Tag: community

‘TRIBE: On Homecoming and Belonging’

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  • Unknown-4TRIBE by Sebastian Junger (Twelve, Hachette Book Group, 2016)
  • In 40 words or less: An outgrowth of a June 2015 article on soldiers’ PTSD long after leaving the battlefield, Junger posits what is it about modern society that has created this problem. Using recognized research and his observations, Junger provides food for thought.
  • Genre: Nonfiction/Anthropology
  • Time: 300 plus years of communities
  • Read this for an interesting take on the how individualism and independence may leave our society vulnerable to depression, PTSD and other problems.

Sebastian Junger is a familiar name to many for his book The Perfect Storm about the New England fisherman caught as three weather fronts came together in 1991. His writing is fiercely analytical, bringing together the individual, societal and (in that case) climatological factors that marked that tragedy.

Junger spent time embedded with troops in Afghanistan. As a journalist, filmmaker, and long form author, he was struck by the strong bonding of military units regardless of the ethnic, racial, intellectual and social differences that might divide in other environments. Junger saw wounded soldiers desperate to return to their units rather than to be sent home.  Many of the same strong and courageous individuals had severe and long-lasting difficulties reintegrating upon returning home. TRIBE is his effort to understand why.

This brief book, less than 140 pages, refers to dozens of psychological, sociological and anthropological studies, business and newspaper articles on the evolution of tribal and group behavior. The primary exemplars are tribes, going back to ancient times through early America, who’s communities were completely interdependent with well-defined communal roles. His contention is the superiority of this model is reinforced by the resistance of captured American settlers to return to their communities, often fleeing to return to those who had been their captors.

Junger asserts that that interdependence is seen in military units and that the loss of it causes/exacerbates reintegration difficulties. On the civilian side, he suggests that this lack of fundamental purposefulness contributes to some instances of depression, abuse of medical insurance and other behaviors.  As evidence, he shares data that suggests catastrophes such as 9/11 resulted in reductions in suicide and symptoms of depression. Rather than turning inward, people reached out to help others both selflessly and to fulfill a need to contribute to making society whole. In my opinion, his assessment might also be worth looking at in terms of gang members and those who have been incarcerated.

This is not an academic treatise nor does he proport to be a scholar.  Having said that, I’d recommend it to those who study societal dynamics, social workers, and particularly those involved in the serious problem of appropriately training our military and reintegrating them into civilian service. Even if he isn’t spot on, his work provides a starting point for discussion.

 

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Pumpkinflowers: A Soldier’s Story

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  • PumpkinflowersPumpkinflowers: A Soldier’s Story Matti Friedman (Algonquin Books, May 2016)
  • In 40 words or less: Friedman shares both his personal and journalistic views of Israel’s experience in Lebanon in the 1990’s with the outpost called Pumpkin as the focus. Heart-wrenching and informative, it reminds the reader that history happens one person at a time.
  • Genre: Narrative history/memoir
  • Locale: Israel/Lebanon
  • Time: 1994-2002

Two years ago I first learned that Matti Friedman’s next book would be about the little-mentioned experience of Israeli soldiers in outposts in Southern Lebanon. These fortifications and their platoons were protection from Hezbollah incursions into northern Israel. This is a personal story for him – it was in the Pumpkin that Friedman served during his time in the IDF in the late 90s. Pumpkinflowers goes beyond his story to tell of those who came before him, their families and friends, and of the women whose outcry led to the abandonment of these positions on the hills.

In Israel, all but the ultra-Orthodox are obligated to serve in the military. Leadership is cultivated early and the bonds of service continue beyond the time in uniform.  Israel is a small country so troops are rotated from post to training with frequency and weekend visits home are a part of the culture. And when there are casualties, each wounded soldier (flower) or death (cyclamen) is a collective sorrow, invariably a distant relative or friend of a friend’s cousin.

The early days of the Pumpkin are given life through Avi, a writer by temperament, who was sent with his platoon to the Pumpkin in 1994. Friedman uses diaries and letters, interviews with Avi’s parents and others from the platoon, to paint the picture of life on the hill.  Friedman lays out the routines, the boredom broken by fear when trying to ascertain whether a shepherd is merely looking for lost sheep or is actually a threat. The platoon members are from different backgrounds, religious to completely secular, though all are schooled in the Biblical history of the land. They are at the cusp of adulthood, intrigued by popular culture, keeping in touch with their friends, trying to figure out what is next.

Access to the outposts was difficult and troops were often conveyed by helicopter. In February 1997, poor weather conditions contributed to a tragedy that changed the direction of Israel’s defense in the security zone. Begun by mothers, slowly but surely pressure to bring the soldiers home from the outposts began.

And it was after this that Matti Friedman, at nineteen, was sent to the Pumpkin.  Only after telling the story of the early years does Friedman share his experience.

Well-conceived narrative history can bring breadth in a very compelling way. In Pumpkinflowers Matti Friedman gives life to the Pumpkin and to the terrain that the platoons are charged with protecting.  The difficulty in defending borders when combatants look just like their neighbors. The combination of bravado and naiveté among the IDF’s soldiers, and a country where each casualty is a tragedy within the family. Friedman also lays out the politics and resistance.

In the end, it is a very personal story, incomplete without Friedman’s visit back to where it all began. After the Pumpkin was the temporary home to too many young men lost, it is now a hill with scars. And the view remains essentially the same as it has for thousands of years.

Pumpkinflowers is well-documented and tightly written. Covering a rarely discussed period of Israeli history, this book is important for the gap it fills and the manner it which it is addressed. As he says, this period is the beginning of a new type of warfare in the Middle East and Hezbollah was its start. This book has appeal for readers of all genres and will be a great source of discussion.

Matti Friedman is a journalist and author. His 2012 book, The Aleppo Codex, was awarded numerous prizes, including one which afforded him the opportunity to turn his attention more fully to his experience in Lebanon.  Friedman continues to write both narrative journalism and opinion pieces.

 

 

 

 

 

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What I learned in my week at camp

Posting a blog is just the start of the process. I always wonder what your reaction is when I post a blog.  And if you’ve read this far I do mean you!

Last week I participated in Blogging University Commenting Bootcamp. WordPress, the platform (underlying software) for my blog, offers free directed tutorials where many bloggers get together to hone their skills and receive feedback from others. The group was multinational in its makeup and the topics of the blogs were eclectic, to say the least.Blogging U.

Each day we were given assignments to comment on the blogs of others. To be successful required both writing something interesting and informative on the blogs but also encouraging people to look at what I am writing. Saying “Nice job!” just doesn’t cut it.

I write this blog for my enjoyment and to connect with other book lovers and wanderers. It makes my day when someone tells me they read a book because of my review or really enjoyed a particular post. But there is so much more that could be gained by expanding the conversation.

What I learned is that sharing a little bit of myself as a commenter helps move the conversation along. In the face of the horrible events last week in Brussels, a post about dealing with the news by reading encouraged others to react both to the news and the role books play in viewing the world. That opened up a dialog about novels that speak to the political reality even if set in a different time. Here’s that post.

Please take the opportunity to add to the conversation when you read a post. Disagree, offer additional thoughts or suggest a topic for the future. When we talk to one another, whatever the medium, there is learning.

 

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‘All Who Go Do Not Return’: One Man’s View of a Hidden World

 

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All who go

  • All Who Go Do Not Return by Shulem Deen (Graywolf Press, 2015)
  • In 40 words or less: A rare portrayal of a former Hasidic Jew’s departure from the community and loss of faith.
  • Genre: Memoir
  • Locale: New York
  • Time: Contemporary

The copyright page of Shulem Deen’s wrenching memoir has an unusual statement: “Disclaimer: This is a work of creative nonfiction. Many of the names, and some minor identifying details, have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals. All the people in the book are real and the events described actually took place. ….” It goes further delineating other changes he may have made, not substantially altering the narrative.

I can’t count the number of memoirs I’ve read over the last decade.  With each book, I’ve wondered how the author has been able to recount so many instances of daily living. Certainly with celebrity memoirs there are questions about what liberties may have been taken to embellish or airbrush out situations. What makes this memoir so different?

Shulem Deen is a writer and former Skverer Hasid. Most Skverer Hasidim are members from birth, with a large and extensive network of family members. Deen is the child of parents who chose an ultra-Orthodox life as adults, and not as Skverers. His father further distinguished himself by his teaching and associations outside the Hasidic world. This far from conventional upbringing set him apart from the community from the beginning. Glimpses he gives into his childhood suggest Deen was never one to easily acquiesce to communal rules, a personality trait that foreshadows his inevitable banishment from the Hasidic community and enforced estrangement from his family.

In the last five years there have been a number of memoirs, fictionalized accounts and outsider portraits of Hasidic life from the perspective of women who have left their communities for differing reasons. All Who Go Do Not Return is the first book to draw back the curtain on the details of the day in-day out influence of the Rebbe and his inner circle on the lives of all within the community. From the selection of potential spouses, enforcement of laws of family purity, decisions on who will pursue additional study and who must secure approved employment beyond the hall of study- it’s all there.

The intimate details of the creation of a family and its eventual dissolution are the most uncomfortable to read. The shidduch, match, results in total strangers starting up a household with virtually no knowledge of what a marriage entails – physically, emotionally, practically or financially.  In the case of Deen and his wife, without an extensive family network or well-connected elders, their marriage started off at an even greater disadvantage.  Even with the most supportive family, a select cadre of the Rebbe’s trusted provided guidance and made recommendations on everything from consummation of the marriage to how and when to pursue additional employment.

As the Deen family grew from one child to, eventually, five, the economic pressures to support the family on their own grew.  To meet the demands, Deen became a tutor to young yeshiva students, allegedly on secular topics. He contends this was really just a front and that the governmentally funded sessions were dedicated to augmenting the boys study of Torah. This is consistent with the conditions currently under investigation in a number of New York yeshivot where it is alleged that the studies do not meet minimum standards for English, math and other secular subjects.

Eventually, the family’s financial needs required Deen seek employment outside the community. By this time he had begun to engage in forbidden practices: listening to the radio, discovering the Internet and very tame movies using a VCR and television. While he initially kept these practices hidden from his wife, she soon became suspicious and he shared the discoveries with her. These experiences made him more employable but only if he altered the distinctive wardrobe worn by the Skverers.

At the beginning of his exploration of the secular world Deen responds with curiosity and wonder at what he is experiencing.  Over time he increasingly questions the legitimacy of the Skverer leadership and norms and his personal spirituality and faith. More and more he separates himself from communal prayer and activities. Not only does this place him under suspicion but it endangers the position of the rest of his family within the community.  Ultimately he is forced to leave the community and expelled from all contact with the community’s members.

This book is a fascinating portrait of one man’s journey of self-discovery. In losing his faith he also lost his family. At times it is painful to read the details of the Deen family life. It is tragic when a loving parent is separated from his or her children. It’s small comfort to consider how unlikely it is that his wife or children will ever read the book.  After all, such worldly reading is forbidden.

 

 

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The beauty of Kent Haruf’s ‘Our Souls at Night’

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  • Unknown-8Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf (Random House Audio, 2015)
  • In 40 words or less: A beautiful, yet spare tale of two older adults who are changed through their relationship.
  • Genre: Fiction
  • Locale: Colorado
  • Time: Present
  • Read this to savor a story about the essence of humanity and the importance of relationships at every age.

There are some things are far better with a healthy measure of life experiences behind you. Kent Haruf’s Our Souls at Night is such a book. As with Haruf’s other novels, it takes place is small town Colorado. Addie Moore drums up the courage to approach her neighbor, Louis Waters, with a proposal. Both are widowed and up in years.  She suggests that they consider spending some nights together, talking in bed, an intimacy she misses and suspects he might as well. And so the story proceeds.

Over the course of this short novel their relationship grows.  They become the subject of gossip in town and consternation from their children. Life happens, both good and bad.

Our Souls at Night is written beautifully. The language is befitting the wise, yet simple characters. I had the good fortune to listen to the book read by Mark Bramhall. If anything, his reading amplified the message. It has been years since I wanted anyone other than my children to read me a bedtime story. More so than any other audiobook I’ve listened to, this one was true artistry. Whether holding the book in hand or listening to Bramhall’s voice, Our Souls at Night warms the heart.

Kent Haruf died on November 30, 2014, shortly after completing this book. At its publication six months later it was heralded as a fitting swan song. If only we could all finish out our days so well.

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