Lots of reading this month, but not many completed books...I'm midway through three right now. Besides, as you'll see below, one of these four books occupied quite a bit of my reading time all on its own. Nevertheless, I did manage to finish 4 books in August, so enjoy my reviews below and don't forget to let me know what you're reading!
EAT THIS BOOK: A CONVERSATION IN THE ART OF SPIRITUAL READING by Eugene Peterson
Reading the Bible can be hard. For all the well-meaning platitudes about how God's Word is something that anyone can understand and apply to their lives, the truth is that there are times where you read something from Scripture and, instead of walking away changed, you walk away confused. The Bible is theologically complex, diverse in form, and (depending on your translation) stilted in style...which means that while most Christians highly value it, there are a lot who don't read it for themselves.
Stepping into this situation is Eat This Book, the second book in Peterson's five-part series on spiritual theology. In this volume, the title of which is drawn from the memorable image of John the Revelator literally eating the written revelation given to him by an angel (something God also commanded Ezekiel and Jeremiah to do in the Old Testament), Peterson argues that Scripture is something meant to be read differently from a novel or the newspaper. We are trained in school to read for information or analysis, but Peterson says the Bible is meant to be read as God's Word to you, as something you take to heart instead of as data to be interpreted.
While not a textbook or manual on how to read the Bible, Peterson nevertheless offers a series of helpful tips to readers as to how to enter into the text you're reading and make it come alive, how to read as though the words within the Bible are for you...because they are! The book concludes with the inside story of how and why Peterson wrote The Message, his colloquial translation of the Bible. Particularly for those who don't like The Message or think it diminishes Scripture, I encourage you to read the translation's origin story--it may change your mind.
What comes through in every page is that Peterson is a lover of the Bible, someone who, as the title indicates, feasts on Scripture and is nourished by it. The desire of Eat This Book is for readers to stop trying to master the Bible and instead allow the Bible to master them, and Peterson gives both the justification for doing so and the tools to walk down that path. I definitely recommend this book both for those who love to study the Bible and for those who want to, but find it too intimidating.
TRUMAN by David McCullough
Being a history buff without having ever read anything by David McCullough is a little bit like being a Beatles fan and never having listened to Sgt. Pepper's...it's possible, I guess, but you should be embarrassed about it. So this month, after half a dozen instances in which I considered starting this 992 page monster only to be intimidated by its size, I decided it was finally time. And guess what: it turns out this David McCullough guy is pretty good at what he does.
With Truman, McCullough manages to do what I thought only Stephen King was capable of, which is write nearly 1,000 pages and somehow leave me wanting more. With a keen understanding of his subject, a gift for narrative, and an easy-to-read writing style, McCullough makes Harry S. Truman come alive. Beginning with the migration of Truman's grandparents to his beloved Missouri and ending with the death of Harry's beloved Bess, this is a true biography, missing no period of Truman's life. There are lots of interesting anecdotes, memorable quotes (Truman had plenty), and important decisions to get through, and the book doesn't seem to miss any.
But despite its size, this biography is remarkably cohesive...it really does feel like you're reading about the same person from beginning to end, whether on that page Truman is a failed haberdasher, a senator, or the President of the United States. That's a tribute both to the writing and to the man, a president who managed to simultaneously rise to the level of his office and leave it as the same decent, common sense, Midwesterner he had been the day he received word of FDR's death.
What wowed me most about reading this book was the historical importance of Truman's presidency. I suspect most people remember him for two things (as I did prior to reading): succeeding FDR and dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And while those two things are certainly fundamental to his legacy, there was so much more: the Potsdam Conference with Stalin and Churchill, desegregating the armed forces, the Marshall Plan, the containment doctrine against Communism, the Korean War, firing General Douglas MacArthur, an assassination attempt...just to name a few things. Little did I know, but Truman faced nearly as many hard decisions in his nearly 2 terms as his much-lauded predecessor did in 3. The steady flow of event after event, decision after decision, made for fascinating reading.
For any history buff, especially if biographies are your thing, I'd definitely recommend Truman. Rare is the biography that can be both informative and entertaining, but this one pulls it off with seeming ease. Don't let its size intimidate you--it'll take you a while, but it's worth every minute.
DC: THE NEW FRONTIER by Darwyn Cooke
The 1940s and 1960s, a.k.a the Golden and Silver Ages, are indisputably the greatest periods of creativity and popularity for superhero comics. The 1940s saw the creation of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Captain America, and many others. Superheroes back then fought all manner of monsters, mad scientists, and costumed crooks...but mostly they fought Nazis. The 1960s saw the birth of the Marvel Universe, from the Fantastic Four to the Hulk to Spider-Man to...you know what, name any Marvel character and there's a 95% chance they were created during the 1960s. Over at the Distinguished Competition, the Trinity (Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman) suddenly found themselves joined by enough new heroes, like Flash, Green Lantern, and Aquaman, to form a Justice League. The foundation of comic book history is these two eras: the Golden Age of the 1940s and the Silver Age of the 1960s.
So the logical question is, what about the 1950s? The real-life answer is twofold. First, the popularity of superheroes simply faded after the end of World War II. As Indiana Jones 4 taught us, it's simply more fun to watch heroes punch Nazis than to watch them punch anybody else. When reading comics was no longer a patriotic exercise, kids (and the parents who bought the comics) started to move on. But the second reason comics seemed to disappear was the work of one man, Dr. Fredric Wertham. In his bestselling book, Seduction of the Innocent, the psychologist argued that stories found in comic magazines led to juvenile delinquency, pointing to the violence, homoeroticism, and sexual themes that he believed pervaded comics. His crusade against comics was successful, leading first to a Congressional inquiry and then to an independent organization called the Comics Code Authority, which served as a public arbiter for which comics were child-friendly and which were unacceptable. If the CCA (which had a laughably puritanical standard) didn't approve of your book, it was dead in the water. By the mid-50s, the industry was all but dead, with only the most popular heroes surviving.
So that's what happened in real life. But how, within the fictional Marvel and D.C. Universes, was that missing decade explained? What happened to all those old heroes, and what sparked the new age of superheroism in the 1960s? 2004's DC: The New Frontier, with the beautiful retro art and writing of the late Darwyn Cooke, answers that question in style for D.C.
In six oversized issues, Cooke unites D.C.'s most beloved heroes from all genres (war, adventure, science fiction, and eventually superheroes) against a living island in the Pacific so powerful that even Superman cannot take it on alone. Along the way, readers get new or reinterpreted background information about some beloved characters such as Hal Jordan, the original Green Lantern, written here as a hotshot pilot haunted by his experience in the Korean War. The story ends with the formation of the Justice League, interpreted here as the true birth of not only the Silver Age, but the unified D.C. Universe.
The story is fine, honestly nothing special...but it's really not trying to be. What makes this book excellent is not its plot, but the commitment to its time period, the decision to embrace instead of run from the era in which the D.C. universe was born. Instead of trying to make the characters feel cool and relevant to the 2004 audience, this book tackles their origins as a period piece--characters say "golly," women wear pearls around the house, and the War is still the defining event of everyone's lives. The art is done in the style of an old Max Fleischer cartoon, cartoony and full of bright colors. Most of all, the entire tone of the story is optimistic, full of promise that the future is bright and in the hands of heroes.
I don't know that a story like this would work for Marvel, which has always prided itself on being cool and new, but it's a perfect fit for D.C., which has traditionally found its identity in the unapologetically earnest heroism of characters like Superman and Wonder Woman (someone should tell that to Zack Snyder and the rest of the architects of D.C.'s grim movieverse.) When Andrew starts reading comics instead of chewing them, this will be one of the first I'll put in his hands, the rare comic book that is truly for all ages, from sophisticated adults to small children. In an age of cynicism, there's something refreshing about unfiltered heroism, and that's what New Frontier offers.
No batter can hit it out of the park every time up to the plate. Even Babe Ruth had slumps. Essential Defenders Vol. 4 marks the first prolonged slump for a series no one would call the Babe Ruth of comics. It's not terrible...but it's not great.
The writing duties for these 30 issues were entirely shouldered by David Kraft and Ed Hannigan, with the art mostly coming from Herb Trimpe and Don Perlin. If you've never heard of any of those people, that should tell you something...I'm a pretty knowledgeable comics fan, and Trimpe was the only one I was familiar with before reading this book. The Defenders has never been a premiere Marvel series (including today, where it hit the small screen of Netflix instead of joining the Avengers at the multiplex), and that's apparent by the B-level talent this book had on hand in the late 1970s-early 1980s.
That's not to say that the stories they put out were bad, because they're not. They're just...fine. Whether facing the Mandrill and his Femme Force (yep, that was a thing), traveling to Tunnelworld in pursuit of Lunatik, or crossing over with the short-lived Omega the Unknown, the Defenders is the epitome of both the delightful corniness and eye-rolling overreaching of the Bronze Age. Sometimes it strikes the balance of humor, action, and drama just right...but more often than not, it misses the mark by a hair.
There are highlights, though. In one issue, "Defender for a Day", a college student named Dollar Bill (just roll with it) who has befriended Valkyrie airs a documentary about the Defenders that ends with a recruitment pitch, prompting a crowd of C-list Marvel heroes to show up at Defenders HQ looking to join the team, with equally diminutive villains attacking New York and claiming they are Defenders too. In another story, the Hulk goes to the grocery store and returns with about 100 lbs of nothing but beans. Hulk like beans. And while the team is comprised mostly of C and D-list heroes (Nighthawk, Valkyrie, Hellcat, and Hulk for all 30 issues), they do have chemistry, which is ultimately more important than star power.
But on the whole, it was kind of a chore to get through this one. I do plan to buy the fifth volume in a month or so (there are seven in all), but if it's more of the same, I may not finish the whole run. There are lots of fantastic comics out there...I'd start with those before you pick this book up.
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