Book Review: Victor Hugo - Ninty-Three

I've never read Les Miserables or The Hunchback of Notre Dame (all I've seen are the movies), so I have no idea how this one compares to the others in literary terms. However, this book was fantastic so I might seek out the others soon enough. It's set in the year 1793 (hence the title) during a counter-revolutionary revolt against the new French government, and it focuses on a British attempt to aid the supporters of the monarchy in a remote area of country against the revolutionary government's attempts to suppress the rebellion by whatever means necessary. One of the striking things about the writing is how even-handed Hugo is about presenting the different factions involved, which must have taken on added resonance given the book's publication shortly after France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. Everyone is portrayed in a bold, dramatic style that attracted none other than Ayn Rand, who wrote an introduction to my copy. Despite that dubious endorsement, rest assured that the dramatic action is backed by a series of truly thoughtful dialogues that place one of the most important events in the history of freedom in the context of the terrible warfare that went along with it.

Book Review: Matt Taibbi - The Great Derangement

Are we a society, or a sorry collection of deluded, implacably antagonistic interest groups? Is America still a nation of progress, or are we doomed to repeat the Soviet Union's slow decaying rot due to our inability to directly engage the unpleasant reality of our completely dysfunctional culture? Taibbi is easily my favorite journalist working now because he matches the most awesome, effortless prose since Hunter S Thompson (whose position at Rolling Stone Taibbi now fills) with the kind of incredulous anger that can only come from having to cover some of the most degrading and worthless media stories our culture has to offer (the Michael Jackson trial, Lynndie England). The basic premise of the book is that American discourse has become so infected with meaningless sports team-ish tribalism that it's almost impossible for our political system to function effectively. There's tons of hilarious yet depressing reporting on how irredeemably corrupt Washington has become, cheered on by a public that's nearly incapable of making informed decisions on any issues whatsoever due to an utterly worthless media that can only report the most banal and useless stories. I would say that the best part of the book is where he pretends to be born again at Pastor John Hagee's San Antonio megachurch (the same anti-Catholic nutcase who was briefly in the news last year when McCain tried to seek his endorsement), but the writing is superb throughout.