Fact: Read This Book

Fiction: the tale told in Three Seconds didn't really happen

Fact: Three Seconds is a must-read thriller packed with explosive drama that is also an insightful character study and social commentary.

Thanks to Steig Larsson, the Swedish crime novel is in vogue these days. My local Barnes & Noble recently had a display of Henning Mankell works and Three Seconds is a popular library pick. Deservedly so. Not only is it a barn-burner with gripping action sequences, it also is a rich story that deals with weighty topics like identity and grief.

Piet Hoffman is a police informant who served time in prison on a drug charge. He is deep undercover in the Polish drug trade in Sweden. He keeps this a secret from his wife and two boys, aged 5 and 3. These two worlds collide when another police informant is murdered on Hoffman's watch during a drug sale. Hoffman needs his handler and the Swedish police to cover up his involvement in the murder lest the sting, which is reaching a critical stage, be blown.  

Threatening to gum up the works is the chief inspector assigned to the murder, Ewert Grens. He is still coping with the grief and guilt over the death of his wife, which he is responsible for. He is a dogged investigator gnawing on the case like a dog chews a bone. He persists to the breaking point, and of course, bulls his way to the truth, which runs to the highest levels of the Swedish justice system and goes well beyond the Hoffman case.

The most thrilling moments of the story are set in the maximum security prison that Hoffman infiltrates in order to take over the drug trade there. This is to be the capstone of the case against the mafia. Provided that Grens will let things rest.

Hoffman and Grens are flawed yet compelling characters. Hoffman is a former drug addict who plays his role as the informant too well. He is ruthless, cunning, and brutal. Offsetting this are tender moments with his family. He struggles mightily with this dichotomy, and his role as an informant seeps into his personal life. He wishes to tell his wife, which he eventually must do before he's arrested to get into the prison, but is afraid of the consequences. He rightfully believes he is betraying his family. He wonders who and what he is. His anxiety rises and rises until it reaches fever pitch.

Grens is obsessed with his grief and guilt over his wife's death. He spends time at the nursing home where she resided comatose until she died. He's afraid to visit her grave, which he's never done, and couldn't even attend her funeral. He sleeps on his office floor. He's gruff towards his colleagues and subordinates. Yet, he is likable, largely because we sympathize with him and feel the righteousness of his persistent investigation. We also respect his persistence and grow to like him as he begins to take steps to overcome his grief. Both he and Hoffman are deeply etched and sympathetic characters.

Three Seconds also poses the question of who's right: the officials who cover up the crimes committed during their investigations of the trades they are seeking to bust or the Grens of the world who seek to expose these crimes. I won't tell you which side the book comes down on. Suffice it to say that Three Seconds is a nuanced thriller that works on all levels, written by two people who know their stuff: a journalist and former drug addict. It's a worthy counterpart to Larsson's Millennium Trilogy.

Better Seen Than Heard

Rashard Mendenhall has apologized for explosive comments made Monday on Twitter about Bin Laden's death. It's certainly a well articulated apology, but it doesn't change what he said. Some of his more choice comments and my response:

"It's amazing how people can HATE a man they have never even heard speak. We've only heard one side." I guess we could start with the fact that he's responsible for the death of 3,000 people on 9/11 and that we don't really need to hear any more - though we have heard his side - but apparently he's not convinced that Bin Laden is behind 9/11:

"We'll never know what really happened. I just have a hard time believing a plane could take a skyscraper down, demolition style. ... I'm not convinced (bin Laden) was even behind the attacks. We have really seen no evidence to prove it other than the gov telling us." Apparently, he never saw the clips of two planes flying into the WTC and the buildings crumbling nor does he believe the people who were there. Nor does he seem to have heard that Bin Laden happily admitted he was behind the attacks: "I am the one in charge of the 19 brothers ... I was responsible for entrusting the 19 brothers ... with the raids."

All this from a man who compared the NFL to the slave trade in March:

"Anyone with knowledge of the slave trade and the NFL could say that these two parallel each other."

Perhaps I need to re-read the history books, but it's news to me that the slaves were paid exorbitantly well.

Often I believe that athletes (and most celebrities for that matter) are better seen than heard.

Never State The Obvious

In today's duh moment, we learn from the American Meterological Society that blue skies are good for pitchers and cloudy skies are good for batters. You think? Sad also that one of the co-authors did his Master's Thesis on this. How did he ever get approved for something so blatently obvious that it requires no study, just plain commonsense?

Mad Mel Gibson

From the New York Post's review of Mel Gibson's new flick, "Leave It to Beaver:" "Mad Mel Gibson, as a depressed man struggling with serious mental problems." I choose to see it differently: Mad Mel Gibson, as a loud-mouth, anti-Semitic actor struggling with serious mental problems.

Honored? Honored by What?

When Barack Obama released the long form of his birth certificate today, Donald Trump responded, "He should have done it a long time ago. I am really honored to play such a big role in hopefully, hopefully getting rid of this issue.” Have no doubt, I am no fan of President Obama for a number of reasons, but I would like to know what exactly you feel honored by, Donald. That you forced an American President, holder of the most prestigious and powerful office in the world, to stoop to the level where had to release his birth certificate to quell the lingering controversy over his birthplace when there should never have been a controversy? That you and other birthers are essentially questioning his “Americaness” as it has needlessly been questioned time and time again. When no one would even think to ask these questions if he didn’t seem – let me repeat, seem – different because of his exotic name and lineage? That you wasted the President’s time – the President’s - (also the American public’s time) on this non-issue, which he rightfully refers to as “silliness,” at a time when there are real issues that require his attention? That you and the birthers spent time on a non-issue that demeans our intelligence? You have nothing to be honored by; instead, you should feel ashamed.

Best Books of 2010

Publisher's Weekly has posted its Best Books of 2010. There are many good and tempting titles on the list, both fiction and non-fiction. Two have been on my radar for a while: The Big Short and The Warmth of Other Suns (I actually passed on this originally because I felt it was too long, but then I went and read almost 2,000 pages on Theodore Roosevelt). Despite my vow to stick with the books that I have at home, I'll add them to my queue of books to read. I passed on a chance to buy Man In The Woods on the cheap at Borders, but will add it to the ever-growing pile as well. I shall read on!

Tweeting

I'm now on Twitter.

"Not on a Twain"

I bought Green Eggs & Ham at the local Barnes & Noble yesterday. The girls picked up on it immediately. After one read through, Morgan takes it, starts leafing through it, and recites from memory passages from the book: "Not here, not there," "Not on a twain" over and over. Rachel chimed in as well. They're only two! But obviously precocious. It was also very cute. How I love them so much.

Surgery

Last October I herniated a disc in my lumbar spine when I tried to pick up my mother off the floor. I didn't feel anything right away, but the next day the back was tight and I couldn't bend. The day after that I felt numbness in my right leg. After a series of doctor's visits and an MRI, I was diagnosed with a herniated disc that's pressing on the L5/S1 nerve, causing pain throughout my entire leg. The pain is constant and often severe. For example, I'm typing this at 5:40 am because the pain kept me up overnight.

I tried physical therapy and injections into the affected area. Neither worked, and I have pain 7 months later. After two surgical consults in which I was told surgery was the only option at this point, I'm scheduled for surgery in a week on Monday, May 2. It's band aid surgery where they will make a small incision and remove the part of the disc that's compressing the nerve. It's a 50-minute procedure, and I could be out of the hospital the same day or worst case scenario the next day.

Not looking forward it. Was hoping to avoid it. But at the end of the day my quality of life will be drastically improved and I'll be able to do more things, especially with my daughters and at home, where my wife Judy has picked up a lot of the slack. Examples: I cannot give baths except on rare occasions, cannot get on the floor to play with my daughters and to do educational play sessions, cannot vacuum except on rare occasions, and almost always stay home on Saturdays when the girls go for their therapeutic horseback riding (helps with their physical development in terms of core strength, posture, and balance). There will be short-term pain from the surgery - I'll be on my back most of the time for the first 5 days afterward and expect there to be pain where they operate - but long-term gain.

Featured

My post on the cuts to the Queens Public Library system has been featured on Book Blogs, where I also posted it. Not only is this cool for me, but it helps to draw more attention to this important issue.

(Dis)investment in Our Future

I live in Forest Hills in New York City and am a regular patron of the local library branch, which is part of the Queens Public Library system. Because our finances at home are tight, I generally get most of my books at the library, including most of the new releases. Unfortunately, because of steep budget cuts proposed for 2012, the library is no longer buying new books. It is also proposing to shutter most branches for all but a couple of days during the week and on weekends. While this has a direct impact on me, it has a devestating impact on the community in general. Libraries are key. They are key to people who love to read, key to people who like me cannot afford to buy many books, key to engendering a love of reading in people, key to providing social services. . . in short key to our livelihood and future as a society. It is unfathomable that such a vital resource faces such a bleak future - 27% of its funding or $23 million cut just like that, 424 employees or 52% of its workforce (devestating to them immediately) laid off, service to countless number of people, including many needy people, cut off. I don't understand how NYC government could in good conscience allow this to happen. Our priorities are just plain wrong, and if you agree, here's where you can help.

Desert Island Books

K W posted about Must Reads in Book Blogs. I pose a similar yet different question: what are your three desert island books? There are many books I love and that I qualify as a must read, but only a select few that retain their freshness no matter how many times I read them. My three choices are all fiction despite how much I enjoy non-fiction and have been on a non-fiction binge the last six months. There are subtle nuances to be discovered in fiction books - I'm talking specifically literature, not pulp fiction - in every read. By contrast, I'm not sure how much is to be gained from non-fiction, unless it's philosophy, after a finite number of readings. At least that's how I feel about, but it's only my HO and I'm sure others will differ. Anyway, here are my three choices:

Hamlet, who is a dithering character up until the end of the story when he finally gets it:

There is special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come—the readiness is all. Since no man, of aught he leaves, knows what is't to leave betimes, let be.

With this line, in which he cites the Biblical passage that God cares even for the fallen sparrow, Hamlet becomes the consummate man of action and a fully realized and alive character. We do not know our fate or the plan that God has for us; therefore, we should just “let be.” Contrast this to Anse Bundren who uses the same passage to justify his lack of action: “and I know that Old Marster will care for me as for ere a sparrow that falls.” Hamlet is the much more satisfying character, especially more so when he dies in the fencing match with Laertes. In this sequence, when he gains all only to lose his life, he becomes the true tragic character and a hero for the ages, in turn elevating the play to a timeless classic.

Night by Elie Wiesel. Granted, I'm partial because I'm Jewish and my father was a Holocaust survivor, but I never tire of this story. It portrays the story of another Holocaust survivor. It is not an easy or a pleasant read - far from it - but in depicting the horrors of the Holocaust, it tells a story that must be told over and over again lest we forget.

The Brothers Karamazov, which uses religion in a different way in the Grand Inquisitor chapter. In this chapter, Christ comes back and is arrested and sentenced to die by the Church, but not because the Cardinal believes him to be delusional. The Church arrests him because they know he's Christ and too much of a threat to them and to the average man, who cannot live life outside of society as Christ preaches. We need the structure and guidance of the Church and need to know where our daily bread is coming from. It's a damning critique of religion from an author who was a nihilist.

Those are mine. What are yours?

We Shoot, We Score

$100! That's what we just won on last night's Power Ball ticket. I didn't believe our Lotto retailer at first. But indeed we won. As Marv Albert would say, "Yes-s-s-s-s!" We're going to put it towards our 5th anniversary, which is coming up on 9/10.

Never Assume

Felix Unger: "Never assume because when you assume, you make an 'ass' out of 'u' and 'me."

A classic line from "The Odd Couple" that I have never forgotten and that a co-worker who's a big fan of the show likes to quote. This same colleague, who's Irish, vented to me today about the current movie "Kill The Irishmen." His beef: it's a xenophobic slur against the Irish. He asked me how I would feel if someone made a movie called "Kill The Jews." Not knowing anything about the movie he's referring to, I said I wouldn't like it, but stopped short at supporting his assertion that people can say things about the Irish that they can't say about other groups. I simply don't have the facts to make this claim. Good thing I hedged because tonight I find out upon researching it - something that my colleague should have done - that the movie is actually called "Kill The Irishman" and is the real-life story of an Irish mobster from Cleveland that the Italian mafia targeted for extermination. Ah, yes, seems like my co-worker needs to heed the advice he so loves to quote.

Like A Kid In A Candy Store

I love to read and now that we don't have TV that's my number one hobby. I read on the subway, I read during lunch, I read at the doctor's office, I read at night, I read when I have a spare moment at home. Bottom line, I read incessantly.

And I collect books incessantly. Whenever I spot something interesting, I usually place a request at the library, and if something especially catches my fancy, I like to buy it, but only if I can get a good deal. I walk into a bookstore and I browse for that something special.

Last October, I took my daughters to Barnes & Noble one Sunday and walked out with three paperbacks for the price of two: American Lion about Andrew Jackson, Satchel about Satchel Paige, and The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, the first book in a trilogy about our 26th President. I enjoyed it so much that I devoured the other two books in the trilogy: Theodore Rex, covering his time in office, and Colonel Roosevelt, about his post-Presidential years.

And just yesterday, I took advantage of a going out of business sale at the Borders Book store in Kips Bay in Manhattan, snagging five books - three non-fiction books and two thrillers - for $35. The score includes a biography on Thomas Jefferson that rings in at 1,009 pages - daunting, sure, but when you've read about 2,000 pages on Theodore Roosevelt, it's child's play - that I got at 90% off (list price of $55, cost me $11.70).

Books so enthrall me that I feel like a kid in a candy store whenever I'm in a book store or library or come across an interesting new title. So much so that when I put all the books in my queue in one spot the total came out to 19 titles - and that doesn't include The House of Morgan, which is on it's way as I type, or the four books on request at the library.

One can probably say that I'm obsessed with reading, which I'd agree with. So here's my resolution: methodically work my way through the books in my queue before tackling (or buying) anything new. Alas, there's a new John Sandford coming out next month. Sigh, the list grows ever longer and will never be winnowed to zero. However, I have been so spendthrift this week, I'll request it from the library - I canceled my order with Amazon - and restrain myself from other purchases in the future,

Now, on to Washington: A Life, by the same author as The House of Morgan (Ron Chernow). I'm enjoying it thoroughly - it's a great education on Washington and the American Revolution about which I aim to post more at another time.

Pearl of Wisdom Of The Day

"No man is above the law and no man is below it. . . ."


Theodore Roosevelt

I Am A Man of A Certain Age

Although I only watched the first season, I like Men of a Certain Age. And I came to a realization in watching the episode where Terry goes after the man who nearly ran him over while he was crossing the street. When he announces to Joe and Owen that he's going to track the man down, Owen asks, "What, are you Mannix?" followed by "Are you going to go all Billy Jack on him." I turned to my wife and commented that the references on the show are dated, to which she replied, "They're showing their age." It was then that I realized that I'm the target audience of the show, which means, yes, I too am a man of a certain age.

Did You Know. . .

John Mellencamp is going to be 60 on October 7th? The Boss passed 60 in 2009?

Yikes! I've been listening to these guys for 30 or so years. What does this make me? Good thing I have my daughters to keep me young. They're always on the go, always wanting me to play with them, sing to them, dance with them, read to them. They're a joy to be around. I guess the adage is true: you're only as old as you feel. And I don't feel particularly old. Nor for that matter am I. Just a man of a certain age.

Please Allow Me To Introduce Myself

I'm not a man of wealth, but I like to think I'm a man of taste. So much so that my wife thinks I'm a Metro-sexual. I disagree because I brush my hair in the morning, put nothing in it, and that's it. I'm not the Fonz. I do not own a comb. I do not brush my hair again, at least almost never. If necessary, I fix it with my hands. My idea of a manicure is to bite my nails nor did I ever do anything with the gift card for a manicure that my wife gave me. I use a day bag, not a man purse, and have never worn cologne. Never. Metro-sexual? I think not.

But I digress. I am a middle-aged man blessed with an amazing wife and twin daughters who just turned two. It took me a long time to find my match - so long that I thought it might never happen - but there she was one Memorial Day weekend. She is my soul mate and the most incredible Mom. Becoming a father is the most miraculous thing to happen to me and the best gift my wife could ever have given me. I cherish every day with my daughters.

We live in New York where I work as a budget manager for a leading public transportation agency. I truly enjoy my job. I went to school to work in public transportation because of my belief that there are too many cars on the road and transit and commuter rail should be better supported and more prevalent. Although I am a manager, I work on projects that are mission critical and that will shape the future of the organization for decades to come. My work is varied, ranging from analysis of fleet procurement options to developing budgets for different initiatives to helping establish the portfolio of IT investments.

I decided to blog for several reasons. The primary is mercenary. I'm launching a freelance writing business - Livingston Creative Services - to bring in more income for my family. Through blogging, I hope to build a following that will yield assignments. (More of a plug will follow in a separate post.) I also want a place where I can voice my opinion on current events and sports, talk about my love for reading and books I'm reading, and share my passion for movies and music. As to why I call this blog "The Livingston Chronicles," my friends and family will know. I hope you will find this blog lively and relevant. Please join me on this adventure.