Banish the Thinker and other writings

Published in May 2021, this is the third (or fourth, depending if you count the diarised book he edited) book I have read from Jameson, or James or J. Alex West, and it is similar in form to the second - his The Cursed Bus. Again it is a collection of non fiction stories and essays, and again, I was gifted a copy by the author (the only way I would get to read newly published book!).

Split into three sections, this book explores our modern world with a particular focus on the significant changes to our lives in the present Covid 19 world.

Section 1 is titled Perspectives, and does what is suggested, proffering 9 short pieces demonstrating a variety of stories. Most are biographical pieces - snippets of peoples lives - those which grabbed me most included: a man who in America is a Black American, but in Germany is simply an American; the excellently presented story of Alan, an Iraqi Kurd, now granted asylum in Norway; and a response and recovery worker in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria in 2017 and his battle with bureaucracy. Other stories are the author's own experiences in the USA, Mexico, or interviewing an elderly Norwegian to write his biography.

Section 2 is titled The Five B's which are five slightly longer stories, all with titles beginning with B, including the title of this book Banish the Thinker. The five stories here were a biographical outline of a kiwi amateur cricketer, mixed with the author's own cricketing memories; the author's experiences as a book seller, a story which morphs unusually into a biography of another part time book-seller, poet, linesman, and morphs again to a dialogue by email correspondence between the two, touching on all manner of things, from their respective writing, to pandemics and social distancing, to politics. (I think I lost this intent of this particular chapter!) Next the authors experiences with unusual flatmates; and then the diarised experiences of the author in NZ and Norway under Covid restrictions; and finally the story of a modern day Kiwi missionary's experiences in Liberia. The pick for me in this section were Bedlamites (the flatmate story) and The Benefactor (the missionary story).

Section 3 directly references the earlier book The Cursed Bus. Each of the previous stories is revisited with a short update, typically how relevant the story is in 2021, or what has happened to the people in the story in the intervening 12 or so months. These were all pretty interesting, but would have meant little to people who hadn't read the earlier book - although there were short descriptions provided outlining the story.

On balance there are some really interesting perspectives (no pun intended) provided by the writing in this book, and while I would normally steer well clear of reading about C19 experiences, the Cursed Bus updates were short, punchy and relevant.

Certainly the reader can't accuse the author of excluding himself from the works - West writes from an observant position, and happily adds his experiences to the topic. The engages the reader, and draws them into the writing.

4**

[For those interested, this book is readily available in NZ on trademe, NZ and Aus on Fishpond, the USA at thebookpatch.com (paperback and e-book).]