By Percival Everett
320 pages
Published March 19, 2024

James – a reimagining of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Jim, the runaway slave – was The Mules book selection for June. And when I started reading it, I thought, “Oh boy! Here we go with another woke narrative.” Which is to say that, though the reviews were overwhelmingly laudatory (“Gripping!”… “Thrilling!”… “Genius!”… “Masterpiece!”… etc., etc.), I was prejudiced against it from the get-go.

There were sections of the novel that didn’t pass muster for me in terms of what T.S. Eliot called the “objective correlative” – a concept in literary criticism suggesting that the emotions of a character should be expressed through external objects, a situation, or a chain of events that can evoke those emotions in the reader. But as I moved through it, I was caught up in the plot itself, which is always the most important (and for the author the most difficult) part. Then I began to admire Percival Everett for his undeniably high marketing intelligence – i.e., creating a novel that would have Huckleberry Finn, one of the most loved and accomplished novels in American fiction, serve as a springboard for the success of this book – and his equally impressive literary skills.

James is a novel that aimed to be not just a bestseller but also a literary award winner, both of which lofty goals Everett achieved.

But here’s the thing… it had a remarkably divisive effect on The Mules, with half the group strongly liking it and the other half disgusted by it. We’ve had plenty of disagreements over books before, but I can’t remember the opinions being so neatly divided and so strongly felt on each side.

I liked more about James than I disliked – and since I consider my opinion the correct one, I can recommend it to you without qualification. But I found it interesting that 100% of those that hated the book had read it, while 100% of those that liked it had listened to it.

I thought about that later that night, and sent this email to the rest of the group:

I have, as some of you know, produced three movies. The first was terrible. The second was bad. And the third was “not bad.” (But not good.)

Despite the low quality of two of the three scripts (which I wrote), I did discover something about acting that surprised me. I noticed that most of the actors that tried out for a part somehow managed to emphasize the badness of my lines, but there were a few that somehow made them work.

I had been a devotee of the auteur view of cinema: that the director is the one and only person that can make a movie succeed or fail. But this experience taught me what a difference good acting can make.

So, it might be that the actor(s) on the audio version of James were good enough to make the lines that didn’t work for those of us who read the book believable to those of us that listened to it.

That’s my two cents…

What I learned about medical “meta studies” in this essay by Toby Rogers obliterated the naïve trust I’ve had in them.

“All people of good faith should be troubled by the information I lay out below,” he writes. “It took me eight years to figure out how to describe this problem and it’s massive – it threatens the very existence of humanity.”

Read on here.

In What World Is Gender-Transition Surgery Gender-Affirming Care?

A study from the University of Texas Medical Branch found that the risk of suicide increased 12 times following gender-transition surgery compared to those who did not undergo the procedure. Click here.

The Hemingway Stories 

A new collection selected and introduced by Tobias Wolff
Published March 2, 2021
320 pages

There’s a reason why so many writers of Hemingway’s generation are no longer read much, but he still is.

One of my most esteemed colleagues tells me that Hemingway’s work bores him. He’s also despised by some for being a misogynist – in his life and in his fiction. His literary style is sometimes mocked for its simplicity and run-on sentences. And yet, there is no doubt that Hemingway was perhaps the most important literary stylist of the second half of the 20th century.

I keep those thoughts in mind every time I pick up one of his books, usually to read it for the second or third time. And each time I do, I am enthralled by the stories themselves and humbled by what seem to me to be his impeccable sentences. (That is a distinction some poets-turned-fiction-writers have claimed. Hemingway’s poetry was not very good.)

This collection, which was put together by Tobias Wolff to showcase the stories featured in the six-part PBS documentary about Hemingway, includes many of my favorites (Out of Season, Indian Camp, The End of Something, Big Two-Hearted River, The Killers, The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber, Hills of White Elephants, and The Snows of Kilimanjaro), as well as additional stories that demonstrate Hemingway’s talent and range. As a bonus, each one is accompanied by insights from other important writers.

Here’s the thing. We all have authors that we admire and others that we consume like candy. And then we have a handful of authors that give us something more. Authors that, every time and however many times you go back to them, you can feel the pieces of your heart and bone that life has broken being put back together. Restoring you, page by page, to the way they were when you were at the height of your ambition and potential – young, brave, indefatigable, and undefeatable.

Hemingway has that effect on me.

An Exercise Program That Works Miracles 

“Butterbean” showing off his new-found mobility 

Sent in by BW:

In his 50s, long after he should have retired from boxing, Eric “Butterbean” Esch continued, even entering several mixed martial arts bouts. He was always considered a good puncher, but he was also obese, weighing over 300 pounds for most of his career. His age and his size put him into a “freak” category of fighters. He developed a large fan base because nobody that knew anything about the fight game could believe he could compete seriously against serious fighters. And yet he did. He knocked out 58 opponents, including some world champions. But as the years went by, he got heavier. Until, at age 58, he was no longer able to stand up straight, let alone fight. When he was inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame, he didn’t show up because he was embarrassed by this size (more than 500) pounds and his mobility. (He could no longer walk.)

But then he heard about someone – a former athlete like himself – who had regained his health through a form of yoga. This is the story of how that practice brought him back to fighting shape at 58.

Freddie deBoer Gets Ruthless with His Critics 

Freddie deBoer occasionally self-identifies as a Communist. I’m not big on Communism. Nor am I a fan of Communists. And yet deBoer is someone I quote from and link to all the time. That is because he is a very good writer, clear and concise. Most importantly, his thinking is original and independent, which is a rarity today.

In this posting on his website, he talks about how he’s gotten fed up with some of the trolling criticism he gets. And then he does something I’ve seen one or two other smart bloggers do: He establishes a set of rules that subscribers must follow if they don’t want to be banned from participating in his wonderful world of ideas.

I like the specificity of his rules. They are, in and of themselves, great entertainment. And I like even better his tactic for punishing his trolls.

A Purple Place for Dying 

By John D. MacDonald
First published Jan. 1, 1964
240 pages

After several months of serious books about controversial topics, A Purple Place for Dying was a welcome selection for the April meeting of The Mules.

It is not the best Travis McGee I’ve read. (MacDonald wrote 21 of them.) But it is a solidly structured, amusingly characterized, and well-paced detective/mystery by this prolific and accomplished novelist.

The Plot 

McGee is drawn away from his usual haunt (Florida) by a job offer from Mona Yeoman, who suspects that her estranged husband has stolen from her considerable trust fund. But before McGee’s investigation begins, she is murdered before his eyes by an unseen gunman. By the time he summons the police to the scene, her body has disappeared. He then sets out to solve the murder.

What I Liked About It 

It was an easy, enjoyable read, with a plot that kept moving, characters that were colorful, and several satisfying twists and turns. That’s what one expects from a good genre writer, and that’s what MacDonald gives us here. He is also a true craftsman and wordsmith.

Critical Reception 

I couldn’t find any reviews of this particular book by MacDonald. But, more than 35 years since he died (Dec. 28, 1986), the Travis McGee novels are still in print… and his skill as a writer continues to be praised by his peers. A few examples:

* “The great entertainer of our age, and a mesmerizing storyteller.” (Stephen King)

* “My favorite novelist of all time…. He captured the mood and spirit of his times more accurately, more hauntingly, than any ‘literature’ writer – yet managed always to tell a thunderingly good, intensely suspenseful tale.” (Dean Koontz)

* “Most readers loved MacDonald’s work because he told a rip-roaring yarn. I loved it because he was the first modern writer to nail Florida dead-center, to capture all its languid sleaze, racy sense of promise, and breath-grabbing beauty.” (Carl Hiaasen)

Political Tribes: Group Instinct and the Fate of Nations 

By Amy Chua
304 pages
First edition Feb. 20, 2018

This is the second of two Amy Chua books recommended to me by SL. The first, The Triple Package, which I reviewed here, was about why some immigrants to the US do much better than others in terms of income, education, and even health. As I mentioned in that review, I was interested in her argument because it overlaps with my thesis in a book I’m writing (working title Wealth Culture), which is about the cultural characteristics of immigrant groups that always seem to rise to the highest rungs of wealth and education wherever they go.

I like Political Tribes for a different reason: It presents a very convincing explanation for how the US managed to get itself in so many post-war proxy fights around the world, starting with Vietnam and then with Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and Venezuela.

Chua’s thesis is that the US’s foreign policy has always been focused on political and/or economic ideas such as dictatorships vs. democracies and Communism vs. Capitalism. Those sorts of notions are fodder for academics and politicians, she points out, but they are not the primary forces in how the rest of the world acts and reacts to economic, political, and social changes. Only by understanding the importance that culture plays in other countries can the US develop a foreign policy that works – both for the countries we get involved in and for ourselves.

Critical Reception 

* “Chua sprints through her international material in a little over 100 pages before returning to the United States – which is where she gets stuck in a quagmire of her own making. What started out… as a shrewd assessment of our fractured political situation turns into a muddled argument about what Americans, mainly liberals, need to do next.” (New York Times)

* “Chua is no stranger to controversy, and her latest book is sure to provoke.” (Foreign Affairs)

* “A punchy book that advances a single idea with admirable clarity.” (The Times)

Guns, Germs, and Steel

By Jared Diamond
480 pages
First published March 1997

I meant to read this 26 years ago when it was first recommended to me. (The title is a reference to the means by which farm-based societies conquered populations and maintained dominance.) I bought it. Shelved it. And forgot about it.

It came up on my app as a recommended read, and I’ve been listening to it for about a week. It’s probably a good thing that I waited so long to read it, because my interest in the big questions it raises about the world and its disparate cultures was only casual back then.

Now, I have an insatiable appetite for this kind of book. I’m about halfway through it and have been very happy so far. It’s dense with geological, evolutionary, anthropological, and historical facts leading to an understanding of our world today that, while by no means identical to my own view, is complementary.

Critical Reception 

In 1998, Guns, Germs, and Steel won the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction and the Aventis Prize for Best Science Book. Many critics noted that the large scope of the work made some oversimplification inevitable while still praising it as a very erudite and generally effective synthesis of multiple different subjects.

* “The great thing about Guns, Germs, and Steel is the detail. Jared Diamond starts with [the] proposition that all humans are born with much the same abilities – then proceeds to argue, through meticulous and logical steps, that the playing field of prehistory was anything but level.” (The Guardian)

* “Guns, Germs, and Steel and Collapse [its sequel] represent one of the most significant projects embarked upon by any intellectual of our generation.” (The New York Times)

* “Artful, informative, and delightful.” (New York Review of Books)

A documentary based on the book, produced by the National Geographic Society, was broadcast on PBS in July 2005. Click here to watch Part 1.

And for a quick, four-minute cartoon summary of the book, click here.

Alex Berenson on the First Amendment, Part Two

Alex Berenson 

Last week, I gave you a link to Part One of Alex Berenson’s lecture on why he fears for the future of the First Amendment. If you missed it, here it is again.

Now, here is Part Two.