Saturday, April 07, 2007

The Cold War - A new History

The Cold War - A New History anything but flatters Late President Truman. From casual press statements that set off nuclear alarms world-wide, to building the hydrogen bomb for bargaining purposes, the book has nothing good to say about the accidental president. Funny, then, that the book is the recipient of the 2006 Truman Book Award!

And then again, the author doesn't not contradict himself. While he starts out saying that the Cold War was fought bloodlessly, silently, without any declaration or battles. Yet all I can see is war and bloodshed. Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iran, Cambodia, Baltic Conflicts, Slavic Conflicts, Communist purges (across the world), Israel, and there may be some events I am still missing here.

To tell the truth, I have no interest whatsoever in politics of any sort. Be it contemporary Indian, Cold War, Partition, British Imperial or even gender politics that's such a pet of the literary academia. But I found my reason to read the book in the Preface:
"... because as Marx once said (Groucho, not Karl),"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside a dog, it's too dark to read."

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sure... but there must've been a reason why you picked this book out from a shelf stacked with others.

El Scorcho said...

it just landed in my lap ... dad picked it up randomly. then why read it? because i welcome anything out of the routine =)

Bombay Girl said...

@ Anonymous.
Can you be unanonymous please?That way you can make friends see?

He just told you the reason why he read the book in the post no!?


Geekazoid 1 4m 1n 4 4uck3d u9 s7473 04 m19d.

Is it obvious?

Anyway,
Have you read any booker prize winning books?Or any prize winning books for that matter apart from this one?They all suck!The crap that wins prizes nowadays.Try picking up a booker.

P.S. WHY THE FUCK DO I HAVE TO DO THE WORD VERIFICATION THRICE TO POST A COMMENT?!WTF?!