Author Mark Munger (Cloquet River Press)

The Dream by Harry Bernstein (2009; Ballantine Books. ISBN 978-0-345-50389-3)

The second in a series of three memoirs by Jewish American author (and near centenarian) , Harry Bernstein,  The Dream takes readers from England to Chicago and New York to relive the tenuous lives led by Harry, his siblings, and his mother. Noticeably absent for the majority of the story is Harry’s father; a brutal, violent, alcoholic lout who rarely worked and, when he did, gave little of his precious wage to his wife to feed and clothe the children. Chock full of depression era hard luck stories and vignettes, the overall tenor of the book seems mildly duplicitous of Bernstein’s first installment in his life story, The Invisible Wall and, until the romance between Harry and his eventual wife, Ruby, begins to smolder, the book feels a bit forced, as if Bernstein is attempting to outdo himself (or perhaps Frank McCourt) with the revelation of more and more depravity and abuse within his family. Still, the advent of his paternal grandfather and grandmother, along with assorted uncles, aunts, and cousins in the plot bolsters the read and makes the journey back into Harry’s life memorable, if not enjoyable.

By far, the most compelling portions of the memoir concern his relationship with Ruby, both before their wedding, and after.

A notable piece of non-fiction. The style, pace, and intrigue of what happened after Ruby and Harry begin their life together compels me to find a copy of the last installment, The Golden Willow, and read it as well. 4 stars out of 5.

Sea Glass by Anita Shreve (Little Brown;  2002. ISBN 0-965-39543-x)

I picked up my trade paperback copy of Sea Glass a week ago when I was selling books at the Unitarian Church in Duluth as part of the Treasures of the Earth Craft Show. The crowd was consistent but still left me time to read in between customers and the host church was having a used book and CD sale (I also picked up 5 Tom Petty CDs for two bucks each; one heck of a buy!). I’m a fan of Shreve’s literary style and so, I laid out my fifty cents and the book was mine.

Sea Glass is a love story with little love. There’s an angst, an unfulfilled longing, that betrays the story of Honora and Sexton as they meet, wed, and live a tenuous life together on the cusp of the Great Depression. Shreve, as always, draws memorable landscapes but in this book, her characters do not achieve the vividness and reality of her earlier efforts, such as The Pilot’s Wife and The Weight of Water. I think this is especially fatal to Sexton, who comes off as a bit of a stereotypical cardboard cad from an old Fitzgerald story. I liked Honora, Vivian (more of her story needed to be told), and Alphonse. The other male protagonist, McDermott, also falls flat. It’s as if Shreve lost her strength to portray adult male characters and relied upon nuance and stereotype to carry them through the story.

A bit of a disappointment but a heck of a buy for fifty cents. 3 stars out of 5.

No Man Knows My History by Fawn M. Brodie (Vintage: 1995, ISBN 978-0-679-73054-5)

Cited by many as the greatest study of the origins of Mormonism’s founding prophet, Joseph Smith, Jr., No Man Knows My History remains, sixty-five years after its first publication in 1945, a classic. Brodie, despite criticisms leveled at her exhaustive study of Smith’s life from Mormon hierarchy and “true believers”, is careful in this well documented study to allow the records of Smith and his immediate contemporaries, together with the words and actions of the Mormon hierarchy that followed his martyrdom, to tell the tale.

In addition, as more scientific, historic, and archaeological data unfolded following the book’s initial release  (all of which makes the likelihood of any verifiable link between Smith’s created ancient America and historic reality virtually impossible) Brodie updated her work to remain current. Such things as the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the release of long-hidden Mormon original source records (most of which do not paint the religion’s founding fathers in a kind light) are incorporated in this newer version of the biography. Ever wonder where the HBO smash hit, “Big Love” came from? Read Brodie’s book to gain some understanding of what it means to believe in Joseph Smith’s Celestial Kingdom. A must read for anyone interested in the Mormons. 5 stars out of 5.

North River by Pete Hamill (Audio book: Unabridged. 2007. Recorded Books. ISBN: 978-1-4281-5652-4)

Having never read or listened to any Pete Hamill books, and being without a book to dig into on my drive back from a recent ski trip to Montana, my sister Annie offered up a host of audio books for me to select from. Without any predisposition to Hamill’s work, and with no knowledge of the subject matter of North River, I selected it because the cover art seemed interesting. Pretty lame word; interesting. But, thankfully for my long ride, the book’s content soared beyond such a tepid adjective.

Set in Depression era New York City along the banks of the North River (the northernmost branch of the Hudson within the city), the story chronicles the struggles of Dr. James “Jim” Delaney, the son of a Tammany Hall operative, “Big Jim” Delaney after the disappearance of Molly, the doctor’s wife, and sudden leave-taking by his twenty year old daughter, Grace. The characterization of the good doctor is exquisite. Hamill is a master of having the characters and the exquisitely drawn settings propel the story forward. There is action. There is tension. There is danger. But above all, there is great writing in the manner of George Elliot or Henry James but with a bit more pace.

The narrator, Henry Strozier, has the male voices down cold. But he struggles to give life to the voice of Rose, a young Sicilian woman who comes into the Delaney household to care for Carlos (Grace’s child) when Grace traipses after her Mexican husband (who is seeking his fame as a revolutionary in the Spanish Civil War). Strozier also struggles to hit the mark when portraying the characters of Grace and the doctor’s nurse. But these are but minor aggravations in this fine, fine depiction of internal and external struggle set against the grit and grime of 1930s New York City.

A great book to listen to and I’d guess an even better book to read. 4 and 1/2 stars out of 5.

Innocent by Scott Turow (Audio book: Unabridged. Hachette> ISBN 978-1-60024-921-1)

I use the movie version of Presumed Innocent, the predecessor to Turow’s latest legal tome, as a prompt in my criminal law class at the University of Wisconsin-Superior. I love Harrison Ford’s characterization of Rusty Sabich in that movie. I love the late Raul Julia’s performance as Sandy Stern, the eloquent but pragmatic attorney called upon to defend prosecutor Sabich who’s accused of murdering a female prosecutor he once had a torrid affair with. I read Presumed Innocent prior to seeing the movie and recognized in Turow’s prose a depth of character and psychology that the other master of legal fiction (John Grisham) doesn’t infuse in his writing (with the possible exception of A Painted House). It was with much anticipation that, on a recent ski trip from Minnesota to Montana, my wife and I listened to Innocent.

Right from the start, there’s a plot implausibility that bugged me. I’m a judge. I know how the real world works in terms of becoming a trial court judge and then advancing on to the appellate courts. As the story unfolds, Rusty Sabich’s wife Barbara is dead and Rusty, now a court of appeals judge in the midst of a campaign for the state supreme court, is the prime suspect. For reasons set forth in the plot, Sabich prevails in his election but, due to the small matter of being indicted for his wife’s murder, he is not sworn into the high court. He is on paid leave pending the outcome of the case against him. It’s this implausible plot line that troubled me throughout a very well written, character driven bit of fiction. Here’s my problem with the storyline: Though Sabich skated on the charges against him (the case being dismissed by the judge) in his first murder trial, it was clear that he was unfaithful to Barbara from the details introduced as evidence in that trial. Torrid details of his affair with his colleague were made public. Sabich was, after all, a prosecutor accused of murdering his paramour who escaped conviction either because A. He wasn’t guilty; or B. The prosecutor hid evidence resulting in the dismissal; or C. Sabich was one lucky son-of-a-bitch who had the best lawyer in town. At any rate, it’s unlikely that a prosecutor (let alone a private attorney) who went through such a high profile attack on his personal and professional integrity could ever stand for judicial election, not once, but twice, to the highest courts in the state.I know, I know. Turow hales from Chicago and they do things a bit different there. Still, there’s a smell of implausibility to the tale even if it’s set in the Windy City.

Having poked holes in the plot, I must admit that Turow is a great writer. His narrative, his dialogue, and his descriptions of place and character are spot on. Despite the implausibility of the scenario setting up Sabich’s fall from grace (because he’d already fallen too far) Innocent made the ride from Duluth to White Sulphur Springs, Montana enjoyable. The narrators, both male and female, were excellent. The mixture of first person and third person narratives was also well done and added complexity and veracity to the tale. The plot issue isn’t as major as it sounds and overall, Scott Turow’s talent as a writer of legal fiction made the miles fly by. 4 stars out of 5.

Secret Ceremonies: A Mormon Woman’s Intimate Diary of Marriage and Beyond by Deborah Laake (Morrow; 1993, ISBN 978-0-688-09304-4)

In my research regarding Mormon fundamentalism, I came across this memoir written by a mainstream Mormon woman who was wed at a young age to another mainstream Mormon in a temple ceremony. The “sealing” service is, despite the fact that Ms. Laake was sworn to keep the service secret, revealed by Ms. Laake to be a knock off of well-known Masonic initiation rituals. No great surprise since; at exactly the time Joseph Smith was creating the temple ceremonies for his new religion, he was partaking of Masonic rituals as a member of the Nauvoo, Illinois Masonic lodge. Smith and the other Mormons were soon booted out of the Masons, and remain unwelcome to this day, because of Smith’s appropriation of Masonic ritual for his new church.

Mostly a personal diary of the trials and tribulations of being a young woman growing up Mormon at the height of the feminist movement of the 60s and 70s, Secret Ceremonies sheds some light on the place of women in contemporary Mormonism. Very readable (no doubt because the author is a print journalist) but not deep in terms of content or meaning. 2 stars out of 5.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford (2009. Ballantine. ISBN 978-0-343-50534-7)

Hmm…The book I am about to review is this year’s “One Book, One Community” selection by the Duluth Public Library. It is  (as most such novels selected for community “reads” are) a New York Times bestseller. I don’t know if it’s an Oprah pick but it’s a good guess the novel made Ms. Winfrey’s list as well. And on Thursday, March 24 at 7:00pm, I’ll be talking about the themes raised in the novel in conjunction with my own book on discrimination and the Finns, Suomalaiset: People of the Marsh at the library. So, with all that said, what do I think of the book itself?

Henry Lee, a Chinese American of advanced age, a man who had been a ten year old boy during the Japanese internment during World War II, is the protagonist of this story. His father is vehemently anti-Japanese because of atrocities inflicted upon his family in China by invading Imperial Japanese forces. The story weaves back and forth between the recent (1986) and the distant (WWII and before) past, depicting Henry’s relationship with a young Japanese girl who, along with Henry, is the only other Asian American student at a local elementary school in Seattle. The young girl, Keiko OKabe, and Henry fall into love before she is shuffled off to internment with her family. But Henry, who loves jazz music as much as he loves Keiko, is a very resourceful ten year old. He and an older African American jazz musician travel from Seattle to one of the camps housing Keiko and her family where Henry continues their relationship. And then, predictably, the bond between the boy and the girl, between two warring cultures, is severed and Henry marries another woman, a young Chinese girl who knows of his secret love.

Slow moving, descriptive, well written, Hotel seems to this author to be an odd choice for a community read. Yes, it does portray the bitterness and unfairness of the internment of our own citizens during a war. Perhaps the hope of the selection committee was to foster conversation about how we, as Americans, view a disparate culture, perhaps Muslim culture, in this time of global jihad. Are we on the brink of another round of prison camps, where anyone looking like an Arab, American citizen or not, is interned for the “greater good”? Maybe. But I don’t find that broad a theme in this book. There’s an intimacy, a smallness to the story that simply doesn’t seem to compel such generalized reflection. And while the story of how America treated Chinese Americans (who were not interned) and Japanese Americans (who were) during WWII does break some modest new literary ground, frankly, the story of Japanese internment has been told before with far more art and beauty. David Guttormson’s Snow Falling on Cedars depicts the angst and unfairness of the internment in ways that are broader, deeper, and more believable (Henry’s dialogue is of the same intellect and level regardless of his age in Hotel) than Jamie Ford’s attempt to do so on a smaller canvas.

A reasonably well-written novel and a quick read but no classic. 3 and 1/2 stars out of 5.

The Book of Mormon translated by Joseph Smith, Jun. (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; 1961).

Well. I had to read the thing because I was writing a story of Mormons hell bent for leather to “bleach” Lamanites into “white and delightsome” beings as The Book of Mormon foretells. Yes, I understand that this is a purported book of scripture, “another testament of Jesus Christ” as is now proclaimed on the cover of newer editions of the book. So I will not, in this brief post, try to argue against the authenticity or veracity or plausibility of the story behind Joseph Smith’s purported translation of ancient plates left in New York by Jews who inhabited North American before the coming of Christ. For a scholarly discussion of the shortcomings of the book as theology or history, there are hundreds of websites and books you can read to come to your own conclusions as to whether or not the book is a novel or a revelation from God.

But I will review The Book of Mormon as a book, as a readable, or in this case, virtually unreadable attempt at communication. It has been said that the phrase, “and it came to pass” occurs in the book no less than 2,000 times.  I believe whoever wrote that but I didn’t independently verify the number. The repetition of that singular phrase says volumes about the quality of the dialogue, narrative, and plot of The Book of Mormon. It is insipid. It is violent without point or purpose. It lacks any details of setting or place which might make the journeys of its characters the least bit inspiring or interesting. The Bible, while having its own shortcomings, is, overall, a wondrously written book. The Song of Solomon is exquisite. The Gospel of Mark is divinely written, even if one doubts the divinity of Christ. The Gospel of John sings. There is no such literary quality to The Book of Mormon. The book’s failure in this respect is likely due to the fact that one man, Joseph Smith, a man of very limited vocabulary and learning, “translated” the entirety of the book. In a very real sense, the book points out his limitations as a writer, theologian, and historian. The most tortured read of my life. 1 star out of 5.

Hubert Humphrey: A Biography by Carl Solberg (1984; Borealis Books. ISBN 0-87351-473-4)

Not once in the 572 pages of this exhaustive but thoroughly documented and well written book did the author, Mr. Solberg, reference the label that I recall being applied by the press and public to Vice President Humphrey: “The Happy Warrior”. The title, a bow to Humphrey’s seemingly unfailing optimism and bounding joy, whatever the situation, originally appeared as a title to a poem about a battle weary WWI solider by Herbert Read. Having read the poem, I understand why Solberg avoids the reference: It simply doesn’t apply to the buoyantly affable Minnesota politician. Solberg does a fine job of giving us insight into who Humphrey was and the origins of his, as the author calls it, “Plains Progressivism” but I found one glaring failing in the story: Muriel Humphrey is given very short shrift and, from all appearances, her role, in supporting HHH’s numerous quixotic quests for the White House (at least three), and more importantly, her role in forming him as a young man and father, is a part of the story that deserved more ink.

The best (and most disheartening) section of the biography is the depiction of Humphrey’s near teat-suckling relationship with the president he served, Lyndon Johnson. As brought to life by Solberg’s typewriter, LBJ comes off as the quintessential bully: A man who, after befriending the open and honest Humphrey, does everything in his power to belittle and diminish the man. Why? Solberg never really answers that crucial question, nor does he probe this, or any other issue, with then-alive witnesses to Humphrey’s rise as a political whirlwind. This deficiency is, in my estimation, one of the largest holes in the organizational structure of the book: There are no interviews with Mondale, Freeman, Heaney, Fraser, Spannus, or any of a host of other old DFL (Democratic-Farmer-Labor; the party HHH helped create) icons.

In addition, while Solberg chronicles the details of Humphrey’s agonizing role as loyal supporter of the Vietnam War and other unpopular policies of the Johnson presidency, the author never really answers the question that haunts this crucial section of the book: Why did a man of Humphrey’s immense integrity cow-tow to Johnson: scraping, bowing, and “yes-sirring” his way to political defeat in his own race for the White House in 1968? Solberg reiterates HHH’s own version of the “why”: The Vice President followed the company line out of loyalty; it was Johnson who pulled him from obscurity and placed him in the second highest office of the land and HHH felt duty bound to honor the man who gave his political aspirations second wind. But this explanation, coupled with Solberg’s assertion that “there was just something in Humprhey’s nature” that led a principled man to vacate his principles in a quest for power seems trite and inadequate in answering the most important question of HHH’s career.

There’s also no afterword dealing with Muriel’s ascending the throne (she accepted appointment to HHH’s U.S. Senate seat upon his death) or an in-depth discussion of how Humphrey managed the news that the urinary difficulties he’d battled for years suddenly became terminal. While the facts are there, the human equation (What sort of man of faith was Humphrey? How did he handle the issue of sudden mortality?) really aren’t fleshed out.

Still, this book is an invaluable read for anyone interested in Minnesota political history. When read in conjunction with Mr. Environment: The Willard Munger Story (my own attempt at biography which chronicles the rise of Minnesota’s best loved state legislator and the Farmer-Labor Party of Minnesota), this well paced biography will give the casual historian a nearly-complete view of Liberal, Progressive politics in Minnesota.

3 and 1/2 stars of 5.

Limin’ Times by the Writers’ Circle of St. Croix (U.S.V.A.) (Author House: 2009. ISBN 978-1-4389-7493-4)

Limin’ Verb.

Caribbean term: “To relieve from attention or effort: relax.”

“Limin’ ” is just hanging out, to buss a lime with friends, dat means to take advantage of life, yeah, mon. De ony ting you waste is time, cause dat’s the only ting in life comes free.” (Source: National Geographic article, “Limin’ Times” by Chalres Kulander.

So for those of us from colder latitudes, “limin'” s the equivalent of “chillin'”, but said with an island lilt. I picked up this little collection of essays, poems, and short fiction when I was on a cruise in the Caribbean this past spring. I love to read local writing when I travel:oo It let’s me feel the pulse of the place and learn a bit of local culture. I got those things from this rather sparse (though not cheap) collection. Some of the writing was topnotch. A collection of Sherlock Holmes stories, though set in London, was pretty darn good. A long novella about the Maroons (“the Hiawatha Project”) occupies too much of the book and is a tad disappointing. The tale rambled on without any real plot, point, or intrigue. I would have much rather read the author’s poem about the Maroons in one pass than have the verse interspersed throughout the novella.

This collection also has the misfortune of having been printed by AuthorHouse, one of many POD (Print On Demand) outfits out there. Not having a professional editor outside AuthorHouse go over the manuscript before printing causes irritations like the lack of consistent indentation over 1/3 of the book. Still the product is better than my first two efforts at self-publishing in terms of overall quality, but, when a writers’ group is behind the effort, you’d expect more. Not as local in flavor or as literary as I expected. 2 and 1/2 stars out of 5.