Michael J Sandel, Democracy’s Discontent: A New Edition For Our Perilous Times.

 

- The Introduction and the long Epilogue to this new edition of this classic book, first published in 1996, are absolutely fascinating. They throw a whole new light on US politics over the last 40 years, and put the current Trump/Harris contest into a deeper, more meaningful context.

- If Trump wins, which he is likely to do, then readers of this book will know why. 

- Sandel is a highly respected Professor of Government at Harvard University. In this new edition he is very critical of Democratic presidents Carter, Clinton and Obama for their support of the highly influential and reckless finance industry and its takeover of the US economy.

- Although finance is essential to a flourishing economy, it is not productive in itself. Its role is to facilitate economic activity by allocating capital to socially useful purposes - new businesses, factories, roads, airports, schools, hospitals, homes. But as finance came to dominate the US economy in the 1990's and 2000's, less and less of it involved investing in the real economy. More and more involved complex financial engineering that yielded big profits for those engaged in it but did little to make the economy more productive.

- During the Clinton years his economic team had promoted finance-driven globalisation and deregulated the financial industry. By 2008 their policies led to financial meltdown. But Obama followed their advice to restore the profitability of Wall St banks rather then reduce the power of finance or help the millions of Americans who lost their homes...he betrayed the civic idealism of his campaign, cast a shadow over his presidency, and prepared the way for the rancorous, polarised politics that would find its dark expression in his successor Donald Trump.

- The success of right-wing nativist populism is generally a symptom of the failure of progressive politics. When liberals fail to defend the people against the powerful by holding economic power to democratic account, the people look elsewhere. This is what happened in 2016. As Americans went to the polls after eight years of the Obama administration, 75 percent said they were looking for a leader who would 'take the country back from the rich and powerful'.  

-Sandel’s article in the New York Times on July 27 titled How Kamala Harris Can Win is superb. He argues she needs to address the legitimate grievances Trump exploits. But is she up to it? Hardly. 

- Defeating Mr Trump means taking seriously the divide between winners and losers that polarises the country. It means acknowledging the resentment of working people who feel that the work they do is not respected, that elites look down on them, that they have little say in shaping the forces that govern their lives. 

- Sandel is far more positive about Biden. But he never really offered a broad governing vision, never explained how the policies he enacted added up to the new democratic project...His presidency was a legislative triumph but an evocative failure. 

- He suggests a range of policies that Harris could adopt - ambitious, popular, substantial and focussed on the lives and circumstances of the immiserated working class. 

- But will she do it? The election season is too short, she might argue, and the stakes are too high; elevating the terms of public discourse is a project for another day. 

- Goodbye Kamala.

Michelle See-Tho, Jade and Emerald

 

- I absolutely loved this book. It is so absorbing. It won the Penguin Literary Prize for 2023, a gong it richly deserved. 

- It's freelance writer and copywriter Michelle See-Tho's debut novel. She has a gift for precision storytelling, telling in exquisite detail a very emotional story about Malaysian-Australians living in Melbourne, and imbuing it with so much power. 

- Thirteen year old Lei Ling Wen is our narrator. She is bullied at school by Angela Nu who comes from a very rich family. Angela’s aunty is Gigi. For reasons disclosed at the end of the book Gigi begins to collect Lei from school each day to take her shopping at upmarket stores and exquisite cake shops. We're not told why. 

- Lei’s mother eventually discovers that this is happening and is furious. She is a hardworking cleaner and typical fierce and controlling disciplinarian. She demands her daughter attend violin lessons and practice after school every day for example, despite Lei having no musical talent whatsoever. Lei begins to hate her. 

- As the novel progresses various background elements are eventually disclosed and the story gets very gripping indeed. For Lei herself it's a very emotional roller coaster. 

- The resolution is absolutely perfect and very satisfying. 

Clare Sestanovich, Ask Me Again

 

- At first I was totally uninspired by this debut novel by American short story author Clare Sestanovich. We're immersed in the dull lives and tepid ambitions of quite ordinary and uninteresting young people. I thought there was a laziness about it, as if she were holding back. 

- But halfway through I had completely changed my mind. The main character Eva is a loner, although likeable. We meet her in her teens and follow her to university and her subsequent early career as a journalist. She’s a quiet, retiring person, and we're absorbed in her everyday, rather mundane world. 

- But Sestanovich regularly introduces new characters who have their own stories, and most of these people are very interesting. Eva likes them and they are attracted to her. One fascinating character is Jess, a newly elected politician in New York who is very AOC. They become buddies. 

- And there's Jamie, an unhappy young man alienated from his rich family. He's completely at a loss, and sort of behaves like an alley cat. Sleeps everywhere in parks and protest tents and empty warehouses. And he discovers a Christian preacher and his community of believers.  Eva, from a middle class family in Brooklyn, is initially attracted to him but his radicalism ends their relationship.  

- Sestanovich reminds us this is America. There is a school shooting in New York that kills seventeen students. This is harsh reality breaking through. Their world is not really ordinary or mundane after all. 

- Eva is eventually promoted to Wellness Editor, and her colleague Judy, an older and wiser woman, helps her see herself and her readers differently. ‘To be lonely is to doubt that you are enough….But might you be the one you are looking for?’ 

- If all this sounds pretty uninteresting, I guess on one level it is. But the novel is so beautifully written and insightful and it's about real people living ordinary lives. It sucks the reader in. The characters are just like us. 

Donna Leon, A Refiner’s Fire

 

- This new Donna Leon novel totally lives up to the high standard set by her previous thirty-three books in the Commissario Brunetti series. It has all the character and immense charm her fanbase have come to expect. 

- I've read about half the series, and although she's now at Biden age, she still delivers in spades.  

- All the novels are set in the magical city of Venice. There are lovely family relationships; there's great coffee and wonderful food (particularly pasta); there's excellent wine in welcoming neighbourhood bars; she takes us inside the historic public buildings and private apartments; we walk the canals, cross the bridges, and ride in the boats. And we hate the tourists who crowd the public spaces with noise and common vulgarity. 

- Leon does not shy from critiquing social and political issues in the series. Brunetti is hardworking, idealistic and ethical. He and his colleagues are a team of professionals with high standards of behaviour. But he's also frequently critical of his higher ranking bosses. This is Italy after all. It's a country steeped in political conflict and corruption. 

- In this novel the drama has its origins twenty years previously when Italian troops were sent to assist their US allies in the Iraq war. As part of the contingent were a team of Carabinieri, a prestige division of the Italian police force. Some of their members profited from stealing and exporting historical artworks and relics of high value. 

- Leon paints a picture of today's Venice - increasing crime, including violent youth gangs. But the higher-ups in the police are very protective of their reputation. Uncomfortable details are buried, and previous corrupt and criminal behaviour lied about. 

- This iteration of her Brunetti series is as good as it gets. It's not just an enjoyable read. It has a hard edge which undoubtedly is a reflection of our times. 

Jordan Prosser, Big Time.

- Jordan Prosser is a gifted writer with a crazy story, a tale dotted with heaps of juicy phrases and descriptions, but also page after page of tedium. It's like a fireworks display - it sparkles but there's no fire. There's minimal meaning underneath.  

- The story is set some time in the near future where Australia has been taken over by right wing movements and is now divided in half. The East has separated from the West and become the ultra conservative FREA (Federal Republic of East Australia). The government has banned the internet, mobile phones and all sorts of other important social and cultural entities like art. The police are everywhere. They are thugs in uniform. 

- Central to the story is the pop/rock band The Acceptables and their barely legal existence. They are partygoers and rebels, constantly indulging in sex, alcohol and drugs. In other words a rock band cliche. The main character is the bassist Julian Ferryman. He's front and centre, but unfortunately for the reader, grossly immature and intensely annoying. I don't know what Prosser's point is here. 

- The other central focus is the newly discovered drug ‘F’. After a couple of drops in each eye humans can see a day or so into the future. They can see ahead death and tragedy but can do nothing about it. Time and its inevitable flow is challenged. Perhaps is not even real. 

- So this novel is whacky as, swapping between vigour and tedium. Some of the characters get backstories that are interesting and emotional but they don't lift the whole novel to any sustained level of satisfaction.

- Best avoided in my old-white-man-baby-boomer-Pink Floyd lover opinion. 

Jessie Tu, The Honeyeater

 

- Jessie Tu's second novel is simply magnificent. Her first A Lonely Girl Is A Dangerous Thing was also magnificent. I reviewed it here. What a talent she is.

- The Honeyeater is a story about people who lie and who betray. Personal integrity is difficult for them, and fidelity seemingly beyond them. Duplicity is their modus operandi. And we're submerged in a jigsaw of a plot, sort of a puzzle, which Tu slowly and satisfactorily reveals to us. Doesn't totally solve, but then we're dealing with complicated human beings. 

- Fay and her mother travel to France for a two week holiday. Fay is a young literature academic and translator and her mother is a cleaner from Taipei who came to Sydney when Fay was a baby. They speak Mandarin to each other.

- Fay is an assistant to a female professor, also a translator, and as the story develops their relationship becomes increasingly complicated. They discover each other's sexual and family secrets. Fay is in fact sexually involved with the professor's husband James, a charming but rather nasty piece of work. He had numerous sexual relationships. And kept a notebook, full of incriminating details. 

- The translation industry is dissected. Academics and translators are invited to speak at conferences, where controversies about the essence of translation are endlessly debated - to build a commonality, or highlight cultural and social differences. Getting the translation rights to the books of celebrated authors is a fierce contest. 

- As the plot unfolds secrets of all sorts are revealed, and puzzles eventually solved.

- But this is far from your standard who-dunnit. What Tu has achieved is a penetrating exploration of the richness of close human personal relationships, but also their underside. Human beings are complicated, and they inevitably disappoint. Thankfully, however, there is love, affection and commitment.