Notes from Underground

Book Description

Dostoevsky’s most revolutionary novel, Notes from Underground marks the dividing line between nineteenth- and twentieth-century fiction, and between the visions of self each century embodied. One of the most remarkable characters in literature, the unnamed narrator is a former official who has defiantly withdrawn into an underground existence. In full retreat from society, he scrawls a passionate, obsessive, self-contradictory narrative that serves as a devastating attack on social utopianism and an assertion of man’s essentially irrational nature.

Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, whose Dostoevsky translations have become the standard, give us a brilliantly faithful edition of this classic novel, conveying all the tragedy and tormented comedy of the original.

From the Hardcover edition.

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I am a sick man. ... I am a spiteful man. I am an unattractive man. I believe my liver is diseased. However, I know nothing at all about my disease, and do not know for certain what ails me. I don't consult a doctor for it, and never have, though I have a respect for medicine and doctors. Besides, I am extremely superstitious, sufficiently so to respect medicine, anyway (I am well-educated enough not to be superstitious, but I am superstitious). No, I refuse to consult a doctor from spite. That you probably will not understand. Well, I understand it, though. Of course, I can't explain who it is precisely that I am mortifying in this case by my spite: I am perfectly well aware that I cannot "pay out" the doctors by not consulting them; I know better than anyone that by all this I am only injuring myself and no one else. But still, if I don't consult a doctor it is from spite. My liver is bad, well - let it get worse! I have been going on like that for a long time - twenty years. Now I am forty. I used to be in the government service, but am no longer. I was a spiteful official. I was rude and took pleasure in being so. I did not take bribes, you see, so I was bound to find a recompense in that, at least. (A poor jest, but I will not scratch it out. I wrote it thinking it would sound very witty; but now that I have seen myself that I only wanted to show off in a despicable way, I will not scratch it out on purpose!)

Customer Reviews:

Not for the faint of heart.......2007-10-06

First, I thought that the translation was very readable and strongly commend it.

Notes from Underground was not a particularly fun or entertaining book, but Dostoevsky is at his best as he takes us inside the mind of his unnamed narrator. The plot is essentially non-existent, or at least non-essential, but the book is not about plot; it is about the narrator. He is loathsome, detestable. However, too often the his harried and contradicting thoughts are alarmingly familiar. Unlike the modern fashion of reveling in the weaknesses or the humanity of our heroes, Notes from Underground will not allow us romanticize the frailty of human beings. His goal is to shock the reader by self-observation. As the narrator reminds us, "...a novel needs a hero, and here there are purposely collected all the features for an anti-hero, and, in the first place, all this will produce a most unpleasant impression, because we've all grown unaccustomed to life, we're all lame, each of us more or less." I recommend reading it with a healthy dose of introspection.

Starts slowly, but finishes strong.......2007-09-24

" . . . it's hardly literature so much as a corrective punishment."

While reading Part I of "Notes from Underground," you'll undoubtedly get the same feeling. The first third of the novel is a practice in rambling conjecture, as the protagonist of the novel, the "Underground Man", espouses his thoughts and beliefs on his miserable and embittered life. However, Part II picks up interest as Dostoyevsky presents a short, yet powerful, story of this castaway and how he become so alienated from "real" life.

Without a doubt, the protagonist is a haughty, arrogant erudite who feels himself superior to others. Set in 1860s St. Petersburg, the protagonist immerses himself in Romantic literature and comes to view the world through these unrealistic novels. Yet, in practice he fails to act upon any of the noble ideals set forth in the novels and comes to despise himself. His self-loathing and self-pity manifests itself into a vile existence, where self-delusion and an active imagination takes the place of real social interaction in the outside world. Although the protagonist later derides a prostitute on her doomed existence, it is he who is doomed to an early death with no mourners at his funeral.

While the first part of the novel is a droll treatise on his twisted philosophy, the second part details the protagonist's pitiful attempts at maintain dignity and self-worth. Although he thinks highly of himself, his delusions of grandeur are quickly squashed by those who do not care about his existence, such as an officer who barely notices him as he pushes him out of the way everyday.

Perhaps most disturbing is the protagonist's stance on love. To him, love is not about a mutual respect and caring for each other, but is merely a sadomasochistic game of power and domination. To him, being loved means allowing another to tyrannize and control yourself. The loving relationship must include a domineering partner and a submissive partner. Indeed, the protagonist is incapable of real love and quickly repels any hope of love.

Overall, "Notes From Underground" delivers a poignant psychological case study of an individual far removed from society, who despises everyone and thinks there is a cabal of conspirators to subjugate him to his poverty-stricken existence. Written almost 150 years ago, this novel is still relevant today. Most of us, myself included, have certain qualities of the "Underground Man" espoused in this novel, as it is hard not to become alienated and hardened in modern society. Once again, if you can slug your way through the tedious Part I, you are rewarded in the end.

The more times you read this the more you will see..........2007-04-06

This is one of those books that would be suitable for multiple readings, each time coming away with more than you had the last.

Fabulous book. The first part had me very frustrated. It's stream of consciousness writing, and frankly I can't always follow my own stream of consciousness so Dostoyevsky's lost me a bit. But that is only the first 28 pages (in the edition I have).

In the second part "A propos of wet snow" it really picks up. The underground man is very much the anti-hero. He is just not a good person, the kind we all hope we aren't. Whats funny though is that in an overexaggerated sense he could be all of us. I don't want to give too much away here.....

Near the end of the book, when he meets Liza is the most interesting part in my opinion. Through out the entire book he claims to be honest with himself, but it seems like his conversation with Liza is the only time in which he actually is honest. This is short lived however, as he leaves in a hurry and draws back...

I am not going to tell you much more...I believe that is what the editor's review is for....Great book...you will understand why Dostoyevsky is one of the greats!

Check Out OtherTranslations First..........2007-03-29

This edition of "Notes from Underground" is lauded by various publications as masterful, definitve, and a great restoration, but I'm not sure I agree. I bought this edition because I'd lost a version I'd owned years earlier. Before I bought this one, I should have sought out the version I'd owned (which I think was a Penguin Classic edition).

In the first paragraph of the editon I'd owned, the "liver" sentence was translated as, "I think there is something wrong with my liver."

Here, it's translated as "I think my liver hurts."

It seems to me that the former translation of this sentence is superior, because it conveys a kind of mental illness (hypochondriasis) that I think Dostoevsky intended. The matter of whether there's something wrong with the protagonist's liver is left in the shadows.

Whereas, if the sentence is translated, "I think my liver hurts," it leaves the matter in doubt as to whether something really is wrong with his liver, doesn't it?

It's unfortunate that this translation occurs in the first paragraph. For me, the first paragraph of a novel is second in importance only to the first sentence.

I regret to say that I lost interest in reading this translation immediately after reading the "I think my liver hurts," sentence.

Notes.......2007-03-03

Dostoevsky uses Notes From Underground to criticise the idea that reason will produce a perfect society. He believes man to be an imperfect fallen being capable of irrational acts as well as noble ones. He uses symbols like a piano key to argue against determinism, an anthill to plead for individuality, and mathematical tables to cry against the notion that everything about humans can be precisely answered. The Underground Man of this novel has many contradictory impulses and he lives in a fog of self contempt. This sounds kind of bleak but this is the funniest novel Dostoevsky ever penned. The UM rather than submit to the "law of reason" that dictates that only doctors and dentists can cure liver disease and toothaches prefers to suffer his ailments. He is incredibly impulsive and can't make up his mind because as he says he is too conscious. The UM is able to imagine the plethora of consequences that every action might have, and he is conscious of the different motives that inform every decision he tries to make. At the beginning of a really funny segment the UM says "One night as I was passing a tavern I saw through a lighted window some gentlemen fighting with billiard cues, and saw one of them thrown out of the window. At other times I should have felt very much disgusted, but I was in such a mood at the time, that I actually envied the gentleman thrown out of the window -- and I envied him so much that I even went into the tavern and into the billiard-room. "Perhaps," I thought, "I'll have a fight, too, and they'll throw me out of the window." You will probably notice that it seems to be always snowing in the UM's world. This snow serves to set the dark alienated atmosphere of underground life and links the two main sections of the novel together. The wet falling snow at the end of the first section triggers a memory of an incident in the UM's past and we take a look at his past in the second section. Near the close of the novel the UM tells us "for we are all divorced from life... Look into it more carefully! Why, we don't even know what living means now... Leave us alone without books and we shall be lost and in confusion at once." In the end it seems the real underground is in a mind incessantly clinging to thoughts and opinions. The thoughts of this paradoxalist reviewer do not end here, however. I cannot refrain from going on with them, but it seems to me that you may stop here.

Notes from Underground; The Double (Penguin Classics)

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Two literary gems from the pen of pyschological realism master Fyodor Dostoevsky
Existentialist Literature
A few comments and an interesting fact
Contrasting Tales
Mixture of literary and philosophical value

Notes from Underground; The Double (Penguin Classics)
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0140442529

Product Description

Unabridged audiobook in MP3 format.

Customer Reviews:

Two literary gems from the pen of pyschological realism master Fyodor Dostoevsky.......2007-07-11

Penguin classic has included two of Fyodor Dostoevsky's greatest short pieces of fiction in one volume.
"Notes from Underground" was published in 1864 shortly before the novelist produced his classic novel "Crime and Punishment". This shorter work informs the characterization of Raskolnikov in "Crime and Punishment." The anonymous narrator presents himself in print as a person who is deeply disillusioned with his life. He is a failure in life, love and quest for meaning in a St. Petersburg fog of bureacracy and poverty. He meets a prostitute named Lisa but she disappears in a swirling St. Petersburg fog. He views himself as an "insect". The work is a precursor of such works as Franz Kafka's "Metamorphosis" in which the main charcter is turned into a beetle. Dostoevsky is not for those seeking a cheerful, sunlit read on a lovely beach! The narrator of the tale is very skeptical of human goodness. He is distrustful of everyone believing that life is a succession of troubles until the final chapter ends in the obscurity of the grave.
The early story "The Double" is the most interesting of the two included in this Penguin Classics Edition. The tale focuses on a nonentity named Golyadkin who is tortured by the appearance of a man who is his exact image! (He is called Goldyadkin Jr!). Golyadkin is a wretch of an individual. He reminds this reader of a character out of Gogol who specialized in portraying the lives of St. Petersburg's poor caught in the web of Tsarist governmental ministries. The tale ends in a macabre way as Golyadkin is taken away to what is, probably, a mental institution.
Does Golyadkin Jr. exist or is he a figment of the imagination of Golyadkin Sr? We not know. This tale is written as the fog of St. Petersburg wraps the main character in obscurity and despair.
These two tales are good introductions to Dostoevsky's shorter fiction. The themes evident in these tales are:
a. A feeling of despairing anomie
b. A person who believes he is trapped like an insect in the webs of modern society.
c. A belief that life is difficult, complex and often confusing to ordinary people.

Existentialist Literature.......2007-05-31

Dostoyevsky's 'Notes from Underground,' is often called the first truly existential work of literature in the history of the west. Yet I think it is read today for the very seem reasons we always read Dostoevsky: for his command over intensity, his genuine and masterly sense of atmosphere, and his ability to psychologize those who are suffering. 'Notes from Underground,' is a true masterpiece in that it recreates the truth of genuine alienation and hatred. It laid the basis for all great works of existential art to follow, from the Stranger to Taxi Driver. Truly a dark gem of European literature.

I found the Double, by contrast, to be rather tired and uninteresting. Perhaps it is because Kakfa and Freud has handled the theme of the doppelganger far more interestingly. I found it difficult to get into this one. It seems to me that the translation rang a little flat in comparison to Notes. Nevertheless, its an entertaining read, though one could never put it in the same class as great Dostoyevsky.

A few comments and an interesting fact.......2004-03-01

Dostoyevski's underground man character, although conceived in 1864, presages by more than 50 years the alienation and disaffection that became so widespread in the 20th century, especially in the so-called "lost generation" that grew up between the two world wars. As such, it became the pattern for generations of other literary anti-heroes whose existential angst was to reverberate through literature for the next hundred years and beyond. Overall, still a great classic and one whose philosophical and literary influences still resonate today.

Dostoyevsky is of interest for another reason that has only recently come to the attention of medical science. Based on the notes in his diaries, Dostoyevsky may have had the very unusual neurological condition known as temporal-lobe epilepsy. This form of epilepsy produces no motor convulsions or seizures as in the classical Jacksonian epilepsy that is so well known. Rather, the effects are on the person's mental and emotional state.

In his notebooks Dostoyevsky reported experiencing visions and emotional states of such an intense nature, saying that that were so ecstatic that one would be willing give up one's life to experience it one more time, that it seems likely he did indeed have this rare neurological syndrome. It can produce intensely vivid imagery and visions, and ecstatic and euphoric emotional states. However, in some cases, it also produces uncontrollable rage and violence, but it appears that Dostoyevsky had the more pleasant and benign form of this disease.

Having studied the excerpts from his diaries describing these experiences and compared them to contemporary patients who have been diagnosed with the disease, the evidence seems compelling to me too that he did indeed have this condition. How it ultimately affected his writing I don't know, but perhaps this will be something that will enable us to gain further insight into his writings in the future.

Contrasting Tales.......2003-11-26

The book comprises two novellas.

"Notes from the Underground" is a strange, puzzling tale, a confession of an unnamed character. He rails against traits in modern thought which attempt to rationale human existence - this, in his view, is essentially futile in that it cannot alter humankind's true nature. Yet the paradox is that if humans adhere to their true nature, then their atavistic brutality and destructiveness come to the fore. As if to illustrate this, in the second part of the novella, the character acts in a deliberately cruel manner to other characters in the novel. "Notes" is more of a philosophical piece than a novel of entertainment. Nonetheless, it's interesting in that it might at least partly open the way to interpretation of Dostoyevsky's later works.

"The Double" on the other hand, is pure entertainment. The official Golyadkin's life is destroyed gradually following the appearance of his double. The story is either a nightmare, or an puzzle (is there really a double, or does the double represent the other side of Golyadkin's nature?). "The Double" is written in a lively style (or it might be better to say is translated in a lively style) which makes it a pleasure to read. Yet, due to the fact that many other writers (such as RL Stevenson and Kafka) have explored similar themes, it might seem a little familiar.

G Rodgers

Mixture of literary and philosophical value.......2002-02-26

"The Double" is a delightful tale written very much in the manner of Gogol. In his "Lectures on Russian Literature," Nabokov says, "The very best thing he [Dostoyevsky] ever wrote seems to me to be 'The Double.' It is the story -- told very elaborately, in great, almost Joycean detail ..., and in a style intensely saturated with phonetic and rhythmical expressiveness -- of a government clerk who goes mad, obsessed by the idea that a fellow clerk has usurped his identity. It is a perfect work of art, that story ...." But Nabokov does not think so well of Dostoyevsky's other works. He finds his work wanting both in art and in genius. Dostoyevsky was too much influenced by mystery and sentimental novels.

Perhaps Nabokov's dismissal of "Notes from Underground" is appropriate from a purely literary point of view, but the novel is of interest from a philosophical point of view. In the first part of the novel, the narrator is speaking to an imaginary audience. The narrator is obsessed with free will and is at pains to argue against the Enlightenment view that freedom and happiness are complementary. He is spiteful, not from some personality disorder, but rather from his philosophy. The second part involves detailed, and at times humorous, remembered humiliations. And then the noble prostitute. As Nabokov says at this point, "The conversations are very garrulous and very poor, but please go on to the bitter end. Some of you may like it more than I do."

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Note from the Underground (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Scott Lobdell , and Fabian Nicieza
Manufacturer: Dark Horse
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1569718881

Book Description

This volume collects Buffy newcomer Scott Lobdell's (X-men, Highroads) debut story arc along side veteran Buffy scribe Fabian Nicieza! Joining established Buffy artist Cliff Richards, Lobdell and Nicieza begin their run by wrapping up four years worth of stories, featuring many returning faces. This story paves the way for a whole new direction for the Buffy comics. Collecting issues #47-50 of the ongoing Buffy the Vampire Slayer series.

The Lunch-Box Chronicles: Notes from the Parenting Underground

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Marion Winik opens eyes with this poignant, mirthful tribute to parenting.
If You Know Any Children ...
Hysterically funny and true to real life.

The Lunch-Box Chronicles: Notes from the Parenting Underground
Marion Winik
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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philosophy hope in a jar daily moisturizer

ASIN: 0375701702
Release Date: 1999-11-02

Amazon.com

"Take Erma Bombeck, add the obsessions of a single mother with two boys under the age of 10, lace with a mild streak of wildness, and you have Marion Winik, as companionable a writer as a crazed parent ever found." So says the New York Times Book Review about this hilarious look at child rearing from NPR commentator Marion Winik. With the candidness of Anne Lamott's Operating Instructions, Winik never shies from sharing her "Bad Mommy" moments, for as every parent knows (and as is evidenced by her extensive instructions on conquering a mean case of head lice), the reality of parenting is not all cherubic kids sporting footie pajamas. As with her other compelling memoirs, Telling and First Comes Love, Winik lets it all hang out--sharing with readers not only the trials and joys of raising kids alone, but also debating in frank, funny terms the varied questions of being nude in front of your children, dealing with a "blended" family, and teaching kids about avoiding drugs when you've used them yourself. Parents (and anyone who has parents of their own) will appreciate the poignancy, honesty, and familiarity of this laugh-out-loud tribute to the enterprise of raising children. --Brangien Davis

Book Description

Child Magazine Best Book of the Year

"For me, parenting is like dieting. Every day, I wake up filled with resolve and good intentions, perfection in view, and every day I somehow stray from the path. The difference is with dieting, I usually make it to lunch. . . ."

With the candor and often hilarious outlook that have made her a beloved commentator on NPR, Marion Winik takes the reader on an unforgettable journey through modern parenthood, with all of its attendant anxieties and joys.
A single mother with two small boys, Winik knows exactly what she's talking about, from battles over breakfast and bedtime to the virtues of pre-packaged food and weightier issues like sex education and sibling rivalry. Part memoir and part survival guide, The Lunch-Box Chronicles is an engaging philosophy of parenting from a staunch realist, who knows that kids and their parents both will inevitably fall far short of perfection, and that a "good enough mom" really is, in fact, good enough.

"Marion Winik proves as able a bard for her generation as Erma Bombeck was for hers. . . . Funny, warmhearted, and chock-full of moments of instant recognition." --Newsday

"[H]ilarious and wrenching, it's about being a parent, but it's also about so much more: love, survival, transcendence--and macaroni and cheese." --Anne Lamott, author of Operating Instructions

"Take Erma Bombeck, add the obsessions of a single mother with two boys . . . and you have Marion Winik, as companionable a writer as a crazed parent ever found." --The New York Times Book Review

Customer Reviews:

Marion Winik opens eyes with this poignant, mirthful tribute to parenting........2007-04-23

This book follows Marion as she leads her sons, Hayes and Vince through the ups and downs of life. Including the death of their father. Parents should take notes on Marion's brave tactics on being upfront and honest with her children on the tougher subjects in life. She shows you the line between protecting your children for their own good and sheltering them from reality.

Whether she is teaching her kids to make coffee, navigating her family through her first relationship after the death of her husband, or throwing a birthday party. Marion Winik will make you laugh, make you think and make those crazy days with your kids feel normal. You will know that you are not alone.

If You Know Any Children ..........2002-02-15

... whether they're yours or someone's else's, this book is for you. This insightful book tells it like it is -- everything you ever wanted to know about raising children, straight from the heart. If you read this and don't shed a tear, you're missing a big piece of humanity.

Hysterically funny and true to real life........1999-10-24

Marion Winik never ceases to amaze me with her candid and heroically revealing writing. She can evoke so many emotions about diving into that great big pool of love we call 'Family'. As a nanny, I have had so many Mothers ask me, "Am I doing this right"? And, "Do you think I'm a good Mom"? I try to stay neutral and tell them that it doesn't matter what I think, it matters what THEY think. Then I reccomend Marion's book and I always get VERY positive feedback about it. If you're a Mom; past, present or future, this book will make you feel a whole lot better about all that that entails. Your life won't be complete until you read it!

Kiss Tomorrow Hello: Notes From the Midlife Underground by Twenty-Five Women Over Forty

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Midlife My Behind
very worthwhile

Kiss Tomorrow Hello: Notes From the Midlife Underground by Twenty-Five Women Over Forty
Kim Barnes , and Claire Davis
Manufacturer: Doubleday
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0385515413
Release Date: 2006-03-21

Book Description

A collection of blazingly honest, smart, and often humorous essays on middle age contributed by well-known writers such as Julia Glass, Joyce Maynard, Lolly Winston, Antonya Nelson, Diana Abu-Jaber, Judy Blunt, Lauren Slater, and other voices of the baby boom generation.

In the tradition of the bestselling A Bitch in the House, Kiss Tomorrow Hello brings together the experiences and reflections of women as they embark on a new stage of life. Many women in their forties, fifties, and sixties discover that they are racing uphill, trying desperately to keep their romantic and social lives afloat just as those things they believe constant start to shift: The body begins its inevitable decline, sometimes gracefully, sometimes less so…

The twenty-five stellar writers gathered here explore a wide range of concerns, including keeping love (and sex) alive, discovering family secrets, negotiating the demands of illness and infertility, letting children go, making peace with parents, and contemplating plastic surgery. The tales are true, the confessions candid, and the humor infectious—just what you’d expect from the women whose works represent the best writings of their generation. From Lynn Freed’s wry “Happy Birthday to Me” to Pam Houston’s hilarious “Coffee Dates with a Beefcake”; from Ellen Sussman's "Tearing Up the Sheets" to Julia Glass's "I Have a Crush on Ted Geisel," Kiss Tomorrow Hello is a wise, lyrical, and sexy look at the pleasures and perils of midlife.

“How could ‘old age’ be a medical diagnosis when I wasn’t even forty?”
—Lolly Winston

“… if aging is difficult for those of us who were only sometimes cute,” she says, “just imagine how hard it must be for the aging knockouts, the living dolls.”
—Rebecca McClanahan

“I love sex. I love middle-age sex. I love married sex. I'm almost fifty and I've never felt sexier. But damn, it took a long time to get here.”
—Ellen Sussman

“And who is that woman who looks just like me in the mirror behind the bar? Could she be some evil twin, sitting in a place I’d never go alone, acting like a hanger-on, a groupie?”
—Lisa Norris

“… even past sixty (perhaps especially past sixty), women like me feel impelled to stick to the myths we have invented for ourselves.”
—Annick Smith

“Slow down. Don’t be so frenetic. Contemplate on the insights you have gained. Listen to the silence within.”
—Bharti Kirchner

“The young woman’s body I live inside still, that unforgotten home, is a text. It is engraved with memory …”
—Meredith Hall

Customer Reviews:

Midlife My Behind.......2006-08-31

This compilation of stories is not as good as suggested. There are a few gems hidden within but for the most part, these tales mean far more to the authors than they did to this reader.

very worthwhile.......2006-06-30

This is an great anthology with a nice variety of pieces by some excellent women authors. I found it to be thought provoking, moving, and fun to read. I think many ( most, all) women over 40 would like this book. It is not a "self help" book in the style of articles you see in women's magazines although the title sounds like it might be. It is however very helpful to hear the articulate voices of intellegent women who are facing many the same issues. I liked being introduced to new writers that I had not read before and will now look for other things they have written. Many of the writers are from western states and liked that as I am too. If you are an intelligent woman over 40 years old who likes good writing. I would say- buy this book

Notes from the Underground: The Whittaker Chambers/Ralph de Toledano Letters, 1949-1960

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The witness is gone, the testimony will stand

Notes from the Underground: The Whittaker Chambers/Ralph de Toledano Letters, 1949-1960
Whittaker Chambers
Manufacturer: Regnery Publishing, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0895264250

Book Description

Never-before-published collection of letters between Chambers, a former Communist agent, and journalist Ralph de Toledano.

Customer Reviews:

The witness is gone, the testimony will stand.......2007-08-14

Read this for graduate American history course. There are a few rare instances in American history when a court case grips the passions of its citizens and serves to define people's political or social beliefs based on which side they believed was in the right. The Sacco and Vanzetti case of the 1920's, the Rosenberg espionage trials of the 1950's, and the O. J. Simpson case of the 1990's were to some extent examples of this phenomena. However, the Hiss perjury trials of 1949-50 were the epitome of this phenomenon, and helped to create a divide between liberals and conservatives in American politics that is still evident to this day. During the Cold War era, one could easily identify the political persuasion of a person simply by asking them whether Hiss or Chambers had told the truth. Simply put, the innocence of Alger Hiss was embraced by liberals. If Hiss, a well respected New Deal advocate and important Roosevelt administration member, had actually been an American Communist spying for the Soviets since the 1930's, then a whole mass of conservative accusations would gain legitimacy, and all of FDR's New Deal programs and his foreign policy decisions at the Yalta Conference would become suspect. In addition, Hiss' guilt would call into question security breaches in the Truman administration, which was already being besieged by questions of "Who lost China." It is against this historical backdrop, that "Notes From the Underground: The Whittaker Chambers/Ralph de Toledano Letters, 1949-1960 "; whose purpose is to show the intellectual motivations of one of America's most contentious figures in the last half of the twentieth-century, Whittaker Chambers.

A new world was opened to Chambers at Columbia with which he became enamored. He took English composition with Mark Van Doren, who later in life became a Pulitzer Prize winning poet. Van Doren quickly saw in Chambers a very talented writer and later remarked that he was the best writer among his undergraduate students in the 1920's. Chambers especially enjoyed the friendship of fellow students, mostly Jewish, whom he found brilliant such as Lionel Trilling, Meyer Schapiro, and Mortimer J. Adler to name a few. "It was the ernste Menschen" (serious men) "who shaped Chamber's idea, never altered, of the intellectual life." However, academic bliss was not to be for Chambers. He ran afoul of the school administration for a play that he wrote which was deemed profane, and thus became despondent and quit going to class--eventually dropping out and never finishing his university education. He tried to travel to the Soviet Union to help build a new nation on the advice of Van Doren, but he only made it to Germany before returning home. He took a job at the New York Public Library which fed his autodidactic nature, and he started to consort with many women. It is at this stage in Chambers' life in 1925, that he joined the 16,000 member Communist Party of the United States, (CPUSA). "So much the better. He was used to being outnumbered. He had at last found his church."

Tanenhaus paints a portrait of a man who dove into his new life as a Communist with a religious fervor. Chambers became a much-respected writer for several party newspapers, which brought him to the attention of party apparatchiks in 1932. Chambers also met Esther Shemitz a Socialist, and they married in 1931. It was after his marriage that he accepted an assignment to go underground and actively spy for the Party. He was made the courier of the "Ware cell" in Washington D.C., whose mission was to pass sensitive information from Communist party members who had infiltrated various departments of the U. S. government to Boris Bykov, a Soviet intelligence agent. One of the best-placed spies in the "Ware cell" who provided information to Chambers, then using the alias George Crosley, was Alger Hiss. However, Chambers became so disillusioned by Stalin's purges and his nonaggression pact with Hitler, that in 1938, he quit the party. Fearing for his life and his family's safety, Chambers turned informer and confessed all of his activities to Assistant Secretary of State Adolf Berle, Jr., who forwarded his notes of the meeting to the FBI, which did not follow up on the case until several years later. In addition, an old friend recommended Chambers for a job at Time magazine, which he was elated to have since he was broke. Tanenhaus once again shows that Chambers' literary acumen and zeal for any new project he took on, propelled him to become one of Time's top editors in the 1940's. The magazine's owner Henry Luce said, "Chambers was the best writer Time ever employed." While a writer and editor at Time, Chambers became a most vociferous anti-Communist.

Although Chambers was vindicated by Hiss's conviction, he entered into a self-imposed exile on his farm in Maryland. Chambers understood how much the liberals hated him. He wrote, "If Hiss is guilty, not the New Deal, but the whole Age of Reason is guilty." However, for the rest of his life Chambers was visited by a small coterie of friends with whom he enjoyed lengthy discussions about world affairs. It is the letters between Chambers and Ralph de Toledano from 1949-1960 that gives insight between the thinking of these two ant-Communists and how they observe current events of their time that makes the book a most interesting read. "Still convinced he had left the winning side for the losing one, Chambers foretold a global Communist victory. Gloomy as his predictions sounded, he was not devoid of hope." He believed that the primary way the West could defeat Communism was with morality and religion and not militarily. Needing to earn money, Chambers went back to what he did best. He wrote his autobiography Witness, which occupied the top of the New York Times best seller list for several months in 1952, and gave him the financial security he desired. More importantly, Witness was an anti-Communist manifesto that for Chambers described, "a struggle between the force of two irreconcilable faiths--Communism and Christianity." Chambers wrote, "history is cluttered with the wreckage of nations that became indifferent to God, and died." Witness was a powerful exposé of Communist activity in America and changed the life of one future president, Ronald Reagan. Reagan remarked that Witness was his favorite book and pointed to, "Witness as the book that would shape his political outlook." In 1984, President Reagan posthumously awarded Chambers the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The other person of note that Witness made a huge impression on was William F. Buckley, Jr., who befriended Chambers and offered him the position of senior editor of his fledgling conservative magazine National Review. Both men maintained a very friendly relationship up to Chamber's death in 1961. Though Chambers would write articles for the National Review, he turned Buckley's offer down due to his poor health and his growing reluctance of the tactics that the political right was using--especially those of Senator Joseph McCarthy. Near the end of his life, Chambers became friendly with another former Communist and imminent writer, Arthur Koestler. Koestler wrote of Chambers upon receiving news of his death: "I always felt that Whittaker was the most misunderstood person of our time. When he testified he knowingly committed moral suicide to atone for the guilt of our generation. The witness is gone, the testimony will stand."

As a graduate student in philosophy and history, I recommended this book for anyone interested in American history, foreign policy, Cold War history.

The Texas Rangers: Notes from the Architectural Underground

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The Texas Rangers: Notes from the Architectural Underground
Alexander Caragonne
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
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Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 026203218X

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Introduction by Charles W. Moore

Between 1951 and 1957, a group of young men came to teach at the University of Texas School of Architecture in Austin. These "Texas Rangers," as they later came to be called - Bernhard Hoesli, Colin Rowe, John Hejduk, Robert Slutzky, Lee Hodgden, John Shaw, and Werner Seligmann, among others - created an unprecedented teaching program that challenged the important pedagogies of the time, and that contained in large part the origins and explanations for a postmodern revolution in architecture. Ten years in the making, Alexander Caragonne's lively, fully illustrated story documents one of the most significant chapter in the history of postwar American architectural education.

Challenging the anti-intellectual tendencies both of the pragmatic, regionalist American tradition and of the modernist pedagogy inspired by the Bauhaus, the new curriculum proposed that a workable, useful body of architectural theory could be derived from an ongoing critique of significant buildings and projects across history and cultures. Visualization and organization of architectural space was emphasized over the shaping of mass, along with the recognition and development of the architectural idea. Gestalt psychological concepts for evaluating and describing architectural form and space were encouraged, and the value of historical precedent in the design process recognized.

Caragonne pulls together the disparate strands of a program - a critique of a mainstream architectural culture and education - that has for many years remained a kind of dimly perceived underground. Figuring largely in his account are the mythical figure of Colin Rowe and Bernhard Hoesli, whose collaboration provided the intellectual basis of the new curriculum. Caragonne, who witnessed the events as an undergraduate in the School of Architecture, describes Rowe's background and his reintroduction of architectural history into the design studio. He also provides a detailed analysis of the teaching program and its subsequent influence on architectural education and thought.

The Best Stories of Fyodor Dostoevsky: Including "Notes from the Underground" (Modern Library Classics)

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The Best Stories of Fyodor Dostoevsky: Including "Notes from the Underground" (Modern Library Classics)
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Manufacturer: Modern Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0345481267
Release Date: 2005-07-26

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The "cultivated" man must be a coward and a slave.

Notes from the Underground
F. M. Dostoevsky
Manufacturer: Vintage Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 009914011X

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The "cultivated" man must be a coward and a slave........2006-02-01

_This is the first book to accurately describe the mind-set and situation of the modern man. This is because the sort of 19th century man that Dostoevsky described here is modern man- the differences are only superficial. A Western European could not have written a book like this- he would have been too close to the problem, since western European rationalism is the problem. A Russian like Dostoevsky was still close enough to Feudalism and the land that he could feel in his bones that something was profoundly wrong.

_The "underground" writer of these tales is a man that has come to loath himself. He loathes himself because he knows that he is not a true human being in any sense. He knows that he is a cog in a machine. He is told that logic, rationalism, and materialism are everything. He has been told that he has no free will that everything is predetermined by natural laws and statistics. He has even been told that he is no more than an evolved ape, so even his religion has been stripped from him. All that is important is profit and comfort- and to serve the machine in his own minor soul killing way as a petty bureaucrat. This is what has convinced him that it is better to resign from society and live as a recluse. Far better not to contribute to the great, inescapable soul-killing system.

_But that is just it- Dostoevsky is making a point in order to forcibly shake his reader out of his or her complacency. He is trying to demonstrate the unnatural nature of a materialistic life lived neurotically and pettily from the head and not the heart. He is also trying to point out those events in ordinary life that hint at there being something more- things that cannot be described with a formula or a chart. Dostoevsky had found the truth in his deep mystic faith in God. This book was a wake-up call to put others on the transcendent path by demonstrating just how inhuman the modern westernized mind-set was.

_This is not an existential novel- it is a transcendent one. This book demonstrates what a hell results when you forcibly amputate the Holy from Holy Russia. It is what happens when you exile the sacred from all our lives.

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Who Is Directing Us?
Courtesy of Teens Read Too

Notes from the Teenage Underground
Simmone Howell
Manufacturer: Bloomsbury USA Children's Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1582348359
Release Date: 2007-04-03

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Seventeen-year-old Gem loves movies, her feminist mom, and Dodgy, her coworker in a video store (at least she thinks she loves Dodgy). When a school trip inspires Gem to make an underground film, her best friends Lo and Mira are quick to join the project, taking on the roles of producer and star. The film is intended to cement the girls’ friendship as well as their superiority over their sucker high school peers. But when the fragile balance of their friendship begins to falter, and intentions lead to betrayals big and small, it will take great movies, bad haiku, and a pantheon of great voices—from Dostoyevsky to Emerson to The Beatles—to help Gem find the meaning of love, friendship, and being true to herself.

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Who Is Directing Us?.......2007-05-03

Seventeen-year-old movie buff Germaine Greer (aka Gem) might not have been named after a Shakespeare-loving feminist if both her parents had been around. Gem has never seen her father, Rolf, because he has been absent her whole life. But luckily, she's close enough with her mother Bev that they could be considered friends. Having never really been what she would label "popular," Gem feels even luckier to have two girls like Lo and Mira as her closest friends.

The narrator describes the three-girl plot this way: each girl is seeking something...one gets lucky, one ends up where she started, and the other gets lost. As in the past, they decide they need a theme for the year --- some way for them to do whatever they want and not have to apologize. The art and film fanatic that she is, Gem comes up with an idea involving Andy Warhol and his Factory of Superstars and planning an art Happening so Underground it'll blow everyone's minds.

1 word --- 3 syllables --- Underground --- Ug.

At first Lo and Mira can't grasp the artistic genius of her plan, offering their own suggestions of Art Terror and the likes. But finally they come around and decide to shoot a film called The F-Word and throw The New Year's Happening of all time --- The Exploding Plastic Inevitable. They'll be surrounded by art and possibility.

Gem is forced to ask Roger "Dodgy" Brick, one of her co-workers at Videocity, to let her borrow a video camera. If the dictionary had a word for someone you're attracted to and repelled by at the same time, it would have Dodgy's picture next to it --- 100% barcode guy. But she falls for him anyway, mostly because she wants to experience the same carnal knowledge that Lo and Mira claim to have known.

Gem's great art gurus say that the way art mirrors life, it doesn't need a point. Bev says that life is not about the end...it's about the journey. Others say to devote yourself to something impossible, to give it your whole self and everything will turn out just fine. Gem thinks she sees all that and more, wanting her film to show the powerful links between all the formidable women of history. The only problem is that Gem doesn't know how to do this. So when things with Lo and Mira and The Happening fall to pieces, she feels caught somewhere between damaged and anomaly.

"What was our story? Were we just beginning, or were we experimental? Who was directing us?"

Mix these questions together with the I Ching and hexagrams, a dashboard Elvis, tongue piercings, Fu-Manchu mustaches, Monet's Waterlilies, Guatemalan worry dolls, The Curse of the Ugly, man teachers nicknamed "Boobs," party streaking and Fyodor Dostoyevsky's NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND. Then grab some popcorn and enjoy this camera's-eye view of these teenagers up-close, all poise and control. At first. Keep the camera focused on them long enough, though, and their real selves emerge --- the uncertainty on their faces, their lives of quiet desperation, the unquenchable longing for something to Happen. That's where the good stuff is.

--- Reviewed by Jonathan Stephens

Review first published at Teenreads, 2007.

Courtesy of Teens Read Too.......2007-04-04

NOTES FROM THE TEENAGE UNDERGROUND is a fantastic debut novel! It starts out with three best friends, Gem, Lo, and Mira, trying to come up with ideas for their summer project. The summer before was their Satan Summer; they dabbled in all things occult. The summer project has a theme, goals, and guides. This year, they want to do something spectacular; it could be their last summer project--who knows what the future will bring?

Lo is usually the one with ideas, but this time, Gem has some ideas of her own. Their theme for the year is Underground, whatever that means. Ug for short. Their guide? This is where Gem is inspired. She sees some of his work--four films of kissing couples playing over and over--at the National Gallery, and she decides, with a bit of help from her artsy mother, Bev, that Andy Warhol should be their guide into the world of the Underground (which at first kept making me think of riding the subway a lot...). She does some research into Andy Warhol, his work, his life, and the people around him, and then comes up with a goal: to make an Underground film.

During the course of this project, Gem realizes a lot of things about her life and her relationships. She feels like her friendship with Lo and Mira is an isosceles triangle; the two of them are close together, and Gem is all alone at one end. She's also being pressured to make some decisions about her future, as all seventeen-year-olds are. Her mother and Sharon, school counselor and Gem's godmother, want her to go to University, but Gem's a lot more interested in film school. Speaking of her love of movies, she's starting to think she could love something else at Video City, where she works--her coworker, Dodgy. On top of all of this, Gem's father, Rolf, has always been out of the picture, just sending the occasional weird haiku from where he lives out in the wilderness--but now it looks as though he could be stepping back into Gem's life, at least for awhile.

This summer is a turning point in Gem's life. When it's all over, Gem will be different. Her life will be different. This much is pretty obvious. But how will things change?

I really, really loved this book. It was a lot of fun to read, and the idea of the summer project was very interesting, something that set this book apart from a ton of others. Almost all young adult literature is about things changing, as that's what's always going on for teenagers, but Simmone Howell's novel had something that makes it stand out in my mind! If it's got Andy Warhol and obscure movies in it, it's got to be different.

Gem is a wonderful character. I really felt, while reading this, as if I knew her. She's very interesting, and what goes on in her mind is fascinating. I couldn't put this book down! I woke up at one in the morning, for some reason anxious to finish this book. That almost never happens to me! As I'm writing this, it's a little bit difficult to explain what about this book is so amazing, but there's something. It really captures the teenage experience. Simmone Howell obviously remembers this time in her life very well! I'm going to have to revise my `Best of 2006' list to add this one! This is a must read!

Reviewed by: Jocelyn Pearce

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