Pebbles on the Stone

In his autobiography The Unabashed Accompanist, Gerald Moore, one the century's greatest pianist accompanists, details an episode where his performance was reviewed by an unappreciative, musical ignoramus. No doubt Mr. Moore's reviewer had been tossed off the sports column for some infraction and perhaps given a choice between an assignment at the County Fair and Symphony Hall. Wishing to spare himself a long walk around the fair and the stench of swine, he opted for the concert. Was he listening to the music, or secretly tuning in the baseball game on his earphone? We will never know, but his review could have been written at the hotdog-eating contest, for all the relevance it had to that night's chamber music.

With that incident in mind, it is with some trepidation that this reviewer sets forth his opinion about Pebbles on the Stone. After all, Dr. Kaufman's literary abilities have earned him no less than the BBC prize for Best European Radio Play. Nevertheless, in the spirit of Amazon's literary democracy, this writer permits himself the liberty of adding his two cents.

It is fascinating how some individuals such as Goethe, da Vinci, Churchill, and Tarkenton for example, were able to develop and achieve success in a variety of disparate fields. (OK, one has to admit that Tarkenton is not in the same league.) The author of Pebbles on the Stone, too, although obviously not at the same level of notoriety, excelled as a teacher of German literature, as a violinist, and as a writer of novels, plays and libretti. In Pebbles on the Stone, one can see the writer's immense knowledge of music and literature working both behind the scenes in subtle nuances of characterization and in the great number of fascinating quotations Dr. Kaufman carefully disperses throughout the novel. Readers with firsthand experience of the orchestral or opera world will recognize some of its more notable types, such as the avant garde stage director: "Mitchell was an intense man in his early forties, thin, already quite bald with long strands of hair reaching down to his shoulders. His appearance was that of an aging 1960's hippie. His standard attire was the combination of a bulky old sweater and a pair of faded, thin jeans.... He was highly intelligent and verbal, with a keen eye for the dramatic picture on stage. He was certainly one of the most gifted contemporary directors. From New York to San Francisco, opera fans were still talking about his shocker of last season, a wild 'reinterpretation' of one of the most sacred operas in the reparatory.... [Mitchell] insisted, as he was explaining to his new cast in Antwerp this morning, on the right - no, the duty - of every artist to inject his personal vision, that is, interpretation, into the work of art.... We are not here to shock the public, to create a scandal, even though this may be a by-product of a reinterpretation, but rather to make the audience see the traditional work as a having 'multi-level possibilities.'"

Indeed, one of the strongest aspects of Pebbles is Dr. Kaufman's ability to give the reader a strong image of each character within a few paragraphs. Whether it is a Russian agent, an American cop, or a German mother, the individual is so well described that the reader has the feeling if that character from the book would walk into the house now, he would recognize him.

(Although I highly doubt that anyone reading this review would care or take offense, as a religiously conservative person this reviewer must, as a matter of principle, make a formal protest against the inclusion of "romantic" sections in Pebbles on the Stone.)

Another aspect of the book that was very strong was the original and unexpected twists and turns of the plot. Spy stories can be all too similar in plot, but Dr. Kaufman avoids this trap. Neverthless, this writer's favorite sections were those which dealt exclusively with the world of opera and music. Those parts were really readable, real and fun! (This is an Amazon review, not the Times, so one is permitted to use the word "fun.") For anyone with an appreciation of music, opera and spy plots, this reviewer highly recommends Pebbles on the Stone.

The only suggestion this reviewer has is that Dr. Kaufman should add yet another contribution to the world of music - that of a music critic!

This is an exciting and unusual spy story with lots of human interest, and an authentic background in the world of music.The passages about the opera and the different conductors' styles are fascinating. Definitely a good read!

Critics of the federal government--especially conservative critics--are fond of saying that government agencies are almost never abolished. "No matter how ineffective they are, they just go on forever," is the oft-heard complaint.

In 1974, Herbert Kaufman tried to find out whether government agencies do go on forever. The result, ARE GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONS IMMORTAL?, has to be the most interesting volume ever to come out of the Brookings Institution and the best 79-page book ever published.

Briefly, Kaufman compared the number of federal "organizations" (a larger group than bonafide "agencies") in existence in 1923 with the federal organizations of 1973. This was more difficult than it sounds, as Kaufman had to account for agency-mergers, name-changes, and changes in mission, but eventually he came up with some reasonable rules for what constituted the "same" agency over the span of half a century. He also supplemented his two agency censuses with data from various government reports to determine agency founding dates. All in all, the only real flaws in the study were that Kaufman eliminated the "independent commissions" as well as everything in the Department of Defense. He also failed to incorporate the agencies that were both created and abolished in the years _between_ 1923 and 1973, which may have skewed the results somewhat.

What Kaufman found was that federal agencies are indeed "immortal" for the most part, and that the number of agencies keeps on increasing like so many layers of sedimentary rock. The agency head-count went from 11 in 1789 to 123 in 1923 to 394 in 1973. Between 1923 and 1973, only 27 agencies were abolished. This gives government agencies an 85 percent survival rate over 50 years. Equally important, Kaufman found that the longer an agency was in existence, the better chance it had to survive. In other words, the federal offices created under Washington, Adams, and Jefferson had a better chance of still being around than the ones created under Eisenhower and Kennedy.

If there is any surprise here, it is in what Kaufman calls the "death-rate." F.D.R. and Truman presided over an expanding federal government, but during their administrations 12 agencies were abolished--a very high figure for a 20-year period. And no agencies disappeared between 1957 and 1973, making these years quite unusual.

At the end of the book, Kaufman discusses how the agency death-rate might be increased. Among other proposals, he deals with "sunset legislation," at that time a fad idea for getting rid of institutions that had outlived their usefulness or never been any good to begin with. Under the simplest version of sunsetting, first proposed by William O. Douglas, every government agency would have an expiration date; at that time, if Congress didn't specifically vote to keep the agency alive, it would be abolished. But Kaufman was if anything more skeptical of the sunset idea than he ought to have been. Since this book was published, some form of sunset review has become routine--though perhaps more at the state level than at the federal and local levels. What the long-run effects will be are uncertain, of course.

We need more books like this--at the very least a follow-up study to cover the last 25 years of administrative history. In a footnote on page 77, Kaufman laments that we have so little information, and he says we need more. "The journey," he writes, "has barely begun." Alas, 25 years later, it has still barely begun, even after Kaufman's brilliant start.

"The Cornea" represents a mainstone in the literature on this topic. Any ophthalmologist, scholar, student or eye banker who wants to understand the basics of cornea's anatomy, physiology and disease must read this book.

First published in 1960, The Forest Ranger is an impressive study of the United States Forest Service. In the book, Kaufman (1960/1967) case studies the behavior of district rangers in the Forest Service and endeavors for an answer to the question of how policies formulated by policy executives are realized into integrated action by a service whose field personnel operate under varied conditions. "Even in agencies with simple, routine responsibilities, welding the behavior of field personnel into integral patterns is often a trying experience" (p. 25). In an agency which is as much dispersed and heterogeneous as the Forest Service, is it possible to secure an integrated and coherent policy implementation across a great number of the districts? If you believe it is impossible, I strongly recommend you to have a look at The Forest Ranger by Herbert Kaufman.

The readers who are familiar with Herbert Simon should remember his masterpiece "Administrative Behavior" in which the author at "theoretical level" demonstrated what takes for the leaders of administrative agencies to direct, manage, and run largely staffed and complex organizations. Simon (1947/1997) spent his intellectual energy for an inquiry into the decision-making process, and knitted his theory around it by developing an impressive understanding that helped the readers to sense that "integrated policy action" depends on the degree that the leaders can control the "environment" of decision-making so that every individual employee in the organization adjusts his/her decisions to common objectives fashioned by policy makers. Organization design, implicitly, stood out as prerequisite for integrated policy action, with "organization design" serving to bring decision premises and necessary data to the attention and use of decision-makers. Herbert Kaufman (1960/1967), in The Forest Ranger, demonstrates vividly how once a "theory" becomes a reality in the case of the United States Forest Service.

I would not want to summarize the case study with the fear that I am likely to discolor a vivid masterpiece. Suffice to say that at present times in which orthodox public administration theory is being transformed by a new body of knowledge and skills, this case study should present (sometimes poignantly) the assumptions, ideals, weaknesses and strengths of orthodox public administration in its "golden age" that has reached a final stage in our contemporary times.

This classic book is organized into seven major chapters. The first chapter gives a summary of research design, data collection and analysis procedures, and the plan of the book. The second chapter makes the reader familiar with the size and complexity of the Forest Service with accompanying challenges to integrated policy action. The third chapter elucidates the challenges to unity that emanate from internal communication problems, the potential for field officers to be captured by local populations, personal preferences of field officers, and the like. In the fourth chapter, Kaufman (1960/1967) gives detail to the procedural devices used by the service leaders in order to "preform" decisions of individual employees (controlling the environment of decision). The fifth chapter shows how the Forest Service executives detect and discourage deviation from official policies. The sixth chapter explains the means by which the Forest Service leaders develop will and capacity in their employees to conform with the policy expectations. The seventh chapter is a conclusion with final remarks on the success level of policies in the Forest Service and ethical-moral implications.

If you are not comfortable with abstract theoretical constructs and need more concrete examples, skip The Functions of the Executive by Chester Barnard (1938/1968), Administrative Behavior by Herbert Simon (1947/1997), Organizations in Action by James Thompson (1967) or Leadership in Administration by Philip Selznick (1957/1984), and read Herbert Kaufman. Once you read The Forest Ranger can you return to these masterpieces and I believe you are more likely then to digest their theories and understandings.

If you are not very interested in public administration theory, The Forest Ranger is worth reading even due to its excellence as a case study that would help the readers in designing their own case studies for research purposes.

Overall, I highly recommend this classic to the readers.

A Testament to Grace is, at best, a misguided experiment in alternative fiction. This novel was probably intended as a disturbing character study, or possibly a jaundiced view of modern relationships. Unfortunately for the reader, Kaufman fails to suspend disbelief, and "Grace" emerges as a tedious, often ridiculous testament to self-indulgence. The novel is the diary of Nicholas, an "attractive, sadistic, arrogant male." Nicholas has a poor command of his native language despite being a university lecturer; he writes in an awkwardly formal manner that is wearying to read. Nicholas' diary entries center around his unhappy marriage and his many affairs. He and his wife are abusive and amoral, though hardly intelligent or creative enough to qualify as true sociopaths. The text is riddled with errors and cliches abound "like a plague." A good editor might have rendered this too-long novel almost readable, though what "Grace" really needed was a skilled writer. Excerpt: "I am quite sure that man's life never re-reached such a pinnacle. From then on, the rest must have been all memory and bitterness. I know what you are thinking. That there are myriad joys equal to or greater in this world, more joys than stars or rain, but I feel sure, inexplicably sure, that he has never found even one. Joy can burn and cripple. Especially when it is not yours to control. It can destroy its own capacity, like overfilling a sack until it bursts. But do not worry, dear one. I will not be punished by my own medicine. I have tasted so much that I am both hungry and full. I have choice. I fear you will learn this. I admit it, I fear a lot of things today, but I have strength to mix that fear. It is an old recipe for courage and has always served me well, quite well."

A Testament To Grace is an edgy, unrelentingly dark novel about a couple engaged in manipulating, controlling, deceiving and abusing each other and everyone around them. Structurally reminiscent of Nabokov's Lolita, the author presents the book as a "found" first-person manuscript written in a narrative voice akin to a misogynistic, sadomasochistic, egocentric Henry Miller. The sex and bondage scenes are more about power and control than titillation, each plot twist travels further down a road filled with unexpected and surprising deviousness, and the book is merciless in its quest to be emotionally violent, unsettling and disturbing. Not for the faint of heart, but if your tastes run toward underground, fetish, or alternative fiction then this might be the book for you.

This book was such a ride...at first I didn't really jive with the evil nature of the characters but, I found myself engrossed nonetheless. The end was shocking and I liked it very much. I was sorry to see it end with so many questions unanswered - this is the kind of book I'd like to have a sequel to. I've heard the author is working on a new book and I look forward to reading it when it comes out. Kaufman is obviously a writer with much talent and it only remains to be seen what he will apply himself to next, I'm sure it will be another interesting ride.