Edgar Allan Poe: The Fever Called Living by Paul Collins

Looming large in the popular imagination as a serious poet and lively drunk who died in penury, Edgar Allan Poe was also the most celebrated and notorious writer of his day. He died broke and alone at the age of forty, but not before he had written some of the greatest works in the English language, from the chilling “The Tell-Tale Heart” to “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”—the first modern detective story—to the iconic poem “The Raven.”

Poe’s life was one of unremitting hardship. His father abandoned the family, and his mother died when he was three. Poe was thrown out of West Point, and married his beloved thirteen-year-old cousin, who died of tuberculosis at twenty-four. He was so poor that he burned furniture to stay warm. He was a scourge to other poets, but more so to himself.

In the hands of Paul Collins, one of our liveliest historians, this mysteriously conflicted figure emerges as a genius both driven and undone by his artistic ambitions. Collins illuminates Poe’s huge successes and greatest flop (a 143-page prose poem titled Eureka), and even tracks down what may be Poe’s first published fiction, long hidden under an enigmatic byline. Clear-eyed and sympathetic, Edgar Allan Poe is a spellbinding story about the man once hailed as “the Shakespeare of America.”

The combination of the life of one of the most intriguing Victorian writers in the hands of one of the best narrative history writers around at the moment meant that Edgar Allan Poe: The Fever Called Living an immediate addition to my TBR list. Collins has done a great job in the past with The Murder of the Century and Duel with the Devil, and I included both in my list of top ten books to get someone started on narrative history. Here, he has a much smaller canvas than usual – this is a streamlined biography, but one that works extremely well.

In a few short chapters (according to my Kindle, the dead tree version has 132 pages), Collins manages to paint a clear portrait of a man whose genius was in constant battle with his demons. From the death of his parents, the difficult relationship with the man who raised him but refused to adopt him, to his struggle with poverty and alcoholism, Poe did not have an easy life. Yet throughout, Collins shows that he continued to try and find his way out through his writing. Calling particular attention to the genre-changing creation of Dupin (the proto Holmes) and the writing of the Raven, Collins points out the huge impact that Poe had on modern literature. All in all a great, if short, biography that should be accessible to all.

I gave Edgar Allan Poe: The Fever Called Living 4 stars.

US Presidents Series: The Roosevelt Trilogy by Edmund Morris

A vast and sprawling exploration of one of the most interesting presidents to ever serve in the White House, Edmund Morris’ trilogy of books (The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Rex and Colonel Roosevelt) explore Roosevelt’s life before, during and after his tenure as leader of the free world, from his childhood struggling with ill health, to his youth and travels around the world with his parents, and beyond to the tragedies of his adulthood that led him down the path to the White House. Throughout, Morris gives a very rounded portrayal of the man behind the legends, as well as providing the proper context of the world in which Roosevelt lived and how both it affected him and he affected it.

Morris’ writing is never dry and he has the descriptive eye of a novelist – some of the passages following Roosevelt into the wild or through the Amazonian jungles are fantastic. Roosevelt himself comes across as a flawed, brilliant man, able to command great loyalty but whose reluctance to release his hold on the Presidency forced a breach in his own party. It was amazing to realise how much Roosevelt did after he left the big chair – his subsequent runs ended up creating the Progressive Party and saw the Democrats win the presidency for the first time in decades.

All in all, Morris’ trilogy is the ultimate exploration of a president, full of wonderful writing worthy of the larger than life Roosevelt.

I gave all three books 4 stars.

The Woman Who Would Be King by Kara Cooney

An engrossing biography of the longest-reigning female pharaoh in Ancient Egypt and the story of her audacious rise to power in a man’s world.

Hatshepsut, the daughter of a general who took Egypt's throne without status as a king’s son and a mother with ties to the previous dynasty, was born into a privileged position of the royal household. Married to her brother, she was expected to bear the sons who would legitimize the reign of her father’s family. Her failure to produce a male heir was ultimately the twist of fate that paved the way for her inconceivable rule as a cross-dressing king. At just twenty, Hatshepsut ascended to the rank of king in an elaborate coronation ceremony that set the tone for her spectacular twenty-two year reign as co-regent with Thutmose III, the infant king whose mother Hatshepsut out-maneuvered for a seat on the throne. Hatshepsut was a master strategist, cloaking her political power plays with the veil of piety and sexual expression. Just as women today face obstacles from a society that equates authority with masculinity, Hatshepsut had to shrewdly operate the levers of a patriarchal system to emerge as Egypt's second female pharaoh.

Hatshepsut had successfully negotiated a path from the royal nursery to the very pinnacle of authority, and her reign saw one of Ancient Egypt’s most prolific building periods. Scholars have long speculated as to why her images were destroyed within a few decades of her death, all but erasing evidence of her rule. Constructing a rich narrative history using the artifacts that remain, noted Egyptologist Kara Cooney offers a remarkable interpretation of how Hatshepsut rapidly but methodically consolidated power—and why she fell from public favor just as quickly. The Woman Who Would Be King traces the unconventional life of an almost-forgotten pharaoh and explores our complicated reactions to women in power.

Basing her conclusions on the few remaining artefacts and allowing herself a lot of leeway to fill in the gaps, Kara Cooney has created an enthralling portrait of an amazing woman in The Woman Who Would Be King, a biography of the second female pharaoh, Hatshepsut. From her birth and training as a priestess to her co-regency with her stepson, Cooney traces the steps Hatshepsut took in order to both secure her position and then consolidate it, identifying her as unique - a woman who was able to gain the throne in a male-dominated society during a time of peace rather than war. 

Cooney makes some interesting points, showing how both the later Pharaohs and the even later Egyptologists twisted the few elements we have about this remarkable woman into the story of a power-mad temptress who seized the throne from the rightful heir and held it against the judgement of her entire society. The story Cooney tells is much more complex, requiring a knowledge of Egyptian culture and mores, especially when it comes to female sexuality. A true narrative history, The Woman Who Would Be King is far from a dry exploration of ancient artefacts, but instead is an interesting and exciting dive into a world that seems incredibly alien from our point of view. And yet Cooney manages to make the narrative contemporary, showing how the way we look at Hatshepsut affects the way we look at woman in positions of power even today. 

I gave The Woman Who Would Be King 4 stars.

The Second Amendment: A Biography by Michael Waldman

 

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Opening in the early days of the United States of America, when public fears of government overreach needed to be calmed thanks to the protection of the Constitution, moving through the spread to the Wild West and the days of Prohibition and gangsterism, before ending at the Supreme Court where political expediency led to a radicalized ruling protecting an individual right to gun ownership, The Second Amendment: A Biography is a sweeping exploration of the most controversial and misunderstood provision of the Bill of Rights. As renewed debate caused by recent mass shootings brings the Second Amendment back into the limelight, Michael Waldman gives a historical, contextual view that shows how society’s view of the amendment is coloured not by a historical understanding of the constitution’s context, but by political advocacy and the agitation of radical organisations.

I love reading about the United States. I’m not American and my hands-on experience of the country has been limited to a handful of visits over the years. And yet this vast country of such sweeping contradictions has always fired my imagination. I have an ongoing project to read a biography of every single US President and any time a non-fiction book about the US crosses my path I snap it up. One of the most intriguing (and terrifying) elements of US society, especially for a foreigner looking in at it from outside, is the Second Amendment and the unfortunate consequences that surround it. So when this book, portrayed as a biography of this most controversial of amendments, popped up on Netgalley, I jumped at the chance to read it.

The Second Amendment: A Biography turned out to be an absolutely fantastic exploration, not only of the Second Amendment itself, but of the development of the Constitution, the changes that swept through American society in the 19th and 20th centuries and the growing influence of the Supreme Court in modern American life. Although I am certain that some people will disagree, I found it to be not only well-written, with an engaging voice that carries the story from beginning to end, but also a well-balanced look at what is obviously a highly charged subject. While Waldman’s own opinion is obvious, he still gives a fair view of both sides of the debate, always presenting the arguments of those on every side of the divide, while keeping his own commentary to specific passages.

Waldman’s position comes from being president of the Brennan Center for Justice at the NYU School of Law – he comes at this both from a legal and a historical point of view, making sure to set out the historical context that should inform any interpretation of the constitution. To understand why the amendment exists and why the Founding Fathers saw the need to include it, Waldman explains, it is vital to understand the world around them, the historical pressures that influenced them, and the society that spawned them. As such, the first part of the biography explores the origins of the amendment. Waldman shows by referring to documents of the period and by pointing just as much to what is absent from these documents than to what is included that the Second Amendment was designed to protect the ownership of a weapon in conjunction with the protection of a militia. This militia was there to do away with the need for a standing army, the first step to the creation of a tyrannical dictatorship as far as those Founding Fathers were concerned. As Waldman points out, the rise of the professional army in the 20th century put paid to those fears – for most people – and thus should be taken into consideration in any discussion of the Second Amendment.

From there, Waldman explores the influence of the Supreme Court and the rise of the National Rifle Association, providing some interesting insight into the history of the NRA. For instance, it is apparent from historical documents that the NRA initially favoured gun control – it is only later that the organisation became radicalised and thus began to take the hard right position that it has taken in recent year.

Throughout, Waldman makes it clear that the debate about the Second Amendment has always been a debate between historians vs. lawyers – a debate that the historians have lost. Instead, the current understanding of the Second Amendment has been decided and imposed not by historical research, nor even by political bodies. Instead it is the Supreme Court, led mainly by Antonin Scalia in the Heller decision of 2008, who have made that distinction. One of the best parts of the book is the way that Waldman takes the Scalia decision apart, showing how the ‘contextual’ understanding the Justice defends is actually anything but. Still, Waldman remains optimistic that the Supreme Court has always followed the moods of the people and as that mood shifts more towards gun control, it is possible that the decisions of the Supreme Court Justices will shift along with it.

The Second Amendment: A Biography is an excellent exploration of a complex subject. Rather than demonising either side in the debate, Waldman presents each side with the historical context, showing how the amendment was forged and how it was interpreted throughout history. While his own political leanings (Waldman was one of Bill Clinton’s chief speechwriters) are clear throughout, he gives the entire debate a fair shake. Still, it is difficult to argue with his conclusions: the current gun control climate is the result of the radicalisation of conservative organisations like the NRA and the influence of law courts instead of the people’s representatives. Still, the book ends on an optimistic note, one that those who have suffered from the lack of common sense gun control laws will hope to see one day. I gave The Second Amendment: A Biography 5 Wild West gun control signs out of 5.

The Good Spy by Kai Bird

 

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Goodreads

Robert Clayton Ames was a very good spy.

The day President Bill Clinton oversaw the signing of the Oslo Accords between Palestine and Israel, a group of CIA officers strode up to Arlington Cemetary to visit the grave of one of their own - Bob Ames, a CIA operative who specialised in the Middle East, whose actions lay the groundwork for the very accords being signed that day. Heading back in time, The Good Spy tells the story of Ames' entry into the CIA and how he rose to become one of their foremost experts on the Middle East. As he tries to walk the difficult line between reality and politics, he slowly heads towards his final destiny among the ruins of the American embassy in Beirut...

I love spies. Anything relating to espionage, both in fiction and non-fiction will get my attention. A few years ago I read Tim Werner's wonderful overview of the CIA, Legacy of Ashes, and remember reading about Robert Ames. So when I saw The Good Spy, a full biography of the man, on Netgalley, I immediately requested an advanced copy. And I am extremely glad I did because The Good Spy is a tour de force exploration, not only of one man but of the world he inhabited. Bird does a great job of peeling back the various layers of Ames' life as his career in the CIA takes him from one Middle East city to another.

While the book is centred on Ames, Bird takes the time to delve into the world around him. A number of key figures in the PLO are carefully depicted, especially the "Red Prince", Hassan Salameh, who shares almost as much page-time as Ames. Throughout the book, though, there is a constant threatening feeling overshadowing the narrative as we get ever closer to the horrific events of April 1983 and the bombing of the Beirut embassy. Bird deals with the aftermath in a respectful way, showing the effect of so much death on the country at large, but also more specifically those who knew Ames personally.

The Good Spy does a great job of providing a rounded, well-written exploration of an unsung American hero. Not afraid to deal with the darker aspects of Ames' career, Bird manages to give us true insight into his world. I gave The Good Spy 4 presidential briefings out of 5.

Top Ten Tuesday: Book Bucket List

From the Broke and Bookish

 

Top Ten Things on My Book Bucket List

1. Beat last years book reading challenge score of 284 books for the year. (Well on my way with 85 books read already in less than 3 months).
2. Regularly update this blog. I’ve been remiss at doing that for the past few years so I really want to try and post reviews more often and not so sporadically.
3. Read more literary and non-fiction.
4. Participate more in the blogging community through memes (like this one, so yay! J ) and by leaving comments of favourite blogs.
5. Reread Robin Hobb’s Farseer Trilogy, Liveship Traders Trilogy and Tawny Man Trilogy in anticipation of this year’s release of Fool’s Assassin. Have already started on this one with Assassin’s Apprentice last month, so on track so far.
6. Continue with my President’s Biography Read. I have set myself a goal of reading a biography of every US President from Washington to Obama before the 2016 election. This year, I’ve already read about James Garfield, Chester A Arthur, Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison. I have some longer books to read over the rest of the year – including an entire trilogy about Teddy Roosevelt – so will probably only read about McKinley and Roosevelt for 2014.
7. Try and write a review of every book I read this year the day after I finish it (even if I just post it to Goodreads and not necessarily to the blog).
8. Read more new releases so as to have read as many books as possible before the Goodreads Awards at the end of the year!
9. Get at least one book request approved by a publisher on Netgalley. New to the whole netgalley thing, so I would feel that having at least one of my book requests approved would be a sign that I have managed to keep regular on the blog.
10. Gain a couple more followers. I only have 3, so a couple more for the year would be cool.

 

What’s on YOUR bucket list?