The Devil in the Kitchen
Marco Pierre White with James Steen. Bloomsbury, $24.95 (256p) ISBN 978-1-59691-361-5
[Signature]
Reviewed by James Oseland
The world's most celebrated chefs are divided into two opposing camps these days. In one, there are the do-gooder humanists like Alice Waters of Berkeley's Chez Panisse. In the other, there are the self-avowed holy terrors like Britain's Marco Pierre White, author of this plodding autobiography, co-written with James Steen and originally published in the U.K. in 2006 under the untoward title White Slave. An influential figure in English cooking in the 1980s and '90s, White built an empire of London restaurants that included Harveys (where he became the youngest chef—at age 28—to win two Michelin stars), Mirabelle and the Oak Room. Famous folks like Michael Caine and Prince Charles were admirers of White's smart, decadent interpretations of classic French dishes.
But while White was widely lauded for his culinary skill, it was his flamboyant temper that most frequently earned him headlines. An avowed proponent of tongue lashings (White calls them "bollockings") toward kitchen staff for all manner of infractions, the chef claims that such harsh behavior is justified in the pursuit of excellent dining. "If you are not extreme then people will take short cuts because they don't fear you," White explains. What he dubbed his "theatre of cruelty" extended beyond his kitchen. During White's glory years, getting thrown out of one of his establishments by the enfant terrible himself was considered a badge of honor by some Londoners. White recounts in the book one such eviction, of a patron who had criticized his meal: "Staring at this dwarfish, patronizing man... I found myself saying, 'Why don't you just f— off?'"
Scenes like this make up the lion's share of The Devil in the Kitchen; indeed, after a point, they become dirge-like in their predictability. Why, I asked myself midway through this book—right around the time that my discomfort at White's antics gave way to boredom—would readers, much less diners, want to be in the company of such a gregariously antisocial character? As is the case with virtually any autobiography, the answer is that we are seeking a window into the subject's soul, no matter how, well, unsavory that subject might be. His book, unfortunately, provides no such insights, offering readers little more than a continual, atonal concerto of scuffles with customers and insults to co-workers. Please, I wanted to say to White as I was reading, stifle all that alpha male stuff and just cook. (May)
James Oseland is the editor-in-chief of Saveur magazine and the author of Cradle of Flavor: Home Cooking from the Spice Islands of Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia (Norton, 2006). |
 Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power
Robert Dallek. HarperCollins, $29.95 (752p) ISBN 978-0-06-072230-2
Bestselling author Dallek (An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy) delivers what will quickly become recognized as a classic of modern history: the definitive analysis of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger's complex, often troubled partnership in running American foreign policy from January 1969 through August 1974. Dallek has had unprecedented access to major new resources, including transcriptions (20,000 pages) of Kissinger's telephone conversations as secretary of state, unreleased audio files of key Nixon telephone conversations and Oval Office discussions, and previously unexamined documents from the archives of Nixon, Kissinger (who served first as national security adviser, then as secretary of state) and White House hands Alexander Haig and H.R. Haldeman.
Dallek's eloquent portrait of power depicts two men who were remarkably alike in important ways. Both harbored ravenous personal ambitions. Both suffered from (and operated out of) profound insecurities and low self-esteem. Both were deeply resentful (to the point of paranoia) of criticisms and challenges. Digging deep into the various archives, Dallek artfully fills in the back stories behind such debacles as the pair's policies in Vietnam, Cambodia and the Middle East, as well as such triumphs as the opening to China.
In what many will consider the book's darkest moment, Dallek reveals for the first time the discussions and strategic thinking that led to the U.S.-orchestrated coup d'état against Chile's democratically elected president Salvador Allende in September of 1973. As he did with his Kennedy biography, Dallek finds important new material that will revise our thinking about a president and the man the author terms "a kind of co-president." 16 pages of b&w photos. (May 1) |
Island of the Lost: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World
Joan Druett. Algonquin, $24.95 (304p) ISBN 978-1-56512-408-0
In early 1864, heading back to Australia after a failed mining expedition, the crew of the Grafton encountered a violent storm and found themselves shipwrecked in the Auckland Islands, off the coast of New Zealand. Druett, a maritime historian (In the Wake of Madness), draws upon the journals of the ship's captain, Thomas Musgrave, and prospector François Raynal to reveal how the crew pulled together and made the best of their circumstances for nearly two years. By contrast, when the Invercauld ran aground on the other side of the island months later—beyond an impassable mountain range, and hence unaware they were not alone—the surviving sailors quickly began eating their dead crewmates out of desperation. Soon, only three remained, the ineffectual captain and another officer being kept alive by a resourceful seaman. Druett tells the two stories in strict chronological order, allowing readers to become familiar with the Grafton party before weaving the Invercauld survivors into the narrative. She zeroes in on the salient details of their ordeals, identifying the plants that kept the castaways from contracting scurvy or sketching out an improvised recipe for soap with equal aplomb. This is a fine addition to the genre of survival tales like Endurance or In the Heart of the Sea. (Jul. 20)
The Wreck of the Medusa: The Most Famous Sea Disaster of the Nineteenth Century
Jonathan Miles. Atlantic Monthly, $25 (336p) ISBN 978-0-87113-959-7
In June 1816 French frigate Medusa ran aground on a sandbar off the African coast. What followed—gross incompetence, murder and cannibalism—shocked European society and pushed the fragile, recently restored French monarchy to the brink. From the swirl of characters boiling around the story—admirals, ministers and kings—Miles (David Jones: The Maker Unmade) anchors his tale on Medusa survivor Alexandre Correard and painter Théodore Géricault. After surviving the wreck and subsequently drifting on a raft on which 133 of 147 died, Correard, an engineer fleeing the growing chaos in post-Napoleonic France, wrote a bestselling account of the tragedy and agitated for the monarchy's end. Revealed in the ensuing controversy was France's ongoing participation in the illegal trade of African slaves. With such great elements in place (flesh eating, palace intrigue and illicit love) this yarn has much promise. Unfortunately, while the story roars along with its own inherent momentum, Miles's prose is sometimes awkward ("Their union was obviously intense and, as with all true love, supremely precious. Catastrophically, it was to prove short-lived"). Nevertheless, the story of the wreck of the Medusa and the churning cultural machinations around it does make for a compelling read. (July)
A Buffalo in the House: The True Story of a Man, an Animal, and the American West
R.D. Rosen. New Press, $24.95 (256p) ISBN 978-1-59558-165-5
Rosen combines his skills as a mystery novelist (Strike Three You're Dead) and cultural critic (Psychobabble) to tell the powerful story of Charlie, a week-old orphaned buffalo who in 2000 was given a temporary home in Santa Fe with animal lovers Roger Brooks and Veryl Goodnight and who then stays for three memorable and sometimes heartbreaking years. As the story unfolds, Rose deftly explores a relationship between Charlie and Brooks that brought out previously unexplored depths of tenderness in the latter, and a devotion surprising for a wild animal: "While Roger read the paper on a lawn chair Charlie would sniff him, or he'd curl up with him for an afternoon siesta." Rosen also uses the couple's own fascinating backgrounds—especially that of Goodnight, a distant relative of Charles and Mary Goodnight, who had helped save the buffalo from extinction in the 1870s—to explore past and present political and wildlife management issues. But the heart of the book is the bond forged over three years between Brooks and his beloved Charlie, whose special combination of "sheer size and gentle disposition," as well as his all-too-short life, make him one of the most memorable characters in recent nature writing. B&w illus. (June)
F5: The Devastating Tornado Outbreak of 1974
Mark Levine. Hyperion, $25.95 (336p) ISBN 978-1-4013-5220-2
On April 3, 1974, a megastorm rampaged through the central U.S., unleashing at least 148 tornados, six of which attained the rare and overpowering "F5" category, with sustained winds of over 260 miles per hour. The storm killed hundreds and caused billions of dollars in property damage. Levine, a contributor to the New York Times, focuses on the impact in the rural county of Limestone, Ala., where dozens of tornados cut a ruinous swath across the land. A thorough journalist and accomplished stylist, Levine does an excellent job of putting us in the minds of the area natives—a high school freshman, the local sheriff, a power lineman—whose lives were upended, and in some cases, ended by the storm. Levine also has the descriptive prowess to bring the tornados to vivid existence on the page. However, at times the sheer number of characters and scenes makes the narrative difficult to follow. Levine is also less than successful in his attempt to link the storm to a particular zeitgeist of 1974 America; whatever happened that day, its consequences didn't expose the country in any manner similar to what Hurricane Katrina left in its wake. Still, it's hard to fault a disaster story as engaging as this. (June)
The Secret History of the American Empire: Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and the Truth About Global Corruption
John Perkins. Penguin Press, $25.95 (384p) ISBN 978-0-525-95015-8
Having made a splash with Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, Perkins offers similarly entertaining but disturbing accounts of the American government wreaking havoc around the world in support of American business. In Perkins's view, American presidents willingly comply with their CEO masters, distributing foreign aid to corrupt Third World leaders who keep a share and return the rest to U.S. business for major projects, leaving their nations poor and massively in debt, and requiring more loans and slavish obedience to U.S. policy. If any leader objects, the CIA destabilizes his government, by assassination if necessary. Gathering evidence is not Perkins's strong suit. Typically, a shadowy figure pulls him aside, insists on anonymity, then reveals all. Critics will rightfully accuse Perkins of dreadful journalism and a taste for conspiracy theories. Yet economists admit that loans and "expert advice" to poor nations are often harmful. Few deny that America has ruthlessly undermined uncooperative governments and supported dictators including Saddam Hussein. Perkins's assertions that the U.S. assassinated Ecuador's reformist president and connived at genocide in Timor and Sudan are not absurd, merely unproven. This book's greatest value may be to encourage a competent journalist to cover the same ground. (June 5)
The Trap: Selling Out to Stay Afloat in Winner-Take-All America
Daniel Brook. Times, $23 (288p) ISBN 978-0-8050-8065-0
Twenty-something journalist Brook sees the best minds of his generation scrivening away as corporate lawyers and accountants, and he's furious about it. His fresh and striking pay-gap polemic laments the plight of "educated, idealistic young people" who must choose whether "to be a sellout or a saint"—that is, whether to take a lucrative corporate job or to eke out a pauper's existence in creative or nonprofit work. "The new economic realities," Brook writes, "are shaping people's lives, closing off certain career and lifestyle options. They are reducing freedom." Brook marshals facts and interviews to make his case for "more egalitarian economic policies." Decrying recent economic shifts that have widened the chasm between private and public sector employment, he skewers centrist "New Democrats" as well as usual-suspects such as William F. Buckley and Ronald Reagan. Brook preaches too narrowly to the choir (proclaiming that "as is plain to see, the conservative philosophy is wrong"), and his solutions are limited to calling for "truly progressive taxation" and insisting that "the public sector should pay its professionals more." Still, many readers will wince in recognition of their work/life compromises. "Corporate America is riddled with secret dissenters," Brook notes; he does a real service asking why it must be this way. (June 1)
Child of the Revolution: Growing Up in Castro's Cuba
Luis M. Garcia. Allen & Unwin, $16.95 paper (248p) ISBN 978-1-74114-852-7
Born in 1959, journalist Garcia spent his first 12 years in Cuba, plenty of time to pile up grievances against the Communist regime. His parents owned a small haberdashery whose business dried up with the gradual suppression of commerce after the revolution, until it was taken over by the state. When his parents applied to emigrate, his father was sent to a labor camp to cut sugar cane, and the family was meticulously divested of their belongings before being allowed to leave. Garcia's is an emblematic story of the dispossession and exile of Cuba's middle class, leavened with bittersweet reminiscences of his warmly convivial extended family, which comprised both Communist officials and disaffected partisans of the prerevolutionary past. As well, it's a study of the downside of Cuba's revolution—skimpy food rations, endless queues for shoddy goods, beady-eyed busybodies in the neighborhood Committee for the Defense of the Revolution, all justified by strident propaganda in the classroom and media. Garcia's rancorous score-settling with communism can be intrusive; "it's not a very revolutionary thing to do, but... even communists need toilet paper," he gloats about a common unauthorized use for the works of Lenin. But he does offer an intriguing corrective to romanticized accounts of socialist Cuba. (May)
City of Oranges: An Intimate History of Arabs and Jews in Jaffa
Adam LeBor. Norton, $14.95 paper (384p) ISBN 978-0-393-32984-1
As any student of the Middle East can attest, there's almost no way to approach the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with objectivity; virtually every word about it comes weighted with ideology or political mission. But English journalist LeBor (the Times) has achieved the near-impossible. While ostensibly telling the story of one town, he sketches the tale of Israel's birth and concomitant Palestinian nakba (catastrophe), with the knotted lives of Jaffa's Arab and Jewish residents serving as a humanizing lens. Though not a rigorous academic study, this history encompasses both the familiar (nonstop wars) and the lesser-known (Syria's 1949 peace overtures). Dotted with delightful period details, it gives individual opinion free rein, reporting contradictions without judgment. The history of both peoples is marked by trauma and courage, and neither side has really managed to listen to the other—because, LeBor notes, "any recognition of each other's losses is a kind of surrender in the endless battle for memory as well as territory." He quietly condemns the worst excesses of both sides—Israeli occupation, Palestinian corruption, Israeli racism, Palestinian suicide terrorism—and comes down on the side of compromise. Some readers will noisily object, but those looking for a well-rounded and truly human insight into the conflict will enjoy this account. (May)
Cape Wind: Money, Celebrity, Class, Politics, and the Battle for America's Energy Future on Nantucket Sound
Wendy Williams and Robert Whitcomb. Public Affairs, $26.95 (336p) ISBN 978-1-58648-397-8
This well-reported assessment of democracy manipulated by powerful federal, state and local insiders, and other not-in-my-backyard shenanigans surrounding plans for a wind farm five miles off Cape Cod, is certainly upfront about its bias. Williams, a former journalist-in-residence at Duke University, and Whitcomb, editorial page editor of the Providence Journal, jauntily champion the cause of energy entrepreneur Jim Gordon's "bold idea" to plant 130 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound—a project still snared in a regulatory maze as this peppery account went to press. The authors decry what they call fear-mongering by Gordon's well-funded opponents (2005 contributions: $3.3 million) and are particularly peeved by the obstructionism of Sen. Ted Kennedy, whose behind-the-scenes maneuvering is highlighted, as are the fulminations verging "on the incoherent" by environmentalist Robert Kennedy Jr.—normally an outspoken opponent of coal-powered energy generation and a vigorous supporter of alternative energy sources. The Kennedys' stubborn opposition is shared by such moneyed neighbors as Listerine heiress Bunny Mellon and coal, oil and gas magnate William Koch, who are depicted as plutocratic bullies in this rambunctious, unsparing dissection of ruling-class abuse. (May)
Fat, Forty, and Fired: One Man's Frank, Funny, and Inspiring Account of Losing His Job and Finding His Life
Nigel Marsh. Andrews McMeel, $19.95 (288p) ISBN 978-0-7407-6433-2
Recounting the life he led during the nine months he was not working, Marsh opens with his operation for "anal fistula"; the six-week convalescence enables him to reflect on his next step after learning that the firm he runs in Sydney, Australia, is being closed. Breaking open the family nest egg, he decides to escape the pattern of "enforced inertia that kept men in a tie and at the office" and to take a year off. Marsh's epiphanies during his hiatus include the realization that he is fat, but more poignantly, that he is an alcoholic. While the light tone of the book sometimes undermines his struggle with alcohol, Marsh clearly takes it seriously. The strength of the memoir lies in the intimate and often humorous moments he shares as he reconnects with his wife and four children. Whether it is his preschool-aged daughter announcing to her gymnastics teacher, "We don't touch Daddy's willy because it's dirty," or the more somber account of his wife talking him out of having a glass of wine, Marsh is at his best in vignettes. The narrative slows in the middle, during a European trip with his wife, but when Marsh finally re-enters the workforce, he does so recognizing that instead of obsessing about the time he misses with his family, he should enjoy the moments he has. (May)
The Empty Nest: 31 Parents Tell the Truth About Relationships, Love, and Freedom After the Kids Fly the Coop
Edited by Karen Stabiner. Hyperion/Voice, $23.95 (320p) ISBN 978-1-4013-0257-3
This collection, edited by Stabiner (My Girl: Adventures with a Teen in Training), includes essays by such well-known authors as Anna Quindlen, Ellen Goodman and Susan Shreve, as well as lesser knowns. Mothers write the bulk of the stories, though a handful of dads, such as Charles McGrath, help to balance the perspective. Quindlen, always a reliable sage, writes that the empty nest is emptier than ever before by virtue of the fact that so many mothers of her generation threw themselves so wholeheartedly into the role. Alongside the recurring motif of parents sighing forlornly at the threshold of their children's empty rooms, there is also a place for humor ("You lose a child, you gain a sex life," writes Letty Cottin Pogrebin in the essay "Epiphanies of the Empty Nest") as well as a sense of optimism and rebirth ("I felt myself standing a little taller, like a plant reaching up toward the sun," observes Marian Sandmaier). While many of these essays address kids leaving for college, one mother laments a son who died of a heart ailment and another a boy who has set off for Iraq. This varied and compassionate collection may not mitigate the empty nesters' pain, but it should make them feel that they're in good company as they navigate this parental rite of passage. (May)
Jimmy Page: Magus, Musician, Man
George Case. Hal Leonard, $25 (300p) ISBN 978-1-4234-0407-1
As long as there are teenage boys in the world, there will be an audience for Led Zeppelin, the '70s-era hard rock legend whose "Stairway to Heaven" is still one of the most-ever-played songs in the history of American FM radio. Jimmy Page was the mastermind of the Zeppelin juggernaut, and as one of the three most influential British rock guitarists of the late '60s, he certainly deserves Case's detailed and informed look at his past and present work. In this unauthorized biography, freelance writer Case focuses on Page's music as much as he does on Zeppelin's lurid touring lifestyle, and he is good at reporting Page's early work playing on countless recording sessions (ranging from Tom Jones's "It's Not Unusual" to the Kinks' "You Really Got Me"), as well as detailing the formation of Zeppelin, where Page combined his blues-based rock with singer Robert Plant's "soaring tenor moan" to create a radically new sound. While his enthusiasm sometimes overwhelms his writing ("The Teutonic implications of the airship's family surname invested a gothic sensibility to the ensemble's work"), Case successfully shows how Page and his Zeppelin's musical influence became "so broad and so established that even players who had never consciously emulated his techniques had been affected by them." (May)
The Grand Illusion: Love, Lies, and My Life with Styx
Chuck Panozzo with Michele Skettino. Amacom, $24.95 (240p) ISBN 978-0-8144-0916-9
Panozzo was the bass player in Styx, whose mid-'70s hits such as "Mr. Roboto," and "Lady" are staples of classic rock radio, and he is rightfully proud of Styx's accomplishments—"The first rock band ever to sell four consecutive triple platinum albums." Styx's fans will enjoy Panozzo's detailed look at the band's internal conflicts as they rise from small Chicago bars to sold-out arenas. But the heart of Panozzo's autobiography is a sensitive and insightful look at "one gay man's struggle to come to terms with himself" while performing in a rock world where "the things that would make the other guys laugh—a female fan lifting up her skirt, a pair of panties thrown on stage—just didn't do it" for him. The most fascinating sections are accounts of Panozzo's conflicted youthful feelings in his sheltered Catholic neighborhood; his adolescent trips to gay theaters where "skin flicks validated the fact that there were other people out there like me"; his attempts to keep his rock identity secret during furtive dates while on tour where he "treated every excursion like a CIA mission;" and a joyous moment when he publicly comes out and decides to tell his story "to inspire others, gay or straight, to live a proud, truthful life." (May)
Don't Ask What I Shot: How Eisenhower's Love of Golf Helped Shape 1950s America
Catherine M. Lewis. McGraw-Hill, $24.95 (224p) ISBN 978-0-07-148570-8
Historian Lewis (Considerable Passions) takes an extremely thorough if not always entertaining approach to a combined study of golf in America and Eisenhower's stamp on history. She includes fascinating stories of how during WWII General Eisenhower ordered an air force pilot to drop a bomb on a new army golf course in Italy to quickly dig a hole for a sand trap, and how as president he took to the links with not only golf clubs but a "doomsday" briefcase that held the codes to launch a nuclear attack. Eisenhower used golf as a way to relax from stress and as recuperative exercise after his first heart attack in 1955. Lewis explores how Eisenhower often directed national policy from fairways and clubhouses, including Little Rock's Central High School integration standoff and the response to the American spy plane crash in the Soviet Union. Lewis's narrative sometimes lags with an abundance of unnecessary details such as frequent lists of names of Eisenhower's golfing partners. She ultimately ranks Eisenhower with Bobby Jones and Arnold Palmer (both of whom the president befriended) as well as Tiger Woods as the most influential figures in popularizing the game in America. (May)
On Royalty: A Very Polite Inquiry into Some Strangely Related Families
Jeremy Paxman. Public Affairs, $26.95 (384p) ISBN 978-1-58648-491-0
As Paxman seeks to fathom the mesmeric hold of monarchy—particularly British—on our imaginations, his remarkable access lets him spy closeup on today's royals. At a royal house-party at Sandringham, Prince Charles offers a world-weary explanation of monarchy's function: "we're a soap opera." An out-of-the-blue lunch with Princess Diana, who strikes him as a lonely woman who wanted someone to talk to, leads him to ponder the public passion she inspired. And the prospect of meeting the queen at a Buckingham Palace press reception finds the seasoned BBC host with staunch republican sentiments strangely overcome by nerves. Examining how royalty actually becomes royalty, Paxman examines how a monarch finds a throne (Albania invented a king in 1923 and sought an English country gentleman for the post); the matter of producing an heir; royalty's role of being, as one of Queen Elizabeth's secretaries put it, "in the happiness business." This wide-ranging work tackles everything from the enigmatic cuckolded husbands of Edward VII's mistresses to contemporaneous comparisons of the last moments of Charles I to the passion of Christ; George V's abandonment of his cousin the Russian czar; and the sticky finances of the House of Windsor and Charles's eccentricities. Paxman proves a vastly knowledgeable and tartly entertaining guide to a magical realm that is stranger than fiction. (June)
Land of Lincoln: Adventures in Abe's America
Andrew Ferguson. Atlantic Monthly, $24 (288p) ISBN 978-0-87113-967-2
The question that animates this original, insightful, disarmingly funny book is: how do Americans commemorate Lincoln, and what do our memories of him reveal about our visions of the good life? To discover the answer, Ferguson, an editor at the Weekly Standard and a Lincoln buff, made a long field trip, poking into many of the places where Americans have chosen to remember—or to forget—Honest Abe. He eavesdrops on the Lincoln Reconsidered conference, where a group of "Abephobes" aim to retrieve Lincoln's memory from the distortions of "liberal historians." He considers the "Disney aesthetic" of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Ill., and attends a convention of Lincoln "presenters" (otherwise known as impersonators). Ferguson is occasionally and unnecessarily snide, and a deeper examination of the changing place of Lincoln in mainstream historical scholarship would have added a great deal to the book. Still, Ferguson's conclusions are stirring. He finds Lincoln's meaning best articulated by Robert Moton, an educator whose parents were slaves. With great simplicity, Moton explained Lincoln's greatness: "...in a time of doubt and distrust... he spoke the word that gave freedom to a race and vindicated the honor of a Nation conceived in liberty...." (June)
Margaret Fuller: An American Romantic Life: Volume II: The Public Years
Charles Capper. Oxford Univ., $40 (688p) ISBN 978-0-19-506313-4
This long-awaited second volume of Capper's Bancroft Prize–winning biography of Fuller fulfills all expectations. Capper follows Fuller's increasing literary fame and her travels to the American West and to Europe; he also recovers her thinking on topics ranging from religion to "the woman question." Fuller emerges as a proto-modernist, someone who "managed to slip more completely than any other intellectual of her generation the leash of Victorian repressions and evasions." Fuller articulated a radically Transcendental critique of classical Christianity, arguing that if men and women did not interpret the Bible "by the freedom of their own souls," they would render the Bible untrue. Capper offers a nuanced and sophisticated reading of Fuller's tracts on gender, which he says have important philosophical and literary qualities. He treats Fuller's personal life as well, chronicling her struggles with finances, her relationship with Emerson and her affair with an Italian partisan 10 years her junior. Debate has raged for 150 years about whether Fuller and Giovanni Angelo Ossoli actually married or whether their son was illegitimate. Capper cautiously concludes that they likely did marry in 1848. Capper has crafted both an intimate life and a subtle analysis of Fuller's work. 36 b&w illus. (May)
The Clarks of Cooperstown: Their Singer Sewing Machine Fortune, Their Great and Influential Art Collections, Their Forty-Year Feud
Nicholas Fox Weber. Knopf, $35 (432p) ISBN 978-0-307-26347-6
Curator and writer Weber (Balthus) tells the fascinating story of an art-obsessed family—especially Sterling and Stephen Clark, whose affinity with artists, says Weber, went beyond the usual collector's. The family fortune was founded by Edward Clark, as the business partner of sewing machine mogul Isaac Singer. His son Alfred used his inheritance to support the sculptor George Grey Barnard and the piano prodigy Josef Hofmann. Sterling and Stephen were Alfred's sons. Sterling was a brash bon vivant who married a French actress and took part in an abortive movement to depose President Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose policies he believed were destroying America's capitalist economy. He also built a museum in Williamstown, Mass., to house his extraordinary collection of Courbets, Renoirs and others. Stephen, a founder of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y., was reserved and dour, yet adventurous as an art collector, buying the works of avant-garde artists like Van Gogh, Picasso and Brancusi. One of the founding trustees of the Museum of Modern Art, he stirred up controversy when he fired the museum's first director, Alfred Barr. Weber's delightfully written study includes much insightful psychological speculation about these larger-than-life men. (An exhibit abut Sterling and Stephen Clark and their collection will be at the Metropolitan Musem of Art in New York City May 22–Aug. 19.) 16 pages of color illus., b&w photos throughout. (May)
Justinian's Flea: Plague, Empire, and the Birth of Europe
William Rosen. Viking, $27.95 (384p) ISBN 978-0-670-03855-8
What might be called "microbial history"—the study of the impact of disease on human events—is a subject that has received great attention in recent years. Rosen's new book follows John Barry's The Great Influenza and John Kelly's The Great Mortality. An editor and publisher for more than a quarter century, Rosen absorbingly narrates the story of how the Byzantine Empire encountered the dangerous Y. pestis in A.D. 542 and suffered a bubonic plague pandemic foreshadowing its more famous successor eight centuries later. Killing 25 million people and depressing the birth rate and economic growth for many generations, this unfortunate collision of bacterium and man would mark the end of antiquity and help usher in the Dark Ages. Rosen is particularly illuminating and imaginative on the "macro" aftereffects of the plague. Thus, the "shock of the plague" would remake the political map north of the Alps by drawing power away from the Mediterranean and Byzantine worlds toward what would become France, Germany and England. Specialist historians may certainly dislike the inevitable reductionism such a broad-brush approach entails, but readers of Collapse and Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond's grand narratives, will find this a welcome addendum. (May 14)
The Big Eddy Club: The Stocking Stranglings and Southern Justice
David Rose. New Press, $25.95 (336p) ISBN 978-1-56584-910-5
This ineptly titled tome is an engrossing blend of true crime, legal drama and acute exposé of racial antagonism. Vanity Fair contributing editor Rose (Guantánamo: The War on Human Rights) examines the brutal rape-murders of seven older white women in Columbus, Ga., in 1977–1978. In the mid-'80s, the police charged Carlton Gary, a charismatic black ladies' man with a long rap sheet; Gary was convicted and sentenced to die. Rose (who, controversially, agreed to turn over new findings to the defense in exchange for their cooperation) presents a riveting case that Gary, still on death row, may be innocent. Police and prosecutors, he contends, may have lied to the jury and withheld possibly exculpatory evidence from Gary's attorneys, whose defense of their indigent client was hamstrung by the judge's refusal to give them funds. Later, Gary's appeals were hobbled by procedural rules; the legal "technicalities" decried on cop shows, the author argues, more often railroad than protect defendants. Rose sets the story against Columbus's history of racial oppression and biased justice, comparing Gary's prosecution to the lynchings of yesteryear. The author harps unconvincingly on the "Southern rape complex" and insinuates more than he demonstrates about the role of Columbus's Big Eddy Club of white movers and shakers. Still, Rose presents a compelling indictment of justice gone awry. Photos. (May)
The Tangled Web: The Life and Death of Richard Cain—Chicago Cop and Mafia Hitman
Michael J. Cain. Skyhorse (Sterling, dist.), $22.95 (240p) ISBN 978-1-60239-044-7
Richard Cain (1931–1973), shot to death in a Chicago sandwich shop, was most probably murdered by members of the Chicago Mafia. The author, Cain's half-brother, presents in numbing and amateurishly written detail the life of a "made" man who joined the Chicago Police Department to be mobster Sam Giancana's man on the inside. Cain achieved some fame for being an aggressive vice cop, as well as notoriety in the killing of an alleged child molester, although he was cleared of any charges. Through Giancana, Cain became involved in a CIA plot to kill Fidel Castro (though the author found no evidence to support rumors that Cain was connected to the JFK assassination). And thanks to political connections, Cain was eventually appointed chief of the Special Investigations Unit of the Cook County Sheriff's Department. Cain continued to work both sides of the law, was convicted on several charges and spent several years in prison. Despite the author's painstaking research, the descriptions of his subject as an intelligent and handsome man with savoir faire, who dazzled women with his charm and his risk taking, are less convincing than the story of a hardened criminal without a conscience. Photos. (May)
Practically Perfect in Every Way: My Misadventures Through the World of Self-Help—and Back
Jennifer Niesslein. Putnam, $24.95 (352p) ISBN 978-0-399-15391-4
Impelled by Oprah to wonder if people can really control their own destinies, Brain, Child magazine cofounder Niesslein binges on the advice of bestselling self-help books. She delves into feng shui expert Karen Kingston's decluttering tips and techniques to spiritually cleanse the home using bells and holy water. She explores the genius of relationships maven Dr. Laura Schlessinger at pushing the right emotional buttons (is Niesslein guilty of making her husband feel he's not a priority in her life?). The self-improvement experts can't help Niesslein expel her stubborn six-year-old from the bed he's been happily sharing with his parents; Dale Carnegie's and Dear Abby's advice on cultivating friends and becoming popular make her feel both superficial and exhausted; and Jorge Cruise's eight-minute exercise workout is "like throwing a few lima beans in a hot fudge sundae." Although she touches on hot spots that concern most readers—family, home, health and finances—the self-help book angle feels contrived and stale, the jokey self-deprecation forced and some of Niesslein's analyses are tedious, such as a chapter on financial freedom that devolves into a primer on Roth IRAs and mutual funds. (May)
The Case Against Perfection: Ethics in the Age of Genetic Engineering
Michael J. Sandel. Harvard/Belknap, $18.95 (130p) ISBN 978-0-674-01927-0
Our quest to create the perfect athlete or the perfect child reflects our drive for mastery and domination over life, says Sandel, a Harvard professor of government and a former member of the President's Council on Bioethics. In this evenhanded little book, which grew out of an essay in the Atlantic, Sandel says this quest endangers the view of human life as a gift. Allowing genetic engineering to erode our appreciation for natural gifts and talents, Sandel says, will affect how we understand humility, responsibility and solidarity; it deprives parents of "the humility and enlarged human sympathies that an openness to the unbidden can cultivate." (The discussion of perfect children also gives Sandel an opportunity to rag on hyperparenting, a trend he sees as a similar expression of parents' desire for dominion.). In addition, if we all possess varying gifts and talents, then as part of our solidarity with others in our society we should share our gifts with those who lack comparable ones. Although Sandel's book treads over heavily traveled territory, it turns in a different direction from the standard arguments that the problem with bioengineering is that it deprives individuals of autonomy. (May)
Henri Cartier-Bresson's Scrapbook
Photos by Henri Cartier-Bresson, texts by Martine Franck, Agnès Sire and Michel Frizot. Thames & Hudson, $85 (262p) ISBN 978-0-500-54333-7
Coinciding with a recent exhibition jointly curated by the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson and the International Center of Photography, this splendid selection of more than 300 images presents the iconic French photographer's famous 1930s–1940s scrapbook. Published in its entirety for the first time, it contains many of the pictures that cemented Cartier-Bresson's reputation as one of the 20th century's defining image makers. During World War II, the Museum of Modern Art arranged what its curators thought would be a posthumous exhibition of his work, following his capture by the Germans in 1940. Four years later, the museum discovered that Cartier-Bresson had escaped and survived in hiding. He gladly collaborated with MoMA and brought 300 prints in a scrapbook to New York. Now handsomely reprinted, the collection spans from 1932 to 1946, and includes vivid portraits of Matisse, Picasso, Bonnard and Giacometti, as well as street photography, assigned photo essays and reportage of France's tumultuous war years. Image after striking image reveals Cartier-Bresson's consistency in capturing poignant moments in perfectly composed frames. The scrapbook is notable both for the history and the personalities it records, and for Cartier-Bresson's miraculous ability to be at the right place at the right time. (Apr.)
Dog Years: A Memoir
Mark Doty. HarperCollins, $23.95 (224p) ISBN 978-0-06-117100-0
Award-winning memoirist (Firebird) and poet (School of the Arts) Doty explores, with compassion and intelligence, the complicated, loving territory inhabited by devoted dogs and their loyal humans. In 1994, when the author's longtime lover was dying of AIDS, beloved pet Arden kept the surviving partner afloat. A new adoptee, the rambunctious Beau, in his "sloppy dog way," becomes a part of the tribe and carries some of the burden of grief. Doty says Beau "carried something else for me too, which was my will to live." In a time of devastating pain, as well as in happier times, Doty's two dogs are the "secret heroes of my own vitality." The dog characters in the book are irresistible, and the arcs of their lives are delineated with the tenderness and passion of the truly smitten. Arden's quiet nobility and slow decline breaks the heart, while Beau's goofy enthusiasm peaks with youth and mellows in illness. With a marvelous ability to present the pain of mourning with a poet's delicate hand, and an irrepressible instinct for joy, Doty delivers a soulful love story which illuminates no less than the big human mysteries: attachment, death, grief, loyalty, happiness. The book nimbly sidesteps sentimentality and lands squarely on a philosophical, inquisitive tone as intellectually evocative as it is emotionally resonant. (Mar.)
Religion
God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
Christopher Hitchens. Twelve, $24.99 (320p) ISBN 978-0-446-57980-3
Hitchens, one of our great political pugilists, delivers the best of the recent rash of atheist manifestos. The same contrarian spirit that makes him delightful reading as a political commentator, even (or especially) when he's completely wrong, makes him an entertaining huckster prosecutor once he has God placed in the dock. And can he turn a phrase!: "monotheistic religion is a plagiarism of a plagiarism of a hearsay of a hearsay, of an illusion of an illusion, extending all the way back to a fabrication of a few nonevents." Hitchens's one-liners bear the marks of considerable sparring practice with believers. Yet few believers will recognize themselves as Hitchens associates all of them for all time with the worst of history's theocratic and inquisitional moments. All the same, this is salutary reading as a means of culling believers' weaker arguments: that faith offers comfort (false comfort is none at all), or has provided a historical hedge against fascism (it mostly hasn't), or that "Eastern" religions are better (nope). The book's real strength is Hitchens's on-the-ground glimpses of religion's worst face in various war zones and isolated despotic regimes. But its weakness is its almost fanatical insistence that religion poisons "everything," which tips over into barely disguised misanthropy. (May 30)
Every Day Deserves a Chance: Wake Up to the Gift of 24 Little Hours
Max Lucado. Thomas Nelson, $19.99 (176p) ISBN 978-0-8499-1959-6
Beloved Christian author Lucado (Traveling Light), whose books have sold over 55 million copies, follows the psalmist by encouraging readers to "rejoice and be glad" every day. Lucado does mean every day—even the day you get fired, or the day you learn your husband is having an affair. Since God is in charge, even lousy days are opportunities to grow, serve and find joy. Lucado provides a formula for this tall task: "Grace. Oversight. Direction," easily remembered by the unsubtle acronym G-O-D. The first step to rejoicing each morning is to drench your day in Jesus' grace, remembering that Jesus has forgiven you for whatever mistakes you made yesterday. Next, seek God's oversight and provision in all that you do. Finally, if you "want to blow the cloud cover off your gray day," embrace the direction God offers you. To illustrate these three principles, Lucado draws on biblical stories and contemporary unsung heroes of the faith: a Christian lawyer who oversees an orphanage in Beijing, for instance. "Daylifters"—page-long reflections on Scripture—conclude each chapter, and a study guide (not seen by PW) fills out this inspiring, if anodyne, book. (May)
United Methodist Beliefs: A Brief Introduction
William H. Willimon. Westminster John Knox, $12.95 paper (96p) ISBN 978-0-664-23040-1
Methodist bishop and noted preacher Willimon (Pastor, and, with Stanley Hauerwas, Resident Aliens), opens his lucid and thought-provoking overview of Methodist beliefs with the counterintuitive claim that Jesus actually wasn't principally concerned about beliefs. He wanted people to follow him, not necessarily assent to a set of "cool intellectual propositions" about him. Still, Methodists do have doctrines, which Willimon feels are worthy, God-given guideposts to following Jesus. Willimon first tackles the Trinity, underscoring that "a decisive change in the human heart can and does occur under the prompting of grace and the guidance of the Holy Spirit." He then moves on to Methodist beliefs about Jesus, salvation, grace and good works. Especially important is his chapter on the church, where, reprising themes that pervade his earlier writing, Willimon argues that although Americans desire to go the spiritual life alone, Methodism teaches that people become most fully conformed to Christ when they are part of the larger ecclesial body. Methodist church life, says Willimon, is a tad schizophrenic, appreciating order while also seeking "radical renewal." Written with Willimon's characteristic dry wit, this highly readable book brings to life doctrines that in other hands would seem dry and dusty. Willimon has produced the most insightful introduction to Methodism available today. (May)
The Essence of Shinto: Japan's Spiritual Heart
Motohisa Yamakage. Kodansha (Oxford Univ. Press, dist.), $22 (288p) ISBN 978-4-7700-3044-3
Western visitors to Japan sometimes come away with the idea that Shinto, Japan's indigenous religion, is a "dead" tradition, with shrines preserved as mere historic sites or tourist traps. Not so, claims Yamakage, who represents "the 79th generation of an ancient Shinto tradition" and makes a case for living Shinto as a faith-based religion that is predicated on "the belief in the presence of the kami," or spirits. Yamakage calls for a return to koshinto, the ancient Shinto practice that he says had no shrines at all, and for a rejection of the "secular, materialistic, atheistic society" that he believes modern Japan has become. He offers a strong introduction to Shinto, stressing that it is nondogmatic, nondoctrinal and almost wholly decentralized. Still, Shintoists are united by a reverence for nature and an emphasis on self-purification, particularly through water rituals and cleansing. The book is nicely designed, with an excellent layout and black-and-white photos throughout. At times, Yamakage's voice can be overly strident, as when challenging the faith and motivations of some contemporary Shinto priests. Overall, however, this is a fine primer that makes a compelling case for Shinto as a religion invested with deep meaning. (May)
Conversations with Mormon Authors
Compiled and edited by Christopher Kimball Bigelow. Mormon Arts and Letters (Baker & Taylor, dist.), $39.95 (272p) ISBN 978-0-85051-111-6; paper $17.95 ISBN 978-0-85051-108-6
On the heels of Mormonism for Dummies and the hilarious Mormon Tabernacle Enquirer, Bigelow leans on his background as founding editor of the Mormon literary magazine Irreantum to explore questions of LDS writing and literature. This anthology of interviews with 28 LDS authors explores a range of genres from young adult romance to screenplays, poetry to sci-fi and fantasy. Powerhouses like novelists Levi Peterson and Terry Tempest Williams, essayist Eugene England, filmmaker Richard Dutcher and humorist Robert Kirby all weigh in. The questions go from the sublime (Is there a coherent Mormon literary scene? Will there ever be an LDS Saul Bellow or Flannery O'Connor? What is faithful writing?) to the nuts and bolts of writing habits, publishing houses and marketing. It has some blatant holes in its roster (no Gerald Lund or Orson Scott Card), but most of all it lacks an epilogue from the editor that could have provided some analysis of recurring themes and internal debates. That work is left entirely to the reader. Nevertheless, this collection will be valuable to the growing field of Mormon studies and will be a must-read for aspiring LDS writers. (May)
Islam: Past, Present & Future
Hans Küng. Oneworld (NBN, dist.), $39.95 (1,024p) ISBN 978-1-85168-377-2
Prominent Christian theologian Küng completes his trilogy on the world's three monotheistic faiths with this lengthy analysis of Islam's 1,400-year history. As in his previous volumes, he speaks against the clash of civilizations and for peace through inter-religious dialogue. He sees each faith as having had major paradigm shifts that have moved it forward, and, in fact, praises Islam for advancing the Arab people quite rapidly, in some cases much faster than similar periods for Christianity. Nevertheless, he claims the Muslim world has neglected to move to its next paradigm due to various failures: arrogant ulama (religious scholars), greed among the wealthy, and the lack of health care and education. Equally critical of Christianity and Judaism, Küng is a lone, profound voice searching for greater understanding through asking difficult questions. He is intuitively confident that Muslims are ready to revitalize their religion, hungry for such rethinking through new Qur'anic interpretations that are already underway. Although the thousand-page book is overblown and could use some stringent editing, it contains insightful ideas and worthwhile commentary. Those intimidated by the lengthy volume may prefer to peruse the fascinating maps and tables throughout, which neatly and graphically summarize the book's major points. (May)
Ten Prayers God Always Says Yes To: Divine Answers to Life's Most Difficult Problems
Anthony DeStefano. Doubleday, $18.95 (176p) 978-0-385-50990-9
Books on prayer are legion, most often focusing on why we should pray and how to do it correctly. DeStefano, author of A Travel Guide to Heaven, offers readers a refreshing look at this evergreen topic by focusing on 10 prayers God "always" answers. "Why don't people take advantage of prayers that work? One big reason is that they are so caught up in prayers that don't always work," says DeStefano. He offers readers this guarantee: "before you even get to the last page of this book, your life will begin to change before your eyes." Prayers include "God, show me that you exist," "God, forgive me," "God, give me courage" and "God, lead me to my destiny." DeStefano uses the Christian Bible as the foundation for his work, not offering quick fixes but instead expounding on the need for true repentance, right motives and genuine commitment. More conservative camps will most likely cluck at what they see as DeStefano's lack of firmness about salvation as a prerequisite to both heard and answered prayer, but a careful reading shows that the author understands faith, not selfishness, is the foundation for these prayers. His cheerful style and heartfelt faith make this an optimistic look at a timeless subject. (May)
John of God: The Brazilian Healer Who's Touched the Lives of Millions
Heather Cumming and Karen Leffler. Atria/Beyond Words, $22.95 (224p) ISBN 978-1-58270-164-6
Sometime in 1951 João Teixeira de Faria, age nine, rightly predicted which houses in his aunt's neighborhood would be damaged or destroyed by an impending windstorm. Since then, his abilities have expanded to include the channeling of a number of Entities, or spirits. Two of his followers (from the Casa de Dom Inácio de Loyola, where he makes his home and performs his healings), Cumming and Leffler, began gathering testimonials and "spirit photographs," pictures that they believe capture the essence of the spirits. The result is a combination history–prayer guide–visitors' primer on medium João and his work in South America and throughout the world. The team-writing approach makes for repetition (though this may also be due to the epithetic nature of the story) and, at times, contradiction. Testimonies come from a wide variety of sources—farmers, doctors, lawyers and even Peruvian officials—and include an equally broad spectrum of experience, from herbal prescriptions to invisible surgeries, crystal bed treatments to physical surgeries. All this purportedly comes from a man who, in his earthly corporeal incarnation, can neither read nor write. Skeptics will not likely be persuaded by this testimony to the Brazilian healer. (May)
The Organic God
Margaret Feinberg. Zondervan, $16.99 (224p) ISBN 978-0-310-27244-1
An emerging popular writer for culture-savvy evangelicals, Feinberg challenges 20-somethings and older Christians to trade in their current relationship with God for an "organic" one. In a word, Feinberg describes her former understanding of God as "polluted," while today she longs for closeness to the creator as characterized by all that is "natural, pure, and essential." Throughout these introspective spiritual musings, Feinberg (What the Heck Should I Do with My Life? and God Whispers) is engaging and thoughtful as she pairs the mysteries of the divine-human relationship with everyday wonders found in the material world. Thematically laid out, the book shares Feinberg's personal recollections from childhood on to present-day experiences while pointing to various aspects of God's character; Feinberg's God is bighearted, beautiful, wise, talkative, infallible, generous, stubborn, kind and mysterious. In one particularly transparent story, Feinberg shares how God nudged her to bestow generosity by giving away a beloved sweater, a pair of gloves and some gourmet treats. Feinberg resisted, only to ruin the sweater, lose a glove and find the treats uneatable within a 24-hour period. She learned that "the Organic God doesn't just want me to give until it hurts, but rather to give until it feels good." Feinberg's quirky personality shines forth on every page, making her text a delectable treat. (May)
Reasons to Believe: How to Understand, Explain, and Defend the Catholic Faith
Scott Hahn. Doubleday, $19.95 (260p) ISBN 978-0-385-50935-9-0
Many times in its 2,000-year history, the Catholic Church was under tremendous scrutiny and even persecution, thus necessitating the faithful to provide a cogent and passionate explanation of doctrine to skeptics. These explanations developed into a formal branch of theology known as "apologetics." Hahn, an increasingly popular theologian, speaker and writer, has grabbed the doctrinal baton with books like The Lamb's Supper and Hail, Holy Queen. Here he presents a contemporary apologetics for those who feel a need to defend their faith in the postmodern world. Hahn certainly knows the Catechism, and his writing is concise and certain. He unabashedly declares the Catholic faith to be "the only Christian body that professes one faith, undivided, unchanged, throughout the world and throughout the ages." While some may be persuaded by this rhetoric, such phrases will come across to others as overly triumphalistic, especially since the history of the church includes many doctrinal disputes and painful clashes over belief that Hahn glosses over. Readers wrestling with doubts about their faith may not find much solace in Hahn's work, but Catholics who feel the need to articulate their viewpoint to fellow believers and nonbelievers could benefit from Hahn's clear explanation of doctrine. (May)
Everyday Holiness: The Jewish Spiritual Path of Mussar
Alan Morinis. Shambhala/Trumpeter, $22.95 (224p) ISBN 978-1-59030-368-9
Morinis, director and founder of the Mussar Institute, summarizes the practice of Mussar "in the phrase tikkun ha'middot ha'nafesh—improving or remedying the traits of the soul"—while emphasizing that it is not self-help. Rather, "it means working on yourself, but not for the sake of yourself... but... to bring the soul to wholeness and holiness." Each of us is born with an inner soul that is irrevocably pure, but the outer layers constantly engage in the age-old struggle between good and evil. By determining our soul curriculum, or "issues that repeatedly challenge [us]," we can strengthen our souls and therefore every aspect of our lives. Specifically, he addresses 18 soul traits: humility, patience, gratitude, compassion, order, equanimity, honor, simplicity, enthusiasm, silence, generosity, truth, moderation, loving-kindness, responsibility, trust, faith and yirah (a combination of fear and awe, without a true English counterpart). In most cases the explanations are clear and delightfully illustrated with colorful Talmudic tales, though occasionally some traits, like moderation and generosity, seem at odds with each other. Early on, Morinis explains that a Mussar book should be read "slowly, in little segments, so the material can be thoroughly absorbed and digested." So, too, should readers of any religion take their time with this engaging tome of wisdom, lore and suggested practice. (May)
Anger: Discovering Your Spiritual Ally
Andrew D. Lester. Westminster John Knox, $16.95 (168p) ISBN 978-0-664-22499-8
Anger is unavoidable and perfectly natural, according to Lester, professor of pastoral theology and pastoral counseling at Brite Divinity School. As part of what God created and called good in Genesis, anger is only wrong or sinful when used in destructive rather than creative ways. In this primer on the subject, Lester explores frequently misinterpreted biblical narratives about God, Jesus and anger, and provides a six-step process for recognizing, naming, evaluating and using creatively that emotion most of us wish would go away. Anger occurs when our values, self-understanding, physical being or future hopes and dreams are threatened, says Lester. Using illustrative stories from the Bible and contemporary life, he makes a convincing case for his "threat model." As is true with any one-size-fits-all answer, however, the model gets stretched thin occasionally ("When the Jews came to arrest Jesus in the Garden, Peter felt his investment in Jesus and his mission were threatened"). Nonetheless, the book—written in clear and nontechnical language, with frank descriptions of the inappropriate ways people express anger, as well as suggestions for using it as an ally instead—will help readers from a Christian background understand, befriend and use their anger creatively. (May)
The Religious History of American Women: Reimagining the Past
Edited by Catherine A. Brekus. Univ. of North Carolina, $59.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-8078-3202-1; $19.95 paper ISBN 978-0-8078-5800-4
University of Chicago historian Brekus (Strangers and Pilgrims) brings together 12 innovative and engaging essays about women and religion in U.S. history. Several authors treat Catholic women and race: Emily Clark introduces nuns who evangelized slaves in 18th-century New Orleans, and Amy Koehlinger contextualizes white nuns' civil rights activism in the story of the postconciliar reform of religious orders. Many essays make methodological or theoretical points that have broad applications to historical scholarship. Janet Moore Lindman looks beyond churches to find women's spirituality, arguing that women's letter writing, good works and attendance at funerals are meaningful acts of piety that historians may miss if they keep their eyes trained on "the meetinghouse." Susanna Morrill, in a fascinating piece on Mormon women in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, reads popular literature as a key to women's theological discourses. A few of the essays are less original—Pamela Nadell's article on women in American Judaism, for example, makes the uncontroversial claim that it is important to "emphasize women's agency" and to see women as "historical actors" in their own right. The academics and students who will likely make up this volume's main audience are in for a treat. (Apr. 23)
I Sold My Soul on eBay: Viewing Faith Through an Atheist's Eyes
Hemant Mehta. WaterBrook, $13.99 paper (224p) ISBN 978-1-4000-7347-4
Mehta, an atheist, once held an unusual auction on eBay: the highest bidder could send Mehta to a church of his or her choice. The winner, who paid $504, asked Mehta to attend numerous churches, and this book comprises Mehta's responses to 15 worshipping communities, including such prominent megachurches as Houston's Second Baptist, Ted Haggard's New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo., and Willow Creek in suburban Chicago. (Mehta ranks Willow Creek as the church most likely to draw him back.) Mehta, who grew up Jain, offers some autobiographical context, then discusses nonreligious people's approach to topics such as death and suffering. But all that is just a preamble to Mehta's sketches of the churches he attended. He doesn't find much community in churches; families sit far apart from other families, and people race "out the front doors to their cars" as soon as the service ends. Churches earn high marks for Mehta when they offer great speakers and focus on community outreach, but they also do many things wrong, including singing repetitive songs and alienating non-Christians by ubiquitously proclaiming them to be "lost." Mehta's musings will interest Christians who seek to proselytize others and who want to identify their evangelistic mistakes. (Apr. 17)
