The Truth (With Jokes)

The Truth (With Jokes), by Al Franken (2005)

Comedian, author and host of his own Air America radio show, Al Franken covers little new ground in a book that will appeal almost exclusively to Democrats and liberals. Even so, Franken’s love of country and sense of humor make this book a joy to read.

“The only comedian to have performed at Abu Ghraib,” so far as he knows, Franken addresses the outrageous assertion by commentators such as Rush Limbaugh that “nobody got hurt” there, in spite of the photo evidence showing one detainee dead and another badly beaten.

Franken takes aim at the Republican Party for its passage of legislation in the Terri Schiavo case. He points the finger at outgoing Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a medical doctor, who formed his opinions on Mrs. Schiavo’s condition without ever having met with her. After her autopsy showed what many doctors had already concluded, that Schiavo had irreversible brain damage, Frist would claim that “Terri’s Law” was about merely about ensuring an accurate diagnosis.

But for all of his criticism of others, he maintains his ability to laugh at himself. After detailing a 2004 Defense Science Board report, which concluded that Americans were “strangely narcissistic” in the eyes of Muslims, Franken writes:

“… I think about narcissism a lot. One of the things people like most about my books is how I relate politics and global events to anecdotes about myself, especially my USO tours and the repeated confrontations in which I get the better of Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz. But enough about me…”

Franken finishes with a letter to his grandchildren, dated ten years into the future. He correctly predicts a Democratic takeover of the U.S. House in 2006. He goes on to predict gains for Democrats in the years after that, along with the passage of universal health care and public financing for elections. And what are his grandchildrens’ names? Barack, Hillary and Joe III (the last name having been in the family for many years.)

In an era of negative, often divisive, attacks hurled from one side to the other, Franken shows that one can make their points without being ugly. Better yet, he has fun while doing it. In print and on the air, Franken accomplishes what all too few writers and commentators do: he makes following public policy fun.

An Abundance of Katherines

An Abundance of Katherines, by John Green (2006)

Colin Singleton is a high school graduate for only a day when his girlfriend, Katherine, dumps him. Wallowing in self-pity, Colin becomes obsessed with what went wrong. But rather than concentrating on his own character, he channels his energy into constructing a formula that will predict what people will be dumpers and dumpees. Perhaps he’s concerned because he’s just been dumped for the 19^th time, all by girls named Katherine.

The protagonist doesn’t have too much time to retreat into himself before his Lebanese sidekick, Hassan, appears and proposes a road trip. The two confer with skeptical parents and are quickly off in Colin’s car. They have no idea where they’re headed, but it’s not too long before they stop to visit the gravesite of a famous figure in world history. There, in a small Tennessee town, they meet Lindsey, a tour guide at the facility and her mother, Hollis, owner of the local factory.

As with Green’s hugely successful Looking for Alaska, the author creates highly developed and likable main characters. Hassan is everything that Colin is not: crudely spoken, unmotivated and ready for adventure. The young Singleton has always pushed himself to live up to his promise as a prodigy. Filling his head with useless trivia and extensive knowledge of obscure languages, it’s little wonder that he has never stopped to ask himself why he will only see girls named Katherine. Hassan is there to tell him when his digressions are boring, when he’s taking his obsessions too far and when he needs to break out of his comfort zone and take a chance.

While the book is told in the third-person point of view, Green’s narration echoes the thinking patterns of his main character. Through the course of the book there are dozens of footnotes, often with random tidbits of the kind that occupy his protagonist’s head. Rounding out the short book is an appendix of notes and formulas that expound upon Colin’s life and work.

This book is highly recommended for young adults, although adult readers will also appreciate this irreverent, cerebral and funny story.

War by Candlelight

War by Candlelight, by Daniel Alarcón (2005)

“In Lima,” writes Daniel Alarcón, “dying is the local sport.” The same is true of the Peruvian countryside, where one of the author’s characters loses his wife in a fantastic mudslide that inundates his entire village.

Alarcón’s Peru is a hard place to make a life. Nearly all of the short stories in this collection catalog the war torn country’s violence, its corruption and its lack of opportunity for able-bodied citizens. At the same time, there is a gentle nature about many of the author’s protagonists, most of who are simply trying to make the best of a bad situation.

The majority of these stories take place in Lima, a city that contains a large penitentiary for terrorists and street thugs. The local kids refer to the facility as the University “because it’s where you went when you finished high school.” In Alarcón’s first story, Flood, every moment – every breath it seems – is dominated by the neighborhood turf war, the threat of incarceration and worst of all, death at the hand of a rival gang.

For the author’s story, Absence, the scene shifts to post 9/11 New York City, where Wari, a painter, is having a showing of his work. Before leaving Peru, the painter is warned by a friend to shave, lest security officials mistake him for an Arab. The reader follows his experience at the American Embassy in Lima and even here, his situation is made more difficult. Hoping to obtain a ninety-day stay, Wari finds he can only get a one-month tourist visa. After a meeting with an abrasive embassy agent, he is limited to two weeks out-of-country.

Daniel Alarcón writes with such an authentic voice that it’s hard to imagine the lives of the people of Peru being any different that what he describes. All of the stories here bring a new tragedy – the loss of a loved one, or the story of a laid off bank employee, Miguel, who has been pleading with his girlfriend, the mother of their child, for her hand in marriage for five years. The woman loves Miguel but tells him but that she is not sure that that is enough. Miguel muses that “in this city, there is nothing more useless than imagining a life... There is no work,” he complains.

Born in Lima and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, Alarcón has written a beautiful, if sobering, collection of short stories. Strongly recommended for adult readers.

The Penderwicks

The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy, by Jeanne Birdsall (2005)

When the family’s established summer vacation plans fall through, Mr. Penderwick makes alternate arrangements and heads to the Berkshires with his four girls. The botanist and college professor is again on the road without his wife, who has passed away from cancer several years before. The eldest daughter, Rosalind, while only 12, has assumed the role of family matriarch. She helps her free-reigning father with the headstrong Skye, age 11, and the cerebral budding writer, Jane, age 10. Rounding out the Penderwick set is four-year-old Batty and the family dog, Hound.

The Penderwicks have rented a cottage on the stern Mrs. Tifton’s Arundel estate and the adventure begins almost immediately as Skye literally runs into Tifton’s son, Jeffrey. The boy is a gifted musician, who tries the patience of his unyielding mother. The mother and her new love interest believe that Jeffrey should honor the family tradition of becoming a military officer, an idea that the boy abhors.

Four weeks is enough time for plenty of summer play including soccer, nursing crushes on boys, crashing Mrs. Tifton’s garden showing and experiencing the family drama unfolding in the Arundel mansion. While a few of the story elements are a bit far-fetched, it hardly seems to matter as the characters are so delightful and the story line is fun to follow.

Birdsall has penned a fine first book and crafted a cast of characters that will make readers ask for more. Highly recommended for grades four through six.

Alabama in the Twentieth Century

Alabama in the Twentieth Century, by Wayne Flynt (2004)

Professor Emeritus of History at Auburn University, Flynt’s eleventh book marks the pinnacle of a career studying Alabama and Southern history. Having spent most of his adult life in the state, Flynt is “a native son who has lived, loved, taught, debated, and grieved within the state for 60 of the 100 years described.”

The author is frank and forthcoming with his criticisms of the state, starting appropriately with the tragedy of the 1901 Constitution, a document written by Bourbon Democrats to extend their power and influence while disenfranchising most poor whites and nearly all blacks. The author believes that the injustice of this parchment continues to cast a pall on the state, and he provides plenty of examples of a culture stunted and a people denied to convince the reader of this fact.

Flynt examines the body politic with his chapter “Every Man for Himself: Politics, Alabama Style.” The author takes the state’s anemic tax levels to task, also making the case that the burden falls heaviest on those who can least afford it. Like fellow academic Harvey Jackson, he is critical of a state that accepts low taxes, even though the result is a state government that can provide little for its people.

The professor writes chapters dedicated to education, as well as to women and African-Americans. Particularly in the latter case, Flynt eloquently describes a group that, in light of its smaller numbers, has made a contribution disproportional to the state’s success. Sadly, it is a people that have all too often received the least benefit from it.

But lest critics suggest that Flynt is a man who doesn’t love his native state, the author also gives credit where it is due, whether it is the innovation of engineers in Hunstville contributing to the nation’s space program or its many famous educators, athletes and entertainers. Dozens of pages are dedicated to figures such as education pioneer Julia Tutwiler, baseball slugger Hank Aaron, singer Nat King Cole and U.S. Supreme Court justice Hugo Black, who all once called Alabama home. For all of the challenges they faced, it is clear that Alabama has produced many accomplished and gifted individuals.

At over 600 pages this is not a book for the casual reader, but it is highly recommended for those who want to delve deeper into the recent history of the nation’s 22^nd state.

Each Little Bird that Sings

Each Little Bird that Sings, by Deborah Wiles (2005)

Comfort Snowberger knows far more about death than the average 10 year old. Her family owns and operates the lone funeral home in rural Snapfinger, Mississippi and she has attended nearly 250 funerals.

The funeral home’s motto is “We live to serve,” and it is a dictum that the Snowberger clan take to heart. As her father prepares the departed for burial, Comfort’s mother handles floral arrangements and her elder brother tends the lawns. Even the family dog, Dismay, does his part by staying with the deceased in the preparation room and by standing stoically for visitations.

The author writes in her introduction about the inspiration for the book. In the four years that followed the publication of her last book she lost several family members. It was a situation that left her “suffocating in grief,” but through it all she learned “the meaning of friendship and the power of love.”

Wiles has written a tender, yet often funny book that deals with several coming-of-age issues. Death is an obvious theme, but the story also addresses the struggle of dealing with agitated family members in times of stress, as well as the strain on friendships as young people mature.

Highly recommended for ages 8 to 12, this book will appeal to young people with its strong story line and folksy, small-town humor. Adults will want their children to read a well-written book that confronts some of the struggles their children will face as they approach their teenage years.

Why White Kids Love Hip Hop

Why White Kids Love Hip Hop: Wangstas, Wiggers, Wannabes, and the New Reality of Race in America, by Bakari Kitwana (2005)

Kitwana, a former editor of The Source magazine attempts to answer the question of why so many white kids seem to gravitate toward hip hop music. Included in this short book are some interesting points, but the author generally seems to raise more questions than he answers.

The strength of the book is the provocative statements borne from Kitwana’s belief in hip hop’s strong influence on politics and the broader society. The author’s conclusions about both raise eyebrows and they start at the very beginning when the author asserts“the hip-hop generation is the first one to grow up without experiencing de facto segregation.” Such statements will go farther in sparking a spirited debate about the politics of race and class in America than they will in answering the title question. So it is with much of Kitwana’s book.

Like other books that examine the role of popular music in society, Why White Kids seems to overemphasize the impact that hip hop has in challenging the racial politics of the past and in transforming society. At the other end of the spectrum, some critics charge that hip hop has done little or nothing to change society, or that it isn't a movement at all. Both views are often taken to extremes, in the view of this reviewer.

Kitwana’s work provides a lot of food for thought, and while it doesn’t go as far toward answering the question as many would like, it is sparking debate among fans and critics of hip hop culture. The buzz about this book is indicative of the fact that this is a timely topic about which there is a great deal of interest. Readers of this book should expect a broader discussion of rap music within the framework of American culture, rather than a definitive answer to the title question.