Comments for Alvah's Books

Comment on Review by Alvah Bessie: For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway by Jack Sylvester

Jack Sylvester — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 04:15:28 +0000

Yes, this is a wilfully blind Stalinist review of FWTBT. Actually, for the most part Hemingway acted shamefully and boorishly in Spain, particularly in his willingness to buy and propagate the Soviet propaganda line. John Dos Passos had to endure Stalinist character assassination in New Masses and elsewhere after questioning the disappearance and presumable execution of his friend Jose Robles in Barcelona. But history has vindicated Dos Passos.

Hemingway’s dreadful early writings about the war (particularly The Fifth Column) reflect his ideological naivety. FWTBT, although something of a potboiler romance, was a thankful emergence from a period of two-dimensional thinking.

Comment on Review: The Settlement Cook Book: The Way to a Man’s Heart, by Mrs. Simon Kander by Cathy Moll

Cathy Moll — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 04:41:24 +0000

My mother was given a copy of this cookbook from her soon to be sister-in-law — 1942. I have since bought several copies from ebay for gifts to my daughters and an aunt. The banana cake is one of my favorites. I love this step back in time as it makes me feel connected to my past. Thanks for the insightful review.

Comment on Review: Dream Room: Tales of the Dixie Mafia, by Chet Nicholson by Biloxi Bay Boy

Biloxi Bay Boy — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 22:26:05 +0000

Well for starters I was born and raised in Biloxi. I know all the people mentioned personally. In My personal opinion Mr Chet Nicholson is a liar and a dreamer living in a fantasy world. He has no facts other than the names and the places! I’ve been around the Golden Nugget since I was a child. I”ve never heard of him nor anyone has my family several of whom ran clubs and girls for Mr Mike and Mr Dewy. Has far as I’m concerned its fiction at best and like I said before he hasn’t any facts other than what has been in papers and news reports. So I think he hasn’t much talent as a writer.

Comment on Essay: Two Fingers and a Thumb, by Dan Bessie by Jason W Smith, Ph.D.

Jason W Smith, Ph.D. — Sun, 15 May 2011 02:10:02 +0000

I was looking for Dan Bessie. The purpose being to find someone who would like to make a movie about my adventures in South America. I set up a website to promote this at http://www.peruvianprisonbreaks.com
Thanks
Jason W. Smith
310 266-9380

Comment on The Second Son, by Jonathan Rabb by Cecilieaux Bois de Murier

Cecilieaux Bois de Murier — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 19:13:10 +0000

Thanks! I’ms a Kerr fan.

Comment on Hush, by Eishes Chayil by Jessica K.

Jessica K. — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 13:21:45 +0000

Thank you for your review of this book. The topic sounds like a difficult one to tackle, but an important one.

Comment on Review by Alvah Bessie: For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway by Curt

Curt — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 13:01:29 +0000

Having recently reread Bell, and while still immersed in a long study of the Spanish Civil War (which includes reading Bessie, among many others), I am obliged to disagree slightly. Yes, Bessie does make some very insightful criticisms in this review of both Hemingway as a writer—his talents and limitations—and certain works. But when it comes to the political angle, Bessie is anything but ‘honest and…very correct.’ Though this is understandable, it is also regrettable. Understandable, given the period in history, the moment when Bessie wrote his review; regrettable in terms of the self-imposed blindness. Ironically, the citation Bessie uses to disparage what Hemingway did in Bell—“There are events which are so great that if a writer has participated in them his obligation is to write them truly rather than assume the presumption of altering them with invention.”—actually corresponds to what Hemingway did do: he questioned Russia’s role in the war, an attitude that history has now vindicated (and regardless of the stark choices the Republic faced at the time) and he criticized André Marty in particular, a man who is remembered by anyone not towing the Party line as the brute and murderer—yes, murderer—that he actually was.

Comment on Review by Alvah Bessie: ERNEST HEMINGWAY-A LIFE STORY by Carlos Baker by Tom Becker

Tom Becker — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 21:41:07 +0000

Having read most of Hemingway’s fiction, and some of it several times, and then having read Carlos Baker’s biography of the author, I must say I was very disappointed. The book was interesting at times but often rather tedious, full of insignificant details that added little to the narrative but instead tended to bog it down. Every time Hemingway or one of his wives caught a cold, for example, it was duly noted, and every person they were associated with at any point was named and often discussed. When you are dealing with perhaps the greatest American writer of fiction of the Twentieth Century, these things are unimportant. My biggest complaint, however, is that Hemingway came off as a total asshole almost all through the book. Worst of all was his murderous treatment of wild animals, which he would shoot in an instant. There are hunters who are not complete idiots, but Hemingway, in this book, comes off like one of the buffalo hide hunters from the mid-1800s. He slaughters game by the hundreds and is at it continually. The way he treats people is often rather callous, as well. When you are well-read as far as his fiction goes, something doesn’t jibe here. Sure, I knew Hemingway was an avid fisherman and hunter, but nothing in his fiction prepares you for this, shooting coyotes from an airplane or prairie dogs from a passing car. This is the sort of thing that total jerks engage in. How Baker got this info is questionable. He certainly wants the reader to believe that Ernest Hemingway was a jerk, a writer who minimized revision, couldn’t spell, and complained of overwork when all he did was hand in a manuscript that may have been typed once or twice by someone else. It is a damning account of the writer’s life, both in the way he treats his wives and in the way he is continually traveling the globe, going from one adventure to another and damn the expense. One gets the idea, even in this biography, however, that something is amiss with Baker’s treatment. This modern trend of turning every biography into a sleazy expose is to be lamented. I’ve read a number of them and each one makes the subject out to be some sort of egomaniacal monster. I don’t believe any of it, or at least, will believe some of it with a large grain of salt. One thing I’m still certain of is that Hemingway is a great writer and his work will live on for hundreds of years. The works that impressed me most are not the ones that the critics went ga-ga over but some of those that they barely recognized. Like Hemingway, I don’t give a damn what most of them think. This reviewer, a woman, obviously dislikes or is predisposed to dislike Hemingway for philosophical reasons. As an animal lover, myself, I have always been uncomfortable with his attitude toward animals. However, as a writer very familiar with most of his work, I can’t help but give him credit where it is due. The reviewer needs to read some of his works before she judges this biography, which I’d give a C-.

Comment on Spies of the Balkans, by Alan Furst by Marie Zannis

Marie Zannis — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 05:27:22 +0000

I first read about this book in The New York Times Book Review. I ordered it right away, and apart from almost getting a whiplash from seeing my last name pop up so often, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Furst put me back into the prewar time so deeply;it was very satisfying because I had wanted to understand more of what it was like, really being there.

My father’s family lived in and near Kalamata, Greece, and my grandmother starved to death during the German occupation. I was about 10 or 11 at the time.
We lived in Birmingham Alabama, and my father owned a bakery. I remember he closed the bakery the day he got the news. I was so sorry I didn’t know how to talk to him about it, but I just kept quiet out of respect.
I loved Furst having a believable hero. I have been to Greece many times, and I can truly imagine such a character.

I read many of Furst’s other books after that one, in fact, I think all that were available in our library system.

Thank you for your very good review. I t was a welcome reminder of some aspects I had forgotten.

Comment on Review by Alvah Bessie: They Shall Not Pass (El Unico Camino) by Dolores Ibarruri by MOTHER RUSSIA KNOWS THE MEANING OF FASCISM AND OPPRESSION « Desertpeace

MOTHER RUSSIA KNOWS THE MEANING OF FASCISM AND OPPRESSION « Desertpeace — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 15:16:09 +0000

[...] emotional site for the residents of the city.We stopped briefly to scatter flowers at the grave of Ruben Ibarruri, the son of Dolores Ibarruri. She was the exiled leader of the Spanish Communist Party. Ruben was a [...]