Book Description
(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)
Joan Didion’s incomparable and distinctive essays and journalism are admired for their acute, incisive observations and their spare, elegant style. Now the seven books of nonfiction that appeared between 1968 and 2003 have been brought together into one thrilling collection.
Slouching Towards Bethlehem captures the counterculture of the sixties, its mood and lifestyle, as symbolized by California, Joan Baez, Haight-Ashbury. The White Album covers the revolutionary politics and the “contemporary wasteland” of the late sixties and early seventies, in pieces on the Manson family, the Black Panthers, and Hollywood. Salvador is a riveting look at the social and political landscape of civil war. Miami exposes the secret role this largely Latin city played in the Cold War, from the Bay of Pigs through Watergate. In After Henry Didion reports on the Reagans, Patty Hearst, and the Central Park jogger case. The eight essays in Political Fictions–on censorship in the media, Gingrich, Clinton, Starr, and “compassionate conservatism,” among others–show us how we got to the political scene of today. And in Where I Was From Didion shows that California was never the land of the golden dream.
Customer Reviews:
Joan Nadaion.......2007-09-15
Tasteless, meaningless, insipid, Joan Didion is a writer for our times. Her cool detached nihilism dovetails perfectly with a world that abjures conviction and commitment. Even so, her work won't long outlast her life.
Beautiful Collection.......2007-07-29
What I had read from Didion in my college comp. class could not have prepared me for the depth and beauty of her body of work. In retrospect, I cannot believe that my professor only asked us to read ONE essay from this remarkable woman. Her work is amazing! Now I see what thousands of others have always known--that Didion is undoubtedly one of the best essayists and authors alive today. I can't wait to read The Year of Magical Thinking next.
What a great compilation.......2007-04-29
I checked this out from our local library the other day and it turned out to be a serendipitous find. I've read some of Didion's work previously of which _The Year of the Magical Thinking_ was the most recent.
This compilation was actually fun to read. My favourite pieces were the ones that focused on California or Southern California, respectively. She is a gifted storyteller.
I couldn't help but feel a keen sense of sadness for her with the noted timeline of her life (and historical moments, too). She lost both her parents, then her spouse and two years later her daughter.
I would suggest this book to others. It's a real treasure.
Reporting with a View.......2007-04-25
Joan wrote her best when she wrote about California. She's in a league of her own. She writes about California the way it is,the strangest foriegn country in the nation. She gets at the psychic truth of her subject, which is no small thing. One of the very few true writers,ever.
Worthwhile compilation.......2007-03-13
I only became aware of Joan Didion after hearing about her bestseller, The Year of Magical Thinking, which I got, and found absolutely touching. When I came across this compilation, I thought I'd give it a try...I wasn't disappointed...each of the essays/ articles have something to offer, and Didion is truly a gifted writer. I'm only sorry that I had missed out on such a talented author before finding her on a bestseller list.
Average customer rating:
- A Collection of the Highest Order
- Me and Mrs. Mandible
- Brilliant but not for Everyone
- Difficult but rewarding
- The Balloon Man
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Sixty Stories
Donald Barthelme
Manufacturer: Putnam Adult
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Forty Stories (Contemporary American Fiction)
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Pricksongs & Descants: Fictions
ASIN: 0399126597 |
Amazon.com
This excellent collection of Donald Barthelme's literary output during the 1960s and 1970s covers the period when the writer came to prominence--producing the stories, satires, parodies, and other formal experiments that altered fiction as we know it--and wrote many of the most beautiful sentences in the English language. Due to the unfortunate discontinuance of many of Barthelme's titles, 60 Stories now stands as one of the broadest overviews of his work, containing selections from eight previously published books, as well as a number of other short works that had been otherwise uncollected.
Book Description
With these audacious and murderously witty stories, Donald Barthelme threw the preoccupations of our time into the literary equivalent of a Cuisinart and served up a gorgeous salad of American culture, high and low. Here are the urban upheavals reimagined as frontier myth; travelogues through countries that might have been created by Kafka; cryptic dialogues that bore down to the bedrock of our longings, dreams, and angsts. Like all of Barthelme's work, the sixty stories collected in this volume are triumphs of language and perception, at once unsettling and irresistible.
Customer Reviews:
A Collection of the Highest Order.......2007-04-25
I picked up 60 Stories after experiencing Barthelme's City Life. I don't have a lot to add to what the fine Amazon reviewers have already said.
Just that I found myself strangely moved and completely entertained by Barthelme's style and detached characters.
Towards the end of the collection, I started reading the stories out loud to my girlfriend and she was equally enthralled by the Barthleme's shorts. Both of us loved City of Churches. The dark, cryptic ending had me laughing out loud at the order of things (as a side note, I was reading this on the bus, listening to my Ipod on shuffle. as i came to the ending, Marilyn Manson's The Beautiful People came on ... great twist to the ending). Original, hilarious dialogue. Intelligent, creative tales. History, philosophy, commentary. Laughs, tears, and everything in between. An absurd, but touching presentation of human emotion and emotionlessness.
I don't know. I just felt better after reading 60 Stories. There are more possibilities now, less restrictions, more Leaps and fewer hurdles, more Kierkegaard and less Hegel.
My only question is this: Why did I have to wait 26 years to stumble across Senor Barthelme? Where was he in my Creative Writing courses or English courses in college? Outside of courses on absurdist lit, experimental lit, or short stories, I'm not sure where an institution would park Mr. Barthelme. Maybe I can make a suggestion: American Lit.
Jump on it!
Me and Mrs. Mandible.......2005-07-11
We recently read "Me and Mrs. Mandible" in our online reader's forum and the response was very favorable. Barthelme's metafiction can be interpreted so many ways it is great fiction for discussion groups. If you'd like to read the posts or join in the ongoing discussion visit [...].
Brilliant but not for Everyone.......2005-04-07
Judgments about Barthelme remind me of how subjective criticism of literature is. Is he a genius or a fraud? One thing is for certain: if you do not have a taste for the absurd you are probably not going to like Barthelme. His stories are filled with absurdist/surrealist elements. But for me, what separates him from other "experimental" writers is his ability to elicit emotion from the reader. For example, when I first read the ending of "The Balloon", I felt like I had been punched in the stomach. And I couldn't say exactly why. Same with "The School." But there is something about his writing that works on the precognitive level. Unlike some reviewers, I don't find anything chilly or removed about his writing. There seems to be a genuine sympathy for his characters, even when placed in the most ludicrous of circumstances. So I line up on the genius side. And by the way, he's flat out the funniest writer I know of. 60 Stories is a good place to start if you're interested but if you like it, also check out 40 Stories, which features simpler writing.
Difficult but rewarding.......2005-03-01
After I'd read about half of these stories, and in many cases, read them again, I suddenly realized what the trick was to enjoying them- losing my expectations. For Barthelme, the form is as important, if not more important, than the message, and each of these stories is an experiment in form and meaning (and not always both at the same time). Once I stopped looking for deeper meaning, and trying to figure out what he was trying to say, I realized that, often times, he's not saying anything, he's merely experimenting with language. "Aria", for example, or "Glass Mountain", are absurd for the sake of being absurd, while "A City of Churches" is more obviously social commentary. "The School" is darkly funny, and "Me And Miss Mandible" is a well-crafted, entertaining short story, full of absurdity and humanity, and one of the best in the book.
Also, you can't help but notice the huge influence that Barthelme's work has had on many writers living today, especially those who enjoy playing with language and stretching the bounds of fiction (read ANY of Steve Martin's short stories and you'll see what I mean).
The Balloon Man.......2004-02-28
In one of the most typical, poignant, funny, and resounding stories in this collection, Barthelme introduces us to the Balloon Man. For now, it doesn't matter who or what he is, but suffice it to say that he, the Balloon Man, reckons the Balloon of Perhaps is his best balloon. Reading this collection, it's hard not to be struck by the idea that Barthelme's gift lies in, amongst other things, being able to write stories at once featherlight, attractive, and capable of imagining and exploring "perhaps's" no other writer could.
Product Description
With the American publication of Life, a User's Manual in 1987, Georges Perec was immediately recognized in the U.S. as one of this century's most innovative writers. Now Godine is pleased to issue two of his most powerful novels in one volume: Things, in an authoritative new translation, and A Man Asleep, making its first English appearance. Both provoked strong reactions when they first appeared in the 1960s; both which speak with disquieting immediacy to the conscience of today's readers. In each tale Perec subtly probes our obsession with society's trappings the seductive mass of things that crams our lives, masquerading as stability and meaning.
Jerome and Sylvie, the young, upwardly mobile couple in Things, lust for the good life. "They wanted life's enjoyment, but all around them enjoyment was equated with ownership." Surrounded by Paris's tantalizing exclusive boutiques, they exist in a paralyzing vacuum of frustration, caught between the fantasy of "the film they would have liked to live" and the reality of life's daily mundanities.
In direct contrast with Jerome and Sylvie's cravings, the nameless student in A Man Asleep attempts to purify himself entirely of material desires and ambition. He longs "to want nothing. Just to wait, until there is nothing left to wait for. Just to wander, and to sleep." Yearning to exist on neutral ground as "a blessed parenthesis," he discovers that this wish is by its very nature a defeat.
Accessible, sobering, and deeply involving, each novel distills Perec's unerring grasp of the human condition as well as displaying his rare comic talent. His generosity of observation is both detached and compassionate.
Average customer rating:
- As I read the book my mind was flooded with memories of those formative years in my life.
- At last, a thorough and engaging account
- Caputring the Spirt and Substance of the 1960's: incorporating all points of view
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Time It Was: American Stories from the Sixties
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
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"Takin' it to the streets": A Sixties Reader
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America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s
ASIN: 0131840770 |
Book Description
What was it like to live through the Sixties? The writers of these 27 memoirs offer the essence of life and youth in the period. In first-person narratives that range from poignant reminiscences to dramatic adventures, the writers convey what it felt like to land a helicopter in the middle of a firefight in Vietnam, to be beaten and jailed for trying to integrate restaurants in the American South, to run for cover when soldiers opened fire on a campus peace rally in Ohio. Other stories describe the writers' experiences organizing farm workers with Cesar Chavez, campaigning to elect Barry Goldwater, striking for Free Speech at Berkeley, living in a commune, joining the women's liberation movement, becoming caught up in a religious cult, or camping in the rain at Woodstock.
Karen Manners Smith and Tim Koster, the editors of "Time it Was," created this book to make the Sixties accessible and alive for today's students, who may know only that the period was unique and exciting, but have few resources to help them see beyond the stereotypical âsex and drugs and rock-n-roll.â The editors felt there was a lot that today's students could identify with--idealism, commitment, risk, hard work, fear, hope, disappointment--if they could read the stories of people who, at their age, did important things with their own lives during a volatile historical period.
The stories in âTime it Wasâ focus on events and experiences consistent with the "Sixties" as historians understand that term--i.e., it is broadly interpreted to include a span of years from the 1950s through the mid-1970s. Readers who are not students will enjoy the chance to reconnect with their own memories or learn more about this important period in American history.
Customer Reviews:
As I read the book my mind was flooded with memories of those formative years in my life........2007-08-23
As a child of the Sixties the stories related in Time It Was are the stories of my youth. The individual reflections of so many historical events rekindled my own memories of that turbulent and important time. All of us who came of age during that decade had our physics forever impregnated by our exposure to what surely was a revolution of change in our society. As I read the book my mind was flooded with memories of those formative years in my life. As I reflect on those experiences and those times I can see how significantly my life was shaped by the music, lifestyle and general mood of my generation. Today, almost forty years after the fact, I still exhibit personality traits acquired during the Sixties. Obviously I have a more mature approach to situations now but I still have a deep, unchanged distrust of the "establishment" that sometimes rises to the surface. I strongly recommend Time It Was to any member of the younger generation interested in learning about their parents or grandparent's formulative years. I promise it will stir the emotions in all who shared those days and remind you of how important to us those days were.
At last, a thorough and engaging account.......2007-06-15
Having been born after the Sixties, my interpretations of the period were generally about sex, drugs & rock 'n roll, political assassinations and the unpopular war in Vietnam. All familiar topics, blended into a worn cliched pattern by the media. Like a tie-dye shirt you bought at Wal-Mart, rather than from a real hippie at a Grateful Dead show.
This book covers the expected flash-point moments from the period, as well as many other corners of the social and political landscape. Best of all, it was not written by a staff of historians, churning out textbook after textbook. These are real stories by real people who lived in that period. Not all of them survived it. A few are minor celebrities because of their involvement in key events. Many are regular folks who made big decisions at a young age, perhaps not realizing at the time the net effect of their generation on the world. All are storytellers with a personal tale to tell.
You don't have to be a hippie to enjoy and learn from this book.
Caputring the Spirt and Substance of the 1960's: incorporating all points of view.......2007-06-01
This book captures both the "spirit" and the "substance" of the 1960's. The various contributors present a multi-level photograph of an extremely turbulent and explosive time in our country's history. The book provides both "satellite landscapes" and "portrait close-ups". The balanced writing and panoply of viewpoints makes this work a "history handbook" while other published works about the 1960's seem to dissolve into gray and beige.
Even the cover art reflects the balanced approach of the book: Ms. Liberty's entire appearance reflects the palate of cultural and political views that "marked" the decade.
In reading the personal reflections of individuals who lived through this period in American History, I felt a very strong connection:
a. I wrote my college senior thesis on the May 1968 student revolts at Columbia University and the Sorbonne;
b. Having been born in 1955, I was too young to meaningfully participate in any of the events described but old enough to bear witness;
I unequivocally and enthusiastically recommend this book.
Customer Reviews:
eclectic .......2006-08-31
From an objective standpoint, this is a good collection, but for some reason ... reading it was not pleasurable. There's a lovely story by Isak Dinesen, but nothing else haunted me. It may be your cup of tea though.
International Lightning Bottled Up.......2003-12-08
~~It's a great book to have. You can read it on the subway and chew on a few stories in one transit, or just scan the beginnings and look for what catches your eye, or you can curl up on a rainy day and devour the whole book. You can consider this book an appetizer to an entree of international literature. It whets the palate. There are some very good writers, from many cultures, and writing in many languages, with many types of stories. Rarely can you find such a wide range of talent in one book. There¡¯s Argentine Julio Cortazar¡¯s zany surrealism, Margaret Atwood of Canada with her bizarrely constructed feminist romance deconstruction, and Krishnan Varma of India with an exotic tale of poverty. Each of these stories is immensely different but all are captivating. Most stories are marvelous; they have no wasted words yet come with tightly woven plots and compelling characters. These stories are a marvel to see and a must for anyone interested in fiction. It's incredible how much depth and diversity is possible in such a short space. Mark Twain once said "the difference between the right word and almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug." Here is lightning (and the bug?) bottled up.
Great for an aspiring writer.......2002-07-19
I used this for a class in creative writing. Anytime I got writers block I would read a few of the stories in Sudden Fiction. It didn't always help but all the stories are highly entertaining and from time to time the stories inspired me to pen up my own experiences in their voice or mine. All in all, whether you're using it seriously or not, you'll enjoy this book's short stories. There's a wide variety for all moods and writing styles. It'd be hard not to like at least some of the stories and if you're a writing student or pro I'd think this type of material would be essential for those lean times.
A fine and comprehensive anthology.......2002-07-17
This is priceless collection of very short stories from all over the world.In this cosmopolitan range of stories many known authors such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez,Julio Cortazar,Heinrich Boll,Nadine Gordimer and Mrozeck are joined by those we will come to know better later by reading their well crafted short short stories.
I have translated 37 of these collection into Farsi.The Farsi title is Dastan e Nagahan meaning Sudden Fiction.
Thanks to the talented authors of this anthology and its fine predecessors,Sudden Fiction and other titles like Flash Fiction and Sudden Fiction Continued.
I recommend the readers to buy this book and enjoy its taste in discovering a world wide scenery,multi cultural surprises and find new friends.
The stories are indeed perfect for bed time reading
A feast of short international fare.......2001-01-11
A great book for those with short attention spans, short story writers (or aspiring short story writers), and those who want to see the variety of short shorts available. These stories are short but they have a sharp impact on the reader. The Afternotes section provides extra information about the author, which is often not included in short story collections. It also provides interviews with the authors on their inspiration for the story of theirs included in this volume and occasional interviews with translators on how they set about getting the most accurate translation of the story.
Amazon.com
In this book, Trevor Ravenscroft weaves an enigmatic web connecting such disparate events as the carving of a pillar for a Scottish cathedral, Druidic teaching methods, and the detonation of the first atomic bomb. At the center of his web is the spear that pierced the side of Christ. The Mark of the Beast continues the story Ravenscroft began in The Spear of Destiny to reveal the innate power of this pivotal artifact. This literate and thoroughly researched book is Ravenscroft's final work, and devotees of his previous books will want to get their hands on this one.
Customer Reviews:
This could be the most important book you'll ever read!.......1999-07-21
Spear of Destiny, Cup of Destiny and now this make the ultimate triology, this is the Lord of the Rings and Star Wars with one difference its real and is going on in our lives right now. These are historical figures in the battle of good vs. evil and its still being played out right here right now, and to make things more interesting. The one who comes to entrap us all is here. Read about it, and prepare, for it all prepares the way for yet another event. These books have changed my life. He cometh with clouds. Mark B.email grokfish@gte.net
Wondeerful and filled with insight!.......1999-03-21
I am familiar with Mr. Ravenscroft's work and believe that he is truly at the top of his form. If the subject interests you, do read his earlier work, and please take a look at The Spear of Golgotha, Richard Greenwald, a fictionalized delve into familiar territory. Five stars for Ravenscroft.
Riviting.......1999-02-09
If the information in this book is accurate..everyone should have a copy in their mailbox tomorrow!! Frightening yet compellingly logical...Very definitive for our times..Buy this one...Spear of Destiny probably should be read first.
Average customer rating:
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Jazz on Record - The First Sixty Years: The Complete Story of Significant Artists and Their Recordings Through Six Decades of Music
Scott Yanow
Manufacturer: Backbeat Books
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Swing : Third Ear - The Essential Listening Companion
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ASIN: 0879307552 |
Book Description
In this comprehensive, 860-page hardcover resource, Scott Yanow traces the history of jazz through its recordings. Most live performances from this 60-year period (1895 to 1976) are lost forever, but jazz fans can still experience a rich legacy of recorded work. Painstakingly sorting through and colorfully commenting on thousands of CDs and LPs, Yanow points out which performances are the most representative of the great 20th-century artists, and which recordings are essential to jazz fans' collections. Along the way, he takes readers on a journey through the golden ages of jazz, covering styles such as New Orleans jazz, swing, bebop, cool jazz, Dixieland, hard bop, soul jazz, the avant-garde, and fusion - and showing how these forms diverge, develop, and continue to flourish. A must for jazz fans, scholars and serious collectors.
Customer Reviews:
Who's on first?.......2006-10-27
First published in 1990 as THE OFFICIAL ABBOTT & COSTELLO SCRAPBOOK, this 1997 release of THE ABBOTT & COSTELLO STORY by Stephen Cox and John Lofflin is an affectionate and nostalgic journey through the career of these two comedians. It's everything the Abbott and Costello fan would want to know, and then some.
A majority of the book's thirteen chapters comprise a narrative history of the team's progression through burlesque, radio, film, television, and animation. Additionally, there's one chapter summarizing each of their 36 films (production facts, cast members, plot, and sidelights), plus the one film that Costello did solo, from 1940 to 1959, and one chapter summarizing each of the 52 installments (cast and plot) of their TV show , which aired in 1952-53. Finally, and perhaps over the top for the reader satisfied with less rather than more, there's a chapter of one-paragraph program synopses for the 156 Abbott & Costello cartoons produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions in the late 60s, by which time Lou was dead, though Bud, by then in declining health, managed to provide the voice for his character.
THE ABBOTT & COSTELLO STORY includes lots of sidebar stories, the most significant of which is perhaps daughter Chris Costello's defense of her father as he was depicted in the 1978 NBC-TV docudrama "Bud and Lou", a production she loathes to this day.
Cox and Lofflin manage not to be too slavish in their admiration of the pair. The authors don't hesitate to remind the reader of A&C's addiction to gambling, in which they lost vast sums at cards, Bud's alcoholism and cavalier attention to U.S. tax law, and Lou's borderline sadistic sense of humor when it came to playing on-set pranks on an old pal, Bobby Barber, whom Costello apparently hired for just that purpose. The most amusing negative aside is one noted as coming from character actress Mary Wickes, who appeared in two A&C films ("Who Done It?" and "Dance with Me, Henry"), and who said:
"I didn't care for them. But that's alright. They just had no taste. They were coarse."
THE ABBOTT & COSTELLO STORY is loaded with photos, which might make it a coffee-table book except that, in its paperback format, it wouldn't likely serve as such in a Martha Stewart home. On the other hand, because of its awkward size - 10" x 8" x 3/4" - it doesn't fit easily on a bookshelf nor is it amenable for inclusion in carry-on luggage for reading on a plane. Perhaps the best way to approach it is to leave it at the bedside, enjoy it immensely at your leisure, then pass it on to a friend when finished.
THE BOOK to read and own on Abbott & Costello!!!.......2001-11-26
I've read a lot of (good, medium and bad) books on Abbottt and Costello -- and this is the BEST e-v-e-r.
If you're just discovering Abbott and Costello (and a major movie is reportedly in the works so you will hear more about them) you'll discover in these lively, profusely illustrated pages why the team greatly inspired Jerry Seinfeld and others. If you're into comedy and want to learn about their techniques and routines, you'll get plenty of helpful analysis plus some superb transcripts of some of their most famous, classic routines. If you're a Baby Boomer and want to read THE ULTIMATE book to take you down a nostalgic path to your beloved childhood stars, this is all you need. Why? A few reasons:
1. It's filled with tons of bio material about their careers, long lively quotes, a complete listing of their movies, tv and other appearances.
2. It is not a fanzine book. It looks at the two, warts and all, dispells a few of the myths that grew up due to bad reporting and, in one case, apparently, a highly inaccurate Hollywood movie about them done nearly 30 years ago.
3. It traces their whole careers, their triumphs, the sad loss of Costello's drowned son (how he went on the radio nonetheless with his show), their split up, Costello going solo, his tragic untimetly death, Abbott's attempt to stay in show biz, Abbott's tax problems and final years.
4. It has the BEST interviews from people who worked with them and knew them.
5. It has the BEST photos, illustrations - even a full color section that is not available in any other book on them. We don't usually think about this team in color, even though they made two color flicks.
6. Its the BEST COLLECTION of info and the most UP TO DATE. This is basically a comprehensive rewrite (LOTS of new stuff) and expansion of an earlier book on them under a different title. I have both books now and will not part with either.
The biggest compliment of a show biz bio book is that you read it and you immediately want to re-examine the artists' work. You truly won't want to put this book down if you're a comedy fan, just discovering this team, or remember them. Save your money on the other books -- get, read and/or gift this. I'm an entertainer and I collect show biz bios...NO OTHER BOOK ON THIS COMEDY TEAM COMES CLOSE.
This Abbott and Costello story is a rerun.......2000-05-26
Abbott and Costello fans be warned: this book shamelessly recylces and abridges material from earlier books, including Jim Mulholland's "Abbott and Costello Book" (1975) and Furmanek and Palumbo's "Abbott and Costello in Hollywood" (1991) in an offhand attempt to cover all of Bud and Lou's work. As a result, it covers nothing well. Other detriments: no index; numerous errors; the corny "theme of baseball" approach; a gushy, juvenile writing style suitable for nine-year-olds. Pick up either of the other books, which are vastly superior.
This book is on First!.......2000-05-12
Any true fan of Bud and Lou will be delight and even overwhelmed by the amount of great things found within these pages. There is no other book on the market which features such great pictures, interviews, and rare tidbits on Abbott and Costello. This is the difinitive book about the comedy team and the only book you'll have to search for if you enjoy old comedy teams from the vintage era. The FULL COLOR photography inside the book is worth the price of the book itself, not to mention the superb photo reproduction and page quality. The design is bright and easy to access, although I wish it had an index. A few typos in the book. The coauthors did a marvelous job putting Bud and Lou's career into perspective and paying tribute to their unique blend of comedy which traveled the spectrum of stage, film, radio, tv, cartoons, you name it. This is THE book to have. Don't pass it up!
Hey Abbott [and Costello Fans] !.......1999-11-26
The Abbott and Costello Story is a must for Abbott and Costello fans. It is not only entertaining and informative, but it is also moving and emotion provoking. For Baby Boomers, it takes us back to to our innocent youth, and gives us a chance to relive those days of deriving pure joy from watching the Boys on TV. This book is a perfect compadium for those of us who have the TV shows [all 52 of them!] and movies of Abbott and Costello on videotape. Let us bring some of that innonence and wholesome family value with us as we head into the 21st Century. Thank You God for Abbott and Costello. This book helps us feel good about their comedy, ourselves, and our country.
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Aspen Bummin' : Aspen Ski Bum Stories From The Sixties
Stuart Kinkade
Manufacturer: Stuart Kinkade
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Plastic Comb
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| Poetry
| United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
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| Poetry
| United States
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| Literature & Fiction
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ASIN: 0967648505 |
Book Description
Before dropping out was fashionable, or Aspen was, as well; when today's $60 lift ticket was $6, and newer Aspen houses sold for $10 a square foot; when most Americans had never heard of Aspen, I lived there. I had stumbled on a place better than any I knew, or had a right to expect.
Thirty-five years later I have written Aspen Bummin'. I hope it conveys the thrill I still feel on reflection, the great fun of living in Aspen, where every day life had an excitement, a sense that the mundane was special in that one place.
Some of these stories were celebrated around town, representing Aspen attitudes of the time, as many of us postponed further "growing up", that is, facing families' conventional expectations. Aspen was different then, different from other places, and different from what it seems today.
The book refers to locally meaningful sites, now humbled by opulence, and sketches well-known locals of the time: long-time restaurant personalities Myrna and "Army" Armstrong; Dr. "Bugsy" Barnard, the slow growth mayor; Stuart Mace, Aspen's first naturalist; Ralph Jackson, "King Of The Ski Bums"; jazz bandleader Freddie "Old Snicklefritz" Fisher; trout stream diviner and beer drinker Homer Jaycox; two-fisted saloon keeper, flower guide and dorm hotelier "Trader Ed" Brennan.
Actions of early ski era locals describe their take on what living in Aspen meant to them, and define their legacies. Aspen Bummin' looks with humor at what Aspen was like in the formative years of the early sixties. We had fun. I hope the reader will too, plus learn a little about the town. And perhaps these pages will reignite for some, long-forgotten fun with rhymed lines.
Customer Reviews:
Aspen Bummin'.......2000-10-24
Aspen Bummin' is a delightful book written in verse about a young man's experience in Aspen in the 60's and early 70's. Having lived in Aspen during that time, the book brought back many wonderful memories for me of a very magical time. The vivid images of the Aspen I knew and loved jump out of the pages. This book would be a great addition to anyone's library who lived in or visited Aspen during that period. What a delight it is to take it out once in a while and go back in time. I look forward to more books by this author.
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