Get thee behind me summer! In the U.S. we’ve been bombarded by political conventions, extreme heat, and lots of big, fat books. It’s 93° in Chicago as of this writing, but I’m off to the Inside Passage on Thursday for my first visit to Alaska. Rain and 50° are promised. I welcome that, if it does not obscure the mountains and glaciers. On the other hand, that’s plenty of time for reading.
Below are some titles I finished this summer, but since the list is longish, I’ll be splitting into 2 parts.
Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West by Hampton Sides (Anchor Books, 2006)
Full disclosure: I’m an American history wonk, especially the settlement of the U.S. Blood and Thunder is a masterpiece of creative non-fiction that brings the opening of the West into vivid detail. During his four years as president, James K. Polk oversaw the greatest territorial expansion of the United States to date.
Polk accomplished this through the annexation of Texas in 1845, the negotiation of the Oregon Treaty with Great Britain in 1846, and the conclusion of the Mexican-American War in 1848. Except for the perimeter and major trails, this new country was unknown except to the Native Americans and Mexicans.
Kit Carson was born in Missouri, trapped in the Rockies and the Sangre de Christo Mountains, and guided wagon trains along the Santa Fe and Oregon trails. He was instrumental in opening Polk’s West and in winning the Civil War in the Western U.S. At his life’s end he was a general in the U.S. Army. He could not read nor write.
Take time to read this book. It’s long – 500 pages – and worth every word. And, if you have not yet visited the Navaho Reservation, spread across four states, put it on your bucket list. Canyon de Chelle will blow you away. We hired a Navaho guide (you cannot enter unless accompanied by a member of the tribe) who walked and climbed with us down and up the steep canyon walls. Memory of a lifetime.
Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford (Scribner, 2023)
I’m not a fan of speculative fiction, but Cahokia Jazz has its moments. I grew up in St. Louis with the Cahokia Mounds right across the river. These are the burial monuments of Native Americans living in the area 1050 to 1350 CE. It’s been speculated they had a large and cultured civilization, one of many that spread across North and South America long before the arrival of Europeans.
Cahokia Jazz keeps this civilization alive and independent through the early 1920s. The rest of the United States is divided into North and South and a Mormon state to the West. The Indians are power brokers, served by both black and white citizens. It’s not a great novel, but I admire writers who can create such alternative worlds – and Spufford is a Brit.
The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt (Storybook ND, 2022)
A charming little book (70 pages) in which a 17-year-old woman tells her amazing story. It’s full of the lessons learned from her mother who taught her what she needed to do to enjoy le bon vie... One such lesson is, you always have the English tailor your woolens as they understand wool. Just as you buy linen from the Irish and have that tailored by the French.
The writing is austere, as you expect from such a refined person – precise with a lovely surprise ending. Do yourself a favor, read it!
A History of the World in 10 ½ Chapters by Julian Barnes, (Vintage International, 1989)
When this book first appeared, one reviewer for The Guardian considered it a “newfangled romp”– unworthy of a writer of Barnes’s stature. Others worried that Barnes called it a novel when it is really a collection of short stories and an essay. Whatever the intellectuals thought, for me this is a delightful book of stories loosely tied by themes and even characters. And each time I found the breadcrumb that tied one story to an earlier one, I was delighted. A good read.
Roman Fever and Other Stories by Elizabeth Wharton (Scribner, 2012, originally published in 1939)
Edith Wharton is such a great writer! Every time I pick one of her books it surprises me with the freshness of the style and the plot. All the stories in this book are intriguing. “Roman Fever” will leave you “gob-smacked.” Treat yourself to one of the best American writers with this book.
Tell Me Everything: The Story of a Private Investigation by Erika Krouse (Flatiron Books, 2022)
Are you one of those listeners to whom people tell their life stories? Erika Krouse is. She put this skill to clever use, becoming a private investigator involved in notorious litigations. Both she and the lawyer with whom she worked never gave up on the causes they supported. It usually resulted in staggering settlements for the plaintiffs. A good read, especially if you like legal investigation non-fiction.
Flaubert’s Parrott by Julian Barnes (Vintage Books, 1990, first published 1984)
While I loved A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters, Flaubert’s Parrott left me flummoxed and unsatisfied. What the heck is this book? Ten years of sporadic research from which Barnes could not derive a narrative? Flaubert, supposed author of the modern novel (think Madam Bovary), does not seem an interesting subject. Reclusive, arrogant, epileptic (which probably led him to be reclusive), unmarried, great letter writer, a good friend to some – and a lover of parrots. Unless you are a student of French literature, let Mr. Flaubert and his parrots stay undisturbed.
Let’s Have a Conversation:
How many books did you manage to read this summer? Which was the season’s highlight and why? What other titles would you recommend to the community?