NONFICTION: SELF-CREATED NATION
The Idea of America: Reflections on the Birth of the United States by Gordon S. Wood
Gordon Wood has been writing brilliantly on the American Revolutionary era since at least the 1960s, but many of the essays and lectures collected in this volume date from the 1980s on. In “The American Revolutionary Tradition, or Why America Wants to Spread Democracy Around the World,” Wood explains our irrepressible international ambitions by noting that not only have Americans always considered themselves unique for being a self-created nation endowed with an inordinate amount of moral virtue, but that for much of our history the rest of the world ratified that view with their feet: “The migration to the United States between 1820 and 1920 of more than 35 million refugees from monarchism gave the Americans’ conception of themselves as a chosen people a less divine and more literal meaning, and confirmed for them their preeminence as a revolutionary people.”
In another piece, “The Legacy of Rome in the American Revolution,” Wood provides numerous examples of classical iconography in American life, from the domes on the Washington Mall to the dress of one Joseph Warren, who “actually wore a toga while delivering the Boston Massacre oration in 1775.”
FICTION: GHETTO-FABULOUS; SCI-FI
The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton
Zoo City by Lauren Beukes
Genre fiction is a literary ghetto. Anything tarred with the labels mystery, Western, sci-fi or fantasy goes on its own separate shelf, far away from the high culture of literary fiction. But there are annual prizes in genre fiction that catch everyone’s attention, and two were given out last week: The Edgar Award for the best mystery novel went to Steve Hamilton’s “The Lock Artist,” and the Arthur C. Clarke Award for the best science-fiction novel went to Lauren Beukes’ “Zoo City.”
Before it is a science-fiction novel, “Zoo City” is a detective story, the tale of a woman thrust into the middle of a mystery. In this alternate-universe version of South Africa, murderers (called “zoos”) carry their guilt with them in the form of a spirit animal that gives them magical powers. The animal stands between the guilty and the Undertow, a force that swallows up any zoos whose animals are killed. Zinzi is a zoo with a blackmail problem who gets drawn into investigating the disappearance of a teenage pop star and winds up uncovering a much more sinister plot.
With a narrator who hasn’t spoken since the age of 8 because of a Terrible Secret That Will Someday Be Revealed, Hamilton’s “The Lock Artist” seems almost guaranteed to be a letdown. Spoiler: It’s not. Hamilton, who works for IBM in Upstate New York, understands what’s truly scary, what’s truly suspenseful. Michael, a mute 17-year-old with a talent for drawing and lock-picking, tells two concurrent stories: one of his senior year in high school and one of his experience as a master safecracker. While the structure of the book seems at first as simple as its aggressively unstylish prose, it shifts quickly from a teenage love story to a heist-gone-wrong. The racing conclusion feels inevitable but entirely fresh.
NONFICTION: TOP GUN
SEAL Team Six: Memoirs of an Elite Navy SEAL Sniper by Howard E. Wasdin and Stephen Templin
Timing can be a matter of life or death for a highly trained Navy SEAL — and never more so than when publishing a book about one’s exploits in the field. Such is the lesson learned by Howard E. Wasdin, a former member of the elite SEAL Team 6. About two weeks ago, SEAL Team 6 officers dispatched Osama bin Laden, and last week, Wasdin’s memoir of his time with the squad hit bookstores at the most fortuitous moment imaginable. The book, which Wasdin co-wrote with Stephen Templin, is now hovering at the top of Amazon’s best-seller list, and Hollywood is said to be screaming for the movie rights.
“SEAL Team Six” pulses with the grit of a Jerry Bruckheimer production. There are brawls at strip joints, firefights in alleyways, explosions from RPGs, a bit of romance and, of course, cheesy lines. “This wasn’t the first time I’d killed for my country,” Wasdin says after taking out a bad guy. “It wouldn’t be the last.”
The story’s hero grew up poor in Florida and Georgia. His father abandoned him, and his stepfather beat him. After dropping out of college at 20, he was at risk of becoming a giant screwup. Instead, he joined the Navy. On his journey to becoming a member of the Navy’s best of the best, Wasdin proved his mettle in Operation Desert Storm and endured training that would break the back of most men. Finally, he was accepted into SEAL Team 6 and became “one of the best snipers on the planet,” according to the book jacket. The most suspenseful part of the story takes place in Mogadishu, Somalia, where Wasdin was wounded when his team tried to capture a Somali warlord.
Wasdin’s sometimes cocky voice can be grating. But if there’s anyone who has earned the right to engage in chest thumping, it’s a guy like him.
