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In Memoriam

We are saddened to report that our longtime book reviewer and columnist, Dinah Rokach, passed away in March. Dinah began publishing her monthly column in the Beacon in 2017. This was her final column. We know our readers who enjoyed her careful selection of good reads will miss her as much as we will.     

—The Beacon

The Bibliophile

This spring, learn more about history and human nature in these three books by talented local authors.

Undelivered: The Never-Heard Speeches That Would Have Rewritten History, by Jeff Nussbaum, 374 pages, Flatiron Books hardcover, 2022

Speechwriters are privy to secrets and inside stories about the politicians who employ them. Washington has made celebrities of some of them, while others toil in the shadows. They form an informal group of insiders who ply a trade that is part literary, part research, part policy wonk.

Jeff Nussbaum is not well known, but the suburban D.C resident has worked for President Joe Biden, Vice President Al Gore, and the Democratic National Committee. Nussbaum left the White House, where he served as a senior speechwriter, in May 2022.

Undelivered publishes 14 speeches that were never given but could have changed history. The speaker may have chosen an alternate course, a speech may have been prepared “just in case” or the planned remarks were preempted by unforeseen events. Nussbaum places all of these speeches and their relevant historical events into rich context.

Highlights of the book include: John L. Lewis’ militant and Martin Luther King’s less-than-soaring rhetoric in their prepared remarks for the March on Washington; King Edward VIII’s speech declining to abdicate; General Eisenhower on the Normandy invasion fiasco; JFK’s broadcast to the American people revealing US airstrikes to destroy Soviet missiles in Cuba; President Richard M. Nixon’s determination to fight impeachment and Hilary Clinton’s victory speech.

Undelivered is a multi-faceted book that also describes the art of political speechwriting and reveals gossip and backstories about well-known public figures.

Nussbaum has taught at American University’s School of Communication. Reading his book makes you feel as if you’re sitting in on his course as you learn about rhetorical devices employed in speeches, insider terms for them and the structure of talks by politicians seeking to sway public opinion.

George Washington and the Two-Term Precedent: Landmark Presidential Decisions, by David A. Yalof, 107 pages, University Press of Kansas paperback, 2023

This insightful summary of the political and constitutional aspects of the two-term presidential term limit shines a scholarly light on forgotten corners of American history. History buffs will be amazed to learn which presidents seriously contemplated running for a third term.

Author David Yalof, a former D.C. attorney, reveals the circumstances and motivation behind these thwarted ambitions. He puts the background of FDR’s third term, for instance, into the context of the nomination of Republican Wendell Wilkie.

Of course, Yalof includes George Washington’s famous decision to step down after two terms. Washington’s health may have played a factor, but most crucial was his wish to be remembered by posterity for his lack of personal ambition and his fealty to the principles of a democratic republic. Yalof contends that Jefferson’s decision to step down after two terms was greatly influenced by Washington’s example.

However, Grant, Wilson and Cleveland were thwarted by circumstances and intraparty politics. The obscure Springer Resolution, adopted by Congress in 1875, put a kibosh on Grant’s third-term aspirations. Older readers may remember the exclusion of Harry Truman from the 22^nd Amendment, passed in 1951, and the reason he stepped aside after his defeat in the New Hampshire primary.

The fine print on the Twenty-second Amendment not only precludes a third term but a second term for those who served more than two years succeeding to the presidency and re-elected once.

The bibliographic essay in the back is a thorough summation of Washingtoniana that lists fascinating books on this subject, providing expert advice on which books to read and why.

David Yalof is vice provost for academic affairs at the College of William & Mary. He received his B.A. and J.D. from the University of Virgina and practiced law in Washington, D.C. before earning his Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins and going into academic life.

 French Braid: A Novel, by Anne Tyler, 248 pages, Knopf hardcover, 2022, Vintage, paperback 2023

Empty nesters will relate to the multigenerational saga of the Garrett family as related by the prolific Baltimore novelist Anne Tyler.

Rather than a long, chronological narrative, French Braid focuses on specific incidents that highlight the family of patriarch Robin Garrett and his wife, Mercy, as well as their three children and select members of the succeeding two generations.

Reading French Braid is like turning the pages of a family album: Children grow up, parents age, and grandchildren have children of their own.

Divorce, death, trauma and tragedy touch all, and the Garretts are no exception. All families have secrets and siblings whose personalities either clash or complement each other. Tyler, who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1989 for her 11^th novel, Breathing Lessons, creates a narrative in which personality traits cross generational lines, akin to genetic physical resemblances.

The significance of the novel’s title is revealed at the end of the book as the Garretts’ grandson escapes pandemic-stricken New York with his own son to hunker down with his parents. Scenarios repeat themselves as the family drama moves forward, just as braided hair, when loosened and undone, remains crimped. Our lives, explains one character, are forever imprinted by our family experience.

Put aside your rose-colored glasses as you read about the evolution of a marriage over five decades. There’s comfort in knowing that others with long-lasting marriages may have deep fissures that only family members can see.