Eugene weekly., December 14, 2006, Page 21, Image 21

Let me tell you that
though I am not one who
usually enjoys reading histo-
ry (I struggled with the sub-
ject in school primarily due to
my inability to stay awake
when reading the text), I thor-
oughly enjoyed Overthrow.
Kinzer’s written style is
engaging and his book hard
to put down. Divided into
three sections, the book
chronicles the shift in U.S.
foreign policy as the social
climate changed — from
overt imperialistic moves to covert actions to the all-out inva-
sions of recent history. He outlines the coups as the govern-
ment and individuals planned them as well as the media spin
on the same actions.
Each of the stories of intrigue, maneuvering and murder
leads up to the moment of overthrow, of full engagement. He
leaves the rest of the history of the wars, the aftermaths, the
chaos that fills the vacuum of deposed leadership to other writ-
ers and other history books. Many of the stories from that
point we already know. Only in his concluding chapter does
Kinzer point out that “Most of these adventures have brought
[Americans], and the nations whose histories they sought to
change, far more pain than liberation.” — Paula Hoemann
Full Disclosure
Armed Madhouse by Greg Palast. Dutton, 2006. Hardcover,
$25.95.
“So what are you going to do about it?”
I don’t think I’m giving anything away by starting with that
quote from the last paragraph of Greg Palast’s latest book. Full
of fascinating rants mixed with lots of information and quite
all over the map, Armed Madhouse could make anyone
despair of being any use at all in this modern version of
democracy that we enjoy. Yet full disclosure is at the start and
heart of any real democracy, and that’s what Palast aims for
here. With a tabloid style, he parses the war on terror, big oil,
peak oil, the new global order’s economics, election fraud, the
class war and Katrina. It’s a wild ride through the mind and
politics of Palast, supported by reams of research and docu-
mentation compiled by his staff. Thus something potentially
dry becomes almost comedic, although definitely dark.
After 20 years as an investigator of corporate fraud and
racketeering, Palast turned his skills to investigative jour-
nalism. However, given the corporate control of most media
in the United States, he has found it hard to get his reports
printed here. The BBC has no trouble with his content, how-
ever, and he has made England, where he is well respected,
his home. Armed Madhouse, a lively compilation of stories
the U.S. media skirted, is not only fun to read but will strip
more veils than a belly dancer. — Paula Hoemann
fans who’ve dismissed their current work can gain appreci-
ation for Coyne’s work ethic and his and Ivins’ vision for
the next albums. — Jeffrey Stout
Putting Down Roots
Defiant Gardens: Making Gardens in Wartime
by Kenneth L. Helphand.
Trinity University Press, 2006.
Hardcover, $34.95.
Wayne’s World
Staring at Sound: The True Story of Oklahoma’s
Fabulous Flaming Lips by Jim DeRogatis. Broadway
Books, 2006. Paperback, $14.95.
No band deserves a written
retrospective more than the
Flaming Lips, and no writer
deserves to write it more than
Jim DeRogatis. They’re the per-
fect match; neither is in lock-step
with popular taste, though each
finds occasional, and deep, affec-
tion from the mainstream.
Staring at Sound is a story
of the personalities behind the
band. There are discussions of
the music (DeRogatis is, after
all, a music critic), but they’re
anecdotes next to Wayne Coyne’s family drama of trust lost
and regained. Coyne is the star here, both in the book and in
the band. DeRogatis opens with Coyne’s father, the ever-
trusting, bootstrap-lifting American, and his mother, who
believes that anything worth achieving is gained through
constant work. Together, they set Wayne and his brother
Mark free to be the rock band they want to be.
Pausing Coyne’s story, the book turns to the band’s other
founder, Michael Ivins. As a solid yet still supporting player
in the band’s direction, Ivins gets his story told, then gets out
of the spotlight. That is, he’s out until part of his story coin-
cides with Coyne’s story. Same goes for the other members
and former members. We read a page of their background,
and then they enter Wayne’s World. Though this time travel
can be confusing at some points (a chronology appendix
would have been a nice addition), DeRogatis remembers
often to remind the reader of his place in the band’s timeline.
It’s all terrific backstory, which is important for the Lips.
Fans of their current rich, orchestral music can learn to
appreciate the rough rock on which the band begun. Old
Finishing Kenny Helphand’s
wonderful new book over the
Thanksgiving holiday, an event all
about home and plenty, was an odd
experience. The people described in
these pages are far from home, starv-
ing or both. Most also face mortal
danger. Helphand, a professor of
landscape architecture at the UO,
vividly describes a landscape archi-
tecture from hell: the bizarre world of the trenches at the
European Front in WWI, where exhausted soldiers mired in
unspeakable horror spent time and effort to make gardens and
restore the shattered land. It’s the details that are most touch-
ing: immaculate rows of celery, lovingly tended in the bottom
of a trench; snowdrops growing in cartridge cases; soldiers
begging for flower seeds in their letters home.
Why did they do it? Because, in a nutshell, gardens prom-
ise beauty where there is none, hope over despair and life in
the face of death. There’s more to it, of course, and as the
author digs down to examine how gardens do all that, he
uncovers plenty of fascinating material. WWII ghetto gar-
dens, not surprisingly, were largely concerned with food.
Pathetically often they were also doomed to fail, but the very
act of gardening was an act of resistance where no other was
possible. It also provided a trace of cultural continuity, a
reminder of a life free from deprivation and humiliation.
Purposeful, productive work can keep you sane. The
therapeutic nature of the work of gardening emerges in the
ghetto chapter and is enlarged on in the examination of
POWs and wartime internees. For interned Japanese-
Americans, for instance, camp life provided the time and
opportunity to construct amazingly elaborate gardens in the
bleakest places. They moved huge rocks and dug and trans-
ported full grown trees. Humans seem to have an innate
affinity with the natural world; even a leaf in a glass or a dis-
tant view of something green can boost the spirits. To be
able to connect with that world through one’s own labor and
ingenuity is something worth living for. — Rachel Foster
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DECEMBER 14, 2006 21