July 27, 2011

I'm reading a fascinating life of Ivan the Terrible by Henri Troyat, translated from French to Russian.  Do you know Troyat?  He wrote many history books, especially on Russian history, and is very good.  Ivan is remarkable.  He used to throw puppies off the Kremlin wall when he was a boy, and enjoyed their squeals as they fell and their death-throes on the bottom.  As an adult, he used to spend hours a day watching his torturers at work in the dungeons, and then would go upstairs for a feast and a drinking bout.  In some ways he seems worse than Hitler, who watched some videos of his enemies strung up on piano wire but didn't revel in gore like Ivan.  Ivan was at the same time very religious, and believed that his infliction of pain was a divine attribute, the same as God's visiting mortals with disease and death.  Stalin seems to have copied some of his techniques from Ivan too, like creating a special corps of murderers outside the law under his direct control.  When Novgorod annoyed Ivan, he sent them there where they killed many thousands, including all the clergy.

Mariage de Devorah Lauter

J'ai assiste hier avec ma famille au mariage de Devorah avec Jean-Bernard Prouhet de Paris, un jeune homme tres sympa parassait-il.  Il travaille dans le Ministere de Defense.  Tous les hommes americains la-bas, et les femmes aussi, s'habillaient assez simple et morne, tandis que la famille Prouhet avec ces deux soeurs et la mere etait splendide avec chapeaux tres grandes et les vetements tres colores (en vert frappant).  Ils doivent considerer que les amerloques n'ont aucun sens de style -- le nom est juste dans cette contexte.  J'ai parle un peu avec un bon ami de Devorah, egalement parisien, un normalien qui enseigne la logique mathematique et informatique a Martinique -- il dit que c'est une vie de reve.  Les mathes et la plage -- qu'est-ce qui peut etre mieux?   Je t'embrasse tres tres fort!

July 25, 2011

My family, with all my numerous in-laws, is going on a cruise from S.F. to Alaska on Friday, so I'll be out of touch for 10 days or so.
I read a fine biography of Ehud Barak in Hebrew -- it took me a couple of months.  He has had an amazing life; most of his secret missions as head of Israel's elite special forces are still secret, and couldn't be discussed, but the ones that are public are brilliant enough (hijacked Sabena airplane, Tunis, Beirut, Entebbe).  Bibi Netanyahu was one of his soldiers, and Yonatan Netanyahu was his best friend -- their families lived on different floors of the same apartment building so they could be together, and their wives spent much of every day together.  It's nice to know how well the political class in Israel know each other, even on opposite sides.  Barak had such profound respect and love for Ariel Sharon as a soldier that he always treated him with the utmost courtesy, even while they were heading rival campaigns, Barak for Labor and Sharon for Likud.
Now I'm reading a life of Ivan the Terrible by Henri Troyat, translated from French to Russian.  Troyat is very good -- thorough and open-minded; I might read more of his many, many biographies.
The book that has enchanted everyone here is Fukuyama's latest history of the world.  I can't wait to read it when my father is finished.  I won't wait for a Russian or Hebrew translation to appear.  The father of the bride at the above wedding, for example, called Fukuyama to tell him how much he reveres the book, and he said he would see him when he comes out this way next.