Book Log 2021 #32: The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene

A priest in Mexico is on the run, as the country has outlawed Catholicism and priests can be executed if they're found practicing their sacred duties. While many states take a less rigorous approach to the law, the state of Tabasco enforces it rigorously, and forces preists to take wives and pensions as part of the plan to make them unable to minister to their flock.

This priest did take that deal for a while, and has fathered a daughter, but he still feels the need to work as a priest, even at risk to his own life. Complicating matters is that Tabasco is legally dry, making it impossible for him to get sacramental wine and hard to get the whiskey he craves. Looking to escape into a neighboring state, he is on the run from a police lieutenant who has a personal stake in prosecuting preists. The chase comes to a head when the priest appears to have crossed the border, but is tempted to cross back to hear the confession of a dying man. It feels like a trap, but can the priest set his duty aside for his own personal safety?

Greene wrote this book after visiting Mexico to research and write a non-fiction account of the country's anti-clerical movement, and the book he wrote (The Lawless Roads) was a template for this novel, with many of the characters and stories coming from what Greene saw and heard while in country. Some in the Catholic Church were against the novel for its depiction of a drunk priest who fathered a child, while others found the book to be a positive example of a man following his faith despite the personal and political obstacles in his way.

A number of people hold this to be Greene's best book, and that could be the case, though I think I liked The Quiet American more. You should read both (and Our Man in Havana while you're at it).

 Book Log 2021 #31: Touch by Elmore Leonard

A woman in Michigan is apparently cured of her blindness after being touched by a young man named Juvenal. While there are questions as to whether or not Juvenal can heal by the laying on of hands, there are those who see dollar signs or unlimited power in even the thought that he can do this. Juvenal has his own plans, and sets out to see them through while trying to avoid being taken advantage of by others.

Leonard wrote this in 1977 and it was widely rejected. He was able to bring it to press ten years later, but it's not clear if he made many changes to it. I kind of hope he didn't, as it's not a particularly good book, and the idea that it's the improved version would make me wonder how bad it was originally. 

Unless you're a completist, I'd say skip this one and pick up any book Leonard wrote in the 1990s.

 Book Log 2021 #30: The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings

Matthew King is, at first glance, your stereotypical semi-absent father. He works more than he should, and relies on his wife to manage their daughters and other domestic issues. That this may not have been the best plan is revealed when his wife - an ex-model and adrenaline junkie - gets into an accident during a powerboat race that leaves her in a coma. All at one, King discovers that he has two daughters who may be going off the rails - and that his wife was having an affair. It's the discovery of the affair, and they ways in which King and his daughters decide to address it in the context of their wife and mother's imminent demise, that powers this novel.

For a book about such a serious - and depressing - topic, the story is told with a fair amount of humor. It also helps that there's a secondary plot involving the King family's land holdings and their potential development. This provides another focus on the book's themes of family and what one owes to the people who came before (and will come after) them.

You may be familair with the movie based on this book, which stars George Clooney as King. I've not seen the film, but can very much recommend reading the novel.

 Book Log 2021 #29: Sovietistan by Erika Fatland

In this book, the author travels alone through the five Central Asian countries that were formerly Soviet republics - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan - to understand how each has sought to balance their ancient cultures with the realities of the post-Soviet world.  

The journey is not always easy. Start with the logistical challenges that spring up trying to get around this part of the world. Add in that Fatland is a female traveling alone in what is sometimes fairly conservative Islamic territory. Then add in that she's a journalist, which if known would prevent her from being able to enter at least one of these countries. That the author is able to get the stories she does, and can talk to people as freely as one can in these countries, makes for a very engaging book.

 Book Log 2021 #28: The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson

In the wake of a lethal heat wave in India, the international community creates the title organization, which is charged with representing the rights of future people to live on a habitable planet. The book follows its minister as she tries to convince governments of the threat climate change presents not just in environmental terms but in economic and financial terms as well. The other main narrative follows an aid worker who survived the Indian heat wave but has become increasingly adrift from society. 

In addition to these two main stories, the book presents other points of view, often times from anonymous characters, to give depth to the global nature of climate change. There are also a number of technical advances depcited, not so much as solutions, but as ways to mitigate changes while larger solutions are enacted.  There's also an ongoing campaign waged by a radical ecological group, who occasionally resort to violence as a way to remove obstacles to what they see as progress.

Some of the reviews of this book found it too optimistic, which I can see. I do think it will be much harder to convince politicians in office now to act in the best interests of people not yet born than depicted here. That being said I do think putting the danger of climate change into economic/financial terms is likely the best way to convince those in power (or those who can manipulate the levers of power) to act in a climate-friendly manner. 

 Book Log 2021 #27: The Pigeon Tunnel by John Le Carre

This memoir presents stories from the life of the author (born David Cornwell), providing detail and color to his personal journey from language teacher to intelligence officer to novelist. It is the only feature-length non-fiction book in his bibliography, which is unfortunate, as his skills writing fiction easily carry over.

He also goes into some detail into his difficult parental relationships. His mother left the family when Cornwell was five, and he did not see her again until he was an adult. His dad was a small-time criminal, assocaited with the Kray brothers and always on the make. To me, these are the most interesting stories in the book, less due to any insight they may give to Cornwell as a writer, but more to how he was able to survive a childhood of poverty and neglect to get to where he did (though it's worth noting that his sibilings all achieved a certain amount of success as well).

Very much worth reading, especially if you're a le Carre fan.

 Book Log 2021 #26: Flour Water Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish

I might have been the only person in America that didn't try to bake his own soudough bread during the Covid-19 pandemic, though this book almost changed that. While there are parts of the book that detail how the author developed his baking skills and opened his own bakery, the bulk of the book walks you through various recipies and how to manage the amounts of the four title ingredients when making bread, pizza dough, and other baked goods. 

The one thing I really took from this book wasn't the recipies as much as the importance of time. Not just baking time, but time spent preparing dough, waiting for it to rise, and so on. While not all the recipies require a huge investment in time, reading through it became clear to me that you have to have a certain amount of patience to turn out really good bread. Maybe that not being obvious to me is why I never gave making some of these loaves a shot.