Biographies, odds and ends.

I was in the mood for escapism, so I read some biographies: Desmond Tutu's and Emily Dickinson's. Allen does a creditable job of writing Tutu's life, although I found it lacked insight. It also seems that Tutu's worst sin is not being to manage his finances properly. Well, big deal. I had hoped to find in the biography some of the charisma of the man, but that was reported on, rather than represented. Sewall's biography of Dickinson followed the pattern of that bio of Chateaubriand I disliked. It had chapters on the people in her life: family, friends, correspondents. I picked up the two volumes at the library and said to myself: over 800 pages, and nothing happens? But that, apparently is part of the myth of Emily Dickinson.

I also read an issue of The New Scientist and a issue of Eclectic Reading, and the New Yorker and OK Magazine. I'm in the middle of Petrostate, by Goldman, most appropriately as I follow the conflict in South Ossetia. This book is badly structured, down to the paragraph level, although the topic is fascinating and the detail is excellent. I also read Le Livre de Abdullah, a wonderful metaphoric book at the start, in the style of Kahil Gibran which the author, Antun Karras Garam translated and studied. It ends in more a scream of dismay at war.