The Art of Losing, Zeniter - B

       This novel is a multi-generational look into the war in Algeria that shattered France and its nearest colony in the 1950's and 60's. It is seen though the eyes of Ali, a modest merchant in the Algerian countryside; his son, Hamid, and Hamid's  daughter, Naima. An FLN attack on a French patrol in May, 1956 marks the eruption of violence and the beginning of the war. French revenge and reprisals against the civilian population quickly follow. The violence against the Algerians is indiscriminate, continual and justified by some sense of racial superiority that allows the French to believe in the morality of their occupation. In 1960, De Gaulle announces a referendum on Algerian self-determination. Independence follows, and with it anxiety for any who had anything to do with the French. Ali, as a WWII combat vet, had liaised with the French in a years' long effort to smooth life over for his village. Threats mount and the disrespect for Ali and his brothers intensifies. Ali does the only thing he can do to save his family. He takes them to France in 1962.

    Ali, his wife, and their three children arrive in a resettlement camp near Marseilles. It previously held Spanish Republicans, Jews and POW's. The barbed wire has not changed. They are traitors to the Algerians, and nonpersons to the French. After eight months in a tent, they are sent to a forest settlement in Provence and live in a cabin for two years before being sent to an apartment in Normandy. Ali works in a metals fabrication factory and the children attend school and try to become French. Hamid excels and becomes the liaison for the Muslim community with the French bureaucracy. He reads all of his neighbors letters and pens the appropriate response. Hamid's friends are French, he gives up honoring Ramadan, and his brother and sister too feel more and more of a chasm opening up between themselves and their parents.

   Hamid moves to Paris, where he meets and falls in love with a French art student, Clarisse. After a year of living together, they decide to meet the parents and face the reality of loving outside of their tribes. Surprisingly, Hamid's family, in particular his dad, handle the meeting with grace. Clarisse's parents are very uncomfortable and slowly distance themselves from their only child. Hamid and Clarisse go on to have four daughters, the second of whom is Naima.

   Naima works in an art gallery in the 6th arrondissement.  After the assault at 'Charlie Hedbo' in 2015, it becomes very unpleasant to be a French Muslim, even though Naima is an atheist and half-Gallic. The gallery owner decides to present an exhibit on Algerian art and to send her to the country she has heard about for her whole life, but never has visited. She realizes she knows very little and begins to research the events of the past. Her father evasively states that he knows nothing of Algeria, or why Ali fled in 1962. She delays obtaining her visa, but eventually steps up, takes an overnight ferry to Algeria, and begins her exploration for the gallery and of her family's past. Her travels take her to the mountains, where she meets her grandfather's brother and a dozen or so aunts, uncles and cousins.  As she leaves, she wonders: what did she expect? She is a Parisian, not an Algerian.  She will never return. She, and her family, have lost Algeria.

Mother May I, Jackson - B+

      This is an intriguing thriller set in current day Atlanta.  The wife of a successful lawyer turns away from her infant son while watching her middle school daughters practice for a play at a prestigious private school when her son is snatched. She hears from a very old woman who issues a series of instructions that must be followed if the boy is to be returned. What could prompt this conduct? The answer lies in events that transpired thirty years ago. This is an excellent beach read.

The Year of Peril: America in 1942, Campbell - Incomplete

   After Pearl Harbor, the US faced a world war with an army that a few years previously had been smaller than Portugal's. It trained with a 1903 Springfield bolt action rifle. Our air forces were a tenth of Germany's and our world class navy had suffered terrible losses on December 7th. There was a palpable fear that the US homeland would be attacked. A month later, in a historic State of the Union address, FDR vowed to bury the Axis Powers by massively outproducing them.  His plans frightened many who were concerned about a centralized government overwhelming democracy and capitalism. Nonetheless, the nation quickly converted to a wartime footing and began producing planes, tanks and ships.

  I gave up on this book early on when, in a few pages, it referred to 'Engine' Charlie Wilson as the CEO of GE, and stated that Rommel reached the Suez Canal. Wilson was at GM, and Rommel never made it past El-Alamein.

Hamnet: A Novel of the Plague, O'Farrell - A*

       This is an imagining of the life of Will and Agnes Shakespeare at two critical junctures: their marriage in 1582, and the death of their son in 1596. The story's heroine is Agnes, who stands up to Will's bullying, glove maker father, decides that Will should seek opportunities away from Stratford, holds the family together in a vast array of ways and nurses her daughter, Judith, Hamnet's twin, through the Plague. Judith was very small at birth and has required assiduous attention to stay healthy.  Her weakness is cited as the reason Agnes could never join Will in London.  While helping Judith through the Plague though, it is the healthier Hamnet who succumbs.  His death destroys his mother, who falls into a deep and lengthy period of painful morning. When Agnes learns that Will has written a play titled with their son's name, she and her brother travel to London. She arrives at the Globe in time to see a presentation of Hamlet, which she perceives as a blasphemy against her sons name. She slowly realizes the play is an homage to her son; Will's way of coming to grips with his son's death. This is the historical novel at its best, with vivid and detailed descriptions of life and death in the late Elizabethan era. This book won the national Book Critics Circle Award.

The Big Fella: Babe Ruth And The World He Created, Leavey - B+

         "By any standard or metric, ancient or modern, Ruth remains the best, most remarkable player in baseball history. He is still ranked first in slugging percentage (.690), and is also first in the newer, chic modern metrics of on-base + slugging (OPS.1.164) and wins above replacement (WAR 182.5)."

          In June, 1902, seven year old George Herman Ruth, Jr. was sent by his parents to St. Mary's Industrial School for Boys, a place where incorrigible and unruly white boys of Baltimore were placed when their parents felt that they had lost control.

          His story is told through the prism of a barnstorming tour featuring the Larrupin Lou's and the Bustin Babe's, conducted after the conclusion of the Yankees most famous season - 1927. The tour begins in Providence, RI on Oct. 10th. Before the '27 season, Ruth had promised Jake Rupert, Yankees owner, that he would hit 60 homers. He and Gehrig were tied at 44 apiece as late as Sept. 5th. The Babe had almost singlehandedly knocked the Pirates off in the World Series in four games, causing the owners to refund the gate for games 5 and 6. On the tour, the two superstars conducted home run contests before the game and then played on local teams. Ruth played for the Universal Winding Company and Gehrig for the Immaculate Conception Institute in Providence.

        Babe's childhood had been tumultuous. His family's finances were precarious, and most importantly, his mother kept burying newborns and infants. His parents divorced in 1906. He occasionally came home, but was at St. Mary's for a dozen years, until he was 19. The consensus is, and the Babe certainly felt, that he had been abandoned by his parents.

       The  day after Providence they were in Trenton, NJ. The tour was arranged by Ruth's agent, Christy Walsh, whose primary job was keeping the Babe's drinking and womanizing out of the papers. Walsh was the first sports agent. He had a flair for publicity that coincided with the explosion of interest in sports in the newspapers of America in the 1920's. He syndicated ghostwritten stories by Babe and others.  Walsh was so good that the Babe was being paid as much for his off field promotions as he was for his play for the Yankees. He was the number one story in a city that sold 3.5 million newspapers per day. He was on the cover of Time, Vanity Fair, Liberty, Popular Science, American Boy and Hardware Age. On that day in Trenton, they played against a Negro League team. The Babe regularly played against men of color, to the eternal consternation of Commissioner Landis.  On the 12th, they played at Dexter Park on the Brooklyn-Queens boundary line. Babe was the draw, the one the people wanted to see and touch. And he loved it, knew how to make sure everyone loved him, and always wanted to be around as many people as possible. At the end of the game, thousands stormed the field and it took a phalanx of policemen to extract Ruth from the crowd. 

      Next up was Asbury Park, where they had an uneventful day. On the 13th and 14th, they were on a train to Lima, OH. As they did in every town they went to, Ruth and Gehrig visited institutions that cared for kids. In Lima, it was a children's home, a hospital and an elementary school.  They played a nine inning game and were on to Kansas City. There, the itinerary included three orphanages, two newspapers, a hospital, and a parade before a 2:30 game. He pocketed $3,000 for a photo shoot and headed for Des Moines. He had become America's first and most famous pitchman. He would sell anything for a price. On one day alone, while still in Boston, he did ads for Dr. Reeds Cushion Shoes, the Talbot Co., Wolf's clothier,  Beckwith Hardware, Partridge Co. sporting goods, the Donovan Car company, a phonograph manufacturer and a cigar company. He made movies. He partnered with Louisville Slugger and A.G. Spaulding on lines of products. The one product he never received a penny for was the Baby Ruth candy bar, whose owners insisted it was named after the late Ruth Cleveland, the former president's daughter.

    Ruth had married the fall he left St. Mary's and became a baseball player.  Helen Woodford was a tragic figure who married and died young. Mystery surrounds their marriage and the birth of their daughter, Dorothy, who was adopted, but they claimed to be theirs. There are suspicions that he may have been sterile, as he slept with any and all women he could and was sued for paternity only once. In the early 20's, he met a Georgia model, Claire Hodgson, whom he would eventually marry.

   On the 19th, they arrived at Union Station in Denver and were met by 3,000 fans. By 1927, the fact that Ruth was a womanizing heavy drinker had become a commonly known fact. Two years previously, he had missed much of the early season with the "bellyache heard round the world." There was an extraordinary focus on his well being. Over the summer, it was apparent to all that Ruth was spending a great deal of time with Claire Hodgson, and the New York Daily news broke the story at a time when no one ever reported on the private life of celebrities. He showed up at the Stadium after being out all night and was suspended by the Yankees. The Babe's failings were now national news.  

    Babe and Helen had been secretly separated when she died in a house fire in early 1929. He married Claire in April. They held a reception at their 14 room W. 88th Street apartment, where, per Red Smith "the 18th Amendment didn't apply." Claire was sophisticated, assertive and hoped to reform the Babe.  

   The final two stops were Fresno and L.A. on the 29th and 30th. By the time they left for NY, they had traveled 8,000 miles, played before 225,000 fans, autographed 5,000 baseballs, visited dozens of charitable institutions and made money for the charities and themselves.

   The retirement that came in 1935 was a lonely one and loneliness was something he could not countenance. He had no financial concerns because of all the money he made, the extras that Walsh made and the fact that Walsh had insisted in the funding of an irrevocable trust with $200,000 of contributions he extracted from the Babe. He acted in 'Pride of the Yankees' and before his death was an advisor on the 'Babe Ruth Story'.  In 1946, he began to have headaches and an x-ray showed a mass at the base of his skull. Endless hospitalizations, chemo and radiation led to a weight loss of 125 lbs. MLB organized opening day of the 1947 season as Babe Ruth Day in all of its parks and the Babe spoke at the Stadium.  Experimental chemotherapy restored him that summer and gave him another year of life. In May, 1948, it was announced "that the Yankees intended to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Stadium on June 13 and retire number 3." He needed help to walk from the dugout to home plate to the cheers of 50,000 as Mel Allen boomed out "Ladies and Gentlemen, George Herman Ruth." He spoke to the crowd and left the Stadium for the last time. He died on August 16th. There was an around the clock viewing at the Stadium and a funeral mass, conducted by Cardinal Spellman, at St. Patrick's.

   The telling of this story in the format chosen has been difficult for me, as I prefer linear narratives. Like most Americans of my generation, I was raised on baseball lore and know much of the story. I feel I would have enjoyed a more in depth exploration of just about every topic touched here. He clearly was one of the century's iconic Americans, and meant so much to his times, and in particular, to his 'boys'. Thanks again to my brother. 

   

 

Cathedral, Hopkins -B +

         This is one of those grand, sweeping historical novels covering a century and a half in the city of Hagenburg, near the Rhine in Alsace. We begin in 1229 and meet our first two narrators, Rettich Schaeffer, a bright stonemason's apprentice, and the Bishop's Treasurer, Eugenius von Zabern, a cynical older man. Zabern's job is to continually raise money for the Bishop's varied expenses, not the least of which is funding the new cathedral. He travels around the diocese twice per year raising funds and collecting taxes. He outs various noblemen and whole villages as heretics, so the Dominicans can come in, burn them at the stake, and he can confiscate their wealth. The bishop sends Zabern to Rome in a failed attempt to improve the diocese's finances where he makes some powerful enemies. Nonetheless, he is still the Bishop's preferred successor.

        A few years later, the cathedral project has been cut back with fewer workers, masters and obviously, money. Rettich's  younger siblings are prospering. His sister Grete is a mistress in the drapers guild and his brother Emmerich is an important financial liaison to the Jewish community. They are representative of the rising merchant class that is politely challenging the church and its role as the leader of  society. They are anxious about piracy on the Rhine affecting their profits. When the Bishop finally dies, Zabern is again in Rome where his enemies attack and viciously blind him. The new Bishop, von Stahlem, is stricter; with a penchant for doing things by the book, and he re-prioritizes the cathedral project. The Bishop turns a blind eye to the piracy supported by Count Schwanenstein, a supporter, and someone displeased with the rise of the merchants and Jews. The Count's castle is besieged and falls to a catapult that turns the tide. Emmerich, who had led the fight on behalf of the merchants, and the Baron, who had provided the fighters, have a falling out, and Emmerich heads off to greener fields in Constantinople. He leaves behind a town with the Bishop becoming more autocratic and the community desiring to be free of his overbearing rule.

      The following year, 1249, sees the butchers and tanners , motivated by the Jews perceived responsibility for the plague and their petty debts to the lenders, descend on the Jewish quarter in a crazed frenzy of slaughter. Plunder follows the burning at the stake of 1,000 of the town's citizens. A decade later, Judah Rosheimer, the illegitimate son of Emmerich Shaeffer and the wife of a pious Jewish man and the leader of the community coordinates with the Rabbi an exploration of an invitation to leave the Rhineland and move to Poland. A new Bishop is about to be installed and the dynamics of the community will change. He is Walter von Kolzeck and he will reinstate the church to its appropriate place atop society. He excommunicates the city's leaders and then excommunicates the entire city. There is turmoil and war throughout the Rhineland, and the Bishop is allied with the forces opposing Rudolph von Hapsburg, who was backed by the city's merchants. The Bishop loses, takes to drink, and soon passes from this veil of tears. Once again, the future of Hagenburg is up in the air.  The aged and blind von Zabern gets the Papal nod.  Emmerich returns after a sixteen year absence and assumes the role of the Bishop's secretary. Emmerich plays a winning hand for the city and the Bishop when he favors von Hapsburg with a generous gift prior to his election to the Holy Roman Empire throne. The Bishop dies in 1273 and the now ennobled Emmerich in 1279.

     The story closes with an epilogue in 1350. The spires of the cathedral reach to the sky, but below, the city lies in near ruin. The Plague has struck.