The Story of Russia – Orlando Figes

 

The Story of Russia – Orlando Figes

Important distinction: This book is titled the STORY of Russia, not the HISTORY of Russia.  What exactly is the difference?  My guess is that whereas a “story” is in fact a “history”, it’s much shorter, hits mainly the highlights, and most importantly, tells an important lesson that is badly needed for 2023 Russia and its (probably lengthy) future.

Orlando Figes has written many massive volumes concerning Russian history, and I would argue is probably the best “go to” guy if you want to learn about the country.  My guess is that when he got to this one, he figured he has already told the in-depth history of Russia in a plethora of other volumes, that he instead set out to give a sort of “Cliff Notes” version of the story, with the focus being on “this is why the country is so messed up”.

He begins the book in present day with Vladimir Putin showing his blood-thirsty fangs towards neighboring Ukraine, and explaining how Putin misuses history into thinking that Ukraine “belongs to” Russia.  What Figes tells us at the beginning of this story is that there is lot of history of Russia that we don’t know.  We must remember that primitive countries and lands didn’t exactly keep meticulous notes of the comings and goings of everyday life, and it certainly didn’t help that Russia has such an expansive geography.

So Figes does his best with what we do have, and he pieces the story together based on what the majority of historians can conclude, is in fact, fact.  Once we get past the mythic origins, we read about such leaders as Ivan the Terrible (who didn’t come across as that terrible) and Peter the Great (who definitely didn’t come across as that great). We do read a lot about the Romanov dynasty, but for readers wanting an extensive account of much of the details, they should be advised to look elsewhere.

Again, the author’s point is to be somewhat brief.  There’s literally nothing here about the Russian-Japan War of 1905, and I think Premier Nikita Khrushchev gets less than one and-a-half pages.  The point, though, is to explain the country’s thinking and how it’s perception of itself has become somewhat warped.  Much is because of the misunderstandings of history, but a lot of it is because of poor leadership and overall ignorance of such a backward country.

When we arrive at the 1990s, the author is careful to point out that Russia never really intended to become an altruistic nation determine to right the many wrongs. No, the people were far too proud for that.  So even though “Communism failed” in 1991, Russia still had far too many warts and cancerous lesions to make any sort of clean break and do some sort of political control-alt-delete.

As this book went to press, Russia was in its third or fourth month into the war with Ukraine, and whereas the author isn’t surprised that it didn’t go as quick or smooth as Putin anticipated, he also alleges that even if Russia manages to “win” the war, they’ll still in fact, lose due to the exhaustion of many resources; including people. 

So sadly, it seems like Russia has a long, long way to go before they can ever get out of such a terrible quagmire. The only hope really is time, and lots of it.  It takes a lot of time to correct backward thinking, and for a country that has been through so much turmoil after so many centuries, it sadly doesn’t appear that the horizon will be any brighter anytime soon.

Seven Things I Wish Christians Knew about the Bible

 

Seven Things I Wish Christians Knew about the Bible – Michael F. Bird

Bob Dylan once stated that the Bible was both the most overrated book and the most underrated book in the history of mankind.  I’m not sure exactly what he meant by that, but I can speculate.  I would speculate that his thoughts and feelings were that the Bible is a truly wonderfully work that is the word of God, and used correctly, it can serve as a reflection into the nature and character of God and how one is to live.  However, it has also been misused and misunderstood throughout history, and in many cases, has managed to cause more harm than good.

Michael F. Bird discusses seven areas of the Bible and expounds on the importance of each, and how Christians should learn and apply what is here.  This is good, and I found all of his points in this rather short compendium to be worthwhile reading.  I have to honestly say, though, that I wished this book was a bit more focused, and a bit more black-and-white.  The author may purposely not want to go there, but the overall issues I have is that even though most Christians would “agree” with Bird, you’re still going to have an awfully hard time coming to any sorts of consensus with the many different churches and branches of the one true faith.   So I can imagine many Christians reading this book and saying “Yep. He’s right.” But at the end of the day, I can’t honestly say if anyone can look in the mirror and admit that maybe they’re guilty of not doing what the author states they should be doing, practicing, and believing.

I would prefer if this author would have given more concrete examples of what HE thinks should be correct ideas and interpretations. There are a few times when he’ll pull out selected passages and pontificate of how many Christians misuse the passage. He’ll then give (what he thinks is) the correct interpretation along with well-thought out explanations.  I wish he would have done more of this.

He seems to want to stay in safe territory and not upset too many people.  That’s very easy to do when talking faith; especially amongst the many branches of Christianity.  He’s clear that the Bible is the Word of God and he himself is definitely a Christian, but I didn’t really walk away with any great insights.  Yes, everything he says either rings true or convinces me that he truly is correct in his assumptions, but overall the feeling I came away with wasn’t convicting enough to make me raise my eyebrows while having some sort of shattering revelation.

What I have discovered throughout my history as a Christian, is that it’s too easy for the masses to follow conventional wisdom.  If the majority of reformed Christian churches in North America all hold to basically the same positions, well, then they obviously have to be correct. Right?   I wish the author would have spent more energy shaking up such assumptions.  Again, though, maybe he’s trying to tread lightly.

What I wish this author would have done here, is maybe find the most egregious example of how churches don’t follow the seven things he mentions, and spent a lot of page space devoted to those examples.  This, I think, would have much better shock value and maybe change some of the hearts and thoughts of his readers.  True, it would anger a lot of obdurate readers, but with a title that includes “I Wish Christians Knew”, the thought picking up this book is that they DON’T know the things here, but I wasn’t really convinced of that, nor that the seven things were necessarily earth shattering.

I thought this was a well written book, and the author is very gifted in explaining his points (along with well-placed humor along the way), I just wish he would have hit his readers over the head with a metaphorical hammer a bit harder.  At the very least, this is a good book to read with a group of Christian friends and have some good discussions.  It may not provide answers, but it will allow for a lot questions to be asked that might normally not have been asked without a book such as this.

My Effin Life

 

My Effin Life – Geddy Lee

I think that if I were ever reincarnated into an alternate universe and got to be a rock star, I would want to be in a band very similar to the band Rush.  Like most bands, the three member Canadian trio initially struggled through a handful of lean years, and then they slowly became more and more popular. Although they had a massive cult following, they mostly stayed out of the headlines and could enjoy a decent amount of anonymity. It wasn’t until the last year of their 40+ year career that they really “broke through” and became a widely known phenomenon.  As soon as that happened, though, drummer Neil Peart decided he had enough, and the band retired for good. (Peart, sadly would succumb to a brain tumor a few short years later. Contrary to what some believe, his illness was NOT the reason the band retired; it was just a sad coincidence.)

So after retirement, founding member Geddy Lee now had some unexpected time on his hands and decided to pen an autobiography.  To give you an idea of how huge Rush’s following has become, Geddy Lee went on a book tour to support the autobiography and sold out 1,000 seat theatres across North America.  I never quite understood that.  Yes, a Rush show was phenomenal, but to have theatres packed just to hear the guy talk about his book?  Yes, these fans are incredibly hardcore.

Fortunately the finished work highly succeeds.  Those who are somewhat familiar with the persona of Lee know that despite being a major rock star with somewhat of a piercing singing voice, he’s quite mild, highly articulate, and very engaging when giving interviews. So it really isn’t that surprising that the book ended up being a very rewarding read.  As the title states, this is HIS life, so it isn’t strictly a book about Rush.  If you’re a fan, though, don’t fret, since Rush took up 90%+ of his life, you read an awful lot about Rush within these pages.  Although, as a fan, I wanted a lot more and was a tad disappointed that there were several unanswered questions that I had about the history of Rush after completing the read.

The only thing I felt was a tad overbearing in this account was that Geddy Lee talks an AWFUL lot about his Jewish heritage.  He even includes an entire chapter on his parents and their travails as holocaust survivors in Europe during the second world war (fortunately, Lee warns his readers and is kind enough to advise them to skip the chapter if such a thing doesn’t interest them).  We read a LOT about Jewish traditions, rituals, backgrounds, etc. and it really was a tad too much.  What’s somewhat ironic is that Lee identifies as an atheist, so I was somewhat perplexed that he focused so much on Hasidic culture.  Although one might come to the conclusion that his atheism is a result of many of the religious rituals that never seemed to make sense to him and could actually cause quite a bit of discomfort; especially after his father died when Lee was still quite young.

The book is mostly linear, yet Lee takes welcome diversions to talk about all the things that rock stars endure.  He’ll take a break from the narrative and talk about the industry, the fans, the travelling, his hobbies, rehearsing, recording etc. etc.  I’ve noticed that in many biographies of musicians, the bulk of the volume seems to be devoted to the earlier years, and this is true here as well. So we get immersed into the initial years when the band was still struggling to find their way and resonate with big audiences.  The three guys (and their touring entourage) always seem to be enjoying themselves, though.  True, they have plenty of natural illicit substances that aid in the numbing of the brain, but Lee’s attitude and memory is highly positive when reflecting on days when they had to tour in station wagons and double up in nasty motel rooms replete with shag carpets and orange bedspreads.

As the band starts to increase in popularity, we read about the gradual transitions. Fortunately for the members of Rush, not being an “overnight sensation” means that they can slowly assimilate into bigger and better things. What was also rewarding for me is that every album is talked about (some briefly, however) and just about every tour gets some page space here as well.  As I mentioned, though, I wanted more. I suppose those sentiments are probably shared among all Rush fans who read this thing, so one must look at the glass as being half-full.  (Note: In his book tour program, Geddy mentions that his original manuscript was 1200 pages! More than double the final product. So maybe we need to blame the editor and/or the publisher.)

We read a lot about Geddy’s marriage to Nancy.  Leading the life of a rock star can take a toll on a marriage when one considers just how huge a commitment the lifestyle is.  For the first 15 years of the band once they were recording and touring, they never had much time off at all.  So even though Nancy has her own business that occupies her energy, one comes away with the idea that the survival of their marriage was somewhat miraculous.  No, there’s not much dirt here, but the marriage was a far cry from beams of sunshine and vases of roses.

Guitarist Alex Lifeson is commonly known by many to be Geddy’s “best friend”.  Yet I didn’t read a whole lot of bonding between the two in this memoir.  The two seemed more to be business partners rather than devoted lifelong chums.  Perhaps this is just meant to be a “given” since the two have basically been joined at the hip ever since they started playing music.  What we learn about Alex and are frequently told are: 1) He’s a practical joker 2) He smokes an awful lot of pot -and- 3) He hates keyboards.  I guess I really wanted more, but again, this book is Geddy’s life, not anyone else’s.  Plus, I can see where Alex may have had influence over what was included in final manuscript when the subject matter was focused on him and his undertakings.

Then we come to Neil Peart. And, yes, this is where the book gets incredibly sad. Initially, Neil is treated with the same amount of page space as bandmate Alex, but once Neil’s tragedies enter the story, there’s simply no way that Lee can tell his story without reflecting on a lot of the nuances.  You’ll probably learn more about the “first round” of Neil’s tragedies (the unexpected death of his only child and wife within a one year span) and the “second round” that happened 20 years later; his diagnosis with terminal brain cancer that ended his life in 2020.   There’s a lot of detail around these events, and you may end up weeping on the pages. You can’t help but feel so sorry that for a band as upbeat and as…well…goofy as Rush was, it seemed like such a tragic coda to a brilliant career.

I should also point out that this book is PACKED with pictures.  There are three color supplements as well as black and white snap shots that pepper the entire book.  All of these were highly rewarding to the fan as well.  Again, as a fan, you love these extra inclusions, but the greediness inside of you wants so much more!

For a guy, along with his band members, who preferred to stay out of the limelight (pun possibly intended) as much as possible during their performing years, and to want to keep their private life as personal as possible, it’s rewarding for the fan to get a glimpse at a lot of behind-the-scenes episodes that Lee provides. Fortunately, there’s a lot of good, not much bad, and very few that’s ugly.

One can’t help but be effin envious of Geddy Lee’s effin life.