You Can't Go Home Again - Thomas Wolfe

The semi-autobiographical story of a novelist dealing with the trials of writing and publishing is really a vast, thorough examination of America (circa the stock market crash of 1929) - an America of which New York City is most certainly the epicenter, for good or bad. It is full of detailed, real characters, from elevator operators to aristocrats, all of whom collectively form the great beast of America - and in the midst of it all is George Webber - observing, living, and trying to capture it all in words. The novel begins with Webber waiting for the publication of his first novel, which is based on his youth in a small Nebraska town - when it comes out he experiences an unexpected backlash from the people he had fictionalized. Facing such animosity and ostracism, that he 'can't go home again,' as the title suggests. But in reality, the novel goes far beyond that event. It takes the reader though the theme of being unable to return to something past, destroyed, or otherwise left behind is recurrent. The perspective shifts from close inspection of the protagonist to broader examinations of his surroundings, and the style changes throughout, depending on need, giving it an energizing (and intentional) inconsistency. Wolfe's language is dense, descriptive, and highly analytical - somewhere between Fitzgerald and James Baldwin - but distinctly his own. Having said that, the book is a bit overwritten, perhaps due partially to its immense ambitions, and at times the author's own analysis is too prevalent, but it is nonetheless an important piece of American literature.

IMPORTANT!
4 out of 5
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For Whom the Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemingway

In his tale of the Spanish civil war, Hemingway stretches out a period of three days into nearly epic proportions. He does so not by tedious glamorization but through a sincere and brutal study of war and all its paradoxes. His characters breathe with intensity and a sense of purpose - for the short time shown they live in the present, and that alone gives validation to their existence. The story focuses on an American mercenary fighting with the Spanish rebels. A special mission takes him to a mountain camp, where the unstable leadership threatens to hinder his task. The language is typical Hemingway - terse and confident - and the dialogue is strange and almost poetic, even at its most vulgar moments ("I obscenity in the milk of thy...!" curse his characters). Through the constant moral struggles of the American and the group of makeshift soldiers, Hemingway gets to the harsh truth of war - that even if killing is necessary one must never believe in it. This is a beautiful, honest book.

IMPORTANT
4 out of 5
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News of a Kidnapping - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

A nonfiction account of the kidnappings of affluent Colombians by the Pablo Escobar-led "extraditables," so called for the new controversial policy that allows for their extradition to the USA if caught or surrendered. The story begins in 1990 by recounting the latest abduction in a string of high profiled hostage taking - the cartel's angry response to the new policy. Next the tale drops back in time to explain the circumstances surrounding the kidnappings of other people held by the cartels. Marquez's gentle (Nobel Prize winning) prose presents the facts in a careful, believable story teller voice with none of the usual stuffiness of nonfiction. The guerrillas' behavior is neither vilified nor condoned. Their lower echelons are gentle, misguided and confused, while the top monsters appear oddly human and surprisingly unevil. The victims, for the most part, are not tortured or harmed; the pain of their experiences lies mainly in their captivity and absence from their loved ones.

The insight into Colombia's struggles proffered by News of a Kidnapping is priceless and the suspenseful story is difficult to put down. A must read for anyone interested in learning about the further effects of America's War on Drugs.

Important and Highly Entertaining
4 out of 5
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Youth and The End of the Tether - Joseph Conrad

Two more seafaring tales from Joseph Conrad, both purportedly based on his own Eastern marine adventuring. 'Youth,' the first and significantly shorter of the stories, is well described by its subtitle: A Narrative. In it, a young man's enthusiasm for life is only strengthened by events of danger and hardship on the sea. The second, 'The End of the Tether,' tells of an old, well-intentioned sea captain on the opposite leg of life who finds himself suddenly tangled in a series of dishonest decisions (both his own and those of his mutinous crew). Though the captain is a worldly, respected man, his character displays a cringeworthy innocence as the troubles around him culminate. While at times his descriptions get a little out of hand, Conrad's expertise shines brightly through these contrasting stories of life, death, light, dark, good and evil. His strong voice steers his characters and plot with easy skill akin to that of a seasoned captain steering through well charted waters. This book is both impressive and fun to read.

Highly Entertaining
4 out of 5
Buy this book: Youth; Heart of Darkness; The End of the Tether (Our version is Out of Print)

A People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present - Howard Zinn

This heavy volume is, foremost, a history book, as it says, and so it is laden with sometimes tedious examples, excerpts, facts, and dates - but it has a distinctive purpose: to counterweight the majority of our historical works, which Zinn believes tend to be too sympathetic of states and dismissive of people. In other words, it is a conscious effort to shift the perspective of American history to those who have, in the United States' approximately 230 year history (and prior), been marginalized, oppressed, forgotten, or otherwise victimized. While he devotes plenty of space to deploring the actions and attitudes of governments, Zinn mainly focuses on People's movements - rebellions, protests, strikes, dissent - the essential motivating force behind democratic change. In a sense A People's History is a compassionate history, in that it does not dismiss war and violence and oppression as necessary events in light of our present situations. But its greatest purpose, it seems, is its attempt to override the many still-common American myths, including - but not limited to - that the country's founders had pure, righteous intentions; that politicians were once honest and fair; that unjust military intervention is a recent blemish; and that, in general, our country needs to return to its old values. This book is dense and extensive; for those looking for a shorter path to cynicism, Zinn recently released an illustrated version.

IMPORTANT
4 out of 5
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The Diary of a Madman and Other Stories – Nikolai Gogol

This collection of short stories by Gogol, an early 19th century Russian, is both impressive and entertaining. The tales contain heartwarmingly pathetic, believable characters with qualities still relevant to contemporary society, as well as occasional self-reflexive quips from the author (100 years before Vonnegut’s overuse drove them out of style). The line between reality and absurdity bends, blurs, breaks and returns reshaped within the cruel social structures and tedium of daily life, producing original didactic tales. Gogol employs very few time cues but when he does (such as poking fun at the French and Germans) they provide interesting insight into the historical period. The Diary of a Madman and Other Stories is fun and enlightening; whether you’re looking for an easy distraction or for a heavier, layered journey, you’ll get something worthwhile out of this book.

IMPORTANT!
4 out of 5
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In Dubious Battle - John Steinbeck

Steinbeck's concise tale of labor strife and political uprising follows a young, disenfranchised worker who joins up with a local branch of the communist party. His mentor teaches him the ins and outs of riding the rails and being subversive, and they soon plant themselves in an apple picking camp and try to stir things up. The story is mostly driven by dialogue, and the author's ideas on the skeptical nature of political ideology and violent struggle are revealed through the discussions of common workers (though Steinbeck's views are expressed most clearly in the words of an apolitical doctor). Full of tension until the final page, this novel is an honest depiction of an American time period as well as a careful inspection of the morality of inciting hatred and rebellion for the sake of a greater good.

IMPORTANT!
4 out of 5
Buy this book: In Dubious Battle (Penguin Classics)

Lord Jim - Joseph Conrad

Lord Jim is Conrad's classic story of the fall and rise of a young maritime adventurer. A life-changing decision on the part of young Jim, the protagonist, results in almost unbearable embarrassment but subsequently leads to his enlightenment. The chain of events, told through Conrad's eloquently verbose language, provides a fascinating and revealing account of humankind. Framed by an old narrator and acquaintance of Jim, Marlow, the story comes alive in the reader's imagination. The occasional narrative break not only provides insight into the story teller, a strong character in his own right, but also pulls the reader back from Jim's absurd situations and into a broader perspective so as to allow appreciation of the themes without interrupting the flow of the tale. These transitions are seamless and the story of ocean travel, far away places, and finding oneself is truly a world classic not to by missed.

IMPORTANT!
4.5 out of 5
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Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrel - Susanna Clarke

Although it is a fantasy novel - a story of magic, fairies, and other unearthly themes - this book demands respect. There is an undeniable sophistication in Clarke's craft, and her language is tinged with a dry wit. Ironically, what separates her novel from just being a frivolous book about magic is precisely her treatment of magic - it is not a Disney-like, colorful phenomenon, but a suspect, gray, dangerous, uncontrollable force. Its effects are not compatible with our normal sense of reality; things shift, corrode and change imperceptibly, suddenly, compromising the reason and sanity of her characters, as well as the stability of the physical realm - in fact, the world may be better off with out it. The magic she describes could just as easily be nuclear physics. Complete with extensive footnotes that take off into intriguing side stories, the story never ceases to entertain, even as it approaches the 1,000th page.

HIGHLY ENTERTAINING
4 out of 5

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Another Country - James Baldwin

A powerful novel of strained racial and sexual relations within a small group of friends in new York City. Another Country shows the harsh reality of life tainted by denial and jealousy, happiness shadowed by self-deceit, and the effects of selfish actions perpetrated under the pretense of loneliness that cause more pain than relief.

As a result of change, the characters grow increasingly out of touch with themselves and their established lives; each caught up in their own self pity, they fail to realize those they are leaning on also stand cracked and shaking. Between these personal battles also fester the societal wounds of racial intolerance (both on the part of whites and blacks) and prejudice against homosexuality. Despite the somewhat over-used setting of New York (even in the 60s) this novel charges into some of the most important issues that continue to plague the "land of the free." Another Country should be required reading for anyone who considers themselves to be American.

IMPORTANT!
4 out of 5
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Steppenwolf - Hermann Hesse

Perhaps one of the most original novels of contemporary literature, Steppenwolf follows the midlife escapades of Harry Haller, a self-proclaimed loner and sedentary intellectual, showing his spiritual collapse and ventures into the vast, unfamiliar world of hedonistic physical pleasure and human interaction. The experimental structure includes a good-sized treatise on the nature of the so-called Steppenwolf (Harry's identity of part man, part lone, wandering, savage beast), and an introduction to the prismatic, fluctuating concept of self and personality found in Eastern philosophy. Hesse conjures up both Goethe and Mozart to take part in Harry's circus-like crisis, and allows other characters to test and push the limits of his understanding (including a criticism of the over-intellectualization of music from a Latino jazz man). This novel, while self-reflexive, fantastical, masculine, personal and German, does not instruct with ideology - it is full of intentional contradictions and alternatives that allow the reader to contemplate the myriad possibilities of life and human experience. I can only imagine its reception in the rising flood of socialist dogma back when it was first published in 1920s Germany.

IMPORTANT!
4 out of 5
Buy this book: Steppenwolf: A Novel

The Castle of Crossed Destinies - Italo Calvino

This slim piece of Calvino is something to chew on, a new lens, new direction. It contains a collection of intertwined stories told through the interpretation of Tarot cards by mute travelers at a mysterious crossroads. As each individual story is laid down, it is discovered that common cards are needed to accommodate them all. Calvino gives us the first stories, those that are universal; each crosses and meshes, compliments and mirrors. But the interconnectedness of the tales is more than the surface crossing of the recent trend of showing multiple tangential plots in popular books and films (e.g. Pulp Fiction, Babel, etc.), which only meet on a one-dimensional plane. The sharing of Tarots highlights the interpretive nature of storytelling, and of experience itself. Even the well-known stories that emerge (Faust, Macbeth, and others) are not rigid, but are shifting, open entities. Calvino leaves us with the sense that there is no limit to the gradient of interpretation, or complication, of life.

IMPORTANT!
4 out of 5
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In Patagonia - Bruce Chatwin

A travel adventure full of historical anecdotes, myths, and curious tangents. Chatwin traces his travels through Argentina and Chile loosely following stories of his swashbuckler uncle and slowly unravels the truth of legends, some local and others world famous. His path dots around foreign outposts where most strangers accept him with open arms. Within the stories of these characters he objectively reveals a history of violence and displacement of aboriginal peoples as well as the struggles of the first Westerners as they attempted to settle in this far southern corner of the world. A fascinating and fun ride that inspires the reader to go out on their own exploration.

IMPORTANT!
4 out of 5
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The Firecracker Boys - Dan O'Neill

More than a story of unethical government scientists attempting to deceive the citizens of their country, The Firecracker Boys illustrates the decisively split interests that occur so commonly throughout American history, creating both well-defined heroes and unmistakable villains.

Edward Teller and the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) spent years attempting to push through an unprecedentedly large nuclear test in northwestern Alaska. Ground zero of Project Chariot was to be on Native land about 30 miles from the ancient village of Point Hope. Despite overwhelming scientific evidence indicating the opposite, the scientists maintained that no damage would be done to food chains, land, or humans of the proposed area. The AEC and their Alaskan business supporters demonstrated extreme racism and disregard for the concerned local Eskimo communities, advocating partiality in the press, academic censorship, and blacklisting of scientists who tried to reveal the truth. The Firecracker Boys shows greed, carelessness, and selfishness on behalf of the government stopped only by the compassion, dedication and selflessness of a small group of citizens. At once inspiring and horrifying, the story makes you question why this behavior was tolerated in public employees, as well as how the American people can continue to trust such a corrupt institution as their own leadership. Dan O'Neill has collected and organized an amazing amount of previously classified information as well as conducted original interviews. The book is well written and captivating; a must read for anyone who considers themselves to be an environmentalist, patriot, or human being.

IMPORTANT!
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Buy this book: The Firecracker Boys: H-bombs, Inupiat Eskimos, and the Roots of the Environmental Movement