Truman

Truman by David McCullough

Before I read Truman, my favorite presidential biography was Edmund Morris’ The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt.  I found it ironic that this one eclipsed Morris’ epic as my favorite since Theodore Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman were such different individuals.  To be blunt, Roosevelt was an incredibly exciting character - especially prior to becoming president.  Truman, to be equally blunt, was not.  He was actually kind of a boring human being.  So why did I enjoy this 1,100 page epic so thoroughly?  A large part was due to McCullough’s writing.  This was such an immense joy to read.  The author knows exactly just how much detail to spend on the events of this man’s life, that you get the impression that any retrospective he would pen about any individual would be incredibly interesting.

That’s not to say Truman’s story should be ignored.  This was an incredible figure of the United States history, and he quietly went out and accomplished many milestones for the United States when the country needed a president to do just such.  It’s easy to forget that this man was a crucial part of the Potsdam conference at the end of the European conflict, the decision to drop the secret atomic bomb to end World War II, the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, the formation of Israel, the creation of NATO, and the (most would argue) correct decision to enter the Korean “Police Action” - although he would end up firing the beloved Douglas MacArthur right in the middle of the conflict.

What I enjoyed most about this book is that Harry Truman never really wanted to be president.  That seems so bizarre in our modern world of power and demagoguery that someone could rise to the highest office in the free world with such a lack of ambition.  Truman doesn’t even try to enter national politics until he’s 50 years old!  Helped with local Kansas City “boss” Tom Pendergast (meaning it was essentially Pendergast and company that decided who would get elected), he’s propels from being a local county judge to the United States senate.

His career as a senator was mostly inconsequential until World War II began.  When the war started, he was asked to lead up the Committee of Military Affairs, which essentially eliminated profiteering and wasteful spending during a time when the country was asked to kick up its defense spending up several notches.  He began to accumulate a reputation of being an incredibly likable fellow, yet tough and uncompromising.  Without going into too much detail, he’s asked to replace Henry Wallace as Franklin Roosevelt’s Vice President during the election of 1944.  Even though FDR had served three terms already, this election is going to be a tough one, and the Democrats need someone on the ticket with FDR who’s not necessarily substantial, yet mild and meek enough not to rock the boat.  I found this to be a bit puzzling, since Roosevelt was already very sick, and although the public didn’t know it (no CNN back then, remember), he didn’t seem to have much life left in him.  Sure enough, Roosevelt passes away after about 100 days into his last term.

So now, the most unlikely person is thrust into the role of Chief Executive.  It’s incredibly humorous to read Harry’s thoughts about this job.  Although he doesn’t want it, he’s more than capable of doing what needs to be done, and an awful lot needs to be done.  Usually, when I read presidential biographies, the pages devoted to the time spent in the high office are the least interesting.  There’s only so much I can read about labor strikes, inflation, controversial bills, and egos on Capitol Hill without becoming a bit disinterested.  This is one of the main strengths of this book - that the author knows just how much information to fill the pages to keep things interesting without making a biography sound like a dissertation.

A highlight of the book for me was the “Whistle Stop” campaign for the Presidential election of 1948.  Although Truman really didn’t want the office, he did well enough to feel he was up to the job, yet everyone in Western Civilization seemed to think he had no choice against the Republican challenger, New York Governor Thomas Dewey.  The campaign and race was the perfect illustration for the “Tortoise and the Hare” tale, which ultimately led to a Truman victory, despite the famous Chicago Tribune headline boner.  Truman simply refused to give up, continuing to meet people in town after town, whereas Dewey was essentially a fat cat who didn’t feel the need to campaign aggressively and essentially handed a win over to the sitting president.

When the Korean War begins (known as a “Police Action” or “The Conflict”), the public is very fickle.  At first, everyone rallies around their Commander in Chief, but then when the reality of war hits (i.e. soldiers die), people want to get out of Korea, and get out fast.  Leading the military over in Southeast Asia is General Douglas MacArthur.  MacArthur is everything that Truman is not, (big ego, wanting a lot of headlines, thinks he’s infallible, etc.) and it’s no surprise that the war between these two individuals makes more headlines than the actual war itself.  Truman has no choice but to fire the General of the Army.  This turns out to initially be political suicide, yet after hearings in the Senate, it’s essentially proven that Harry was, once again, right all along.

Truman has no desire to run again in 1952, and General Dwight Eisenhower is elected as the next Commander in Chief.  It’s a bit ironic since many wanted Ike to run for President as far back as the conclusion of World War II (including Truman), yet no one knew much about the man – even if he was a Republican or a Democrat.  As 1952 draws closer, Truman meets with Eisenhower – trying to convince him that he should be the next Democratic President of the United States.  Initially, Ike is disinterested, yet somehow, sometime later, he changes his mind.  Only to Truman’s chagrin, he runs as a Republican.  Despite this, Truman still feels Eisenhower is the best for the job, yet the relationship between these two men is strangely very strained during the rest of their lives.  Truman always wonders (as we do) exactly why.  Regardless, Truman is happy to leave Washington, and the book gives us minor details about Harry’s later years up until his death in 1972.

A great asset that the author had when compiling this work was a vast amount of personal correspondence from Truman that survived.  There are masses of letters (many intentionally never sent) that sums up the man’s personality very well.  The man was very devoted to his mother, his sister, his wife, and his only daughter.  We see many personal diversions from the everyday office with his family affairs, and it’s all very refreshing.  I found myself chuckling out loud during many of the retellings of Truman’s writing and his thoughts.  One I remember was in response to the famed “Give ‘em Hell Harry!” moniker.  Truman claimed: “I never gave anyone hell, I simply told them the truth….which everyone THOUGHT was hell.”

I couldn’t help but wonder how wonderful it would be to have a man like Truman in office again.  Despite your politics, it should would be nice to have a president that really didn’t want the job, but gave it the best he could offer and, for the most part, never really gave a rip about what the polls said about him.  This book was a bit lengthy at over 1,100 pages.  There were times near the end that I thought it could have been summarized a bit more.  There seemed to be a bit too much detail on the renovations of The White House (it was falling in disrepair during Truman’s administration, and he had to move across the street in the Blair house), but this could have been that, like the job itself, things simply aren’t as interesting after one has been the leader of the free world.

I wish that every president in our nation’s history could have such a thought out, easy to read detail of their entire life.  Well worth the accolades.

The Bone Collector

The Bone Collector – by Jeffery Deaver

Imagine that you’re reading a story where two characters are in a room with a large, massive haystack.  A third character puts a gun to their heads and tells them that they have one minute to find a small needle in this haystack.  Somehow, miraculously, without any explanation, the two characters manage to find the needle – with about one second to spare before their life gets ended.  Then, the same three people walk into another room, with another haystack, and the two people are given the same ultimatum.  Again, they somehow find the needle – with no explanation as to how, with only one second to go before the trigger is pulled.  My guess is that after this scenario is repeated four or five times, you would tend to become very frustrated with the story and these chain of events, and tend to write off this tale as being “unbelievable”.

Sadly, I felt these exact same emotions while reading The Bone Collector.  There’s a homicidal maniac on the loose in New York City.  He kidnaps random victims with the intention of slowly killing them, yet leaves just enough evidence (by “just enough” I mean “barely any”) to where the cops show up just in time to save the poor victim’s life.  Usually with seconds to spare.  And then, the cycle begins anew.

This is the first “Lincoln Rhyme” novel that author Jeffery Deaver penned.  Lincoln is a brilliant criminalist who’s able to miraculously string together the most minute details based on almost no evidence, and immediately know where, when, why, and how the serial killer will strike next.  Pretty impressive when we’re talking about a story that takes place in Manhattan with literally billions of nooks and crannies for psychopaths to hide.  Lincoln, also, is a quadriplegic.  He’s not a very friendly guy either.  Because of his condition (he was injured a couple of years ago in the line of duty), he’s confined to his home lab along with an assistant and some other law enforcement type characters to do his thinking and planning.  The local police actually go to him as soon as this lunatic is discovered since Lincoln is the only one that can help solve the crime quickly.  Did I say “quickly”?  It’s amazing just how much happens within a short, 48 hour time frame.  There’s enough crimes, dialogue and clues that would last a normal detective story about six months, but for some reason, the author seems compelled to make a lot (too much, really) happen in a very short time frame.

So innocent people get kidnapped, the “bone collector” (what our psycho is known as) drags them to some bizarre, hidden location, and tries to kill them (or have them killed) in some slow, painful way.  Because this is how he can “preserve” his victim’s bones.  Yep.  He’s a weird one.  Of all of Lincoln’s helpers, the young, ravishing beauty beat cop named Amelia Sachs stands out the most.  And I do mean “stands out”.  She’s the perennial beauty that shows up in most police stories.  You know, the one who looks like she’d be more at home modeling for Vogue as opposed to casing crime scenes.  Well, Lincoln and Amelia end up bonding pretty well.  Their attraction goes much further than your normal professional relationship, yet never too far.  After all, the man can’t move anything on his body other than his neck or one of his pinkies.

So this dynamic duo work very fast, with a lot of obstacles, and somehow manage to save the day.  Author Jeffery Deaver has actually written several novels featuring Rhymes and Sachs, yet this was the first one where we meet these two.  I must say that I’ve read some of the others, and actually enjoyed the others better than this one, but it was nice to see how these two met, and how their relationship began.

I was glad that I already was familiar with these two characters, because too much of the story didn’t sit well with me.  Apart from the plot being so unbelievable, I confess that I’m not a big fan of reading details about innocent people being kidnapped and tortured – regardless of whether the victim is male, female, young, or old (I believe there was at least one of each in this story).  Then, the technical, criminalist jargon was a bit much for me as well. There are a lot of big, forensic words in this tale, so at least we know the author did his homework.  It’s also helpful that he includes a glossary at the back of the book.

Still, it was nice to see how it all began with these two, so overall, I have to say that I enjoyed the story – just not as much as some of the others.  I also need to give the author credit for always knowing how to end a book.  He always pulls a few surprises by the time we get to the last few pages.  So much so, that I was waiting for a nice plot twist near the end, trying to figure out just how I would be duped again by the author.  Not surprisingly, I failed, and Mr. Deaver managed to surprise me once again.  His endings are always so well done, that they always make me add a few “points” to one of his book reviews.  Overall, this book was pretty good.  Not great, not awesome, but pretty good. 

Playing for Pizza

Playing for Pizza by John Grisham

Rick Dockery has to be the biggest goat ever in NFL football.  A third string quarterback who is bounced from team to team ends up on the Cleveland Browns, who are on their way to their first ever Superbowl.  In the Championship game, wouldn’t you know, the first two quarterbacks get hurt, so Rick comes in and manages to throw three interceptions in the last eleven minutes of the game sending his team to a brutal defeat.  He gets hurt as well - he’s knocked unconscious and ends up in the hospital.  The furious fans don’t care though.  As a matter of fact, about 100 angry diehards protest outside the hospital calling for the guys death.  

And you thought Philadelphia had tough fans.

Well, not surprisingly, Rick’s agent tells him that he’s obviously finished.  The only gig he can secure for Rick is in the country of Italy.  Do they actually play football in Italy?  Well, yes and no.  They have something resembling a league, but the local players don’t get paid (they have normal jobs), fans don’t pay to watch the games (on a good day, a few hundred will show up), the field is only 90 yards long (they convert old rugby fields), and there are no cheerleaders (although Rick’s agent lies to him and tells them that there are).  So Rick doesn’t really want to go, but he doesn’t have many choices and he needs to get away from Cleveland as quick as he can.  The “cheerleader” promise is probably what does it.  Rick has a thing for cheerleaders.  Sure, his agent lies, but agents are agents for a reason.

When Rick arrives in Italy, the book details many aspects of the Italian culture that most readers aren’t familiar.  We read an awful lot about the crowded streets, the popularity of opera, the little cars, the wine, and the food.  Oh the food.  Italians obviously love their food - in quantity and quality.  I’d recommend that you skip this book if you’re on a diet.  On the other hand, if you really love food, it wouldn’t surprise me if you plan a trip to Italy on your next vacation.

So washed up Rick is challenged to lead a rag tag group of Italians to their first “Super Bowl”.  It won’t be easy.  Each team is only allowed only three Americans.  At least the Americans get paid.  The vast majority of Americans are over there because, sadly, the life of the majority of football players who are great, but never great enough to succeed in the NFL, seem to make the trip as the options are indeed scant (as I write this, ironically, Tim Tebow is in the news for considering going to Italy to play).

If anything, this books serves as a bit of a redemption story for washed out Rick.  Sure, he’s majorly bummed when he finds out he was lied to about the cheerleader thing, but….well…. Italy is known for beautiful women.  He makes some mistakes on his journey, but manages to hold his head high and bring a bit of excitement to the lives of these ordinary locals.

Like all Grisham books, the author never fails to keep your attention.  I was surprised what a good story this was - both on and off the field.  I seem to recall Grisham giving us just enough play by play for each of the games to hold your attention - even if you’re not really a fan.  He does a really good job keeping things fresh, which isn’t that easy for a “sports” story.  Especially a football one  (I seem to recall his other football tale “Bleachers” to a be a bit too predictable.  It was nice, but it was a story we’ve all read before.)

This is a very quick read.  Those who enjoy reading can probably consume the entire story in one or two sittings.  This would make a very cute and funny movies as well  (unlike Skipping Christmas - the WORST John Grisham ever!)  I would also guess that you don’t even have to be much of a football fan to enjoy the story, either. 

Doctor Sleep

Doctor Sleep by Stephen King

One of Stephen King’s best and well known books was undoubtably 1977’s The Shining.  A lot of the longevity of its popularity is due to the 1980 Stanley Kubrick film, which stands out as one of the best horror films of all time (although some diehards, including King himself, didn’t like the movie because it was “different”.  Whatever).  So it really isn’t a surprise that King decided to pen a sequel, or rather a follow-up, 36 years later.

I remember watching the movie all those years ago with my mother.  I distinctly remember Mom stating at the end of the film, after Wendy and Danny escaped the hotel, “Well.  THOSE two are going to be scarred for life….”  That’s probably true for any character in a Stephen King book at the end of the story, but in this case, it’s a treat to get to see little Danny Torrence grow up. That’s not to say the experience is pleasant. There are too many demons (literally) in this boy’s past.  So normalcy is not going to come easy.

This book actually has about three acts.  Act one follows Danny and his mom Wendy shortly after they make their escape and are trying to live as best they can down in Florida.  The chef from the (now burned down) Overlook Hotel, Dick Halloran is called in to help Danny deal with some horrible things that only these two can really understand.  Act two jumps to when Danny (now Dan) is in his early twenties, and is already a hopeless alcoholic just like his father.  It seems alcohol is the only thing that can stop the Shine.  So Dan basically drinks his young life away - losing job after job, getting battered and bruised in bar fights, and spending many nights with women that you wouldn’t exactly want to take home to meet the family.

Act three is where our story really starts.  We’re now in the present day, and Dan has his turbulent past mostly under control.  With the help of AA, he stays sober and finds a job working as an orderly at a Hospice.  Dan can now finally use his Shine for good.  He’s able to know when patients are about to die, and spends the last few minutes of their life with them, giving comfort as they move on to the next level of existence.  Here is where the monicker “Doctor Sleep” comes into place.  Ironically, though, this really doesn’t play too heavy of a role in the overall story.

We then meet a young girl named Abra, who lives a few hundred miles away.  Like Dan, she has the Shine as well.  Also, like Dan, the Shine is “strong in her”.  So strong that there are some that want her.  No…they need her.  I’m speaking of the evil entities that are in place in this story.  Their name is the True Knot.  They’re a band of ghosts/vampire like beings.  They’ve actually lived for hundreds (and thousands) of years.  They masquerade themselves by driving around the country in large winnebago caravans, and manage to “fit in” as  tourists from all over the country.  Like vampires that need blood to survive, the True Knot needs “steam” from small children who have the Shine.  They must find these children and kill (torture, really) them and feed off their “steam”.  Since all of these characters have some sort of psychic abilities, everyone kind of “knows” what’s going on.  Abra knows she’s in trouble, and the True Knot KNOWS she knows in trouble, etc. etc.  So Abra “reaches out” to Dan - a man she knows because of the Shine, but has never met.  Dan steps in, and the hunt is on.  He must save Abra from the True Knot that need Abra for her “steam”.

In many ways, you can see the roles of everyone mirroring some of the key characters from The Shining.  Abra is obviously the new Danny, and grown up Danny, in many ways, resembles the Dick Halloran character as he helps young Abra.  The True Knot resembles the ghosts and ghouls from the Overlook Hotel.  Sadly, this is one area where this book falls a bit short of its predecessor.  A bunch of middle-aged tourist looking people simply can’t hold a candle to the empty, scary hallways of the creepy Overlook.  You have to remember, however, that the True Knot needs to blend in with their surroundings, so they can’t exactly run around the country looking like a bunch of Nosferatus.

In fact, this book really isn’t that scary at all.  Contrary to what most people think, though, Stephen King hasn’t written that many scary books.  Strange?  Yes.  Bizarre? Definitely.  So I wasn’t disappointed that this story, unlike The Shining, didn’t force me to sleep with a night light.  In fact, I loved it.  I thought it was very suspenseful, and couldn’t wait to find out what happened next.   The climax of the fates of the main characters was a bit weak, but I kept on turning pages, and anytime I can complete a 530 page book in 3 days, it usually means it has to be good.  

It was nice to “visit” the Overlook again.

R is for Ricochet

R is for Ricochet by Sue Grafton

There are few regular fictional characters that I enjoy as much as Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Milhone.  Grafton’s works, dubbed the “Alphabet Mysteries” feature private eye Kinsey, a 30-something, twice divorced ex police officer, who works free lance out of her California apartment.  She takes odd detective jobs now and then to help make the world a safer place and pay the bills. 

These books are told in first person, through the eyes of Ms. Milhone, and overall, author Grafton does a very admirable job making her heroine affable, humorous, and fun to follow along with on her adventures.  The cases that Kinsey help solve aren’t too gruesome nor blood curling.  Quite often, they come across as quite minor.  As matter of fact, as I write this review of her 18th adventure (starting at the letter “A”, obviously), I can’t honestly remember much of any of the plots of the previous 17.  What I can remember, though, is that Kinsey lives alone, was orphaned as a child, raised by an Aunt, has a friendly 80-something year old landlord named Henry, goes on early morning runs, enjoys McDonald’s Quarter Pounders, has one “all purpose” black dress, and is kind of unlucky in love.   Maybe because she only has one “all purpose” dress?

All of this to say, it’s not so much the mysteries that are enthralling, yet it’s Kinsey herself that is so appealing.  I feel like I’m visiting an old friend every time I pick up one of these books.  Kinsey is quite introspective, very observant, and darn good at what she does.  Plus, she has a very sardonic sense of humor and I generally enjoy her wry wit as she tries to track down whatever it is that she’s been paid to do.

In this story, she’s hired to watch over a daughter of a well off, dying older man.  The daughter, named Reba, is just being paroled from prison for embezzling money, and her father wants Kinsey to sort of babysit her.  Doesn’t sound too difficult of a job, especially since Reba is close to Kinsey’s age, not really that bad of a person, and two seem to hit it off quite well.  Well, it turns out that Reba went to jail to cover for her boss/lover, and upon release, she finds out that boss lover isn’t quite the man he led her to believe.  So the intrigue sets in, and the ride begins.

As I’ve mentioned, the stories are kind of secondary, and it’s more fun to just follow along with Kinsey and her escapades.  This might be a drawback for some, since not everything that happens in these stories is necessarily related to the plot.  Some find it a bit tedious when Kinsey rambles on with some of the regulars (as she does in all her books) about nothing in particular, but I confess that I find it somewhat interesting.  In this book, Kinsey spends a lot of time trying to help her elderly landlord (who is quite the fit man for his age) win the affection of a newly acquired lady friend.  He’s competing with, of all people, his older brother.  None of this has anything to do with the story, but as I said, I don’t mind it.

What I do mind in most of Grafton’s books is that she (i.e. - Kinsey) tends to go overboard in the detail department when describing every single new situation that she encounters.  For example: Let’s say Kinsey is going to a restaurant to meet someone for the first time and she’s never been to the restaurant.  Well, Grafton has Kinsey spend an entire page describing the neighborhood where the restaurant is located.  The trees, the roads, the color of the buildings, the people that used to live in the neighborhood, etc.  It’s a bit much.  Then, Kinsey finally gets to the restaurant, and spends another page describing every single nuance of the eatery.  She finally meets the person, and we get yet another page describing the person - their hair color, hair style, shape of the nose, contour of the mouth.  And on and on and on and on.  So we finally think we have all of that behind us.  But, then, a waiter arrives.  So another page on describing the characteristics of the waiter…..  It’s enough to make you yell “Enough already!  Get on with it!”  But this is just how Grafton writes.  Maybe it’s Kinsey’s meticulous observations that make her good at what she does?   At one point, Kinsey and Reba go clothes shopping, and Sue Grafton spends three pages describing the details of the ladies trying on clothes.  Three pages.  Trying on clothes.  I’m not making that up.  I honestly  have to say that these books might be cut by 20-25% if Grafton could learn to summarize.

Another weird thing about these books is that to keep Kinsey somewhat “the same age” through all of her adventures, the timeframe of the book is stuck back in 1987.  That’s really not much of a deterrent, however, it just seems a bit strange reading about a Private Investigator that is always having to use a pay phone and doesn’t have Google handy to do research.

Some of the books are better than others.  I can’t honestly remember any that I was disappointed with, so it’s safe to say that this one is par for the course.  As long as Kinsey keeps being an interesting character, I’ll keep enjoying the books.