Angeles Times Book Section (what's left of it).

My favorite blogs:  Manoflabook.com for Zohar's intense analysis, Bernadette's Reactions to Reading, Lisa Hayden's lisasotherbookshelf.blogspot.com, Mary Whipple's thorough coverage http://marywhipplereviews.com/, Daisy's Aconcise.blogspot.com where she streams through and posts the best lines of current novels, and the blogs for Open Letter, The Millions, and Conversational Reading.

Favorite Classic (Rediscovered):  Beowulf.  The Seamus Heaney version.  It finally makes sense, so maybe I've matured!

Great Russian Short Stories, edited by Paul Negri

Remember Dover Publications?  They run anywhere from $1.50 to $4.00 for a paperback, and I remember depending on them in high school for English assignments.  So, while a Penguin or Norton edition looks more elegant, there's nothing like a collection of cheap reads to keep in the car or to collect old classics.

So this title was one I purchased online at Powell's, just to get to know a few of the more obscure Russian authors.  This was surprisingly delightful!

It features Dostoevsky's "White Nights", "The District Doctor" by Ivan Turgenev, "Lady with Lap Dog" by Anton Chekhov (my favorite), and the timeless "How Much Land Does a Man Need" by Tolstoy.  These are short enough to complete one in a sitting comfortably--I've kept my copy in the car when I wait on someone and when I'm not in the mood to deal with my Kindle (which sadly is way too often!).  Gogol's "The Overcoat" is in it as well, and while the stories seem rather simple and harmless, they are actually amazing at analyzing human nature and all the nuances of greed, shame, and embarrassment. 

A cheap read, great background for Russian literature, and a great start for year two of the Eastern European Reading Challenge.

Disclosure:  I bought this.

Continuing--The Eastern European Reading Challenge 2012

Due to popular demand, 2012 will continue the Eastern European Reading Challenge from 2011.  We've ended up with 72 participants in 22 nations for the 2011 READ EAST. 

Since BEA this year will be focused on Russia, it seems only appropriate to continue with the Challenge.  Many literary magazines are continuing to focus on Eastern European themes.  This month's World Literature Today was focused on modern Russian poetry (!!!!!).

If you've already entered, there's no need to sign up again unless you want to.  The previous years entrants are listed on this link; http://www.theblacksheepdances.com/2010/12/2011-eastern-european-reading-challenge.html

If you are new to the Challenge, here's the deal:

Leave a comment to this post with your name and your country of residence.  You can shoot for 4, 8, or 12 titles.  Report back to the links below with links to your own website reviews, or titles you enjoyed and want to share with others.

Regions: Choose titles about or by an author from any of the following regions: Croatia, Ukraine, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, Hungary, Belarus, Estonia, Albania, Bulgaria, Georgia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Poland, Czech Rep., Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Romania, Moldova, and Kosovo.



Titles: Can be any genre: crime, poetry, literary fiction, history, historical fiction, memoirs, etc.  If possible, try to select titles that are translated works to help support the continuing exposure of Eastern works to Western readers.

Open Letter Books, Archipelago Books, Peirene Press, Melville House, and Ugly Duckling Presse are all small publishers that focus on a wide variety of translated titles of fiction and poetry.  Check them out! 



Links to reviews of Eastern European or Russian titles are in the comments box here:

http://www.theblacksheepdances.com/2011/01/links-to-your-reviews-of-eastern.html


Suggested titles by participants are here:
http://www.theblacksheepdances.com/2011/01/suggest-title-for-eastern-european.

Several new titles have come out since last year's challenge:

Poetry:  Into the Snow by Gennady Aygi; On the Border of Snow and Melt by Georgy Ivanov

Literary Fiction: the Penguin series by Kurkov, Dukla by Stasiuk, Wunderkind by Nikolai Grozni

Nonfiction: On the Road to Badabag by Stasiuk, Karaoke Culture by Dubravka Ugresic

Feel free to share details on your own blog and link to this page.  On February first, a trivia question regarding Eastern European lit will be posted with a Amazon UK or US gift certificate as prize.  It's going to be tough!
  
Just to be clear, yes...I have two Challenges running this year. Enter either or both!   My focus on accepting review copies will again by as closely limited to the Mediterranean and Eastern European regions as possible. 

Announcing...the 2012 Mediterranean Reading Challenge!

This year's Eastern European Reading Challenge hasn't yet ended, but it's time to think of next year's reading challenge.  I chose to go with the Mediterranean region because not only is it topical, it's also an area where translated works are flourishing.  And it's supposed to be healthier too!

The 2012 Mediterranean Reading Challenge!

So, start planning what level you'd like to try for if you decide to enter.  The last two years of reading challenges had over 70 people from more than 20 countries participating. 



2012 Mediterranean Reading Challenge Map



 The following countries are included: Algeria, Albania, Tunisia, Spain, Morocco, Libya, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Italy, Greece, Bosnia, Croatia, Yugoslavia, Monaco, Slovenia, Crete, Cyprus, and Malta.

Need ideas to start?  You can explore at Archipelago Books (archipelagobooks.org), Peirene Press (www.peirenepress.com) or Open Letter (openletterbooks.org) to find translated fiction and poetry, as they are the preeminent publishers of translated works.

Levels:

3-Tourist

6-Explorer

9-Scholar

To enter, leave a comment on this post with your name and home country and reading goal.  Another post will be created for you to leave links to your reviews or to post titles you may want to share.  To keep things relevant, I'll add occasional news topic posts to the blog that deal with this region and may be of interest to participants.  You'll soon find a tab on the home page that will control information for the Mediterranean challenge details.  If I'm really ambitious, I may throw in a recipe or two.

Additionally, the Eastern European Reading Challenge is going to continue...there's been enough interest to keep that in play for the next year.  You'll find a new post that allows you to enter if you haven't already.

http://www.worldatlas.com/

According to the World Atlas site, the Mediterranean "is bordered on the north by Europe, the east by Asia, and in the south by Africa. This 969,100 sq. mile body of water is approximately 2,300 miles in length, and has a maximum depth of 16,896 ft. Major subdivisions include the Adriatic Sea, Aegean Sea, Balearic Sea, Tyrrhenian Sea, Ionian Sea and Ligurian Sea."


For purposes of Spain, the Catalonian region is included. Extra points if you can find works from the islands of Cyprus, Sardinia, Malta, or Sicily!

Some ideas:

A Mind at Peace                                                                   Death in Spring
by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar                                                      by Mercè Rodoreda
translated from the Turkish by Erdag Göknar                          (http://www.openletterbooks.org/)
(http://www.archipelagobooks.org/)


Open Letter Books



White Masks

by Elias Khoury

translated from the Arabic by Maia Tabet                                    
(http://www.archipelagobooks.org/)

grab a button for your
blog....CUT/PASTE

Please join this year's challenge and see if we can discover new regions and cultures, while helping support the efforts of small presses and translators to make global literature accessible to all.

Sign up now and share your finds!

When She Woke by Hillary Jordan, new Giveaway!

Algonquin has generously provided me with an extra copy of When She Woke, the latest from Hillary Jordan.  This futuristic novel plays on concepts found in Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic, The Scarlet Letter.

So far, everyone I know that has read it says it's amazing! My review will coincide with the week of the giveaway and appear then.


To enter, you must be a blog follower and leave a comment below.  PLEASE include contact info (email) in your comment so I can let you know if you win.  US only, ends Dec 15, 2011. 

Winning! Three giveaway winners listed here!

Three giveaways have ended, so the winners are listed below. I'm contacting them via email...

Shadows Walking:  Bev

Child Wonder:  The Dawson Family

11 x 14 Canvas Print :  Kristin Lucille!

Show Up, Look Good by Mark Wisniewski (novel)

"...I'd need to begin and finish before anything worthwhile came of what a woman like me could do with a cheap paintbrush, four signature colors, and a decision to live with nerve."

This decision to live with nerve comes pretty quickly when Michele decides to leave her cheating fiance in Kankakee and move to New York.  Specifically, Manhattan.  To become an artist.  Something she's never done before.  Art.

I know!  You're thinking, "I know where this one is headed!" Too many Country Mouse, City Mouse stories have made the small-town-girl-goes-to-the-city seem like a sad, predictable genre of its own.  Or maybe it was Crocodile Dundee II that did us in.  In any case, hearing the basic layout makes one think this young woman is going to end up as a serial killer's victim or a suddenly-discovered genius who ends up in a penthouse with a view, buying Jimmy Choos and designing a fragrance collection.  You just know beige leather sofas and clear glass vases of tulips are on their way.

So... you'd be wrong.  I was wrong.  There is nothing predictable or routine in this story of starting somewhere new and trying to reinvent yourself.  (Geez:  Just that previous line sounds as corny as the genre!)  First off, Michele is smart, and she's not expecting much.  She knows everyone back home is expecting her to fail, which propels her to succeed.  She's not looking for glamour; she's looking for a parking spot for her crappy Renault.  Her time is spent looking for an apartment, then a room, possibly a closet: anywhere to live and remain in the city.  That she's willing to bathe her new old lady landlord to instill "trust" shows her desperate need to stay.  The city means that much to her.

Making rent money is an issue, and she starts an innovative street business that has something to do with David Letterman.  She sells the Renault in a scene where you can't be sure if the perspective buyers want a test drive or just free use of the car.  Significantly, she meets an elderly man, an ex-Yankee, who gives her some guidance and life advice although he can't speak.

Between a fire, an audition for Stupid Human Tricks, and a job as a clerk in the world's most disgusting grocery store, she manages to survive.  She even survives a side trip to Astoria with a creepy new age couple who seem to be overly helpful--that she considers walking away from them an 'escape' is telling.

It's not all fun, and just when you are reading along and giggling, a transition takes place that smacks you down.  Wait!  What happened?  Could she be the subtle and evil villain known as the 'unreliable narrator'?  Things change, and now the story takes on a different aspect.  Same people, same places, but with a bit more information.  It's not as funny, but that doesn't mean it's diminished.  It's manipulative! It makes you reassess what has been happening so far.

"Then there's the reality very few people care to face: unless you have majestic beauty or power, your secrets rarely matter to anyone but yourself."   She said this in the beginning, but I didn't catch the ominous tone.  With the shift, though, comes even more suspense.  Who is Michele?  The breathless voice she's used to describe her adventures...was she holding back?  What secrets did we need to know?

This is a great read that went too fast.  I loved that it didn't play to type and that Michele never becomes that celebrity-wannabe that appears on every other reality show.  The only thing I don't understand is, what's so bad about Astoria? 

Special thanks to Gival Press for the Advance Review Copy.

The author, Mark Wisniewski, is not just an ace writer; he

writes some of the most amazing poetry you're likely to read!

THREE Giveaways, ending soon! Enter now....

Just to recap, there are three giveaways going on right now.  To enter any or all, leave a comment at each link. 

Open to US only, blog followers:

Child Wonder, new paperback by Roy Jacobsen, from Graywolf Press.  A translated fiction novel set in Norway.  http://www.theblacksheepdances.com/2011/11/child-wonder-giveaway-and-read-east.html  ENDS NOV 15, 2011 at 9:00 pm PAC time. 

Shadows Walking, new paperback by Doug Skopp, from CreateSpace.  Historical fiction circa WWII.
http://www.theblacksheepdances.com/2011/11/theme-week-shadows-walking-by-professor.html  ENDS NOV 20, 2011 at 9:00 PM PAC time.

CANVAS PRINT OF YOUR CHOICE (UPLOAD YOUR OWN!), 11 x 14, by EASY CANVAS PRINTS.  LIKE them on Facebook and leave a comment to enter.  http://www.theblacksheepdances.com/2011/11/canvas-print-giveaway-enter-now-to-win.html Even if you don't win, you can get 50% off and free shipping by liking them on FB and referring to TBSD.  ENDS NOV 20, 2011 at 9:00 PM PAC time.

An example of a canvas print from EASY CANVAS PRINTS.

Review: Shadows Walking by Doug Skopp

...The conclusion of the week devoted to the new novel, Shadows Walking.

"More people thinking everything is stupid or corrupt or evil than people who think things are good. More people hating.  Wanting to do someone or something harm.  Anti-Semites, Anti-Communists, Anti-Women, Anti-modern art, music...Hating everything and everyone different from them.  We're all in trouble if this doesn't stop."

Philipp's prophetic words appear in an early chapter of the book, Shadows Walking, by Douglas Skopp.  I've noted already that I think highly of the novel, which is considered historical fiction but based on detailed and thorough study of historical documents from the time period prior to and through the Holocaust. 

Philipp is a friend of the protagonist, Johann Brenner, and they lead nearly parallel lives as the novel begins just after WWI.  Both are medical students, eager to make a positive impact in their community despite the troubled times that Germany is experiencing.  Their friendship becomes strained as an underlying current in their social class begins blaming the Jews for the problems. 

Thus begins a study, not so much of the Holocaust exactly, but more precisely a study of the how studies in eugenics and the desire to rid Germany of "undesirables" was used to justify the killing of millions.  Author Skopp analyzes how both men felt about eugenics and how it conflicted with their code as physicians.  In Brenner's case, it becomes a question of status. As a trained physician he feels that he's due more distinction in his life, while Philipp as a Jew faces questions about how his beliefs in ending unnecessary suffering are twisted into a vindication of the evil the Nazi's perpetrate.

"Johann felt unable to dissect Hitler's categorical statements, to think of opposing arguments, to consider the implications of what he was reading.  He had never been taught to think critically, to ask why and how an author might be trying to grab his mind and shape his convictions.  His whole generation had assumed that if a statement appeared on the printed page, it must be true."

The novel is grim, but it displays significant restraint in not trying to exploit the subject for gratuitous horror.  Two features especially stood out to me as noteworthy.  One was that it provides especially detailed insight in the period between WWI and WWII and the context of pre-Holocaust years.  Few books go back that far to find the links; they only start with WWII.  I can only think of Markus Zusak's The Book Thief as one that lays the groundwork for the events, and even it doesn't go back as far as this novel.  To me, this information was both new and critical to understanding how people were manipulated so thoroughly.

The other key to this novel is the rendering of the character of Johann Brenner.  While we know from the start he's a villain (for lack of a better word), the story goes backward to explain how he came to that end.  He's never a sympathetic character;  as a reader there's never a point where he is especially appealing.  Yet, rather than portray him as a stereotypical mad scientist, the novel proceeds to show how his flawed reasoning came to be.  Additionally, a sense of suspense and tension is created because he's hanging around the Nuremberg Trials, incognito, while his peers are being tried for war crimes.  As a reader, I wanted to know why.

Special thanks to CreateSpace for the Advance Review Copy.

Thanks too, to author Doug Skopp for his input this week.

To enter to win a copy of the book, leave a comment below.  US only, ends Nov 20.

Tomorrow, a lighter side of reading will appear, with a review of the new book,

Show Up, Look Good.

Conclusion: Author Interview--Doug Skopp "Shadows Walking" and the Nuremberg Trials

....the last of a series of a questions I was able to ask Doug Skopp, author of Shadows Walking.

Enter to win a copy by leaving a comment on any of this weeks' posts or at

http://www.theblacksheepdances.com/2011/11/theme-week-shadows-walking-by-professor.html

Amy: Could you explain how the Nuremberg Trials ended and the long-term impact of their judgment?



Doug:  There were many trials at Nuremberg. The one most people know about is the first one, the International Military Tribunal, which focused on the highest ranking or most influential, captured Nazis, most notably, Hermann Goering (and on one Nazi, Martin Bormann, head of the Chancellery and Hitler’s private secretary, tried in absentia.) My novel refers to this trial, but I am most interested in the “Doctors’ Trial,” the first of twelve more trials at Nuremberg against significant Nazis or supporters. Allow me, please, to summarize the little essay on this trial that I have written on my website, www.shadowswalking.com

The “Doctors’ Trial” was officially called the United States of America v. Karl Brandt, et al. Karl Brandt, an actual character in my novel, was the highest ranking medical officer captured by the Allies at the end of the war and brought to trial; therefore, his name precedes all the other defendants in this trial.

Twenty-two men and one woman were indicted on October 25, 1946: twenty, including the one female, were physicians; the other three were Nazi officers involved in some aspect of medical administration. All twenty-three were accused of being significantly involved with Nazi initiatives to kill those held to be “living lives not worth living” and for experiments on human beings. The trial opened on December 9, 1946 and concluded on August 20, 1947. The defendants were charged with “conspiracy to commit war crimes” and with “crimes against humanity,” which meant plans for mass murder in phases of the “euthanasia” programs, and for medical experimentation on prisoners and civilians without their consent. The Tribunal determined that the charge of “conspiracy to commit war crimes” was “beyond its jurisdiction” but found incontrovertible evidence linking the defendants found guilty to “crimes against humanity.” Many were also charged with membership in the SS, a criminal organization. Of the twenty-three defendants, seven, including Brandt, were sentenced to death, and hanged on June 2, 1948. Seven more were acquitted of all changes. The remaining nine received prison sentences of ten years to life; but none—eight men and the one woman defendant—served the full term of his or her sentence. Excerpts from the transcript of the Doctors’ Trial can be found through the link provided by the University of Missouri-Kansas City at

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/nuremberg/NurembergDoctorTrial.html.

The most important result of the Doctor’s Trial is the Nuremberg Code, which establishes a foundation for an ethical research protocol involving human beings. Elements of the Nuremberg Code first were articulated by Dr. Leo Alexander, a prominent psychiatrist and medical educator who had emigrated to the United States from Austria in 1933. His six principles, plus four more added by the judges at Nuremberg, are now widely recognized as a standard in the United States and beyond. The first principle is “voluntary consent of the human subject, based upon his or her full freedom of choice and awareness of the nature, extent, purpose and duration of the experiment, as well as any hazards and effects it might cause to the subject’s health; obtaining this consent is the duty of the experimenter.” The Nuremberg Code provides an anchor for all subsequent medical ethics. Its wisdom, if followed, should prevent such atrocities from occurring again—but we already know that they did occur after it was established, and that it is entirely possible that they will continue to occur, given the high stakes of prestige and material gain that dangle above unprincipled medical researchers and those who encourage them. (To see the other Nuremberg Code principles and sources for further reading, please go to my essay on “Nazi doctors” on www.shadowswalking.com website.)

Amy:  Do you see any parallels between post-1989 Eastern Europe racial wars/genocide and the Holocaust?


Doug:  Unfortunately, wars and genocides all now resemble each other in that they seek total commitment from the combating societies. As a result, governments and radical groups generate propaganda and develop ideologies that deliberately undermine rational thinking. We are encouraged to think in terms of “us” versus “them.” To suspect “the other,” whoever the “other du jour” may be. To simply stereotype the enemy as the devil incarnate and set in motion the instruments of his destruction. Modern instruments of destruction are particularly brutal, as in Bosnia and in Eastern Europe. But machetes achieved the same end in Rwanda. We are a violent species. Our propensity for violence is evident now in the hostility in the Middle East between Israel and the Palestinians and their supporters, and in the conflicts between the Sunni and the Shias. Biological, chemical and nuclear weaponry makes such confrontations all the more fearful. Until we learn how to see every human being as a reflection of ourselves, we are destined, I fear, to see more genocides.

Amy:  Finally, was it difficult to write such a complicated protagonist as Brenner without resorting to stereotype?

Doug:  Yes, I didn’t just want to write a simplistic story of a “bad guy,” like a GI-Joe comic book or a caricature like “Hogan’s Heroes.” It was painfully difficult to write about someone like Brenner—far more difficult than I ever imagined. The worst part was having to “become” Brenner, in the same way any author must enter into the persona that he or she is trying to describe and make real for the reader. From 1990 until 2006, when I retired, I only allowed myself to write on the novel during summer vacations. Each summer, I forced myself to begin by re-reading portions of the transcripts of the Nuremberg Trials, and each time I did, I experienced anew the horror of what happened because of Nazi brutality. It took me nine years before I could actually write the first sentence which describes Brenner’s initial vicious act. I remember weeping after I wrote it.

But then I began to experience another kind of problem. The deeper Brenner got into his Nazi mentality, the more I began to mirror his attitude towards his victims. I found that I, too, was becoming indifferent. Each time I felt this, I returned to my copies of archival materials and to the trial transcripts, in order to remind myself that I was not Brenner. I must tell you, I didn’t enjoy writing Shadows Walking whatsoever. I know it is not an enjoyable book. It was painful to write, and it is painful to read. I tried to not let my writing affect my health and outlook on life, but I can’t be sure that it didn’t. As much as possible, I tried to keep the brutality and violence in the story to a minimum; to keep it off-stage, so to speak—but since it is about Nazi atrocities, I did not know how to leave that all unsaid.  In short, I didn’t write this novel to entertain anyone, least of all to provide a voyeur what has been called the “pornography” of violence. I wrote Shadows Walking out of my deep conviction that we must try to understand what each of us is capable of doing. Learning that about myself was indeed painful, especially given my Jewish heritage. I can only hope that it is worthwhile for others to learn, too.

Special thanks again to Professor Skopp for his help in providing this week's backstory to the novel Shadows Walking and his insight on the Holocaust and keeping the topic relevant in our forgetful society.

To lighten things up quite a bit, stay tuned for a review next week of Show Up, Look Good by Mark Wisniewski, possibly the most amusing book I've read this year....

Author Interview Pt. 1: Doug Skopp, Background to Shadows Walking

Doug Skopp, author of Shadows Walking, has generously provided an intensive focus this week for TBSD regarding the Holocaust.  I felt his book brought up issues worthwhile to consider, which is why I've devoted so much time to it.  I had a few additional questions that he's answered below, which I'll continue with tomorrow.

Amy:  When WWI devastated most of Europe, most of the nations were impoverished and confused. Your book depicts the hyperinflation that plagued Germany that created a severe financial crisis. Given that other nations were in a similar position, why was Hitler so successful in Germany? Was it the situation that created the monster or could a similar dictator have risen up in another part of Europe? Why him, and why Germany?



Doug:  Before I answer these and the other powerful and challenging questions below, if anyone is interested, my novel’s website— www.shadowswalking.com —has six thematic bibliographies listing works in English about these topics. There I also provide links to seventy little essays I have written about the actual persons, places, incidents and circumstances (e.g., Hitler, Versailles Peace Treaty, hyper-inflation, etc.) around which Shadows Walking is woven. Please go to the website and click on ‘Further Reading,’ then scroll down to the bibliographies and below that, to the alphabetical listing of the little essays.

Now, to the first group of questions. World War I was a “total war.” It demanded every speck of material from a war-time economy and enormous sacrifice for all the warring nations. As a result, everyone in those nations, both those in uniform and all civilians behind the lines, was at war. Even before the war ended in 1918, economic crises became evident. The weakest state—Imperial Russia—dissolved into a civil war in 1917 that lasted until 1923, when Lenin and the Bolsheviks solidified their power. Imperial Germany held out as long as it could but finally had to agree to an armistice in November 1918. It teetered on the brink of revolution until 1920, when a new government, the Weimar Republic—Germany’s first democracy, based on a remarkably progressive constitution—was formed.

The victorious Allies were not much better off. They held Germany responsible for all their losses in men and material, and were determined to make a vindictive peace. The reparations payments they demanded would have indebted Germany to them for generations. When Italy wasn’t able to negotiate what it thought was its fair share at the peace table, it disintegrated into fascism, with Mussolini in control of the government in 1922—another victim of the costs of the war.

At first, the new German government refused to pay, leading the French and Belgians to occupy Germany’s coal mining region and attempt to extract coal as payment for some of their losses. Britain attempted to reconcile with Germany, fearing a communist revolution there and a continent that would be dominated by France. Finally, the German government began to pay by printing money—staggering sums of money. This lead to hyper-inflation—one German mark was eventually worth about a billionth of its pre-war value; it was cheaper to burn the paper for fuel than to try to buy anything with it. As a result, Germany’s payments to its war widows and orphans, its public servants and others on fixed incomes and pensioners were rendered meaningless. Those with savings, large sections of the working and middle-classes, were ruined. Revolution was a real possibility.

By 1923, Hitler and his supporters tried to overthrow the Weimar Republic, accusing it of spinelessness, and imagining conspiracies dominated by “the Jews” who either sought a communist revolution or who profited from the economic crisis. Wherever Hitler pointed, he saw “the Jews”. His Putsch failed. He was brought to trial for treason and sentenced to five years in prison. He served only nine months, during which he wrote Mein Kampf, and was released for good conduct. Meanwhile, in 1924, the United States agreed to subsidize the German government, which could now afford to pay the reparations payments to Britain, France and Belgium, which in turn could re-pay the United States for the money we had loaned them in the war. This stimulated post-war recovery. For five years, the 1920's roared along to new prosperity.

The Great Depression ended this euphoria. The stock market crash reverberated across Europe. Banks failed. Unemployment soared. Revolution again seemed likely. Especially in Germany. Hitler’s Nazi Party had lost leverage between 1924 and 1929, even though he profited from the national attention he received in his trial and became independently wealthy because of the sales of Mein Kampf. In 1929, the Party’s fortunes rose dramatically. From then until October 1932, the Nazi Party gained in seats in the Reichstag, the national assembly. But then they lost votes to the rival socialist and communist parties. Conservatives in the government feared a revolution from the left; they invited Hitler in to be chancellor, overcoming whatever distaste they had for his politics and appreciating his nationalistic fervor. When the Reichstag building is set on fire a month later, Hitler declares a national emergency, blames the socialists and communists, sends them to the first concentration camp built specifically for this purpose, and begins the systematic destruction of any opposition to his dictatorship.

Could this situation have happened anywhere else? Yes, I think so. It all hinges for me on the vindictive peace treaty, itself the product of the merciless viciousness of the war. The Allies wanted to punish Germany. If any other nation had lost, a fascist dictator might have come to power there (as was the case in Italy, and after 1936, in Spain). Fascism was an understandable strategy to deal with economic chaos and possible communist revolution. It was supported by capitalists, conservatives, and religious leaders who feared the alternative. A few warned at the time that a harsh peace, unless it could be enforced, would produce a monstrous tyranny in reaction. But the monstrous tyranny that most feared throughout the capitalistic, nationalistic world at the time was Bolshevism, not fascism. It turns out, alas, that both of these ‘isms’ allowed those who championed them to display the very worst traits we have as human beings.

Amy:  Regarding the medical experimentation: Did these Nazi doctors simply have free reign to do as they wished, or was there scientific methodology they were trying to adhere to? Were there any long-term benefits from their "research" or was the nature of it, as "fruit of the poisonous tree," rendered worthless?

Doug:  There were two general research agendas: to determine appropriate strategies to deal with combat conditions, wounds, deprivations, as well as methods to conduct more efficient warfare—chemical and biological weapons, for example; and to advance what was claimed to be scientific understanding of human biology, disease, and heredity. The government provided funding and material support for both of these endeavors. Concentration camp conditions permitted researchers great latitude in pursuing them. In all cases, this research was based on racist ideologies that were justified by Social Darwinism and eugenics. And there was no informed consent from the victims.

Nazi medical research did reach some significant conclusions. Before the war, for example, epidemiologists and laboratory researchers demonstrated the direct link between nicotine and lung cancer, and recognized the influence of specific environmental conditions on other cancers. Unfortunately, this research was discredited after the war, in great part by the tobacco industry, because it was conducted by Nazis in the Third Reich. See Robert N. Proctor, The Nazi War on Cancer (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999).

Obviously, medical research in the concentration camps is highly problematic. Victims were offered little to no accurate information about the treatments they were forced to endure—and even if they were, can we really imagine that they gave genuinely voluntary, informed consent? There is a strong argument that subjecting a human being to such treatments without voluntary, informed consent invalidates the research findings: the prisoner’s lack of autonomy quite possibly affects his or her body’s responses to the treatment. Who’s to say that our mental state doesn’t impact even our most fundamental biological activity? The more we learn about the mind-body connection, the more we realize how important it is.

Just the same, some Nazi research did produce valid information or at least led to further, more responsible research that has become significant. For example, in the field of cryogenics, we have come to understand the importance of lowering body temperature in order to treat specific traumatic conditions or increase success in some surgical settings; and improvements in designing prosthetic limbs can be traced back to some of this research.

In any case, all such research is unethical. It uses human beings as a means to an end, in violation of widely agreed upon, fundamental and responsible religious and ethical principles. The significant question remains: should we now use whatever is valid information that has been learned from such experimentation? Some say, yes, we should, in order that others may now benefit, and so the victims’ sacrifice will not be in vain. Others say, no, we should not, because of the sordid way in which the information was obtained, lest we rationalize that such ends will justify similar means, and in an attempt to honor the victims’ pain and sacrifice. It is a very controversial topic among medical ethicists and philosophers. At the least, discussing it heightens our awareness of potential abuses in medical science and practice.

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