Giono, Himelstein, Shelden, Wilson, Kilcullen

Since my last post,I've read an issue of Gentleman's Quarterly, OK Magazine, The New Scientist and Eclectic Reading.

I have also read the first three volumes of Jean Giono's novels, which are in chronological order, and his essays, journal, and short stories. I found his essays and journal of little interest, except for his pacifist essays and his impressions of the Liberation of France. He does break out into short plays and embryonic film scenarios, in the middle of essays, which shows a certain freedom about forms. I found his early novels and his short stories or novella also to be of little interest, but his latter novels are much more interesting, more gripping and more lively. I had to order the last 3 volumes of the complete novels from inter library loan, and I now look forward to reading them, as opposed to a chore.

I also read three biographies, two literary and one popular. I read a biography of George Orwell, by Michael Shelden, which I found both sad and interesting, and a biography of Siegfried Sassoon through the end of World War I, by Jean Moorcroft Wilson, which was incredibly detailed for his youth and somehow quite superficial for the crucial war years. I also read a biography of Smirnoff, the vodka maker, by Linda Himelstein, which was not very interesting because it was in a journalistic style.

Finally, I also read David Kilcullen's Accidental Guerrilla. This book, about a new kind of counterinsurgency and what to do about it, is going to be read by a lot of people. It is written in accessible language, and it proposes quite a simple change to the way of thinking about insurgency. I'm not sure it will make much difference, however. I have my own competing theory, that this about strong-side versus weak-side strategy, and if I am correct, then my criticism of Kilcullen is valid. However, the chances of my work attracting any attention at all, since I have no experience in military counterinsurgency, are very low.