The Tender Bar, Moehringer - B

                                          Thanks to Jack Blair for this recommendation.  This memoir is about the importance of a bar in Manhasset on Long Island in the life of the author.   Manhasset holds a special place in my memory, as it is the town that I aspired to as I came of age in Queens. It was the first place I ever earned any money,  the location of the North Hills Country Club, where my friends and I caddied. We'd hitch north on the Cross Bay and east on the L.I.E.  I went to one of the best Catholic schools in metropolitan New York, Archbishop Molloy in Queens, and St. Mary's in Manhasset was run by the same order of Marist brothers. The difference is that all of the other Marist schools were in dumpy sections of Manhattan and the Bronx, whereas St. Mary's was where the rich kids were.  I knew from a very early age that I didn't want on be on the bottom of the socio-economic ladder a minute longer than I had to. I dreamed of being in a place like Manhasset. A few years later, I worked for a lawyer who lived in Manhasset and was a member of a country club there - one a lot classier than the one I had worked at.  Being Irish-American, having some familiarity with bars and hooked on the location, it is no surprise that this book had me from the preface.  The author, known as JR, lived on the wrong side of the tracks in a crazy house owned by his grandfather and filled with a constantly changing cast of relatives.  His dad was totally absent; his mom struggled to raise him and was often so broke that at one stage, she filed for bankruptcy. His uncle worked at Dickens (later Publicans), a bar "142 paces away" and it proved to be his boyhood home away from home. When his uncle announced that JR had gotten into Yale, the crowd in the bar broke out in a chorus of 'Boola Boola'.  It was also the place where he found and adopted a panoply of male role models, that included bartenders, waiters, cooks, cops, and gamblers.  It was the home that nurtured him through his long, painful romance with the glamorous Sidney at Yale, a romance that I'm not sure he ever recovered from, as well as his stumbling start at a writing career at the Times.  The death of the owner led to the end of an era and the closing of  the bar. Fortunately for Moehringer, the closing coincided with his move west and his coming to the realization that, having grown up in a bar,  he had a drinking problem. The story closes on a melancholy note, as he came back to Manhasset, after September 11th to write about its new fatherless children.

Five Days At Memorial, Fink - B +

                                      American's (perhaps humanity's) propensity to call in the cavalry for one's ill loved ones and gotcha second guessing are the dominant themes of this Pulitzer Prize winning book's harrowing true story,   subtitled,  'Life And Death In A Storm-Ravaged Hospital'.  Memorial was an older hospital in downtown New Orleans and one that probably wouldn't have been mentioned in a discussion of great medical centers. Its patients were poor, its staff came from the same neighborhoods, as did some of its physicians.  It was owned by an out-of-town for-profit firm and seems to have been supervised/regulated by more federal and state agencies than one could keep track of. Underfunded, understaffed and totally unprepared for Hurricane Katrina when it hit, Memorial really didn't have a plan for dealing with disasters.  In the past when hurricanes threatened, the staff would bring their kids and pets and usually, after a day of heavy lifting, things went back to normal.  This time, things slowly cascaded into a living and dying hell. A 21st century hospital without power is, perhaps, a step above the Bedlams and Bellevues of yore.  Without lights, air-conditioning, ventilator machines, life support monitors, phones ( neither land nor cellular), water, flushing toilets, elevators, computers, food, a tall building filled with very, very ill people quickly becomes another level of Dante's Inferno.  Almost all of the staff performed heroically and at the highest levels of their professions.  On the fifth day, one doctor 'sedated' quite a few patients, many of whom were comatose, unmovable and had signed DNR's, as well as one morbidly obese man, who had seemed ok that morning.    All signs pointed to the conclusion that under extraordinary stress,  Dr. Anna Pou had euthanized the patients.  Was it second-degree murder?  The state Attorney General thought so, as did the national forensic consultants who reviewed the case.  But, the local coroner wasn't so sure about autopsies done on bodies that had sat in the sweltering heat for ten days.  The local prosecutor's office was overwhelmed in a city with the most per capita murders in the country. Additionally, this case was factually very complex, and just about every medical organization in the state had rallied around the two nurses who had been accused with Pou. In the end, the coroner said there was no homicide and the grand jury went along with that conclusion. The 'good news' of this story is that a concerted national effort has begun to design protocols to ration healthcare in future emergencies.










                                     

Catastrophe 1914, Hastings - B

                                          After reading  'Sleepwalkers' last year, I had concluded that I was up to date on 1914 and was prepared to put the topic to rest for a while. But I have twice seen Sir Max speak at the Pritzker Military Library in Chicago, and because of his wit, charm and superb prior books,  I concluded that I might as well give this a whirl.  Like Tuchman's masterpiece 'Guns Of August' from half a century ago, and unlike 'Sleepwalkers', this book reviews the opening campaigns and takes us through year-end. Hastings makes clear in his introduction, as he did in his presentation in Chicago, that he is sticking to the traditional conclusion - that the causus belli remains Germany and its policies.  I have always thought that the militaristic, lightweight and incredibly insecure Kaiser was someone the world would have been better off without.  He also points out that the younger von Moltke was but a shadow of his uncle and blindly committed to war as the means for Germany to rise on the world stage. He takes to task the Austrian Chief of Staff, Hotzendorf, who thought that by prevailing at war he could win the heart of his amore. The Austrians wanted war with the Serbs and the author claims that many were quite happy to use the Sarajevo assassinations as a pretext. Within two weeks of the Austrian ultimatum, thanks to the treaties, the mobilizations, and the hubris of the continent, Europe plunged into war. "The various participants in what soon would become the Great War had very different motives for belligerence, and objectives with little in common."
                                             Although the Austrians and Serbs were engaged in bloody, vicious combat before the major powers even mobilized, it is the clash of the Germans with French and British  that has captured the imagination of historians for a century.  The implementation of the von Schlieffen Plan ("Let the last man on the right brush his sleeve on the Channel") was the first great massive modern attempt at envelopment that the Germans would perfect a generation later.  They marched through Belgium with twice as many men as the Allies had in opposition. The Belgians, British and French fell before them. As August turned to September, the Germans were confident that they would soon be in Paris again.  For hundreds of miles, the British, and more importantly, the French, kept retreating before the teutonic onslaught.  But, slowly, the tide turned as the German General Staff lost control of their armies, the French stiffened, and by mid- September, it was over. The Germans were stopped.  Men started to dig in, and create the trenches and the hell that defined the western front for the next four years.  All that remained was the battles of October and November, particularly First Ypres, extending the lines to the Channel.
                                           In the east, Germany whipped the  Russians so emphatically at Tannenberg that the Russian commanding officer, Samsonov, walked off into the woods and shot himself.  Further south in the vast reaches of Galicia, the Russians and Austrians stumbled into each other, and managed despite their respective institutional incompetencies, to inflict unconscionable slaughter on each other.  German reinforcements allowed the Central Powers to stabilize the eastern front.
                                            Hastings' concluding comments emphasize his feeling that the Germans bore the brunt of responsibility for the Great War and that pursuing it to the bitter end was the only choice the Allies had.  He states that the only way to avoid a German occupation and domination of Belgium and eastern France was to beat them. They would not relent until pushed back to their own borders. He acknowledges the horrible suffering, the incompetent generalship, the futility of the war. But, he points out that no one has ever suggested a methodology that could have ended it - other than fighting the Germans for as long as it took.
                                         
     

The Good Lord Bird, McBride - B

                                          This book was a National Book Award winner and on every "best" list for the year 2013.  The premise of the novel is that in an old Negro church in Wilmington Del. in the early 60's, a deacon finds a  memoir written by Henry Schackleford, a parishioner who, as a ten year old in 1856, was liberated from slavery by John Brown. Called 'Onion' by the Captain, young Henry spends the next three years with the Browns in Kansas, Missouri, and ultimately Virginia. He is befriended by the Captain, a number of his sons, and a daughter, Anna Brown. He wryly observes the Captain's ways, which include a lot of praying, bible quoting, letter writing, mystical insights, and occasional beheadings and other murders.   Brown was a terrorist of the first order, and is depicted here as crazy as a loon.  But he was a man on a mission, and freeing slaves was the center of his universe. Sacrifices of all kinds, including the deaths of his sons, did not shake him from his appointed rounds.  The success of the book is due to Henry's unique story telling style.  After Brown reveals to his assembled men his plan to attack the Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Henry makes the following statement. "You had to reckon, for an insane man, he sure knowed how to cook it up, and for the first time, the looks of doubt started to fall off the men's faces…." Although this novel provides some interesting perspective on Brown and the Raid, I can't say it has added much to my understanding of the era. However, it is highly entertaining and I laughed out loud a number of times.

The Economic Consequences Of The Peace, Keynes - A*

                                         This is one of the seminal masterpieces of the 20th century, written by Keynes in 1919 upon his return to London from the Paris Peace Conference. In a modern introduction, Paul Volcker compliments the author for being the visionary who saw how foolish the Treaty was, and more importantly, for seeing where Europe should have been headed.  Keynes envisioned the mutually dependent continent we have almost a hundred years later. I have long known that this book opposed the mistakes the victors were in the process of making when it was written.  I had no concept of how sharp and critical of Clemenceau, Wilson and George he was. He referred to Clemenceau as an old man and one whose vision of Europe was a perpetual prizefight. "Thus a magnanimous Peace based on the Fourteen Points would simply shorten the interval before Germany recovered and hasten the day she would once again hurl at France her great numbers."  The French wanted a Carthaginian peace. Referring to Wilson, Keynes said, "This blind and deaf Don Quixote was entering a cavern where a swift and glittering blade was in the hands of an adversary. There can seldom have been a statesman of the first rank more incompetent than the President in the agilities of the council chamber." Of the three heads of state, he says that "the future life of Europe was not their concern"; it was all about "enfeeblement" and "revenge".  He then turns to the Treaty and pounds away at its complete inconsistency with the  Fourteen Points and the terms upon which Germany signed the Armistice. He points out that many of its provisions (for example, confiscating overseas private German property) were inconsistent with international law.  He turns to the requirement that Germany allocate a huge percentage of it's coal to Italy and France and suggests that "the industrial future of Europe is bleak and the prospects of revolution very good."  He then turns to the reparations issue and spends one-half the book dismantling the thought process behind them, pointing out that Germany can't pay them. "The policy of reducing Germany to servitude for a generation, of degrading the lives of millions of human beings, and of depriving a whole nation of happiness should be abhorrent and detestable, abhorrent and detestable, even if it were possible, even if it enriched ourselves, even if it did not sow the decay of the whole civilized life of Europe."  He reminds his audience that the governments of Europe were doing Lenin's bidding. Lenin preached "debauching" capitalism's currencies and Keynes predicts that the treaty will lead to inflation.  He says that inflation is "a continuing phenomenon of which the end is not yet in sight."  "An inefficient, unemployed disorganized Europe faces us, torn by internal strife and international hate, fighting starving, pillaging, and lying.  What warrant is there for a picture of less somber colors?"  This extraordinary book is only 133 pages long and is amazingly prescient in its painting of the bleak turn Europe was about to make. I suspect that somewhere along the way someone has made a series of economic or geo-political predictions more accurate than these. But it is hard to imagine any set of advice or prognostications that we can say about with such certainty: what a tragedy that they were ignored.

The Circle, Eggers - B

                                         Thanks, Lauren, for this gift. Novelists take us places we otherwise do not get to go: the past, both recent and long ago, possibly the future, exotic locales, sinister worlds, and happier times. Here, Eggers takes us to a workplace and an imagined reality unlike any I have  ever encountered - a composite of what I believe Apple, Google, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter et al. might be like. It's a glass-filled modernistic wonder, the headquarters of The Circle, a magical place filled with compassionate, considerate young people and an oh so exciting place for Mae Holland to go to work. It is led by the Three Wise Men, who are advised by the Gang of Forty. All social media and all commerce, banking, and business is handled by The Circle. The firm's prosperity is based on its successful TruYou technology which has consolidated everything on the web into a one site, one password location that creates a seamless universal internet experience. However, transparency and inter-connectedness can become oppressive in a company where being part of the "community'' is highly esteemed and one's participation is monitored, along with one's heart rate, caloric intake, hydration status and much, much more. To be a true member of the Circle, Mae goes transparent and achieves instantaneous fame.   By wearing a pendant that shows her millions of followers everything she sees and hears every day, Mae accepts the premise that if everything we do is seen, we are more likely to never misbehave. Everyone we see and interact with will be better, because everyone is watching. The more connected the world, the safer, better place it will be.  The more we know about each other, our pasts, our hopes, our likes, the more complete The Circle will be, until this internet portal knows everything about everybody.  Like Orwell before him, Eggers portrays a future run amok, this time by a Silicon Valley company, not a national government. Since the NSA and the five companies mentioned above, along with dozens I've never heard of, probably know 90% of what The Circle aspires to, this is a timely, thoughtful book.  It is also a fun creative work, by a brilliant writer.

All The Great Prizes, Taliaferro - B

                                          This is a superb biography of John Milton Hay, personal secretary and biographer of Lincoln and Secretary of State for William McKinley and Teddy Roosevelt.   Hay was from a Mississippi River town in western Illinois and a graduate of Brown who met Lincoln as a 22-year-old in the summer of 1860.  He was by his side almost every day for the rest of Lincoln's life.  He and John Nicolay were the White House staff.  They took care of scheduling, all correspondence, slept at the White House, and travelled with the President. They knew him better than anyone else, witnessed his sufferings and triumphs throughout the war, tried to keep Mrs. Lincoln at bay and under control, and were at his deathbed in April, 1865.  Hay idolized Lincoln and measured everyone and every issue for the rest of his life through the prism of Abe Lincoln.  His first postwar job took him to Paris and the beginning of his diplomatic career, leading to followup assignments in Vienna and Madrid. His lifelong facility with the  English language led to a job at Greeley's New York Tribune in 1870.  He established a national reputation as a man of letters and was the lead editorial writer for the paper. His marriage to Clara Stone, daughter of a Cleveland industrialist, brought him wealth and afforded him the opportunity to begin work on his and Nicolay's mammoth ten-volume biography of "the Ancient". Lincoln had picked them to write his biography and Robert Lincoln, who had possession of his father's papers, stuck to the deal.  They toiled intermittently for a decade and a half on the authorized biography.  Hay served as an Asst. Sect. of State, authored a popular novel, wrote for newspapers and magazines, settled his father-in-law's estate and travelled the world  during this period.  Throughout the 80's and 90's Hay lived the life of a wealthy American at the height of the Gilded Age. He had homes in Cleveland, New Hampshire, New York City and famously, across the street from the White House.  He dabbled in Republican politics and was tempted, but never ran for office. After Mckinley's first victory in 1896, he sought to be and was appointed Ambassador to the Court of St. James in London.  In September, 1896 just after the Spanish-American War, he became Secretary of State.  He stayed on until his death in 1905. His term encompassed all of the complexity and issues we associate with America's early rise as a world-power:  settling the Treaty of Paris concluding the war with Spain, resolving differences with the United Kingdom over our boundary with Canada, and, more importantly, working around an old treaty whereby we had agreed to a neutral Isthmian Canal, managing all of the diplomatic efforts to establish the Canal and Panama as an independent country, keeping the Germans out of the Caribbean, establishing the Open Door Policy in China, suppressing the Boxer Rebellion, and  beginning to negotiate the settlement of the Russo-Japanese War. He was the only one of McKinley's appointments to stay on through T.R.'s election in 1904, and was universally adored as the heart and soul of the Republican party, its living, very personal connection to Lincoln.  His death in 1905 was cause for national bereavement.  A friend wrote, "We shall all of us love always to think that the frankness, the honesty, the brave humanity which characterized his diplomacy was the heart of Americanism, and in any moment of hesitation concerning this or that fact, we could say to ourselves that it must be right because Hay did it."

The Purity of Vengeance, Adler-Olson - C+

                                          This is the fourth novel in the Dept. Q series set in Copenhagen, and it appears as if the series has reached a comfortable cruising altitude.  The characters are more established and less erratic, although unresolved questions about the Lebanese assistant, Assad, and a possible dramatic and mysterious background could provide for interesting future diversions. The author uses this book to go back quite far into a very bleak chapter in Denmark's history.  Like many countries, Denmark hospitalized and sterilized woman they considered retarded or of loose moral character.  The site was an institution on the island of Sprogo in the Baltic Sea. One of the victims of this institutionalized cruelty seeks and achieves vengeance against those who put her there. Her targets are a physician, her first lover, a guard, a lawyer, and a fellow inmate. There are some fascinating twists and turns, along with a pretty thorough exploration of modern right-wing nationalist politics in Europe.