U-235, Lend-Lease and Barbarossa

Ahh...chapter 46 and I am finally past all the lurid details of sordid love affairs and on to the real meat of the story: the race to harness the uranium isotope U-235, the machinations of FDR via the Lend-Lease Act and Operation Barbarossa. In these chapters (40-46), Wouk paints a pretty realistic picture of history. I understand this period in our nation's history better now that I ever have. It helps me appreciate the complexity and precarious nature of geo-political relationships, and I'm left with a broader perspective regarding our nation's current international engagements. As the war in Europe heats up, Pug is called back to the U.S. to take on a job in War Plans: the division of the military responsible for, well...planning a war. He is glad to be out of Berlin, especially after the insulting bribe proffered him by the inscrutable and duplicitous German banker, Wolf Stoller. Pug's American-style rebuff made me proud. Men of his integrity were as rare then as they are now. The Lend-Lease Act (PL 77-11) was something I didn't recall much about from my history classes. This says as much about me as it does about my public school education. The legislation was highly controversial in its time but critical to the outcome of the war. Starting in March, 1941--before the U.S. had officially entered the war--in an act to "promote the defense of the United States" the U.S. supplied the U.K., U.S.S.R. and other allied nations with materials for making war against Nazi Germany. This Act gave President Roosevelt exclusive and unusual powers to provide materials (for making planes and ships) to any nation he deemed worthy. It is frightening to think that one man was actually granted that much power. By 1945, when the war was ending and the program expired, the U.S. had shipped close to $800 billion (today's dollars) worth of supplies and materials to the U.K. The materials, without which the U.K. would most certainly have lost the war, were shipped via merchant marine vessels under the watchful escort of American destroyers. These "convoys" enabled the U.S. to subsidize England's efforts to fend off the Nazi's while remaining in compliance with the Neutrality Act. This legislation prohibited the U.S. from selling any supplies or materials to "belligerents" no matter whose side we were on. The Lend-Lease program also enabled the construction of air fields in Canada and Alaska for the purpose of supplying materials to the U.S.S.R. via Siberia (the Arctic Convoy). Michener writes about this in Alaska. In Winds, FDR invites Pug to sail on a north Atlantic convoy mission to Iceland as a guest, but not as an officer. Pug accepts of course, and is happy to get out from behind his desk and out to sea. He wants to command his own ship, but getting a flag rank always seems just out of reach. Most of Pug's contemporaries have received this promotion, but for some reason Pug has not. I haven't figured out why; he seems to be the most honorable man in the bunch. Barbarossa was the German code name for the Nazi invasion of Russia. Most historians consider this move to be the Fuhrer's greatest mistake because at the time (June, 1941) he could have invaded the exhausted England and probably won the war. Instead, he gambled and made a grab for the oil fields of Romania. Although initially successful, he ultimately lost, albeit four years later. The loss of life, Russian and German, has never been fully accounted. I have read estimates that 70 million people died during this war; most of them were civilians. I have a feeling that pretty soon the war will hit closer to home for the Henry family. Warren Henry, now Navy Lieutenant Henry, United States Pacific Fleet is stationed in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Briny is somewhere in the Pacific on a submarine. Natalie and Uncle Aaron are on their way back to the States. Pug and Rhoda have just purchased a house in D.C. so they can stay put and enjoy their new grandson. Daughter Madeline is well on her way to a successful career at CBS, and December, 1941 is approaching.

Move over Lucy VanPelt..

While I admire Wouk for his thorough and honest portrait of historical events and his gift for story telling, I suspect he does not have a high regard for women and this troubles me. The female characters in this story all seem to emulate the worst of feminine attributes. Of the five women in this story--Pug's wife Rhoda, daughter Madeline, daughter-in-law Janice, future daughter-in-law Natalie and the English WAAF Pamela Tudsbury--only Madeline seems to have her act together. And she's a career girl! She is intelligent, independent, in command of her emotions and her priorities. (She even dates a Communist!) She did not inherit these characteristics from her mom, Rhoda, who is often hysterical, self-absorbed, tends to drink too much and is hypercritical of everyone. Just when I think she can't complain, she does. Poor Pug. Natalie Jastrow is a real piece of work. She is spoiled, arrogant, attention-seeking to the point of being reckless, and also given to histrionics. Like Rhoda, she fusses and complains about the state of her hair, her clothes, the food, the servants...She seems to be selective with regard to her Jewish heritage. She boldly orders a "bacon sandwich" in a cafe to the surprise of Pug and Briny and explains that "most Jews" don't heed traditional dietary laws. However, when her father dies suddenly and she goes into mourning, she insists on wearing black to Warren's wedding and postponing her own engagement for a year, all in accordance with Jewish custom and ceremonial law. Just as Briny is about to enter submarine school, she hops on a plane to Italy! I think Briny is too good for her. As for Janice, she is sort of a one dimensional character. The only child of a powerful Florida legislator, she decides to marry Warren Henry literally days before (the pilot) is sent overseas. Pamela Tudsbury is needy and given to whining. Only a day or two after her fiancee is declared MIA, she's hitting on Pug! I'm left wondering: Wouk must have had some really bad experience with women. I hope it gets better. I'm on chapter 33: Pug's in London and the Nazis are bombing the heck out of the Brits.

A pugnacious Pug named Pugsley...

I'm enjoying this book. The story is intriguing, but some of the character nicknames are peculiar: like "Pug" and "Briny". I can understand how Victor might have acquired a nickname like Pug which might be applied to a football player or a boxer (or a funny looking dog), but how do you get "Briny" out of Byron? Some of the acronyms are tricky, like CNO and BOQ. I got the first one (Chief of Naval Operations), but haven't figured out BOQ yet (Bureau of Overseas Quadrants? Border of Quai d'Orsay?). And what are "BatDiv" and "BuOrd" supposed to stand for? If Wouk explained these, I missed it. He also uses strange euphemism like "pink-tea job" and "cookie pusher". These occur especially when the navy guys are engaged in shop talk. I haven't a clue what they mean. Wouk must have had an interest in fashion because almost every scene includes meticulous descriptions of the characters' wardrobe or attire. The women are almost always wearing some shade of pink, reportedly Hitler's favorite color. And, it seems that everybody except the head-strong Jewess, Natalie, is blond. Chapter 14, which describes the siege of Warsaw and narrow escape of the "neutrals" is disturbing. Anyone who might be ambivalent with regard to Arizona HB 2162/SB 1070 should read this chapter and be mindful that history has a subtle and surreptitious way of repeating itself.

I Wouk up and smelled the coffee..

After Alaska I was thinking about what to read next. Should I start Hawaii or try another author? My sweet hubby, best friend and literary soul-mate suggested The Winds of War by Herman Wouk. I took his advice: now I'm more than 100 pages into the novel and I'm hooked. "Winds" is one of 18 novels Wouk composed between 1945 and 1980 and is the second in a series. The main character is a WWII naval attache in Berlin. I remember the ABC miniseries back in '83 got lots of publicity and critical acclaim. Unlike Michener, all of the characters in Wouk's story are fiction, with only references to historical individuals like Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin for obvious reasons. The clandestine activities of Victor Henry and his family, the Jastrow's and the Tudsbury's are not based on those of any particular historical figure, although I'm sure they could be. The story has piqued my interest in the period so I've ordered two books from Abebooks (each under $4.00), one on German history and another about the Treaty of Versailles. Admittedly, my knowledge of this period of history is shameful, so I aim to educate myself, and enjoy a good romance novel in the meantime.

Only the rocks and the sea live forever

Finished reading Alaska this afternoon; took me 23 days, but it was worth it. I thought it was going to take me the rest of the summer. What an incredible story! With J.M. you not only get a history lesson, or what we used to call "social studies" when I was in elementary school, you also get a science lesson. I've learned a lot about geology, geography, volcanoes and tsunami just in the last chapter, "The Rim of Fire". That's what makes a Michener novel so great. The story has enough character development, relationship tension and action-adventure to keep the reader captivated. They (the novels) are never boring and always educational and entertaining. You can't ask for more than that from fiction. The last chapter takes us into the more recent past, late 1970's & '80's with a number of historical events that most of us (at least those of us born before 1970) will have some memory of. The story ends sometime between 1985 and 1991: after the great Mexico City earthquake, but before the ANCSA expires. The acronym refers to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, the 1971 legislation that was intended to address aboriginal land claims and serve as a kind of "economic stimulus" for Alaska. This novel was first published in 1988, so we don't get to learn (in the novel) what happens to ANCSA. However, as acts of congress have a curious habit of self-perpetuation, I suspect that this law has not expired, but rather has been amended and preserved for posterity. At the conclusion of the novel, J.M. seems to suggest that the law will expire and Alaska and its native people will again become vulnerable to shameless exploitation by absentee, Lower Forty-eight industrialists. Perhaps the most fascinating folks in this chapter are the mountaineers. In his disclaimer at the beginning, Michener states that the Japanese climbing team is fictional, but the climb he describes is historical. The summit of Denali/Mount McKinley is the focus of this section and after some sleuthing I learned that there was a famous Japanese adventurer who ascended the 20,320 foot beast, not once, but twice. However, the second time, he disappeared on his descent. His name was Naomi Uemura. He was the first to reach the summit solo. The first people ever to reach the Denali summit were the Sourdoughs. The story of Uemura is quite fascinating itself. I should look for a book about him. The final event in this incredible saga by J.M. is kind of a shocker, but it illustrates perfectly that, in spite of everything humans have done or can possibly do, the land always wins. Only the rocks live forever.

Verboseness

I've been blogging for less than a month now and each time my post gets longer, and longer...

Gold, Salmon and Glaciers

Chapters 8, 9 & 10 describe the discovery and exploitation of the two most lucrative strategic commodities in Alaska: gold and salmon. There is a third "commodity" that is certainly treated as ruthlessly as these two, but it is not unique to Alaska. I'll attend to that subject later in my review. One of the most enjoyable aspects of reading Michener is that I always learn something. I know more about the life cycle of the sockeye salmon than, I'll bet anybody else I know. J.M. illustrates for us the trials of one fish, Oncorhynchus nerka, or Nerka, for short, from alevin to fry to fingerling to smolt. There are no grilse or kelt stages in Pacific salmon as in their Atlantic cousins because Pacific salmon die after spawning only once. (Bet'cha didn't know that.) Anyway, J.M. weaves the story of Nerka the salmon within the story of Tom Venn, our young proletariat, now fully immersed in the Ross & Raglan monopoly. Of all of the characters, Tom is the most conflicted. he is uneasy with the way the company exploits the available resources to near extinction, and hates having to work with the malfeasant Washington worm Marvin Hoxey. The Hoxey character is fictional, but is allegedly based on a genuine wor...(I mean) person named Alexander J. McKenzie, who really was pardoned by President McKinley. Tom, however doesn't hate his job enough to quit. He in fact marries the boss' daughter and seals his deal with the devil. I'm hoping that somehow Tom will redeem himself, like Captain Schransky in chapter 7. The story about the Matanuska Valley was also new to me. Matanuska isn't really a town, as in the novel, but is rather the name of a river, a glacier and a borough (or county) in Alaska. The Valley, or rather the Matanuska Colony was a real settlement; part of a New Deal agricultural experiment during the Great Depression. Impoverished families were imported from Minnesota to the Matanuska Valley as homesteaders. They became known as "Alaska Sourdoughs". The Valley is apparently the only place in Alaska where the land can actually support farming. As if the Russian names weren't bad enough to pronounce, now I'm trying to master Scandinavian names: like Vickaryous, Vasanojas and Sjodin. I didn't know that the U.S. government was actively engaged in resettlement and repopulation. Didn't Germany try that in Poland in 1939? When I wrote about a third "commodity" I was referring to the exploitation of the indigenous people of Alaska. As I said, this is not anything new or unique to Alaska. It seems that wherever the white man goes, his arrival is a harbinger of death and destruction for the people and culture of the original inhabitants. To call it racism is to minimize the reality. It's like saying the events of 9/11 were a "misunderstanding". The treatment of the native Aleuts, Athapascans, Tlingit, Eskimo and immigrant Chinese by white American (perhaps I should say, Caucasian) prospectors and industrialists in Alaska was deplorable. I think it is a part of our history that few acknowledge, if they even know about it at all. Sadly, once the damage is done and the indigenous people and their heritage are decimated, they are lost forever. I think J.M. hints at this sentiment in these chapters.