Wood delivers a bold travelogue, illuminating great swathes of modern Africa, but as literature, it leaves something to be...
Walking the Nile has enticed many explorers, but Wood provides an up-to-the-minute portrait of the nations and people that claim the world’s longest river.
From the moment the author began his journey, at the alleged source of the Nile, he encountered constant conflict and hardship. His guides mistrusted each other. So-called pygmies were reluctant to accept him. He had to fight through every border crossing, and he faced the constant threats of theft, disease, and corruption. Wood is a war veteran, and he was able to improvise his way through dangerous situations, such as firefights in a Sudanese city and an interrogation by secret police. But the trek was not without tragedy: when the author agreed to walk with American journalist Matt Power for a week, Power eventually collapsed and died of heat stroke. “I wanted the cold comfort of English skies again,” writes Wood. “I wanted to be anywhere but here, thinking of the man who had died so that he could write about me on my indulgent, pointless, selfish trek.” Overall, Wood is a sharp observer and authoritative writer. He takes pains to describe the Rwandan conflict, the Egyptian revolution, the Sudanese civil war, and all the culture clashes in between. But chutzpah and empathy only get him so far. In the end, the author is unable to adequately explain his interest in the Nile, and the book does feel indulgent at times. The story is awkwardly similar to Rory Stewart’s The Places in Between, while lacking the immediacy of the Afghan context. Unlike Stewart, Wood accumulated media coverage as he went. By the time he reached the Aswan Dam, he was carrying an article chronicling his passage. This kind of publicity recalls the newspaper frenzy of the Stanley-Livingstone expedition. For adventurers like Wood and Stanley, the Nile is a metaphor as much as a place.
Wood delivers a bold travelogue, illuminating great swathes of modern Africa, but as literature, it leaves something to be desired.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8021-2449-4
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2015
A solid primer despite its opening rant.
A detailed how-to on lower-cost computer-system organization.
Hughes is a specialist in the Virtual Memory System computer platform, a big-budget server system used by corporations, and here he demonstrates how to lower the cost of service-oriented architecture (SOA) by creating it in-house. SOA is structured so that companies purchase the basic platform and buy additional accoutrements, called services, during the life cycle of the computer system. In the first five chapters, Hughes passionately argues that this a la carte model, though practical, has been used to the advantage of major computer companies like IBM, which make dollars hand over fist on unwitting businesses. According to his history, modern-day computer-system providers haven't had such a market advantage since the '70s, the last time SOA was in fashion. The author recommends the first, largely non-technical chapters be read by business management, but his overzealous soapbox speech isn't likely to convert people not already in agreement, especially considering that they may have made these so-called unwise investment decisions themselves. Meanwhile, SOA implementers probably don't care about the bigger picture or, if they do, are not in the position to make management decisions within their company. The first five chapters could have easily been edited down to a precise introduction. Nonetheless, the book is meant for programmers–those actually setting up the business SOA–and the meat of the book is C++ programming language code. Thankfully, Hughes includes a CD with all pertinent code and extensive instructions. With The Minimum You Need to Know, Hughes is attempting two books: One, a scathing indictment of big SOA providers, and another, a precise overview of do-it-yourself SOA. Only one is really effective.
A solid primer despite its opening rant.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-0-9770866-6-5
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A ho-hum digest of 100 Bill of Rights cases decided by justices Brennan and Rehnquist along predictable ideological lines. ``This is not an insider's account,'' warns Irons (Political Science/Univ. of California, San Diego; The Courage of Their Convictions, 1988, etc.) in his preface. ``I did not interview either justice for this book. Neither have I talked with former clerks or looked at private papers.'' Bad move. Had Irons provided some behind-the-robes analysis, this book might have had drama. (Irons himself acknowledges Brennan's legendary ability to use his charm to win votes in controversial cases.) And had he focused on far fewer cases—say, ten—his analysis might have had some depth. Instead, this numbing case-by-case-by-case summary provides little insight into the jurisprudence of the men who, for 18 years, were the Court's leading voices on the left and right—and even less insight into their personalities. After a perfunctory stab at characterizing each justice in a chapter-long biography, Irons proceeds to march through the Bill of Rights, offering an overly dense historical context for each amendment and then quoting from Brennan's opinion, on the one hand, and Rehnquist's on the other. Most of the big constitutional issues of the post-Warren Court are here—abortion, affirmative action, the death penalty, the right to die, school prayer. But all Irons offers is the revelation that Brennan consistently votes for individual litigants against the government, and uses the word ``dignity'' in his opinions a lot, while Rehnquist sides with state legislatures and the police, and relies on the word ``deference.'' (Fans of Rehnquist will chafe at the frequent snide comments about his proclivities for ignoring precedent and distorting evidence—but it's unlikely that this tedious book will generate much heat on the subject.) Plodding he-said/he-said treatment that makes for strenuous cover-to-cover reading.
Pub Date: Oct. 5, 1994
ISBN: 0-679-42436-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1994
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