The Cleaved Mind

The Committed 

by Viet Thanh Nguyen

“The typical American preferred the canned version of philosophy found in how-to manuals, but even average Frenchmen and Vietnamese cherished a love of knowledge.”  ― Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Committed

Having read and enjoyed Nguyen's prize-winning novel, The Sympathizer, I looked forward to reading his new novel. In it, once again the reader is presented with a unique mix of realistic action and superb emotional detail. The author also includes literary and philosophical references like the comment at one of his aunt's salons, "God is dead. Marx is dead., and I don't feel so well myself," - a rare bit of levity in what is otherwise a very serious tale. 

It is a tale narrated with the same memorable voice as the previous novel, The Committed follows the unnamed Sympathizer as he arrives in Paris in the early 1980s with his blood brother Bon. He says "our bags were packed with dreams and fantasies, trauma and pain, sorrow and loss, and, of course, ghosts. Since ghosts were weightless we could carry an infinite number of them." (p 5) The pair try to overcome their pasts and ensure their futures by engaging in capitalism in one of its purest forms: drug dealing.

Traumatized by his reeducation at the hands of his former best friend, Man, and struggling to assimilate into French culture, the Sympathizer finds Paris both seductive and disturbing. In his attempts to deal with his ghosts he acquires lessons from a coterie of left-wing intellectuals whom he meets at dinner parties given by his French Vietnamese "aunt." Through these he experiences stimulation for his mind but also customers for his narcotic merchandise. Strewn throughout the novel are references from the works of Sartre, Fanon, Kristeva, and de Beauvoir, and these are in addition to his interactions with the drug-dealing crime boss he works for in Paris. But the new life he is making has perils he has not foreseen, whether the self-torture of addiction, the authoritarianism of a state locked in a colonial mindset, or the seeming paradox of how to reunite his two closest friends whose worldviews put them in absolute opposition. The Sympathizer will need all his wits, resourcefulness, and moral flexibility if he is to prevail.

Both literary thriller and novel of ideas, The Committed is a blistering portrayal of commitment and betrayal. Its intensity was sometimes difficult to consider, but necessary to maintain the idea of what his new life meant to him. This novel maintained my interest and left me looking forward to a potential third novel by this outstanding author.

Sorrowful, yet Great City

The Annals 

by Tacitus

“So obscure are the greatest events, as some take for granted any hearsay, whatever its source, others turn truth into falsehood, and both errors find encouragement with posterity.”  - Tacitus, The Annals of Imperial Rome




The Annals of Tacitus covers the years 14–68 CE. Why these dates? Well, Augustus, a colossal figure in Roman history, died in 14 CE, and this is when Tiberius began his rule. 68 CE marks the year of the death of Nero, which would lead to the year of four rival emperors. Here, we see the end of the Julio-Claudian line.
Unfortunately there are gaps in this chronology. As one can imagine, not all books of the complete Annals survived the passage of time. Several books are missing and some others are incomplete. While it is disappointing that the entire reign of Caligula is missing there is much that is interesting in what remains.

The status of this book as a classic cannot be denied. But what is it that makes that true? Tacitus covers a time in Roman history when, as the result of the consolidation and planning of Augustus (originally Octavian) the beginnings of the Roman empire take shape. More significantly, what he started in 14 CE suggests that he wanted to show two pictures of the empire. On the one hand, he does not question the need for an emperor. Augustus established peace, which was desperately needed, in light of many civil wars and civil conflicts following the death of Tiberius Gracchus in 133 BCE. On the other hand, there is a dark side to all empires. Tacitus portrays this point, especially in the life of Tiberius. He paints a picture of tyranny. We read, for example, of Tiberius’s reign of terror, and we can say the same for Nero.

Some of the most fascinating aspects for this reader included the machinations and politics of the day which were both personal and brutal. In spite of the wealth of the Emperors and their immediate families, the plans of some, starting with Augustus, for an orderly succession were derailed, often by accidents and illness that, due to the primitive state of medicine, led to unexpected deaths. That, of course, was in addition to the deaths plotted by such angels as Tiberius and Nero's mother Agrippina. Tacitus narrates the rise of potential rulers like Sejanus alongside the unlikely rise to power of Claudius. There are many fascinating and exciting moments in this narrative including the infamous fire that devastated Rome during Nero's reign.

Earlier in the narrative, during the reign of Tiberius, Tacitus comments in an aside about his project:
"That much of what I have recorded, and of what I shall record, seems perhaps insignificant and trivial to recall I am not unaware; but no one should compare my annals with the writing of those who compiled the affairs of the Roman people of old." He notes that mighty events had occurred in centuries past, while "my work, on the other hand, is confined and inglorious: peace was immovable or only modestly challenged, affairs in the City were sorrowful, and the princeps indifferent to extending the empire." (4.32)

Here we read instead about villains, such as Sejanus, and darlings of the people, such as Germanicus, and so much more. Ultimately the history was one that was filled with brutality and death that seemed unending leading Tacitus to rail about the "anger of the divinities against Roman affairs" near the end of the book (16.6). In spite of this the remnants of his original tome still make a fascinating and exciting read - truly a great book.

Top Ten Tuesday

 The Top Ten Most Recent Additions to My Library

These are the latest books I've acquired for reading over the next couple of months.

The Committed: A Novel by Viet Thanh Nguyen. I read Nguyen's award-winning The Sympathizer five years ago and look forward to reading this follow-up with my local book group. Set in Paris it looks to be an exciting international thriller with a patina of ideas.

Walt Whitman's MEMORANDA DURING THE WAR: Written on the spot in 1863-'65. I'm already halfway through this beautiful and touching memoir of Whitman's time spent nursing soldiers during the civil war. There are moments when he waxes poetic and tells stories about soldiers that will break your heart.

Drum-Taps: The Complete 1865 Edition by Walt Whitman. More from Whitman with some of his most famous poems including "When Lilacs last in the door-yard bloom'd" and "O Captain! My Captain!".

The Annals of Tacitus.  Translated , with an introduction and notes , by A. J. Woodman. This is the latest monthly read for my Online Great Books group. Filled with the details of Augustus and his immediate successors through Nero (with some years missing because the complete text has not survived). Lots of interesting machinations and bloody endings for both good and bad alike.

Ambrose Bierce's Civil War, edited and with an introduction by William McCann.  Both Bierce's memoirs of the war and his short stories set in the Civil War are included in this edition of his works. I look forward to reading this along with the Whitman.

Ambrose Bierce: alone in bad company. This is the biography of Bierce by Roy Morris, Jr. who has also written about Mark Twain's time in the west and Walt Whitman's experiences during the civil war. I expect this will be as good as those works.

Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu. This won the National Book Award for Fiction in 2020 beating out Shuggie Bain among others for the prize. It is the hysterical and satirical story of Willie Wu who is described as a "generic Asian man".

Selected Poems of Herman Melville. Yes, the author of Moby-Dick was also a great poet. In particular he wrote about the Civil War in addition to the Sea and other topics. This is part of my reading for a University of Chicago Basic Program course called "The Unwritable War: Civil War Tales and Poems".

Duino Elegies and The Sonnets to Orpheus of Rainer Maria Rilke. This is the current read for my local study group. I am looking forward to diving deep into these famous poems by the author of one of my favorite novels, The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge. 

Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi. This prize-winning book was a finalist for the Man Booker International Prize in 2018. From the rubble-strewn streets of U.S.-occupied Baghdad, Hadi--a scavenger and an oddball fixture at a local café--collects human body parts and stitches them together to create a corpse. Sounds like the makings for a fantastic journey.

Beloved Poet of Ancient Greece

Sappho 

by Sappho

Tonight I've watched

The moon and then

the Pleides

go down

The night is now

half-gone; youth

goes; I am

                                    In bed alone

Who is this poet? The lyrical nature of her poetry is evident at once, while the variety of thoughts resonate through the centuries. Can we get a glimpse of what life was like for this Greek woman from the fragments of her verse? Perhaps, we can get that glimpse and even more. I found the lines about lives lived under the sun and stars resonated with me and evoked memories of similar experiences in my own life. Hidden among the references to strange gods were words of wisdom, praise of virtue, and emotions as familiar as any experienced by those who have seen the beginning of a new century.

With only fragments of her verse she charms the reader and evokes human emotions from the realms of ancient Greece. The power and beauty of her poetry shines forth like pieces of broken glass that glisten in the light of the sun. The translation by Mary Barnard rings true as fresh metaphors line the pages. Read this poetry and be entranced by the wonder of her words.

An Artificial Friend

Klara and the Sun 

by Kazuo Ishiguro

“Mr Capaldi believed there was nothing special inside Josie that couldn’t be continued. He told the Mother he’d searched and searched and found nothing like that. But I believe now he was searching in the wrong place. There was something very special, but it wasn’t inside Josie. It was inside those who loved her.”   ― Kazuo Ishiguro, Klara and the Sun

Klara is an "artificial friend" or what we usually think of as an android. While looking lifelike when seen from the outside, the reader is presented with a narrative told by Klara and thus sees the world from her perspective -- inside her head. The sun is, for Klara, the source of her energy and we see the sun from her perspective as well; it is an almost spiritual connection for her. When a young girl named Josie, sickly but intelligent, sees Klara in the window of the store she knows that this is the artificial friend that is meant for her. 

Klara goes to live with Josie and her mother and the story of their life together is at the heart of the novel. We see the impact of human emotions on Klara, but we also are presented with the argument as stated by Mr Capaldi that there is "nothing special" inside humans - that they are not very different from the machines that are their artificial friends. The narrative demonstrates the flaw in that argument and brings home the truth about what makes each individual human special. The story of their time together and how Klara develops into a very special friend for Josie is one of the most remarkable stories I have encountered in my reading experience. It presents the reader with the power of the sun, but also the power of love and how that can transcend the distance between human and machine.

An amazing tour de force by one of my favorite authors. A speculative look at the not too distant future told by an android or as the narrative calls her, an artificial friend. What impressed me most was Ishiguro's ability to create a believable image of the world from the point of view of a machine and maintain it consistently. That being said this book is as much about relationships and feelings that are as human as possible. The world of the future with humans and machines has never been brought to life in a more realistic and moving way, Highly recommended for all who wonder at the nature of man and his machines.