The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin

The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin by H.W. Brands

A Pulitzer Price Finalist. No surprise here. First, a great biography. I can’t imagine there being a better one about this particular individual. What makes this book extra special is the fact that you become truly convinced that Benjamin Franklin was, as the title suggests, the “First American”.  At least the first American of any significance. Most know that Franklin was one of our country’s founding fathers. What a lot of people may not know is that Franklin was considerably older than the majority of the other key players. So he lived a full life before America’s independence, yet was one of the major figures that initiated the process.

I’ve read several biographies by this author, and one of his strong points is that, from time to time, he’ll take small detours away from his subject matter, and give the reader a good primer of other key events that were happening during the particular time. H.W. Brands correctly realizes that in order for his readers to truly appreciate and understand his subject, he or she needs to have a basic understanding of what was going on in the individual’s world at the time. So we get to learn an awful lot about Colonial America and of all of the events that led up to the Declaration of Independence and the Revolutionary War.

Plus, Franklin was simply everywhere. Both in geography and in the headlines. He’s spends a significant amount of time representing his country as an ambassador to England and France. This allows us to, again, understand a bigger picture of why Americans were so concerned with independence. We read about several issues that England has (mostly with their main adversary, France) at the time that caused them to put such financial burdens on the colonists.

Had this book only focused on what Franklin did, this book still would have been quite remarkable due to his brilliant nature and restless mind. This retrospective, however, focuses an awful lot on Ben Franklin the philosopher.  We get to read an awful lot of what the man’s thoughts were on such diverse topics as women’s rights, religion, relationships with the crown, romance, and the treatment of Indians (who we would now call ‘Native Americans’). He’s quite the progressive, and was quite brilliant in expressing his thoughts. Many know that Franklin’s first job was at a printing press. What many may not know is that working for a printing press also meant being a main contributor to the particular periodical that you were printing. Franklin was simply brilliant with the written word, and it was just as much a joy to read about what he said as it was reading about what he did.  Franklin stands out in my mind as one of those people who, if you had one choice to go back in time, you would want to spend time in his company just conversing with the man.

Yes, all of his claims to fames are here as well. His ‘discovery’ of electricity, Poor Richard’s Almanac, the invention of bi-focals, and the strange fact that this septuagenarian was quite the Lady’s man while residing in Paris, France.

Like all of H.W. Brands’ work, I would strongly recommend it not just because of the attention to the particular subject, but also for becoming more learned about the particular period. I’m sure there are better, more in depth books on the quest for American independence, but this book is an awfully nice starting place – in addition to being a great biography on Benjamin Franklin.

Not Dead Yet

Not Dead Yet - by Phil Collins

What a great book this is!

I’m always a bit cautious whenever I read an autobiography by a celebrity.  Just because they can sing or act, doesn’t make them an interesting writer. Collins is the exception. Whether or not he had help writing this thing, I have no idea. I don’t care either. I was hooked and didn’t want to put the book down.

Although Collins has been in the business now for over 45 years, I would argue that his commercial peak was between 1980 – 1992. I was 12 in 1980 and 24 in 1992, so I could easily make the argument that I grew up with Phil Collins. And, yes, Phil Collins was everywhere during this time. Now, there are those that don’t look back at the 1980s with fondness, and since Phil Collins was arguably the most popular artist of the decade, he’s an easy scapegoat.  But I have a good memory, and I can tell you that during this period, EVERYBODY loved Phil Collins. His music was so diverse, that whatever your taste, you could find something in his vast array of songs to suit your palette.  It’s impossible to look back on my youth and not have fond memories that this man helped create.

This book is about 350 pages, and since the man did so much, you won’t find many of your favorite memories described in too much detail.  Many of his Genesis albums, for example, get maybe a page of detail before he moves the narrative along.  Sure, Collins COULD have given us an entire chapter to, say, the making of “Abacab”, but that would have easily pushed this volume into an excess of more than 1,000 pages.  Plus, it’s not like the man bores us with inconsequential events of his life. As far as rock stars go, Collins doesn’t fall prey to many of the popular excesses of the lifestyle.  There are no dressing rooms filled with groupies, no motorcycles being thrown off hotel balconies, and no cookie jars backstage filled with cocaine.  Unfortunately, though, Collins DOES have one damaging addiction.  Phil Collins is addicted to work.

I never thought a human being could be capable of doing all of the things this guy does.  I mean, I became exhausted just READING about all his projects. He bounces from Genesis album, to producing a friend’s album, to performing Live Aid on one continent, performing Live Aid on the OTHER continent (on the same day), to acting in a TV show, acting in a movie, to making his OWN solo album, and on and on and on. Sadly, this addiction, like other addictions, destroys his family life. This is one area that Phil just can’t come out ahead. We see him go through three marriages, two extramarital affairs, and five children with his three wives.  He’s not proud of this, nor does he shrug the whole thing off. He’s pained by this, and desperately tries to repair whatever broken relationship he happens to be in at the time. From a selfish standpoint (speaking as a fan, here), you could argue such heartbreak produces some of his best songs. However such profit seems to come at too high of a price. 

Once we move into the 90s, Collins is still selling out shows everywhere, even if his records aren’t quite selling as well as they once did. He becomes a bit more somber during this time as well (I remember seeing him in concert in 1994. It was a great show, but he definitely lost much of the levity he had a few years prior). His schedule doesn’t seem quite as hectic,  yet he still struggles with obligations as a husband and father. After his farewell solo tour in 2004, a successful reunion tour with Genesis in 2007, and a recording of old Motown songs in 2010, he now finally seems ready to retire.  It’s probably for the best. He’s mostly deaf in one ear, and his battered body has so much nerve damage that he can’t even hold a drumstick let alone play the drums.

But retirement doesn’t gel well with a workaholic. Nor does it seem to help mend broken relationships with girlfriends, ex-wives, and children.  So Phil Collins starts to drink. This is where the book really gets sad. He literally almost drinks himself to death, and hindsight shows that it’s a miracle he survived.  Such events are guarded against the enquiring public, so when all of this happens around 2013-2014, most of us on the outside are (thankfully) somewhat in the dark.  Most of what was in this book wasn’t exactly new to me, but this chapter certainly was. Fortunately, he recovers from his alcohol dependency and even gets back together with his third wife. This is where the story ends.

Although this incident might make you feel as though the book is awfully dark and depressing, it really isn’t.  Collins makes many humorous quips throughout this narrative, and I found myself literally laughing out loud at times. Particularly memorable are such stories as his second wife walking into a Scotsman’s hotel room, and another where Phil is watching Sting get out of a swimming pool. You’ll just have to read about it.  He also devotes an entire chapter to an incident when he was nineteen and “accidently” ended up playing percussion on George Harrison’s first solo album. That chapter is a hoot, and you’ll definitely want to read the chapter again once you’ve finished the entire book.   The “Led Zeppelin” story from Live Aid was also quite revealing – even though it wasn’t as happy.

Even if you’re not a huge fan like I am, I imagine you’ll enjoy this book. Especially if you were alive and kicking during the decade of the 1980s. This man gave us so much great music, made so many great memories, and helped so many of us through tough times. It was such a joy to revisit and relive those times once again.  We’re left to believe that we won’t see much more of the entertainer, but that’s o.k.  We can all hope and pray that his soul (if not his body) can continue the healing process during, what might be, the fourth quarter of his life.  He’s definitely, as the title of the book implies, not dead yet.

The Colonels: The Brotherhood of War

The Colonels: The Brotherhood of War by W.E.B. Griffin

The fourth of (I think) nine of W.E.B. Griffin’s “Brotherhood of War” series. These books focus on three members of the U.S. army – Rudy MacMillan, Sandford Felter, and Craig Lowell. In each one of these books, our three protagonists manage to achieve the rank of the particular book title –either right before, during, or at the conclusion of the story. These three characters are very different, yet are all connected via mutual experiences that they have found themselves in ever since the closing days of World War II, which was when the first book began.

MacMillan is the tough brute who never seems far away from a drink and wanting to punch someone in the nose. Felter is small bald Jew (I’m only mentioning his ethnicity because the author seems to mention it on every page that features the guy) who is a clandestine advisor to the White House. Craig Lowell is the rich spoiled playboy who just happens to be a fine soldier. Lowell gets the most page space because such a character is easier to write around.  He’s always getting drunk, bedding women (single and married), buying airplanes, arguing with his superior officers, and getting thrown out of the army. This shtick has slightly worn on me over four books. In fact, every time the author introduces a female character in the story, we know if she’s under 40 and even remotely good looking, she’ll be sleeping with Lowell within the next couple of chapters.  Still, though, Griffin manages to somehow make you like the guy. Maybe because he is such a great soldier, and deep down, we know his heart is in the right place.

There are lot of other characters that we have grown to know and love as well. They’re too numerous to name, but each book tends to introduce one or two new people, whereas we’re forced to say goodbye to one or two in each book as well (remember this is the military, and accidents happen – in war and in peace).

This book starts in VietNam in 1958 (before the U.S. involvement in an all-out war) and ends directly after the Bay of Pigs fiasco in Cuba in 1961.  There’s not a whole lot of conflict here, but we do get introduced to the creation of the special ops team known as The Green Berets.  The last 50-75 pages are probably the most exciting, as we find ourselves in the jungles of Cuba during the Bay of Pigs.  As I’ve stated earlier, though, in most of these books, there simply isn’t a ton of detail when it comes to war. Griffin is much more interested in telling a story, and when we have so many different characters – home and “abroad” - there’s an awful lot of “real life” that happens that isn’t necessarily directly related to fighting.

Please do yourself a favor and read the series from the beginning. Yes, W.E.B. Griffin, does give you enough background to where it’s not completely necessary, but you’re missing out on whole lot of good reading if you pick up this series somewhere in the middle.   Anxiously looking forward to tackling part 5…..