A Weekend Without a Hot Shower
My birthday is usually a bit chaotic – this year involved a trip to a distant independent bookstore that I really like but don’t get to visit often. Plus there was a lunch among alpacas that was a bit of an off-the-beaten-path adventure that was so much fun (especially the running chickens!). A late-night dinner out. So many good things and so much spoiling done by my lovely spouse.
Also? Our water heater decided to give up the ghost. That morning. Ugh. But you know what? I still had fun. I still had a good time. And I am going to appreciate this lesson in how much I should appreciate hot water.
Not Just How but Why
Before I get into the meat of Shiva Naipaul’s Journey to Nowhere, I’m going to praise this new re-issue of it from Outsider Editions, which is an imprint of Knopf Doubleday which is in turn a division of Penguin Random House. It’s a lovely little sturdy volume that’s meant to be taken with you. Nice, strikingly simple covers and internal pages with lots of space, this edition was a joy to read and the other titles look just as promising as this one was.
Journey to Nowhere initially drew me because it’s an analysis of the Jonestown Massacre. On November 18th, 1978, Jim Jones led his cult, The People’s Temple, to commit mass suicide after murdering an American senator and several members of the press. Over nine hundred people died, and not all of them willingly. Ever since that day there have been questions of just what led to this massacre and led so many people to follow a man as monstrous as Jim Jones.
The Bigger Picture
In order to come up with answers to these questions, Naipaul goes beyond the day of the massacre to the months and years leading to it. The first part of the book examines Jonestown itself as it sat in the political climate of Guyana, including shifts in political power and colonial history as well as the poverty present there.
The second part examines the origins of the People’s Temple and its journey to San Franciso, and what in the evolution of American counterculture movement opened the door to a ruthless opportunist like Jim Jones, ultimately allowing him to take advantage of the disillusioned and dispossessed and other vulnerable people.
Not Aging Well
Naipaul’s analysis is for the most part a very compelling read. There’s a pretty big caveat to it though. In certain ways it has aged terribly. He is utterly unfair to and disparaging of the women’s movement. He is outright homophobic. It is disgusting. There were several points when I wanted to hurl this book at the wall.
Thankfully that is probably only about five percent of the book’s content overall, however that’s not an excuse and that does not make it much easier to take what screams out at you. I was able to struggle through it, but other’s might understandably not be able to.
To Better Days Ahead
Recently I saw a quote somewhere (on the internet, so please don’t hate me for not giving proper credit) that the truth is that the days don’t get better, but you do. It may sound like a deflating statement at first, but there’s a strength in it too and some empowerment. It reminds me that I’ve come a long way since I started therapy last year and I’m really grateful for that.
