HUU Community Cafe » Book Reviews

“The Wordy Shipmates,” by Sarah Vowell

Chris Edwards — Fri, 07 May 2010 02:44:19 +0000

Sarah Vowell has attracted some fame with her wit, cleverly sending up the Puritans’ more bizarre aspects while reminding us of their virtues. She focuses on the Boston Puritans, not the smaller but more American-legendary Pilgrims of Plymouth. She reminds us that both groups were writers and intellectuals, very unlike today’s Bible Belt fundamentalists. She notes that Winthrop’s “City on a Hill” vision was about cooperation and interdependence, in contrast to the free-market ideological spin put on it by some politicians of our time. Only after these defenses does Vowell damningly indict the Puritan culture’s intolerance, misogyny and cruelty, including the horrendous massacre of 700 Pequot Indians at Mystic (now Connecticut). Vowell shares with us the American Indian side to her own heritage, though she neither romanticizes or demonizes any group. The wit and charm of this young writer belie a dark vision of our national roots and psyche.

THE NINE – Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court

Jim Geary — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 17:39:35 +0000

THE NINE
Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court
By Jeffrey Toobin (Doubleday, 340 pp., $27.95)
Reviewed by Jim Geary

Jeffrey Toobin, in his prologue to The Nine, states that from 1992 to 2005 the Supreme Court decisions reflected public opinion with great precision. This was owing to the swing votes of first, Louis Powell, and then of Sandra Day O’Connor, both moderate conservatives.

“That, now,” he adds, ” may be about to change.”

He writes of “a powerful conservative rebellion against the court” that was building during those years. For those behind this offensive, “its agenda has remained largely the same over the decades:” Reverse Roe v. Wade and allow states to ban abortion. Expand executive power. End affirmative action. Speed executions. Welcome religion into the public sphere.

“Now with great suddenness,” he says, these forces “are very close to total control.”

This may not be a book for everyone. If the reader is not interested in the Supreme Court and the analyses of its major opinions as reported by the media, it may not interest. I was fascinated with it. I have long read such analyses eagerly, even those by my former colleague and friend (sort of), James J. Kilpatrick, the conservative columnist.

I think every concerned American should be interested in the decisions of the court. It is the great king of American jurisprudence; the final arbiter of American law, including such personal subjects as whether a woman can choose to have a legal abortion. The 1973 decision of the court in Roe v. Wade gave women that right. It has been under constant attack from the Republicans ever since.

“There were two kinds of cases before the Supreme Court,” Toobin writes. “There were abortion cases, and there were all the others.” Abortion, he says, “was (and remains) the central legal issue before the court.”

Now, with the departure of O’Connor and the appointments of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel A. Alito, the court appears to be in the firm grip of the Rightists.

Toobin is easy to read. A popular writer, he is the senior legal analyst for CNN and is on the staff of the New Yorker magazine. Perhaps the most interesting parts of the book are his profiles of the justices, the current members as well as O’Connor and the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist. He devotes considerable space to O’Connor and Justice Clarence Thomas.

The intimacy of some of his research is astounding. He relates conversations between justices, who usually communicate with written notes. He has friends of the justices revealing the justices’ thinking on various liberal and conservative issues.

Toobin discusses in great detail the agonizing search by President Clinton for proper candidates for his two appointments to the court. He finally chose Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer. The author also describes Bush’s search for replacements for O’Connor and Rehnquist, which also took some time. The results were the nominations of Roberts and Alito.

The centrlal issues involved in a number of important decisions during the Rehnquist years are spelled out, including those bearing on gay rights, affirmative action, and federal-state relations as well as abortion.

Toobin devotes three chapters to the 2000 election which resulted in the Supreme Court finally getting involved and settling the issue. Toobin calls it “one of the lowest moments in the court’s history.” “The tragedy of the court’s performance in the election of 2000 was not that it led to Bush’s victory [which Toobin states it did not necessarily do] but the inept and unsavory manner with which the justices exercised their power. ”

Toobin points to what he calls the “most notorious sentence in the opinion:” It stated: “Our consideration is limited to the present circumstances, for the problem of equal protection in election processes generally present many complexities.”

“In other words,” Toobin writes, “the opinion did not reflect any general legal principle; rather the Court was acting only to assist a single individual – George W. Bush.”

No Country for Old Men

Judith Hollowood — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 22:37:03 +0000

Now that this book has been made into a movie, I want to put up a word about it. Although in some senses it is a crime story, it is constructed as a horror story. That is: From the first choice the protagonist makes — he takes a satchel of money from the scene of a massacre that he comes across while hunting — he is stalked by an inexorable doom. It is an unnerving tale. I cannot recommend it, for it is desperately violent, but if you write or appreciate good writing, you may want to see how this kind of strong effect is created. Or you may just enjoy the thrill. I did.

The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama

Jim Geary — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 14:41:10 +0000

Barack Obama covers the waterfront in his 2006 book The Audacity of Hope — politics, race, faith, values, international relations, family, the struggles of the poor and the middle class in this country and around the world. A former professor of Constitutional law, he discusses the long history in the development and interpretation of the U.S. Constitution.

He is a superb writer and is obviously a man of remarkable intelligence and sensitivity. Though he comes through as definitely liberal and as wholly at odds with the Bush Administration, he makes a sincere effort to look at opposing views on subjects of the greatest controversy among American voters. He tries to give Republicans and conservatives their due. A professed Christian himself, he even tries to understand some of the holdings of evangelicals. Some liberal readers might find his even-handedness wishy-washy, but this reviewer did not.

He discusses his own life, with its variety of struggles serving as metaphors for many of the problems facing citizens of this country and peoples of the world. He is surprisingly candid about the problems he faced as a black man, as a youth with no father in the house, as a young married politician trying to balance the demands of office and family. He relates how he was blind to the complaints of his over-stressed young wife, and his subsequent feelings of guilt over his neglect of her and their two daughters.

He goes into his tentative and then dedicated resolve to become a politician so he could make a difference for good. He tells of his “thoroughly cockeyed idea of running for the United States Senate,” and of the long odds against him. He relates how he was ranked ninety-ninth in the Senate when the Kerry people chose him to be the keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention in Boston in 2004. His address there, of course, made him a national figure.

The title of his book comes from a phrase that his pastor had once used in a sermon, “the audacity of hope.” It is an apt title, because while Obama sees all the enduring problems that the middle class and the poor are facing in this country, he is upbeat about the possibilities for improvement. He believes that “the fundamental decency of the American people,” the “set of ideals that continue to stir our collective conscience, a common set of values . . . a running thread of hope” have made our democracy work.

For many liberal readers, the book may instill — as it does for this reviewer — a love for the humanity and the balanced erudition of the man. It may also stimulate — as it does for this reviewer — an inclination to vote for him despite previous thoughts that he was too inexperienced in politics on the national and international levels to be president of the United States.

Like most politicians, Obama has a laundry list of ideas for improvements in government. But in him one senses a sincerity and dedication and insight that could make a few good things happen — especially if he were to become president.

Book Reviews

admin — Tue, 08 May 2007 18:52:00 +0000

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