— Grant
, by Ron Chernow. He’s such an elegant writer, such a good storyteller. His interests as a writer have always been clear. I’ve read them all – except for this one, and his Washington biography which came out recently and somehow I missed news of it. I will catch up! Normally, Chernow’s interests have been financial: the figures he wrote about – JP Morgan, John D Rockefeller, Alexander Hamilton, the Warburgs – have been about the financial movers and shakers of history. With Grant, he moves into another territory – and, I’m assuming, with Washington. Maybe now he’s interested in “great Generals in history.” Whatever, I’ll read it all. I know some about U.S. Grant. (I did not know, though, that the “S” stands for nothing. It was the result of a mistake on his West Point application and it somehow stuck.) I knew about the alcohol rumors. I know about the surrender at Appomattox, and the tipping of the hat to Lee. I know about his relationship with Lincoln. I could pick him out of a lineup because of that famous photo of him outside his tent during the Civil War. But other than that, I have SO much to learn and I am just FASCINATED. As per usual, Chernow comes at his subject with a strong point of view. Chernow is often performing an act of redress in his books. Hamilton needed rehabilitating (well, I think Chernow succeeded there – what do YOU think?), so did Rockefeller, and etc. He doesn’t go all fanboy. He just tries to cut through the rumors and games-of-telephone which create mens’ reputations. I am loving it. The sequence from the end of the Civil War through Lincoln’s assassination – which was a WEEK – made me well up with tears. It’s a wonderful book and I highly recommend it.
— The Haunting of Hill House
, by Shirley Jackson. I love her – and this – so much. I’ve been reading it on those deadly commutes I just talked about. You get so sucked into her way of seeing, her ability to make a character and her situation palpable in a brief yet devastating paragraph. Shirley Jackson is the definition of “escape” for me, in that within moments of picking up the book, I am literally in another world. Her world. It’s really quite amazing.
— Interviews With History and Power
, by Oriana Fallaci. She is mostly remembered by her explosive 2 final books, and everyone “writes her off” – and I imagine many of those people who write her off never read any of her other stuff. I have a hard time with people like this. I don’t pick fights, because why bother, but you might as well try to understand the totality of someone’s work? Yes? No? We live in unforgiving times. I understand this is a fine line. It can be used to justify monstrosities. You have to take it on a case by case basis – and that is very difficult in our explosive atmosphere. (I remember after 9/11, Susan Sontag’s little piece in The New Yorker erupted through the world. Many of the people who read me were like “FUCK HER.” I wasn’t crazy about her piece, but I said, “Have you read any of her other stuff? Are you aware of her writing? Her influence? Her invaluable contributions to culture? Or have you just written her off? You’re DUMMIES if that’s the case.” I was so annoyed at their lack of curiosity, at their assumption that they didn’t NEED to read any more Sontag. Your loss.) AT ANY RATE. Oriana Fallaci’s interviews … there’s really nothing else quite like them. There’s a very good reason Rolling Stone called her “the greatest political interviewer in modern times.” She prints the interviews in transcript form, so you get them raw. Her questions. Her tenacity! How un-intimidated she is by power. How disgusted she is by power, in general. She is not in any way un-biased. She leads with her opinions. In this book she interviews – among other people – Kissinger, Indira Gandhi, Yasir Arafat, King Hussein of Jordan, Golda Meir, General Vo Nguyen Giap. The Shah of Iran (the final Shah). And more. The interviews for the most part took place in the early 1970s. They are snapshots of moments in time. They are object lessons in how to hold people in power accountable, even people whom she admires. She’s all about the tough questions. And if the person being interviewed dodges, she goes back to her question: “You didn’t answer my question.” She gets another dodge. “But what does this have to do with the question I asked?” I realize there are still journalists working like this. I suppose I am disheartened by the way celebrity has overtaken our free press, so that people will do what it takes to maintain their “access.” NO. Let them ban you. Fuck them. Fuck power wielded like that. Get your information another way. People in power are not to be trusted. Ever. They must be held to account. They must never be allowed to relax. Do not trust power. I don’t care if it’s “your” party in power. You should feel the same way about THOSE people, too. I have always felt this way.
— Black Mischief
, by Evelyn Waugh. This is the only one of his I haven’t read. It is … brutal. You can’t even believe he’s daring to do it, even though you already know he’s a fearless writer. It’s a lampoon of revolutions in Africa (which … yikes), but more than that, way more than that, it is a VICIOUS and RELENTLESS takedown of the British diplomat class, their cluelessness, their entitlement, their rapaciousness covered in docility, their pure ignorance, their SILLINESS. I was about to say “gloves off” but Waugh never wore gloves as a writer.
— Rogue Male
, by Geoffrey Household. Charley gave this to me. I read it in a day. I could not put it down. Charley called it “the case for why political assassination is sometimes necessary.” He’s right. Even more extraordinary, the book was published in 1939. So just think about that year. Think about what was going on, and what it must have felt like to read this book (a bestseller). It’s one of the great “chase” books, better than any spy thriller. The man to be assassinated is not named. He doesn’t NEED to be named. The book has been turned into various film versions (with different titles), one of which I am very familiar with but I somehow didn’t know about the source material. Within the first two pages I was like, “Huh, this feels like …” I love it when I feel smart. Anyway: read this book! If you read fast, you can zip through it in a couple of days. You definitely cannot put it down once you start it.
— Recollections of My Life as a Woman: The New York Years
, by Diane di Prima. I finished this one a couple months ago. It’s one of the most extraordinary memoirs I’ve ever read.
