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| Sunday, 4 July 2004 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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The best and worst of Clinton My Life, Bill Clinton's long-awaited memoir is a pinata of personal ruminations, policies, and justifications. Ranging from the abject poverty of his Arkansas childhood to his eight years at the apex of power as president, the book is a spotlighted lectern for a man who likes to talk. And that is part of its problem. Henry Kissinger once said that listening to Clinton's explanations of his policies was often better than the policies themselves. Regrettably, Clinton's oratorical talents don't readily translate to his writing skills. In My Life the author's subtext is "Love me and accept my latest explanations. I screwed up, but now I'm doing better." Clinton was a brilliant politician with personal flaws, but his apologies inevitably raise the question of whether he would have admitted these shortcomings if he hadn't gotten caught in them. Probably, no one would. Why do so many people around the world care about Bill Clinton? The answer is his potential greatness, and we glimpse that often in this book. We are riven as we watch him teetering on the edge of both success and failure. There is a daring spirit in the great and near-great, whether they turn out to be heroes or rascally sinners. This elan is what distinguishes Clinton from many others. If he had no redeeming graces, we'd say good riddance. At the same time, Clinton's misuse of his enormous talent is enough to make more than just the author bite his lower lip. One of the problems in reviewing My Life, relentlessly hyped for days but with no advance galleys for reviewers, is that the book has been creating its own momentum. The publisher, Knopf, has Clinton spinning his story on AOL, 60 Minutes, Oprah, Good Morning America, Larry King Live, and Charlie Rose. Such control can help to make a book review-proof, and the autobiography is benefiting from that media blitz. The publisher says it sold more than 400,000 copies in America Tuesday, a record for a non-fiction opening. But what of note is in the book itself? Clinton discusses Monica Lewinsky and how his indiscretions "had hurt the presidency." He relives his impeachment trial and criticises independent counsel Kenneth Starr. He recounts the briefly successful Mideast peace process, explains how Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden eluded his administration, and recalls a warning to incoming President Bush about terrorism. Clinton also expresses enmity for former FBI Director Louis Freeh. As a book, My Life has problems of both style and substance. Stylistically, it's hard for a reader with a sense of order to figure it out. There is no table of contents. Perhaps the editor couldn't classify the "one thing after the other" drift into broad themes. There's a prologue in which Clinton says "I always tried to keep things moving in the right direction, to give more people a chance to live their dreams, to lift people's spirits, and to bring them together." From there it's headlong into chapters "One" through "Fifty-Five." In an epilogue, Clinton attempts to summarise in 3 1/2 pages what you already read. An acknowledgments section does the courteous thing, thanking the Friends of Bill who helped in the effort. Clinton credits his editor, Robert Gottlieb, since "without his judgement and feel, this book might have been twice as long and half as good." (In the end, unfortunately, one longs for a book half as long and twice as good.) The book's substance varies. Clinton's recounting of his early years in Hope, Ark., is as good as anything. He movingly reminisces about his mother, his grandparents, and about an older boy named Vince Foster, who lived in a "bigger, nicer house" close by. "He was kind to me and never lorded it over me like the way so many older boys did with younger ones. He grew up to be a tall, handsome, wise, good man." Clinton's hometown, he says, was a place where "the guy pumping your gas might have had an IQ as high as the guy taking your tonsils out." At first glance, that's quite complimentary. On second thought, of course, it might be a good idea to get your tonsils yanked somewhere else. He also strikes a universal chord, even if it protects him from future penalty for bad behaviour, saying, "I learned a lot from the stories my uncle, aunts, and grandparents told me: that no one is perfect but most people are good; that people can't be judged only by their worst or weakest moments; that harsh judgements can make hypocrites of us all; that a lot of life is just showing up and hanging on; that laughter is often the best, and sometimes the only, response to pain." In the book, Clinton's fabled photographic memory sometimes goes dark when it is not in his interest to be too specific. He can remember the Rev. Walter Yeldell's children's names (Carolyn, Lynda, and Walter) but says when his avoidance of the Vietnam draft comes up: "I don't remember, and my diary doesn't indicate, whether I asked Jeff (his mother's fiance) to talk to the local board before or after I learned that graduate deferments had been extended to a full academic year." There is a good deal of political play by play. Perhaps no one but Arkansas's state archivist will be interested in the mind-numbing details of Clinton's gubernatorial and attorney general races, won and lost. The same detail covers Clinton's sojourn to Washington. He is his old policy-work self as he explains how he put together his cabinet and set goals for his first four years. In essence, Clinton lays out his presidency the way that he wishes it to be remembered. My Life is replete with philosophical and practical musings. He explains, for example, why he gave Gerry Adams, leader of the political arm of the IRA, a visa to enter the United States to give a speech, against the advice of his Secretary of State. Clinton regrets the suicide of Foster, his childhood friend, who came to the White House as a legal adviser and apparently wasn't up to coping with the mudslinging that came with the job. As he starts his second term, Clinton offers to make peace with his Republican opponents, but in the end there are few lasting achievements. This is a book that in many ways mirrors the best and worst of a complicated leader, a lightning rod of his time. - Globe Newspaper Company. ############## Literature is not a 'sauce' but 'taste' Sahithya Lipi Once a politician of high rank queried "Whether literature could be eaten." In the parlour of bottle friends even the "bite" should be of some taste and appeal. It is doubtful whether the present generation in Sri Lanka has a taste of good literature. For some decades, like History, successive governments have almost excluded Literature from the school curriculum. They have just included one or two lessons in literature to avoid public criticism. They have made literature a "Sauce" like tomato sauce and chillie sauce. The present generation has no knowledge of literature and they have only a taste of literary sauce. In this background W. A. Abeysinghe in his work Sahitya Lipi comes to the rescue to inspire a love for literature. In his preface of the book he asks "Shouldn't we disclose to those who have been deprived the knowledge of literature that there is a classical Sinhala book called Amavatura in fascinating prose? Would explaining the literary value of "Candide" by Voltaire demean to them?" He adds "Those in authority, whoever it may be, have to start a new project to popularise literature. It might be a preliminary venture. Yet there is nothing else that could be done than launching this book. My endeavour in this work is a direction towards that goal." Accordingly the book Sahitya Lipi is a work to develop a liking for good literature. He categorises the book into five sections namely Exploration of Literature, Vision, Literary Appreciation, Literary Concepts and Book Reviews. This classification helps the reader to apprehend the book. The first two essays Buddhist Themes for Literature and Buddhist Concepts for Prose and Poetry explain that the Buddhist concepts as a fountain for creative literature has still not dried up. And they appreciate the high standard of literary works based on Buddhist themes. Here W. A. Abeysinghe illustrates - "Dhammapada is the leading Buddhist work pregnant with literary aspects. 'The intuition found in this Buddhist philosophical Kavya has been the fountain for different literary traditions which is wonderful. In addition you could see some sort of Buddhist Literary vision in it. The synonyms that illustrate some Gathas in Dhammapada are all monuments for Buddhist literary traditions." The essay An introduction for Lyrics should be read by all who write lyrics for songs. W. A. Abeysinghe laments that most of the songs that are becoming fast popular are written without intuition, full of emotional outbursts and contain words that lack rhythm. He submits that a good song should be based on musical notes and have literary values, rhythm in words and be fascinating. W. A. Abeysinghe believes that outstanding lyrics are rare. He cites examples of the lyrics of Mahagama Sekera and that of Jayadeva in Geetha Govinda as great lyrical creations. W. A. Abeysinghe contends that there is a dual purpose in Children's Literature - a literary object and an educational object. It is difficult to find an elder who is not familiar with the verse."Rosa male natuva katu - Vana bambaro ohoma hitu" by Ananda Rajakaruna which also sets out examples from the works of Munidasa Kumaratunga and Rev. S. Mahinda Thera as models for children's poetry. The two essays - the one that discusses Martin Wickremasinghe and his works and the other about Indian literary works with special emphasis on the works of R. K. Narayan who is popular among Sinhala readers would widen the knowledge on literature. W. A. Abeysinghe observes that to appreciate literature one should have read many books and thereby gained knowledge. He finds that as literature is distanced from the present generation they have no capacity to appreciate good literature. W. A. Abeysinghe has devoted to chapters to help the reader to appreciate good poetry. He cites verses from Wessantara Jathakaya and some poems of Wimalaratna Kumaragama for this purpose.In the two chapters on literary concepts W. A. Abeysinghe remarks that now there is a tendency for the authors to write to get awards. It was not so in the past, they presented books solely for the benefit of the society. He reveals that behind most of the national, zonal and international awards there are hidden political, fractional and religious agenda.Quoting the expression of the famous Soviet writer Alexander Solzenethsin that A great writer is a State within a State W. A. Abeysinghe emphasises that for that matter rulers would not like an accomplished writer. The last two chapters are devoted for book reviews. W. A. Abeysinghe has reviewed Bogala Soundiris by Sarath Dharmasiri and Sigiri Gee Siri by W. J. M. Lokubandara. He has included them probably to educate the present generation about the art of book review. At a time when mediocre novels are considered as great works, the songs with words that have no meaning but only emotional outbursts are becoming popular and when low class Hindi films and Sinhala teledramas have invaded the parlours of even rural sector this work of W. A. Abeysinghe is most welcome. He should be commended for presenting this book that introduces great creative works and the concepts that form the background for them. ############## Chandra's lasting legacy Ceylon Cookery It is a foregone conclusion that cooking a typical Sri Lankan meal is a time consuming tedious task for the average Sri Lankan housewife. Is it right? Wrong, says Chandra Dissanayaka, the well-known cookery expert of yester-year whose popular book Ceylon Cookery has now returned to the shelves after more than fifteen years, to titillate the appetites of all food lovers. This is a myth that was spawned from a lack of organisation in the average kitchen of yester-year, then manned mostly by untrained domestic staff, she says in her preface. "But with proper organisation of the kitchen front, the average housewife needs to spend no more than one and a half hours in the preparation of a rice and curry meal for six to eight persons including the tidying up afterwards. To achieve this seemingly impossible goal, she offers certain basic rules such as; gathering all ingredients and utensils needed on one table or work place; cutting up the vegetables including onions and dressing all the curries; cooking curries that take the least amount of time first instead of vice versa, and using the same pans after rinsing them for curries that take a longer time to cook. "Cooking done in this manner gives you piping hot dishes, and the housewife's time is utilised to full advantage for the shortest possible time from the moment she enters the kitchen", she says. Reading her book one comes across several such useful guidelines on a variety of kitchen related work, e.g. on storing of curry powders and spices and curry leaves. "Curry leaves keep better and loss is reduced if they are placed in plastic bags". It is these little gems of wisdom found liberally sprinkled throughout her book that adds spice and flavour and make her book so eminently readable. Her discussion on the different types of ingredients used in curries, how to introduce them and when; how to choose and prepare meat and sea-foods, and how to clean different types of vegetables, is invaluable for the uninitiated. I was particularly fascinated by her unusual method of cleaning root vegetables. To cite one example, she says " When cleaning a root vegetable like innala or kiriala, you could use one of the following methods; (a) Put the yams into a small jute bag, rub the bag on the floor to cause friction, (b) Knock the yams in an up and down movement on the floor in a jute bag. A quick method of cleaning thalanabatu, elabatu and thumba karawila is to "place the fruits between two chopping boards and crush them." As a comprehensive and detailed account about Ceylon cookery, the book covers practically all aspects of cooking; from measuring ingredients, to testing the temperature of a oven, to grilling and roasting meats and fish. She also devotes an entire chapter (13) to "How to plan a menu: giving suggested menus for a full rice and curry meal. The most important section of the book are of course her recipes. There is no doubt that themouth watering exotic dishes she has created from her own hands-on experience and honed after years of trial and experiment, are among some of the most lasting legacies left behind by this culinary expert. Each recipe is like a work of art, original and creative. They range from exotic rice preparations to fish and meat preparations; from egg dishes to vegetable dishes; from sambols and chutneys to sweetmeats and from Eastern to Western dishes. Starting with typical breakfast preparations in which she describes at least seven ways of making hoppers (hoppers with toddy and rice flour jaggery hoppers, hoppers with coconut milk and egg hoppers) she proceeds to discuss a rice and curry meal. Her variety of rice and curry dishes is mind boggling, to say the least. Rice is one of her favourite specialities, for she lists around 30 different types of mouthwatering rice dishes from; buriyani with mutton, chicken, lobster, dhall rice, egg rice, fried rice, Spanish rice Italian rice, ghee rice, to Sultana rice. From rice to shell fish, meat and vegetable preparations, to chutneys, pickles and sambols, she covers the whole gamut of cooking. Nothing is left out. Sweetmeat preparations, desserts, beverages, each dish is given pride of place in her book. Although her target readers are Sri Lankans, Chandra hasn't forgotten foreign visitors who wish to enjoy a typical Sri Lankan meal. Hence her chapter on "Sri Lankan Recipes with substitutes", takes into account ingredients that may not be available in foreign climes and offers substitutes like paprika or cayenne pepper for chillie powder, bay leaves for curry leaves, skimmed milk for coconut milk which are freely available in those countries. The book concludes with a glossary which explains the local terms used and their origin, useful to both local and foreign readers.Written in simple direct language with several explanatory notes, the book is ideal for the novice in the field of cooking. It is by far still one of the most comprehensive and practical books on Ceylon cookery. Published in a new format with certain modifications, Ceylon Cookery comes with several colour photographs by Laksiri Wickramarathna with an attractive cover. |
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