tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32354680.post6579779812483238891..comments2023-11-03T09:05:31.265-04:00Comments on Soho the Dog: The long grave already dugMatthewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10936327293692397100noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32354680.post-50255834970515957662007-11-12T13:58:00.000-05:002007-11-12T13:58:00.000-05:00I also highly recommend Big Trouble, a book so lar...I also highly recommend Big Trouble, a book so large and all-encompassing it can almost be recommended in any discussion at all.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11367901003659994894noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32354680.post-14410219602076143482007-11-11T00:06:00.000-05:002007-11-11T00:06:00.000-05:00Those all sound good; my incurable light-mindednes...Those all sound good; my incurable light-mindedness draws me to <I>Holy Madness.</I> <BR/><BR/>The Rebecca West doorstopper is wonderful--her riff on the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand is brilliant--but her quirks can get annoying; the idealization of "the Serb" and the anti-German bigotry (according to West, Goethe can be reduced to "ain't Nature grand") start to get wearying, though she usually saves the day with a lyrical description of a remote place like Lake Ohrid, or a chilling recitation of the bloody dynastic wars between the Karageorges and the whoozis, the other guys.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32354680.post-23913841468783272732007-11-10T15:47:00.000-05:002007-11-10T15:47:00.000-05:00I haven't read the Fussell for some time, but it's...I haven't read the Fussell for some time, but it's an excellent book, one of the seminal statements on the war as a cultural force. The Pynchon is somewhere on my hopelessly large to-read list.<BR/><BR/>A couple more: for an absolutely brilliant look at the struggles that sfmike mentions, read Anthony Lukas's <I>Big Trouble</I>, a personal favorite. And Adam Zamoyski's <I>Holy Madness</I> tells the tale of seemingly every major and minor nationalist revolutionary of the 18th century with novelistic flair.<BR/><BR/>A couple of protagonist-written books that are worth seeking out on the Middle East: Chaim Herzog's <I>The Arab-Israeli Wars</I>, clear-eyed and trenchant analysis of all the players, and, if you can find it, Anwar Sadat's <I>Revolt on the Nile</I>, which gives a fascinating look into the Arab nationalist movements that festered under post-WWI colonialism. And Rebecca West's <I>Black Lamb and Grey Falcon</I> is still, I think, one of the best books on the Balkans, not just for her observations, but also for what they reveal about Western Europe's view towards the region.Matthewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10936327293692397100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32354680.post-91186726993286987462007-11-10T14:49:00.000-05:002007-11-10T14:49:00.000-05:00Just finished Thomas Pynchon's "Against The Day" l...Just finished Thomas Pynchon's "Against The Day" last night, after reading it very slowly over the course of a year, and it's very much about the American experience culminating in The Great War. His narrative focus, however, is on the struggle between anarchists and capitalists between 1893 and 1914, illustrated by the Colorado miners' strikes being ruthlessly destroyed by the powers-that-be, the Mexican revolution (ditto), the European anarchists trying to topple their various monarchies (let's call it a draw), mixed in with the real revolution going on, which was 19th century mathematics evolving into modern weaponry and Einstein's time/space discoveries. Highly recommended, if you're feeling like an ambitious reader.<BR/><BR/>As for World War I, we're still living in it. The failed, modern states of Iraq, Yugoslavia, and Palestine/Israel date from that war, and their conflicts are still resonating with meaning for the entire world.Civic Centerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12362422142667230626noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32354680.post-71339125684604491422007-11-09T13:48:00.000-05:002007-11-09T13:48:00.000-05:00In the unlikely event you haven't read Paul Fussel...In the unlikely event you haven't read Paul Fussell's <I>The Great War and Modern Memory,</I> I recommend it very highly.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com