THE OCCASIONAL READER
By David P. Clark, MD, FACMS
“The importance of reading, for me, is that it allows you to dream. Reading not only educates, but is relaxing and allows you to feed your imagination - creating beautiful pictures from carefully chosen words.” – Eric Ripert
George Gershwin’s 1935 opera Porgy and Bess proclaimed, “Summertime. And, the living is easy.” Perhaps, “easy living” from June to August was once the case. However, modern summertimes have become crammed full of activities. Vacation experiences, home maintenance, and all manner of youth camps have made any thought that summer might provide a restful break from a busy surgical practice the stuff of ancient myth. Josef Pieper, in his classic book Leisure: The Basis of Culture, suggests true leisure “pierce[s] the canopy” of work that forms over our lives. This kind of leisure is, “stillness, contemplation, receptivity, worship, wonder, mystery, and grace.”
So, what follows are my suggestions intended to entice readers of this column—a loyal following with the widest spectrum of reading tastes— to find some “real” leisure by reading a good book.
FICTION SUGGESTION
“Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures.” – Jessamyn West
STATE OF WONDER by Ann Patchett
My fiction suggestion is a novel from one of America’s most talented living authors. Many readers are aware of her story-telling talents through the award-winning book Bel Canto, or her more recent collection of essays, This is the Story of a Happy Marriage. State of Wonder is her recent novel that contains elements of a who-done-it combined with a classic “journey” story.
An employee of a pharmaceutical company dies unexpectedly in the Amazon. The story's female protagonist, a former student of the deceased, is charged by the company with traveling to the remote site to discern precisely what happened to the dead man--foul play is suspected. She is also asked to clarify exactly how much progress has been made on the drug being developed at the remote site. The protagonist’s journey and ability to sort out the situation are complicated by her significant emotional baggage. As in all epic “journey” stories, the conclusion revolves equally around the protagonist’s dealing with her “flaws” and the solution to the researcher’s death.
The novel reads quickly, with excellent descriptions of place and interrogation of characters. None of the characters becomes a stereotype, and the author weaves a group of fascinating sub-plots. Those with intimate knowledge of pharmaceutical companies may need to suspend their beliefs in a few spots. However, the author has been able to engage many of the industry’s problems and ethical issues without appearing to preach.
The novel’s characters are far from perfect, and motives remain murky or at least conflicted. Unlike traditional detective fiction, stories that start with a dead body and proceed via physical clues to a solution, this novel plumbs psychological clues for clarity. This interest in motivation and hidden desires makes State of Wonder far more like the complex Inspector Wexford novels of Ruth Rendell than the formulaic stories of Dame Agatha Christie. Patchett writes unique books, and this one should hold your attention.
POETRY SUGGESTION
“The poet's job is to put into words those feelings we all have that are so deep, so important, and yet so difficult to name, to tell the truth in such a beautiful way, that people cannot live without it.” – Jane Kenyon
DRAWN TO THE LIGHT: Poems on Rembrandt’s Religious Paintings by Marilyn Chandler McEntyre
Readers of this column know that from time to time I recommend books of poetry. I freely admit I am an amateur in this area. But, rather than the modern meaning of amateur—an unpaid and wholly inept practitioner—I prefer an older definition deriving from the French word amour. I am a lover of poetry.
This small, older book by Marilyn McEntyre combines art and poetry. Excellent reproductions of the Rembrandt paintings accompany these wonderful and vivid poems. McEntyre’s poetry is solid, particular, and beautiful. Hers are not abstract musings, but rather the thoughts of an intelligent and imaginative observer.
Poetry has been defined as “painting with words.” Drawn to the Light offers the reader the opportunity to thicken the imagination with a helping of beauty from two masters: Rembrandt’s paintings and McEntyre’s words. The heart will understand long before the reader’s head will realize the superb word-craft of this talented poet.
The book is available on Kindle. However, in a reverse of the usual state of affairs, excellent hardback book copies are available on the used market at a significant discount. Worth the effort.
NON-FICTION SUGGESTION
“These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways, but narrower viewpoints. “ – Bob Moorehead
THE ROAD TO CHARACTER by David Brooks
David Brooks is a well-known New York Times columnist. Brook’s previous books have been biting satires concerning current culture. (See: Bobos in Paradise) However, as readers of his bi-weekly op-ed columns know, Brooks has more recently moved toward reflecting on the deeper shifts in our society’s practices that leave us ill-prepared to deal with our complex ethical problems. This is a deeply engaging and thoughtful book concerning personal virtue development; particularly the virtues constituting character.
While teaching a course concerning character in public life at Yale, the author recognized contemporary society has difficulty accurately defining precisely what character is. Rather than falling back upon the usual “I know it when I see it” cliché, Brooks has employed an unusual literary structure to illustrate his discussion. In the introduction and first sixteen pages, the author briefly outlines his thesis. First, the virtues that enhance our resumes and contribute to external success are different than the virtues discussed at your funeral. These “eulogy” virtues are deeper values of the heart, the old-fashioned virtues of kindness, honesty, bravery, and faithfulness. The second argument suggests that modern culture has so blurred the meanings of the words used to define virtue and character, we have lost the language to discuss them in a “bullet point” fashion. Stories must be used if meaningful debate concerning our moral ecology is to occur.
The remainder of the book uses the lives of specific individuals as exemplars. Brooks’ choices are eclectic. Johnny Unitas, George C. Marshall, George Elliot, and Augustine are just a few of the characters the author investigates to explicate the virtues forming the infrastructure of character. To Brooks’ credit, he does not sanitize his exemplars. For example, he discusses Dwight David Eisenhower’s self-control failures—anger, in particular—even as he points out the former President’s formidable accomplishments because of his life-long commitment to self-control.
The Road to Character is a enjoyable book to read, one that educated me about portions of American history and individuals I did not know well. Plus, Brooks is a master writer. Even if you are not a fan of his New York Times column, I think you will find much here to stimulate thinking and the imagination.