New Vichy Syndrome: Why European Intellectuals Surrender to Barbarism, by Theodore Dalrymple

This book is an interesting series of short articles on the pessimism that pervades the intellectual world in Europe, and the United States to some extent too.  There are several causes suggested in public discourse that are said to have caused this intellectual climate, and Dalrymple examines each one, among them the cynicism said to result from the destruction of two world wars (a cynicism in little evidence while the wars were actually going on), moral relativism resulting from lack of an objective moral standard, and a selective understanding of European history that strongly emphasizes the wrongdoing and leaves out the accomplishments.

The result is that many Western intellectuals don't recognize that they have inherited anything of value from their forbears and therefore are incapable of defending it.  Hence the allusion to the Vichy government in the title.  Oddly enough, this nihilistic point of view does not cause humility in those who hold it, but pride, because they are aware that Western civilization is humbug, and no one else is.  If you have met people like this, as I have, and you can't figure out where they're coming from, this book offers an explanation.

The Wreck of the Batavia, Prosper, by Simon Leys

<i>The Wreck of the Batavia</i> is a fascinating and concise account of a shipwreck on the Australian coast in the 1600's. The crew and passengers become a little society onto themselves. Once the small contingent of soldiers (whom you might say are the representatives of law and order on the ship) go on an expedition to find drinking water, and the top ranking officers leave to get help at the Dutch East India Company offices in Java, the rest of the passengers fall into the hands of a charismatic psychopath and his small band of mutineers. It is like an eerie glimpse, 300 years too early, on a tiny scale, of the totalitarian governments of the 20th century.  Perhaps there are always such destructive, nihilistic personalities to be found in every generation; it just takes the right combination of conditions to raise them to positions of leadership. I could not put this one down; read it in one night and went to work bleary-eyed the next morning.

<i>Prosper</i> is Leys's nostalgic account of a summer spent aboard the last sailing tuna fishing boat.  His descriptions of that life are vivid and entertaining.  Very welcome relief from the violent story preceding.

Alexander Hamilton, by Charles Conant

If you know little to nothing about Alexander Hamilton and his achievements as one of the American Founding Fathers and want to get a general introduction about him, you can't go wrong with this book.  It gives a good biographical overview, from his early life in the West Indies, education at Columbia University (then King's College of New York), growing involvement in the American independence movement and military service, to his service as Washington's secretary of the Treasury, disagreements with Thomas Jefferson's views and death in a duel with Aaron Burr.  Some chapters are dedicated to particular achievements, such as his contributions to the Federalist Papers, participation in the writing of the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution, his role in establishing the Bank of the United States and Congress's power to fund the national debt incurred during the war.

It's not a very long book but it is packed with information and is clearly and concisely written.  

I listened to the <A HREF="https://librivox.org/alexander-hamilton-by-charles-a-conant/">LibriVox audiobook</A> version of this title rather than reading the edition pictured on this page.

Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton

I first read this book some years ago when I was in college because I was putting off studying for an organic chemistry final.  It was a very sad but beautiful story.  If I wasn't in the mood to cram for chemistry before reading it, I was even less inclined to do so afterwards!  Because I'm not usually in the mood for sad stories I never reread it, until recently when I watched the Liam Neeson/Patricia Arquette film adaptation from the 1990's.  It is very true to the book.

The story still affects me in the same way, except that now that I'm older and hopefully wiser, I am now able to see that the consequences suffered by the three main characters are at least partly caused by their own self centeredness and bad choices, instead of just being tragic victims of fate.

I'm also better able to appreciate Edith Wharton's use of symbols to foreshadow events or states of mind throughout the novel, rather than concentrating only on the plot.   This was the first of Wharton's books I had ever read and she has since become one of my favorite novelists.