A Storm Hits Valparaiso - David Gaughran

   2011; 322 pages.  New Author? : Yes.  Genres : Historical Fiction; War; South America.  Overall Rating : 7½*/10.

 

    I don’t want to sound pedantic, but the phrase “American Revolution” is rather vague.

 

    For starters, it can refer to North, Central, and/or South America.  By the early 1800s, all those areas had experienced wars for Independence.

 

    The insurrections in South America were scattered throughout that continent.  Brazil was trying to gain independence from Portugal; everywhere else the European colonizer was Spain.  The most famous revolutionary leader down there was Simon Bolivar, and rightfully so.  Bolivia is named for him, and his “liberation area” includes territory from Venezuela down through Peru.

 

    In the lands south of there, Chile and Argentina, different leaders led the uprisings, most notably José de San Martin and an Irish dude named Bernardo O’Higgins.  You’ve probably never heard of either of them.

 

    A Storm Hits Valparaiso chronicles that part of the “American Revolution”, and will help you get acquainted with José de San Martin.

 

What’s To Like...

    There are six storylines to follow in A Storm Hits Valparaiso.  They focus on seven main characters, who are (along with their starting points):

    Catalina Flores (in Chile)

    Lord Captain Thomas Cochrane (in Scotland)

    Diego and Jorge Ramirez (in Argentina)

    Zé (in Brazil)

    José de San Martin (in Spain)

    Pacha (in Peru)

 

    Timewise, most of the story takes place in 1811-1822 CE, although the Epilogue extends that timeframe quite a bit, since it has a “whatever happened to . . .” format.  All of the main characters do a lot of moving around, which is not surprising since wars were underway throughout South America and Europe.

 

    The seven protagonists get more or less equal billing in the first half of the book, but gradually José de San Martin emerges as the primary one.  After checking in Wikipedia, I was pleasantly surprised how many real-life people and actual historical events get worked into the storyline.

 

    The text is delightfully sprinkled with Spanish colloquialisms, such as chica, puerca, aguardiente, campesinos, and claro; as well as some, erm, “colorful” terms, such as maricon, culos, bastardo, and putas.  We’ll let you look up the translations of those.  There’s also a smattering of Portuguese (quilombos) and French (Vive le Roi!  Vivent les Bourbons!), plus one English spelling (as opposed to American): offences.

 

    The ending brings closure to each of the six storylines.  Some of the protagonists are reunited; some have left South America; some have been laid to rest six feet underground.  Overall, things have changed in South America: the revolutionaries have gained the upper hand.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

    Scrivener (n.) : a clerk or scribe.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 3.6*/5, based on 189 ratings and 106 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.44*/5, based on 202 ratings and 49 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “Let me make sure I’ve got this right.  Mr. Jackson has called a meeting with himself to see if he is going to increase the amount he is charging himself for such meetings."

    “If you want to put it like that, sir, but I assure you everything is above board.

    “We shall see.  Where is this meeting taking place?”

    “I’m afraid I’m not aware,” said the clerk.

    “Where is Mr. Jackson’s office?”

    “Which one?”

    “Either!”  (pg. 63)

 

    In the end, it didn’t matter; they didn’t care who he was or where he was from, as long as he signed up.  The recruiting officer gave Zé a short speech on the army and the war, which he only partly understood.  Spanish wasn’t that different from Portuguese, but everyone spoke so quickly, chopping words, running one sentence into the next.  Only one part was easy to understand.  The penalty for desertion was mentioned several times: muerte.  Death.  (pg. 117)

 

Kindle Details…

    It appears that A Storm Hits Valparaiso is no longer available in the e-book format I read it in.  The paperback version costs $25.59 at Amazon.  David Gaughran offers two other Historical-Fiction e-books at Amazon: Liberty Boy for $4.99, and Mercenary for free.

 

“A political priest is like a religious general; a castle with sails.”  (pg. 178)

    Profanity in A Storm Hits Valparaiso is a bilingual affair.  In addition to the Spanish words already mentioned, I counted eight cusswords in English in the first 50% of the book,.  There was one roll-in-the-hay later on.  That’s really pretty clean for a storyline chronicling the brutality of war in the 19^th century.

 

    A number of reviewers criticized the six different storylines in the book, finding it hard to remember who was doing what and where.  They have a point, but happily I keep notes while reading; so this was not a problem for me.

 

    I only caught a couple of typos, namely: back lads/back, lads, town?s/town’s, and reigned/reined.  Kudos to the editors, they did a fine job.  And although Valparaiso is one of many settings in the tale, it is not a major one, so I never did figure out why it rated being part of the title.

 

    But these are quibbles.  In World History classes in college, José de San Martin was for some reason my favorite South American revolutionary and I always wondered a.) why he didn’t get as much ink as Simon Bolivar, and b.) what ever happened to him.  Thanks to David Gaughran, I now have answers.

 

    Overall, I enjoyed A Storm Hits Valparaiso, primarily because it covers an important era in History that rarely gets any literary attention.  You might be a bit disappointed that, for most of the book’s fictional characters, the ending is not a “they lived happily ever after” scenario.  But that holds true for the historical characters here as well.  War is Hell.

 

    7½ Stars.  One last teaser.  At one point there is a “talking sword” in the storyline.  When’s the last time you read a Historical Fiction novel with one of those in it?

Stupid Wars - Ed Strosser and Michael Prince

   2008; 321 pages (but only 299 of that is text).  Full Title: “Stupid Wars: A Citizen’s Guide to Botched Putsches, Failed Coups, Inane Invasions, and Ridiculous Revolutions”.  New Authors? : Yes & Yes.  Genres: History; War; Military History; Non-Fiction.  Overall Rating : 9*/10.

 

    Stupid Wars.

 

    They happen occasionally.  Sometimes the stupidity is caused by glory-seeking political leaders.  Sometimes the stupidity is due to incredibly inept and clueless generals.  Sometimes the stupidity is driven by national pride.  One was fought to protest the taxing on whiskey.

 

    To be clear, though, not all wars are stupid.  World War 2, for instance, was fought for very noble reasons.  So was the Korean War.

 

    Two things are worth noting about Stupid Wars.  First, history generally doesn’t supply a lot of details about them.  There’s not much glory to be gained in winning a Stupid War.  And if you’re the loser, you really don’t want to talk about it.

 

    And second, as Ed Strosser and Michael Prince discovered when they studied those Stupid Wars: once started, they are terribly hard to end.

 

What’s To Like...

    After an overview in the Introduction, Stupid Wars is divided into sixteen chapters covering one war apiece.  I’m happy to say I’d heard of all of them except one (the first one), but usually knew only the barest of details about the conflicts, including those that have happened during my lifetime.

 

    My favorite chapters/wars were:

1. The Fourth Crusade (1198)

2. The Whiskey Rebellion (1794)

3. The US Invasion of Russia (1918)

4. The Winter War Between Russia and Finland (1939)

5. The Falkland Islands War (1982)

6. The US Invasion of Grenada (1983)

 

   The chapters generally follow this format:

a. Introduction

b. The Players

c. The General Situation

d. What Happened

e. What Happened After

 

    I was impressed by the politically equitable approach of the book.  Russia starts three of these Stupid Wars (Finland, Afghanistan, the Gorbachev coup); the US matches that with three of its own (Russia, Bay of Pigs, Grenada); with Reagan initiating one of those (Grenada), and JFK initiating another (Bay of Pigs).  Hitler is both a plotter (the Beer Hall Putsch) and the target in one (the Generals’ Coup). 

 

    The 16 Stupid Wars are presented in chronological order, ranging from 337 AD to 1991.  The text is packed with historical details.  You’ll learn where the first Molotov cocktails were made and used, and why western Pennsylvanians (My native state!  Yay us!) rose up in rebellion in 1794 over a tax upon their beloved whiskey.  That revolt was doomed though: the insurgents were hopelessly outnumbered.  The total population of Pittsburgh in the 1790 census was only 376 citizens.   

 

    Stupid Wars is written in what I call a “Sarah Vowell” tone: lighthearted and witty.  Chapter 12 starts the “in my lifetime” portion of the wars.  My Kindle said the book was 321 pages long, but the text actually ends at page 299, with the rest of the book being “Extras” consisting of “Sources”, “About the Authors”, and “Searchable Terms”.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.1/5 based on 73 ratings and 33 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.41/5 based on 298 ratings and 55 reviews.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Louche (adj.) : disreputable or sordid in a rakish or appealing way.

 

Excerpts...

    It should be noted at this point that Paraguay was very small and poor, with the barest whiff of an arms industry.  Brazil, on the other hand, had everything that Paraguay lacked: men, wealth, arms, and contacts with the outside world.  While exact figures are difficult to achieve, Paraguay had about half a million people.  Brazil’s population numbered over 10 million.  Lopez, however, was not constrained by the logic of simple math.  Besides, it would be a quick war, he convinced himself, and the Brazilians would soon tire of pounding him and sue for peace.  Ah yes, the old formula for success—wear out the enemy by dying too frequently before them.  (loc. 1117)

 

    The primary aspect of the Falkland Islands has been their complete insignificance in every way.  The islands have no practical use except as a whaling station, weather observatory (although dreary is what people usually observe), or naval coaling station, useful in the rare case your ships still use coal.  When English sea captain James Cook discovered the islands, he declared them “not worth the discovery.”  On the other hand, he did feel it was worthy to note that it was not worth discovering.  (loc. 3566)

 

Kindle Details…

    Stupid Wars currently sells for $6.99 at Amazon.  ANAICT it is the only collaboration between these two authors.  In fact, it seems neither one even has any e-books to offer with them as the sole author.

 

 

He was truly a diplomatic idiot savant.  (loc. 1141)

    The quibbles are rather nitpicky.  The cussing is sparse: only 13 instances in the whole book, and seven of those are “birdshit” because one of the Stupid Wars was fought over the valuable commodity of guano.

 

    The book is heavily weighted towards the recent past—eleven of the sixteen chapter are set in the 20^th century.  It is also weighted, as the authors point out, towards Western civilization.  However, I think such “slanting” is inherent: we have a lot more information available on wars of recent vintage, and those that take place in our neck of the woods, as compared with wars fought in Africa and the Far East.

 

    A few reviewers groused that some of these conflicts don’t qualify as “wars”, most notably Hitler’s “Beer Hall Putsch”.  They have a point, I suppose, but OTOH, military personnel were involved in every one of these sixteen selections.

 

    9 Stars.  For me, Stupid Wars was a great read.  I may have heard of all but one of these conflicts, but the only information I knew of was whatever could be found in the newspapers, which would be neither comprehensive nor objective.  The history of any war is just a PR spin by the victors; it is accurate only if it serves to justify the winning side.  Thank goodness for authors like Ed Strosser and Michael Prince who present alternative viewpoints.

Ukraine: What Everyone Needs to Know - Serhy Yekelchyk

   2020; 185 pages (of text, anyway).  Author: Serhy Yekelchyk.  Part of a 131-book set called the “What Everyone Needs to Know” series.  New Author? : Yes.  Genres : Political History; Ukraine; War; Political Science; Non-Fiction.  Overall Rating : 9½*/10.

 

    That war between Ukraine and Russia sure is in the news a lot lately.  Russia seems to be the one doing all the invading, although I never did read what their justification is.

 

    I vaguely remember Russia pulling this sort of stunt a few years back.  They took over and then annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine.  I think they said it was because all the citizens there were Russians, although that doesn’t make much sense.

 

    The recent Russian assault on Kyiv was a failure, and now they’re concentrating on invading a region called Donbas.  It sounds like they claim its inhabitants are also mostly Russians.  Weird.

 

    Oh well, it’s a long way from the USA, so why should I care?  I mean, what’s the worst that could happen?  Hmm, I guess that would be Russia opting for the nuclear option, wiping out all of Europe and America, followed by our nuclear retaliation, wiping out all of Russia, China, and the rest of Asia.

 

    Y'know, it might behoove everyone to study up on the situation in Ukraine.

 

What’s To Like...

    Ukraine: What Everyone Needs to Know is divided into seven sections, namely:

1. Why Ukraine? (pg. 1, 5 q.)

2. The Land and the People (pg. 13, 4 q.)

3. The Making of Modern Ukraine (pg. 24, 16 q.)

4. Ukraine After Communism (pg. 56, 11 q.)

5. The Orange Revolution and the Euromaidan (pg. 78, 13 q.)

6. Russia’s Annexation of the Crimea and the War in Donbas (pg. 104, 16 q.)

7. The War in Ukraine as an International Issue (pg. 140, 17 q.)

 

    Serhy Yekelchyk makes clever use of a question-and-answer format for each section. As shown above, the sections, and the number of questions per section, are not of equal length.  I was surprised by how well that worked, and although I’d like to read a book on the complete history of Ukraine at some point, what I’m really interested in right now is the historical and political reasons that have resulted in the present-day Russia-Ukraine conflict, and what the NATO powers should be doing about it.  This book succeeds nicely in that regard.

 

    The author is Ukrainian (now living in Canada), and as expected, this book has a pro-Ukrainian slant.  In fairness however, it’s hard to give a pro-Russian spin to their invasions of the Ukraine, and Serhy Yekelchyk does present a “warts and all” account of Ukraine since they gained independence after the USSR broke up.  Corruption was rampant, and ballot-stuffing, bribery, embezzlement, and nepotism were all “business as usual” for the first two decades.  Things marginally improved when Poroshenko was elected in 2014, then took a quantum leap forward with Zelensky’s meteoric rise in 2019, although even there, Yekelchyk details some of the lessons learned during the early days of Zelensky’s tenure.

 

    Places in the book are given in the Ukrainian spelling, so the capital city is spelled “Kyiv” and not “Kiev” (and pronounced “Keev”), and the southern seaport is spelled with one 'S': "Odesa".  I was amazed that Mennonites crop up in Ukraine’s history, and recognized the name Vitalii Klitschko, a former Heavyweight Boxing Champion who is now an important Ukrainian politician.

 

    There are some interesting tie-ins to American politics.  Dr. Yekelchyk addresses the thorny issue of whether (and how much) Russia interfered in the 2016 US elections, as well as the “Hunter Biden Affair”, repeatedly touted by Trump during that campaign.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.4/5 based on 72 ratings and 8 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.97/5 based on 375 ratings and 54 reviews

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Volte-face (n.) : a complete and abrupt turnaround in attitude, opinion, or position.

Others: Autochthonous (adj.); Kleptocratic (adj.); Lustration (n.).

 

Excerpts...

    When mass protests began in 2014, the Yanukovych clique employed a familiar strategy of framing the unrest as an identity conflict, a war against Russian culture in Ukraine.  Yet, they soon lost control over the genie they summoned when Putin’s Russia marched in to “protect” its “compatriots”.  It mattered little whether the latter even wanted to be protected, for on the eve of the war, opinion polls in the Donbas showed that only about a third favored separating from Ukraine and joining Russia.  The conflict quickly shifted its focus from building a multicultural Ukraine to rebuilding a greater Russia.  (loc. 1997)

 

    On New Year’s Eve, (…) the popular comedian Volodymyr Zelensky announced on television his intention to participate in the election.  Zelensky represented the direct opposite of establishment candidates — he had zero political experience and the mien of an honest everyman.  A successful entrepreneur, he rose to fame as the star of an unpretentious Russian-language comedy television show, but he also possessed the Charlie Chaplin-like charisma of a “little man” refusing to accept this world’s injustices.  (loc. 3138)

 

Kindle Details…

    Ukraine: What Everyone Needs to Know currently sells for $8.57 at Amazon, but I gratefully snatched it up  when it was discounted for one day to a mere $0.10.  There is a companion volume in the What Everyone Needs to Know series titled The Conflict in Ukraine; which goes for $8.79, but it’s just the earlier version of this book.

 

 

“Without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be an empire.”  (loc. 1255)

    I can’t think of much to nitpick about in Ukraine: What Everyone Needs to Know.  The book was published in 2015, but Serhy Yekelchyk periodically added updates to the text, including things like the impact of the coronavirus pandemic; then issued a new version in 2020.  Be aware, however, that the 2022 invasions by Russia are not included, even in this updated version.  This doesn’t bother me since no one knows just how that’s going to turn out.

 

    Amazon indicates this is a 230-page book, but the text ends at page 184 (76% Kindle), with the next 25 pages devoted to Notes, Further Reading, and an extensive Index.  Even including all those add-ons, the e-book version still ends at page 209.  Accessing the map is clunky (you can’t make South point downward), but I didn’t find that particularly irksome.  The footnotes work well, but they just simply reference Yekelchyk’s sources listed in the Notes section.

 

    9½ Stars.  Up until the 2022 invasions by Russia, news about Ukrainian current events here in the West has been sporadic.  The 2004 Orange Revolution got decent coverage, but then Ukraine faded into obscurity until the 2013/14 Euromaidan protests.  I was looking for a book that would give some continuity to Ukraine’s recent history, and Ukraine: What Everyone Needs to Know did exactly that.  I strongly suspect Serhy Yekelchyk will continue to update and revise this book as the present war plays out and I'm looking forward to the insight he imparts to it.

Under The Persimmon Tree - Suzanne Fisher Staples

    2005; 280 pages (includes Glossary and Author Interview).  New Author? : Yes.  Genre : Middlebrow Lit; YA; Juvenile Fiction/Children’s Books (wtf?); Afghanistan History; War.  Overall Rating : 7*/10.

    It’s time for Najmah to leave Golestan.  The Taliban came to town and “forcibly recruited” Baba-jan and Nur, her dad and brother, and it's only by luck that she’s still alive.  Although it’s very unlikely, she hopes that her father and brother find an opportunity to escape the guerillas at some point in the future.

    If they do, they’ll most likely head to Peshawar, a city across the border in nearby Pakistan, where there is a large refugee camp for Afghans fleeing their country's strife.  So that is where she must go.  Good luck, Najmah.  You’re a young girl, all alone in the world, and you’ll almost certainly perish during the perilous, weeks-long trek to Peshawar.

    Meanwhile, in Peshawar, a woman named Nusrat also faces a crisis.  She’s an American (her "Western" name is Elaine), who converted to Islam, married a doctor named Faiz, and moved with him to Pakistan.  Faiz has ventured into Afghanistan and set up a clinic perform much-needed surgeries for its war-ravaged civilians.  But it has now been weeks since Nusrat last heard from Faiz, and she fears for his safety.

    Despite the great distance currently separating them, Fate has decreed that the paths of Najmah and Nusrat shall cross.  Let’s hope it’s all for the best.

What’s To Like...

    Under The Persimmon Tree is set in the Afghanistan/Pakistan border area soon after the September 11^th Twin Towers destruction.  There is no stable government in Afghanistan, leaving the Taliban and the Mujahideen to battle for supremacy, while America jets drop bombs all over the place.  Afghan civilians are at the mercy of all three sides, undergoing enormous suffering.  It was enlightening to see the 9-11 aftermath from their viewpoint.  Their options were few.

    The book also gives Nusrat’s thoughts about the interplay of Christianity, Islam, and science, all of which have impacted her life.  It's refreshing to read a book where every Muslim character is not a militant extremist or enamored by the Western lifestyle.

    I also enjoyed being able to glimpse the daily life in this part of the world.  Najmah’s family are rural farmers, while Nusrat experiences city life in urban Peshawar.  Suzanne Fisher Staples sprinkles many native words (mostly Tajik) into the text, and the vocabulary glossary in the back came in very handy.  I know “naan” and “ghee” from doing crossword puzzles, but most of the rest of the native words were unfamiliar to me.  I'm also aware that the Red Crescent is the Moslem equivalent of the Red Cross, but learning about the tenets of Islam was new for me.  I was not surprised to learn that opium is the main cash crop in the region, and that growing it is very risky.

    There are 23 chapters covering 270 pages of text.  Besides the glossary, there is a brief interview with the author in the back that is quite skippable.  I blame that mostly on the interviewer; the questions were banal.  In the front there is a map of the area, which I used for geographic reference a lot.  The “Author’s Note” at the front is also worth reading.  The book’s title is explained on page 50.

    The ending was a letdown for me.  The book ends at a pivotal point in both Najmah and Nusrat’s lives, but none of the plot threads are resolved.  The storyline screams for a sequel, but ANAICT, Suzanne Fisher Staples hasn’t written one in the 14 years since Under The Persimmon Tree was published, which makes me doubt there will be one.

Excerpts...

    “This afternoon,” Nusrat begins after they’re settled, “we will talk about time and space.  Last week we talked about a star that exploded 160,000 monsoons ago.  The star was so far away that we’re just now seeing the explosion.  Does anyone have a question?”  Farid stands.

    “Uncle says this is wrong.”  He speaks so quietly Nusrat can barely hear him.  “He says this is an un-Islamic idea.”

    “It is neither an Islamic idea nor an un-Islamic one,” says Nusrat.  “It’s science.  But the Koran has great wisdom about the heavens and how they expand, even though it came long ago.  People who didn’t know what was in the Koran invented myths to explain what they couldn’t understand.”  (pg. 76)

    In Faiz’s apartment she felt a sense of having found something familiar and significant – a connection to a history and a way of life that she wanted to know more about and become familiar with, as if it were a part of her own past that she’d almost forgotten.

    In the half hour they spent together on that still-rainy Saturday before each of them went their separate ways to work, Elaine discovered that (1) Faiz was Persian – he had grown up in Afghanistan; (2) he was a physician at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital; (3) love at first sight was not the ridiculous romantic notion she’d always thought it to be.  (pg. 122)

Kewlest New Word…

Carrel (n.) : a small cubicle with a desk for the use of a reader or student in a library.

Others : Valance (n.).

“Mande nabash.”  (“May you never be tired”, and the traditional friendly greeting.)   (pg. 15)

    Amazon lists Under The Persimmon Tree as being a “Children’s Book”, which I find jaw-dropping due to the horrors-of-war described in the book.  I’m guessing they got that from the Library of Congress data in the front of the book, wherein the label “Juvenile Fiction” is included.

    It is true that Suzanne Fisher Staples’ writing style is very straightforward and tailored to juvenile readers.  But anything involving the Taliban and the atrocities they commit is not suitable for young, impressionable minds.

    In fairness, Amazon also recommends the book for a YA audience:  Ages 12-18; Grades 7-12, and I think that is appropriate.  I think I would’ve enjoyed the writing style back in my junior high school days, but adult readers may find it a bit too simplistic.

    7 Stars.  Add 1½ stars if you are part of the teenage target audience.  Yet even as an adult, I found the even-handed treatment of the Taliban/Mujahideen/American Air Force combatants and the Science/Islam/Christianity teachings to be an enlightening experience.

Catch-22 - Joseph Heller

Overall Rating : B.

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Oh, the absurdity of war! John Yossarian is a bombadier, stationed in the Mediterranean during the last half of World War 2. He spends his time bombing the northern half of Italy, falling in love with various whores in Rome, agonizing that his next mission will end in his death, and trying to figure out how to convince the military to ship him back to the states.

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There is a way out, of course. If you're found to be insane, that's an instant ticket home. Alas, by attempting to show that you're insane, you demonstrate your sanity. That's Catch-22, and that means it is impossible for Yossarian to ever get himself discharged.

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What's To Like...

Yossarian is a classic anti-hero : full of faults, scared of dying, and anti-establishment. The group he's stuck with (the "Fighting 256th") has country bumpkins, back-stabbers, buxom nurses, milquetoast chaplains, incompetent Generals (anyone remember the Peter Principle?), ambitious Colonels, capitalistic Majors, and a host of other engaging characters to become acquainted with.

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If you like paradoxes, there are a couple billion of them in this book. Then there are the Catch-22's themselves, which are similar to, yet different, from paradoxes. BTW, a "Catch-22" is entirely fictional. FWIW, Heller tried quite a few numbers as the title prior to the book being released - Catch-11; Catch-14; etc.

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I suspect if you've ever been in the service, you'll find this book hilariously close to how things really were. I'm not a vet (both the Army and me are stronger because of this), so there's a limited amount of relevancy here for me.

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What's Not To Like...

It's a slow read. As with the other Heller book I've read ("God Knows"), its way too repetitious. You could slice 150 pages out of C-22, and it would be much better. You'll find yourself skipping "text" paragraphs to get to the dialogue parts.

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There's no plot for the first 75% of the book. There's humor and wit, but no progression in the tale at all. To be fair, Heller wakes up around page 330, and things finally begin to unfold. The book gets markedly darker after that, which IMNSHO is a plus.

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Finally, the ending just plain sucks. I know this is a farce, but it was a believable farce until... well, no spoilers here.

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It's The History, Stupid...

If you judge Catch-22 solely on its literary merits. it doesn't stand the test of time very well. Joseph Heller was destined never to repeat his initial smash hit. I'd go as far to say that the success of C-22 was due more to good timing than good writing. Of course, I say that about Seinfeld too.

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But Catch-22 is a breakthrough opus. Along with authors like Kurt Vonnegut, there was finally something distinctive about American literature. Yeah, the Brits figured this out before we did, but hey, they've had more practice at this sort of thing.

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You can see the influence of Catch-22 in M*A*S*H, and maybe-just-maybe, even in Dilbert. So we'll remember its time-period, and give it a shaky B. With Heller, Vonnegut, and Hunter S. Thompson all now departed, maybe it's time for a new generation of talented American authors to emerge.

Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut

Overall Rating : A+.

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Slaughterhouse-5 is arguably Kurt Vonnegut's most-famous novel. It explores a variety of great themes - free will; the absurdity of war; fatalism; and one of my pastimes - time travel.

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Jason says I can call this a classic, since Vonnegut has now passed on. That's great, since "traditional" classical American Literature is the pits. We'll discuss that at a later date, probably when I review Thornton Wilder's The Bridge At San Luis Rey.

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What's To Like...

It was an easy read. I devoured this book in three evenings. The main character, Billy Pilgrim, is a likeable, ordinary bloke. The aforementioned themes are dealt with extensively, but in such a way that you don't feel like Vonnegut is preaching at you. Indeed, it's hard to say just what the author's personal viewpoint is on fatalism and free will.

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What's Not To Like...

The storyline jumps around a lot, time-wise. That's natural for a time-traveler, but it may take some getting used to if you've never read any Vonnegut before; and haven't come unstuck in time.

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Characters from previous Vonnegut novels (Kilgore Trout, Eliot Rosewater) come into the story with little or no introduction. This is one of Vonnegut's recurring literary devices, and it drove me nuts some years ago when I trudged through his book on evolution, "Galapagos".

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Listen : Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time...

It should be noted that Slaughterhouse-Five consistently makes the yearly 100 most-challenged books by the self-righteous "let's keep our kids brainwashed" crowd. Ostensibly, this is because there are some cuss words in the book, and because God is not given sufficient reverence by Vonnegut. In reality, I think they fear the anti-war (and Dresden bombing) message in S-5. Vonnegut is qualified to write on this - he was being held as a POW in Dresden on the night the Allies decided to fire-bomb the city just for the heck of it. The consequence of our nastiness (there were no military targets in Dresden) was that 20,000-100,000 innocent civilians perished.

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Of course, the book-banning fundies have never wavered in their drive to tell others what to read, watch, and think. At present, Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass (both the movie and the book) is the target of their wrath. It is claimed TGC will turn any reader/movie-goer into a Satanist. Of course, everyone who read/watched any of the Harry Potter series is already a witch. I wonder which is worse. I guess I'll find out, since I've just started to read TGC.

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But I digress. Slaughterhouse-Five is a fantastic book by a great American author. Read it today, just to tweak the book-burners. Then give it to one of your ditto-head friends as a Christmas present, and start to de-program him as well. It is worthy of an A+ rating. Poo-tee-weet!