Book Review: Tinkers by Paul Harding

I'm not going to lie, I picked up this book because: 1) It looked pretty and 2) It won the Pulitzer Prize. The first reason is an awful reason to pick a book, the second one isn't, since I've come to realize that most Pulitzer Prize winning books are pretty good.

I then looked at the back cover and read that the writer, Paul Harding, got his MFA from the Iowa Writer's Workshop. My cousin informed me that the University of Iowa, where the workshop is located, puts out AMAZING writers. They are to modern fiction and literature as Yale is to law and Julliard is to performing arts. This is hard to believe, since I didn't know Iowa was THAT good at anything, excluding corn. But at the end of the day I trust my computer science, published poet, magazine editor, turned lawyer cousin (if your reading this, I love you Hannah, and please return this book when done)

Wish I had a HD version of this cover

The book starts off with "George Washington Crosby began to hallucinate eight days before he died. From a rented hospital bed, placed in the middle of his living room, he saw the insects running in and out of imaginary cracks in the ceiling plaster". The author gets right into it and sets up the premise pretty well. The book is a mediation on life and dying. It takes you through the mind, sometimes clear sometimes clouded, of a dying clock maker. It's language is powerful and the descriptions of the New England winter is stunning.

One of the main themes covered through the book is the idea of being trapped in your life. I'm a huge fan of the "dreams deferred" theme and this is kind of an off-shoot to that. It is an emotional story that starts that George Washington Crosby's dying process and goes through his life and a lot of the decision he made, with his father suffering from epilepsy. The novel bounces between his recall and what his family is doing at the present time. 

The life of George and the relationship with his father is juxtaposed and contrasted with the story of his son's during George's death. Bouncing between the two stories was confusing, and may take a re-reading of a couple of chapters to get the whole story. 

Harding gives great insight to the process of dying, in the sense that death is a moment, while dying is a journey. The journey through Crosby's life is recounted in amazing detail. You can almost feel the bitter New England snow as if your walking with the characters. You feel for the mental state of Crosby as he dies and recounts these stories in this head. The journey towards death is ever present with most chapters starting with "86 hours before he died, George..." You counted down the hours with the protagonist and as the end draws near, there is a certain sense of calm that descends on George and you feel that he has come to terms with his own mortality. 

There is a major twist in the story and it is set up remarkably well. You would never expect it, but it isn't a plot twist for the sake of one. Harding does an amazing job at rationalizing the twist through the characters, instead of using some think a "deus ex machina" trick to solve the problem. 

Overall, this is one of the better books I've ever read. It is also a fairly short and quick read. Highly recommend it!

An Open Letter to President Obama

Dear President Obama,

I voted for you. Twice. I campaigned for you. Twice. I met and had breakfast with you when you were still a junior senator from Illinois. I believed in Hope and Change and Forward. I love Obamacare. In retrospect, the auto industry bail out was even a good idea. But there is the issue of foreign policy. It's failing miserably.

The biggest issue I have with it are these memos stating that the US can target US citizen with drone strikes if there is an "imminent risk of attack". What is an imminent risk? Why does imminent risk does not have to be proven with direct evidence? Why are we abridging US citizens' constitutional right to fair and speedy trial and allowing a non-judicial body to pass judgment and punishment on a US citizen?

There are two problems I see with this that bothers me, as an American, to the core. One, if we are killing "terrorists" that pose an "imminent threat", that means we believe that, with due process, this individual would deserve to die, even though he has yet to kill or harm anyone. By that logic, then wouldn't people convicted for conspiracy deserve the death penalty? I think we both no the answer to that is an absolute no. Two, if we are abridging 1 US citizens' rights, then what is to say that we don't do it to others. If we find out that a Timothy McVeigh style attack was "imminent", then would we go in with a kill squad and take him out before he commits his crime? Or would we arrest him and bring him to justice? What about other crimes that aren't terrorist in nature but are also "imminent risks to US interests" or American lives? Do you go after those people and kill them as well?

I think the reason Democrats and other liberals aren't asking for you impeachment, Mr. President, is because its you. We still believe in Hope, Change, and Forward. We believed that junior senator from Illinois during the 2004 Democratic National Convention. But remember, this expansion of presidential power doesn't stop with you. What if we get another W? Or someone like Dick Cheney becomes president? The power to kill US citizens abroad is a huge expansion of presidential power, and that power is not same in anyone's hands.

The other foreign policy issue that I have a problem with is the Middle East. Your administration flipped flopped on Mubarak, has done nothing to aid the Syrian rebels, weakened our relationship with Palestine, irritated Israel, and has not issued a statement about the situation in Tunisia. We could have made a few new alleys in the region with the new Egyptian government, helped prop a more Jordanian like government in Syria, and gained influence in Tunisia if we made a statement and gave meaningful aid to the Arab Spring. Instead, we have no friends in Syria, and the bloodshed continues. Egypt is destabilizing everyday and we continue to feed their military. Your amazing new Secretary of State, John "I have no personality" Kerry, has said nothing about plans for Tunisia. We continue to anger Israel, so much so that their Prime Minister came out and endorsed your opponent. To boot, Palestine now as observer status no thanks to your administration. We are totally on the wrong side of history.

If you policies do not change, I believe we are going into a dark place. If any of this happened under Bush, there would be marches and demonstrations asking for his impeachment. I'm not saying that we should call for impeachment hearing on you, Mr. President, but I have to say, your foreign policy is orders of magnitude worse than Pres. George W. Bush's. He only signed torture memos, against enemies. You allowed for the extra-territorial killings of US citizens, by drones, and without a trial.

I know this is your last term, and I know you probably don't have an political aspirations after this, but just because you can get away with all this doesn't mean you should do it. Please stop. This isn't the American dream you promised us so many times before.

With great concern,

Zao