I had fun reading and sharing some book reviews with The Cancer Letter previously, and I thought I would try again with a new installment (The Cancer Letter, Aug. 6, 2021).
So, I took an extra suitcase on vacation with me. It’s packed with 15 books that are at the top of my 2023 reading list. I hope to get through them all at some point.
I took a photo of each of these books—in case the luggage gets lost. I share the image here, so you can pick and choose which ones you might want to read. The books are arranged collage-style, in no particular order.
The picture itself is worth at least a thousand of my words.
The books reviewed here are:
- Race Matters, 25th Anniversary: With a New Introduction, by Cornel West
- Rooted: Life at the Crossroads of Science, Nature, and Spirit, by Lyanda Lynn Haupt
- Toxic Exposure: The True Story Behind the Monsanto Trials and the Search for Justice, by Chadi Nabhan, MD, MBA
- For Blood and Money: Billionaires, Biotech, and the Quest for a Blockbuster Drug, by Nathan Vardi
- The Measure, by Nikki Erlick
- The Dissident, by Paul Goldberg
Other books in the suitcase:
- The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
- The Daughter of Auschwitz: My Story of Resilience, Survival and Hope, by Tova Friedman and Malcolm Brabant
- Health Care Revolt: How to Organize, Build a Health Care System, and Resuscitate Democracy—All at the Same Time, by Michael Fine
- Visions of America: Personal Narratives from the Promised Land, edited by Wesley Brown and Amy Ling
- Public Radio: Behind the Voices, by Lisa A. Phillips
- The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life, by Mark Manson
- The Best American Short Stories (2001), edited by Barbara Kingsolver
- The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, by Thomas S. Kuhn
- The Nature of Prejudice, by Gordon W. Allport
These books came from different sources for different reasons, and there are still others I’d like to read—such as Ben Stanger’s recent release “From One Cell: A Journey Into Life’s Origins and the Future of Medicine” that I’ll get to eventually (hence, it’s not in the images).
“A Spy Among Friends” by Ben Macintyre is another book I’d like to read. My son James, who just started law school, has been reading this one, and so I’ll get to it eventually (it’s not on the list—yet).
“The Subtle Art…,” a gift from a dear colleague in Baltimore, was one of the most practical presents I received this year. I will say no more, other than it is highly recommended for academics, and probably those in all walks of life.
Race Matters, 25th Anniversary: With a New Introduction
I had never heard of Cornel West or his books when I became aware that he’s considering running for president for the 2024 election and that he is an academic intellectual and professor at Harvard. My curiosity was piqued.
The 25th anniversary version of his book, “Race Matters,” would introduce me to his ideas that I was eager to learn about. Would I find out what he stands for so I can think more about his candidacy and also learn something from him?
Dr. West, back in the preface for the first edition, spoke of hatred for Black people in the U.S. as psychic violence “reinforced by the powers of state and civic coercion,” with physical violence “for the primary purpose of controlling their minds and exploiting their labor for nearly four hundred years.”
He spoke of “American terrorism,” “American barbarism,” and slavery as a “distinctive assault on black humanity.” The “white supremacy” and its impact extends to other races, he asserts. He states that the nearly 200 years after the American revolution were a failure of the American democracy as it relates to “arbitrary powers” of “government and economic institutions […] against its citizens.”
While he acknowledges progress, he informs us of what we know—that “white supremacy lingers.”
Introducing the 25th Anniversary Edition, Dr. West writes:
“The nihilism in Black America has become a massive spiritual blackout in America. The undeniable collapse of integrity, honesty and decency in our public and private life has fueled even more racial hatred and contempt.”
Dr. West speaks of “chauvinistic nationalism, plutocratic policies, and spectatorial cynicism run amok.” The “only hope is prophetic fightback—a moral and spiritual awakening that puts a premium on courageous truth telling and exemplary action by individuals and communities.”
He criticizes Wall Street, big banks, drone strikes, “Terror Tuesday at the White House.” He complains about the “imperial meltdown,” “ecological catastrophe,” threats from nuclear, economic, political catastrophes, oligarchy, civic and cultural catastrophes.
As I read this it felt a bit like “the sky is falling,” along with a depressing societal view.
He gets into Sanders vs. Clinton among Black voters, and Trump after Obama as the “know-nothing white cruel face of the American Empire,” after “the brilliant Black smiling face of the American Empire.”
He is critical of both wars and killing. It is always annoying for me as a biomedical researcher to read “The Military… spends 53 cents for every taxpayer dollar in the US budget.”
Dr. West speaks of the Black freedom struggle, the Black musical tradition, and “soulful kenosis,” all of which “inspire and encourage others” by allowing “suffering to speak” the truth, along with the “neoliberal” threats that undermine these traditions.
He mentions “the Reverend William J. Barber II” as the “most Martin Luther King-like figure in our time.”
He refers to himself as preferring to “be the hope” rather “than talk about hope,” and that he’s pulling from “the rich resources of the LGBTQ communities, the feminist movement, Indigenous people’s struggles, the environmental justice and other abled communities, and immigrant rights and anti-imperialist organizations.”
I really like “the implication is that only certain Americans can define what it means to be American — and the rest must simply ‘Fit in’.”
I like “we must admit that the most valuable sources for help, hope, and power consist of ourselves and our common history. As in the ages of Lincoln, Roosevelt, and King, we must look to new frameworks and languages to understand our multilayered crisis and overcome our deep malaise.”
I love that quote from this book.
The intellectual and scholar in Dr. West comes through here with:
“We must invigorate the common good with a mixture of government, business, and labor that does not follow any existing blueprint. After a period in which the private sphere has been sacralized and the public square gutted, the temptation is to make a fetish of the public square. We need to resist such dogmatic swings.”
He reiterates that we need “courageous leaders,” and “democratic accountability.”
Dr. West is an original thinker who analyzes the plight of Black Americans, challenges existing frameworks as he interjects what’s missing in his view as the underlying structures:
“Culture is as much a structure as the economy or politics; it is rooted in institutions such as family, schools, churches, synagogues, mosques and communication industries (television, radio, video, music).”
He contrasts the “liberal structuralists” and the “conservative behaviorists” as flawed in their interpretations and conclusions. He surmises that the fight against nihilism was lost with integration and concludes this has led to increased suicides among African Americans.
He dwells on the Clarence Thomas SCOTUS appointment, unwinding Blackness and racial reasoning to condemn Black leaders and advocate for moral reasoning.
Dr. West deals with Black leadership, Black intellectual conservatism, and warns of the downside of ignoring the misfortunes of the disadvantaged.
It is interesting to see—in light of the recent SCOTUS decision on affirmative action—that Dr. West views affirmative action negatively “as neither a major solution to poverty nor a sufficient means to equality.”
He sees that “affirmation of Black humanity, especially among Black people…, is a sufficient condition of such progress.”
Other chapters that the readers will enjoy delving into focus on Black-Jewish relations, Black sexuality, Malcolm X, and Black rage.
I appreciate the book and recommend it to those who wish to understand more about who Dr. West is and what he stands for.
Rooted: Life at the Crossroads of Science, Nature, and Spirit
I received this book, published in 2021, as a gift on Father’s Day this year from my now adult, college-bound daughter, Julie, who said I would enjoy reading it.
I was determined to try and find out why my daughter thought I would enjoy reading this book.
As the book has a one-word title, so do most chapters. For example: “Listen,” “Shed,” “Wander,” “Immerse,” “Alone,” “Unsee,” “Relate,” “Speak,” “Grow,” and so on. The first, however, is “Frog Church” with an “invocation” and “tenets of rootedness.”
These tenets of rootedness include “Ecology and Mysticism,” “Everyday Animism,” “Poetry and Science Intermingle,” “Truth and Fact Are Not Synonyms,” “Mystery,” “Kindred, All,” “Kith,” “Reciprocity,” “All Is Sacred,” “Enchantment and Wonder,” “Creativity and the Great Work,” and Eccentricity.”
The book quickly gets into ecological collapse and forestalled responses due to the COVID pandemic. There is reference to Rachel Carson’s book “Silent Spring,” DDT, and feminism. Rebecca Solnit’s “Hope in the Dark” is mentioned.
I particularly liked that hope doesn’t mean everything will be fine: “Mature hope involves a willingness to allow that brokenness and beauty sometimes intertwine.”
I was reading about the concept of “earthing“ as I sat at a serene shaded location at Turquoise Bay in Roatan, Honduras—a beautiful place that I’d highly recommend.
There doesn’t seem to be much science behind it, but there is the idea that walking barefoot on natural surfaces balances our body‘s positive ionic charge with the earth’s negative charge, and that this may help prevent inflammation and other ailments, to paraphrase. Earthing can also help with pain, wound healing, and even “neuropsychological issues.”
I don’t disagree that connecting with nature can help calm anxiety and promote better sleep. However, I’m not sure that the magic here has anything to do with walking barefoot. The author does, however, tie walking barefoot with shedding, as when Moses in exodus was asked to shed his sandals, as he was walking on holy ground. The analogy is taken further with the concept of “beneathness:”
For the soil is alive and writhing beyond my sight with roots, mycelia, decomposers, bacteria, protozoa, worms, grubs, beetles—beyond counting, beyond knowing. The living and the dead brushing together to create the quietest symphony of sound and activity. Holy ground.
In a section about “Intelligent Feet,” the reader is introduced to a biomechanist (I initially read this as biochemist) by the name of Katy Bowman, who has done research on the human body and has been critical of “modern walking for fitness mindset,” where people count the number of steps in ultra-engineered shoes in less than stimulating environments. But Bowman has found that when her students walk on a forest floor, they walk more slowly—but this doesn’t mean they perform less work.
The idea that the speed and steps are not the only measure of fitness seems like good advice, and besides, there’s both physical and mental fitness. Certainly, she seems to be advocating for staying fit by being out and walking or running in nature.
I don’t disagree that connecting with nature can help calm anxiety and promote better sleep. However, I’m not sure that the magic here has anything to do with walking barefoot.
In a section titled “Wired to Wander,” we learn that in 2014, John O’Keefe and colleagues were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for research on the location-grid neurons, residing in the hippocampus of humans and other animals ranging from birds to rats.
I’m sure some of the readers will know that certain birds have an enlarged hippocampus as they need to find food, and sometimes that involves remembering locations they can return to. It was interesting to read as well about location-based memory and how sometimes we have a memory that may be confused with another memory at the same location. This is because apparently these grid neurons are intertwined with memory neurons.
As I read on into the book it felt like a wellness book about getting closer to nature and our “roots” in different ways, and along the way, if there is supporting science and other interesting information, then it was included. A good example is a section on solitude that reveals that, in today’s world, we use about 95% of our brain as we are busier than ever with numerous distractions, including social media.
An article from 2014 in Science tested subjects for their ability to endure 15 minutes of solitude with their thoughts but they could choose to give themselves an electric shock. It became clear most people couldn’t last 15 minutes, but there was an outlier who gave himself 190 shocks. No comments. But time alone has benefits, as the book goes on.
Enjoy the read, and, for me, I can thank my daughter for sending it my way this summer.
Toxic Exposure: The True Story Behind the Monsanto Trials and the Search for Justice
I have known Chadi for several years, and most recently interacted with him in his role as chairman of the Caris Life Sciences Precision Oncology Alliance.
It is always a lot of fun to read a book when you know the author, and so once I was aware of the book that was released in 2023, I got my copy.
The book is about Monsanto’s herbicide Roundup that contains glyphosate that has been implicated as a carcinogen with occurrence of non-Hodgkin lymphoma in some individuals who used Roundup. Glyphosate has a Wikipedia page that weighs in on carcinogenicity and ends up with a statement that the evidence has been inconclusive and contradictory.
With that in mind, I delved into “Toxic Exposure” to learn more about the evidence.
As I read the book, it became clear that it was a page-turner that I could not put down. Chadi gives the reader a glimpse into the legal process that unfolded between a multi-billion-dollar corporation (Monsanto, which was acquired by Bayer as trials were taking place) and patients who developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma after being exposed to weed killers containing glyphosate.
Chadi thoroughly researched the topic and provided brilliant testimony while being very self-conscious and analytical about how the various judges and juries might have perceived his comments.
He provides the reader with an understanding of the history of the EPA, an agency that started in the Nixon administration as the Environmental Quality Council. It is noteworthy that this occurred during the same administration that produced the National Cancer Act.
As a scientist who is also working to understand cancer causes in Rhode Island, I found the book eye-opening and, I would say, required reading for those interested in carcinogenesis and epidemiology.
Chadi provides evidence on how the EPA might relate to a big corporation that sells a toxic product. He captures internal company communications that reveal a culture of risk mitigation and potential deception.
The courtroom drama and theatrics are fun to read, including the eloquent letter to a judge by a juror regarding Monsato’s pursuit of retrial. The arguments in different cases are laid out. I found the one about choice particularly compelling, as the general public is owed that. Being informed of risks when they are known, and anything short of that amounts to cover-up and deception.
The book certainly recounts the pursuit of justice for the plaintiffs and the important role that Chadi played. He was very modest, yet he can be proud of what he has achieved as an immigrant from Syria who has had a positive impact on people’s lives. Interwoven is his career path, including time he spent in Boston, and his fondness of American football and the Patriots—although soccer and Manchester United remain his favorite.
As a scientist who is also working to understand causes of cancer in Rhode Island, I found the book eye-opening, and I would say it is required reading for those interested in carcinogenesis and epidemiology.
It is hard to prove causality. I found it somewhat shocking that we don’t know more about glyphosate. Also, I find it disappointing that corporate greed and lack of a direct search for truth, whatever it may be, is not how some big companies operate.
Instead, millions are spent on litigation and opinions.
It is compelling that glyphosate causes lymphoma and other tumors in rodents, and that there is a higher risk of lymphoma with extent of exposure and clinical cases. I thought, wouldn’t it have been important to study mice deficient in p53 that develop lymphoma? Does glyphosate accelerate these tumors in p53-null mice? Does it increase the incidence in the p53 heterozygous mice that get fewer lymphomas?
The experiments are straightforward, and I would think painting glyphosate on the shaved skin of these mice would mimic what occurred to the soaked skin exposure of the first Roundup case (Mr. Johnson) litigated in California.
I also couldn’t help but be reminded that “carcinogens leave fingerprints,” and that it is also straightforward to detect and identify such signatures in genes such as p53 that might more directly get to causality. The genomes of the tumors from the exposed individuals are expected to hold some of the secrets of causality as well as response to therapy.
As far as the presence of the substance in the body long after exposure, current technologies allow for detection of infinitesimal amounts including in tumors by mass spectrometry. One would have thought that the industry and the EPA would embrace science more and even repeat studies that were limited by sample size in mice. In my own state, the warning about glyphosate is concerning.
Glyphosate is an herbicide also known as “Roundup.” In 2015, the UN World Health Organization’s International Agency on Research on Cancer determined that it is a “probable carcinogen to humans.” In 2019, the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry released its own draft Toxicological Profile for Glyphosate which affirmed the WHO’s assessment. Recent studies have concluded that long-term exposure to the chemical increases the risk of developing certain cancers, in particular non-Hodgkin lymphoma. More research needs to be done on the effect of chemicals used in pesticides on human health, however, consumers can still reduce their risk of being exposed to toxic (or potentially-toxic) chemicals by choosing alternative products made with ingredients that are not harmful to human health.
It is a stronger concern about the carcinogenicity than the Wikipedia page. I was pleased to see that Rhode Island is among the states with least glyphosate use, although spraying of roads and in parks was being done a decade ago.
Even while judgements in court have already been made, academics like me want to know more about the science and lessons learned. I think, like how the tobacco industry settlement funded some research (much less than one would have expected), the chemical corporations should fund more research about environmental exposures that ultimately impact on human health.
We need more than cleanup of superfund sites. This problem is global and neither the knowledge base nor the policies are set.
For Blood and Money: Billionaires, Biotech, and the Quest for a Blockbuster Drug
The epilogue of this 2023 book begins on a day in May 2011, with a chief medical officer, Dr. Hamdy, who has just been fired from a small biotech company called Pharmacyclics.
The company was developing a BTK inhibitor for leukemia, an area he was excited about.
The book turns to Mr. Duggan, a successful businessman who lost his grown son to glioblastoma. He was a believer in Scientology and, by the age of 60, had amassed a net worth of $65 million after various business ventures. He became interested in Pharmacyclics and started buying shares because the company had been testing a drug for brain cancer.
He met Pharmacyclics CEO, Dr. Miller, a Stanford clinical professor and spouse of Dr. Sandra Horning, past ASCO president and lymphoma expert. Miller had previously co-founded IDEC Pharmaceuticals with Stanford’s Ron Levy to bring Rituxan to FDA approval for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Duggan bought 10% of Pharmacyclics at a time when their drug Xcytrin was doing poorly in clinical trials and when their shares were $1. Five years earlier, in 2000, the shares were $80 and the company’s market valuation was more than $1 billion.
Interesting history is described about Celera, Craig Venter, and the $6.6 million deal to get CRA-032675, a BTK inhibitor and analogues along with some HDAC inhibitors from Celera to Pharmacyclics. Celera didn’t think BTK inhibitors would go anywhere and essentially gave them away.
Miller wrote an article in The Wall Street Journal that was critical of the FDA and Richard Pazdur, the agency’s chief of oncology, for rigidity in the drug approval process. He wrote two other articles expressing views toward the FDA and their approval process—views others thought would not necessarily be helpful to his company or its drug Xcytrin.
Miller would pivot the company toward testing irreversible BTK inhibitors in lymphoma with colleagues at Stanford, and would, brilliantly, include patients with CLL so he could sample the cells in the blood.
This is a must-read as a great modern drug development-to-approval story: little pharma and big pharma deals, big money, fame, power, control, ego, ego, ego, and the intense human interactions throughout.
But there was conflict with Duggan who came to own 15%, had a board seat at Pharmacyclics, and wasn’t ready to give up on Xcytrin, which had gotten him interested in investing in the first place. He spent another $2 million and ended up with 25% of the company to promote his agenda.
A fight ensued, and Duggan took over the company that was not doing well. How this happened is laid out, but what would happen next, including Hamdy’s recruitment and his eventual ousting?
Hamdy would try to engage with luminaries such as Byrd, O’Brien, Staudt, and Wilson. Staudt would meet Pharmacyclics employees at the 2009 AACR meeting where he presented unpublished data implicating the B-cell receptor whose signaling involves BTK as a potential therapeutic target in lymphoma. But results at that point, including in dogs with PCI-32765, were less than spectacular, and the company was struggling. Duggan continued to invest and raise money.
An aspect of this book I enjoyed reading as an academic entrepreneur is the insight into the mindset of investors. A good example is Rothbaum, who invests only his own money, so he controls everything and “owes no one anything.”
The tide would appear to turn in an unexpected way for Pharmacyclics, with an early signal in CLL. The dynamics of a Stanford fellow, Duggan, and Horning—by then at Genentech—standing by the poster made for fun reading, as did the fur coat Duggan wore to the ASH meeting in New Orleans.
Academia, at the meeting where the poster was presented, largely ignored the results, but the action started to take place on Wall Street, with interest in Pharmacyclics. Rothbaum took note. Staudt’s published Nature paper would provide more validation, but there would be competition with other targets such as PI3Kdelta.
I appreciated insights from this book into clinical development strategy for a promising clinical-stage compound where the options are to go at it alone, partner, or sell. Other insights came from understanding asset dilution versus equity dilution, and how decisions about subsequent clinical trials in drug development can be so crucial to the future prospects of a promising drug.
It was good to read about how impartial academic investigators, such as Dr. Byrd at Ohio State’s James Cancer Hospital or Dr. O’Brien at MD Anderson Cancer Center, were motivated to help patients and to learn the science and approaches from different companies. Hamdy was credited with being a good listener and allowing their ideas to move forward.
Biology trumps everything—and can make people nervous. What does it mean for the white cell count to go up while the lymph nodes shrink? And why would the count keep going up with continuous daily treatment, whereas with daily treatment for 4 weeks and a week of break resulted in decline? Was the disease worse? This is high stakes for investors and board members.
More would follow, including turmoil over development strategy. Certain decisions were made by Hamdy with further conflict.
Another lesson is the small company versus big company approach to drug development, and early stage versus late stage. There is much to be learned by any biotech entrepreneur who is thinking about bringing new cancer drugs to market.
Another lesson that is generally obvious comes from a comment made by Duggan:
All I’m going to say is, when you’re rowing a boat, everybody needs to row in the same direction.
How Pharmacyclics partnered with J&J in a $1 billion co-development deal and how the drug became ibrutinib is explained for the students and the experts.
Another lesson is that things get better after a deep wound and when they appear to be at their lowest. This is true in science, biotech, and life. The path in the book involves new startups, licenses, and even some clear IACUC violations at Stanford and in a private home.
But injustices occur with people who are forced out not being credited in NEJM articles or losing tens to hundreds of millions by selling when they should have held on to stocks. Byrd and O’Brien would agonize over the ethics of the FDA prohibiting crossover design, and got Dr. Pazdur to clarify that crossover is not prohibited, as it allows access for patients to new drugs.
With a highly effective drug, clinicians get to a point of not wanting to use other drugs in the relapsed refractory CLL setting, and the ibrutinib data showed that it worked even with chromosome 17p loss which is associated with deletion of my favorite tumor suppressor, p53.
The book provides valuable insight into how the FDA views accelerated approval for less common versus more common cancers. The path of development for acalabrutinib through Acerta was another thrilling story of the investor/chairman, his micro-managerial stronghold over decision making, and a good example of how the finances of FDA-approved drug availability in comparison trials—or pace of enrollment in new competing agent trials—impacts drug development and how competing patents stand in the way of progress.
This is a must-read as a great modern drug development-to-approval story: little pharma and big pharma deals, big money, fame, power, control, ego, ego, ego, and the intense human interactions throughout.
I don’t think I gave too much away.
The Measure
This novel, published in 2022, starts with all adults in the world one day receiving a box with an inscription: “The measure of your life lies within,” along with a string inside the box.
Nina, an anxious editor who has a roommate named Maura, saw the box on her doormat that has a Bob Dylan quote, “Be groovy or leave, man.” Besides appreciating the quote, this got me interested in the blending of fiction and nonfiction, including familiar places on the Upper East Side.
Fear, curiosity, and caution were palpable as society worried about an unknown threat. Is it even real, beyond anecdotes that emerged of what happened to some adults with short or long strings? Would this affect the global economy? Politicians turned to scientists and as a few weeks went by, as more emerged about people who would come to be known as “short stringers” or “long stringers”—such as findings of incurable or curable diseases.
Government and even the pope weighed in—he called the small boxes a “gift from God.” Some didn’t feel that way, with their short string.
The chapters give the reader a glimpse into the lives of other characters intertwined in their relationships and experiences. Not everyone opened their boxes, and many threw them away. Support groups and online websites popped up.
The strings seemed to eclipse any other story because they seemed to be real in their ability to predict total life span within 2 years. There were conspiracy theorists and those who would tempt fate, only to survive due to their long string. Others would guess the length of someone’s string by watching their behavior with life decisions.
As I read the book, it occurred to me that we live in a world not too far from these strings. With technological advances in genomics and computational capabilities, it is conceivable that predicting lifespan is within reach. We know a lot of disease-causing genes, and we know many conditions with limited life expectancy. We know that all too well in oncology.
The difference, I think, is we can’t anticipate accidents or random events that shorten people’s lives. With the short and long strings they really predicted lifespan. The idea of support groups is also well-known in our field, as is genetic counseling. We have come to a point where people are informed of risks of knowing whether they carry a disease-causing gene mutation (for example, one that would cause early onset breast cancer or Alzheimer’s disease).
As I read the book, it occurred to me that we live in a world not too far from these strings. With technological advances in genomics and computational capabilities, it is conceivable that predicting lifespan is within reach.
Another difference in real life is the hope that interventions and research discoveries could in the future impact on outcomes. But not in this novel with the strings.
One of the characters in a support group is a guy named Hank, a doctor at Memorial Hospital who was seeing patients come in with concerns about their short strings and were looking for screening tests. It was odd that a book published in 2022 would not mention COVID, though.
It was interesting to read about those who would show up to the hospital with a string where their time was basically up and demand help to stop it. And finances always creep into medicine, with hospitals deciding they wouldn’t do anything to help those who were asymptomatic—after all, their early demise could involve an accident rather than a medical condition.
The book has a little bit of a feel of “The Twilight Zone,” where short stringers meet their fate that is sealed in different ways right on time. The gun lobbyists started blaming the strings!
Issues of privacy, health care discrimination, and even political candidates’ campaigns would be touched by string size. There is also a realization in planning a family that it is painful knowing with certainty that one would not be around at a certain age of their children.
As the mostly short chapters go on and on, the book also has a feel of brief entertaining episodes in a sitcom. Each chapter is focused on a different character and their continuing story. Some are sad with intense emotions. Betrayal, violence, romance, unexpected surprises, hope, and much wisdom for life and relationships await the readers.
The Dissident
I was honored to be asked by Paul in February, 2022, to look at a preprint of this novel, and these were some of my comments:
I read part I and it was great.
Interesting, articulate, primal, savage are words that come to mind.
A glimpse of the Jewish culture and a point in history during the cold war with global references, personal friendships, relationships and would be double agents.
Definitely a page-turner so far.
In the beginning I thought a map of the place where the wedding was in relation to where Schwartz and Foxman were found and maybe where Viktor’s parents lived would be nice and where the river was and some of the streets.
There are many nice words with cultural meaning that would benefit from some sort of glossary.
Paul said:
Great idea re: map of Moscow, the boulevards, and tramway and trolleybus routes would be fun. Also, Bulgakov’s house and Clear Ponds and Patriarch’s Ponds. That’s my Moscow! I will suggest it to the editor, who will say yes, I am sure. It’s a compressed map.
The map showed up in the inside covers of the book that was published in 2023, and now I would have a chance to read the final product of Paul’s years of work.
I’m reminded of sitting in a history class in 10th grade in New York, being taught about Russian history. The barbaric savagery came through loud and clear then, and I only wish I was a less distracted teenager at the time and learned more. Through this new fictional account, I would learn more from interesting events and experiences on the ground in Moscow. I am really looking to learn lessons about the culture and humanity as well as the politics that are all tied together.
Paul is a masterful storyteller and it’s a delight to read his novel.
Part I of the novel starts with the wedding of Oksana Moksvina and Viktor Moroz, after a brief courtship in Moscow in the mid-1970’s. There are vivid details of attire, fashion, menu at the wedding, and history—interwoven with references to the Bolsheviks, the Great October Socialist Revolution, along with a need to follow Jewish tradition for the wedding.
Viktor couldn’t find his copy of “The Laws of Jewish Life,” but there would be some old men, alterkakers (aka “old shitters”), who knew about Jewish weddings (khasene in shtetl).
There is a backdrop of life in Moscow at the time, with those who fear or don’t fear the KGB. We read about jellied meat (kholodetz), Provencale cabbage, salat Olivier, Soviet mayonnaise, eggplant caviar, vodka, and so on. Vivid in his descriptions: “No finer zakuska than Hungarian fatback reclining upon a bed of sour rye has ever existed or can exist. Ukrainian fatback, which owes its whiteness to a coat of coarse salt, should not be neglected, and is not.”
The description makes you salivate and want to taste these delicacies.
The alterkakers don’t show up to confer some traditional Jewish blessings and no one volunteers to find them, so this falls upon Viktor the groom.
Viktor gets to the apartment of Albert Schwartz, aka “king of the refuseniks,” who knew the alterkakers, only to stumble upon a horrific, fresh crime scene: Schwartz and Alan Foxman, an American diplomat and possible CIA operative, are badly butchered and left on top of one another in a sexual act.
Viktor knew Foxman, and they had previously spoken about anti-Semitism in America, with mention of 10% quotas in admissions at Harvard and Yale, but apparently not at the University of Chicago, where Foxman went.
The murders were just days before Henry Kissinger was to visit Moscow. We learn that Foxman had mentioned to Viktor that Kissinger was a “narcissistic prick,” and that German Jews are referred to as Yekkes. Yekkes come up later in the book, and are explained through a joke in which someone who doesn’t want to be thought of as a Yekke does something remarkably stupid in response to orders he is given.
Viktor didn’t really understand the meanings and, after the murders, he felt he was in a nightmare that he must wake up from on his way back to his own wedding—and that he must also replace his blood-stained clothes on the way. Stolichnaya (vodka) is apparently superior to the Jack Daniels that Viktor had and is needed by then.
The wedding continues with vodka shots and a prayer.
The second part begins with the reader being introduced to Madison Dymshitz (aka Mad Dog), an American newspaper correspondent in Moscow, earlier in his life when he was a freshman at Harvard in the 60’s. All I could think of was what a curious last name Paul came up with for a correspondent. Must be tough for the family members to live their lives with that last name.
During my vacation, I spent some time with my family on a short visit to a nice beach in Cozumel, Mexico. I entered Mexico with the book, “The Dissident,” not really sure if it might be confiscated, but I wanted to keep reading. Well, nothing happened, and I was able to keep reading and leave Mexico to resume the vacation and my readings for the summer.
[Editor’s note: Spoilers ahead!]
At Harvard, Mad Dog learned about the teachings of Marx: “Money is the jealous God of Israel, in the face of which no other God may exist.”
Viktor and Mad Dog get into a conversation about the Helsinki agreement, and, eventually, about the difference between “dissident” and “refusenik.” Mad Dog thought they should be kept separate because of the dissidents’ ideas of separating certain states from the USSR, which apparently did not come from the Jews or refuseniks.
It is clear that Mad Dog is looking for front page juicy news and not boring stuff that ends up in the back pages with travel ads. Page 19 is where such stories usually end up, and, as Mad Dog was showing Viktor, a story on that page showed a photograph that would be very significant. You’ll have to read the novel to understand the significance.
Refuseniks are often seen singing Hatikvah, Israel’s national anthem—sometimes in Hebrew, in Russian, or in English. By the way, Mad Dog did make the front page after writing about how he was bitten by a Russian dog—there’s stuff about dogs, including the most vicious ones.
We learn more about Oksana, her father, Rabbi Fishman, and the Moscow Choral Synagogue—where there is an inscription on the wall of a prayer to bless the state, as a kind of tax or rent. We also see the term “walrus prick,” but you’ll have to read the book.
The military state is ever-present with crushing violence to overpower the people. This includes, in some cases, the journalists. We learn early on in the novel that those who are known or who are foreign may not be roughed up as badly—or disappear as easily—because someone will notice.
It’s also the case that when someone like Henry Kissinger (also known as HAK; he did make the cut at Harvard) visits, unsolved crimes can be brought up. It’s also a small world where the foreigners in Moscow are connected to other famous individuals or academics in the U.S. and elsewhere.
I enjoyed reading a passage about fear and freedom. If we don’t have fear, do we have freedom? “Does dispensing with fear beget freedom?” Both may be “illusory.”
We get a glimpse into the life of a double agent with the fear and temptation to join either side. This is good stuff for those interested in the Cold War and global politics. The KGB admitted as much, and Viktor agreed that they could do that with the refuseniks, especially the ones whom they had a lot of information on.
At a certain point in reading the novel, I thought it would make a great movie, and the book should win a Pulitzer Prize. In any event, congrats to Paul on a masterpiece of literature of the highest quality.
The reader spends time with Viktor and Oksana throughout their relationship. We learn about Oksana’s favorite food, meat pie that might be made of cat meat and deep fried in used motor oil, which gives them a deep smoky taste. We see them waltz and have a comedic exchange with an official about marriage rules to be “recognized by the Soviet state.”
And here is a lovely quote about Comrade Mayakovsky, aka “The Poet,” (Mayakovsky Square, Moscow): “They said it was love or lack thereof. Is a bullet through the heart from your own revolver in 1930 preferable to a bullet through the back of the head from someone else’s in 1937?”
And another revelation in the context of Mad Dog, whose wife Melissa left to go back to Connecticut: “The Committee for State Security has entire departments that care passionately about sexual satisfaction of foreigners.”
We learn about Yezhov, “Stalin’s executioner, head of NKVD,” and his diary that came Mad Dog’s way, with a drawing of an “execution chamber” where “there is drain in middle. You can wash blood and brain with rubber hose or bucket of water.”
Viktor was kidnapped by the KGB and given a choice: get fingerprinted and arrested for the murders or help them find the killer(s) in less than seven days when HAK visits. Neither choice was appealing as we entered part IV of the novel.
He sought advice that included that he shouldn’t negotiate with Satan, and also that his chance for survival is actually greater if he chose the first option and went to a trial. But the KGB wanted his cooperation and assured him that HAK won’t help the refuseniks.
Solving the murders along with the web of secrets and double agents, the involvement of the CIA and KGB, and some more surprises lie ahead for the readers.
You’ll enjoy reading about the meeting between Brezhnev and Kissinger. HAK is still alive and recently in the news, so you’ll have to decide what you think of him. I’ve always thought of him as a polished, wise diplomat, but I think after reading this novel I have new insights.
You’ll enjoy reading the rest of Viktor’s story. The novel captures the plight of the refuseniks in Moscow during the Cold War, before the Berlin Wall came down and the USSR was no more.
For those who care about truth and justice, you’ll have to decide how you feel about what transpired. Life does go on, and I think the stories of history are things we must learn from.
