General

Bookmarks, July-August, 2009

NONFICTION

****

Tall Man

The Death of Doomadgee

By Chloe hooper

Australian author Chloe Hooper's first novel, A Child's Book of True Crime, about a young schoolteacher's affair, was a New York Times Notable Book and was short-listed for the UK's Orange Prize.

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THE TOPIC: In 2004 on Palm Island, an Aboriginal community in northern Australia, a 36-year-old indigenous man, Cameron Doomadgee, was arrested for drunkenly swearing at white police officer Christopher Hurley (the six-foot-seven-inch "tall man"). Within the hour, Doomadgee died in jail from internal injuries. A riot ensued, Hurley's home was burned to the ground, and Hurley became the first policeman in Australia ever to be charged with the death of a prisoner in custody. Hooper, asked to write about the case by the lawyer representing Doomadgee's family, examines the two-year trial that followed. In so doing, she explores Ab-original life--from unemployment to violence, alcoholism, racism by whites, and the ultimate quest for justice for Australia's "original sin."

Scribner. 272 pages. $24. ISBN: 1416561595

Cleveland Plain Dealer ****

"Hooper's fine and compassionate book enlightens readers but offers no redemption. Governments and authority figures continue to pay for the sins of their past and, even while claiming the best intentions, sin again." KRISTIN OHLSON

New York Times ****

"Tall Man will pull you in atom by atom, and haunt you for a quite inappropriate length of time. ... Ms. Hooper tells this story carefully and ingeniously, constantly turning it over to explore new facets. She sees the world through alert, appraising eyes." DWIGHT GARNER

NY Times Book Review ****

"Hooper followed the case and its main characters for two and a half years, and she does their complexity a remarkable justice. ... And though there is no resolution, she makes of it all an extraordinary whole." ALISON MCCULLOCH

New Yorker ****

"Through the story of the manslaughter trial, Hooper lays bare Australia's institutional racism and the grim conditions of Aboriginal life there. A novelist, she finds a muscular music even when confronting sordid truths."

CRITICAL SUMMARY

Critics agree that Tall Man is true-crime journalism at its finest. While Hooper, who admittedly knew little about Aboriginal life before researching the topic, focuses much of the book on the manslaughter trial, she tells a much wider story about centuries of Aboriginal life, government policies, and historic injustices. Thoughtful and compassionate, the book is also fast paced as Hooper becomes immersed in the community on Palm Island, especially in the Doomadgee clan. While she didn't have access to Hurley, she talked to his colleagues in order to try to understand all perspectives of the story. In the end, Hooper concludes, "I had wanted to know more about my country, and now I did--now I knew more than I wanted to."

***

Rapt

Attention and the Focused Life

By Winifred Gallagher

Winifred Gallagher has written several books on human psychology, including The Power of Place: How Our Surroundings Shape Our Thoughts, Emotions and Actions (1993) and House Thinking: A Room-by-Room Look at How We Live (2006).

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THE TOPIC: "Few things are as important to your quality of life as your choices about how to spend the precious resource of your free time," argues Gallagher. "Life is what you focus on." Because we can attend only to a small fraction of our surroundings, what we choose to notice has grand implications for our lives, our relationships, and even our health. While some people are prone to distraction and need medical treatment to help them concentrate, others are overloaded by the American lifestyle: high-speed multitasking, bad habits, and intrusive technology. Citing scientific research and psychological studies, Gallagher explores the nature of consciousness, the benefits of sustained focus, and the techniques by which we can all discipline our attention spans.

Penguin. 256 pages. $25.95. ISBN: 1594202109

Time ****

"Gallagher does an admirable job of getting attention's attention from every angle--relationships, work, play--using both science and philosophy. ... While Gallagher's theme may ultimately be nothing more than a familiar '70s message [of 'Be here now.'] repacked in prestigious new millennial clothes, it bears repeating." GILBERT CRUZ

Wall Street Journal ****

"Rapt is a fascinating discussion of how consciousness works, and Ms. Gallagher offers much helpful advice on how to lead a 'focused life.' We should remember, though, that there is a realm where the mind functions not only beyond the reach of chirruping cellphones, BlackBerrys and laptops but also beneath our own awareness." DAVID G. MYERS

Washington Post ***

"Gallagher devotes much of this engaging book to reviewing the psychology and neuroscience of attention. ... Like many proponents of unified theories, though, Gallagher tries to do too much." PAUL BLOOM

Salon.com ***

"Ironically, for a book about focusing, Rapt can be frustratingly scattered, self-contradicting and platitudinous; do we really need more hand-wringing about families who don't have dinner together or reheated summaries of scientific studies demonstrating the power of positive thinking? ... Gallagher's exhortations to scrutinize and redirect our attention could not be more timely, but actually accomplishing such a feat increasingly feels beyond our control." LAURA MILLER