Page 83 - The Economist

The Economist December 9th 2017 Books and arts 83
2 Only a handful ofathletes reach the pin- Fall Down 7 Times Get Up 8. By Naoki Hi- and die before they learned to live or give
nacle oftheirdiscipline; he was the only gashida. Random House; 206 pages; $27. life. By one ofthe most gifted writers of
one who threw it all away to do what was Sceptre; £14.99 hergeneration.
unpopularbut principled. Afine account An unorthodoxguide by a youngJapanese Six Minutes in May: How Churchill Unex-
ofwhy, when Ali died, he was remem- man,whoat13wroteaheartfelt accountof pectedly Became Prime Minister. By Nicho-
bered not only as boxing’s most decorated how it feels like to be autistic. David Mitch- las Shakespeare. Harvill Secker; 528 pages;
and enthrallingheavyweight, but also for ell, an English novelist, and his wife, Keiko £20
his refusal to serve in the Vietnam war as a Yoshida, translated the text fortheir autis- It is hard to imagine Britain without the
rebellion against white supremacy. tic son’s carers and helped get the book jowly Winston Churchill at the helm
published in over30 languages, making
The Dawn Watch: Joseph Conrad in a Global duringthe second world war. Yet in May
World. By Maya Jasanoff. Penguin Press; 400 MrHigashida probably the most widely 1940 Neville Chamberlain’s government,
read Japanese authorafterthe master-
pages; $30. William Collins; £25 novelist, Haruki Murakami. with its majority of213, seemed virtually
Brought up speakingPolish and French, unassailable. An eloquent study in how
JozefTeodorKonrad Korzeniowski did not quickly the political landscape can
learn English until he was 21. But as Joseph History change—and history with it.
Conrad he became one ofthe finest Eng- Enemies and Neighbours: Arabs and Jews
lish writers. “Heart ofDarkness” is his Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine. By in Palestine and Israel, 1917-2017. By Ian
most famous book. More important, as Anne Applebaum. Doubleday; 496 pages; Black. Atlantic Monthly Press; 608 pages; $30.
Maya Jasanoffshows so well, he was the $35. Allen Lane; £25 Allen Lane; £25
first novelist ofglobalisation.
Ameticulously researched analysis prov- Awell-known British journalist offers a
Chief Engineer: Washington Roebling, the ingthat the famine in Soviet Ukraine in the detailed account ofhow the Israelis and
Man Who Built the Brooklyn Bridge. By 1930s was part ofa deliberate campaign by Palestinians are still haunted by their
Erica Wagner. Bloomsbury; 365 pages; $28 JosefStalin and the Bolshevikleadership history. The BalfourDeclaration was just
and £25 to crush Ukrainian political aspirations by the start ofit.
Abiography about connections and dis- starvingthe actual orpotential nationalists Belonging: The Story of the Jews, 1492-
connections—about the man who built into submission to the Soviet order. 1900. By Simon Schama. Ecco; 800 pages;
what, at the time ofits opening, was the The Internationalists: How a Radical Plan $39.99. Bodley Head; £25
longest suspension bridge in the world. to Outlaw War Remade the World. By Oona The story ofthe Jews between 1492 and
Roeblingalso fought all his life to emerge Hathaway and Scott Shapiro. Simon & Schus- 1900, told as a series ofvivid biographies.
from the shadow ofa cold and domi- ter; 608 pages; $30. Allen Lane; £30 In the hands ofa mastercolourist, this is
neeringfather. Amasterful psychological The post-warliberal orderwas under- history as a portrait gallery. Roll on the
study about duty and drive.
pinned by a movement to make the wag- final volume in the series.
Toscanini. By Harvey Sachs. W.W. Norton; ingofaggressive warillegal. Two Ameri- The House of Government: A Saga of the
944 pages; $39.95 and £29.99 can academics argue that this principle is Russian Revolution. By Yuri Slezkine.
Drawingon a wide range ofnew evi- now seriously underthreat. Princeton University Press; 1,128 pages;
dence, includingunknown letters and the The Unwomanly Face of War. By Svetlana $39.95 and £29.95
archives ofmany ofthe opera houses that Alexievich. Random House; 384 pages; $30. The remarkable tale ofan enormous block
Arturo Toscanini worked with, including Penguin Modern Classics; £12.99 offlats that served as home to commu-
La Scala, Harvey Sachs has written a An oral history, first published in 1985 but nism’s true believers. Astory that is as
weighty and highly enjoyable account of only now translated into English, as told Russian in scope as it is symbolic of what
one ofthe greatest conductors, a man still by women who enlisted in the Soviet Russia and the Russian revolution eventu-
renowned forhis pursuit ofperfection. army straight from school, learningto kill ally became. 1
Anthony Powell: Dancing to the Music of
Time. By Hilary Spurling. Hamish Hamilton;
528 pages; £25
Anthony Powell came from a brilliant
generation ofEnglish writers, including
George Orwell, Evelyn Waugh and Gra-
ham Greene—yet he may now be the least
read ofthem all. Hilary Spurling’s long-
awaited life ofone ofBritain’s most per-
ceptive novelists ofclass, best known for
the 12-volume “Dance to the Music of
Time”, is an exemplary literary biography.
On virtually every page it is colourful,
funny and pointedly aphoristic.
The Hate Race: A Memoir. By Maxine Beneba
Clarke. Corsair; 261pages; £18.99
The child ofJamaican/Guyanese parents
who left Britain forAustralia writes the
bookshe wished she had been able to
read when she was growingup in the
Sydney suburbs, where “racism was as
common as cornflakes”. Abestsellerwhen
it first came out in Australia, it deserves to
be more widely read.