“When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes.” Desiderius Erasmus

Shadow Country

By

Peter Matthiessen

When was the last time you spent literally hours and hours in the Everglades experiencing “old Florida” at the turn of the 19th Century? I just did, and man, was it cool.

Peter Matthiessen has taken the original “The Watson Trilogy” (originally 3 different books) and has woven it into one very “brief” 892 page enthralling novel.

The book relates the “Watson Legend” in 3 different parts. The first relates the legend through the eyes of many different people involved with E.J. Watson. The end of Mr. Watson occurs at the beginning of the book, which sounds unusual; however, when reading the book it begins to make sense. The rest of the book is searching for the why. The subject is, in some ways a simple man, but in others very deep and complicated. The first part takes you through the whole story through these different perspectives and creates and leaves many questions.

The second part is seen through the eyes of Mr. Watson’s son, Lucius, who is searching for answers.

The third is through the eyes of Mr. Watson, himself, and this last part fills in many gaps that have been created by the first 2 parts. You are left with much food for thought.

Through all of this you spend most of your time in the Florida everglades between 1890 and 1910 with some trips to North Florida, South Carolina, Oklahoma and Arkansas. Mr. Matthiessen’s wonderful style of writing gives you the feeling of being there in the swamps experiencing the cruelties and beauties of Old Florida.

Slavery, the Civil War, World War I and the development of Florida are backgrounds for this riveting story and illustrate the cruelties and racisms of the time. Sometimes you find yourself saying “Oh that’s why it happened, but I still can’t excuse it.” This was a time where there not only was no internet and cell phones, but not even land lines or radios. Communication was nothing like it is today, one of the results being a certain “lawlessness” or a law that was dictated by events and environment.

So, we begin a story where the subject is shot to death by 20 or 30 of his neighbors. Then the story moves back in time to lead up to that event through many sets of eyes. A lot of times I will judge a book on how sorry I am that it has ended. I can’t tell you how sorry I was to find no page 893.

Pirates of Barbary

 "I'll die one of two ways: With a book in my face, or running on the beach. And either way I'll die with a smile on my face." Bob Sulek

Pirates of Barbary

Corsairs, Conquests, and Captivity in the 17th Century Mediterranean

By

Adrian Tinniswood

Mr. Tinniswood’s new book on “piracy” is particularly relevant in light of today’s problems off of the coast of Somalia. While this may seem to be a “new” problem to many, it certainly is not as his book illustrates so well. The book is a collection of very colorful, dramatic and true stories of yesterday’s pirates. They have many similarities to today’s pirates; however, today’s probably will not gain the panache of yesterday’s.

“Pirates of Barbary” starts in the early 1600’s. Those were the days when a small group of men in a small boat with scaling ladders, few weapons and sheer nerve would commandeer a much larger vessel for ransom. These men were part of a sophisticated system of a state sanctioned, state regulated, public-private partnership used to grow the coffers of the pirates and the government. Gosh, that sounds a little familiar, don’t you think?

What do the names John Nutt, Richard Bishop, Peter Eston and Sir Henry Mainwaring have in common? All were Barbary pirates that were offered pardons by King James I, if they promised to come home to England and behave. Oh yes, they were allowed to keep all the booty. Probably the most famous and successful was Sir Henry Mainwaring who not only was pardoned but was also appointed to Vice-Admiral of the Royal Navy by King James. Actually, it makes sense when you realize what a problem piracy was, and the knowledge Sir Henry possessed of other pirates and piracy, in general. It was such a problem that King James ended up offering a blanket pardon to approximately 3,000 British subjects who had participated in piracy at that time.

In 2009, the U.S. Navy established a task force to take care of this problem once and for all. Oh yeh, Thomas Jefferson established a U.S.Navy task force in 1801 to do the same thing (which happened to be the beginning of the U.S. Navy). Both had success, however, have not cured the problem.

What Mr. Tinniswood helps make clear is that the solution was and remains onshore. As long as there are governments and pseudo-governments that support and profit from piracy, it’s going to be around. The ocean is just too darn big to police (even today). We have to deal with the people and organizations that back these efforts in diplomatic and other ways. There have been major successes in the distant past that have been the result of aggressive onshore efforts that are well documented in this book. Recently FBI agents captured Mohammad Shibi, who negotiated the ransom for the 4 American captives who were recently killed by Somali pirates. The agents had the help of Somalian authorities and, actually did this in Somaliland. Hopefully, this is a step in the right direction to resolve our “piracy problems” of the last 500 years.

“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.” Francis Bacon, Sr.

Coal Run

By

Tawni O’Dell

For those of you (us) who are not familiar with the early days of the Coal Industry in the United States, this book is a must. Ms. O’Dell takes you through a one week journey in “Coal Run”, a small Pennsylvania coal town that has seen much better days.

Ivan Zoschenko is the son of a Ukrainian immigrant who managed to escape the gulags of Russia and make his way to the United States. His Dad has already been killed in a mine explosion (along with most of the men of the town), and Ivan has had troubles of his own. He was a college football star with a promising career in professional football (he had been drafted by the Chicago Bears) that was extinguished before he attended his first practice by an injury he received during a night of drinking. The story is about a week in his life after he has returned to Coal Run after a 16 year hiatus.

Ms. Odell fills the story with several dynamic interrelated characters that tell an intriguing and emotional story. She has an amazing talent of gradually unfolding the story, the relationships between the various characters, the hidden secrets of years before, and the hardships of an industry that is at the core of the development of the United States. Each chapter takes place in a day, and when you finish the chapter, you feel that you have been through a month (in this case, this is a good thing).

The story by itself makes the book worth reading, but I don’t think it should overshadow what message Ms. O’Dell is delivering.

The coal industry, which has been and is such an integral part of our Country, has left a trail littered with despair. The mine workers were mostly immigrants and the children of immigrants working for meager wages. They lived in housing provided by the coal mine companies, shopped in stores owned by the coal mine companies (paying high prices for necessary goods) and went to church in churches built by those companies.

Mr. Zoschenko (Ivan’s Dad) was typical in the respect, that life had been so bad in Russia, that this was much better. Despite the poverty and awful conditions, they had a sense of family and found much pleasure in the most basic of things.

Ms. O’Dell, with her fantastic literary skills, puts you right in the middle of this town many years after its heyday among all of its citizens and stories and gives you a sense of what it may have been like to have been one of those folks.

We have a wonderful Country, but this was one of its dark sides. I walked away with a sense of the cruelty imposed on these wonderful people, however, on the positive side, amazed by their resiliency and character. These people truly form a strong core for our Country.

This is another chapter of the story of our amazing Country, and everyone should know about it.  You will like the book.

“You know you've read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend.”

Desert Queen

The extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell: Adventurer, Adviser to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabia

By

Janet Wallach

With all of the news from and about Iraq over the last 20 years, how many of us have had any idea how the country was formed and who was involved? How many of us had a clue that the most influential person within the formation of this country was a woman? Considering the fact that she was in the middle of a very male dominated Arab world and a male dominated English world, it makes it more astonishing.

Gertrude Bell was the daughter of a wealthy, English businessman who, at an early age displayed an intellect and iron will that would overwhelm most men who expected a certain amount of subservience from their women. Attractive and very feminine, she had no shortage of suitors, but a dearth of anyone who could hold her interest. Of her 2 real loves, the first was killed at a young age and the second was already married, and they would not violate his marriage vows.

At an early age, Gertrude began developing an interest and love for the Arab world and archaeology in particular. During her many trips to the Middle East, she developed friendships and relationships with sheiks, rulers, kings, etc. Because of this, she became a fount of information regarding the Middle East. With England’s interest in the region, she became sought after by English leaders wanting to know how to operate in the area. There was, simply, no one else who had her relationships with leaders and her information. This was crucial during World War I, when she worked as a spy for British Intelligence. England was in sore need of the regions oil and they needed her abilities to establish and maintain local relationships.

After the war, she was instrumental in picking King Faisal (who had been King of French controlled Syria) as the new leader of Iraq, and was also integral in enlisting local support for the foreigner and was the person who actually had the most influence in deciding the borders for the new country. Think about it, pulling in some guy from somewhere else and making him King of the country. No small task. She actually taught him how to be an Iraqi.

During all of this, she maintained a lifelong friendship with T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) and was regularly consulted by the likes of Winston Churchill. Gertrude was the only woman who attended The Cairo Conference of 1921, and was referred to as “Mesopotamia’s uncrowned Queen” by the New York Herald.

Janet Wallach does a terrific job of, not only describing the life of an amazing woman, but describing, in detail, a portion of history that takes place during and after World War I that is fascinating.

“A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted. You should live several lives while reading it.”William Styron (b.1925)

The Thief at the End of the World

By

Joe Jackson

Rubber, Power, and the Seeds of Empire

The Rubber Industry has been and continues to this day to be one of the dominant industries of this world. In the late 1800’s it was the “oil industry” of its day. It was actually started in the early 1800’s, however, it wasn’t until the Civil War in the United States that production and usage of rubber rose to significant levels. Think shoes, boots, hats, coats, pontoon boats, tents, haversacks, and railroads. The next boost to rubber production was the Franco Prussian War in 1870 to 1871. As with many businesses, wars provided the impetus for its rise.

The original source of the world’s rubber was the Amazon in Brazil and was a product of trees in the Amazonian forests. These trees were amongst many other species of trees in these forests and were hundreds of feet apart. To tap the rubber from these trees was an arduous process. England ended up dominating the rubber business for many years because of its Indonesian plantations where they had rows of rubber trees planted only several feet apart and laborers could easily go from one tree to another. The trees in these plantations came from seeds in the Amazon. They were the result of one of the largest examples of bio-piracy in the world. They were the result of one man, Henry Wickham.

Henry grew up in England in the 1850’s when world explorers were the “rock stars” of the day. He was the son of a struggling widower, and his childhood was not an easy one. During these hard times he would fantasize about being an explorer. He was exposed to the many “new” uses of rubber during the “Great Exhibition” of 1851. This was where Charles Goodyear spent $30,000 (a huge amount of money in that day) to exhibit and display the results of his new process of vulcanization.

All of this had great impact on young Henry Wickham. As a young man Henry traveled to Brazil to search out and learn everything he could about this wonderful substance. He was convinced that his future was in rubber. Henry traveled into the Amazon, was subject to hardship, disease, wild animals, snakes and everything you might associate with traveling in a tropical jungle in the mid 1800’s. He almost lost his life more than once. A significant part of Joe Jackson’s book is his descriptions of Henry’s travails in the Amazonian jungles. In May of 1876, Henry emerged from these jungles with 70,000 seeds for rubber trees. He smuggled these to the Kew Gardens in England, where they were planted and out of these 70,000 seeds approximately 2,800 germinated. These seeds were the genesis of England’s domination of the rubber trade which began in the early 1900’s.

One of the main ironies of this story is that Henry received virtually no credit for these accomplishments until late in his life. For years, he was not only, not recognized for his achievements, but was ignored by the establishment he worked so hard for. Finally, he received some overdue recognition, was granted a knighthood and a modest stipend. This, while many others had become fabulously wealthy many years before.

Mr. Jackson’s style of writing can be arduous if you do not have a genuine interest in his subject. If you do (which I do), it is a fascinating read. You feel that you are in the jungle with Henry, and Mr. Jackson’s detail is nothing short of amazing. This is a story of monumental implications which were the result of one man’s monumental efforts.