Too Naked for the Nazis: The True Story of Wilson, Keppel and Betty - Alan Stafford

I sometimes come across books through odd channels. In this instance, I read a review for a movie (I don’t even recall exactly which movie) that made a passing reference to the Sand Dance. Curious, I looked it up on Youtube, and found an intriguing video of two extremely thin men with fake moustaches in what likely would have bee described at the time as “oriental garb” doing a tap dance routine on a carpet of sand. After a bit more digging, I discovered the duo was really a trio, and that there was a book about them called Too Naked for the Nazis.

With a title like that, how could I resist?

As the full title suggests, the book tells the story of the vaudeville trio Wilson, Keppel and Betty, largely forgotten now but nearly a household name in Britain during their heyday. Wilson and Keppel began as a duo, but made an inspired addition of a talented young chorus girl named (or rather, stage named) Betty Knox. A young mother with a history as a runaway and a love of performing, Betty helped shape the act for over ten years before departing on good terms, lending her name to a host of other Bettys, including her own daughter.

The book chronicles the ups and downs of the troupe’s career, but the real star is Betty. We are treated to a description of her early life in much greater detail than Wilson or Keppel, and follow her in depth long after she leaves the trio. I can’t blame Stafford for this decision, as her life post-Wilson and Keppel was as intriguing as her life during her days with the troupe. Drawn almost by happenstance into journalism, she became a war correspondent, first known for her lighthearted articles on Anglo-American relations during the war, and later for her coverage of the Nuremburg trials, where her sense of justice for all, even former Nazis, earned recriminations from many in the press. To be clear, Betty was no Nazi sympathizer, but she felt that the trials of lower-level defendants lacked the rigor of true justice. She even claimed to have been writing a book to this effect, but the manuscript has sadly never been found, if it ever existed in the first place.

Stafford has a good, breezy writing style, unornate and clear. It reminds me of Irwin Chusid’s writing in Songs in the Key of Z: clearly the work of a devotee, but well researched and discussed without gushing. Too Naked for the Nazis provides a neat snapshot of a period in entertainment history far removed from what we have today, using one longstanding and widely celebrated act as a lens to view music hall as a whole. Recommended for anyone interested in such things.

Le Petit Hébert - Chantal Hébert

Le Petit Hébert collects a series of essays that Chantal Hébert published in the Quebec-based magazine L’actualité between 2008 and 2015 (or thereabouts; could go a bit earlier). About two-thirds of the book is divided into four sections, one for each of the four major political parties (Cons, Libs, NDP and the Bloc—sorry, Greens). In these, she gives something of an abridged and selected history, offering essays that highlight the challenges and travails each faced in the years between Stephen Harper forming government in 2008 and Justin Trudeau dethroning him in 2015. The rest of the book comprises a fifth section that could be called “misc,” which collects a range of essays on other topics pertaining to Canadian politics, particularly as it affects Quebec.

Though billed as something of a Canadian politics primer (the subtitle is “La Politique Canadienne Expliquée a mon voisin,“ or “Canadian politics explained to my neighbour”), there doesn’t seem to be any explanatory text added, nor are there definitions outside of what would have appeared in the original articles, whose target audience doubtless already had at least a passing familiarity with the issues of the day. Said audience was also Quebecois, and every story is viewed through that prism (I’d be very surprised if this was ever translated into English).

Hébert is a seasoned reporter with a strong, eloquent style, though her love of idioms makes some passages difficult to understand not only for those not fluent in french, but also those not familiar with Quebec expressions (any idea what it means to be “between the tree and the bark”? Neither does my wife, and she’s as bilingual as they come). Still, the book charted nicely with the period of time in whcih I started following politics, and it was interesting to read about events I recall with the added analysts of an expert in Canadian politics. It’s worth a read if that’s your thing (and if you understand French).

The Dark Forest - Liu Cixin

The Dark Forest picks up right where The Three Body Problem left off, with humanity’s research into cutting edge physics hamstrung by sophons, leaving Earth at the mercy of the incoming Trisolarin fleet, set to arrive in a little over 400 years time. However, in other ways the book feels like a departure from the first one, taking the story in a looser, more philosopihcal direction.

Set in various instances occurring over a 200-year period, the book leaves behind most of the characters from the first novel, focusing instead on Luo Ji, a disillusioned physicist who begins the book as a womanizing gadabout. A chance encounter with Ye Wenjie, the woman responsible for alerting Trisolaris of Earth’s location and thus setting off the invasion, leads to Luo Ji learning the fundamental axioms of Cosmis Sociology, a new field Wenjie has theorized.

Some time later, Luo Ji is named one of four Wallfacers, a UN-sanctioned program that imbues four humans with incredible latitude to conduct their own projects in secret, with the end goal of defeating Trisolaris in the upcoming Doomsday Battle. Wallfacers are instructed not to reveal their true intentions to anyone, and to even act in deliberately deceptive ways, as the sophons can read or hear any information conveyed to others through speech or writing. Luo Ji squanders his power by living a life of secluded luxury, before changes in circumstance force him to ponder an actual solution.

Luo Ji’s story is the backbone of the novel, but there are many more characters and plot threads interwoven around him. The Dar kForest is a rich, sprawling book, and while sometimes the dialogue can feel a little stilted—perhaps a result of translation from the Chinese, which I would imagine makes it very toug hto capture cadence precisely—the writing is evocative. The book poses bold ideas with confidenc,e and all of the solutions proposed feel logical and real. I can’t speak to the physics used wit hany authority, but Cixin’s reputation for researc hsuggests a solid underpinning, even in places where the technology presented ventures far beyond what is currently possible.