Big Sky

Big Sky – by Kate Atkinson

Kate Atkinson’s twelfth novel, and the twelfth one that I’ve read. I can’t think of any other author that gives me such a sense of excitement whenever an upcoming novel of hers is announced.  I devour these as soon as I can, and I’ve never been disappointed.  Her style is so unique, so quirky, and so unlike anything else I’ve ever read by anyone. Although her stories are often sad or outright depressing, her character interactions and observations tend to make me howl out loud with laughter throughout the book. Such was the case here as well.

This is her fifth “Jackson Brodie” novel. Jackson is a detective, yet these books really don’t fit into the crime-solving mold that one typically thinks of when they think of detective books. In fact, Atkinson’s strength seems to be more about human behavior, interactions, and observations than in telling a story.  I don’t really remember most of the plots of her earlier books, but that doesn’t stop me from distinctly remembering that I’ve loved most of them.

The underlying theme in this book revolves around human trafficking.  Probably the most depressing topic that can possibly come to mind.  Although Atkinson’s approach is lighter than most, this definitely isn’t a “funny” nor a “comedy” book; even though as I’ve already stated, I laughed out loud many times. This is mainly due to how she treats her characters.  Sadly, her main characters are never happy people.  Every time we meet a male protagonist, we read about his wife/ex-wife/girlfriend who always seems to be a materialistic, unsympathetic, cruel bint. Whenever one of the main characters is a woman, it seems like her husband/father is always a chauvinistic, clueless, lazy sloth.  Our heroes put up with their abrasive counterparts because, well, I guess they feel they can’t really do much better.  Case in point is Jackson Brodie’s ex-partner Julia (the mother of his son). We never hear her open her mouth without taking some sadistic passive-aggressive swipe at her former lover.  But Jackson carries on, burying the obvious wounds deep down.  I have to say it again, though, Atkinson’s magic is she somehow manages to contort humor in all of these interactions.  Maybe it’s because we shake our head and think “Geez. I’m glad my wife/husband/etcetera doesn’t treat ME like that.”

There are a LOT of characters in this book, yet that didn’t take away the enjoyment for me.  It seemed like the first quarter of this book never let us digest any of the characters once we meet them. As soon as we met them, and got to know them a bit, Atkinson would quickly close the chapter, and we would meet a brand-new group of people in the NEXT chapter. Everything does eventually connect, however, and my theory is that Atkinson is able to do this so well because her prose is so interesting and engaging that we don’t mind jumping from subplot to subplot.  I loved each chapter so much, that I simply never got bored and drifted off, nor did I skim any pages due to ennui. To be fair, there were a couple of loose bits that got wrapped up at the end that seemed a tad forced.  You almost wonder if the author had redone a few things in the beginning and/or middle, that some of the closures might not have seemed so contrived.

I think that if I lived in some sort of bizarre alternate universe where it was possible for Kate Atkinson to write 15,000 novels, I don’t think I would ever read another book by any other author.  Reading her reviews on Amazon have proven, though, that not everyone agrees with me.  She’s definitely an acquired taste. For my taste buds, however, there simply isn’t anybody better.

Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House

Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House by Peter Baker

First: a disclaimer. I’m sure I’ll be making many references in this review to the Jean Edward Smith biography of George W. Bush which I read immediately before reading this one. I thoroughly enjoyed the Smith biography even though his criticisms of W came off as a bit harsh.  Perhaps not unnecessarily harsh, but somehow I got in my head that THIS book portrayed the Bush administration a bit more favorably. I figured I would read this thing for balance.  Well, let me just say right off that whereas the Smith bio was ‘especially’ negative, this book wasn’t ‘especially’ positive either.  In fact, these two books are essentially a mirror of each other.  They both come to the same conclusion – Bush was a decent man who truly wanted to do what was best for the country.  However, once he got the U.S. embroiled in the Iraq War, things fell apart quickly and left a permanent, justifiable stain on his presidency.

This book is essentially an overview of the eight years of the Bush presidency.  Even though Dick Cheney is pictured on the front cover, and the subtitle includes his name, I really didn’t feel like the focus on Cheney was necessarily relevant to a lot of the story.  What author Peter Baker tells us between the lines is that Bush relied on Cheney’s advice and strong knowledge early in his tenure as president, but as Bush got more seasoned, he became his own man and seemed more at odds with his Vice-President as time went on.  As bad as the Bush presidency ended up, I came away with the impression that it could have been much worse had Bush continued to listen the VEEP.  Unlike Bush, Cheney was a staunch conservative hawk who was unflinching in his views and refused to let anyone alter his opinion.  Whenever there were issues that needed bipartisan cooperation, Cheney was the most stubborn, thick-headed person in the room. He would never budge an inch and seemed to form a kernel of mistrust within the cabinet and inner circles that had the Bush team more at odds with each other as opposed to demonstrating anything representing unity.

Unlike the JE Smith bio, Peter Baker reserves the majority of his opinions within the pages and lets the reader make up their own mind.  Again, for me anyway, once my mind was “made up”, I was left with the same conclusions as JE Smith.  Overall I feel this was a good thing.  If you read one book and the author tries to sell you their point of view, a small dose of skepticism should be warranted. If you read a second book by a different author that basically says the same thing, you feel much more comfortable with your conclusions.  In fact, there were many times where I felt I was reading the same book over again.  This didn’t really bother me though, as the narrative was very strong even though one wishes that things would have turned out better where the whole Iraq thing was concerned.

The one area about Baker’s book that I enjoyed more than JE Smith’s account was the description of the overall atmosphere and feeling of the nation in the weeks and months immediately following 9/11. Baker reminds his readers just how scared and uncertain the population was as they faced the worst calamity in 60 years.  Once the towers fell and a plane crashed into the Pentagon, the immense sadness and grief was coupled with the fear and anxiety that something far worse could occur at any minute.  Add the anthrax scare and a couple of White House evacuations in the middle of the night, one comes away with the feeling that George W. Bush couldn’t have responded any better at the time when the country needed him the most. This probably accounted for his 92% approval rating at the time.  Whereas JE Smith lightly brushed over these events, Peter Baker devotes much more page space which helps remind readers why we went into Afghanistan and Iraq in the first place.  Hindsight tells us Iraq was a major mistake, but most in the government stood behind the president at the time – even Senators Clinton and Obama.

So Iraq takes up the majority of this book, which it sadly should.  We read about the other events that shaped the Bush-Cheney administration, but all of it takes a backseat to Iraq.  I came away with the exact same conclusion that I did after reading JE Smith’s bio; Bush could have gone down in history much more favorable had he not gotten us into the whole Iraq mess.  Peter Baker engages in a few hypotheticals; mainly that, whatever mistakes were made in Iraq, there hasn’t been a terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11, which is what most Americans feared the most at the time.

I came away with a liking for Bush the man, but felt he didn’t have the tools to make a good president. As far as Dick Cheney goes, I came away with not liking him at all, and couldn’t help but feel he steered Bush into waters best left not sailed. Fortunately for Bush, he stopped relying on Cheney’s advice during his second term and ended up cleaning up some of the messes on the home front, but by then it was far too little and far too late.

If you enjoy this book, I would recommend the Jean Edward Smith bio as well.  Yes, as I stated, the two are quite similar and don’t really contradict each other, but it’s nice to read when two different people essentially make the same observations and come to the same conclusions about an eight-year period in American politics. Even if the conclusions aren’t necessarily pretty.

Forgotten Ally: China’s World War II, 1937-1945

Forgotten Ally: China’s World War II, 1937-1945 by Rana Mitter

One of the reasons I loved this book so much is that I felt that I learned an awful lot.  Although I’ve always considered myself fairly astute when it comes to the history of the second world war, reading this book reminds me that my knowledge of the subject has always been somewhat skewed to one side.  I could tell you a lot about the European events, but not much about the Asiatic affairs; especially the conflict between Japan and China.  I’m sure there are many in the same boat as I am. This is probably why the author, Rana Mitter, accurately uses the word “forgotten” in his title for this book.

This book is a very linear, easy to understand account of the events that led up to Japan’s invasion of neighbor China in 1937 which, one could argue, was when and where World War II actually started.  We read of all of the major military and political events of the war in China up until the war's conclusion in 1945. We read this narrative from the eyes of the Chinese and, as good as the book is, it can be awfully sickening and depressing.  Well….it is war. 

There are a lot of Chinese names and places within these pages, and it can be quite easy to get lost while trying to assimilate all of the Sino monikers.  Whether or not the author made a conscious effort or not, he somehow manages to keep his readers connected and never overwhelmed.  Example: I’ve always heard Chiang Kai-Shek’s prominent wife referred to as Madame Chiang, yet the author always refers to her by her Asian name – Song Meiling.  Now, this could be incredibly confusing, yet whenever she’s back in the narrative after a long absence, the author reminds us who she is by simply interjecting “…Chang Kai-Shek’s wife…” after we’re reintroduced to her.  I found these instances a huge relief and it prevented me from getting lost and overwhelmed.  I’d be lying if I told you I could pass a quiz that covers all of the names and places mentioned in this book, but when compared to other books of a similar nature, this one excels in this area.  The author also includes a “cast of characters” at the beginning of the book, but since I read on the Kindle, it wasn’t necessarily easy for me to flip back and forth. Still, give the author kudos for realizing that most of his readers can benefit from such an inclusion.

Speaking of Chiang Kai-Shek, there’s a lot of politics in this book as well. Although probably not completely necessary, it’s definitely warranted and does add needed color to the overall picture. Not only do we have Chiang’s Nationalist party, but we also read of the internal conflicts with Communist leader Mao Zedong.  There’s even a third influence (again, new to me), Wang Jingwei, who starts off siding with Chiang, but later splits to attempt to collaborate with the invading Japanese.  It’s not that Wang is a traitor necessarily, but he feels it’s probably best for all for China to become subjects of the more powerful Japan.  Think of the French Vichy government during World War II as a comparison. All of these rival factions want the same thing for China, and we see many uneasy alliances at different times during the conflict with Japan.  In fact, we even see the other Western leaders flirt with Zedong’s communist ilk at times.  If it can aid in a better, quicker outcome for the war, it’s definitely worth considering.

Sadly, we also learn that the “superpower” allies (The U.S., England, and Russia) almost see the Chinese as inferior in terms of intelligence and the ability to lead.  Looking back at history, this seems horribly racist, but had the Chinese been a race of white people instead of yellow people, you get the impression that Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin would have probably involved Chiang-Kai-Shek in a lot more discussions involving strategy and the future of the allies.  Winston Churchill, in particular, comes across as a racist dinosaur who still yearns for the time of English Imperialism.  

Yet through all of this, China survives. Things get somewhat easier when Japan devotes its energy to the United States midway through their war with China, yet things never seem to go as well as any of the Chinese leaders would like.  They also feel almost as isolated from their allies as they do from their enemies during many of their brutal struggles.

The book, as its title suggests, ends when World War II ends, but everyone knows there’s so much more story to tell with China, and where the next few years would take them. The author gives us a quick postscript of what “happened next”, but I wanted much more.  Of course, that’s always a sign of a good book; when the story is over, but you wish the author would keep going.  That would warrant an entirely new book, though, and my personal quest is to find one that continues this magnificent (yet horrific) story.

Note: If you have Amazon Prime, there’s a video documentary you can watch that is narrated by the author of this book about these events. It serves as a good companion piece.  The video places more emphasis on the battles and the survivors then it does the politics, but it’s a great tool to reinforce what you read about here.