Friends of this blog have noticed my silence these past few months….and
I’m grateful for signs that readers haven’t completely given up on me…
And it’s not just writing that I’ve found difficult – these past few
months I’ve found that books have also become a big turn-off.
Perhaps it was the burst of reading and writing I did in the autumn for
the blog series
about the State and pubic management literature which finished me off - somehow
I can’t take any more the dry, reified technicalities which most
non-fiction work offers these days.
That, you may say, surely leaves the way open for novels – a genre I’ve
admitted I rarely feel partial to (it’s 8 years since I last tried to give a sense
of my favourites in that genre) And indeed I did reread with interest last
month Alan Massie’s classic A
Question of Loyalties and Bordeaux trilogy as well as some John le Carre
novels last week……
It was perhaps a hopeful sign this week that some authors actually started
to speak to me again…
- Yanis Varoufakis’ And
the Weak Suffer What They Must? – Europe, Austerity and the threat to global
stability was the first voice to try to cajole me out of the lethargy which has
been like a funeral pall these past few months. I had started the book last year, rediscovered it in a friend's house in April and found it a gripping read - effectively an update of his "Global Minotaur", I then moved onto
the more autobiographical “Adults
in the Room – my battle with Europe’s Deep Establishment” (2017) which is a "kiss and tell" about his 6 months' spell as Greek Minister of Finance (the phrase "Glasgow kiss" comes to mind!). The
reviews contained in the 2 links give some of the essential background if
you’re not already familiar with this controversial writer. I like the historical sweep and biographical tone of his writing but know that many find
him a bit...well.... "showy"….I've attached at the bottom a short Varoufakis resource which includes important critiques of this latest book (and also Varoufakis' response to the more significant critiques)
- And
a book about healthy
eating and living which has been lying on my shelves for more than a decade
also had the tone and voice I seem to need these days - and led me back to the
little library I have of Michael Pollan’s
superbly written books eg In
Defence of Food and Food
Rules – let alone his The Botany
of Desire (2001) a foretaste of his latest book - How
to Change your Mind – the new science of psychedelics
These days, I need writing
which jolts me – not for its own sake but to help first identify minds which look at the world in original ways but which also understand that clear
language is an essential tool for such originality…Recently deceased essayist
Tom Wolfe was a favourite of mine ever since I first read his Mau
Mauing the flak catchers in 1970 but the “creative writing” courses which
have contaminated journalism in the past few decades have made me suspicious of
even good journalists these days. James Meek remains an
exception for his ability to reduce economic complexities to 5 or 10 thousand
word essays – ditto Jonathan
Meades for his forensic analyses of cultural issues.
Varoufakis and Pollan are, for me, all too rare examples of the sort of
writing which is needed if authors are to stand out against the verbiage and noise which
assails us everywhere these days………
The title is that of a famous Beatles song whose lyrics can be read here -https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/beatles/withalittlehelpfrommyfriends.html
A Varoufakis Resource
Reviews of "Adults in the Room"
The title is that of a famous Beatles song whose lyrics can be read here -https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/beatles/withalittlehelpfrommyfriends.html
A Varoufakis Resource
https://www.yanisvaroufakis.eu/; his
website
https://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/paul-tyson/varoufakis-%E2%80%93-new-kind-of-politics (2015);
a profile of the man
Reviews of "Adults in the Room"
https://www.adamtooze.com/2017/07/01/reading-varoufakis-frustrated-strategist-greek-financial-deterrence/ a
sympathetic review
https://adamtooze.com/2018/02/24/europes-political-economy-reading-reviews-varoufakiss-adults-room/;
a good overview of reviews of "Adult in the Room", structured by
ideological slant
https://www.yanisvaroufakis.eu/2018/03/07/was-defeat-inevitable-a-review-of-adam-toozes-meta-review-of-adults-in-the-room-1/
Varoufakis’ detailed reply to these critiques
https://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/paul-tyson/adults-in-room-by-yanis-varoufakis-london-bodley-head-2017;
a good review of the book
http://www.cadtm.org/Yanis-Varoufakis-s-Account-of-the;
an important serial critique of "Adults in the Room" from someone on the Syrizan Left. Its first part contains one of the few exposes of Varoufakis' basic negotiating strategy you will find in the English language
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/may/03/yanis-varoufakis-greece-greatest-political-memoir;
Paul Mason's review of Varoufakis' expose
https://verfassungsblog.de/losing-to-the-european-union-a-review-of-yanis-varoufakis-book-adults-in-the-room/;
a critical assessment from a Greek centrist
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2017/06/yanis-varoufakis-latest-eurogroup-statement-keeps-greece-on-the-austerity-rack.html; an
example of some of YV's doodles!
For those who want an independent "take" on the greek economy of the past decade or so, I strongly recommend this blog from a retired German banker whose marriage takes him frequently to Greece,,,,
For those who want an independent "take" on the greek economy of the past decade or so, I strongly recommend this blog from a retired German banker whose marriage takes him frequently to Greece,,,,
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