war
I just finished Birds Without Feathers, Louis de Bernieres' latest (Ottoman Empire). I'm now reading The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard (WW2). My husband dips into Vietnam by Stanley Karnow from time to time. Because his book subscription profile through Three Lives & Company bookstore in Greenwich Village identifies him as interested in WW2, books like Philip Roth's The Plot Against America and Max Hasting's Armageddon come once a month.
In discussing what to get my father for his birthday, my mother reminded me of his WW2 obsession and then said, "That war is still with us." (I'll write about the book I got him after his birthday.)
She's right, with a small clarification -- every war is still with us. When army military commanders were quoted yesterday as saying that the time for US troops to leave Iraq looked like no time soon, I thought even when the troops do leave it will not be the end of that war.
When I was younger I always thought love was hard to understand; now I understand love -- it's hate that confounds me.
In discussing what to get my father for his birthday, my mother reminded me of his WW2 obsession and then said, "That war is still with us." (I'll write about the book I got him after his birthday.)
She's right, with a small clarification -- every war is still with us. When army military commanders were quoted yesterday as saying that the time for US troops to leave Iraq looked like no time soon, I thought even when the troops do leave it will not be the end of that war.
When I was younger I always thought love was hard to understand; now I understand love -- it's hate that confounds me.
1 Comments:
My father told me he would not pay for my college education if I didn't take a Shakespeare course and a US History course. I didn't take either, but managed to get him to pay anyway. Perhaps because he forgot the deal? Probably not; my father forgets close to nothing. I didn't take those courses for two reasons. One, because I wanted to see if I could get away with it (I was angered that my father was forcing me into taking courses I'd not chosen when pursuing a liberal arts degree) and two, because I really wasn't interested in either of those subjects. I guess if I'd been forced to take them, I wouldn't have gotten much out of them anyway, but I do have to say I wish I'd listened to him about US History. I'm pathetically ignorant when it comes to the trials, tribulations, successes, failures, mistakes, etc of our country over the course of its history. And it makes it more difficult for me to evaluate what's happening now and have an intelligent debate about the decisions our government is making. Over the past six months, after having been accused by my boyfriend of not having enough of an interest in current events, I've been educating myself religiously - reading the New York Times, the New Yorker, the Economist and watching the History Channel (I now fully understand what happened in Vietnam and I'll be more likely to give money and food to those on the street claiming to be a Vietnam Vet.) On the one hand it's nice to be able to really express my own point of view about what's happening in our country. On the other hand I wonder if I was better off ignorant.
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