They Eat Puppies Don't They?

A funny title for a very funny satire of one of the planet's biggest issues today: US-China relations, or should I say, China-US relations. This is the first book by Christopher Buckley that I've read and it is a hoot. No one is spared here: the military-industrial complex, CIA, NSA, Communist Chinese leadership, Chinese propagandists and US public relations spinners all get sliced. Buckley develops characters that are perfect for their political roles, and are often laugh out loud. The book touches now and then on the brutality of the Communist Chinese Party, their Public Security Forces and military, and the atrocious labor conditions in the Workers' Paradise. One key character says to her Chinese counterpart in a TV interview, "I see another miserable worker in Guangdong hurled herself off the roof yesterday. What's the death total for that factory now?" (She's of course referring to the notorious Foxconn factories that manufacture every iPhone, iPod, & iPad on the planet. But, what the heck, the prices are great!) An important conceit of the story is an illness of H.H. The Dalai Lama, so thankfully, the book also refers to the Communist Chinese' horrid oppression of the Tibetan people. I wish there had been more of the tough stuff, but it is, after all, a satire and there are laughs in abundance. 

The Vanishers & 2 Reminds Me

Heidi Julavits' The Vanishers is a fun, romp of a book built on top of some big issues. Its tone reminds me of The End of Mr. Y by Scarlett Thomas, minus the 19th century philosopher/scientists. So, get ready to suspend disbelief or belief or both, and have fun. This book has been described as a psychic mystery, true enough. The protagonist, Julia, is a young psychic hired to find a radically avant-guard film maker, who coincidentally knew Julia's mother at the time of her death.  Julavits uses this story to dig deeply into mothers, fathers, daughters, communication, grief, loss, suicide. It has a complex set of lively characters & relationships. But, don't despair, it is written with a very light touch and wit, and is often quite funny. In fact, Julavits'  writing style reminds me of Vendela Vida, whose work I enjoy very much. Vida's writing often has a musical phrasing: three sentences will set up a fourth that is a clever zinger. I learned in the acknowledgments that they are co-editors of the literary magazine The Believers.

36 Arguments for the Existence of God

Several years ago, I read and enjoyed Rebecca Newberger Goldstein's The Properties of Light: A Novel of Love, Betrayal and Quantum Physics, and more recently heard her give a wonderful lecture on Spinoza at the Santa Fe Institute, please see my post of 12/6/2011. She topped both of these with her extraordinary 2010 novel, 36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction. It is a novel of big Ideas: religion, philosophy, love, parents/family, loyalty.    It is also very well written, with great word-smithing, and at moments extremely funny. 36 is chock full of clever one liners that had me howling. I know, yes, yes, I'm a word-nerd, but this is genuinely good stuff! The characters are wonderful, and perfectly developed. The man in the middle of all this is a philosophy professor with an unexpected best seller, The Varieties of Religious Illusion. The characters orbiting him are well conceived and delightful: his mentor a messianic literary scholar, his wild former girlfriend the anthropologist, his current love the master of game theory, and a child prodigy mathematician who is heir to lead the Hasidic community where our hero grew up. Never have so many grand ideas been so much fun. Read it!

Irma Voth and The Forgotten Waltz: Two Voices

I read two novels both written in the voice of a young woman, and these very different voices are wonderfully evoked by the authors. In Anne Enright's The Forgotten Waltz a 33 year old Irish woman careens through marriage and an affair with a married man, in which there is precious little romance. Enright's prose perfectly captures the voice and world-view of this woman: the carelessness, her disregard of consequences. There's not much more of a tale here, but the voice is the heart of the matter.  Miriam Toews' Irma Voth is a more substantial story of a late-teen woman who leaves her Mennonite family in rural Mexico, with two much younger sisters, to escape the repression of their father. There is an fertile conceit of a filmmaker who employs Irma as a translator on his film about a Mennonite couple. Events revealed towards the end of the novel add a layer of deep reflection for her. Irma is quite uneducated in books and the world. Toews perfectly captures this very different voice: the uncertainty, the other-worldiness, the complete unawareness of modern life. First person novels can be a risky business, but Toews  and Enright have both nailed it.

The Map and the Territory - Houellebecq

When people recommend books or films, they often add a caveat. "It's hard work, dark, not really fun, but read it because it's good, like taking cod liver oil." With The Map and the Territory, there's no caveat: it's a substantial book and a great read. This is the first novel by Michel Houellebecq that I have read. I understand that he was considered a real l'enfant terrible, but I'm not familiar with this. His early books apparently were marinated in explicit sex, but there is not a single kiss in this one. So, I read it with no expectations, but either way I strongly recommend it.


The story is about a painter, his life and artistic journey. But, the book is about Art, Architecture, Friendship, Fathers-and-sons, Aging, and is chock full of wonderful insights on all of these topics. If I have one small qualm it is about the use of a conceit that has been frequently seen in novels over the past decade: the painter meets a famous author...Michel  Houellebecq . However, a plot twist at the end of the novel adds an intriguing aspect to this. The Map and the Territory has great writing, is well translated, and explores cultural & human issues of importance. And...it's fun to read.

Indie Piano Films: Four Minutes

I'm a fan of dark, indie films about playing the piano. My top pick has recently changed. To qualify: no big-name actors, low budget, no big-name producer. That means The Piano and The Piano Teacher are eliminated right out of the box. Holly Hunter and Isabelle Huppert are way too big! My top ranked indie for some time had been The Beat That My Heart Skipped, directed by Jacques Audiard, in 2005. Romain Duris stars as an aspiring pianist who is slowly tugged into a questionable line of business and the world of his small-time-crook father.  It's a tough and dark place that he inhabits. Let's get even darker.... Four Minutes, directed Chris Kraus in 2006, has knocked Heart Skipped out of the top spot! We have a double-helix of trouble here. Monica Bleibtru does a fantastic job playing an elderly piano teacher who works in a prison. She is incredibly strict, passionate about music, and tortured by memories of her youth in Nazi Germany. Her rebellious and violent student is in the slammer for murder and was a child prodigy. She is well played by Hannah Herzsprung. Kraus does a fantastic job with the development of their relationship, and their mutual relationship with music. There is some fun, kick-ass piano playing in the film.


TRIVIA: Yes, Monica is mother of Moritz Bleibtru, a German indie character actor. They both appeared in Tom Tykwer's early hit, Run Lola Run.

New Year's Day Labyrinth

Every year on New Year's Day, and one week later on my birthday, I walk a labyrinth. I do this for two reasons: to consciously set aside habits and emotions that I'd like to leave behind, and to set intentions for the new year. Today, Debbie & I walked the labyrinth at Milner Plaza next to the International Folk Art Museum in Santa Fe.

Labyrinths have a long history, going back to ancient Greece and around the world. Formal walking meditation in a labyrinth harks back to medieval Europe. It was used as a symbolic pilgrimage. Today the labyrinth has become a metaphor of personal growth and change. People often use them at inflection points in their lives, to seek guidance and mark change. This is facilitated by the structure of the labyrinth, which is a wonderful symbol for life. First of all, there are no wrong turns. Once you take a step on this path, you will reach the center, if you keep going. However, at times, it seems that you are not making progress... At first you might be moving forward and then you will be going the opposite direction. Next, you will be walking close to the center and then find yourself back at the outer rim. We go forward and backwards, left and right, but no step is wasted, and each step is necessary to reach the goal. How like the path we all have tread in life. You can use the labyrinth to seek guidance, to do a walking meditation or to just enjoy the day.