An intense look at globalization’s tragic hidden costs.
A grim investigation of how urbanization is destroying traditional Chinese communities.
Journalist and documentarian Bandurski focuses on the phenomenon of “urban villages,” rural spaces gentrified by land speculation and overbuilding. “The more I heard villagers talk about the community’s history and troubles,” he writes, “the more I was enchanted by what Xian [village] seemed to represent.” The author is attuned to rural China’s fragility, noting how community traditions conflict with rapacious, state-endorsed capitalism. “Behind [village] walls,” he writes, “a bitter struggle was taking place: the villagers against the village leaders and their private army of thugs.” Bandurski first establishes how, in and around cities like Guangzhou, “the scale of urbanisation...is so immense it beggars the imagination.” He discerns deep corruption and state-sanctioned brutality couched in the ornate language of the modern Chinese state, where troublemakers are routinely accused of the ominous offense of “disrupting public order.” The author tracks the stories of several individuals (whom he protects with pseudonyms) who invested their savings in new business developments only to be overwhelmed by shoddy construction and demands for kickbacks. One such impoverished woman’s eventual suicide is depicted as “one of the most iconic tragedies of China’s urbanisation drive.” Contrastingly, he found that in these urban villages, a few well-connected families “ran the village as a private fiefdom, monopolising its business, politics, and security.” In today’s globalized China, he argues, “public ‘success’ cloaked [scandals] involving misappropriated land and purloined millions.” Throughout, he emphasizes, he “was astonished” at the level of corruption he witnessed. Bandurski demonstrates a keen understanding of the traditional lifestyles under attack by enforced modernization, as in his use of the Dragon Boat ceremony as a framing device, representing the villagers’ resilience. However, his overall narrative of civic corruption is harder to follow, with limited appeal for readers lacking familiarity with the arcane social structures of contemporary China.
An intense look at globalization’s tragic hidden costs.Pub Date: Oct. 25, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-61219-571-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Melville House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2016
A heartfelt if somewhat unsurprising view of old age by the former president. Carter (Living Faith, 1996, etc.) succinctly evaluates the evolution and current status of federal policies concerning the elderly (including a balanced appraisal of the difficulties facing the Social Security system). He also meditates, while drawing heavily on autobiographical anecdotes, on the possibilities for exploration and intellectual and spiritual growth in old age. There are few lightning bolts to dazzle in his prescriptions (cultivate family ties; pursue the restorative pleasures of hobbies and socially minded activities). Yet the warmth and frankness of Carter’s remarks prove disarming. Given its brevity, the work is more of a call to senior citizens to reconsider how best to live life than it is a guide to any of the details involved.
Pub Date: Oct. 26, 1998
ISBN: 0-345-42592-8
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1998
Less a sequel than an addendum, the book offers a close-up view of the Oval Office in its darkest hour.
Four decades after Watergate shook America, journalist Woodward (The Price of Politics, 2012, etc.) returns to the scandal to profile Alexander Butterfield, the Richard Nixon aide who revealed the existence of the Oval Office tapes and effectively toppled the presidency.
Of all the candidates to work in the White House, Butterfield was a bizarre choice. He was an Air Force colonel and wanted to serve in Vietnam. By happenstance, his colleague H.R. Haldeman helped Butterfield land a job in the Nixon administration. For three years, Butterfield worked closely with the president, taking on high-level tasks and even supervising the installation of Nixon’s infamous recording system. The writing here is pure Woodward: a visual, dialogue-heavy, blow-by-blow account of Butterfield’s tenure. The author uses his long interviews with Butterfield to re-create detailed scenes, which reveal the petty power plays of America’s most powerful men. Yet the book is a surprisingly funny read. Butterfield is passive, sensitive, and dutiful, the very opposite of Nixon, who lets loose a constant stream of curses, insults, and nonsensical bluster. Years later, Butterfield seems conflicted about his role in such an eccentric presidency. “I’m not trying to be a Boy Scout and tell you I did it because it was the right thing to do,” Butterfield concedes. It is curious to see Woodward revisit an affair that now feels distantly historical, but the author does his best to make the story feel urgent and suspenseful. When Butterfield admitted to the Senate Select Committee that he knew about the listening devices, he felt its significance. “It seemed to Butterfield there was absolute silence and no one moved,” writes Woodward. “They were still and quiet as if they were witnessing a hinge of history slowly swinging open….It was as if a bare 10,000 volt cable was running through the room, and suddenly everyone touched it at once.”
Less a sequel than an addendum, the book offers a close-up view of the Oval Office in its darkest hour.Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5011-1644-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 20, 2015
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