The Valley of Decision by Marcia Davenport

Front cover, paperback

It took me some time to read through this wonderful, massive 640 pages, historical epic  novel about the Pittsburgh area and the founding of the steel mills, the Scott family over generations from 1870 through 1940. Add to that the parallel life of Mary Rafferty, their servant who comes up the hill from Irish town and home again on Sundays to care for Dad. It was a saga to savor.  Not fast reading, much consideration as books used to be written.  Such great work, such great writing. 

A friend recommended it long ago but it was out of print for years, first published in 1942.  Now the University of Pittsburgh Press has reprinted it with an introduction written by the author in 1988.  It is an indescribable sweeping tale, Irish immigrants,  the hunkies (a term for the Slavic immigrants stolen by blacks to refer to white people as honkies), the wealth of the Scott family as the steel industry changes directions in war effort and through the ups and downs of the economy.  Perhaps because I know the area, I was smitten with this novel.  The characters and the way people lived back then, the development and the growth.  I had not heard of this novel before a few years ago and wonder how I could have missed it being an avid reader and having spent so much time at our local library in PA when I was growing up.  I am better informed now having read it.  I had forgotten how the European immigrants were enticed to come work in the mills and factories by unscrupulous "human traders",  these immigrants fared no better than the black slaves but our history has been  ignoring the plight of the early Caucasian immigrants, exploited beyond imaginable. 

Back cover

There is so much excellent writing that I cannot select only a few and I offer only one,  Page 466,  (The Twenties), "Why,"  people sometimes asked Mary Rafferty, "do you go on living all alone in that museum of a house?"  She never answered that question, never gave a reason.  She would smile quietly, or raise her bony shoulders to a delicate shrug.  When she was seventy years old, she still carried her white head erect, at a certain proud angle that belied the quiet unobtrusiveness of her clothes.  It was difficult for any person to read her eyes."  Yes Mary is a strong woman.  I like strong women, not whiny characters much as I like good writing.  It seems to me we have lost the art...yes, there are novels worth reading and yes there are many books of interest.  But novels like this, in the same line as Gone With the Wind are seldom if ever written today.  Today, people just  do not read for entertainment as they did back in the day.  And, that comes from lesser education, lesser interest and the availability of television, the preferred mode for ever so many.  I hope I never lose my love of reading.  It transports me and continues to educate me.  It nourishes my imagination, when I read I see the happenings, I am not just brushing over words.  Enough.



The  revised 1988 preface first page by the author...

 5 star ***** no doubt. I may take this back to PA and donate to the local library or I just may keep it on my shelf. 

God's Hotel by Victoria Sweet

I chose this book on our book club reading and may have made a mistake, considering the preferences of the other readers, but I enjoyed it. It is a book I'd have  read with or without the book club. It has depth and value; I learned while reading it.  To me, that is important in books.  A curious reader will  enjoy it.  Someone who wants just light reading,  sheer entertainment will not.  I will pass this book along to my own doctor who does practice spending time with patients, a rarity.  But then I go to Mayo and it is different. 

 Early reviews gave me the impression that "God's Hotel"  was about treatments of  aids patients at Laguna Honda Hospital in San Francisco, but it is far more than that. Infact, there is little about aids patients.  It  has comedic parts including the chicken of the ward which of course had to be removed when state inspectors arived.  Yes, a real live chicken that kept the patients happy. 

 A fast read at 348 pages, published in 2012 and authored by Victoria Sweet,MD, it is more than aids, it is a history of the medical and non medical treatments at what is one of the last almshouses in the country.  Laguna Honda has cared for the poor, the homeless, the alcoholics, those without resources for a long time.  The city of San Francisco has heavily supported it.  Dr. Sweet  goes there after  med school unaware that she will spend her career there.  Her  sort of memoir of these times describes the changing healthcare system and processes and depicts the plight of the "residents."

I was familiar with  the issues between governmental  bureaucracy, regulation and funding of  Laguna Honda from my career at the state Department of  Health Services.  However, after reading this book, I have to agree with Dr. Sweet, there has been unnecessary  tampering and tinkering by bureaucrats that has not contributed to effective care for patients.  Laguna Honda had a mission from it's founding to care for  those without  resources.  It desperately clung to that.  Dr. Sweet tells the history of Laguna Honda along with her own maturation in medicine.   Page 38,  "Slowly the two of us came to understand that Dr. Fintner had the temperament of the physician and I, although I was an internist, the temperament of the surgeon.  I was interested in action, or not; she was interested in the mos precise action and would spend quite  a bit of time to get it right...."   Pg. 39,  "...seemed to be sleeping.  But as we stood there, waiting or maybe just watching, I gradually became aware of a quality I'd felt before with patients, though never consciously--the quality of shared, peaceful silence.  It was a healing space,, I realized at that moment, and not only for the patient.  For the doctor too, a quiet space of non-asking and non-answering of non-doing."  The techniques, relying on old school time spent and sensing are emphasized and as she admits, not techniques covered in today's medical training which emphasizes technologies. 

Page 98 describes a recurrent theme of treatment, "a tincture of time." "...Not only did her healing take a long time and need a long time, but time was the most important ingredient in her treatment.  Premodern medicine knew about that special ingredient; it was called "tincture of time." Almost everything it had observed, healed in time under the right conditions.....it was watching her healing that was miraculous, that reformed my practice of medicine.  In this day of efficient health care, no one ever gets to see such a process...It seemed to me more than mechanical; it seemed magical a sleight of hand....."

There is detail in the history of medicine going back to Hippocrates and the anima, spiritus, physics.  There is a lot of information as Dr Sweet continues her studies in the practices of  a 12th century healer, Hildegard who knew the essence of spirituality and time.  Pages 160-162 describe her work in the dementia ward and the distinct difference between various dementias and Alzheimers.  However today every dementia is termed Alzheimers when that is not accurate.  Dr Sweet's journey is marked by time off to study early Hildegard, to make pilgramages in Spain and Europe, to learn the lesson of pilgramage is to (pg. 244) "expect the unexpected." 

I was fascinated by her deep historical descriptions and alayses of terms of words.  On page 228 she  describes hospitality, community and charity as the  3 principles of Laguna Honda.  Then  continues to trace the word, "charity" thru history, bringing it bcack to Laguna with a description of "eleos" and alms.    Page 253 she emphasizes an important distinction, "the practice of medicine had become the delivery of healthcare....."  This book weaves a tale of the difference between those two concepts as well as distinguishing between  nursing and medicine. he reorganizations that Laguna uses to react and work along with political and fianancial decisions are also interesting.  My sympathy rests with the worker bees who become entrapped by these changes all in the name of efficiency.

 I give this book a 4* and recommend it to people who are interested in medicine, healthcare, history, words.  I hope my bookclub enjoys it, and will learn about that  in a week or so when we meet.  It  would be a gret text for aspiring doctors but unlikely to be acknowledged in today's training which emphasizes technology, rapid diagnosis and moving on to the next patient. 

Dutch A Memoir o Ronald Reagan by Edmund Morris

Dutch is a complex work and the most different style of memoir or biography I have ever read.  This was a $1 book sale find; published in  1999; 672 pages increasing to 874 pages with Appendix, Acknowledgements, Bibliography, Notes, Illustrations and Index.  As I read I flicked back to many of the detailed notes.  I am all the more mystified after reading it as to the writer's opinion of Reagan, I truly cannot tell if he admired him or not.  He emphasizes the riddle of Reagan as an inscrutable but likeable giant personality but one which he does not clarify, one which he believes defies clarification by anyone.  Perhaps that's the true purpose of an excellent biographer, not to persuade the reader about the subject  but just to point them out, and allow the reader to ponder.  

Morris is commissioned by the Reagans to be the official biographer, the first time a sitting president would do so.  As such he spent time on the "front lines" with the Reagans and yet was given literary freedom to write. On the first page of the  Prologue Morris describes a conversation with Reagan, ".. mildly amused but wary.  Most public, yet most private of men, he does not welcome undue familiarity with his past."  Page xii continues..." .. Perhaps his youthful readings in Calvin Coolidge taught him not to encourage interlocutors.  It only winds them up for twenty minutes more. Even as a  teenager, he had taken no personal interest in people.  They were and remained, a faceless audience to his perpetual performance. " 

Morris would  drop insightful  hints throughout the book about the Reagan character,  Prologue xv, ..." how quickly and lightly the words spooled out, every punch line dropping like a fly on the stream.  Joke telling requires a special kind of intelligence, as anyone knows who has tried to write one out: a few syllables too many, a vital phrase misstated and the humor dies.  Reagan lacked wit..he was too cautious to risk repartee and many of his jokes were hoary, but one could only marvel at their apparent spontaneity." 

Back of jacket

The cover flap explains that  Edmund Morris is one of the first literary guests at the White House.  Reagan read and admired Morris' Pulitzer Prize winning biography of Theodore Roosevelt and so engaged his services although the author was reluctant at first to accept because he  is planning further research about Theodore Roosevelt.  I love the quote at the opening, from Charles Dickens "Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain  of iron or gold of thorns or flowers that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day."  That suits Reagan and this book.   

The book begins as though they are childhood acquaintances although the President never so acknowledges.  It had me thinking so but as I read about the author on the  jacket flap I knew that could not be so, he had embellished and in doing so communicated the mystery of Reagan whom he describes as " the dreamy son of an alcoholic father and a fiercely religious mother."  The epic work begins with Reagan's birth in 1911 and ends with his announcement of Alzheimer's. 

This is a book which makes it difficult to select one or two quotes because it is replete with excellent descriptions but as he details Reagan's gravitation toward politics when he is a spokesperson for GE, I think the first line of a speech Reagan gives to the California Fertilizer Association  is a cross stitch for movie buffs:  "The past is a screen on which memory projects movies..."

Pg 414,  "Are there no flaws, then in this image of a supremely happy person?  What do the 42 million Americans who tried to keep him out of the White House worry about?  Well for a start, his Daliesque ability to bend reality to his purposes..." 

It is an intriguing work that took serious reading.  I enjoyed it but would be hesitant to recommend it to a casual reader, even those Reagan fans.  It is contemplative,  historical and grandly presented.  A massive literary work.  I am glad that I read it increasing my knowledge about our 40th President; I have been a fan since he was our Governor in California and more so after I  became acquainted with his late daughter, Maureen.      I  give it 4 stars  ****

The Bootleg Buggy: Stories of my Polish Family by Tina Lonski

About 1:30AM one morning  when I awoke and could not get back to sleep, I  wandered out to the living room , picked up this delightful small paperback that I'd bought at Legs Inn, MI on our last trip.  30 minutes passed quickly and I was nearly halfway through this mere 85 paged book but my eyelids said, time to get back to bed.  However the next day, I carved out some  time to finish the book.  It is just the kind of short interlude that I appreciate and for me also from a full Polish family I could relate to all her tales. While her family and Polish ancestors settled in Michigan and mine in Pennsylvania, the attitudes, the behaviors are clearly recognizable to me, the huge family gatherings, the music, the dances, the Catholic masses,Christmas Eve,  the Easter baskets and more.  While my granpap did not make bootleg booze, that I know of, hers did and true to Polish ingenuity delivered locally during prohibition having built a secret compartment below the baby in the buggy.  Besides the wonderful tales of growing up in that heritage, she writes  about visiting Poland where she sees people who could have been her relatives and recognizes  all the foods, their smells and so many traditions, feeling at home though she'd never been there before.  Perhaps a trip to Poland will work its way into my travels at some time, it is low on my bucket list but something I think of more and more as time goes on.

 There is a section of the Polish alphabet, pronunciations and words and terms and like me she admits to learning those Polish swear words by hearing them as a child and that is what we recall, probably because her grandparents as did mine said, "never say that."  I'm glad I bought this book which has reference to a few others that may be useful in my Polish research.  I was pleased that she mentioned James Michener's  "Poland" one of my all time favorites of my all time favorite author.  It was through that book that something I knew was in our nature, a fierce independence, a cautious wariness of others, an almost trigger finger if criticized  is inherent to being Polish and is attributable to the history of Poland, a land that historically was invaded over the ancient times  an occupied to modern day communism.  It's our nature, it's who we are.  I long ago accepted that but I remember my granpap saying, "that's who we are...." that's why we fight when we have to and maybe when we don"t have to.  He well knew, as he came to this country a penniless young boy and worked in the coal mines.  This was a very quick read and one I will treasure. It is a very fast read and a 5 star rating *****

One Summer by David Baldacci

My choice for a fast reading  interlude as I continue through Condi Rice's technical book.  Here is another  Baldacci gem, published in 2011, 333 pages hardback which I whizzed through in 3 evenings.  It is a good story, aptly named and a great summer read although different from Baldacci's writings of intrigue.  It reminds me a bit of his wonderful early work "Wish You Well" after which he named his foundation to combat illiteracy.  That book is not published any longer but if you find it get it.   One Summer is a story of a family, terminal illness, tragedy, miracles, obstacles and life and people who do all they can for you as well as those who do all they can against you.  I say little about the story line so that I do not spoil it for you. 


Back cover


Two passages stood out to me:  the first on page 247, "Because life doesn"t work that way.  You can do everything perfectly.  Do everything that you think you're supposed to be doing.  Fulfill every expectation that other people may have.  And you still won"t get the results you think you deserve.  Life is crazy and maddening and often makes no sense.....People who shouldn"t be here are and someone who should be here isn"t.  And there's nothing you can do about it.  You can"t change it. ...It has nothing to do with desire and everything to do with reality which often makes no sense at all.... "

And the second on page 319, " Lizzie and Jack had been meant to be together forever if ever two people were.  Only sometimes life doesn't match what should be.  It just is.  And people have to accept it, no matter how hard it may be....You should respect the past.  You should never forget the past.  But you can"t live there."   An excellent emotion evoking book, another winner by Baldacci.   Four stars ****

My Father My President by Doro Bush Koch

Serendipity had me concluding this voluminous book published in 2006, which I acquired for $2 at a recent  book sale, large print edition yet making it a heavy 831 pages with additional notes, acknowledgements and sources going to 901 pages.  I greatly admire #41, our President Bush Elder.  Just this week June 12, 2012 he celebrated his 88th birthday and there have been many TV clips, interviews, specials celebrating this gentleman's life and contributions. There have been numerous reminisces and nearly everyone despite their  political party refers to him as a gentleman, a peacemaker, a man who can bring people together and a model for any politician who is interested in working with the other party to achieve a goal.   I have read all the Bush family "chronicles" those by Barbara, George Jr, Laura and enjoyed them fully, but despite my enthusiasm for #41, this book was a drag to read.  Certainly not because of content, but the writing was rather tedious and tiring to just not interesting.  He asked his daughter Doro to write this and so she did; Doro readily admits she is not a historian.  I don"t believe she is an author either nor much of a researcher.  She interviewed people  and asked them to send comments to her in her research and she did have the luxury of family guidance, access to photos, and memories, but it just isn't the best reading.  Much is written from her perspective as the daughter and this is not unusual.  Much about her life comes through including her divorce and how her parents helped her be kind through that, Barbara (MOM) cautioning her that "nothing good comes  of bitterness."   The Bush family is one very special brood, they have had  trials and tragedies like all of us and of course they have had experiences far beyond what others could anticipate.  I enjoyed all the photos and the array of Christmas cards showing the siblings growing up.  I can only imagine how they remain close, as Doro writes "almost dysfunctionally close." That in itself is a tribute to both parents who have raised a wonderful family.

What comes through loud and clear is this is a good man, goodness prevails deep in his heart, faithful but not super religious, family first, a true loyal friend, a man who can forgive almost anything except deceit, a man who respects everyone and a very great American.  He was/is ever the host and loved entertaining, throwing  parties large and small and even tried matchmaking at times, not always with success.   I was deeply impressed with his innate ability to connect people to work together, sometimes people who would have zilch in common.  He always built fun into any task.   I was very interested in his opinion of  Nixon during the time he chaired the Republican National Committee amidst the unraveling of Watergate.  It's in the book, how he was so astounded when he finally realized Nixon was lying to him.  #41 is a trusting individual and even though he was an astute politician he never considered the deceit that others would engage because that is just not a part of his character, not something he would do to friends and supporters. 

I loved reading  his perspective when he asked to be the first ambassador to China in October 1974, well before  it was an officially designated ambassadorship.  I suspect he was happy to just get away from this country on the heels of Watergate, Nixon"s resignation, etc.  That had to have been exhausting.  Reading how he became director of the CIA, an organization that was particularly demoralized and how he treated everyone there with dignity and respect further explains his goodness.  He held that post from January 1976 to January 1977.  Of course his political campaigns are covered and many life highlights.

Something I did not know about him is that he is a letter writer, an advocate of the personal hand written note and acknowledgement.  He has that old genteel school trait, similar to Harry Truman.  Today I heard on the news that  he is considering publishing some of his letters.  There are several in this book.  At times he would drop whatever he was doing to write an encouraging note to someone who would never have expected to hear from the President.  He is a man who is totally selfless.  How many politicians ever consider others?  George Sr does/did always,  he  did not and would not be late for anyone because he considers  keeping people waiting the height of rudeness. (pg 262)  Considerate beyond all.  And a master of small gestures with grand results.  What a compliment to a person. (pg. 315)
I had forgotten how far back the Dan Rather animosity toward the Bush's went but it is covered.  Bush always polite was briefed to expect the set up by Rather during the '88 campaign.  Because #41 believes the best of people he thought, surely not, but yes Rather was baiting and irascible waiting to taunt him about Iran-Contra.  So Bush turned it around reminding Rather, (pg. 388) "Dan, comparing this to my career is like comparing your career to the time you walked off the air."  We read on that  replaying that old tape shows how Rather looks as though he was punched, his head rolled forward and back and resembles a slow motion movie where a guy takes a punch.  That was it, the fight was over and Bush won!  But Rather  held a grudge ever after, showing his wrath and arrogance  later years going after George Jr. about his military reserve career. 

A passage written by himself on page 831 makes me laugh it is  so similar to many I know .."Your mother and I sit out here like a couple of really old poops, but we are at total peace.  She does crossword puzzles, real puzzles, reads a ton of books, plays golf, calls people up on the phone, writes letters, and occasionally gets mildly (to use an old Navy expression) pissed off at me.  I can handle it thought--no problem.  I fall back on bad hearing and changing the subject.  Both work"  What am I laughing at, that is us at times! 
I give this book a 5 ***** for content but only a  3*** for the writing.  Although it was interesting to reread history much of which I have lived, I'd have preferred a better presentation: I think there is another book out there about #41. I'd not recommend this book, which really doesn"t matter as it is older, 2006 and not on any lists.  Still if you find it at a book sale, it is worth the $2.   My opinion is any number of writers would have been honored to produce this, but he wanted his daughter and so it was.

In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson

History has proven that for tyrants and evil to prevail, it begins insidiously, while well meaning folks look the other way and tell themselves, that nothing will come of this.  Erik Larson"s newest historical narrative, makes that point in this excellent book, published in 2011, 365 pages supplemented by 83 more pages of sources, acknowledgements and  indices.  This is our June book club selection; I will be anxious to discuss it next week when we meet. 

The Garden of Beasts is part of what is known as the Tiergarten in Berlin, near the ambassador's office and similar to  the Central Park in New York.  It was where people could go and talk privately without being fearful of spies and  devices.  The drama weaves starting in 1933, the early days of the rise of Hitler in Germany and William Dodd has been appointed American ambassador to Germany, some speculate this was a fluke by President Roosevelt known for not paying the best of attention to his advisers.  But Dodd, a bland history professor from Chicago who longs to complete his 4 volume work on The Rise and Fall of the Old South, accepts the appointment and so journeys to Berlin with his wife and  adult  son and daughter.  Margaret Dodd, the daughter, a recent divorcee is a case study in immorality, flash, flirtation and considers the time in Berlin as a grand adventure.  Part of her activities in Berlin cascade her into various involvements and affairs with many men one after another including Rudolf Diels, first chief of the Gestapo and Boris Winogradov the Russian communist who charms and courts her, even wanting her to return to Russia with him. 

Ambassador Dodd is clearly a misfit in the ranks of the diplomats and the ambassador corps which is predominantly home to the idle rich and those who dabble while living lifestyles of the rich and famous.  Dodd is neither and alienates most of the embassy staff upon his arrival with his vow to live only on his salary, his demand for frugality and his dislike for pomp and gatherings.  He is ridiculed behind his back for walking to meetings and driving his old Chevrolet while others lavishly use chauffeurs and limousines.  His inconspicuous manner and modesty, lack of a fortune to support expenditures place him at a big disadvantage, although he never realizes nor acknowledges this.  Dodd is the weird duck in the midst and it is a wonder that he survives a few years but he believes that he is there to do his best serving as Roosevelt agreed, "a lone beacon of American freedom and hope."  Clearly he is no judge of character having spent his career in academia because he does not recognize that he has no support among the rest of the  State Department, the Consul or the politicos.  He is not  a member of what they call themselves, The Pretty Good Club, nor would he ever consider that lifestyle.  I felt sorry for him and often though, "just throw in the towel and go home to Chicago....." However,  Dodd is perceptive enough to see the dangers ahead though no one, believes him.   There is espionage and danger all around and yet Dodd remains above it, relies on his immunity or has determined he is in this for the duration.

There is a tribute to Dodd, Pg. 356...."...history....will record that in a period when the forces of tyranny were mobilizing for the extermination of liberty and democracy everywhere, when a mistaken policy of appeasement was stocking the arsenals of despotism, and when in many high social and some political circles, fascism was a fad and democracy anathema, he stood foursquare for our democratic way of life, fought the good fight and kept the faith, and when death touched him his flag was flying still...." 

We see the rise and interactions and mistrust amongst all the sinister Nazi characters Rohm, Goebbels, Goring, Hitler, Himmler.  There are some fascinating and shivering experiences with all of them.   Pg. 116 describes Diels, the Gestapo chief..."he entered....seeping in like a malevolent fog."   I was fascinated and horrified at the tactics and wondered, how could a people be so blind to the atrocities, something I ponder whenever I read about this era of history.  Bad enough that the Germans ignored it all but the isolationist attitude in the US waxed the way for Hitler to emerge and continue.   

I wondered how we came to select this book through recommendation  of Joan one of our members and then reading the acknowledgements I saw that  Mildred Fish Harnack, a friend  of Margaret's in Berlin was arrested by the Nazi's and executed at Hitler's direction.  She was the only University of Wisconsin (UW) alumna to be guillotined at Hitler's command.  Bill, Joan's spouse is an avidly devoted UW alumni and likely found this great historical read through a UW affiliation.  I am glad he did. 

I give this book a 5***** out of 5 possible.  Great subject, good writing, history and research well done.