Books Blog : reviews, politics

My Land is Dying, by Harry Caudill

Bufkinite@evpl — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 01:38:00 GMT

Why review a 38 year old book? When I spotted this book, I remembered the name Harry Caudill because of his book Night Comes to the Cumberlands. I read that book after reading a chapter about Harry Caudill in a book of essays by Wendell Berry called What Are People For?

Now, I've been an admirer of Wendell Berry for years, and enjoy his writing - and his thoughts - immensely. Like Berry, Caudill (1922-1990) was a person who willingly tied his life to a place - the Kentucky Cumberlands - and he spent his life living and working in that place, and protecting what he found valuable in it. What he found valuable, it turns out, was the landscape, the people, and the culture that the two - put together - formed.

Published in 1971, My Land is Dying is a detailing of the history the exploitation of the Cumberlands' resources - first the virgin forest that blanketed the region, later the coal, and always the people. He details how the collusion of state government with business interests first disenfranchised, then impoverished, and finally drove from the land the vast majority of the inhabitants of the land. Caudill knows what he's talking about; he was a lawyer, and a good one. But he defended the defenseless, and saw time & again how victories at the local level would be reversed by higher level courts in the capital of Frankfort. His narrative of this slow, inexorable death is accompanied by pictures that show the devastation, and he spends time talking about people. Not in the abstract, but real folks with real names, like the widow Ollie Combs, who was arrested on her own land when she delayed miners by laying down in front of bulldozers.

Written 38 years ago, this book's message should be read more urgently today, both because the stakes are higher, and the truths that it speaks are undiminished: "No nation was ever more abundantly endowed with natural beauty than ours. Yet it is clear from this continuing record that no nation has been more heedless of its legacy. And no chapter of that record is uglier or more threatening than the chapter that continues to be written by the mining interests, whether below or on the surface of the land."

This book may be old, but it deserves to be widely read.

"American Wife" by Curtis Sittenfeld

MediaPhile@evpl — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 20:24:00 GMT

Loosely based on the lives of George and Laura Bush, this novel is causing a sensation in both political and literary circles.

Thirty-three year old author Curtis Sittenfeld hit the bestseller lists with her first novel, "Prep," in 2005, utilizing her Seven Sisters background in a fictional probe of elite prep schools. Now she tackles one of American's premier political dynasties.

I'm only halfway done but find it interesting that the cover featues a formal wedding gown, since Laura actually wore a simple white two-piece outfit in a small ceremony within months of meeting George. She was a sweet book-reading thirty-one-year-old elementary school librarian and he was a charming, funny young politician hoping to do big things and please his family.

The most revealing chapter so far involves the secretly engaged couple's weekend visit to the family compound, Halcyon (Kennebunkport). There Alice (a thinly disguised Laura) must contend with the athletic, boisterous, and somewhat bawdy Blackwell (Bush) clan. "Maj" (Barbara) -- short for Major -- proves to be a special challenge. (Am I imagining it or do the Bushes and Kennedys resemble each other -- if not in politics than in their clanishness, good time 'tudes and hunger for power?)

Far greater reviewers than I have covered this novel -- including Joyce Carol Oates for the New York Times and Joe Klein in Time Magagine. Or read an author interview with Leslie Stahl of CBS News.

I can't wait to get off work -- but should I watch rehashed political commentary on CNN, Fox, or MSNBC or read my novel? I think I'll read.

A great book...or THE GREATEST book of all time???

professor.knowsitall@evpl — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 22:01:00 GMT

Last weekend I finished reading Stephen Colbert's epic tome I Am America (and So Can You!). If you have not done yourself the favor of reading this New York Times Bestseller (previously #1 on the hardcover nonfiction list), DO IT NOW! The fate of the free world rests in your hands.

Being a fan of Comedy Central's The Daily Show and Stephen's spin-off, The Colbert Report, I can attest that I Am America lives up to the wit and humor of the television shows. As always, Colbert pulls no punches as he speaks his mind, the one-and-only absolute truth. The only other way to absorb this much of his truthiness is to beam the contents of his brain directly into yours; look for the "Stephen Colbert's Brain Downloading Kit" coming soon to stores, but unlike his book it won't be available for free at the library.

Without this book, I would not have known the truth about the evil, liberal media; the evil, liberal Hollywood; Catholicism being the one true religion; the unfair advantages seniors get in our country (lookin' at you, Social Security!!!); and, of course, the cold-blooded killers that bears are. I will not ruin the surprise by going on further about the book's content, but it should be considered sacred doctrine. In fact, each copy comes with a sticker alerting firemen how many copies of the book are in your house to rescue, in case it's ever on fire.

In short, read this book now. As I went through withdrawals during the writers' strike, it helped me get my Colbert fix. If you're still not convinced, know that it was recently awarded with "The Stephen T. Colbert Award For The Literary Excellence".