The first one was an Agatha Christie collection of Poirot stories entitled Poirot Investigates
A great light read, easy to pick up and put down. I think I might try to read all the Hercule Poirot books in order. This one is #3. I've now read the first four.
The second was The Stranger in the Woods; the Story of the Last True Hermit.
This book is also a quick read. I started out being very intrigued by it, but ended by just feeling kind of depressed. I have always thought my middle son had hermit like tendencies. He is extremely introverted. And we worry about him because Rick has an uncle who was of similar temperament who wound up being one of those crazy guys who stockpile newspapers and guns in his little apartment. Reading this book made realize how little we know about this particular type of anti-social behavior. It also made me feel better about J because he has much better coping social skills than the poor guy featured in this book. He might be introverted but he works well with others, loves his family, volunteers to help people, etc. He just doesn't care about having much of a social life.
When Christopher Knight was 20 years old, he drove deep into the woods of central Maine, abandoned the car his brother had co-bought with him and walked into the woods. He didn't return until 27 years later. He struggled for a few months just for survival, but then found the perfect hidden camp site and lived off of burglarizing the local cabins and camps in the area. He committed thousands of burglaries and became a local legend. They nicknamed him the Hermit. The people who owned the cabins tried all sorts of techniques to keep from being burglarized but to little avail, until the advent of new technology which the local police invested in. Knight kept breaking into a camp for the handicapped which ran on donations. They set up an elaborate security system and finally caught him.
Knight turned out to be a very sympathetic character. He is highly intelligent and even though he hadn't talked to anyone in 27 years but due to all the reading he did over his years in exile, he is actually very articulate when he wants to be. He tended to steal food, supplies like propane tanks, flashlights, sleeping bags, etc and lots of reading material; books and magazines. For periods of time he had battery run radios and even a TV, if I am recalling correctly.
As noble as the author tries to make Knight, as a successor to Thoreau and in the tradition of great hermits of the church and the like, the truth is Knight was a pathetic figure. For all his cleverness in surviving, and all his toughness - he never light a fire for fear of discovery, yet he survived the sub zero winters of Maine, he was essentially a parasite, stealing the goods of others. He never did a damn thing for anybody else but himself. But, at the same time, he is extremely judgmental about how terrible humanity is and thus his rejection of his fellow man. He expressed affection for his family growing up but he never contacted his own mother to tell her he was okay, so she spent 27 years wondering. His father died never knowing what had become of his son. That's pretty callous, if you ask me. Knight's supreme goal was to never come into human contact again. That was his personal sacred mission. He wanted the right to be aloof from all society but he never learned to hunt or fish or cook to sustain himself. The author interviews several different psychiatrists and psychologists who in turn diagnose him as either schizoid (not schizophrenic but another condition that means being unable to form connections with others), or they diagnosed him with autism. I think he sounds like he had a touch of both.
One of the interesting things I learned is that those who are socially uncomfortable and exhibit strong introverted behaviors tend to be genetically disposed to having lower than normal amounts of oxytocin produced in their hypothalamus (not sure how to pluralize that word!). You can actually take over the counter oxytocin to help with social anxiety, it seems.
After he was caught, the author, who was working out his own issues about solitude, befriended him. Knight rather begrudgingly talked to him. Knight spent 9 months awaiting trial and then he was given a very compassionate sentence. He could have been sent to jail for the rest of his life, but instead he was sent home to live with his mother and sister. He works for his brother's salvage business and he has to do some community service as well - I think they had him paint some buildings.
Knight is a smart and insightful guy, who is extremely limited in certain ways that made him unable to function. However, the last time the author has contact with Knight, it does seem that Knight is becoming adjusted to his life outside his hermitage.
I appreciated the author's attempt to get into question of humans' need for community versus the desire for solitude, but I thought the analysis a tad shallow, frankly.
All in all, though, an interesting book.
*Here's another article about the link to ocytocin and anti-social behavior. For some reason there are not a lot of up to date articles on the internet. This one is from 2016.
I'm still working through Reflections on the Psalms slowly as a morning meditation and I still have a bit more to go to finish my re-read of Radical Homemakers.
And I just started Hannah Coulter again. I tried reading it a while ago and simply didn't care for the style of writing. But I am joining in on the Close Reads facebook group sponsored by the Circe Institute. They have regular podcasts of books they are reading in the book club. Hannah Coulter is the current read and they are all a bunch of Wendell Berry enthusiasts so maybe this time I'll come to appreciate it. I am having trouble again with the book though. I just find it too idealized and somehow not fleshed out enough for me. Not enough character development,and rather a didactic tone. It's an old woman looking back on her life, her roots, her two husbands, her children, but it is colored heavily by nostalgia and no one ever seems to have done anything bad. Even though the author can certainly write beautifully, I just find it lacking personality. Anyway, I am giving it a try. Perhaps later today I can listen to their podcast on the first part of the book.
Oh I almost forgot! I also read a P.G. Wodehouse book. The Code of the Woosters, which was great fun, was the book previous to Hannah Coulter. Highly entertaining! Two thumbs up!
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