The New Confessions

Product Information

However, this IS something I can see myself recommending to a few people who really don't follow anything remotely like what Perkins highlights. Also, the documentation at the end of the book - as mentioned above - is a treasure trove of interesting articles regarding corporate greed, indebted nations and banker swindling that I will be looking at well after closing this. Don't get me wrong, he makes some really good points. I just can't take him at his word. He has repented, yes, but he has also sunk himself into a new cause. A cause of personal redemption. And that, coupled with the previously mentioned personal characteristics, does not instill much confidence.

The US reputation at the end of WW2 was very solid. Then came the greed of empire building through predatory capitalism. The application of 'fear and debt' as the two powerful tools of an empire deployed by economic hitmen who were the first layer in a three prong approach of increasing overtness: assassinations or coups and war. All this simply replaced colonialism as human nature makes history Which he needn’t be, since none of his actions really matter. The book was fun, but in truth the “Economic Hit Man” was a nobody. Allow me to elaborate on that, through the story of my own country.However, after several years struggling internally over the role he was playing in crippling foreign economies, he quit his consulting job. In the 1980s Perkins founded and directed a successful independent energy company, which he subsequently sold. Since then he has been heavily involved with non-profit organizations in Ecuador and around the world. He continues this work today, in addition to his writing. Make America great again? Well, this book is a written prove that America was never great. It tells the tale of how America spread capitalism and her self serving ideologies by sword in the rest of the world, and how capitalism has become the bigger evil than America that will stop at nothing until it has swallowed everything in its way. John Perkins deserves credit for writing such a good, informative and interesting book about the work of an economic looter. Even though he's a resident of the United States but he makes it clear to the world what his country's higher authorities are doing against the world it's great quality & virtue of a open minded writer, he also clarified how many threats & difficult situations he faced while writing & publishing this book,nevertheless, the book has been published & translated in many languages as well & the author of book is still alive & he is roaming freely in different areas of world, this is the sign of a free country a real democratic country.

The last third of this book is the most inspiring. Perkins tells us the difference between a death economy and a life economy. He lists ideas for us to contribute to a life economy. I finished the book feeling challenged and even more revolutionary than ever. This book was a bit too conspiratorial and melodramatic for my taste, in a way that often made John Perkins seem less credible, but many of its broader themes ring true. In this memoir of sorts, Perkins claims to have been hired by an NSA contractor to be an "economic hitman" in charge of ensnaring developing nations in debt for the benefit of multinational corporations. He views the IMF and World Bank as evil institutions designed by corporations to plunder poor countries by any means necessary.Boyd has created an important and complex character in a vividly evoked series of settings. . . . He has written a subtle and provocative history of our time." --"Los Angeles Times Book Review" Charming and exasperating, shrewd and unbelievably foolish, vain and disarmingly straightforward – John James Todd is all of these. Although we may not believe absolutely everything he recounts we have to allow him this last conclusion: ‘I have done all that being-human business, all right. I have hunkered down in the mulch of the phenomenal world.’ Paced and plotted with sinewy, unfailing skill . . . Boyd has given us a work of rich, ripe and immensely enjoyable entertainment' Sunday Times There are many things that are remarkable about these novels, but I'd like to highlight how successfully Boyd captures midlife and decline. The most interesting part of The New Confessions is Todd's life after he turns 35. So much of our culture obsesses with coming-of-age and early struggles. Even middle age is usually only of interest if it is tied to a midlife crisis. It's nice to see a novel push through that moment to doubt, heartbreak, disappointment, a second act, and more. This is the problem of the whole world, The history world tells us that if we don't change & modify it, its tragic end is certain.

Part 5 details recent developments in America’s corporate takeover of the third world. Techniques of domination become more brazen; Perkins himself, after dining with a mysterious “journalist” interested in Perkins’s upcoming tell-all book, barely escapes death from a serious illness. Perkins learns that a failed coup attempt in the Seychelle Islands is a US/corporate scheme. In 2009, Honduran President Zelaya, a thorn in the side of Chiquita Brands and Dole Foods, is overthrown; in 2010, Ecuador’s President Correa barely escapes the same fate. Michiko Kakutani from The New York Times is also positive: "While using Rousseau's life and work as a framework for his story, Mr. Boyd never makes the mistake of trying to turn Todd into a heavyweight philosopher, never belabors his role as a representative man. As a result, he has produced an entertaining and darkly comic novel, a novel given weight and ballast by the pressure of recent history." [3] I can't really explain why this paragraph from my novel The New Confessions (1987) haunts me - in fact, I could probably choose something similar from all 10 novels I have written. But The New Confessions was my fourth novel and the first in which I had tried out the first person singular. I think I relish it both because I feel the confidence implicit in the voice I was inhabiting and also because I sense in these few lines that my imagination is working at full capacity. I feel I am in Berlin in 1926 (and I know I have the details exactly right) and somehow I have managed to capture the subjective, contingent, imperfect view of life (John James Todd doesn't know why the bands are playing) that is the one we all have to live with. Boyd on Boyd Relating all this information serves two purposes: first, to make my bias clear; and, second, to attest to John’s credibility. His book might seem a stretch, but knowing him as I do, I would be astonished if it weren’t all true, a few errant memories and minor errors of fact notwithstanding. I find fault with the book only in his free-wheeling historical analysis. The loud objections that issued forth from establishment circles in response to the original edition of the book only served to confirmed the essential truths behind his story. In a startling opening paragraph narrator and protagonist John James Todd claims that he killed his mother by being born. He had a tough childhood because his father didn’t like him much and wouldn’t spend much time with him. He is a Scotsman who ran away from school when he was seventeen to join the army, about a year before the end of WWI, just in time for the battle of Ypres. Author William Boyd gives us plenty of gory detail on the terrible battlefield conditions. Todd is captured by the Germans but survives the war and becomes a movie photographer, script writer, and eventually a film director. All of this is covered in the first one-third of the book.

Suitability

The book is written in the style of an autobiography, which give the tale and added dimension. As you see everything through John James Todd's eyes, it's not long before you realize that although he may be in some ways brilliant, there is also a lot going on that he really doesn't have a clue about. Rumors began to spread through the industry about the film, its revolutionary techniques, of a scale and size matched only by the ambition of its director. I suppose early 1929 saw me at the very apex of my fame. Impressive achievements behind me, limitless potential ahead. I was feted, courted, flattered. Lubitsch wrote to me from Hollywood, inviting me over. I gave interviews to newspapers from France, Italy, Britain, the U.S.A. In Germany, in Berlin, I was for a few months a household name. I was approached in the street by strangers, was offered drinks in bars, signed menus in restaurants. All the heady trappings of temporary renown. A publisher wanted to publish my autobiography. A newspaper article about my war experiences was mooted as a possible movie. The whole world, it seemed, was agog with anticipation. The Confessions, as one newspaper put it, would be the film to end all films. I think if you are of a conspiracy left-leaning mindset, you'll LOVE this book. If like me, you consider yourself left of centre and care about these issues, but are critical, and sceptical of big, un-nuanced claims, you'll probably find parts of this book interesting and enjoyable, but be slightly irritated by others.

Perkins’ account of his experiences as an economic hit man is compelling. The details he relates about face-to-face meetings with coworkers and dissidents alike are impossible to dismiss: I too have traveled a good deal around the world, especially in developing countries, and I’ve had similar experiences along the way. And I’ve observed first-hand some of the diabolical practices he describes. However, when Perkins strays from his story and struggles to place it in a larger historical context, he comes up short. Parts I through IV tell a great story, and it’s well told. A few of the chapters in Part V help bring that story up to date. Perkins’ use of the term “economic hit man” beautifully points to the truth behind the work he did, work that so many others have engaged in. However, Perkins expands the definition of EHMs to include corporate executives, investment bankers, lawyers, and lobbyists at work in the United States today. This exercise stretches the term beyond the breaking point.

Production team

These aside, though, I would say the book for all its flaws is interesting. Perkins does offer some revelations from his career and insider insights into shady practices. I did enjoy reading it, and I do feel like it's given me a useful additional "political" perspective on the issues I care about. Martha Duffy from Time has some reservations: "some of the gusto is missing. As his hero ages, the author's energy flags. Promising situations are brought up only to be dropped, and the tour of the century ends rather limply. Still, Boyd, a skilled and productive novelist (A Good Man in Africa, Stars and Bars), has succeeded in no small feat: writing a portrait of an artist that is both entertaining and intellectually engaging." [5] The problem with this book was that I couldn't empathise with the protagonist. I just didn't like him. He was selfish and craven and didn't seem to develop any insight into his own character as he grew up. In particular, his lechery was almost uncomfortable at times.