First Boredom, Then Fear

First Boredom, Then Fear: The Life of Philip Larkin by Richard Bradford, 263 pages

Philip Larkin is generally accepted as one of the greatest English poets of the latter half of the 20th century.  The publication of his collected letters in 1992, unfortunately, led to a chorus of denunciations due to his outspoken heretical views on matters of race and gender.  First Boredom, Then Fear is Richard Bradford's attempt to correct the record, casting Larkin's racism and xenophobia as consciously exaggerated in his letters and incidental to his poetry.

Certainly, Bradford treats his subject with respect.  His book is a literary biography in the best sense, illuminating the poetry through the life of the poet.  This is somewhat difficult with Larkin, who was, as Bradford notes, uncomfortable with anything that revealed too much of himself.  In Bradford's telling, even Larkin's closest friend could only say, "He didn't keep half his life in compartments."  And yet, paradoxically, this was the same poet who "spoke so candidly to his readers." 

Some readers, exposed to the candid Larkin, are likely to agree with those who saw in him the embodiment of "an undergraduate attitude perpetuated into adult life."  Like all artists, Larkin was a man of his time and place, and for him that was England in a particularly silly season.  Seen from this perspective, his commitment to an accessible, popular poetry and his lifelong fascination with the permanent things take on a value diminished but not extinguished by his chronic inability to commit himself.

Life of St Dionysius

The Life of St Dionysius the Areopagite by Michael Syncellus, Anthony Pavoni, and Evangelos Nikitopoulos, 267 pages

The book of Acts records that St Paul, on his visit to Athens, converted one "Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus."  Tradition relates that this Dionysius, venerated as St Dionysius the Areopagite, would become the first bishop of the city, and was eventually martyred.  Halfway across the Roman Empire, the first bishop of what would become Paris, St Dionysius or Denis, was beheaded, his remains buried at the place where the church and abbey dedicated to him were eventually built, and it was sometimes claimed that this Dionysius was the Areopagite in exile from his native Greece.  In the early centuries of Christianity multiple works appeared which claimed to have been written by the Athenian bishop, among them foundational works on Christian mysticism and angelology, most of which seem to have been written by a single author.

Modern historians discount most of this, beyond the existence of two Dionysii, one in Athens and another, later one in Paris.  The writings are ascribed to a hypothetical pseudonymous author who is thought to have lived around 500 AD.  The Life of St Dionysius the Areopagite is a panegyric composed in the 9th century by the Greek scholar monk Michael Syncellus, a translation of which takes up about fifty pages of the present book.  Most of the rest is a scholarly attack on the historical consensus, arguing that the Dionysian corpus is actually the work of the Areopagite.  The authors argue that apparent seeming anachronisms are explicable in a 1st century context, and, more exhaustively, that what are assumed to be Pseudo-Dionysian borrowings from Proclus actually represent Proclean borrowings from Dionysius.  This last point is convincingly buttressed by what appear to be references to the corpus present in pre-fifth century writings.  

If the textual analysis is quite dense and sometimes baffling to a layman, it clearly deserves to be taken seriously and not dismissed with stale references to 19th century skepticism.

Life of Robert Southwell

The Life of Robert Southwell, Poet and Martyr by Christopher Devlin, 324 pages

Born into a well-connected family in England in the middle of the sixteenth century, as a teenager Robert Southwell, possibly under the influence of recusant relations, converted to Catholicism and departed to the Continent where he could practice his faith freely, beyond the reach of Protestant persecution.  Attracted, like many devout young men of the time, to the Society of Jesus, he entered the Jesuits after an initial rejection and became first a student and later a professor at the English College in Rome.  He left behind this position to become a missionary in his homeland, where he managed to minister to the Catholic community for several years before finally being cornered, captured, tortured, and executed.  Southwell's poetry, much of it written while in hiding, would serve as an inspiration to Shakespeare, Jonson, Donne, and Hopkins, among others, while his holy life and martyrdom led to his canonization in 1970, 14 years after this biography was published.

In the author's note that begins this biography, Christopher Devlin connects Southwell with St Edmund Campion, the illustrious Jesuit scholar and martyr of the preceding generation, and refers readers to the "brilliant study" of Campion by Evelyn Waugh.  Just as Southwell lived happily in the shadow of Campion, so Devlin writes in the shadow of Waugh.  While Devlin cannot match Waugh's literary genius, he compensates with thorough scholarship, something sorely needed when the historical record is so fragmentary.  

Cardinal Manning

Cardinal Manning: A Biography by Robert Gray, 327 pages

Henry Manning did not set out to become a clergyman.  Financial pressures forced him away from a promising future in law and politics into a clerical career in the Church of England.  He did not set out to become a Catholic.  A long process led him from his upbringing in the heart of Evangelical piety into a more grounded, apostolic faith, and only a genuine crisis of conscience drove him out of Anglicanism.  Having become Catholic, however, and a Catholic priest, he did set out to take a leading position in the Catholic Church in England.  Conscious of his own considerable gifts, he was not reluctant to use them to guide the Church and society in the direction he thought best.

In his own time, Manning was highly esteemed.  Although his conversion cost him many of those dazzling friendships he had made in his youth, his tireless efforts for the working classes of England won for him an admiration far broader and no less genuine.  This was enhanced by his emaciated appearance, which seemed to be a visible record of long decades of prayer and fasting - Chesterton recalled seeing him in his cardinalatial robes looking like "a ghost clad in flames."  Subsequent generations were not so kind.  Comfortable secular scoffers had Lytton Strachey's infamous hackiograpy, which depicted Manning as an ambitious hypocrite.  Among Catholics, Manning's troubled relationship with St John Henry Newman caused his reputation to decline even as that of Newman grew.

Robert Gray's biography, then, is an important recovery.  For Gray's even-handed account of Manning's life, thought, and work reveals a man who was, indeed, ambitious and driven, yet fully aware of these tendencies in himself and determined to fight against them and, where possible, bend them towards good.  In the end, the reader is likely to echo the sentiment of the author, "if Henry Manning is not saved seventy times seven times, God help the rest of us."

Leonie Martin

Leonie Martin: A Difficult Life by Marie Baudouin-Croix, translated by Mary Frances Mooney, 157 pages

Leonie was born in 1863 to Ss Louis and Zelie Martin, the third of their six children, all daughters, who survived into adulthood.  All six eventually became nuns, with five joining the Carmelite monastery at Lisieux.  Leonie alone entered the Visitandine order at Caen, finally persevering on her third attempt.  Then again, Leonie had always been the difficult one, a sickly child, struggling with disobedience at home and failing in her studies at school, a trial and a worry to the mother who died when she was 14.  How she overcame these shortcomings, not alone but through the grace of God and her saintly intercessors, is the great theme of this short book.

Although Leonie Martin has not been canonized, Marie Baudouin-Croix's biography is unmistakably a hagiography.  It elides difficult, complex issues, notably the mental illness that afflicted Louis Martin in his later days, simplifying them into hardships to be overcome with the holy serenity of faith.  The problems this presents are more than compensated for by the author's evident understanding of, and sympathy with, the religion and religious life of the Martin family.  This is undoubtedly her story as Leonie herself would have liked it told.

Emperor of Japan

Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852-1912 by Donald Keene, 723 pages

When the 122nd Emperor of Japan ascended the Chrysanthemum throne in 1867 at the age of 14, no Japanese emperor had exercised real power for nearly seven centuries.  A year later, the last shogun resigned his position and the man who would be known as Meiji became the actual as well as symbolic ruler of Japan.  The country was dominated by a feudal aristocracy, educated according to Confucian principles, and threatened by the greed of the Western powers.  When Meiji died 45 years later, Japan had rapidly Westernized, adopted a parliamentary system, defeated China and Russia in successive wars, annexed Korea, and established itself as a major power on the global stage.  It had, however, lost something which is less tangible.

It is unclear how much influence the Meiji emperor actually exercised over the seismic changes that occurred in Japanese culture and politics during his reign.  Indeed, it is difficult to say much of anything about the personality of the emperor, given the reverential protectiveness of all those in a position to know him.  The few candid accounts of the man were provided by foreign dignitaries whose access was necessarily limited.  Understandably, then, Donald Keene's biography is as much a portrait of the era as of the emperor who gave the era its name, although discerning readers may sense the spirit of the man moving throughout.  Keene himself seems devoted to the fashionable cult of "progress", but his devotion does not become fanaticism, indeed, some of the most memorable passages concern Ulysses Grant's role in the preservation of No drama and the European derision of Western-style dance halls in Tokyo.  The result is a compelling, rich tale of an era of momentous change, both for better and for worse, told through the refracted image of the man who was its symbol.

Disraeli

Disraeli by Robert Blake, 766 pages

Benjamin Disraeli was born into a Jewish literary family, baptized into the Church of England at an early age, and educated at a second-rate school (or one he evidently felt was second-rate).  He was in turns a failure as a journalist, a middling success as an author, a greater success as a dandy, and then a brilliant success as a politician, twice serving as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and dominating the Conservative party during its first half century.  He was a romantic both by upbringing and inclination, undeniably an adventurer, disliked by the British establishment and yet an icon of Victorian Conservatism.

The definitive biography of Disraeli, begun by WF Monypenny in 1910 and finished by GE Buckle in 1920, runs to six volumes.  Robert Blake begins his biography by apologizing for its length, but pointing out that it isn't as long as Monypenny and Buckle.  Fortunately, his light touch makes even the intricacies of parliamentary politics amusing, if not always interesting.  This complements his subject, for as Blake demonstrates, throughout his career Disraeli approached politics as something of a game.  This playfulness has its attractive aspects, but also raises questions as to what, if any, principles he actually held, especially as the ideas he expounded in his political novels seem to bear little relation to the practical politics he pursued.  Yet Blake insists that despite - and, indeed, through - his flexibility, Disraeli consistently upheld the traditional, "irrational" divisions and institutions of England against the spectre of "centralizing Benthamite bureaucracy, however 'democratic'."  In this view, the central element of his playfulness was his rejection of the cant and cliche of "a society which has mistaken comfort for civilization."

Chiang Kai-Shek

Chiang Kai-Shek: China's Generalissimo and the Nation He Lost by Jonathon Fenby, 505 pages

Chiang Kai-Shek rose from humble beginnings to rule over the most populous nation in the world.  In his time he fought Chinese warlords, Communists, and the army of Imperial Japan.  He was a general who throughout his career lost more battles than he won, but only in his war with Mao Tse-Tung was he irrevocably defeated.  For the remainder of his life he plotted his return, and even in death his body remains unburied, awaiting a final rest in a restored Kuomintang China.

In his biography, Jonathan Fenby has attempted to tell the story of Chiang's rise and fall, ending with the retreat to Taiwan.  He does so passably, providing a broad, readable biography without much depth or special insight.  The real matter is implied in the second half of the subtitle.  In Fenby's estimation, it was Chiang Kai-Shek who lost China, and no one else, certainly not the American and British allies who demanded Chiang support their goals and worldview.  How he could have saved it is another matter, and here Fenby only offers some weak gestures in the direction of a Western-style liberalism that he acknowledges would have likely accelerated the disintegration of the Kuomintang government.  For some readers, the dogmatic insistence that China had to Westernize, with the only choice being between liberal "reforms" and Marxist revolution, will only sharpen the poignancy of the tale.

Charles the Bald

Charles the Bald by Janet L Nelson, 264 pages

Charles the Bald, the youngest son of Louis the Pious and a grandson of Charlemagne, has often been regarded as the first French king, even as he has often been characterized as a weak ruler who squandered his inheritance and empowered an increasingly assertive aristocracy.  In Janet Nelson's account of his life, however, he is understood as a semi-independent ruler within the greater Carolingian empire and as a deft politician who struggled with fractious vassals and relatives at a time when the end of expansion meant that rewards and inducements had to come from within the already existing realm.

Nelson manages to make even discussions about the distribution of coins from regional mints readable, if not enjoyable.  The book is neither revolutionary nor a particularly deep exploration of the Carolingian world, but it is an intriguing look at certain aspects of that culture, from an interesting perspective.

Last Samurai

The Last Samurai: The Life and Battles of Saigo Takamori by Mark Ravina, 214 pages

In 1877, Saigo Takamori died in battle against the army of the Emperor of Japan, an army he had once commanded and an emperor to whom he had pledged his life in service.  Even before his end, he was already popularly portrayed as a semi-divine figure transcending mere politics, and after his death he would continue to be celebrated by generations of Japanese romantics and reactionaries dissatisfied with the march of modernity.

Yet in Mark Ravina's telling Saigo had a crucial role in that march.  Not only was Saigo a key player in the overthrow of the shogunate after Progress was brought to Japan in the mouths of American cannons, he was central in the subsequent disempowerment of the daimyo, including his own liege lord, who had backed the ousting of the shogun.  Although it is impossible, at least from the material Ravina provides, to know exactly what Saigo believed would follow, it is difficult in hindsight to imagine anything other than a bourgeois democracy filling the resulting vacuum.  This is consistent with a view of Saigo's character that sees him as addicted to the grand gesture, the type of man who could sway the fortunes of a nation with a dramatic action at a pivotal moment, but who is uninterested in the minutiae of actually governing a modern state.  It is possible to judge this as foolishness or even indiscipline, or imagine it to be the disinterested pursuit of virtue and the selfless leadership of a true hero.  Whether deliberately or by accident, Ravina leaves that decision to the reader.

Birgitta of Sweden

Birgitta of Sweden: Life and Selected Revelations by St Birgitta of Sweden and others, translated by Albert Ryle Kezel, 235 pages

St Birgitta (often referred to as St Bridget but here given the more Teutonic variant in order to distinguish her from her more popular Irish namesake) was born in Sweden around 1303 and died in Rome in 1373.  Such was her reputation that she was canonized less than two decades later.  Beginning in early girlhood, she experienced a series of mystical visions of varying nature and subject matter, all drawing her into an ever more passionate love for God, a consuming flame that demanded to be spread to others. 

The core of St Birgitta's visions, as they are presented here, are of a dissolute monk (unnamed but known to the visionary) who interrogates God as to His nature and the nature of His creation.  This runs through an impressive catalogue of objections to God's existence, not only general questions about the existence of evil but also more specific inquiries into the cruelty of beasts, the economy of salvation, and the purpose of pleasure, all resolved with holy clarity and simplicity.  The collection of texts is rounded off with the rather dry Life prepared for her canonization and a selection of moving prayers to Christ and His Mother.

Borgias

The Borgias: The Hidden History by GJ Meyer, 431 pages

Everyone knows that after Rodrigo Borgia became Pope Alexander VI, he commenced an orgy of depravity the likes of which Rome had not seen since the days of Caligula and Nero.  Together with his bastard children, Cesare and Lucrezia, Alexander organized a criminal campaign of self-aggrandizement on a massive scale, while still finding time for some recreational murder and incest.

It's a wonderful story, featuring the darkest corruption in the holiest of places, playing upon popular prejudice and prurience, and as such it has been told and retold, most recently in hit TV shows and novels.  The only problem, according to GJ Meyer, is that very little of it is true.  Most of it is based on rumors spread by the rivals of the Borgias, given added currency by growing Italian nationalism and the Spanish origins of the family, their undisguised ambitions, and the almost complete collapse of their power after the death of Alexander, all of which was taken up and amplified by anti-Catholic polemicists in the centuries following the Reformation, eventually becoming engrained in conventional history alongside the Black Legend.  Going further than merely pointing out the obvious problems with the Borgia legend - the obviously invented operatic scenes, the supposed poisons whose effects are different from every poison known to modern medical science, the many positive accounts of Rodrigo's character before his election and Lucrezia's character after his death - Meyer challenges the most deeply ingrained myth of all, presenting strong circumstantial evidence suggesting that Cesare, Lucrezia, and their siblings were not, in fact, the illegitimate children of Rodrigo Borgia, but the legitimate children of his nephew.

The Borgias is not merely a debunking of myths.  Meyer turns the true story of the Borgias into a compelling story of ambition and intrigue, all while admirably informing the reader on the politics and culture of Renaissance Italy, a haphazard collection of independent and semi-independent states continually forming alliances and feuds with each other and the French and Spanish empires beyond the peninsula.

Blessed Charles of Austria

 Blessed Charles of Austria: A Holy Emperor and His Legacy by Charles Coulombe, 374 pages

The subtitle of this biography of the last of the Habsburg monarchs is certain to raise a few eyebrows.  At best, Charles was helpless as Austria-Hungary went down in defeat in the last years of World War I, ultimately being dissolved by the victorious Allies into a handful of feuding ethno-states.  What kind of legacy could he have?  More generally, how is it possible for an emperor to be "holy"?  Did not the high priests of Enlightenment indelibly write their verdict that "no one can reign innocently" across the pages of history in the blood of Louis XVI and his family?

As Charles Coulombe relates, the life of Blessed Charles was dominated by three great loves - his God, his family, and his people.  These were not competing, but complimentary, just as his love for his wife only reinforced his love of his children, and his children his love of his wife.  These were loves tested, proven, and refined through suffering, yet loves to which Charles remained faithful with his whole heart.  It is for this reason that he has been raised to the altars of the universal Church even as the men who supplanted and persecuted him are increasingly maligned or forgotten.

It is no doubt possible to construct a coherent biography of Charles of Austria, based entirely on his external acts, which portrays him as yet another incompetent Machiavel, interested only in power, badly exercising it when he had it and futilely attempting to regain it after he lost it.  This would seem superficially plausible, but would miss the inner life of the man and the self-sacrificial ideal of rulership he represents.  It would also do nothing to change the disastrous course the world has been on since at least 1914.

The Life and Afterlife of Harry Houdini

 Shirley J.         Adult Non-Fiction            Biography of Harry Houdini

The Life and Afterlife of Harry Houdini by Joe Posnanski     316 pages

The author's love for all things Houdini clearly shows throughout this new look at the life of Erich Weiss known as Harry Houdini.   Posnanski talks about his lifelong fascination with Houdini and his burning question, "why is Houdini remembered after all this time when so many other musicians are not?"  The answer he came up with was because Houdini kept reinventing himself.    He was a magician, an escape artist, an actor, a vaudeville showman, a comedian, a locksmith, a showman the list goes on.    Houdini wasn't only one thing, he was a myriad of talented acts.   He knew how to contact newspapers and sensationalize himself to get coverage in the papers of the times.  He and his wife performed clairvoyant acts, dabbled in spiritualist acts then denounced and exposed those who would try to defraud the public by pretending to call up the souls of their dearly departed.   People remember Houdini because he worked tirelessly to keep his name in the minds of his audience  in what ever way it took.   THe author discusses Houdini's wife's life after his death, which I had never heard about before and he tells the code the Houdinis had between them so that Bess would know that Harry had been able to cross the divide and contact her after death.   A very good book on Houdini by someone truly in love with his memory.   I recommend this book to all fans of Houdiini, fans of showbiz, fans of biorgraphies, and anyone looking for a well written read about a household name.   

John Ruskin

 John Ruskin: The Argument of the Eye by Robert Hewison, 212 pages

Midway through his life's journey, Ruskin wrote, "Once I could write joyfully about beautiful things, thinking to be understood; - now I cannot any more; for it seems to me that no one regards them."  Ruskin was, in fact, one of the most famous public intellectuals in the Anglophone world, but it was not fame he sought but understanding, and he had failed to gain many adherents for his more radical ideas, as he complained in another place: "I can get no soul to believe that the beginning of art is in getting our country clean, and our people beautiful."  Instead, Victorian England remained the prisoner of its own "greed for money, lust for food, pride of dress, and the prurient itch of momentary curiosity for the politics last announced by the newsmonger, and the religion last rolled by the chemist..."

Robert Hewison's task, then, is to facilitate a real understanding of the totality of Ruskin's thought, not as it stood at any one time as a complete, coherent doctrine, but as it changed and developed through what Ruskin himself admitted were a series of contradictions.  In Hewison's view, such understanding begins with the recognition that Ruskin was a visual thinker whose lifelong mission was to teach others how to see what he saw.  As such, his ideas are allusive and derive their power from analogy rather than logic.

She Come by It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs

 She Come by It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs by Sarah Smarsh  187 pages

Summary from Goodreads: Growing up amid Kansas wheat fields and airplane factories, Sarah Smarsh witnessed firsthand the particular vulnerabilities—and strengths—of women in working poverty. Meanwhile, country songs by female artists played in the background, telling powerful stories about life, men, hard times, and surviving. In her family, she writes, “country music was foremost a language among women. It’s how we talked to each other in a place where feelings aren’t discussed.” And no one provided that language better than Dolly Parton.

This small book was a quick, enjoyable read. While I grew up hearing Dolly's songs on the radio (on the occasion my parents would turn to the local country station on the car radio), I wouldn't say I really knew her catalog of work. And while I knew a little about her, I really didn't know much. Smarsh really packs a lot into this book, especially about Dolly Parton's beginnings in the music business. And, Smarsh adds some details about her own upbringing and ties them into Parton's music.  So, a nice book -- and something that will likely make you look for and listen to more of Dolly Parton's music. 

Tissot

Tissot: The Life and Work of Jacques Joseph Tissot 1836-1902 by Christopher Wood, 155 pages

Tissot was a very financially successful painter in his own lifetime - first as a portraitist and painter of society life in London, later as a religious painter in Paris - and yet even then he was always something of an outsider - in exile he was a bit too French for the English and upon his return a little too Anglicized for the French.  Critically, too, he is slighted as a minor painter who borrowed everything interesting about his work, or remembered fondly but passingly for his depictions of Victorian elegance. 

Wood does little to dispel any of these views - in fact, he reinforces them.  He moves rapidly through his subject's life and work, pausing only briefly to consider a particular piece or moment in time.  Certainly, he never tries the patience of his readers, and he is quite candid about what he sees as Tissot's artistic shortcomings.  Less attractively, he is also rather determined about how we, as more-modern-than-moderns, ought to see Tissot's life and work.  It is no doubt for all these reasons that the chapter considering Tissot's famous illustrations of the Bible is quite abbreviated, and none of the relevant works are reproduced in color, a rather glaring contrast to the rest of the book.

Charles Peguy

Charles Peguy: A Study in Integrity by Marjorie Villiers, 385 pages

Charles Peguy is best remembered today as the poet of The Mystery of the Charity of Joan of Arc and The Portico of the Mystery of the Second Virtue.  In his own time, he was a journalist, publisher, and activist.  As Marjorie Villiers relates, however, he was above all a man of integrity, a man who rejected propaganda and cant no matter how useful it might be, a man whose hatred of injustice led him to socialism, and whose love for the truth led him to Catholicism.  This painful, sacrificial pilgrimage, costly on both a personal and professional level, came to an abrupt, but not entirely unexpected, end on the battlefields of the First World War, fighting for his beloved France, not the France of the politicians and professors but that of the peasants and poets.

While Villiers certainly considers Peguy's literary works, this is a biography and not primarily a work of literary criticism.  Likewise, while Villiers' admiration for Peguy is apparent, she does not hesitate, in keeping with the theme of integrity, of being critical of him at times, although she generally takes a charitable view of everyone's motivations, even, admirably, Peguy's anti-Dreyfusard opponents.  These traits actually assist in making her book both readable and engaging.

Why Sinatra Matters

Why Sinatra Matters by Pete Hamill   208 pages

I was sad to hear that, on August 5, 2020, American journalist, novelist, essayist and editor Pete Hamill passed away at the age of 85.  To be honest, I thought he had already left Earth years ago.  Pete captured the heartbeat of New York City like no other writer.  He was described as "the author of columns that sought to capture the particular flavors of New York City's politics and sports and the particular pathos of its crime.

I always liked Pete’s writing style. Therefore, in honor of his memory, I decide to peruse the list of his fiction and nonfiction books.  I was happy to find one I hadn’t read…this little gem about Ol’ Blue Eyes. This book delves into Sinatra’s essence; it looks at why he was the “troubadour of urban loneliness.”

Sinatra was the son of Italian immigrants and grew up on Hoboken, New Jersey.  As an only child, he was extremely lonely, especially in a time and place of large families.  That loneliness seemed to be at his core, as it was something he could never shake.  In my opinion, that loneliness is the main reason he came out of retirement way back when---he needed the crowds’ adulation. That loneliness echoed the feelings of millions of immigrants who came to this country without a penny to their name, no family, and unable to speak the language.

Frank wasn’t a great student, dropping out of high school. He had earned a few bucks singing along with the player piano in his parents’ bar.  He had a good voice, and eventually headed across the river to Manhattan. Interesting fact, Sinatra could not read a note of music; he memorized the words and the music.  I’m not sure he tried.

 Hamill also looks at the way the Depression influenced the man and well as World War II.  Frank was 4F due to a punctured eardrum. What I found fascinating what how he learned to his signature phrasing and breath control.

A short book, it centers on how Sinatra got where he was, but doesn’t dwell on his shortcomings or his generosity. It looks at those four great influencers---the immigration experience, his innate loneliness, the Great Depression and World War II.

Hamill does go into how Frank was a scraper, clawing his way to the top, then the Great Fall (when he lost his voice), and his remarkable Comeback. Sprinkled with anecdotes (Like when Harry James wanted him to change his name to Frankie Satin---can you imagine?), this is  a fascinating look at the Man who is considered the greatest entertainer of the 20^th century.  “Why Sinatra Matters receives 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

 Rest in peace, Pete.

 

Life of Saint Teresa of Avila

The Life of Saint Teresa of Avila: A Biography by Carlos Eire, 223 pages

In the 16th century, as the fires of the Protestant Reformation swept across northern Europe, a remarkable woman rose to prominence in Spain.  A Carmelite nun from the Castilian city of Avila, Teresa of Jesus was a mystic and visionary, and also a tireless foundress and reformer.  Living at a time when the Church had a healthy suspicion of those who claimed to be in direct communication with the Almighty, Teresa's autobiography, the Life of Teresa of Avila, was written both as description and defence, her mystical locutions having drawn her deeper into the Church rather than leading her astray to preach a new gospel.

As Carlos Eire details in his biography of St Teresa's autobiography, this defence entailed a series of drafts and revisions over the course of decades as Teresa and her spiritual advisors took care to cross every theological "t".  Even so, it was not until after her death that the work was allowed to be widely circulated, and it continued to have its detractors.  Their voices were drowned out, however, by the rapid spread of her cult, and she was canonized a mere forty years after her death, with the Life providing vital testimony to her sanctity.  Nor does Eire's story stop there, for the following centuries saw the book become a defining text of early modern Catholicism, inspire great art (most famously Bernini's sculpture of the transverberation), influence religious movements including the Jansenists, Quakers, and Methodists, and finally be reimagined as a study in hysteria or proto-feminist tract.  As Eire notes, this enduring influence of the Life is itself an undeniable testament to the force of its authors personality as well as the Power that moved her.