Book Review: Unique America by Jeff Bahr

Unique America strange, unusual, and just plain fun: A trip through America by Jeff Bahr
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Covering all 50 states, the book highlights roughly 300 attractions and events that are as the title of the book says “strange, unusual, and just plain fun.” Each chapter covers a different region of the country with each page dedicated to a destination—sometimes two if a location has a lot to show—beginning in one state of the region and then systematically going through each state until getting to the other end of the region. Whether looking for interesting destinations to sightsee or stay at, or just taking a trip through reading and using your own imagination, this is a nice resource to reference.

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Book Review: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

In our digital age we might not think anyone is invisible but if we open our eyes, we will see those that have fallen through the cracks, now think about how it was 70 years ago for those who knew they were second class citizens. Invisible Man is the only novel that Ralph Ellison published in his lifetime, but upon its publication was hailed as a masterpiece.

The narrator, an unnamed black man who lives in an underground room stealing power from the city's electric grid, reflects on the various ways in which he has experienced social invisibility during his life beginning in his teenage years in the South. Graduating from high school, he wins a scholarship to an all-black college but to receive it, he must first take part in a brutal, humiliating battle royal for the entertainment of the town's rich white dignitaries. After years later during his junior year, he chauffeurs a visiting rich white trustee for the afternoon but goes beyond the campus resulting with horrifying encounters for the trustee upon seeing the underside of black life beyond the campus. Dr. Bledsoe, the college president, excoriates the narrator and expels him through giving him false hope of re-enrolling by giving him recommendation letters to trustees in New York. After learning this, the narrator attempts to get a job at a paint factory but finds everyone suspicious of him which leads to him getting injured. While hospitalized, he is given shock therapy based on misinformation that he purposely caused the accident that injured him. After leaving the hospital, the narrator faints on the streets of Harlem and is taken in by a kindly old-fashioned woman. He later happens across the eviction of an elderly black couple and makes an impassioned speech that incites the crowd to attack the law enforcement officials in charge of the proceedings. After the narrator escapes, he is confronted by Brother Jack, the leader of a group known as "the Brotherhood" that professes its commitment to bettering conditions in Harlem and the rest of the world. At Jack's urging, the narrator agrees to join and speak at rallies to spread the word among the black community. The narrator is successful but is then called before a meeting of the Brotherhood and accused of putting his own ambitions ahead of the group, resulting in him being reassigned to another part of the city to address issues concerning women. Eventually he is told to return since his replacement has disappeared and to find him, which he does only to find him disillusioned then shot by a police officer. At the funeral, he gives a rousing speech that rallies the crowd but upsets the Brotherhood leaders due to them not having an interest in the black community’s problems. Without the narrator to help focus the community, other’s take advantage causing a riot. Getting caught up with looters, the narrator navigates the neighborhoods until he falls into an underground coal bin that he is eventually sealed in which allows him to contemplate the racism he has experienced. In the epilogue, the narrator decides to return to the world and that he is telling his story to help people see past his own invisibility and provided a voice for those with a similar plight.

I will be honest I will have to reread this book in a few years because I feel that early in the book, I was not connecting well with the narrative but that later changed especially as the narrator arrived in New York. The ‘trials and travails’ of the narrator while attempt to work at the paint factory and his treatment with the faux-Communists were eye opening given my current employment and some of the political events and or trends over the years. Ellison’s critical look at the African American societal and cultural divides in the South and the same in the North with prejudices in full display was eye opening and a reminder that to look at groups monolithically is a mistake both today and looking back at history. If I took away anything from this reading of the book, it is that.

Invisible Man is a book that needs to be read period. Ralph Ellison’s masterpiece, while I did not rate it “great” this time, is a book that I need to reread to full grasp everything going on in the narrative and appreciate its impact.

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Book Review: From Manassas to Appomattox by James Longstreet

From Manassas to Appomattox by James Longstreet
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

After spending years on campaign to win your new nation’s independence, after the war unsuccessful conclusion your former comrades bury you after you decided to support the victors. From Manassas to Appomattox: Memoirs of the Civil War in America was James Longstreet’s answer to the post-war criticisms leveled by those who created the Lost Cause myth.

Longstreet gives a quick overview of his early life, his time in West Point, and his service in the Mexican War before going into his resignation from the US Army and journey from New Mexico to Virginia to join the Confederate Army. As the title of the memoir indicates, Longstreet was a participant of the first major battle of the war at First Manassas and he described his own actions throughout the battle as well as the overall course of the confrontation. Longstreet would continue this throughout the book, but also added in his interactions with Lee, Jackson, A.P. Hill, and various Confederate government officials including President Jefferson Davis especially when defending his actions around Gettysburg which Lost Cause proponents claimed cost Lee and thus the South victory. Longstreet also talked about his strategic view of the war as the conflict progressed and viewed the situation in the West where the war could be changed for the better of the Confederates but found his superiors neither supportive before Gettysburg nor once allowed to help in the West undermining the efforts of Confederate forces. Longstreet’s detailed account of the end of the war in early 1865 brought the desperate fight in full view until the surrender before acknowledging that his friendship with General Grant started up again right after the surrender that helped him going forward in his life.

Given this was a memoir and a defense of his own actions against the attacks of those who were political motivated to raise up Lee and Jackson as part of the Lost Cause meant they needed someone to actively undermine them and thus caused the South to lose, one must think hard about what Longstreet is writing through this lens. While fighting for his own reputation, Longstreet was not afraid to show the human fallibility of both Lee and Jackson though not at the expense of their accomplishments nor to aggrandize his own except when the reputations of the troops under his command was at stake. Longstreet’s strategic view of the war, especially the West but also in the Gettysburg campaign, were a fascinating read and interesting to think about. If there is one criticism of the edition that I read it was with the battle maps included as they were hard follow given poor shading and small print which did not really distinguish between Union and Confederate forces.

From Manassas to Appomattox is obviously not an unbiased account of the war from the view of a Confederate general, yet James Longstreet unlike some other Confederates aimed to show the flaws of the Confederacy instead of creating a mythos of a Lost Cause.

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Review: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

 

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Sometimes first impressions are off the mark which causes all sorts of problems, either causing you are interest in someone who turns out not to be who you thought or missing someone who is your soulmate. Pride and Prejudice is Jane Austen’s second novel as the explores the roundabout courtship of two individuals whose first impressions of each other put them off on the wrong foot.

Just outside the village of Meryton in Hertfordshire during the Regency, bachelor Mr. Bingley arrives in the neighborhood in a rented residence, where he, his family, and friend Mr. Darcy interact with the Bennets at a local ball. Bingley friendly manner earns him popularity and becomes attracted to the eldest Bennet sister, Jane. Meanwhile the richer Darcy’s prideful demeanor is instantly disliked and the second eldest Bennet, Elizabeth, overhears him stating that she is not attractive enough to tempt him makes her prejudice against him. After Jane falls sick during a visit at Bingley’s and Elizabeth cares for her, Darcy changes his view of Elizabeth while Bingley grows fonder of Jane. The Bennets’ cousin and entailed heir Mr. Collins visits one of the Bennet girls, but after Elizabeth rejects him Collins marries her best friend Charlotte. A charming army officer, George Wickham, arrives in Meryton and relates the bad blood between Darcy and himself confirming Elizabeth's dislike of Darcy. Soon after a ball that the Bingleys hold, they depart for London with no plans to return dashing the expectation of Jane marrying Bingley resulting in her visiting the Bennet’s Aunt and Uncle Gardiner in London. Months later Elizabeth visits Charlotte and Mr. Collins in Kent where she meets Darcy’s wealthy aunt Lady Catherine de Bourgh, who expects her nephew to marry her daughter, only for Darcy and his cousin, Colonel Fitzwilliam, visit Lady Catherine at the same time. Fitzwilliam tells Elizabeth how Darcy recently saved a friend, presumably Bingley, from an undesirable match which obviously upsets Elizabeth. Later, Darcy proposes to Elizabeth, declaring his love for her despite her low social connections. She rejects him angrily, stating she could never love a man who caused her sister such unhappiness, Darcy brags about, and further accuses him of treating Wickham unjustly, which Darcy dismisses sarcastically. A day later Darcy gives Elizabeth a letter that explains his disagreements with Wickham that results in his attempt to elope with Darcy's 15-year-old sister, Georgiana, for her considerable dowry. Darcy also writes that he separated Jane and Bingley due to Jane's reserved behavior, sincerely believing her indifferent to Bingley, and because of the other members of their family. Elizabeth is ashamed by her family's behavior and her own lack of better judgement that resulted in blinded prejudice against Darcy. Some months later, Elizabeth accompanies the Gardiners on a tour of Derbyshire during which they visit Darcy’s estate Pemberley after Elizabeth ascertains that Darcy is absent only for him to return unexpectedly. Darcy is exceedingly gracious and later invites Elizabeth and the Gardiners to meet his sister, and Mr. Gardiner to go fishing. Elizabeth is surprised and delighted by their treatment, connecting well with Georgina much to Darcy’s delight. However, Elizabeth receives news that her sister Lydia has run off with Wickham and informs Darcy before she and the Gardiners depart in haste. After an immensely agonizing interim, Wickham agrees to marry Lydia. With some veneer of decency restored, the couple visit the family and Lydia tells Elizabeth that Darcy was at the wedding. Though Darcy had sworn everyone involved to secrecy, Mrs. Gardiner now feels obliged to inform Elizabeth that he secured the match, at great expense and trouble to himself. She hints that he may have had "another motive" for having done so, implying that she believes Darcy to be in love with Elizabeth. Bingley and Darcy Meryton neighborhood. Bingley proposes to Jane, who accepts. Lady Catherine, hearing rumors that Elizabeth intends to marry Darcy visits and demands she promise never to accept Darcy's proposal. Elizabeth refuses and the outraged Lady Catherine leaves. Darcy, heartened by his aunt's indignant relaying of Elizabeth's response, again proposes, and is accepted.

I don’t know why, but this Austen novel connected more than Sense and Sensibility whether it was because of Elizabeth or the overall story I don’t know. Elizabeth Bennet read as a more rounded character than either of the Dashwood sisters with both agency and a willingness to change. The latter is also true of Mr. Darcy, who changes his view and attitudes to Elizabeth’s family as well as doing things at the beginning he would not have done before. With a few exceptions, the rest of the characters in the novel are a tad two-dimensional although well-written individually and narratively, which has a nice progression from event to another.

Pride and Prejudice might be Jane Austen’s most popular novel and after reading it I can tell why, Elizabeth Bennet is an instantly relatable and likeable character that grows throughout the book through a narratively enjoyable progress.