Tuesday, March 02, 2010

Reading: Unstill Life - Tree with Deer

My recently-read books include The Crying Tree (Naseem Rakha) and Deer Hunting With Jesus (Joe Bageant), both of which I strongly commend to your attention.

"Tree" is a fictional account that centers on the murder of a child and the throes that it puts his family through.  As the linked review reveals, a big part of the tale is how the mother eventually comes to forgive the convicted death-row prisoner and, remarkably, engages in an extended clandestine mail correspondence.

As you might imagine, it isn't that simple.  But this is a continually-absorbing exploration of a compelling range of issues from stilted family relationships in a claustrophobic small town to the grieving process and on to capital punishment and all that entails.

Part of the original attraction for me was the idea that early-on the family moves from Indiana to Oregon, a locale close to my heart.  The local color turned out to be almost too local, as it turns out we drove past the prison in question, a major set in the novel, just outside central Salem, Oregon, probably dozens of times while our daughter was attending Willamette University a few years back.  It never failed to strike a somber note with me, lurking back there behind that razor-wire.  And that was without any thought of lethal injections, something I guess I subconsciously thought Oregon had set aside (they may have).

Final evaluation: pretty dark, but with redemptive qualities, and a great read.

"Deer Hunting" is something else again, but there is some commonality, perhaps most fundamentally in the small town settings and narrow-minded mentality.  Mr. Bageant's roots are in Winchester, VA, in the Shenandoah Valley.  For me, that locale-name invokes breezy old folk tunes, fascinating historical sites, and potential for great Autumn color, though in reality I don't think my few visits to VA ever got me close.  Frankly, my map-search was a revelation.  Not where it should be!  And although the geo-dislocation is no excuse, my naivete about the Winchester culture is embarrassing.

Bageant, who can also be found on-line, did a turn in Nam as I recall and somewhat magically found a way to move beyond the cultural mores of his homesite via years spent in a series of hippie communes stretching from Boulder to the Golden State.  His eventual return to his roots seems to have been the catalyst of the book.  (He does seem to spend a good fraction of the year now in Central America in an admirable service capacity that has the laudable benefit of limiting his immune system exposure to dumbness.  We might want to chant for him or something.)

It's continually gripping how Bageant manages to be socially active in his home-community, populated as it seems to be largely with ignorant, incurious, biggoted wholly anti-empathetic folks.  Doofuses seem to be some of the best of them.  (There are more than a few good souls.)

I believe "Dispatches From the Culture War" is his subtitle, and it speaks volumes.  This too is dark revelatory material for those of us so highly privileged as to not only have survived highschool but actually graduated college and retained literacy and an interest in and curiosity about the world, not to mention sufficient income to actually indulge those interests.  It's easy to forget (or never know) that there are double-digit percentages of our fellow-citizens, probably lacking that GED, working such low-paying jobs that the need to make ends meet means any such curiosity is long-gone even for those that may still have basic reading skills.

Depressed enough?

I found a whole chapter in defense of gun-ownership to be a real come-uppance, but author had my trust by that time.  While I suppose it should not be a true revelation, I found it compelling how much weight he gives to the influence of Scots-Irish (Ulster-Scot) immigrants, many coming here if my memory serves between 1700 and 1760, by the hundreds of thousands.  Per Bageant, many of these folks (ancestors of a remarkable number of us, as he has it!) were nasty, mean-spirited, brawling sorts, reaching back to battles across Hadrians's Wall, having fighting and reiving (cattle-rustling) as a primary way of life, and then deportation to Ulster, Ireland to serve as a toxin against the disloyal Irish.  Perhaps that is old news for you, but as for me, there is more research and learning needed there.

And I commend the chapter centered on Lynndie England, who grew up and gutted chickens for a spell not far west of Winchester in West VA prior to her enlistment in search of "a better life."

Both highly recommended.  But if you are weak of heart, I suggest you keep Sound of Music or some comparable saccharine antidote close at hand.