Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy

HYPERBARIC OXYGEN THERAPY

VIRGINIA BAPTIST HOSPITAL

(CENTRA HEALTH)

LYNCHBURG, VIRGINIA

Here is a link to a recent local news interview I did regarding our use of hyperbaric oxygent therapy in Lynchburg, Virginia:

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy

Book Review: The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

The Catcher in the Rye

Author: J.D. Salinger

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

Original Publication Date: 1951 (Hardcover)

Pages: 214 (Mass Market Paper Edition)

     This book is an often rambling first person account of a lost weekend in New York.  It is told by misfit high schooler Holden Caulfield.  Unbeknownst to his parents, Holden has been expelled from his preppy boarding school and heads home early for the holidays.  He accounts his many misadventures and experiences of New York nightlife, hotels and bars.

   

      This book was considered scandalous when it was published in 1951, earning J.D. Salinger a controversial reputation.  The author turned into a recluse for the rest of his life.  Caulfield is a fairly innocuous character by today's standards.  He's sort of a more cultured Bart Simpson.  He smokes and drinks, womanizes and, most notably, is very difficult to get along with.  He has become the model of the quintessential alienated and angry teenager.  He rebels against authority, conformity and hypocrisy.  Much has been written about this character's personality.  Some have even gone so far as to diagnose Caulfield with various mental illnesses or personality disorders.

     Salinger's writing style is very conversational.  I found that somewhat distracting at first, but after awhile, I found myself thinking and talking like the main character.  I really did.

      The Catcher in the Rye is an interesting character study but hardly scandalous by today's moral standard.  It is more interesting as a lens through which to look at post-World War II American society.  I found it entertaining and I was glad I included this in my retrospective reading list. 

Book Review: I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe

I Am Charlotte Simmons

Author: Tom Wolfe

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Date of Publication: November 9, 2004

Pages: 688 (Hardcover Edition)

(Note: This review was previously published in The LamLight, the physician newsletter

of the Lynchburg Academy of Medicine.

Tom Wolfe’s voluminous (688 pages) I Am Charlotte Simmons has been criticized as just a bloated, sleazy “expose” of college campus life. It is the story of Charlotte Simmons, a genius from small town Sparta, North Carolina.  She graduates from her public high school as a hero because she has received a full academic scholarship to fictional Du Pont University, one of the most prestigious universities in the country.  The reader follows Charlotte as she arrives on the Du Pont campus in her father’s pick-up truck.  She is totally intimidated by the University and her wealthy and more socially sophisticated classmates.  The novel’s title is actually the mantra that her high school guidance counselor, anticipating adjustment problems, tells Charlotte to repeat when she becomes confused, depressed or discouraged. This young academic phenom, who felt guilty for weeks after crossing against one of her hometown’s three stoplights, is gradually exposed to drunken debauchery, academic fraud and sexual shenanigans worthy of the last days of the Roman Empire.  So what?  One critic has gone so far as to say “What’s so new about college students drinking a lot, partying too much and having sex?”  Mr. Wolfe became famous, in part, for lampooning modern culture and trends in previous works The Bonfire of the Vanities and A Man in Full.  In this book he certainly holds nothing back exploring campus life, modern rap music, the hypocrisy of the “student-athlete”, grade inflation and grandiose, self-important college professors.  On the surface none of this seems like new territory.  Do we really need an “Animal House” for the new millennium?

Mr. Wolfe’s books are never exactly what they seem, however.  I’ll never forget one of my mentors in medical school telling me to read Mr. Wolfe's The Right Stuff, exclaiming “This is not a book about astronauts.  It’s a book about surgical residency!!  It’s a book about perseverance, what it takes to achieve a goal!”  So what is this book about?

            At first I thought I Am Charlotte Simmons was a book about power.  The author provides many examples of the power of money to corrupt.  Mr. Wolfe’s view of the national championship basketball program at DuPont defines this concept very well.  The power of privilege is exhibited by Charlotte’s roommate Beverly, a pampered boarding school product who flaunts her wealth and heritage at every opportunity.  Charlotte discovers sexual power as she slowly realizes that her natural beauty and refreshing naiveté attracts campus “celebrities”.  Charlotte’s fragility is betrayed by her inexperience when she becomes involved with a sexual predator who demonstrates a most negative power.  At the conclusion I realized that this is a book about identity.  It is about self-image.  It is about how we develop self-esteem and identity in the modern world, mainly through our perceptions of how others see us.  Charlotte’s character goes through chameleon like changes.  First, she sees herself as a country bumpkin in a world entirely too sophisticated for her, then as an intellectual, then as a sexual object worthy of attention, then as a failure and, finally, as a mentor, friend and “better half” of a seven foot academically challenged basketball player.  She defines herself by her own perception of how others view her.  She finds and then abandons friends depending on what “phase” she is in.  What is the scariest is that Charlotte defines her value entirely through others’ eyes.  This metamorphosis is foreshadowed early in the book when Charlotte debates her Neuroscience professor (a Nobel laureate, of course) on the theory of evolution and Darwin’s own concept of what causes change or adaptations in animals.

There is a scene in the movie “Elf” where the comically naïve Buddy Elf, a human raised by elves at the North Pole confronts a department store Santa by hissing “You sit on a throne of lies.”  Similarly, the characters in “I Am Charlotte Simmons” are all living lives of deception and illusion.  The underlying message from Mr. Wolfe for this decade may be that the constructs that we call our lives are really amalgams of our perceptions of how others, even perfect strangers, think of us.  These characters choose the clothes they wear, the music they listen to, even the classes they take, to conform to the “self” that they perceive others see.   There is no reality for these characters except through the eyes of others.  There is one unforgettable scene that underscores this theme.  Hoyt Thorpe, president of the most prestigious on-campus fraternity is exposed as a liar and cheat in the campus newspaper.  As he views the article which essentially ends his hopes for future employment and success he can’t get past the accompanying photo.  He assesses his attire and thinks to himself “How can any college man look this good?”

In a way, I Am Charlotte Simmons is also an indictment of my generation: the over 50 “Baby Boomers” who idealistically wanted to change the world in the 60s but settled into the “me decade” of the 70s and the greed and consumer cultures of the 80s and 90s.  This world of Dupont University in the 00s is a microcosm of the world we have fashioned and left behind: a world based on appearances, deceptions, photo-ops, sound bites, misperceptions and “looking out for #1”.  There is a memorable scene towards the end of the book which takes place in a professor’s office.  The professor is a balding, overweight and pompous history professor who is meeting with a student he has accused of plagiarism.  There are posters of Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix on the walls of the office.   The professor waxes philosophic about how his generation “lost the fire” and abandoned its ideals, “selling out” to greed and consumerism.  Much to the consternation of the student involved, the professor chooses this occasion to stick to his principles and make an example of this one individual.

There is much to not like in I Am Charlotte Simmons.  The language is foul.  Every dialogue, it seems, is peppered with the F-word.  The sex scenes are worthy of a pornographic magazine.  The ending is unsatisfying.  The reader is unsure of whether he is seeing the final metamorphosis of Charlotte Simmons or that the author just got sick of writing about her and decided to end the story.  That said, I think that this is an important novel.  It makes the reader assess modern culture and what it says to our children who must somehow develop or evolve, if you will, into functioning, contributing adults.  Mr. Wolfe’s keen sense of humor and irony is on full display here as well.  His full page grammatical analysis of the many uses of the F-word (and later in the book, the S-word) is hilarious.  His eye for details and cunning use of setting are superb, as usual.  The Dylan poster behind the history professor is one example.  The stack of Beverly’s electronic equipment (lap-top, cell phone, MP-3 player, TV/DVD player, etc…) all connected via wires and surge protectors juxtaposed to Charlotte’s table lamp and alarm clock is another.

If you are a Tom Wolfe fan, you will probably enjoy this novel as I did.  If you need an introduction to this author, read The Right Stuff instead.

Movie Review: Lincoln

"Lincoln"

Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis

Directed by Steven Spielberg

Distributed by Touchstone Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Dreamworks Pictures,

Participant Median and Relliance Entertainment

Theatrical Relase Date: November 9, 2012

     At the risk of sounding un-American or racist, this movie is a snoozefest.  It's a bit like looking at a 150 year old broadcast of C-SPAN.  

     The plot concerns the passage of the 13th Amendment.  That's it.  Lincoln is a recently re-elected second term President, mired in an unpopular war and fighting a partisan fight to pass the constitutional amendment which would guarantee the abolition of slavery.  The same political gridlock and Congressional shenanigans plaguing 21st Century Washington D.C. are at play here.

     Daniel Day-Lewis is absolutely incredible in his portrayal of Abraham Lincoln.  After a while, though, the masterful performance becomes lost in the story which moves at glacial speed.  Some of the other casting is a bit suspect.  This particularly applies to Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln who plays this role like the 19 the century version of Forest Gump's mother.   

    It was fun to see many familiar sights from the Richmond and Petersburg, Virginia areas where the movie was filmed.  The Virginia State Capitol is transformed into the U.S. Capitol and the old Petersburg train station is featured in several early scenes.

     This movie is about a very important historical achievement by probably our most effective and revered President.  It probably won't rate as one of Hollywood or Spielberg's greatest accomplishments because of the pacing and long tedious scenes dominated by dialogue and political rhetoric.  If you go, I'd suggest a stop at Starbuck's for a double Cafe Americano first.

Movie Review: "Flight" starring Denzel Washington

"Flight'

Starring Denzel Washington

Directed by Robert Zemeckis

Paramount Pictures

Release Date: November 2, 2012

      Addiction does not discriminate.  It does not care what color you are, what religion, what socioeconomic group you represent or what occupation you may have.  Addiction makes honest people into liars, sane people delusional and successful people into convicts.  It is that potent.

     Addiction also has the ability to make people use their friends and loved ones to fuel its desires and needs.  Addicted persons quickly divide their loved ones into groups of enablers and enemies.  The person who is unfortunate enough to fall prey to this disease will use anyone and everyone to fulfill his or her own needs, often to the humiliation and disappointment of family, friends, co-workers and, at times, even perfect strangers.  The disease saps the afflicted of even the basic reasons for living, turning life into and obsessive search for the next drink or fix.  Contrary to some popular opinion, addition is not a sign of "weakness" or personality defect.  It is a disease with genetic and social origins and consequences.  

     All of this behavior is perfectly on display in "Flight", the story of an alcoholic commercial airline pilot who miraculously lands a defective plane, saving the lives of the majority of people on board.  The pilot is Whip Whitaker who is portrayed magnificently by Denzel Washington.  Whitaker is initially hailed as a hero but quickly turns villain when it is learned that blood toxicology tests taken at the crash site revealed him to be heavily under the influence of drugs and alcohol.  The majority of the movie shows us Whip's desperate attempts to control his addiction while trying to salvage his reputation and career.  The wide ranging ripple effect of an individual's addiction is very dramatically and realistically shown in Whip's co-workers, life-long friends and, first and foremost, in his family. 

     This movie is very well done and joins a group of important and honest portrayals of addiction.  The crowd reaction was interesting.  During several scenes there was inappropriate laughter.  I can only figure that this came from the public's discomfort with the thought of a functioning professional being addicted to drugs and alcohol.  People aren't used to thinking of their pilot, their judge or their doctor suffering from addiction.

     This is a very well done movie and the acting by the entire cast is exceptional, led by the sterling performance by Denzel Washington. 

Book Review: Canada by Richard Ford

Canada

Author: Richard Ford

Publisher:  Harper Collins

Date of Publication: May 22, 2012

Pages: 418 (Hardcover Edition)

     I was about to give up on contemporary fiction when along came Richard Ford’s brilliant Canada.  Ford, the only author to have won the Pulitzer Prized and the Pen-Faulkner Award for the same novel (Independence Day) has been called “One of his generations most eloquent voices” (“The New York Times”) and “One of the finest curators of the great American living museum” (“The Washington Post Book World”).  Canada does nothing to detract from that reputation.  Indeed, it enhances it.

     

     This story is told in the first person by Dell Parsons.  It is a reflective and melancholy sixty six year old Dell who relates the cataclysmic events which occurred in his family when he was fifteen.  Part One of the book is set in Great Falls, Montana and the year is 1960.  Dell has a twin sister named Berner and two completely mis-matched parents.  Dell and Berner live isolated lives, peculiar children of very peculiar parents.  Part Two of the book shifts to Saskatchewan, Canada.  Dell tries to reconcile what has happened to disrupt and scatter his family and to try to discover who he is to become.  Part Three is brief as the older Dell tries to bring his family story full circle and reconcile his sister’s story with his own.

     

     Ford is truly a master of the writing craft.  Sentences are pitch-perfect.  His eye for detail is intense and never burdensome.  His writing is mesmerizing and never dull.  He is able through this attention to scene and detail to bring rural Montana and Canada to life.  The author uses hints about coming events, revealing small future plot details as enticements to read on.  Ford, in fact, tells the whole plot in the opening two sentences (sixteen total words)!   The main characters, particularly Dell’s parents, are complex and compelling in spite of their pedestrian situations.  Dell spends a lot of time alone with his thoughts and imagination.  He is fascinated with the game of chess, hoping to make his mark in the world by becoming a Grand Champion.  He learns the specific duties and expectations of each chess piece and is enthralled by strategies such as attacks, defenses and sacrificial gambits.   Ford uses the game throughout Canada as a grand metaphor for life itself.  Towards the end of the book Dell goes so far as to say:

“There is much to learn here from the game of chess, whose individual engagements are all part of one long engagement seeking a condition not of adversity or conflict or defeat or even victory, but of the harmony underlying it all.”

    

      This is a book about fate, life’s incongruities, unfairness and disappointments.  It is about how we have to react to unforeseen actions and circumstances (much like in the game of chess) and how failure to adapt can be calamitous.  The author makes a strong statement about predestination without ever using the term.  Even though Canada is far from an action-packed adventure, it is nonetheless an enthralling story which surprises and challenges the reader.  It is one of the best written books I have read in quite some time.  

Book Review: The Lost City of Z by David Grann

The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon

Author: David Grann

Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Date Published: February 2009 (Hardcover Edition)

Pages: 352 (eBook Edition)

     David Gann is a staff writer for "The New Yorker" and has written about varied and unusual topics. None, however, are more unusual than the story of British explorer Percy Harrison Fawcett which he tells in The Lost City of Z.  This book is intriguing on several levels.

     First and formemost, this is the story of Colonel Percy Fawcett.  This eccentric was a soldier, an explorer, a dreamer and, in his later years considered somewhat of a quack.  Early in his explorer career he was funded by the Royal Geographic Society and led many successful  trips to South America, including one during which he mapped the entire eastern boundary of the country of Bolivia.  He used primitive maps and devices to plot his locations.  He showed an incredible bravery and an uncanny immunity to illness and fatigue during his expeditions, often willing his companions forward during particularly harsh times.  In his later years Fawcett became interested in the occult and wrote articles about the after life and the spirit world.  These did not enhance his reputation as a scientist and undermined his attempts to fund his attempt to find  the mythical city of "El Dorado" (or city of gold) which had been searched for by many previous European explorers.  He finally arranged one more trip to the Amazon to find what he called "The Lost City of Z", taking his oldest son with him.  In 1925 Fawcett and his entourage disappeared into the jungle and their fate was never discovered.  Over the years, stories abounded regarding Fawcett and his son.  It was feared that they had been killed and eaten by cannibals, had been captured and assumed into a primitive culture or, finally, thought to have actually found their elusive lost city and become the rulers of the unimaginably rich tribe.

    Secondly, this book is a modern attempt to find the true story behind the disappearance.  The author uses modern technology, including Google Earth and satellite imagery, as well as personal research records held by Fawcett heirs and the Royal Geographic Society to try to discover Fawcett's plan for his 1925 expedition.  Fawcett used codes and obfuscation in order to confuse competitors who were also searching for the lost city, making the author's work somewhat of a detective story as well.  Grann does a tremendous job juxtaposing his modern investigation with Fawcett's paranoid and somewhat maniacal plans.  The contrast between Fawcett pouring over ancient maps and records from explorers of the 17th and 18th centuries and Gann's use of computer guided research is remarkable.

     The author successfully recreates the magic and fantasy of this 19th century explorer, rightfully described as the last of his generation in a rapidly evolving 20th century.  Fawcett clung to his maps and intuition while his competitors were using airplanes and radio communications.  Fawcett was and remains a legend, a model for Arthur Conan Doyle (The Lost World) as well as appearing in a 1990s "Raiders of the Lost Ark" novel.  The Lost City of Z captures this man and presents him with all of his bravura as well as his foibles and idiosyncrasies.  I enjoyed The Lost City of Z very much and recommend it highly.

Lady, Go Die

Author: Max Allan Collins and Mickey Spillane

Publisher: Titan

Publication Date: May 8, 2012

Pages: 272 (Ebook Edition)

     Mickey Spillane introduced iconic private investigator Mike Hammer in 1947's I, the Jury.  Spillane passed away in 2006 after a long and illustrious career and appointed Max Allan Collins, a noted writer in his own right (The Road to Perdition), as his literary executor.  Collins has completed many unfinished Spillane works including this novel which is, in fact, the long lost sequel to I, The Jury.  

     Collins has done a masterful job of maintaining the traditions of Spillane and Mike Hammer.  This reads as the logical and artful follow up story.  The basic plot is familiar.  Trouble finds Hammer who is on vacation with his secretary Velda in a seaside resort town north of Manhattan.  A missing person investigation turns into a murder case and leads Hammer on a wild ride through high stakes gambling, local police corruption and, eventually, to an unlikely villain.

     The trademark Spillane tough-guy dialogue is here and the male chauvinism remains intact.   The sex scenes are a bit more explicit (possibly representing Collins' contributions) but the rampant racial prejudice in I, The Jury is absent.   I think the plot here is a bit tighter which is interesting given that this is a collaborative writing effort.  All in all, this is a very readable and entertaining story which is well worthy of being the sequel to I, The Jury.

Book Review: I, The Jury by Mickey Spillane

I, The Jury

Author: Mickey Spillane

Publisher: E. P. Dutton

Pages: 287 (e-book edition)

Publication Date: Original Hardcover, 1947

                                                                                       

     Mickey Spillane was a World War II veteran (Army Air Forces) and prolific writer of crime fiction who passed away from pancreatic cancer in 2006.  He was awarded a “Grand Master” Award by the Mystery Writers of American in 1995.  He initially began his writing career crafting stories for comic books and then moved into short fiction for pulp magazines of the 1940s.  In order to make a down payment on a new home he wrote his first novel I, The Jury in 19 days and it was published in 1947.  The book sold over 3.5 million copies before the first movie version was filmed in 1953.  A subsequent remake was filmed in 1982.  Most importantly, this novel introduced readers to the iconic main character, ultimate “tough guy” private investigator Mike Hammer.

     

     The story is a good one.   It is told in the first person perspective by Mike Hammer.  Jack Williams, one of Hammer’s war buddies (like Spillane, Hammer is a WW II veteran) is killed following a cocktail party which he hosted.  Jack is a former police officer who lost an arm in the War and works as an insurance investigator.  Called to the murder scene by a mutual friend, detective Pat Chambers, Mike Hammer makes a solemn vow to find and kill the perpetrator, not wanting to rely on the justice system to avenge his buddy.

     

     What follows is a classic procedural as Chambers and Hammer conduct parallel investigations, focusing on the party guests.  Both investigators have problems finding anyone with the opportunity or the motive to commit the crime.  The difference in the investigations is that Hammer procures information in unorthodox and often illegal ways.  The characters are complicated and the perpetrator, when finally revealed, is surprising.  The author writes in short, descriptive sentences illustrating that he honed his writing skills on short fiction.  This does not detract from the novel.  In fact, it is actually refreshing to read a story not encumbered by unnecessary facts or digressions:

“The sorrow drifted from her eyes, and there was something else in its stead.  It was coming now.  I couldn’t tell what it was, but it was coming.  She stood tall and straight as a martyr, exuding beauty and trust and belief.  Her head turned slightly and I saw a sob catch in her throat.  Like a soldier.  Her stomach was so flat against the belt of her skirt.  She let her arms drop simply at her sides, her hands asking to be held, and her lips wanting to silence mine with a kiss.’       

    

     I, The Jury is certainly dated.  Sexism and racism abound.  The author’s characterization of African-Americans is absolutely brutal.  Spillane’s stereotypical black dialogue and roles (maid, bartender, shoe-shine boy) reflect the extreme prejudice and segregation which existed in the 1940s.  The book was considered decadent at the time and was generally dismissed by critics because of the amount of explicit sex and violence which Spillane included in this and subsequent novels.  There is a definite chauvinistic attitude towards women here and the sex and violence is far from subtle but I, The Jury is still very tame by today’s standards.   Interestingly enough one of the most outspoken early advocates of Mickey Spillane’s work was none other than Russian-Ameerican novelist, philosopher and playwright Ayn Rand.

      I enjoyed reading I, The Jury and I expect that I will read more Mickey Spillane.  It is fairly obvious how much contemporary crime fiction writers owe Spillane for almost single-handedly creating the genre.   The man could certainly tell a great story.  

Book Review: Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

Outliers

Author: Malcolm Gladwell

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

Date Published: November, 2008 (Hardcover)

Pages: 336 (Trade Paper)

“Outliers are those who have been given opportunities –

And have had the strength and presence of mind to seize them.”

-          Malcolm Gladwell

     Malcolm Gladwell is a former business and science reporter for “The Washington Post” and is now a staff writer for “The New Yorker” magazine.  He has written many best-sellers including The Tipping Point and Blink.  He uses counter-intuitive logic to take new and different looks at our world and how humans interact.  In Outliers Gladwell uses both well-known and obscure stories to explain why certain individuals are super successful or become “outliers” – that is their performance deviates greatly from their cohort.

    

        In the opening chapters the author explains that sociologists feel that success is a result of what they call The Matthews Effect or “accumulative advantage.”  Most folks would feel that the biggest advantage a child could have would be being blessed with above average intelligence or ability. Gladwell contends that IQ is just a threshold and that “practical intelligence” (knowing how to say the right things, what’s appropriate behavior in certain situations, etc…) is just as important.  There are many other factors in play which determine if an individual is to become and “outlier”.  He uses the Canadian National Hockey team as an example of the advantage of birth date.  Because the cutoff birthday for the select youth hockey teams is arbitrarily set at January first, the teams tend to be stacked with kids born in the first few months of each year.  These kids are bigger and more physically mature than children born later in the year in their same grade level.  The players on the select teams then receive better coaching, play more games and eventually become the elite players that go on to receive college scholarships and even play professionally.  Gladwell backs up this contention with real data from the Canadian National Hockey team and the National Hockey League, showing that most of the players have birthdays in January, February or March!

    

     Gladwell then goes on to explain what he calls the “Ten Thousand Hour Rule.”  He contends that in order to perform any skill at the highest “outlier” level, an individual must practice his craft for at least ten thousand hours.  He notes how hard that is to accomplish, not only from a personal commitment standpoint, but also from an opportunity level.  Sometimes you just have to be in the right place at the right time for those ten thousand hours to be attainable.  He uses two examples of this rule coming into play.  The first is Bill Gates, who happened to go to a high school where a “personal computer station” was available  and through family connections was able to access computers at the University of Washington to further hone his passion for software design.  By the time he was a young adult he had his ten thousand hours of computer experience under his belt when none of his contemporaries came even close.  Another fascinating example of this the author uses is The Beatles.  In the late 1950s The Beatles were just one of hundreds of young British bands playing clubs and getting by.  They were hired to play bars in the red light district of Hamburg where they were forced to play eight to ten hours a day, seven days per week.  After several stays in Hamburg, The Beatles had their ten thousand performance hours and rose above their contemporaries in their ability and stage presence.

     

     The author does not neglect the influence of cultural and socio-economic class difference.  He notes that there are different parenting approaches to education.  He expounds on the fact that middle and upper class parents practice a style of “concerned cultivation” of their children, generally being very involved in the child’s education and often extending the learning process at home.  The poorer class tends to utilize a style of “accomplishment of natural growth”, tending to leave the education of their children to the schools themselves and being more “hands off” in their approach.   

    

     Gladwell uses the last half of the book to delve into the factor of cultural influence.  He studies a group of Jewish lawyers who were all born in the era of The Great Depression.  Their parents were all immigrants with strong work ethic who worked exceedingly hard to succeed in the garment industry in New York.  These young men did not have the cultural advantages of their non-Jewish peers, went to lesser law schools (being denied admission to the Ivies because of their ethnicity and religion) and took work that the bigger established firms felt were beneath them.  This work involved corporate mergers and take overs, work the larger firms wouldn’t touch.  Along came the 1970s when these men were approaching their most productive years and the laws changed and corporate work became very important and lucrative.  These lawyers were in the position of having the most experience and over the next several decades prospered greatly, becoming the legal “outliers” of their generation.  Gladwell notes that these men were indeed lucky AND they helped themselves through the rigid work ethic they learned from observing their parents.  “Luck is winning the lottery.  They were given an opportunity and they seized it.”

Movie Review: "Argo" directed by Ben Affleck

"Argo"

Directed by Ben Affleck

 Warner Brothers Pictures

     Argo is a remarkable true story about a dramatic rescue of six Americans during the Iran Hostage Crisis in 1979 and 1980.  Ben Affleck directed this tight drama and also stars as Tony Mendez, a CIA specialist in "exfiltration" (removing people from hostile environments).

     The movie opens with a fairly brief summary of the political and historical background which precipitated the Iranian takeover of the U.S Embassy in Teheran. The Iranians, under the leadership of the Ayatollah Khomeni, held fifty two Americans hostage.  They demanded the return of the deposed Shah of Iran who, suffering from lymphoma, had obtained political asylum in the United States.  Six Americans escaped the embassy during the takeover and hid in the home of the Canadian ambassador.  

     Multiple plans to remove the six isolated hostages were constructed and discarded and finally, in desperation, the CIA turns to Mendez.  He devises an outlandish plot to enter Iran and leave with the six hostages, all posing as a group of Canadians planning to film a "Star Wars" knock-off movie in Iran.  The story moves to Hollywood where Mendez (Affleck) enlists the aid of renowned make-up artist John Chambers (played by John Goodman) and producer Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin) to aid in the ruse.  The audacious plan goes through multiple levels of review, including President Carter and his chief of staff Hamilton Jordan (Kyle Chandler).  The political implications of success vs. failure play heavily in the discussions.

    The movie balances the absolute terror of the hostage situation with humor and the total absurdity of the plan to rescue them.  Alan Arkin is terrific, injecting levity and irony into the nearly impossible situation.  There is also a cinematic balance between the beauty of the city of Teheran and the surrounding Iranian mountains and the horror of the terrorist acts of the Revolutionary Guard. The movie makers have also re-created the look of the late seventies complete with the large eye glasses, the wide lapels and tight jeans.  The soundtrack also lends authenticity to the setting of the era. 

     "Argo", though, is really the story of Tony Mendez and his tremendous heroism  and bravery.  This is a story about prioritizing the safety of others above your own and doing the right thing.  It is a story of a brave and principled man who completes his mission against enormous odds and at great risk to his own safety and well-being.  The courage this man displays is unbelievable.  The skill with which Ben Affleck brings this character to the screen is equally incredible.  Affleck's performances (both as actor and director) are Oscar-worthy.

      I was a young adult during this time period, trying to survive the first years of my surgical residency.  I remember the Iran Hostage Crisis and the impotence that America felt as the situation dragged on for 444 days.  I remember the harsh criticisms of Jimmy Carter and his seeming reluctance to do anything to resolve the crisis, even as this clandestine operation was in place.  The criticism of Carter reached new heights when an attempted military hostage rescue resulted in the loss of eight American servicemen and two aircraft in the Iranian dessert.  Carter's loss to Ronald Reagan in the 1980 presidential election was largely blamed on his perceived lack of leadership during this time.  The hostages were released one hour after Reagan's inauguration.  The film casts new light on the political decision making and behind the scenes actions that were, in fact, taking place.

    "Argo" is a fantastic film, a fascinating recreation of the time period and is also a critically important history lesson.  I recommend it highly.

Book Review: Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA by Tim Weiner

Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA

Author: Tim Weiner

Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Date Published: June, 2007 (Hardcover Edition)

Pages: 848 (Trade Paper Edition, including notes)

This book begins with a quote from 17^th century French literary figure Jean Racine: “There are no secrets that time does not reveal.”  It appears that time, the Freedom of Information Act and author Tim Weiner have revealed many of the most closely kept secrets of CIA.  They also have shattered any myth of competence and exposed the many weaknesses of and abuses of power by CIA in its sixty year history.  Tim Weiner is a respected investigative journalist, having written about American intelligence for “The New York Times” for over twenty years and received a Pulitzer Prize for his work on secret national security programs.

The book is divided by presidential administration, beginning with the founding of CIA under Harry Truman.  The title of the book is derived from a quote by Dwight Eisenhower and summarizes his assessment of the intelligence community’s performance during his administration and what he was leaving for the incoming President, John F. Kennedy.

The purpose for founding CIA was to provide accurate information to the President regarding our enemies as well as allies so that the President and cabinet could then make intelligent foreign policy decisions.  The battle early on was between “information gatherers” and “covert operators”.  Eventually the covert ops advocates took charge, mainly under the influence of the first Director, Allen Dulles.  Covert operations eventually expanded to include fomenting revolution (Guatemala, Haiti, Indonesia and more), assassinations and domestic spying.

Two of the more shocking and frightening parts of the book are the accounts of CIA’s involvement in the assassination of President Diem of South Vietnam under the direction of John and Robert Kennedy as well as the multiple CIA attempts on the life of Fidel Castro.  The book implies that the subsequent assassination of JFK was direct retaliation by Cuba.  CIA knew of contacts between Lee Harvey Oswald and the Cuban embassy in Mexico City in the weeks leading up to November 22, 1963.  Some of this information was withheld from the Warren Commission and many on that Commission were skeptical of their conclusions (including a young representative, Gerald Ford, who was keeping CIA briefed on all of the proceedings).

The second shocking revelation is the outright lies that many Presidents have told the Congress as well as the American people about CIA activities.  These include Dwight Eisenhower lying about U2 spy plane missions over the Soviet Union and Ronald Regan stating unequivocally in his State of the Union message that the United States never supplied arms to Iran when CIA had, in fact, done just that with the full awareness of the Chief Executive. 

Parts of the book read like a Laurel and Hardy comedy.  One example is the U.S. Army aiding and supplying President Sukarno of Indonesia as he fought a coup attempt from his own military which was sponsored by and supplied by CIA.  A second example is the attempts at putting agents on the ground in North Korea during the Korean War.  Every agent dropped into the North was immediately captured and either killed or turned into a double agent within twenty four hours of being deployed. 

The recent intelligence failures regarding Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden and Iraq are all well documented and are the final “mind bogglers” in this narrative.  Although there was a Presidential caveat to eliminate Bin Laden during the Clinton administration, CIA missed opportunity after opportunity because (at least in Mr. Weiner’s opinion) of George Tenet’s reticence.  The fiasco of the cruise missile which was launched to take out a munitions cache in Bosnia and instead destroyed the Chinese embassy was based on faulty CIA intelligence.  The now infamous “unequivocal proof” of the existence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction was based on CIA data from one very unreliable source and came second hand from Germany.  That “intelligence” was also years old when it was given to the White House and used as justification for the invasion of Iraq.  All of the pundits who decry George W. Bush’s domestic surveillance and abuse of personal rights and liberties should understand that this type of thing has been going on since the inception of CIA.  CIA was used for domestic spying in the 50s against suspected communists, in the 60s and 70s against civil rights advocates and the anti-war movement and now against suspected terrorists.

This book is a thorough (605 pages plus 175 pages of notes and footnotes) discussion and explanation of American foreign policy over the last sixty years.  If you haven’t read a newspaper in decades or believe that everything that America does in the world is right and just and motivated by good intentions, this book will shock and infuriate you.  If you are cynical about our representative government and believe that power corrupts, this book will do nothing but support that view.  If you are the least bit paranoid, you probably should not read this book at all.  Let’s hope that future presidents have either read this book or have it next on their “must read” list so that they don’t fall into the same traps and temptations as their predecessors.

Book Review: Gone by Mo Hayder

Gone

Author: Mo Hayder

Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

Pages: 416 (NOOK Edition: 396)) 

Publication Date: February 1, 2011 

      Mo Hayder is a British mystery and thriller author who has written eight novels to much acclaim.  Gone is the fifth in a series featuring Detective Jack Caffery and was selected by the Mystery Writers of America as the 2012 Edgar Award Winner for best mystery novel.  I usually tend to agree with the Mystery Writers, but not in this case.

     Gone follows Detective Caffery's investigation of several car-jackings.  These are far from routine auto thefts, however, because in each case a young girl is in the car when it is stolen.  The need to find these children as quickly as possible adds another dimension of tension to an already nerve-wracking story.  There are several sub-plots working here as well which make the plot a bit more involved than it need be.  

     The story is told from Jack Caffery's perspective as he chases down false leads and tries to find connections between the seemingly unrelated crimes.  There are many other characters involved, including other police, parents of the abducted children, witnesses and persons of interest.  Caffery is portrayed as a tortured, lonely soul who labors under the weight of unsolved crimes and feelings of inadequacy.  There isn't much back story to substantiate these feelings except for one unsolved missing celebrity case which he suspects may involve one of his co-workers.  (I haven't read the other four books in this series, so maybe the reasons for Caffery's angst is in those.)  With each new crime in the series the tension is ratcheted up, but a whole new set of players are introduced.  I think the plot is weighted down by too many minor characters.

     The author does a tremendous job of using setting as a method of creating atmosphere and tension.  There is a creepy abandoned wharehouse, a railroad tunnel and lots of lonely English countrysides searched which add a lot to the menacing tone of the entire novel.  Here is one paragraph as an example of this.  A female detective is inspecting an area near where one of the stolen cars had been abandoned:

     "She went to the old water tank where she had been standing and switched off the torch.  She waited for a few quiet moments, surrounded by the monster shapes of the winter trees, beyond them the ploughed fields stretching away, dull, immense and dead.   From somewhere in the distance to her right came the giant sound of a train racing along the Great Western Union Railway, flying through the darkness."

     The strength of this book is the descriptions of setting and place.  The weaknesses, in my opinion, come from too many characters which aren't developed to any great degree, a plot which becomes weighted down by all of these characters and has too many unresolved secondary stories and, finally, a criminal whose motivation doesn't really fit the magnitude of his crimes.  Gone is very worth reading for mystery fans and is much better than more hyped mystery fiction (e.g, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn).  I just don't agree with the Mystery Writers of America that this was the best mystery novel published in 2011.

Book Review: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Gone Girl

By Gillian Flynn

     This novel has been touted as “one of the best books of the summer” by Amazon.com and was recently called a “publishing phenomenon” by “The Huffington Post”.   This is the third novel for Ms. Flynn.  Her first, Sharp Objects was nominated for and Edgar Award for best first novel in 2007.  I read that one and liked it for its unique main character:  a troubled teenager who suffered self-inflicted lacerations in response to stress and depression.  I decided to read Gone Girl, anticipating from all of the hype that this would be the book that placed this author into the category of a “must-read” author.

     

      Unfortunately, for many reasons, this book just didn’t resonate with me.  The plot is interesting enough, but there are so many improbabilities and ridiculous twists that it quickly becomes pretty unbelievable.   The basic story is that Amy Dunne disappears from her home on her fifth wedding anniversary.  Her husband Nick returns home mid-day and finds the living room in disarray indicating signs of a struggle.  The police are called and an investigation begins.  Nick, of course, becomes suspect #1 (the husband always is).  Nick professes his innocence but inconsistencies in his story and further forensic evidence places him under increasing suspicion.  The story is told in the first person by Nick and Amy in alternating chapters.  Nick tells the story from the disappearance onward and Amy’s chapters are in the form of diary entries relating her flawed marriage.  I’ve never been a fan of flashbacks as a vehicle for back story, especially when it is presented in diary format.  There are other contemporaneous Amy chapters which show a completely different person from the sweet, beautiful, rapturously in-love Amy of the diary entries.  (Plot spoiler: Amy isn’t dead, but the reader figures that out pretty fast.) 

    

      It’s really hard to like any of the characters in this book.  The two main characters are egotistical, manipulating and not trustworthy.  The minor characters are almost cartoonishly stereotypical, including the Barney Fife local police, Nick’s twin sister named Go who helps Nick run a bar (think of Marisa Tomei in “My Cousin Vinny” and you know this character), Amy’s parents who are both child psychologists and made a fortune writing children’s books about a perfect child named (are you ready?) “Amazing Amy” and a Nancy Grace clone who represents all that is bad in tabloid media.

     

     My other problem with this book is the gratuitous use of profanity which just isn’t necessary to tell the story.  I guess the author is trying to accurately display Nick’s frustration levels, but I think that could be conveyed without every other word being an “F-Bomb”.   I also dislike the author constantly telling us what the characters are thinking, rather than showing us through narrative.  This happens a lot in the diary sections but is also prevalent throughout the entire novel.  The resolution of the story is so unrealistic that it is laughable.

     

      If Gone Girl is indeed “one of the best books of the summer” then what a sad summer it is.  After reading this I decided to revisit some classics.  I’m now working through some Ray Bradbury and what a welcome change of pace that has been.  Read Gone Girl if you’re curious, but don’t blame me if you wish you hadn’t.

BOOK REVIEW - Killing Pablo by Mark Bowden

Killing Pablo by Mark Bowden

News of a Kidnapping by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

            Terrorism is not confined to the Middle East and Central Asia.  These two books confirm that one of the most heinous criminals of our time lived in our hemisphere.  The long term impact of this man’s network rivals the devastation of Al-Queda and Osama Bin Laden , although in more insidious and less obvious ways.  These books present two views of the life and career of Pablo Escobar, Colombian smuggler, murderer, extortionist and drug cartel leader.

           

            Killing Pablo by Blackhawk Down author Mark Bowden is a thoroughly researched, journalistic view of the life and career of Pablo Escobar.  The first part is a biography chronicling Pablo’s humble beginnings as an adolescent car thief and minor hoodlum through his ruthless rise to Columbia’s most powerful drug lord.  The author explains how Pablo used bribes, extortion, intimidation and murder to control his government and build an illicit financial empire estimated in the billions of dollars.  The majority of the book examines the role of the United States military and intelligence agencies in finding Escobar and eventually killing him.  The author asks important questions regarding the United States’ obligations in foreign government’s problems that are especially appropriate in light of the events since 9/11/01.

           

             News of a Kidnapping is by Colombian novelist and Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  Love in the Time of Cholera and The General in His Labyrinth are his most famous novels.  Marquez tells the story of Escobar’s reign of terror from a different perspective.  He relates the personal experiences of ten Colombian men and women, nine of whom were journalists, who were kidnapped by Escobar’s bullies and held for ransom and for extortion purposes for months.  Parts of this read like a Keystone Kops movie script or Woody Allen’s “Bananas” since the kidnappers are such inept and drunken stooges.  The harsh reality of the victims’ personal tragedy, however, illuminates just how ruthless and heartless this man Pablo Escobar was.

          

              Each of these books gives valuable insight into the tremendous multifaceted problem of the international drug trade.  The question of how far can one government go to protect its own citizens by controlling or intervening into another country’s internal problems is intriguing.  The most frightening and disturbing aspect of these two books is the revelation of just how much “evil lurks in the hearts of men.”

           

          

Book Review:The Cut by George Pelecanos

The Cut

By George Pelecanos

     George Pelecanos presents a new main character in The Cut.  His name is Spero Lucas and is the adopted son of Greek parents and an Iraqi war veteran.  He lives in his native Washington, D.C. and does private investigator work for an attorney and often takes jobs on the side finding lost objects and receiving a percentage of the recovered property as his “cut.”  Spero is a complicated character.  He is very intelligent as displayed by his reading list, but has no interest in formal education.  He is not a very religious man, but follows the customs of his adopted Greek Orthodox family.  He is violent in his professional life but can be very caring and gentle in his personal life.  He doesn’t seem overly burdened by his war experiences, but remains very loyal to his fellow veterans.  He is, in a word, unique.

   

     In this novel, Spero is hired by Anwan Hawkins, a currently incarcerated drug dealer who is running his business from within the D.C. jail.  Anwan’s has had several bulk deliveries of marijuana stolen and he      wants them back.  These boxes are delivered by UPS to legitimate residential addresses, unbeknownst to the people living there who are usually at work during the day.  They are tracked via the internet and then picked up by two of Anwan’s workers, Tavon Lynch and Edwin Davis.  Several of these deliveries have been hijacked and Anwan hires Spero to figure out who stole the product and to retrieve it or the cash it represents.

     

     Spero begins by interviewing Tavon and Edwin and surveilling the neighborhoods of the deliveries.  He interviews neighbors and finds one teen who was skipping school and saw the UPS box being pilfered.  This witness implicates Tavon and Edwin as well as a metropolitan police officer.  The rest of the story involves Spero digging into and finding out the police who are involved and eventually he uncovers a drug and illegal arms operation running out of an auto body shop in suburban Maryland. 

     

     Pelecanos peppers The Cut with his encyclopedic knowledge of Washington, D.C.  Another trademark Pelecanos touch is the inclusion of multiple food and diner references as well as many musical citations.  These spicey additions add to an already entertaining story.  As usual, this author has crafted a dark view of modern urban living.  I hope that the Spero Lucas series has a long run and look forward to the next installment.

Book Review: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Fahrenheit 451 

by Ray Bradbury

“We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal. Each man the image of every other; then all are happy, for there are no mountains to make them cower, to judge themselves against. So! A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon.” — Captain Beatty


     Ray Bradbury would have been 92 years old this past Wednesday (August 22, 2012).  He was a prolific writer of science fiction and horror stories, novellas and novels and is best known for Fahrenheit 451, first published in 1953 by Ballantine books.  

   This is the story of Guy Montag, a fireman in a future America.  In this society a fireman's job is not protection from fire, but to burn books and the homes which contain them.  The goal of this is to remove the influence of literature.  Guy begins to doubt his purpose in life when he meets a young neighbor girl named Clarisse.  Clarisse is a romantic and encourages Guy to appreciate and engage his surroundings and life in general:

“You’re not like the others. I’ve seen a few; I know. When I talk, you look at me. When I said something about the moon, you looked at the moon, last night. The others would never do that.”

     Clarisse and her family disappear under suspicious circumstances and Guy ponders the meaning of his discussions with Clarisse.  He becomes frustrated with his wife Mildred who sits all day enveloped in a television "room" where her stories are displayed on the walls.  Mildred talks of the actors as if they were family and her whole life becomes interchangeable with the plots of the television dramas.

     Guy becomes particularly distraught when, during the process of burning a book-filled home, the old woman who owns the home perishes in the fire.  He begins a process of pilfering books and keeping them in his home (well aware of the danger of such action) and befriends an old theologian.  In the final chapters of the book Guy is revealed as a book owner and he is on the run from the authorities after a particularly violent confrontation at his burning home.  In hiding out in the country, Guy encounters other intellectuals on the lam and witnesses the beginning of an Armageddon-like war.  

     There have been many interpretations of this brief but powerful novel.  Many center around the idea of censorship and suppression of knowledge by the state.  Bradbury himself stated that the novel was more about the dehumanizing effect of television on humans - taking over their lives and thoughts at the expense of self-knowledge, free thinking and individuality.  How prescient is this novel, written nearly sixty years ago?  Today we do have room-sized televisions, 3-D screens and surround sound, much like the "television rooms" Bradbury describes in Fahrenheit 451.  We also have the phenomenon of "reality TV" where the characters in these shows become like family for some.  We live in an age where the majority of adults never read a book and what passes for literature is basically trash (Fifty Shades of Grey, anyone?).

     This novel is well worth reading, not only for the critical ideas the author explores, but also for the quality of the writing, so absent from today's "literature."

Book Review: The Submission by Amy Waldman

The Submission

By Amy Waldman

     Amy Waldman is a journalist (“The New York Times” and “The Atlantic”) and this is her first novel.  The premise of the book alone is pure genius.  As the book opens a non-partisan committee is evaluating over 5,000 designs which have been anonymously submitted in competition for a memorial to be constructed at Ground Zero.  Claire Burwell, the only victim’s family representative on the committee is strongly advocating an intricate garden with a tablet display of names etched in stone. Other committee members, including the governor’s representative and several artists, are advocating for a more traditional style memorial.  The time is about two years after the 9/11 attacks and the United States is actively engaged in the “War on Terror” in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Claire focuses on the garden design because she feels it best represents the ideals of her dead husband and also that it would be the most soothing place for her young son to visit.  After much deliberation, the committee is swayed by Claire and the garden design is chosen.  When the envelope identifying the winning designer is opened, the committee is aghast when it is apparent that the winner is an American born Muslim named Mohammad Kahn. 

    

     The committee searches for a way out of this conundrum.  The Muslim won the competition fair and square, but the anticipated public relations nightmare has to be considered.  The governor, who has national political ambitions, applies great pressure through her representative to squash the winner and move on to another design.   Claire, as well as a majority of the committee members, feels that in the true American spirit Mohammad Kahn should remain the winner.  Before the committee has a chance to solidify its position, the information regarding the winning design and its Muslim designer is leaked to the tabloid press.  “The New York Post” has garish headlines the next morning decrying the committee’s selection. 

       

     The heat rises as victim family groups rally against the design (most specifically against the designer).  Further complications ensue when the press implies that the design is borrowed from a Muslim tradition of paradise gardens, the memorial then actually becoming a symbol of victory for the terrorists rather than a tribute to the fallen Americans.  The furor increases even further as Mo Kahn refuses to withdraw from the competition and also refuses to discuss the inspiration for his design or the implication that it represents the terrorists’ reward.  He does this on the grounds that he would not be asked these questions if he were not in fact a Muslim.   Once it is known that Claire was the main advocate for the garden memorial, victim families turn against her and threats are made.  The situation escalates as the media sensationally fans the flames of fear, prejudice and hatred.

      

     The story reaches a very unexpected climax, centered around one of the secondary characters.  Asma Anwar is an illegal alien from Bangladesh, whose husband was a janitor in one of the World Trade Center towers and was also killed on 9/11.  Asma, a Muslim, becomes the eye of the storm late in the book when she speaks out at a public hearing regarding the design.  She makes an endearing statement regarding the memorial design, noting that this memorial was for her husband and family as well as for the American victims.  When the press probes into her story and it becomes known that she received a seven figure victim family settlement from the United States government, outrage ensues. 

    

      The plot, obviously, is the backbone of this novel.  The premise and resulting roller coaster ride of public opinion, reaction and backlash makes for a riveting read.  The character studies which the author has included should not be over looked, though.  The complexities of Mo Kahn, an American born Muslim who isn’t particularly religious and yet sticks to principles are very compelling.  Claire Burwell is also a living contradiction, fiercely defending her choice of design initially but then bending to the enormous weight of public opinion and backlash and second guessing herself and her motives.   The politicians play the situation for all of the publicity gains that they can, using the situation to further their aspirations.  Asma Anwar actually becomes the most sympathetic character in the whole complicated story; something which I can’t help but think was intended by the author. 

    

      Ms. Waldman has created a novel which may be the novel that in 100 years people read to find out what was going on in the minds of Americans during the aftermath of 9/11, just as we now read Theodore Dreiser, Sinclair Lewis or John Steinbeck to understand what was going on in the minds of Americans in the early 20^th Century.   This is an incredibly entertaining read, but, more importantly, causes the reader to be introspective and analyze his or her own emotions, motives, prejudices and preconceived notions regarding the Muslim religion, religion in general, politics and media manipulation of our knowledge and opinion.  I can’t recommend this book highly enough.