On Order

 

Waiting on Availability

 You would think that it would be easy to find books that have been reviewed in major American publications, but that's not the case if the books were published in Britain.

Two examples: 

Cast Away: or the Surprising Adventures of Alexander Selkirk by Francesca de Tores. The Wall Street Journal said: 

Alexander Selkirk was marooned on an uninhabited island in 1704. His story inspired one great work of fiction—and now another.

Howl by Howard Jacobson. Commentary magazine reviewed the novel. 

I imagine that somewhere in the United States the books can be tracked down, but not easily.

Aargh.

Both are on my list.

Hmm

 

The Forever War

Commentary magazine's Abe Greenwald on "The Only 'Forever War' Is the Culture War."

An excerpt:

As online technology improved, it continued to vandalize the public square. We went on to QAnon, election conspiracies, Covid conspiracies, anti-vaccine conspiracies, and an endless supply of online communities devoted to proving that the thing everyone thinks happened is the one thing that could not possibly have happened.

Generational Warfare

 City Journal: Joel Kotkin calls for a truce.

Great film: "Because we're here, lad. Nobody else."

 

Veterans Day

There have been, of course, many excellent books written about the military. The usual reading lists include ones as diverse as Once an Eagle by Anton Myrer and Catch-22 by Joseph Heller.

Two which deserve more attention are: 

Stationed Safe Out Here by George MacDonald Fraser. Fraser is known for his Flashman novels, but this book is nonfiction; a memoir of his service with the British forces in Burma during World War II. It's excellent.

Balcony in the Forest by Julien Gracq. A short but memorable novel about a young French lieutenant who is in command of an anti-tank blockhouse in the Ardennes forest in World War II. It was believed that the Ardennes area was impregnable to German attack, but one day a French armor officer arrives and explains to the lieutenant just what will happen if the Germans show up. 

Modern Medicine

 

You Watch but Do You Listen?

 

I have posted a Substack quiz on lines from the movies. How many can you identify?

[Photo by Simon Ray at Unsplash.]

A New Collaboration

Michel Houellebecq, author of Submission and other notable works, is under investigation for remarks about Muslims.

We may be seeing a new version of the Vichy government in France.