Politics As Lived: The Life (Paikin, 2001)

Steve Paikin. The Life (2001) Paikin has interviewed many politicians. Most want to serve the public good; Paikin admires both that willingness and the more or less cheerful acceptance of the slings and arrows of outraged citizens’ complaints.

Paikin knows that there are villains, venal timeservers, vain seekers of applause and such, but those aren’t the subject of this book. What we get is an informal political history of the times when  these politicians served. Paikin interviewed the politicians and also the back-room players, commentators, pollsters and others that make their living in politics, and so gives us multiple points of view. David Lougheed, Alexa McDonough, Bob Rae, Frances Lankin, Brian Mulroney, Allan Gregg, are just a few of the people we meet.

Paikin avoids analysis and comment. He tells the stories of these people as completely as he can. The result is a very human story of Canadian politics.

Politics is an unavoidable and I think necessary part of our communal life. We are a social species; rank and status both create and control conflict. Managing that conflict is the function of politics. Democracy makes for a messier form of politics, where power becomes a means and not an end. Well, that’s the theory, and by their own accounts, supported by the testimony of the other players, the politicians profiled here do want power more for what they can do when they have it than for its own sake. Paikin’s book shows why, so far, Canada hasn’t suffered the rule of a tyrant.

His book also shows that democratic participation in government goes beyond voting,  that paying attention to what the politicos are up to is the only way to help them govern us.

A good book, recommended. ****

Dogsbody: There was one of the clan at every important (an unimportant) event in history.

 E. O. Parrott. The Dogsbody Papers (1988) The history of the Dogsbody clan from prehistoric time to the present, told through a variety of snips and bits. Parrott assembled them into this book. Written by several people, which makes for a variety of style and tone, and so prevents what could otherwise have declined into tedious repetition. They amount to a satire on history, on English exceptionalist assumptions, and on human foibles generally, mostly sex, money-grubbing and covering your ass. Very English absurdities, which I think limits the appeal, but I’m susceptible, so I enjoyed it. Not quite as surreal as Monty Python, but the same genre. Recommended. **** 

The Trial of God (Wiesel, 1986)

 Eli Wiesel. The Trial of God (1986) Following a pogrom in 1649, a trial was held in Shamgorod. God was accused of permitting or even encouraging evil. That's the setup. Wiesel, survivor of Auschwitz, wrote this play based on an actual trial of God held in the concentration camp. Three rabbis indicted God for permitting His children to be massacred.

In the play, three itinerant actors arrive at an inn and offer to play a Purimschpiel. The innkeeper proposes a Trial of God instead. The innkeeper will be Prosecutor, his daughter will be chief witness, and a Stranger will defend. I don’t know how much the play echoes the trial Wiesel witnessed in the concentration camp. Most of the action is actually working up to state the indictment. Outside the Inn, the villagers are working themselves up to finish the job. The village priest tries to persuade the Jews to flee, but they are intent on their trial. At the end, the Stranger pulls out a mask and puts it on: It’s the mask of Satan.

So, is God capricious? Does God not only permit but encourage evil? Are the Christians mere instruments of God, or do they bear the primary guilt? These and other questions are put or implied, but never answered. They add up to the question that we all want answered: Why is there evil in the world?

A difficult play, in part because the action is the decision to act, to indict God, to act out the trial, to judge His failure to act. But also because the context is a pogrom, unfinished, and threatening the actors. While reading it, I tried to imagine staging it. It would not be easy. I’ll have to read it again. ***

The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick (1987)

Philip K. Dick. The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick. Volume 1. (1987) Subtitled The Short Happy Life of the Brown Oxford.

Philip K. Dick is one of my favourite authors in any genre. His ability to develop a what-if that can be stated in a simple sentence amazes with every reading and re-reading. Such as the subtitle story, which is exactly what its title states.

His take on life is that the universe a huge and scary place. It’s a miracle that each one of us survives, and it will or would be a miracle if humankind survives any contact with any aliens we might encounter or who might wish to visit us. But humans are inventive enough to mess up and with their own and other people’s lives. Three examples:

Beyond Lies the Wub: The Captain of the spaceship discovers too late that the wub they’re transporting is more than a sentient blob of jelly.

The Builder: Elwood builds a boat with the help of his son Toddy. Neither he nor we readers know why until a few moments after he’s finished.

Colony: A terrifying riff on shape-shifting.

Recommended. ****

Age of Folly (Lapham, 2016)

Lewis H. Lapham.  Age of Folly (2016) Subtitled America Abandons Its Democracy. Published before Trump won the 2016 election, with essays from 1990 to 2015.

But depressingly relevant. And essential for making sense of what’s happened since 2016.

And I think that’s about all that needs to be said about this book. Recommended.

****

Footnote: In the Atlantic Magazine of January 2025, David Brooks has published an acute analysis of how the attempt to create a meritocracy has had unexpected consequences, one of them being the rage against elites that’s translated into the populism that elected Trump. Brooks spends a couple of pages explaining how the failed experiment could be transformed into a winning one, but I think he’s a tad naive politically. 

When Blood Lies (Richards, 2016)

 Linda L. Richards. When Blood Lies (2016) A nicely done puzzle that begins when Nicole Charles buys an old desk and finds some ancient wine in a secret compartment. There’s more: money-laundering, attempted murder, etc, and a handsome young man. Charles is a gossip columnist who wants to be promoted to real reporting; this provides a subplot that points to a series. I haven’t found any other of Richards’s books.

This book was on of an easy-reading series published by Orca Book Publishers. The style makes for a quick read. Good for when you haven’t much energy for close attention. **½

Leacock: Literary Lapses (1910)

Stephen Leacock. Literary Lapses (1910/1957) With an Afterword by Robertson Davies. Leacock’s first published work, displaying a range from nonsense to witty comment to slice of life to sharp satire. I think his reputation as the friendly, slyly comic uncle is superficial, based on his mastery of absurdly logical nonsense. Maybe it’s my curmudgeonly disposition, but I think that his satire is underrated. It’s delivered in the kind of deadpan style that disguises its bite, but his hatred for greed, hypocrisy, economic malfeasance and social cruelty is more than clear enough. I think that Sunshine Sketches and Arcadian Adventures are his greatest and most enduring works.

Davies provides an interesting account of the book’s publishing history. I enjoyed his notes on the range of Leacock’s humour.

I enjoyed this reread. This reissue is part of McClelland & Stewart’s New Canadian Library, now out of print. M&S featured Canadian art on the covers, David Milne’s “Billboards” here. Recommended. ** to ****