A Common Reader . . .

Review: Six Feet Over - Mary Roach

Mary Roach spent a year investigating the outer fringes of psychic phenomena and has written up her findings in Six Feet Over – a book full of healthy scepticism but also honest investigation. She seems to be a generous and open-minded investigator who does not belittle the enthusiasts she meets and writes entertainingly of what she finds. Starting with “reincarnated children” Mary Roach travels to India to meet children who are allegedly reincarnations of (mostly)deceased relatives and neighbours – how unlike the western past lives people who always seem to claim to be reincarnations of more glamorous subjects of the Mahatma Gandhi, King Nefertiti ilk. Because the surrounding culture is accepting of the childrens’ claims, the children are not usually subject to even the most gentle questioning of their claims, and Roach finds that a little gentle interrogation of witnesses and the children themselves, soon makes the stories fall apart.

Review: The Power and the Glory - David Yallop

This lengthy book, The Power and the Glory, is an account of the John-Paul II years, but with the rose-tinted glasses removed. David Yallop has assembled an incredible amount of material to present the behind the scenes story of what really went on in the Vatican, particularly focusing on the fall of communism, the scandals that beset the Vatican Bank, and the child-abuse scandal for which the Catholic Church has become a by-word in recent years. But the main focus is on John-Paul himself and the man behind the myth.

The book is biographical to a degree and demolishes quite a few myths about John-Paul, not least the story of his war-years when far from rescuing Jews from Nazism as the official story goes, he was closeted away in protected employment and had little to do with resistance or rescue operations.