This novel is a masterpiece, and Conrad is one of the greatest novelists. However, it is utterly bleak and nihilistic and I am less interested in thatThis novel is a masterpiece, and Conrad is one of the greatest novelists. However, it is utterly bleak and nihilistic and I am less interested in that than I used to be. And Conrad has a very low opinion of revolutionaries from the way he portrays them in this novel. He doesn't make any attempt to understand them or consider their aims or ideology. The anarchists are all absolutely loathsome, predatory, disloyal and immoral. They hate humanity and each other. That's a ridiculous caricature that really makes no effort to understand their world. The cops, politicians and high society people are also all portrayed as awful people so I guess it isn't totally biased, except against the human race as a whole....more
This is essential reading. Five stars because it is one of those books that seriously shifts your understanding of the world. The argument of this booThis is essential reading. Five stars because it is one of those books that seriously shifts your understanding of the world. The argument of this book runs directly contrary to the popular understanding of 20th Century world history that forms the dominant narrative. Some of the ideas detonated by reading this book include:
The First World (AKA the Capitalist, 'Democratic' Western world) were the champions of freedom and democracy and were the 'good guys' during the Cold War. Many Third World countries (AKA the non-alligned countries of the global South, mainly former colonies) are too primative and barbaric to be stable, peaceful, prosperous or democratic because of their flawed natures and lower level of civilisation. The Second World (AKA the Soviet Union and alligned Communist countries) were the aggressors, the oppressors, the 'baddies' in the Cold War.
We are shown how the USA (primarily conducted by the CIA), have intervened over and over again to instigate coups, train death squads and colloborate with Fascists to stomp out any Left leaning Government in the Third World, no matter how mild and even Pro-American they were. Anything other than total freedom for American companies to dominate and exploit the people and resources of a country was forbidden, and was enough to justify slaughtering millions of people. They built an international network of Anti-Communist forces around the world, which is more or less synonymous with saying they constructed an international network of Fascists.
Another very striking lesson from this book is that the countries that attempted to implement any kind of Democratic Socialism through a popular mandate and peaceful means were wrong, and only the countries that attempted to implement Socialism with the backing of an armed populace were correct. Sukarno tried to implement a form of Socialism in Indonesia that was neither alligned to the Soviet Union nor Marxist in nature. Mao told him he had to arm the people or the Americans would wipe him out. Sukarno didn't follow his advice because he believed what the Americans said about supporting freedom, democracy and being anti-imperial. He was deposed in a coup d'etat and a Million leftish Indonesians were slaughtered. Allende through he could implement Democratic Socialism in Chile. Castro told him that America would never allow it and he had to arm to people or he would be overthrown. He ignored the advice and an American backed coup by Fascist elements of the military led to the disappearance, arrest, torture and murder of tens of thousands.
One of the cruelest aspects of this history is that when the Americans get the regimes of their choice into power the states that emerge are so exploitative, corrupt, murderous and incompetent that millions of the poor have no choice but to emmigrate to America to try to find a job in the country that is the author of their problems.
This is absolutely essential reading. Everyone should read it and recommend it to all your friends and family. ...more
An outstanding book by a living hero. I knew something about the events that took place and the revelations that Snowdon made, but this really opened An outstanding book by a living hero. I knew something about the events that took place and the revelations that Snowdon made, but this really opened my eyes to the wider situation. If people were familiar with the contents of this book there would be a revolution. This is about the decline of the USA, and the wider Western world, into an authoritarian dictatorship. It is about the lost innocence that came after 9/11. The USA was always a brutal imperialist state, as the many countries it has invaded, dominated and manipulated, or the oppressed people within it's borders (particulalry the Black population) could tell you, but now the gloves are off. History is back baby! (wolf howl). ...more
This book took me a long time to read for some reason. I expected to be swept up in a masterful, Dickensian story but it was slower and more philosophThis book took me a long time to read for some reason. I expected to be swept up in a masterful, Dickensian story but it was slower and more philosophical than I was anticipating. It's been many years since I read Siddhartha by Herman Hesse but I think they have some things in common. This novel is a paean to life in all its variety and is far more cosmopolitan, liberal and yea saying than I expected from Kipling's reputation as the great writer of the British Empire. He obviously loves and understands India. ...more
John Perkins lifts the lid on the workings of what I am convinced is the American Empire. Perkins worked as an 'Economic Hit Man' for years pursuing tJohn Perkins lifts the lid on the workings of what I am convinced is the American Empire. Perkins worked as an 'Economic Hit Man' for years pursuing the coordinated interests of the American State and Corporate sector. This involved visiting 3rd world countries, performing an inflated economic assessment of their future growth prospects, persuading them to take out enormous loans they will never be able to afford to repay to pay American companies to build massive infrastructure projects that won't deliver the promised results. The local elites and politicians get rich, the American corporations get rich, the poor get trampled over and then get left footing the bill for the loans they had nothing to do with taking and which they receive no benefit from. When they inevitably cannot afford to repay the loan they become the pawns of the American state, who can then force them to vote their way at the UN, or accept American military bases on their soil, or get them to imprison and torture their enemies. This quote demonstrates the premiss nicely:-
For every $100 of crude taken out of the Ecuadorian rain forests, the oil companies receive $75. Of the remaining $25, three-quarters must go to paying off the foreign debt. Most of the remainder covers military and other government expenses - which leaves about $2.50 for health, education and programs aimed at helping the poor
This book rings true to me. Everything I have read about Iraq supports what this book has to say, and it also resonates for me because I've been reading a lot about the Roman Empire recently and it sounds an awful lot like what they did in their day.
This book also put me in mind of The Names by Don Delillo, which explored similar themes in 1981, over 20 years before this was published (because he's a brilliant and prescient genius), The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohson Hamid, and the work of Graham Greene (who makes an appearance in the book when the author meets him in Panama). ...more
A magnificent novel. Certainly one of the greatest of the last 10 or 20 years. I wouldn't say it was a trilogy, though that was how it was published. A magnificent novel. Certainly one of the greatest of the last 10 or 20 years. I wouldn't say it was a trilogy, though that was how it was published. It's either one huge novel or a novel in 10 parts. It is flattering to a Brit to have someone of Marias's insight and intelligence set a novel of this scope largely in the UK with a largely British cast. Marias demands to be read, and I would agree that he deserves the Nobel prize. ...more
Amazingly good. This is one of the best novels of the last decade and Javier Marias is one of the best living writers. This is an extremely literary sAmazingly good. This is one of the best novels of the last decade and Javier Marias is one of the best living writers. This is an extremely literary spy novel which I can only compare to Henry James and Proust. I got about 100 pages in and then ordered the next two volumes in the series. ...more
This is a great novel, and also seems like the kind of 'Loose baggy monster' Henry James would disapprove of. It took me an oddly long time to read thThis is a great novel, and also seems like the kind of 'Loose baggy monster' Henry James would disapprove of. It took me an oddly long time to read this book despite the fact that I really liked it and didn't find it particularly difficult. Denis Johnson is an author who shares some affinity with illustrious peers like Don Delillo and Cormac McCarthy, and like them he can write passages that take your breath away (and like them this novel is very Conradian).
I read a review somewhere that says this novel is a sort of rosetta stone at the centre of his oeuvre as many of the characters appear in his earlier work. I have only read Jesus' Son prior to this, which was an utterly different, utterly great book, so I'm not in a position to assess that. This novel seems to suggest that the Vietnam war was America's fall from grace, as Libra suggested that it was the assassination of JFK. Needless to say, this book provides another reminder of how anemic the British literary novel is today in comparison with what the best of the Americans are producing. ...more
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