Summer Reading III - July

July

8. The Stars in their Courses by Shelby Foote (audio book). A wonderful telling of the story of the battle of Gettysburg by a master novelist. As you might expect, sharp, incisive portraits of character are the best aspect of this work, though the old fashioned research is impeccable. Mine is the recorded version read by the author. I highly recommend it simply on the strength of Foote’s wonderful speaking voice and way with a story. For non-American readers of the Anglosphere who want to get a feel for the varieties of ‘Southern’ American accents beyond what they have heard in bad movies or from bad politicians, this is perfect. Great research, exceptional writing, superb narration.

9. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. I’m glad I listened to the recorded version of this but am not quite sure why it is considered the classic that it clearly is (just check out the readers’ comments on Amazon). I found every single character in it unbelievable. They simply did not strike me as human beings, at least none I have known. One 25 year old writing on Amazon said that as a soi-disant ‘gifted person’ he could relate to Ender. I could not. Not gifted enough I suspect. Another called it a generation Y and to some extent a generation X book. Perhaps that is why I failed to be moved by it, though the repellent society, undeveloped characters, and redundant and invariable victories for Ender may have something to do with it. One reader thought it had ‘a very important message.’ Like what? Don’t wipe out alien species that have given you every reason to think they want to destroy the human race? Empathize with your enemies? Don’t abuse eight year olds until they turn into Genghis Khan? At any rate, I did not really like this story, even though part of it takes place not far from where I write this evening.
Extra note: one reader on Amazon called it the Starship Troopers for the Information Age. I might agree, but the Information Age suffers by the comparison.

10. The Fall of Rome by Peter Heather. If I were to pick my favorite book from the summer this would be it. Heather is a scholar of the barbarian peoples, particularly the Goths, who were traditionally implicated in the ‘fall’ of the Roman Empire. In the last thirty years or so the impact of the barbarians has been downplayed while internal weaknesses of Roman society have been played up. Others have so stressed the continuity of the new ‘barbarian’ kingdoms with the Roman Empire that it seems that the Romans simply left the empire to the barbarians as caretakers while they moved on to other business, like communing with God. Heather believes otherwise and marshals all the written and archaeological evidence to lay out a new, though retro, narrative of the collapse of Roman power. He believes that around AD 400 the Roman Empire, though having suffered some rough blows, was essentially sound until the 406 invasion across the frozen Rhine by a mixed horde of Vandals and Alans cut all the way through to Spain. From that point on it was a life or death struggle that was over by 470. It’s a great story and Heather tells it well, despite some lapses into modern British argot. Against all expectations, it is also sometimes funny.

11. Les origines Franques by Stephane Le Bec. A good introduction to the Frankish settlement into northern Gaul and the Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties by one of France’s leading medievalists. I spent all summer on this mainly because, though her French is much clearer than that of many Francophone scholars these days, I wrote out a word for word translation. I don’t often do this with French work, but as a good synthesis of recent French scholarship on the subject, I thought it was important. Besides, it’s a good way to practice my French.