JFDI BOOK #60 YEARS FOR FEARS A Comment on an Era D.Eric Pettigrew

YEARS FOR FEARS

by D. Eric Pettigrew

Weekly Diaries and Editorial Commentary on the year 2016-2020

 

JFDI BOOK #59 IF THEY ONLY DIDN'T SPEAK ENGLISH Jon Sobel

by Jon Sobel

Comments on the US under Trump

 

JFDI BOOK #58 TRUE HISTORY OF NED KELLY REVIEW

 

REVIEW BY TOM WELLS
 
True History of the Kelly Gang—Peter Carey won his second Booker Prize in four years for this long,dusty journey through late 19 th C. Australia, a curious choice in any year but especially one that included Ian McEwan’s “Atonement” and David Mitchell’s “number9dream”. It’s not that the book is lacking in considerable merit: excellently written (if annoyingly punctuated); exhaustively researched; and impressively specific. But it’s the last merit that is its chief de-merit, because about two-thirds through the saga the reader begins to suffer from detail overload, as Ned and his gang of well-drawn, highly individual characters do a seemingly endless loop between jail, hideout and Mom’s house. But the
growing feeling of disinterest is nothing compared to the giant letdown of the denouement. Since all but the final chapter is in the form of a diary that Ned has kept for his daughter, it would be tough for him to write about the end of his short, violent days. Still, the authorial decision to change from Ned’s gritty, funny, punchy prose to the formal, wordy, soulless account of a newspaper columnist is the dampest of squibs. After a 500-page ride, the reader deserves better.
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JFDI BOOK #59: REVIEW OF IF ONLY THEY DIDN'T SPEAK ENGLISH

 

 

 

Review by Tom Wells

 

 

If Only They Didn’t Speak English—Jon Sopel has been the BBC’s North American editor since 2014, a stretch that has enabled him to witness up close and personal the most wrenching political transition to the ethos of e pluribus unum since the Civil War. His book tries to make sense of what to fellow Brits must look like wildly contradictory impulses of the American character—the simple willingness to help a neighbor versus the cynical mistrust of government beyond the community; the embrace of free enterprise to the extent it is literally hazardous to one’s health; the pious belief in the power of 21st C. technology to solve most problems and a vaguely worded amendment to an 18th C. Constitution to solve the others. The result is a well-written collection of anecdotes, experiences and observations backed up by cherry-picked incidents and statistics in an effort to be village-green middling. 

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REVIEW OF #57 OLD FILTH

LIKE A FAVOURITE WOOLEN PULLOVER WITH HOLES IN THE ELBOWS

Don’t be seduced by the title. It has nothing to do with Ancient Porn. Though of course there is the obligatory sex, though this time a post-war liaison with a Bletchley Park lesbian, befriending an old enemy, and a barren marriage. No, this is about England. Not the stylised version of a green and pleasant land, but of the emotionally stunted orphan refugees of the Raj, of the war, of drafty public schools, of poor food, poor teeth, and a weekly bath, if lucky. Of the Inner Temple. And Malaya. And Hong Kong (hidden in the title, but I won’t ruin it for you.) Of how it was. For a man with a long life, a stammer, and a secret. The writing is spare and delectable. It would have been perfect to read curled up in front of a fire. But even though it is summer, it is still England, and in between a heat wave there are ample opportunities to gratefully put on this old pullover with the holes in the elbows and hunker down. 

5 stars

ERIC

JFDI BOOK #57 OLD FILTH JANE GARDAM

OLD FILTH

Jane Gardam

Old Filth tells the storied past of a judge with a long past emblematic of the British Emire

JFDI BOOK #56 THE WORLD IN 100 OBJECTS

A HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN 100 OBJECTS

Neil Ferguson

100 objects from the British Museum which tell a story of civilisations