Between Shark Period (2-2, after 1) Book Reviews
Samantha Power's A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide can be summarized thusly: After the Holocaust, we said never again. We lied. Power clearly illustrates why the world allowed the Cambodian, Iraqi (the Kurds),Bosnian, Rwandan and Kosov(ian?) genocides by showing how leaders/bureaucrats/diplomats poopooed, redefined, and skirted the obvious- it was happening again but if it was indeed happening again we were going to have to do something about it and that would mean dead American bodies. Power lays out why politicians have little motivation to intervene, and those reasons are understandable when seen through the realist geopolitical and domestic political lenses. She, however, is looking through a moral lens, so she has no patience with those who will allow the killing to go on because the political costs of intervening are too high. She comes down too hard, though, in my humble opinion, on the Americans, instead of taking the Euros more to task for failing to build up militaries with the capability to stop genocide once it starts. Once it starts, only the Americans can stop it, and of course, only Americans get the blame. That does not free us from our shame/hypocrisy, but Europe can't continue to send unarmed UN troops into the bowels of hell and then blame American when we won't send in the bombers and then the ground troops.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Purple Hibiscus is an incredibly boring tale of an abusive father and the daughter who idolizes him in war-ravaged Nigeria. The girl reminds me of Alice Walker's Celie, but an even less engaging version set in a distant land. I yawned through the entire thing, which I'm guessing makes me a racist.

Lauren St. John's Hardcore Troubadour: The Life and Near Death of Steve Earle is a disappointing life story of the man who dared empathize with that "scum Marinite gone Talirat," (according to certain media outlets) John Walker Lindh. Disappointing only in that she hasn't the intellect or the writing guns to deliver Earle's amazing story with the emotional narrative the man deserves. Ok, maybe he is a grandstanding blowhard, but he's my grandstanding blowhard this month, so I'd prefer a better writer deliver those goods. That said, I now know way more about Earle's FIVE wives and SIX marriages than I'd care to know, and let's all say it together- cocaine and heroin are bad for you. There is a new book out now that purports to examine his actual music, so I'll report back on that. I can see your anticipatory breath from here. See ya after period 2.