Book: Made in America by Bill Bryson

You know that when Bill Bryson, the author of such non travel books as At Home and The Mother Tongue gets his teeth into a subject, he makes a thorough job of researching it. This book is very similar. 

His introduction itself holds your interest. With the example of Scandinavian children singing ‘Jack and Jill’ without even understanding the words to a ‘missing’ ditty showing up in one isolated nurse’s lullabies to the homeowner’s children, he raises expectations of a good time, and delivers!

This book is about everything American – American practices, inventions and everything purely American. But a large part of it is about how the English language morphed in America and Bill Bryson is in his elements in this book. In my review, mainly because of my primary interests, I will be focusing more on the language aspects. For a lot more of the fascinating facts – about advertising, movie history and sports to give just a few examples – you are better off reading the book. I do touch upon these in this review but not in probably as much detail as you may desire.

He talks about Mayflower and the several errors in popular conception of the voyage. The people were Separatists, not Puritans. The name Pilgrim was not applied until almost a century later. They did not land at Plymouth Rock and perhaps did not even glimpse it. And so on. Fascinating. 

Read about the facts that European settles in the eighteenth century were not the first visitors and not even the first Europeans in the New World; read about the colossal arrogance and incompetence of Columbus, who won eternal fame for his voyage to America and who was dragged back in chains to Spain shortly thereafter…

Amerigo Vespucci is a Florentine who moved to Venice to run a ship supply business. He was a nobody and even the voyages he made to the New World were as a passenger and a lowly officer. However, a PR campaign claimed that he was the captain of those voyages and also ‘he was the one who discovered New World’. He ended up being commemorated with his name attached to two continents today due to the error! (And successful lobbying on a false cause.)

 There is an exhaustive and interesting discussion of the roots of the American language – It is a mixture of the old English that the early settlers carried with them, their own compound words, and made up words by stacking two unrelated words together (eg sidewalk) and words borrowed from Native Americans with whom they had contact. Bill starts with the ferment the language was undergoing already in England. For instance, he talks of  the pronunciation of words like maketh, which initially was spelled the same way but pronounced ‘makes’ before making the lexical translation as well. The habit of making plurals by adding ‘n’ like shoon for shoes disappeared (though it still survives in a few words like oxen and brethren). The pronunciation of words ending in ‘-ed’ changed. (From ‘change ed’ to ‘changed’ for instance, though the old pronunciation is preserved in a few like blessed and beloved). ‘J’ was newly invented – Chaucer used to spell joy as ioye. Also the word Goodbye was used first by the pilgrims, starting with Godbwye, short for ‘God be with ye’. 

England had a passion for turning some nouns into verbs then, which did not (initially) make it to America. (Examples are gossip, fuel, inch, hurt)

Some English words that later perished in Britain were preserved in America. Fall for autumn, bug for any insect, junk for rubbish, rooster for a male fowl. They misnamed species which survives. The American rabbit is really a hare; robin is actually a thrush. 

Examples of mashed words to create new include eggplant, glowworm, rattlesnake, rubberneck, tightwad, bullfrog, cookbook, frostbite.  Avenue in England meant a line of trees but any broad road in America so the British name for Avenue Street sounds like a redundant usage to American ears. 

Moose, raccoon, caribou and opossum were all borrowed from Native American terms. Raccoon was initially raugroughcum, then rahaugcum and then rarowcun, then rowcoon and then the current form. The Algonquin senganku became skunk. Wuchak became ‘woodchuck’. (Bill reminds us that ‘despite the tongue twister, no woodchuck has ever chucked wood’!) Algonquin naiek gave the word ‘neck’ in the meaning of ‘in this neck of the woods’. 

Algonquin word for a tribal leader was ‘Cowcatvwassoughes’. Knowing it is hell for western tongues to pronounce, let alone spell, it was immediately modified to ‘coucorouse’ and later morphed into the current word caucus. Pakan in Algonquin was for any hard shelled nut, but the borrowed term pecan became the name for a specific nut. 

Newfoundland, on its part contributed the word penguin to the English language. Some Spanish sailors mutinied and branched out on their own. They were called buccaneers because they sustained themselves after fleeing their Spanish masters by smoking the flesh of wild hogs on a wooden frame called boucan until they captured a ship and make it their own. 

Interestingly, in olden times ye was used to address a single person and you for more than one. This useful device fell out of favour but is still respected in the fact that we say ‘you are’ for addressing a single person and not ‘you is’ as you would expect. 

Tobacco, imported from the New World (though Arabs and Spaniards knew about it earlier) was a rage in England with various powers ascribed to it : aphrodisiac, healing of all kinds of humors etc and was all the rage there. 

Meanwhile the War of Jenkin’s Ear between Spain and England (Don’t ask why it was called that!) gave rise to the name Grog for a drink, which was rum diluted with water. It was named after commander of England’s feet Edward Vernon, whose nickname, for unknown reasons was Old Grog. If you drank too much of it, of course you became groggy. 

Bill Bryson’s description of the events during 1776 and how it was distorted to preserve the myth of American Independence are wildly amusing. Since these are asides and not directly relevant to the linguistic topic of this book, I will not give examples but it is definitely worth reading, when you take up the book to read. 

We learn that Benjamin Franklin, in addition to being a very important person in the Constitutional panel was also a very successful businessman (and therefore wealthy) and was a scientist (or ‘natural philosopher’ as it was called then), writer who columned many essays, and was an inveterate womanizer. The language of the time could also be irreverent as doctors were nicknamed ‘pisspot’, a nonconformist was called ‘Shit sack’ and a blind person was (cruelly?) called ‘groper’. A footman who followed behind was a ‘fartcatcher’. 

The fact that Franklin’s reputation was mud in his own lifetime and he was considered a ‘doddering old fool’ until many years after his death come as a surprise to a modern reader. (It did to me.)

John Madison had a towering intellect but was physically unimpressive. He was short ‘with a height of half a bar of soap’ in the disparaging words of one contemporary and had a squeaky voice and had, on top of that, a shy disposition. 

Bill Bryson always finds fascinating bylanes (or rabbit holes) to wander down, because they are so fascinating, before returning and moving in the direction he set off initially. This is what makes his books so fascinating. 

Even here there is a linguistic connection: the English used in the document itself. For instance, nowhere in the Constitution does the word ‘nation’ appear. This was to ensure that the fractious and defiantly independent states did not construe this as a power grab by the central authority. Instead the word ‘federal’ is used, derived from Latin fides or ‘faith’ implying a trustful relationship. 

Many of the prohibitions in the Constitution were not guaranteeing freedom per se, but ensuring that the Federal authority did not usurp the power of the States on some topics!

Columbus was resurrected as a hero. Initially he was forgotten because he was Spanish but when USA gained its independence, the new country’s leaders were looking for names not connected to British and Columbus was named for several things – the capital of Ohio, the Columbia university, and a new state claimed as Columbia (which later became multiple states including Washington, Idaho and Oregan). But North of the border the name still lives on – as British Columbia. Washington Irving wrote a highly inaccurate book on Columbus that started the mania and later he glossed over all the flaws and wrote a highly hagiographic account of the Life of George Washington. Mythmaking was at its highest. 

Mason Locke Weems wrote the story of the now famous ‘Washington and The Cherry Tree about a young boy Washington, which was fully made up. Washington in real life was moody, remote and vain. He detested being touched by strangers and had the embarrassing proclivity to cry loudly in public. Far from the myth of heroism in French and Indian War, he helped provoke it He massacred ten French soldiers in an irrational and unnecessary attack, and when they, enraged, declared war on the British, he was routed and wrote an apology for ‘assassination’ of the Frenchmen which enraged his compatriots! (None of this is to deny his other great qualities like his dogged perseverance in fighting for independence against impossible odds, his absolute incorruptibility and his absolute honesty, but to talk about whitewashed books published after independence, glossing over these completely). 

The American national anthem has the words ‘Bombs bursting in the air’. Why in the air? It was devilishly difficult to cut the fuse at the right length so that the bombs will go off on impact and hence many ‘burst in the air’. The anthem itself was based on bombing during the War of 1812. 

Until much later, the government of USA did not print any paper money (greenbacks that are so coveted today). Instead banks issued paper money (and the government only made coins). Each bank issued a different ‘currency’ and some of them were sought after. The $10 bill issued by The Citizens Bank of New Orleans. It had the word ‘Dix’ for ten on it and so came to be called Dixie, the appellation later applying to almost the whole of Southern US. 

The Spanish word pieza – meaning ‘piece’ –  morphed into peso, the small coins used. Barter system prevailed and the goods used in barter were called ‘truck’ from Old French troquer, meaning to peddle or trade. The vehicle ‘truck’ that we are familiar with now came from Latin trochus, meaning ‘wheel’. 

Dime is the same corrupt origin as dixie, from ‘dixieme’ and denotes, unsurprisingly, ten cents. Cent itself comes from ‘centum’ or hundred but is still bizarre because initially there were two hundred cents to a dollar! The use of the term ‘buck’ for money originated with the dollar, and referred to ‘buckskin’ a very early form of commodity in bartering. 

It is interesting to note that the term ‘stiff upper lip’ as today applied to the British, is actually of American origin!

Penitentiary in American became shortened to ‘pen’ (as in ‘He was in the pen’), fanatic was shortened to ‘fan’. The noun form of dump and beat are from Americans. 

Another American invention was the word tycoon applied to successful business leaders, which was borrowed from Japanese ‘taikun’ or military commander. 

Equally astonishing is the life of Goodyear, who invented the vulcanization process. He found the process of making rubber durable purely by accident, patented it but the idea was stolen by countless others and he died with huge debts – even during his life he lived in penury due to his obsession with rubber that did not make money  and his family could not even afford a coffin when his two year old child died. The Goodyear company was started by someone else (who admired him enough to name the company after him) and he made no money from that either!

Similar calamity befell the inventors of sewing machine, vacuum cleaner and a host of other inventions. Makes for interesting, if pathetic, reading. For example, the inventor of telegraph technology was Joseph Henry, who did not profit from the invention or even patent it. Who did? Samuel Finley Breece Morse – yes, of the Morse code fame. He was a strange fellow who was virulently Anti Catholic, but believed that slavery was not only good but was divinely ordained. After giving up his professorship and struggling in penury for five years he succeeded in being one of the two recipients of $300,000 grant from the Congress. Who was the other one? A person working on mesmerism! (Yes, true story according to Bill.) He went to Henry for advice but refused later even to acknowledge his contribution, let alone share the spoils. He also stole the photograph art from Daguerre (of the daguerreotype fame) and a powerful magnet invented by Breguet for personal gain, to augment his already considerable fortune. 

Alexander Graham Bell, was a Scotsman  (probably living in the Dominion of Canada as the Canadian story would have it) when he invented the telephone and became a US citizen six years later. He was interested in long distance sound since both his wife and mother were deaf!

Edison, the consummate inventor took credit for other people’s inventions, stole ideas and effectively undermined rivals. He also tried to discredit competitors (as spreading false rumours about dangers of Alternating Current (as opposed to the Direct Current where he had spent most of his efforts) and resorted to bribery to get the laws passed to his favour. Bill Bryson says, tongue in cheek that ‘Edison’s character was not altogether unflawed’. Indeed!

He lists some American towns unfortunately named : Toad Suck is a town in Arkansas, Idiotville is in Oregan, and Boring is in Maryland,  In addition, several place names were morphed from the earlier Dutch names as the Dutch left their territory to the British settlers. Almost everyone knows (don’t they?) that New Amsterdam was named New York (in honour of the Duke of York, not the place in England). Others are more obscure. Haarlem, for instance, lost a vowel; Vussingen became Flushing (in NY). Breukelyn became Brooklyn. Deutel Bogt became Turtle Bay; Amorties Neus, hilariously, became Anthony’s Nose. 

When Thomas Jefferson bought, for about 3 cents an acre, an enormous land from French which would become all or most of 11 states! (It was known as Louisiana purchase though the states it formed included Arkansas, Kansas, Montana and many others apart from Louisiana. He sent as his surveyor Meriwether Lewis, who chose as his friend William Clark as the co leader. (Yes, the well known  Lewis and Clark!) They were gone two and a half years (with a party of forty eight (and a dog) and traveled some eight thousand miles of the then uncharted territory. 

Lewis was made governor of Louisiana but his bouts of insanity made him commit suicide at the tender age of thirty four. Clark was the governor of Missouri and served well. 

It is the California Gold Rush that gave new terms to the language, among them pay dirt, strike it rich and pan out. And the word Gringo comes from Spain, not Mexico, and it’s a corruption of the word Greigo (or ‘Greek’) in the sense of ‘It is all Greek to me’ used today. 

And alligator came from Spanish ‘el ligarto’ which meant ‘the lizard’!

The Dutch also bequeathed several words ot the American English language. Among them coleslaw, boss, bedpan, poppycock (from pappekak or ‘soft dung’) and also nitwit (from Dutch ‘Ik niet weet’ meaning ‘I Don’t Know’). One of the better known Dutch gift is Santa Claus. The Irish gave, among many others, hooligan (from Gaelic uallachan meaning ‘a braggart) The word Yiddish itself came from middle German ‘judisch diutsch’ or ‘Jewish German’) Yiddish is modified German but written with Hebrew characters, right to left like Arabic.  Germans gave us sauerkraut and geshundeit (which means ‘health!’ as a greeting after someone sneezing). Sephardic Jews came from Spain and Portugal. In fact Sephardic means ‘Spanish’ in Hebrew. Yiddish gave the words bagel and pastrami to American English, not to mention chutzpah and glitch (from a word meaning ‘to slip’). 

Boondocks comes from the Tagalog language of Philippines, and means ‘a hill’. Turnpike, that common Americanism, was of British origin. It was called thus because the way was blocked by a studded pole (or ‘pike’) which was turned to allow passage once the toll was paid. The word coach comes from Kocs, a Hungarian town where it was first built. The word Bum, as in ‘a tramp’ came from Bumler, a German word for loafer. 

As you can tell, if you are interested in Etymology or simply into languages, there is a treasure trove of information in this book. He talks about auto parts. Since French (yes, French, not Germans yet) were big on cars, many of those terms were borrowed from French. Chassis and garage are from French. The word automobile in itself was from French – weirdly, it mashed a Latin root word and a Greek root word to produce this common word. Limousine was from the name of a shepherd’s cloak in Limousin region of France. Early drivers, waiting in the cold, used to wear a similar cloak! Hence the name to the car itself!

Till they came to America, the pioneers had never seen or heard of tomatoes and potatoes. (Really? Then the Irish Potato famine must have happened much later, I muse).  The white potato reached England but the queen’s cook thought the leaves were the ‘vegetable’ part and so cooked them and threw away the tubers! Naturally it did not become popular in England. Thereafter, having ‘learnt’ that it was not tasty, it was grown for many years as a purely ornamental plant. As I mused, it then spread to Ireland who took to it well because ‘it was one of the few plants which could grow in Irish soil’ according to Bryson. 

Have you wondered how the bird Turkey got the name from a country far away? Here is your answer. When turkeys first appeared in England (eighty years before the settlers left for the New World on Mayflower) they were mistakenly supposed to have been sent from Turkey, when in reality, they came from Spain. The name stuck. The French, incidentally, thought they came from India and called them chickens d’Indie which morphed into dindon, the modern French word for Turkey. Germans Dutch and Swedes thought it came from Calicut in India and named it based on it. (For instance Germans called it Kalekuttisch Hun). The Jerusalem artichoke is not an artichoke and did not come from Jerusalem in the Middle East! The artichoke part was a misunderstanding (even though it looks nothing like an artichoke). It is the root of the Sunflower. The ‘Jerusalem’ is a corruption of the word Sunflower in Italian, girasole. 

The colonists had dinner at noon and in the evening just had soup, whence came the word supper. 

Doughnuts came from the Dutch but initially they were just balls without holes (therefore ‘nuts’ ) made of dough. Many Italian ‘classics’ are in fact American invention by Italians including (gasp!) spaghetti and meatballs, Cesar Salad and fettuccini alfredo. It was not the Italians who introduced Italian food unknown at home. The Russian dressing was unknown to Russians! Chilli con corne was unknown to Spain. Chop Suey was invented in California, not China. Chow Mein and Fortune cookies were also invented in America!

We learn how Sears Roebeck got its start and also some of its really shady practices in the beginning. (Plush sofa for 25 cents; what arrives is a tiny miniature sofa, suitable for girl’s doll play(

We learn of the start of Coca Cola and how it crushed all the competitors, except Pepsi. We also learn how Pepsi survived. In fact it was the custom to claim that common foods cured many ailments with no scientific evidence to back it up. The breakfast cereal invented by one Kellog claimed to cure innumerous ailments. In fact Pepsi got its name because in the beginning, it claimed to cure dyspepsia. 

Horse racing gave quite a few words to American English – frontrunner, inside track, to win by a nose etc. Cardgames gave the term ‘pass the buck’ because a buckroom knife was passed to identify who in a card game had to deal or whose turn it was to ante. The word puck, meaning to strike, gave the name to both the card game poker and the puck used in Hockey. 

Poker itself gave the words to English like deal, jackpot. An amusing speculation is the uncredited popularity of a mysterious Jack, who seems to crop up everywhere : jackhammer, jack in the box, jack-o’-lantern, jack of all trades, jackrabbit, lumberjack etc etc. 

Bridge came to America from Russia via Middle East. The word Bridge is from Russian word birich, or town crier. Bridge gave some words to English like bid, follow suit and in spades.

Did you know that the slot machine originated from a vending machine that dispensed gum depending on which fruit showed up in a slot try? (Cherry, orange or a plum). If you drew a ‘lemon’ there was no payout – your gum not delivered after you paid and three of ta special symbol in a row gave you extra payout!  Board games became a craze later, including Monopoly and other board game – most devised by Parker Brothers. Monopoly was first rejected by Parker Brothers when Darrow provided the idea but later came around to it and it is still the best selling board game in history!

It is interesting to see that the term road hog originated from the cycling craze (when horse drawn carriages still predominated in the streets) and that mahjong, a later craze, came from a Mandarin word after an important piece and means ‘House Sparrow’. 

Baseball gave a lot of terms including raincheck, which came from the custom that if rain stopped play for five innings, the customer who paid for the ticket could claim a ticket for free for any subsequent game. 

When congressman Felix Walker talked nonsense and was called out on it, he said he was speaking to his constituency folks in Buncombe County, North Carolina. It became famous and every claptrap occurrence was celled Buncombe and shortened to Bunkum and then to bunk. Whence debunk comes from. Hokum also originated as a mix of hocus and bunkum!

Caucus comes from an old Algonquin word meaning counselor. Pomegranate was so called because it came from Granada and the hand grenade was so called because it resembled a pomegranate. 

Why did Yankee Doodle of the well known rhyme ‘stick a feather in his cap and call it macaroni’? First, macaroni was a slang term for a dandy. Next, Northern soldiers in the American Civil war had no uniforms but identified themselves with a feather or even a piece of paper in their caps. 

The uniforms of Northern soldiers were made of recycled wool called shod and were known as shoddy. Since they were of poor quality always, any cloth of poor quality came to be known as shoddy. Likewise, the term hooker for prostitutes originated because in the nineteenth century congregated in Corlear’s Hook (or simply The Hook) in New York. The term sideburns for the muttonchop whiskers of Ambrose Burnside (Union commander) started a craze called burnside, and then flipped around later. 

The term blimp originated in England and was from the label of the balloon ‘Dirigible Type B: Limp’.

Apart from etymological information, this book is filled with other surprising facts too. For instance, I was under the impression that the settlers from England (including the Puritans) were, well, puritanical until after the Victorian era. Not so. Even though the settlers were strict in many ways (idling, playing games etc were frowned upon, not to mention gambling or betting ) but they were surprisingly relaxed about sex. Read the practice of ‘bundling’ for surprising information. 

I discovered why I enjoy reading Bill Bryson’s books. It is like a huge book of Trivia but not random trivia. It is all packaged into a coherent whole related to a subject – in this book about America but other topics abound in his other books like At Home,  The Mother Tongue or even his excellent A Short History About Nearly Everything – that you cannot but be drawn into it, especially if you are looking to read a book of fun facts, deeply researched. This formula has served him well for many years and has produce a number of entertaining books that also educate. 

Overall, this is a great book, like many of this author’s are. Apart from the breathless linguistic trivia I have mentioned, there is a lot about America that is in the book. This one is a pleasure to read!

9/10

— Krishna

Book: The Plot To Hack America by Malcolm Nance

A caveat : Just by looking at the book blurb, you know that this is a book that claims that Russia manipulated the 2016 election to get Trump elected as the President of the United States and he was an ideal clay in the hands of the puppet master Putin to get the candidate with the most sympathetic views of Russia elected.  Consequently, the summary of events presented here has that slant, in keeping with the spirit of what the author intends to say.  I intend to look at the other side of this debate in future reviews hopefully, but if you are irked or offended by the views propagated by this book, please skip this review. 

This story is about how Russian hackers helped destroy the campaign of Hillary Clinton and help Donald Trump gain Presidency in 2016. 

As you read the book, initially at least, it is all about the author. Nance boasts about his prowess in Russian language, his experience in both people spying and cyberspying, how he has a suspicious mind conducive to his skills in the field and so on and on and on. 

Yes, the details he produces are interesting and strong evidence for the case he is building but reading about how great the author is in the midst of it reminds one of Trump’s own self description as ‘a very stable genius’. 

We learn of the sophisticated attack on the computer on Democratic National Headquarters and the sustained, long term theft of sensitive materials. It had all the modus operandi of Russian operation. 

Luckily, this self aggrandizement stops after the first few pages and we get on with the story. It starts with Trump’s visit in 2011 for Obama dinner where he was roasted by both Obama and Bill Myers and hated every moment of it. It may have sown the seed of standing for the Presidency in 2016.

Trump astonishingly lead the field and became the official candidate of the Republican party in 2016. However, Hillary was first tarnished by her bitter mudslinging of Bernie Sanders who, by the time he realized he had to withdraw had tarnished her so much that his young and enthusiastic supporters lost heart. And despite multiple enquiries clearing Clinton of wrongdoing, Trump’s slander stuck. 

OK, I do realize that this book is very biased towards Democrats but there is a grain of truth in it if you are willing to take the arguments with a pinch (OK, several spoonfuls) of salt. 

We learn that Putin, as a teenager was interested in joining the Intelligence Agency and became a lawyer to achieve that aim before starting at a low level in the KGB. He was assigned in East Germany where, with Stasi’s infrastructure, he recruited West Germans to act as spies for the Soviet Union, and learnt intelligence methods and tricks. 

When Berlin wall fell, he destroyed incriminating evidence of Stasi offices before retreating. He was also trained in counterintelligence, which caused the paranoia and distrust of all people for the rest of his life. 

There is a fascinating description of how ruthless the spy agencies of Russia have been right from the earliest tsar times. He talks of the Stalin’s agency and talks of the usual Soviet habit of pursuing enemies in other countries to assassinate them. It is a bit of a surprise that Gorbachev, who is blamed for the collapse of the Soviet Union is the one who set up the KGB. (The earlier ones had different names)

Even if you are not predisposed to dislike Trump and keep an open mind – as I hope I am – the details you read are shocking. How Trump, long before his election was filled with admiration for Putin and how he tried to build Trump properties in Russia (which subsequently declared bankruptcy and closed down) and gloated that ‘Putin is a friend and likes me’. The claim by the author that Trump was identified as ‘the ideal mark to groom by KGB’ may be a bit farfetched but other details are verifiable. 

What I am summarizing below are the author’s description of the events as given. 

For instance, Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign manager, made his living by defending dictators, among whom numbered such cruel dictators as Mobutu Sese Seko of Zimbabwe, Ferdinand Marcos of Philippines, Jonas Savimbi of Angola, Victor Yanukovich, the pro Russian president of Ukraine who was hounded out by a popular uprising – all this long before the current conflict. Representing any client is not a crime, of course but his client list ought to at least raise eyebrows, right? (For the campaign manager selection). On top of that, he had claimed never to have worked for Russian or Ukrainian clients when he was named in shady deals in both countries in lawsuits. 

The campaign team of Trump was filled with people who had large investments in Russia and ties to Russian business and they all opposed any language in the Republican platform information of any support shown to Ukraine – this is after the loss of Crimea but before the Donbas insurrection, let alone the Russian Ukrainian war.) 

The roll call includes Michael Flynn with strong ties to Russia Today television and a close connection with Putin. He was a paid contributor to RT, a state owned television station in Russia and said ‘They paid me so much’ but refused to reveal the numbers – in an interview with The Washington Post. 

Meanwhile the book portrays why Hillary Clinton, who was opposed to Russia and pro Nato and Ukraine was loathed by Putin, who definitely would have liked Trump, with his suspicion of allies, disdain for Nato and even uncertainty about defending Nato members if one of them were attacked (unless they did not saddle the costs on Uncle Sam) was the perfect candidate to engineer into the President’s seat. 

The cyber operations with names for teams like COZY BEAR and for the operation as LUCKY 7 goes into high gear. The hacking of the Democratic Head Quarters computers is now a treasure trove to be used judiciously to influence public opinion through social media. 

The details of the Cyber attacks by exploiting the known and unknown software vulnerabilities in a the target computer system and the detailed description of the Russian hackers code named Fancy Bear and Cozy Bear may seem a bit too detailed for the layman; I suspect it would, not being a computer layman. 

But the various names by which each of these hacker teams are known in various companies is definitely tedious for everyone. 

But the explanation and prominent examples of the spear-phishing techniques of the groups are fascinating! 

The back history of Estonia is amazing. Estonia was considered Russia’s backyard and Putin was irate when Estonia, after its independence, slipped into the Western orbit and joined NATO. On top of that, all the ethnic Russians who were settled in Estonia during the Soviet rule were considered foreigners by native Estonians, which did not sit well with Russia or Putin. So he decided to express his displeasure by cyber sabotage of Estonia. 

The ultimate insult was in 2007 when the statue of a Russian soldier, representing Russian sacrifices in the war against Germany was removed by Estonian government from its place in Tallinn, Estonia’s capital. Cozy Bears went into action and successfully shut down all internet traffic in Estonia! 

When Russia took over South Ossetia, a Russian majority oblast (province), Georgia tried to take it back but was defeated by pro Russian forces. Russia helped them by conducting a hybrid warfare including cyber attacks on Georgian web. While disabling Georgian government internet, they also posted pro Russian messages to influence Georgian public opinion. This was the first time a hybrid warfare was fought anywhere in the world, according to the author. 

Also, when Lithuania passed a law in 2008 to prohibit any display of both Nazi and Soviet symbols, Russia retaliated with a cyber attack in anger. The websites taken over were altered to show anti Lithuanian messages and Soviet symbol of the hammer and the sickle. 

Interesting but when all you see is a list of attacks including Ukraine and Poland without much variation, again it gets saggy. (I know real life is not a racy story but the skill of narration is in summarizing the items so that it does not read like many grocery lists.)

But undeniably there are gems in the descriptions. For example, about Julian Assange and Wikileaks. It is interesting that – even if you assume that their stated motives are really as they are stated – the disclosure of secret documents can be selectively sent by those with political goals that are partial to or against someone. The author says that Russia chose to release damaging documents from the Democratic Office (obtained by a cyber penetration illegally) to Wikileaks in order that the document contents could be believed. 

Assnage himself was born in Australia and had an uneven homeschooling. He had an early interest in computers and was ‘online’ before internet was born (in smaller networks). He learnt hacking and was arrested in 1991 was hacking into some US sites and also Nortel, the Canadian telecom giant that subsequently went bust. Wikileaks, established many years before burst into public consciousness when in 2010 it published illegally a video showing US helicopters opening fire and killing two journalists and some children in a mistaken ‘friendly fire’ incident. 

With the help of an ar my Private assigned to sensitive documents, Wikileaks then published a very large number of top secret documents. The army private was court martialed and sentenced to 35 years in prison for her breach of confidentiality. 

Assange by giving people to anonymously expose confidential documents, is looking for justice and transparency but not even handed reporting, according to the author. Christopher Hitchens accused Assange of megalomania and having no scruples and an agenda (‘to end two wars’ during the 2000’s and we know which wars they are – ie, not neutral. He called him a ‘middle man and a peddler who resents the civilization that nurtured him’. 

Also, Wikileaks decided to wait until just before Democratic National Convention to publish the illegally obtained emails from the DNC headquarters earlier, causing allegations of ‘lack of objectivity and pushing a specific agenda’. 

The value of some of the material published by Wikileaks have been acknowledged even by some of the critics of its methods and timing. 

Maybe not related, but Assange had close ties with Russian media, and had a stint as a host of a Russian state controlled TV network, as was pointed out by Bittner, a German journalist. 

You learn that the name of the Russian state controlled magazine Pravda means ‘Truth’ in Russian.

The author says that Russia today does not care for the veracity of truth, and in his words, ‘has adopted sloppy Fox-News style reporting wherein they present unverified news with the prefix “Some people say…” ‘

Assange, according to Guardian journalist Luke Harding, was a ‘useful idiot’ to Putin. Putin commissioned him to host a show in Russia Today from the Ecuadorian embassy where Assange had taken refuge to evade his arrest warrant of US. Assange had claimed in an interview for the Russian newspaper Izvestia that he had dirt on Russia also and will publish it fearlessly. But when the well timed leak of US dirt was aired, or later, there was no explosive revelations about Russia. It is interesting to note that right after that interview, an anonymous official from FSB told LifeNews.ru a Russian website that ‘It’s essential to remember that given the will and … orders, [Wikileaks] can be made inaccessible forever”. 

Assange has openly admitted that it was he who encouraged Edward Snowden to seek asylum in Russia. 

Assange was also vocal about his hatred for Hillary and has written (in 2016) that Clinton ‘certainly should not become President of the United States’. With his hatred for Hillary expressed in many interviews, the author contends that Russia had its useful idiot to leak the information to, so that he could publish and cause exactly the result that they wanted. While stopping him from leaking any information of the debacles of Russian intelligence that he claimed to have collected. 

The leaks, when they came, were carefully sorted to create the impression that Hillary stole the primary election from Bernie Sanders, thus angering his base into not supporting her after he withdrew. Trump piled into the issue with tweets and Assange gleefully linked it to the documents so that it would get a wider circulation! When Bernie finally endorsed Clinton, it did not seem wholehearted and one of the main reason is the information in the leaks. 

What is also shocking in the author’s account is how close the leaks came to breaking up the Democratic party. The Bernie supporters were livid that the officials had made up their mind on their preferred candidate even before Bernie conceded and many were openly saying they will not vote for Hillary even if Bernie did not get the nomination. Also they were echoing Trump’s claim that the Democratic primary was a ‘stage managed,stitched up process’ and even chanted ‘Lock her up!’ echoing Trump rallies. These must have been sweet music to the Republican ears. 

Finally the person who saved the Democratic unity was Trump. In a speech he said ‘Russia, if you are listening, please release all the 3000 emails from the DNC servers!’ which created doubts on what he knew about the hack and whether Russia was seriously trying to influence the elections. 

Trump at this stage was saying that ‘If we do not win Pennsylvania, the election is stolen!’. (As an aside). The alleged Russian team made sure to leak documents supporting whatever claims Trump made, thereby selectively reinforcing the doubts in the minds of independent voters. 

The state election system servers were hacked a a lot of voter registration data was stolen around this time. The author does not state that it is related to the above attacks. 

The book was written in 2016 just before the election results (from the looks of it) but has sentences to the effect (not a direct quote) ‘The erosion of faith and the constant claiming of fraud in fundamental American functions like the elections by claims from Trump that the system is rigged will produce an environment where any unfavourable result will be rejected as rigged’. 

Interesting. 

One sided, for sure, because he has no explanation of the shenanigans engaged by the Democrats but nevertheless an extremely interesting and disturbing argument. 

7/10

   — Krishna

Book: Copperhead by Bernard Cornwell

This is a book of the Starbuck Chronicles. We have reviewed many of this author’s books. The last book of this author we reviewed was Sharpe’s Fortress and the previous book in this sequence we reviewed was Rebel.

The confederate army is planning am ambush and our Starbuck is seated in the army, waiting for action. Nate Starbuck, if he had any sense should leave. The wounded Washington Faulconer hates Nate as Nate killed his prospective son in law, the evil Ethan Ridley in the heat of the battle. Now the ‘war hero’ Washington could get command of a whole Legion with the unit Starbuck was in at its centre – mainly because Washington had created the unit earlier. 

Adam, Washington’s son, is a good friend of Starbucks and arrives in the midst of battle. He tells Nate that he met Nate’s brother, James, as a prisoner (James was in the enemy’s army – being a Northerner). 

On a hunch, Starbuck disobeys the sergeant’s order and crosses the river at the left flank and ends up behind the enemy. The surprise turned the battle in the rebel’s favour. One touching scene is while Starbuck is trying to kill an enemy officer for not surrendering, the man calls him by his name (Nate) and he realizes that it is his old buddy, when he was up North! The man surrenders, albeit wounded already by Starbuck before the realization. 

But James, when released to the North as a prisoner exchange meets Adam, he asks about his brother Nate. Adam gives him all the details of the Southern military secrets, in the belief that only the Northern Victory will end the misery of brother killing brother savagely with ‘a complete absence of Christian love and values’. The huge treachery goes unnoticed. 

At the exact same time, Delaney, a senior politician in the South reaches the same conclusion and helps by suggesting and getting the Southern army led by fakes like Faulconer in order to weaken the army strategically. The current chief decided to withdraw, ceding Virginian territory without a fight to the Yankees, much to the chagrin of influential southern elite. 

The man chosen for the top job was Falcouner, Adam’s father but a sworn enemy of Nate. When Colonel Bird comes back, he finds Falcouner’s deputy, the brainless but coarse Swynyard as the deputy drunk. It was because Swynward is a relative of the influential newspaper magnate Daniels and he is the one who gave Falcouner the Generalship of the southern army. Knowing that Nate was doomed, Bird sends him away with a Furlough pass to Richmond, Virginia. 

Adam is friends with a Reverend’s family and Nate jauntily introduces Sally, his friend Truslow’s daughter whom he had known before but now a prostitute, as Victoria. Adam is in love with the reverend’s daughter Julia and the reverend’s wife is the controlling Mrs Gordon. They then go to help wounded soldiers and Sally is recognized for who she is by the visiting physician and is exposed. Mrs George is humiliated!

 The rebels fool the North into thinking that they have a huge number of battalions guarding their eastern flank by repeatedly marching the same platoons over and over and ‘communicating’ with the previous platoons with bullhorns. The North falls for the ruse. 

Meanwhile two of the Northern spies go South – John Scully and Lewis Price. James Starbuck leaves instructions with them for his ‘messenger’ (Adam) but that they are captured. While Lewis is defiant, knowing that they will not be put to death (since one is a Scot and the other an Irishman and killing them would offend England, whose support the South was desperately courting), John cracks. He asks for a priest to make a final confession believing himself to be sentenced to hang the next morning and spews the whole information to the ‘priest’. Who was really an officer. So the ‘link’ in the chain, Timothy Webster, who was the go-between but sick, was arrested. Hattie Lawton, his girlfriend was also doomed. The “father” of course was a Rebel officer who is contemptuous of the clumsy spying and the officer sentences them to hard labour because they cannot be executed. 

Because of James Starbuck’s name, Nate is arrested and tortured as the traitor in their midst, by Gillespie. He does not know then that it was because Scully’s note mentioned James Starbuck, Nate’s elder brother, as the correspondent from the North and naturally he became the prime suspect.

When they cannot get anything out of them, Alexander orders him released. He then plants a fake response to the message from Scully and asks Nate if he can go North and give it to the army, in a kind of counter trickery. Nate agrees. However, he tells Sally that he is going – and will be back. Sally tells Colonel Delaney the plan and Delaney, who is working for the North, sends an urgent message to the North that Nate is a traitor, thus sealing his fate before he can even arrive!

A brilliant set of twists and counterplots that keep you reading, like Bernard Cornwell does so well. 

While Nate is reluctant to expose Adam as the traitor to the South, because of his friendship, Adam does not reciprocate. He also thwarts the Southern General’s plan for a surprise attack on the incoming Yankees by substituting the orders for another inconsequential order to donate part of the troops to a junior officer. Not only is the opportunity lost. Julia gives him the warning that further correspondences with ‘his family’ (ie James) will expose Adam as she heard it from Nate, without understanding its full import. 

Now the Confederate general Johnson is frustrated that both the divisions did not obey his order for the surprise attack. He decides to attack anyway and makes great progress driving the Yankees back before meeting a formidable opposition and losing all the territory gained before the end of the day. Johnson swears to get to the bottom of the mystery, terrifying Adam but gets hit critically the same day, to Adam’s great relief. 

Meanwhile what should have been a certain capture and hanging of Nate is averted by the intervention of a half Irish half French ‘Observer’ from France called Lassan who helps him run away and cross into Confederate territory. Nate walks boldly into his old army camp to meet Adam who is housed there, notwithstanding that the commanding officer Falcouner, Adam’s father, is known to hate him and will instantly arrest him or worse if he found him anywhere in the vicinity. 

He blackmails Adam into taking him back into the legion against the will of General Washington Faulconer, who is livid to see Nate back. 

The final battle is told is the inimitable style of Bernard Cornwell. What starts out as an easy Confederate advance is met suddenly with a huge resistance that threatens to turn into a disaster. In a lull, Adam comes waltzing in between two facing armies, having both sides conclude that he has gone completely mad! However, he has a message for Nate and then does an incredible thing which is a nice twist in the series. 

This story packs a bunch of twists and turns and the usual tension and the last minute denouement that Bernard Cornwell is so famous for. 

A nice read – but in the typical mold of the author and guaranteed to give you a good time. 

7/10

== Krishna

Book: Picture Perfect by Jodi Picoult

The preface is an old Algonquin folk take that reads very similar to Cinderella with some supernatural elements thrown in – an odd coincidence, that – if coincidence it is. One of the characters, Will, is from Sioux background and this is the tie in for these small stories sprinkled in the book. 

The book in itself is a chick lit. However, people seem to behave in irritating ways throughout the book, for those of us unused to this storytelling style. 

The story proper start with a girl waking up in a cemetery (on a tombstone), injured, but with no memory of how she got there or even where to go next. 

Meanwhile Will (William Pale Horse) who is half native American, is finding Los Angeles too crowded and claustrophobic for his liking – no open spaces, nothing. He comes across the lady and takes her home. She trusts him. When she wakes up on the first day, William goes to work (first day as a cop) and gets his uniform. She decides to clean the house and hang all his native american artifacts in the house. When Will comes back, he is angry about her decorating saying that he does not want to see those memorabilia since he ‘ran away from all those’. 

But they get close. Jane (as she calls herself) slowly remembers that she was an anthropologist, digging bones etc. She finally finds the bones she discovered – by going to a library and researching. Finally, a photo on the paper brings to her the husband – the most famous actor, Alex Rivers. He meets her at the station and it kills Will to realize that she will be gone from his life but he quietly takes her. She learns from Alex that her name is Cassie and that she is married to him. She was indeed an anthropologist; that was how they met. 

She is enraged when she realizes that she works in UCLA teaching anthropology and realizes that Alex had not mentioned it, as well as taking the liberty to ask for a week’s absence. (I am puzzled; she has lost all her memory but is upset that her husband thought of managing the affairs? Though I understand the fact that she is angry that he hid the teaching fact from her, even then, given the circumstances…). She also feels that Alex seems to be playing a role whenever he defers to her wishes. They reconcile when she realizes that he is indeed a tormented soul and feels that she is ‘his other half – perfect fit.’

Meanwhile she meets a beautiful girl who, she learns, was her closest friend – Ophelia. She was Cassie’s roommate even before Cassie met Alex. Ophelia does not seem to like Alex and vice versa. Ophelia tells Cassie that she, Cassie,  was looking forward to a trip to Kenya and the old Cassie she knew would never have subordinated herself to Alex’s wishes. 

When Alex’s costar openly flirts with Cassie when Alex is away in the bathroom, an enraged Alex punches him in the face and snarls at Cassie too, shocking her completely. He is fully apologetic later. However, Cassie steals away and incognito, goes to see an Alex Rider movie marathon, just to watch the reaction of the audience!

Alex seems to slip into an act even when he is with Cassie. She finds it very discomforting. He takes her to the Malibu home where she is overwhelmed by its opulence. 

She gets slowly some memories back: How her childhood sweetheart Connor was killed by Connor’s father (and later killing Connor’s mother and himself). Other memories in bits and pieces. 

She remembers how abusive Alex was. In the three years, she had always made excuses for him but when she is hit – in a fit of anger but contrite immediately, like he was with the other man who tried to make an unwelcome pass at her – after knowing that she was pregnant, she decides to leave him for the sake of the baby and just walks out. She never told him about the pregnancy, though. She realizes that with the ‘golden boy’ and ‘world’s darling’ image Alex has cultivated, no one would even believe how he is in private with her.

She remembers her childhood, and also her wait to get tenure in her university.  Judy employs the same ploy as other successful authors. Zoom in on a moment – in this case, Cassie’s waking up in the cemetery with no memories and slowly zoom back to show more of the story but somehow, A trick used well by some other authors too – The Blind Assassin by Margaret Attwood would be a particularly contrasting example. 

We learn of her childhood attachment to Connor who came from another city and taught her what fun could be. She also realizes her visit to Tanzania where she is interrupted first and hired as a consultant for the latest movie by the movie star Alex Rivers. 

She surprises him by bringing a cold juice when he orders her to, and drop it on his pants. She is amazed at how he picks up her emotions and mannerisms too when she shows (as a consultant) how she would dig and scrape around a skull – the movie scene calls for a major find as an archeologist.  He is intrigued by her – the only one who is not awed by his immense fame. He invites her to a dinner and then they get close. 

He then proposes to her and they marry in Tanzania, away from the maddening paparazzi. 

There was that one incident where, in a tent in a desert, Alex tried to strangle her and bruised her neck, but it seemed to be a nightmare. 

When she is taken back to LA, she is unused to the opulence, the lifestyle and how famous she was just for being the wife of the famous Alex. She struggles. 

Her friend Ophelia is also very irritating. She comes to the villa and when not admitted, climbs over the fence (with barbs) ripping her shorts and comes in, almost catching Alex and Cassie in the act of making love! 

She seems to think that Alex may be suspicious. Cassie seems to be constantly bewildered and  seems to constantly feel that Alex is play acting all the time – even though he opened his heart to her and said that once they are back in LA, he may have to act differently because of his fame and glamour and that ‘this is the real me’. 

They all seem to not realize the choices they themselves made. 

When Ophelia kind of forces Alex and Cassie to take her for dinner at an exclusive restaurant, she seems to be both jealous that Cassie was chosen by Alex and not her and gets drunk and puts both Alex and Cassie in serious paparazzi trouble. 

As a reader, I never understood why Cassie had all the hangups and why people behaved really oddly. I am not entranced by Alex’s fame and fortune or of the belief that Cassie should be a doormat, but then Cassie does not seem to understand the repercussions of the choices she voluntarily made and Ophelia does not even seem to understand what it means for her best friend (?) to have married the most desirable man in Hollywood. (They both do not have to like it or even be awed but common sense could have told them of the implications, I think). When she forgives Ophelia for the huge devious treachery and acts as nothing has happened, it sticks in the reader’s gullet. 

Alex keeps blowing hot and cold. When the greatest find of Cassie happens in Tanzania and she rings him up excitedly, he simply hangs up but then shows up with crates of food for the whole group to congratulate her! He attends her lectures in the University. But is also sometimes moody and even violent. Interesting interplay. 

Cassie, due to his unannounced visit, seems to have gotten pregnant, even though it will interfere with her career and Alex definitely does not want kids – as ‘he does not want to end up a father like his own father’. 

There are multiple episodes of Alex losing control and battering Cassie, skilfully woven into the story by the author – you now know why she is so famous for her stories. The human drama element is right there in the forefront, and you want to shout at Cassie for sticking with him. However, when she does walk out (albeit for a brief period) we see how much Alex is lost without her. The two sides of his personality – his love for Cassie and his complete loss of anger when he is provoked are well told. 

The mounting terror of Cassie – especially during the episode where her horse gets loose and runs away and Alex has to pursue it on another horse and bring it back – is shockingly well told. 

Cassie, despite precautions, gets pregnant and wants to divulge the news to him after the celebration for his greatest victory at the Academy Awards ceremony but he comes home angry and hits her – she turns away to protect her stomach, taking the hits on her back. Immediately after is the interview with Barbara Walters for Alex and Cassie – as a follow up to Alex’s reaching yet another peak in her career. The story was selected by Cassie but was too close to Alex’s life with his father. He decided to produce and direct it too, which also won accolades. 

When she realizes that with another of Alex’s rages the baby in her stomach is at risk, she just runs away. And wakes up at the cemetery as in the beginning of the  story. Now, when she has remembered everything, she again slips away – the only place where Alex will not search is the house of Will (William Pale Horse) and she runs there to seek refuge. 

He takes her to the reservation – definitely a place where she can hide out from the world and the mighty Alex. She has an uneasy agreement with Will’s parents to keep her while Will returns to his job. When Will is back for a holiday, lying to his superiors about a family emergency, he takes her to a bar to see the Oscar performance where Alex wins three Oscars for the film and is once again the hottest property in Hollywood. He, though, realizes that without Tracy he is nothing. 

The flawed but loving characters are a hallmark of most Picoult novels and they come through with all the raw emotions here. Will helpless in love with Cassie; Cassie still pining for Alex; Alex in love with Cassie but unable to control his temper at critical moments – they are played off against one another in scintillating sequences. 

Cassie’s life in the reservation is told in some detail. Will finally decides that he does not fit in Los Angeles and decides to return to the reservation and Cassie’s child’s birth  time is nearing. 

She finally gives birth to a boy. When he gets fever, is terrified. Will is always by her side. Shows compassion. 

She rejects the ‘white man’s medicine’ when the kid runs a fever that does not seem to abate and opts for faith healing on Will’s persuasion. She even throws away the medicine the doctors offered. And duly the child recovers. (I know, right? It is one thing to talk about Native American traditions and beliefs and another to throw away modern medical technology in favour of burning sage and dancing with songs). 

Meanwhile, Alex comes back and is stunned to see that he is a father. He takes her back home. She goes willingly. Will is totally devastated at her decision!

Alex seems to have turned a new leaf and Cassie is convinced that it will work. The ending of the book comes soon after but with another twist. 

I will leave it at that. 

This is pure drama and it is nice to read. I have heard the reputation of the author for emotional tear jerker aspect of the novels and there is some in this book too. 

6/10

— Krishna

Book: President Reagan: The Role of A Lifetime by Lou Cannon

Starts with Reagan leaving the White House with Nancy after eight years in power, having handed the Presidency to Bush (yes, the Senior one) who is also from the same party. 

The author clearly does not think much of what he did in the years and the rest of the book is dedicated to proving that he was not all that many people thought he was. 

You quickly find out quite a few interesting facts about Reagan. Like everyone else, he had his flaws and strengths. The author talks about his poor upbringing with a deadbeat father, his unfailing optimism and his phenomenal memory for anecdotes and inspirational quotes. As warm and comforting as he was with those around him, making him popular all through his life, he did not seem to pay attention once they left his circle. This included the grown up children from the first marriage. He also seemed not to know the title of the book he was currently reading; his talks were peppered with anecdotes that he collected from Readers Digest and other sources, not bothering about the veracity of such stories. 

He also did not seem to have a great grasp of complex policy matters, using cue cards in his left pocket to look up what he wrote about important matters. He believed in the manifest destiny of America, he preached the wonders of free markets and small government. He also believed in psychic phenomena and fate. He was willing to share credit for his achievements but never ready to admit his mistakes. 

When he became President, he was seventy and was near sighted and hard of hearing. As his hearing deteriorated, he concentrated on lip reading. He was easily bored and if the subject did not interest him, frequently nodded off. 

When Reagan convinces himself and his friends to stand for the Governer of California, the incumbent, Pat Brown has his team working behind the scenes to ensure that he becomes the Republican candidate! This is because he feels that Reagan has no chance at all with his inexperience, ‘an actor after all’, to beat him. But the fact comes out before the elections and – among other things – tarnishes Pat. 

It is shocking to see how Reagan seemingly confused Hollywood movie scenes for real life military drama and quoted these to senior generals – and also articles on Readers Digest. He watched a lot of movies and read Readers Digest diligently. When newspapers tried to fact check many of his stories, they could find no veracity in them. 

Another interesting tidbit is that prior to becoming President, Reagan was afraid of flying and traveled by train whenever he could. 

Unbelievably, Reagan was great in communication and speeches and even putting people at ease but did not understand – or even try to understand – complex subjects. He was caught out multiple times in Presidential question and answer sessions with the press and wanted everything to be explained in anecdotes, jokes or cartoons. 

It is appalling how he did not understand the implications of the decisions he was making as amply demonstrated by the decision to place MX missiles in the worst possible solution because the only logical answer was strongly favoured by his predecessor Jimmy Carter and he die not want anything to do with it. 

When faced with all crisis, he ‘hoped’ that everything would come out OK, due to his lifelong, unbounded optimism. His aides shielded as much of it as possible and the author does not hesitate to describe them in detail, even though he was a person close to Reagan and admired him in some ways. 

So we can excuse his pathetic defense of Reagan’s intellectual paucity by describing that ‘there are seven kinds of intelligence’ and Reagan was ‘intelligent in some – like interpersonal communication but not in others’.  You feel that Reagan was lucky not to be President today, with the constant glare of social media enlarging all your gaffes. 

The image of Reagan in the minds of most folks is that he is a consummate politician and in some circles, ‘the Gipper’ is considered the epitome of the Republican presidents and is even credited with engineering the collapse of the Soviet Union. Reading this intimate biography, you see a very different President emerge – one who hoped for the best in every situation and did not read his briefings for an international summit because ‘Sound of Music’ was being broadcast the night before. He was extremely fond of ‘short working hours’ lots of vacations and did not strain to understand the workings of the government machinery or even the complexities of the issues on which he was to make a decision. Almost like the Simpson caricature in the movie!

A disclaimer : I am not anti Reagan or anti Republican in my leanings; nor is the author, who has written multiple books on Reagan and knows him well by his own admission. I am simply stating the conclusions you as a rational reader would reach if you read the book with no preconceived bias for or against the individual. 

Also surprising is how much influence Nixon had in the appointments in 1980. 

The other fact that amazes is that his reading was light (Readers Digest was a favourite and some pulp magazines were too). But whatever he heard from anyone or read from any source – authenticated or not – he tended to believe as true. He was guileless and did not expect that people would deliberately lie to him to advance their agenda! Many in the White House used this to advance their own agenda. 

Though he was very sympathetic and charming when he spoke to you, he did not have any close ties with anyone, however loyal they were to him. Once they left, they never figured in his life and they did not get even a phone call ever after. 

He had on the other hand, great charm, a sunny and disarming personality and an astounding ability to put you at ease and get you predisposed to like him. His humour, often self deprecating, was a great advantage. 

The details, unless you are very interested in deep machinations of Reagan’s team, may be boring. The author talks about the Social Security reform that a bipartisan committee recommended and how his White House staff (James Baker among them) talked him out of it. 

More surprises abound. Reagan was a starry eyed idealist, who was convinced that communism was doomed and also wanted to fully eliminate nuclear arsenal but had no idea how to get there. He is credited with ‘Star Wars’ program that finally caused the Soviet empire to crumble unable to keep up with the Americans but he had not even a basic concept of what a Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI nicknamed Star Wars by critics) could do. It was a warning system but not a protective umbrella and he did not realize it for a long time. 

So, it was circumstances that played into his hand and got him the credit, in retrospect. Even many Americans thought that the SDI will destroy incoming missiles (In 1986 US did not have anything close to the technology needed). Were the Soviets persuaded too, causing Gorbachev to take steps that resulted in the crumbling of the Soviet Union? 

He made a speech in England that seemed to accurately predict the collapse of Soviet Union (which happened seven and a half years later) and also correctly chose Poland as the example of where it may begin. But this was his starry eyed idealism based on his convictions and helped along by pulp novels he had read (‘The Day The Earth Stood Still’ being one of them) rather than a coherent strategy. He did not seem interested in the basics or mechanics of the decisions he himself took when presented to him but seemed to be swayed by the argument of the ‘last person among his aides who met him’! 

For all that he was a great speaker, charmer, and raconteur. Even annoyingly so, as when discussing serious and weighty topics, he used to launch into an anecdote (only 50% of the time even tangentially relevant to the topic of discussion). 

He presided by gut instinct and many times it served him well. When Paul Volcker angered most of the Senate by his harsh measures that increased the pain to the common folks by worsening the inflation he inherited (‘from the Carter administration’ as he pointedly indicated in his speeches) he did not waver and backed Volcker to the hilt. It did work in the end, bringing stability and taming inflation. 

The fiasco of – first – Nicaragua where Reagan sends money to people trying to overthrow the Sandinista government is well told. Reagan tries to keep it secret with slush funds and CIA and, when that was exposed and the House denies further funding, turns to other countries to fund it secretly, Saudi Arabia being a main benefactor (Prince Bandar, the ambassador to US and KIng Fahd were on board). 

Even more shocking is Israel’s open defiance after invading Lebanon to oust PLO. Reagan is unable to convince Begin, the then Prime Minister of Israel to back off. The Prime Minister elect, Christian Leader Gemayel is assassinated (by suspected PLO operatives). His brother, Amin, placed in his stead proves totally ineffective. Moreover, he only favours the Christian side angering the Muslims and others. Iran creates a proxy in the form of Hizbollah and Syria walks in to protect its interests. Reagan makes a decision to have Israel withdraw. In the meanwhile, after bombing Lebanon indiscriminately which results in loss of several innocent civilian death in Lebanon, the popular opinion in Israel turns against continuing the invasion and Begin is replaced by his successor. Reagan hatches a plan to have Israel and Syria, along with Palestine, leave Lebanon – without consulting Syria at all. Hafez Assad, the President of Syria scorns the accord and refuses to leave. 

After the entire populace of Lebanon bar the Christians turn against Lebanese PM Amin because he was only favouring the Christian faction, the military and also the Secretary of State Weinberger advise Regan to pull out the Marines he sent in – as they are surrounded by hostile forces and are not producing any benefit. On the advise of Baker and xxx, Regan decides to leave them in which is the worst decision he could have taken as a terrorist attack kills more than six hundred US Marines in one shot. It is a major fiasco for the Regan administration. 

His invasion of Grenada seems to succeed, saving him from total ignominy and helping him win the 1984 reelection. 

He often confused his movie set experiences for real life experiences and embarrassingly quoted them as such with visiting foreign dignitaries. He was fond of his mountaintop ranch and spent (not cumulatively) almost a whole year in vacations in his years in the White House!

He was gaffe prone but managed to charm Americans into voting him for reelection in a landslide that stunned the nation – and the democrats. 

His second term started with a disaster. His able team of Deaver, Clark, Baker, Darman and Ed Meese departed. Don Regan who was ambitious was made the Chief of Staff and disasters followed one after the other right after his reelection. First was the foolish decision for Reagan to visit a military cemetery during his visit to Germany where SS army officers were buried. Even after a firestorm of protest from both his friends in the Jewish community as well as several congress members, Reagan insisted on visiting it which caused him great political harm. 

On top of that, both Reagan and Nancy were superstitious. Nancy liked to consult astrologers for auspicious times for Reagan to undertake key activities (including debates or major visits) and Reagan used to throw salt over his shoulders, knocked on wood and carried a good luck penny. 

The story goes into the horrifying details of all of Reagan’s blunders in the next term. First trying to clandestinely help the resistance fighters of Nicaragua (Contras) overthrow the government; When that funding was cut, trying to get the Saudis to pay for it. While protesting his opposition to terrorism and proclaiming that ‘he will never negotiate with terrorists’ doing just that with Iran under Khomeini – supplying lots of arms for an unkept promise of releasing the American hostages. The plan was so bad that Iranians took full advantage of the simplicity of US team and milked them for a lot of arms – to use against Iraqis in the Iran Iraq was, while US was supposed to be on the Iraqi side due to US Arab solidarity! – and not even releasing more than one or two captives, which they replaced immediately by kidnapping more US citizens from Lebanon!!

When this came to light, Reagan’s speeches defending the policy were gaffe prone and not even accurate. Even the American people, in thrall of the Gipper ‘the great communicator’ were totally unconvinced. 

Some of his aids even went to prison for lying to Congress when the investigation. Reagan was really clueless but then ignored persistent opposition from both Schulz and Casey who tried to warn Reagan that this is a ‘dangerous option to pursue’. You, the reader, are shocked as much by the gullibility of the American Presidential team in coming up with one of the worst deals in his Presidential term but also trying to hide it from the legislature – including Republicans in both houses!

When the scandal erupts regarding ‘arms for hostages’ for Iran and for ‘proceeds illegally diverted to the contras’, Reagan is still adamant in denial. However, many of his coterie realize that this is extremely damaging and can even result in impeachment of the President. He is forced to make a speech acknowledging major mistakes and this just about saves his skin. 

Fascinating stuff. If you are not interested in such deep analysis (this reminds me of a more recent book on Brexit that we have reviewed: All Out War by Tim Shipman) then I suppose you would be bored. 

But this has to be one of the most detailed description of the entire Reagan presidency. The author, though by self confession close to Reagan, does not spare the man when writing this book. He is mercilessly neutral (or appears to be, to my layman eyes). 

He goes deep into Gorbachev and Reagan’s SALT negotiations and how they signed a INF to eliminate medium range missiles. The irony is that the conservatives in parliament hated it because ‘it reduces US influence in Europe’ as they do not “need US” that much anymore to defend them. Even Kissinger – perhaps out of pique that he had no role to play in this – opposed it. 

The final summit in Moscow is told as it was : an anticlimax after the INF agreement was signed. The immense popularity of Gorbachev in US and Reagan in Russia is explained. 

This book definitely gives a close up look of the man and the President. The author does not leave out the bad decisions and even the weak points of Reagan. The White House staff and their nature, triumphs and blunders are all laid bare to read.

A great book if you are interested in the minutiae of Reagan’s presidency and his legacy.

8/10

== Krishna

Book: If Tomorrow Comes by Sidney Sheldon

Sidney’s books are always fun to read. No deep thoughts or revelations, just fun. If you want fluff to read that does not stretch your thinking muscles much, then this is the right author for you.

We have reviewed many of his books earlier. Please see The Best Laid Plans and The Naked Face for just two examples.

The story starts with full force. Doris Whitney makes a final phone call to her daughter Tracy and then puts the gun to her temple and pulls the trigger. 

Tracy is in love with an impossibly rich (old money) scion called Charles. There was a very uncomfortable visit she made to his parent’s house, after she told him that she was pregnant. The parents dripped disapproval in every pore and Tracy was mortified. 

Anyway, she hears that her mother killed herself because of a very powerful man called Joe Romano, who has mob connections. He wanted to buy the company but took control before the deal could be legally finalized and destroyed it. She was in for millions of dollars in reparations – money that she did not have – and also the prospect of a long jail sentence. So she had no other way of escape than suicide. 

Tracy is enraged. She vows to make Joe pay, no matter what it takes. 

She goes with a pistol to Joe Romano’s flat and is surprised to find him young and suave. However, he surprises her, overpowers her and is about to rape her when she manages to shoot him and flee.  She does not even make it past the airport. She is arrested and is bewildered to hear that she is being accused of having stolen a very valuable painting. Her court appointed lawyer is Perry Pope and he seems to believe in her story. He gets judge Henry Lawrence because he is trying to shut down the crime syndicate of Anthony Orsatti to whom Joe Romano is the right  hand man. She has to plead guilty and will get a suspended sentence of three months. 

Tracy goes along with the plan until she gets a bombshell in the courthouse. All of them had conspired to put her in prison for the next fifteen years. It was all a brilliant set up. Case closed. 

She goes through the indignities in the prison including a brutal rape. When she says to the warden that she got her face smashed up ‘by falling off her bed’ she is sent to solitary. There, she realizes the jam she is in, and her anger blazes forth. Not against her cell mates who raped her because they are as much victims as she is, but against the people who put her there – Joe Romano, her lawyer Pope, the kingpin Orsatti. And Judge Lawrence. She will make them pay. And she will escape from the prison to do so. 

This feels like the early Sheldon stories you have come to enjoy : like Master of The Game, Rage of Angels, to name two. It is already very enjoyable. Yes, typical, formulaic Sheldon story : but if you pick up a Sydney Sheldon story to read, this is what you expect – right? 

There is a genius detective who comes to see her – genius but weird. He, Daniel Cooper, was commissioned to retrieve the painting from Tracy. He realizes that she was framed, makes his report and considers his job done, much to the dismay of Tracy, who was hoping he would now work to free her. 

When she is harassed by a swedish bully, she gets protected by her roommate Ernestine, who admires her for her class and style. But when Ernestine informs her that she, Ernestine, is being released in a few weeks, Tracy knows she needs to get out or she will be a slave to the Swedish girl Big Bertha who has an eye on her – as a sex slave. The only thing protecting Tracy from Big Bertha is Ernestine.  Ernestine respects Tracy for being classy and protects her from the other bullies there. 

She manages to form a brilliant plan in a seemingly hopeless situation. (Though it is not central to the story – you know where the story is going by now as if a thousand watt searchlight has been shone on it – I will leave that part for those of you who plan to read it simply for the storytelling style of Sydney). After several pulse pounding moments of suspense, she wants to execute it but providence stops her. Big Bertha was on to her plans and going in the laundry basket would have been a surefire failure. But the girl she was babysitting, Amy, who was the warden’s daughter,  fell into water. Disregarding her escape, Tracy goes in to save her, knowing that her plans for escape are now ruined. 

But she does manage to get out and the sweet revenge starts. First she finds a banker who is on the lookout for girls who can do him a ‘favour’ for the favours he does them. Tracy goes as Laureen Hatford, Romano’s secretary in trouble because she forgot to order cheques as he wanted. Her dress is very provocative and the banker, Lester Torrence, falls for it hook line and sinker. 

Now starts the fun. First Orsatti, the Mafia boss is convinced (by a frantic French bimbo calling him – yes you guessed it) that Joe is planning to elope with thirty thousand dollars (Oh, for the old times when that money was enough to chuck your life and go!) and the furious mafia boss sends him to sleep with the fishes. Next his trusted lawyer Perry Pope (through an ingenious ruse where Perry’s air conditioner has been sabotaged and ‘fixed’ by friends of Ernestine who is now a free women and their talent) is seen to be cheating on cards (a very high stakes game that Orsetti enjoys), he is sent ‘away’ too. Then Judge Henry Lawrence gets his turn. When he is a conference in Moscow, the Russian authorities are ‘tipped off’ that he is an American spy and sent to Siberia for fourteen years of hard labour after the evidence is convincing. With his empire unraveling, Orsatti is told that his turf will be ‘lent a helping hand’ by rival gangs. He is done, too. 

I know that Sydney writes fluff and not to be taken seriously but even given that, this stretches credulity. I don’t just mean the fact that all these powerful folks who have been controlling society for decades fall like ninepins due to  a well thrown bowling ball, Even the framing is clumsy. The various plants arrive exactly on time to Joe’s house when Orsetti is visiting; the ‘secret’ message sent by US to Judge Lawrence is revealed just by ignoring some words and putting together others to give a totally different meaning. Come on! These may be convincing in a children’s book but ,,,

Okay, okay, I know. Books written in the seventies by ‘fluff authors’ do not have intricate plot in them – at least some of them. 

Having secured her revenge, she goes after her fiance. Finds that her older job is now not possible because of her criminal record. Does a brilliant ploy to get her severance pay (denied due to her criminal record) back by hacking into her ex bank’s computer (she was a security expert after all and had set up those same systems that she is now trying to thwart.)

When she observes her fiance and his ‘now’ wife, she is struck by how boring and aged they both look. She decides that this is punishment enough for them and she is now free. She finds though, that her criminal record does not allow her to do any work – not even work that requires security clearance. Then she tries a few jobs and is fired when people recognize her as ex con. In desperation, she decides to approach Conrod Morgan, the owner of a jewellery. He asks that she meet him after office hours and asks her to burgle a sack full of diamonds from a client’s house, when he is conveniently away on ‘business’ to provide himself with alibi. With no way out, she agrees.  Conrad is not a scrupulous man, of course, and he neglects to tell her that he does not know all the security alarm systems in the house of his rich client Lois Bellamy. 

She burgles, after setting the outside alarm off but is surprised by an additional alarm in the safe! She brilliantly acts her way out when the police arrive at the doorstep but when she is going back in the train is detailed by two FBI agents who are really cons sent by Morgan in case she had succeeded so that he does not have to pay her the agreed upon twenty five grand. The con men are Jeff Stevens ‘the younger cop’ and Brandon Higgins was ‘the older cop’. They are again outwitted by Tracy who manages to recover her stash in the brilliant way that only happens in Sydney Sheldon’s novels (tremendously unlikely in real life but fully enjoyable to read). Jeff is impressed. 

She meets the jeweler, Conrad Morgan and tells him that he is the only one who could have double crossed her and demands double her original payment – now fifty thousand dollars. He is forced to comply. 

She decides to start a new life in London and books her passage and runs into Jeff again. He proposes that they make a lot of money through a scam where Tracy plays both international chess champions traveling to London in the same ship simultaneously and win! His scam is a typical Sydney Sheldon plan – idiotic in practice but brilliant as a ‘fluff novel’ idea. 

Meanwhile the jewel theft is discovered and the brilliant detective Daniel Cooper instantly finds out that she was the one behind the heist but with no evidence, they are unable to prosecute or even arrest her. (Another Sydneyism). 

I realize that the Sheldon novels should be enjoyed like James Bond or Superman movies – with no scientific analysis. And this book is extremely enjoyable and I am not trying to spoil it for anyone. Just could not resist pointing out how improbable most scenes are. Having made the point, I will not repeat this criticism in this review. 

More incidents follow. In fact the story feels like several simple tricks strung together to make up a long novel. Settling down in London, she gladly takes to the life of crime all over Europe under the tutelage of another rich conman. She only deceives the greedy and the evil people (OK, define ‘evil’ is not a luxury afforded to the reader) but uses her ability to become a totally different personality every time. There is an interesting scene of how she hoodwinked a greedy jeweler into buying back a diamond ear ring pair sold to her for a hundred grand at an inflated price of two hundred and fifty grand. (Hoping to sell it to her earlier persona for a very handsome profit!). There is a heist of diamonds on the Orient Express from the wife of a very rich and successful – but openly lecherous – movie producer. And so on

Daniel Cooper realizes that the string of new robberies in common are all traceable to Tracy Whitney, his old acquaintance and he doggedly pursues clues as per his usual genius. 

There is more of the ingenious capers – how she managed to outwit the world’s best security system of a count’s castle as well as outwit a ferocious dog guarding the perimeter, how she managed to steal priceless jewelry from a lecherous movie producer – and how she lost some capers to Jeff Evans. 

There are more scenes of best capers – again feels like clever tricks strung together. For instance she outwits a casino don convincing him that she has a money printing machine. And runs away with a lot of cash. (Real cash).  Daniel Cooper is just seconds behind her. Finally she goes after a beautiful painting inside a highly secure museum. Meets Jeff Evans and refuses to be taken in by him – in spite of his persistent advances. However, with amazing ingenuity (but I did not say ‘practical ingenuity’,) she manages to get the painting – even having the museum give it away for a fraction of the price – only to have Jeff cart it off from her hotel pretending to be the delivery person!

Her new patron is a British jeweler called Gunther who is similar to Conrad and he hires both Jeff and Tracy for his daring thefts. 

Next she agrees to go in a freight plane in a box next to another which has priceless diamonds. She is just to swap it with a duplicate bag prepared already and get back into the bag and the rest of it will be managed by the team she is working with – which includes Jeff. 

When she just manages to do the switch and gets out, she is in a deep fever and Jeff tends to her and looks after her – saving her from her pursuers by taking her off to Amsterdam. She realizes that he is not the selfish trickster with her and falls in love with him. 

For one final caper, they meet Gunther – Jeff wants them to retire but Tracy cannot resist the final swan song of a caper. 

All the while the detective Daniel Cooper  is hot on her tail. The final heist is also brilliantly planned with the entire police on their trail and Daniel trying to outwit her every move. 

But, as I said, enjoyable as it is, it feels like a lot of short stories strung together, after the revenge part is over. Still, good to read and Sydney Sheldon fans will not be disappointed. 

7/10

== Krishna

Book: A Walk In The Woods by Bill Bryson

This book describes a walk the Bill undertook after relocating to America – after many years of living in Britain. He decides to walk the entire Appalachian trail.  By now you know that anything Bill describes will be a treat. With his trademark humour, even the first few pages draw you in. He fantasizes about the dangers he could be in : mauled by bears, bitten by snakes and so on.  But it goes downhill later. More of that later. 

We have reviewed some of his books – some breathtakingly wonderful books earlier. For example see the review of his excellent A Short History of Nearly Everything or his not so great but still interesting Notes From A Small Island. 

The cover is a kind of a ‘clickbait’ I think. The book may or may not be to your liking – I was not exactly lost in admiration – but (hope this is not a spoiler alert) the author comes nowhere close to any bears – let alone have one staring at him in close proximity as the cover suggests. 

He says matter of factly that he did not know what he was getting into, when he decided to walk the full length of the Appalachian trail! He goes on to talk about the books he read on the dangers of bear attacks and how to react when you are being chased by a hungry grizzly vs a hungry black bear and what each of those attacks will feel like for the victim – a bit of motivational reading before you embark on a trip where these may happen to you!

He is amazed to find that an old friend of his, Katz, wants to go with him, until he finds the friend totally out of shape and totally disorganized to boot. 

As ever, he goes into how the Appalachian trail was built from 1921 to 1937. The effort was planned by Benton MacKaye an engineer. But he was a dreamer and the plans were just that – plans – for several years. It took a hustler, a lawyer at that, called Myron Avery who saw this to conclusion, literally by bullying everyone who stood in his way, including MacKaye. They did not speak to each other after a great disagreement. However, without Avery, the trail would not have been built. It is ironic that, at the time it was built (the greatest hiking trail in the world) practically no one noticed it. Also ironic that Avery’s name is not associated with the trail when, in the end, it did become famous. Avery died relatively young and MacKaye, who lived to a ripe old age, was happy to talk about it whenever called upon to do so, and so mostly recognized as the force behind the building of the trail. 

He finds that in the depths of the trail, there seem to be no ends of slopes. Just when you thought you were through, there is another one and so on, apparently infinitely. He describes how difficult it is in the first days of the trek when you are not used to the physical labour or the weight of the pack on you!

There follow some humorous events where at the site of the first day’s rest, they find that Katz threw out almost all the essentials (food, even coffee filter, and many others) needed for survival in a fit of pique that his backpack was heavy and making it difficult for him to carry it all and go on. 

There are also fascinating descriptions of how the forest department of US, a government department that exists, as many understand it, to protect the forest is the main cause of its pillaging and destruction. 

He talks of an annoying female who attaches herself to them and refuses to leave, but all the while keeps criticizing everything they do. Mary Ellen was obnoxious and a pest that stuck to them. Yet when they slip away to find a cheap restaurant and gorge themselves in the middle, they feel that they had abandoned her. 

He then describes trudging through a snowstorm and finding shelter. Staying in a town for two days to have the trails become passable. 

What elevates this tale is that he peppers his narration with facts – the bald spots in the Smokey mountains having biodiversity of flowers and how they came to be there. He talks about the salamanders and how they evolutionally have changed little. He talks about how many species of both the flowers and the animals are going extinct due to severe underfunding of the National Parks Service by the government. Fascinating stuff. 

The tale itself is a series of how they walked the trail and decided to cut across portions of it, how they walked on a road running parallel to it etc. And a description of what to Americans means ‘busy’ when the volume flowing though such a monumental hiking trail is trivial to the author’s eyes and some hilarious incidents involving Katz and his pursuit of improbable relationships along the way. 

But soon you realize that it is a rambling book. They abandon the walk in the middle (even after counting the ‘skip’ that they did) and return home. Our man Bill Bryson keeps going back to sections of the trail in his car and in a desultory fashion looks around souvenir shop, in a town that was burnt underground through a coal fire and had to be evacuated. Unless you are a hardcore fan of Bryson, these annoy you because they sound like the diary entries of a wandering man who wrote it all down and published a book of the musings. 

The book by now reads like a random jottings of short trips to various places and the history of those places. Some science – like what a silent killer hypothermia could be – are fascinating but this now reads like a lot of interesting tidbits strung together in an ordinary book on a travelog. 

Yes, there are interesting factoids the author blends into the story and there is a very realistic set of troubles he and Katz (yes, he comes back for another go at the Maine part of the trail) get into, but all in all, it feels a bit disjointed to me. 

I am not disappointed that they did not hike it end to end, no. But this book is probably not the kind of subject matter that I enjoy – it could just be me. 

Some of his other books are brilliant, as the examples in the beginning would attest. 

6/10

  = = Krishna

Book: A Fierce Radiance by Lauren Belfer

This is a historical fiction that is interesting to read and is multi faceted. I will dive right into the story.

Claire Shipley is dealing with patients at the Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research in New York. l. She is a photographer paid to take photographic evidence on the condition of the arrivals. Claire’s own daughter had died seven and a half years ago. Her husband left her and her younger son, Charlie, was with her. 

She witnesses the evolution of penicillin and its use – though not officially sanctioned yet – in saving lives. We learn that she is there covering the use of penicillin for the Life magazine as a photographer. 

She interviews the wife of a patient, an upper class man who got infected through a scratch while playing tennis in an exclusive club. She also remembers her own daughter, who fell and scraped her knees, and was dead three days after that.

The wife describes how the small scratch, which seemed of no account at all, developed into his being in a coma in a hospital in a short period thereafter. 

They meet a patient, Edward Reese who is near death. Dr Stanton is trying out an experimental drug called penicillin, recently discovered as an excretion from a fungus mold by a doctor called Alexander Fleming. He has to fly by the seat of his pants, because the dosage to use and the frequency are all not known. He uses penicillin grown in his own hospital by the efficient nurse Brocket. Patsy, Edward’s wife, is at her wits’ end, because she does not know whether her husband will survive even one more night. 

When penicillin finally shows its efficacy, Doctor Stanton  is thrilled. What kind of gets you to sit up and take notice is how people used to die for all kinds of ailments : tuberculosis was a killer; so was diphtheria; meningitis was a menace. Will all this be cured by this extract from a fungus called penicillin? A side story is Claire’s good-for-nothing husband who reports from England about the war and the simple minded devotion of Claire’s son Charlie to his father, who does not even deign to write a letter to his own son. (Claire and he have been divorced for a few years).

Claire is astounded to find, the very next day, that the patient was not only recovering but was sitting up in bed, reading the paper and having normal conversations. 

Claire tries to concentrate on her work – produces photographs for the story she will write, wandering around the outside of Rockefeller Institute where no one normally is even allowed, taking pictures. 

There are scenes where a Russian exile – a fellow scientist  called Sergei – now stops analyzing sewer waters inspired by the success of the ‘mold expellant’ penicillin. The background of War (after all, the Pearl Harbor attack had just happened) adds a layer of colour to the story. 

It is heartrending to see how Edward relapses into a severe reaction when they have run out of penicillin for the next dose on time (their capacity is very limited and governed by the fungal biological process). 

Even though Claire makes the cover of Life with a coverage of another story, she is overcome with disappointment when her story regarding penicillin is scrapped by the magazine. 

Dr Stanton surprises her by inviting her to dinner – in a phone call. 

The story veers off in a different direction where Claire and Charlie have established connection with her rich but estranged father and how for Charlie’s sake she bites back bitter questions she wanted to ask her own dad. Charlie and her father Rutherford seem to be developing a nice bond. 

Jamie and Claire develop a closeness when she sees how decent he is, and finds that he is interested in her too. Jamie continues to work with the military. 

The story proceeds and branches into multiple layers which make this a multifaceted and lively story to read. It is part love story – Claire’s first husband, Bill Shipley a non caring, non supportive, selfish man, ending in divorce. Charlie’s continued worship of his father, and Claire’s encouragement of it (as she does not want her views to influence the relationship of Charlie with the absent father). Then there is the ever present developments of WW II in the background, starting with the bombing of the Pearl Harbour and the continued setback to the Allies (including US and Russia) in the war’s developments – reversals come fast and furious. Then there is the scientific developments regarding the new ‘miracle’ drug called penicillin. Lovely. 

Penicillin production is now taken over by the government and Jamie is in the army base trying to help deliver it to the troops. There is not enough to go around the people, whose relatives are sick, are desperate and besiege the Rockfeller research institute in the hopes of getting their hands on one. 

As Jamie and Claire get close together, and Charlie and Rutherford also like him, he finds peace and is as close to home as he has felt in years. 

Jamie and Claire get close and get into a relationship and Jamie is mobbed when he tries to take Claire out for dinner with the desperate people trying to put their hands in his pockets in the hopes of finding penicillin vials there. 

Meanwhile, in the sample collected by Tia, who is the lead researcher in Jamie’s lab and also his sister, she notices a peculiar blue colour and effect.  She wonders if she has found an alternative and the trials on rats are also going well. 

But she is found dead at the foot of a hill and the death is ruled ‘accident’. An investigative journalist and a government investigator doubt it.  Jamie is stuck in deep grief. 

Jamie, remembering that Tia had talked of a miracle development of an unusual blue colour, goes to her lab. He finds that not only is the vial missing, but also the documentation has been torn off. He now suspects foul play. 

Meanwhile, Rutherford is offered a miracle drug by Nick, an assistant to Jamie and he buys it from him. He has bought out a medicine lab from Hartford, and makes plans to produce it there. 

When Claire somehow gets into the lab and takes pictures, she finds that her house has been vandalized and the pictures stolen. She is shaken. We later learn that it was the work of some agents employed by Rutherford, though he did not know that they would break into his own daughters house at that time – when he found out, he immediately fired them and hired another crew to protect his industrial secrets. 

When Charlie suddenly runs a high fever, Claire goes crazy with fear of losing him too. Rutherford makes a decision to use his untested drug. Jamie uses himself as a guinea pig to ensure that it won’t kill Charlie before trying it on Charlie. Charlie survives but unexpectedly goes deaf. 

When this medicine was tested on interned Japanese, they found that these side effects (blindness in some, deafness in others) occur there too. 

Jamie, when he looks at the brilliant blue colour of the vaccine, accuses Rutherford of murdering his sister and walks out on both Claire and Rutherford. Claire is heartbroken. 

Claire meets Bill, her husband accidentally and finds that he has remarried. Knowing him to be a tenacious reporter, she gives him all the details on Tia’s death and the miracle medicine. He gets too close to the truth and the government investigator Andrew Barnett arranges for his accidental death while traveling in a train. This is so that penicillin does not become a scandal when the government is trying to use it to help the troops in WW II

Nick meanwhile dies when a Japanese bomb falls on his floating hospital (ship) that carried penicillin to the troops. We realize now that he did not kill Tia but he did steal her medicine to make money for himself. (And he sold it to Rutherford for much less than he hoped to get for it).

We realize through the reporter Marcus Kreindler that it was Sergei who killed Tia. He was an agent for the Russians but was converted as a double agent (after the event)  by the FBI. 

Claire confronts her father and accuses him of murdering Tia and breaking into her house. He denies the death 

Now add the layers of murder mystery and emotional drama to the layers you already have and you have a rich tapestry as the background for the story. It keeps your full interest by this time. 

The ending is realistic and the decisions that all the characters have to make feel real. The story is told very well – this has not many happy endings, and the aches and yearnings of the characters come through, but it feels good. 

It deserves more credit than I see in review blogs and I would rate it at least a 8/10

   = = Krishna

Book: Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand

Can you make a story about a horseracing horse fascinating? What if you are a not a horse or racing aficionado like me? Laura Hillenbrand proves that you can write a book that is unputdownable about a horse, albeit an extraordinary one.

This is about a horse that rose from obscurity to great fame as one of the greatest race horses in the history of USA. Instrumental in its rise are three people : Red Pollard, his jockey who got his nose pounded as an earlier boxer and who went from failure to failure begging to be a jockey and carrying his saddle; a taciturn – almost to the point of being mute – trainer Tom Smith was a refugee from a frontier place; and the owner was Charles Howard, a man who started life as a bicycle mechanic, joined the navy and found wealth as a businessman who founded an automotive empire. 

But when he started, the cars or ‘horseless carriages’ were reviled and a lot of people lost their shirt in the ‘pointless investment which will have no future and cannot hold up against the horses which were ubiquitous. The fumes were so noxious that women were advised not to ride on one for fear of spoiling their constitutions. Laws were promulgated to preserve the safety of horses where, in one town ‘the drivers were required by law to stop, climb out and light roman candles every time a horse drawn vehicle came into view. On top of that, the cars were prohibitively expensive and only came with four wheels, a  body and an engine. ‘Accessories’ like the bumpers, headlights and carburettors cost extra. Hilarious.

While the author tracks the enterprising Howard’s rise to untold riches, and his son Frankie’s tragic accidental death, she also provides a picture of that old California – strict and pious, with alcohol, gambling, brothels and even cabaret. As of on cue, all those things were in abundance across the border in Tijuana. The city boomed on the money spent by Californians popping across the border to spend their money. 

His marriage crumbled and he married, at fifty two, Marcela, who was only twenty five and the elder sister of his daughter in law (Wife of the eldest son Lin). 

The author is a gifted narrator. Though this is a biography of the horse and the people who were instrumental in making the phenomenon, each person’s narrative sparkles. The whole book reads like a thriller, which very few biographies do. (One that comes to mind readily is John Nash’s story A Beautiful Mind by Silvia Naser)

Take Tom Smith for example. He knew only horses, was a loaner and was bereft when horses, with whom he was an expert got replaced by automobiles. He was so taciturn that legend has it that when he accidentally cut off one of his own toes, all of his reaction was to hold it up and say ‘My toe’. 

Or the horse showman “Cowboy Charlie” Irvin who was so big that cars and horses had to be picked specially to contain his girth or hold his weight. He offers Tom a job in his equine empire of small time races (supported by illegal betting) and variety shows with a huge equestrian presence. Even though he appears for a few pages and dies (thus vanishing out of the story), the portrayal is brilliant.

Fascinating. Reads better than a lot of fiction. 

Tom Smith finally ends up with Harold and helps his horses win races. Now that he has become (relatively) affluent, he is comfortable and is given more responsibilities. He is sent to find a young, overlooked horse that can be trained to win races. That is how he comes across Seabiscuit on a far away farm. 

The story then sags a bit in describing Red Pollard, who grew up in Edmonton Canada and was a struggling jockey all over North America. He was a ‘bug boy’ , the lowest of the low apprentices (the bug in the bug boy is the asterisk written against their names in the official lists!). He meets a legendary rider (nicknamed Iceman for his intrepidly cool nerves even amidst dangerous situations) called George Woolf. Another Canadian, from Vancouver. 

Amazing stories of the incredible lengths the jockeys go to keep within the allowed limit – including purging stomach contents on command and running with heavy and warm clothing in sweltering heat to purge water weight to dangerous treatments (including swallowing tapeworm eggs and using a mixture that tended to ‘do the stuff’ but also spontaneously explode from within a bottle – you name it. Their condition of continued exhaustion and worse is brilliantly narrated. A joy to read, and this is how a nonfiction story should be written. 

Even for those who are not into horses, this story will appeal at multiple levels – life in the twenties, the crazy antics of a group of people who were desperate to become jockeys, the hierarchy from bug boy and rise up into a strict hierarchy, the abuse they suffered at the hands of horse owners and trainers, the poverty on top of all that – fascinating stuff told in a brilliant style, with wry humour running right through it. 

More astounding stories come. You learn about a jockey who would have been the very first in history to drown on the racetracks after an accident; another one who was totally given up for dead but still managed to wake up after a moonshot gamble by a desperate doctor to revive him. And many more. 

Also humorous and informative at the same time is how the racetrack at Tijuana, at the very height of its glory, got destroyed by a ‘horse shit Godzilla’. Amazing. 

Red Pollard gets the temperamental Seabiscuit to listen to him and wins the first race, a small race but against formidable rivals. Seabiscuit has arrived. 

The book chronicles how Seabiscuit suddenly burst into prominence, and kept going from strength to strength. There is nothing to tell here in this review, but the descriptions of the races where he delighted and surprised the crowd are all well told and it is definitely worth reading, if only for the exhilaration factor that is brought out so well by the author. 

Seabiscuit makes progress but is unable to challenge the most respected horse Royal xxx because every time a race was arranged, either Seabiscuit or the other horse needed to be pulled out for various reasons. 

Then Pollard, riding another horse, is involved in a near collision and even though it was completely not his fault, the racing association slaps a bar on him from racing for almost a year. Livid with rage, Howard pulls Seabiscuit out of all races saying ‘No Pollard, no Seabiscuit’. Pollard is also critically injured and is recovering. 

Seabiscuit goes to compete in Santa Anita cup and is completely blocked by another horse. Having seen others take an almost insurmountable lead, the new rider xxx almost catches up to beat the field. He loses by a hairline distance to the eventual winner. 

When Seabiscuit is taken to Mexico, the city drowns with visitors from all over America. Seabiscuit has become the most famous racehorse in history, save the War Admiral who is winning a string of competitions. But never seems to manage to meet Seabiscuit, to Howard’s chagrin. 

The great match is finally arranged in Belmont but weirdly both the War Admiral and Seabiscuit seem to be simultaneously out of form! Smith, the trainer of Seabiscuit is puzzled by Seabiscuit’s sudden loss of form but does not understand what is going on. Finally, realizing that Seabiscuit is injured, they reluctantly pull out at the last minute, with accusations of cowardice flying, and rumors that ‘Seabiscuit is finished’. 

In the next match up (Howard now decides to enter Seabiscuit to the next match that War Admiral has been entered) also fizzles out, with first Pollard crushing his leg trying to tame a wild horse and then weather intervening and making it impossible for Seabiscuit to perform. It looks like Seabiscuit is not destined to face War Admiral at all, and Howard and Smith are under tremendous pressure to prove that Seabiscuit is still race worthy, let alone worthy enough to take on War Admiral.

Meanwhile, Seabiscuit is withdrawn from several races because he has developed a leg problem or because the weather does not cooperate or because the field is too muddy and this causes rumors that Seabiscuit is ‘finished’ and Howard is hiding the truth. Seabiscuit proves them wrong by spectacularly beating the competition in local matches. In another, he seems to have lost literally by a nose’s hair to another horse. 

Finally is an exhilarating race, finally, between the War Admiral and Seabiscuit, where it is established who is the best racehorse in history. Great descriptions on the preparation for the race and the conditions laid out by War Admiral’s owner and how Woolf managed to circumvent the disadvantages posed by these unfamiliar conditions heaped on Seabiscuit. 

At the same time as when Seabiscuit finally proved he is the greatest racehorse, he was injured, and his return to the racing world was considered extremely unlikely. So was Pollard’s after repeated severe injuries. They limped off together, determined to prove everybody wrong. 

The preparation of Seabiscuit for the Santa Monica race is told in detail and the press frenzy and audience frenzy about the possible comeback of Seabiscuit is well described. When he wins against a formidable crowd and from what’s an icing on the cake from Howard’s point of view, Kayak comes in second, his joy knows no bounds. 

At the height of glory and the greatest achievement, Howard retires Seabiscuit on the advice of Smith. The book’s main story ends here.

The epilog is fascinating as well. It follows the lives of the major players – we learn of the tragic end of Woolf, the remaining life of Pollard – his highs and lows, Howard and Seabiscuit itself.

The storytelling style is fascinating and excellent and it makes the horse come alive in front of our mental eyes.

An excellent read.

9/10

== Krishna

Book: The Best Laid Plans by Sydney Sheldon

We have reviewed some of Sydney Sheldon’s books earlier. In fact we have reviewed many of them. See Memories of Midnight or Tell Me Your Dreams just for two examples. Let us see what the story on this one is.

Leslie Stewarts is a   PR and ad executive in Kentucky. She is beautiful and smart. She has Oliver Russell as a client. He is young, passionate and wants to be the governor of Kentucky. However, Leslie’s boss Jim Bailey says that whoever was funding him suddenly withdrew support and Oliver’s poll ratings were falling. He was relying on their office to pull him back up again – inexpensively, as now he does not have the funds. 

Flashback: Leslie’s father, whom she adored, left her mother and moved in with a widow he had fallen in love with and Leslie realizes that he no longer cares for Leslie either. 

As happens in Sydney Sheldon novels, she falls for him hard and without worrying about professional conflict, sleeps with him. When he at last proposes, her bliss seems to be complete. And as a long term reader of Sydney’s stories, you know exactly where this is headed. 

And it happens, Oliver marries a senator’s daughter. The senator is Todd Davis and the daughter is Jan. Leslie hears of it from the press first and is stunned but she is grace itself in supporting Oliver’s choice. She even attends their wedding but she now knows that she is going to make his life a living hell from now on. 

After a betrayal from her father (who moved away to marry his long time mistress abandoning Leslie and her mother) this was one betrayal too far. 

She surprises Senator Todd by asking for an introduction to another press baron in Arizona. Puzzled, but seeing no harm, he makes the introductions by phone. That man, Henry Chambers, though old, falls for her and she marries him. First step of the plan for revenge completed. 

She takes an interest in the newspaper and efficiently returns it to profit. Her husband dies and she slowly increases her empire, adding more newspapers and TV channels to become a media baron. Step One in her elaborate plan of revenge completed. 

The story abruptly shifts to Dana Evans, who grew up moving from place to place in tow to her father, who was in the army. When she graduated in journalism, she got a job in a local newspaper and then graduated to the head quarters in the typical way Sheldon’s heroines do: getting things done dynamically and impressing the boss Matt. She rose in the organization to become a war zone television journalist. 

Meanwhile, the plan of Senator Davis works and as the campaign (clandestinely) kicks into high gear, Oliver is being talked about as Presidential material and he is leading the polls of the possible candidates. He is sitting pretty. But Leslie is watching carefully. 

Meanwhile, Dana is making a name for herself, winning syndication and several awards for her unusual reporting as well as looking after the orphaned kids in Sarajevo, a war torn region. 

Olive, as expected becomes President and Davis is now happy that he has got a puppet in the White House. 

The explosive comes when Leslie starts putting explosive headlines attacking President Oliver. Davis tries to get Oliver to seduce Leslie and offers his private mansion away from public glare. Oliver sleeps with her and then when he leaves, is convinced that Leslie has been neutralized. The next day’s headline shows a picture of the mansion with the caption ‘President’s Love Nest’. 

Now this is unusual because in Sydney’s books, the woman still pines for her lost lover and has a huge change of heart when he comes back to her. Time and time again in earlier books. This one seems to be different

Meanwhile, Dana is arrested and deported from the balkan country, accused of being a spy. The deportation, not death, is the result of the efforts of the President and Tager, his Chief of Staff. She is reassigned as the White House correspondent and meets them. She also gets over her hangups for the Herzogovia issues and gets to know and like a fellow journalist, Jeff. 

There is another girl who dies after taking Ecstacy, in a hotel room. Her boyfriend’s fingerprints are all over the room. However, he insists that he was not the killer. He was in her room but left before she died. The girl, Carole was just fifteen and was the daughter of the Governer of a state. The mother is devastated. 

She had gone on a tour of the White House and when she went to the washroom, her boyfriend, who was her classmate and a fellow tourist of the White House, could see that she was excited. She told him that she was going to meet someone important in the fanciest suite of a fancy hotel in the town. The boyfriend visited her in the hotel but was booted out by the girl, Carole, as she was expecting someone to come and meet her in secret. 

The police realize that she made one phone call on the day of the murder from the room : To the White House!

The killer remembers that she was given ecstasy and unexpectedly fell and hit her head and died. He quickly cleaned up the doorknob and goes out by the private elevator to his car, also wiping the buttons on the way out. Since he registered the room in cash under a false name and since he was careful not to touch any surfaces, he knows he cannot be tracked by the police. Still, it was a very close call. 

When Leslie hears of the young girl’s murder and esctasy, she immediately remembers Oliver offering her Esctasy all those years ago and has a gut feel that this is her moment. She commissions a senior investigator to look into it and with ingenious methods and an informant (who is an old acquaintance who used to trade tips for money) who is the boyfriend of the telephone operator at the very hotel, hones in on the President being the prime suspect. 

A blackmailer and then a reporter who are getting too close to the truth are murdered. 

When finally Senator Davis finds out that Oliver will not listen to him about stopping the peace deal in the Middle East to help him and his buddies continue to sell arms to both sides, he turns against Oliver and makes a deal with Leslie to bring him down. 

What follows are multiple twists, as you expect from a typical Sydney Sheldon book. I will leave the spoiler alerts out. This is an old book and so almost everyone who is interested in the author would have read it but in case you are tempted to read this on the basis of this review for the first time, I don’t want to spoil it for you. But a few comments. 

You could see one of the twists coming from a mile away, if you have been reading Sheldon’s books regularly, as I have. In some ways, this book is also different. A jilted lover, a strong woman, also exists here. But there is another gitty woman too – Dana Evans. Still, in this case, the ending for one of the central characters is quite different from usual. 

A taut story, enough twists and turns, surprises from the main characters in terms of what you would expect them to do (one of which is Oliver standing up for his principles in his Presidential term) all combine to make this one of Sydney Sheldon’s better books. Definitely worth a read, if you are a fan of his type of thrillers. 

7/10 

= = Krishna