Vacation Reading

As is traditional, I did quite a bit of reading during my vacation at Brother Dave and Linda's estate. Here are the books I read, with some brief commentary:

• Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking
  Ms. Didion is best known for her erudite novels, such as Book of Common Prayer, and her highly literate essays (e.g., Slouching Toward Babylon). Normally, her writing is emotionally distant. Which makes this book unique in her oeuvre, as it is an account of her grieving process the year following the death of her husband. She is remarkably self-conscious, almost to the point of pathologic neurosis.
     I recommend this book for anyone who has lost a loved one, especially if it has been a year or more since the loss. Ms. Didion's precise description of her feelings may be too close for comfort if the loss has been more recent. I would definitely put this book on the shelf next to C.S. Lewis' A Grief Observed, which is surely the touchstone for this sub-genre of personal memoir.
  
• Mark Twain, Letters from the Earth
  I only read the title story during my visit. It is a letter from Satan reflecting his visit to the earth. Themes of human hypocrisy (especially that of Christians) will be familiar to serious students of Twain's work.
     The whole book is a collection of essays and stories which were not published during Twain's lifetime.
     Unlike much of his later work, which was so dark it lacked any semblance of humor, there are many lines in this story that are laugh-out-loud funny.
  
• Davidson Loehr, America, Fascism, And God: Sermons from a Heretical Preacher
  Rev. Loehr is a Unitarian minister, and this is a collection of sermons he gave at his church. I believe the earliest was delivered the Sunday following 9/11.
     It seemed appropriate to read this right after "Letters from the Earth," because Loehr criticizes the popular image of God (Old Greybeard, as I call it) for much the same reasons Twain did. Loehr makes many of the same points, he just isn't as humerous in doing so.
     The word "fascism" is a loaded term. It is most commonly used these days by certain wild-eyed members of the blogosphere whose blood pressure rises whenever they see the name "B*sh". Therefore, it's easy to dismiss it's use.
     Rev. Loehr carefully points out the meaning of the word; the root mean (faeces) is a bundle of sticks, and Davidson notes there is actually such a bundle in the Seal of the Unites States.
     Aside from the excesses of Hitler and Mussolini, "fascism" means a close collaboration between government and business. This collaboration is typically reinforced by appeal to religion.
     One need not look much further than the clandestine meeting held in B*sh's first term, when VP Ch*n*y called together energy executives to draw up the nation's energy policy. Among those executives was "Kenny Boy" Lay, now under indictment. It would seem obvious that the executives would draw up a policy most beneficial to their stockholders, rather than the greater good of the nation.
     Another rather obvious example are the no-bid contracts granted to Halliburton (coincidentally Mr. Ch*n*y's former employer) in Iraq.
     The book does preach rather much to the choir. No one who favors Mr. B*sh's policies (the 32% or so left) is likely to pick up this book. But it is worthwhile reading. If, like me, you're inclined to believe that hope is a good thing, Rev. Loehr offers some evidence for hope.

I also read a collection of Bloom County cartoons (covering the last year or so), and skimmed a book on the history of newspapers cartoons. So, it wasn't all heavy, and it wasn't all doom & gloom.