2020 has been heavy, ain’t it. “This shit’s about to get heavy” (I worked so long on that Eminem piece, his lyrics are still buzzing through me). When things get heavy, escapes are great, momentary respites are important. I have been … unable to manage that in 2020. I’ve had more time to read, since I’ve now been on lockdown since March 15 – coming up on 5 months. But I’ve also struggled with what they’re calling Covid fog … I can’t focus my damn MIND. So I’m doing my best. Here’s the stuff I’ve been reading over the last couple of months:
— Theatre Street: The Reminiscences Of Tamara Karsavina
Karsavina was a prima ballerina with the Russian Imperial Ballet. She was raised in the classical tradition, a rigorous and unchanging tradition, in terms of repertory, technique, presentation. But then came … Sergei Diaghilev. And Ballets Russes. And Nijinsky. And Stravinsky. And Modernism, in general. She became an acolyte of Diaghilev – he didn’t have collaborators, he had acolytes. It’s amazing that someone so tied to the “old way” would become such a star of the “new way” … this is her story.
Tamara Karsavina
It ends with a terrifying sequence about her return to Russia in 1917, 1918 – the war still going on – the Revolution in its first wave. Her depiction of St. Petersberg at that time, and how the Revolution infiltrated every aspect of life, including the ballet, is chilling. Since she had traveled abroad so much with Diaghilev, she was named an Enemy of the People (you see how Trump weaponizes that phrase. That phrase has a long long history. Believe me: those of us who know, have heard that dog-whistle and have been terrified of it from the jump. For good reason.) Posters of her face were hung up, saying she was a traitor. Realizing her days were numbered, she and her husband and infant son, fled, going through enormous privations just to get OUT of Russia. If they had tried to leave literally a day later, they would have been caught. Even as it was, it was almost impossible to get out. These are the final two chapters and they are absolute show-stoppers. Worth it to read that alone, since she gives such a vivid picture of the Revolution in its first phase. But the whole thing is fascinating. I already know quite a bit about all these people – Ballets Russes (see the documentary), Nijinsky (read his diaries) and the legendary Diaghilev – so it’s wonderful to get a picture of what it was like when these figures hit the scene, when this new kind of ballet arrived in Paris, in London. To say they caused a sensation is to completely understate the situation. There were riots. They changed the world.
— The Revenge of Geography: What the Map Tells Us About Coming Conflicts and the Battle Against Fate
He’s one of my favorite authors, commentators, journalists. I’ve been reading him ever since Balkan Ghosts, which I took with me to Croatia since he writes so beautifully about Zagreb. I wanted to see it with my own eyes. Here, he writes about geography and how geography is destiny – a very unpopular attitude. Can’t we make our own destinies? Well, yeah, but if you live in a land-locked nation you have a different attitude than if you live in a country up against a wide stretch of ocean. People who live in the mountains tend to develop different types of societies than those who live on the wide plains. And on and on. He writes about these things with a wary eye on the future. He gets some things wrong – as we all will and do – but, to his credit, he admits it when he’s wrong (and he has been wrong BIG). His books are not comforting but I learn a lot. He writes with an eye on antiquity and up through all the ages following, and if you have that mindset, history feels a little bit different. You’re not as surprised when nations go fucking insane, seemingly overnight.
— The Trial
A chilling eerie favorite.
— The Museum of Unconditional Surrender
She’s a Yugoslav dissident, self-described, run out of Croatia after war broke out in the Balkans in 1991. Her columns criticizing the war brought death threats, she legit feared for her life. Ever since, she has lived in exile in Amsterdam. This is a novel – although clearly autobiographical in parts too – based on the experience of the exile. What it is like to live as an exile, to live without memory, to have your past abolished. It’s a fascinating book, beautifully written, and I am now a huge fan. I will read whatever else I can find (not all of it has been translated).
— Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster
So depressing it was hard to even finish it. Weird to read this during the pandemic, watching the “leaders” – of a so-called democracy – act like the Communist leadership: lying, prevaricating, blame-shifting, downplaying a catastrophe, anti-science, anti-expertise, totally willing to put citizens at risk, refusing to tell the truth, refusing to believe what the experts tell them (“Show me the death charts.” What a comforting comment from a leader to his hurting mourning nation.) The official initial response to Chernobyl was not “bumbling” or “botched”. It was actively sinister. Higginbotham has done an excellent job piecing it all together, interviewing as many survivors as he could, to tell the story from all the different sides: the firemen, the wives trying to find out what happened to their firefighter husbands, the Commissars, the architects, the guys in the control room that night … He really puts it together so even if you have no background in physics (guilty), you can understand the issues in that reactor, and you can understand why the accident happened. GRAPHITE TIPS. I understand now. This one came out a while ago. I feel like I’ve read it before. I read Voices from Chernobyl, written by Nobel Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich – her book is – in my opinion – a masterpiece. A good companion piece to this one.
//Covid fog //. Is that why they call it? Thank you, Sheila, I learn something new every time I read your column. I was beginning to think it was early-onset Alzheimer’s or a very sneaky form of dementia. I’m trying to read American history (Citizens of London and Setting the World Ablaze) and anything with more than two layers of density totally defeats me. So embarrassing. I can’t even really read my beloved British murder mysteries or Harry Potter without either getting distracted or losing my place in the narrative. Oh well, this too shall pass one way or the other.
Yes! Covid Fog!
// anything with more than two layers of density totally defeats me. //
Me too! It’s so frustrating. It’s not exactly comforting to know it’s a “thing” but when I read some article about it I was like, “Oh so THAT’S what’s going on.”
Robert Kaplan is excellent and always worth reading. He writes better when he’s wrong than most do when they’re right.
I have a distinct memory of being obsessed with that book when I first read it; I read it when I was quite a long way from home, so it affected how I saw my new surroundings. But I also remember how much I needed to clarify just a summary of the book. “I’m reading a book that discusses how geography influences different societies” was sufficient to trigger offense.
But…could the opposite possibly be true? One society spends a thousand years atop a mountain, another society spends a thousand years near the ocean—might there be at least a few characteristics of geography involved in each culture?
(What’s intriguing is that even the people arguing against this notion don’t seem to completely follow the logic: not if they learn languages, not if they have traveled, not if they have ever mentioned the differences of regions within the US, etc.)
Have you read In Europe’s Shadow? I read it after spending six months in Romania, so I’m not quite sure how much it would touch someone not as interested in the country. My last comment here was about Anne Applebaum—and I know that you like her deep dives—so you might like that book too.
Charles – I love In Europes Shadow!! He has written a lot about Romania – a couple of chapters in Balkan Ghosts – so I really loved that much deeper dive. I was so interested to read – in his preface, I think? – that his editors encouraged him to go more personal, to include himself in the story more – (even though he’s always somewhat “in” his travel journalism) – Basically to make the book about his enchantment with the country, from a young man to now – and why it was he loved it so much. I just thought that was a pretty bold move on the part of the editors – particularly since he’s so wildly successful – to nudge him into an area he hasn’t really gone yet – but it’s one of the reasons I love that book. The more personal tone.
Have you read Earning the Rockies? It’s a really personal book for him – really his only memoir-ish type of book – and for the first time he gives snapshots of his parents. Stuff I never knew. He really did seem to emerge from nowhere, I mean he was a scholarship kid in college – a sports scholarship – you can see why he has a healthy distrust of the clubbish atmosphere of the elite, who all went to Ivy League schools, and come from economic privilege – it was his father (a mostly absent father) who gave him his wanderlust. If you haven’t read it, I recommend it!
// He writes better when he’s wrong than most do when they’re right. //
Absolutely. And he really does build his case – which is amazing when he predicts something and … not so amazing when he gets it wrong.
The one thing he didn’t seem to foresee was the rise of a homegrown fascist-ish political movement here. This is something a lot of people missed, I think – not sure why – they aren’t internet savvy maybe, because they’re a little older? They didn’t see how the “trolls” on the internet were not just bored goofballs in their pajamas – but ready to go mainstream? I don’t know … he really just did not see this one coming (at least judging from his books/articles). He can’t really be blamed for that, i guess – but for someone who has gotten so much right, prophetically – and who will continue to be right (he’s moved his focus from the Middle East to Asia/Indian Ocean – as I’m sure you’ve noticed) – he was strangely really wrong about his own country. I think a lot of people were.
I love his stuff so much!
and yes, I remember you!
Nice to talk to another Kaplan fan.
and Romania is one of the top places I want to visit. Next time I go to the Balkans I want to do it all – Serbia, Bosnia, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria – that whole area. I’d need a lot of time and of course … no pandemic … but those are the places I want to wander around in. I’m envious of your experience!
For no particular reason, Earning the Rockies fell off my to-read list, but you just gave me a good reason to take another look. There wasn’t much thought behind skipping it at the time. Thank you for the reminder.
Of the places that you listed, Sarajevo and Bucharest are where I’ve spent the most time. Both are fantastic. Sarajevo, to be perfectly candid, is a more difficult trip, if someone isn’t accustomed to traveling. (I’m not putting you in that category; I just mean that as a general statement.) I have a lot of great memories in Bosnia, can’t wait to return, miss my friends in Sarajevo, but traveling there requires a bit more than anywhere else in the region, even today.
I could write pages upon pages about Bucharest and have spent a year in total there. I think In Europe’s Shadow struck me so vividly because I had such a similar experience to Kaplan: the architecture, the culture, the people. I read it after my first six months, which was perfect timing—it encapsulated and put some history behind what were my more casual impressions. I strongly recommend visiting Bucharest.
(Not skipping your others—Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria—but I’ve only spent a short time in each.)
Charles – great to hear your stories, thank you!
Yeah – the guys who took me through Croatia, also do trips through Bosnia – I really MUST go to Mostar – that bridge is one of those things I must see. Next time, for sure. But they can get me to Sarajevo too. I was thinking maybe use Zagreb as a home base – I was there so briefly but I fell in love with it – and then do trips out from there. I don’t know, just one of the things I’ve been mulling over in my mind, during the pandemic. I have a feeling “my guys” would not take me to Serbia – old hatreds die hard – but I’d like to do that too.
Now I’m salivating to get to Bucharest.