Book Review: Flyboys by James Bradley

Flyboys

By James Bradley

(Blogger Note: This review was originally published in The LAMLight, the physician newsletter of the Lynchburg Academy of Medicine, Lynchburg, Virginia.)

     Flyboys is the true story of nine World War II dive-bomber pilots and the attacks on the island of Chichi Jima.  This island is north of Iwo Jima and was strategically critical because of two communications towers there which the Japanese used to deliver orders to the Imperial Navy in the Pacific.  Coincidental with the ground attack on Iwo Jima, the Navy attacked Chichi Jima with dive bombers.  Nine flyers were shot down during the attacks.  Eight were captured and executed and the ninth, George H. W. Bush was rescued by an American submarine and survived to become President.  The author uses recently declassified documents as well as interviews with many surviving family members and fellow combatants, including Japanese, to tell the story of these flyers.

     This book is a cold reminder that wars are fought by the best, bravest and brightest of our youngest citizens.  The portraits of these boys are poignant and the reader is left with a great sense of loss when each of these brave pilots is killed.  The concept of “what could have been” is underscored by the great contributions and successes of the elder George Bush.  One can’t help but wonder what heights the other eight could have achieved as well.

     The author also does an exceptional job of explaining the Japanese mindset leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor.  He goes through the history of Japan following the visit to the previously self-contained island nation by Commodore Matthew Perry in 1853.  The Japanese quickly moved from an isolationist policy to an imperialist policy which culminated nearly a century later with the Pearl Harbor attack.

     Mr. Bradley spends several chapters explaining the then radical new theory of war espoused by army colonel Billy Mitchell.  Colonel Mitchell had been in charge of America’s air support in France in WWI and witnessed the horror of trench warfare.  He had the vision to understand what he called the “Third Dimension” of warfare: air power.   In the years leading up to World War II he called for more aircraft and new strategies to utilize them.  He was loudly denounced by traditional militarists but found one believer in Franklin Roosevelt.  This set the stage for the bombing raids over Europe and eventually on the Japanese homeland during World War II.

     Mr. Bradley concludes the book with an account of the firebombing of Tokyo and other Japanese cities at the conclusion of the war.  This strategy was ordered by General Curtis LeMay and accounted for more civilian casualties than the atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  The author uses first hand accounts from Japanese survivors to tell the horrible story of the napalm bombings of these Japanese cities.  Looking back from an era of reporting from the front lines and media immersion with combat troops, it is hard to imagine that the ghastly results of this technique were kept from the American public.

      James Bradley is the son of one of the Marines who raised the flag on Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima, an event immortalized on film and with the statue in Arlington, Virginia.  He has written that story in Flags of Our Fathers.  Flyboys is a fascinating book from both a historical and human perspective.  Mr. Bradley captures the wholly tragic individual stories of combatants from both sides within the broader historical perspective of world politics.  This book is not just for military history buffs.  This book makes the point over and over again what a horrible waste of life and potential war is.  In this era of terrorist violence this is a lesson that we obviously have not learned and need to be reminded of.

Book Review: The Creation by E.O. Wilson

The Creation

E.O. Wilson

            “More than 2 million tons of expired electronics are discarded in land fills each year, making ewaste the fastest growing fraction of the municipal garbage system.  These castoffs account for nearly 40 percent of the toxic heavy metals – like lead, cadmium, and mercury – found in dumps.”  Wired Magazine, Fall 2006.

            E.O. Wilson is an interesting contradiction.  He was brought up in a Southern Baptist household in rural Alabama and is now a Darwinian student of evolutionary biology.  He is a world renowned entomologist whose area of specialization is ants and has been a Harvard University Biology professor for 25 years.  Two previous books have won this author the Pulitzer Prize, “On Human Nature” in 1978 and “The Ants”, co-authored by Bert Holldobler in 1990. “The Creation” is a letter to an unnamed pastor (representing the religious or anti-evolutionist point of view) which lays out a very scientific, dispassionate argument for preserving all of nature’s species.  He documents the dramatic peril that living organisms currently face through citing current research.  He emphatically states: “According to estimates by a team of experts in 2004, climate changes alone, if left unabated, could be the primary cause of extinction of a quarter of the species of plants and animals on the land by mid-century.”  He calls our times an “ecological Dark Age.”  The author then laments the decline of the Earth’s biodiversity from a purely scientific standpoint and points his finger directly at one species responsible for this debacle: Homo Sapiens.  “We are the giant meteorite of our time, having begun the sixth mass extinction of Phanerozoic history.  We are creating a less stable and interesting place for our descendants to inherit.”  He then presents cogent arguments for reversing this trend citing, among other items, medical and health reasons to preserve the Creation rather than systematically destroy it.

            Throughout this fascinating and yet frightening book the author appeals to “the Pastor” in religious terms.  He discusses the quote from Genesis in which God gives humans dominion over all of Earth’s other species and expounds on how that caveat has been abused over time to allow us to plunder our natural resources.  The concept that humans are a higher order of being on theological grounds has sanctioned the exploitation of our co-inhabitors of the planet.  The author considers this flawed rationalization and blames it for what he describes as the “homogenization of the Earth’s ecosystem”, or declining biodiversity.  He appeals to the Pastor using his own religious vocabulary.  He calls on all humans to be stewards of this great gift, the Creation.  “The Creation is the greatest heritage other than the reasoning mind itself ever provided to humanity”.  On these grounds alone, the author reasons, the Creation should be celebrated and preserved.

            The last section of the book discusses the differences between secular and religious humanism.  There is an interesting harpooning of the concept of “Intelligent Design” as a default argument between the religious and scientific communities.  The real value of “The Creation” though is in these last few important pages of the book.  In these E. O. Wilson implores scientists and theologians to basically put aside their differences and celebrate their similarities.  Both camps have solid reasons to preserve the environment and Earth’s biodiversity despite differing bases for the same conclusions.  He calls for a better educated populace in the area of biology.  He calls for “all species inventories” to be undertaken so that we can more fully understand our world.  These inventories have already been started in areas such as the Great Smoky Mountains National Park using “citizen naturalists” to discover and catalog the living creatures in that area.  What a refreshing attitude!  The author is basically stating: “Let’s quit arguing over our philosophical differences which we will never resolve and move on to our common goal: preserving the environment!”  If this attitude would catch on in the political arena as well, can you imagine what a better “Creation” we would live in?

Book Review: Defending Jacob by William Landay

Defending Jacob

By William Landay

     William Landay is a former Assistant District Attorney and Defending Jacob is his third novel.  The main character and narrator of the story is Andy Barber, a Senior Assistant District Attorney living and working in a small town near Boston.  He is happily married to a school teacher named Laurie, the girl of his dreams who he met in college.  Andy considers himself lucky to have swept Laurie off of her feet and that she agreed to marry him.  (He married “up.”)  The family is completed by Jacob, a typically non-communicative eighth grader who is somewhat of a polar opposite from his gregarious, overachieving father.  Jacob is very average – average grades, few close friends and fascinated with technology and the internet. 

     

      Murder happens infrequently in the small town of Newton, Massachusetts and so Andy is called when the body of a young man is found one morning in the wooded area of a park near the middle school.    Andy is involved in the investigation from the very beginning, working closely with his long-time friend (and Jacob’s godfather) Detective Paul Duffy.  The victim’s name is Ben Rifkin and he is a popular classmate of Jacob’s. There are few clues as to the perpetrator and the investigation moves slowly.  The students are not immediately interviewed because of “political correctness” and there is little physical evidence.  Ben was killed by three stab wounds from a small serrated knife.  There were no signs of a struggle and there are no eyewitnesses. The murder weapon is never found.  A data search reveals that there is a registered pedophile living in the neighborhood and Paul and Andy focus the investigation on this man.  Several turn of events then occur which change the complexion of the case.  A Facebook friend of Jacob’s accuses him of the murder in a status update and reveals that Jacob owns a knife which he often carried to school.  Once the students are interviewed it becomes apparent that Ben had selected Jacob as an object of verbal abuse, bullying him and making fun of his eccentricities.  The students are also fingerprinted.

    

       Andy is abruptly called into the District Attorney’s office and told that a fingerprint found on the victim’s clothing matched his son and that Jacob is now the primary suspect.  Andy is placed on administrative leave, a search warrant is executed at his home and Jacob is arrested and formally charged with the murder of Ben Rifkin.

      

      Jacob pleads total innocence and his parents steadfastly believe him, even as more and more details emerge which cast doubt on this.    What follows are a complex family saga, an intense character study, a legal machination and dilemmas of monstrous proportions.  Andy Barber has a family history which he has kept hidden, even from his high society wife, for all of his life.  His father and grandfather were notoriously violent men.   His father, in fact, is in prison for life without parole following a conviction for murder.  One of the most heart rending scenes involves Andy finally revealing this to his distraught wife.  This breach of trust opens the door for further marital discord as the pressure of Jacob’s impending trial mounts.  A geneticist is consulted by Jacob’s defense attorney to investigate the possibility of a “murder gene” which may predispose its owners to violence.  While Andy never wavers in his belief in his son’s innocence, Laurie has genuine moments of doubt.  The reader is carried on waves of emotion through the trial as the prosecutor lays out the increasingly damning evidence against Jacob.  You find yourself compulsively turning to the next chapter, at one point feeling that Jacob is the victim of a witch hunt and a rush to judgement and then abruptly feeling that he is a cold-blooded killer.  The author does a masterful job of making the reader feel what Laurie feels as she hears Jacob’s best friend testify in court that her son has a terrible temper and that he frequently talked of making Ben Rifkin pay for his bullying.  You also desperately want to believe with Andy that this is a misunderstanding and that no jury in the world could find Jacob guilty of murder in the first degree.

    

      Towards the end of the trial, Andy describes his family’s condition:

    

        “We Barbers were left in complete isolation.  If we had been shot out into space, we could not have felt more alone.  We ordered Chinese food, as we had a thousand times the last few months, because China City delivers and the driver speaks so little English that we did not have to feel self-conscious opening the door for him.  We ate our boneless spare ribs and General Gao’s chicken in near silence, then slunk off to opposite corners of the house for the evening.  We were too sick of the case to talk about it anymore but too obsessed with it to talk about anything else.  We were too gloomy for the idiocies of TV – suddenly our lives seemed finite, and much too short to waste – and too distracted to read.”

     

     There will be no spoilers in this review.  I can’t in good conscience reveal the spectacular and totally unpredictable ending to this saga.  The reader is exhausted and emotionally drained at the conclusion, though, just as Andy and Laurie Barber are.  I have read a lot of novels in this genre, but never have I been as thoroughly fooled as I was by William Landay.

     

     This book succeeds on so many levels.  It is a character study of the first degree.  Andy, Laurie and Jacob feel like friends or neighbors by the time you finish this.  This novel also provides some interesting social commentary (much like the novels of Jodi Picoult) touching on such contemporary issues as bullying, media exploitation of high profile crimes and genetic influence on behavior.  The pace, although a bit slow occasionally (the legal shenanigans, although necessary, always seem a little over the top) is always driven forward by the tension created between the characters.  This tension shifts from chapter to chapter: between Andy and Laurie, between the Barbers and their neighbors, between Jacob and his friends, between Jacob and his parents.  The tension is always there, though, and it becomes almost unbearable at times. 

    

      Defending Jacob by William Landay is an excellent book and I recommend it highly.

Three 'Burgs

A Blog of Three ‘Burgs

Gettysburg, PA

     The past three weekends we have enjoyed time in three different but delightful towns: Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Williamsburg and Lynchburg, Virginia.  I guess the last one shouldn’t really count since we live in Lynchburg, but we have spent such little time here lately that it seems like we are just visiting!

     We traveled to Gettysburg to attend a wedding.  The parents of the groom are great friends and the groom and our son have been best friends since second grade.  It had been a while since we last visited Gettysburg and it hasn’t changed much, which is a good thing.  This, of course, was the site of the pivotal battle in The American Civil War.  We arrived on Friday and checked into our hotel, tried to find a Starbuck’s (there aren’t any in Gettysburg) and had an absolutely awful latte served rudely by a disinterested barista at a coffee shop in the Outlet Mall.  We stayed at a Marriott Courtyard which was well kept and clean, had free wireless internet and was conveniently located.   We ate at the Appalachian Brewing Company which is located in a building which was used by General Lee as the Confederate headquarters during the battle.  We enjoyed some vegetarian Thai rolls and split a very good veggie pizza.  We also tried the local brew which was spectacular.  After dinner we drove over to the battlefield.  This particular battlefield is remarkably well preserved and seems like it hasn’t changed since the Civil War.  The view of the sunset from Little Round Top was beautiful.

   

Sunset from Little Round Top

                                                                                     

 Marker for Col. Patrick Henry "Paddy" O'Rourke, 

killed on Little Round Top at the Battle of Gettysburg.  It is local

  folklore that if you rub his nose you

     will have good luck!

     The next morning we went to the new Visitor’s Center, watched the movie produced by the History Channel and narrated by Morgan Freeman and viewed the diorama, a 369 painting depicting the battle.  We then drove through the area occupied by the Confederates, found some re-enactors and viewed the infamous field where Pickett’s charge occurred.  There are monuments everywhere on the battlefield which were placed shortly after the war’s end.  The Pennsylvania Monument on the Union side and the Virginia Monument on the Confederate side are the most impressive.

A portion of the Diorama of
The Battle of Gettysburg

 

Virginia Monument

                                                               

Re-enactors

                                                                                                               
                                                                                                 








      We then attended the wedding at St. Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Church.  This church was founded in the 1830s and served as a field hospital for both sides during and after the battle.  The Sisters of Mercy did their best to nurse the most severely injured soldiers which is memorialized by a striking stained glass window on the front right of the church.

Cupola of St. Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Church
 Gettysburg, PA

     Gettysburg is a great place to visit, filled with history and respect for the fierce fighting which occurred there and the bravery displayed by both armies.  The community has done a superb job of preserving the battlefield.   Gettysburg has some of the usual tourist type attractions but lacks a lot of the more usual amenities (such as Starbuck’s).  You can still get a great breakfast at Perkin’s,  enjoy a meal at a historic restaurant and view a world famous battlefield which has not been polluted by urban sprawl. 

Williamsburg, VA

Governor's Palace from the Duke of Gloucester Street, Colonial Williamsburg, VA

       We never pass up an opportunity to visit Williamsburg.  We spent part of our honeymoon there almost 35 years ago and have returned often.  Our third son spent his four college years at The College of William and Mary and is now attending law school there as well.  He is very involved at Williamsburg Presbyterian Church and was ringing bells with the college bell choir on Sunday, April 29.  We were also celebrating two birthdays as well.  We made a quick trip on Saturday afternoon and stayed at a Quality Inn which is OK for the price.  The location is great, there is free wireless internet and a free breakfast in the morning.  Colonial Williamsburg is beautiful any time of the year, but particularly so in the Spring.  The gardens are meticulously maintained and, because of Williamsburg’s more coastal location, are ahead of Lynchburg in terms of what’s blooming.  We walked the length of the Duke of Gloucester street under an overcast sky because of the weather were able to wander the gardens which were basically empty.  We had a fantastic dinner at Christiana Campbell’s Tavern (seafood is their specialty and the flounder and scallops special did not disappoint) and then headed back to the hotel.  The next morning we attended the early service at Williamsburg Presbyterian and thoroughly enjoyed the performance of the bell choir.  We then drove on home to Lynchburg.

Artichokes!

Christiana Campbell's Tavern
Colonial Williamsburg, VA

Sanctuary, Williamsburg Presbyterian Church

Lynchburg

     This weekend we finally stayed home.  Lynchburg has been our home since 1992.  The town began as a convenient crossing point over the James River.  It has served as a transportation hub, both as part of the canal system to Richmond and later for the railroad.  Tobacco was stored and then sold and transported from here.  There was a significant hospital here during the Civil War and we are located only twenty or so miles from the surrender grounds at Appomattox.  Attractions nearby include Poplar Forest, the recently restored summer home designed and built by Thomas Jefferson and the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford.

   
     We started our weekend downtown at the First Fridays art exhibit.  There are several galleries downtown which have food and live music on the first Friday of each month year round.  There is a trolley which will take you free of charge on a circuit which includes the downtown galleries and the Lynchburg Art Club on Rivermont Avenue.  We first went to the Academy of Fine Arts where a one artist show was on display and then went to the Riverviews Artspace on the riverfront.  After viewing some interesting fabric art we ate dinner at one our favorite restaurants, The Bull Branch.  It is somewhat tucked away on a side street and has a funky non-Lynchburg type of feel to it.  The menu changes frequently and features locally grown organic vegetables.  The skies cleared and we were able to enjoy the “Super Moon” on full display!

     Saturday morning we got up and went to our Community Market.  There was a slight drizzle which kept the crowds down.  There was the usual great selection of fresh vegetables and plants.  Saturday night we saw “The Hunger Games” (book and movie review to follow soon) after $3 burritos at Moe’s “Cinco de Moe’s” celebration.  Sunday has been a day of catching up, blog writing and cooking (vegetable lasagna from Saturday’s haul at the Community Market). 

Three weekends: Three ‘Burgs.  Love it.

Riverviews Artspace
Lynchburg, Virginia

Gallery, Riverviews Artspace

Langley Fountain from inside Riverviews Artspace

Bull Branch Restaurant, Lynchburg, VA

Entrance to Bull Branch Restaurant

Interior, Bull Branch Restaurant

Lynchburg Community Market

Fresh produce!

... and plants!

"Super Moon" over Lynchburg, VA
May 5, 2012