E. Benjamin Skinner explores the monstrous crime of modern slavery.

I’m not sure what made me grab E. Benjamin Skinner’s 2008 book A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery during one of my recent library visits. Perhaps Misha Glenny’s sweeping and detailed expose of global organized crime McMafia kindled my interest in international crime and related matters. Maybe when confronted by the title of Skinner’s book and finding it hard to believe slavery could exist in this day and age, my curiosity got the better of me. Or after reading in the New York Times over the last decade about the horrors of human trafficking and forced prostitution, (and explored in movies like Eastern Promises and Taken or in the cable miniseries Human Trafficking), perhaps I thought it would be wise to read more about this modern scourge. But regardless of what motivated me to read this book I’m glad I did. Despite being a bit uneven, Skinner’s readable book serves as an excellent window into the heart-breaking world of modern-day slavery.

Much like Glenny did with McMafia, Skinner traveled the globe in order to show that modern slavery is truly an international problem. From the villages of Haiti to the tourist hotels of Romania to the gravel pits of India, it’s estimated that close to 27 million people live in some sort of slavery or forced servitude. As Sudanese raiders abduct their southern countrymen, young women from impoverished towns and villages across the former Soviet Block are lured by false promises of gainful employment only to wind up in the brothels of Amsterdam and Dubai.

Thanks to countless interviews and brave undercover work, Skinner did an admirable job exploring this grim world from the ground up. By allowing these former slaves to tell their respective stories, they cease being faceless statistics and instead become flesh and blood individuals. It also enables them to move from being victims to being survivors.

While portions of the book dealing with actual cases of slavery do a fine job showing both the width and depth of this world-wide problem, the amount of attention Skinner’s devotes to the infighting and turf wars between American politicians, US government officials and conservative Christian groups seems a bit much and as a result slows the pace of the narrative. Fortunately, it’s my only major complaint. Considering A Crime So Monstrous is his first book, maybe I’ll cut him some slack.

Jonathan Spence on Mao Zedong

Over the last few years I’ve had pretty good luck with the Penguin Lives books. For those of you who might be unfamiliar with them, they’re a series of short biographies of notable historical figures, all written by respected authors. Not long ago I featured Martin E. Marty’s biography of Martin Luther. Before that, on my old Vox blog I featured Gary Wills’s biography of St. Augustine. I even have a copy of Karen Armstrong’s Buddha, which has been sitting half-finished on my bedside bookshelf for who knows how long.

During one of my recent library visits I happened to find another book from this series. Unlike the three previously mentioned ones, this one is not a biography of a religious figure. From the hand of noted China expert Jonathan Spence, the Penguin Lives edition of the life of Mao Zedong is exactly what I expected. It is a readable but not flashy biography of the Chinese Communist leader. Therefore, like the other books in this series, it delivers the goods.

Even though Spence’s biography is rather short one, I still managed to learn more than a few things about the life of Mao Zedong. For instance, during the height of the Cultural Revolution at a time when the world would always associate Mao with his “Little Red Book” of collected writings, and with it the treatment of the book as a kind of holy writ not only by the Chinese but by the revolutionary minded from across the globe. The reality is Mao, even by his own admission, was always a peasant at heart. Even though he received a modest level of education, and was an avid reader, only later during his years as a guerilla leader that he finally devoted himself to the serious study of Marxist theory, mostly to help him gain an intellectual advantage over his Soviet-trained Communist rivals. Mao was also a bit of a “lady’s man”, marrying several times over his lifetime, fathering children both inside and outside marriage and even as a senior citizen enjoying the comforts of much younger women. Lastly, while his famous meetings with President Nixon would make front page news, little did the world know that at the time Mao was in incredibly poor health and suffering from multiple degenerative afflictions. Barely able to sit up, let alone walk unassisted, Mao would communicate only with help of a secretary who would read his written statements aloud.

While I wished Spence could have spent a bit more time discussing the disastrous Great Leap Forward and the chaotic years of the Cultural Revolution, alas this is an introductory biography and therefore I’m quite confident that a more in-depth treatment of those two eras can be found in other Chinese history books. Fortunately, Spence’s biography has inspired me to read other books related to China. I have Ha Jin’s novel Waiting and Aaron Friedberg’s A Contest for Supremacy: China, America and the Struggle for Mastery in Asia both sitting by my bed needing to be read. Maybe Spence’s biography of Mao will inspire me to finally read them.

Amy Dockser Marcus explores the roots of the Arab-Israeli confict.

Every so often when visiting my public library I’ll notice a book that looks promising, but for whatever reason I won’t grab it. But sometimes, after my curiosity gets the best of me, I’ll pick one of those particular books up, give it a closer inspection and take it home with me. Sometimes I find a winner and sometimes I find a loser. Sometimes though, I find something kind of in the middle. Jerusalem 1913: The Origins of the Israeli-Arab Conflict by Amy Dockser Marcus is one of those books I’d classify as being in the middle. It’s not terrific, but it’s not horrible either.

Published in 2007, the book is Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Dockser Marcus’ attempt to explore the origins of today’s Arab-Israeli conflict by  examining the personalities and events associated with the last 20 years of Ottoman rule in what is today’s Israel and the Occupied Territories. In hopes of finding the roots of this ongoing conflict, many writers have focused their attention of the British Mandate period from 1918-1948 while Dockser-Marcus on the other hand in her book Jerusalem 1913 prefers to believe the die was cast years before during the waning years of the Ottoman Empire. Western-inspired concepts of nationalism and self-determination would motivate both Zionists and Arabs alike, propelling both sides on a collision course. Despite Palestinian Jews and Muslims living relatively peacefully side by side for centuries, the waning years of Ottoman-ruled Middle East would be a period when powerful forces from outside the region would slowly but surely exert new influences upon the area, setting the stage for today’s conflict in Holy Land.

While Jerusalem 1913 isn’t an engrossing book that pleasantly sucks you in, it nevertheless flows quickly and makes for interesting and casual reading. The author spent most of her time discussing the chief personalities in this early power struggle, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But I really wish she would have devoted more attention to contributing factors such as Arab nationalism, Zionism, European power-plays and the declining power of the Ottoman Empire. By not doing so her book feels readable, but perceptibly incomplete.

Since I’m taking part in Helen’s Middle East Reading Challenge, I hope to feature other books dealing with that fascinating part of the world. I have a small pile of Middle East novels, memoirs autobiographies and other assorted nonfiction books that I can’t wait to dive into. Maybe Jerusalem 1913, despite it’s shortcomings will inspire me to do so.

About Time I Read It: The Chosen by Chaim Potok

Along with such classic novels such as To Kill a Mockingbird, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and A Separate Peace, The Chosen has always been one of those books that many young Americans are assigned to read in high school. In fact, it was in high school that I too first learned of Chaim Potok’s classic American novel. But I on the other was never asked to read the book as part of my assigned coursework. I did however learn of book’s existence through my sister, who being only a few years younger than me, attended high school at the same time I did. According to my sis, whenever her teacher would assign her class a new book to read, (and with it the inevitable essay project associated with the assigned reading), several of her classmates would lifelessly moan in response, “oh yeah, just like we did with The Chosen.” For years after high school I always wondered about this book and why some of my sister’s classmates loathed it. But with The Chosen being part of the high school literature cannon, I always suspected that Potok’s novel had some intrinsic worth, or else it would never have been assigned reading in the first place. So in the end I figured some day I’d read it.

Not long ago while wandering the shelves of my public library what did I find but a paperback copy of The Chosen. Thinking that it was high time I finally read Potok’s book quickly I grabbed it. My goodness I’m glad I decided to do so. The Chosen is a superb novel.

By focusing on the lives of two young Jewish men and their respective fathers, the novel beautifully explores such universal themes as the importance of true friendship, devotion to family, the tension between religious traditionalism and modern secularism and the importance of respecting ones political and cultural adversaries. Moreover, as the novel’s characters interact with each other and the world around them, deep questions that address the soul of contemporary American Judaism are also explored, questions such as modern scholarship’s right to interpret holy texts, the degree to which one should assimilate within the larger Gentile culture as opposed to living in distinct and separate communities, how a just and loving God could have allowed the Holocaust to occur, as well as the meaning of Israel as a modern and secular state.

On top of all of this, it’s a wonderful novel. The characters, although exclusively male and few in number, are incredibly rich and complex. There’s more than a few plot twists along the way which in the end help generate some amazing irony. The writing is direct while at the same time descriptive, making the novel an accessible vehicle for any readers wanting to explore these powerful and essential questions associated with modern life. It’s also inspired me to read additional books by Potok, including  novels such as My Name is Asher Lev, The Gift of Asher Lev and The Promise. I also want to read his Wanderings: History of the Jews.

Thanks to Potok’s novel, I learned one additional thing. On top of everything else, I learned not to judge a novel based on the grumblings of a few disinterested school kids. There’s a reason this book appears on so many high school reading lists –by all accounts it’s a great novel. And I highly recommend it.

Adventures in Economics: Third World America by Arianna Huffington

One weekend last year while watching Book TV I saw a brief interview in which some notable individual said he was reading Arianna Huffington’s book Third World America: How Our Politicians Are Abandoning the Middle Class and Betraying the American Dream. Even without him saying a word about it, the book’s title alone was enough to make me read it. So I made a mental note to someday grab a copy, should I ever come across one during one of my frequent library visits. Well, as luck would have it while prowling the shelves one fine day what did I find but a copy of Huffington’s book. As you would expect, I immediately swiped it and made my way to the automated check-out machine.

Overall, I thought her book was pretty good. Since she states her case that the American middle class is shrinking and under attack from a crumbling infrastructure, rapacious corporations, corrupt and co-opted government entities and dismal educational institutions, I tend to classify Third World America as one of those “call to arms” books like Dambisa Moyo’s Dead Aid or David Frum’s Comeback, books that first point out how bad things are and then offer solutions to the dire predicaments they proclaim. With its feel of an extended op-ed piece, despite the book’s depressing subject matter it’s a rather quick read.

Even though Huffington possesses an advanced degree in economics, while discussing the sad state of America’s middle class she really never engages in any analytical work of her own, but much like Barbara Ehrenreich did with her essay collection This Land is Their Land, she instead prefers to recount incidents that have appeared in the news over the last few years. But, thankfully in order to do this, she did a lot of research and there’s no shortage of material to support her compelling arguments.

Some have criticized Third World America for failing to account how changes in technology and the global economy have contributed to the erosion of America’s industrial base and with it a shrinking of attractive employment opportunities for the nation’s working and middle classes. I’ve read that a good book that addresses this dynamic is Martin Ford’s The Lights in the Tunnel. Perhaps I will have to put it on my reading list.

Speaking of books dealing with economics, in case you might be wondering I am in fact hoping to feature other books like this one as part of my “Adventures in Economics” series. Who knows, maybe Ford’s book will be the next one you see featured as part of this series.

A Chance in the World by Steve Pemberton

In Chaim Potok’s 1967 novel The Chosen, narrator Rueven Malter is told by his father David that in this world there are no meaningless or insignificant acts. No act, no matter how small can have profound and lasting consequences. So when a young Steve Klakowicz is given a trove of children’s books by a kindly neighbor woman after being spotted reading on the sidewalk outside his house one day, her modest act of generosity, which to many would look rather insignificant, would profoundly impact his life. Immersed in the fictional worlds of boy detectives, loving and supportive families, intrepid adventurers and heroes of every stripe, he’s granted not only a source of diversion from his hellish foster home, but most importantly, his forays into this imaginary yet wholesome world teach him his abusive home environment isn’t the norm and that he can and should strive for something better. His 2012 memoir A Chance in the World: An Orphan Boy, a Mysterious Past, and How He Found a Place Called Home is the story of how that young boy overcame savage abuse and inconceivable odds to graduate from college, launch a promising career and in the end help create a loving family of his own.

The odds couldn’t have been more against him.  A blue-eyed boy with a fair complexion, Afro and Polish last name, he was tossed into an abusive foster home after being abandoned by his alcoholic and neglectful mother. Forced to live as a virtual slave by his foster parents and beaten constantly, he would repeatedly wonder about his birth parents and why he was placed in foster care. But thanks to the occasional kindness of others in providing him with inspiration, Steve was able to use the fruits of these small encounters to nurture his own self of well-being and purpose.

In all my years of reading, I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a book that I burned through so quickly, since I probably read about 80 percent of its 272 pages in just one sitting. Not only does Pemberton’s memoir suck you in, it’s an incredibly fast read. However, call me cynical but I’m hoping his “personal editor” Seth Schulman is in fact his talented and capable editor and not his ghost writer.

Many readers will suggest A Child Called “It”: One Child’s Courage to Survive as a companion read. Because of the biracial elements explored in A Chance in the World, I’d also recommend The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother in addition to the anthology Half and Half: Writers on Growing Up Biracial and Bicultural. Keeping with the theme of families lost and found, I’d also recommend Ithaka: A Daughter’s Memoir of Being Lost and Found.

According to the Russian novelist Alexander Solzhenitsyn in his 1970 Nobel acceptance speech, one word of truth shall outweigh the whole world. One wonders if years ago, Steve Pemberton’s neighbor had that in mind when she gave him a stack of books. As a result of his reading, he learned the truth that not only did the outside world looked quite different when compared to that of his horrible foster family, but that he could also strive for greater things. And that truth set him free.

The Mirage: A Novel by Matt Ruff

Imagine a world where the Middle East is home to the global superpower known as the United Arab States. The state of Israel with its capital of Berlin resides in Europe after victorious Arab armies carved it out of the ruins of a defeated Nazi Germany after the last world war. England is ruled by a crazed Anglican despot hell-bent on acquiring nuclear weapons in order to wipe Israel off the map. North America is home to a number of backward and theocratic dictatorships like the Christian States of America and the Evangelical Republic of Texas. Osama bin Laden is not only a powerful senator from Arabia, but also the behind the scenes leader of a shadowy anti-terrorist organization called al-Qaeda. As criminal overlord and head of the Baath Labor Party, Saddam Hussein conducts himself as a cross between Al Capone and Jimmy Hoffa. And just when things couldn’t look more surreal, on 11/09/01 a team of fundamentalist Christians hijack four jet liners and crash two of them into Baghdad’s Twin Towers, causing the United Arab States to unleash its War on Terror, culminating with not one, but two invasions of Christian North America.

This is the bizarro world concocted by Matt Ruff for his incredibly clever, fast-paced and surprisingly funny 2012 novel The Mirage. Ever since I read Anne Saker’s review in my local newspaper The Oregonian, I’ve wanted to read Ruff’s novel. Well, as luck would have it, after popping into the library one evening after work what would I find sitting on the shelf but a copy of The Mirage. I grabbed it without hesitation, checked it out and headed out the door. From there I ripped through it in a weekend. After finishing it, I’m happy to report that it exceeded my expectations.

There’s much to like about The Mirage. The storytelling is tight and fast-paced. While its core characters might not be as rich and complex as one would expect to find in a piece of high-art literature, I still found them adequately fleshed out and defined well enough to add depth and substance to the story. In addition, Ruff has done a great job crafting an entertaining piece of fiction by blending elements of fantasy, alternate history and political satire while employing a quick-paced storytelling style one usually finds in popular spy thrillers and crime novels.

Some readers and reviews have taken issue with a few things. For instance, no one is denying that Ruff is incredibly clever as shown by his ability to successfully create the book’s parallel universe. But when one takes into account the novel’s rather weak ending, one is left wondering if The Mirage‘s sum is really equal to its parts. Fortunately for me, I found myself more than satisfied with Ruff’s novel.

Just as L. Frank Baum used the Oz books to comment on the politics and economics of America’s Gilded Age and Lewis Carroll satirized 19th century England with Alice in Wonderland, I’m sensing that Ruff, by flipping our world upside down in The Mirage is trying to not only entertain us, but get us to see what things looks like when the shoe is on the other foot. Perhaps The Oregonian‘s Anne Saker said it best when she wrote, “the book doesn’t want to persuade anyone or to yank on any heartstrings. It simply holds up a moment in time that we think we all know and dares the reader to consider a different universe.”