Books and Ideas (09)

I read for ideas. What follows is my attempt to summarize the main ideas of books I have read.

The Mayor of Casterbridge: A Story of a Man of Character. Thomas Hardy.
Novel. Why read it? Twenty years ago, when I was an English supervisor in a K-12 school district, a parent asked me, “Why is all the literature we read in English so depressing?” She might have been referring to this novel, Thomas Hardy’s The Mayor of Casterbridge. A man gets drunk at a fair and sells his wife and daughter to another man. He repents and becomes a successful citizen and mayor of Casterbridge. But he cannot escape the consequences of his evil act. Depressing? No, an insight into life.

Memoirs by Harry S. Truman. Vol. One: Year of Decision.
Why read it? To understand the magnitude of Harry S. Truman’s achievement, the flexibility of his personality, the sophistication of his political skills and the application of his fundamental principles. This memoir belies his image of a small-town hayseed who somehow managed to stumble through his Presidency. He was a prolific reader.

Memoirs by Harry S. Truman. Vol. II: Years of Trial and Hope.
Why read it? The second volume of Truman’s Memoirs concerns the major issues with which he had to deal after WWII: Russia and the Cold War; the Berlin Blockade; labor, management and the Taft-Hartley Law; Korea, Communist China; Mac Arthur; the Marshall Plan and, of course, his reelection in 1948.

Memoirs of the Second World War: An Abridgement. Winston S. Churchill.
Why read it? Churchill was given the power to lead when things looked darkest, used the power of the English language to rally his people, maintained the willingness to fight until the bitter end in order to save Western civilization, managed to hold off defeat in spite of horrendous bombings of London, U-boat depredations and fears of invasion until America entered the war, went on alone in spite of the fall of France, worked with Roosevelt and clashed with Stalin to win the war, and, when the Allies had won and their enemies had surrendered unconditionally, was promptly turned out of office by his people. This too is democracy.

Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of Allusions. E. Webber and M. Feinsilber, Eds.
Why read it? I bet you think reading dictionaries is a nerdish activity. Maybe so, but if you love language, you have to enjoy reading books that talk about words. In this review of allusions, you will find a rich assortment of indirect references, references assumed by writers to be understood by their readers and therefore unexplained in the text. Spot an allusion you don’t understand? Look it up in this book. Reading the allusions in this book is a bachelor of arts degree in itself.

Microbe Hunters. Paul DeKruif.
Why read it? The stories in this book are about known and unknown heroes of humanity. They are distinct personalities. Sometimes they doggedly worked to achieve their goals and sometimes they achieved them by accident. Paul DeKruif, the author of these biographies of scientists, has an engaging style of writing. Your eyes will fly over the pages of this book. These scientists struggled to achieve victory over disease, a victory that today we take for granted. You will also learn from this history of science that science is not a neat, orderly process.

Middlemarch. George Eliot.
Novel. Why read it? The theme of this novel is the loss of idealism. Dorothea is disillusioned to find that her husband is a desiccated scholar, a scholar whose work is a waste of time. The second loss of idealism occurs with Dr. Lydgate, a physician. The lost idealism of Dr. Lydgate is probably true of many physicians today. Depressing? No, an insight into life.