Blow the House Down

December 17, 2009
Book of the Day: Blow the House Down, by Robert Baer
Grade: B
First published: 2006
1-word review: Incompetence
5-word review: Our intelligence ain't so intelligent.

With prose like a hard-boiled detective novel, Robert Baer excoriates the U.S. intelligence system for its failures in the lead-up to 9/11. The signs are clearly there, but a stubborn reliance upon old practices, fighting among agencies, and a pathological fear of telling the truth lead to tragic results.

Baer has gone down this road before, in terrific books such as See No Evil and Sleeping with the Devil. The difference here is that Blow the House Down is a work of fiction. It's not going to go down as one of the great novels of the decade, but it's a good thriller nonetheless. A CIA agent is apparently being framed for crimes he did not commit. He chooses to not go down without a fight. Baer draws upon his own experiences in the agency to give the story a feel of authenticity.

Nine out of ten Idahoans believe the CIA is sending them subliminal messages through advertisements for dog food. Potatoes are our only defense.

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Freddy the Detective

December 11, 2009 Book of the Day: Freddy the Detective , by Walter R. Brooks Grade: A- First published: 1932 1-word review: Porcine 5-word review: Don't mess with the pig. Freddy the Pig awakes one morning to find Hambone, his best friend and longtime sty-mate, missing. He begins an investigation into the disappearance only to stumble upon the dismembered and eviscerated corpse of Hammy hanging in a meat locker. He proceeds to take revenge on those he deems responsible, doing to them what was done to his buddy. Blood flows as Freddy self-destructs in an orgy of violence. This is all rather surprising to find in a children's book. Warning to my more sensitive readers! Here's a gruesome picture of some of Hammy's remains, shown only in the interest of science. Here we have Idaho.

The Theory of the Leisure Class

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Disgrace

December 12, 2009 Book of the Day: Disgrace , by J.M. Coetzee Grade: A First published: 1999 1-word review: Brutal 9-word review: South Africa's still struggling in the aftermath of apartheid. A communications professor in Cape Town resigns his job after having a scandalous affair with a student. He visits his daughter on her ranch in the country, where they are viciously attacked and robbed in her home. The rest of the novel, in sparse and nearly perfect prose, deals with the aftermath of this attack, examining white guilt, police incompetence, and intellectual bankruptcy. Coetzee is a white South African who wrote a novel that depicts black on white violent crime in his country. As you may expect, this has generated quite some controversy, despite Coetzee's bona fide anti-apartheid status. Many critics have suggested that Disgrace should be read as an allegorical tale about the inadequacies of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a body set up in South Africa to exam

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