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.
Book Description
Many thousands of readers consider Philip K. Dick the greatest science fiction mind on any planet. Since his untimely death in 1982, interest in Dick's works has continued to mount and his reputation has been further enhanced by a growing body of critical attention. The Philip K. Dick Award is now given annually to a distinguished work of science fiction, and the Philip K. Dick Society is devoted to the study and promulgation of his works.
This collection includes all of the writer's earliest short and medium-length fiction (including some previously unpublished stories) covering the years 1952-1955. These fascinating stories include We Can Remember It for You Wholesale, The Cookie Lady, The World She Wanted, and many others.
"A useful acquisition for any serious SF library or collection". -- Kirkus Reviews
"The collected stories of Philip K. Dick is awe inspiring". -- The Washington Post
"More than anyone else in the field, Mr. Dick really puts you inside people's minds". -- Wall Street Journal
Customer Reviews:
cool book but title story is waaaaay to short.......2007-09-12
all of the stories in this one are good sci-fi stories. unfortunatle the title story for which i bought the book was only like 13 pages long:( We can remember it for you wholesale was the story on which the movie TOTAL RECALL was based on.
Early work shows promise.......2007-05-28
The forward said that this collection of short stories was PKD's early work and it shows. I had problems with some of his endings but found the majority of the stories enjoyable. I should also mention that not all of the stories are really science fiction. I am, however, looking forward to reading some of the later works by (...) to see the development of the author.
The Evolution Of Dick's Short Stories.......2007-04-03
In May of 1987 Underwood-Miller published a five volume set titled "The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick", with the second volume being subtitled "Second Variety". In September of 1990 the Carroll Group republished the second volume with a few of changes including changing the subtitle to "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale". In addition to the change of title, they removed the title story from the original volume and replaced it with the new title story. This was probably done to take advantage of the release of the movie "Total Recall" which was based on the story. The last change they made was to move the story "Prominent Author" from the last story to the third story.
This is another great volume in the collection of Philip K. Dick's early short fiction. The original intent of the series was to present the stories in the order in which they were believed to have been written instead of the order in which they were published. However, by switching stories and changing the order in this book, the stories are now no longer in either order. There are 27 stories here, so it doesn't make sense to go through them all in detail, but there are several ones of note:
The title story, as mentioned earlier, was the basis for the movie "Total Recall", and for those familiar with the movie the first part of the story matches the first part of the movie very well. Douglas Quail is unsatisfied with his life and has a desire to go to Mars, he decides to check-out Rekal and is convinced to get the memories of a trip there as a secret agent implanted. At some point the two stories diverge though, and while the movie turns into an action film, the story takes a different twist at the end. The story was written in 1965 and first published in 1966, so it is much newer than the rest of the stories in this book which were mostly written and published in 1953 and 1954. In 1999, this story tied for 32nd on the Locus All-Time Poll for novelettes.
There are stories about our humanity such as "Progeny", which takes a look at what our society might be like if parents are taken out of the business of raising their children. There is "Human Is", which looks at what it really means to be human. "Breakfast at Twilight" involves at a family which is pulled into the near future to witness a war which appears to be the end of civilization. Lastly, there is James P. Crow, which looks at a future society which has forgotten that humans created robots and instead believes the reverse.
This is a very good collection, despite the decision to break away from the chronological order of the stories. The original collection was ranked 3rd on the Locus poll for collections in 1988. The diversity is greater here than in the first volume. Some of the stories may be a bit predictable, however that is largely due to other writers copying Dick's style and ideas. This volume leaves the reader looking forward to volume 3 and the continued evolution of Dick's writing.
Laboratory Of The Strange.......2003-04-02
Philip K. Dick's short stories are the best work of one of the greatest ( science) fiction writers in the history of the genre. His spare style leaves plenty for the imagination, as opposed to those writers who feel it necessary to fill their pages with endless technological detail. His staid characters are straight out of the Eisenhower Years, and are put through hoops such as no one has dreamed up before or since. Brilliant premises create psychological dilemmas that almost always resolve unexpectedly. As testament to his fertile imagination, five movies directly credit his short stories, and many more arguably rip him off. This five volume set comprises half of my ten most treasured books; if you like fiction, short stories, or genius social commentary, buy these stories.
First Book of his that I read.......2003-03-13
I must have missed something about this book. I can't believe that Minority Report and Total Recall, two movies that I did enjoy, came from this author. The stories seem to be missing something. Perhaps, this version should not have been the first works by this author for me to have read.
Customer Reviews:
Reckless Disregard.......2000-09-04
If ever there were a journalist who cannot be trusted (Matt Drudge aside perhaps), it is Cockburn.
Cockburn's criticism of Reagan are by and large on the mark. But Reagan has been analyzed and critiqued by far more able critics with far greater credibility. Cockburn, a supposed "radical" and a former paid shill for the PLO (who never bothered to disclose this relationship while he was supposedly an objective reporter), was a long time contributor to the Village Voice. His pieces in The Village Voice over the years were, as often as not, a vile stew composed of ersatz radical politics, bitchy attacks on fellow journalists, and the occasional actual story accompanied by relentless self-promotion. He was also not above character assassination and very selective reading of facts in order to further his agenda du jour. Although he goes after Reagan here, liberals are often Cockburn targets -- he delights in attacking them for not being pure enough for him, even as he often gives right wingers and reactionaries a free pass. (If his recent article taken from his forthcoming book about Al Gore is any example of the book, Cockburn's newest offering is another example of this.
Simply put, there are better Marxists, better writers, better cultural critics and far more able journalists. Take a pass on this book.
Great stuff.......1999-08-10
Cockburn is the master of the polemic. His words about Reagan, food, travel, *anything*, are worth reading.
No other book so devastatingly captures the 80s.......1998-05-25
I read this wonderful collection of super sharp essays by the 'last marxist' himself back in the late 80s. Still have the Verso paperback edition on my book shelf and have given it as gifts for one occasion or another over the years.
Whether he is writing on Reagan, Thatcher or James Bond and travel his essays can not be beat for totally and unapologetically taking class analysis in a wildly creative and laugh out loud direction. Unpedictable, untrivial and totally original.
Get it and remember why Reagan and his machine were so dispicable.
Book Description
The only hardcover edition of Roald Dahl’s stories for adults, the Collected Stories amply showcases his singular gifts as a fabulist and a born storyteller.
Later known for his immortal children’s books, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, and The BFG, Dahl also had a genius for adult short fiction, which he wrote throughout his life. Whether fictionalizing his dramatic exploits as a Royal Air Force pilot during World War II or concocting the ingeniously plotted fables that were dramatized on television as Tales of the Unexpected, Dahl was brilliant at provoking in his readers the overwhelming desire to know what happens next—and at satisfying that desire in ways that feel both surprising and inevitable.
Filled with devilish plot twists, his tales display a tantalizing blend of macabre humor and the absurdly grotesque. From “The Landlady,” about an unusual boardinghouse that features a small but very permanent clientele, to “Pig,” a brutally funny look at vegetarianism, to “Man from the South,” in which a fanatical gambler does his betting with hammer, nails, and a butcher’s knife, Dahl’s creations amuse and shock us in equal measure, gleefully reminding us of what might lurk beneath the surface of the ordinary.
Customer Reviews:
Dahl makes you laugh and..........2007-09-10
forces you to look in the mirror. I was introduced to Dahl by my 8th grade English teacher who saw something very dark inside of me (yes, another plug for better teacher pay!). "Pig" gave me nightmares, "Skin" made me wonder about the greed of human beings. What's missing are the "My Uncle Oswald" stories, but this collection is absolutely priceless!
Splendid book.......2007-06-11
Excellent book from all points of view. Sewn edition, bound and quality of printing. I have another edition of Roald Dahl but unfortunately it's a paperback edition and the pages disappear one after another. I decided never to buy again paperback books. When I saw that Roald Dahl was published in Everyman's Library I immediately decided to order it and I am more than happy with what I received. It's very good for work with my students and I will leave it to my children as well. Many thanks to the publishers.
A great collection of Roald Dahl's short stories!.......2007-03-11
I actually have a compendium of Roald Dahl's stories in a different edition but when I came across this edition with the inimitable Mr Dahl on the cover I had to buy it. It is a lovely edition that collects all of Dahl's short stories in one book, and I love the fact that it comes with a lovely red satin page marker! A great addition to any library.
Greatest Writer Ever.......2007-02-06
This collection of stories by Roald Dahl is great. He was one of the best and entertaining writers that composed such original work. I have read some of his stories more than once. I read them and when I am in the mood I pick them up again and read them again. I highly recommend these to anyone who especially has never read anything by Mr. Dahl.
It doesn't get any better than this!.......2006-11-10
I grew up on Roald Dahl stories, not just his classic children's stories, but dark tales like "The Skin" and "The Taste" and "Lamb to the Slaughter." Dahl was a master storyteller, able to get under the skin in the most unconventional ways. It is real treat to have all his "adult stories" gathered here in one volume. Dahl's stories always had a sinister element, exposing the anxiety and frustration that lied beneath mundane middle class life. While ostensibly these stories qualify as "British humor," they have long transcended the bounds of Great Britain and become part of the world's collective imagination, inspiring everyone from Alfred Hitchcock to Tim Burton with his tales of the macabre and the fantastical.
Book Description
Many thousands of readers consider Philip K. Dick the greatest science fiction mind on any planet. Since his untimely death in 1982, interest in Dick's works has continued to mount and his reputation has been further enhanced by a growing body of critical attention. The Philip K. Dick Award is now given annually to a distinguished work of science fiction, and the Philip K. Dick Society is devoted to the study and promulgation of his works.
This collection includes all of the writer's earliest short and medium-length fiction (including some previously unpublished stories) covering the years 1952-1955. These fascinating stories include Second Variety, Foster, You're Dead and The Father-Thing, and many others.
"A useful acquisition for any serious SF library or collection". -- Kirkus
"The collected stories of Philip K. Dick is awe inspiring". -- The Washington Post
"More than anyone else in the field, Mr. Dick really puts you inside people's minds". -- Wall Street Journal
Customer Reviews:
The Third Volume Of An Amazing Collection.......2007-05-05
In May of 1987 Underwood-Miller published a five volume set titled "The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick". The third volume of the collection was subtitled "The Father-Thing". In April of 1991 the Carroll Group republished the third volume changing the subtitle to "Second Variety". In addition to the change of title this volume now contains the story "Second Variety" which was originally in the second volume of the Underwood-Miller set. It seems clear that they made these changes in order to take advantage of the release of "Total Recall", which was around the time of the Carroll Group's re-release of the second volume of the series, and that did have the cascading effect of destroying the chronological approach that the original set of books used, but that doesn't change the fact that this is an excellent series of books and well worth owning by anyone who loves science fiction. Ultimately, this book contains the same stories as volume 3 in the original set, with the addition of "Second Variety" as the last story in the book.
There are 24 stories in this book, with a greater number of longer stories than were in the first two volumes of the series. While Dick's short stories are excellent, the novelette length gives him a bit more room to really explore some of his ideas, something which he uses to great effect in several of this book's stories. One theme which appears in several of the stories here is that of mutation. Dick clearly rejected John W. Campbell Jr.'s idea that mutations should always be viewed as good and leading humanity into the future. This idea is central to stories like "The Golden Man" , "A World of Talent", and "Psi-man Heal My Child", though that is not to say that Dick viewed mutations as bad either, simply that he used a more balanced and realistic approach to the subject.
Another theme which appears in several stories in this volume is that of humanity losing control of their technology, and we see this in such stories as "The Last of the Masters",
"To Serve the Master", and the title story "Second Variety", which was the basis for the 1996 film "Screamers". Along the same lines, we see mankind on the brink of elimination in stories like "Tony and the Beetles", and "Pay for the Printer" along with several of the stories which I had already mentioned. It is not surprising that Dick revisited many of these ideas over and over, as most authors do. Dick also had an incredible output of stories during the early fifties was incredible, with nearly all of the stories in the first three volumes were written between 1952 and 1954, so again one would expect a fair amount of repeated themes. What is surprising is that he manages to make the stories fresh by taking the reader in different directions each time.
This is a great volume in a great collection of Philip K. Dick's work. While changed slightly from the original collection, which was ranked 3rd on the Locus poll for collections in 1988, the completeness of the collection is still in tact. Outside of the stories I have already listed, there are other very good ones as well, such as "The Father-Thing", "Foster, You're Dead", and "Shell Game". The longer stories in this volume put it in front of the first two volumes in terms of the overall quality, but the whole series is certainly worthwhile.
A Must for the Dick Fan and a Good Introduction to PKD.......2004-01-14
There would be little point in giving a synopsis of each of the 24 stories in this book. That would give a false sense of repetition since many feature images of ash and overturned bathtubs -- the aftermath of nuclear war -- or struggles between mutants and normal humans, each fearing their extinction. But they don't seem any more repetitious than a skilled musician working variations on a theme for that is what many are. These stories, written in 1953 and 1954 -- with one exception, are arranged chronologically, so the student of Dick can see him play with an idea for two or three stories in a row.
Along the way we get the humor, intricate plotting, and sudden reversals in our moral sympathies characteristic of Dick. And there are the machines that so often are a force of death in Dick though they behave more and more like life. Such is the case with the title story, one of Dick's most paranoid and basis for the movie _Screamers_. When sophisticated weapons take on human guise and began to stalk man, what Dick calls his grand theme, knowing who is human and who only pretends to be, is starkly exhibited.
Other famous stories are "The Golden Man" with its purging of mutants before they infect the human gene pool, "The Father-Thing" which is what a boy realizes has replaced his real father, and "Sales Pitch", a story which anticipates, with its all purpose android advertising its virtues through rather thuggish means, the work of Ron Goulart.
There are some memorable stories not so well known. "Foster, You're Dead" was originally conceived as a protest against a remark by President Eisenhower that citizens should be responsible for their own bomb shelters. Its young hero lives terrified in a world where making knives from scratch and digging underground shelters are parts of the school curriculum and each new year brings the newest model of bomb shelter, terrified because his father can't afford to buy one for the family. "War Veteran" reads like a futuristic _Mission Impossible_ episode. The spirit of Charles Fort may be at work in "Null-O", a satire on the absurd philosophy that no distinctions between things are valid, a philosophy practiced by "perfect paranoids". (Fort may have inspired the weakest and first story in the collection, "Fair Game", with its van Vogtian plotting giving way at the end to a silly twist.)
Dick fans will see "Shell Game", with its colony of paranoids, as sort of a test run for Dick's _Clans of the Alphane Moon_, and the time jumping child of "A World of Talent" is reminiscent of Manfred Steiner in Dick's _Martian Time-Slip_. This collection also features one of Dick's occasional fantasies, "Upon the Dull Earth".
Any admirer of Dick will want to read this collection, and those needing an introduction to his work will find no bad stories in this exhibit of 14 months in Dick's career.
My favorite author ever!.......2003-05-08
The man is good. If you have not read any of Philip K. Dick I would highly recommend any of his books. He is by far the best Sci-Fi writer ever. Some of my favorite short stories from this book are "The Father-Thing, The Golden Man, The Hanging Stranger." Heck, they are all good. They remind me more of episodes of "The Twilight Zone" then just Sci-Fi.
Another good collection.......2003-03-01
Although not on quite the same level of Volumes One and Two in this five book set of all of Philip K. Dick's short fiction, Second Variety and Other Classic Stories is a worthwhile read for any PKD fan.
Dick cranked out stories very quickly in his early years, and some of these tales do have a certain sense of being rushed, but others, including the title story are nothing short of brilliant. As usual, Dick focuses on dystopic futures that are politically and/or environmentally ravaged; usually these stories have a level of humor too, but others in this collection are more purely downbeat.
While some stories are just okay, I particularly enjoyed "The Golden Man," "Second Variety" and "Foster, You're Dead." There are some other great ones, too. I would recommend this to any science fiction fan who wants to read some truly original fiction; this is another good collection of Dick's short stories.
There'll Never Be Another Like Him.......2000-10-20
This book, third in a set of five from Citadel Press (who are doing similar definitive collections of Robert Bloch & Theodore Sturgeon), collects all of Dick's short stories, the vast majority of them from the 50s - not coincidentally, the high-water mark of the sf pulps. All are introduced by later-era sf writers like Tom Disch, Norman Spinrad & this volume's John Brunner; unfortunately, all take pains to point out that the true value of these stories was in their raw wealth of ideas, which Dick later cannibalized and expanded upon in his novels. During his short-story tyro period, Dick wrote fast and furious (how does a story a week sound?) and the conventional wisdom states that these tales are too one-dimensional, formulaic and crudely-written to have much artistic quality on their own merits. I strongly disagree. While Dick's later novels are of course worth reading, these early stories literally SEETHE with fevered imagination: it's important to note that he does not employ recurring characters or settings here. He literally starts each story with a blank canvas, which only makes his prolific output that much more astounding. All of his obsessions and central themes are already present, but emerging as they did against the backdrop of the American 50s, the oft-noted 'flaws' in these small gems lend an eerily authentic surrealism and subversive power that his 60s and 70s work (when the world he lived in was already waist-deep in 'science fiction time', to use a Spinrad phrase) somewhat lack. Actually, Dick's COLLECTED STORIES, like much of the most resonant 50s sf, can be savored as much for their horror-story frissons, or their mythic and allegorical properties, as they can as pure speculative fiction. (And one could make the argument that such work, produced under the spectres of McCarthyism, The Bomb, flying-saucer sightings, a growing militarism and the incipient gray-flannelled paranoia festering in the newly-minted utopia of suburbia, was much more daring and revolutionary than similar Dick-inspired work published in the far-less-restrictive, anything-goes 60s). Sure, many of the characters in COLLECTED STORIES read like print versions of Kenneth Tobey and Morris Ankrum, but therein lies their power; they're true to the era in a way that 'better-written', more fully developed protagonists probably couldn't be. Anyway, to cut a long-winded sermon short, readers drawn to either sf or horror, as well as those who nominally detest both genres but do enjoy a touch of strangeness and obsessiveness in their fiction, should run out and buy SECOND VARIETY and the other four books in this series. You may be surprised to find many of these 'one-dimensional' stories, written hastily for money, clinging like burrs to your subconscious long after the work of Great Authors have slid noiselessly from memory. Mandatory reading.
Book Description
Collected here are twenty-six of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's most brilliant and enchanting short stories, presented in the chronological order of their publication in Spanish from three volumes: Eyes of a Blue Dog,Big Mama's Funeral, and The Incredible and Sad Tale of lnnocent Eréndira and Her Heartless Grandmother. Combining mysticism, history, and humor, the stories in this collection span more than two decades, illuminating the development of Marquez's prose and exhibiting the themes of family, poverty, and death that resound throughout his fiction.
Customer Reviews:
Enchantingly Surreal.......2005-01-30
Marquez takes you into a magical tour throughout this wonderful short story book that you can read repeatedly and never tire from it. He is a master at his art and always engulfs you with a subject simply by using his unique surreal style of putting things together in writing.
I have read this book several times in both languages Spanish and English, and grasped more of his "magical realism" in Spanish, simply because it was originally written in that language and there is always something lost during translation, although the English version was pretty decent. Marquez's words are vivid and visual, as you read the stories you imagine them on a movie screen.
The Man With Enormous Wings is a great one, a shabby old man with wings falls from the sky during a heavy rainfall in some tiny South American village, and since the people that live there are superstitious they assume he's an angel from the far away heavens. So they decide to put him in a chicken coop and spread the word that there is an angel in town so people from all over the place come around with bizarre ailments such as a man that could not sleep because the noise from the stars kept him awake at night. Another woman could not stop counting and she had run out of numbers to count. Well, it goes on and on and nothing happens. The freak with wings becomes sick and somehow manages to fly away flapping it's wings like a vulture while Elisenda is cutting onions.
Then there is The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World, about some children, playing by the sea and seeing some bulky mass approaching them. At first, they think it is an enemy ship, but discover it is a dead body. The kids drag him into the town and all the women in the village start fussing all over him, especially because he was a big man. They clean him up but couldn't find clothes big enough for him to wear since he was a large man, and they decide to name him Esteban which means Stephen in English, I guess because he looked like a gringo. The men in the village start to get a little jealous about the women fuss too much over this dead Esteban. The women make up stories about what his life would have been like, what he might have done for a living, and felt sorrow over this orphan corpse. Eventually after the women grieve tremendously for Esteban, they gather flowers, hold a funeral, and he's thrown back into the sea (this was supposed to be a children's story).
Well, there are twenty four more wonderful stories in this book that you must read including Erendira and her Heartless Grandmother, and Death Constant Beyond Love.
Stories by a Master.......2004-07-15
This collection of twenty six stories by Nobel Laureate Garcia Marquez was first published as a whole in 1984, although the stories were previously published in three separate volumes. As a consequence, two translators are credited here: Gregory Rabassa for the stories from EYES OF A BLUE DOG and THE INCREDIBLE AND SAD TALE OF INNOCENT ERENDIRA AND HER HEARTLESS GRANDMOTHER, and J. S. Bernstein for the stories from BIG MAMA'S FUNERAL. Both scholars and avid followers will appreciate the chronological ordering of these tales as well as the dating of first publication from 1947 to 1972 to see the progression of a much heralded talent.
As befitting the work of a master, every story is wonderfully told, with deft touches that make each memorable. Many, particularly the early stories, deal with death, particularly the separation of consciousness from the physical body, and many explore the messiness of love. Several combine the two. In "Death Constant Before Love," a politician suffering from a terminal disease falls in love with a girl given to him as a political favor. "The Third Resignation" tells the tale of a seven year old boy who falls into a coma and then grows up in a coffin in his mother's house. Three times, he resigns himself to death. "There Are No Thieves In This Town" chronicles the foolishness of a man who steals three billiard balls from a local pool hall and who loses his wife and unborn child for it. Always, Garcia Marquez's exception talent for storytelling carries these tales alone with a romantic and mystical eye for human vulnerability. His style is never rushed, always lingering over the moment, which gives even the shortest stories the feel of a novella. Not all these stories embrace the magic realism for which the author is famous, although the reader will emerge bewitched all the same.
The best collection of short stories I've ever read!.......2000-11-15
Gabriel Garcia Marquez is one of the most incredible writers I have ever encountered. He is a profound storyteller. In fact, his work is like a beautiful Magritte painting filled with surreal images. I marvel at the translator. I can't imagine translating "Eyes of a Blue Dog." How on earth was he able to translate such a complicated story? It's incredible! The other stories are amazing as well. My favorites are "Big Mama's Funeral" and "A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings." Each story has a special dose of magical realism. I look forward to reading other books from this author. I highly recommend this book.
Stunning!.......2000-11-09
Marquez is amazing. I've read other writings of his before, including the "One Hundred Years of Solitude," but these stories totally stunned me. Marquez paints a colorful and magical world around you. His stories flow like a river, you go with the flow unable to stop till you get to the end, and at the end he leaves you thirsty for more.
Marquez is an artist, and his stories are colorful, screamingly colorful pieces of art...
A collection of paintings.......2000-08-16
With this book, I did what I haven't done with any other book before. I read the first story (The Third Resignation) immediately followed by the last story (The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Erendira and Her Heartless Grandmother). The stories are arranged in chronological order and I could see the effect of time on the writer immediately. It was a journey from the completely inscrutable to absolute magic. I don't mean to say that the earlier stories are in any way inferior to the later ones. They take a little getting used to.
True to the Marquez trademark, almost all these stories have one or more magical women--sometimes she's a mute girl, sometimes she's the the quintessential opportunist, sometimes a helpless mother. Sometimes she's at the forefront of the plot, deciding the course of the story. Sometimes she merges with the background, letting things take their own course. Whatever her role, she has this uncanny ability to attract. Marquez is a painter who uses words instead of colors. If the translated pieces evoke such vivid imagery, I wonder what the originals would do. Wish I knew Spanish.
To the reader who is not used to the trademark "inscrutable" Marquez writing, I suggest that he/she read this book back to front. The initiated will enjoy either way, as long as it's cover to cover.
Book Description
With more than 120 titles still in print, Louis L'Amour is recognized the world over as one of the most prolific and popular American authors in history. Though he met with phenomenal success in every genre he tried, the form that put him on the map was the short story. Now this great writer – who The Wall Street Journal recently compared with Jack London and Robert Louis Stevenson – will receive his due as a great storyteller. This volume kicks off a series that will, when complete, anthologize all of L'Amour’s short fiction, volume by handsome volume.
Here, in Volume One, is a treasure-trove of 35 frontier tales for his millions of fans and for those who have yet to discover L'Amour’s thrilling prose – and his vital role in capturing the spirit of the Old West for generations to come.
Customer Reviews:
If There Were 10 Stars..........2007-02-20
Mr. L'Amour is a favorite, but one I'd almost forgotten. I read many of his novels while riding submarines in the early 80's. When, by chance, I saw his short stories, I bought all four volumes. Just finished volume 1, and, my goodness...this man was a treasure. Right always triumphs, the good guy gets the girl...I could go on. But be sure, these are well-written and captivating. There's one "Sackett" story that made me laugh out-loud on every page, and a story about rustlers that warms the heart, while compelling the reader to admire Mr. L'Amour's extraordinary story-telling capability. Get all four volumes---great read!
Excellent collection of short stories.......2007-01-11
While I'm not a Louis L'Amour fan, my father is. We gave it to him for Christmas and he couldn't stop talking about how nice the gift was. The short stories are just the right amount of time for sitting in a Doctors Office or waiting for someone else.
We purchased the same volume in Large Print for a 93 year old friend with failing eyesight. He had the same comments. Excellent collection!
Louis L'Amour at his best.......2006-07-25
An excellent introduction to one of the greatest American storytellers. A very good gift to anyone who admires American Western courage, independence, and sense of honor.
I Just Love These Stories.......2006-05-12
My grandpa used to read these to me when I was in gradeschool from old-fashioned looking books that he had a lot of. He always wanted to read me a whole novel, but I was never visiting long enough so he read me stories and some of the ones I still remember all these years later are in this collection. I have always wanted to write a western and am working on one because I loved them so much as a child. This is a really nice collection that is full of super stories so get it.
The Frontier Stories: Vol. One, Louis L'Amour.......2006-03-15
As an avid fan of Mr. L'Amour's work, this is a wonderful collection.
Average customer rating:
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The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell
K. Blackwell
Manufacturer: Routledge
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ASIN: 0049200674 |
Book Description
"Contains a great deal of varied and interesting writing from Russell's first decade as an independent thinker the great themes of God and freewill, immortality and conscience are rehearsed with charm and penetration Russell shows an exuberant delight in ingenious reasoning, expressed in the fewest possible words and in the least encumbered way, that was to remain with him as a kind of trademark -- Anthony Quinton, The Times
Amazon.com
Born in Pennsylvania in 1879, Wallace Stevens spent his adult life working in the rigorously non-poetic insurance business. Yet his poetry, most of which he wrote after his 50th birthday, is anything but mundane. Rather, Stevens stuffed his work with the brilliant bric-a-brac of a dozen cultures, celebrating (for example) the "dark Brazilians in their cafes,/Musing immaculate, pampean dits" or the way "that old Chinese/Sat tittivating by their mountain pools/Or in the Yangtse studied out their beards." Stevens wasn't, however, a simple collector of souvenirs. A magpie with a mission, he used the peculiar music of his poetry to investigate grand philosophical dilemmas. What was the distinction between appearance and reality? Does an aesthetic artifact such as a poem bring us any closer to the real? (He seemed to answer the latter question, at least provisionally, by declaring that "the poem is the cry of its occasion/Part of the res itself and not about it.") The Collected Poetry & Prose brings together all of Stevens's published books, including such classic poems as "The Man with the Blue Guitar," "Sunday Morning," and "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird." There's also a generous sampling of his essays, speeches, letters, and miscellaneous prose. These riches confirm the enormous reach of Stevens's imagination, but they also remind us that for all his internationalism, he remained very much a product of his native soil. As he confessed in a 1948 letter, "I like to hold on to anything that seems to have a definite American past even though the American trees may be growing by the side of queer Parthenons set, say, in the neighborhood of Niagara Falls."
Customer Reviews:
for lovers of poetry.......2007-09-15
Wallace Stevens: Collected Poetry and Prose is the best single collection of Stevens' work I have found yet. The inclusion of his essays as well as his verse provides deeper insight into the mind and life of this poet. If your're looking to give someone a gift of some substance, this volume is perfect. While larger in size than most volumes of poetry (it contains, after all, Stevens' published work), it is small enough to keep on the nightstand or beside one's chair. If you're on the fence about getting this, don't hestitate to buy it. You will not regret your choice.
One of the best LoA volumes.......2006-10-01
Stevens' Collected Prose and Poetry is essential for anyone interested in wonderful art and thought. It includes the entirety of his 1955 Collected Poems, all of his lovely essay volume The Necessary Angel, all of Opus Posthumous, early versions of Owl's Clover and The Comedian as the Letter C, many poems of his youth, diary entries, aphorisms...in short, all the Stevens you'll ever need.
And you do need Stevens. Yes, he's 'hard', but the hardness is not opaque, a la Gertrude Stein. You may not always understand him but he always means SOMETHING, and something crucially correct, the key to which is probably found by rereading the work in question, or reading around in his other poems and prose--hence the special need for a volume like this one. His is a fairly coherent and remarkably advanced vision of life, of a complexity and relevance surpassed by those of very few artists and philosophers ever. Basically, if you possess life, and wish to inhabit that life as fully as possible, sounding its deepest depth and furthest limits, Stevens is one of the resources you'll need. There may be poets more masterful with language--though Stevens is staggering with language--but which has ever grasped better what resources the meeting of words and world can open up for us? Find Stevens, absorb Stevens, you'll find yourself somewhere I can hardly imagine. Best use of forty bucks I can think of.
The greatest poet of the 20th Century in a very complete collection.......2006-05-15
Wallace Stevens is my favorite poet. This Library of America collection is to be preferred as a source of his writing: it includes a number of additional poems relative to his Collected Poems (including the controversial long poem "Owl's Clover"), as well as alternate versions of some poems, juvenilia, and also Stevens's essays.
Stevens is known, it seems to me, in two separate ways. In the popular sense, he is known for a series of remarkable early poems, in most cases not terribly long, notable for striking images and quite beautiful prosody. Of these poems the most famous is surely "Sunday Morning" -- other examples are "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird", "Peter Quince at the Clavier", "Sea Surface Full of Clouds", "Tea at the Palaz of Hoon", "The Emperor of Ice Cream", "The Idea of Order at Key West", "Of Modern Poetry". The great bulk of these come from his first collection, Harmonium, and indeed from the first edition of Harmonium, published in 1923. These were certainly my favorite among his poems on first reading. And they remain favorites.
But his critical reputation rests strikingly on a completely different set of poems, all later than those mentioned above. (Though it must be acknowledged that at least "Sunday Morning" and "The Idea of Order at Key West" as well as two early long poems, "The Comedian as the Letter C" and "The Monocle de Mon Oncle", are in general highly regarded critically. And that most of his early work is certainly treated with respect.)
I think it's fair to say that "late Stevens" begins with "Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction", perhaps his most highly regarded work. Of course the terms "late" and "early" are odd applied to Stevens. His first successful poems appeared in 1915 (including "Sunday Morning"), when he was 36. He was 44 when the first edition of Harmonium came out. That's pretty late for "early"! And by the 1942 publication of "Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction" he was 63. Indeed, his production from 1942 through his death in 1955 was remarkable: two major collections each with several long poems as well as at least another full collection worth of late poems, some included in this _Collected Poems_ but quite a few more not collected until after his death.
What to say about late Stevens? The most obvious adjective is "austere". But that doesn't always apply -- he could also be quite playful. However, there is never the lushness of a "Sunday Morning" or "Sea Surface Full of Clouds" in the late works. The sentences tend to extraordinary length, but the internal rhythms are involving. The poems are all quite philosophical, much concerned with the importance of poetry, the nature of reality versus perceptions of reality, and, perhaps more simply, with growing old. (A Stevens theme, to be sure, that can be traced at least back to "The Monocle de Mon Oncle".)
So: Stevens is an impossibly wonderful, remarkable, poet, either early or late. His lush and imagist early work remains a delight, and his philosophically involving late work rewards rereading and concentration. He is a poet to whom you can return again and again, and he will always be new.
Nothing like a Wallace Stevens poem.......2005-10-25
There's something about Wallace Stevens poems. They remain in your head for days and their meanings change as you turn them over and over in your head. I love his poetry but I also enjoy the essays he wrote. And it is fascinating to read his articles on indemnity insurance.
Masterful Edition.......2005-09-29
I want to offer a quick word about the Library of America edition - it is fantastic! I hesitated to buy this work because of its length (1000+ pages), but Library of America has somehow fit all this material into a modestly-sized volume that is literally not much larger or heavier than my "Selected Works of Wallace Stevens" of 300 pages! They were able to achieve this without using onion paper - it seems to be a durable bond, and is very pleasing.
This is an edition of verse and prose that I will treasure for a long time.
Book Description
With more than 120 titles still in print, Louis L'Amour is recognized the world over as one of the most prolific and popular American authors in history. Though he met with phenomenal success in every genre he tried, the form that put him on the map was the short story. Now this great writer – who The Wall Street Journal recently compared with Jack London and Robert Louis Stevenson – will receive his due as a great storyteller. This volume kicks off a series that will, when complete, anthologize all of L'Amour’s short fiction, volume by handsome volume.
Here, in Volume Two, is a treasure-trove of 35 frontier tales for his millions of fans and for those who have yet to discover L'Amour’s thrilling prose – and his vital role in capturing the spirit of the Old West for generations to come.
Customer Reviews:
Great gift for Dad.......2007-07-10
I annually purchase a Louis L'amour book for my dad as he has become an avid reader of his books. The stories take him back to days of Roy Rogers and Trigger. A great read for those who love the duke and weekend westerns.
louis L'Amour the frontier stories: volume two.......2007-02-27
recivied in less than a week in excellent condition. excelent collection of short western stories
Pure L'Amour.......2006-08-11
Fantastic audio. I have been a devoted Louis L'Amour fan for eons. Another way to enjoy one of my favorite authors. I highly recommend this audio.
listening enjoyment.......2005-08-05
This set of cd's are a great listen-I listen to them at work and even though it would seem to be a distraction, these stories actually help me concentrate. Very enjoyable.
Books:
- Weeds of the Northeast (Comstock Books)
- Where I'm Calling From: Selected Stories
- Where Is Joe Merchant? A Novel Tale
- World of Shakespeare: The Complete Plays and Sonnets of William Shakespeare (38 Volume Library)
- Yellow Eyes (Posleen War Series #8)
- Zero Limits: The Secret Hawaiian System for Wealth, Health, Peace, and More
- 100 Butterflies and Moths: Portraits from the Tropical Forests of Costa Rica
- 300
- A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland Indiana (Today Show Book Club #3)
- A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
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