"... in the end, he is a selfish child."

So says Chris Christie, of our once and sadly maybe future president. I work at a university and live in the Bay Area bubble, so I simply don't have conversations with many Trump supporters, but I do often wonder what I would say about why I think he is so appalling. Proto-fascist, racist, rapist, grifter... not to mention very bad on most policy issues I care about. But Chris says all you need to know to want to avoid another four years of Trump rule. 

In refusing to endorse Harris, Christie is either a coward or an opportunist who has deluded himself into thinking he has a future in the GOP. Nevertheless, I have always had a soft spot for him. In some parallel universe he might not make the worst president. In our universe he would have some very tough competition for that title.

Kris Kristofferson, RIP

Terrible singer, but he sure wrote plenty of great songs that plenty of great singers wanted to sing. Apologies to Johnny, Janis, and the rest, but this is the best. 

Late summer fiction potpourri

The Sellout
Paul Beatty

Beatty's nutty-serious ode to modern American Blackness in all its pain and contradictions doesn't so much rapidly veer between hilarity, cringe, bitterness, and rage as stick them all in a Vitamix and turn it on high. But for all that, there is love and tenderness too, and beauty and virtuosity in the writing. Amazing.

Creation Lake
Rachel Kushner

This got raves from Dwight Garner, and while I can't say it competes with The Sellout, for much of the novel it had me pretty well hooked. There are effectively two narrators: our protagonist, "Sadie," a corporate spy/ agent provocateur hired to take down some anarcho-eco-types who are making trouble for a big water project in the south of France; and one of their guiding mentors, a recluse who mostly lives in a cave and whose rambling emails (intercepted by Sadie) look to the Neanderthals for insights into how to live in a post-industrial, post-warming, post-sapiens world. All that is pretty entertaining stuff, and offers the kind of food for thought that would be just about perfect for a weed-enhanced conversation in your sophomore dorm room. But this is also a thriller, after all, and eventually you will want to find out which side wins, and especially whether the astute but sociopathic and mercenary Sadie turns out maybe to have a heart of gold, or at least a few second thoughts – or rather gets her comeuppance. No spoiler here, except to say that the novel completely fizzles out, as if Kushner had reached her page limit, or perhaps the weed was a little too potent. And again without giving away too much, Kushner lets Sadie off the moral hook in a most unsatisfactory manner. Irksome. 

All the Sinners Bleed
S.A. Cosby

I'm not big on crime novels featuring gruesome serial murders, but I'll make an exception for S.A. Cosby. This may be his best so far. 

Farewell, My Lovely
Raymond Chandler

A delightful yarn. No need to picture Bogart or Mitchum as Marlowe while you read, but you can if you want to. 

A Man Lay Dead
Ngaio Marsh

One of her first books, and my first novel by Marsh, one of the three grande dames of murder mysteries. I found the writing and the characterizations less dated than I had expected. I just might read another.

Carson Pass Country, late summer

I was up there last week for a couple of nights in Woods Lake Campground. It's among my favorite places. Carson Pass and its nearby lakes and meadows are at their best in midsummer, when the wildflower display is the best I know of in the Sierras. But late summer brings its own palette of warm colors and soft textures. And you still come across the occasional lupine, pussy-paw, or monkeyflower, taking advantage of one of the last remaining snow patches or moist seeps, hoping to attract a late-season pollinator and go to seed before the snows bury everything again.

On the way home, I stopped at Chaw'Se and Black Chasm Cavern, both near cute as a button Volcano, CA. Don't miss either one. 

Reading roundup

Catching up...

The Sound and the Fury
Light in August
William Faulkner

The only Faulkner novel I remember having actually read before now was As I Lay Dying– not an easy read, but a good bit easier than these challenging books on challenging subjects. To me, The Sound and the Fury holds up better as a coherent novel... but Light in August is stunning too, and should be read by anyone interested in race and racism in America. Not woke, but deeply insightful. Absalom, Absalom! is up next.

The Singularity
Dino Buzzati

A psychological sci-fi novella first published in 1960, it is entertaining and prescient in its fashion. Nice translation by Anne Milano Appel. 

Going Zero
Anthony McCarten

This near-future paranoid thriller "ripped from the headlines" got some good reviews, but is contrived and rather underwhelmingly written. Barely adequate for a long plane ride. 

Indigenous Continent
Pekka Hämäläinen

The subtitle is The Epic Contest for North America, and that is a good description of this survey of the military and political history of the centuries-long struggle between Native Americans and the colonial powers. Hämäläinen has a lot of ground to cover, both temporally and geographically, and at times his writing becomes schematic. But overall the narrative is dramatic and well told. His take is that a sequence of major tribal confederations were in control of much of the continent up until their final defeats in the nineteenth century, and that their successes had to do with features of their political systems as well as their shrewd ability to play off the European and U.S. powers against each other. Disease, trade, and horses all played major roles, as did women tribal leaders. Remarkable, if tragic and appalling.

Can Music Be Perfect? Vol. 107

No, of course not. These two hours of jamming at Emmet's place are far from perfect... but you really only need moments of perfection, no? And those are in abundance here, especially with Rudresh in the house. His composition "Chillin'," starting at about minute 49, brings out the best in Emmet and company. And his Carnatic intro to "In A Sentimental Mood" (c. 1:42) sounds so natural, you could almost believe that the Duke had Kadri Gopalnath in mind when he wrote it.

On another planet

"Immigration reform now!" would be a sign I could stomach. This, not so much. Source: NYT.

Bill Viola, RIP

Strangely moving work...

The Innocents

I Do Not Know What It Is I Am Like