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In Print
February
2001
Brief
Reviews
Books Received
Mark
Salzman '82
Lying Awake
Alfred A. Knopf, $21.00
reviewed by
Bruce Fellman
Consider this spiritual
dilemma: You're a cloistered nun, and after years of striving -- and apparently
failing -- to feel close to God, you begin to have visions that inspire brilliant
poetry. Your writing is published to great acclaim and helps the monastery with
its finances. It becomes a far-reaching form of ministry, and the Vatican invites
you to take part in special ceremonies. But the visions are accompanied by severe
headaches, and these turn out to be caused by a brain tumor that causes temporal
lobe epilepsy. Surgery offers a cure, but at a tremendous cost -- your literary
connection to the Lord.
Many gifted writers,
artists, and mystics -- Tennyson, Proust, Van Gogh, Saint Paul, and Saint Teresa
of Avila, among them -- may have suffered from this disorder, whose symptoms include
an outpouring of writing and an obsessive interest in religion. And as Sister
John of the Cross, the cloistered Carmelite nun who is the protagonist of Mark
Salzman's spare and powerful novel, ponders what appears to be a choice between
surgery and salvation, she thinks about Dostoevsky, a known epileptic. "If [he]
had been given the option of treatment, would he have taken it? Should he have?"
she wonders, trying to figure out "how to tell the difference between genuine
spiritual experiences and false ones."
While Sister John
wrestles with these issues, she is joined on a long night of decision-making by
her fellow nuns in a touching display of solidarity. "A sister might feel lost,
but she was never alone," says the nun. In prose rich with the eloquence of monastery
silence, Salzman offers a meditation on the meaning of community and service and
the nature of faith.
Richard
Benson, Dean of the School of Art
A Yale Album: The Third Century
Yale University Press, $39.95
reviewed
by Bruce Fellman
As a photographer
and art school dean, Richard Benson has a special perspective on the University's
history. And he brings it to bear in his selection of images for his illustrated
tour of Yale over the past century on the occasion of its Tercentennial. Benson
notes that "Yale entered the 20th century as a small college . but the tremendous
growth of the past 100 years has transformed it into one of the world's great
universities."
Benson mined the
archives for photographs and wrote an engaging commentary for the
images. His text is accompanied by contributions from President
Richard Levin, Provost Alison Richard,
art historian Jules Prown, and others."We enter Yale's fourth century
with confidence and commitment," writes President Levin in an essay
at the end of the book. The history Benson has presented in both
pictures and words shows that Levin has a solid foundation on which
to build.
Carl
Zimmer '87
Parasite Rex: Inside the Bizarre
World of Nature's Most Dangerous Creatures
Free Press/Simon & Schuster, $26.00
reviewed
by Bruce Fellman
Parasites have long
been the Rodney Dangerfields of the natural world. Not only did the myriad varieties
of animals and plants that make their biological livings off of other animals
and plants get scant respect, they were also seen as "a grave warning for humans,"
says Carl Zimmer. Biologists and theologians alike noted that instead of evolving
towards a higher plane, parasites were "the sine qua non of degenerates."
But in this examination
of the often remarkable lifestyles of the parasitic and the infamous, Zimmer shows
that a new viewpoint has emerged. "A parasite lives in a delicate competition
with its host for the host's own flesh and blood," he writes. In profiling such
creatures as zombifying fungi and castrating barnacles, along with the scientists
who study them, the author reveals how this balance has been struck over time
and what it has meant for the evolution of species.
Zimmer explains how
organisms like blood flukes, tapeworms, and the protozoan that causes malaria
manage to elude the body's inner defenses, colonize "the most hostile habitats
nature has to offer," and evolve "beautifully intricate adaptations in the process."
Especially intriguing is his account of recent research that demonstrates how
parasites can actually manipulate the behavior -- even the anatomy -- of their
hosts to do their bidding.
"Parasites have probably
been driving the evolution of their hosts since the dawn of life itself," says
Zimmer, adding that they might in fact be necessary for good ecological health.
In confronting the uneasy relationship between humans and the planet -- itself
a kind of parasitism -- there's a lesson. "If we want to succeed as parasites,
we need to learn from the masters," he writes.
Wilbur
Cross '41
Disaster at the Pole: The Tragedy
of the Airship Italia and the 1928 Nobile Expedition to the North Pole
Lyons Press, $24.95
reviewed
by John
Letterman '89
In Disaster at the
Pole, Wilbur Cross has added to the annals of Arctic exploration an epic of tragic
adventure that brings to life General Umberto Nobile's ill-fated polar expedition
of 1928. As well as providing a compelling account of the dangers of aeronautic exploration, Cross illuminates the political and scientific rivalries that dominated
the enterprise, notably those arising from the rising Fascist government in Italy.
In 1926, in the dirigible
Norge commissioned by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, Nobile had achieved
a historic flight over the Pole -- only three days after Richard E. Byrd and Floyd
Bennet had crossed the Pole by airplane. Encouraged by this success, the general,
a pioneering aeronautical engineer, designed the Italia, an improved lighter-than-air
craft, and planned a new scientific expedition to the Arctic. Well aware of the
perils of his undertaking, Nobile sought to surpass the achievement of simply
crossing the Pole. His goal was to land scientists to conduct research on the
ground -- not only at the Pole, but also along the Siberian Coast, in Greenland,
and at other points never before visited by modern Europeans.
Heavily burdened
with supplies and a crew of 20, the Italia set off from Milan on April 15, 1928.
The flight to its base at Kings Bay in Spitsbergen, Norway, itself an amazing
feat, was achieved on May 6, 1928. After repairs and two preliminary jaunts -- including a 69-hour, 2,500-mile flight to Nicholas II Land and back -- the Italia
set off for the Pole in the predawn hours of May 23rd. The airship would never
return.
Wilbur Cross has
produced a remarkably detailed account of an important chapter of
Arctic exploration. Disaster at the Pole tells a story of passionate
science, courage, tragedy, and survival.
Brief Reviews
John R. Bockstoce
'66
Arctic Discoveries: Images from Voyages of Four Decades in the North
The History Bank/University of Washington Press, $29.95
Arctic historian, archeologist, sailor, and member of a native whaling crew John
Bockstoce has explored the north from Alaska to Greenland. In a book with considerable
appeal for travelers, he recounts his adventures.
Barnaby Conrad
'75
Mark Stock: Paintings
Metropolitan Books, $45.00
Painter, set designer, and part-time drummer Mark Stock blends art and intrigue
in work that moves "somewhere between gorgeous dreamscape and forties movie still."
Conrad explores the development of this "emotional alchemist."
Laura A. Corio,
MD, and Linda G. Kahn '89
The Change Before the Change: Everything You Need to Stay Healthy in the Decade
Before Menopause
Bantam Books/Random House, $24.95
The authors provide a thorough "owner's manual" that explains what to expect in
perimenopause and how to deal with a changing body.
Michael DiGiacomo
'68
Apparently Unharmed: Riders of the Cresta Run
Texere, $22.95
The Cresta Run in St. Moritz, Switzerland, is a three-quarter mile ice-covered
track with a vertical drop of 514 feet that intrepid riders attempt to navigate
on the high-tech equivalent of Flexible Flyers that reach 80 mph. Cresta veteran
DiGiacomo takes readers downhill. Fast.
David L. Katz,
MD, '93MPH
Nutrition in Clinical Practice
Lippincott, Williams, and Wilkins, $42.95
In a book geared to the physician but accessible by the general public, Katz,
who heads Yale's prevention research center, offers a level-headed examination
of nutrition's role in human health.
William Zinsser
Mitchell and Ruff: An American Portrait in Jazz
Paul Dry Books, $14.95
When William Zinsser was master of Branford College in the 1970s, he met Music
School professor Willie Ruff and his sidekick, Dwike Mitchell, two of the finest
jazz musicians in the country. Zinsser tells their story.
Books
Received
T.D.
Seymour Bassett '35
The God of the Hills: Piety and Society in Nineteenth-Century
Vermont
Vermont Historical Society Press,$26.95
John
R. Bockstoce '66
Arctic Discoveries: Images from Voyages of Four Decades in the North
The History Bank/University of Washington Press, $29.95
Brent
C. Bolin '62, '68MArch
Architectural Ornament: Banishment and Return
W.W. Norton, $26.95
William
G. Bowen '72LLDH and James L. Shulman '87, '93PhD
The Game of Life: College Sports and Educational
Values
Princeton University Press, $27.95
Jeff
Carlson and Glenn Fleishman '90
Real World Adobe GoLive 5
Peach Pit Press, $44.99
Thurston
Clarke '66
Searching for Crusoe: A Journey Among the Last
Real Islands
Ballantine Books, $24.95
Jane
Dailey '87
Before Jim Crow: The Politics of Race in Postemancipation
Virginia
University of North Carolina Press, $39.95
Melissa
Jayne Fawcett
Medicine Trail: The Life and Lessons of Gladys
Tantaquidgeon '94DHL
University of Arizona Press, $35.00
Karla
Gottlieb '88
The Mother of Us All: A History of Queen Nanny,
Leader of the Windward Jamaican Maroons
African World Press, $16.95
Paul
Kane '84
Drowned Lands
University of South Carolina Press, $15.95
C.
Brian Kelly '57
Best Little Ironies, Oddities, and Mysteries of
the Civil War
Cumberland House, $14.95
David
Kessler, Dean of the Yale School of Medicine
A Question of Intent: A Great American Battle
with a Deadly Industry
PublicAffairs, $27.50
Janice
R. Levine '76 and Howard J. Markham, Editors
Why Do Fools Fall in Love? Experiencing the Magic,
the Mystery, and Meaning of Successful Relationships
Jossey-Bass, $19.95
Paul
Lussier '81
Last Refuge of Scoundrel
Warner Books, $26.95
Townsend
Ludington '57, Editor
A Modern Mosaic: Art and Modernism in the United
States
University of North Carolina Press, $59.95
Aaron
L. Mackler '80, Editor
Life and Death Responsibilities in Jewish Biomedical
Ethics
Jewish Theological Seminary Press, $40.00
Caitlin
Macy '92
The Fundamentals of Play
Random House,$24.95
Charles
Martin '74, '88PhD
Ferryboat
Hybrid Media Project, $12.00
Archer
Mayor '73
The Marble Mask
Mysterious Press, $23.95
Mark
A. McIntosh '82
Christology from Within: Spirituality and the
Incarnation in Hans Urs von Balthasar
Notre Dame Press, $18.00
Dana
Milbank '90
Smashmouth: Two Years in the Gutter
with Al Gore and George W. Bush -- Notes from
the 2000 Campaign Trail
Basic Books, $25.00
David
Nadal '95MMus, Editor and Transcriber
Lute Songs of John Dowland
Dover Publications, $11.95
David
Nadal '95MMus, Editor and Transcriber
Easy Classics for Guitar
Dover Publications, $9.95
David
Nadal '95MMus, Editor and Transcriber
Guitar Classics: Works by Albeniz, Bach, Dowland,
Granados, Scarlatti, Sor, and Other Great Composers
Dover Publications, $12.95
Susan
Naquin '74PhD, Editor
Peking: Temples and City Life, 1400-1900
University of California Press, $80.00
Vincent
Pitts '69
La Grande Mademoiselle at the Court of France,
1627-1693
Johns Hopkins University Press, $42.00
Rachel
Seidman '95PhD
The Civil War: A History in Documents
Oxford University Press, $30.00
Jonathan
Stone '78
The Heat of Lies
St. Martin's/Minotaur, $23.95
Kim
Todd '92
Tinkering with Eden: A Natural History of Exotics
in America
W.W. Norton, $27.95
Shelby
Tucker '57
Among Insurgents: Walking through Burma
St. Martin's Press, $29.95
Stephen
G. Waxman, Chairman, Department of Neurology, Yale School of Medicine
Form and Function in the Brain and Spinal Cord:
Perspectives of a Neurologist
MIT Press, $39.95
Myrna
M. Weissman '74PhD, Editor
Treatment of Depression: Bridging the 21st Century
American Psychiatric Press, $64.00
Allan
M. Winkler '74PhD
The Cold War: A History in Documents
Oxford University Press, $30.00
Tom
Wolfe '57PhD
Hooking Up
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, $25.00 |
