Two Back Issues of Harper's and a P. D. James Novel

Various

I meant to take out "Don Quixote of La Mancha" by Miguel de Cervantes, but it hadn't been taken out in so long that it wasn't registered on the computer system, so I couldn't have it. Instead, I've got two copies of Harper's and a P. D. James novel. The novel is called "Innocent Blood". I haven't started it yet. The first back issue of Harper's was quite good. It was set in May, 1999, in the United States. There was an illegal war being fought against the Serbs over sovereignty in a region called Kosovo. A woman named Monica Lewinsky had fellated the President, and there was an uproar over that. Furthermore, the government's policy on drugs was terribly misguided, and the people of America were turning to pharmaceuticals to fill voids in their lives. There was a drug that could make men want to have sex, even if they were really old, and another drug that could make just about anybody happier and more productive, no matter how miserable and crappy his or her life was. So all in all it was a fascinating read.

The other back issue of Harper's, which I am reading now, isn't quite as good, but then sequels seldom are. In this one, set a few months later, in August of 1999, also in the USA, there is a crisis in agriculture and democracy is crumbling. The most interesting part for me is the bit set outside America, on the island of Cyprus, where a border dispute has raged for decades. I liked the part where the soldiers would climb up onto balconies on either side of the street that separated the two factions and joust with knives tied to sticks. Also of interest was the sequence where the soldier pulled down his pants to moon the other soldiers and was shot dead on the spot. They erected a little sign afterwards that said "Monument to the Moon". It's really a scathing satire on the absurdity of war, sort of like "Catch-22" or "The Good Soldier Svejk" only much shorter.