Grasping for the Wind

New Notions 5: Final Prize

Well, Sptember 30 is just around the corner and so its time for the announcement of our final prize! For each review you submit I will put your name into a hat. One winner will then be chosen at random to receive a $5 Amazon gift certificate via email. I will contact you directly to receive your prize!

Anyone who has been waffling about joining, please feel free to jump in, even up to the last minute, that being 11:59 PM on September 30. Be sure to both sign up for the challenge and submit your review in order to be eligible for the prize!

I will announce the winner the following day.

Thanks to all the participants! I look forward to your thoughts.

(If you do not have a blog but still wish to be eligible for the prize, simply put your thoughts into the comments section of Submit Your Reviews and I will drop your name into the hat.)

New Notions 5: August Prize

Well, August 31 is just around the corner and so its time for the announcement of our monthly prize! For each review you submit I will put your name into a hat. One winner will then be chosen at random to receive a $5 Amazon gift certificate via email. I will contact you directly to receive your prize!

Anyone who has been waffling about joining, please feel free to jump in, even up to the last minute, that being 11:59 PM on August 31. Be sure to both sign up for the challenge and submit your review in order to be eligible for the prize!

I will announce the winner the following day.

Thanks to all the participants! I look forward to your thoughts.

(If you do not have a blog but still wish to be eligible for the prize, simply put your thoughts into the comments section of Submit Your Reviews and I will drop your name into the hat.)

Book Review: Tipperary

Title: Tipperary: A Novel
Author: Frank Delaney
Genre: Historical Novel
Pub. Date: November 06, 2007
Format: Hardcover, 384pp
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Personal Rating: 5/5

Ireland. The word conjures up many images. Green fields, low mountains, picturesque tranquility; rough and tough fighting men, beautiful ladies, and fair haired children; great authors, great fighters, and a fight for nationhood that spanned centuries; each image a part of Ireland, each depicting a land of many facets. To most readers, Ireland is the home or birthplace of Yeats and Shaw, Wilde and Joyce. The Irish urge to create beauty from within their indomitable spirit led to many a feat in all spheres of life.

It is this spirit that Frank Delaney captures in Tipperary, his third US publication. Delaney is himself an émigré from Ireland, born in the very town where the novel is set. His knowledge of the town and its environs comes through clearly, as does his experience as a BBC broadcaster and judge for the Man Booker Prize.

Tipperary is told primarily through the voices of two men, separated by a generation, one living at the dawn of the 20th century, and the other at the dawn of the 21st. They are both historians, one writing a personal and contemporary history, the other a commentator on the first. Charles O’Brien, the former of these, is a man of Victorian Ireland, a gentleman born in 1860 to an Ireland depopulated by famine. It is from him that the reader receives most of the story. O’Brien tells of the tumultuous times in which he lived by keeping a personal journal, something he calls a “small personal history of Ireland in my lifetime – a life of love and pain and loss and trouble and delight and knowledge.” The other historian, Michael Nugent, discovered Charles O’Brien’s text and interrupts the narrative often to explain or verify O’Brien’s assertions or historical accuracy. However, unbeknownst to Nugent, he has a personal stake in the story, one which develops as the plot progresses.

The plot follows O’Brien as he pursues April Burke, a woman twenty years his junior with whom he as fallen in love, but who vehemently rejects him. In the process, he meets with famous Irish notables of the period such as George Bernard Shaw, William Butler Yeats, Oscar Wilde, Charles Stewart Parnell, and even Michael Collins, highly esteemed leader of the Irish Republican Army. April is discovered to be the heir to Tipperary Castle (which had lain unclaimed for fifty years) in a time when the landed aristocracy is greatly out of favor in Ireland. Many of the Irish wish the return of their ancestral lands to the people and civil and military unrest are on the rise. Against this backdrop April pursues her land, and Charles pursues her. Ultimately, it is a love story, one of a man for a woman, and of a people for its land.

The novel itself is beautifully written. Delaney switches back and forth from the contemporary history of the late 1800s and early 1900s by Charles O’Brien and the commentary on that text by Nugent. Some readers will find the switches difficult to follow, but this reviewer did not. Delaney made sure within the first sentence, sometimes even the first word, to ensure that the reader knew he had moved from Charles O’Brien’s history to Nugent’s commentary and vice versa. Other voices are later introduced by Nugent to help explain the circumstances surrounding O’Brien’s life such as O’Brien’s mother, Joe Harney, and even April herself.

Delaney has written a novel which delves into the psyches of the various Irish and Anglo-Irish of the period. Their desire for nationhood and the love of the people for their land are a driving force within the story. And yet, he has made it all deeply personal by telling us of the story of Charles and April. In their relationship, we see Ireland reflected.

The first two chapters spend a great deal of time on back story and setting, and readers may find it slow and difficult to read, as Delaney writes O’Brien using a Victorian style. Since O’Brien’s reminisces fill the majority of the first two chapters and the first part of the third, those unschooled in Victorian language may dislike the tone and voice. It is necessary to set the stage for the mystery that comes next, and the reader would be well advised to pay attention. In chapter three, more voices are introduced, and the plot twists and turns in such a way as to make a mystery that is both intriguing and beguiling.

Delaney is a master of the voice. Each of his characters is unique in the way they write, from O’Brien and his Victorian style, to Nugent and his historian’s need for accuracy. From the random and chaotic nature of April Burke’s letters, to the colloquial voice of Joe Harney, each character sees Ireland in a different light, and so illuminates an era of much personal and political turmoil. It is “a story of a passionate romance within an epic struggle for nationhood,” told in a variety of perspectives, but always realizing that history is always personal, and never objective.

I highly recommend Tipperary. It is storytelling as only the Irish can tell.

New Notions 5: July Prize

Well, July 31 is just around the corner and so its time for the announcement of our third prize! For each review you submit I will put your name into a hat. One winner will then be chosen at random to receive a $5 Amazon gift certificate via email. I will contact you directly to receive your prize!

Anyone who has been waffling about joining, please feel free to jump in, even up to the last minute, that being 11:59 PM on July 31. Be sure to both sign up for the challenge and submit your review in order to be eligible for the prize!

I will announce the winner the following day.

Thanks to all the participants! I look forward to your thoughts.

(If you do not have a blog but still wish to be eligible for the prize, simply put your thoughts into the comments section of Submit Your Reviews and I will drop your name into the hat.)

UPDATE: and the winner is....BREENI of BREENIBOOKS.

Book Review: Fast Food Nation

Author: Eric Schlosser
Genre: Politics, Health, Business
Pub. Date: July 2005
Format: Paperback, 416pp
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Personal Rating: 4/5

Published in 2001, Fast Food Nation is a volume not for the faint of heart or week of stomach. Eric Schlosser takes on the corporate machine in an expose which has drawn comparisons to Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle. While one is nonfiction and the other fiction, both attempt to shed light on poor corporate practices.

Schlosser, an investigative journalist, spent three years researching and studying the fast food industry from the cows and chickens on the farm to the final preparation before it ends up in your Big Mac. Using personal vignettes interspersed with statistics and primary research, Schlosser attempts to build a case for change in the way industrialized agriculture does business, especially in regards to meats.

Some might find this work a little biased. Schlosser lays blame for many of the industry’s problems at the door of Republicans (with good reason I admit) but places little or none at Democrats. In the afterward to the UK Penguin edition, Schlosser addresses these critics, “Fast Food Nation has no hidden partisan agenda; the issues that it addresses transcend party politics. In retrospect, I could have been more critical of the Clinton administration’s ties to agribusiness.” True, but he didn’t, and it is only in this edition that the afterward is found. So the sideways apology rings a little hollow.

The book uses statistics, but at times will use words like “hundreds” or “thousands” instead of real numbers when the statistics don’t suit his purpose. Part of that is an attempt to make the work readable for the average man, but the preponderance of occurrences for the words is not to simplify the stats, but to obscure those stats that don’t fit the conclusion.

I was also disappointed in the small mention of In-and-Out Burgers. Although Schlosser uses it as an exemplar of a good corporate culture, even mentioning the Bible verses on the bottoms of cups, he fails to say why, only to point out the good things they do. If he had been honest, it is not because they are family owned, but that they have a set of moral values that are not flexible but fixed and so cannot be changed at need. The Christian values they have lead it to be a leader in compassionate business, rather than a simple family ownership or small size as Schlosser asserts.

Still, for all its flaws, Fast Food Nation does try to be objective and Schlosser’s final conclusion that, “The great challenge now facing countries throughout the world is how to find a proper balance between the efficiency and the amorality of the market.” is one I think most readers will agree with. The reader will have to slog through some biases, as I mentioned in two (1 and 2)pevious posts, but the challenge to your thinking makes it worth taking the time to read. Schlosser’s call for governmental, civic, and corporate action is one that is rounded and doesn’t lay the blame at anyone’s door.

I recommend the book be read if you are interested in public health issues, corporate America, and politics. Liberals will have many assumptions and biases confirmed, so it is of less use to them ultimately. Conservatives will benefit from a viewpoint that takes into account the value of the free market, but fears allowing it free reign.

I learned a lot from Fast Food Nation, and will probably avoid beef for a while as a result. I did not feel condemned for eating fast food, nor did I feel that I need to become a vegetarian. This is not a philosophical book, only an analytical one that is readable, thorough, and thoughtful.

New Notions 5: June Prize

Well, June 30 is just around the corner and so its time for the announcement of our second prize! For each review you submit I will put your name into a hat. One winner will then be chosen at random to receive a $5 Amazon gift certificate via email. I will contact you directly to receive your prize!

Anyone who has been waffling about joining, please feel free to jump in, even up to the last minute, that being 11:59 PM on June 30. Be sure to both sign up for the challenge and submit your review in order to be eligible for the prize!

I will announce the winner the following day.

Thanks to all the participants! I look forward to your thoughts.

(If you do not have a blog but still wish to be eligible for the prize, simply put your thoughts into the comments section of Submit Your Reviews and I will drop your name into the hat.)

UPDATE: J.S. Peyton wins again! Of course, he was the only submission this time, so it's no surprise. Hey ya'll, c'mon it's free money. So send in your submissions and tell your friends. It's all about learning.

New Notions 5: May Prize

Well, May 31 is just around the corner and so its time for the announcement of our first prize! For each review you submit I will put your name into a hat. One winner will then be chosen at random to receive a $5 Amazon gift certificate via email. I will contact you directly to receive your prize!

Anyone who has been waffling about joining, please feel free to jump in, even up to the last minute, that being 11:59 PM on May 31. Be sure to both sign up for the challenge and submit your review in order to be eligible for the prize!

I will announce the winner the following day.

Thanks to all the participants! I look forward to your thoughts.

(If you do not have a blog but still wish to be eligible for the prize, simply put your thoughts into the comments section of Submit Your Reviews and I will drop your name into the hat.)

UPDATE: And the winnner is....... J.S. Peyton of Biblioaddict.

More thoughts on Fast Food Nation

I don't think that Schlosser is getting the reaction he expected out of me. Instead of outrage or shock at the business practices of McDonald's and KFC, Burger King and Taco Bell, all I can think is what a smart business plan!

I just finished reading the chapter on the peons who end up working in the fast food industry (in the interest of full disclosure, I worked for Chick-fil-A for FOUR years, so I've done my time) and the horrible conditions under which they labor, according to Schlosser.

I'll agree, they aren't great, the business model is built to withstand, even encourage high turnover. And yes, it is true that high schoolers and immigrants usually work for these companies. And Schlosser wonders why the companies seek to have built in profitability resulting from high turnover? These two groups are some of the most notoriously unstable groups. Kids go off to college or move on to a new job or trade as age allows, and immigrants are transient by the very word used to describe them. Most of the immigrants I worked with were working till they could find a job elsewhere with better pay.

Most of the folks i worked with were white, middle class high school kids looking to either own their own franchise, or earn some spending money for high school. Some few, like myself, were saving for college so Schlosser's contention that the majority of the workers are minorities or poor is probably true, but isn't always as he seems to imply.

Schlosser's contention that unions need to be formed for these folks makes me laugh. Teenagers don't care and retirees only work as much as they can before social security policies stop them. Immigrants are the most stable of the fast food workers and perhaps they might benefit from a union, but from what I know of unions, they are either corrupt or deluded as to their effectiveness. Unions are a big part of the destruction of the auto industry, as has been shown by better minds than mine.

I can't really speak to the commentary on the franchisee/franchisor relationship, a I only ever worked the front. I think it's likely it plays the way he says. One thing I do contend with is the assertion that failed franchises are the fault of the corporation. They are the fault of the franchisee, otherwise why would some be successful and some not? There are a lot of factors that go into that success, but the franchisee must take the majority of the blame in that, not the corporation. I did see in my time as a fast food worker that some franchisees ran their businesses better, period, and they often got way more business, even when the locations were only a mile or two apart!

Be back later with some more thoughts. By the way, I don't think the book is all bad, but it is politically dogmatic so that tends to be what I react to the most. I guess it was a good pick for New Notions 5!

Read more of my thoughts on post 1: The Beginning and post 3: Book Review

Book Review: The Road

The Road is a one sit read. I find it difficult to believe that anyone could possibly start reading this book and not continuously read it through to the end. Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer-prize winning book is so harrowing, and yet so hopeful, that as a reader turns the pages, he will not be able to stop.

The plot is simple. A father and son travel across a post-apocalyptic wasteland of ash and death. Following old maps, scrounging for tinned cans of food (as nothing grows anymore) and avoiding those humans who have turned to cannibalism in order to survive. The story follows them through their trial and travails. It is not a new plot, and has been used many times before.

But that is not what won the novel its awards. It is the relationship between man and boy that gathers these. The man is practical and utilitarian, the boy conscientious and caring. (Perhaps it is a metaphor for government by the people?) As the two face death, day by day, they find solace in one another’s company. This bond is strong and gets stronger as they face bandits and come close to starvation more than once.

The style of writing is, I believe, Faulknerian, in that punctuation is ignored. Quotation marks and apostrophes are particularly ignored. This can be off-putting to the reader, but move past it, as the work gets really good. The lack of punctuation works for the novel, adding a level of austerity and bleakness to the text. McCarthy’s writing in this way heightens the emotions of the reader and leads him/her to feel the ultimate despair of its characters.

And the despair is deep. It is only deepened in that, as the pair travel the road, the story only gets bleaker and the reader begins to wonder why they continue to travel. It seems the world has ended. Unlike in other post-apocalyptic novels, there is no idyll or paradise waiting just over the next hill. It makes you wonder just what the man and boy are hoping to find at the end of their journey.

Some critics have tried to turn this book into a metaphor on environmentalism. The world is ash and it was caused by some sort of holocaust. A holocaust powerful enough to keep wildlife from surviving, trees from growing, seeds from taking root, and turning the ocean into a gray morass. I can see where those critics get that idea. But the characters never dwell on the destruction, nor really comment on the world as it has become. Most of their conversation centers on death, survival, and the nature of God.

Rather than being a metaphor for environmentalism, I see this book as a metaphor of the search for God and the power of hope and love for one another. Perhaps that sounds like a platitude, but McCarthy has shown the depth to which these things affect us, and how all of our life is really a striving after purpose and hope.

Ultimately, the man finds his purpose in saving the boy and the boy in helping others even needier than him. More than once the man refers to the boy as a god, and it makes me wonder if the boy is a metaphor for Christ? He certainly displays similar traits. But honestly, that might be too much of a stretch.

If you attempt this book, realize that you will be depressed both during and some time after reading this book. When I walked away, I saw more clearly the beauty of what I had in my life. The cold hard world of The Road showed me the beauty of my own especially of the relationship I have to my beloved wife.

The Road is a moving, depressing, and simultaneously hopeful book. It is unlike any post apocalypse novel I have ever read, and it made me look at my world with more appreciative eyes. The book should be read, and I actually agree (surprisingly!) with the Pulitzer committee and all the reviewers who have so highly praised it. The Road is a work of literature greater than its genre.

First thoughts on Fast Food Nation

So I have begun. I am tackling Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. I can't say I'm totally pleased with the direction it is heading. I finished the second chapter last night "Your Trusted Friend" and Schlosser's obvious bias against corporate America makes it difficult to glean relevant facts.

For instance, Ray Kroc and Walt Disney once served in the same unit together during World War II, and even, later on attempted to do business to together (For those who don't know, Ray Kroc is the guy who made McDonald's what it is today.) From this small connection, Schlosser spends half the chapter diatribing on the evils of Walt Disney and his "synergy" marketing plan (which is later used by Kroc). All right, I can see some connection here, but going on about the evils of Disney does not convince me about the evils of the Fast Food industry.

Also, I take issue with his assertion that having corporate America involved in the public school system is a bad thing. I agree, public schools should not become marketing arms of corporate America. It is true that marketing directed at kids is rather uncouth. To this I agree. but Schlosser fails to see the opposite side.

These school districts started selling sponsorships and making agreements with corporate America fo the purpose of making up budget shortfalls. Schlosser asserts this is because of tax cuts and the unwillingness of the voters to increase taxes. Okay, maybe that's true. But as a conservative, I know that if taxes are increased, more of my money goes to the government (something liberals want) which is usually misspent anyway. What I'm getting at is that while Schlosser asserts that the Fast Food companies are undermining education, he implies that he expects the taxpayer and the government to step up to the plate and meet the budget shortfalls that the fast food companies are taking advantage of.

This is not something I agree with. I don't want more money in the hands of a government that spends wantonly and has more programs than necessary (the Department of education being one of them). Liberals do, and its is obvious that Schlosser would like that as well. I don't. So I say, let the corporations purchase ad space in the schools, sell their products in the schools, help the school districts make up revenue shortfalls (which wouldn't be as much of a problem if the bureaucracy wasn't so expensive to maintain, and useless programs - such as teaching kindergarteners about homosexuality - were not using up available funds.)

Anyway, it boils down the fact that while Schlosser implies these corporations - whose true loyalty is to their stockholders, as it should be - are evil, and we should remove them from the school setting, he fails to mention that doing so increases the size of government and allows them more money for programs and education I think is as much marketing and propaganda as what the fast food companies are more openly doing.

I have been rethinking some of my assumptions, and Schlosser is well-researched and his points are valid, I'd like to see what solution he offers up to the problems he sees in our fast food nation. I'll be back with an update in a few chapters.

Read more of my thoughts on post 2: More thoughts and post 3: Book Review

New Notions 5: Book Reviews

For those of you still deciding, Booktraveller has some great links to places to look for books.

Otherwise, Since today is May 1, I felt it was time to set up the place to link your book reviews or to declare which ones you have so far finished. Just put a link to the book review in the comments section of this post (which accepts html, if you want to do it that way) or use the Mr. Linky, preferably giving the title and author of the book along with your name or handle. Or tell us by title and author which books you have finished if you aren't reviewing.

I plan on consolidating the book reviews at random times into posts, and will be using the list of completed books to compile a list of books we have read.

If you haven't signed up yet, you can do so by clicking the image at right. There you will find an explanation and a Mr. Linky to use in signing up.

New Notions 5 Reading Challenge - Join Now!

A Little Background:
Not long ago, I was challenged to rethink some notions I had previously held near and dear to my heart. Wrestling with the issue and trying to make it fit within my worldview made me abandon some antiquated (for me) ideas and adopt new ones. It was that occurrence that led me to think up the New Notions 5 Reading Challenge.

The Challenge:
The challenge is to pick 5 books that you believe will challenge your thinking about any topic. For me, it was rethinking some religious issues that led to this idea. For you, it might be tackling a political viewpoint, a stance on a social issue, and notions about a color of skin, a creed, or an “ism”. You might challenge your notions about science, the world, or economics. You might want to read a book about something you already agree with that presents a whole new take on it. Anything that YOU believe is outside your normal viewpoint or that will make you rethink your preconceptions or assumptions is fair game.

When:
The challenge will take place from May 1 till September 30, 2007. Five books in Five months seems doable to me, and if you need examples, you can see my list of books here.

Other Matters:
Please link through the comments section at the bottom of this post or use the Mr. Linky below to link to your post containing your list of books. You can sign up anytime even up till the end!

Feel free to write book reviews and link to them in the comments section below or click the “email me” link in the navbar above. I will periodically (at least monthly, likely weekly) put up a posting with links to the reviews.

There will be a few token prizes to be awarded randomly to those that meet the requirement of one book a month. Feel free to read books at your own pace. But remember that there will be a prize awarded to one person at random who finished a book that month and who lets me know by comment or email. At the end of the five months a grand prize will awarded at random.

Feel free to overlap with any other challenges. Katrina’s Spring Reading Thing 2007 and Joy’s Non-Fiction 5 are good places to look for ideas on books to read, and you can join their challenges and mine and it won’t matter to me if you overlap (although it might them, so be courteous).

Please link only to the post where your book list appears.

New Notions 5: My List

The following are the books I plan to read for the New Notions 5 Reading Challenge (in no particular order).

1. Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser

2. Black History through Blue Eyes by James J. Seymour

3. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah

4. Compassionate Conservatism: What it is, What it Does, and How it Can Transform America by Marvin Olasky

5. The Road by Cormac McCarthy