Afonso de Albuquerque

The biography of Afonso de Albuquerque by the English historian Elaine Sanceau is impressive for two reasons.

Firstly becasue it tells the story of a larger-than-life figure who had to battle all the time he was in India to dominate a vast area of sea and coast with only a handful of men and ships, beset by political intrigues from within and without. His achievements in conquering costal cities, persuading local warlords that he represented a major international power to obtain their cooperation to build fortresses and charge taxes, while all the time having to contend with disloyal subordinates, jealous of his position and authority, are worthy of such a dedicated work of research and presentation.

Secondly, the extracts of text and facsimilies of original documents reveal the huge amount of painstaking work that must have gone into decoding and cataloging hundreds, if not thousands of documents to produce this definitive biography. That rigour occasionally results in a rather dry read, but our difficulties pale into insignificance if we consider the author's task.

A fascinating biography of a truly great man.

Prisoner of the State

I picked this book up at Hong Kong airport - I wasn't expecting to see it there - prior to boarding a 14-hour daytime flight to London. Of course, I didn't manage to read it all on the plane. Cathay Pacific's amazing in-flght entertainment system made sure of that. But it was an interesting window onto the Chinese mentality that I had heard about but never needed to understand.

The book is the secret memoir of Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang, who was removed from power for trying to negotiate an end to the student uprising in 1989, rather than taking part in the military crackdown imposed by the hard-liners.

The book shows the cloak and dagger world of politics, influence and personal interests that lies behind any political system, though always covered up in China where, under the one-party system, such posturing and conflict could not be admitted.

Unfortunately, and this is part of that same system and philosophy, the book rambles on about many, many different issues, then revisits some of them in a economic rather than a political context, making the book very hard going.

It is clear that Zhao Ziyang was wronged and improperly treated and that China's economic development suffered in organsational terms as a result, but so many years later, that is water under the bridge.

Overall, a book for academics and enthusiasts. Don't risk picking it up as a curiosity.

A Filha do Capitão

My third review of a José Rodrigues dos Santos book. I do read other things, but people keep on buying me his work - I've already got the next one waiting to be read.

This story, set at the turn of the 19th to 20th century, was of particular interest to me, taking place in locations that I know and depicting the trench warfare in Flanders in World War One, where my great-grandfather died. It traces the life of a boy born to a poor family, through his seminary education and expulsion, and into the military academy, from where he ended up being posted to Flanders in the Portuguese Expeditionary Force.

There is a great detail of descriptive writing, detailing life in rural Portugal at the end of the 19th century, impressions of a youth's first visit to the grand city of Lisbon, doubts about theological matters, a lot of football, all of which described with JRS's cutomary skill. But, just like the allied forces in Flanders, the writer gets really bogged down in detail when describing in interminable detail the layout of the trenches and their ridiculous names.

Fortunately, that purgatory is relieved by the romantic liaison between the Captain and a French girl, whose life up to that point we have been following in parallel to his, visiting Lille and Paris with wonderful details that fit in perfectly with my memories of both cities.

Not a book for everyone, as it's rather heavy (perhaps even muddy) over large sections, and the title is a bit optimistic, since even two chapters from the end the daughter hasn't surfaced in the narrative, which rather gives the game away. But I enjoyed it!

As Intermitências da Morte

English review of a Portuguese book - poor start because I can't translate the title!

As a package, the book is somewhat over-the-top. With its dust cover endorsed by Greenpeace as being made from environmentally friendly paper and its dense text implying that fewer pages were needed to print it, we quickly conclude that this book is unusual.

It is very difficult to get into, mostly because of Saramago's refusal to use conventional ("correct") punctuation and layout. And it goes through stodgy patches where the author seems to be regurgitating a thesaurus that he swallowed earlier. But overall it's an interesting read, with a satisfying ending. So if you are prepared to put up with a Nobel laureate showing off his technical ability just for the sake of it, in Portuguese, this may be worth a read.

Oh yes, what's it about? Death, I suppose, not from a metaphysical standpoint, but more an essay on a hypothetical idea. As I said, literary technique above all other considerations.

A Fórmula de Deus

I've just finished reading another of my presents from last Christmas - only 3 more to go!

Following on from O Codex 632, José Rodrigues dos Santos sends Tomás Noronha off to Tehran and Lhasa this time, in search of the answer to "God's Formula", written by Albert Einstein as his proof of God's existence.

Unfortunately, this novel doesn't work for me as well as Codex 632, partly because I find the proof rather self-fulfilling and partly because, having a reasonable knowledge of physics, I got tired of the repetition of theoretical explanations: first one of the characters explains the theory to Tomás, then he goes off and confirms his understanding with another. I could have got as much out of a book 100 pages shorter, but I'm sure many readers wouldn't.

Not a book that I will take time to re-read, but as JRS and his team produce books faster than I have time to read them, I expect I'll be a fan for some time yet.

The Saga of the Exiles

As I kid, I devoured books. From Arthur C. Clark to Thomas Hardy, from Ellery Queen to Alexander Solzhenitzyn. I worked my way through all the science fiction at our local library, and on to science fantasy.

Recently, my parents have been unloading my books, bringing them over for me to re-read. So instead of reading the books I received for Christmas, or the texts from my course, I've been ploughing through the four volumes of the Saga of the Exiles by Julian May, a superb story of time travel and psychic powers, written in a very readable style, not too convoluted in its plot, with credible use of technology and believable characters.

Following that came the two volumes of Mordant's Need, by Stephen Donaldson. Awful stuff. I know why I bought them - I remember their predecessors The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant as being very good. But these are rubbish! The main character is a woman who has doubts about her own existence, the "technology" is questionable and the literary style revolves around the correct use of punctuation in conversation - you know: speech with no closing commas continues in the next paragraph. But if the arguments are convoluted and the speech goes on for pages a a time, it's hopeless.

So now I'll get on with the more recent purchases - hopefully a more fruitful, inspiring read. In between, I may even blog more often, who knows...

Love in the Time of Cholera

Not surprising that there's no time/incentive to blog when I'm given books this good for Christmas.

Initially I thought, "Not my kind of book", until I read the first chapter (60 pages). Then I realised it's one of those books you just can't put down. Superb, captivating writing that stays in your head long after putting the book down. The characters are developed gradually, letting us get to know them through their actions, rather than being forced down our throats like other "great" novelists. The story is funny at times, erotic at others, the best book I have read for years.

Credit is due, of course, to the quality of the translation. It's a shame I cannot read the Spanish original.

Peter Drucker

Pela mão da Accenture, recebi uma biografia portuguesa de Peter Drucker, "o pai da gestão". Homem que não gostou de ser chamado "economista", preferindo ser considerado como intérprete da história, acabando por estar entre os maiores visionários do século XX.

O livro retrata a vida e trabalho de um homem humilde mas brilhante, através da história da sua vida, das suas obras e por relatos de diversos portugueses que o conheceram e/ou foram por ele influenciados profissional- ou academicamente. Por esta diversidade de fontes e estilos, o livro é, por vezes, repetitivo, mas os autores, Jaime Fidalgo Cardoso e Jorge Nascimento Rodrigues, procuram mostrar cada influência, cada citação, no respectivo contexto, abordagem correcta face à escala da tarefa em mãos, de condensar 70 anos de produção de um "workaholic" em 230 páginas.

Terei que reler uma boa parte do livro, para reencontrar as muitas citações relevantes para a vida, não apenas empresarial, mas pessoal e social, que se escondem nas suas páginas. Em particular gostei de:

"Saiba gerir-se a si próprio. O departamento de recursos humanos não é responsável por cuidar de si."

"Os falhanços são sintomas de oportunidades de inovação. Dedique-lhe, pelo menos, a mesma atenção que aos sucessos"

Ainda faltam pelo menos 98, muitas das quais demasiado relevantes face à minha situação actual para aparecerem aqui.

Em suma, um livro útil sobre um homem extraordinário cuja visão de longo alcance temporal o tornou o "pai da gestão".