Bob's Books

Why this book: I’ve had it on my bookshelf for decades.  When my good friends Gary and Patsy told me they’d read it and found it insightful, esp during our pandemic, I decided that it was time to finally read it. Glad I did.

Summary in 4 Sentences.  This is a novel built upon real plagues that have happened in the past.  In this novel taking place in the mid-20th century, the large town of Oran on the coast of Algeria, is gradually and then overwhelmingly struck by the bubonic plague. The story is about how several individuals and the entire town respond to the increasing virulence of the plague, first with denials and a fumbling governmental response, and then a realization that this was a critical issue that required dramatic steps which included quarantining the entire town, suspension of most normal daily activities, and finally with the plague subsiding, the attempt at resumption of normal living.  The novel takes place entirely in Oran, and tells the stories of several individuals stuck in the city, dealing with it as best they could,  the central figure being a doctor who is busy 18+ hours a day helping individuals, working with authorities, and struggling with his own feelings and responses to the tragedies he encounters.

My impressions: A very powerful book, and a classic for a good reason.  Reading this while the COVID pandemic is on the rise in the US and around the world (Nov/Dec 2020),  it is tempting to see The Plague as a prescient book about pandemics.  The responses of the people and the government in Oran described in The Plague are very similar to what we have experienced in the US, as we (people, State and Federal governments) have fumbled through our responses to the Coronavirus.  But as the book concludes, Camus makes the reader aware that the book is really more about how people react to crises and death, and how these threats that upset their daily lives make clear their humanity and their true values.

Living in a quarantined city, there was no escape, and little that the outside world could do to help them – the people of Oran were largely on their own to deal with the plague as best they could. His description of people cut off from the rest of the world, their forced inactivity as the shops and businesses closed and the economy shut down, their sense of being prisoners  in their own homes, the doctors and health care workers exhausted and overwhelmed, and also becoming victims of the plague – is eerily familiar to someone reading this during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic.   The Plague tells a story I feel like I’m living in Covid, USA, seeing the increasing fear and helplessness as the death toll continues to rise,  the futility of efforts to halt it, and the rebellion of many against strict measures that the government put in place in an effort to control it.

It is similar to extended combat. As I read The Plague, I was struck by how much people’s responses resembled how soldiers respond to extended combat, being constantly exposed to death, dying, and the ever-present threat of death.  Camus anthropomorphizes the plague as a powerful “enemy” –  clever, devious and resourceful, and the fight against it resembling a military campaign.  Like soldiers in extended combat against an overwhelming and powerful  enemy, the people of Oran eventually took on a defeatist attitude, were mentally exhausted,  became emotionally numb and detached, no longer felt or exhibited any real joy or happiness. Many sought to escape into short term pleasures of alcohol, promiscuity or other excesses.  Eventually even hope began to die, as month after month they were exposed to relentless death and dying, delivered randomly, not respecting rank, wealth, or character.    Gallows humor, apathy, resignation and torpor, and eventual cynicism toward hope became the standard fare in Oran; these are also often characteristics of soldiers in extended and unrelenting combat, away from their loved ones, afraid to look to the future, afraid to hope that they’ll survive.

The central character in the novel is Dr Rieux, a competent, reserved, thoughtful, dedicated physician, doing all he could to help his patients.  He was fully aware that there usually wasn’t much he could do to save those who were afflicted.  And he also became aware how over time, and with increasing exhaustion, he also became numb to the suffering he saw and lost much of  his compassion and ability to feel.

All of the primary characters in the book are men living far away from the women they loved, so they sought comradeship and connection with each other. The center of this circle of characters is Dr Rieux, and his circle included the thoughtful, the eccentric, the conniving, the frustrated, the romantic,  the desperate, and confused.  And these very different men connected with and supported each other.  The need for human connection in times of crisis is a key theme in the book – even as our characters lose the emotional capacity to truly give of themselves or even feel great affection.  We see the importance of men’s need for love and intimacy from their wives or lovers, and how even that need can fall victim to having one’s emotions worn down by months of merely trying to survive – day after day. The plague was “all the more potent for its mediocrity.  None of us was capable any longer of an exalted emotion; all had trite, monotonous feelings.”  Women unfortunately do not play a prominent role in the novel, except as supporters and lovers of the men.  Several of these women we see only in the imaginings and memories of their men, as they reside outside of Oran.  The one exception is Dr Rieux’s mother, who is the steady presence of love and wisdom in his life, as he struggles to serve others during the plague.

The plague caught everyone by surprise.  In “normal” times, most people live as if nothing will ever change, and almost robotically go through their lives, as if  the simple patterns and routines of their lives will go on forever.   But this stable predictability is an illusion, and can lull us into a state of complacency.  In The Plague Camus makes the point that sometimes, in order for people to appreciate the simple pleasures and joys of life, it takes a catastrophe to wake them up.   His opening chapter describes Oran as a town where “ you can get through the days without trouble, once you have formed habits.  And since habits are precisely what our town encourages, all is for the best…glamorless, soulless, the town of Oran ends by seeming restful and, after a while, you go complacently to sleep there.” So much is taken for granted that shouldn’t be.   It took the plague to wake people up.

Here are what I saw as some of the key themes of the book;

Duty is a subtle and occassionally explicit theme in the book.  When Dr Rieux is asked, or asks himself how and why he carries on almost helplessly in the face of so much suffering and defeat, he simply reminds himself and others that he has no other choice but to carry on.  Knowing how much suffering there is, and how futile so much of what he does is, he sees carrying on and doing the best he can as the only reasonable option, and it is his best defense against giving in to despair.  He refuses to think too much about the suffering and tragedy he sees.  He just carries on, doing what he can.  His example inspires several of his companions, to get engaged and do what they could as well, even though it often seemed fruitless.

Heroism  Camus through Dr Rieux downplays and deflates the idea of heroism and the heroic ideal at several places in the book.  Simply doing what one must, doing one’s duty is, he claims, not “heroic.”  This is a theme I’ve frequently heard Medal of Honor recipients repeat when they talk about their actions – they insist that they are not heroes, but were simply doing their job as they understood it, and that most of their comrades would have done the same. And they were lucky.    Rieux refers to one of the least “heroic” individuals in the book (Grand) as the embodiment of “quiet courage” who when asked to help with the sanitary group and put himself at greater risk of infection, “said yes without a moment’s hesitation and with the large-heartedness that was a second nature with him.”  Elsewhere in the book, Camus says that “a little goodness of heart and a seemingly absurd ideal.. render…to heroism the secondary place that rightly falls to it, just after, never before, the noble claim of happiness.”   And later, one of the other main characters says, “I don’t believe in heroism… what interests me is living and dying for what one loves.”

Love The tragedy of the plague also stresses and casts a different light on “love.”   The power of romantic love is expressed in the distress of one of the characters, who initially, will do anything to get back to his fiancé and lover – but even that love is set aside in response to a greater sense of duty, and takes on a different hue after the plague has run its course.  The love of good friends – very similar to comrades in war – is explored, and how men are often loath to express how important they are to each other – in fact often not realizing it until it’s too late.  Rieux’s mother’s love and the love he returned to her – was unexpressed, but understood in glances and mutual affection and commitment. We see how love is affected, even “infected” by the stress of constant fear, and the threat of death and loss.  In The Plague, love is a constant, and clearly the apogee of human connection, AND we see the challenge of sustaining it under great stress and fear, as people pull into themselves in their concern for their own fate.  But he concludes that “if there is one thing one can always yearn for and sometimes attain, it is human love.”

Religion and God. Camus was an athiest, yet one of the most powerful characters in the book is Father Paneloux, a Jesuit priest in Oran.  As the plague picks up momentum, Father Paneloux gives a sermon in which he argues that Oran deserved the plague, that it was God’s punishment for the sins and indulgences of those who live there.   Many of his parishioners felt that they were being “sentenced for an unknown crime.”   As ridiculous as this argument may sound, Camus does not make Paneloux into a caricature of a fire and brimstone preacher – rather he treats him with great  respect.   In spite of this absurd explanation for the plague, I thought this sermon was a masterpiece; Father Paneloux notes that the plague provides a time for reflection, and he tells his congregation that it should shake them out of their complacency.  He advises his congregation to look for and find the positives, to find joy and offer up a prayer of love.  Many of his insights are inspired and insightful. As the plague progresses, Father Paneloux’s own faith is challenged.

Conclusion – Finding meaning in suffering. The book concludes as the plague has wound down and Oran has opened back up, and people are adjusting to the new reality of the plague’s aftermath.  The novel ends on a thoughtful and reflective note, with Dr Rieux sharing his thoughts on how the plague has affected him personally, affected those who have lost loved ones, and the city as a whole. He shares his thoughts and insights about life, death, and what is important in life, gleaned from his intense and traumatic experience trying to help desperate people and hold himself and his close friends together during this very difficult period.  These reflections are reminiscent to me of the conclusion to Man’s Search for Meaning, when Viktor Frankl, like the narrator in The Plague, is numb and still processing the trauma and suffering he has experienced.

• He notes that the trauma of the plague would leave it’s mark on everyone who lived through it.
• He refers to suffering as a teacher. Which reminds me of Nietzsche’s famous dictum, “That which does not kill me, makes me stronger.”  But some in Oran were I’m sure, so traumatized by their experience that they never recovered.  Again, kinda like some soldiers in war.
• He makes the point that high ideals mean little in a life and death struggle for  survival.  He stresses the importance of asking and living for the simple and most important things – those things one can personally influence – love and human connection.
• The pestilence showed him “that there are more things to admire in men than to despise.” Many people in Oran rose to the challenge and readily put themselves at risk for their fellow man, to help each other and their community deal with the plague and to reduce suffering.
• He concludes with a lesson that we in Covid, USA should heed – these upsetting and tragic events, such as war and pestilence, have always occurred and will continue to rise up out of the calm shallow sea of “normality,” to challenge us, bring out the best and worst in us, force us to face our humanity and mortality, and remind us of what is truly important in our lives.

Why this book: While visiting the Little Big Horn Battlefield, I visited a souvenir and curios shop run by the Crow Indian Agency (the Battlefield is on the Crow Indian reservation) and there was a motherlosd of great books about Native Americans in America.  This one caught my eye and I bought it.

Summary in 4 sentences: Thomas Leforge grew up in a white family that moved from Ohio to Montana in the late 1850s/early 1860s, where young Thomas grew up with many close friends in the Crow Indian village that was near where his family lived.  The more he engaged with them, the more at home he was with them, so in addition to his white biological family, he became part of a Crow family and part of the Crow tribe.  He continued to go back and forth between the two worlds,  serving as an interpreter, working for whites as well as gaining status as a full fledged Crow Indian warrior within the tribe.  He eventually had a Crow wife and family, and when his wife died, he married the widow of his best friend,  a Crow scout was killed while supporting Custer at Little Big Horn.  Eventually he chose to go back into white society as a business man and entrepreneur where he worked in Colorado, Seattle, eventually also the Alaskan gold rush in Nome, made and lost a fair amount of money, had two more white wives and families before finally returning to live out his final years with the Crow, where he felt most at home.

My impressions:  I thoroughly enjoyed this book and was fascinated by the stories he told, the rich and varied life he described,  looking back on it as an older man in his 70s.  His story was written down and published by Dr Thomas Marquis a friend and doctor for the Crow Indians in the 1920s, who says at the outset of the book, that after dozens of interviews and visits with Thomas Leforge “Horse Rider,”  all Marquis did was “merely arranging his tales into consecutive order and clothing them in suitable verbal dress.”  The book was published in 1928, three years before Leforge himself died in 1931 at the age of 81.

The book has a very valuable introduction written by Joseph Medicine Crow and Herman Viola provides which was copyrighted in 1974 which provides excellent  context for these memoir. Medicine Crow had known Leforge as a child, was actually related to him by marriage, and grew up with some of the people in Leforge’s stories, and he shares some of his experiences with Leforge himself.  He and Viola (an eminent Smithsonian anthropologist) fact checked much of what he recalled and found that with the exception of a few insignificant details, Leforge was accurate in the stories he recounted and of the descriptions he gave of life in a Crow Indian village.

The first nearly 300 hundred pages are Leforge’s early life story and his life as Horse Rider – the name the Crows gave him – with the Crows tribe, and includes chapters entitled “Life in the Lodges of the Crows” and “Old Crow Indian Customs and beliefs,” which include fascinating insights into the daily life and cultural practices of the Crows, told from the sympathetic perspective of someone who also knew white culture well.  

There is also an entire chapter on his role in  the campaign of 1876 against the Sioux which included Custer’s Battle of Little Big Horn. He also has a separate chapter on his active participation as scout and interpreter in the US Army’s post-Little Big Horn campaign against Sitting Bull and the Cheyenne and Sioux, though he doesn’t mention Wounded Knee at all.  The last 25 or so pages of the book are a brief synopsis of the final 40 or so years of his life, when he re-engaged in white culture, his various successful and not-so-successful business ventures in the Northwest and Alaska, and his final return to his roots with the Crow to live out the final years of his life, and during which he recounted his life story to Dr Marquis.   

Some of the many things I learned and found fascinating in Memoirs of a White Crow Indian:

White – Indian relations.  Like most men in my age group, I grew up playing cowboys and Indians, and in the SEAL Teams we often referred to enemy territory as “Indian country.”  In fact the Crow were considered friends and allies of the whites in fighting the Sioux, Cheyenne and a couple of other tribes of the Northern Plains Indians.  The Crow had no desire to “integrate” with white culture, but simply wanted to peacefully coexist, and early on chose to  ally themselves with enemies of their traditional foes – the much more numerous Sioux, Cheyenne and Piegan Indian tribes.   Leforge’s recounts many stories of good and mutually respectful relations between the Army and the Crow Indians, Bannacks, Flatheads, Shoshone and a couple of other smaller tribes who worked closely with the whites.  Leforge was one of many “squaw-men” – whites who married Indian women and lived with the Indian tribe of their wives as fully enfranchised members of the tribe. 

Marriage, Polygamy and promiscuity among the Crow.  Leforge describes courting his first Crow wife, Cherry, who he makes clear was the love of his life.  He also briefly had a second wife simultaneously and apparently with Cherry’s consent and approval as the second wife was a friend of Cherry’s and they got along well. But Leforge says their mothers quarreled about which was the better “wife”  – so there was the drawback of for him of having two mothers-in-law and two families to appease.  Leforge eventually had to ask his second wife to leave his abode while they were living at the Crow Agency because of the disfavor with which the whites looked upon polygamy.  But he says that bigamy was common, and it was common for a Crow warrior to take on a second or third wife, if the first or primary wife agreed, and if that woman was mature and otherwise living alone and needing a support infrastructure that a family could provide. This was also true of Eskimoes and other groups living in primal circumstances, in which a family unit including two women and a man were more efficient and effective at survival tasks, such as hunting, and taking care of a household and children.   In Tibet the relations were reversed – one woman could have two (or more) husbands – to facilitate survival.  The children belonged tot he family unit – which of the husbands was the biological father was not important.   

Though he doesn’t talk about sexual morays directly  (an awkward subject in the 1920s) it is implied that sexual relations did not have the same religious baggage that they do in Christian culture, and parenting of children was more a function of what best served the families, the children and the tribe.  Leforge was “adopted” by a Crow family while still a youth, and referred to his Crow father and mother as if they were his biological parents, and as an adult he adopted children and saw and treated them as his own.    “Family” and family responsibilities had more of a village sense to them than in white society. 

He notes that “sweethearts in every camp was the custom, either for single men or young married men” but he noted that it could get very expensive as it was customary to give presents to “the fleeting entertainers.”    After returning from one of his longer trips, he says his wife Cherry “playfully informed me of various supposed sweethearts of mine who had been anxiously inquiring as to when I might return to camp.” This and other stories he tells indicates that marriage was a friendship and partnership of mutual consent and did not necessarily include the assumption or contractual agreement of sexual exclusivity – at least for the men.   He makes no mention of any sexual promiscuity among married women. 

There was one comment Leforge makes about his first (and favorite) wife Cherry that caught my eye.  When he was about to go on a raid that anticipated a great battle, Cherry said to him: “Do not shirk.  Be brave. If you should be killed it would leave me very poor; but if there should be a fight, I want to hear of you being in it. Come back with a good name, and bring me a good horse.”  It reminds me of the Spartan mothers’ command to their sons as they left to into battle: “Come back with your shield, or on it.” 

Tribes within and against Tribes.  Leforge was part of one branch of Crow Indians, but there were other branches and sub-branches of the Crow, and he refers to the River Crow as having some different practices than his branch, and there were various villages and groups of Crow living at various locations in Montana.  The Crow were a relatively small tribe and allied with the whites to help protect themselves from the much more numerous, powerful and warlike Sioux.    The Sioux were a huge group and included many different branches and sub-branches, and in fact the group of 10,000 that Sitting Bull had assembled for the annual sacred Sun Dance ritual at Little Big Horn included multiple Sioux tribes as well as Northern Cheyenne and some Arapahoe.  But he notes that “friendly visiting between Crows and Sioux was an occasional event, notwithstanding their continual war status.”  There were signals that Indians would give to announce a friendly visit, and to harm a peaceful guest even from an enemy tribe was considered the height of dishonor within and between tribes.

Gift giving and relationships.  The Crow viewed gift giving as a sign of wealth, honor, and a means of building or repairing relationships.  Anytime an individual or family had good fortune, it was expected that they would aggressively give gifts as indicators of their increased status.  Anytime a good thing happened to a family, gifts were given to share that good fortune with others.  He notes that gift giving was in some sense a type of “loan” and though there were no debts recognized among the Crow, “honor led to compensatory giving, either at once or at a future time when the recipient became able to return the favor.” 

At one point in the book Leforge has performed some honorable act and as a result, he receives many gifts to thank and honor him for that act (blankets, tools, trinkets, even horses) and he says, “And of course my Indian relatives had to give away lots of presents to show how good they felt because of my high standing among the people.” And he notes separately, that “a man’s wealth usually was according to the estimation in which he was held by his people.” 

Honor culture.  Honor, especially among men (this is a warrior’s story) had many forms.  As noted,  gift giving was honorable and increased one’s honor, as was capably providing for one’s family.  Counting Coup against an enemy had many nuances and variations. Bravery in battle, and not committing dishonorable acts were key to a persaon’s honor. But he notes that  successful horse-stealing from the enemy was among the highest honors – in that it required cunning, courage, and skill.  Fighting and horse stealing were activities for young men – the upper age normally being about 40.  

Spiritual values It appears from this reading that the Crow saw themselves as a chosen people as did it seems, every Indian tribe.  The humanity of other tribes was on some occasions respected, on others not recognized. The Sun Dance was a sacred ritual performed by many tribes and included inflicting great pain on a chosen warrior (see the film A Man Called Horse w Richard Harris) who endures this pain to the honor of himself and the redemption of the tribe, and his stoic enduring of this pain is a gift to worship and propitiate the First Maker or “Person Above.”  Horse Rider Leforge himself believed he had had a vision which made the eagle his “medicine animal,” and afterward always paid tribute to it.  At the end of his life he said, “I worship the Sun and the Big Horn Mountains…to me both father and mother….their offspring lands and streams provided me with an abundance of good food and rich raiment.  I was born an Ohio American, I shall die a Crow Indian American.”  

—–

A fascinating and fun book to read to gain insights into this key aspect of American culture.  As noted above, his stories provide thought-provoking insights into Native American culture, within the context of a rich and varied life story told by a very interesting and adventurous man. 

Why this book:  I’ve always been fascinated by Alaska, and also had never read one of Michener’s tomes.  I’ve only been to the state of Alaska once, but my daughter spends a lot of time there and I feel drawn to it and want to go back.   Alaska was recommended to me by a very good friend who has read a number of Michener’s books, so I decided to take it on. Glad I did.

Summary in 3 Sentences.   I can’t compare it to other books by Michener (since I haven’t read any others yet), but I understand Alaska  follows his  standard format – beginning with geology, then biological history, then human history – it is a series of inter-connected novellas that paint a broad picture of the evolution of human society in the geographical area about which he is writing.  In Alaska, Michener creates compelling characters struggling and thriving in early and then later Alaska, their struggles serving as a lens through which we learn about the broad scope of Alaskan history, with an emphasis on the last 200 years, which included Russian ownership and exploitation, the purchase of Seward’s Folly, the two major gold rushes and then the key 20th century issues leading up to the late 1980s, when the book was published. 

My Impressions: I really enjoyed this book – it’s long, as most Michener books are, but it’s broken up into sections of about 120-150 pages each of which has its own characters,  and context, their own drama, their own cultural and historical lessons.  It conveys a sense of the primal grandeur of Alaska – its size and unforgiving terrain and climate, the natural and uncontaminated splendor of much of its environment, and the courage and character of the pioneers who over the last two and a half centuries made it what it is today.  Characters do overflow from one section into another, and the children, grand children and great grand children of earlier characters dramatize the later parts of his story.   It is indeed a novel with continuity that flows through the book, but he is teaching natural and human history through the rich lens of the lives of some truly memorable characters – some historical, many fictional – who represent the world he describes, and who live the story he tells. 

I was fascinated by the Russian exploration and ultimate exploitation of Alaska – there were a few real good guys – even by today’s standards, and quite a few really bad guys and a lot of innocent victims – mostly native Alaskans – who suffered as a result. 

The proposal for the US to purchase Alaska from the Russians passed in Congress in 1867 by a very slim margin ( known as “Seward’s folly”) and then for 50 plus years, the US government essentially ignored and neglected the potential of that huge and largely unpopulated land mass, in practice turning it over to scalawags and nefarious profiteers and carpetbaggers.  I learned how business leaders in Seattle conspired to keep Alaska and Alaskans dependent on them, so that they could exploit and profit from it with impunity, and the rest of the US couldn’t have cared less. 

I had read a lot about the gold rush in the Klondike, but didn’t know that the vast majority of people who risked all to seek their fortune there came up empty handed.  A few of the original claims yielded gold, but those claims played out pretty quickly, while the fantasy and dream continued to lure people into a very remote and, for much of the year, a very cold and harsh enviornment.  Though most found nothing, for the rest of their lives these gold seekers savored the adventure they had undertaken and the lessons they had learned in the arduous travel to get there and life they lived there.  

I had never heard of  the gold rush in Nome which followed just a few years after the Klondike, which in contrast yielded tens of millions of dollars of gold for a lot more people – from gold found in the sand on the beaches.  Again, more scalawags, corruption, and nefarious activity well north of the Arctic Circle  – and all the vice that surrounds poor men trying to make quick and easy money. 

I also didn’t know about the exploitation of the salmon fisheries and how much money was involved in that endeavor early in the 20th century.  To help us understand that story, he creates a fictional salmon who we follow through it’s six year life-span until it returns to it’s native creek to spawn – helping me better appreciate the Alaskan wild-caught salmon I regularly feast on in California.   I was also fascinated with  a whole section Michener has on the evolution of the bush pilot culture – which has been essential to the growth and prosperity of Alaska.  And he offers us a fascinating stories of how Alaska mobilized to play its part in WWII  – as the Japanese sought to establish a foothold in the Aleutians and use it for access into the North American continent. 

And the political battle for statehood – which was emotional and had strong opposition from those who argued that Alaska could never govern itself and who were invested in keeping it dependent on a few easy-to-influence political appointees and self-interested businesses from the lower 48.  The book concludes with the impact of the oil industry on the native American and Eskimo cultures – the influx of huge amounts of money into communities that had for millennia been subsistence hunters of whales, seals, and other wildlife from the sea. 

All of these stories are populated with great characters who reflect the sensitivity and humanity of James Michener.  I can’t help but to truly appreciate and admire Michener the man, who conceived these characters and wrote these many stories in this book – the bad guys are never wholly bad, the good guys are not wholly good, women are admired and treated with respect and play key roles in Alaska.  

At the beginning of the book, he provides a couple of pages he calls “fact and fiction” in which he tells us which of the characters are historical and which are fictional.  Alaska the book has made me an even greater fan of Alaska the state, the culture, the people, the way of life – now that I have a better sense of the breadth and scope of its history and multiple cultures. 

Alaska is broken up into twelve sections or fairly long chapters.  Below is a list of these chapters and a brief look at what they cover. 

1. The Clashing Terrains – about the plate tectonics in the Pacific. I dIdn’t know that in 28 million years, Los Angeles will be next door to Anchorage.  Guess we’ll have to wait and see…
2. The Ice Castle – describes how mammals crossed the land bridge on what is now the Bering straits and how they prospered and lived – wooly mammoths and saber-tooth tigers – and more.
3. People of the North – here Michener creates village in Siberia, as always with memorable characters, and we get to know it’s leaders and its people, and why they kept moving East – eventually to find themselves in a different world – in what is now Alaska 
4. The Explorers – Here, at about page 107, we are introduced to intrepid explorers from Tsarist Russia in the late 1700s and the drama of their exploration and settling of coastal Alaska from the Aleutian Islands down to Sitka and the lower coastal areas. 
5. The Duel – Is an amazing story of the tension/battle  between Russian Orthodox Christianity and the native  shamanistic religion of the Athapaskan Indians.  It also includes a tragic but largely unknown story of an almost genocidal racism and exploitation of native Alaskans by Russians. 
6. Lost Worlds – In this chapter we move to the coastal Native Tlingit tribes in southern coastal Alaska and the battles that ensue when the Russians seek to subdue and harness them to their own ends. And in this section, the Americans appear and compete with Russians for furs and pelts and we learn how the Americans (barely) purchased Alaska from the Russians and ousted even the good and well-meaning  Russians from their new territory. 
7. Giants in Chaos – describes the negligence of the American government toward its new property, the rise of the whaling industry and the exploitation not only of whales but of native Alaskans by both Russian and American whalers and fur traders. We learn of the historical figure Captain Mike Healy (an African American naval captain in the 1870s!) and a missionary Dr Sheldon Jackson and how they combined forces for good – and sometimes not-so-good.
8. Gold – Fascinating story about the rush of poor and dispossessed Americans into the Klondike, the agonies of their travel and the challenges and disappointment of being there. 
9. The Golden Beaches of Nome An incredible story.  While prospectors around Nome Alaska were searching the creeks and rivers for gold dust, an enterprising Siberian prospector found hordes of it in the sand on the beaches just outside of Nome. And a new gold rush was on, with all its tragedy, jubilation, sin and corruption. And then it was over. 
10. Salmon – Mostly native Alaskan fishermen had been fishing for salmon for millennia, until some enterprising Seattle businessmen saw great opportunities for large scale capture of salmon and canneries.  More wealth and exploitation, drama, heroism, and compromise. 
11. The Railbelt – In this section we are well into the 20th century and Alaska is attracting more adventurers from the lower forty-eight.  We get to know families that were incentivized to move to Alaska to farm, some who broke off to become bush pilots, and merchants, and they brought with them the racism endemic in the lower forty-eight against the native Alaskans. And we read of heroic stories of commandos at war with Japanese invaders on the Aleutian Islands. 
12. The Rim of Fire – The book concludes with this fascinating story of a young woman who breaks out of a very conservative upbringing to teach in a remote Eskimo village in Northern Alaska. Her story provides a lens thru which we see how the incredible wealth that Prudhoe Bay oil brought to Alaska impacted the native Eskimo culture and the environment.  

Why this Book:  I had read most of this book about 10 years ago, and it really appealed to me – it’s easy to read, but it’s long and entailed.  I was invited to participate in a reading group discussion of the book with the Cleveland Indians, and agreed – which meant reading it again – just a couple of chapters at a time and then discussing.  Very worthwhile.

Summary in 3 sentences: In The Fifth Discipline Peter Senge describes a vision of what he calls a “learning organization” and offers a number of steps for how leaders and managers can move their organization toward that ideal. First he describes some of the many dysfunctions he’s found in many if not most of today’s organizations and explains why these dysfunctions inhibit productivity and performance.  Then he describes the “fifth discipline” itself – “systems thinking” – and then offers descriptions of four other essential personal and organizational disciplines which together, when integrated lead to systems thinking and a learning organization.

My impressions: This is the most impactful book of the many I’ve read on organizational culture and how leaders can positively shape it to the benefit of the people in it, as well as the purpose/mission of the organization or business.  It is not a difficult read at all – in fact I found it fascinating and engrossing – but it is not a quick, easy read. Weighing in at close to 400 pages, it is so rich in content that I recommend to others that it be read in small chunks with other thoughtful readers – and digested and discussed along the way. In the first chapter, Senge says “this book is for the learners, especially those of us interested in the heart and practice of collective learning. “ p16

The Fifth Discipline was first published in 1990, in paperback in 1994 and a second edition came out in 2006.  In 1997, Harvard Business Review named The Fifth Discipline as “one of the seminal management books for the previous 75 years.”  The idea of a “Learning Organization” certainly comes from this book, and I and many others aspire to be in, and ideally to lead such a “learning organization.”  I wish I had spent some time with this book absorbing its lessons and insights before leading commands I had in the Navy.  The page numbers cited in this review are from the 1994 paperback printing.

The Fifth Discipline is Systems Thinking.  Senge describes the learning organization as embodying five fundamental disciplines  – but the fifth of these – “systems thinking” – is the most important, and cannot be fully realized without the first four.  In fact the Fifth discipline of systems thinking is the integration of the other four.

The first section of the book “How our actions create our reality… and how we can change it”  introduces the concept of the “Learning Organization,” and he introduces the five disciplines and then how people and organizations can change or have a “shift of mind.”  He is careful to distinguish “learning” from “taking in information.” He also describes all-too-common problems in organizations in his chapter “Does your organization have a learning disability” and he describes the seven most common organizational “learning disabilities,” such as “I am my position,” or “The enemy is out there,” or “The illusion of taking charge.” His chapter “Nature’s Templates: Identifying the Patterns that Control Events” discusses positive and negative organizational archetypes, patterns of behavior, leverage within an organization and how to achieve it. Numerous examples from business case studies help him make his points.

The second section of the book is entitled “The Fifth Discipline: The Cornerstone of the Learning Organization,” and in it, he dives into  “systems thinking,” the Fifth Discipline itself.  He discusses the laws of systems thinking and makes the case that an organization is a complex “system,” and nothing happens in a system that doesn’t impact other parts of the system, and when something happens, its impacts, large and small, are systemic and are often subtle, hard to foresee, and separated from the initial incident in space and time. This section has a fascinating discussion of “feedback” in its various forms, and how it can be productive, and counter-productive.

Systems thinking is the ability to look beyond immediate cause and effect and understand that in sometimes obvious, but often very subtle ways, everything that happens in a system is connected to, and impacted by everything else.  He thoroughly explores the idea of systems thinking, seeing events not as isolated snap shots, and seeing relationships between events not as simply linear cause-effect chains, but rather as part of larger processes of change.  This is the fundamental insight of the book, but to get to it, and to create an organization that reflects this wisdom, the reader and the organization must develop and refine four other disciplines, to each of which he devotes an entire chapter in the next section of the book, entitled “The Core Disciplines: Building the Learning Organization.

The Four Core Disciplines  which together and when integrated, result in systems thinking. They are:

1. Personal Mastery “Personal mastery is the discipline of continually clarifying and deepening our personal vision, of focusing our energies, of developing patience, and of seeing reality objectively.”  P.7  “….people with a high level of personal mastery are able to consistently realize the results that matter most deeply to them – in effect, they approach their life as an artist would approach a work of art. They do that by becoming committed to their own lifelong learning.” p. 7     In The Fifth Discipline, Senge is mostly focussing on the inter-relationships between personal life-long learning and organizational learning.  He delves deeply into this in his chapter on personal mastery.  

2. Mental Models.  These  are “deeply ingrained assumptions, generalizations, or even pictures or images that influence how we understand the world and how we take action.” p8  The discipline is to “unearth our internal pictures of the world, to bring them to the surface and hold them rigorously to scrutiny. “ p9  I found this to be one of the most powerful discussions in the book – emphasizing how awareness of and understanding one’s own, and one’s culture’s often unacknowledged mental models can accelerate growth, and how lack of such awareness can cripple growth.

3. Building Shared Vision – This chapter was very reminiscent of the shared vision idea  which 2+ decades later Stan McChrystal describes in Team of Teams.  It is the capacity of a team to hold a shared picture of the future.  It “involves the skills of unearthing shared ‘pictures of the future’ that foster genuine commitment and enrollment rather than compliance. In mastering this discipline, leaders learn the counter-productiveness of trying to dictate a vision, no matter how heartfelt.” p. 9   The idea of the leader helping the team develop and realize its shared vision, rather than the leader dictating his vision and commander’s intent, is contrary to the predominant practice in military culture.  

4. Team Learning I loved this concept and this chapter.  It is about how not only individuals learn, but how teams learn – through open dialogue, in which people feel free to share thoughts ideas and opinions, regardless of position or rank.  It demands an openness to and respecting ideas that may be different from one’s own ideas or beliefs, and avoiding defensiveness.  He distinguishes “dialogue” from “discussion,” which he says is often a battle of ideas, an effort to convince or persuade, rather than seeking to understand different ideas, and learn.  “Team learning is vital because teams, not individuals, are the fundamental learning unit in modern organizations…unless teams can learn, the organization cannot learn.” p 10

After discussing the four core disciplines, Senge offers us Part IV which he calls “Prototypes” and in it he explores common challenges within most organizations. Part IV includes chapters such as “The manager’s time,” “War between work and Family,” “Technology of the learning organization” (which certainly needs to be updated) and “The Leader’s New Work.”

The Fifth Discipline concludes with Part V which is short and which he calls “Coda.” He suggests the possibility of a “Sixth Discipline” which might emerge as organizations better understand the five he has proposed and as organizations evolve.  I found his final chapter entitled “The Indivisible Whole” especially powerful.  He expands the idea of organizational systems thinking to systems thinking about life and the universe itself, almost in a spiritual way, pointing to the subtle connections between all things, noting that cause and effect are complex – often too complex to fully understand. We are seeing that now, in how small man-made adjustments to an ecosystem can have profound unforeseen and unintended consequences, separated in time and space from the initial adjustment.

A lot has changed since The Fifth Discipline was written in 1990.  Reading it, one sees a lot of ideas that have since become part of any discussion of organizational change, but were not then part of the vocabulary and discussion of organizational leadership  – such as growth and fixed mindset, popularized by Carol Dweck in her classic Mindset. The impact of social media, remote working, distributed work forces are not explored in this book, but I believe that the sociology and principles of a great learning organization apply today, though some of these more recent developments will certainly impact their implementation.

My copy of The Fifth Discipline is so full of highlights, underlines, and marginalia that to simply go through these in reviewing the book would take me several hours.  It is so rich in insight and wisdom, I could read it again and again, and each time, walk away richer and with new insights.  It is hard to summarize in this review, but I’ve encouraged many people to read it, but to read it as a group – and to practice “dialogue” to practice “team learning” – to learn how a TEAM can learn so much more from this book than any individual reading it.

The best and most impactful book I’ve read on organizational culture and leadership, and I’ve read quite a few.

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Why this book: Selected by my literature reading group.  I was pleased with this decision, because my wife Mary Anne had read it years ago and told me I’d really like it, so I’ve been looking forward to reading it for years. 

Summary in 4 Sentences:  This is two stories running in parallel – and the story goes back and forth between the present day tribulations of an old man in his 90s  in a nursing home, and his memories of being a young man working in the traveling circus during the 1930s. He got into the circus by accident – he was distraught when his parents were killed in a car accident and he saw few options.  The story progresses with him learning “the ropes” of working in the circus, under the manipulating and exploiting circus director, under a charming but vicious bi-polar menagerie director, with friends who included the roustabouts, his dwarf compartment mate, various freaks and performers,  and of course the beautiful girl who did the rode the horses and did the elephant act with Rosie the elephant.  The story is about the dysfunctional dynamics of the culture of the traveling circus, the various power cliques, how these people struggled to survive performing a few days at a time, traveling by train from town to town mostly in the Northeast during depression era America. 

My Impressions: Fun read! And well researched, well written, and a great story.  I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, was fascinated by the culture she described and the adventures of our protagonist trying to adapt, stay out of trouble, get along and survive in an often cruel and unforgiving world of show business  – the story behind the glamor and excitement.  A lot of women authors don’t do a great job writing in the first person as a male, but she did.  I was pleased but not surprised to read at the end the author’s note about how much research she did on the culture and stories that grew out of the travelling circuses in the years before WWII.

Our protagonist Jacob Jankowski was just finishing veterinary school when his parents were killed, and he was therefore not able to complete his exams.  Distraught and somewhat disoriented,  with no-one to turn to, he jumped a train, which happened to be a circus train.  Some of the older workers took him under their wing and when the circus manager learned that he was almost a vet, he hired him as a vet.  Then as a “college boy” he struggled to integrate himself into the rough and tumble blue-collar culture of the circus.  

It was a cruel environment – the powerful managers in the circus exploiting the workers who during the depression had few options for other work. And they likewise exploited the animals, and Jacob’s job was simply to keep them healthy enough to perform. Jacob loved the animals as a vet should, but had little power to stop the cruelty he observed. 

There is also a love story complicated by the fact that the woman Jacob falls in love with is star of the animal show, and also the wife of his boss.  And the boss is a classic wife abuser – alternately charming and sweet, and violent and unpredictable.  This same boss is also in charge of the animals and is the same way with them – alternately caring and very cruel.

As a young man in this dysfunctional organization, Jacob doesn’t have a lot of options, and it was clear that Big Al the circus manager had his ‘enforcers’ who routinely and violently enforced Big Al’s directives – step out of line and people simply disappeared – including when they weren’t needed anymore.  The practice was called  “red-lighting” – getting visited in the middle of the night and thrown off the train, often as the train is going over bridges or trestles.  These men had no status or identification and the circus got away with it  for years. 

The story continues as Big Al’s circus comes on hard times and Big Al becomes more and more desperate to make ends meet. Jacob gets caught up in a web which clearly threatens him and those he cares about – as he tries to maintain a sense of humanity in a cruel, dangerous, and unforgiving world.  

All the while, as the story of Jacob in the circus unfolds, every few chapters we go back to Jacob in the nursing home, and we learn from his own internal dialogue of the challenges of being old and frail, treated like a child by the nurses in the home, tolerated, patronized and often forgotten by his own family.  He strives for some sense of control over his life, lamenting the loss of his physical and mental capabilities. And then, the story returns to the 1930s with the circus.  

How does it all end?  I liked the way Sara Gruen wrapped it up – there would certainly be room for a sequel.  

I really enjoyed reading this book – a fascinating look at a world that exists no more – at least in the US. 

At the conclusion of the book, there is an interesting interview with the author about her background, why and how she wrote the book,  as well as thought questions for book club discussions of Water for Elephants. Those will be useful for me as I prepare for our reading group discussion. 

Why this book:  I met Josh Mantz several years ago when he was a guest speaker at an event I was organizing.  He came, he spoke, he impressed all of us.  Josh and I connected, became friends and have stayed in touch. He had given me a copy of his book, and I finally got around to reading it. 

Summary in 3 Sentences:  This is Josh Mantz’s story, beginning with a few brief chapters about his childhood and upbringing, describing his path through school to West Point to becoming an Army infantry officer, and ultimately to leading a platoon in a very violent part of Iraq in 2007. While there, an enemy sniper fired a high caliber round that went through and killed his platoon sergeant, before hitting Josh and severing his femoral artery. Bleeding badly, his platoon mates rapidly got him to the nearest medical aide station where he flat lined for 15 minutes while doctors and medics struggled to save him, finally detecting a pulse and bringing him back to life.  The second half of the book is about his recovery, and his efforts to continue to serve while still struggling with PTSD and other physiological and psychological challenges from his time in combat.   

My Impressions:   A short, captivating and very powerful read. I’m so glad I finally picked it up and read it. I found his entire story fascinating and inspiring. As an infantry officer, he studied counter-insurgency theory and as a leader of a combat unit in Iraq recognized that it applied to the work he was doing in and around Sadr City in Baghdad, the most violent and dangerous section of the city during the worst part of the war. He and his team were making significant progress building ties to the local police and Iraqis when a sniper’s bullet interrupted their operations, and his life.

 Josh’s life story had been one of succeeding by working harder and with greater focus and dedication than most others, and it usually worked for him – until it didn’t.  His life seemed to be one well-earned success after another, until he was shot in Iraq.  Josh applied his proven methods of focus and hard work to his physical recovery and amazed doctors and his team by returning to join them in Iraq just months after being shot, dying and being brought back to life.   But trauma and PTSD don’t succumb to simple hard work – they are much more complex than that.  

Josh learned that perseverance, hope, faith, patience, mentorship and support from others are essential to the healing process.  Josh’s story is about all these things,  built upon an amazing combat story, and his efforts to help others who have struggled with trauma – from battle or other sources.

Josh’s story of dying – his Near Death Experience is alone powerful enough to justify reading this book.  If you wonder what it might be like to know that you’re about to die, and then accept it and let go, here is one of the few who have had that experience and survived to be able to share it.   After letting himself go, and essentially saying goodbye to the world, when he woke up two days later, he remembered clearly everything that had happened to him before “literally everything faded to black.”  He describes a powerful and peaceful experience  – “the most peaceful experience of my life.” 

Josh shares how the convergence of good fortune and good people doing amazing work together led to the miracle of his survival.  He shares how his platoon and family reacted, and his months of recovery, and how after just a few months, he eventually, by hard work and a bit of bureaucratic conniving, made his way back to his men in Iraq, and continued to serve. But he was a changed man.

After his tour in Iraq was up and upon return to duty in the States, Josh continued to excel as he had before, with more focus, dedication, and hard work than almost anyone else. It was what had worked for him before, but again, he was a different man after his injury.   He initially stayed on track for advancement within his career, becoming aide de camp to a General officer and being given command of a Warrior Transition Unit, and eventually being sent to a graduate program to help his continued service and advancement.  Success and accolades kept coming.  But eventually he realized that working 16 hours a day was a coping mechanism to avoid dealing with the psychological residue and other issues relating to  his trauma.

Josh became a nationally recognized speaker and spokesman for the needs of soldiers to recover from trauma, speaking publicly in highly visible events and forums, impressing all who met him with his candor, humility, and willingness to share.  One of his primary goals was to take the stigma away from the struggles so many soldiers were having upon their return from combat.  

He described  what he and others refer to as moral injuries – feelings of shame, powerlessness, betrayal and guilt, to include survivor’s guilt, from decisions made and other experiences under the stress of combat.  Maintaining a grueling schedule on his speaking tour, he was still avoiding recognizing and dealing with the moral injuries he was experiencing himself.  Eventually he recognized his own pain and had to pull back.  While he was providing clear guidance to other soldiers and their loved ones about dealing with Post Traumatic Stress, and appeared to have it all together, he had difficulty following his own advice – until he found himself in a moment of severe personal crisis. Then he knew what he had to do – and reached out for help.

This is a powerful book, full of insights about life and death, success and struggle, and one man, connecting with and serving others who are similarly struggling, to find happiness and meaning after a severe traumatic event.  Josh has endured Post-Traumatic Stress and found Post Traumatic Growth.  He found not only pain, but also beauty, wisdom and insight in the struggle, and in this book, he celebrates the Beauty of a Darker Soul. 

Josh Mantz: “Giving someone the feeling that they’re not alone any more is one of the most selfless and courageous acts you can perform in this lifetime.”

Below is the TED talk Josh gave in 2015. In it, Josh tells a brief and powerful version of his story. There are other youtube presentations of Josh on Youtube, for those who have the time. 

Why this book: Selected by Jay H’s reading group – an eclectic group of about 10 fascinating and curious people – baseball coaches, teachers, businessmen, veterans, consultants.  We met weekly to discuss this book – one chapter at a time.

Summary in 3 Sentences: In Descarte’s Error, Damasio argues against Descarte’s famous epigram Cogito, ergo Sum – “I think, therefore I am” to make the point that who we think we are, is much more than our ability to think and reason.  From many different directions, Damasio argues against the traditional mind-body dualism, that mind and body are fully integrated, and our existence is defined by much more and much more complicated than simply THAT we think. Our physiology and biology have a much greater affect on our thoughts, our sense of identity, our ability to reason, exercise judgement and make decisions than most of us realize. 

My Impressions: Damasio is a neuroscientist who has studied the brain and mind and explored the various bio and neural mechanisms that help explain how we think, decide, and behave. He describes Descarte’s error as the “dualist notion with which Descarte split the mind from the brain and the body…and the modern variants of this notion.” p247.  He says he wrote the book as an exercise to help him see if he could explain his insights and research in simple, non-medical terms to a lay person, and in so doing possibly find holes in his thinking.  Being that lay person, he only partially succeeded – I believe I understood his main points, but when he got into more detailed explanations, he often lost me. 

It is NOT a simple book to read, and I sometimes felt like a 3rd grader trying to read a book on – well – neuro-biology, but in parts,  his prose is clear and flows easily; in other parts I struggled to follow him. That said, I learned a lot – especially from the conversations we had in our reading group with smart lay people from multiple walks of life, many of whom also often felt like third graders reading Descarte’s Error, but each of us got different insights out of each “assigned” chapter that enriched our discussion. He certainly achieved his goal of convincing all of us that our thinking and decision making processes includes subtle (and some not-so-subtle) interventions from emotions and other biological functions, and that the human mind is much more complex than simply a bunch of interactions inside our brain housed inside our skull, operating independently of but supported by the body.

The main point of his book is probably summarized here: “The action of biological drives, body states and emotions may be an indispensable foundation for rationality …These lower levels maintain direct and mutual relationships with the body proper, thus placing the body within the chain of operations that permit the highest reaches of reason and creativity.  Rationality is probably shaped and modulated by body signals, even as it performs the most sublime distinctions and acts accordingly.”   p.200

He begins the book with fascinating chapters about two men who had significant injury to their pre-frontal cortices, who could think rationally, and one-on-one in-person, behaved in what seemed a perfectly normal way.  But after it was determined that in spite of outward appearances, their behavior was often irrational, their judgment was severely compromised, and their social interactions were destructive,  they were both studied extensively by doctors and psychologists.  Though both performed well on conventional tests of memory and intellect, this was not reflected in their decision making in real life.  They were emotionally detached from people, and often from the consequences of their decisions, and were unable to predict consequences (good or bad) from their decisions. Damasio points out that though many people try to take emotion out of decision making, these two men were living proof that emotional detachment from decision making  severely compromised the quality of their decisions. 

Damasio used the examples of these two men with apparently intact reasoning and rational faculties,  but who were dysfunctional in their social lives and dealing with the real world,  to show that for successfully adapted humans, there is much more going on in their thinking and decision-making than simply the ability to think logically. 

In his chapter Biological Regulaton and Survival he argues that “For most ethical rules and social conventions,” there is a “meaningful link to simpler goals and to drives and instincts. …Because the consequences of achieving or not achieving a rarefied social goal contribute (or are perceived as contributing) albeit indirectly, to survival and to the quality of that survival.” p125  Yep – our genetically driven biological imperative to survive and thrive is ultimately behind nearly all that we do. 

His chapter Somatic-Marker Hypothesis was for me the most interesting chapter in the book,  in that he explores how the body seems to have its own separate awareness and decision making capacity, and it subtly injects its subconscious insights and desires into our conscious minds and decision making.  He explores the “gut feeling” or intuition, that comes from outside our rational faculties to help us decide what to do – or in some cases decide for us,  when our brains are overwhelmed or acting too slowly to make a life-saving decision.  

He attributes intuition to the body, “the mysterious mechanism by which we arrive at the solution of a problem without reasoning toward it.” p188

He calls these bodily interventions into our thought processes “somatic” markers, after the Greek word for body – soma – and he notes that these somatic interventions increase the accuracy and efficiency of decision making – especially when we are faced with a decision with a possible strong negative outcome. Without the body’s subtle and sometimes not-so-subtle injection of itself into our decision-making, decisions would take an inordinately long time, or our careful and rational consideration of all options could inhibit decision-making entirely.

He points out that when faced with a wide variety of options, “a preselection is carried out for you, sometimes covertly, sometimes not.  A biological mechanism makes the preselection, examines candidates and allows only a few to present themselves for a final exam.” p189 This biological mechanism is part of our innate survival instinct, injecting itself into how we evaluate options and decide.

In his chapter The Body-Minded Brain he argues that “the body provides a ground reference for the mind, “(p223) and that  “when we see or hear or touch or taste or smell, body proper and brain participate in the interaction with the environment.” p224 The body is not merely a life support system for the brain – it is a fully engaged participant in how we think, feel, decide. 

In that same chapter he explores the neural basis for the subjective self,  discussing  the concept of “self,” stating that   “…the self is a repeated reconstructed biological state; it is not a little person, the infamous homunculus, inside your brain contemplating what is going on … not a central knower and inspector of everything that happens in our minds.” p217  What in fact is the self, after we deconstruct so much of what we personally identify with?  A complex question which Damasio spends some time exploring, but not really answering, noting that “today there are plausible if not yet proven hypotheses for the neural basis of the self.” p244  Sam Harris, whose podcasts I listen to frequently, will say that the “self” is an illusion, an artificial construct of all the processes that Damasio describes, that together, give us a “sense” of self and identity.

Several times in the book, he wants to ensure that we do not regard his theories as a purely mechanistic explanation of human behavior and accomplishments. “Realizing that there are biological mechanisms behind the most sublime human  behavior does not imply a simplistic reduction to the nuts and bolts of neurobiology.  In any case, the partial explanation of complexity by something tells complex, does not signify debasement.” p125-6

This is a fascinating book, but not one that can be read quickly.  Each chapter is full of insights and challenges.  I liked reading it with others, a chapter at a time. As a result, I now have a much better appreciation for how my brain operates, how my body is engaged with my brain and the many factors that unconsciously determine how I feel, and how I arrive at decisions.  I also have a much better appreciation for how complex the brain and mind are – and how little even the best neuroscientists understand of how it works.   

Why this book: Selected by my literature Reading Group based on excellent reviews and having won the Man Booker Prize. 

Summary in 3 Sentences:  Historical novel set in the early 1500s in England, built around King Henry VIII’s desire to divorce his wife of 20 years,  in order to pursue his infatuation with Anne Boleyn who he hoped would give him a male heir.   The central figure in the novel is Thomas Cromwell a man of working class background,  but who has become a trusted attorney and facilitator within the English court and who is somehow involved in all aspects of the King’s efforts to divorce his wife, and ultimately divorce England from Catholic church.  The author did an immense amount of research to ensure her novel is consistent with what is known from the history of that era, and she makes Thomas Cromwell a fascinating figure, deftly maneuvering in a world of political and sexual intrigue and the rise and fall of large egos, during a period of major transition of England from Catholic to Anglican Christianity.

My impressions: Wolf Hall is beautifully written, but not easy to read.  The story is complex, with a large caste of characters – so large in fact that I regularly referred to the list of characters at the beginning of the book to help me recall who many of them were.  In my reading group, some chose not to finish it – having struggled to follow the rather intricate plot, taking place among the multiple factions with vested interest in the outcome of King Henry’s desire to annul his marriage in order to make Ann Boleyn his queen.

The story of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn is well known to many; HOW Hilary Mantel tells it is what makes this version stand out.  The true majesty of the book, and clearly why it has received its awards and so much positive recognition is in the quality of the writing, the author’s deep understanding of how people think and interact, and how she imagines the conversations between the articulate, intelligent, well educated, but often self-centered ambitious characters in the book.  I was continuously amazed at her insights and nuance that emerge from the conversations she describes.

I was not terribly familiar with the story of King Henry VIII, Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, and Sir Thomas More, though in Britain it is very well known.  Indeed I found  getting inside the story fascinating on multiple levels:

• The political intrigue and maneuvering for power and influence is a familiar theme and resonates to this day;
• the relationship between secular and religious authority was a key issue then – not so much now;
• the role and power of the Catholic Church in Renaissance Europe,  and how its corruption cost it in credibility, and led to the power of the Reformation; 
• the disruption caused by Martin Luther to European civilization, and how and why it was so controversial to translate the Bible from Latin into languages which the common people could understand; 
• how different life was before electricity, and the many modern conveniences which we take for granted, but at the same time, the human issues remain very familiar;
• the indicators of the transition of rule by fiat of a king, to rule by parliament and law are evident here. The King was frustrated that he couldn’t just do what he wanted; 
• the helplessness of so many – the rich and the poor – in the face of the ravaging effects of disease and plague.  Cromwell lost much of his family, and getting sick was often a death sentence;  
• and though we don’t read in Wolf Hall much of how the poorest people lived, even the wealthy and the aristocracy lived lives that we today would not envy. 

This is not a quick or light read.  To read Wolf Hall one must be patient and prepared for a deliberate and more subtle pleasure.  It is not “fast food” literature.   It must be read patiently and savored. I found I enjoyed it most when I read it in the morning when I was fresh; reading it tired and distracted late in the evening just didn’t work well for me.  In the end it was very much worth it for me. 

A number of themes rang out in the book.  Thomas Cromwell is the centerpiece and “hero” of the book, and is a model, and a modern character in many ways.  He was a commoner who rose to be one of the most powerful men in England, but was still looked down upon and resented by the well-born from the ancient and aristocratic families of England.  Mantel makes him into a reasonable, and practical man, compassionate and generous, but also very clever and politically astute in subtly accruing and retaining power and influence.  He was always very controlled and deliberate.  We get to know him well, his inner life, his doubts and conflicts.

But for him, personal survival and attaining the resources and influence to take care of his family and those closest to him was his primary objective.  Though loyal honest and often selfless, he still knew how to win the trust of those he needed, in order to protect his interests, and seemed always to land on his feet. Thomas More said of him:  “Lock Cromwell in a deep dungeon in the morning, and when you come back that night, he’ll be sitting on a plush cushion, eating larks’ tongues, and all the jailers will owe him money.” (p561)

In contrast to Cromwell we have the greedy but charming sensualist Henry VIII, the ambitious, cold and calculating Anne Boleyn, the many clumsy older Dukes and nobles of the English aristocracy, Cromwells first boss and sponsor, Bishop Wolsey, as well as numerous friends and enemies in the shark tank of the King’s court.  But most importantly Wolf Hall portrays Cromwell’s relationship with the cruelly principled Thomas More, the deposed Archbishop of Canterbury, who was zealously committed to the rightness of his principles and exercised his authority and conviction in a merciless “grand inquisitor” style.  The final part of the book pits Cromwell’s pragmatism against More’s very stoic principled view of life, and we the readers are left admiring both, but clearly the author’s favorite is Cromwell. 

In reading this book, it is useful to review the excellent summaries on Litcharts.com, as well as the background and character analysis they offer. Also, the PBS series based on the novel is very well done and complements the reading of this intricate novel quite well.  

I highly recommend Wolf Hall for the discriminating reader. 

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Some examples of the excellent writing which so impressed me: (page numbers refer to the paper back edition pictured.)

At court and in the offices of Westminster, he dresses not a whit above his gentleman’s station, in loose jackets of Lemster wool so fine they flow like water, in purples and indigos so near black that it looks as if the night has bled into them…p317

A man’s power is in the half-light, in the half-seen movements of his hand and the unguessed-at expression of his face.  It is the absence of facts that frightens people: the gap you open, into which they pour their fears, fantasies, desires.  p331

When he is admitted, she is pacing, her hands clasped, and she looks small and tense, as if someone has knitted her and drawn the stitches too tight.  p344

The world is not run from castle walls, but from countinghouses, not by the call of the bugle but by the click of the abacus, not by the grate and click of the mechanism of the gun, but by the scrape of the pen on the page of the promissory note that pays for the gun and the gunsmith and the powder and shot.  p349

“…it’s just that you are practiced at persuading, and sometimes it’s quite difficult, sir, to distinguish being persuaded by you from being knocked down in the street and stamped on.”  p406

..It is a lie so staggering that he has to admire it.  p420

She is a mouse under the cat’s paw.  p446

There’s a feeling of power in reserve, a power that drives right through the bone, like the shiver you sense in the shaft of an ax when you take it into your hand.  You can strike, or you can not strike, and if you choose to hold back the blow, you can still feel inside you the resonance of the omitted thing.  p479

(Thomas More to Cromwell:) “This relentless bonhomie of yours. I knew it would wear out in the end. It is a coin that has changed hands so often. And now the small silver is worn out, and we see the base metal.” p526

“Bishop Gardiner will be burning up inside.  His giblets will be sizzling in his own grease.” p530

“See these quails? You get more meat on a wasp.”  p530

Rafe says.. “I am violently in love with her”  “How does that feel? Is it like being violently angry?”  “I suppose. Maybe. In that you feel more alive.”  p531

…there is another landscape; there is a buried empire…all those unseen dead who hover in winter around forges and village hearths, trying to warm their bare bones. For they too are his countrymen: the generations of the uncounted dead, breathing through the living, stealing their light from them, the bloodless ghosts of lord and knave, nun and whore, the ghosts of priest and friar who feed on living England, and suck the substance from the future.  p534

The duke rants… You should have sent young Fitzroy to Dublin, he tells the council. An apprentice king – make a show, stage a spectacle, throw some money about.  p543

If Anne were my wife, he thinks, I’d go out for the afternoon. She looks haggard, and she cannot stay still; you wouldn’t trust her near a sharp knife. p552

The women laugh, but their laughter is cold.  p 559

“Mary wants money. She says, she knows she should not have been so hasty.  She says, love overcame reason.”  “Love, was it?” p560

(Thomas More’s wife about her husband:) “…he wore a shirt of hair beneath his linen. He did so when we were married and I begged him to leave it off and I thought he had. But how would I know? He slept alone and drew the bolt on his door. If he had an itch I never knew it, he was perforce to scratch it himself.” p 562

He is tired out from the effort of deciphering the wold.  Tired from the effort of smiling at the foe.  p569

Why this book: Selected as a book to discuss by the group of young men I meet with who are preparing to begin SEAL and SWCC basic training.  One of them had read it and said it would be a really good one for us to read and talk about. He was right.

Summary in 3 sentences.  This book is an expansion on the speech Adm Bill McRaven gave as the graduation commencement speaker for the University of Texas in 2014 which went viral and became an internet hit.  He offers the graduating seniors 10 lessons he learned during his career in the SEALs that may help them in their lives after graduation, in whatever field they go into.  Each lesson is from his SEAL experience, and begins with “If you want to change the world…..”

My Impressions: This is a  short, fun-to-read book that captures highlights of the wisdom  that Bill McRaven gleaned from his 36 years in the Navy, amplified by some great stories that drive home the lessons he intends to impart.  It is not an academic or pretentious book – very down to earth – and he tells simple stories from his life in the SEAL Teams and translates the lessons to apply to any walk of life.

Most of the 10 chapters begin with a story from his time in Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training, with an instructor making him or his boat crew do something that they really didn’t want to do, but they did it anyway – because in order to become SEALs, they had to.  It wasn’t pleasant, but Bill shares why and how bearing down and completing as best he could these unpleasant tasks taught him lessons that helped him succeed throughout his career.

There are ten chapters in the book, each entitled with the lesson that chapter will impart, such as,  “Chapter One: Start Your Day with a Task Completed.”  And then each chapter gives a specific action to fulfill that lesson – “If you want to change the world….Start off by making your bed.” And then he launches into the stories that support that lesson.

Another example: “Chapter Five: Failure can make you stronger.  If you want to change the world…Don’t be afraid of The Circus.”   In the chapter he explains “The Circus” as a punishment meted out to BUD/S trainees who did not meet instructor standards.

Or “Chapter Three: Only the Size of your Heart Matters.  If you want to change the world…measure a person by the size of their heart.”  And here he goes on to tell a story from SEAL training how often the little guys, the ones who didn’t look like Hollywood’s version of a Navy SEAL, were often the ones who succeeded, while the biggest and the strongest often weren’t there at the end. That was also my experience.   Some of the most athletically gifted didn’t have the heart, the grit, or the desire necessary to get through the tough challenges of SEAL training. .

The beauty of this little book is in it’s simplicity.  It is short, easy and enjoyable to read, and profound in the lessons taken from the challenges one of our nations most prominent military leaders faced as a young man and what he learned from them to help him succeed in serving our nation.  How he applied his insights to overcoming challenges large and small offers wisdom that anyone in any walk of life can relate to. The final chapter is “Never Ever Quit. If you want to change the world….Don’t ever , ever ring the bell.”

At the conclusion of the book,  he includes the full text of his speech at the 2014 University of Texas commencement which inspired the book, and helped launch Adm Bill McRaven’s post-Navy career as an inspirational leader in the world outside the military and the Navy SEALs.

My good friend YK, an experienced and well educated  banking executive, tells me that she loves Make Your Bed,  as it picks her up and inspires her after a long day of dealing with difficult people and difficult issues.  It also inspired my young SEAL candidates, nervously preparing for basic SEAL training. And it inspires me as I deal with my own challenges, as a middle aged man making his way in a rapidly changing world.

It is a book I will gift to friends – it is short and easy enough to read that my non-reading friends will probably read it, enjoy it, be inspired by it, and gift it to others.  If you want to change the world….gift an inspiring book to those who will read it and learn from it.

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Bill McRaven is a friends of mine – I admired him when we served together during our careers in the SEALS, and I admire him even more today for his sacrifices and successes as a leader as his career continued, and mine was over. I also admire his courage in speaking up for what he believes in and subjecting himself to a lot of criticism.  So when our reading group selected this book, I reached out to him and asked him if he could join our discussion, answer questions from the young men and share his wisdom and insights with them directly.  He agreed and for an hour on Zoom, Bill answered questions about  some of his stories in the book, shared a few additional stories that reinforced his points, and answered questions about serving in combat that were not addressed in a book written for general consumption.  It was a great session, he was full of his characteristic positive energy and passion and he inspired these young men with simple lessons and wisdom that should help them succeed at whatever they end up doing – hopefully becoming Navy SEALs.  It was fully characteristic of him to willingly give up an hour of his time in the evening to meet with a group of young men who aspire to be better.

Why this book: Suggested by my friend Janar in my reading group, as a short and powerful book.  We selected it as an optional addition to our longer selection for August.

Summary in 3 sentences: Two good friends and lance corporals in the marine corps are in a humvee that hits a landmine in the Hamrin Valley in Iraq – one of them is killed and the other severely burned and injured.  This story is told by the one who was “lucky” – the one who was killed,  as he observes from the “other side” his friend Eden barely conscious, severely burned and wounded, unable to speak, confined to a hospital bed, and he relates stories about their lives from before they deployed into Iraq.    A central character in the book is Eden’s wife Mary, how as now a single mother, she deals with having a husband who can’t be a “husband” and father, her guilt about her feelings and for some things in their relationship before he deployed.

My impressions:  Short very powerful and impactful.  Not a happy uplifting story, but a story of courage – Eden’s in some cases, and Mary’s in some cases – good and poor decisions they made, and how to live with moral and existential dilemmas that can’t be escaped. Our narrator dispassionately describes what he observes and gets into Eden’s and Mary’s heads, and we see how hard it is for husband and wife to accept and come to grips with their current reality.  It is a short novel – 125 pages of large print on small pages with short chapters – more a novella than a novel.  It is very well written. For the power and impact of this novel – it is very much worth the limited time and effort to read it.

This book reminded me in many ways of Johnny Got his Gun by Dalton Trumbo which I read maybe 50 years ago, about a soldier wounded in war, and left in his hospital bed, with no arms, no legs, blind, deaf, and unable to speak.  Only able to feel.  But fully conscious – and we experience his impressions of his very limited world.  Eden was similar, but burned as well, and not completely mentally coherent – in and out of clarity.  His world was vague impressions of what was happening in his hospital room, and some dreams and a few horrible hallucinations.

The narrator was watching all this from  “the other side.”  He would occasionally enter Eden’s dreams and he and Eden would converse – but he was “waiting for Eden” to die and join him.  He relates that he doesn’t know what would happen then – would they go to another dimension? Something else? But for the time being, he was “waiting for Eden.”

Eden’s wife Mary is actually the central figure in the book.  She is the heroine.  She is young, attractive, from a blue collar background, leads an exercise group in a local gym. She married Eden soon after the joined the Marines, with dreams and desires typical of young women anywhere.  And then after his 1st combat tour to Iraq, he changed and things changed between them – and she didn’t understand.  She tried to talk him out of reenlisting and going back. She got pregnant before he left.   Then an impossible situation was forced on her. She had to make and live with decisions she had made before he deployed, and then must deal with the reality of her husband returning a mere shell of the man she had married.   She is a powerful figure.

This is a short book and one I won’t soon forget.  I highly recommend it.