Soyinka's new book etc.

[Joseph Tracy]

Chronicles from the Happiest People on Earth,  by  Wole Soyinka
So from what reviewers say, his earlier works were better. No knowledge on that,  but there are parts of Chronicles that are very potent, moving from surreal dark comedy, to the extremes of political bullshit, to real inner human struggles of conscience. The cast of characters could not be more lively for this kind of satire and the story line could be very engaging. Nevertheless It gets sucky fast. In a novel that should move along fast and furious Soyinka belabors plot details to the point of repetetive boredom and instead of spicing the narrative with comic exaggeration and cultural clues offered through the thoughts of the characters, he weighs it down as though the reader were hungry for ever more more half risen bread dough.
The sad thing is that It could have been made quite sparkly with an editor who knows how to cut the crap.

Just my opinion

The Anarchist Prince: Peter Kropotkin,  by George Woodcock and Ivan Avakumovic, both Canadian Academics and History writers 

I am in the middle of this biography published in 1950 about Peter Kropotkin. I got interested through some quotes I came accross by Kropotkin which led me to the Wikipedia article which got me further interested in a period of Russian and European history about which I had only the roughest outine. The book sticks to known and remarkably complete sources and has good narrative drive keeping me interested in Kropotkin’s human story  as an important geographic scientist,  turned activist and theoretician and  about the growth of this branch of libertarian/anarchist socialism which parted ways early on with marxist and bolshevist leaning socialists.  I had no Idea that Switzerland was an important center for gathering and publication of these theoretical founders of a major stream of western dialectic.
   I have no idea if others would have any interest but it is great background information for Against the Day and there are numerous events and characters  that would fit any Pynchon novel or could be the basis for some good and very relevant storytelling.