Review of Book Reviews from 2007 by RayS

Directions: The date at the beginning of each book is the date on which my review was published in this blog. Each review consists of three parts: 1. “Why read it?” 2. Sample ideas from the book, either paraphrased or quoted, and 3. Final, thought-provoking quotes. To locate the review, look at the “Blog Archive” at the right of the blog. Click on the year 2007. Find the month in which the review was published, click on it and go to the date of the review.

Monday, November 12, 2007. The Story of Philosophy. Will Durant. The best expression of the importance of this synthesis of philosophical ideas has been given by the author in the introduction to his book: “Human knowledge had become too great for the human mind. ‘Facts’ replaced understanding; and knowledge, split into a thousand isolated fragments, no longer generated wisdom. Every science and every branch of philosophy developed a technical terminology intelligible only to its exclusive devotees; as men learned more about the world, they found themselves ever less capable of expressing to their educated fellow men what it was they had learned.” Therefore, Durant saw himself as a professional teacher whose role was to mediate between the specialist and the nation. The purpose of this book was to make intelligible to the common person the ideas of philosophy. Durant defined science as analysis and philosophy as synthesis: “Science is analytical description, philosophy is synthetic interpretation. For a fact…is not complete except in relation to a purpose and a whole. Science gives us knowledge, but only philosophy can give us wisdom.”

Tuesday, November 13, 2007. Strictly Speaking: Will America Be the Death of English? Edwin Newman. If you love a good “rant,” this book is one of the better ones on a topic that everyone loves to rant on—the American language. From the cover: “Newman’s wry eye focuses on the sorry state of the English language as a reflection of the sorry state of society. If words are devalued, he argues, so are ideas and so are human beings. He rejoices in language that is lucid, graceful, direct, civilized. He urges us to be careful about what we say and how we say it. ‘Most of us will never speak succinctly or concretely; we may, however, aspire to; for direct and precise language, if people could be persuaded to try it, would make conversation more interesting, which is no small thing; it would help to substitute facts for bluster, also no small thing; and it would promote the practice of organized thought and even of occasional silence, which would be an immeasurable blessing.’ ”

Wednesday, November 14 – November 28, 2007. Tales and Sketches. Parts One, Two, Three and Four. Nathaniel Hawthorne. I have tried to reduce these tales and sketches to their essence. I hope these ideas will cause you to want to read the full tale or sketch. Nathaniel Hawthorne is one of my favorite authors. He spent his younger years as a recluse and his stories reflect his years of self-reflection. His novels depict the human spirit—the unpardonable sin (The Scarlet Letter), the family curse (The House of the Seven Gables), the importance of sin to humanity (The Marble Faun), the inhumanity of reformers and the rejection of women as intellectuals (The Blithedale Romance), but his tales and sketches reveal the creativity and variety of his ideas about the human race. Enjoy.

Monday, December 3, 2007. Tanglewood Tales for Girls and Boys: Being a Second Wonder Book. Nathaniel Hawthorne. Sit back, settle in, it's time for a story. Hawthorne tells stories to children about the ancient classical myths. "The Minotaur" [Theseus, Ariadne and the maze]. Hercules and "The Pygmies," who seek revenge for their friend the giant Antaeus at the hands of Hercules. "The Dragon's Teeth" [The kidnapping of Europa by the bull, a disguised god, and the search for her by Cadmus]. "Circe's Palace" [Circe and Ulysses]. "The Pomegranate-Seeds" [Pluto and proserpino]. Jason, Medea and "The Golden Fleece."

Tuesday, December 4, 2007. The Great Crash: 1929. John Kenneth Galbraith. Speculation was the cause of the Stock Market Crash of 1929, buying stocks with a percentage of the cost, the stocks becoming then collateral for the rest of the purchase price. However, the stock market crash contributed to in uncertain ways, but did not cause, the Depression—failure of the economy and unemployment were the cause of the Depression. The economy crashed along with the stock market, but the crash of the stock market did not necessarily cause the failure of the economy and the resulting Depression.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007. Tender Is the Night. F. Scott Fitzgerald. Novel. The theme is dependence. Nicole is a wealthy mental patient who is desperately in love with and dependent on her young psychiatrist, Dick Diver, whom she marries. As she achieves mental stability and emotional independence, he deteriorates because he has become dependent on her. She leaves him for a man who will be her lover and her caretaker, and Dick begins an irreversible decline into alcoholism and dissolution. This theme of superior, successful individuals who help dependent people gain a foothold on success and then themselves deteriorate as they become dependent, reoccurs in literature and film. Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie is an example and so is the film A Star is Born. What makes Tender Is the Night poignant is that the plot and characters seem to resemble the lives of F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author, and his mentally disturbed wife, Zelda and their lives in the "Roaring '20s."

Thursday, December 6, 2007. Tess of the D'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman. Thomas Hardy. Novel. Part of the charm of the novel, in spite of its tragic story of a good girl ruined, is Hardy's description of the local villages, farms, nature in the changing seasons and customs.

Monday, December 10, 2007. This Side of Paradise. F. Scott Fitzgerald. The contrast between the superficial college kid whose main interest was flirting with girls as he attends Princeton and the world-weary, cynical, regretful, not-yet-thirty-year-old after serving as an officer in France during WWI. The novel is remarkable for its honest and detailed descriptions of the early "Jazz Age," the "Lost Generation." The book established Fitzgerald's reputation.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007. A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. When one member of his staff said he had had no training for the office that JFK was appointing him to, JFK replied that he too had had no education in how to be a President. They would both have to learn on the job. This book, together with Theodore Sorenson's Kennedy tells the reader what JFK learned about being President.