The Short History of a Prince : A Novel
by JANE HAMILTON
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Paperback (16 March, 1999)
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As a teenager in Oak Ridge, Illinois, Walter McCloud is desperate for adventure, hoping for love and success as a dancer. "If life for Walter was composed in part of confusion, shame and deception, the ballet was order, dignity and forthright beauty." In 1995, at 38, nothing has turned out as he had expected. Having spent years working in a dollhouse shop in New York and engaging in that city's ready sexual excitement, Walter finally returns to his Midwestern roots, accepting a teaching job in Otten, Wisconsin--a place that might have little to recommend it save its proximity to his family's summer home. ("It had taken Walter several years to admit to himself that he couldn't go on indefinitely selling Lilliputian Coke bottles and microscopic toilet-roll dowels.") In this new community, he will have to keep his head down, a stance that has long suited him, because he prefers to hold one memory of lost intimacy and perfection in high, private relief.

Walter's exile, or new start, allows memory to come to the fore, particularly that painful year in which his brother was dying of Hodgkin's and he and his fellow dancers were dying for experience. Jane Hamilton explores the distance between desire and reality, satisfaction and secrecy, irresistibly alternating between past and present. At first, we can't wait for Walter to break through, and it's tempting to race through her prince's history--one which is, happily, not that short. But to do so would be to miss out on Hamilton's fine major and minor characters and her exploration of competition, complicity, and silence. At one point, Walter fears that his pupils have "no clue that there was pleasure to be found in observing character. They seemed to be afraid to look around themselves and find a world every bit as amusing, ridiculous and unjust as Dickens's London..." Hamilton's readers, however, will find this pleasure in abundance. ... Read more

Reviews (68)

More Accessible Than Ruth
Without question, Jane Hamilton is one of my favorite authors (who could not be moved by "The Book of Ruth"?), but in "A Short History of a Prince", Hamilton rises to a new level of exquisite characterization. Hamilton's graceful lyricism is present as always, rendering the book a charming read whether or not you enjoy the plot - but it is nearly impossible not to do so. Anyone who has every participated in the arts, or at least coddled an impossible dream, can relate to the plight of Walter. In a world in which, tawdry, but uplifting "feel good" books crowd the shelves it is refreshing to read of one who struggles with a dream, fails to achieve it in the physical sense, and yet triumphs internally. Hamilton gently reminds us that true grace lies in humanity and true achievement in how we deal with others. It is a novel about subjects far deeper than dance and far more human than death. It is a novel about life.
Hamilton is a master of characterization. Ruth Grey and Matt (of "The Book of Ruth") are prime examples. But it is the character of Walter that stands out in my mind. He is one of the most fulfilling gay characters I've encountered in literature, proving once and for all, that literature with a gay central character need not be solely concerned with sex and relationships. Instead, Walter is a complex, lovable and slightly pathetic (in a good way, mind you) man who must deal with the real life tragedies of death in the family and unfulfilled dreams.
I enjoyed "A Short History of a Prince" far more than "The Book of Ruth" for several reasons. Partly because it was slightly easier to digest in its general lack of violence and dismal poverty, but mostly because I found Walter to be a character closer to my heart and self. I am not a gay man, but I felt more kinship with Walter than with Ruth. He is less specific than Ruth, more middle class, artistic and introspective. In short, he is me.

It wasa short history for me!
I couldn't get past page 68.I read the first chapter (1972), and found it OK, but once the second one got going (1995), I started getting very irritated.Walter came across as a malcontent whiny guy, and the characters so far had been less than enticing (Susan seemed slightly egotistical, and Lucy was way too perfect to be real).Another thing that bothered me is the excruciating descriptions that the author goes through about the most minute details.I could tolerate that level of detail when the story carries my interest (We Were The Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates is a great example), but in this case I just had to glaze over whole paragraphs describing suburbian neighborhoods.I hate it when I don't finish a book, so I decided to check Amazon reviews and see what other people had said.I'm not so disappointed now.To the author's credit, I didn't see the fact that Walter is gay right away.However, the parallelisms between lesbian aunt Sue Rawson mentoring Walter in his ballet, and then Walter mentoring his niece on hers were too melodramatic.The ending, which I only know about through other people's comments, makes me wonder if Jane Hamilton perhaps wrote this book with Oprah in mind.I really enjoyed The Book of Ruth.It was difficult to go through, but there was something true and compelling about the story and the characters.In this case, though, I wasn't able to find any empathy for anyone or get driven to the story.

A Prince of a Story
Hamilton does what she does best, as always, makes us look at ourselves; our limitations, our own fears.
This is the second time I've read "Short History of a Prince"
It was better the second time, because, ofcourse, we see more detail.

The story unfolds back and forth from the 70s to the 90s...For some more inexperienced writers, this may not have worked, but for Hamilton, it did.
Walter is the main character, coming of age in some chapters, a thirty eight year old in others.I love how Hamilton does this, as in the "Book of Ruth"It really allows the reader to understand the characters more clearly.

I enjoy dance and adored Balanchine, so I found the story line centered around the dance world very interesting. I wonder if Hamilton danced once herself or just did her homework on this one.

The story has been woven with family situations, death, dreams, sexual desires (some we may never experience), youth, middle-age, and finally, in the end,
realizing that sometimes what we have is enough...

Love, love, love Hamilton, the messages she sends, Her tenderness, Her ability to allow hope to seep through all of her stories.She does not disappoint in this one either! ... Read more

Isbn: 0385479484
Subjects:  1. Ballet dancers    2. Bildungsromane    3. Family    4. Fiction    5. Fiction - General    6. General    7. Wisconsin    8. Fiction / General    9. Reading Group Guide   

Indian Killer
by Sherman Alexie
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (01 January, 1998)
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Editorial Review

Native American Sherman Alexie's new novel is a departure in tone from his lyrical and funny earlier work, which include The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven and Reservation Blues. The main character is an Indian serial killer who incites racial tension by murdering whites in retribution for his people's history. The killer leaves clear signs of his motives by scalping his victims, and leaving feathers as gestures of Indian defiance. The killer is a conflicted creation--raised by loving white parents, but twisted by loss of his identity as an Indian. Alexie layers the story with complications and ancillary characters, from a rabid talk show host, to vengeance seeking whites, to liberals who find their patronizing espousal of Indian causes no longer so easy. ... Read more

Reviews (77)

Indian Killer-Cultural Killer
On a surface, a great who dunnit centered in Seattle with a Indigenous twist. Complex characters. You have John who is adopted by white people and wants to know of his culture but cannot. You have Marie, theIndian activist college student who challenges her white professor at every turn. The white professor Dr. Mather who through his education thinks that he knows more of Indian culture than Indians that grew up on the reservation. Reggie is Marie's half Indian cousin that hates white people. Truck is a sensationlist radio broadcaster that is terrorizing the city of Seattle with his constant updates on the "Indian Killer" The novelist Jack Wilson, the wannabe Indian that claimed the little bit of Native blood that he had and held on so tightly. The common thread I saw in each character was that at some level each had the Indian killed out of them or they were killing the culture by their ignorance and upbringing.I Think Sherman Alexie's message is profound and is a statement of what is taking place in Indian country today! You will be assismalated....I think not!

sharp, devastating and engagingly written.....
I think it is more than fair to say the Sherman Alexie has succeeded in writing one of the greatest contemporary Urban Aboriginal mystery/murder novels on the bookshelves today.Mr. Alexie has a great talent for challenging all the lies we have accepted as reality in the "Indigenous experience" and knocks us over with his own vision of the hardships and pain of contemporary Native life with a twist of Stephen King thrown into the mix.

John Smith is a young aboriginal man who was raised by White adoptive parents and has no knowledge of his tribe or any other specifics tied to his heritage.John is in the depths of a traumatic identity crisis that spirals into mental illness and psychotic, murderous episodes.His goal is to avenge the death and misery of every Indigenous person by systematically stalking and then murdering affluent Caucasian men.This series of killings becomes the hot topic of Seattle as more and more race-related fights take place between White and Native residents.

This is such an important novel and I am so glad that Sherman Alexie wrote it.I felt as though we, as the readers, were taking a glimpse inside the many facets of his writer's mind and all of the depths of his personality as a storyteller.It is a cautionary tale of what happens when someone is so far removed from themselves (example being John Smith) that they are driven to the depths of despair, due to their isolation and lack of confidence.I once took a course with Sherman Alexie at the University of Washington where he stated that living on the Rez (where many indigenous people still reside in North America) is like living in an Edith Warton novel. Authenticity is measured to the most minute degree.Everything from your behavior to the pigment of your skin is considered a potential flaw. from which you can fall from grace at any given moment.Imagine growing up a young indigenous man, surrounded by loving, adoptive parents who know nothing of your specific tribe, but are greatly divided from you by their race and their ignorance.Instead of being taught about your specific tribal practices, you are bombarded with information about every tribe (as if that would make up for your lack of self awareness).

Though this is definitely a murder mystery novel, Sherman Alexie manages to balance horror scenes with humorous bits, as well as intellectual criticism on the state of contemporary race relations and really forces us to examine our own stereotypes and prejudices.Great book and definitely a fast read!

This one's a dud...
Sherman Alexie's thriller "Indian Killer" has many glaring weaknesses, and only a few strengths. Firstly, many characters are unrepentingly racist. A ex-football player and a Rush wannabe represent the white racists, while Marie, a Native American activist represents the Indian racist. Marie is so racist, she makes an argument that goes like this: only Indians should teach Indian studies, only african-americans should teach African studies. of course, if you finish that foul thought to its logical conclusion, then only white people should teach western civilization. So, this is Alexie's biggest flaw: Aaron and Marie are two sides of the same coin, and he doesn't seem to realize this. Secondly, there are no heroic characters to root for, everyone is either victim or victimizer. You pity Mather, John Smith, and Wilson, all for different reasons, and you find yourself loathing Reggie, Marie, Truck and Aaron. The book's sole strength is its realistic portrayal of alienation with John as the Indian without a tribe, and with his worsening schizophrenia. Note, schizophrenics are most harmful to themselves, and to those who try to help them the most. As for the killer, it's not John, as some reviewers have said. I don't think Alexie would stoop to having an archtypical killer(that's a cheap copout, and would merit only 1 star if he really pulled that stunt). Personally, I feel Reggie is the killer. ... Read more

Isbn: 0446673706
Subjects:  1. Detective and mystery stories    2. Fiction    3. Fiction - Psychological Suspense    4. General    5. Indians of North America    6. Literary    7. Mystery/Suspense    8. Psychological    9. Race relations    10. Seattle (Wash.)    11. Suspense    12. Fiction / General   

The Lost Legends of New Jersey
by Frederick Reiken
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (05 July, 2001)
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In Frederick Reiken's first novel, The Odd Sea, a familygrappled with an almost unreal dilemma: the unsolved disappearance of ason. His second effort, The Lost Legends of New Jersey, is alsoa family saga. But this time the focus--the suburban dissolution of theRubin clan--is more mundane, and the novel's casual eye towardchronology keeps the plot from accumulating much in the way ofmomentum. Indeed, the only way young Anthony Rubin can make sense ofhis experience is to give it a legendary spin:

He was always doing that, making things up, trying to see how it allmight fit into a legend. He didn't understand why he did this, becauseNew Jersey was not a legend. It was the armpit of America, according tomost people. Still he saw everything around him as a legend.

Anthony, of course, has plenty to contend with. His father, Michael, isa none-too-subtle (if goodhearted) adulterer. His mother, Jess, isprone to breakdowns and would rather be underwater at any given momentthan with her children. His best friend, Jay, drifts away whenMichael's smoldering affair with Jay's mother begins to disrupt theRubin marriage. And the alluring girl next door, the brash daughter ofa high-stakes gambler, seems always just out of reach. Reiken's styleremains unblinking and direct throughout, suggesting that there are nogood guys or bad guys in Livingston, New Jersey--just complex, tangiblepeople who remind us what it is to be human. And while Anthony's lossesmay feel devastating, or even legendary, he knows that they areultimately survivable. "It's always strange to me that all this is socomforting," he says. "And yet it is." --Brangien Davis ... Read more

Reviews (40)

Lost Legends of New Jersey
Wonderful!Wonderful!! Wonderful!! I grew up in New Jersey and to see towns, places, streets and other things mentioned within the story brought the whole book and story alive!!! A great book and a wonderful story, Three days and I was done ready it! That says alot for me!! Hope to see many more works from this young man. There is so much to write about the people of this wonderful state. The family life is boundless. Each generation and each family has a story!!!

Teenage Wasteland Rings True
I grew up in New Jersey just a couple of years behind Reiken's character, who is the same age as my brother, and the detail that's gracefully snuck in between dialogue is dead-on.I read this book when visiting family in NJ.Every now and then I'd ask, Mom, is there a Conservative synagogue on Northlight?the answer would always be yes.Reiken really knows his territory well, and captures the packed-in, yet desolate, feeling the New Jersey suburbs can hold for teenagers.He even understands the appeal Springsteen's working-class lyrics held for middle-class Jewsih suburbanites.I also love the matter-of-fact way ethnicity is treated, which also rings very true to my experience.

This book flies by almost too fast to catch all the confusion, pain and hope in the life of the main character, whose parents' marriage has ended bitterly, and who has a tenuous relationship with the fast yet sensitive girl next door.

It's to Reiken's credit that the characters all maintain some of the mystery of real people-- his mother, for example, has always been mentally unstable-- without resorting to authorial tricks.Reiken follows the dictum "show, don't tell"-- so although the narrator is unusually perceptive, we don't have to read long passages of explanation.Instead, a detailed description of seeing his father with his best friend's mother, at a Bar Mitzvah party, sears itself into the brain as it does the main character's.Reiken doesn't take sides-- everyone in the book has dignity and interest.A stand-out episode was when the boy and friends get lost trying to get home from the Meadowlands.Somehow this episode, which combined bravado, innocence, vulnerability and gratitude, sums up the experience of being a teenager-- going through transitions-- in a transitional time.

Modern Day Classic
While this book maps out the geography and demographics of northern New Jersey in the 1980s, it is anything but regional fiction.The author's style, and the depth and range of his characters is virtuosic; moreover, this book has such momentum and such compelling characters that it's hard to put down.For a week I kept looking forward to getting back to these characters and their stories.The layers upon layers in this book and the philosophical questions that come up make it the kind of book I can imagine being read in college courses on contemporary literature.It's right there with Roth, Cheever, and Updike , as far as I'm concerned.I can't wait to read The Odd Sea. ... Read more

Isbn: 0156010941
Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Fiction - General    3. General    4. Literary    5. Sagas    6. Fiction / General    7. Reading Group Guide   

The Magus
by JOHN FOWLES
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Paperback (01 April, 1985)
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Reviews (183)

Between Love and Hate
My review title refers equally to some of the themes of the novel as well as the other reviews which have been posted here.It seems that people who read this book either love it and feel that it's life-altering in some way, or hate it and see it as a total waste of time.I happen to fall somewhere in between:I enjoyed the narrative style and was captivated linguistically as well as intellectually... right up until the end.Unfortunately, I feel the pay off wasn't worth the effort and at the end of the game I was left feeling more exhausted than enlightened.I have a feeling that your loving or hating of this book is entirely dependent on whether you are able to fully identify with the narrator - a man I felt very ambiguously about.

The quote in the end reminds me of another open-to-entepretation ending of another novel - "The Name of the Rose."I'd strongly recommend "The Name of the Rose" over "The Magus".

enthralling...
Fowles's writing style is impeccable and captivating. He presents the story in a way so that we all can relate to it in one way or another. The characters are so flawed, so human... I don't think it is possible to read this book without pausing and pondering over Fowles's life lessons at least once. He speaks to all of us. And in the end, we can't help but wonder: What drives us, humans, for more and more, regardless of what it takes, regardless of the pain and suffering and fear and reason and emotions? Why are we so frighteningly disposable? And do we ever learn or change?

Stilted, affected, puerile: a counterfeit novel.
Beware of the modern novel containing untranslated quotations. John Fowles' pretentious tone in "The Magus" is matched only by his fondness for longwinded pseudo-intellectual gobbledygook. What starts out as an intriguing story eventually becomes pedantic and somewhat silly. By the end, I had become just plain bored with it all- the preaching, the slight-of-hand games, the wooden female characters- and I didn't really care how the story ended. I was just relieved that the whole disappointing dreadful mess was finished. This is one of those rare books that I have tossed in the trash rather than passed on to another. One of the main characters, Conchis, wanted to rid the world of the novel as an art form. Perhaps "The Magus" is John Fowles' small contribution to that campaign.
It is of note that Fowles has some truly fine passages describing the Greek pine-forest, the coastline, and the "azure" sea.If only he had written a travelog instead! ... Read more

Isbn: 0440351626
Sales Rank: 12772
Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Literary    3. Literature - Classics / Criticism    4. Fiction / General   

Sacred
by Dennis Lehane
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Paperback (01 June, 1998)
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Editorial Review

Dennis Lehane won a Shamus Award for A Drink Before the War, his first book about working-class Boston detectives Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro. His second in the series, Darkness, Take My Hand, got the kind of high octane reviews that careers are made of. Now Lehane not only survives the dreaded third-book curse, he beats it to death with a stick. Sacred is a dark and dangerous updating of Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep, as dying billionaire Trevor Stone hires Kenzie and Gennaro to find his daughter, Desiree. Patrick's mentor, a wonderfully devious detective named Jay Becker, has already disappeared in St. Petersburg, Florida, while working the case, so the two head there to pick up a trail. Desiree, of course, is nothing like the sweet and simple beauty described by her father, and even Chandler would have been amazed by the plot twists that Lehane manages to keep coming. ... Read more

Reviews (71)

High Scores!
This is another book that I'll put in my loaner shelf to loan out to friends who like crime thriller/ mystery novels. I take pride in loaning out only the cream of the crop, and I'm happy to say that this one will fit right in. My wife thoroughly enjoyed it too.
This wisecracking pair of somewhat reluctant P.I.'s entertain from beginning to end. The dialogue is crisp, darkly funny, original, and insightful. The plot is cleverly woven, unpredictable, and fast paced. The main characters' motivations and feelings are explored without beating you over the head with it. (THANK YOU!) The entire book was very entertaining and memorable.
I'm not sure why anyone who enjoys reading wouldn't absolutely love this book, but there are some less than complimentary reviews, so I guess you can't please everybody all of the time.
This book is highly recommended to all non anal-retantives.

an enjoyable yet sub-standard thriller by Lehane...
'Sacred' is an unusual thriller by Lehane in a number of ways.Firstly, much of the setting is well outside greater Boston - specially, Tampa Bay.And the protagonists are a mega-wealthy father-daughter duo who are decidedly not what they appear to be.No gangland thugs, very little drug use, no scenes poverty and urban decay.Does this departure for Lehane do him justice?Er, mostly no.But it is still a good read.

Without divulging the story, in 'Sacred' we have a couple of lovey-dovey yet hardcore private eyes who are hired by a gravely ill billionaire to find his daughter.And off they go to Floridato find the beauty.However the detectives find themselves embroilled in a family situation even Jerry Springer would find offensive.Violence, greed, and a whole lotta nastiness follows.As always Lehane comes up with rich dialogue and great characterizations.I suppose my biggest complaint with the book is the very ending, especially after some very clever twists mid-stream.


Bottom line: certainly recommended, especially for Lehane fans.

Predictable mystery, though still a page-turner
In a story that should be familiar to anyone who has seen or read The Big Sleep, a old dying billionaire charges a pair of detectives with the task of tracking down his daughter, who disappeared under highly suspicious circumstances. The detectives, Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro, aren't the first ones who have tried to find her - that is Desiree Stone, daughter of Trevor - in fact, the man originally hired for the job vanished himself not long after claiming with great certainty that she was still alive.

Dennis Lehane crafts a spiraling plot where you wonder if anybody at all is telling anybody else the truth about anything. There is a cult-like group preaching some sort of church message somehow linked with a grief counseling center, and Desiree may have been a member of either or both of these groups... or was she? All of the events surrounding her disappearance are highly suspect, so much so that our detectives aren't even sure she exists at all. And if she does exist, just what is her agenda? Some say she was seen with a dangerous man named Sean Price, but does he exist? It's a big confusing mess for Kenzie and Gennaro, but a page-turner for the reader following along closely.

In the end, though, this book turns out to be fairly predictable, despite the twists that Lehane works in throughout. It's an effective detective mystery, but fails to capture on anything other than a visceral level. I enjoyed it a lot while I was reading it, but nothing really stood out for me after I completed it. If you are familiar with the standards of film noir, none of the twists will surprise you too much, although they do hold up to scrutinization of continuity. ... Read more

Isbn: 0380726297
Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Fiction - Mystery/ Detective    3. Mystery & Detective - General    4. Mystery & Detective - Hard-Boiled    5. Mystery/Suspense    6. Suspense    7. Fiction / General   

Fiona Range
by Mary McGarry Morris
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (03 July, 2001)
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Fiona Range often feels cursed. At 30 she is an odd--or perhaps not so odd--combination of sentimentality, irritability, and promiscuity. Mary McGarry Morris's heroine lives on the outskirts of Boston and works at a diner. She grew up in the household of her uncle, a prominent judge. But although she was raised in privilege, she was always treated as the charity case--the abandoned child of a beautiful crazy woman who "drove off weeping one rainy afternoon, never to return."

Fiona dwells on this original abandonment. She thinks about it when she wakes up with strange men, when she gets too drunk and sad, when all the people in town start to resemble sharks, preying on her. She keeps getting involved with bad men, and as the novel opens, she has been kicked out of her uncle's house after her boyfriend's arrest for selling drugs. Fiona Range is the story of her attempts to clean her life up, find love in the midst of loneliness and confusion, and find balance in the midst of seemingly insurmountable emotional chaos.

Morris (author of Songs in Ordinary Time) skillfully paints Fiona as a woman toughened by loneliness. Often she feels that she is beyond pain as a result of all she has endured: "FionaRange's teeth had been filled without novocaine, her wounds stitched without anesthesia, her heart broken too many times to count. Once as a child she fell from a tree and broke her arm but didn't tell her aunt until hours later when her favorite show had ended."Yet while she is often invulnerable, she is also fragile and needy. In Morris's skillful hands Fiona comes vibrantly to life--a crabby, lusty woman who hopesthe fates will give her a break. --Ellen Williams ... Read more

Reviews (66)

I should get my wasted time and money back.
Fiona Range is a good book for someone who does not know good literature. There are so many typos that it is distracting to someone who knows how to use grammar. Tbe plot is too simplisitic for a book this long--maybe better suited to a novella or a short-story. Also, the characters, excepting for Fiona, were very shallow and needed more purpose. Considering that the author has written much more enjoyable novels previous to this--it leaves the reader with the sense that it was intended as a money-maker, not a heart-warmer.

take a pass
truly bad.I read four books per week, and maybe twice a year don't finish one.Fiona Range is one of those.I don't know which was worse:
1. the egregious typos -- authors get to read the galleys before they go to press -- was Morris too lazy, or what?
2. lack of plot, dialogue that does not progress the story, repetitive scenes

She's written better
I found this book SO exasperating.Fiona is totally unsympathetic.Within a single paragraph, she thinks she's being dismissed by her family, then she likes them, then her feelings are hurt by some perceived slight, and on and on it goes. I thought it was carelessly written; it felt very lazy to me - it could have done with serious editing. Plus, I couldn't shake the feeling that the book was set in the 40s or 50s, which is fine, if the book REALLY were set in those decades; I had to keep reminding myself this was supposedly set in the current day. I finished the book because I just had to see if it was going to be ludicrous to the very end, and it was. Even the "happy ending" was apathetic and tacked-on.

I've liked the author's other books, so I was most disappointed when I finally got my hands on this one. I did finish it, but I sure won't be passing it on to my friends! ... Read more

Isbn: 0141001844
Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Fiction - General    3. General    4. Sagas   

I Was Amelia Earhart (Vintage Contemporaries)
by JANE MENDELSOHN
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (04 March, 1997)
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In an evocative and imaginative novel, Amelia Earhart tells us what happened after she and her navigator, Fred Noonan, disappeared off the coast of New Guinea one windy day in 1937. ... Read more

Reviews (40)

Disappointing
This was essentially a bodice-ripper with Amelia Earhart as the central character.Extremely disappointing.Lack of details about Earhart's life before the crash are the work of a lazy writer.The "afterlife" of Earhart post-crash is offensive.

a reader
I had been meaning to read this book for quite a while and finally got around to it while on vacation. I was eager to read others' thoughts ... although I am in no way religious, I found myself fascinated by what I took to be Mendelsohn's vivid exploration of purgatory, heaven and hell, using Earhart and Noonan as her literary vehicles.

I was surprised to see that no one else picked up on this and instead mainly focused on the media hype surrounding the book. Talk about boring!

Interesting story....
I like the beginning, it is very captivating... it is as if she is talking directly to me from after life... or I am dreaming about meeting her in the Heaven, and she is telling the story of the last day of her life....

For that, I think the switching back and forth between first and third person works for me. It gives the illusive feels to the story.

The idea of the story is interesting. Amelia Earhart's life after the crash is more alive than the one she lived before. I think the author established that in the first page of the book "...What I know is that the life I lived since I died feels more real to me than the one I lived before..." Her life before that, she was trap in a marriage without love; a union of business instead of love. All her life she has wanted to fly, to fly away from life...her wishes seems to be granted when she crashed onto the isolated island. She is living her life. And most of all, she may be in love for the first time...

In this novel, her life may have just begun when the rest of the world think it has ended.

In my opinion, part 1 is beautifully written; however in part 2 the writing and the structure turn flat, like diary entries that are written quickly just to jot down the events, so that you'll remembered in the future. I find myself flip through the pages impatiently want to get to the end. ... Read more

Isbn: 0679776362
Subjects:  1. 1897-1937    2. Earhart, Amelia    3. Earhart, Amelia,    4. Fiction    5. Fiction - General    6. Literary    7. Fiction / General    8. Reading Group Guide   

In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
by NathanielPhilbrick
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (01 May, 2001)
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Editorial Review

The appeal of Dava Sobel's Longitude was, in part, that it illuminated a little-known piece of history through a series of captivating incidents and engaging personalities. Nathaniel Philbrick's In the Heart of the Sea is certainly cast from the same mold, examining the 19th-century Pacific whaling industry through the arc of the sinking of the whaleship Essex by a boisterous sperm whale. The story that inspired Herman Melville's classic Moby-Dick has a lot going for it--derring-do, cannibalism, rescue--and Philbrick proves an amiable and well-informed narrator, providing both context and detail. We learn about the importance and mechanics of blubber production--a vital source of oil--and we get the nuts and bolts of harpooning and life aboard whalers. We are spared neither the nitty-gritty of open boats nor the sucking of human bones dry.

By sticking to the tried and tested Longitude formula, Philbrick has missed a slight trick or two. The epicenter of the whaling industry was Nantucket, a small island off Cape Cod; most of the whales were in the Pacific, necessitating a huge journey around the southernmost tip of South America. We never learn why no one ever tried to create an alternative whaling capital somewhere nearer. Similarly, Philbrick tells us that the story of the Essex was well known to Americans for decades, but he never explores how such legends fade from our consciousness. Philbrick would no doubt reply that such questions were beyond his remit, and you can't exactly accuse him of skimping on his research. By any standard, 50 pages of footnotes impress, though he wears his learning lightly. He doesn't get bogged down in turgid detail, and his narrative rattles along at a nice pace. When the storyline is as good as this, you can't really ask for more. --John Crace, Amazon.co.uk ... Read more

Reviews (225)

In The Heart Of The Sea
Philbrick does a wonderful job of pulling you back in time to Nantucket Island in the 1800s.With his vivid descriptions not only can you envision the island, but you're also given a feel of how important the fishing and whaling industry was at this time, "Nantucket was a town of roof dwellers.Nearly every house, its shingles painted red or left to weather into gray, had a roof-mounted platform known as a walk.While its intended use was to facilitate putting out chimney fires with buckets of sand, the walk was also an excellent place to look out to see with a spyglass, to search for the sails of returning ships."Details are one of this author's extreme strengths.You gain a vast amount of knowledge on topics such as the roles men and women played within the Nantucket culture in history, what happens to the human body physiologically when it wastes away from starvation and dehydration, and of course; the dangerous world of whaling in history, how and why it occurred.

Consuming read
A mind-blowing Poe-ish experience of adventure and woe.Philbrick is to be commended on his genius of researching and recreating the sad but true tale of the battered, sunken 1820 whaleship Essex and its shipmates.
After being rammed by an eighty-five foot monster sperm whale, twenty men leap into three whale boats and aimlessly wander around the Pacific for ninety days.Except for a brief visit at an uninhabited island, the men subsist on next to nothing until some of them start to perish from lack of food, water, exertion and nature.Only eight survive the ordeal (three of those being rescued months later at the aforementioned island).The accounts of these men clinging to life are beyond the scope of human imagination.
The basis for Melville's classic Moby Dick.

Pacific Blues
Epics rouse the heroic, the tragic, the self in extremis. I, for one, am content for others to scale the Himalayas, the Andes and endure privations that leave me cosily to tend the garden.But I don't in the least mind reading of other's travails, especially when the writing can convey the spectrum of sense data that challenges the participants.'The Heart of the Sea' recounts one of the great whaling stories of the C19th, and without subtracting from the ethos of Nantucket's society, quite plausibly suggests how, if the tragedy of the 'Essex' could not be avoided, could have unfolded differently had the social mix been different. A relatively recent publication of one of the survivor's accounts, adds to Nathaniel Philbrick's grasp. Without studious fuss, he embeds relevant data on what happens to bodies deprived of water and food over extrended periods, cannabalism, the manner by which whaling crafts were built, navigation means of the early C19th and fullsome images of the spectre of the whale and its value to the industry of those times. Above all there is the shadow of Mellville's mammoth, Moby, a momentous story that surely guided Philbrick's magnificently evocative re-telling.The salt is on every page and the sea's rhythmns shape the irrevocable pace of the writing. Utterly consuming. Readers excited by this book might look at Alexander McKee's,'Death Raft' about the survivors of the French frigate,'Medusa' which wrecked only a few years before the 'essex'. While not rivalling Philbrick's poetic language, it is worth a dip. ... Read more

Isbn: 0141001828
Subjects:  1. Essex (Whaleship)    2. History    3. History - General History    4. History: American    5. Latin America - Mexico    6. Maritime History    7. Pacific Ocean    8. Ships & Shipbuilding - History    9. Ships & Shipbuilding - Shipwrecks    10. Shipwrecks    11. United States - 19th Century    12. History / General   

Giovanni's Room
by JAMES BALDWIN
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (01 April, 1988)
list price: $6.99
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Reviews (68)

A Tragic and Terrific Masterpiece!!!
One of my favorites novels of all time and perhaps the finest gay book ever written.This is the brilliant story of David, a closeted expatriate living in 1950s Paris whose world is rocked to its very foundations when he falls in love with bartender Giovanni.The spring affair ends in disaster, leaving both death and mournful regret in its wake.A driving narrative, numerous passages of incredible insight, poetry, vibrancy, and emotional gravity combine to make this pre-Stonewall classic a profound and unforgettable reading experience.Tragic and terrific!

Painfully Beautiful
James Baldwin's stories are more like poetry, describing painful circumstances as dreamy metaphors. I felt myself pulled away from the story a few times to ponder what Baldwin is expressing through this story, for example he writes something about not choosing your friends or who you love, just as you don't get to choose your parents. He forces you to stand in the shoes of each character, feeling as though you were naked, because the message, for me at least, is clear. If people would allow themselves to feel total honesty with themselves, then perhaps the way they are choosing to live their lives would be completely, way over on the opposite end of the spectrum then what is actually real. No sexual orrient, race, religion. Just looking inside yourself and saying "yes". And if you think I'm just getting to romantic over a story, still read this book. James Baldwin is a master at story telling. Even if you don't feel as I do about this book, I'm sure you'll feel something. It is, for me, one of those stories you thin kabout long after you've read it.

Contemporary subject matter
James Baldwin is masterful in conveying underlying motives.In his book, Giovanni's Room, he deals very tactfully with the moral pitfalls of sexual relationships.The hero, David, is torn between feelings of homosexuality and heterosexual relationships.Far from being the politically correct propoganda most likely to be published today, Baldwin shines the light of his craft on this subject with startling honesty.He shows great insight into the psyche underpinning moral choices.The character development for the main characters is good but could be better for the others.Yet for such a relatively short novel he does a good job.If you want to read a novel that seems to honestly deal with the realities of this subject, this is the one.He shies away from being hyper-critical in a moral sense, yet doesn't attempt to soften the harsh realities of living this lifestyle.Overall, an excellent read. ... Read more

Isbn: 0440328810
Sales Rank: 677607
Subjects:  1. Classics    2. Fiction    3. Gay    4. Literature - Classics / Criticism    5. Fiction / General   

The Silence of the Lambs (Hannibal Lector)
by Thomas Harris
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (15 February, 1991)
list price: $7.99 -- our price: $7.99
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Editorial Review

The Silence of the Lambs, by Thomas Harris, is even better thanthe successful movie. Like his earlier Red Dragon, the book takes us inside the world of professional criminal investigation. All the elements of a well-executed thriller are working here--driving suspense, compelling characters, inside information, publicity-hungry bureaucrats thwarting the search, and the clock ticking relentlessly down toward the death of another young woman. What enriches this well-told tale is the opportunity to live inside the minds of both the crime fighters and thecriminals as each struggles in a prison of pain and seeks, sometimes violently, relief.

Clarice Starling, a precociously self-disciplined FBI trainee, is dispatched by her boss, Section Chief Jack Crawford, the FBI's most successful tracker of serial killers, to see whether she can learn anything useful from Dr. Hannibal Lecter.Lecter's a gifted psychopath whose nickname is "The Cannibal" because he likes to eat parts of his victims. Isolated by his crimes from all physical contact with the human race, he plays an enigmatic game of "Clue" with Starling, providing her with snippets of data that, if she is smart enough, will lead her to the criminal. Undaunted, she goes where the data takes her. As the tension mounts and the bureaucracy thwarts Starling at every turn, Crawford tells her, "Keep the information and freeze the feelings." Insulted, betrayed, and humiliated, Starling struggles to focus. If she can understand Lecter's final, ambiguous scrawl, she can find the killer. But can she figure it out in time? --Barbara Schlieper ... Read more

Reviews (244)

This is no lie---
After seeing part of the movie I was left wanting more. I eventually saw the whole thing and am now reading the book.

This is a GREAT book by a person with deep thoughts. Thomas Harris gets the reader thinking and leaves them hungry for more.

Anyone could read this book. Vocabulary is advanced, yet, it can be deciphered using context clues. Myself, being 14, found it to be an easy read with deep meaning. Read this book and see the movie. Don't leave yourself out.

must go through one to stop the other... Best book EVER!!
This is seriously one of the best books ever conceived. Thomas Harris superbly brings together suspense, drama and probably the most recognizable and original characters EVER!! This book incorporates material of a technical nature from the nature of moths to established psychological methodology, this book thrives with chills, it has a protagonist, a woman (different maybe) Federal Agent/Student Clark Starling who is assigned to talk to renowned cannibal/serial killer and
ex-psychiatrist Dr Hannibal 'the cannibal' Lecter, to help her try and catch another killer on the loose - Jame 'Buffalo Bill' Gumb who is quite content on abducting women and using their skins to make an outfit - Gruesome. He is clever to leave no traces and the FBI have a real battle on their hands when the U.S. Senators daughter, young Katherine Martin falls prey to the killer, she is trapped in his basement lair and fed scraps of food, as the plot thickens and Clark has a few more visits to Hannibal maximum security prison the plot finally reveals that the nutter on the loose is in fact a sort of practicing transsexual and the FBI are now in a race against time to save Katherine Martin's life, before the monster flays her body for the skin.
With magnificent dialogue and build up to the tense stuff, including Hannibal's miraculous escape, this book is a serious candidate for best book EVER!! In my opinion. The fundamentals of psychiatry are very well explained and the actual simplisity of the final lesson on how to find the killer is quite revealling, " What does he covet" - " we covet what we see every day" - he knew her, quite easy to figure out funny how they missed that detail.

Another solid psychological thriller from Harris
Few can give readers the veiw from inside the head of a serial killer like Harris, and from deliciously evil Hannibal Lector to demented Jame Gumb, this is a psychological thrill ride.

Whether you need a good book to read or liked the movie and want more detail, this is the book to you.It is as fast as it is gruesome, and engaging as it is original.The characters are beleivable and interesting, the buildup wonderful and the payoff rewarding.I have no qualms with this book whatsoever, and highly reccomend it to everyone aside from those with a weak stomach.9/10 ... Read more

Isbn: 0312924585
Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Fiction - Psychological Suspense    3. Mystery & Detective - Women Sleuths    4. Mystery/Suspense    5. Psychological    6. Thrillers    7. Fiction / Thrillers   

In the Cut
by Susanna Moore
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (01 December, 1999)
list price: $12.95 -- our price: $10.36
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Reviews (81)

Characterization (warning--contains spoiler)
Since Susanna Moore opens this brief novel with heavy refs to irony, I suppose it's reasonable enough for her streetwise narrator to get ripped off and then whacked by the very people she should be hip to.

But there needs to be more development of the anonymous narrator to make her shift from skeptic to gullible runoff victim believable.It could be believable if the author hadn't skimped in the middle.There's no development that could make the transition believable, so it's not.There are a lot of wasted words devoted to what could have been a subplot re Cornelius, but this text seemd by the end to have been a poorly-developed red-herring in the detective aspect.This author may have talent but needs to go to the gym.

Beautifully written thriller with a shocker of a climax
I read this book prior to seeing the film, which was not a good representation of the novel.Frannie, the narrator and central character, comes across as a curious mix: mysterious (Is it love she wants?), and yet looking for an erotic-romantic involvement.In the novel, she does get involved with a detective investigating a murder case who very well may turn out to be the murderer.She teaches English in NYC and is writing a work devoted to street slang."In the Cut" refers to a warm place according to the author -- an "intimate" warm place.As the title suggests, it juxtaposes sexuality with violence and it works beautifully, written in exquisite prose with a sure hand.I intend to re-read it to look for more clues.Should you decide to read it, don't let anyone reveal the last 5 pages.I was unsettled for about a week.
Also, the novel is written in first person, heightening the shock of the climax.Not for the sensitive, "In the Cut" is worthy of the accolades it received.The movie, by the way, changes the ending.I'd like to know why.The screenwriters left out the gut-wrenching climax.I was surprised to find out that Ms. Moore, the author, co-wrote the screenplay and obviously decided on the revision.The ending of the novel makes you literally leap out of your seat.

Strange series of musings punctuated with sex
I didn't like this book because it didn't make sense to me.The main character didn't behave in a coherent way and she kept putting herself in risky situations, though she would be the type of person who you would think would be more savvy. It was almost like she was looking for trouble or casual sex.maybe both.The ending was bloody, unexpected and abrupt.It just didn't ring true for me. ... Read more

Isbn: 0452281296
Sales Rank: 136382
Subjects:  1. Detective and mystery stories    2. Fiction    3. Fiction - Psychological Suspense    4. New York (N.Y.)    5. Psychological    6. Suspense    7. Thrillers    8. Women college teachers   

The Invisible Circus : A Novel
by Jennifer Egan
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (15 January, 1996)
list price: $13.00 -- our price: $10.40
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Reviews (42)

Pat Conroy is right
I don't remember ever reading a better portrait of adolescent angst (or whatever that awful despair and loneliness that teens experience is called).Jennifer Egan truly remembers her teenage years well.

But Phoebe's is not your garden variety angst.She is marred by the deaths of her father and her older sister Faith.Her father she worshipped from a distance (as it was his choice). Phoebe also worshipped Faith, but especially after her death, to the point where she borrows the remains of her life: she sleeps in her room, she wears her clothes, she has no identity of her own.

After high school graduation Phoebe goes (escapes) on a journey across Europe, trying to figure out what happened to her sister.Along the way, she runs into her sister's old boyfriend, Wolf, and the pieces of the puzzle fall into place as if by magic.

Everything makes sense after the trip to Italy.Phoebe sheds her previous skin and embraces her new future.Wolf grieves and purges the regrets he had inside.There is a final resolution for everyone involved.

Some of the things i did not like so well about the book:

* At the very beginning, there were times where Phoebe was too adult (when in fact she was 5-6 years old).For example, she got so angry at Faith for diving from the highest board at the country club swimming pool.So young and already able to articulate her jealousy?Another example is when she witnessed her brother Barry ask their dad for help with a machine.The dad, who liberally ignored the two youngest kids, would seem distracted and in consequence disappoint Barry.Phoebe is able to express in her mind how Barry shouldn't even go there, as "she pitied her brother and wanted no part of his weakness".

* Why does Barry make a fortune in Silicon Valley about a decade too soon?

* Phoebe's encounter with Wolf is too contrived.Europe is huge for this chancy meeting to take place.

Some of the things i truly loved:

* Phoebe in all her awkwardness.She can be a total brat, she can be sensitive and pure in a way that only children can.

* I loved the analysis of the Hippie Generation of the 60s.What happened to the ideals?What happens when you grow older and look back?The loss of innocence was devastating for Faith.

* The cover, the tattered photograph of the two girls held together by tape.

* The end.It was perfect, it was devoid of sentimentality, and I loved it for that.

When i read Look at Me (which i really liked), i searched for the author on the web.I found her website.I wrote a note saying i enjoyed the book very much, and that hoped to attend any talks taking place in my area.Jennifer Egan herself replied (very cool!) and thanked me for the comments and said that as she's from the Bay Area she tends to stop by often. I was very surprised, but after all, writers write, so what's one e-mail more?

B-O-R-I-N-G
I could only make it half way through this book.It is so "day in the life of".Rather than slugging through the last half I decided to rent the movie rather than waste my time.I've now started "Look At Me", I hope this book by Jennifer Egan has more depth and will hold my interest.

Haunting
I read this book by accident - and glad I did.
It's full of nosaltialy sences from the girl's 60s Childhood, with her sister and her frineds.
Though at times, it's overwelming you want to cry and be happy but another twist ensures.
I highly suggest this to anyone's libarary. You can't foget this book...it never really ends or begins. ... Read more

Isbn: 0312140908
Sales Rank: 48962
Subjects:  1. Death    2. Fiction    3. Fiction - General    4. General    5. Hippies    6. Sisters    7. Teenage girls    8. Fiction / General    9. Reading Group Guide   

Speaking With the Angel
by Nick Hornby
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (06 February, 2001)
list price: $13.95 -- our price: $11.16
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Editorial Review

There are lots of reasons to buy Speaking with the Angel, an anthology of first-person narratives by bright, young, mostly British literati: these are smart and original stories, none of them previously published elsewhere. What's more, it's for a good cause. Nick Hornby, editor of the collection and author of one of the pieces, has an autistic son, and in a raw and wrenching introduction he stresses the importance of educational institutions to serve such children, who "have no language, and no particular compulsion to acquire it, who are born without the need to explore the world." Accordingly, a portion of each sale benefits autism charities around the world.

Still, this is a collection that stands on its own merits, and requires no act of charity to purchase. In Roddy Doyle's "The Slave," for example, a 42-year-old family man discovers a dead rat on his kitchen floor, and this unwelcome incursion from the natural world plunges him into a midlife crisis. In "Last Requests," Giles Smith introduces us to a prison cook who specializes in, well, last suppers. It's both hilarious and shocking to encounter this egomaniacal chef on the job:

They can have what they like, within reason, up to a maximum of three courses, with coffee or tea and a piece of confectionary or a biscuit if they want it. No alcohol, for obvious reasons. Obviously, you'll get the jokers, like the one who said he wanted a whole roast pig with an apple in its mouth. Or the governor's head, one of them said he wanted.

Elsewhere, in Hornby's own "NippleJesus," a skinhead bouncer becomes a museum guard and falls for the painting he's charged to protect, a crucifixion collage made up of thousands of tiny breasts cut out of porn magazines. The stories in Speaking with the Angel all feel up to the minute, abounding with references to politics and popular culture. Yet the obscenity and slang ultimately amount to a form of bluster, an acknowledgement of the intrinsic fragility that all 12 of these narrators share. --Victoria Jenkins ... Read more

Reviews (52)

Cool stories by hip writers
I think Nick Hornby is the coolest writer in the World today. This compilation was a way for me to find out other writers who are as cool as Nick. I wasn't disappointed. Here is my review of the short stories:

PMQ: Wonderful comedy piece about a Prime Minister's wild night out.

The Wonder Spot: Kind of too "New York Hipster" for me, but still a nice read.

Last Request: Great story. Mix of a serious topic with a light point of view.

Peter Shelley: Funny story about a boy losing his virginity. My favorite story in the book.

The Department of Nothing: Not bad, but a bit too sentimental for the tone of the book. This was my least favorite story. I wouldn't say Colin Firth should keep his day job, but hey, his day job is awesome.

I'm the Only One: Very short and a bit unsatisfying story about a kid's getting a visit from a super-tall friend. I still liked it.

NippleJesus: My second favorite story. A blue-collar man (a bodyguard) who admires an artsy-fartsy museum piece. Really funny.

After I was Thrown in The River...: I particularly didn't care much for this dog. My second least favorite.

LuckyBitch and The Slave: Both are about middle aged people. One seen from a woman's point of view and other from a man's. Both are equally a riot.

Catholic Guilt: My third favorite story, and being from Irvine Welsh, is also the edgiest. A homophobic hooligan gets his afterlife punishment. Simply hilarious.

Walking into the Wind: Just when I thought I couldn't laugh any harder comes this story about a mime to finish it off.

20-minute doses
With "High Fidelity" and "About a Boy" as two of my favorite books, it was Hornby's name that drew me to this anthology, though the other contributing authors are certainly not unrecognized.

I enjoyed each of this book's twelve stories, but a few in particular stood out. Hornby's "Nipple Jesus" was my favorite. In it, a security guard charged with protecting a controversial work of art - a beautiful depiction of the crucifiction that, upon close inspection, is seen to be composed of a collage of pornographic photos - wrestles with questions of whether or not the piece is really art and whether or not he really wants to guard it. The story forced me to examine similar questions as to what I felt constituted art. I was left thinking that it would have made a great bit of reading for a Philosophy of Art class.

Other memorable stories were "Last Requests" by Giles Smith, in which a prison cook ruminates upon preparing last meals for death row inmates; "The Slave" by Roddy Doyle, in which a man tries to slowly ween himself from paranoia after nearly stepping on the carcass of a giant rat in front of his refrigerator; and "Catholic Guilt" by Irvine Welsh, where a man gets his just deserves for beating a homosexual. Each of these stories went beyond merely providing entertainment, and led me to think as well.

Oddly enough, the least enjoyable stories were the first and the last in the collection - "PMQ" from Robbert Harris and "Walking into the Wind" from John O'Farrell. It's not that these two were poor entries - they were both solidly readable - they just didn't seem to have the zing of the other selections.

But with that small detraction as my biggest complaint, I have no hesitation in recommending "Speaking With the Angel." It's perfect for digesting in 20-minute doses, providing a dozen opportunities to, at least, briefly escape and, at best, to make you think.

Nick Hornby is God
This book is full of wonderfull short stories. Many of which are deeply funny. One is from the mind of a dog, another about a Chef that delivers last requests to prisoners about to be executed, and of course Nick Hornbys Nipple Jesus. I am not a huge fan os short stories but i knew this would be good since Nick Hornby was the author and i was not let down. A very good fun read. ... Read more

Isbn: 1573228583
Subjects:  1. Anthologies (multiple authors)    2. Fiction    3. Fiction - General    4. First person narrative    5. Monologues    6. Short Stories (Anthologies)    7. Short stories    8. Short stories, American    9. Short stories, English   

The Human Stain : A Novel
by PHILIP ROTH
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (08 May, 2001)
list price: $14.95 -- our price: $10.17
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Editorial Review

Athena College was snoozing complacently in the Berkshires until Coleman Silk--formerly "Silky Silk," undefeated welterweight pro boxer--strode in and shook the place awake. This faculty dean sacked the deadwood, made lots of hot new hires, including Yale-spawned literary-theory wunderkind Delphine Roux, and pissed off so many people for so many decades that now, in 1998, they've all turned on him. Silk's character assassination is partly owing to what the novel's narrator, Nathan Zuckerman, calls "the Devil of the Little Place--the gossip, the jealousy, the acrimony, the boredom, the lies."

But shocking, intensely dramatized events precipitate Silk's crisis. He remarks of two students who never showed up for class, "Do they exist or are they spooks?" They turn out to be black, and lodge a bogus charge of racism exploited by his enemies. Then, at 71, Viagra catapults Silk into "the perpetual state of emergency that is sexual intoxication," and he ignites an affair with an illiterate janitor, Faunia Farley, 34. She's got a sharp sensibility, "the laugh of a barmaid who keeps a baseball bat at her feet in case of trouble," and a melancholy voluptuousness. "I'm back in the tornado," Silk exults. His campus persecutors burn him for it--and his main betrayer is Delphine Roux.

In a short space, it's tough to convey the gale-force quality of Silk's rants, or the odd effect of Zuckerman's narration, alternately retrospective and torrentially in the moment. The flashbacks to Silk's youth in New Jersey are just as important as his turbulent forced retirement, because it turns out that for his entire adult life, Silk has been covering up the fact that he is a black man. (If this seems implausible, consider that the famous New York Times book critic Anatole Broyard did the same thing.) Young Silk rejects both the racism that bars him from Woolworth's counter and the Negro solidarity of Howard University. "Neither the they of Woolworth's nor the we of Howard" is for Coleman Silk. "Instead the raw I with all its agility. Self-discovery--that was the punch to the labonz....Self-knowledge but concealed. What is as powerful as that?"

Silk's contradictions power a great Philip Roth novel, but he's not the only character who packs a punch. Faunia, brutally abused by her Vietnam vet husband (a sketchy guy who seems to have wandered in from a lesser Russell Banks novel), scarred by the death of her kids, is one of Roth's best female characters ever. The self-serving Delphine Roux is intriguingly (and convincingly) nutty, and any number of minor characters pop in, mouth off, kick ass, and vanish, leaving a vivid sense of human passion and perversity behind. You might call it a stain. --Tim Appelo ... Read more

Reviews (162)

The cost of hypocrisy
The Human Stain is a powerful and multi-leveled indictment of human hypocrisy.The initial plot element hinges on the hypocrisy of political correctness on a college campus.Coleman Silk, the central character, is driven from the campus where he has been a distinguished dean and professor because he has uttered the word "spooks", which is intentionally misconstrued as a racial epithet.His enemies and those who stand to gain by his downfall use this to achieve their own personal ends behind a mask of false piety.This enrages Coleman Silk, but not for the reasons the reader might expect.

Coleman Silk, like the novel itself, turns out to be far more complex than seems at first sight.There are hidden depths and passageways in Silk's biography (which is largely what this novel is) and not a little hypocrisy too, although he is a mainly sympathetic character.The Human Stain is not about black and white, it's about shades of gray. As always, Roth's writing is superb when he focuses on the details of his characters' stories, on how each of his characters became who they are.And, as always, his characters face and make moral choices, some conscious and some not, which have unforeseen consequences.

Although this is a five-star novel in many ways, I have deducted one star for what I think are two flaws in the book.The first is in Roth's attempt to set this study in hypocrisy against the backdrop of the national orgy of hypocrisy that was the Clinton "impeachment" of 1998.Although I am sympathetic to Roth's polemical point, I think it has a taste of just that, polemics, and that it doesn't add much to the novel.In any case, it's only a minor presence.The second flaw is more serious: I didn't find the central female character, Coleman Silk's lover, Faunia, believable.Roth's somewhat weird attempts to render her stream-of-consciousness thoughts on crows and other topics are not convincing; she never comes to life as more than a reflection of Coleman Silk's own desires and psychology.

That said, this novel is well worth reading.The final scene alone, a man ice-fishing in a secluded wilderness pond, a scene whose surface beauty and peacefulness conceals, as the ice on the pond's surface conceals the water, violence, fear, hatred, and everything that makes man "the human stain", is itself worth the price of admission.Perhaps this concluding scene ironically suggested the title of Roth's next book, American Pastoral.

Good themes, wordy sentences, can you read between the lines
Philip Roth's novel The Human Stain has some great qualitites and some not so great ones. The story itself is very interest. A very ironic story that includes a black college professor passing as a white jewish man who calls out two students who have been missing from class. He calls them "spooks." But, with Coleman being a black man, this should not be a big deal. The story continues with Coleman losing his job, his wife, and almost his reason for living. He then finds refuge in a young uneduacted girl, Faunia. The thing that bothered me was that all he had to do was tell everybody the truth, and he might have not lost his job. I guess that was the point Roth was trying to make, that passing, for Coleman, was a very important issue. The other bad part of the novel is that Roth wrties very long and drawn out sentences. Sometimes his paragraphs would go on for pages. All in all, it was a very interesting book to read. If you have the time, I would recommend it.

Ripped off from Law & Order? Maybe a little.
The core element of this story and even some of the conversations in it were done in an episode of Law and Order called Blood (11/19/97).

However, it wasn't what I'd call a rip off really. Perhaps Herr Roth was inspired by the idea and wanted to see what else would come from a life of lies like this.

Here's a discription of Blood (Caution: May spoil part of Book)
The paternity of a black baby given up for adoption by a white mother might provide a clue to her murderer, but it also unearths some long, buried family secrets that the baby's father was desperately trying to hide.


... Read more

Isbn: 0375726349
Subjects:  1. African American men    2. College teachers    3. Fiction    4. Fiction - General    5. Literary    6. Newark (N.J.)    7. Passing (Identity)    8. Fiction / Literary    9. Reading Group Guide   

Black Water (Plume Contemporary Fiction)
by Joyce Carol Oates
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (01 May, 1993)
list price: $13.00 -- our price: $10.40
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Reviews (56)

Suffocation by Manipulated Narrative Structure
"Black Water" is one of Joyce Carol Oates' masterpieces.Being predisposed to lean toward her short fiction, I was surprised to find myself so in love with this book.

To answer a few questions, yes it does bring to mind a certain senator who is a member of "America's Royal Family."And yes, it does completely abandon the traditional guidelines for storytelling.

Howecer, only a truly magnificent writer can take these rules and throw them out the window with such skill.This novel begins with its central character drowning in a car accident.In fact, every single chapter details the exact same event.Oates' tale is like a memory.We are looking at the same thing over and over until we finally understand its origin.

This is not the only truly amazing thing about "Black Water."Oates makes us drown too.This is something that is said all too often about way too many writers; however, in this case, it would be true.It brings to mind earlier work.I find myself reminiscing over the way I felt for Connie when I first read "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?"I am excited to see how fast she will make my heart beat in the future.

Someone's little girl
Joyce Carol Oates has produced a relatively tasteful rendition of a tragedy filling U.S. headlines.She uses her imagination and writerly skills to reconstruct whatcould have happened.The story is told from the point of view of the young woman, victim, who catches the attention of the charismatic liberal political figure at a holiday party.Tellingly, the political figure and the accident victim share the same Irish-American identity.The young woman in Oates's story has an expectation the political figure will return to the scene of the accident and save her.

A True Look at Politicians
People say this novel is about Ted and Mary Jo which is correct to a degree. However, it is also about the extraordinary efforts elected representitives will go to save their own hides when things go badly for them both privately and publicly. We saw that in 1969 and are seeing that now in regard to Iraq. Joyce Carol Oates is not only a great writer but also a woman who has enormous prescience and perception of the troubled world we live in. ... Read more

Isbn: 0452269865
Sales Rank: 255006
Subjects:  1. Drowning victims    2. Fiction    3. Fiction - General    4. General    5. Legislators    6. Literary    7. Livres a clef    8. Young women   

Valencia
by Michelle Tea
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (01 May, 2000)
list price: $13.00 -- our price: $10.40
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Editorial Review

You don't have to be part of the emerging postpunk subculture of queer urban girls to relish this smooth ride of a novel, like Kathy Acker on Prozac on a sunny day, in which many exciting things happen without affecting much of anything, and one of the most profound moments is a mild, drug-induced insight into the meaninglessness of life. Michelle, the main character, is a person for whom blue hair is as big a style change as blue pants. She lurches between women, more in love with the idea of love than with Iris or Willa or Gwynne or Petra. Her work experiences are equally brief, although she can't bring herself to actually quit jobs. She just stops showing up. "Are you going to work?" her current lover asks one morning.

No, I was not going to work. I was an artist, a lover, a lover of women, of the oppressed and downtrodden, a warrior really. I should have been somewhere leading an armed revolution in the name of love and no, I was not going to work. Willa didn't work. I mean, she did, but it's a stretch to call it work. She bartended at a dyke bar a few nights a week, drank free beer, and bummed all her cigarettes.... All week she was free, writing angsty brilliant poems, drawing comic books, painting gigantic painful pictures, you know, living. I wanted to live.

Michelle Tea's characters are a peculiar fin-de-siècle blend of jaded idealists and thoughtful egotists: sex workers, poets, and mad hatters who end up making breakfast for roomfuls of stoned strangers. The occasional flash of clarity doesn't alter the basically anarchic nature of Tea's meandering narrative, so much like the tales of an incidental figure from Valencia, a loud redhead named Iggy who told stories "so incredible you wondered if they were true but ultimately didn't care because you were so enraptured by her grand gestures and re-enactments." --Regina Marler ... Read more

Reviews (25)

A mixed bag if ever there was..
This book is incredibly difficult to review, simply because it is both the best and worst piece of writing you are likely to read this year.

You desperately want to like this book because of it's innovatively and beautifully written prose and its blindingly obvious potential. However, in the end, the bad repetitive and completely dull elements of this story win out above the interesting writing and all else that this book may offer.

Like a dykey 'Fear and Loathing in Los Vegas', Tea's stream of consciousness narrative examines the underbelly of 20th century Lesbianism in San Fransisco. While this is a fascinating subject, Tea manages to inject the work with such unbearable repetition ('We were all on drugs', 'I was avoiding this girl', 'My green hair', 'This girl kissed me in the bathroom' etc etc) and works so hard to push this book to the very edge of the lesbian counterculture.

Was I meant to sympathise? Was I meant to care about this woman and her relationship/alcohol/drug issues? Probably not, but if I don't care about the subject of a book, I am unlikely to see it through to its conclusion to find out what happens. As many other reviewers have suggested, I couldn't help but wonder why this repetitive tale necessiated an entire book.

Nevertheless, I did stick with the mindless drug-hazed oblivion that was the conclusion, and came out none the wiser, but merely feeling as if Tea had played to a number of lesbian tropes and wasted my time on her drugs, mindless sex and green hair and latex gloves.

But nevertheless, beautiful prose never realised.

Interesting once, boring twice.
This memoir follows Michelle Tea's endless train of thought through a series of, for her, day-to-day activites in and around the Mission district of San Francisco.Her cloyingly self-aware run-on sentences beg of you, the reader, to think of her as the dykiest punk dyke in Dykesville.You can just see her at the Lexington Club, standing drunk on a stool shouting "I'm the greatest!", while everyone else in the bar expresses their utter boredom.

A summary:Ms. Tea drinks a lot, does various drugs, knows a lot of people, feels lots of feelings about girls, works as a prostitute for awhile, dyes her hair green.There you go.

I followed the trend within the queer scene when "Valencia" was first published, heralding it as genius & thrilling and calling Michelle Tea a "poet of our times". I have since waned in that opinion. Each subsequent time I read the book, it is more cold, detached, and self-centered.Like so many other cellophane-thin components of homocore/queercore, "Valencia" does not resonate with any lingering importance.

Pointless and depressing
I bought this book expecting an enjoyable, story of a young lesbian's life in San Francisco. Instead, I found a completely incoherent nonstory filled with drugs, unenjoyed [intercourse], more drugs, wasted minds, and a lot of unfocused behavior that can be described as "anti-life." I'm a 21-year-old lesbian myself, so I'm supposedly a member of the audience Tea is writing for, but I find almost nothing to identify with in this book. I feel sorry for anyone whose life is as meaningless as that described in this "novel." ... Read more

Isbn: 1580050352
Subjects:  1. Bildungsromane    2. Fiction    3. Fiction - General    4. Gay/Lesbian Nonfiction    5. Lesbian    6. Lesbians    7. Love stories    8. San Francisco (Calif.)   

Woman : An Intimate Geography
by NATALIE ANGIER
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (15 February, 2000)
list price: $15.00 -- our price: $10.20
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Editorial Review

Despite scientific evidence to the contrary, as far as the health care profession is concerned the standard operating design of the human body is male. So when a book comes along as beautifully written and endlessly informative as Natalie Angier's Woman: An Intimate Geography, it's a cause for major celebration. Written with whimsy and eloquence, her investigation into female physiology draws its inspiration not only from scientific and medical sources but also from mythology, history, art, and literature, layering biological factoids with her own personal encounters and arcane anecdotes from the history of science. Who knew, for example, that the clitoris--with 8,000 nerve fibers--packs double the pleasure of the penis; that the gene controlling cellular sensitivity to male androgens, ironically enough, resides on the X-chromosome; or that stress hormones like cortisol and corticosterone are the true precursors of friendship?

The mysteries of evolution are not a new subject for Angier, a Pulitzer Prize-winning biology writer for the New York Times whose previous books include The Beauty of the Beastly and Natural Obsessions. The strengths of Woman begin with Angier's witty and evocative prose style, but its real contribution is the way it expands the definition of female "geography" beyond womb, breasts, and estrogen, down as far as the bimolecular substructure of DNA and up as high as the transcendent infrastructure of the human brain. --Patrizia DiLucchio ... Read more

Reviews (130)

Not worth the time
I would hope that this book is a joke. I have never read something that does so little for women. We do not have to worry about men giving women a bad name, this book does it just fine. This book is mostly written in a crude and vulgar tone that will turn off most readers. For example, the author refers to a whale penis as a "ten foot rod," and made a comment that states that women should be asexual and procreate by themselves. So much for gender equality! We are going backwards here.

wonderful, i urge this on males & females.
while, as some other reviewers have stated, all of this information can be found in college texts, medical reports and other data-sources these are not formats the average person finds nearby or is used to reading.

this book puts the information easily and comfortably into a reader's hands, while not over-simplifying or dumbing-down.

it gives more information than most casual readers would ever come across in one book and in a manner that is clear, interesting, in-depth, and makes one Want to find out more about the female body.

slow in parts, riveting in others.a MUST to read for both sexes.

Fills a much needed niche
This delightfully simplistic book serves to fill a vital niche for the readership of so many mainstream Americans today, who not having either the ability or patience to read anything more difficult beyond an 11th grade reading level, will be readily satisfied with an equally simplistic prose and presentation of material.In essence, Woman paints a biological narrative around the vagina.Flowering, camp prose, as well as amusing attempts at the poetic fill page after page, as a female-empowered portrayal of the supposedly unique biology of womanhood is presented.Issues of breast size and sensitivity, strength of orgasm, and, especially, the supremacy of the clitoris is majorly and heavily emphasized.This book is highly recommended for young girls just starting puberty, as well as those women who while physically beyond puberty, shall we say, suffer from a delayed adolescence and have not quite reached an emotional and psychological maturity.The book will definitely appeal to the Cosmo-"girl" readership, as well as those requiring a "scientific" validation and praise of female physiology.This book will be of special help to women who weren't hugged enough as children, who grew up in a household with an emotionally aloof or absent father or mother, who have felt otherwise second best to maleness or have felt disgust or regret over their femaleness.On the other hand, mature minded, naturally confident, intelligent women, not needing a trite Oprah-and-Doctor-Phill-like good-feel rhetoric, who genuinely relish in their sensuality, and see their femaleness as a vital part of but not the whole of their existence will most likely find the book filled with boring and condescending tripe.Still, this is a major triumph for someone such as Ms. Angier, who although only has a bachelor's degree in English and not holding of any advanced degree in any field of science, has managed to nevertheless present herself as an authority on topics that usually takes other men and women many years to reach an unpretentious mastery of understan