Books
Communism, poverty and pigs
By Vivid writers: Andrew Begg and Frank O'Connor and Jennifer Loftis
A collection of photographs that reflect Bucharest under the grip of communism, an English classic, and a book that debunks the myth about hard work
Posted: 06/12/2008
Surprise Witness
Andrew Begg
Uncensored Photos From The Communist Years by Andrei Pandele
There are not a great many unauthorised photographs of public life from Romania's communist era because photographing anything that directly or indirectly represented the regime could bring the photographer serious grief. Most of the memories remain like barbs in the minds of people who lived through that era; for many, the really austere years, 1975-1989, which this book covers, are particularly bitter. As Petru Romosan writes in his introduction:
Obviously, we were not allowed to denounce Communism and precious few people could comprehend its bogus rules and regulations, much less subvert slavery and find a way to express themselves. Even snapping a charming, everyday photo posed a problem. Because we had simply lost our bearings. Needless to say, any "political" photograph was strictly forbidden, unless officially approved. But clandestine creativity was less easy to prevent.
Thus it is difficult to understand how some of these pictures were taken, as doing so Pandele would have been risking great danger. There are hundreds of photos here, that reflect a slice of - mainly Bucharest - life from those difficult, trying times. There are nine chapters, entitled 'City life', 'In the regions', 'About children', 'At work', 'Moving on', 'Our life - more or less political', 'Getting by', 'Demolition, relocation, wasteland', and 'Revolution'. Each photograph is a document, with no fancy lighting, editing or convenient airbrushing; the gritty black and white rendering adds to the realism. This is how it was, warts and all. Anyone who still considers that Bucharest and Romania have not come a long, long way since the end of communism should buy this book, and think again.
And yet, some things do not change, however hard the circumstances. A young woman gazes from a bus window into a future that is anything but certain; a rural worker salutes the beauty of the landscape cascading into the distance; an elderly women sells a string of garlic in a market; a moment for quiet reflection for church worshippers; a brass band strikes up during a football match: Pandele's photographs reinforce the idea that people will always be people. The downright depressing living, and the complete lack of any comfort - the rationing, the endless queuing for food and the empty market stalls - best depicted in the chapter 'Getting by', are history, thankfully, as is the totalitarianism, seen in the chapter 'Our life - more or less political'.
The images of destruction in 'Demolition, relocation, wasteland' that saw entire neighbourhoods removed and replaced by Soviet-style apartment block buildings, which still sully Bucharest's landscape to this day, are particularly strong. Pandele worked on the construction of Casa Poporului and was able to capture, virtually unhindered, the destruction of the many houses and roads that had to make way for it. His images are a testament to a city that lost its identity through communism - an identity that, many argue, is still struggling to be recovered a generation later. Andrei Pandele's Secret Witness which is in both Romanian and English, can be found at most good book shops.
Compania, pp 160, ISBN 978-973-7841-66-7, 2008, RON 60
Literature as musical comedy
Frank O'Connor
Pigs Have Wings by P.G. Wodehouse
Sudden joy affects different people in different ways. Some laugh and sing. Some leap. Others go about being kind to dogs.
This is a three-point list joke, the last item on the list subverting what went before. Woodhouse extends it by greatly shortening the second item: 'some leap' and then, the really smart touch, he deploys 'going about' in the last part. Not only does he suddenly insert the random 'kindness to dogs' factor, he also implies that it is something which requires organisation, planning and dedication. At the same time, this sudden 'going about being kind to dogs' is apparently an automatic response, an almost biological reaction to sudden joy. And all of this in just four lines.
The other thing Wodehouse does well is plotting and structure. His works are like jigsaw puzzles, where every incident, no matter how small, will eventually slot in and play its role on the way to the resolution. The complexity of his story structures, and the way he ties it all together is an object-lesson in how to construct a novel, and Pigs Have Wings is no exception.
Woodhouse sits on a tradition of English comic literature that stretches back to Shakespeare via Oscar Wilde. Both writers are acknowledged in this story. Wilde's notion of the 'Bunberry', a relative invented to excuse otherwise forbidden excursions, is re-invented by Wodehouse in this story, which also owes a lot to the structure of Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night' except that the identity transference issue here is with pigs, not people.
Reading the book is like listening to Mozart. It is an experience that is engaging, playful, deceptively easy and yet complex too, with hidden depths beneath.
Everyman's Library, pp 224, ISBN-10: 1841591033, First published 1952, this edition 2000, £7.69 (hardback) from www.amazon.co.uk
An American myth debunked
Jennifer Loftis
The Working Poor by David K. Shipler
He summarises the context for his book with a response from President George W. Bush in 2000 to a question about his incoming administration appointments. Bush states that, "People who work hard and make the right decisions in life can achieve anything they want in America."
Shipler disagrees. He calls this ideal a myth and a means of laying blame in America. With intense personal stories and real situations, he introduces the reader to a strangely hidden world of struggling hard workers.
His message is that the mythical American dream has not been fulfilled for many. Shipler introduces us to immigrants working long hours in factories and farms, living in poor conditions and hardly making rent who are not achieving what they had hoped to in America, despite their diligence. He shows us Americans who grew up in the ghettos of LA, Chicago or New York who have little chance to make something of themselves, with or without hard work. Without money, one cannot begin to save money, or purchase a home rather than renting one. Education is usually needed to make more money, but Shipler shows us that most of the working poor hold two or three jobs that leave no time to attend school. He even offers evidence that staying on welfare is, in many cases, the only way to make ends meet for the people whose stories he tells.
One particular story Shipler tells is of a middle aged woman going by the name of Peaches. She was raised in the American ghettos with no father and no protection from her neighbourhood's cruelty. After years of addictions and abuse, she sought help. She started from the beginning by attending employment training classes where she learned the most basic and essential job skills of arriving on time, speaking to people, answering the phone and believing in herself. Her caring trainers taught her how to write a resume and advised her on where to apply for jobs that do not merely lead to dead ends.
Unlike Barbara Ehrenreich's blog-type writing style in Nickel and Dimed, her 2001 personal exploration of the world of the working poor, Shipler's writing is researched, clear and thorough, yet he has a conversational and personal touch throughout the book. Between the facts and statistics, he relates his friendships with the people he writes about, shares their story and gently invites the reader into the lives of real people. He also includes an epilogue with follow-up information on all those whom the readers have gotten to know throughout the book.
Although his work is a few years old, Shipler's book is the most researched discussion of poverty among the working class in the United States in the past eight years. As such, his book has a particular relevance to the policy debates of the American presidential campaigns that have just concluded. The Working Poor is full of policy ideas and practical solutions and has come at a time when the next president's mandate will almost certainly include an order for change.
Vintage Books, pp 329, 2005, ISBN: 0-375-70821-9, $14
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