Book Reviews: Nonfiction
(History, English Language, Biography, and Autobiography)
© Copyright 1999-2005, Skylar Hamilton Burris

These books are arranged in alphabetical order BY TITLE, with titles separated by horizontal lines. See also nonfiction sections for politics and religion.

Age and Guile * * * * * (5)
Beat Youth, Innocence, and a Bad Haircut
by P.J. O'Rourke

The conservative political humorist P.J. O'Rourke was once a knee jerk, card-carrying, pot smoking, hippie liberal.  Now he's more of a libertarian, but he relives those former days in this book.  Some of the book is a little unpalatable, like all of those (often sexually explicit) excerpts from his fictional writings produced in those liberal days.  But some of the book is funny, particularly his commentary on those very writings. The articles selected from numerous automobile magazines, however, grow a little dull for the female reader, even if they are occasionally interspersed with some clever, cutting humor.  Overall it's a pretty good work because O'Rourke is a very good writer, but it doesn't hold a candle to his other books, and in that respect, Age and Guile is a disappointment.  I will say, however, that his spoof of modern poetry (or what might possibly be his serious past attempts at it) is absolutely hilarious.  I especially enjoyed his "poem on nothing at all." 

The Autobiography of Malcolm X * * * * * * (6)
by Alex Haley

This is a book that should be read by all races. Reading it will dispel many of the myths that have arisen among both blacks and whites regarding Malcolm X. Despite its title, the book is not an autobiography, but a biography. It is much more interesting than most biographies, however, and it proceeds as quickly as any fictional novel.

Quote: "...always, the black people have advanced further when they have seen that they had to rise up against a system that they clearly saw was outright against them. Under the lullaby sung by foxy liberals, the northern Negro became a beggar. But the Southern Negro, facing the honestly snarling white man, rose up to battle that white man for his freedom--long before it happened in the North."

Dimensions of the Holocaust
Annotated by Elliot Lefkovitz

This book is a compendium of four lectures delivered at Northwestern University in 1977.  Elie Wiesel, a concentration camp survivor, discusses the impossibility of "The Holocaust as Literary Inspiration." His lecture is very poetic, and it will grip the mind of the reader, even though it does not actually seem to have as much actual substance as some of the others. Lucy Dawidowicz, a historian and author, discusses "The Holocaust as Historical Record," and Dorothy Rabinowitz, approaches "The Holocaust as Living Memory."  Finally, Robert McAfee Brown looks at "The Holocaust As a Problem in Moral Choice," examining Christian complicity in the Holocaust, delving into the question of God's indifference, and analyzing the literature of Elie Wiesel.

Eats, Shoots & Leaves * * * * * * * * * * (10)
The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
by Lynne Truss

Who would have thought a book on punctuation could be so engrossing?  Lyne Truss's (and yes, I do believe in Truss's rather than Truss') Eats, Shoots & Leaves is extremely funny, and it provides a sort of catharsis for the grammatical stickler.   She chronicles not only the demise of the English language but the history of punctuation itself.  I highly recommend this book to any lover of grammar. 

(To point out with glee the grammatical errors in this review, e-mail SSBurris@msn.com.)

A History of the American People * * * * * * (6)
by Paul Johnson

It is always interesting to see what the Brits think of us.  Paul Johnson shows a tempered admiration of England's bastard child in this history, and he recognizes many of the qualities that makes America unique in the history of nations.    He is much kinder to the fledgling land in this history than he was in the history of his own nation, though he does not hesitate to criticize, in that glib way of his, whenever the mood should strike him. The history ends with the first President Bush, and I would like to see an updated edition taking us through to the term of the present one.  I am told that there are a few sloppy historical errors in this work, a surprise to me, and not one I am able to verify or deny at this time.

A History of the English People * * * * * * * (7)
by Paul Johnson

In A History of the English People, Paul Johnson recounts the story of the English with both loving admiration and seething disdain; his people are to him "a huge force of good and evil."

Most historians have their biases, but they mask them subtly and fairly successfully under the shadow of their academic-style prose; Paul Johnson, however, is so outright with his prejudices in this, his most opinionated history, that reading the book is at times almost comical. Queen Elizabeth, it seems, could do no wrong. If she directed murder, it was "against her will." She "was forced, with great reluctance" to persecute the Catholics and the Puritans, because "both groups, in the end, left her with little alternative." The Queen was a paragon of tolerance, whose greatest achievement was to establish "the religious system of England on a basis of moderation." James, on the other hand, was a "loutish savage." Indeed, Johnson is as expansive in his condemnation of the Stuarts as in his praise for Elizabeth: "Those who decry the influence of personality on history find it hard to argue away the speed, the perverse skill, and the absolute decisiveness with which the Stuarts demolished their English heritage."

Johnson is a clever writer, and he manipulates language effectively. It is not the kind of wordplay one expects to encounter in a history. His descriptions are memorable: the Puritans "oozed hypocrisy,"* America "was the posthumous child of the Long Parliament." Many of the author’s phrases are entertaining because they are tongue-in-cheek. Witch hunters, he tells us, were accused of seeking economic gain, "[b]ut this seems too cruel and cynical even for the English." The reason the English became such a powerful force in history was owing largely to their racism, but "[q]uite when they first took note of the fact that they were the successor-race to the Jews is impossible to determine." "It is a sad comment on human societies," Johnson writes, "that they can usually be persuaded to accept bribery as a system of government, provided the circle of corruption is wide enough."

If the English are not safe from the historian’s barb, we cannot hope that the Americans will be. Indeed, Johnson explodes the romantic view we American’s have of our revolution, but not without a little romanticism of his own. The movement toward independence was, he writes, "an unholy alliance" between landowners and "swarming" lawyers, who united to manipulate the "Boston city mob" so that "America was born in organized violence masquerading as idealism." The "insurgents," he claims, "scalp[ed] and mutilate[d] British redcoats." He compares the American War for Independence to the Communist Revolution in Russia, in which "a small group of single-minded and ruthless men hustled along a multitude." Once the nation was independent, it proved no more capable than England: "Free Americans continued to kill each other in the lapidary shadows of the windy rhetoric from Philadelphia." In summary, the English people "gave birth to a noisy, noble and flawed offspring, lavishing on it their traditional christening-gifts of idealism and hypocrisy." The "lingering consciousness of divine destiny" motivates America even today (i.e. 1972), writes Johnson, "in a hideously debased and perverted form – as the CIA and KGB, like God and Satan, fight Miltonic battles across five continents." I wonder how Mr. Johnson feels now that our hideously debased and perverted sense of divine destiny has caused the communist empire to crumble. It is little wonder this volume is so hard to come by in the States. (The book is out of print and the one copy I could secure was literally falling apart in my hands.) Johnson is much more generous in his History of the American People.

A History of the English People is not for the sensitive, or for the unlearned. But it can be thoroughly enjoyed by the well-read and the thick-skinned, and it is, from a purely literary (if not a historical) perspective, the most-well written of Johnson’s books.

*Despite this comment, the Puritans, and in particular Cromwell, get a fairer shake than they do in most histories.

A History of the Jews * * * * * * * (7)
by Paul Johnson

This 583 page tome covers the major events, movements, and cultural aspects of Jewish history, from Noah (the first biblical character, according to Johnson, for whom we have historical corroboration) to Israel in the 1980's. Johnson wrote this book  because he wanted to learn more about the roots of his own faith, Christianity.  But the book may move too quickly for the Christian who has lost touch with the Jewish roots of his religion, and who is largely ignorant of the background from which Christ and all of his apostles came.  It is good to have a sprinkling of knowledge, at least, before approaching this volume. Johnson also makes interesting speculations that help elucidate certain aspects of the gospels. He argues, for instance, that Christ was probably closest, of all the Jewish sects, to the Pharisees, and that he was trained by Hillel. (This might help to explain why, despite His many claims to divinity, the Pharisees actually tolerated Him as long as they did.) A final note: the Christian or Jew who leans toward a literal, inerrant interpretation of the Bible may be offended by Johnson's more liberal historical approach to the text and his very occasional unsubstantiated assertions about certain characters. He also shows a surprising sympathy for the Palestinians, which may give the pro-Israel reader who has never seriously considered Palestinian claims (such as myself) a more balanced view.

Quote:  The Jews simply assume the pre-existence of an omnipotent God, who acts but is never described or characterized, and so has the force and invisibility of nature itself: it is significant that the first chapter of Genesis, unlike any other cosmogony of antiquity, fits perfectly well, in essence, with modern scientific explanations of the origin of the universe, not least the 'Big Bang' theory.

Intellectuals * * * * * * * * (8)
by Paul Johnson

In this intriguing volume, Johnson choose ten of history's most prominent intellectuals, including Karl Marx, Doestevsky, and Rousseau.  He discusses the lives and theories of these selected individuals, as well as their influence on history, but his work is tied together by an overarching theme.  He constantly returns to the terrifying power of  ideas and sees in the intellectuals a group of out-of-touch thinkers who love humanity in the abstract but despise or neglect the individual man.  Because Paul Johnson is in best form when describing people, Intellectuals may turn out to be his greatest work.

Night * * * * * * * * * * (10)
by Elie Wiesel

Night is a powerful, beautifully written autobiography of a concentration camp survivor. Elie Wiesel deals with his loss of faith during the holocaust, and relives the horrors of the concentration camp. Perhaps most importantly, he shows how such a life affected the people in the camps--how it changed many of them into something less than human. The question of injustice is an unsettling one.

Quote: Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my Faith forever. Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget these moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself.

The Professor and the Madman:
A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary * * * * * * * * (8)
by Simon Winchester

This book--part true crime, part literary history, part human interest story—was difficult to put down.  It tells the story of two of the personalities behind the making of The Oxford English Dictionary.  One, the professor James Murray, was the editor of the tome.  The other, Dr. W.C. Minor, was a major contributor to The OED, a former American army surgeon, and a raving lunatic. The Professor and the Madman also narrates the process of compiling The OED and throws in some fascinating etymology.  This more “academic” portion of the work is written modestly enough that it should interest even those with only a passing curiosity for the English language.  The chapter headings, which contain definitions of words appropriate to the chapter’s content, are an interesting touch.

Winchester is an able if not a masterful writer.  There is nothing complex or poetic or particularly profound in his narrative, but he tells a fascinating story and captures the reader’s interest.  I will offer two critiques, however, both of which relate to the author’s unskilled method of foreshadowing. Winchester would occasionally drop a hint that leaves the reader hanging, which is fine, if the reader has some concept that his whetted appetite will eventually be satisfied.  But after dropping these hints the author would move on as though he had simply forgotten about them, leaving the reader little idea that he planned to reveal all later. (One such example is when the author mentions that only one word was ever lost from the OED. The reader immediately thinks in frustration, “What word?” But Winchester continues his narrative as if he has no intention of revealing the secret.  Much later in the book the author mentions the fact again, and this time he reveals the word, after the reader has already given up hope of learning it.)    Secondly, this inexpert foreshadowing also tends to obscure the chronology of the story from time to time.  Despite these minor frustrations, however, the book is an excellent read.

What Happened? How and Why Did Dylan Become a Born-Again Christian? * * * * (4)
by Paul William

Click here to read this review on the Bob Dylan bibliography page.

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