The Review Revolution: Improving Culture through Kvetching

Bite the Hand That Reads You: "The Historian" Comes to Audio!

Got a long drive coming up for the holidays? Then treat yourself to this 2005 armchair-traveling adventure story, cut down to size in a spiffy new abridged audio version. Think of it as Rick Steves meets Bram Stoker with a little bit of Buffy thrown in. (If she had a Romanian accent and only one outfit.)

I loved The Historian when it came out in 2005. In addition to being a fascinating bibliomystery and contributing to vampire lore (these vamps have to bite their victims three times—three!—in order to spawn new vampires), it’s a love song to the disappearance of history as we know it. By the time of its publication, the 1930s and 1960s research worlds depicted in this book were already disappearing. Gone were the days when a distant monastic library had the world’s only extant copy of a particular 16^th-century letter, map, or ledger. Far from a Van Helsing adventure story, this cat-and-mouse tale takes place primarily in the dustiest archives and most stately libraries of Europe. Kostova’s Dracula has a special fondness for biting librarians (and really, who wouldn’t?), and he spends his undead days (well, nights) tracking down rare incunabula , mostly about himself.  Nowadays he would just Google himself and be done with it.

Back to the audio. I was not certain how well this book—which, after all, hitches its wagon entirely to the star of the irreplaceable printed word—would translate to audio. Would listeners be able to catch the tiny nuances of Kostova’s skillful evocation of place? Her postmodern multi-character narration?

I’m happy to report that the audio version is a triumph. The eerie music used during transitions and flashbacks helps to create the mood, drawing on Gregorian chant and orchestral undercurrents to highlight the tensions in the story. The reader's theater-style performances are terrific, especially the actress who plays Helen Rossi. Moreover, this has always been a book that was crying out to be abridged, as the print version could be ponderous at times. Remember that bone-dry journal article that took up 15 pages in the print novel? It’s gone, as are some of the minor throwaway characters.  I didn’t miss any of it.

I do have one major complaint. The box boasts that the package contains an audio preview of The Swan Thieves, Kostova's new novel that's due out in January, but I couldn't find it on any of the ten discs. (Actually, the box says that it will contain “a audio preview”—another example of a copy editor falling asleep at the switch.) I also couldn't find the promised pdf of the cast of characters, which would have been very helpful in figuring out which actor played what part. Most of them seem to have played more than one role, and they did this so well that it was not immediately apparent just by listening to the audio. In all, though, this was great to listen to.

Holding Up "Half the Sky": Why You Should Read This Book

Before we talk about Half the Sky, which has been featured lately on NPR, Oprah, and the authors' own New York Times, here are a few opening questions for you.

1. Which of the following three methods has proven most effective in decreasing teenage pregnancy in Africa?

a) Abstinence education

b) Sex education, including contraceptive information

c) Free school uniforms for girls

2. When a young woman is raped in Pakistan, the consequence is often that:

a) She commits suicide to restore honor to her family.

b) The authorities intervene to arrest and imprison the perpetrator(s).

c) Her family hires an arsonist or killer to exact revenge on the perpetrator(s).

3. One of the most cost-effective ways to help women in developing countries is:

a) Micro-lending.

b) Building new schools.

c) Investing in maternal-fetal care.

The answers are C, A, and A. Surprised? I was. In this brave and unforgettable book, journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn travel throughout Asia and Africa to gather the stories of women and social change. Various chapters deal with women sold into prostitution and slavery, efforts to educate girls in poor villages, attempts at economic mobility through micro-lending, and the dangers in pregnancy and childbirth around the world. (Interesting fact: apparently there are a couple of different types of female pelvises, one that is well-equipped for childbirth and one that is too narrow.  In Africa,the extremes of these two types are both present--think of Mma Ramotswe and the "traditionally built African lady" versus a Kenyan marathon runner--and maternal health care does not work to save the marathon types, who are more likely to have obstructed birth and its attending complications.)

Parts of this book are emotionally tough to read. There are accounts of girls sold into slavery, women whose families demand their suicides if they are so unfortunate as to be raped, and stories of mothers killed by gross medical negligence. I think I am going to have a difficult time convincing women in my book club that this is something we need to read. It's not light, but it is tremendously hopeful, even uplifting, as stories of systematic oppression are balanced by powerful examples of women who are striking back and making a difference by founding schools, hospitals, and charitable organizations.

This should not be dismissed as a left-leaning book for bleeding heart liberals. One of its most surprising and welcome aspects is its balanced criticisms of misguided efforts on the part of the left and the right. For every critique of a conservative policy to emphasize abstinence-only education, there is an equally cogent critique of liberal do-gooders' anemic recommendations to legalize and regulate prostitution. With journalistic rigor, the authors question the inflated statistics that some liberals have bandied about in their efforts to make problems seem even more urgent than they actually are (e.g., the numbers of people enslaved around the world today). It's rare that I read a political book where I feel that great care has been taken to unpack what certain statistics really mean,and where the authors are more concerned with explaining complex issues than with driving an agenda.

The Trouble with Twibles

Wow, I take a break from blogging and the whole Typepad interface changes. Who am I? What's my name again?

In the weeks--er, months--since I last blogged, I've started a new book project called the Twible (rhymes with Bible). In October, I started tweeting out a chapter of the Bible every morning. This is for a humor book I'm writing, tentatively called The Twible: All the Chapters of the Bible in 140 Characters or Less (Now with Snarky Commentary!). 

The Twible goes out to my followers on Twitter (I'm @janariess if you'd like to follow) and to a larger group of Facebook friends. Most people have enjoyed its cheekiness and lighthearted approach, though a few have been offended; here's an article from USA Today's religion blog on the Twible and whether it's kosher to poke fun at sacred writ. I say bring it on!

Here's my favorite one from Genesis, which I finished a couple of weeks ago:

#Twible Genesis 17: Abram now Abraham. G not thinking ahead re: Twitter character count. Name longer; foreskin snipped. Tradeoff.

And here's a sneak peek at tomorrow's:

#Twible Ex 12: G starts cooking show w only unleaveaned ingreds. Heb viewers follow tips; their 1stborns are saved. Egp’ns don’t have cable.

When I first started Twibling I didn't quite realize that there are 1,189 chapters in the Bible, which means that this is more than a three-year project unless the Good Lord strikes me down first.