A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

I know. I read an honest-to-God novel and it wasn't based on a comic book or superhero or established TV show or film. I was inspired to find this book after seeing the trailer for the upcoming series Paramount+. But I don't have that streaming service. So I took a shot to see if my local library had the book on hand. I guess I hit the bullseye because I found it. Boy, was that one of the smartest moves I've ever made in my 40 plus long years of being an avid reader!

The story is about a Russian aristocrat at the dawn of the Russian revolution. It's 1922 and the Bolsheviks have taken power and are creating the foundations for establishment of the Soviet Union. Count Alexander Rostov has been summoned to a tribunal.  Declared an enemy of the state, normally Rostov would be taken to a firing squad and shot or shipped off to Siberia. However, because of a poem he wrote that inspired the spark of the October Revolution, he is sentenced to permanent house arrest at the Hotel Metropol for the rest of his life. 

Should he exit the doors of the Hotel, Count Rostov will be executed. Over the span of 4 decades, the confined gentleman will make do the best he can, living in exiled luxury as guests and staff of the Metropol come and go while the Soviet Union grows into a world power.

My first experience with writer Amor Towles, I was enthralled by this 2016 work. It was pure magic. After the first 100 pages, I was no longer a reader. I too was a resident of the Hotel Metropol. I could not stop reading this book. The desire to read another page turned into an extra 5, 10, 15 pages before I realized it was way past my bedtime and begrudgingly needed to call it a night.

I realize that Ewan McGregor is playing Count Rostov on the live action series. Yet no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't picture anyone else in the role other than Kenneth Branagh. Turns out I wasn't alone in this as the Murder on the Orient Express director was on tap for the lead role for a very long time. As much as in my head, I kept hearing Branagh speaking in that French-Belgian accent as Hercule Poirot, I can't get past hearing McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi instead of a Russian polymath of refinement every time I watch the trailer for the forthcoming series.

I wish I could say that this book was perfect. It was pretty darn close. If not for having recently read the massive graphic novel Petrograd, I would have been a lot more lost understanding the early days of the Soviet Union. While written by an American, this book is very Russian. The more you know of the country's rich cultural history, the better you'll enjoy this book and I just don't know jack about Tolstoy, Chekov and their kin. Thankfully, there's so much heart and wonderment in this book, it makes up for those gaps in my knowledge. 

This book is like a dream come true for me. I've always wanted to get stuck in an airport or be snowed in at an all-inclusive ski resort or have to spend a season at a research base in Antarctica. A Gentleman in Moscow was a chance to live those bizarre fantasies vicariously through the writing of Amor Towles. Unlike most novels I read, this novel is something I see myself making another stay at Hotel Metropol!

Worth Consuming!

Ratiing: 9 out of 10 stars.

Credo: The Rose Wilder Lane Story

I choose to read this book for a couple of reasons. I have a feeling that my wife will also enjoy this book. Plus, I really liked creator Peter Bagge's biography of Zora Neale Hurston. The main subject of this book is Rose Wilder Lane; the daughter of one Laura Ingalls Wilder; writer and main character of the Little House on the Prairie series of books.

My wife grew up in the 70s and 80s during a time when interest in Laura Ingalls Wilder's autobiographical books was at a resurgence thanks to the Little House on the Prairie TV show that starred Michael Landon and Melissa Gilbert. I think my wife would have been considered a fanatic of Little House as a kid. She read all of the books- numerous times over! She watched the show religiously, refusing to go to bed until after the program ended. And for Halloween and just regular kid play time, she and her sister would dress up as the characters and play with the neighbor children as Laura and sister Caroline.

Anyways, back to Rose. If it wasn't for Lane, the Little House books might never have happened. Laura was great at recalling past events. But she was unable to divert from the facts to make her tales very interesting. Thus, it's safe to say that Rose was definitely the editor of Laura's memoirs. There's also a very good argument amongst fans that she may have rewritten if not completely ghost written a very large portion of the books. While Rose's contributions to Laura's writings are the main reason I (and probably my wife will) read this book, it's actually not her only contribution to the literary world.

Rose Wilder Lane was a pioneering feminist writer in the 1930s-early 50s. Wilder toured much of Europe and chronicled her visits in a number of publications including The Saturday Evening Post and Woman's Day. She was like a precursor to the Travel Channel! Much of her earliest fiction writings were considered scandalous if only for the tawdry episodes of romance and passion that the stories contained. Though it didn't help that it was a woman who was writing such 'trash.' But it was her political essays that got the writer into the most trouble.

Among those who favor smaller government, Rose Wilder Lane is considered a pioneer of Libertarianism. She was also a staunch anti-Communist and anti-Fascist. This won her a lot of fans who were afraid of the rise of political tyrannies in Europe and Asia as well as government overreach at home. Yet, during World War II, when Lane began to criticize FDR's New Deal policies, the writer began to incur the wraith of the FBI. All of a sudden, Lane was deemed unpatriotic. In retaliation, Lane stepped up her critique of American policy, including the unfair treatment of blacks and women. She also decided to forgo large paychecks in order to not have to pay the government a single dime from her coffers!

To say Rose Wilder Lane was an odd duck is putting it mildly. Thanks to her pioneer upbringing, she was fiercely independent. Lane couldn't stay still, travelling and pulling up stakes frequently. She might have been bi-sexual based on some of her long-time companions. The writer might have been involved in a couple of cults; though they were way less creepy than a lot of the ones we see on the news nowadays. Sadly, Rose also suffered from bi-polar disorder.

I really feel that Lane's mental illness was the one thing that Peter Bagge glossed over. Bagge merely hints at the possible homosexual affairs as there's never been definitive proof of such. But Lane had a tragic stillbirth, which resulted in an emergency hysterectomy. The loss of the chance to become a mother haunted her throughout her life and resulted in the unofficial adoption of many children and grandchildren. Peter Bagge does chronicle these relationships. I just don't feel that he really captures the lows Lane suffered from as much as focusing on her highs.

I gotta say that Peter Bagge doesn't paint a rosy picture of Laura Ingalls Wilder. She seemed like a mean old biddy and I'm glad she wasn't my grandmother! From how my wife talked, I thought Laura and her husband Almanzo were this perfect, loving couple. In reality, she was such a bitter person that the man Laura dubbed 'Manly' was seriously emasculated. As for Rose, I really think Laura did anything but make her life a living hell. No wonder Rose wanted to be anywhere but where she was!

A powerful account of an almost forgotten character of 20th century American history. With an extensive notes section, full of photos and facts, it was a good read. Though, a magnifying glass with that small print font might be needed.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

A Century of Christmas Memories: 1900-1999

This was a charming little book about the evolution of Christmas in the 20th century. In 1900, there were no such thing as electric string lights or even Christmas cards. By 1999, inflatable yard decorations and electronic skyping of holiday greetings were the new norm.

I learned a lot about Christmas and other holiday traditions here. From things like how the earliest Thanksgiving Day parades had live animals walking in formation down the streets to how soldiers during World War I exchanged holiday pin-up postcards to each other. 

Why is there a Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center? How did It's a Wonderful Life become an annual tradition on TV? What is the only Christmas song to be the #1 song on the Billboard charts on December 25th? All those questions and more are answers in this digest sized fact book.

I love to read such a book every year. You'd think by now these things would start getting monotonous. Yet this one was full of a lot of details that I had always wondered about yet I never seem to have gotten the answers to!

Festive fun Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Che- A Graphic Biography

Underground comix legend Spain Rodriguez pens and illustrates this graphic novel biography of revolutionary Ernesto 'Che' Guavara. It's an interesting look at a character of the 20th century that I really knew very little about. 

I found this book at an independent bookstore (on discount, of course!) Being a former history major with a focus on 20th century history (especially pop culture), I figured why not learn something new. 

Here's the thing, I realize that the US has it's faults. Our country isn't perfect because it's run by imperfect people. All nations are this way. But I feel that Spain Rodriguez' view is way more skewed to being anti-American and anti-capitalism than I am pro-American. 

For example, Rodriguez mentions a couple of times how some Cuban newspapers are imprisoned or worse for making anti-Castro statements. For all that Donald Trump hates our liberal media, he's not stooped to the actions of those glorified revolutionaries that Rodriguez so hails. 

It troubled me how Spain Rodriguez maintained blinders to such actions. I appreciate that he mentions them in this historical account. But unlike all the times where he makes commentary against the US for it's dirty deeds, Rodriguez never condemns the Castro regime for their atrocities.

The art was pretty good. It had a very similar style to Rick Geary, which I rather like. But the editing of the art was not all that great. Some panels still has pencil marks that weren't properly erased during the inking process. So in some instances, the art looks blurry when it just ghosted by pencil markings not properly vanquished.

I also had some issue with how Spain Rodriguez executed his footnotes. Some are done properly in a small text box on the bottom right of the inside panel. Both about half of the footnotes were placed vertically to the right of the outside of the panel. It took me several pages to figure this inconsistency out and I had to reread several pages. 

An interesting read that is skewed way too far to the left. There's nothing centric here. Great art but the editing is irregular.

Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.

I read Banned Books (Comic Book Edition)

Tomorrow is the beginning of the annual American Library Association event Banned Books Week. This year, the ALA is focusing on comic books and graphic novels. Their reason is ' "despite their serious literary merit and popularity as a genre, they are often subject to censorship,” said Judith Platt, chair of the Banned Books Week National Committee.'

  All week, I'll be reading and reviewing selections from my favorite banned comics of all-time; the EC Comics. Considered gory, brutal, and undeserving of any merit, these comics have stood more than the test of time- the withstood perhaps one o the greatest witch hunts of the 20th Century- the comic book scare of the 1950s.

   EC Comics were the primary target of the Juvenile Delinquency Senate hearings of 1954. A quack psychologist named Fredric Wertham in his book "Seduction of the Innocent" blamed comic books on just about anything wrong with kids and teens in the 1950s. His accusations were based on doctored data and led to a majority of publishers, writers, and artists of the comic book genre to lose their jobs and their passion- as many of these workers never worked in comics again.

 
   I'll be controversial to suggest that the fact that Wertham was German and the majority of the comic book working class was Jewish at the time, is not lost on me. the pandemonium that surrounded the comics scare is eerily similar to 1940s Nazi Germany. Community groups inspired by Wertham 'encouraged' children to collect their comics (and those of their buddies) and held mass burnings. My wife's uncles recall having to participate in these community improvement projects.

   The comic book industry might have failed completely if it wasn't for the few surviving publishers to team-up and create a self-governing committee that would insure standards and practices in the comic book industry. That group was the Comics Code Authority. Though the CCA is no longer used to determined if a comic is 'child friendly', it's place in pop culture history makes it still a vital and important tool in the comics industry. Like the music industry, comic book publishers now self-regulate their own ratings systems for their comics.

   Another important resource is the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. This fund, which I actively donate my spare coins to at comic book shops nationwide, was established to provide legal representation to publishers, authors, and writers who find themselves targets of the next community action to ban comic books.

 
  I hope this week, you'll participate in Banned Books (and Comics) week. But don't just read them for fun. Try to also reflect on the freedoms of speech and assembly we as Americans have the privilege to experience. This week is also time to reflect on the potential dangers of censorship. As the Jewish German writer Heinrich Hesse once wrote "Where books are burned in the end, people will be burned."
  

"The Lindbergh Child (Treasury of XXth Century Murder)" by Rick Geary

WORTH CONSUMING!

A great read. This is a book for people who love comics, but are afraid to read them in public.

I want to read the entire series.

Worth Consuming.