BOOKS

Rolo wrote: finno wrote: I've just started the Robert Fisk and am enjoying it. I think he is the No. 1 journalist  fantastic writer inciteful articles. Think he's very biased in his writing Finno. Read the big book on hols this summer and was struck by his very strong Pro Palestinian bias. I'm not gonna start to argue the pros and cons of the great debate here, as obviously everyone has their own opinions on the subject. Just the stuff was very one sided.

I'm pretty sure he says that himself in his book. Goes so far as to say that he can't abide by the "must always be balanced"  type of journalism. He wears his convictions on his sleeve and has lived among the people he writes about for many years. How many journalists would try to write an unbiased piece on the Nazi's or the Holocaust or any modern neo fascist group?..and rightly so..sometimes journalists have to take a stance. Personally I have always found Robert Fisk takes the side of the most vulnerable and oppressed people wherever he reports from..including our own conflict. I think that this book is as equally scathing of Arab and Muslim leaders and extremists as it is of Israeli and US leadership, and his description of the horror that was the Iran/Iraq war was rivetting and horrifying at the same time, and he didn't write it from the comfort of a BBC studio like a lot of so called journalists at the time.

In fact the one major figure in  the whole Palestinian conflict I think he is most scathing about in the book is Yasser Arafat who was and still is considered a great leader among a lot of Palestinian people, but who Fisk clearly believes was a self promoter and more interested in his own political advancement than the plight of the people he was supposed to be leading.

I would not see Fisk as Anti American as a lot of the right wing press like to paint him, in fact if you read a lot of his articles he has a deep admiration and respect for the American people. It is people like Bush and Chaney that he despises, and in that respect he is in tune with more than 50% of the American electorate at the moment.

I have always found in reading his books and articles that he has a genuine kinship with victims of war everywhere, be they Palestinians, Iraqi's, Israeli's, Americans and irrespective whether they are murdered by suicide bombers, Israeili tanks, American missiles or brutal dictators. A dead child is a dead child in any country and in any language. From a personal viewpoint I think the world needs people like Robert Fisk to stand up and be counted and tell us what is really happening. I for one dont want to be relying on Fox or CNN or Al Jazeera or even RTE for that matter.

Anyway..sorry for rabbiting on...is something I feel quite strongly about as you might have gathered..plus I like to drag out my soapbox every now and then..hehehe!!

Peace and love and all that

Hayseed we must have a chat.

Earlier this year i read "This Thing of Darkness" by H Thompson, This is from a review in the Times

"  CHARLES DARWIN HAD an odd-shaped life. Young, in debt, a conventional believer due to become a parson, he made a journey that was supposed to take two years. It lasted five. He was ill for ever thereafter (probably from a disease contracted in South America), but raised a large family while dissecting, observing and speculating about nature in his Kent garden. He gathered proofs and illustrations for a theory begun on that voyage, and on the way lost his belief in God. Twenty years after the voyage of The Beagle, On the Origin of Species pitchforked him into public battles with the Church.

But Darwin had a happy marriage, money, success. The action-packed life of the secretly manic-depressive captain who invited him onto The Beagle ended in suicide.

It is a brave, sad tale. Socially, practically, Robert Fitzroy was far ahead of his time. He championed the rights of people whom Victorian gentlemen and rapacious white settlers in New Zealand called savages, believing they should be treated equally. He brought Fuegian natives to England and returned them home at his own expense. He promoted meteorology and weather bulletins, which saved many lives but were halted in England by vested interests. Owners lost money not when fishermen died, but when boats did not go out because of forecasts.

Fitzroy constantly fought for ideals and lost. The Fuegians were damaged by coming to England. His young sailors died. And despite his scientific interests, he passionately defended biblical truth. Mutation of species, as they called it then, threatened belief in the literal truth of Genesis.

This became a dangerous issue on The Beagle. It later divided Darwin and Fitzroy. And this conflict drives Harry Thompson’s fictionalised picture of Fitzroy’s life. This Thing of Darkness does not work as a novel. Thompson has done fantastic research but cannot step back from it; the sentences are not alert enough. But as fictionalised biography, this is a fascinating read. Behind the rich textures, all those sailors, storms and places — Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego, Galapagos — is a grim battle about the origin of life."

I found it a fascinating book to read and as as a first novel it promised a lot. Unfortunately just after it was published the author died of cancer.

Another very moving was "Suite Francaise" by Irène Némirovsky was written in France under the occupation( in 1942) and was set as france was overrun by Gernam army. the first half is a gripping description of people trying to get away from paris a mass exodus with the roads clogged with people fleeing with cars/ carts ,baggage and then abandoning them. The author died in Autchwitz.  

Edited by finno

Blondie wrote: Hey HD dont hang back now just come right out and say wot you think !!!! Ok have not read Robert Fisk so cant give an opinion will check him out though

hehehehe!! Do ya think?

finno wrote: Hayseed we must have a chat.

Sure thing. Those two books seem well worth checking out. Especially the Darwin book. Am fascinated with the whole genesis of the theory of evolution and it's conflict with popular religious belief.

I find books on the Holocaust extremely difficult to read though..have read quite a few...and they always leave me feeling angry and depressed that human beings are capable of such cruelty and savagery.

On a lighter note, I have a book on the life of the great Brazilian footballer Garrincha which I haven't got around to reading yet....but it looks fascinating...so gonna have to get dug into it soon.

Would also like to find a good book on the life of Bobby Darin...(and no..haven't seen the movie yet). I saw a documentary on his life on the Biography channel about 2 years ago and it was amazing. If a Hollywood scriptwriter had written it it would be laughed out of every book publishers in town it was so unbelievable.

I have a whole wardrobe full of books at home that Bluebell keeps threatening to throw out someday when I'm not there...but so far she hasn't on pain of divorce..hehehe!!

Of course every now and then I have to do a bit of trimming and give a few books to the local bring and buy sale...but I hate parting with them..there is something magical about a book and the memories it can hold.

I remember the first book that made a really strong impression on me was Alex Haley's "Roots"...which subsequently turned out to be almost a complete fabrication..although the stories were based on genuine family history...it just wasn't his family history but an amalgamation of stories he'd picked up from people he'd interviewed.

I'm sure there's a good book in the story of the writing of the book

Heard Paul McGrath do an interview the other week seems like book has full story warts and all as they say .

Must put it on my christmas list

I reckon I get the best value out of a book...cos it takes me around 6 months to read a book. I hate reading during the day so I only read at night, but I'm so tired then that I read about 3 pages and I fall asleep  ...I do love reading though, but the books I read are "mushey love stories"....the last book I read was "temptation" by Anne Dillion, great book....well I thought so 

Blondie wrote: Heard Paul McGrath do an interview the other week seems like book has full story warts and all as they say . Must put it on my christmas list

Defo Blondie. For me Ooh Aah Paul McGrath was the second best player ever to play for Ireland and to read this book just makes you wonder how he ever managed to get his boots on, let alone perform the way he did for so long.

Neil Gaiman is an interesting writer novels and graphic novels.

 "I Know this much is true" by Wally Lamb is a really good story