guantánamo: the war on human rights / the know-it-all: one man's humble quest to become the smartest person in the world / the superhero book: the ultimate encyclopedia of comic-book icons and hollywood heroes

[December 15th, 2004]

^guantánamo: the war on human rights

By David Rose

(New Press, 176 pages, $21.95)

In March, the U.S. government released five British men from Guantánamo Bay after holding them for nearly three years. In August, the men filed a complaint that described a period of captivity eerily similar to that of the Iraqis in Abu Ghraib. They were punched, slapped, denied sleep, sexually humiliated, hooded and forced to watch copies of the Koran being flushed down toilets. Eventually the pressure proved too much--they gave false confessions that the British intelligence later showed to be untrue. Upon their return to the U.K., they were released by Scotland Yard without being charged.

The similarity of interrogation "methods" in Iraq and Cuba is not an accident, as David Rose reminds readers in his essential new book Guantánamo. After all, they were the brainchild of the same man: Gen. Geoffrey Miller, who arrived in Iraq in August 2003 to show American forces how to extract intelligence from prisoners.

President Bush and Donald Rumsfeld lobbied for fewer restrictions on interrogation, and they got them, Rose points out, but still haven't ended up with good intelligence. The reason? So much of the information they get is a result of coercion. As Rose relates: "[Miller] had met an inquisitor who boasted that he could wring a confession to devil-worship out of the pope himself."

Drawing on dozens of interviews with guards, prisoners and highly placed intelligence officials at Guantánamo--which, incidentally, was built by Halliburton--Rose argues that the legal black hole to which America brought enemy combatants has actually increased the likelihood of terrorism. Why? Because the spectacle of Americans trampling on the rights of humiliated Arabs has given al Qaeda yet another powerful recruiting tool. In fact, it's so potent a symbol that many of the hostages decapitated on video in Iraq are made to wear orange jumpsuits--just like the prisoners at Guantánamo. John Freeman

^the know-it-all: one man's humble quest to become the smartest person in the world

By deciding to read the entire Encyclopædia Britannica--all 33,000 pages, from a-ak to Zywiec--Esquire editor A.J. Jacobs reinvented himself as a figure of mythical proportions. But what makes this book, which chronicles that experience, truly remarkable is how such an enormous feat could ultimately seem so trivial.

Know-It-All contains some fascinating information. We learn, for instance, that Berserkers were "savage Norse soldiers from the Middle Ages who...went into battle naked" and that pygmy shrews weigh less than a dime. But more often what we learn is along the lines of "Stomach cancer is 20 percent more common in people with type A blood than those with type B or type O. That's me, type A."

It's an awesome feat to read the entire Britannica. Then again, it's an awesome feat to digest 1,000 fishhooks or to successfully juggle lapdogs. Why, exactly, did Jacobs read the Britannica? Aside from the curious idea that by doing so, he has become, "quite possibly, the smartest person in the world," and aside from a healthy book deal with Simon & Schuster, Jacobs' ready-made, quasi-Freudian answer is that he read the Britannica in order to gain victory in what he breezily refers to as "my lifelong competition with my dad."

What this book finally needs to survive is an engaging, sustained voice. The good news is that Jacobs has found his voice. The bad news is that it is preening, juvenile and pretentious. Though there are instances of humor and wit, the book's tone is overrun by truly inane prattle ("It hurt my poor little head," "The encyclopedia is giving me a lot of good ideas") and obnoxious self-deprecation (a term today often confused with humility). As Jacobs himself writes in a moment of perhaps-unintended honesty, "I just need some talent." Dominic Luxford

By A.J. Jacobs

(Simon & Schuster, 400 pages, $25)

^the superhero book: the ultimate encyclopedia of comic-book icons and hollywood heroes

Edited by Gina Misiroglu with David A. Roach

(Visible Ink Press, 725 pages, $29.95)

Contributors Michael Martin, Michael Eury and Andy Mangels will present The Superhero Book at Powell's City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 228-4651. 7:30 pm Wednesday, Dec. 15.

You never know when in the course of your day-to-day existence you will need to know the different types of Kryptonite (of which there are five), or what sort of effect each type has on Superman. Because knowledge of such things--not to mention a working understanding of the history of Spider-Man as the hero of comic books, television, movies and even a rock opera--is important, there is The Superhero Book.

More than a standard Guide to the Marvel Universe-type book, this massive encyclopedia focuses on superheroes in various mediums as the mythological folk heroes of 20th-century America. The entries, some of which were written by local scribes Michael Eury, Andy Mangels and Michael Martin, are concise and informative, often taking complex histories and story lines, and condensing them into a few pages.

The book's greatest flaw is its shortage of art. With superheroes being creations best suited for visual mediums, it would be nice to see more art, even if it meant fewer or shorter entries. There are also some glaring omissions, like Tarzan and Flash Gordon, that certainly deserve their own entries more than television shows like The Greatest American Hero.

Still, The Superhero Book is an indispensable reference guide for pop-culture junkies, providing a wealth of information certain to come in handy when you least expect it. David Walker