Good Books List

FICTION

I AM THE ELDEST of six children, my wife the third of four, and we grew up in the 1960s when larger families did not seem so rare. We have a large family, too-five children, ages 16-23. When my kids were young and my wife took them to the park, she was asked more than once if she operated a day care. Our house can resemble the breakfast scene from Steve Martin's remake of "Cheaper by the Dozen." I have special appreciation for the idiosyncrasies of large families.

Our kids have emerged amazingly grounded and successful, such that outsiders must assume they are adopted. Not unlike the story of the Barnacles and their neighbors, the Finches (those charming names play on the fact that Charles Darwin studied both barnacles and finches). Barry and Bella Barnacle live in an enormous apartment in Manhattan, overlooking Central Park. There they have raised six daughters, Bell, Bridget, Beth, Belinda, Beryl and Benita. Barry has made his fortune as the "King of Pantyhose" and has raised his family in an ongoing examination of nature versus nurture. Think Woody Allen does Jane Austen during the first third of the novel as we meet this eccentric couple and their relatively engaging offspring.

Then, having no male heirs, Barry proposes a contest to his daughters to see who will inherit his fortune. The remainder of the book follows the various attempts of these six talented young women to distinguish themselves in this challenge. Most of the action deals with Bell and Bridget, the oldest two daughters, and their struggles to adjust to their imperfect parents as they pursue the Finch boys, twin young men who live in their building, with whom they have had on and off romances for years. Each of these relationships will ultimately face a final test. The two daughters will resolve some of their issues, but the contest-a variant on survival of the fittest-does not otherwise turn out well.

This is another first novel presented by the Maiden Voyage Club from the Elliott Bay Book Company. Alternately hilariously, poignant and serious, it examines the innate and acquired qualities that people bring to relationships and to their families. The author, who is an independent film producer, writes precisely and crisply. If there's a flaw, at times there are too many sisters and a set of identical twins to keep track of. Ultimately this is an engaging read, full of flawed but likeable characters, eccentric and hip, realistic and funny, inventive and fresh.

Mabry Kincaid, a 50-something art conservator, is returning to New York on September 11, 2001. Midway across the Atlantic, his flight is diverted to Nova Scotia. Two days later when he is able to return to United States, he finds his lower Manhattan loft in ruins. He travels to his small hometown in North Carolina to visit his aged father, Tasker Kincaid, a widower and Episcopalian priest. During what becomes an extended stay, Mabry re-examines his relationship with his father, an old flame, his recently deceased wife, and his daughter in a world forever changed.

With the death of his wife fresh in his mind, Mabry's visit with his father begins on a strained but respectful note. As the sojourn lengthens, we learn that the good priest was himself not always so good, and though ever witty and wise, was not a father in the tradition of Ward Cleaver either.

The son struggles with a more nuanced perception of his father's complexity, and he works to rebuild a relationship with his daughter, from whom he is estranged principally because of his own prolonged disrespectful and boorish behavior toward his wife, her mother. We expect the daughter to remain appropriately angry, but she is funny and kind and never mentions forgiving his regrettable behavior.

During his visit Mabry also takes up with an old flame as though the intervening years had not taken place. In the safety of this gracious and comfortable relationship, he works to come to terms with his philandering past.

We have been inundated over the last few years by stories of aging boomers losing their way in midlife. (Think the movies Lost in Translation, Sideways.) At this point, these stories seem pretty tedious, and I find it difficult to have much sympathy for them.  Nevertheless, I have always enjoyed Price's writing, as he celebrates our humanity in our search for direction and connectedness.

Ultimately, this is the story of one man's search for salvage as everything in his life-his family, his home, his career, and his health-are in ruins. Price does not resolve all these story lines by the end of the novel, and so much the better, He addresses questions through characters much like ourselves-fallible, funny, sometimes frightened and lonely.

Many of us are now at that age where our careers are challenging in ways we never expected, our families are evolving in directions we have not anticipated, and our friends are having their divorces and their MIs. Because Price's characters are so finely drawn and so sympathetic, there is a pervasive sense of "there but for the grace of god..."

Claire Messud in the New York Times wrote, "The events of September 11, 2001 create a background thunder perhaps too loud for the distresses of Mabry Kincaid's one insignificant life, but that may be Price's point: even in the face of immense tragedy, each of us must still confront our own small struggle and must try as Tasker Kincaid put it, 'to find a soul.'"

Imagine that Jerry Seinfeld wrote a novel about his relationship with his father. In the book, however, Morty Seinfeld is not a cranky eccentric raincoat salesman but a celebrated hero of the New York Jewish community. Or is he?

In this novel, Michael Rosenheim is a stand-up comic, visiting his father, in the steep decline of advanced Alzheimer's disease, in a nursing home in Florida. Heschel Rosenheim, a concentration camp survivor, has lived an exemplary life, contributing time and money to Jewish charities and causes throughout the country and the world.

Herschel presents Michael with a set of 24 journals, which reveal that Heschel was not always Heschel. He was in fact Heinrich Mueller, a Nazi lieutenant in a concentration camp. He escapes by assuming the identity of a dead Jew, eventually traveling to Palestine where he becomes a hero working on behalf of the emerging Israeli state. He ultimately emigrates to New Jersey. As his father switches from obscure to lucid moments and back, Michael trudges reluctantly through sixty years of uncertain memory, distorted memory and assumed identity.

Mixed in with this telling are subplots about Michael's relationship with his own son, his pathetic relationship with his ex-wife and his sister who died a painful death from cancer. Unfortunately, the subplots are mostly poorly executed. If Lavigne had developed Michael's relationship with his son more deeply, it would have added greatly to the impact of the book.

As Michael finishes reading the journals, his father has died. He discovers a particularly poignant letter his father wrote that he intended to be discovered after the journals were read. As improbable as it sounds, we come to understand the horror of Heschel's life. Ultimately, we must consider the fact that all we do in life involves trade-offs and some of us face much more difficult choices than others. In the face of unspeakable horror, there can be transgression, but there can also be repentance and atonement. To the son he loved more than he could say, Heschel wrote, "I pray that when it is time for you to make your choice, you too can recall the past and embrace the future."

This is a dark but compelling story. It will stay with you long after you have finished because of its intense examination of faith, family, love and redemption.

You may not remember, but the Odyssey by Homer, commonly dated circa 800 to 600 BC, concerns what happens to Odysseus after the fall of Troy as he make his way home to Ithaca. Penelope, his wife has to deal with a group of unruly suitors who have taken up residence in Odysseus's home during his almost 20-year absence. (Thank you, Wikipedia.) Ben Ehrenreich's version is the latest of many plays, novels, poems and movies based more or less on the Odyssey. In Ehrenreich's telling, Payne (Odysseus) is largely absent and the story focuses on Penny (Penelope) and the suitors.

Erhenrich's book came to me from the Elliott Bay Book Club's series of first books by new authors.

Just as the Odyssey is not straightforward reading, the Suitors is a moderately difficult but interesting novel.

Penny—left behind as Payne travels the world, waging war and taking his time returning—chain smokes and raises their son in a nameless, faceless, somewhat grotesque setting. She's surrounded by an unlikely group of what seem to be losers who are devoted to her and crave her attention.

She will have nothing to do with them, and remains focused on her Payne, writing letters to him daily until a mysterious man literally washes ashore. She nurses him back to health and eventually develops a relationship with him that disrupts the tenuous balance in the ramshackle group.

The novel is full of metaphor, as Ehrenreich spins out a theme of individual passion losing out to relationships that matter. His writing is often witty and playful, albeit perhaps too sexually preoccupied. The humor is frequently on target, with barbs at nationalism, war and the human condition. Never a dull moment.

This post-9/11 novel from the author of Amsterdam and Atonement examines one day in the life of Henry Perowne, a successful neurosurgeon with a successful wife, two successful children and a very comfortable life in London.

It is a Saturday in February 2003, and the world outside Dr. Perowne's operating room and home is not so comfortable. There is an impending war in Iraq and a growing pessimism since the attacks in Washington and New York in 2001.

Dr. Perowne awakens on this Saturday morning and sees from his bedroom window what appears to be an airliner on fire as it approaches Heathrow. Later in the day, as he works his way to the hospital and back, he encounters a demonstration against the war in Iraq and the unfolding of the airplane drama.

He is involved in a minor car accident—a chance encounter that resembles road rage—and that sets up the conflict that ultimately intrudes on him very directly and personally, unraveling his perfect, seemingly controlled existence. With great irony, he must later operate to save the life of the young man who has terrorized his family.

As the day moves from the mundane to the marvelous to the horrific and back, one can't help but reflect on the struggles of the haves versus the have nots, privilege versus responsibility, fear versus tolerance, and ultimately the gratitude, forgiveness and generosity that are a part of our profession.

Those who have read other works by Ian McEwan will appreciate the beauty, pace and tension he manages to sustain. Though it is a bit drawn out, it's still a good read.

NON-FICTION

In the 1960s Kevin Phillips, at the time a relatively unknown Republican strategist, wrote an important book, "The Emerging Republican Majority." In it, he asked how the demographic and economic changes of post-war America would shape the long-term future of the two major political parties. His answer, prescient but incredible at the time, was that the movement of people and resources from the Northern industrial states into the South and West (which he labeled the Sunbelt) would create a new and more conservative Republican party that would dominate American politics for decades.

Subsequently Phillips worked for the Nixon administration, but he has remained an important and credible political commentator and writer.

He went on to write a dozen more books, including "The Politics of Rich and Poor" and more recently, "Dynasty," a saga about the Bush family over several generations. (Last summer I reviewed "Dynasty" for this space.)

In "American Theocracy," Phillips' thesis is that from ancient Rome to the British Empire, a combination of global overreaching, religion, resource problems and ballooning debt has led to the downfall of great empires. In our own time, the American future is threatened by its own perfect storm of energy problems, radical religion and debt. Phillips writes at length on America's relationship with oil, the evolution of fundamentalist religion in America and its growing influence on government, and the growing reliance on a staggering amount of borrowed money to power our economy.

In "Dynasty," Phillips detailed much of the history of the oil industry in America, and the Bush family's connection to what was to become Big Oil. Much of that narrative also appears in the first section of "American Theocracy," but this time he devotes more space to how the pursuit of oil has been one of the defining elements of U.S. policy for 30 years. The Bush administration, dominated by oilmen, has taken the nation's addiction to oil to new and terrifying levels. He writes that the U.S. has embraced a kind of "petro-imperialism, the key aspect of which is the U.S. military's transformation into a global protection force."

The next section of the book is particularly impressive. Phillips describes the evolution of Protestant sects in the U.S. since the American Revolution. Mainline churches have been successively marginalized by progressively more radical fundamentalist sects, many of which shape their view of politics and the world around signs of an imminent "rapture"-the return of Jesus to the world and the elevation of believers to heaven amidst all the terror of the apocalypse. Certainly the Christian sects do not speak with one voice but nearly all are conservative and their political rise is no secret. Phillips suggests that the professed religious beliefs of many in the current administration are not just a tactic to win support of policy, but are the basis of policy. This would explain, for example, not only faith-based social services but faith-based science (think Plan B and stem cells), and ominously, faith-based military policy.

The third subject Phillips covers has been well described elsewhere: the astounding rise of present and future debt as the underpinning of the U.S. economy. The information is not new, and Paul Krugman, Pete Peterson and many others have written about this topic at length in recent years. Nonetheless, Phillips' summary is concise and sobering.

It would be easy for critics to see this book as pure Bush bashing, and certainly Phillips does not hide his disdain for the current administration and its policies. However, the great gift of his analysis is the ability to look broadly and structurally, beyond the current administration, at social and political change. Linking the three elements of his thesis is the failure of leaders to look beyond their own and the country's immediate desires to plan for an increasingly challenging future. He does not propose any solutions, but clearly, we deserve better leadership, and we should demand that of the political process. Real solutions will involve substantial personal sacrifice, greater tolerance and lifestyle modifications that will not be easy to sell to our consumption-oriented, "but what about my needs?" culture.

This is a frightening, but important book. It is thoroughly researched and documented, complicated but engaging. If you read just one book this season, pick this one.

As the Enron trials reach their conclusion, Henry Cloud's short and easy to read book on integrity is timely. In our market-driven culture where the ends justify the means, Enron is not the only recent example. In May Tenet Healthcare, the country's second-largest hospital chain, agreed to pay a $21-million fine to settle federal charges of kickbacks to physicians in San Diego.

Dr. Cloud contends that integrity encompasses more than simple honesty. The person with integrity has an integrated sense of values from which honesty, trust, and progress are generated. In his construct, six qualities of character define integrity-the ability to connect with others and build trust, orientation toward reality, finishing well, the ability to engage conflict in a constructive way, orientation toward progress and understanding the transcendent.

Dr. Cloud, a clinical psychologist and corporate consultant who has written more than a dozen self-help books, covers each quality in a separate chapter. He discusses how the successful leader must pull them together to create the authenticity needed to lead others where they might not otherwise choose to go. Though helpful, success is not related to talent or brains alone, he argues, but to the entire person.

The market presents the profession of medicine with difficult choices and ethical challenges every day. Increasingly, our days are too rushed, too stressed and too pressured to reflect on the purpose and mission of our work. Surely, none of us is dishonest in the usual sense, but all of us can grow in the kind of real character that brings about achievement of purpose, mission and goals. Integrity is not something you have or don't have, but a pathway you can engage every day.

(Below: Book recommendation by Richard Hawkins, MD, Tacoma)

Dr. Montezuma, one of the first Native American physicians, lived in the late 19th and early 20th century. I was fascinated by the story of this unusual physician, successful in another time. He was a Yavapai Indian, a product of Indian schools who advocated assimilation of Native Americans into mainstream culture. In later years, however, he became a fierce advocate for helping his tribe regain its land and water rights "in the face of great adversity from the U.S. Government," the book's jacket blurb notes. Those of us who served in the Indian Health Service will connect with Montezuma's heritage and our own experience in the same service (I was on the Yakima in the 1970s).

The author is professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland. Those of us who trained there will connect with him as well. (I am UOMS 73). Those of us who do any gynecology will have used Dr. Speroff's textbook.

Dr. Speroff has written the definitive, evidence-based biography of this influential individual. If you find it to be too rich in detail, just skip those parts; you will still find it a terrific read, as I did.

(Below: Book recommendation by Richard Hawkins, MD, Tacoma)

This is the story of the Framingham Heart Study, begun in 1948 when "5,209 citizens of Framingham, Massachusetts—who overate, smoked, and suffered heart attacks and strokes to the same extent as the rest of the United States—volunteered to undergo biennial physicals, blood tests and detailed interviews concerning their behavior." Dr. Levy is the current director of the study. He explains why the study was done, what we have learned from it and what we might continue to learn from it.

I could hardly put it down. Why do we treat hypertension? Why do we call risk factors risk factors? What is the basis for our knowledge of heart disease?

Fascinating!

Jessica Stern has an impressive resume of government and academic work on terrorism. For this book, she traveled all over the world to investigate how and why people of faith turn to violence in pursuit of their beliefs. The extremists she talks with are driven not by lunacy but by a deep belief in the justice of their causes, and the possibility of transformation through violence.

The first part of the book describes categories of grievances that move people to embrace terrorism-alienation, humiliation, history and territory. The second part looks at various patterns of terrorist organizations and types of leadership, including charismatic leaders, lone-wolf avengers, commanders and their cadres, and the "ultimate organization" that takes advantage of all of the above, Al Qaeda.

Stern does not confine her discussions to the Muslim terrorist organizations that dominate the news but also talks to Christian, Jewish and Palestinian extremists; violent anti-abortion warriors; and admirers of Timothy McVeigh. They have much in common, and their convictions are fueled by poverty, repression, and a sense of humiliation that are exploited by inspirational leaders. She discusses how winner-take-all globalization provokes a powerful resentment in a wide range of communities, and how failed states, weak or tyrannical governments, social deprivation, arbitrary use of power and a perception of injustice all help generate and cultivate recruits. Stern is a seasoned investigator whose background knowledge of these groups adds perspective to her interviews.

Early on in the book she notes that we need to really understand the why of terrorism if we hope to address this problem. To fight today's terrorism with an army is like trying to shoot a cloud of mosquitoes with a machine gun. It is worrisome that all these profoundly disaffected groups seem to have it in for America and particularly contemporary America. This book is a fascinating and provocative contribution toward the kind of understanding of what will be required to address the problem of terrorism in our time.

A tremendous little book that draws on the timeless work of Hobbs, Machiavelli and others to challenges us to see things as they are, not as we wish them to be.

This book is just out and I have not read it, but it is about America in Iraq and has been well reviewed from all sides.

Soldiers of God: With Islamic Warriors in Afghanistan and Pakistan
By Robert D. Kaplan

This book about the Vietnam War won a Pulitzer Prize in 1989. Lt. Col. John Paul Vann was a field adviser to the U.S. army when American involvement in Vietnam was just beginning. He secretly briefed reporters, including Sheehan, on his pessimistic view of the war that turned out to be prescient. The book is about what happens when we get involved in another people's conflict without understanding the culture in which the conflict has arisen. Again, it's a chronicle of seeing things the way we want to see them, not as they are.

This list was taken from the 2006 WSMA Reports newsletters. To see current book selection, go to the Good Books List. To see past book selections, go to the Good Books List archives—2005, 2007 and 2008.