The Last Lion: Volume 2: Winston Spencer Churchill Alone 1932-1940

The Last Lion: Volume 2: Winston Spencer Churchill   Alone 1932-1940 by William Manchester

I thoroughly enjoyed Volume 1 of this trilogy, yet that book was incredibly dense.  It was 1,000 pages long, and covered the first 58 years of the life of Winston Churchill.  So even though it was a gratifying experiencing to read such a piece of work, it was a bit exhausting as well.  I pledged I would take a “break” before tackling this, the second volume.  This one actually intimidated me a bit more than the first – it was almost as long (about 800 pages) yet only covered eight years of the man’s life as opposed to fifty-eight.   Eight years in 800 pages??  I was prepared to be very overwhelmed.

Fortunately, this wasn’t the case.  This book was actually, in my judgment, better than the first.  Although many may disagree, you can’t argue that this book is significantly different in its presentation.  The first volume was truly a biography, but this book didn’t really feel like a biography.  This one was more of a history lesson of the English government during the 1930s.  A country that was exhausted and decimated by “The Great War” the ended a little over a decade ago.  A country that truly wanted to believe that the particular conflict was truly “The War to End All Wars”.  A country that was anxious to move on and forget such an awful nightmare.  Trouble is, there’s an odd little man in Germany named Adolph Hitler that is stirring up the pot, and seems to have an insane notion that his nation will rule the world with himself at the helm.  Pretty much no one believes this lunatic, except for Winston Churchill.  So this sets the story in motion.

We must first remember that Churchill is at the lowest of lows in 1932 politically speaking.  He’s a very brash, forward politician, and many of his decisions and opinions have sunk him in terms of credibility.  He’s almost a laughing stock, or embarrassment, to the British government.  This book begins with a quick recap of book one, and then, as sort of a preamble, details Winston’s daily activities from the moment he wakes up, until he goes to bed (usually about 20 hours later).  Once this formality is out of the way, the real story begins.

There are a lot of movers and shakers in the English government around this time.  I would recommend having an easy access to Wikipedia handy if you’re not too familiar with names such as Stanley Baldwin, David Lloyd George, Edward VIII, Duff Cooper, Lord Halifax, and/or Neville Chamberlin.  Ahh..Neville Chamberlin.  This book, in many ways, is his story as well as Churchill’s.  Chamberlin was Prime Minister of England during the majority of this time, and he comes across as a dim-witted dolt of a dullard.  It’s a wonder that England survived.   Had it not been for Churchill, it probably would not have survived.

As Adolph Hitler starts to slowly build up Germany’s military, Neville Chamberlin and his cronies simply look the other way.  After all, nobody wants a war again.  So the majority of the Parliament scream “Appeasement”, and as Hitler bullies his way through Europe, Chamberlin comes across as a quiescent dog who won’t stand up to the man.  We see Hitler not only conquer places like Austria and Czechoslovakia, but enslave the people, enforce cruel pogroms on the Jews, and sending everyone who won’t pledge their loyalty to the lunatic away to concentration camps. Yet Chamberlin is constantly turning the other cheek.  

Well, as history shows us, things go from bad to worse, and Churchill starts to slowly gain (back) respectability and trust.  The masses start to realize that this man had been right all along, and when war is (finally) declared after Hitler’s invasion of Poland, Churchill finally receives a respectable post in the cabinet as First Lord of the Admiralty.  There’s a lot of work to do.  England has fallen behind.  Way behind.  The only real ally they have at this time is France, yet that country has become a bit of a joke at this point with no real government nor respectable military, so England falters in many places, loses many lives at sea, and must slowly rebuild.

This book concludes when Winston is made the new Prime Minister in 1940.  The country now knows they need this man, yet he never gloats, never smirks with an attitude of “I told you so!”, he simply steps into what must be one of the hardest jobs of history that anyone has had to endure.  Fortunately, since we know the outcome (which will come in volume 3), it’s a bit easier to read through this sad time in history, yet we still feel incredibly daunted by what Churchill, and the entire country, must have felt at the time.

Throughout this book, there are small detours away from politics, and we do read a bit about the man himself.  We read at times about vacations he took, or relationships with family members, yet oddly these seem like an annoying commercial during an intense television program.  We simply don’t care as much, and want to get back to the real story.  As a companion piece to this book, I would recommend William Shirer’s “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich”.  Many of the scenarios and sentiments are identical, the only difference being Shirer uses Hitler as the “main character” of the story.  Ironic because Shirer (a well-respected journalist at the time) is mentioned quite frequently within these pages.  More ironic for myself, was that it was while I read the Shirer account, that it piqued my interest further in Churchill, which is why I decided to read more about this amazing man.

A final thought about this book is that it sadly teaches, at least in my opinion, that we have an awful long way to go on this globe before we can ever achieve world peace.  We have too many unstable countries run by authoritarian dictators to ever preach appeasement.  Although the peace mongers truly have good intentions and dreams, I’m thoroughly convinced that, just like England in the 1930’s, if we truly want peace on our homeland, we must arm for war.  Whatever the cost.  A truly great lesson, albeit a sad one, can be learned from within these pages.

The Gods of Newport

The Gods of Newport by John Jakes

Before I was even a decade old back in the 1970s, before I (or anyone) had heard of Stephen King or John Grisham, John Jakes was one of the hottest authors around.  He had a series of eight historical fiction books deemed “The Kent Chronicles” that told a magnificent tale of a family immigrating to the United States in the 17th century, all the way up to the late 1800s.  I remember being a kid seeing just about every one of my mother’s friends was reading one of these eight books, and many years later, I discovered just how wonderful and timeless these pieces were.  Well, as a follow up, during the 1980s, Jakes wrote his “North and South” trilogy, and those were just as awesome, and possibly even better received.

Since then, Jakes has slowed his output somewhat, and with  a minor exception or two, his novels have been self standing - one book, one story.  The Gods of Newport (to my knowledge) is his latest offering.  All of his books fall under the header “Historical Fiction”, and the majority take place no later than the turn of the twentieth century.  This story is no exception - taking place (mostly) during the last decade of the 1800s.

Our story revolves around recently widowed Samuel Driver and his only child, his teenage daughter Jenny.  The Drivers have money.  Lots of money.  The problem is that it’s new money.  So when Samuel wants to secure Jenny’s feature in a summer mansion in Newport, Rhode Island, it won’t be easy.  This place is only for the wealthiest of the wealthy, and if you’ve only recently been rolling in the dough, you won’t exactly get invited to many social engagements.  And Newport is all about social engagements.  Really, what else is there to do for millionaires before automobiles and television?

So Samuel starts with good intentions, makes enough elegant friends, and begins his quest to give his daughter a life that he never could give for his recently departed wife.  Jenny enjoys the good life as well, but one day, she happens to spot Prince Malloy who, unlike what his name sounds like, is one of the common laborers in Newport.  Prince spots Jenny as well, and, well…..it doesn’t take a genius to figure out where this story is going.  When Samuel gets wind of this attraction, he becomes quite the hostile fellow and he’ll stop at nothing to ensure his daughter doesn’t end up with someone “beneath” her.  We actually start to loathe Samuel.  Has he always been this way?  Why is he turning into such a tyrant?  It could be that this evil place of Newport is beginning to poison him.  This place is incredibly wicked.  If I had gobs of money and lived during this time, I’m not sure I would want to spend my life with such shallow purveyors of attention.

Having read just about everything John Jakes has written, I can’t help but feel as though I’ve read this story many times before in similar settings.  Most of Jakes’ stories manage to spend at least part of the tale during the Civil War, and I must say, even though those books were incredibly engulfing, I’m glad he chose a slightly different setting this time.  The whole north, south, slavery thing was getting a bit old.  Still, as much as he tries, this story seems a bit rehashed if you’re a fan of Jakes.

I would recommend this book.  It’s a very convincing story, and Jakes always does an excellent job in the research department, and also carefully carves real, historical figures within his pages.  If you have the time (and patience), however, I would recommend that you tackle the Kent Chronicles and/or the North and South trilogy instead.  John Jakes’ ideas were still fresh then, and, being that the stories take place centuries ago, the stories are never dated.  The author, himself, is now in his eighties.  I don’t know if he’s retired or not, but if he has, he needs to be proud of the great works that he has produced and that many have enjoyed.

The Racketeer

The Racketeer by John Grisham

John Grisham’s “The Racketeer” is one of those books where you really don’t understand everything that is going on until the last 25 or 30 pages of the story.  That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but in this case, the overall presentation of the story seems a bit awkward.  Even though most of your questions have been answered upon conclusion of the story, it doesn’t quite make up for the bizarre, queer feeling of confusion that stays with you for the majority of the tale.  There were times when I felt that Grisham originally had about three different story ideas, yet he couldn’t make any of them solid enough to stand on their own, so he ends up combining all three of them into one book.

Our main character is Malcolm Bannister.  At one time, Malcolm had a very nice, small town practice going as a lawyer.  He had a beautiful wife, and a beautiful young son, and life was moving along beautifully as well.  Unfortunately, when we meet Malcolm, he’s in a Federal Prison camp.  It seems he made some honest mistakes when dealing with a potential (crooked) client.  His client was high profile, so when the feds nabbed the crook, they nabbed everyone else they could find that did dealings with the man.  So when Malcolm is introduced to us, we hear all of those awful incarceration stories that Grisham seems to relish telling.  Malcolm is in a minimal security facility, so in many ways it seems more like a summer camp for bad boys.  There aren’t even fences around the perimeter.  But prison is prison, and even after a while, his loving supporting wife divorces him, and takes her son away from Malcolm to start a new life.  Also, Malcolm is black.  I only mention this because Grisham seems to mention this every few pages.

Well, on the outside in the free world, a major crime has been committed.  A federal judge has been slain along with his mistress, and the police have absolutely no leads.  Malcolm meets with the prison warden because, according to Malcolm, he knows who did it.  He makes a deal: He’ll tell the authorities who the killer is, in exchange for freedom in the witness protection program.  So eventually we now see Malcolm on the outside of prison.  We experience what life is like with a new identity.  Even though Malcolm is always looking over his shoulder, it sure is worth it.  Ah!  Freedom!

So then, about half-way through the book, the story makes an abrupt right turn off (what you think is) the main road, and takes you through a bizarre, strange labyrinth.  It seems as though Malcolm has some “unfinished business”, and he’s carefully constructing some sort of plan.  Again, the reader simply doesn’t know what’s going on.  It’s almost as if Grisham is asking us to just trust him, and eventually all will be revealed.  Well, again, everything is revealed, but the latter half of the book just isn’t as strong as the first part.

For example, in order for Malcolm’s “plan” to work, there are a few dozen details that are organized that must all exactly work in precise, meticulous fashion as they were designed.  If any of these details go slightly askew, the whole plan will tumble like a house of cards.  Of course, everything goes perfectly, so it all seems a bit unbelievable.  Also, for Malcolm’s plan to succeed, Grisham decides he needs an accomplice.  The problem is, where do you find an accomplice for Malcolm?  This man has no friends, no family, and a brand new identity to boot.  So the method in which the author brings this new character into the story seems ridiculously unbelievable.   Then there’s a part about Malcolm getting plastic surgery when he goes into the protection program which, in this story, makes him “totally unrecognizable” because, well, “all black people look alike”.  I found this to be flat out condescending.

Still, Grisham is Grisham, and the pages still turned at a rapid pace for me.  Sadly, though, this wasn’t one of his better ones, and I found the book overall to be “passable”, but not much more.

The Empty Chair

The Empty Chair by Jeffery Deaver

This is the third or fourth Lincoln Rhyme/Amelia Sachs novel.  They’re a rather odd crime solving partnership.  Odd, mainly because he’s a quadriplegic who can only move his neck and part of one of his fingers.  She’s a ravishing, riveting red-head cop who somehow falls for the guy.  So they solve crimes together with Amelia doing the legwork, and Rhyme doing the thinking and talking, usually through an earpiece guiding the beautiful Sachs.

As this story opens, the Manhattan based pair are in North Carolina.  It seems there’s a doctor who might be able to perform an operation on Lincoln that might give him some of his mobility back.  Of course it can also kill him as well.  Nothing in life is easy.    As soon as the pair arrive, however, the local police interrupt their intention.  It seems there’s been a series of killings in the swamp land of the rural community along with some kidnappings.  They need Lincoln to help capture the killer.  They know who the killer is, they just need to try to catch him before his kidnap victims become murder victims as well.

So Lincoln (and Amelia) reluctantly postpone the surgery, and set up a workspace to work their magic.  It won’t be easy.  This isn’t Manhattan, and the local yokel police don’t exactly know how to handle such complicated crimes.  So equipment is sparse, resources are limited, and mistakes are made by the well intentioned local police.  Still, though, Lincoln and Amelia plod forward.  They know who they’re chasing - 16 old Garrett Hanlon.  He’s an orphan living with foster parents whose definitely an odd character.  He’s one of those people that if you see him in public, you don’t make eye contact.  He’s just creepy.  He also loves insects.  He knows more about insects than most people, and even keeps a bizarre collection of various specimens.  He studies these creatures and their habits so intently, that he models his behavior when eluding his captors and for keeping his “prey”.  So this is what Lincoln and Amelia have to ultimately figure out - how to stay one step ahead of this kid by researching and quickly learning about  different kinds of insects.

This was actually a very solid part of the story.  You actually feel as though you’re a student of Entomology as you work your way through this story, and some of what you learn is not only interesting, but quite fascinating.

At first, I felt like I was reading a “regular” Rhyme/Sachs novel - the only difference being that this story takes place in the rural marshlands of North Carolina instead of the bustling streets of Manhattan.  Yet Deaver throws some nice twists and turns in the plot that actually make this one quite unique.  As always, he manages to come with a great ending that always manages to fool most, if not all of his readers.  The author also manages to catch you with your guard down at some points.  Usually, for example, if the “big climax” of the book is near the end, with about fifty pages to go, you assume that the rest of the book will be the main characters simply catching their breath, reflecting on the story, smiling, and congratulating each other on a job well done.  Deaver , however, manages to throw more turmoil at the reader during these last few pages, and it makes quite the thrilling ride.

I’ll also never look at any insect the same way again.