Homage to Catalonia

December 31, 2009
Book of the Day: Homage to Catalonia, by George Orwell
Grade: A
First published: 1938
1-word review: Civility
8-word review: It's preferable not to be shot at all.

George Orwell goes to Spain in 1936 to report on its civil war. He ends up joining a militia, the Workers' Party of Marxist Unity (POUM), and becoming an active fighter in the struggle against Franco. Despite joining a group with communist sympathies, Orwell finds much to criticize in the practical application of communism as a political philosophy, although he finds POUM's anti-Stalinist stance more palatable than some of the other Marxist groups active in the Spanish Civil War. He ends up leaving for England after surviving being shot in the neck.

Spain spent decades under fascism before becoming the relatively liberal democracy it is today. Learn from this, Idaho! Shrug of the propagandists of the right and aim for the light of freedom! What have you gained from blindly following a single party? I mean really, you're basically a third-world state! Imagine that the potatoes were all gone. Just suppose we had a Great Idaho Potato Famine. Then where would you be? Lentils can only carry you so far. I guess there's always the white supremacist tourist trade.

This is your future, Idaho!

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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...

Breath, Eyes, Memory

December 3, 2009 Book of the Day: Breath, Eyes, Memory , by Edwidge Danticat Grade: C+ First published: 1994 1-word review: Tested 8-word review: Women can be awfully mean to each other. This book was written by a women named Edwidge. Why aren't more women named Edwidge? Like the main character in this novel, Sophie Caco, Edwidge Danticat was born in Haiti and raised by an aunt and grandmother after her mother emigrated to the United States. Also like Sophie, she herself emigrated to the U.S. when she was twelve years old. Other than these facts, I don't know how much of this novel is autobiographical. Here is a photo of Edwidge. Here is a map of Haiti, a third-world country, sometimes called the "Idaho of the Caribbean." And here's a photo of Reese Witherspoon, who has never lived in Haiti. I won't spoil the story by going into too much detail, but Sophie comes to be damaged by her mother, who was herself damaged by her mother (and a young Haitian man). S...

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.

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