The New American Story by Bill Bradley, Random House, Non-Fiction, 364 pp., $25.95

Despite its uninspired title, this book by the former U.S. Senator, NBA basketball star, and one time presidential candidate Bill Bradley, is worth a read, even though his new American story is easily shot full of holes in some specifics. Bradley’s sincerity and passion are apparent, but he comes to the table nonetheless as a member of the American corporate elite and a man born to some privilege.

Bradley states that all state and federal workers should pay into the social security system. He says that in order to reduce the unprecedented federal deficit, seniors will have to accept reduced social security benefits. What he skips over are the extraordinarily generous retirement benefits that we award to senators and congressmen who have served for three terms (eighteen years) and all the other costly perks which accrue to this class of public servants.

With regard to health care, Bradley suggests a universal health care plan for every American, but he discriminates against smokers and the obese, stating that they should pay higher health care premiums because they cause their own health issues. It is never a good thing to create a sub-class of citizens. What about the white collar corporate exec who runs three times a week and then snorts a little heart-stopping coke on the weekends. What about the guy next door who drinks too much, beats his wife a little, and then sends her to an emergency room because ‘she walked into a door’. What about motorcyclists. It is imprudent to send a message like this to the medical community which suggests that if you caused an injury by your own actions, your health needs are minimalized and you become expendable because you brought this on yourself. Americans are supposed to be free, and entitled to all the help this society can give them. To lay the burden on the obese and smokers is specious at best. Bradley’s remarks put me in mind of Dickens’ Christmas Carol. At one point some businessmen approach Scrooge seeking donations for the poor, and I paraphrase, “Are there no workhouses?” Scrooge asks. “Oh, yes, replies one of the men, “But some of the poor would rather die than go there.” Scrooge says, “Then let them die and reduce the surplus population.” Demonizing sectors of the population serves no one. Eating is a legal activity and so is smoking. Maybe Bradley could persuade the tobacco companies to reduce the addictive elements in cigarettes rather than write off those who consume them. It seems that health care emerged as one of those great dire crises when hospitals became privatized, when money, not health, became the bottom line. If people want to eat or drink or smoke themselves to death, they can do that because this is America, the land of the free, but we have become more Orwellian than Jeffersonian, and we are made to conform to those who think they know what’s best for us. That decision is ours, for the time being.

The new American story really should borrow from the old American story in which a graduating senior with no desire to attend college could obtain a factory job which he or she could keep for 40 years or so until retirement, a job good enough to buy a modest home and sustain a family. That isn’t possible now when behemoth corporations swallow up smaller businesses and send those jobs overseas. Thank you, Bill Clinton and NAFTA. You’d think the American consumer would have profited from cheap goods, but why do we have to pay $25 for a soccer ball that some kid in Pakistan sewed up for about 30 cents a day? Well, we have to finance windfall bonuses for departing CEO’s whose take can run into the hundreds of millions of dollars while workers are laid off and product quality declines, all to benefit the shareholders and the CEO. When corporate America gets a conscience, our country’s problems will be solved.

Bradley wants quality education in his new American story, but he doesn’t borrow from the old American story, nor does he acknowledge that education became an issue when parochial schools closed and the nuns went away. A parochial school education was broad- based with courses in geography, handwriting, civics, Latin, with an emphasis on basic skills. Graduates of parochial schools emerged with a solid base of knowledge and etiquette that served them well whether they attended college or not.

There is not a single issue confronting Americans today that could not be solved by personal integrity in every endeavor, but we have nationalized narcissism, and the results are quite evident. People make mistakes, but people of integrity acknowledge error and don’t make the same mistakes over and over again. Our national focus should be on self-improvement in this area of our lives, and all good things will follow. When the social revolution of the sixties turned our country on its head, we failed to moderate the sometimes positive changes of that era with the more positive aspects of the fifties. Instead, we went overboard, and we’re paying the price now in a diminished national conscience which gave rise to the serious problems we now face.

Bradley spends some quality time bashing the corporate media for its failure to truly educate Americans about the current state of national government, and he wallops the Bush administration, particularly President Bush and his ‘let them eat cake’ style of leadership. Further, he precisely cuts to the heart of what’s wrong with both major political parties. On those three issues, he gets it exactly right.

Addressing the energy crisis, Bradley suggests a one dollar per gallon gasoline tax to encourage conservation. That measure would be a dire hardship for the poor and the middle class, but that’s how wealthy white men solve problems. The wealthy can afford to drive what they wish and pay the tax, so once again, the poor will be unduly burdened and true conservation measures will be mitigated. Does Mr. Bradley drive a Prius?

Again, while Bradley is obviously sincere, his approach is technical. Nothing good will happen without our leaders leading from a position of less ‘windfall’ everything, and more from improving the collective good.

This book is well written, though the acronyms and statistical data are dizzying. Bradley deserves a hearing because he has ideas that he has courageously brought forth, and without some morally weighted ideas, there will be no authentic solutions.

Sister Pelagia and the White Bulldog by Boris Akunin, Translation by Andrew Bromfield, Random House Trade Paperbacks, Mystery, 288 pp., $9.95

If you think Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson were an odd couple, wait until you meet Sister Pelagia and Bishop Mitrofanii. The good Bishop of the Zavolzhsk region of Russia is dragged into a family crisis when his spoiled, wealthy aunt’s prized white bulldog is poisoned. His response to his aunt’s plea for help is to send the somewhat klutzy but very bright Sister Pelagia to unravel the mystery. En route to the aunt’s estate the good sister comes across two headless bodies, and the plots begin to thicken even as the skies overhead darken and rumble with thunder.

Boris Akunin sets his tale against the canvas of late19th century Russia when the nihilist movement was rising, the monarchy was weakening and the power of the Russian Orthodox Church was being mishandled in some quarters of the vast empire. Akunin deftly draws the reader into this somewhat chaotic world with beautifully crafted language, rich geographic detail and unforgettable characters. Sister Pelagia is a relatively young widowed socialite who has become a female monastic-a life many Orthodox widows choose to embrace. Like the Agatha Christie creation, Miss Marple, Pelagia is constantly knitting but there the similarity ends. Sister Pelagia is as much Sherlock Holmes with his deductive reasoning as she is Fr. Brown with his intuitive skill.

Her superior-the good Bishop himself- comes from a wealthy family. He pursued a brief career in the Cavalry with political aspirations but after a brief military career left disheartened to become a monastic and eventually a Bishop. His character is reminiscent of the good Dr. Watson. He recognizes very clearly that Sister Pelagia’s deductive and intuitive skills far out-race his talents, but his station in life tends to bring trouble his way.

This historical mystery is a wonderful escape. Not only does the story draw you in but the picture of pre-revolutionary Russia captured by this talented writer is so realistic. It is possible, reading this book to understand how the social revolution which was about to take place could occur and take the vast majority of citizens by surprise. That said, there is little about this story that is political in nature. If you love English well written and stories tightly crafted you will thoroughly enjoy this novel skillfully translated from the original Russian by Andrew Bromfield. Review by Alice Hawrilenko

The Fifth Vial by Michael Palmer, St. Martin’s Press, Medical Thriller, 384 pp., $25.95

While The Fifth Vial is a genuinely absorbing, page-turning thriller about illegal organ harvesting and transplantation, the real story is the one about the author, a former doctor, once addicted to prescription painkillers and alcohol who was rescued from a suicide attempt by members of his own profession. Palmer, who lives north of Boston, now performs those rescues for others. Palmer’s previous books tackle tough medical issues: The Sisterhood (euthanasia), Side Effects (infertility), Flashback, (corporate ownership of hospitals), Natural Causes (holistic healing and alternative medicine), Silent Treatment (insurance company greed), Miracle Cure (cheating in clinical research), Extreme Measures (human experimentation), The Patient (ethics of performing lifesaving surgery on a serial killer), Critical Judgment (ecological contamination and health), Fatal (research flaws in vaccinations), The Society (managed care).

In this latest a Harvard medical student, a down-on-his-luck PI from Chicago, and a brilliant medical scientist working in Africa are bound together by powerful forces none of them know of or could imagine. They don’t know that they have become targets of a secret society with global reach and unlimited resources with one goal in mind-to cull out the unworthy and keep significant contributors to society alive.

From Boston to Brazil to the jungles of Africa, the action is relentless. Palmer succeeds by creating fascinating characters, not all of whom are entirely likeable, but who nonetheless drive this superbly plotted thriller across the globe and into the promised land. This is a superior thriller with a message, and it is absolutely a first- rate read. Plan to stay up late.

The Book of Air and Shadows by Michael Gruber, Wm. Morrow, Fiction, 384 pp., $24.95

If you find the plot-find a previously unknown Shakespearean manuscript described in ciphered letters- a bit reminiscent of The DaVinci Code you are not alone. However, this book is a good read and very different.

This is terrific story is told by an omniscient author from the points of view of three different characters. Jake Mishkin is an Intellectual Property Attorney with no self-esteem who has, in his own opinion, been able to amass a considerable fortune simply by playing the role of attorney effectively. He has also excelled at the role of Don Juan which he regrets. He has not, however, played the role of friend, husband or father very well, a fact he also regrets. His client, a renowned Shakespearean scholar who has made one reputation damaging mistake in his academic career, brings Jake a letter which refers to ciphered letters telling the tale of an unknown Shakespearean manuscript. His client is murdered and Jake is drawn into the mystery when he fancies himself to be in love with the niece of the murdered man.
Albert Crosetti is an aspiring film-maker who works as a web developer for an antique book dealer in order to acquire money to further his career. He lives with his mother who would be perfectly happy to fund his education in anything but film school. He is curious, somewhat impulsive and very secure with a healthy sense of self. He discovers the ciphered letters which lead to murder and mayhem.

Richard Bracegirdle, a soldier, is dead and has been since the 1600’s. His letters tell a tale of Shakespeare that only a man who knew the bard well could tell. Through the ciphered documents we learn about a play written to honor Mary Queen of Scots but hidden once the motives of the play’s sponsor were uncovered. His clues lead Mishkin, Crosetti, a band of immigrant Russian gang members and an elusive woman who has won Crosetti’s heart, on a chase from a loft in Red Hook, Brooklyn to Oxford, England.

Michael Gruber set himself a challenging task with this novel and has produced a fine tale with down-to-earth characters and a totally fanciful plot which seems perfectly logical while you are reading the book. Unlike many thrillers this story also has an underlying theme best expressed in the front piece where the author quotes Shakespeare (The Tempest, act IV, scene 1, the First Folio, 1623):
 

…we are such stuffe
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleepe…
Shakespeare has made this allusion more than once. (From As You Like It (II, vii, 139-143)

All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players.
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.

This is a great escapist novel. Enjoy! Review by Alice Hawrilenko

More Books…

Daddy’s Girl, (Harper Collins) a legal thriller from the master, Lisa Scottoline, has already hit the Times bestseller list and with good reason. Natalie Greco is a young law professor at Penn who becomes embroiled in murder, corruption, and family disputes. Scottoline always showcases highly educated women who battle their insecurities and dilemmas with brio, compassion, and honor. Excellent! Glass Houses by Jane Haddam (St. Martin’s Minotaur) is the 21st book in this series which features former FBI profiler Gregor Demarkian of Phildalphia. A serial killer is terrifying the city, and the DA is desperate for help. Enter Demarkian who is known as the Armenian-American Hercule Poirot. Fans will be happy to know that Demarkian’s love, the splendidly neurotic Bennis Day Hannaford has returned form her year long sojourn. Lots happens on every front, and the ending is a beauty. The best thing about Haddam’s Demarkian is his old world view of contemporary society, and he is chagrined. Haddam’s sense of humor is priceless. I love her work. Cover-Up by Michele Martinez (Wm. Morrow) is the third worthy entry in the Melanie Vargas series. Vargas is a federal prosecutor, recently divorced and in love with an FBI agent. This time out, the horribly mutilated body of a local reporter who specialized in scandal is found in Central Park, but this crime wasn’t done by some junkie. Vargas tracks her suspects down Park Ave. until the prison door slams shut. Martinez, who was a federal prosecutor, brings authenticity and passion to her work. Great for the beach, but get the first two books in the series before you read this one. They are Most Wanted and The Finishing School.

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