A Promised Land

 I've enjoyed President Obama's previous books and find him to be both smart and honestly reflective. The first part of his presidential memoir, victory tour, or history book - you can pick it Wilson - has not changed this opinion.

The book is a slog to read. It is great that he ensures that the credit is spread around and attempts to present a fully fleshed picture of what happened in the early days of his national political career. However, it is a lot and, no matter the intentions, slanted towards putting Obama and his team on the right side of history. 

Still, nobody really cares any more today than they did 10 years ago why the Wall Street crowd managed to skate out of the house they burnt down with more money. The argument that cracking heads was the only path to keep ordinary Americans from more suffering still sucks even if it is a true one. Hardly any regular American is going to believe that Larry Summers or Tim Gietner gave advice that was not slanted towards the interests of their friends. Locking up the architects of the financial collapse may have just made matters worse and it may well have been impossible to do more for suffering homeowners, but A Promised Land doesn't do a convincing job of making the case.

Sadly, the book leaves off in the middle of the Arab Spring and Libya discussions. What is presented sounds a lot like more of the same we heard at the time: Obama is cautious to spend American capitol in places where he thinks the prospects for change are slim and he sees the prospects for change in the Middle East as slim at best. He may wish there were a path, but he cannot see it.

I am sympathetic to Obama's basic ideas and largely agree with the positions he took. I also know that I would feel as trapped by circumstances as he did. I just wish Obama could have followed Strunk and White's most sage advice - use less words.

Oryx and Crake

 I am on a bit of pandemic, anxiety, general feeling of failure as a father reading kick and settled on good old post-appocalytic fiction to lighten my mood.....

I don't need to say that this is masterfully written. Atwood rarely does anything short of great.

The scariest thing about the future she depicts is that it is easy to see the through line that gets us to a very similar point. Human greed/shortcomings, government's abject apathy or inability to regulate the destruction of the common good in the face of rampant corporate power, the lack of ethical thinking in turning science into product are all features of our current society. It is not much of a stretch from here there.

It is odd that the only possibly good person in the novel is largely on construct. Oryx has suffered more than any of the protagonists, but in Snowman's construction of her she retains a basic goodness. Is that real or is she just playing him? Does it really matter?

It would be easy to make Crake a villain in this. He is the progenitor of the Fall and, in his mind, the Creation. Atwood undercuts this at the very end however, by making it clear that he has no intention of living in the new Eden. His final act ensures that Snowman will kill him.

It is hard to tell if leaving Snowman alive to keep the Crakers safe is intended as a vengeful jab or all part of the master plan. Snowman is not the best choice to keep the Crakers safe and pure. He is good with words, loyal, and capable of compassion, but he is also bitter and self-destructive.

Maybe Snowman was just a back up in case Oryx didn't make it. Maybe the plan was for Snowman and Oryx to act as a team. Maybe Crake did plan on seeing the new world ushered in until he was undone by Oryx.

In any case, the book is a good read and it didn't seem to make me any more depressed.