Today The New York Times Book Review examined Nicholson Baker’s Human Smoke.
Here is part of Colm Toibin’s closing paragraph of this excellent review:
“It is possible that “Human Smoke” will infuriate those who believe that Churchill was a hero and that war, in all its viciousness, is often the only way to defeat those who declare or threaten war. “Human Smoke” will not be admired by those who argue that methods used to win a war may seem, especially to novelists writing more than 60 years later, impossible to justify. Nonetheless, the issues Baker wishes to raise, and the stark system he has used to dramatize his point, make his book a serious and conscientious contribution to the debate about pacifism. He has produced an eloquent and passionate assault on the idea that the deliberate targeting of civilians can ever be justified. “
This writer can’t help but think that binary thinking, that Baker strongly rejects, i.e. good vs. evil, and the with us or against us mindset, only speeds the march to war.
–JD
Tags: Human Smoke, nicholson baker, Pacifism, Strategic bombing, world war two
