Our Work

Scott Martelle on a National Book Award winner

Our Scott Martelle has this short interview piece in Orange Coast magazine on Thanhha Lai, a one-time journalist who won a National Book Award with her first novel. From his story: 

Lai studied journalism at the University of Texas, Austin, and spent 18 months in Orange County before eventually earning a master’s in fine arts from New York University. Now married with a 5-year-old daughter, she lives in New York City and is on leave this year from teaching at the Parsons design school. She focused her writing passion on her arrival in Alabama as a 10-year-old who spoke no English. “I was standing in this playground, not knowing what the kids were saying to me,” Lai says. “For the first time the words were taken from me. I was beyond frustration, and there was nothing I could do. Those feelings never go away.”

Her novel deals with her alienation and fear, family love and obligation, all propelled by the loss of her father, who served in the South Vietnamese navy and remains missing in action. As the south fell to the Communist north in 1975, Lai says her mother faced an impossible choice for herself and her nine children: “It was heartbreaking. Wait for her husband and risk nine lives ... or just go and believe, if he were alive, he would find his way to us. In the end, her children won.”

Chris Kraul and Colombian writers on their violent nation

Our Chris Kraul has this interesting piece from Colombia in today's Los Angeles Times looking at Colombian writers Juan Gabriel Vasquez and Hector Abad Faciolince, and how they deal with the nation's long-runnng crime problems. From his story:

Vasquez said that for years his efforts to write about his country's recent history fell flat. But something clicked in 2003 when, living in Spain, he witnessed the terrorist attacks on the Madrid subway, which left dozens dead. Experiencing "a fearful society that felt vulnerable" made him try again. "Vargas Llosas said we writers are like birds of carrion; we feed during times of conflict on the worst aspects of our societies," said Vasquez.

But the gestation period takes awhile, Abad said. "Borges counseled that the time to write poetry is not when you are in love but when you are remembering having loved."

Abad said nearly 20 years passed before he could write about the death of his father, a doctor whose medical training included a fellowship at UCLA under public health pioneer Dr. Milton Roemer. His initial efforts to tell the story of his father's murder by two young assassins invariably ended in tears. "Now, the wounds are scars and I can tell what happened," Abad said. "I would have betrayed by vocation if I had not told it."

Comparing Colombian books to unquestioned classics written after the Mexican Revolution such as "Los de Abajo" by Mariano Azuela and "Pedro Paramo" by Juan Rulfo, professor Hugo Ramirez in Bogotá says it's premature to talk of a new literature arising from his country's recent past. "We're still counting the bodies, evaluating the sociological damage," said Ramirez, who teaches literature at University of the Andes. "A sign that the time has arrived may be when we see writers take a humorous look at what happened, when we're able to laugh at war. But we don't have that distance yet."

Our Scott Martelle on a book about Area 51, and the secret behind Roswell

Scott Martelle had this review the other day in the Los Angeles Times about the much-discussed new book, "Area 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base" by journalist Annie Jacobsen. She ends the book by passing along the 60-year-old speculation that the UFO from the infamous "Roswell Incident" was a flying disc sent as a Soviet ruse and manned by children horribly disfigured by Nazi Josef Mengele. From Martelle's review:

As far as explanations go, it's not quite as far-fetched as visitors from outer space, but it does stretch credulity. Lord knows, Stalin — who sent millions of his own people to death in spasms of personal paranoia — was capable of the ludicrous. Jacobsen also quotes her source as saying that the U.S. government conducted its own immoral human experiments at Area 51.

But the problem with Jacobsen's presentation is that it is just too thin, relying on a single source nearing his own death passing along what he claims he and his four colleagues had been told about the background to their assignment, which was to figure out how the disk flew (it's unclear whether they succeeded).

Ultimately, Jacobsen presents us with yet another theory, one that feels as questionable as those that preceded it. It's an unfortunate ending to a book that otherwise is an engaging look at the secret world in the Nevada desert.

Scott Martelle and a book of lies (reviewing, not uttering)

Our Scott Martelle has a review in today's Los Angeles Times of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist James B. Stewart's new book on lies - "Tangled Webs: How False Statements Are Undermining America: From Martha Stewart to Bernie Madoff." Martelle likes it:

For a nation whose romanticized history includes a young George Washington confessing to chopping down a cherry tree because he "cannot tell a lie," we seem to do an awful lot of lying. But then, the story about Washington is a lie itself, so maybe we're just being true to our national character.

In his new book, "Tangled Webs," Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist James B. Stewart dives deeply into four recent cases of high-profile conspiracies of lies. What he finds does not say good things about us.

Starting with former presidential advisor Karl Rove, Stewart argues that quite often presumably honorable people do dishonorable things. The reasons are myriad, but there are common threads. A sense of hubris that no one will find out. Fear of exposure of a misdeed. Calculated risk. Greed or misplaced loyalty.

The repercussions can be severe, particularly in a legal system predicated upon the belief that people under oath will tell the truth.

Kathy Price-Robinson takes on a new form - the book trailer

Our Kathy Price-Robinson, a New Orleans-based multi-media journalist, branched out into a new form late last week with her first "book trailer" - a video blurb for TJS co-founder Scott Martelle's new book, The Fear Within: Spies, Commies, and American Democracy on Trial. Check it out.

Our Leslie Carlson helps you navigate the LAT Festival of Books

Graphic artist Leslie Carlson, one of our founding members, put together this map for the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, which will be held Saturday and Sunday on the campus of the University of Southern Caifornia.

And for all the great panels and signings, Leslie's map -- which also was incuded in the print edition of the paper Sunday -- could be the best thing about the weekend.

Why? Because the Festival of Books used to be held at the University of California Los Angeles, a site that has become so engrained in festival-goers that getting from panel to panel has become second nature.

New year, new location, which means lots of opportunities to get lost (not to mention all those rival UCLA alums now having to traipse enemy territory). So as you're finding your way from Point A to Point B using the map this weekend, thank Leslie.

 

 

Scott Martelle on Bill Barich and revisitng Steinbeck's America

Our Scott Martelle wrote this interview piece for the LA Times on writer Bill Barich's new book "Long Way Home: On the Trail of Steinbeck's America," in which Barich loosely follows in John Steinbeck's footsteps in "Travels With Charley" to take the measure of the United States during the 2008 presidential campaign. From Martelle's story:

It was a dream project for a nonfiction writer — a few weeks on the open road with a loose itinerary and a license to indulge personal curiosity. And the project fit in neatly with some of Barich's previous works, including his 1980 debut "Laughing in the Hills," in which he immersed himself in the Bay Area's Golden Gate Fields horse track, and his 2009 book, "A Pint of Plain," about his search for the quintessential Irish pub.

For "Long Way Home," Barich spent six weeks on the road and then another nine months back in Ireland writing. The book is part travelogue, naturally, but it's also a series of ruminations by a writer with liberal inclinations trying to fathom the conservative heart of his home nation — and also to understand the occasional mood of passivity among people who were often easily riled by political manipulations.

Scott Martelle on John Dower's 'Cultures of War'

Scott Martelle, a regular critic for the LA Times and other outlets, recently had this review of John Dower's "Cultures of War," which looks at the U.S. response to 9/11 through the prism of Japan and the attack on Pearl Harbor, among other slices of history. The book is a finalist for the National Book Awards. From Martelle's review:

Just after the turn of the 20th century, with the United States basking in the glow of victory in the Spanish-American War, insurgents in the Philippines decided that they'd rather not have their former Spanish occupiers replaced by American occupiers. So they fought, and they were eradicated by U.S. troops in what turned out to be the first brutal military campaign of history's most violent century.

But what stands out about the bloody suppression of rebellious Filipinos by American troops isn't the violence, John W. Dower argues in "Cultures of War: Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, 9-11, Iraq," which is a finalist for this year's National Book Award in nonfiction, so much as the "righteous expansionist vocabulary" that enshrouded it. "The boilerplate," as he calls it, of "innocence, virtue, and 'our freedoms.'"

"These," Dower writes, "were the ghosts behind the ghostwriters behind George W. Bush."

Scott Martelle on monster waves, and the people who pursue them

Member (and author) Scott Martelle has this review in today's Los Angeles Times of Susan Casey's new book, "The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean," about two small circles of people -- those who study monster waves at sea, and those who try to surf them. From his piece:

Susan Casey's new book on waves and the people who love them begins in January 2000 with scientists aboard the 295-foot British research ship Discovery trying to collect data from the North Atlantic.

But the ocean threw a fit, heaving itself into massive waves far exceeding predictive models and threatening to destroy the Discovery.After a week of bouncing around like an egg poaching in boiling water, the ship's captain finally was able to hide behind the Hebrides Islands from waves that topped 100 feet — one of the first scientific confirmations that monster waves do exist, even though computer modeling programs say they can't....

Framed in two tracks, the book dives deeply into the world of top-level surfers who chase massive breaks around the globe and less deeply into the realm of scientists seeking to understand one of the biggest mysteries of the natural world: How do waves work? And given their history of destruction, what the does the future hold for millions of people living dangerously close to sea level?

Lynne Heffley and the Parents' Choice Awards

Our Lynne Heffley has been writing reviews for the Parents' Choice Awards, which strikes us as a fun way to spend some time. This is the link to her profile page, and you can type her name into the search engine there to see what she's been saying. Meantime, this is from her review of The Jimmies' "Trying Funny Stuff":

Wow. Kindie rock doesn't get any better than this fresh and exciting DVD; the mix of music videos and live concert action catapults the Jimmies, fronted by singer/songwriter Ashley Albert, into stellar territory. Bubbling over with offbeat humor, sophisticated musicianship, smart, entertaining lyrics and impressive visual creativity, it's a rock-out feast for ears and eyes, whatever your age.

The band sings six of its image-rich original songs (repeated in karaoke versions) in a riotous combination of live action, animal costumes, film clips and all manner of animation styles. A "backstage" documentary is a deft mash-up of wit and the imaginative high- and low-tech ways the DVD was put together, with some how-to tips for making props. The only misstep: the live concert's brief intro involving certain nasal emissions. This immensely talented band is light years beyond needing a gross factor to engage its audience.