The Passage of Power

The Passage of Power by Robert Caro

At the conclusion of this piece, Robert Caro’s 4th installment of the life of Lyndon Baines Johnson, I’ve never felt more disappointed.  Not disappointed in the book.  No, the book was wonderful.  I was disappointed that I’d probably have to wait about a decade for volume 5.  Just in case you’re unfamiliar with this series, Robert Caro, back in the 1970’s, decided to write a 2 volume synopsis on the history of the 36th president of the United States.  Well, the 2 volumes turned into 3...and then into 4....and now faithful readers are hoping that the yet to be written volume 5 will be the last.  It’s not the amount of material that makes the reader despondent, but the fact that it usually takes the author 8-10 years to write these full, enriching volumes.  As someone that didn’t start to read the series until about  six months ago, the waiting, I’m afraid, will seem like an eternity.

Well, good things come to those who wait, and Caro continues to give us great things every time he releases one of these works of Southwest Texas State’s most prominent graduate.  This book covers the time period spanning from the 1960 presidential race (which Johnson lost, yet was named as Kennedy’s Vice President) through the weeks immediately following Kennedy’s brutal assassination.

As Master of the Senate (Volume 3 of this series) clearly shows, from 1952 through 1960, Johnson clearly was a Master and was arguably the most powerful and influential senator in our nation’s history.  Always dreaming of one day being the president, it’s no secret that 1960 will serve as the prime time for LBJ to make such a move.  The problem is, LBJ waited too long early in the primaries to really make his entrance.  He figured he wouldn’t need any momentum until the Democratic Convention.  It’s a bit easy to see how he could make a mistake in hindsight.  Presidential primaries were different back then, and unlike today, the presidential candidate and his running mate weren’t usually decided until the convention was actually in full swing.  Johnson also overlooked the young senator from Massachusetts, whom most people knew in name only.

While reading the third volume, I was surprised how rarely the author even mentioned John F. Kennedy.  The hard truth, however, was that JFK didn’t really do that much as a U.S. senator to make his mark on the nation.  It didn’t help that the man was actually very sick with back problems and was in an out of the hospital so much.  So no one really took him that seriously when he threw his name in the hat.  Especially since he was so young and (gulp) a Roman Catholic.  Well, the country soon fell in love with Joseph Kennedy’s second son who happened to be incredibly charismatic, dashingly handsome, could woo crowds with his inflection of humor in his campaign speeches, had a gorgeous wife, and also had  a ton of money.

Kennedy was also smart enough to realize he needed a man like LBJ as his VP if he would carry the ticket.  Contrary to popular belief, the two men got along wonderfully and had tremendous respect for one and other, and LBJ figured that if he really did one day want to become president, being in an inconsequential job such as Vice President might be unbearable, but it was a calculated move that probably would increase his chances of one day reaching his ultimate goal.  So he somewhat reluctantly accepted the number two spot on the ticket.  Now, Kennedy’s little brother Bobby hated  Lyndon Johnson, and history shows us the feeling was mutual.  So once Kennedy’s presidential term started, it was the lowest of the low in the life of Johnson.  He was too much of a mover and a shaker to sit still in a do-nothing type of job such as a Vice President, so he was constantly trying to expand his role and responsibilities, and Kennedy had to keep him on somewhat of a short leash which was undoubtably hard for all involved.

Then, Kennedy’s “Camelot” of younger, Harvard grad, money types were now everywhere in and around Washington and the White House, and this just wasn’t the best atmosphere for an old Texas Cowpoke such as Johnson.  So the man was ridiculed constantly by those in power.  As I’ve said in my review of the previous volume, Johnson was no saint, and Caro does a brilliant job of portraying the real man - warts and all.  Still, you really can’t help feel sorry for Lyndon Johnson as we look at this time of his life.

Then, of course, Dallas happened.

Although the events on, and around, November 22nd, 1963 are well documented elsewhere, this book is the only instance where we get an in depth perspective of what Johnson was going through during the turmoil of these few days.  Of all the images that play through one’s mind of this  historical catastrophe, the only one that comes to mind containing LBJ is the swearing in on Air Force One - face solemnly dejected, standing next to the blood-stained recent widowed Jackie Kennedy.  So in a sense, the pages around this event don’t seem redundant.  In fact, it’s almost refreshing (if I dare use such a word) to read about these events where this a new focus.

Yes, there are those (and there were then, too) that wondered if there was a sinister plot behind the assassination, and many fingers were pointed at this new “accidental” president.  The author alludes to this, yet I believe he’s sincere when he says Johnson wasn’t involved and, truth be told, there really wasn’t anything Johnson did in the days and weeks after this event that would suggest such an ominous plan.

In fact, this is where the story really gets interesting, and although LBJ’s presidency would later become stained due to Viet Nam, he really does rise to the occasion in the immediate aftermath of the assassination, and manages to hold the country together while moving forward.  A large part of the latter half  of this volume deals with a very short time - the few weeks following the tragedy.

Although a lot of printed pages cover this brief period, you never feel as though it’s much ado about nothing.  Johnson had a huge task to undertake.  To his credit, he never throws the Kennedy agenda away (as Oliver Stone would have you believe), and he makes it plain to the American people that since it was John F. Kennedy that they elected, it would be John F. Kennedy’s visions and dreams that LBJ would push forward.  He convinces the vast majority of the Kennedy cabinet and group of advisors, that basically laughed at the lanky Texan behind his back for the last few years, to stay on and help achieve the goals set out by their recently deceased boss.  To his credit, he does so admirably and wins over the majority of these former adversaries.

In fact, you can argue that Johnson did a better job pushing forward Kennedy’s agenda then Kennedy himself did.  As charismatic as JFK was, there were still those stubborn Halls of Congress to be dealt with, and although that’s never easy for any President, this was Johnson’s forte.  So Johnson does what arguably very few could have done, and that was help the country move on, as best it could, after one of the most popular presidents in history was brutally slain and gone from everyone’s site in a matter of minutes.

This volume, although a few hundred pages shorter than the previous, felt as though it went by entirely too fast.  I enjoyed this, and the other three immensely and I will have a hard time waiting for the next one.  If it does take the author eight to ten years, I’ll probably pick these four books up and read them again as a refresher before a read the fifth one for the first time.  A pretty arduous task, but well worth it.  Highly recommended.

The Wind Through the Keyhole

The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King

I was a bit perplexed when I first saw this one and read the tag for this novel.  It was advertised as one of Stephen King’s “Dark Tower” novels.  My first thought was: What?  Didn’t he finally finish that cotton-pickin’ series??  There’s more???

O.K.  For those of you not familiar with The Dark Tower novels, allow me to review:  Stephen King released the first “Dark Tower” novel back in 1988 in what was to be a “series” of books.  At the conclusion of this first volume (titled “The Gunslinger”), the reader was left mightily confused.  You weren’t really sure what you were reading.  In the book’s afterward, King confessed that, well, he didn’t know where he was going with this story either.  He then told his “constant reader” that there would be a whole lot more of these Dark Tower novels in the future.  Well, he was right about that - there were seven in all.  The problem was, it took 15-20 years before they all finally saw the light of day.  Sometime during this tenure, King kind of lost interest and there was quite the lag between some of the books.  Diehards became frustrated.  When he finally did finish the series, overall reviews were mixed.  One thing these books did do, though,  was generate a lot of conversation.

The books were a bit, well, different.  The stories dealt with a “Gunslinger” named Roland who lived (I think) on our planet, but in the distant future.  Not a future with hovercrafts, artificial intelligence or sophisticated mainframes, though.  No, the future here was pretty desolate and the reader felt as though this was a world after some sort of nuclear holocaust or something.  In the words of the characters, the old world had “moved on”.  During the first few novels, Roland is on a quest to reach The Dark Tower (which is never really explained to us).  He is joined in his quest by three people that are somehow transported form our world (let’s see, there was an African-American lady in a wheel chair from the 1960s that suffered from schizophrenia, a lonely 12 year old rich kid from the 1970s, and an annoying two-bit drug dealer from the 1980s - if I recall correctly).  Throughout this journey, these four individuals encounter all sorts of weirdness, and I don’t think anybody, including King, could explain exactly what was going on.

Here lies the fun, though.  King leaves us with just enough hints to encourage discussion.  Remember, when we say “discussion” in the 21st century, we’re talking internet boards, blogs, fan clubs, and even a few concordances were written.  Everyone has their own interpretation.  It only became stranger when characters from some of King’s other novels started showing up as well.  Why?  I’m not sure.  Neither were they.  Neither was King, maybe.  King himself even shows up in the last book.  So, yes, this series was one of a kind.  Despite all the weirdness, most readers of the series agreed that the experience was overall enjoyable.  You may not have understood everything, you may not have found the ending satisfactory, but you did enjoy the ride  (for some reason, the wonderful television series “Lost” comes to mind when thinking of an analogy).

So now I come (finally) to this book.  This is not (thankfully) a continuation of the series that ended, but more of a “story within a story”.  In the fourth book of The Dark Tower series (titled Wizards and Glass), King actually took a break from moving the story forward, and instead told a story of Roland’s past.  Maybe King had writer’s block and didn’t know what to do next, but the idea worked.  If anything, it gave the reader more insight to this strange, bizarre world, and this strange, bizarre Gunslinger.  That’s what King is doing here in this book as well.

He actually goes back about half-way through the lengthy tale and inserts a scene where our four heroes (plus a furry bumbler named “Oy” - don’t ask) are taking shelter for the night in a bad storm.  Roland then tells his companions another story of his youth.  In that story, the younger Roland tells yet another story to one of the characters, which is where the title of this book is derived.  In another words, this is actually “a story within a story within another story”.  

If that sounds confusing, it really is not once you get to turning the pages.  King can be a masterful story teller and he succeeds wonderfully with this one.  Although we’re getting “more” of Roland’s world, I can’t honestly say that there are any more clues as to what is actually going on in this peculiar place and time, but it’s really all about the story, as it should be, and this is a great one.

In the preface to the book, you get the impression that King actually missed these characters that he devoted so much time to, so he decides to revisit them the best way that he can, which is to write a novel exactly how I’ve described.  He also tries to set up this story in the preface to where the reader may not necessarily have read any, or all, of the previous Dark Tower books.  Not really a good idea.  If you’re going to read this one, you really should start (and finish) with the other seven.  I’m guessing that although it will be a long journey, it will be well worth it.

I enjoyed the Dark Tower series, and I enjoyed going back and seeing the characters again.  I would love it if King did a similar thing in the future and revisited these folks in another novel.

The Man From Barbarossa

The Man From Barbarossa by John Gardner

As I read through the next John Gardner penned James Bond book, it dawned on me that perhaps I need  a break from the series.  In my review of Brokenclaw, the previous Gardner title, I mentioned that my goal is to go through all of the James Bond books, and go through them in order.  Because of this, I find myself almost reading these out of obligation rather than pleasure.  It’s hard for me to divert to other works of fiction when I still have close to a dozen latter day Bond books still to be read.

So it was really hard for me to get into this novel, and I confess that I really just wasn’t into it.  The plot revolves around a sinister Russian crime syndicate pursuing a World War II war criminal that was in alignment with Hitler.  Unfortunately for all involved, the syndicate whose intentions may be noble, use the wrong methods to bring justice, so 007 is called in to infiltrate the organization.

By the time I got to the middle of the story, my brain just sort of mentally checked out (kind of like when you’re in one of those idiotic meetings at your job where the boss wants to go around the table and have everyone share their goals).  I found myself not really caring, and getting a bit lost in the details of the story.  The majority of this is more of a reflection of me, and not necessarily the story itself.  Although these Bond books do follow a pattern, and the pattern becomes a bit wearisome.  Perhaps if I only read one per year (the approximate timeframe when they tend to be written and released), it wouldn’t seem so redundant.  So I’m sure my blasé feeling towards the work is a bit biased.  I’ll give the next one a bit more attention and concentration, and it may be time for Bond break for a few months.  I’m sure the casual reader would enjoy several elements, so I’ll give this work the benefit of the doubt and say “it was ok”.

Under the Dome

Under the Dome by Stephen King

Although Stephen King is arguably the most popular author of the last 40 years, it is the consensus of most of his fans that, from time to time, he’ll release an awful book. Really awful.  Under the Dome isn’t quite in the league as one of King’s worst, but sadly it does fall into the “really bad” category.  What makes it a bit more frustrating is that this one could have actually been quite good.  It had serious potential.

The story is one of those plots that can only be found in a Stephen King novel.  One day, a quiet town in Maine discovers rather abruptly that a “dome” has appeared over the entire town.  Although invisible, it’s definitely there and nothing can get in nor out.  Animal, vegetable, nor mineral.  This story starts off really well, but King manages to blow it in a bad way.  It’s not so much the story and how it unfolds, but the characters that King fleshes out in this yarn.  It should be said that most of King’s novels take place in a small town in Maine, and in many cases, you can’t help but wonder that you’ve seen and met all of these hideous stereotypical one dimensional beings many times over that have been regurgitated from his previous works.

And, oh there are many characters.  So many that King, fortunately, provides us with a “cast” at the beginning of the book detailing most of them.  This aids the reader since it’s so easy to get lost with all of the different people coming and going in and out of all the pages.  Unfortunately, if there is one thing that is common about all of the actors in this play is that they’re all,to some extent, ridiculously annoying.  95% of the folks we encounter under this dome are either a) good natured but really stupid or b) mean spirited and really stupid.  You can probably already guess when panic sets in under this dome what will happen with all of these not-so-bright individuals.

The worst is the “main” bad guy - Big Jim Rennie (he’s one of the few characters whose name I can remember as I write this, several weeks after I completed the novel).  Big Jim is the owner of the town’s used car lot, and one of the town selectman.  He’s also a big bad Republican and a so called “Christian”.  King never forgets to let us know this over and over and the author then proceeds to continue to offend these two groups of his readers by this ridiculous comic of a character.  It seems like just about every scene Big Jim shows up in, King has to take a stab at this man’s beliefs.  He’ll murder and sell drugs, but he won’t curse - since cursing is, you know, sinful.  Yeah.  Right.  You can’t help but get thoroughly aggravated when this buffoon of a character says things like “We need to kill that rhymes-with-witch!” or when he tells of his meeting with Tiger Woods, he describes the golfer as a “pretty decent negro”.  Yes, King actually wrote that.  As a matter of fact, you don’t really end up hating this villain, yet you end up hating Stephen King for insulting the reader’s intelligence.  Doesn’t Stephen King realize that people, you know, actually spent their money and buy his books?  It’s sad indeed.

 Of course, there are a few “good” guys, yet the odds are ridiculously stacked against them because of the idiocy of the plot.  They do somehow prevail and do, for the most part, accomplish what needs to be done.  Not surprisingly, the “main” good guy isn’t even from this warped town, he’s actually a drifter.  I guess King thinks this fictitious town can’t have too many brains in it, or something.

Then we have the police.  It comes as no surprise that they aren’t that bright and aren’t really any help as they should be at a time like this.  Ol’ Big Jim then deputizes many of the younger guys right out of high school to help keep the town in order, and of course, all of these guys  would make the white supremacist groups look like a bunch of altar boys.   This town is definitely not a place where you would want to stop for a cup of coffee on a good day.   You can’t help but seriously wonder where King actually comes up with this kind of town.  Does he really believe such individuals can exist in mass proportions?

Another strike against this book is the “gross” or “disgusting” factor which is completely unnecessary.  There’s plenty of murder, arson, rape, drug abuse, suicide and even borderline necrophilia throughout these pages, but, believe it or not, this in itself actually isn’t that bad in and of itself.  King just seems to take some sort of sadistic pleasure within this story in making his readers sick to the stomach.  Case in point:  There’s one scene where one of the “good” guys is placed in jail unfairly by the “bad” guys at the police station.  When a visitor comes to see the good guy with a bowl of cereal for the prisoner, the bad guys, naturally, have to pass the bowl around and spit in it.  Now, King could stop right there.  But no, he has to describe  the sound of each person’s spit, the texture of each person’s spit, the color of each person’s spit, etc. etc.   I ask Mr. King, what ever possessed you?   Again, this entire novel is filled with scenes such as this.

Once the explanation of this mysterious dome is revealed, a lot of readers cried “foul” since it was kind of stupid.  But this is Stephen King, remember, and most of his books deal with the unknown/unseen/supernatural etc. so it really wasn’t too big of a shock for my tastes.  As a matter of fact, I think King should have spent more energy and pages devoted to the cause of the dome, but he’s too immersed in his warped town to go in that direction too far or too long.   The climax of this book, especially, was a big let down.  There was too much action and not enough understanding.  Yes, I realize that King is making a commentary on how human beings treat each other and how we treat nature, but a little bit more care could have gone into the last 100 pages or so.

Had this book been cleaned up a bit, and I mean that almost literally, the story might have been a good one.  King states in the Afterword that he actually started writing this book about forty years ago, but then discarded the story until recently.  You really wish he would have left this idea in the trash bin.

Simply Jesus

Simply Jesus

I first heard of the scholar N.T. Wright one day, around a year ago, on some news program where the English Bishop was explaining to the moderator what the true Christian meaning of the season of Easter was.  I was impressed by his knowledge, but more importantly, his calm mannerisms that were so incredibly non threatening.  I immediately Googled the man (or, more appropriately, Amazon-ed the man) to read about some of his published works.  Well, a bit later than I intended, I finally got around to reading one of his books.

Although I’ve been a Christian for more than a quarter of a century, I don’t read that many Christian books.  Too many of them fall into the “self-help” style of writing, and I’m just not a fan that whole genre.  Then, sadly many of the Christian books are a bit too right-brained for my tastes, and I tend to find the whole in-your-face evangelism to be a bit too malodorous, and can’t help but wonder if these authors are truly trying to preach to anyone other than to the faithful (a former Pastor of mine referred to this as “Spiritual B.O.”  That is so good!).  So apart from C.S. Lewis and the recently deceased Chuck Colson (whose book “Loving God” is an absolute must), I simply haven’t read many works on the subject matter as of late.

Overall, I must say I enjoyed this book.  I think this would be a great book for someone that is new to the faith, or even someone who claims to have no faith.  Not that this book serves as a great evangelism tool, but one of the best recurring themes of this book that deals with the historical Jesus is simply this:

If Jesus Christ was and is the Son of God, then the time and place where he was born and served in his ministry was the absolute best (i.e. worst) time and place possible. 

The vast majority of this work deals with Jesus in his day, what he was saying, and what it truly meant - both then and  now.  Wright digs in deep, giving the reader an excellent perspective of what it was like living in Jesus’ place and time over two millennia ago.  He alludes often to the “Perfect Storm” of the many nations, dictators, and authoritarian figures that led the Jewish nation of Israel through tumultuous times in Jesus’ day, and “sets up the scene” quite nicely for the appearance of the Son of God.

Of course, those who know their church history are probably familiar with many of the points the author makes.  He refers many times to the Jewish nation desiring their messiah to reign on his throne immediately and to impart God’s wrath on the wicked that had been torturing them forever.  The folks back in the day weren’t too crazy about the idea of a meek servant riding into Jerusalem on a donkey talking about his forthcoming crucifixion.  Wright also spends a ton of time expounding on the meaning of God’s kingdom “in heaven and on earth” that Jesus came to establish.  It definitely challenged how I interpreted a lot of things.  In other words, Christians should not only be focused on the death and resurrection of Christ, but also on the things he did in his ministry beyond his teachable parables etc.

To be honest, sometimes it seems like Wright wanders a bit from chapter to chapter.  I had a hard time finding how consecutive chapters actually connected in terms of thought process.  The majority of the time, though, the writing style was so rich that it was easy to become immersed within the writing regardless of trying to keep one’s thinking linear.  

It was also refreshing to hear N.T. Wright challenge a lot of the status quo with much of the contemporary Christian thought process.  Many evangelical churches seem to be intertwined into certain ways of thinking without ever seriously asking themselves why and how they interpret certain scriptures in a way that they do.  For example, Wright spends a little bit of time in his work talking about Eschatology, and he boldly states that the idea of “The Rapture” as most Christians understand it, isn’t at all what they think - and there will be no literal twinkling of an eye where believers will be gone from the earth and up to the sky.  I also found it rather odd that when discussing Satan, he never refers to Satan as ‘Satan’ but rather ‘the satan’.

He definitely aroused my interest in many of the discussions on various scriptures, and I’m sure that I’ll read some of his other works in the foreseeable future.  I would recommend this book not only for Christians, but also for those who claim to “hate religion”.   It would be nice for these misguided individuals on the fringe to at least understand who the real Jesus was when he walked the earth, since most of them obviously do not (I remember when the movie “The Passion of the Christ” came out - it astounded me how many people that were critical of the movie, just never “got it”, meaning understanding the whole point of the crucifixion).   Sadly, the same can be said for many believers as well, I guess, so maybe this book should be recommended for them as well.