{"id":827,"date":"2009-08-06T09:50:33","date_gmt":"2009-08-06T09:50:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/meeseeks:5080\/blog\/?p=827"},"modified":"2009-08-06T09:50:33","modified_gmt":"2009-08-06T09:50:33","slug":"recent-reading-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/2009\/08\/recent-reading-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Recent reading 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a world more perfect than this one, I would have time to write lengthy reviews of the books I&#8217;ve been reading recently.\u00a0 In this world,\u00a0all I have time for is a brief mention.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Tristam Hunt [2009]: <em>The Frock-Coated Communist:\u00a0 The Revolutionary Life of Friedrich Engels<\/em>. (London, UK:\u00a0 Allen Lane).<\/strong>\u00a0 A superb and sympathetic biography of Engels, written by an historian very empathetic to the rise and culture of 19th century industrialism.\u00a0\u00a0 My only (minor) criticisms arise from Hunt&#8217;s infrequent, but jarring, use of slang (a failing common in English-educated writers under 40, I have found) and the occasional reference to something which the author thinks he has mentioned previously, but has not.\u00a0 Perhaps the editor was asleep.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ian Leslie [2009]: <em>To Be President:\u00a0 Quest for the White House 2008<\/em>.\u00a0 (London, UK:\u00a0 Politico&#8217;s).<\/strong>\u00a0 An account of the 2008 US Presidential election by British journalist <a href=\"http:\/\/www.marbury.typepad.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Ian Leslie<\/a>.\u00a0 No surprises for those of us who followed the race as it happened, but well-written, and good to have on record.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Charles McCarry [1995]:\u00a0 <em>Shelley&#8217;s Heart.<\/em> (New York, USA:\u00a0 Overlook Press).<\/strong>\u00a0 A riveting political thriller from this master writer of espionage, about an attempted take-over the US administration by the extreme left through mostly constitutional means.\u00a0 \u00a0 Well-written, and almost devoid of implausible events or inconsistencies.\u00a0 (On page 304, in the one slip I found, we read of &#8220;both Presidents&#8217; eyes&#8221;\u00a0 in a scene where one President had already left the room.)\u00a0 The main implausibility concerns the very nature of the conspiracy, which seems to have been prepared for years in advance, yet depended on the chance nomination of one person to the Supreme Court. Surely, truly-serious plotters would not have left step 1 of the masterplan to the whims of people outside the circle.\u00a0 The characters, however, especially those on the left, are mere caricatures, and lack the greater depth which McCarry&#8217;s\u00a0spy-fiction regular participants\u00a0typically reveal.\u00a0\u00a0 Although he seems to have tried\u00a0hard to appear politically neutral in this book, it is clear from this (and from his\u00a0other\u00a0novels), that McCarry&#8217;s own sympathies are with the right.\u00a0 He also does not like modern art.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Helen Vendler [1997]:\u00a0 <em>The Art of Shakespeare&#8217;s Sonnets<\/em> (Cambridge, MA, USA:\u00a0 Belknap Press).<\/strong>\u00a0 A superb commentary and detailed analysis of Shakespeare&#8217;s masterwork, which I have read, one sonnet and commentary per day, over the last half-year or so.\u00a0\u00a0 There is no question, after reading this, of the intellectual, linguistic\u00a0and emotional heft of the Sonnets.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It is undoubtedly Marlowe&#8217;s best work!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a world more perfect than this one, I would have time to write lengthy reviews of the books I&#8217;ve been reading recently.\u00a0 In this world,\u00a0all I have time for is a brief mention. Tristam Hunt [2009]: The Frock-Coated Communist:\u00a0 The Revolutionary Life of Friedrich Engels. (London, UK:\u00a0 Allen Lane).\u00a0 A superb and sympathetic biography [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-recent-reading","p1","y2009","m08","d06","h09"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vukutu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}