Books Set in North America; United States

The Lincoln Highway, by Amor Towles (2021)

 

The Lincoln Highway was one of the earliest transcontinental highway routes in the United States.  It was formally dedicated in 1913 and ran from Times Square in New York City to Lincoln Park in San Francisco.

 

The novel, The Lincoln Highway, begins in June 1954 in Nebraska, roughly the half-way point of the Highway.  Beginning a story in the middle is a subtle theme of this novel, thus it is no coincidence that a trek along this transcontinental highway has its starting point in the middle of the country..

 

The novel follows four boys, three teenagers who met at a reform school and one of the boy’s 8-year-old brother.  The novel begins when the warden of the reform school brings Emmett Watson to his home following the death of his father.  Emmett is now responsible for his young brother, Billy.  He plans to depart for San Francisco to find his mother who had abandoned the family several years earlier.

 

His plans are derailed, however, when, Duchess and Woolly, his pals from the reform school appear.  They had escaped from the reformatory by hiding in the trunk of the warden’s car.  Woolly, who comes from a monied family in New York City, has a trust fund of $150,000 in New York.  Trouble-maker Duchess convinces Woolly and Emmett to travel to New York where they can get the money and divide it in thirds.  The night before Emmett and Billy are to leave for California, Duchess and Woolly “borrow” Emmett’s blue Studebaker and take off for New York.

 

So, instead of heading towards California, Emmett and Billy must get the car back.  They hop on a boxcar and travel to New York to find Duchess and the car.  The novel is told through the perspective of each of characters, thus giving the reader insight into the actions that take place in the novel.  We learn of the adventures that Emmett and Billy have on their train ride as well as the car travel of Duchess and Woolly.

 

I enjoyed the novel, but I found some parts to strain one’s credibility.  There is no denying, however, that the four boys are in for an adventure of a lifetime.

 

Read:  January 20, 2022

 

4 Stars

 

 

Books Set in North America; United States; Chicago, Illinois

White Collar Girl, by Renée Rosen (2015)

 

White Collar Girl is set in the late 1950s and focuses on budding journalist Jordan Walsh.  Jordan comes from a journalistic family – both her father and brother were journalists.  After graduating from college with a degree in journalism, Jordan lands a job with the Chicago Tribune.  She has dreams of landing an investigative position on the city desk, but women journalists were assigned to writing puff pieces.  She is assigned to cover society weddings, cooking and other light “women’s interest” pieces.

 

Jordan’s brother had been killed in what was ostensibly a hit-and-run accident and the driver was never caught.  His death plunges Jorden’s parents into a downward spiral.  Jordan thinks there might be something to her brother’s death.  She learns that he was investigating a horsemeat scandal when he was killed.  Was his death related to a coverup?

 

As a young, new reporter, Jordan realized that she must pursue stories.  She didn’t just settle for writing up the stories she was assigned but sought out stories.  She befriends a source in government who passes on leads. Initially, the stories she writes are credited to her male co-workers.

 

The author attempts to put as many of Chicago’s scandals into this novel with Jordan being the investigative reporter.  The stories that Jordan pursues are based on actual events that occurred in Chicago, but the time frames are not necessarily within the scope of this novel.  The author did accurately portray the trials that a young female reporter would have encountered in the 1950s (some of which are probably still encountered today).  Jordan being the reporter so single-minded just didn’t ring true.

 

In the 1960 Presidential election, President Kennedy narrowly won the election, and largely due to the results from Chicago.  This novel discussed how the election was rigged and that Nixon probably did have the election stolen from him.  Interestingly, White Collar Girl was published in 2015, before there was talk of the 2020 election being stolen.

 

I read Renée Rosen’s book The Social Graces and totally loved it, so wanted to read something else by this author.  While White Collar Girl was good, it wasn’t as good as the first book I read by Rosen.

 

Read:  January 17, 2022

 

3 Stars

Books Set in North America: United States

Supreme Inequality: The Supreme Court’s Fifty-Year Battle for a More Unjust America, by Adam Cohen (2020)

If anyone thought the United States Supreme Court was a neutral branch of government, this well-researched and through book will quickly dispel anyone of that notion.  The author argues that the Warren Court of the 1950s and ‘60s was an anomaly.  From the moment Chief Justice Earl Warren retired in 1969, the Court has been eroding the rights of individual Americans in favor of corporations.

The author cites case after case after case in which the High Court of the land ruled against individual Americans in favor of wealthy businesses and institutions.  The author analyzes how the Court eviscerated laws designed to protect the poor, how laws designed to end racial discrimination have been upended, how challenges to campaign spending have been upheld, and how the criminal system has been eroded.  Cohen argues, with the backing of Court decisions, that Supreme Court has become more and more political.  Occasionally, the Court decisions have been so egregious, that Congress has stepped in to make corrections, as in the Lilly Ledbetter Act, for instance.  More often than not, however, the Court decision stands (Citizens United, which held that corporations are “persons” and that campaign contributions are a form of Free Speech under the First Amendment.)

The book ends with the conclusion that the Supreme Court’s decisions are more than just legal statements – they are the blueprints for building American life.  Recent decisions are widening the gap between the “haves” and “have nots.”  The gap will continue to widen until, and unless, those who have recognize this and take action to be more compassionate towards their fellow citizens.

The book was well written, and the non-lawyer will easily understand the synopsis of the decisions sited.  The book will, however, make the reader angry.  It doesn’t paint a pretty picture of the state of the Country.

Read: January 12, 2022

4 Stars

Books Set in North America: United States: New York, New York

Vanderbilt, by Anderson Cooper (2021)

 

CNN anchor Anderson Cooper is the great-great-great grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, known as Commodore, the shipping and railroad magnate who amassed the great Vanderbilt fortune.  His book recounts his family history from the Commodore’s meagre beginnings to his great fortune and how subsequent generations squandered that money.  While it may be true that Cooper didn’t inherit the mass fortune of his ancestors, he did live a life of privilege that most of us never experience.

 

The book begins with a prologue recounting how Gladys Vanderbilt, a great-great grandchild of the Commodore was forced out of The Breakers in 2018.  This was the home where she had been living in the third-floor apartment for years.  Soon after the opulent mansion was built, its maintenance and upkeep became oppressive, not to mention the passage of the 16^th Amendment that imposed income taxes on the wealthy.  The Vanderbilt’s found The Breakers too costly and slowly it was turnover to a Preservation Society.

 

Then, we turn to the Commodore.  He became obsessed with making money but wasn’t concerned with the finer aspects of society.  When he died, he was said to have been the richest man in America.  Although he had 12 children who survived to adulthood, only three were son.  He didn’t consider is daughters, as they would marry and cease to be known as Vanderbilts’.  His youngest surviving son died young, and his middle son, Cornelius Jeremiah Vanderbilt had epilepsy, so the Commodore discounted him when it came to inheritance.  The bulk of the Commodore’s fortune was left to his eldest son, William Henry Vanderbilt.

 

William Henry doubled his father’s fortune, allowing his children to grow up in great wealth and lots of leisure.  William Henry’s children grew up with great wealth and lots of leisure.  Cornelius II, William Henry’s son, built The Breakers.  No expense was spared.

 

William Henry’s elder son, William Kissam Vanderbilt, known as Willie, married Alva Erskine Smith, who was a social climber.  She forced her way into New York society by hosting lavish parties.  Again, she spared no expense, often spending tens of thousands of dollars of just flowers for her parties.

 

By the 1920s, times had changed, but the Vanderbilt reputation for having money lingered.  Family members spent like they still owned the fortune.  The family spent money on yachts (Harold Sterling Vanderbilt competed in the America’s Cup), and horses, hobbies that ate away at the family fortune.

 

Cooper’s mother, Gloria Vanderbilt was the daughter of Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt and Gloria Morgan.  Reginald, who was 45 years old when she was born, and died before she was 2.  When he died, he was greatly in debt and most of his property was sold to pay off his debt.  A trust fund for Gloria was safe from her father’s creditors, but her 20-year-old mother was left virtually penniless.  A court decree granted her mother a large “allowance” from Gloria’s trust, ostensibly to be used for Gloria’s care.  Her mother, however, still wanted to live in her jet-setting style.  Ultimately, Gloria became the center of a “trial of the century” between Gloria’s mother and her aunt Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney over Gloria’s welfare and her money.

 

Gloria Vanderbilt, herself, grew up in wealth and continued spending money throughout her life, all the way up to the end.

 

This book was a very fast and fascinating read.  Having recently read The Social Graces (by Renée Rosen), which recounts Alva’s feud with Carolina Astor and her struggle to break into New York Society, it was interesting to read Cooper’s take on these events.  Cooper also discussed New York Society women in the 1950s and their relationship with Truman Capote.  These events were also depicted in Melanie Benjamin’s novel The Swans of Fifth Avenue (by Melanie Benjamin).

 

The rich are different.

 

Read:  January 8, 2022

 

5 Stars

Books Set in Europe: France and Germany

The Art of Resistance, by Justus Rosenberg (2020)

 

The author, Justus Rosenberg, was well into his 90s when his memoir was published.  He was born in 1921 in the Free City of Danzig, a semi-autonomous city-state that existed for about 20 years between 1920 and 1940.  He was immersed in both Polish and German culture.  His grandparents lived in Poland, but his parents had moved to Danzig.  They believed that the Jewish residents of Danzig would be insulated from the rise of Hitler.

 

At age 16, Rosenberg was sent to Paris to further his education.  The rest of his family remained in Danzig.  When the Germans invaded France, Rosenberg’s studies came to an end.  The blond-haired, blue-eyed Rosenburg didn’t “look Jewish” and soon found himself joining the underground resistance movement.  The fact that he was also fluent in Polish, German and English was a major asset to the underground.

 

Rosenberg recounts his imprisonments and escapes in vivid detail.  The book reads like a suspense story.  We know from the beginning, of course, that the author survives, but that doesn’t distract from the tensions of the narrative.

 

After the War, Rosenberg settled in the United States where he became a literature professor at Bard College.  He died in October 2021 at age 100.

 

4 Stars

 

Read: January 2022

 

 

Books Set in the World

People Love Dead Jews, by Dara Horn (2021)

 

I first heard of this book through Dara Horn’s podcast of the same name.  After listening to the podcasts, I knew I wanted to read the book.  I know of Dara Horn mostly through her novels.  This book is not a work of fiction.  Instead, it is a collection of 12 well-researched essays of how Jews are represented throughout history, how museums are built to honor Jewish heritage, just so long as evidence of live Jews is not present.  At the Anne Frank House, for example, a young Jewish worker was informed that he could not wear his kippah.

 

Horn recounts how she visited the city of Harbin, China, a city that was built primarily when the Russians sent their Jews there.  For a brief period in the 1930s, the city was a haven for Russian Jews.  Then the War broke out.  The Jews were either forced to leave or were slaughtered.  Today, there is a new “memorial” honoring the Jewish citizens of this city.

 

Horn explores antisemitism in the United States and the world in this book.  It is both disturbing and thought provoking.

 

Read: January 2022

 

4 Stars