Here is an eye-opening, wide-ranging interview with the polymath Admiral James Stavridis by my friend Marcia Desanctis. A fascinating read, in which he extolls the virtues of Julia Child and “My Life in France,” among other books. He’s an extraordinary guy, and Marcia asks great questions. Have a look:
\n===
\nThe Admiral in the Library: The Millions Interviews James Stavridis
\nTHE MILLIONS INTERVIEW
\nApril 29, 2015
\nI recently attended a talk in Boston given by Adm. James Stavridis, the dean of the Fletcher School \u2014 Tufts University\u2019s graduate school of Law and Diplomacy \u2014 his alma mater (and mine). The subject was global security, and during the course of his very sobering talk, he gave a fascinating sidebar on the importance of reading novels \u2014 of stories. Among the books he mentioned were The Orphan Master\u2019s Son, The Circle, Matterhorn, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, and Station Eleven.
\n===
\nStavridis has had an illustrious, globe-spanning career in the U.S. Military including three years leading U.S. Southern Command and four years (2009-2013) as the Supreme Allied Commander of NATO. When we met before dinner, we quickly launched into a rapid-fire chat about books we had recently read. It seemed to me, he had read everything. Through military ventures in Haiti, Bosnia, the Persian Gulf, and Libya (among other operations Stavridis\u2019s commanded was the 2011 NATO intervention that led to the downfall of the Muammar Gaddafi regime) on aircraft carriers and battleships, while serving at the Pentagon and on Navy destroyers, one thing has been consistent: his love of reading, and his need for books to help make sense of this increasingly complicated world. His exuberance for the written word inspired me to return to Boston and finish our conversation.
\n===
\nMarcia DeSanctis: When I met you last month, you told me you had just put down My Life in France and it had you in tears. That surprised me.
\nJames Stavridis: Why?
\nMD: I suppose because you\u2019re a four-star admiral.
\nJS: Well, even four-star admirals read quirky books and this is an incredibly quirky, wonderful book about discovering yourself and discovering your life. Julia Child comes to France, kind of searched around for what to do with her life, essentially. Newly married and falls in love not only with her husband but with France and with its cuisine and with its culture. The voice in the book is so authentic and so beautiful, so wonderfully rendered. And the part that really had me in tears \u2014 because everything I said to you is actually quite joyous and upbeat \u2014 is the end of the book where she recognizes that, as she hits her 80s, she cannot continue to go independently to the small home in the south of France where she had centered so much of her life. And you can feel her untethering from something that has meant everything to her.
\nMD: You also mentioned you like books about chefs.
\nJS: Oh, I love books about chefs. Who doesn\u2019t? I love, particularly, chef memoirs. Anthony Bourdain is just fantastic, Kitchen Confidential. Or The Devil in the Kitchen (Marco Pierre White) is just fabulous.
\nMD: So the reason I asked to interview you was because I recently attended a lecture you gave in Boston, which was a frank assessment of the crises that are facing our planet now and the people on it. You covered it all \u2014 climate change, ISIS, epidemics, poverty, inequality, cyber risks. And then you posted a slide about novels. Can you tell me why you inserted a slide about novels and why you chose the ones that you did?
\nJS: Well, first of all, because reading is integral to my life. And I think, in the end, we solve global problems not by launching missiles, it\u2019s by launching ideas. So as a tool for understanding the world and for understanding how you can change the world, I find fiction incredibly important. One that I put up pretty frequently is The Orphan Master\u2019s Son by Adam Johnson, which is a superb book about North Korea. And North Korea\u2019s an almost impenetrable country …
\n==
\nNow this is an Admiral I can salute!
\nFor the rest of this fascinating interview, please go to:<\/p>\n
The Admiral in the Library: The Millions Interviews James Stavridis<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n