Author shares post-9/11 views in ‘Holy War’
In August, The Spokesman-Review Book Club read Jonathan Raban’s poignant 1999 memoir “Passage to Juneau: A Sea and Its Meaning.” Raban has a new book out, titled “My Holy War: Dispatches from the Home Front” (New York Review Books, 193 pages, $21.95), and it’s taken up a topical subject: post-9/11 America and its war against Islamic extremism.
As Raban wrote for the book’s introduction, shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, he began getting calls from editors both in New York and London.
“The London ones had the notion that I could explain, or at least try to describe, something of the mood of America on its vengeful warpath,” he wrote. “The New York ones suggested that I might have picked up on my travels some clue to the motives of Islamist terrorists and their war on America.”
The editors thought what they thought because of the series of nonfiction books that Raban, a British native transplanted to Seattle, had been writing since 1979. Ostensibly books about travel, they are filled with poignant, pungent observations about people and culture.
Since coming to the United States in 1990, Raban has focused his writer’s eye on his adopted country. In books such as “Hunting Mr. Heartbreak: A Discovery of America,” “Bad Land: An American Romance” and “Passage to Juneau,” Raban has demonstrated his ability to observe America with a penetrating outsider’s view.
Yet he doesn’t consider himself an expert. In fact, he wrote that he was “an idiot,” using the words in Greek, in the old meaning of a ” ‘private person,’ who clings to the belief that a private person writing on public events can see them in an importantly different way from the professional pundit, if only because he may be more alert to their private implications.”
The book came out on Tuesday, and I just got my copy, so I haven’t read much past the introduction. But I don’t think he’s going to be kind to the current presidential administration’s characterization of the war on terrorism as a simple passion play between “good and evil.”
Something tells me he won’t be doing many interviews on Fox News.
Book club news
Speaking of The Spokesman-Review Book Club, here are the books that we’ll be reading over the next few months:
“December: “The Heartsong of Charging Elk,” the late James Welch’s powerful look at a Sioux member of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show who gets left behind in France.
“January: “In the Deep Midwinter,” Seattle writer Robert Clark’s first novel, about a family disintegrating in winter of 1949.
“February: “A Little Too Much Is Enough,” Portland-area author Kathleen Tyau’s novel about growing up in Hawaii.
“March: “Vision Quest,” Terry Davis’ novel about a young Spokane wrestler who, against all advice, decides to lose weight so that he can compete against the state’s most feared grappler.
That last one’s just for fun.
If you want to suggest a book for us to read, just e-mail me ( danw@spokesman.com). Remember, we read only books written by Northwest writers. And we try to stick to paperback editions.
Beyond the wreath
“The Holly Wreath Man,” a Christmas-themed book that was serialized a couple of years ago in The Spokesman-Review, is now out in hardback.
The 102-page book, which was written by Christopher Scanlon and Katharine Fair, tells the story of a man who, thrown back to 1962, learns from his grandfather (the title character) how to save his marriage in the present.
It’s published by Andrews McMeel and costs $9.95.
Book talk
“Poetry reading group (747-3453), 3 p.m. today, Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington (838-0206).
“Dark City Mystery Book Group (“Every Little Thing,” by Laura Lippman), 7 p.m. Monday, Auntie’s Bookstore.
“Friends of the Cheney Community Library (“Above the Clearwater: Living on Stolen Land,” by Bette Lynch Husted), discussion leader Eleanor Rock, 7 p.m. Tuesday, Cheney Community Library, 610 First St. (235-7333).
Reader board
“C.K. Crigger (“The Winning Hand”), signing, 1 to 4 p.m. Friday, Valley Hastings, 15312 E. Sprague Ave. (924-0667).
“Patricia Campbell Kowal (“Stillpoint”), signing, 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Valley Hastings.
“Becky Bales (“Spokane: Authentic Beauty”), signing, 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, Auntie’s Bookstore.
“J.R. Nakken (“Three-Point Shot”), signing, 2 p.m. Saturday, Auntie’s Bookstore.