Review_NONFICTION
WWW.PUBLISHERSWEEKLY.COM 55In Shuk, Einat Admony and Janna Gur school readers in Israeli melting
pot cooking, with such recipes as this tahtdig (reviewed on p. 61).The Mysterious Affair at
Olivetti: IBM, the CIA, and
the Cold War Conspiracy to
Shut Down Production of
the World’s First Desktop
Computer
Meryle Secrest. Knopf, $30 (304p)
ISBN 978-0-451-49365-1
Biographer Secrest (Elsa
Schiaparelli) reveals a little-known
slice of computer history in her
fascinating account of the Italian
typewriter company Olivetti, which
created the first desktop computer.
The company’s story largely centers
on its three leaders: first, Camillo
Olivetti; then his son, Adriano; and
finally Adriano’s son, Roberto. Each
led a fascinating life: Camillo was
an inventor and Socialist politician,
and Adriano, named company
director in 1933, plotted to oust
Mussolini during WWII with the
future queen of Italy, Princess Marie
José Charlotte. Following the war,
Adriano founded a literary journal and
his own socialist political party, all while
steering Olivetti toward ever-greater
success and renown. (Günter Grass, Cormac
McCarthy, and Gore Vidal all used its type-
writers.) Roberto, meanwhile, inaugurated
Olivetti’s electronics division, which began
developing the Programma 101, the first
desktop computer, in 1962, two years after
Adriano’s fatal heart attack. From here,
the story takes a dark and bizarre turn, as
Secrest speculates he may in fact have been
murdered, perhaps by the CIA to prevent
him transferring technology to the Soviets
and Chinese. Whether one buys into this
conspiracy theory, Secrest offers a riveting
look at an ambitious and inventive family
deserving wider attention. (Nov.)
The Russian Job: The Forgotten
Story of How America Saved the
Soviet Union from Ruin
Douglas Smith. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $28
(320p) ISBN 978-0-374-25296-0
Smith (Rasputin) delivers a narrowly
focused history of one program of the
American Relief Administration, a “quasi-
intelligence and diplomatic organization”
that, during the 1921–1923 famine in the
Soviet Union, operated soup kitchens and
fed over 10 million people. As starvation,
sickness, and political terror gripped the
fledgling Soviet Union and prompted the
writer Maxim Gorky to appeal to “all
honest European and American people” to
send food and medicine, workers’ strikes
and anarchists’ bombs in the U.S. had the
American government believing
Bolshevism was invading the West.
Some in Congress believed a relief effort
would weaken the Bolshevik govern-
ment, while others were motivated by
humanitarian concerns; ultimately, the
program was mobilized. Nearly 400
Americans worked in Russia during the
two years, and Smith tells the story from
their point of view, drawing on their
diaries, letters, reports, and photographs.
(Numerous gruesome stories and photos
of cannibalism and starvation are
included.) His prose moves at a fast clip
and takes a matter-of-fact tone about the
horrors of the famine. Not all readers may
buy the claim that the Soviet Union would
have collapsed without this intervention,
but this is an intriguing window onto the
humanitarian work of the past. Photos.
(Nov.)★ 24/6: The Power of
Unplugging One Day a Week
Tiffany Shlain. Gallery, $26 (196p)
ISBN 978-1-9821-1686-6
In this wise, wonderful work,
filmmaker Shlain (Brain Power)
eloquently argues the merits of
taking a break from technology,
particularly smartphones, one day
a week—a practice she refers to as
“tech Shabbat.” Coexisting with
technology in this balanced way will
make readers more creative and
productive, Shlain suggests. She
explains how she, her husband, and
their two teenage daughters put
away screens from Friday night to
Saturday night and invite friends
over for dinner, bake bread, and
sleep late—all things that allow
them to recharge and regroup.
Included is a simple, easy-to-follow
guide for implementing her tech
Shabbat with advice on picking a
day and strategies for different
lifestyles and family sizes. Shlain is
also open about how difficult dis-
connecting can be and shares some of her
own slips, yet always encourages because
she believes “we all have a profound need
for stillness, silence, days of reflection away
from the noise. Letting your mind have
back its most reflective mode lets you see
the best way forward.” Bolstered with
fascinating and germane facts about neuro-
science, philosophy, psychology, and the
history of the concept of a day of rest, this
excellent cross between instruction and
memoir deserves a wide audience. (Oct.)The American Canon: Literary
Genius from Emerson to Le Guin
Harold Bloom, edited by David Mikics. Library
of America, $32 (500p) ISBN 978-1-59853-640-9
Prolific critic and scholar Bloom
(Possessed by Light) identifies the classics of
American letters and what makes them so
in this rich compilation of five decades of
criticism. The 47 featured writers and the
chronological discussions begin with Ralph
Waldo Emerson, “the pragmatic origin of
our literary culture.” While some essays
offer a close reading of Bloom’s favorite
works—Walt Whitman and William
Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying receive the loftiest
praise—most analyze authors by their
preoccupations—Bloom reads FlanneryNonfiction