komet2020's reviews
1711 reviews

The Emancipator's Wife: A Novel of Mary Todd Lincoln is one of the most engaging and enjoyable novels that I have read for some time. While its focus is on the life of Mary Todd Lincoln - from her childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood in a large Kentucky family with a beloved father who figured prominently in local politics -- there are other characters who serve to round out and enrich the novel by virtue of the roles they played - both directly and indirectly - in Mary Todd Lincoln's life. They are:

1. Mary Todd Lincoln's stepmother Betsy whom she resented and hated.
2. Abraham Lincoln, her beloved husband, with whom she had at times a turbulent marriage given her own highly strung disposition and the demands of his career in the law, his one term in Congress, political ambitions, and on to his tenure as President striving mightily to win a bloody, civil war and reunify the nation.

3. The Lincoln sons: the eldest Robert (with whom Mary Todd would have a difficult relationship as he grew to adulthood), Edward, Willie, and Tad. Of the 4 sons, only Robert would live a long life.

4. John Wilamet, an escaped slave with whom Mary Todd Lincoln became acquainted during the Civil War, when Wilamet and his family were staying in a camp for escaped slaves in Washington DC.

And there was also ---

5. Myra Bradwell, a lawyer by training (but not profession because in that time, women were not permitted to become lawyers) with whom Mary Todd Lincoln struck up a close relationship during the Civil War through their mutual interest in spiritualism and attendance at seances in Washington (which Mary Todd Lincoln regularly attended, seeking re-connections with her beloved son Willie whose death at age 12 in 1862 from typhoid fever nigh well shattered her. She would grieve for her lost sons for the rest of her life.

The chapters that deal with Mary Todd Lincoln's postwar life and her being declared in court insane which led to her being placed in an Illinois asylum for several months in 1875 were especially moving. They also highlighted for me the increasingly bitter and acrimonious relationship she had with Robert, who didn't think his mother capable of caring for herself, and was therefore better off in an asylum. Robert didn't seem to have the balanced temperament of his father and was avidly ambitious, a young husband and parent intent on carving out a successful career in the law.

I also enjoyed learning about John Wilamet's postwar life in which he worked as an aide in the Illinois asylum in which he renewed his acquaintance with Mary Todd Lincoln. He, like many African Americans of his time who were struggling to gain recognition and respect as citizens from their fellow white Americans (many of whom held very low opinions of African Americans and sought to keep them in marginalized positions in society), had a very challenging life, living in one of the most impoverished Chicago neighborhoods near the stockyards (where hogs were slaughtered and quartered for the local and national meat markets), saloons, and high crime areas of the city.

Though Wilamet was a fictional character in the novel, his life typified what was often the lot of African American men in the early decades after the Civil War.

The Emancipator's Wife I could read again and again, because it's richly layered and tells a fascinating story that makes history LIVE. I recommend it to anyone with a love for history and compelling human interest stories.

 

 

A Café on the Nile is the second novel in the Anton Rider series. It brings back to the fore many of the characters from The White Rhino Hotel as well as introduces to the reader, a number of new and emerging characters who make this an epic novel.

The year is 1935. War looms over the horizon in East Africa with Italy poised to invade and conquer Abyssinia (now Ethiopia), thus erasing the shame of its 1896 defeat there by the forces of Emperor Menelik at Adowa. There is a gathering of various personages at the Cataract Café, a swank establishment situated on the Nile in Cairo, owned and operated by the Goian dwarf Olivio Fonseca Alavedo (last seen in The White Rhino Hotel when he worked for an English lord for many years in a hotel in Nairobi). Among them is Anton Rider, a British expatriate and hunter who makes his living from organizing and leading safaris for rich clients; his estranged Welsh wife Gwenn and their 2 young sons; Gwenn's lover Lorenzo Grimaldi, a colonel in Italy's Regia Aeronautica (air force) tasked with helping to ensure a swift triumph for Italian arms in the war soon to come; two wealthy and pampered sisters from the U.S. (both identical twins - Bernadette and Harriet Mills) recently arrived in Egypt with Bernadette's fiance to be part of a safari in Abyssinia led by Rider himself; Lord Penfold, Olivio's former boss who is down on his luck; and Ernst von Decken, an old acquaintance of Rider, who is a gambler with a restless spirit set on making himself rich at the expense of the Italians and so restore for himself a stable, comfortable life he had known before World War I when he lived with his father in what was German East Africa (Tanzania).

What begins as a routine safari for Rider and his party in Abyssinia soon develops into a fight for survival as they find themselves swept up in the chaos created by the Italian invasion. Gwenn, who had been in a relationship with Colonel Grimaldi while studying to be a doctor, has volunteered to be part of a Red Cross medical staff in Abyssinia, whose role was to provide medical services there for its people. So it is that the destinies of Rider, Gwenn, the Mills Twins, Grimaldi, and von Decken are brought together in Abyssinia as that nation struggles to overcome Italian forces set on conquering it, not above using the dropping of poison gas by Italian bombers on civilians as a way of ensuring a swift victory for Mussolini in his quest to establish a Greater Italian East Africa.

Olivio, too, has his own scrapes with tragedy and death as he seeks to build upon the wealth and financial security he has striven for years to establish and maintain for himself and his friends Rider, Gwenn, and Lord Penfold.

While this novel is packed with adventure and excitement, it is not for the squeamish at heart. I was left breathless after reading it. Soon, I'll be off to read the third novel in the series.

 

Prior to reading this memoir - published a scant 3 years before his death at age 89 - the most I knew about Burgess Meredith was from seeing him in the role of the Penguin in the Batman TV series during my school days back in the 1970s; the role he reprised in the TV movie Tail Gunner Joe as the lawyer Joe Welch, who during the televised Army-McCarthy Hearings in 1954, helped bring down the demagogue Senator Joseph McCarthy whose reckless anti-Communist crusade ruined the careers and lives of many innocent people; and an episode from the TV series The Twilight Zone in which he was a henpecked bookworm who finds himself the survivor of an apocalyptic catastrophe, contemplating suicide until he chances upon the ruins of a library. I saw him solely as a actor who managed to have a long career in both film and television. One of those character actors many of us recognize, but when pressed, couldn't say their names.

Not so. There was much more to Burgess Meredith than meets the eye. He comes across in the memoir as very honest about himself and his life experiences. He came from a troubled home in OH. His father, a doctor, was an alcoholic who abused Meredith's mother (whom he adored) who abandoned the family and went on to live in Canada. As a boy, Meredith (who was found to have talent as a singer) would earn admission to 2 prestigious schools and later attend Amherst before going on to study acting with Eva Le Gallienne through her repertory company in New York (one of Meredith's classmates was John Garfield), which served as a springboard for Meredith finding stage work on Broadway (where he honed his talent and earned a few rave reviews from theater critics) and Hollywood.

I was also fascinated to learn about the many notable personages (in film, theater, and through his hobbies) with whom Meredith came into a contact. Examples: Humphrey Bogart, Jimmy Stewart, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Elia Kazan, Ingrid Bergman, the composer Kurt Weill, the playwright Maxwell Anderson, Franchot Tone, Hedy Lamarr, John Huston, James Thurber, John Steinbeck, Alexander Calder (the conceptual artist), Paulette Goddard (who would become one of Meredith's 4 wives), Zero Mostel, Carroll O'Connor, Andy Warhol, Jeff Bridges, and the war correspondent Ernie Pyle (whom Meredith met during his World War II service as an officer in the U.S. Army Air Force; Pyle was later killed in the Battle of Okinawa in April 1945).

What's more: besides acting, Meredith was also a director (stage and screen), a licensed pilot, an owner of horses whom he raised and raced, and a deeply contemplative man about life and the world as he came to know it. I very much enjoyed getting this rounder view of Burgess Meredith. His life was diverse and fascinating. He was a man of deep passions who once went broke, and, at various stages of his life, underwent psychiatric counselling. And through it all, he never lost his zest for LIFE.


Frankly, I'm at a loss as to why other reviewers of this memoir decry Meredith's name-dropping. Geez! Surely, the reason why most of us read memoirs from famous people is out of an overweening curiosity (many of us have) to find out how many other notables figured prominently in the lives of the memoirists! 

In the immediate aftermath of RAF Bomber Command's firebombing of Hamburg in July 1943, and the RAF's deployment of Window (i.e. thin strips of paper with aluminum foil covering one side), which jammed the German radar system, thus making it almost impossible for Luftwaffe night fighters to track and destroy RAF bombers, the decision was made by the Luftwaffe high command to increase and further develop the use of single-seat fighter planes to intercept RAF bombers by night. Thus arose the Wilde Sau concept, which "envisaged the use of free-ranging day fighters (and to a lesser extent night fighters) to counter Bomber Command."

This book goes on to provide the reader with a concise history of how and why Wilde Sau night fighting tactics were developed and implemented, the fighter units that carried out these tactics, the successes and failures from Wilde Sau, as well as accounts from some of the pilots who flew Wilde Sau missions between 1943 and 1945.

For any reader wanting to have a basic understanding of the various aspects of the Wilde Sau approach to night fighting, look no further. There are also in this book a variety of illustrations and photos that lend greater clarity to what was a novel approach to taking on RAF Bomber Command in the skies over Germany. 

DEFIANT: The Untold Story of the Battle of Britain goes a long way towards redressing the long established reputation of the Boulton Paul Defiant 2-seater fighter plane as an aircraft that, when tested in battle against the Luftwaffe, failed to live up to its promise as a "bomber destroyer."

The inspiration for the Defiant came from the Bristol Brisfit 2-seater fighter/reconnaissance plane, which built a reputation during its deployment in World War I as an exceptional aircraft. Indeed, the Brisfit could tangle with the best of the German fighters over the Western Front and came to be highly regarded by the British as "a fighter with a stinger in its tail."

The book explores the interwar development of the Defiant, its supporters and detractors within the leadership of RAF Fighter Command, the ongoing manufacturing problems at Boulton Paul Aircraft that delayed the production of Defiants, the Defiant's combat history with 264 and 141 Squadrons, and the factors that led to the Defiant's withdrawal from daytime combat in August 1940 when the Battle of Britain was at its height. (The Defiant would go on to be used as a night fighter until well into 1941.)

Through reading this book, I gained a greater appreciation for the strengths the Defiant did have and the crews who flew them in combat. I was deeply impressed by 264 Squadron's commander, Squadron Leader Philip A. Hunter. He embodied the best qualities of leadership, was inspirational to the men under his command, always led from the front, and was an innovative and brilliant tactician. Indeed, under Hunter's leadership, 264 Squadron set the record for the highest number of enemy aircraft destroyed in aerial combat when it was credited with shooting down 38 German planes in one day of combat over Dunkirk on May 29, 1940.

DEFIANT is an absolutely first-rate aviation book containing 2 sets of photos featuring the Defiant, its crews, and some of the civilian and military leadership responsible for its development and deployment by RAF Fighter Command. 

 

Originally published in 1975, CHILD YANK OVER THE RAINBOW DIVISION - 1918 is a compilation of World War I eyewitness accounts from a U.S. fighter pilot (Lt. Joseph E. Boudwin - nicknamed 'Child Yank' by his British squadron mates during his frontline service with No. 84 Squadron because of his youthful appearance) and 3 veterans of the U.S. 42nd 'Rainbow' Division and their experiences with the Division stemming from its arrival in France late in 1917 to its deployment on the Western Front from July 1918 to the Armistice in November of that year.

Boudwin was one of those American combat aviators who received his initial flight training in the U.S., followed up by advanced flight training in the UK with the Royal Flying Corps (later the Royal Air Force [RAF] after the RAF came into being on April 1, 1918 as a result of the amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service). Being an aviation enthusiast, I especially enjoyed reading about Boudwin's experiences both in the UK and later in France with, first, No. 84 Squadron, flying S.E.5A fighters, and later, under U.S. command, with the 25th Aero Squadron, which arrived at the Front too late to see much action.

The 3 accounts from the 42nd Division give the reader a tangible feel of the raw intensity, brutality, and sometimes uneasy quietness and monotony that often characterized frontline combat during the summer and fall of 1918, when the U.S. Army became a major factor playing a key role in the eventual defeat of Germany. This book is a keeper, one to be read again and again at leisure.

 

Peopled with a rich array of characters, the novel takes place in British East Africa (Kenya) in the immediate aftermath of World War I, when the British government has promoted a great land rush for veterans, their families, and anyone in Britain keen for making better lives for themselves in Africa.

The White Rhino Hotel (owned by a British aristocrat) serves as the focal point for many of these expatriates upon their arrival in Africa. It's steeped in drama and intrigue, with the African landscape and the flora and fauna thereof brought vividly to life in its pages, acting in effect as an additional character which lends a deeper richness to the novel. I so enjoyed the reading experience. 

Kim Philby: The Spy I Married is Eleanor Philby's recounting of the years she was married to Kim Philby, one of Britain's most notorious spies who had loyally served Moscow for 30 years, all while presenting to his friends, colleagues, and Eleanor herself the veneer of an urbane, witty, compassionate, and suave Englishman (who had risen to the highest ranks of Britain's MI6, which is analogous to the CIA).

This book makes for sobering reading and shows the costs deception can exact within a loving relationship. Philby comes across as a person with a certain sensitivity and disingenuousness in his personality. But his fealty to the Soviet Union, to which he pledged himself while a student at Cambridge during the early 1930s, proved to be total and absolute, overriding all other personal attachments in his life. I felt sorry for Eleanor because she had fully invested herself in her marriage to Philby (even to the point of going to Moscow to be with Philby after his January 1963 defection from Beirut, Lebanon -- where the couple had made a life together for 4 years) and ended up being cruelly deceived by her husband. In case you're wondering: the marriage did not last. 

Summer Crossing is a previously unpublished work of Truman Capote that was likely left undone around 1950. It was discovered by chance, vetted and read by a number of reputable writers at the request of the Truman Capote Literary Trust, and published in 2005, 21 years after Capote's death.

The story is set in New York shortly after the end of World War II and is centered around a young woman, Grady McNeil, who hails from a very affluent family in Manhattan. The oldest of 2 children, Grady is a carefree socialite in her late teens. Along with one of her oldest friends, Peter Bell, she sees her parents off on a ship to Europe, where they'll be spending the summer. This was a time when the affluent classes would regularly vacate New York for the summer, rather than endure the humidity there.

A few months before, Grady had made the acquaintance of Clyde Manzer, a World War II U.S. Army veteran home from Europe who was parking cars at a lot where she liked to park her convertible from time to time. Clyde is from a working class Jewish family in Brooklyn, which is worlds apart from the type of people with which Grady normally associates.

In reading Summer Crossing, I couldn't help but feel that Grady took up with Clyde just to see what would happen. I didn't get any sense of there being a romance between the two, just an opportunity both are taking advantage of just to see what happens.

I admit Capote's prose from the beginning took some getting used to. It was the first time that I had read anything from him since a short story in high school about 45 years ago. But the more I read Summer Crossing, the more I became settled into its rhythm. This is a story that could be adapted for the screen or TV and made into a short drama.

At 126 pages, this is a book that can be read in one sitting. Capote fans: Eat your heart out. 

Gaudi Afternoon I found to be a delightful and richly entertaining novel to read. Cassandra Reilly is a globe trotting, Irish American lesbian translator and amateur detective working in London on a translation of a best-selling novel by a woman Venezuelan writer when she receives a call from Frankie, an American actress. Frankie was put in the know about Cassandra from Cassandra's friend Lucy in San Francisco, where Lucy keeps watch over Cassandra's place and correspondence there whenever Cassandra is on her far flung travels. Frankie requests a meeting with Cassandra in London upon arriving there the next day to better explain herself and why she needs Cassandra's help.

Though showing a reluctance to take on Frankie's case, Cassandra is intrigued. Besides, the initial show of money Frankie offers for her services is tempting enough. So, the two meet in London and Frankie explains that she needs to track down her estranged husband Ben, whom she suspects is in Barcelona. Where exactly in Barcelona, she's clueless about. Nor does Frankie speak Spanish or Catalan. But Cassandra, given her fluency in Spanish and previous contact with Barcelona (where she has 2 close friends, Ana, who is a conceptual architect, and Carmen, a lesbian hairdresser with a very strong personality and spirit) makes use of the phone numbers Frankie provided her with, and is able to gather a fairly good idea of where Ben is in Barcelona.

Once both Frankie and Cassandra are in Barcelona, the story becomes more convoluted, colorful and intriguing with lots of unexpected twists and turns. Some of the main characters prove to be different from what they at first show themselves to be. That's all I say about that.

Notwithstanding the roller coaster nature of the novel, Gaudi Afternoon was very well written and fun to read.