Into Thin Air : A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster
by JON KRAKAUER
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Paperback (19 October, 1999)
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Editorial Review

Into Thin Air is a riveting first-hand account of a catastrophic expedition up Mount Everest. In March 1996, Outside magazine sent veteran journalist and seasoned climber Jon Krakauer on an expedition led by celebrated Everest guide Rob Hall. Despite the expertise of Hall and the other leaders, by the end of summit day eight people were dead. Krakauer's book is at once the story of the ill-fated adventure and an analysis of the factors leading up to its tragic end. Written within months of the events it chronicles, Into Thin Air clearly evokes the majestic Everest landscape. As the journey up the mountain progresses, Krakauer puts it in context by recalling the triumphs and perils of other Everest trips throughout history. The author's own anguish over what happened on the mountain is palpable as he leads readers to ponder timeless questions. ... Read more

Reviews (1314)

Que libro!
5 stars is short for this book, after reading It makes you feel quite dizzy, about how death can close so fast up there on a mountain, all of a sudden.

Nothing that an outsider expectator may say can change or diminish what is related here, about what happened on the spring of 96 at the top of World.

But I want to leave two messages, first for Beck Weathers, if you ever read this lines, I really would be proud for that, you define the term for endurance and principles.In my opinion Americans like you founded your country, and might stay at the TOP of United States too!!, I hope some day I could give you a hug personally, I never seen a survivor treated that bad!!... Sorry.

The other message is for Jon Krakauer, as an Ecuadorian Climber, and as a human I must say, forget that guilty feeling, after what you survived up there, you must thank God that you are still alive! just to remind you this: you did a great job up there and writing this unvaluable book.Astounding research, and a survivor hug too!

And for both of you, if you ever came to Ecuador give me a call with pleasure I can show you part of my amazing country.

Congratulations

Francisco

What a book, translated to spanish = Que libro!

Read 'The Climb' by Weston DeWalt Instead
Reading 'The Climb', you will come to understand that Krakauer is another overpaid Westerner, full of hubris. He slept in his tent after his return from the summit of Everest, knowing that others from his team were in peril.Alone, Anatoli Boukreev attempted a rescue.

Riveting - But Tread Cautiously Through It
This account ignited a long distilled passion for the mountains, and renewed interest in the Outdoors.Krakauer (the name itself conjures up courage and strength)writes with immediacy and more important, from firsthand experience.He's a hardcore adventurer, he's lived it, and is one of those rare, original people able to express what is often inexplicable.This book was easy to read in one or two sittings, and tremendously compelling (leading me to read Into The Wild and other books related to the 1996 Everest incidents).

I was also one of those chagrined to discover, after having loved and being incredibly excited by this book, that for all its accuracy, there are some areas that should not be read without circumspection.Although the book mostly avoids The Blame Game, it lapses into this once focus moves to the Head Climber of Mountain Madness, the heroic but inarticulate Boukreev.Krakauer's facts are interspersed with some opinions, and a few of these opinions, especially those of Boukreev (who died in 1997, in an avalanche on Annapurna 1, instead of remaining in America to receive one of the highest awards for mountaineering bravery) - some of these opinions are distasteful.

While I am merely a reader, and I respect and admire the talents of these men in the mountains a great deal, I do wonder what prompted Krakauer to pursue his character assissination of Boukreev.Krakauer has dogged determination in his writing as much as he does in his climbing, but also a stubbornness, and in writing Into Thin Air (which he did incredibly quickly after the fact) seems to strive to be seen as the one and only leading authority, acknowledging that it is not perfect, but nevertheless the complete'the best'and total story of that 1996 climb.This is unfortunate, because Krakauer himself was on the mountain, and his own perceptions were not 100%.He does succeed in communicating his experience with profundity.He fails though, in a few of his many interpretations, including of some of his own mishaps, and thus, has opened the door to a raging debate on 'what really happened', including, for example, what happened to Andy Harris, his encounter on the Kangshung Face, and important conversations he was not privy to close to the summit.

His 'Postscript' response to The Climb goes to great lengths, and like the rest of the book, turns out to be well worded, but does not hide what eventually are borne out to be a few inaccuracies (inadequacies?).His experience on Everest is not his best mountaineering experience (he was at one point assisted by 2 guides), and Boukreev fared far far better.Actions, should at the end of such events, speak louder than Krakauer's (or anyone else's) words, and Boukreev's actions do. Krakauer's behaviour on that day was quite limited by comparison.

Krakauer needs to be more gracious to a man who helped insure the safety of every one of the members on his team (all but the leader survived,) with no permanent damage, while 4 members of Krakauer's team died, and at least one survivor had severe and permanent damage.The idea should not be to blame people in mountains, when things go wrong, but to recognise the right things that happen that save lives.

Krakauer's own account of his meeting with Beck Weathers also differs from Weather's own version.Krakauer actually resisted Weather's desperate plea for assistance, although Krakauer paints a more gracious picture of himself in his story.The point though, is not to point fingers, and Boukreev puts it perfectly when he says 'each is responsible for his own ambition' on the mountain.Thus, others should not be blamed when things go wrong, but hopefully, will have the wherwithal to respond in these extreme circumstances.The reality in the Death Zone is one person who breaks down, slows down, and needs assistance causes a domino effect, it leads to an exponential increase in the risks to the lives of others, as valuable resources of energy and oxygen and time get used up.

We live inworld of soundbites, of show, and of course the 1996 Incident has been written about, and made into a television show.

Into Thin Air powerfully communicates the meaning and drama of that high world.It's most important defects though, are notrecognising the astonishing courage of a man who stood up through the storm that day while it seemed everyone else, including the sherpas, whimpered in their tents.Few understand what happened, and Into Thin Air sadly perpetuatesthat mystification as far as it communicates Broukeev's role.Read The Climb after Into Thin Air, for more perspective.It's equally engrossing, well written, but a far more genuine account. ... Read more

Isbn: 0385494785
Subjects:  1. Accidents    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Essays & Travelogues    4. Everest, Mount (China and Nepal)    5. Mountaineering    6. Mountaineering accidents    7. Mountaineering expeditions    8. Specific Groups - General    9. Sports    10. Sports & Recreation    11. Sports - General    12. Sports & Recreation / Mountaineering   

Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
by Alfred Lansing
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (01 March, 1999)
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In the summer of 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton set off aboard theEndurance bound for the South Atlantic. The goal of hisexpedition was to cross the Antarctic overland, but more than a yearlater, and still half a continent away from the intended base, theEndurance was trapped in ice and eventually was crushed. Forfive months Shackleton and his crew survived on drifting ice packs inone of the most savage regions of the world before they were finallyable to set sail again in one of the ship's lifeboats. Alfred Lansing'sEndurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage is a white-knuckleaccount of this astounding odyssey.

Through the diaries of teammembers and interviews with survivors, Lansing reconstructs the monthsof terror and hardship the Endurance crew suffered. In Octoberof 1915, there "were no helicopters, no Weasels, no Sno-Cats, nosuitable planes. Thus their plight was naked and terrifying in itssimplicity. If they were to get out--they had to get themselvesout." How Shackleton did indeed get them out without the loss of asingle life is at the heart of Lansing's magnificent true-lifeadventure tale. ... Read more

Reviews (349)

"Man proposes [God disposes]" ---diary entry
Endurance by Alfred Lansing was first published in 1959.The copy I have is a 26th printing which indicates how popular this book has been.It is an adventure story that is entirely historical.It covers the 1914/15 attempt of explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton and his crew of 27 to be the first to cross the Antarctic continent overland west to east.This goal was interrupted for good when their ship, the Endurance, became trapped in ice in the Weddell Sea.The call for adventure soon became a constant struggle for survival that lasted ten months.The crew set up camp on various ice floes only to be forced to move when the dreaded cracks appeared.Their progress towards land is controlled by the direction and force of the gales.Conditions change almost daily in the chaotic and brutal Antarctic climate.When the ice floes were no longer an option, the crew set out in three small boats taken on the voyage hoping to find land.Once land was found, the crew split up as six members took one of the small boats into the dreaded Drake Passage in the hopes of finding help.Both groups were in danger of not surviving the unforgiving environment.

Lansing bases his work on interviews with survivors and the waterlogged diaries several of them kept.He is thus able to provide the reader with details of the crew's day-to-day life.Everything from the personalities of various members to their diets, clothing, attempts at building shelters, etc. are described.I do not have knowledge of seafaring vocabulary or conditions, but Lansing is able to describe such things as the pressure caused by broken floes of ice (p.47) in a clear manner.As an historical event, this story needs no poetic license.It is one of the most suspenseful history books I have read.Just when things looked good for the crew, the tide turned and vice versa. After reading what all these 28 men went through, the ending, although surprisingly brief, was very moving.

The only part of the book that disappointed me was the ending.I wanted to know what happened to some of the main characters after their ordeal.The epilogue just covers the attempt to rescue the 22 members left on Elephant Island and goes no further.It seemed unfair to leave the story like that.Despite this shortcoming, I definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in historical adventure.It is one of the best books of that ilk one will read.One interesting note: Shackleton's goal was not achieved until 1958, 40 years after Shackleton set out on the Endurance and a year before this book was first published.It is 282 pages and includes a short section of b&w photos and illustrations.

A triumph in adventure storytelling
This is one of the most fascinating adventure stories I've ever read.

Expeditions to Antarctica in the 20th century did not always turn out well.And this is one of many that did not achieve its objectives.The idea was to cross the Antarctic continent.And I do recommend the book by Vivian Fuchs and Edmund Hillary on the first successful crossing of Antarctica, which was completed only in 1958.

This book is about the 1914-1916 Shackleton expedition, which attempted to start by reaching Vahsel Bay in Antarctica using a strong 144-foot, 350 horsepower wooden ship named the Endurance.

But the Endurance never quite reached Vahsel Bay.Instead, it became stuck in the ice near the Antarctic coast and eventually had to be abandoned.That left the crew having to find a way to reach land, survive on that land, and find a way to send for help so that it could be rescued. Even for a crew that had been prepared for being in cold weather and difficult circumstances, this turned out to be tricky.It makes one amazed at how able people are to survive in extreme environments.And, of course, this book is a testament to the leadership of Ernest Shackleton.

Not only is the book very well-written and suspenseful, it also includes some terrific photos about the expedition.It's a great work of non-fiction, and I highly recommend it.

The greatest human leader of men
Shackleton failed to reach the South Pole in 1902 and stopped 460 miles from the Pole; six years later Shackleton turned back 97 miles from the Pole after realizing it would be certain death by starvation if he continued.King Edward VII recognized as a hero Shackleton and knighted him.

1914-1916 Endurance expediation lead Shackleton and his men 1200 miles from civilization and in one of the worst situations possible.Pack ice had trapped, dragged the ship for ten months, and eventually crushed the ship.The men had to rely on life boats salvaged from the ship.The men endure temperature far below zero, four months of darkness, survived on a diet of penguin, seal, and sometimes dog.Once the ice began to melt the men moved to the life boats and spent week fighting for their lives before hitting land, Elphant Island and at Elephant Island the men spent most of their time huddle under overturn boats. The men suffered extreme boredom, starvation, extreme discomfort, and lost of hope.Shackleton offer his men hope.Shackleton was charming both a poet and adventure.His men never doubt Shackleton's discipline and Shackleton'sbrotherhood with his men help overcome intense boredom as they sang songs, played games, and wrote of their experiences.

Shackleton decided to take five men and sailed 800 miles in the most sever weather and oceanic conditions to South Georgia and return and rescue his men.The interesting fact about the journey was Shackleton planned to succeed by sailing to South Georgia using Star navigation, and if, the navigation was any degree imprecise their deaths were sealed.The Altantic has some of the harshess waves, it is amazingly cold, and no modern expediation has successfully completed the Shackleton crossing to Georgia. The Altantic ocean was too much.

Upon reaching South Georgia, Shackleton realizes they are on the wrong side and proceeded to accomplish another amazing feat, the crossing over of the South Georgia Mountain, at the only time of the year possible for the crossing. The whalers were in awe of Shackelton and his partners as they walked down the mountain. They seemed invincible.Shackleton turns right around and launches a rescue mission for his trapped men on Elphant Island.Not one man was lost in the expedition and his men shout for joy in seeing their captain Shackleton approach to rescue them.

"I love the fight and when things are easy, I hate it".

British explorer Apsley Cherry-Garrard, "For a join scientific and geographical piece of organization, give me Scott; for a winter journey, give me Wilson, for a dash to the Pole and nothing else, Amundsen; and if I am in the devil of a hole and want to get out of it, give me Shackleton every time."

"By endurance we conquer".Shackleton replaced the War Hero of World War I with the exploration hero.Shackleton gave hope to the world. Men died for honour, instead of fearing death.Europe and America were invigorated with Shackleton's courage.
"He had a quick brain, and he could visualize things a head, and as far as he could he safeguarded any eventuality that was likely to occur" - Lionel Greenstreet

"His method of discipline was very fair.He did not believe in unnecessary discipline." - William Bakewell

"No matter what turns up, he is always ready to alter his plans and make fresh ones, and in the meantime laughs, jokes, and enjoys a joke with everyone, and in this way keeps everyone's spirits up" - Frank Worsley.

... Read more

Isbn: 078670621X
Subjects:  1. (1914-1917)    2. 1874-1922    3. Adventurers & Explorers    4. Antarctica    5. Biography & Autobiography    6. Biography / Autobiography    7. Biography/Autobiography    8. Endurance (Ship)    9. Historical - British    10. Historical - General    11. Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition    12. Shackleton, Ernest Henry,    13. Sir,    14. Travel    15. Journeys    16. Shackleton, Ernest Henry   

A Way in the World : A Novel
by V.S. NAIPAUL
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (24 June, 1995)
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Reviews (8)

Many Stories, Many Themes, One
This book claims to be a novel. I don't know that it is; it is more like an autobiographical essay, filled with character studies that imply more about the author than anything else. Raleigh and Miranda came to South America to conquer, and to find glory. But in Naipaul's fictional rendering, they've come to find themselves, and a certain tenderness, sentimentality, and openness pervades every word they speak. - I suspect Naipaul himself would be both pleased and angry at this development. You can clearly see his own voice, moral reckonings and conscience in their words, but it is said voice that makes these characters alive. Naipaul, in reading about Miranda and Raleigh, had to put himself in their shoes to understand who they were and their motivations truly, and in the process he found himself in their characters. -

There are other, loosely connected stories in this "novel," too. One about a Muslim who dresses up corpses before funerals; one about working in Trinidad's equivalent of the civil service; another about the development of a young novelist; yet another about the mediocrity of an immensely talented, mature novelist, and the simultaneous absurdity and purity of a black revolutionary. - All of these are, of course, connected by an autobiographical thread. -

But despite the existence of this thread, one would make a major mistake if one asked questions like "What is the narrator's persona?" or "How does the narrator change throughout the story(ies)?" - You are, after all, looking through someone else's eyes at the world. That constant looking submerges the self; makes it a mere reporter many times. -

I don't know how realistic that is (even in selflessness, the self quite literally exists). But it is part of this "novel," and it is beautiful to behold.

Intimations of compassion
It has been said (mostly by me) that the achievement of Kingsley Amis and Philip Larking was that they turned self-pity and whingeing into an art form.Almost.The contrast with V.S. Naipaul puts them in their place.His portrait of the post colonial world is black, and it is bitter, but it is made in good faith, it contains a large portion of the truth, and it is depicted with consummate artistry.Starting with his experiences as a very junior clerk in his native Trinidad, Naipaul's narrator notes "The volumes smelled of fish glue.This was what they were bound with; and I suppose the glue was made from a boiling down of fish bones and skin and offal.It was the colour of honey; it dried very hard, and every careless golden drip had the clarity of glass; but it never lost the smell of fish and rotteness."Note the first unappetizing sensation, how the three physical details in the next sentence shift our attention from the first fact, only to be recapitulated in the final word.This is a special, subtle form of writing.

The theme of the novel consists of several portraits of flawed men who lived and experienced Trinidad.There is the promising English travel writer Foster Morris, who ultimately failed to achieve his full potential.There is the radical black revolutionary Lebrun who is highly intelligent and has many acute things to say about the narrarator's writing, yet ends as an apologist for the Soviet Union and for various African tyrannies.There is a long chapter on Sir Walter Raleigh's futile attempt to find El Dorado, with a discussion of the lies and brutalities he committed in a futilte attempt to save his neck from an ungrateful English government.There is an even longer one on General Miranda, who attempted to free Latin America from the Spanish.The pictures of Raleigh and especially Miranda are damning.Miranda promises to free the slaves of Venezuela, at another time promises his English and Franco-Haitian allies he will do nothing.He has traded slaves in the past, his career has been marked with incompetence and venality, and his political program is vague and pompous.It is not suprisingly that when he arrives in Venezuela the priests will successfully rouse the common people against him as an infidel, that Venezuela will collapse into racial and class strife and that Miranda will be captured and die in a Spanish jail.Finally there is the narrator's visit to a dreary one party state, marked with corruption and violence against the East Asian minority, and where an old colleague of the narrator will be murdered by powerful officials for being too effective against bribery.There is an everpresent ugliness and bigotry.Everywhere there is violence and cruelty:the Spanish and the British in Miranda's Trinidad both butcher slave rebels who have their own violent customs.In one African country a child is butchered so that a chief can be washed in its blood.But the crushing of the chiefs by the central government is no force for progress, but merely a newer and even more unpleasant tyranny.Yet in all these pictures there is something more than condemnation.It is not quite compassion, not quite mercy, in the way that Naipaul agrees that there is something more, something worthy in their lives.It appears to be the truth.

Is it?Naipaul's portrait of Lebrun is based, very obviously, on C.L.R. James, the famous author of The Black Jacobins.Yet Lebrun is at times a dishonest apologist for the Soviet Union, while the real James was very famously a Trotskyist sympathizer.The difference is important:it would not be fair to blames American fundamentalists for the Inquisition.In the end of the Lebrun chapter Lebrun is unable to fully recognize his own memories."For the interviewer or the television producer it was enough, a text for today; not understanding that Lebrun's anguish had begun there, with the old coachman taking him far back, almost to the times of slavery, as to the good times.But perhaps, too, in extreme old age, he had become a child again, looking only for peace."This is very subtle, but it is not as magnaminous as it appears.It is less an act of justice, as an indulgence, to a character whom Naipaul has subtly manipulated for his convenience.It reminds us of the other side of Naipaul; the spiteful comments on E.M. Forster and the ungenerous attitude towards Salman Rushdie, the critic of Indira Gandhi and Evita Peron who praised the Hindu Communalist government of India during a particularly nasty bout of intercommunal rioting, the man who is admired and praised by the Anglo-American right for condemning the Third World, less for its cruelties (so often unavoidable), but for not being English.Is Naipaul really showing sympathy or is he just too infinitely graceful and subtle to reveal his full contempt?Does he fear showing spontaneity, even love, because he thinks it is only really sentimentality?Something is missing.

Good Book
This is a good and challenging novel. It is also perhaps Naipaul's most autobiographical, and brazenly so. There is no attempt on the part of the narrator (whom Naipaul uses, first to explain how the colonial baggage affects his characters [characters, incidentally, whom you've met in other Naipaul novels], and then to represent the brainchild of a number of "unwritten" stories told in "A Way in the World's" pages) to distance himself from Naipaul's own experiences in Trinidad, England, and then all over the world, as the "voice" of the former colonials. This weight of this book's message comes late, making a challenging read worthwhile. ... Read more

Isbn: 0679761667
Sales Rank: 123567
Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Fiction - General    3. Literary    4. Fiction / Literary   

Corelli's Mandolin : A Novel
by LOUIS DE BERNIERES
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (29 August, 1995)
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Editorial Review

In the early days of the Second World War, before Benito Mussolini invaded Greece, Dr. Iannis practices medicine on the island of Cephalonia, accompanied by his daughter, Pelagia, to whom he imparts much of his healing art. Even when the Italians do invade, life isn't so bad--at first anyway. The officer in command of the Italian garrison is the cultured Captain Antonio Corelli, who responds to a Nazi greeting of "Heil Hitler" with his own "Heil Puccini," and whose most precious possession is his mandolin. It isn't long before Corelli and Pelagia are involved in a heated affair--despite her engagement to a young fisherman, Mandras, who has gone off to join Greek partisans. Love is complicated enough in wartime, even when the lovers are on the same side. And for Corelli and Pelagia, it becomes increasingly difficult to negotiate the minefield of allegiances, both personal and political, as all around them atrocities mount, former friends become enemies, and the ugliness of war infects everyone it touches.

British author Louis de Bernières is well known for his forays into magical realism in such novels as The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts, Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord, and The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman. Here he keeps it to a minimum, though certainly the secondary characters with whom he populates his island--the drunken priest, the strongman, the fisherman who swims with dolphins--would be at home in any of his wildly imaginative Latin American fictions.Instead, de Bernières seems interested in dissecting the nature of history as he tells his ever-darkening tale from many different perspectives. Corelli's Mandolin works on many levels, as a love story, a war story, and a deconstruction of just what determines the facts that make it into the history books. --Alix Wilber ... Read more

Reviews (380)

Mostly a beautifully written story
This story takes place during World War II on the Greek island of Cephalonia, starting with the time before it is occupied by the Italians. The first few chapters of this novel were terrible, very confusing. After the Italians arrive, the writing gets cleaned up and it becomes a beautifully written story, The author has the ability to make all the characters appear very alive and rich in humanity, during a difficult time.

The Italian Army occupies the island first, and the Italians have a relatively easy-going relationship with the islanders. A central character is an Italian captain, Antonio Corelli, who plays the mandolin. The other main characters are a young woman, Pelagia, her father, Dr. Iannas, a local doctor who is teaching his daughter all about herbal medicines, and Pelagia's boyfriend, Mandras, a Greek partisan fighting the Germans. When the captain is injured and is treated by the doctor he meets Pelagia, and they fall for each other. This makes for a complicated situation, since the two are on opposite sides in the war and since Pelagia is engaged to the partisan, Mandras. Things get even more complicated when the Germans arrive and put an end to the easy-going relationship between the islanders and the occupiers. As well as being a profound story about human relationships, thisis also a war story, and the author shows us how people are transformed by war. I thought this story was excellent, and the author's portrayal of the characters is superb,and I definitely enjoyed reading it, apart from the confusing beginning.

Lovely, Beautiful, Enticing, Can't-put-it-down type book!
I loved this book. I'm normally a I-won't-read-a-book-unless-it's-an-old-classic person...but I'm really glad that I read it! It's beautiful. The author writes beautifully and some parts are extremely emotional. The love story is amazing and gorgeously described. I would give it 5 stars except the ending (for me) practically ruined the idea of the book in my head. (SPOILER ALERT!!!!)
I (like some others...)believe that the ending is ridiculous...the fact that someone would return to a small gossip-ridden island year after year for more than 30 years and NEVER speak to anyone or realise that the love of his live unmarried and that the child that she had was adopted is just ridiculous!!!!)

If you're into a book that you can read easily in 2-3 sittings and don't mind being forced to go to bed at 4am (because you won't want to stop)...then get it!!!

The Definition of Masterpiece
Corelli's Mandelin crosses into that magical and intangible realm known as "literature." DeBernieres' use of vocabulary is extraordinary. His descriptions of characters, setting and point of view is rich and original. The book is so full-bodied that I use it as a main text in the Core course I teach at Roger Williams University on human behavior. Here the student can find out about the complex history of Greece during WWII, get a glimpse into Metaxis, the leader of the country and his nemesis, Benito Mussolini. The chapter on "Duce" is pure genius.
DeBernieres follows the lives of approximately five individuals, three from the Greek Island of Cephallonia, Dr. Iannis and his daughter Pelagia, her boyfriend Mandras and two Italian soldiers, Carlos, a homosexual, and Captain Corelli.The book resonates with the current state of affairs for a variety of reasons, one being the use of duplicity and disinformation to sway events and thus history. DeBerniers' descriptions of war is excruciating, all too real, as the author takes the reader to the eye of the cyclone to explain how good men become transformed into amoral animals and at the same time lose their souls. This is the real horror to war, the destruction of the dignity that humans are trying to strive for. And thus the book is a caveat to all leaders to think more deeply about the full ramifications of rushing off to war.
At the end of my class, we watch John Madden's cinematic account of this extraordinary work. I disagree whole-heartedly with many of the film reviewers who minimized this film. The measure of any great movie is the audience, and I have been privileged to watch my students sit in awe as Madden takes the viewer to this complicated time and wonderful island. Madden has not only done the book justice, he has achieved his own masterpiece equivalent, in my humble opinion to perhaps the best film ever made, Casablanca. Following the book quite closely, Madden has chosen a perfect cast, and made the island of Cephallonia a cast member as well. The music does full justice to this great novel, as Madden transforms this peaceful island into the ravages of hell in a way that takes one's breath away.
Those who criticize Nicholas Cage are missing the nuance of his outstanding performance. And there are equally brilliant characterizations by John Hurt as the wise Dr. Iannis, Christian Bale as the young warrior Mandras, a man struggling to retain both his love for Pelagia and his soul as he must learn to kill to protect his island, David Morrissey in a haunting performance as the Good Nazi and Penelope Cruz in the role of a lifetime as Pelagia. Any man who doesn't fall in love with Penelope Cruz in this film has to have his head examined. This performance is up there with that of Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelley or Sofia Loren at their heights.Just as Sydney Pollack righted a problem Grisham had in the ending his book The Firm, Madden closes a gaping loophole in the climax of DeBernieres masterwork. As brilliant at DeBernieres book is, his end undoes too much, and to my mind, does not square with the premise.
Marc J. Seifer (...) ... Read more

Isbn: 067976397X
Subjects:  1. Cephalonia Island    2. Cephalonia Island (Greece)    3. Fiction    4. Fiction - Historical    5. Greece    6. Historical - General    7. History    8. Literary    9. World War, 1939-1945    10. Fiction / Literary    11. Reading Group Guide   

The Art of Scandal: The Life and Times of Isabella Stewart Gardner
by Douglass Shand-Tucci
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (01 December, 1997)
list price: $27.50 -- our price: $27.50
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Editorial Review

Henry James fictionalized her,John Singer Sargent painted her, Bernard Berenson advised her. Butart collector extraordinaire Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840-1924) was more than a rich socialite who lucked into friendships with the leading cultural figures of her day. Boston historian Douglass Shand-Tucci convincingly claims her as a pioneering multiculturalist--her famous museum in Fenway Court enshrined Asian art as well as that of the old masters--and a rebel who befriended Jews, homosexuals, and other outcasts from Victorian society. Shand-Tucci's highly colored, romantic prose aptly evokes his fiery, willful, egotistical subject. ... Read more

Reviews (18)

The Real Age of Elegance...and Scandal
When one has chance to visit Boston, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is a unique cultural institution that should not be missed.One of the nation's most eclectic and idiosyncratic private museums, it represents the personal vision of its namesake, Isabella Steward Gardner, a woman with the means and confidence to assemble an art collection of enormous breadth and exquisite quality.At the same time, her wealth and influence gave her the ability to live life on her terms, despite the steady drumbeat of ugly gossip.
Although I have a beautifully detailed volume on Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840-1924) and her museum Fenway Court, in my library, it was an "authorized" book, and as such that was left out of the story.However, it is a "warts and all" book that Douglas Shand-Tucci has written despite being in sympathy with his fascinating subject.Gardner married into wealth and she used her husband's cash to collect art - and people.Despite her marriage into the Gardner family, who were influential Boston Brahmins, she carried on scandalous affairs and surrounded herself with gay artists and aesthetes.Many of these relationships were ambiguous at the time for homosexuality had to remain far beneath the surface in the 19th century.John Singer Sargent painted Mrs. Gardner and their relationship was used as the model for Eleanor Palfrey's novel "The Lady and the Painter."
The expatraite art historian Bernard Berenson advised her on her purchases, which included Vermeer's gem-like "The Concert" and Titan's great "Rape of Europa."She collected some of Sergeant's major works including the massive "El Jaleo" and he painted a famous portrait of her, as did Whistler and the Swedish artist Anders Zorn. She seemed to collect almost everything including Asian art, which she successfully mixed with the European paintings when she built Fenway Court, her Venician palace close by Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, which was constructed at the turn-of-the-century.
Shand-Tucci's book is carefully researched and despite the fact that Gardner burned her letters, he seems to have sorted out the tangled web of relationships between the patroness and her friends, lovers and in turn, their relations with each other.This is no small accomplishment, as Garnder knew almost everyone who was anyone in America and Europe. In addition to close relationships with Sargent and Berenson, she knew George Santayana, Richard Wagner, Edith Wharton, Charles Elliot Norton, Henri Matisse, Henry Adams, Henry James and William James.
"The Art of Scandal" recreates as era of elegance, taste and affluence, of the long, languid decades before the hell of "The Great War" when the leading families of Europe and America began to intermix, and the treasures of Europe made their ways to our homes and museums.

why oh why?
when i set out to write a research paper about Isabella Stewart Gardner, i decided to read her biographies. i opted to read them in chronological order, starting with Morris Carter's published in 1925. i was having a ball learning about such an interesting woman, until i got to the Shand-Tucci biography. this book confused me so much, not only because of it's writing style, but also because of it's content. Mr. Shand-Tucci presents information completely opposite to the info in Morris Carter and Louise Hall Tharp's biographies. these differences were so extreme that i ended up writing my research paper about them. no joke. three thousand words later, and i still feel i could write more on the faults of this book.

Just a side note, i talked to a friend who works at the Gardner Museum, and they stopped selling this biography in the museum shop because its allegations against Mrs. Gardner are so farfetched. if you want to read a good biography of Isabella Stewart Gardner, i highly recommend "Mrs. Jack" by Louise Hall Tharp.

The sentences that never end...
I am an avid reader and I find the subject of Bella Gardner fascinating, and I was incredibly excited to find yet another book about her amazing life!Yet, little did I know that it would take me almost three weeks to slog through this terribly written piece!With little organization and darting from one thought to another, it is barely held together.But, dear reader, the worst is yet to come.Let me give you an example of just one of the "typical" sentences that make up the writing found within, and remember this is just one sentence:"Perhaps her most vivid counsel ever as muse and mentor, into which central venue of Isabella Gardner's life first James and then Crawford and now Sargent have conducted us, that advice reflects the fact that just as it has been argued of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's friendship with Arthur Hallam that although their relationship lasted a mere four years, those "four years probably [were] the equal in psychic importance to the other seventy-nine of Tennyson's life," so with act one of Gardner's and Crawford's affair, which lasted barely two years."
Now I realize how incredibly terrifying this is, and believe me, I have left punctuation, wording and phrasing exactly as they are found in the book.This is but one of three hundred pages of such dismal phrasing.Get the point... ... Read more

Isbn: 0060186437
Subjects:  1. 1840-1924    2. Art    3. Art Museums And Galleries    4. Biography    5. Biography & Autobiography    6. Biography / Autobiography    7. Biography/Autobiography    8. Collectors and collecting    9. Gardner, Isabella Stewart,    10. Historical - General    11. Historical - U.S.    12. United States    13. Women    14. Women And Art    15. Women art collectors    16. Gardner, Isabella Stewart   

Slut!: Growing Up Female With a Bad Reputation
by Leora Tanenbaum
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (01 May, 1999)
list price: $23.95 -- our price: $16.29
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Editorial Review

The statistics are daunting: "Two out of five girls nationwide have had sexual rumors spread about them," reports Leora Tanenbaum. "Three out of four girls have received sexual comments or looks, and one in five has had sexual messages written about her in public areas." The 50 women interviewed for this book differ greatly in ethnic background, age, and economic status, but they share one thing in common--each of them, along with Tanenbaum herself, was labeled a "slut" in junior high or high school. (And, as recent cases involving Anita Hill and Monica Lewinsky demonstrate, a woman can face such taunts no matter what her age or professional level.) As such, they became victims of a double standard that winks at sexual promiscuity among teenage boys but insists that young women remain virginal and pure. Even worse, the slut bashing is perpetuated in nearly every case by female classmates. In addition to insisting that schools get serious about combating sexual harassment, Tanenbaum urges the development of sex education programs that acknowledge responsible alternatives to abstinence, programs that would recognize the sexual desires of young women (and men) without condemnation. Her social critique is solid, but it's the personal accounts of emotional abuse--and, thankfully, perseverance--that will thoroughly convince you that the current tolerance of slut bashing is simply unacceptable. --Ron Hogan ... Read more

Reviews (24)

To those who have never experienced this phenomenon...
It seems that there are some who have given reviews that have not responded well to this book, and they seem to be rather confused and removed from the argument--citing that those who don't want to be called "sluts" shouldn't behave like "sluts".

Almost every woman I've met, myself included, has been through a time, almost a rite of passage, where she has to prove her chastity to the rest of the world (usually shortly after puberty). This is not something that men have to go through--and more importantly, *will never relate to* due to current power structures. Men are pressured, encouraged, and even harassed into being sluts because this is what it is to be manly.

This book is not about not wanting to be called a slut. It explores the phenomenon of the slut. Why is female chastity such a perceived virtue in Western (specifically American)culture? Why is there such a preoccupation among high-schoolers with others' sexuality? What is it that we fear about female sexuality?

Michel Foucault discusses self-policing in "Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison"--something that we women are brainwashed into doing. Why do we participate in this? We will be (and are) rejected and treated badly if we do anything that remotely suggests we are outside the "chaste box"--i.e., reject current social norms regarding the phenomenon of the slut. "Slut!" explores these issues.

I hope this clarifies some of the questions (or outright rejections) that seem to have been raised. To anyone interested in the sociology of power issues and the discourses of the body, I would highly recommend "Discipline and Punish". It can be a bit dry, but the ideas expressed are certainly worth the read.

Also highly recommended: "The Technology of Orgasm: 'Hysteria', the Vibrator, and Women's Sexual Satisfaction." by Rachel P. Maines.

This Should Be Required Reading For Every Human!
This book brought back some painful and unpretty memories.It felt good to see that I wasn't as alone as I thought.For guys, this book could help to bridge the gender gap in so many ways.I think that it could do so much helping and healing if every person had to read this book.

As a guy...
I thought this book was great. It looks at the double standard that is the slut label in America. A good read for women as well as men. ... Read more

Isbn: 1888363940
Subjects:  1. Adolescence - General    2. Girls    3. Personality    4. Sex discrimination against wom    5. Sex discrimination against women    6. Social Science    7. Social conditions    8. Sociology    9. Sociology - Social Theory    10. Sociology Of Women    11. Sociology Of Youth    12. Teenage girls    13. United States    14. Women's Studies - General   

Nine Parts of Desire : The Hidden World of Islamic Women
by GERALDINE BROOKS
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (01 December, 1995)
list price: $14.00 -- our price: $10.50
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Editorial Review

Geraldine Brooks spent two years as a Middle East news correspondent, covering the death of Khomeini and the like. She also learned a lot about what it's like for Islamic women today.Brooks' book is exceedingly well-done--she knows her Islamic lore and traces the origins of today's practices back to Mohammed's time. Personable and very readable, Brooks takes us through the women's back door entrance of the Middle East for an unusual and provocative view. ... Read more

Reviews (118)

Absurd.
People need to know the difference between patriarchal cultures/societies and religion. What the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was teaching was to break ties with burying daughters alive, fornication, adultry and other degrading actions for both males and females. This book depicts outraged emotions of a feminist who is portraying the status of women in Islam as low and worthless. Yes, backward societies do degrade women, but not Islam. I am an American Muslim woman who is fascinated with her beautiful religion, one that protects women and gives them just rights. Thank you very much.

I've lived there, and it's true
This books is as balanced as possible, and should be read by those who would like a better understanding of what it is like to live in the Middle East.
From the perspective of a non-muslim woman who grew up in Saudi Arabia, I can vouch for the parts in Ms. Brooks' book that I am familiar with. Every woman I knew in Saudi Arabia was FORCED to wear the hijab, whether or not they wanted to, and flocks of muttawein scoured the city for women who even looked as though they were rebelling against this.
I never found the majority of Arabs tolerant of other faiths, or even cultures(although there were always wonderful people who were exceptions). At the airport, customs officials would toss out spices and pickles,Bibles, crosses and videos, out of travellers' luggage.
My father was the only one allowed to drive our family around, as my brothers were too young to drive.
The overall atmosphere for young women was socially oppressive, restrictive and threatening.
Luckily, my family moved out of Saudi Arabia eventually, and I love living in a country where religious tolerance is so widespread that I can walk around in my attire and not be afraid that some sex crazed man will attack me because he cannot help himself. And even if he did, this society empowers me to protect myself in many ways. I am not responsible for my brother's honour, only for mine. And he is responsible for his own.
Having said all this, I was shocked to find that genital mutilation is a cultural thing, NOT religious in nature. I did learn this and many other things from Ms. Brooks which helped me understand and empathize with Islam better, so this book was awesome in that regard! Definitely a book to read for a different perspective.

This is Going to Hurt...
Oh, if it were only the veils.The subordination.The illiteracy.But being a woman in the Middle East is more like perpetual torture.Genital mutilation, stolen children, stonings to death, whippings, rape, and summary execution.Geraldine Brooks explains just how much of it is explained by religion, and when autocratic theocracy steps in to finish the job.A Wall Street Journal reporter assigned to Cairo, Brooks is a student of Islam, and of Arabic.She explains the rift between the Shia and Sunni sects, and opens our eyes to the Prophet's trials and tribulations with the women of his household.We learn how he made up the rules of Islam as he went along, in order to advance his own lust, and in the process, made slaves of Islamic women forever.Sometimes you will laugh, but it won't be for long, because unfathomable cruelty will crop up a few pages further on.Ms. Brooks has the journalistic talent of the young Norman Mailer; she sees layers of meaning behind every scene she describes, most of it lost on the scene's participants.She brings to life the gastly reality of life behind the minarets and souks.She exposes the hypocracy and outright lies of Islam's apologists, and gives us the straight story, no matter how it hurts.You can read Bernard Lewis to learn the academic side of modern Islam.You'll have to read Geraldine Brooks to find out how it sounds, smells, and feels. ... Read more

Isbn: 0385475772
Subjects:  1. Anthropology - Cultural    2. Archaeology / Anthropology    3. Islam - General    4. Muslim women    5. Muslims    6. Social Science    7. Social conditions    8. Sociology    9. Women    10. Women's Studies - General    11. Social Science / Women's Studies   

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
by Anne Fadiman
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (28 September, 1998)
list price: $15.00 -- our price: $10.20
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Editorial Review

Lia Lee was born in 1981 to a family of recent Hmong immigrants, and soon developed symptoms of epilepsy. By 1988 she was living at home but was brain dead after a tragic cycle of misunderstanding, overmedication, and culture clash: "What the doctors viewed as clinical efficiency the Hmong viewed as frosty arrogance." The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is a tragedy of Shakespearean dimensions, written with the deepest of human feeling. Sherwin Nuland said of the account, "There are no villains in Fadiman's tale, just as there are no heroes. People are presented as she saw them, in their humility and their frailty--and their nobility." ... Read more

Reviews (145)

The invisible wall
First of all, I have experienced similar frustrations myself, in dealing with patients of other cultures. Despite professional interpreters, it seems that there is an inpenetrable wall between members of some inmigrant cultures and US healthcare providers.
This book narrates one such conflict, between the parents and family of a little Hmong girl, affected by severe epilepsy, and the doctors and nurses at a teaching hospital in Mercer, California.
Sometimes without interpreters, sometimes with interpreters, the failure to "get through" to the family frustrated the chronically overworked residents of Mercer Hospital. The failure of the doctors and staff of Mercer Hospital to understand and agree with the family frustrated in turn the family of the little girl. Every single interaction between the two cultures, Hmong family on one side, and American medical establishment on the other, is interpreted by each side in the worst possible light.
There is a sense of inpending tragedy in the narrative, and as it is intertwined with the story of the Hmong people, and their exodus from Laos, one family's tragedy is inextricably merged with the tragedy of a people.
I learned from this book, but, unfortunately, I am not optimistic that I can communicate better with people with such different world views.
A must read by any member of the health professions that deals with non-European minorities. (And who doesn't nowadays?)

Fascinating and frustrating
Anne Fadiman manages to tell both sides of an extremely complicated story in this book, that of the struggle between a traditional Hmong family with a sick child and the scientific outlook of American medical doctors.The author deftly points out shortcomings of both sides (as well as the validity of both), particularly focusing on the communication problem between the two.She reserves ultimate judgment for the "real" culprit:unwillingness to understand the "other", something all too common in society.

Additionally, it is a fascinating account of Hmong culture, something I knew nothing about before reading this book.The accounts of Hmong immigrants and their culture reveal a unique and miraculously intact "lump" in the much-discussed "melting pot" of America.

Finally, reading this book made me painfully aware, as a white American, of my own personal biases and "truths" that I sometimes take for granted as universal.As globalization becomes the norm, this book is invaluable.

When culture and medicine collide
Anne Fadiman's "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down" is an engaging read that describes the trials of a Hmong family dealing with their daughter's illness, the American doctors who try to help her, and their cultural collisions.Fadiman uses a Hmong storytelling tool, "speaking of all kinds of things," to provide a rich account of Lia Lee incorporating history, mythology and folklore, anthropology, psychology, politics, and more to give the readers a greater understanding of the culture of Lia and her family and how they came to America.Her narrative is not only culturally sensitive (to both the Hmong and the Western doctors) but also fair.It is impressive in its depth and noble in its efforts to advocate "cultural brokering" in medicine.Fadiman's writing style is informative, compassionate, and very thought-provoking.This book is a must read for anyone interested in culture and medicine and is an important work, especially in a world where cultures meet and often collide. ... Read more

Isbn: 0374525641
Subjects:  1. California    2. Case studies    3. Ethics    4. General    5. Health - General    6. Hmong American children    7. Hmong Americans    8. Medical / Nursing    9. Medical care    10. Medicine    11. Minority Studies - General    12. Social Science    13. Sociology    14. Transcultural medical care    15. Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural