Bear Witness

 Bear Witness: The Pursuit of Justice in a Violent Land by Ross Halperin tells the story of the Association for a More Just Society (or ASJ), an NGO based in Honduras. Founded by two Christian activists--Kurt Ver Beek and Carlos Hernández--ASJ has ambitious aims to correct inequality and corruption across Honduran society. In that deeply violent country, this began with a small operation to successfully prosecute murder convictions, the precondition for affecting change in almost any other arena. Since that small start, ASJ has grown in power and influence, in arenas such a police corruption (in a large-scale purge working with the government); improved wages and labor standards for private security; and education reform. The drop in Honduras's murder rate and the decrease in narcotrafficking during this period, Bear Witness argues, is in no small part due to ASJ. Throughout, the humble employees at ASJ have faced all manner of threats and violence, and some of their own have been killed by hitmen. 

Evoking Jesus' exhortation in Matthew 10:16 to be "shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves," the various ways that Ver Beek and Hernández worked within a murky legal system at times blurred ethical lines. They used outside lawyers, vaguely associated ex-cops, and corrupt politicians. Ver Beek recounts how they could be purely critical of all corruption--and do nothing--or work within the government while maintaining distance--a difficult line to walk. They didn't always get it right. As their profile rose, so did the ambiguity about their integrity. Reading Bear Witness engenders a variety of responses, but on the whole, it is an authentic profile in courage. 

A Hunger for High Country

 A Hunger for High Country: One Woman's Journey to the Wild in Yellowstone Country by Susan Marsh is a fine memoir published by Oregon State University Press. Marsh worked for the Forest Service in Bozeman, Montana for many years before moving to Jackson, Wyoming to work and retire. Despite being hundreds of miles apart, these locales are part of the same Greater Yellowstone ecosystem. Her story includes gender discrimination, animal encounters, forest fires, major and minor obstacles, and breathtaking beauty. It's a rich narrative, told with love and honesty. One chapter in particular, about "mountain men" who lived in the forest and abducted a woman and murdered one of her friends, is a harrowing read. The larger sense that I got, as I read A Hunger for High Country, is that Marsh is lucky to have lived in some of the most wild country in the contiguous United States, and when she was working there several decades ago, it was even more raw and untamed. Bozeman and Jackson are now some of the bougiest places in the West--but still gorgeous--and this memoir evokes a more unspoiled era. 

The Maltese Falcon

 The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett is a good book that was turned into a great film. Unfortunately, I had seen the film (several times) before reading the novel, and it is the much better work of art. The book is slim and short and punchy, and it reads like a rough draft of a screenplay. The film, anchored by excellent performances from Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre, is the final product, the fully cooked version of the story. John Huston's screenplay maintains the best parts of the novel and adds more compelling lines ("the stuff dreams are made of"). Both are entertaining. The story's late shift of focus from the title falcon (maybe the most famous MacGuffin ever) to deeper ideas of loyalty and justice remains a thrilling turn, in whatever medium.