Matthew Parris

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An enjoyable, if limited, read.

The author's hypothesis is that a lot of "great lives" – and he admits to not being able to define what this means clearly – are formed in childhood trauma. Some of the examples (especially Edward Lear and Rudyard Kipling) illustrate this perfectly. But to coverage of the lives chosen, one in detail and then others in a manner that is really rather perfunctory, left me feeling rather short-changed about the lives not fully explored.

But Parris seems to lose conviction in his approach for three of the later chapters, which deal with trauma in fiction. That's a statement about what we find meaningful or entertaining rather than being about biography, and these feel like "fillers" rather than properly contributing to the book.

3/5. Finished 14 September 2021.

(Originally published on Goodreads.)

Serhii Plokhy

2021

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A revisiting of the Cuban missile crisis from more of a Soviet perspective, which is an interesting twist.

It's a view that focuses on the politics in play rather than on the publicly-visible events, and this radically changes the view of what's important. The confrontation at sea, for example, and the famous tussle at the Security Council between Stevenson and Zorin, barely rate mentions. Instead there's consideration of Kennedy's domestic credibility problem in dealing with Krushchev, as well as Krushchev's problem getting out of the situation in which he found himself. It also shows the influence of Fidel Castro, who was far more willing to get into a nuclear war than either of the main protagonists, in spite of the obvious consequences that would have had for Cuba.

4/5. Finished 12 September 2021.

(Originally published on Goodreads.)

Talia Lavin

2020

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Very much a dive into the murk of internet conspiracies and racism: an important book that shines a welcome (if that's the right word) light on how the internet perpetuates and accelerates extremism, and especially how the tropes of past outbreaks (mainly against Jews) re-appear in updated guises time after time.

I think the book would be stronger if it focused more on Lavin's actual experiences in the various fora she explores. Some of the other chapters, while interesting, aren't really about her own journey and so slightly weaken the first-person narrative.

4/5. Finished 11 September 2021.

(Originally published on Goodreads.)

Dara McAnulty

2020

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An insightful and moving reflection, as much about a young man's struggles with autism as about the environment. But it also indirectly highlights the strengths of introversion and autism, the ability to perceive the important things and to identify mistakes and charletainry wherever they appear.

3/5. Finished 04 September 2021.

(Originally published on Goodreads.)