Tag Archives: Book review

Arts, Books, Society

Book Review: Becoming Bulletproof

LITERARY REVIEW

Poumpouras

How to beat fear. She’s protected four U.S. presidents and risked her own life by rescuing people on 9/11. Now this fierce former Secret Service agent is teaching the rest of us how to take on the world.

Evy Poumpouras, a former U.S. Secret Service Agent, is not a woman to mess with. Blessed with spectacular looks, she has worked in the security details of four former American presidents. She knows the subject of what she speaks.

This formidable lady was on duty at the Secret Service’s New York HQ at the World Trade Centre during the 9/11 attacks and became one of only five women to receive the Medal of Valor. She risked her own life – almost dying – dragging people to safety as the towers came down. Her own account of the September 11 attack makes a heart-stopping opening.

This is a diverting book, part memoir, part self-help manual for tough times. The narrative is packed with gripping anecdotes from her many years in the service.

Readers’ of this review may remember the Clint Eastwood character in the movie In The Line Of Fire – the only secret service official who could save the President, running alongside the limo in suit and shades? Ms Poumpouras provides insight into what that’s really like.

Aside from the punishing shifts and the ever-present threat of danger, it would seem there’s an element of fun that such operatives enjoy.

Ms Poumpouras was on protection duty for the First Lady Hillary Clinton when she decided to join the Gay Pride March in New York. As Ms Poumpouras follows behind, the crowd catch sight of her in her dark suit, white shirt, and impenetrable sunglasses (an outfit specifically designed to intimidate, readers are told) and begin to cheer: “Ooooh girl! You go with your bad self, Miss Secret Service thing. You keep our girl Hillary safe.”

 

MS Poumpouras was secretly pleased: “I couldn’t help smiling on the inside. I was proud to be there, to be part of what she was doing.”

Evy is a very likeable person. Agreeably prone to the odd four-letter-word (she is, after all, a Greek-American New Yorker brought up in Queens), and as a former specialist in the polygraph unit for the service, she is very smart on the many subtle verbal clues that should make the antennae twitch of all listeners.

They range from what she refers to as the emphatic denial: “I would never do such a thing” via the catastrophic event: “I’m sorry I couldn’t finish that: my aunt died” – to a matter of trust. “Whenever you hear someone saying ‘Trust me, I know what I’m doing’ – that is usually the last thing you should do.” Her book began with an idea: “How to create inner strength and mental resilience. How to become powerful when we feel powerless. How to protect ourselves mentally and physically. How to harness fear and prevent panic.”

And this is a girl who, as a teenager arriving back at home with her mother, saw there was an intruder inside their house and set off after him. The intruder didn’t stand a chance.

Many readers of this book might feel it is aimed towards a U.S. audience rather than a British one. In America, being quite literally bulletproof might seem sensible; less so in the UK, surely. Do we really need to know how to plan an exit from a restaurant in the event of an attack? (Make sure you know where another entrance is, sit with your back to the wall, and be willing to go against the herd if there’s a rush to the doors: that’s what to do).

Then you remember the recent terrorist attacks on restaurants and bars at London Bridge. So maybe we aren’t so immune after all.

And the lessons are universal: don’t let yourself be bullied – predators (whether on the streets, at work, or even in relationships) like to pick on someone they think they can beat. So make sure they won’t. The predators are usually the ones full of self-doubt and fear.

When we’re out in the world, she advises us, “Present yourself with an air of vigilance and assurance. Walk with your shoulders back and head up. Don’t be afraid to make eye contact with people. And if something doesn’t feel right, don’t neglect it.”

Then if all else fails, learn how to fight, with “a few moves designed to distract or injure an attacker long enough to give a person time to escape. A violent strike to the groin. A swift kick to the shin. A hard punch to the throat. Or jamming a finger in the eye. Swift, violent and fierce – using elbows and knees when possible. Move and strike and run.”

The best advice she can give, she says, is to sign up for a martial arts or boxing class. As I mentioned, she’s not a woman to mess with.

Don’t worry about fear, she says. Fear is a healthy and natural response to a perceived threat. It’s panic that is the danger: panic causes us to lose control of our faculties. “When we panic, we can’t think, reason, process or plan.”

Some fears are natural. “The fear of falling is hard-wired into us from birth; loud noises we equate with danger . . . that’s why we jump when a car backfires.”

Most other fears are learned: in the U.S. more than half of all teenagers were concerned that a shooting would happen at their school.

 

THIS is despite the fact that, remarkably, even in America, the chance of a student being killed by a shooter is about one in 614 million – less likely than the chances of being struck by lightning (one in 1.2 million).

In the same way, people are afraid of flying, though the chances of dying in a plane crash are one in 5.4 million. The chances of dying in a road accident in the U.S. are just over one in 102, but nobody thinks twice about driving to the airport for their flight.

So work out what you are afraid of and deal with it. Above all be aware of the 3Fs of fear – Fight, Flight or Freeze.

This is the body’s physiological response to an unexpected situation. It’s you – but a heightened version of you, more aware and alert.

Ms Poumpouras’s go-to response is, she cheerfully admits, to fight; to run towards danger rather than away.

One of the incidental pleasures of this book is that like all good Greeks, Ms Poumpouras is immensely proud of her heritage.

“Of course I was groomed from birth to believe that everything in the world originated from Greece,” she says, only partly tongue in cheek – and decorates each chapter with a punchy homily from one of her ancestral homeland’s ancient big shots.

Typical is this from Plato: “Courage is knowing what not to fear.” But whether it is advice from ancient philosophers or a modern Secret Service woman, there’s plenty in this book to stiffen the sinews in what I am afraid is becoming an over-fearful and risk-averse world.

– Becoming Bulletproof by Evy Poumpouras is published by Icon, 336pp

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Books, Business, Marketing

Book Review: (Business) The Catalyst

LITERARY REVIEW

Berger

The Catalyst concerns the art of persuasion

JONAH BERGER is a marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania. His book is about changing people’s minds and he has advised large companies such as Apple and Nike. His approach is one of deftness and subtlety, one in which he doesn’t shout at anyone or by stamping on their toes.

The Catalyst is jam-packed with good ideas with very believable stories. It is perhaps written for those businessmen and women who often attend important business meetings.

When we try to change people’s minds – and we’re talking about everything here: politics, advertising, social attitudes, even the peanut butter you buy – we tend to think in terms of pushing and coercing. But as Berger demonstrates, people just hate being told what to do. “Tell them to vote one way and they’ll probably vote another way just to spite you.”

Berger recommends what he refers to as “reducing roadblocks”. Identify the obstacles and eliminate them.

The first of these he calls “reactance”. This is the anti-persuasion system that kicks in when we think someone is trying to talk us into something. “Encouraging people to persuade themselves”, says Berger. He tells an excellent story about a public health official in Florida who encouraged teenagers to give up smoking by getting the teens themselves to ask the awkward questions.

In one TV ad, they had a couple of teens ring up a magazine executive to ask him why he accepted tobacco advertising. The executive said he supported anti-tobacco ads, but when the teens asked him if he’d run the ads as a public service, he said no: “We’re in this business to make money.” The teens said, “Is this about people or about money?” The executive said, “publishing is about money,” and curtly hung up.

The TV ad worked. Within months, 30,000 teenagers in the state had stopped smoking. It was the most effective prevention programme ever, and it changed teen anti-smoking campaigns the world over.

Berger’s second obstacle is our attachment to the status quo. We like what we already have, and to make any change at all, the improvement must be worth all the fuss of doing it. Say your phone needs updating but you’re fond of your old one, even though it’s falling apart. The salesman’s job here is to highlight that simply not doing anything has costs you might not have spotted, and that change isn’t as hard as it looks.

Berger observes that if you have a product or service that is terrible, you’ll replace it instantly. But if it’s merely mediocre, you might stick with it because changing it is just too much bother.

Berger tells a rather fascinating and brilliant story about Dominic Cummings when he was heading up the Vote Leave (Brexit) campaign. He needed a campaign slogan, and initially he came up with “Take Control”. Which was all right, but he knew that referenda usually fail because people are happy with the status quo. He had to make it seem that leaving was the status quo, not remaining. Which he did by inserting the word “back”: “Take Back Control”. Berger says: “It made it seem like something had been lost, and that leaving the EU was a way to regain that.”

Next up is “Distance”, which I think should be interpreted as how far some people might be from the viewpoint you’d like them to have.

Say that the person you’re speaking to is a Trump supporter and climate change denier, and you want to convince him that transgender rights are a good idea. That’s distance, all right. Berger recommends taking small steps rather than large ones. Ask them to move a little way towards your goal, then ask them to move a bit further.

Berger’s book is full of goodness, but sometimes he’s so opaque you begin to wonder whether English is actually his first language. But that may just be because it’s written for people who use words like “reactance” in everyday conversation.

 – The Catalyst by Jonah Berger is published by Simon & Schuster, 288pp

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Arts, Books

Book Review: Daughter of The Reich

LITERARY REVIEW

Daughter of The Reich

HETTY HEINRICH is the dutiful daughter of a high-ranking Nazi officer. Keen to play her part in what is dubbed as the glorious New Reich, she never imagines that her worldly beliefs and perceptions of the world will come into stark conflict when she encounters Walter, a friend from the past, who stirs dangerous feelings in her. Confused, Hetty doesn’t know who she can trust and to whom she may turn for help. This confusion is exasperated when she discovers that someone has been watching her.

Realising she is taking a huge risk – but unable to resist the intense attraction of Walter – she embarks on a secret love affair with him. They dream about when the war will be over and plan for their future. But, as the rising tide of anti-Semitism threatens to engulf them, Hetty and Walter will be forced to take extreme measures.

Daughter of the Reich is a mesmerising page-turner filled with vivid characters and a meticulously researched portrait of Nazi Germany. Inspired by the author’s own family history it is a propulsive and deeply affecting narrative. A riveting story of passion, courage and morality, Louise Fein introduces a bold young woman determined to tread the treacherous path of survival and freedom. Fein shows readers the strength in the power of love and reminds us that the past must never be forgotten.

 

LIKE all novels and historical accounts from this unsettling period in history the reader is likely to ask just how Hitler was able to lure the masses in following his extreme ideology.

After World War I, the Treaty of Versailles – the most important of the peace treaties which brought WW1 to an end – forced Germany to pay war reparations. These had a crushing effect on the economy and were seen by many Germans as being humiliating. Hitler, deemed by many as a mesmerising public orator, blamed all the ills of society on Jews and communist minorities, claiming they were trying to take over the world. With worldwide economic depression and high unemployment, he directly blamed the ineffectiveness of democratic government. Calling for a New Order, he promised the restoration of prosperity for all with no class divisions.

The bulk of the narrative is set within the two years preceding World War II, giving the reader a glimpse into how human beings caught in a dire situation can be manipulated and pushed into committing evil acts and atrocities.

Set in Leipzig the story begins with what life was like during the period between 1933-37. Hetty’s family had just moved to a new big house, where the previous occupants had left furniture and artwork. Hetty hadn’t yet turned twelve years of age, her father is a high-ranking SS officer, and she fails to properly understand what is happening. She becomes aware, though, that family attendance in church, for instance, is no longer permitted because of Himmler’s decree against it. And her dreams of being a doctor are no longer permissible because all women have been instructed to learn obedience and are required to concentrate on homely things. Yet, Hitler had promised “a brilliant future with no more poverty, no more class divisions. Just one, great, unified nation which will be the envy of all the world.”

For those who refuse to cooperate soon find they will lose their job, with the state declaring them unemployable with no prospect of any kind of future work. There are others who are charged with false crimes being convicted of things they didn’t do.

Within schools, debates about the population formed a central part of the curriculum. “A population of the best: the fittest, bravest, most beautiful, cleverest, and robust. The epitome of Darwin’s Theory. A people who will be superior in every way and who must spread their influence throughout the world.”

“A newspaper… is a powerful weapon. It is our duty to shape the opinion of the masses and ensure the Fatherland’s values and best interests are always in the forefront of people’s minds.”

At the age of sixteen, Hetty still struggled to make sense of it all. She falls for her brother’s best friend, Walter, a Jewish friend, who paints a touching picture for her what it means to be German. He tells her how Jews are being cornered and ill-treated and being left without provision for livelihood. He directly challenges her values and beliefs and encourages her to be whatever she wants to be. He tells her of other countries where she can study medicine as a woman and that her position in society should not be through the direction of a tyrannical system. Hetty’s struggles and states of confusion start to dissipate as she slowly starts to realise that there is another side to the world that has surrounded and enclosed her.

The story accurately depicts a distraction of lives, of hypocrisy and deception feeding lies and mistrust. This feeds hatred that pushes others to engage and commit in deplorable acts with a momentum that seems impossible to stop.

Fein invokes a heart-breaking story that is engagingly written with a very poignant message:

“How could a people, a deeply civilised, democratic nation, become so unbelievably cruel; to dehumanise one another, and commit (the most appalling) atrocities on such an unimaginable scale?”

– Daughter of the Reich by Louise Fein is published by Harper Collins

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