Both an explanation of the theory of American exceptionalism through history, and how it arose, and a warning that it has now become dangerously politicized, which led in the second Bush administration to a serious of disastrous foreign policy decisions, from which America still suffers. To be honest I wasn’t really aware of AE, or for that matter Manifest Destiny, so I’m catching up. Good book to start. He is very gentle with America, which makes his case far more effective. “My thesis is not that American exceptionalist thought is intrinsically corrupting or that it was destructive in the past, but that what has been essentially a liberating set of beliefs has been corrupted over the past thirty years or so by hubris and self-interest into what is now a dangerous basis for national policy and for the international system.” A thought provoking and interesting book.

A wonderful book, beautifully written, with great thought, about the enormous changes wrought in this month to America. From the fall of Richmond, to the noble and dignified surrender of Lee to the courteous wisdom of U.S. Grant at Appomattox, and the other brave decisions of the Southern Commanders to relinquish arms, rather than committing the nation to endless guerrilla warfare. The assassination of Lincoln only six days after the actor Booth shot him in the theatre might have revived the whole bloody mess, but mercifully it didn’t. A very fine book with unforgettable scenes right to the end when the extraordinary General Lee joins a black communicant kneeling at the altar rail before a shocked community in a Richmond Church. So many great moments. A really thoughtful, succinct, yet wide-ranging tale of a nation almost rending itself in half, but coming together at the last moment. A classic. I caught the flu and in my delirium I dipped into many books. Some of them I did not finish. The fault, if there be any, is mine. I may or may not take them up again for I must leave on a long journey soon and they cannot come with me. So for the fallen, a salute:

I know many people, the wonderful Christopher Hitchins for one, who adore this book. I got about half way through. He is very good, but he doesn’t do what some other writers do for me, which is make themselves indispensable in my life. I will return…

I was enjoying this Booker Prize Winner of 2014, an Australian tale of sons, and fathers suffering on the Burma Railroad. And oh how they suffered, and oh how few came back, to the shame of the honour of the Japanese nation. The book contains important lessons about individualism against Fascism. The modern world has embraced the individual. That is the way forward. In many ways World War Two is a moral triumph of the individuals of a nation against the mass forces of insanity, led by single insane leaders. About half way through.

(Digital Original) A fun essay about his week on a Caribbean Cruise Liner for a glossy Magazine inspired me to read:

I shall not finish this before I leave on my journey, 150 of 1,000 paperback pages. A richly textured, extremely dense novel, I think his second, set in a tennis training camp for young men (such as the one he attended) but here in Phoenix, Arizona, it is intriguingly leading off in many other directions, most of which seem more promising and one hopes he will get on with it. Prolix, lengthy, and certainly editable, there are a further 75 pages of small print notes at the back. I think part of being a great novelist is choosing what to leave out. He couldn’t resist about 100 notes at the end of his essay. Is all this necessary one wonders? Yet there is no denying the scope of his genius and the power of his writing, amongst the cornucopia of drug references, which indicate the speed in which and probably on which, he wrote. Fascinating.

Excellent historical background to the lengthy and highly rewarding time Shakespeare was writing for James 1^st and not Elizabeth 1^st. Something we easily forget. Amongst the fears and threats of home terrorism of Catesby and Guy Fawkes and others in Warwickshire, very close to Shakespeare’s Stratford. I find his history better than his literary criticism. But certainly it is filling an essential gap in my knowledge of the greatest writer ever. I am not entirely sure what point he is making.