Review of "The Masters: A Strangers and Brothers Novel" by C.P. Snow

  

 

I first read C.P. Snow's 'Strangers and Brothers' series some time ago, and it became a favorite. The novels focus on an English barrister/civil servant, Lewis Eliot, who rises from poverty to a position of influence in the early-to-mid 1900s. Eliot is present in the entire eleven-book series, but he's not always the central character.

The Masters is part of the series, but it works fine as a standalone book.

The story takes place in 1937, when narrator Lewis Eliot is a 32-year-old law don and Fellow at Cambridge University. Lewis has rooms at the college as well as a home in London with his wife Sheila.



As the narrative begins, the Master of the college, Vernon Royce, has terminal cancer and is given only months to live. Royce's wife, Lady Muriel, tells him he has an ulcer and is recovering, and she insists NO ONE tell Royce the truth. So the Master lingers in bed and gets visits from his family and college Fellows - all of whom find the situation very difficult. The Master's decline and demise is a thread that runs through the story.



The college statutes dictate that a new Master be elected two weeks after the position is vacated, but the maneuvering begins with Royce's sad prognosis, months before his death. Elections are by nature contentious, and the combative process is the theme of this novel.

The college has 13 Fellows who'll elect the new Master, and two camps quickly form. The two Fellows proposed for Master are Senior Tutor Paul Jago - an English literature scholar;



and Dr. Redvers Crawford - who's renowned for his studies in physiology.



If neither man gets a majority, the selection goes to the Visitor, a bishop in a northern diocese - and no one wants that to happen.

Loyalties shift over time, but early in the campaign, the Fellows line up as follows:

▶▶ Jago's supporters are Arthur Brown, Charles Chrystal, Lewis Eliot, Roy Calvert, Ronald Nightingale, and Walter Luke. Generally speaking, these men champion Jago because he's a warm and sympathetic man who understands people - good qualities for a Master.



▶▶ Crawford's supporters are Albert Despard-Smith, Godfrey Winslow, Francis Getliffe, Eustace Pilbrow, and Maurice Gay. They back Crawford for a mixture of reasons. Overall, the feeling is more anti-Jago than pro-Crawford. Some fellows dislike Jago as a person, and Jago's work in English literature hasn't received any accolades. On the other hand, Crawford is a distinguished scholar, well known outside the college.



Jago and Crawford are precluded from voting for themselves, so they must either abstain or vote for each other.

▶▶ To sum it up, at the start of the electioneering process, it looks like Jago can get a seven vote majority and win. Of course a great deal happens before election day, because some fellows are petty and spiteful, and some have an honest change of mind.

Author C.P. Snow based this book on his own experience at Cambridge, where he was a fellow of Christ’s College and participated in the election of a Master.


Christ's College at Cambridge University

For me, this is one of the less compelling books in the Strangers and Brothers series. Much of the novel is about the Fellows, their specialties, their personalities; their prejudices, and their foibles. There are endless meetings in the Combination Room (the college’s private common room for the Fellows) where the men 'present' bottles of brandy, or claret, or wine, and smoke and talk. Added to these are meetings in the Fellows' private apartments, with more drinking and conversation.

There's maneuvering to 'bring over' a Fellow from the other side; anonymous missives are sent; vicious bad mouthing occurs; rumors get spread. You get it - typical behavior before any election.

Some legitimate concerns during the election process are: Fellows' attitudes about the Spanish Civil War and the Nazis; a huge donation to the college being dangled by a business magnate; Fellows' publications that garner accolades or not; Fellows' personalities and ability to lead; and more.

Another thing that comes up is a Fellow's family, which is legitimate for a candidate for Master. The Master's position comes with the Master's Lodge on the college grounds, and the necessity to entertain frequently.





While Crawford has a happy home with a wife and two children, Jago has no children and his wife Alice is a difficult and needy woman. Worse yet, Alice brings attention to herself for all the wrong reasons.

▶▶ Alice is overly sensitive and easily offended, and Jago is compelled to comfort and soothe her.

▶▶ Alice has 'absurd flirtations.' Narrator Lewis Eliot observes, "They were the flirtations of a woman with not a shred of confidence in her attractions, trying to prove them."

▶▶ When Jago becomes a candidate for Master, Alice assumes he'll win and talks about moving into the Master's Lodge, how she'll decorate it, the furniture she'll buy, the guests she'll invite, etc. This sense of entitlement is very offensive to the Fellows and their wives.



Alice's assumptions and eccentricities are used against Jago, which may not be fair, but it's human nature.

A good part of the book covers the political machinations, but there's more going on, such as: a Fellow who's desperate to get admitted to the Royal Society, but has no chance; a Fellow whose son is failing out of Cambridge; a Fellow who just wants to spread his own misery; unrequited love when the Master's daughter Joan Royce falls for Roy Calvert, who's not a settling down kind of man; and more.



Though I didn't love the book, I was interested in the outcome of the election, which is so high stakes at the college.

I'd recommend the book to readers interested in college politics. (By the way, Cambridge has women Fellows now, and women Masters. 😊)

Rating: 3.5 stars 

Review of "The Subtle Pleasures of Indiscretion: An Isabel Dalhousie Novel" by Alexander McCall Smith

Alexander McCall Smith is probably best known for his 'Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency' novels, but he's a prolific author who also pens other series and standalone books.

In this 16th entry in the 'Isabel Dalhousie' series, Isabel - as always - applies moral principles to incidents in her life. The book can be read as a standalone but familiarity with the characters is a plus.

*****

Isabel Dalhousie and her younger husband Jamie live in Edinburgh and have two little boys, Charlie and Magnus. Isabel is a philosopher who publishes and edits The Review of Applied Ethics.....



…..and Jamie is an elite basoonist who gives concerts and teaches music.



Isabel is the prime beneficiary of a well-funded family trust, and uses her wealth to live well and help others.

As the story opens, Isabel and Jamie are talking about little Magnus - who like his brother Charlie before him - is a nursery school biter. This leads to Isabel and Jamie discussing greedy children in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and the dreadful liar Matilda, and a long list of characters in children's stories who come to a bad end.



Concerned about Magnus being expelled from infant school, Isabel tells him: "You see, darling, we don't bite people in this family. Do you ever see Daddy biting anybody?...Big boys don't bite, and if you want to be a big boy, you will have to stop biting people." And Magnus says, "All right. Won't. Can I hit them instead?" 😊 In the end, two helpings of ice cream discourage Magnus from hitting or biting, and all is well.



In the remainder of the novel, Isabel finds herself in the midst of three dilemmas.

✿ Isabel has a compulsion to assist people with their troubles, so she agrees to help an old schoolmate named Andrea Dowde. Andrea explains she took a genetic test and discovered a previously unknown half-brother named John Sinclair. John wants to speak to Andrea's brother and sister, saying he has a right to meet his relatives. Andrea would prefer John stay away, so her siblings don't learn of their father's infidelity.



Isabel mentions Andrea's situation to her housekeeper Grace, who belongs to a spiritualist group and is friends with a medium called Linda. Linda happens to live on the same street as John Sinclair, and encourages him to attend her seance, to discourage him from doing the wrong thing.



For Isabel, though, "The world of psychics is just too bound up in her mind with charlatanism - and with the wishful thinking and exploitation that goes with the territory." So Isabel feels compelled to take steps.

✿ A music promoter named Neave Farrel invites Isabel's husband Jamie to play in a series of concerts in London, and perhaps make a record for Deutsche Grammophon, which would boost Jamie's career. Jamie is pleased, and invites Isabel to have drinks with Neave and himself, to discuss the concerts.

When Isabel meets Neave - a striking woman with Irish good looks - it seems obvious Neave is after Jamie for more than his bassoon playing. Jamie is oblivious to Neave's machinations, being naïve about seductive women.



This puts Isabel in a quandary. Should she mention Neave's intentions to Jamie. Would Jamie be insulted? Would he think Isabel doesn't trust him? Isabel has to cogitate and decide.

✿ As soon as Isabel became editor of the 'Review of Applied Ethics' she started having problems with two male board members. Supercilious Professor Lettuce and his young protégé Professor Dove are envious of Isabel, resent her, and repeatedly scheme against her. Isabel bests them every time, and things seem to have settled down.



Isabel thinks of Lettuce and Dove as two peas in a pod, so she's surprised when Dove turns up at her office and confides, "I have discovered something about Lettuce when he was an undergraduate at Oxford. He cheated on an examination...They almost sent him down but gave him another chance."

Isabel dismisses the youthful misdemeanor, but Dove insists, "I have no alternative but to publish details of Lettuce's record." Isabel gleans that traitorous Dove wants his mentor's job, and feels obliged to do something. It's fun to see Dove learn his lesson.



Other parts of the story feature a financially struggling musician; Professor Dove planning to foist a philosophy department intern on Isabel; and Isabel and Jamie preparing delicious meals like cheese soufflé and broadbean salad; chicken cacciatore; and potato dauphinoise.







I always enjoy the Isabel Dalhousie books because they're clever, erudite, and things work out in the end. Highly recommended for light reading.

Thanks to Netgalley, Alexander McCall Smith, and Pantheon for an ARC of the book.

Rating: 3.5 stars 

Review of "Freedom's Daughters: How a Generation of Black Women Resisted Oppression Through Literacy and Education" by Celeste Headlee

 

Author Celeste Headlee is an American radio journalist, author, public speaker, and musician.


Celeste Headlee

Headlee's grandfather is the African-American composer William Grant Still;



and Headlee's great-grandmother is Carrie Still Shepperson (William Grant Still's mother), one of the previously forgotten African-American women who dedicated her life to educating and uplifting Black people after emancipation. This book is about Carrie.


Carrie Still Shepperson

To round out Carrie's tale, Headlee also discusses slavery, emancipation, Reconstruction, the Jim Crow Era, race relations, and people of the time - good and bad - who left their marks on history. For my review, I'll provide some highlights surrounding Carrie's life, and I'd encourage interested readers to peruse the entire book.

Headlee spent nine years researching this narrative. She traveled around the country; dug into archives; read old newspapers; scoured census records; interviewed people; hired a genealogist; and more. After an extensive search, Celeste learned her great-grandmother Carrie was born on a Georgia plantation in 1863. Carrie's parents are Anne Fambrough - an enslaved woman, and Lindsey Fambrough - the plantation owner's White rapist son.

Headlee writes, "Enslaved Black women...were always under threat of sexual violence from any white man who felt inclined to touch them without consent. In most states, it was not illegal to rape an enslaved woman, leading some to refer to Black women as “unrapeable.”

African-Americans celebrated emancipation, but soon discovered freedom didn't bring everything they'd hoped.


Emancipation Day in South Carolina

Some time after emancipation, Anne Fambrough and her daughters Ocia, Laura, and Carrie made their way to Atlanta, where Anne used her dressmaker skills and did other jobs to support her family. Even with 'freedom' though, the lives of African-Americans were mired in hardship. Headlee observes, "In the waning days of the antebellum South, millions of African-Americans were suddenly released from enslavement. But they soon realized that 'freedom' was not free; they were subject to hundreds of laws aimed at preventing them from voting and, in many cases, learning. Were it not for the work of an exceptional group of women—activists, educators, mothers, organizers—the foundations for Black education might never have been laid.

Contrary to common assumption, Black women took the lead in establishing schools for African-American children after the Civil War. Headlee reflects, "The familiar profile depicts a kindly young white woman from the North, an abolitionist driven to educate poor African-American children because of her liberal religious views. Statistically, though, teachers who fit that description were in the minority. Black people, especially women, always understood the power of literacy, and recent research has revealed the extent to which they built schools without the assistance of benevolent Northerners."


After emancipation, most schoolteachers in African-American schools were Black women

Carrie was among the women who, among other things, spent decades educating African-American children. Carrie's previously enslaved mother Anne was illiterate, but adamant about her girls going to school and getting a good start in life. There are no records of Carrie's early education, but Headlee notes, "Carrie undoubtedly studied in [Noah Webster’s] blue-back speller while training to be a schoolteacher at Atlanta University." Carrie would be following enslaved Blacks, who - if they were lucky enough to have the book - carried it everywhere they went, "stealing glances at it when they finished plowing a row or were given a few minutes to eat."



After graduating from Atlanta University, Carrie taught students in Alabama, Mississippi, and Arkansas, joining in the footsteps of African-American teachers who preceded and followed her. These females risked beatings, whippings, and worse if they were caught instructing others. Headlee includes anecdotes about some of these ladies, such as Lily Ann Granderson, Jane DeVeaux, Mary Ann Woodhouse, Susie King Taylor, and Mary Smith Peake.


Susie King Taylor (left) and Mary Smith Peake

Headlee reflects, "Some themes begin to emerge in the tales of all these women, themes that would later resonate in my great-grandmother’s life: education, literacy, racial uplift, self-sufficiency. And yet one more common thread: versatility born of necessity. They learned how to repair farm equipment so they could demonstrate its function, they mended their students’ clothing, tended to schoolyard gardens that helped feed the pupils, pursued philanthropic dollars with single-minded focus. They wrote letters for community members who could not write themselves, who could only sign their names as an “X.” These women were devoted to their communities, shockingly capable, and seemed to believe nothing was beyond their powers to accomplish—a belief they proved correct multiple times over the course of their lives."

Unfortunately, education of African-Americans following emancipation led to a backlash among furious Whites. Headlee writes, "Enthusiasm for schooling within the Black community was met with hatred and resentment in many White Southern hearts. Newly built Black schools were often burned down and teachers threatened with assault or even death if they didn’t stop instructing Black pupils.”


White people burned Black schools in the South

Southern Whites wanted freedpeople to keep working on farms, and many emancipated Blacks complied. Headlee notes, "Even if African-Americans could get hired for non-agricultural jobs, White employees almost universally refused to work alongside them... Even most Northern abolitionists didn’t wish to mingle with the Black citizens for whose freedom they fought...This is one reason so many freedpeople chose to remain in the South." Regardless, freedpeople and their descendants had dreams. Dreams that were often crushed by the end of Reconstruction in 1877, twelve years after the Civil War.

Headlee writes, "I strongly suspect that spending her formative years [until age 14] during Reconstruction contributed a great deal to Carrie's later achievements...She grew up surrounded by the dream of freedom and equality." Then Reconstruction ended; Northern troops left the South; and a nightmare for southern Blacks ensued.



The end of Reconstruction dampened notions of Black freedom and opportunity. Without Northern militias to enforce proper behavior, many states quickly passed Jim Crow laws that disenfranchised Blacks; enforced racial segregation, and empowered the Ku Klux Klan and other White supremacist organizations.







Headlee describes numerous instances of hate-filled Whites lynching Blacks and burning down their homes, businesses, and schools. The wholesale murder of African-Americans - WITHOUT CONSEQUENCES - continued unabated for decades, and these scenes are painful to read about.


Ku Klux Klan

When Carrie was teaching at Huntsville Normal School in Alabama, she met charismatic fellow instructor William Grant Still, who taught music and bookkeeping.


Huntsville Normal School


William Grant Still

Carrie and William became engaged, got married in 1894, and settled in Woodville, Mississippi, where they both continued teaching. The couple's son William Grant Still Jr. was born in 1895, and tragedy soon followed. Carrie's husband was killed by the Ku Klux Klan when Black teachers protested their low pay. Carrie fled Woodville with her 4-month-old baby, and joined family members in Little Rock, Arkansas.


Historic Little Rock, Arkansas

Her husband's murder galvanized Carrie, and in the following years Carrie worked nonstop to help Black people. In addition to teaching English at a series of schools in Little Rock, Carrie raised money for the city's Black schools; established a library for African-Americans; joined activist clubs and organizations; served on a committee to build a hospital for Blacks; became a leader of the NAACP, and organized numerous fund-raisers for the organization; worked to free Black farmers who were wrongly incarcerated; and more. In addition, Carrie spent her summers in the rural town of Olmstead, teaching the residents (who had no schools) to read and write.

Besides doing all that, Headlee writes, "Carrie believed in celebrating the high arts, and arranged for many famous writers, artists, and musicians to visit Little Rock...In addition to her full time job as a teacher and her civic work with a dizzying number of clubs and organizations, plus the hours she spent raising and disciplining her son, Carrie somehow found time for hobbies. She won first prize for embroidery at the Pulaski County Fair, and painted bone china with a deft hand...Carrie also organized a choral group that performed spirituals and sewed her own clothing...Carrie read multiple newspapers and magazines as well, intent on keeping up with news."



Reading many newspapers meant Carrie was aware of the opposing views of W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington. DuBois believed Blacks should push for immediate civil rights, higher education, and professional jobs. Washington was more of an appeaser, saying African-Americans should settle for vocational learning and 'take the jobs Whites wanted to give them, like field hand or maid.' In time, Carrie came down on the side of DuBois.



In addition to her activism and leisure activities, Carrie had a satisfying personal life. In 1904, widowed Carrie married tall handsome rich postal worker Charles B. Shepperson, a love match that was approved by Carrie's ten-year-old son Billy.

Speaking of Billy, Headlee wryly explains that the boy - by his own admission - was a handful. Billy helped his grandmother Anne feed the chickens, did his chores, and completed his homework, but was also a rambunctious boy who got a whipping most days - which he later admitted he deserved. Headlee's anecdotes about Billy illuminate his personality: For extra money, Billy worked in an ice cream factory, but ate too much of the product and was let go; Billy liked Zorro and Zane Grey novels more than the literary and Horatio Alger books Carrie gave him; Billy once fired his stepfather's pistol in the street, and got the whipping of his life; Billy was expelled from college for breaking the rules; and so forth.

Of course Billy grew up to be the famous musician William Grant Still, who composed "nearly two hundred works, including five symphonies, four ballets, nine operas, and more than thirty choral works, art songs, chamber music, and solo works."


Composer William Grant Still

Headlee relates more of Carrie's story, which is well-researched and compelling. Carrie's husband Charles died tragically, by accidental drowning, in 1922; and Carrie passed from cancer in 1927, with her son Billy at her side.



Headlee notes that (until now) Carrie's story, like that of most historical women, has been ignored by scholars and largely forgotten. Almost all of Carrie's personal letters and papers, including a novel she planned to publish, have been lost. Being that's the case, Headlee deserves accolades for spending almost a decade to bring us Carrie's tale.

Note: As an added bonus, Headlee includes song suggestions in her acknowledgments, to go along with the people she mentions. 🎶😊🎼

I highly recommend the book.

I listened to the audiobook, narrated by the author, who shows her passion for the subject.

Thanks to Netgalley, Celeste Headlee, and Macmillan Audio for an ARC of the book.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Review of "Mckenna's Guy: A Thriller" by Mike Lawson

Washington, DC resident Roger Smith is 65-years-old and looking forward to next year, when he'll retire from his job at the Government Printing Office (GPO) and get his pension. A long-time widower, Roger anticipates having time to spend with his daughter and her family, and pursue his painting hobby.



Roger's quiet life is upended when he hears someone enter his home in the middle of the night. Roger slips out of bed, gets a baseball bat, and hides behind his bedroom door. When the intruder slips in and shoots the bed multiple times, Roger slugs him with the bat and inadvertently kills him.



Before calling the police Roger contacts his neighbor, ex-convict/bar owner John McKenna, and asks him to line up a criminal defense lawyer.

Homicide detectives Grace Lillinthal and Bryan Maxwell arrive at Roger's house, and Grace - knowing Roger is claiming self-defense - is taken aback to see defense attorney Philip Hogan. After Lillinthal hears Hogan was sent by John McKenna, she gets suspicious and sets out to discover what's really going on.



Lillinthal knows McKenna's bar is a hangout for lowlifes and thieves, and McKenna has a reputation for facilitating criminal activity.



From Roger's perspective, there's plenty he doesn't want Detective Lillinthal to discover.

Twenty years ago, Roger lost his beloved wife Marie to cancer. After the long expensive battle, Roger owed almost $45,000 on credit cards; was behind on his mortgage, gas, water and garbage bills; and couldn't afford his daughter Lily's tuition for journalism school.



In the difficult circumstances, Roger thought about his neighbor John McKenna, a bar owner who could 'fix you up' if you needed a fence, or a money launderer, or someone who could disable alarms, or someone who'd sell you a gun, etc.

Roger's job at the GPO gave him access to passport blanks, and McKenna once asked Roger if he'd make a fake passport for his nephew, who was in the sights of the police and a Mexican cartel. Roger refused at first, but financial troubles made him change his mind.



Since then Roger and McKenna have been in the fake passport business, and Roger has been making one fake passport per year, for a fee of $50,000 each time. Now it looks like a fake passport recipient fears exposure, and sent a hitman to kill Roger.

And that's what Roger's hiding from Detective Grace Lilinthal.

After the hitman tries to kill Roger, Roger consults with his 'passport partner' McKenna, who's the target of an assassin as well. Roger and McKenna agree to figure out who's after them and do something about it.



This is the beginning of an intricate cat and mouse game that involves assassins; the police; the CIA; the FBI; Montreal; Canadian Mounties; China; criminal gangs; and murder.

While Roger and McKenna are dealing with assassins, Detective Lillinthal is doing her best to arrest them for SOMETHING - though she's not sure what.



This is a entertaining story featuring the lighter side of crime. Read it for the shivers and laughs.

Thanks to Netgalley, Mike Lawson, and Blackstone Publishiong for an ARC of the book.

Rating: 3.5 stars