Garfield

Garfield – by Allan Peskin

It saddens me that I would have never discovered this book had I not set out to read at least one biography of every U.S. President.  Why would anyone, apart from a distant relative, really want to read a book on James Garfield?  Looking at his life and presidency, it was rather dreary and highly inconsequential, yet Allan Peskin manages to write an incredibly engaging account of a man who really never comes across as exciting nor stimulating.  On that note, just who the heck is Allan Peskin?  I had to search rather deep on Google just to find minute information on the man (sadly, after much digging, I found out that he recently passed away).  So it’s almost a double whammy that an unknown author can write a book on a minor president and have it be incredibly engaging.  One wishes that Peskin would have penned more volumes on more notable figures.

Even if you have heard of James Garfield, you probably are unaware of the name Charles Guiteau. You’re probably also unaware that Garfield’s presidency lasted a mere four months.  This is because Guiteau assassinated Garfield very early on during Garfield’s tenure in office.  At the risk of sounding morbid, this is about the most exciting thing that seemed to happen in Garfield’s life. He simply wasn’t that dynamic of an individual.  He lived during a time when candidates were chosen by delegates in smoky rooms of national conventions. Garfield is chosen as the 1880 candidate mainly as a compromise. None of the other candidates are really up to the job. It’s not that there isn’t anyone else qualified, it’s just that there isn’t anyone else where there is any sort of consensus as to who can win the big election come November.

So Garfield is chosen. He basically doesn’t want the job, but being the good soldier, he rises to the challenge. On a related note, it was considered improper and uncouth for presidential candidates to do their own campaigning. So Garfield mainly stays at home during the presidential race. Such simpler times.

Speaking of being a ‘good soldier’, Garfield was also a general in the Union army during the Civil War. Again, most don’t know that – nor even know his name when historians discuss the great battles. Still, the author does a superb job of making the military years come alive in this book, even though there really wasn’t that much interesting to say.

After reading this book, I think I would describe the words ‘introverted’ and ‘cerebral’ to describe James Garfield. He was definitely the intelligent sort, and the only time where this book seemed to get a bit bogged down was when it went into detail of Garfield’s younger years – first as an apt student, and later as a teacher. James Garfield had a lot of wit and musings during this time of his life, yet it became a bit of chore to read about his constant observations and cogitations of his younger years. 

After the Civil War is when Garfield goes into politics, and each chapter of this portion of the book is dedicated to each of his terms in office. Again, his term as a U.S. Congressmen isn’t very eventful, yet one imagines that the reason he keeps getting reelected is because people prefer inelegance to flair. Politics wore out the average voter in those days as well.

He also seemed a bit of a moody fellow. He seemed more miserly than happy, didn’t seem particularly close to his family, and seemed to always be suffering from some sort of illness that seemed more suited for someone much older than him at the particular stage of his life.

Perhaps it was the author’s ability to detail the time period and the events so well that made this such a rewarding read. Although Garfield didn’t seem to have much excitement emulating from himself, there certainly was a lot of calamity in the current times of politics, so one feels as though the time and money spend on this book was well spent.

This book was written in 1978. It seems that any time a biography of well-known individual is written, a new one is written every quarter of a century or so for some reason.  I’ve never quite figured this out. Maybe more information about the subject becomes available over time?  Somehow, though, I’m not sure we’ll ever see another biography of James Garfield. That’s quite all right, though. This book was wonderful and needs no substitute.

A Column of Fire

A Column of Fire – Ken Follett

First, let me just say that if you’ve never read Ken Follett’s ‘Pillars of the Earth’, please make sure it’s the very next book you read. It is the consensus of many that it’s simply one of the best novels of all time. I’ve read it twice (rare for me) and would love to give it at least one more go-through before I die.  I mention this tidbit because A Column of Fire is actually the third part of the trilogy that started with ‘Pillars of the Earth’, yet to be quite honest, the similarities are rare and there really isn’t any sort of continuity.  I could say the same thing about Book 2 – ‘A World Without End’.  All of these books take place a long time ago, in the town of Kingsbridge, England, but it’s not necessary that you read these books in order. In fact, this book takes place about 500 years after the first installment.

Even though this book wasn’t as nearly as good as ‘Pillars’, I still thought it was a very strong book and satisfying read. In a strange way, the structure of this book was a lot more like Follett’s recent ‘The Century’ trilogy. He’s using real events as background to shape a fictitious story. Since this book takes place mostly in the 16^th century, most of the historical figures aren’t as well-known as they are in the ‘Century’ trilogy, so in addition to a good story, you’re getting a history lesson as well.

The ‘history’ is the religious war between the Catholic church and the recently formed Protestants. After Martin Luther nailed up his thesis, the Catholic church (that basically controlled all of Europe) was none too happy.  So a lot of petty (but brutal) arguing over who worships God the correct way happens during this time.  The book is heavily Protestant. I imagine a devout Catholic just may find enough to be offended by this story. Although history shows us that it wasn’t the teachings of the faith that were so harsh, yet the fact the Catholic church became so corrupted because of the greediness of many of its leaders.  Despite what some will argue, the separation of church and state is a very good thing.

Much of the story is typical Follett. Although this is his only story to take place in the 16^th century, I confess that I felt like I’ve read so many of the elements of this story in his prior books.  You know – a young couple who are in love, but they can’t get married because their parents have ‘other plans’ for them.  So a lot of unhappiness due to forged marriages, people wondering ‘what if’, children fathered out of wedlock, good people being swindled out of money by back-stabbing associates, and on and on  and on.  Also, Follett is a heavily feminist author and his ‘anti-male’ sentiments tend to wear one down a bit. Yes, we know women were subjugated throughout much of history, but Follett always has to interject inane dialog that seems forced and contrived like “You’re a woman. What do YOU know?”, “It’s not a woman’s place to make decisions”, and “We can’t trust a mere woman to come up with a reasonable plan….”   It gets a bit ridiculous after a while.

The sweeping story takes place with a lot of characters over three continents (England, France, and Spain) with a multitude of characters – about half real and half fiction.  In fact, there really isn’t anything ‘Kingsbridge’ about this book.  Yes, much of the story takes place there, and we’re reminded of the ‘magnificent church built several hundred years ago’, but all of this is a bit superfluous.  You have to wonder if they only reason we’re in Kingsbridge is so the author can capitalize on the success of the first book of the three.

In fact, I really wish there could have been a bit more story and a bit less politics/history.  I’m being picky, of course.  It’s just that 900 pages is quite the read, and one can tend to find areas where things could have been a tad better in terms of flow.  This was still a very captivating book and I highly recommend it.  No, it’s no ‘Pillars of the Earth’, but very few books are.

Special Ops – The Brotherhood of War

Special Ops – The Brotherhood of War – W.E.B. Griffin

The ninth installment of ‘The Brotherhood of War’ series. Let’s hope it’s the last.  To be blunt (and unkind), I actually wish this one had never been written. This one was a chore to get through and paled in comparison to its predecessors. 

As I recall, Griffin intended to finish this series a few books ago, or at least that’s what I thought when he included a ‘Where are they now?’ coda at the end of one of these installments. Apparently, though, he had more story to tell, so the books kept coming. This was the only one of the series that I give a ‘thumbs down’ to upon reflection. Why? Several reasons.  The main reason, however, is that I might just be tired of the series. There’s only so much you can read about the same group of people without feeling that enough is enough.  A good analogy, for me at least, are the ‘Star Wars’ movies. No matter how well done the last couple of movies have been, I couldn’t help the feeling that I had seen all of it before.  The same is true with these books.

Another factor is the length. This book is 780 pages in the paperback edition. Oy.  On average, the other books were about 425-450 pages.  The fact that this book was almost double in length wouldn’t be a hindrance if there had been a good story that needed more pages, but sadly, this isn’t the case.  This was the most drawn out inconsequential plot of the whole series.  I must confess, though, that once I got about 500 pages into it, I basically mentally checked out.  In fact, I MADE myself read at least 10 pages of this book each day so I could eventually finish it. A wiser person would have simply put the book down. I wish I had such discipline.

As I’ve stated in my reviews of the other Brotherhood of War books (I’ve reviewed all on Amazon), these books don’t focus too much on the battlefield, yet give the reader a keen insight of the life of a soldier. We read of the politics, the friendships, the marriages – all through a soldier’s eyes. I would argue that a lot doesn’t happen in these books action-wise, but they’ve all been quite good. Until this one that is.  

This book does have a plot, yet it’s incredibly thin and drab. It’s 1965, and Cuban Communist Guerilla leader Che Guevara is planning to go to the Belgian Congo to start an uprising in the unstable region in the hopes of bringing about a communist coup. When the American Intelligence uncovers this fact, a band of mercenaries is trained to be deployed to the jungle to stop him.  Not ‘kill’ him, mind you, just ‘stop’ him.  Killing him will have the opposite effect. He’ll die a martyr and will probably inspire communists to turn the notch up for their cause. So about 500 pages of this book is devoted to the training, deployment, and action towards this goal. 

The story was just too boring and lost my interest.  If you’re an OCD ‘completist’ such as I am, this book would probably be deemed ‘necessary’ for you, just so you can check it off a box and rest easily knowing that you’ve finished the series.  For everyone else, I recommend skipping this one – even if you’ve enjoyed the rest of the books up to this point.

Such a fact makes me wish I didn’t suffer from OCD.