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.

Alex Berenson on Why the First Amendment Matters 

Alex Berenson 

Alex Berenson is not a right-wing radical. He’s not even a card-carrying conservative. He’s a thoughtful and well-educated researcher and writer who has developed a following by challenging large ideas, doctrines, and ideologies by pointing out verifiable facts and using logical reasoning. Here, he summarizes a speech he recently gave on why the rising rejection of the First Amendment is the greatest threat to our democracy and any democracy in the world.

Something Rich and Strange 

By Ron Rash
448 pages
Published Nov. 4, 2014

This is one of two short story collections The Mules read for our February meeting. It was the second book of short stories we read by Ron Rash, who is indisputably one of the finest American short story crafters writing today.

In Something Rich and Strange, he gives us 32 different sorts of stories about different kinds of people, presented in different lengths, tempos, and points of view. The rugged hills and farms and valleys of Appalachia provide a rich and strange background for the rich and strange vignettes of the characters that come to life in each one.

What I Liked About It 

Ron Rash is a specialist in writing short stories, which takes a very different set of skills than writing novels. He is a literary writer, who, like Cormac McCarthy or William Faulkner, can not only tell a tense and compelling story but can do so with a mastery of phrasing and diction and dialog that provides its own rewards.

Critical Reception 

* “Ron Rash occupies an odd place in the pantheon of great American writers, and you’d better believe he belongs there… Something Rich and Strange is a major short-story anthology that can introduce new readers to this author’s haunting talents and reaffirm what his established following already knows.” (New York Times)

* “No one writes better about the misunderstood, bedeviled, mule-stubborn inhabitants of Southern Appalachia than Rash… Something Rich and Strange is a bonanza for short-story fans, and another great introduction to Rash for those who haven’t read the originals yet.” (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

* “The prose in every story is sensual and expressive. [Rash] swings easily between humor and pathos, the mundane and the momentous.” (Chicago Tribune)

Chick Lit: The Introduction of a New Fiction Genre 30 Years Ago

Helen Fielding 

On February 28, 1995, an anonymous column appeared in the British newspaper The Independent, titled “The Diary of Bridget Jones.” The idea for the column came from Charlie Leadbeater, the features editor. According to This Week in Literary History, Leadbeater “had been looking for a writer to capture a certain voice, to speak to the kind of women he saw at work every day. It was his wife who suggested Helen Fielding, who wrote for The Independent on Sunday.”

Fielding was working on what she called “an earnest and frankly unreadable novel about cultural divides in the Caribbean” when she was invited to write the column. “But,” she said, “to write a column, as myself, about single life in London. Much as I needed the money, the idea of writing about myself in that way seemed hopelessly embarrassing and revealing. I offered to write it anonymously, as an exaggerated, comic, fictional character. I assumed no one would read it, and it would be dropped after six weeks for being too silly.”

At first, Fielding didn’t tell anyone at the paper what she was doing. “I was working alongside a lot of very clever, seasoned journalists who were writing about New Labour and Chechnya and I felt stupid writing about calories and alcohol units and why it takes three hours between waking up and leaving the house in the morning,” she later wrote. “When we started getting letters praising the column, I started boasting, ‘It’s by me, meeeee!’ and things snowballed from there.”

The Diary of Bridget Jones became a hugely bestselling novel, an Academy Award-winning movie, and arguably the model for a new genre of fiction that became known as “chick lit.”

If you’d like to know more about this story and the continuing controversy about its standing in the hierarchy of contemporary British literature, here is a link to an essay on the subject.