THE TURNER DIARIES by Andrew Macdonald

Finished Su 2/25/18

This is one of my old trade paperbacks that I originally finished Fr 11/17/00 on my day off. There's nothing on the flyleaf as to my thoughts or impressions. I don't know how I got the book or if I was aware of what it was.

THE TURNER DIARIES was actually written by Dr. William Luther Pierce. He was a physicist by profession, but is mostly known for his work with the American white supremacists. Early in his life he was a member of the John Birch Society, then a colleague of  George Lincoln Rockwell (American Nazi Party), and co-founded The National Youth Alliance- later called The National Alliance. He died in 2002.

The book is the memoir of Earl Turner who became a member of The Organization. He has an engineering background and as an initiate of the group is captured by The System. He fails to take the poison pill, and although allowed to continue to work with the group, at sometime in the future he will be used on a suicide mission. He agrees, and at the end of the novel he flies a plane armed with a nuclear warhead to the Pentagon. This action ushers in an era of worldwide white supremacy, and Earl Turner is regarded as a martyr to this new society. 

He meets Katherine during his membership with The Organization and they are a couple, yet do not spend a lot of time together because they are usually on separate missions for the group. However, both have pledged their undying allegiance to The Organization.

In the book nuclear strikes are initiated by The Organization and then The System strikes back with nuclear force. Russia and China join in later, but its odd that the first use of nuclear weapons is by Americans on Americans.

The writing style is straight forward and the plot is linear, although the action takes place in a 'not too distant future'.  I'd say it's an easy read, but the hate speech might be offensive to some. Although I realize that some people have used this novel as a kind of bible, I don't think that a normal person could be changed into a white supremacist from simply reading the book.


Plot summary from wikipedia-

"The narrative starts with a foreword set in 2099, one hundred years after the events depicted. The bulk of the book quotes the recently discovered diary of a man named Earl Turner, an active member of the white revolutionary movement that caused these events. The book details a violent, apocalyptic overthrow of the United States federal government (referred to throughout the book as "the System") by Turner and his militant comrades in a brutal race war that takes place first in North America, and then the rest of the world.

The story starts soon after the federal government has confiscated all civilian firearms in the country under the fictional Cohen Act. Turner and his cohorts take their organization underground to engage in a guerrilla war against the System, depicted as dominated by Jewish control. The "System" begins by implementing numerous repressive laws on various forms of hate by repealing laws against rape (as rape laws are often viewed as "racist"), by implying that gender exists on a biological level, by making it a "hate crime" for white people to defend themselves from crime by non-whites even after all weapons are confiscated, and by pushing for new surveillance measures in order to monitor its citizens, such as a special passport required at all times and in all places to permanently monitor where individuals are. The "Organization" starts its campaigns by committing acts such as the bombing of FBI headquarters, then executing an ongoing, low-level campaign of terrorism, assassination, and economic sabotage throughout the United States.

Turner plays a major role in all activities within the Washington, D.C. area. When the President of the United States delivers a speech denouncing racists and demanding that all members of the Organization be brought to justice, Turner and other Organization members launch mortars into the streets of Washington from far away, forcing the president and other government officials to be evacuated. In another scene, Turner witnesses an anti-racism parade in which whites who are not part of the parade are pulled aside and beaten (sometimes to death) by non-white marchers; the march eventually turns into a full-scale riot. Turner's exploits lead to his initiation into the "Order", a secret quasi-religious inner cadre consisting of an "elite" group of masterminds of the revolution, who secretly are leading the Organization and whose existence remains unknown to both ordinary Organization members and the System. Later, Turner's hideout is raided by law enforcement. During an ensuing gun battle with authorities, everyone in the unit manages to escape but Turner is captured after nearly being killed. He is arrested and sent to a military base for interrogation by the FBI and an Israeli intelligence officer. He is tortured to force the release of information, but resists. The interrogators fail to extract the most valuable information. The diaries pick up two years after, when the military prison is raided by other Organization members and Turner is set free.

Eventually, the Organization seizes physical control of Southern California, including the nuclear weapons at Vandenberg Air Force Base which serve as a deterrent. While in control of California, the Organization ethnically cleanses the area of all non-whites by forcing them to leave the immediate area and flee to the Eastern states, where they begin to take out their anger against ordinary whites. The resulting racial conflict in the east causes many whites to "wake up" and begin fleeing to California which now becomes a white sanctuary. Deliberately fomenting racial conflict is referred to as "demographic warfare" which begins bringing in new recruits to both the Organization and the Order. All Jews and mixed-race individuals are summarily executed. During this time, the Organization raids a black sanctuary and discovers a cannibalism operation where blacks kidnap whites, butcher them, and then eat them. The Organization raids the houses of all individuals reported to be "race traitors" in some way (such as judges, professors, lawyers, politicians, journalists, entertainers, race-mixers, etc.), drags them from their homes, and publicly hangs them in the streets in an event which comes to be known as the "Day of the Rope". Most of these public executions are filmed for propaganda purposes. The Organization has little use for most white "mainstream" Americans. Those on the left are seen as dupes or willing agents of the Jews, while conservatives and libertarians are regarded as mere businessmen out for themselves or misguided fools, because, the Organization states, the Jews "took over according to the Constitution, fair and square." Turner and his comrades save their special contempt for the ordinary people, who are seen to care about nothing beyond being kept comfortable and entertained.

The Organization then uses both their southern Californian base of operations and their nuclear weapons to open a wider war in which they launch nuclear strikes against New York City and Israel, initiate a nuclear exchange between the US and the Soviet Union, and plant nuclear weapons and new terrorist cells throughout North America. Many major U.S. cities are destroyed, including Baltimore and Detroit. As the United States undergoes a nuclear civil war, governments all over the world begin to fall one after the other, and violent anti-Jewish riots break out in the streets. After the nuclear launches against Israel, the Arabs take the advantage of the opportunity and proceed to swarm into Israel, mostly armed with clubs and knives, and kill all of the Israelis. The governments of France and the Netherlands collapse, and the Soviet Union falls apart while seeing a surge in anti-Semitic violence. Meanwhile, the United States is put in a state of absolute martial law and transformed into a military dictatorship. When the United States government decides to launch an invasion against the Organization's stronghold in Southern California, Earl Turner is ordered on a suicide mission; he flies a crop duster equipped with a nuclear warhead and destroys the Pentagon before the invasion can be ordered.

The novel ends with an epilogue from the year 2099, summarizing how the Organization went on to conquer the rest of the world and how all non-white races were eliminated. Africa was invaded and all of its black inhabitants were killed. The Puerto Ricans (described as a "repulsive mongrel race") were exterminated and Puerto Rico was re-colonized by whites. When China begins an attempt to invade European Russia, the Organization launches a full-scale assault with nuclear, chemical, radiological and biological weapons which render the entire continent of Asia uninhabitable and rife with "mutants". And in America, the last remaining non-white elements are hunted down, along with all the individuals involved in organized crime (such as the Mafia). One of the last steps in the Organization's victory is the truce with the remainder of the American military generals, who agree to surrender if the Organization swears not to harm them or their immediate families, an agreement which the Organization gladly accepts. Thus the epilogue concludes that "just 110 years after the birth of the 'Great One', the dream of a white world finally became a certainty... and that the Order would spread its wise and benevolent rule over the earth for all time to come."

From wikipedia concerning Timothy McVeigh's use of the novel-


"Pierce gained national public attention following the Oklahoma City bombing, as Timothy McVeigh was alleged to have been influenced by The Turner Diaries (1978), the novel written by Pierce under the pseudonym Andrew Macdonald. The book is a graphically violent depiction of a future race war in the United States, which includes a detailed description of the mass hangings- "the Day of the Rope"- of many "race traitors" (especially Jews, gay people, and those in interracial marriages or relationships) in the public streets of Los Angeles, followed by the systematic ethnic cleansing of the entire city. This violence and killing is called "Terrible yet Absolutely Necessary". The story is told through the perspective of Earl Turner, an active member of the white revolutionary underground The Organization.

The part most relevant to the McVeigh case is in an early chapter, when the book's main character is placed in charge of bombing the FBI headquarters. Some have pointed out similarities between the bombing in the book and the actual bombing in Oklahoma City that damaged the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building and killed 168 people on April 19, 1995. When McVeigh was arrested later that day, pages from the book were found in his car, with several phrases highlighted, including

... "But the real value of all of our attacks today lies in the psychological impact, not in the immediate casualties" and "We can still find them and kill them."

The Turner Diaries also inspired a group of white revolutionary nationalists in the early 1980s who called themselves the Silent Brotherhood, or sometimes simply The Order. The Order were an offshoot of the Aryan Nations. They were tired of being merely "armchair revolutionaries". The Order was connected to numerous crimes, including counterfeiting and bank robbery, and supposedly gave money to the Alliance. The Order's leader, Robert Jay Mathews, died in a stand-off with police and federal agents on Whidbey Island, Washington, when police fired flares into his hideout, igniting a fire. Other Order members, most notably the late David Lane, were all captured and sent to federal prisons, where they still continue to voice their support for white nationalist ideals.

In 1996 Pierce sold the rights to The Turner Diaries to the Jewish publisher Lyle Stuart."

THE SENSE OF AN ENDING by Julian Barnes

The February, 2018 selection for the Contemporary Book Club

Finished We 2/22/18- after I took Buddy for his dental check-up. He didn't need the general anesthetic, just a couple of 'scrapings'.

Since I love novels with an 'unreliable narrator', so this one was a 'no brainer'. Also, this guy was either lied to or people would tell him, "you never get it".

A short novel and lots of it made me want to underline.

Although history is written by the victors, the book reminds us that lots of history is written by the whining losers. And, I suppose, by a lot of people who are just plain uninformed.

Written in two sections. The first refers to his college life where he meets the main characters, and then rapidly skims (forty years!) to his life as a retired English gentleman. The second section- the longest- is about the major deceptions in his life. The 'big things' that he didn't understand, wouldn't understand, and the stuff that he never learned about and very definitely effected everything that he thought about himself.

From wikipedia-

"The novel is divided into two parts, entitled "One" and "Two", both of which are narrated by Tony Webster when he is retired and living alone. The first part begins in the 1960s with four intellectually arrogant school friends, of whom two feature in the remainder of the story: Tony, the narrator, and Adrian, the most precociously intelligent of the four. Towards the end of their school days another boy at the school hangs himself, apparently after getting a girl pregnant. The four friends discuss the philosophical difficulty of knowing exactly what happened. Adrian goes to Cambridge University and Tony to Bristol University. Tony acquires a girlfriend, Veronica, at whose family home he spends an awkward weekend. On waking one morning he finds that he and Veronica's mother, Sarah, are alone in the house, and she apologises for her family's behaviour towards him. Tony and Veronica's relationship fails in some acrimony, as he breaks up with her after she has sex with him. In his final year at university Tony receives a letter from Adrian informing him that he is going out with Veronica. Tony replies to the letter, telling Adrian that in his opinion Veronica was damaged in some way and that he should talk to her mother about it. Some months later he is told that Adrian has committed suicide, leaving a note addressed to the coroner saying that the free person has a philosophical duty to examine the nature of their life, and may then choose to renounce it. Tony admires the reasoning. He briefly recounts the following uneventful forty years of his life until his sixties. At this point Tony's narration of the second part of the novel – which is twice as long as the first – begins, with the arrival of a lawyer's letter informing him that Veronica's mother has bequeathed him £500 and two documents.[11] These lead him to re-establish contact with Veronica and after a number of meetings with her, to re-evaluate the story he has narrated in the first part.[12] On consulting the lawyers, Tony learns that Veronica has Adrian's diary. This leads him to send Veronica repeated e-mails requesting the diary. Veronica eventually sends Tony a single page of the diary, containing Adrian's musings on life as a series of cumulative wagers. Following this, Veronica meets Tony on the Millennium Bridge in London and gives him the letter he sent to Adrian in his youth. On re-reading it, Tony realises how malicious and unpleasant it was, and how he has erased this from his memory. Nevertheless, he persists in attempting to retrieve the diary from Veronica, which leads to her asking him to meet at a location in North London, where she drives him to see a group of mentally handicapped men being taken for a walk by their careworker, one of whom she points out to him. Tony does not understand the significance of this and Veronica leaves him with no explanation. Over the course of several weeks, Tony revisits the location until he is able to relocate the man Veronica showed him in a pub. Tony greets the man saying he is a friend of Veronica's which leads to an upset response from the man. Tony recalls the memory of Adrian from the man's facial features. He e-mails Veronica an apology, saying he didn't realise that she and Adrian had a son together. Veronica only responds with the reply "You don't get it, but then you never did." On revisiting the pub where he saw the man, Tony gets into conversation with the careworker, who reveals that the man is actually the son of Veronica's mother, Sarah, making him Veronica's brother."

I'm interested to see what the reaction will be at the book club meeting. I will be surprised to learn that it was very popular. This is the first 'very masculine' perspective that we've had in a long time- maybe never a book this clearly written by a male.

THE DOGS OF BABEL by Carolyn Parkhurst

Finished Su 2/18/18

An E-Book, Kindle, from the library that I read because a couple of the members of the book club were talking about it. I loved the book, and it would be great to discuss- I'm not clear about how I feel about it. Lexy's suicide seems so unnecessary- she's in need of therapy, not an early death.

 'LORELEI'S SECRET' in the UK edition


 "In Paul's fantastic and even perilous search for the truth about his wife's death, he abandons his everyday life to embark on a series of experiments designed to teach his dog Lorelei to communicate. Could she really give him the answers he is looking for"?

Plotline from wikipedia-

"Paul Iverson called home to find a police officer answering the phone and suggesting that he come home. When he comes home he finds his wife, Alexandra "Lexy" Ransome, dead, fallen from an apple tree. The police declare it an accident, but Paul is bothered by the "anomalies" he finds, such as signs of someone cooking steak, a rearrangement of the book shelf, and the question as to what his wife was doing in the apple tree in the first place. The only witness to her death is their dog Lorelei, and Paul goes on a crusade to teach Lorelei to speak, in order to clear up the mystery. He cites several past attempts as evidence he will be successful, especially the case of Dog J, who was surgically altered by Wendell Hollis, "the Dog Butcher of Brooklyn", so that he could make human sounds. Paul leaves his job at the college, and dedicates his time to this single cause.

As he attempts to teach Lorelei, Paul remembers how he and Lexy first met, at a yard sale where he bought a square hard-boiled egg mold from her. He recounts their week-long first date to Disney World, and to a wedding where Lexy delivered masks she made. This is the first time Paul learns about the masks she makes for a living, and they are featured prominently throughout the rest of the book. Paul also remembers their wedding, and when he first learned of Lexy's depression, in the story she tells him about her adolescence.

Unhappy with his lack of progress, Paul writes a letter to Wendell Hollis (now in prison) in hopes of getting ideas. In a response letter, he is directed to a man named Remo, who lives in Paul's neighborhood and is in charge of the Cerberus Society, a group dedicated to canine communication. At a meeting of the Cerberus Society, Paul is horrified and intrigued by the methods they use, and is especially excited about hearing Dog J, whom the society has kidnapped, speak. He is disappointed, though, when the mutilated dog is presented at the podium and is unable to say a single word; the rest of the society oblivious to this. The meeting is cut short when the police raid it and Paul flees to his house to find Lorelei gone.

Finally realizing he will never be able to teach Lorelei to speak, and now left alone by both Lexy and Lorelei, Paul falls into an even greater depression. After hearing Lexy's voice on a commercial for a Psychic Hotline, he has been calling constantly, in hopes of finding the psychic Lexy talked to, Lady Arabelle. He finally reaches her, and is informed that Lexy was pregnant, a fact Paul knew but the reader did not. Lady Arabelle goes through the tarot reading she gave Lexy, and Paul is left to wonder how his wife took it.

Paul eventually finds Lorelei in an animal shelter, her larynx removed by the men who kidnapped her. She is now not only unable to speak English, but to even bark. When he idly examines Lorelei's collar, he finds a subtle message from Lexy. He suddenly realizes that Lexy has sent him a message through the rearrangement of books, a quote from the story Tam Lin.  It is then Paul realizes what he has suspected is true, that Lexy committed suicide.

Although he continues to mourn his wife's death, the closure Paul has gotten by learning of its circumstances allow him to return to the world. He goes back to his job at the college, and stops his reclusive ways. The story ends on a happy note, but it is still clear Paul is grieving for his wife.

Characters in The Dogs of Babel-

Paul Iverson - Linguist and husband of Lexy Ransome
Alexandra "Lexy" Ransome - Mask-maker and wife of Paul Iverson. Her death prompts him to try to teach Lorelei to speak
Lorelei - Paul and Lexy's Rhodesian Ridgeback, named after the German mythical siren Loreley
Wendell Hollis - "Revolutionary" scientist who performs surgeries on dogs to enable them to speak"

GO NOW by Richard Hell

Finished Th 2/15/18   The same evening as the new crown from Westside Dental.

This is one of my hardbacks that I first read back in 1999- Th 1/28/99.

I loved the novel and was glad that I had recently reread his memoir, I DREAMED I WAS A VERY CLEAN TRAMP.

GO NOW is a 'roman a clef'- this is a recollection of real life with an overlay of fiction.

Hell, in the novel his name is Paul or 'Billy Mud'.

He and Chrissa go on a trip across the US in a 1957, fire-orange, DeSoto (the cars with the really big fins), Chrissa takes the photos and he writes the narrative. A sleazy promoter, Jack, has set it up. This guy is kind of in awe of Paul's Punk Rock status, and Jack wants to sleep with Chrissa.

The trip is paid for and they even get fifty bucks a day for motel and expenses.

Much of the novel concerns Paul's attempts to get smack to feed his habit, and the tension and emotional distance between Chrissa and Paul. She's more or less always about fed up with him, but still there is an attraction.

The 'Break' occurs near the end of the book when they travel to Paul's childhood home of Lexington, KY. This is also where Richard Meyers (Richard Hell) grew up. They stay with his aunt who always had admired Paul. There is only a nine year difference in their ages- Janey was his mother's youngest sister.

Janey is an aspiring actress, but her primary job is a secondary school teacher. One afternoon when she comes home from school, Paul seduces her. However, she is quite responsive until Chrissa shows up with her camera. That's it for Chrissa- she splits back to NYC. She still leaves money for Paul and he decides to save on airfare and use the remainder for more junk. "I've always been lucky".

In 'TRAMP' Hell says that even as a very young boy, he always wanted to run away. This seems to be his 'highest high'- "Hey, why don't we just run away". GO NOW might be the story of  his life's biggest objective- and that is, to split.

The book is well written and the agony of being a drug addict is brilliantly documented. I might try to get more by Richard Hell because I'll know I'm getting some quality writing. It's really almost a tragedy that the Sex Pistols became The Legends, and Richard Hell is only a kind of footnote. He's the guy who came up with the idea of wearing ripped clothing and using safety pins to hold the rags together- he's obviously so much more than that. 

Re-Read I DREAMED I WAS A VERY CLEAN TRAMP by Richard Hell

Finished Tu 2/13/18

I wrote the comments on the re-read at the original posting; Su 4/30/17.

OTHER VOICES, OTHER ROOMS by Truman Capote

Finished Th 2/8/18

I found this on the shelves (ancient paperback with no note of purchase date) after I watched the remarkable film, CAPOTE with Philip Seymour Hoffman and Katherine Keener (as Harper Lee), last week.

The tomboy character, Idabel, is based on Harper Lee.

I really loved the writing, but it got to be just too much- too florid and overblown. It was like all frosting, and not much cake. Although it is supposed to be an early gay classic, Joel, Randolph, and the rest of the characters just seemed more flat-out weird.

The theme of abandonment from family is autobiographical. He was separated from his mother and really did live in rural Alabama. This is where he met Harper Lee, life-long friend. Although their relationship was strained after she won the Pulitzer after writing only one novel her whole life.

His stepfather, Capote, adopted Truman. This man was wealthy and the family lived a rich life in upper Manhattan. However, they lost it all, and the family's financial situation took a downward turn.

Although educated at the finest secondary schools, Truman never attended college. He felt that either you were a writer, or you weren't.

This might have worked better, pared down and offered as a short story.

EXPLANATION OF THE PLOT FROM WIKIPEDIA-

The story focuses on the lonely and slightly effeminate 13-year-old boy Joel Harrison Knox following the death of his mother. Joel is sent from New Orleans, Louisiana, to live with his father who abandoned him at the time of his birth. Arriving at Skully's Landing, a vast, decaying mansion on an isolated plantation in Mississippi, Joel meets his sullen stepmother Amy, his cousin Randolph, a gay man and dandy, the defiant tomboy Idabel, a girl who becomes his friend, and Jesus and Zoo, the two Black caretakers of the home. He also sees a spectral "queer lady" with "fat dribbling curls" watching him from a top window. Despite Joel's queries, the whereabouts of his father remain a mystery. When he finally is allowed to see his father, Joel is stunned to find he is a mute quadriplegic, having tumbled down a flight of stairs after being inadvertently shot by Randolph and nearly dying. Joel runs away with Idabel to a carnival and meets a woman with dwarfism; on a Ferris Wheel, the woman attempts to touch Joel in a sexual manner and is rebuffed. Looking for Idabel in a storm, Joel catches pneumonia and eventually returns to the Landing where he is nursed back to health by Randolph. The implication in the final paragraph is that the "queer lady" beckoning from the window is actually Randolph, dressed in an old Mardi Gras costume.

CHARACTER EXPLANATION FROM WIKIPEDIA-

Joel Harrison Knox: The 13-year-old protagonist of the story. Joel is a portrait of Truman Capote in his own youth, notably being delicate, fair-skinned and able to tell outrageous tales without hesitation.[7]

Mr. Edward R. Sansom: Joel's paralyzed father, a former boxing manager.

Miss Amy Skully: Joel's sharp-tongued stepmother who is in her late forties and shorter than Joel. Miss Amy's character is reminiscent of Callie Faulk, an older cousin with whom Truman Capote lived in Alabama.[8] She is also reminiscent of Capote's maternal grandmother, Mabel Knox, who always wore a glove on her left hand to cover an unknown malady and was known for her Southern aristocratic ways.[9]

Randolph: Miss Amy's first cousin and owner of Skully's Landing. Randolph is in his mid 30s and is effeminate, narcissistic, and openly homosexual. Randolph's character is largely imaginary, but is a faint shadow of Capote's older cousin Bud Faulk, a single man, likely homosexual, and role model for Capote while he was growing up in Alabama.[10]

Idabel Thompkins: A gloomy, cantankerous tomboy who befriends Joel. Idabel's character is an exaggeration of Capote's childhood friend, Nelle Harper Lee, later the author of To Kill a Mockingbird.[8]

Florabel Thompkins: Idabel's feminine and prissy sister.

Jesus Fever: A centenarian, pygmyish, African American mule-driver at Skully's Landing, where he had been a slave 70 years before.

Missouri Fever (Zoo): Jesus' granddaughter who is in her mid 20s. She wears a scarf on her elongated neck to hide a large scar inflicted by Keg Brown, who was sentenced to a chain gang for his crime. Missouri Fever's character is based on a cook named Little Bit who lived and worked in the Alabama home where Capote lived, as a child, with his older cousins.[11]

Pepe Alvarez: A Latin professional boxer who is Randolph's original obsession and muse, and the prototype that led to Randolph's obsession with young Joel, as it is inferred that Joel resembles Pepe.

Ellen Kendall: Joel's kind, genteel aunt who sends him from New Orleans to live with his father.

Little Sunshine: A short, bald, ugly, African American hermit who lives at The Cloud Hotel.

Miss Wisteria: A blond midget who befriends Joel and Idabel at a fair traveling through Noon City.

SPLIT SECOND by David Baldacci

Finished Su 2/4/18  I was sick with a bad cold, never left the house, didn't even open the door, and read about half in one sitting. Unfortunately, the book is so corny that a shaker of salt and a pat of butter should be included with the purchase price.

This is a trade paperback that I got at last year's library book sale, Sa 6/10/17

Basically, the book concerns two disgraced secret service agents. The man is guarding a presidential candidate who looks away, and the candidate is gunned down. The woman agent is guarding a presidential candidate, he stops at a funeral home to pay his respects, and is kidnapped.

These two crimes that happened over a period of eight years are connected. The bad guy is not one of the 'players', but his brother.

The plot is so convoluted that on page 243 there is a major 're-cap' of events. And then on page 365 there is a lengthy explanation because almost nothing that occurs could have happened. It is so over the top that one of the characters actually says, "WE JUST SOLVED A HUGE, COMPLICATED MYSTERY".

Baldacci is certainly no craftsman, but I guess is plot-lines are worth a look- slightly.