Out of the way

Well, last night on the bus I finally finished "Dongo". It actually turned out to be more interesting than I expected - it seems there are some unanswered questions which is why it matters that "Bill" accuses everyone else of lying or being economical with the truth. And there are a handful of murder mysteries wrapped up in the whole lot.

I also read "A religious orgy in Tennessee", which is really a handful of articles written by a journalist called Mencken about "the Monkey trial" - a trial in 1925 of a teacher who taught the theory of evolution in defiance of a state law. Mencken is a wonderfully arrogant big-city writer, giving an impressionistic and totally biased view of the trial in what he regarded as a hick town full of bozos dumb enough to believe in religion and creationism. The book also contains a transcript of a key examination, where the defense lawyer (who had no intention of winning the case, just of being able to appeal it) cross-examines an important member of the prosecution and makes him look like a country bumpkin (or a man of firm faith, depending on your perspective). An easy read on a quiet day, and interesting as a perspective on the size of America and the differences it collects into a nation.

"My Lead Dog Was a Lesbian", by Brian Patrick O'Donoghue (or someone with a similar name) tells the story of a first-time entrant in the Iditarod. A journalist from Washington living in Alaska is enough for most journalists to write a book, but this guy entered and managed to complete the famous dog-sled race (albeit at a slower pace than many). It describes a bunch of things about sledding, the thoughts in people's heads and the mechanics of running a long and complex race across a fairly dangerous part of the world. Another pleasant and mostly unchallenging read (although it raises in the back of my mind a handful of questions about the impact of people living on marginal country).

"News of a Kidnapping" was something I had planned to read, and did. Gabriel Garcia Marquéz tells the story of a handful of kidnappings carried out under the auspices of Pablo Escobar, a cocaine smuggler in Columbia, in order to protect himself from extradition to the US. As with such lovely tales (and this one is true) various people ended up dead, others suffered a great deal, and it seems very little of great value was really achieved. As an adventure story, it reminds me why I don't read a lot of fiction - there are plenty of stories from the real world, that have an ongoing impact, and can at the same time reveal some aspects I hadn't considered before. Not exactly a book to enjoy, but worth the effort of reading it.

Added to those are "A history of the Sikhs vol. I", "La sombra del viento" and "The Iraq Study Group" report, to bring my total so far this year to 7.

I am still reading "La Chute" by Albert Camus - slow progress but quite entertainingly written, as one side of a conversation that is apparently fairly one-sided anyway. I am halfway through and enjoying it in small chunks. Last night I restarted "Leon l'Africain" by Amin Maalouf, who is one of my favourite authors. It tells, in the first person, a story of a man born in Muslim Grenada just before it fell to Ferdinand and Isabella, and who apparently travelled a fair bit afterwards. I have only just overtaken where I got up to when I last had it - about 1/7 of the way through. It's 300-odd pages of small print, so the big challenge is seeing the text. Not a book for reading in poor light, I discovered.

So, two french books on the go, "The End of Faith" still in my "should read" list along with the mysterious Vargas title, and the second volume of "History of the Sikhs". I might look for a few more books in India - although I really have no need to own more books, there are some interesting ones here.

I am also annoyed that I left home too late to collect my books on Hindi, but that is for another story.