The Union Bookshelf regularly features new books written
by (or about) alumni and
other members of the Union community. If you're an author and would like to be included in a future issue, please send
us a copy of the book as well as your publisher's news release. Our address is Office of Communications, Union College, Schenectady, N.Y. 12308.
Craig Mitchell '46
George Washington's
New Jersey: A Guide to
the Crossroads of the
American Revolution
Middle Atlantic Press;
ISBN 097058041X; $12.95
“Forget Saratoga. Forget Yorktown. George Washington really fought and won the Revolutionary War in New Jersey” begins the preface of
George Washington's New Jersey. Poor much-maligned New Jersey-“a barrel tapped at both ends,” quipped Ben Franklin about the state wedged between New York City and Philadelphia. However, once you get beyond the jokes, New Jersey's image is burnished by its integral role in early American history.
Mitchell's tidy little book (just 136 pages) is a font of historical detail and includes black and white photos of houses, barracks, battlefields, and monuments of historical significance. Packed with facts and insightful details that make the principal figures come alive, the book reads like a narrative. Although we know “how it ends,” it remains a lively read. History buffs and casual readers would enjoy this book. And New Jersey natives can accurately claim that Washington slept here… and here… and here….
Robert T. Whipple '68
The TRUST Factor:
Advanced Leadership
for Professionals
Productivity Publications;
ISBN 0972911901; $20
Robert T. Whipple, a leadership trainer for corporate executives and university students, has written a relatively little book (196 pages) that belies its size by the “bigness” of its ideas. Whipple imparts what he calls “a collection of practical ideas to help you advance in leadership.” He says the basis for effective leadership is trust. From this foundation all other elements of performance are bound to improve. In this era of corporate enterprise in the gray zone, this book should shine forth with the clarity of Demosthenes' light.
Deborah Davis '73
Strapless: John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X
Tarcher/Putnam;
ISBN 1585422215; $24.95
John Singer Sargent's work, “Madame X,” is one of the most readily recognized portraits of a woman after the Mona Lisa and Whistler's Mother. The actual Madame X began life as Virginie Amélie Avegno, an aristocratic American Creole from New Orleans whose father was killed during the Civil War and whose mother stage-managed her life from early on. Davis was fascinated by the lore that swirled around “Madame X,” and discovered intrigue and scandal that reverberate to the present.
Madame Gautreau (the subject's married name) was the most talked about, sought after, and envied woman in Parisian high society. Although not a classic beauty, Gautreau was a genius with color and the very embodiment of grace. It was rumored (disabused by Davis's research) that she ingested small doses of arsenic, a common practice among nineteenth-century aristocratic women,
to maintain her complexion's much-envied ivory pallor.
Sargent was young and ambitious, another “upstart American” struggling to establish his reputation among the fiercely competitive high-society portraitists of the day. He pursued Gautreau to paint her portrait; it would be the perfect quid pro quo-a legendary beauty would have her portrait exhibited at the prestigious Paris Salon, and a struggling young artist would have made his mark.
Gautreau posed in a sensuous black gown, head turned in profile, one bejeweled strap of her gown slipped provocatively off her shoulder. It was that suggestiveness that caused a firestorm. Sargent had to struggle to redeem his career; Gautreau was pilloried for her “brazen self-display” and the “crudeness of her American ambitiousness,” as one art
critic wrote.
It is tempting to tell more of the story here, but that would be unfair to Davis's intrepid research and her engaging
presentation. The book includes several black and white prints as well as a number of exquisite color plates. It would be a perfect vehicle for a Merchant-Ivory production.
Walter Borotto '74 (aka Michael Bronte)
The Dealership
Mandrill Publishers;
ISBN 1931633606; $16.50
Walter Borotto (aka Michael Bronte) has produced a high-octane blend of action, sex, and mystery in
The Dealership. When the lead character, Carmen Madrid, changes out of his grease-monkey overalls and into a jacket and tie for a new job in the front office at a high-end car dealership, “Kid” Madrid thinks he is moving up in the world. But the street-wise “Kid” from Queens soon discovers that
The Dealership is selling more than automotive prestige.
The Kid is offered various lucrative “side jobs” (drug running, pornography, car theft, and money laundering) and descends into a murky netherworld. By page 10 the super-charged action begins-Kid is about to discover that life in the fast lane is more “exciting” than he ever anticipated. Borotto's gritty descriptive language has an authentic edge to it. Readers will get their money's worth.
Professor of
English Peter Heinegg, editor
Mortalism: Readings on the Meaning of Life
Prometheus Books;
ISBN: 1591020425; $23
Belief in an afterlife appears to be hardwired in human beings. Time and again, archeologists have discovered the earliest homo sapiens buried in fetal positions, suggesting that even the most ancient of our ancestors believed they would be born into yet another life. This belief, the virtual underpinning of the world's religions, might be called the third rail of theology-few thinkers dare to argue against “the life everlasting.”
Peter Heinegg, professor of English and comparative literature at the College, has edited a provocative and thoughtful compilation of writings on the topic.
Mortalism: Readings on the Meaning of Life is a gentle collection of work by writers ranging from the ancient Greeks to contemporary writers that refutes the nearly universal idea of immortality. Although poet Robert Herrick is not included in
Mortalism, his “gather ye rosebuds while ye may” is a rather neat summation.
Daisy Merey, wife
of John Merey '61
Don't Be a Slave to What
You Crave: Get Slim & Healthy with Dr. Merey's Weight-Loss
& Maintenance Program
SPI Books; $25.95
Dr. Daisy Merey, a family practitioner with a doctorate in genetics and pharmacology, has more than twenty years' experience specializing in obesity. In her book, she explains the body/mind dynamic in the cause and prevention of obesity and its incumbent diseases and disorders, illustrating her findings with actual patient experiences. She also explains the interaction of brain chemistry, genetic influences, and the emotional factors in the weight-loss/control challenge. Her use of clear, non-clinical language makes the information easy to comprehend. She also provides an informative section on nutrition, herbal medicines, and nutritional supplements as well as exercise and realistic suggestions for meal planning and food shopping.
Professor of Anthropology George Gmelch
Behind the Smile: The Working Lives of Caribbean Tourism
Indiana University Press;
ISBN 0253342724; $54.95 (hardcover), $19.95 (paperback)
For most frazzled American workers, it's a long fifty weeks until their annual two-week vacation rolls around. If they head for the Caribbean beaches, they probably give fleeting, if any, thought to the lives of those who make their two-week respite a little slice of paradise.
Behind the Smile: The Working Lives of Caribbean Tourism is a behind-the-scenes look at workers' lives in Barbados and a continuation of Gmelch's writing on Caribbean migrants and on the history and culture of Barbados (his previous book,
The Parish Behind God's Back: The Changing Culture of Rural Barbados, examined “tourism as an agent of change”). Twenty men and women tell their
stories. Their words reveal lives in deep contrast with those of the “affluent” tourists-
largely from America, Canada, and Britain-who visit this “economically less-developed” part of the world.
Workers represent a wide range of duties and varying degrees of interaction-chambermaids, taxi drivers, tour guides, hotel manager, a diving instructor-which results in a pastiche of impressions and perspectives. The narratives reflect tourism's impact on a surprising number of areas-culture, race, sexuality, economy, and
ecology. Stereotypes about gender, race and nationality are also examined.
The power of the workers' narratives conveys to readers
a world they may never
have envisioned, much less encountered from this other side of paradise.
By Monica Finch