Franklin Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox 1882-1940

Franklin Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox 1882-1940  By James MacGregor Burns

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was arguably the greatest president of the United States during the twentieth century.  I’m guessing that if most historians didn’t rank him as the best, they probably would have him listed in their top three.  Sadly, after reading this book by James MacGregor Burns, you would have never known that.

First, let me confess that there are a multitude of biographies out there on FDR.  The only reason I chose to read this one, was because Amazon ran a “Kindle Special” on part 2 of this two part book series for a very cheap price.  I figured that, before I read volume 2, I’ll first read volume 1.  I now wish that I had not.

This book was incredibly drab and dull.  I couldn’t believe how lifeless this piece of work was.  Reading this book reminded me of one of those hour long lectures that you sat through in college with a particularly bad professor.  You would walk into class, telling yourself that you WILL pay attention to the day’s lecture this time, yet you find yourself nodding off five minutes into the day’s oration.

This book does tell you what the man did up until 1940.  I just feel as though I never knew the man.  I never learned what made him tick.  Why was he so popular?  What were his fears?  His joys?  His relationship with Eleanor and his children?  His polio infliction?  None of this is answered.  Instead, the author plods directly into his accomplishments.  First at school, then as he enters his life into politics.  Why FDR went into politics, I have no idea.  Maybe the book does tell you, but I honestly have no recollection.  The fact that his distant cousin Theodore was very successful may have had something to do with it.

In 1920, Roosevelt was actually chosen by presidential candidate James Cox to be his Vice-Presidential running mate.  Vice President!?  Pretty exciting stuff.  Yet to hear Burns tell the story, you feel about as excited as reading about someone picking out what pair of socks they want to wear during the day.

So time goes on, a depression hits, Roosevelt runs for President in 1932, he wins on something called “The New Deal”.  Ah….The New Deal.  It seems as though 80% of this book is about the New Deal.  Mainly that Roosevelt wanted it, many of his opponents did not.  This goes back and forth and back and forth.  In detail.  In way too much detail.  Fortunately, Roosevelt become likable.  The country never actually gets back on track (it would not until World War II), but the country makes enough progress to where most love him.  His big fiasco while in office was to try to change the way the Supreme Court was run, and “pack” the court with “New Dealers”.  It does backfire in his face.

What is (slightly) more interesting is when the worldly affairs are discussed.  There’s a tinderbox in Europe, and soon a major war is started.  Our country wants nothing of this European war, and even through you feel that deep down Roosevelt knows we should be involved, he can’t resist public upheaval.  So he keeps us out as best he can.  Well, even though this book “ends” in 1940 (the second volume details the war years), the author feels it necessary to write an afterward that does tell what happens from 1940-1945.  It’s like he’s giving us the Cliffs Notes version of his second book.  Why the author does this, I don’t know.  Perhaps he didn’t know at the time he’d be writing a volume 2?  It seems a bit of a shabby way, whatever the reason, to end this book in this fashion.

There are plenty of other gripes I had with this book as well.  This author seems to take for granted that his readers already know many of the minor characters that he introduces, so there is often no background whenever someone of importance appears on the pages.  I found myself having to constantly turn to Wikipedia to find out who the author was talking about.  In many cases, he doesn’t even give us a first name of the individual.   I am somewhat familiar with President Woodrow Wilson (the U.S. President during World War I), yet when the author referred to him at one point as “now being an invalid”, I had to, again, do my own research to figure out what the author was referring to in the passage (my research led me to discover that President Wilson had a stroke in 1919 that left him severely incapacitated.  Why the author doesn’t briefly share this, I have no idea).

I did not realize this when I bought the book, but this biography was written over 50 years ago (1956).  Not that this should really matter, as Roosevelt died in 1945, but I can’t help but wonder if the “style” of writing is just a tad too archaic for modern readers such as myself.  I felt a similar wave of disappointment when I read Ted Sorenson’s “Kennedy”, which is also about half a century old.  I think modern audiences want a bit more flair and excitement since our attention spans aren’t what they used to be.  Whether or not that’s a “good thing” for us doesn’t change the fact that it definitely hindered my experience.

Speaking of styles in writing, the subtitle of this book is “The Lion and the Fox”, but I confess, again, that I really didn’t know that the author was using both of these words to describe Roosevelt himself.  Yes, you can kind of figure that out after several hundred pages, but it just seemed peculiar that comparisons between the 32nd president and these two animals was never really emphasized at all.

One more gripe: The book also contains illustrations and several political cartoons scattered throughout the pages, yet the transition to the Kindle format doesn’t work that well.  The illustrations are almost impossible to see, and you can’t magnify them with your Kindle either.  To be honest, though, I simply didn’t really care.

I would recommend trying a different retrospective of FDR.  To be fair, though, there were several readers that rated this book highly on Amazon.  Perhaps I’m just grumpy today….

Al Jaffe's Mad Life

Al Jaffee's Mad Life by Mary-Lou Weisman

There was about a three year period for me growing up in the 1970s when MAD Magazine was the bomb.  From about 3rd grade until about 6th grade, nothing brought me more pleasure than a trip to the grocery store, heading towards the periodicals, and seeing that the new, bi-monthly issue of MAD was out.  Not to mention all of the books, “super specials” (you’ll know what that is if you’re a fan), calendars, games and other memorabilia that celebrated irreverence so well, without ever really crossing the line.

I still remember the names of many of the contributors.  Don Martin, Sergio Aragones, Frank Jacobs, Dick DeBartello, and who could forget Dave Berg’s “The Lighter Side Of...”?  My favorite, though was Al Jaffee.  Nobody could make me break down into hysterics better then Jaffee.  If you were a casual reader, Jaffee was the one the contribute the back cover “fold-ins” as well as the immortal “Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions”.   Never knowing that much about the comings and goings of the magazine, I was eager to read this biography that came out only a couple of years ago.

Although this was a very well written, and interesting look at the man’s life, it sadly fell short of my expectations.  What I was really wanting, was the majority of this book to be about the goings on at MAD Magazine.  This book actually covers very little of that frame of Jaffee’s life.  It’s about 90% “pre-MAD” and 10% MAD.  Of the “Pre-MAD” portion, most of that deals with Jaffee’s childhood.  It’s a very interesting (and a bit sad) childhood.  Growing up in a Jewish family in rural Georgia in a fairly well-to-to home, Jaffee’s eccentric mother, for whatever reason, takes Al and his little brothers away from their father rather abruptly to move to the “old country” of Lithuania.  Lithuania, according to Jaffee, was about a “century behind”.  The situation was rather tough, yet Al and his clan managed the best they could.  Still, there were a lot of trials and tribulations in a very strict Orthodox Jewish family, and you can easily see where Jaffee gets his warped sense of humor.

So without going into too much detail, only the last chapter or so deals with his tenure at MAD, and to be blunt, it isn’t very interesting.  You learn a few snippets, but not really that much.  To be fair, though, there probably isn’t that many interesting things that happened behind the production of the magazine, so the author can’t really write about things that never happened.  An example of the eventlessness: Supposedly most of the writers and artists didn’t even work at the MAD office.  They simply did their work from home, and got paid on a “per page” basis when they submitted their work.  It seems as though it was a grim existence, and the humor at MAD probably surfaced much more on the pages in the magazine than it did behind the scenes.

So it was a nice, well-done story about a man that many probably aren’t that familiar with.  if you’re a fan, it’s worth the purchase.  It’s not too long either, and Jaffee even illustrates much of the book giving the reader a nice, visual description of the escapades.

Several years ago, there was a CD-ROM collection of every MAD magazine made up until the late 1990s.  I’ll still have it and view/read it from time to time.  It would be great if such a retrospective could be released in a similar fashion of all of Jaffee’s “solo” material.  There was a lot, and it was all great!

A Maiden's Grave

A Maiden's Grave by Jeffery Deaver

A school bus carrying 8 deaf girls, ages 8 to about 18, is traveling through rural Nebraska on its way to a performance for the hard of hearing in a distant city.  There’s a wreck on the road.  The bus stops to investigate.  It turns out the wreck was caused by three escaped convicts.  The convicts pounce on the girls (and chaperone) and hold them hostage in a nearby slaughterhouse. 

Arthur Potter is a retired hostage negotiator.  He’s one of the best.  He’s flown in from the east coast to work his magic.  The story begins.  The story is a good one.  Not great. But good.  One of the goals of the author is to educate the reader on what it takes to be a hostage rescuer/negotiator.  In many ways, you could argue this novel could serve as a “What To Do” book, or, “Hostage Negotiating For Dummies”.  Or something like that.  We’re exposed to all of the drama from the front lines.  Including the media, the governor, the local yokels.  etc. etc.

I confess that I’m not really familiar with what a slaughterhouse looks like.  Based on the descriptions here, it sounds pretty gruesome.  This would probably make a very effective setting for a movie.  Especially as the day/negotiation wears on through the night.  Inside the slaughterhouse, we meet the unfortunate young girls.  The focus is on Melanie.  She’s one of the older ones (about 16), and much of the story is told through her eyes (and ears).  It seems she wasn’t born deaf, but suffered through an infection at a young age.  So Jeffery Deaver also educates the reader on many aspects of the life of the hard of hearing.  He’s definitely done his homework.

So the day, and night, go on.  There are several unnecessary distractions in this book that seem a bit silly.  Plus, it does get a little wearisome to hear Arthur constantly lecturing everyone and anyone in his vicinity about how clueless they are about such a situation.  He’s rather condescending - but in a somewhat nice way.  The convicts?  They’re pretty ruthless.  I won’t go into details here, but let’s just say that their crimes are far more serious than petty larceny.

So a lot of the book seems to drag on a bit.  Fortunately, as I’ve discovered about Deaver, he does an outstanding job in the department of plot twists and story endings.  He doesn’t disappoint here.  Sadly, many authors I read can be just the opposite.  They tell a great story, but can’t seem to wrap things up satisfactorily.  So my advice for this one is to stick with it, and don’t let the disturbing, macabre scenes force you to give up.  Not one of his best, but better then a lot of what’s out there.

Richard Nixon: The Triumph of a Politician 1962-1972

Richard Nixon: The Triumph of a Politician 1962-1972 by Stephen Ambrose

“I’m not going to be the first President of the United States to lose a war.” – Richard Nixon

“Meet the new boss, same as the old boss…” – The Who

After reading the highly enjoyable first of three books of the life of Richard Nixon by Stephen Ambrose, I was delighted to pick up the second volume, and I immensely enjoyed this work with the same fervor as the first.  This one immediately picks up where the first volume ended, Nixon’s failed run for Governor of California in 1962, which in a sense, was a bigger defeat than his first run for President two years earlier in 1960.

At the infamous press conference after he lost the governor’s race, he informed the press that it would be his “last” press conference, and that he was, so to speak, retiring.  Those close to the man knew better.  Although he does go into a successful practice as a lawyer in New York City after his defeat, it’s very clear to everyone close to him that the man is nowhere near finished with his political career.  Being the smart politician he was, he knew just what to do to keep his name “alive”.  Realizing (correctly) that he has no shot at the 1964 nomination, he spends the years preparing for 1968.

Well, anyone who knows anything about history in the 1960s knows that this was the decade of Vietnam.  Before Nixon becomes president, Vietnam is already a tangled mess of a nightmare, and the counter culture of American youth has never been so exasperated.  Nixon realizes that he’s to win the election, he needs to speak about all of the wrongs of the current administration’s handling of the war, and what needs to happen differently.  Without knowing it, this begins his downfall.  Simply put, he never really knew what he wanted to do differently in Vietnam.  Yes, he wanted to end it, but so did the Lyndon Johnson administration.  So his plan was shaky at best, but being the politician he was, he made a lot of lofty promises that sounded awfully good.  He’s elected over Hubert Humphrey (Johnson’s VP) by a slim margin, and the long awaited presidency begins.

And sadly, this where the Nixon story sadly deteriorates.  First, as I mentioned in my review of the first Ambrose biography, there were many that hated this man because of his ruthlessness.  The fact that he was never a warm, fuzzy kinda guy, meant that his mudslinging and name calling seemed much worse than it actually was.  It didn’t help when the youth of the day distrusted him from day one, and had their feelings justified shortly after Nixon took office.  Ending a jungle war in Vietnam “with honor” was not as easy as it sounded.  In many instances, you could forget that this book was about Nixon and, instead, about the war itself.  There are many immaculate details of all of the plans, talks, strategies and ideas to bring the war to a conclusion throughout these pages, that one can easily get a bit lost.  It seems as though nothing can go Nixon’s way.

What makes things worse is that Nixon takes all of the criticism that is heaped upon him incredibly personal.  So much that he directs his “inner circle” of advisors to sabotage those in the press and the left-wing that are out to get him.  Each day, Nixon reads a briefing of what is being said about him and his administration, and simply makes notes to have those that are “harming him” to be discredited.  It’s amazing the length and frequency of what President Nixon will do.  So much so, that when there’s an order to bug the DNC chairman, Larry O’Brian’s, telephone at the Watergate hotel, it really isn’t a surprise when Nixon later stated that he “couldn’t recall” giving such an order.

Watergate is only briefly touched here, and the scandal doesn’t unfold until after Nixon wins re-election.  With all the turmoil, it’s almost hard to imagine how Nixon could win a re-election.  He manages quite well, however.  As the 1972 election draws closer, he manages to reduce the fighting in Vietnam significantly as well as open up relations with Communist Russia and Communist China.  It didn’t hurt that the Democratic Party was in a bit of a mess themselves and were deeply divided.  Their nominee ends up being South Dakota Senator George McGovern who manages to actually swallow his feet several times during his own presidential campaign.

So Nixon is back for, what appears to be, four more years.  The press are starting to talk more and more about Watergate, but Nixon and his crew aren’t the slightest bit worried.  These things, after all, happen all the time in politics.  So the second volume concludes after Nixon’s re-election.

Unlike the first volume, I actually began to immensely dislike this man.  Once he became President,  he was simply too paranoid, too untrusting, and never good at understanding why so many were against him.  He knew how to win, but when he lost, even in public opinion, he never handled it well.  So with “dirty tricks” abound, the man simply plays hardball a bit too feverishly and alienates many around him.  It really is a shame that a man that was so smart in areas of foreign affairs and world government could be so helpless and baffled while trying to do something relatively simple, such as  make small talk with a group of students.  A tragedy indeed.

Eagerly awaiting to read the third, and final installment.

Sullivan's Justice

Sullivan’s Justice by Nancy Taylor Rosenberg

Nancy Taylor Rosenberg is not an author that is necessarily familiar to the masses.  I came across a novel by her about 15 years ago called “Trial By Fire” and really enjoyed it.  A decade and a half later, I picked up my second book by her, this one, and was a bit underwhelmed.

This is one of those “crime” novels.  Our hero is Carolyn Sullivan who is a probation officer somewhere in California.  All of these crime novels tend to be quite similar.  They seem to always revolve around those in the law enforcement community trying to make the world a safer place.  They’re all overworked, underpaid, drink a lot of bad coffee, and don’t seem to have any time for a home life - so everyone is divorced or single.  Sullivan isn’t any different, but she’s committed, she’s driven, she’s very good at what she does, and she’s trying her best to be a good single mother of two teenagers.

The actual plot, or storyline here is pretty satisfactory, and I must say that Rosenberg did keep me turning pages to find out what happened next.  My problem with this book was the overall sleaze factor.  I’ve never read a book that contained so much sex, drugs, warped people, sex, adults abused as children, suicides, and more sex.  It became pretty nauseating after awhile.  This book reminded me of a trashy pay-cable show that only comes on late at night that is 60 minutes long that contained 20 minutes of plot and 40 minutes of sex.

Let’s just take one (of many) of our characters in this story as a case study.  Melody Asher is a voluptuous blonde who’s romantically (well, “sexually” would be a better word) involved with Carolyn Sullivan’s brother.  I wouldn’t exactly call them a “couple”, but they do have a lot of.....well....sex.  Melody has problems.  Big problems.  It turns out that she’s very smart, yet plays the “dumb blonde” so that men will do anything for her.  How smart?  Apparently she has an advance degree in mathematics or something.  Yet based on her actions and dialogue, she doesn’t even seem capable to serve an order of wings at Hooters.  You see, not only does she videotape all of her sexual encounters at her house and then “get off” on watching them later, but she somehow manages to break into the house of every lover she’s ever had (and there are many), and install an intricate video system so she can watch her lovers have sex with “others”.  How anyone can actually pull something off like this is beyond me.  Of course, she can then use these tapes as blackmail etc. etc.  Like every (and I do mean “every”) other character in the book, Melody has personal issues, so we’re supposed to somehow feel sorry for this monster, and the book moves too quickly between having us despise her and then supposed to “root” for her.  I still couldn’t figure out at the end of this story what I was supposed to feel.

Did I mention there was a lot of sex in this book?  Well, it seems the author has to somehow insert irrelevant details about the character’s perversions and fetishes every chance she can, even though they don’t have the slightest relevance to the story.  Do we really need to know that one of Sullivan’s partners, an older divorced man, needs to watch pornography every now and then to “make sure everything is still working”?  Or, is it really necessary to tell the story about when Sullivan was an adolescent, she “blossomed over night” but her mother was too busy to notice and buy her a bra so the young girl had to manufacture one herself out of a garter belt??  So, yes, this book is chocked full of sleazy instances such as these.

I must also say that I was dissatisfied with the conclusion of the book.  The ending seemed to be a bit far fetched, and Rosenberg tries to tie up too many loose ends too quickly without giving the conclusions much thought.  It’s almost as if she was under a tight deadline to finish the book, so she haphazardly throws in a few sentences that are supposed to “wrap up” major details of the story.  In addition, there are too many unanswered questions at the end as well in terms of character motivation and separating truth from innuendo.  Sometimes, a good story will do this to you to get you to think or to motivate discussion.  In this case, the story was so lame that it just left you frustrated.

I believe Rosenberg has written a few other “Sullivan” books, yet I doubt I’ll be reading them anytime soon.  I would recommend “Trial By Fire” by this author, however.  I would hope the majority of her work is more reminiscent of that one as opposed to this one.