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What I've been reading
1. Hidden Iran: Paradox and Power in the Islamic Republic, by Ray Takeyh. A good implicit "public choice" treatment of how the different factions in the Iranian government fit together. Surprisingly readable.
2. The United States of Arugula: How We Became a Gourmet Nation, by David Kamp. Terrible title, good content, awkward writing style, terrible font, little economics, still good for foodies but only for foodies.
3. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy. "Post-apocalyptic masterpiece." Fair enough, but is it better than The Dark Tower? I'm not sure, but even to pose that question is to favor Stephen King. Here is the NYT review.
4. The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood, by Rashid Khalidi. Some of the apologetics and omissions really bugged me. But as to why the Palestinians failed to construct their own state -- before the creation of Israel -- I learned a great deal.
5. Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses. His best novel. Fun from the outset, and you can test your knowledge of Bollywood and Islamic theology. Too famous as a political dispute, too little known as a book.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on October 9, 2006 at 04:34 PM in Books | Permalink
Comments
Your comments on the Satanic Verse are spot on. Much better than Midnight's Children, which I felt was overrated. In Satanic Verses, Rushdie had the right balance of playfulness and profundity.
Posted by: Law Student at Oct 9, 2006 4:08:16 PM
I guess I can't really comment without reading the works but while I enjoy both authors I'd have a hard time elevating Mr. King's prose to the same category as Mr. McCarthy's.
Posted by: McCarthy Fanboy at Oct 9, 2006 4:23:25 PM
Actually, Shame is better than either Satanic Verses or Midnight's Children--more fantastic.
Posted by: ffactory at Oct 9, 2006 4:53:49 PM
Hey Tyler, any chance of a post incorporating what you've learned from "Hidden Iran"? It sounds interesting and I think we need any sanity check we can get on this issue...
Posted by: Matt McIntosh at Oct 9, 2006 5:00:25 PM
i'm going with verses over shame and midnight's children, liked the moor's last sigh, find ground beneath feet to be good, not great.
Posted by: dj superflat at Oct 9, 2006 7:49:25 PM
Hmmm, well this is one observer who will go with the
conventional wisdom that Midnight's Children beats
Satanic Verses. The latter is duly satirical, but
lacks the depth of MC.
Have just finished Shalimar the Clown, his most recent,
second best of his in my view, although I am annoyed by
his using the name of the film maker Max Ophuls as a
character, who has some very vague similarity to him,
but not much, really a distaction. That character has
too much imposed on him, but the rest of the book is
excellent.
Posted by: Barkley Rosser at Oct 9, 2006 8:23:46 PM
Personally, I think Midnight's Children beats The Satanic Verses by miles. Of course one can't argue over preference. But I'd say this - Midnight's Children created a new literature. In that way, it is like Keynes's work - whatever you think about Keynes's argument, The General Theory created macroeconomics as we know it.
As for his other works: Shame is a very dark book that reuires knowledge of Pakistan (you don't need to know anything about India or Islam to enjoy Midnight's or Satanic); he repeats himself in the Moore's Last Sigh; and The Ground Beneath Her Feet is good but nothing special. I think the fatwa really got to him - as Chris Hitchens would say, 'It's the Islamo-fascists, stupid.
Posted by: anthony at Oct 10, 2006 7:02:42 AM
I know you were being provocative, but I'll stand in line behind Midnight's Children. It was the book that edged Rushdie over GGM in my preferences for favorite 20th century author.
Posted by: Robert at Oct 10, 2006 7:18:43 AM
Nice broad selection. I just finished "The Constitution in Exile" last night. Hope to start Friedman's Capitalism and Freedom tonight.
Chris
http://amateureconblog.blogspot.com/
Posted by: Chris Meisenzahl at Oct 10, 2006 8:05:39 AM
Sorry...I enjoyed The Ground Beneath Her Feet considerably more than The Satanic Verses.
Which is not to denigrate the Satanic Verses, just to exalt The Ground Beneath Her Feet.
Posted by: jens fiederer at Oct 10, 2006 8:12:47 AM
"Some of the apologetics and omissions really bugged me. But as to why the Palestinians failed to construct their own state -- before the creation of Israel -- I learned a great deal." But if you don't quite trust the author on the topics you were already familiar with, why would you trust that on the topics you were not familiar with you "learned" anything but an equally distorted picture?
Posted by: df at Oct 10, 2006 8:27:05 AM
I liked the review's quote from McCarthy's book:
The boy asks: “We wouldn’t ever eat anybody, would we?”
“No. Of course not. ...”
“No matter what.”
“No. No matter what.”
“Because we’re the good guys.”
“Yes.”
Reminds me of the quote from Churchill's World Crisis that keeps coming to mind these days: "When all was over, Torture and Cannibalism were the only expedients that the civilized, scientific, Christian States had been able to deny themselves: and they were of doubtful utility."
It used to be nice, being the good guys.
Posted by: Anderson at Oct 10, 2006 10:01:05 AM
I'm reading Satanic Verses now. Based on the reactions here and my own enjoyment of the book I'll be picking up Midnight's children and Shame very soon.
Posted by: eriks at Oct 10, 2006 10:36:54 AM
I thought that McCarthy's point was that the apocalypse doesn't need to come, because it is always here.
Posted by: Bill Gardner at Oct 10, 2006 11:03:58 AM
Requesting extended commentary from Tyler on The Dark Tower!!
Posted by: Noah Yetter at Oct 10, 2006 11:08:21 AM
Despite the Bollywood theme in Satanic Verses, add me to the list of people
who much preferred Midnight's Children. I couldn't put MC down. Once I
put SV down, I wasn't so keen to pick it back up.
Posted by: Lawrence H. White at Oct 10, 2006 5:07:24 PM
Omissions in the Iron Cage? What would one expect - Khalidi is the Edward Said Chair in Arab Studies at Columbia University.
Posted by: Yankenstein at Oct 10, 2006 10:57:17 PM
Posted by: wf at Mar 31, 2008 1:46:19 AM
