Archives

On the Character of John Adams

During my Lenten blog break and during the month of February for my Semicolon Book Club, I read the biography of John Adams written by David McCullough. I also watched the mini-series based on McCullough’s book. Both book and video series were excellent. I learned a lot about our second president and came to admire him sometimes in spite of his faults, which he would be the first to admit were many.

Here’s what a few other people said about Mr. Adams:

Benjamin Franklin: “He means well for his country, is always an honest man, often a wise one, but sometimes and in some things, absolutely out of his senses.”

Thomas Jefferson: “His vanity is a lineament in his character which had entirely escaped me. His want of taste I had observed. Notwithstanding all this he has a sound head on substantial points, and I think he has integrity.”

Jonathan Sewall: “Adams has a heart formed for friendship and susceptible to its finest feelings. He is humane, generous, and open, warm in his friendly attachments, though perhaps rather implacable to those he thinks his enemies.”

Thomas Jefferson, again: “Mr. Adams is vain, irritable, stubborn, endowed with excessive self-love and still suffering pique at the preference accorded Franklin over him in Paris.”

John Adams himself to James Warren:
“Popularity was never my mistress, nor was I ever, or shall I ever be, a popular man. But one thing I know, a man must be sensible of the errors of the people, and upon his guard against them, and must run the risk of their displeasure sometimes, or he will never do them any good in the long run.”

The real John Adams? Perhaps all of the above. We are all mixtures of vanity and generosity and common sense and sometimes absolutely out of our senses.

Have You Found Her by Janice Erlbaum

“While all of the incidents in Have You Found Her are true, certain dialogue has been reconstructed, and some of the names and personal characteristics of the individuals involved have been changed. Any resulting resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental and unintentional.”

So, Have You Found Her is Janice Erlbaum’s memoir of volunteering at the homeless shelter where she was once an inmate or a client or whatever it’s called these days. And while at the shelter, Janice meets Samantha, a troubled homeless junkie with a charismatic personality and surprising talents that amaze Janice and the rest of the therapeutic community that builds itself around Samantha to try to help her overcome her horrible past of abuse and addiction.

The story continues as Sam travels through treatment center, hospital, psych ward, hospital again, halfway house, and detox getting ever sicker even as she tries to kick her addiction and regain her health. Janice becomes more and more committed to her unofficial ward and makes promises: “I am going to be in your life from now on.” “You can call me anytime.” “One year sober, and I’ll take you to Disneyland.” And finally, because Sam’s family is completely dysfunctional and unavailable, “I’ll be your legal guardian if you’ll sign the papers.”

At that point the story takes an unexpected turn, and as an empathetic reader, I was confronted with some very difficult questions. How far does commitment take you? If you love someone, is it forever? Really? What if the person you love rejects your love? What if he or she isn’t the same person you thought she was? What if the person you committed to love is much sicker than you thought? What if you don’t know how to love someone without enabling the very behaviors that are making her ill?

I thought this story was fascinating and disturbing. And if you’ve ever met or known someone like Sam, someone who preys on the co-dependency of people who need to give, you’ll find it a gripping memoir of “one woman’s quest to save a girl’s life—and the hard truths she learns about herself along the way.”

I really want to say something more about this book, but this last part enters into spoiler territory. So if you haven’t read the book and you intend to do so, stop reading now. I knew how this story would end about halfway through the book, or maybe even sooner. I think that’s because a) the author foreshadows the ending in some of her statements about Samantha early in the book and b) I’ve lived with a compulsive liar. No Munchausen’s syndrome, but definitely I know what it is like to deal with someone who tells stories to dramatize and enlarge themselves and to gain attention. It is tempting to think that if we just hang on hard enough and love strongly enough, we can “fix” someone else, that my love is the key to another person’s recovery and health. But it’s not true. I can pray, and I believe that God uses those prayers somehow to reach into the life of the one I’m praying for. But only God through Christ and the person himself in cooperation can change a person who is mentally ill and/or spiritually emaciated.

I needed to remind myself of that tonight, and thanks to reading this book and writing this review, I just did.

Schuyler’s Monster by Robert Rummel-Hudson

Schuyler’s Monster: A Father’s Journey With His Wordless Daughter.
Robert Rummel-Hudson’s blog: Fighting Monsters with Rubber Swords.

Yes, this book is about a little girl named Schuyler (pronounced Skylar) with a brain malformation called bilateral perisylvian polymicrogyria. This condition, probably congenital in Schuyler’s case, can cause several problems, but Schuyler’s main, most obvious problem is an inability to speak. The author, Schuyler’s dad, tries to focus on both Schuyler’s communication issues and her underlying vibrant personality. She comes across as a friendly, strong-willed, and somewhat mysterious little girl with a profound speech disablity.

However, the book is as much about the author himself as it is about Schuyler. Robert Rummel-Hudson is a self-described smart-ass and an agnostic. He’s funny and snarky, but his agnosticism is the theme that ties this autobiographical tale of a father together. He’s agnostic in regard to God and also in relation to a good prognosis and future for Schuyler. He doesn’t “have much use for Christianity” before Schuyler is born or diagnosed, but after he learns what her disability is called and what difficulties and suffering it involves, Mr. Rummel-Hudson becomes enraged with a God that he doesn’t really believe exists in the first place. If there were a God, he would be “God, my enemy, the bully who’d reached down and damaged my angel’s mind.” Schuyler’s dad can’t be an atheist because he sees that atheism requires as much faith as deism. However, since he has no faith, which he equates with certainty, he can’t believe in God or not believe. Nor does he believe that there is any purpose or meaning to Schuyler’s suffering. He is left with a vague Hope, a hope that, despite evidence to the contrary, he and his wife will be able to find someone or something that will help Schuyler to live a happy life, a fulfilling life. (Happiness and independence and fulfillment are the highest goods in Mr. Rummel-Hudson’s pantheon.)

YesI haven’t lived through anything nearly as tragic and difficult as Mr. Rummel-Hudson’s life with his daughter, Schuyler, so I can’t criticize his anger and hostility toward God, nor his later resignation to the idea that some kind of impotent God may exist and be unable to do anything to help Schuyler. I might very well feel the same way were I in his shoes. However, it’s interesting that I was also reading the first few chapters of Joni Eareckson’s book Heaven: Your Real Home today. In the book, Joni talks about her disability (paralysis) as both a curse and a blessing. She longs for heaven where she is assured of having a new body that will enable her to do all the things she can’t do here on earth. In that sense, she longs to escape her broken body that has brought her so much pain and suffering and denial of pleasure for so many years. However, she also says that her disability is, in a strange way, a blessing: “Somewhere in my broken, paralyzed body is the seed of what I shall become. The paralysis makes what I am to become all the more grand when you contrast atrophied, useless legs against splendorous resurrected legs. . . Whatever my little acorn shape becomes, in all its power and honor, I’m ready for it.”

Now, I’m not Joni either, and I’m not paralyzed or seriously disabled in any way. But I can see that we’re all broken in lots of ways, mentally, physically, and most of all spiritually, and that before we can “get fixed” we have to believe that there’s a Fixer and that He cares enough and is powerful enough to fix us, if not in this life, then someday in Heaven. And if Joni’s disability and suffering help her to know and trust the Fixer, then she’d say it’s worth it. That attitude isn’t much help to the agnostics of this world who, despite their need, are unwilling (not consciously needy enough?) to jump into the arms of the Only One who can meet that need. But Schuyler herself may grow up to see God and her need for Him in a way that her father can only hope to understand.

I pray that she does. And that her father, Mr. Rummel-Hudson, somehow comes to rely on God instead of a rubber sword.

Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Thomas Flexner

The book I read is a condensation and rewrite of Flexner’s four volume biographical study of the life of Washington. As he says in the preface, Flexner at first wanted to write a one volume biography, then felt he could not do justice to the man and his indispensable role in the founding of the country in less than four volumes, and then finally felt pressured to “distill what I had discovered into a single volume” that would “present in essence Washington’s character and career.”

In meeting his stated goal, Flexner was quite successful. In fifty-two chapters Flexner carries our hero, and Washington is indeed a hero in this book although not without flaws, from his youth as an obscure younger son from the backwoods of Virginia through his days as a soldier, a general, a planter, and a statesman, to his death in December of 1799. As for character, the Washington of this biography is a self-controlled man, fond of company and friends, but also temperate, quiet, a peacemaker, nevertheless at infrequent times giving way to an enormous temper.

George Washington, in this biography, truly is the indispensable man. It isn’t too much to say that without him the revolution would not have been successful, and that if it had been successful, the nation formed as a result of that revolution would have soon come apart and resolved itself into thirteen (or more) individual competing countries. Washington first holds the Continental Army together against all odds and at the expense of his own health and financial interests. Then after spending eight happy years in retirement at Mount Vernon, The Indispensable Man is called back into public life and given the responsibility of first moderating the Constitutional Convention, and then of presiding over a new, fledgling nation with deep sectional and philosophical rifts in opinion, culture and practice. If he couldn’t bring Jefferson and Hamilton and their followers together in the end, he at least managed to keep them from tearing the nation apart while they attacked each other and each other’s ideas and policies.

Although the book is certainly not hagiographic, Washington does fare well under scrutiny in this biographical treatment. Others of our founding fathers who figure in the story of Washington’s life do not make such a favorable impression. John Adams is a jealous and bitter wanna-be vice-president who can’t wait to take center stage as soon as Washington declines a third term as president. Jefferson is a trouble maker, untrustworthy, willing to advocate things in public and in the press to advance his own long term goals and policies, words and ideas that he repudiates in private because he knows they are impracticable or impolitic. Hamilton is a better friend to Washington, but still jealous of his own reputation and zealous for more power. Madison and Monroe are portrayed as Jefferson’s sycophants, willing to do almost anything to thwart the Federalist opposition even at the expense of the U.S. national interest.

In the portrayal in this book at least, Washington stands head-and-shoulders above all the other men of his time. Even late in his second term, when the author says several times that Washington is “losing his mental powers” and becoming weak and vacillating, he remains an admirable figure, one who is trying to do his best to serve the nation that has called upon him to give his best years to its service.

From this book I formed a better appreciation for Washington and his labors in the founding of our nation. I also began to suspect the actions and motives of others of our founding fathers. We’ll see how they fare in their own biographies as I read about the other presidents. Next up: John Adams by David McCullough.

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective.

Ostensibly a true-crime story of the murder of a three year old Victorian child, Saville Kent, in his own upper middle class home, Summerscale’s Mr. Whicher delves into the history of detection and detective stories, the literary influences of pioneers in the detective genre, word studies of related detective terms, and the early history Scotland Yard in particular. The author actually uses the facts of the murder of Saville Kent to explore all sorts of rabbit trails and interesting by-paths as she also explains the investigation of the murder and its aftermath.

For instance,

“The word ‘clue’ derives from ‘clew’, meaning a ball of thread or yarn. I had come to mean ‘that which points the way’ because of the Greek myth in which Theseus uses a ball of yarn, given to him by Ariadne, to find his way out of the Minotaur’s labyrinth. The writers of the mid-nineteenth century still had this image in mind when they used the word.”

Now, I knew about Theseus and the escape from the labyrinth, but I didn’t know that the word ‘clue” derived from that mythological event.

I also learned a lot about Jonathan Whicher and the early detectives of Scotland Yard. Mostly bachelors and drawn from the lower middle or lower class, these early detectives sometimes identified more closely with the criminals they were entrusted to apprehend than with the staid denizens of middle class London and the of the countryside whom they were sworn to protect. Whicher himself, one of the eight original Scotland Yard officers, was the subject of an article in DIckens’ Household Words in 1850, and according to Summerscale was something of a model, or at least an influence, for Dickens’ Bleak House, Wilkie Collins The Woman in White and The Moonstone, and Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw. Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, a popular novel of the 1860’s, was also directly influenced by the Road Hill murder, as the murder of Saville Kent came to be known. (The Woman in White and The Turn of the Screw are the only ones of these books that I’ve actually read, and I can see the influences in both.)

THe actual investigation of the Road Hill murder was a difficult case with rather unsatisfactory results: no one was actually convicted of the crime until years later when the murderer, as the result of a guilty conscience and a conversion experience, confessed. And the confession itself may have been only partially true. But the light that Summerscale sheds in her book on the origins and psychology of criminal investigation and of detective fiction is thought-provoking and revealing of a modern mindset that sees the detective and his work as a metaphor for the revelation of secrets and the desire of the public to know (and sometimes not to know) the private business of families in the interest of either justice or voyeurism.

Other readers say:

Stephen Lang: “In 1860 the middle class and seemingly ordinary Kent family were subject to intense scrutiny following the murder of their young son. Inspector Jack Whicher, one of the first police officers honoured the distinction of detective, is despatched to investigate and what followed was a case that spanned several decades. Summerscale also proves that fact is far stranger than any invented murder mystery, and superbly chronicles the events that drew the attention of Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins and even Queen Victoria.”

Educating Petunia: “One of the elements that held my interest throughout was the inclusion of excerpts and background from popular detective fiction that the case inspired. I now have small list of books I want to read right away but with an eye for connections to this story.”

Nicola at Back to Books: “Well written in an engaging voice and obviously well-researched this is a gem of a book for those interested in Victorian life. Though the book focuses on a true crime and the police procedures of the time there is a wealth of information on all aspects of life in the time period. I also went into this book not knowing anything about the murder case itself and found the revealing of the investigation and eventually the killer to be as exciting as any mystery novel.”

12 Best Nonfiction Books I Read in 2008

Secret Believers: What Happens When Muslims Believe in Christ by Brother Andrew, author of God’s Smuggler and co-author, Al Janssen. Semicolon review here.

The Case Against Adolescence by Robert Epstein. Quite thought-provoking. Recommended by MatthewLee Anderson at Mere-O.

How to Read Slowly by James Sire. I read this book in preparation for teaching a literature and worldview class to my daughter and some other students at our homeschool co-op. I found it to be quite a good introduction to how to read and evaluate literature from a Christian perspective.

The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan. Semicolon review here.

Word Freak by Stefan Fatsis. Semicolon review here.

Gracefully Insane: The Rise and Fall of America’s Premier Mental Hospital by Alex Beam. Semicolon review here.

Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Isamel Beah.

The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad. Semicolon review here.

A Royal Affair: George III and His Scandalous Siblings by Stella TIlyard. Semicolon review here.

Walking From East to West by Ravi Zacharias.

The American Patriot’s Almanac by William Bennett and John Cribb. Semicolon review here.

Christianity for Modern Pagans: Pascal’s Pensees by Peter Kreeft. I did a series of posts on this book:
Chapter 1
Chapter 2: Sinners Need Silence, and Ultimately a Saviour
Chapter 3: Gloom, Despair, and Agony on Me
Chapter 4: Animal or Angel?
Chapter 5: Vanity, Vanity, All Is Vanity
Chapter 6: Every Day in Every Way
Chapter 7: Hobgoblins or Habits
I quit there and never came back to this book, not because it wasn’t good stuff, but because I went on to other things. But I plan to finish the book, and the series of posts on it, this year.

The American Patriot’s Almanac by William Bennett and John Cribb

I just got this book in the mail from Thomas Nelson publishers, and I wanted to get a review posted before it’s too late because I think it would make a wonderful Christmas or New Year’s present for anyone interested in American history or any homeschooler or teacher of American history. As soon as the book came, Brown Bear Daughter was browsing through it, reading me excerpts, partly to avoid finishing her math lesson, but also because she was genuinely interested in the short vignettes from U.S. history.

The book consists of a story for each day of the year related to events that occurred on that date. For instance, for today, December 16th, Bennett and Cribb recount the story of the Boston Tea Party which took place on the evening of December 16, 1773. Then, underneath the short four paragraph account, there’s a list of other events that also happened on December 16th.

I have a similar book called On This Day in History, but what I like about this one is its unabashed Americanism and willingness to mention, and even feature, Christians and spiritual heroes as well as secular ones. For example, the entry for October 5th tells about the Great Awakening and about preacher Jonathan Edwards who was born on that date. Another entry features the first American-born Catholic saint, Elizabeth Seton. Also, I think the entries in The American Patriot’s Almanac are more kid-friendly and interestingly written to draw you into the story and inspire further research.

In addition to the page for each day of the year, there are extra features scattered throughout the book: Flags of the Revolutionary War, The History of the Stars and Stripes, Fifty All-American Movies, Flag Etiquette, The Declaration of Independence (text and history), The U.S. Constitution (text and history), The Gettysburg Address, The Emancipation Proclamation, The Pledge of Allegiance, The American’s Creed, songs and poems of American patriotism, and the written words of various prayers for America called Prayers for the American People. You get a lot of information here, a lot of bang for the buck, packed into 515 pages, including an index.

The American Patriot’s Almanac isn’t a chronological look at U.S. history, but I plan to use it daily next year as we study through the history of our country chronologically. These daily nuggets will review or preview what we’re studying and help me to reinforce the meaning of the events that make up our history. I”ll be using it for blogging, too, since I like to feature birthdays of famous people and events in history. Can you tell that I’m really excited about this book?

Thanks to the folks at Thomas Nelson for sending me a copy of this book for review.

Christmas in Hankow, China, 1925

“What I liked best about Christmas was that for a whole day grown-ups seemed to agree to take time of from being grown-ups. At six-thirty sharp when I burst into my parents’ room, yelling, ‘Merry Christmas!,’ they both laughed and jumped right up as if six-thirty wasn’t an early hour at all. By the time we came downstairs, the servants were lined up in the hall dressed in their best. ‘Gung-shi.’ They bowed. ‘Gung-shi. Gung-shi.’ This was the way Chinese offered congratulations on special occasions, and the greeting, as it was repeated, sounded like little bells tinkling.

Lin Nai-Nai, however, didn’t ‘gung-shi.’ For months she had been waiting for this day. She stepped forward. ‘Merry Christmas,’ she said just as if she could have said anything in English that she wanted to. I was so proud. I took her hand as we trooped into the living room. My father lighted the tree and he distributed the first gifts of the day—red envelopes filled with money for the servants. After a flurry of more ‘gung-shis,’ the servants left and there were the three of us in front of a huge mound of packages. All mysteries.” ~Homesick by Jean Fritz

Christmas in New Jersey, 1776

“The attack was set for Christmas night, December 25-26, when most of the Hessians would be drunk or exhausted from the day’s celebrations.

About twenty-four hundred Continentals began marching toward the Pennsylvania side of McKonkey’s Ferry several miles upstream from Trenton late on Christmas afternoon. Paths down to the river were covered with snow. In the failing light, Washington saw the snow marked by the bloody footprints of those who went without shoes. None complained; it wouldn’t have done any good.

It hadn’t been a merry Christmas for those gathered on the shore. Miserable and homesick, they stood about in groups, waiting to board the boats. Rain began to fall, then wet snow. The temperature dropped. All they had to cheer them were the words of Tom Paine’s latest pamphlet, printed in Philadelphia three days earlier.

*****

As the shivering troops waited, Washington had the pamphlet read to them. Paine’s words went to their hearts like flaming arrows.

These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country, but he who stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of men and women. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph . . . “

~The War for Independence: The Story of the American Revolution by Albert Marrin.

Billy by William Paul McKay and Ken Abraham

I received a review copy of this book from Thomas Nelson Publishers as a result of their seemingly controversial Book Review Bloggers program. In return for the book, I agreed to write a review for my blog and for one other site. I’m not sure what the issue is with that agreement, but there it is up front and transparent.

As for the book itself, subtitled The Untold Story of a Young Billy Graham and the Test of Faith That Almost Changed Everything, it reads like the movie spin-off that it is. It’s not badly written at all, but it’s also not prize-winning biography either. I enjoyed reading about Billy Graham’s early life and ministry, but I felt as if I were reading a screenplay, scene by scene descriptions of Graham’s life, with actual dialog from the movie. After I read the book, I looked at some clips and trailers from the movie, and sure enough it looks as if the book IS the movie, essentially.

There’s one section I’m not so sure about, just because I’m not sure how it would have been filmed. At the climax of the story, Billy wrestles with his doubts brought on by the apostasy of his friend and mentor, Charles Templeton. In the book, the author describes how Satan and his demons battle the hosts of heaven for possession of Billy’s soul. All these unseen powers wait for the decision that will determine whether Billy Graham will become a spokesman of God’s truth, allowing God to change hearts and lives all around the world, or whether he will give in to his own doubts and fears and insecurities and become ineffective for the kingdom of God. It’s a dramatic scene, but I don’t know whether the movie actually shows demons and angels, hovering, waiting for one man’s crisis of the soul to be resolved.

I do know that I have a lot of respect and admiration for evangelist Billy Graham. I enjoyed reading his story even though it was difficult to know how biographically accurate the story was. There is a disclaimer in the front of the book which says:

“This book is the unauthorized retelling of a true story and is based on actual events. Certain items have been adapted for dramatic effect, and some artistic license has been taken to assist in the flow of the storyline.”

I’m really not sure what that means as far as the integrity of the facts in the story, and that uncertainty bothered me as I read. Did Charles Templeton really film an interview with a TV reporter near the end of his life from his hospital bed? Did Billy Graham really experience a life-changing “encounter with the Holy Spirit” after a meeting with Welsh evangelist Stephen Olford? Was there a reconciliation scene between Billy Graham and Charles Templeton before Templeton’s death? More importantly, was there a reconciliation between Templeton and his God before Templeton died? I don’t know since those particular events in the book may have been “adapted for dramatic effect.”

Bottom line, I liked the book, but I wouldn’t recommend it as a source for factual information about the early life of Billy Graham. And the movie, which I haven’t seen, might be a better way to assimilate the story. The audience for this novelization of Billy Graham’s early years is probably limited to fans only —like me.