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Sep
08
The Bare Necessities—Lewis Shiner (DARK TANGOS)
2011 at 5am Posted by Rebecca Joines Schinsky
The Bare Necessities is a series in which authors and book industry professionals share annotated reading lists of books they love.
Lewis Shiner is the author of eight novels and several collections of short fictions. His latest novel Dark Tangos is out now from Subterranean Press. I’m about halfway through the novel—my first introduction to Shiner’s work—and am really enjoying it, so I’m thrilled to have Lew here today with a post about the books that have inspired his writing.
I’ve just published a new novel, Dark Tangos, that deals with the long shadow that the Dirty War in Argentina (1976-83) continues to cast over the country. Rebecca kindly offered me space here to talk about a few of the books that inspired and informed the process of writing it.
The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein
How many times in your life do you read a book that completely changes the way you see the world? That makes sense of what before seemed random, that takes abstract concepts brings them to life in real locations, tying them to real human beings whose lives are at stake? This is a jaw-dropping, page-turning saga of global economics that will keep you up to all hours of the night.
Klein’s central concept is the fundamental incompatibility of democracy and free-market economics. She reduces the theories of Milton Friedman’s Chicago School of economics, which came to dominate the world in the 1980s, to three central principles: privatization of national assets, elimination of social programs, and removal of restraints on foreign investors. It’s a simple three-stage game plan that allows major corporations to move into a country, liquidate its assets, and ship them overseas, leaving the victim drained, broken, and usually in permanent debt.
Since no sane population would vote to have its wealth looted (well, except in the US), this is where capitalism and democracy tend to part ways. Klein demonstrates how the big corporations, hand in hand with the CIA, the IMF, and the World Bank, have repeatedly taken advantage of economic, political, or natural disasters to gain an initial foothold. Among many other things, she explains the real meaning of Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” banner, and why it was quite true at the time.
All of that makes the book important, but The Shock Doctrine is elevated to greatness by Klein’s writing, which is electrifying, scrupulously documented, and highly personal. I was particularly impressed with the sections on Argentina, which all rang true with my own personal experience.
Lo Pasado Pensado by Felipe Pigna
Sadly, this book is available only in Spanish, but I need to talk about it because it is so amazing to read. I don’t know if anyone has done anything comparable in English.
The title roughly translates to “Considering the Past.” The author is an enormously popular Argentine historian, and the book consists of interviews he did discussing Argentine history starting with the exile of Perón in 1955 and ending with the fall of the country’s last military dictatorship in 1983. Pigna interviews historians and journalists for perspective, but the real meat of the book lies in the testimony of eyewitnesses who lived through some of the most dramatic events in recent times.
The interviews are intercut to create a seamless, chronological narrative, the voices sometimes forming a Greek chorus to a tragedy, sometimes arguing with each other. The ultimate effect is to make history immediate, personal, and alive. This is a book that it’s worth learning Spanish to read.
Double Fault by Lionel Shriver
This book has nothing to do with Argentina and everything to do with inspiration. It was the first of Shriver’s novels that I read, though I have since been slowly working my way through her backlist, and have eagerly snapped up each new book as it came out. (I unreservedly recommend her latest, So Much For That, for a harrowing look at Big Medicine and Big Insurance in the US.)
Double Fault is about two tennis players who come together as lovers but can never quite escape their rivalry on the court. It’s remarkable because of the way it gets everything right–as a tennis player herself, Shriver knows the intricacies of the game and brings them vividly to life, but she also writes convincing, sympathetic characters who are capable of making terrible mistakes.
The book is full of unpleasant truths, and I found myself both inspired and liberated by Shriver’s refusal to look away from them or to protect her readers’ illusions.
Open Veins of Latin America by Eduardo Galeano
I read this in Spanish, but there’s an excellent translation available by Cedric Belfrage. This is the book that Hugo Chavez famously handed to Obama–a vision of what Latin America looks like to those who actually live there, and a great starting point for understanding why the rest of the world can hate the US so much.
All in all, it sounds like a pretty depressing load of books. But there’s an essential contradiction here that is much like that of dancing tango. Even as the music is heartbreakingly sad, there is joy in being able to dance to it. Likewise, even as the truth of history can be grim, there is a joy in seeing it brilliantly illuminated.
Learn more at Lewis Shiner’s website and check out Dark Tangos for a great, gritty read.
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