Reasons to Live by Amy Hempel
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"I thought the present was the safer bet. We can only die in the future, I thought; right now we are always alive."

Reasons to Live (1985) is the third collection of short stories by Amy Hempel that I have read, after At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom and Tumble Home. One of the reasons that I keep returning to her collections of short stories might be a coincidental similarity in our biographies. Not only was I born in the same year as Ms. Hempel, but also both of us relocated to California from a city where many people speak Polish (Chicago for her, Warsaw for me).

The term "short stories" is not really adequate, particularly when referring to stories from this collection. One should call the genre mastered by Ms. Hempel "very short stories." These literary miniatures, snapshots of life, are just a few pages long - their length ranges from one to 15 pages.

To me, the best thing about the majority of Ms. Hempel's miniatures is that the reader has to do a little work to interpret them, to understand their meaning, and to see the "message" they convey. More importantly, different readers may find different messages in individual stories. And that's how it should be - after all, this is literature, not just storytelling!

Sadness is the common mood evoked by most stories in this collection, and the common motifs are loss, grief, and death. The first micro-story, In a Tub, deals with fear of death and celebration of life and sets the tone for the entire collection of 15 stories. Some of my favorite miniatures are: In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried in which the narrator describes how she did not help her friend who was dying - she left her alone for the final hours. The poignant Going ends with a beautiful, bittersweet passage:

"[...] it makes me think of the night my mother died. Three states away, the smell in my room was the smell of the powder on her face when she kissed me good-night - the night she wasn't there."

In moving When It's Human Instead of When It's Dog, a cleaning woman is trying to remove a spot on the rug - that stain is all that is physically left of a once living, loving, and loved human being.

The final miniature, Today Will Be a Quiet Day, is the sweetest. It also justifies the title of the collection. With all this death, loss, grief, and sadness, are there any reasons to live? Yes! One of the most important reasons is being able to make one's children happy and feel loved:

"My kids are as right as this rain. He smiled at the exact spots he knew their heads were turned to his, and doubted he would ever feel -- not better but more than he did now.

Three-and-a-half stars.

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The Triggerman's Dance by T. Jefferson Parker
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

"The only living things proximate to the event that remained truly unrippled were the eucalyptus tree and the poppies in the planter near where Rebecca, heart-shot and staggering, then heart-shot again, fell and died in the pouring rain."

A disappointment from one of my favorite crime authors: T. Jefferson Parker's thriller The Triggerman's Dance (1996) fails to deliver on the promise of its first chapters. The well-written beginning of the novel will captivate the reader. Alas, roughly after 100 pages, my interest in the plot began to weaken, to completely disappear towards the end of the book.

A brief synopsis of the setup: Costa Mesa, Orange County, California. Rebecca Harris, a young intern in the Orange County Journal, has been shot to death. It soon becomes clear that the bullets were meant for Ms. Baum, the newspaper columnist, for whom Ms. Harris worked. The initial investigation establishes that Ms. Baum's planned assassination would be considered a hate crime, because of her being a woman, Jewish, and promulgating left-wing views. Joshua Weinstein, an FBI agent, who also happened to be Ms. Harris' fiancé, is handling the investigation. The suspect is one Vann Holt, a very rich land- and business-owner, known for his right-wing views, extreme even for generally conservative Orange County. In yet another major twist in the setup, Mr. Weinstein recruits John Menden, a journalist, and Ms. Harris' lover, to help with the investigation.

I would have no problem with the contrived concept of the fiancé and the lover pooling their resources to find the killer of the woman they both adored if only it served some purpose in the novel. The unusual setup provides no literary payoff, though; the relationship dynamics between the two men are not shown with much psychological depth.

Yet the greatest disappointment for me is Mr. Parker's writing in The Triggerman's Dance. I like many of his novels for their economical, dispassionate, yet vivid prose, whereas at one point in this book the author even stoops to pretentious, capital-letter style:

"He craved Clarity and disliked the anger of the Red Zone.[...] But Clarity brought steadfastness to his vision and his limbs. Clarity allowed his eyes to see and his mind to work. You could ride Clarity, like a good machine, through thickets of confusion and rage."

Or my least favorite phrase from the novel:

"They run. They shoot. They run. They fight."

which is repeated several times, with different pronouns. This stylistic device reminds me of the adolescent male prose of Mr. Palahniuk's Fight Club.

Finally, why do we need 540 pages? Trimmed down to 300 - 350 pages, and cleaned of histrionics, it could be a great thriller, like many other novels by Mr. Parker are.

Two-and-a-half stars.


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Eyewitness To Power: The Essence of Leadership Nixon to Clinton by David Gergen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"Of these [qualities], integrity is the most important for a president. As former senator Alan Simpson said in introducing Gerald Ford at Harvard [...]: 'If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don't have integrity, nothing else matters.'"

David Gergen has been my favorite political commentator since mid-to-late 1980s when I religiously watched his segments on the PBS' MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. I would like to note that I admired the depth and sharpness of his insights even if I vehemently disagreed with the political philosophy of some of the presidents he worked for. For instance, Mr. Gergen was the Director of Communications and Assistant to Ronald Reagan, a president whose certain positive qualities became visible to me only in the light of later presidential disasters, like the forty-third and, particularly, the forty-fifth one.

The author worked for four sitting presidents: Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton, and also for Bush (the elder) before he was elected, and for Carter, after his presidency. Mr. Gergen clearly defines the main intent of his Eyewitness to Power (2000), a New York Times bestseller, in the Preface:

"Rather than inflict a personal memoir upon readers, I try here to bring together what I have learned about presidential leadership. The bulk of the book will trace out the lessons I carried away from the presidents I served in the White House."

Chapters 2 and 3, dedicated to Richard Nixon, provide fascinating reading. Mr. Gergen exposes the bright and the dark sides of Nixon's nature and offers sharp diagnoses about motivations behind the president's decisions:

"To Nixon, history was a handmaiden to leadership. He drew upon it in three ways: to gain a broader perspective on his own times; to impress upon listeners his place in the sun; and to find role models for action."

The title of one of the sections in Chapter 3, Confusing Power with Leadership is probably my favorite phrase in the entire text. The author clearly shows that not understanding the distinction was one of the main reasons for Nixon's downfall. In one passage, the author does not shy away from broad humor: he quotes Haldeman's memorandum that was conveying Nixon's instructions:

"'The president would like to have the bowling ball man come in and fit Mrs. Nixon and Tricia for balls as soon as possible.'"

Chapter 4, A Man of Character is dedicated to leadership aspects of Gerald Ford's short, transitional presidency. The following quote is quite illuminating:

"I have always thought him [Ford] the most decent man I have known in presidency. [...] Emotionally, he was the healthiest president we have had since Eisenhower and Truman."

The author explains that "Jerry Ford didn't need to be president to be happy with his life's arc." He was "well-centered" and "comfortable with himself."

Chapters 5, 6, and 7 (whose titles are so well chosen! The Natural, A Rooseveltian Style, Secrets of the Great Communicator) are dedicated to leadership Ronald Reagan-style. It is obvious that the author considers his presidency to be the most successful of the four he describes, despite admitting that Mr. Reagan had a "second-rate mind." Although I would assign Mr. Reagan's mind a larger ordinal number than "second", I have to grudgingly agree with the author as to the overall evaluation of Mr. Reagan's presidency (particularly now, having witnessed the utter ruination of the office in the recent four years). How is it possible not to agree with

"[...] I recognize that he had his flaws and that many do not share his politics. But even for those who oppose his views, there is a lot to be learned from him about public communications."

The author explains the many factors that contributed to the popular success of Reagan's style of leadership. One of the most important is clearly spelled out:

"[...] leaders must inspire people with confidence in the future. Only if he truly believes in the future himself will his followers make a leap and join him."

Chapters 8, 9, and 10 are dedicated to the study of leadership under Bill Clinton:

"Clinton will always be our paradox. [...] he left the country far better off than he found it. Economically, socially, even culturally, the nation made substantial gains during his stewardship. [...] Yet a sense of aching disappointment hangs over his presidency. How much more he could have achieved [...]"

The author attributes some of the reasons for this sense of disappointment to errors committed during the transition period between the election and January 20th, 1992:

"There is no doubt - even in his mind, I think - that his transition planted seeds that almost destroyed his presidency."

On the one hand, the author praises Clinton for his evident achievements, like passage of NAFTA, despite it being unpopular "in both the Congress and in public polls." On the other, Mr. Gergen clearly points out the deficiencies of Clinton's leadership that contributed to the failure of his health reform plan.

The book ends with Conclusion titled Seven Lessons of Leadership. This list of "seven keys to responsible and effective leadership in the White House" provides a masterful summary of the main ideas on political leadership. In my view, the "Gergen's List" should be mandatory reading for everyone interested in learning about or practicing politics.

To sum up this overlong review, Eyewitness to Power is an outstanding book, one of the best books about politics I have ever read. A great study of leadership, strong on deep analyses, and virtually devoid of gossipy fluff and self-aggrandizement. Very strongly recommended!

Four-and-a-half stars.



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Summer of Fear by T. Jefferson Parker
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

"And her face! Amber's lovely, ageless, beguiling face - somehow lifted back now, flaplike, hinged on only one side, turned almost down, as if contemplating her own hair afloat in that pond of blood."

Summer of Fear (1993) is the eleventh novel by T. Jefferson Parker that I am reviewing here on Goodreads and the first one that I am unable to recommend. The overly complex setup gradually turns into a mess of an implausible plot.

The narrator, Russ Monroe, an ex-cop, is a moderately successful true-crime writer. He is telling the story of the Summer of Fear, in which he himself plays a major part. Amber, his ex-lover and the mother of his daughter, is killed; Russ finds her body. The words "SO JAH SEH," "AWAKEN OR DIE IN IGNORACE," and "MIDNIGHT EYE IS RETURN" are spray-painted on the walls at the scene of the crime. Moreover, Russ sees a friend of his, Marty, the Captain of Detectives of the Orange County Sheriff's Homicide Division, leaving the scene. Marty also happens to be the victim's ex-husband. Russ faces another drama: his wife is dying of brain tumor. Russ' and Amber's grown-up daughter is visiting after a long absence in his life

All this is just a part of the setup. We also have a suspected serial murderer, who calls himself Midnight Eye, on the loose in Orange County. Two couples have been murdered in a similar way, and Russ soon will be at the scene of yet multiple murder (apparently he has access to crime scenes because of his police connections):

"The smell was strong. Both bodies - smallish dark-skinned bodies - were opened and emptied like drawers. Their contents were everywhere [...]"

To me, the entire setup is so contrived that it has the feel of a cheap TV series. What's worse though, is that this setup devolves into a preposterous plot, with ridiculous plot twists, which I am reluctant to even allude to. This pains me because I love Mr. Parker's writing. I have very highly rated several of his novels. For instance, I have found his California Girl, winner of the 2005 Edgar Award, not that far from a masterpiece of the genre. Summer of Fear, on the other hand, in places reads almost as a parody of an actual crime novel, despite the accomplished prose, notable especially in the earlier parts of the story.

I have discovered from the author's website that he wrote the book as a "howl of protest" about his wife's struggle with cancer and death from brain tumor, a pained cry against the randomness of illness and crime. It is hard to imagine the degree of tragedy and horror that Mr. Parker had to endure. He has my wholehearted sympathy, but I have to be truthful in the review: I am unable to recommend the novel.

Two stars.


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Sandra Day O'Connor: How the First Woman on the Supreme Court Became Its Most Influential Justice by Joan Biskupic
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"O'Connor enjoyed telling audiences that her husband joked, 'I think it is a tribute to American democracy when a cook who moonlights as a janitor can be elected to high public office.'"
"[...] journalist Howard Kohn described O'Connor in a profile for theLos Angeles Times as 'arguably, the most powerful woman in the nation' [...]"

For such a Supreme Court aficionado as this reviewer Joan Biskupic's biography Sandra Day O'Connor. How the First Woman on the Supreme Court Became Its Most Influential Justice (2005) is a wonderful read. It is a highly recommended read for anyone interested in the political dimension of life in the United States. After all, who sits on the Supreme Court is in many ways more important for the future of the country than who the current president is or which party holds the control of Congress.

[Warning: the following paragraph is a political rant.] Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman on the Supreme Court is a conservative. I am certainly not one, but nevertheless I am in awe of Justice O'Connor's tenure on the Court, her accomplishments, and of how much she influenced the lives of all US residents. The country needs conservatives as much as it needs liberals. What the country does not need is lying, self-serving scum embracing conservative slogans for personal gain and to wield power. [End of rant.]

This is a traditionally structured biography, where Ms. Biskupic describes, in considerable detail, the trajectory of the future Justice's life and career. The reader is offered interesting analyses of Sandra Day's childhood and early youth experiences on the Lazy B Ranch outside of Duncan, Arizona. We read about her undergraduate studies at Stanford, which she begins at 16. Then the Stanford Law School, where, coincidentally, William Rehnquist, the future Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, is her classmate. In 1952, she graduates from Stanford Law in the top 10%, yet the only job she is offered is that of a legal secretary. Then comes marriage and birth of three sons, which is why her husband refers to her, in jest, as a "cook," and a "janitor."

In the 1960s and 1970s, Ms. O'Connor is active in Arizona state politics, including serving at the state senator. At the end of the 1970s, she assumes a seat on Arizona State Court of Appeals. On July 7th, 1981, president Ronald Reagan announces his choice of Sandra Day O'Connor as the first female justice of the Supreme Court. Ms. Biskupic's account of Justice O'Connor's 24 years on the highest court is a captivating read. Some highlights include observations about the dynamic of power on the court between Justices Brennan and O'Connor:

"In some ways, the start of Brennan's declining influence could be traced to O'Connor's appointment."

In other fascinating passages we read about the striking differences, in the later years on the court, between Justice Scalia, who always held definitive opinions on any issue, and O'Connor, who tended to hold open-ended and pragmatic positions in most matters.

Justice O'Connor's tenure on the Court might be illustrated by an ascending line of her influence on the rulings. The quote about her being "the most powerful woman in the nation" is hardly an exaggeration! What I particularly value about Justice O'Connor and what I believe might make it one of the most important justices in the entire history of the nation's highest court is that she was always a voice of moderation and compromise to the extent that she was sometimes accused of wanting "to have it both ways." She embodies the type of a conservative that I can live with: one who eschews ideology and embraces pragmatism.

An engaging biography of a great Justice, and a must read for anyone interested in the workings of the Supreme Court.

Four stars.


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Red Light by T. Jefferson Parker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"Merci, who had once believed she had the answer to almost everything, realized again, to the embarrassment of her soul, that she had the answer to almost nothing."

An oceanfront condo on Pacific Coast Highway in San Clemente, California. Aubrey, a 19-year-old woman, has invited a man for dinner. A man whom she likes a lot. They eat, he leaves, but she expects his return. And yes, after a while, there is a knock on the door, and Aubrey feels happy that he is now in her control. But then

"[...] her smile died from the inside out and she formed her last thought: No."

Sergeant Merci Rayborn, with the help of another homicide detective, Paul Zamorra, investigates the case. They quickly establish two facts: that the victim worked as a call girl and that she was seen with Marci's boyfriend, Mike McNally, a vice detail detective. Mike becomes the main suspect in the case. Moreover, Marci is given an old and unsolved case of a 1969 murder to work on. The two cases gradually become intertwined.

The above presents the excellent - well-written and captivating - setup of T. Jefferson Parker's Red Light (2000), an Edgar Award nominee for the best novel, which follows the author's outstanding The Blue Hour . I loved the realistic, vivid portrayal of Marci in the former novel. The new book does not add much to the characterization of the female detective; fortunately, neither does her depiction lose any believability. Aubrey's character is also written well and, to me, realistic. Of the two male protagonists, the portrayal of Paul Zamorra seems stronger. There is something slightly out of focus about Mike's characterization. Naturally, the ambiguity might have been intended by the author and misconstrued by this reviewer.

As always, Mr. Parker is strong on descriptions of Orange County landscapes. Mike lives in Modjeska Canyon, a charming place on the western slopes of Santa Ana Mountains, a place I know from several visits. Just a few sentences of the author's prose bring the images of the canyon to life. Another great aspect of Mr. Parker's novels, which is on clear display here, is his skill of showing the mechanisms of Orange County politics: the interconnected workings of county government and various business interests. For me, the most memorable fragment of the novel is the compelling story of farmer Jesse Acuna beaten by right-wing assailants.

Another highlight of the novel is the dramatic moment when Merci visits Det. Zamorra's wife in the hospital - the fragment is so well written that it made me sick for a few minutes. No histrionics there; instead an almost clinical account of human pain and fear. And then, the powerful scenes of Det. McNally's interrogation. Alas, almost as a rule, my wonderful memories of the novel are spoiled by a cliché ending. Considering the ending, I would not put this novel on the Edgar Awards' shortlist. I would definitely put The Blue Hour there. Well, that's why I am not a literary critic.

A great read, anyway.

Three-and-three-quarter stars.

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Khrushchev: The Man and His Era by William Taubman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"William Taubman's monumental, long-awaited biography of Nikita Khrushchev is the most important book on Khrushchev to appear in English since the deposed Soviet leader's own memoirs in 1970. It is rich in analysis and factual detail, shedding new light both on Khrushchev's life and on the Soviet state."
- Robert Cottrell, New York Review of Books

A personal reflection: Khrushchev was the first politician whom I remember from childhood. Until the 1990s, Poland was in the Soviet sphere of influence so the Soviet party leaders were bigger than God for us, the Polish children. I remember one night in October 1964 when my mother woke me up saying "No more Khrushchev!" and it was like the end of the world. I remember exactly how the room looked from my bed when I heard the news.

This is the eleventh book on Russian and Soviet leaders that I am reviewing here on Goodreads. The full list is included below the rating. Also, it is the second biography of Nikita Khrushchev that I am reviewing, and a very different one from Medvedev's work. I completely agree with the sentiment expressed by the professional reviewer and quoted in the epigraph. Let me steal yet another blurb, this time from Simon Heffer in The Spectator:

"A monumental book....A masterpiece, magnificently researched and well written, bringing out the true dimensions of his subject"

Note the use of the word "monumental" by both reviewers. Yes, that's indeed the best adjective to describe of William Taubman's Khrushchev. The Man and His Era. (2003) Not only is the biography monumental - in size, scope, and depth of detail - but it also is "definitive," in the sense that it will be next to impossible to improve upon. When reading the bio one is overwhelmed by the breathtaking thoroughness and completeness - almost as if every month of Khrushchev's life and every aspect of his activities has been meticulously documented. Note the volume of the book: 651 pages, plus over 200 (!!!) pages of notes, bibliography, and index.

Not being a historian, political scientist, or a writer, I am not qualified to properly review a superb biography. I will just offer a few comments on some of the fragments of the bio that made the strongest impression on me.

Khrushchev (three years younger than my grandmother) spent his youth in rural Russia, in extremely primitive living conditions, which would be unimaginable for most modern people. Not only poverty - which is ubiquitous today even in the richest countries - but also famine and hunger-driven cannibalism. Add to this the extreme political persecution - extreme as in never-ending mass killings of so-called political enemies. If anything seems more shocking than eating other people to survive, it is having to sentence other people to death in order not be sentenced to death. The passages about Khrushchev, a young activist rising in the ranks of the Communist party, calling for executions of "enemies of the party and nation" during Stalin's purges are extremely hard to read.

Soon after the purges comes World War Two and the blood-curdling stupidity of Stalin, the "Greatest Genius of All Times and Nations," which cost millions of people their lives. When the mass-murdering tyrant finally dies in 1953, Khrushchev gradually grabs the power. The author's detailed explanations about why it was Khrushchev who won the succession power struggle are fascinating. In particular, I have been captivated by the detailed discussion of the so-called "anti-Beria plot," with its double twist.

Khrushchev's famous "Secret Speech" on February 25, 1956, when he began disclosing the unimaginably huge extent of Stalin's crimes against humanity and, in particular, against his nation, was the beginning of the great ideological thaw that stopped the avalanche of political killings and brutal persecution in Eastern Europe (naturally, the persecution remained unabated as it is one of the essences of human nature, but became less lethal).

In a particularly depressing fragment of the book the author writes about the people's of Soviet Georgia unyielding love for their Greatest Son, Stalin, who - despite that the Greatest Son spilled more Georgian blood than that of any other region - "carried flowers to the Stalin monument" during protests against Khrushchev's Secret Speech; twenty people died during protests against sullying Stalin's immortal name.

The Berlin Crisis of 1961: Thanks to reading Mr. Taubman's work I feel as if I finally understand the exact dynamics of the political events of that year, although I acutely remember the concern and nervousness of the Polish radio broadcasts 60 years ago. Almost immediately after this, the Cuban missiles crisis happens, when the world gets the closest to being destroyed in a global nuclear war. I have read about the crisis in several other books, yet Mr. Taubman offers new insights and details, especially on the bumbling execution of the Soviet plan to bring nuclear missiles to Cuba.

The Cuban crisis was one of the major factors in the unraveling of Khrushchev's political leadership. The author describes the events preceding and surrounding Khrushchev's ouster in October of 1964 with great clarity. Finally, in a harrowing passage, we read what the deposed Soviet leader regretted about his life:

"'Most of all the blood [...] My arms are up to the elbows in blood. That is the most terrible thing that lies in my soul.'"

It is a strong indictment of the failure of human race that Mr. Khrushchev, despite being instrumental in his youth in executing hundreds of people for fictitious political crimes in order to save his own life, undoubtedly deserves credit and praise for greatly contributing to ending Stalin's brutal reign. Mr. Khrushchev had laid the foundations for future reforms by Gorbachev and Yeltsin.

Reading about humanity's lukewarm response toward Stalin's crimes makes one notice how constant the human nature is. Millions of people in ex-Soviet Union still cherish Stalin's memory. I know of another country where tens and tens of millions of people have voted for an utterly incompetent, corrupt, and failed politician.

Four-and-a-half stars.

My previous reviews of books on Soviet leaders:

Why Gorbachev Happened: His Triumphs and His Failure - by Robert G. Kaiser

The Struggle for Russia - by Boris Yeltsin

Gorbachev: Heretic in the Kremlin - by Dusko Doder and Louise Branson

The Andropov File - by Martin Ebon

Against the Grain - An Autobiography - by Boris Yeltsin

Lenin to Gorbachev: Three generations of Soviet Communists

Brezhnev, Soviet Politician - by Murphy

Khrushchev - by Roy Medvedev

Gorbachev and His Revolution - by Mark Galeotti

Andropov - by Zhores Medvedev

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