An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons, and True Stories

Book Description

Comic artist Ivan Brunetti, the creator of Schizo, offers a best-of anthology of contemporary art comics, along with some classic comic strips and other historical materials that have retained a “modern” sensibility. As with Chris Ware’s selections for his best-selling McSweeney’s anthology, Brunetti’s choices make for a highly personal book (“my criteria were simple: these are comics that I savor and often revisit”) that serves as a broad historical overview of the medium and a round-up of some of today’s best and most interesting North American comic artists. Included here are works from such well-known artists as Robert Crumb, Kim Deitch, Art Spiegelman, Chris Ware, Ben Katchor, Charles Burns, Gary Panter, Seth, Phoebe Gloeckner, Daniel Clowes, Lynda Barry, Joe Sacco, and Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez, as well as many other pioneers whose names may be less familiar.
Brunetti offers selections from the works of more than seventy-five avant-garde comic artists. His selections are arranged by genre and grouped thematically. Luxuriously produced and printed in four-color throughout, the book is a must-have for collectors, aficionados, readers of comics, and those generally interested in cutting-edge art and literature.

Customer Reviews:

An interesting introduction to "comix".......2007-09-22

I wanted to get a taste of some "graphic fiction," and this book looked pretty good. I've enjoyed it, and it has certainly increased my knowledge of the medium, but it could have been better. By sticking to only the North American continent, there are a number of glaring omissions, such as Tintin, Asterix, and the enormous field of Japanese-language comics. The rising medium of webcomics has not a mention. There are even a few notable American comics which were omitted, such as Popeye and Dick Tracy. Krazy Kat is here, but with only one strip. Though I realize that space is at a premium here, there are a number of things which seem poorly represented.

Much of the book is made up of graphic novel excerpts, which irritate me slightly, as they tend to end just when they've captured my interest. However, there are also a lot of "short stories" and single-page or single-spread comics.

It should also be noted that this book is not intended for children. There is a good deal of what is often referred to as "language" and a number of depictions of sex and/or nudity.

One last thing...this book includes two "farewells" to Charles Schulz by Art Spiegelman and Chris Ware, which will no doubt interest Peanuts fans.

A Great Resource For the Newer Materials.......2007-07-13

I don't know if there is a softback version of this book, but I got the hardback and it is a bit of a pain to handle; the spine is real stiff and it is heavy and sharp edged; like it would be hard to lug in a back pack to be read on a subway train.

If I'm not mistaken, there is no Brunetti material in the book, other than his intro, sequencing, etc.! This was an oversight of Mr. Brunetti's!

There are some wonderful artists here, people whose work I haven't come across yet - I'm making a list as I read and googling them and buying their works. In this way the book is a wonderful guide - you could almost call it a buying guide. As mentioned in another review here, the book is hurt by not having a TOC or an index - no index! It makes researching these artists a little harder, but I'm getting around it.

This is a must buy for anyone that wants to be up to date on the more recent alt comics. It will be one of the reference works that will be left standing 30 years from now, when libraries and the great learning institutions finally realize how important these works are and teach them in lit courses and collect manuscripts, ha ha. I love the new attention for this genre that I have loved and followed for something like 35 years now, but since it's become mainstreamed the prices have gone up, and we are forced to read pompous, over-intellectualized and uptight reviews by the likes of Gary Groth, etc. I hope they relax one day and stop straining so hard to legitimize this genre; it is getting there in its own way and own time.

A change from the usual comic fare.......2007-06-21

There is a stark difference between mainstream commercial graphic fiction and the alternative or independent variety featured here. The difference is between Michael Bay and Darren Aronofsky although maybe even Aronofsky is too commercial. In many cases it's the difference between Bay and a college film maker. The point is that mainstream comics are generally intended for safe consumption by a mass audience while independents tend to reflect an artists true vision. Let me just say that this collection is not for everyone and it most certainly is not for children. The stories feature molestation, pedophilia, raw language and graphic nudity both male and female. Don't be fooled by the whimsical cover.

Ironically what got me interested in independent artists was a collection from DC comics called `Bizarro Comics' which featured alternate-comic creators doing their takes on the DC characters. Inspired by the unique stories in Bizarro I purchased `McSweeney's Issue 13' which absolutely blew me away. However, my next purchase, `The Best American Comics - 2006' was a big disappointment and led me to wonder if there just weren't enough quality alternative comics produced in a single year to create an entire 300+ page book. Some of the stories were entirely too long and left me wishing they were over. `An Anthology of Graphic Fiction' is an out of the park home run. The author presents comics going back to the 1940's but leaning decidedly towards current stuff. They run the gamut from Aline Crumbs primitive scratchings to Chris Ware meticulous works that look like they came straight from a graphic design class. The writing is much more profane and a helluva lot more gloomy than what you find in mainstream graphic fiction. Someone should do a study on why alternative artists are so depressed.

One final point. At the risk of sounding like an advertisement you DEFINITELY get your money's worth with this one. It's 400 pages jam packed with great material. Get this one... get `McSweeney's Issue 13' but skip `Best American' and if you still need more grab up the vastly underrated Bizarro Comics. If you've never experienced some of the alternate comics out there you really should give it a try. It's certainly different and definitely more intimate, honest and thought provoking.

Amazing Introduction for the Non-believer.......2007-03-27

This is one of the best graphic novel/alt comics anthologies that I have ever read.

The choice of selections and their arrangement are outstanding, allowing this anthology to serve as a great introduction for someone not familiar with the form and a terrific read for devotees.

Highly recommended, even if you already own Pekar's Best American Comics or Ware's volume of McSweeney's.

Great introduction to graphic fiction.......2007-03-20

I'm not extremely well-read on the subject of graphic fiction/cartoons/ comics as editor Ivan Brunetti refers to his anthology. This collection is extremely lengthy and definitely provides a taste of several different and very unique styles of artistry and story-telling.

There are about 30 contributers to this anthology. Some are more entertaining than others, but nearly all of them are intriguing in their own way. They each have some special draw that keeps you reading. And that's what Brunetti is putting on display here.

It seems like if you already knew what cartoonists you liked this book might be kind of useless, considering you'd probably already own the collections of comics that this book takes excerpts from, but as an introduction to this world of interlaced stories and drawings, it's perfect.

I felt like they could have been ordered in a more understandable way, maybe by date published, or alphabetically. But overall I have no complaints. The pages are beautiful and each different comic has its own style of paper and printing. It makes the anthology even more exciting to read. This is the perfect book to keep around for those times when you feel like reading a few non-committal pages.

Black Rain: A Novel (Japan's Modern Writers)

Average customer rating:

When subtlety means reservation and what people had for dinner
The Rest of the Story
Relentless
A masterpiece of all times
A Must Read

Black Rain: A Novel (Japan's Modern Writers)
Masuji Ibuse
Manufacturer: Kodansha International
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 087011364X

Book Description

|Black Rain is centered around the story of a young woman who was caught in the radioactive "black rain" that fell after the bombing of Hiroshima. lbuse bases his tale on real-life diaries and interviews with victims of the holocaust; the result is a book that is free from sentimentality yet
manages to reveal the magnitude of the human suffering caused by the atom bomb. The life of Yasuko, on whom the black rain fell, is changed forever by periodic bouts of radiation sickness and the suspicion that her future children, too, may be affected.

lbuse tempers the horror of his subject with the gentle humor for which he is famous. His sensitivity to the complex web of emotions in a traditional community torn asunder by this historical event has made Black Rain one of the most acclaimed treatments of the Hiroshima story.

Customer Reviews:

When subtlety means reservation and what people had for dinner.......2007-07-25

The beauty in this kinds of books comes from the unfathomable suffering of very normal people, but the traditional Japanese culture is just so shy and reserved about itself that it's hard to see any normal people behind it. Sure, this goes as a cultural study and there's a lot of subtlety involved too, but for me it didn't present anything new about traditional Japan or made me appreciate the way of life in any more than I did before it. The way of experiencing an atomic bombing is very universal after all. The real, interesting culture lays in social relationships, not in terror.

I know I should rate it higher because of the horrors of war and how it's totally offensive not to appreciate a book like this, but... The whole genre is a bit too sacred in my opinion. People always give books like this five stars yet they read something completely different most of the time. These aren't their actual favorites. They just feel like they should be appreciated, must be appreciated, so they have to rate them highly.

But my two stars is directed for the reading experience, this is not a review of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The Rest of the Story.......2007-07-24

Having read The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes some years ago, I found my self wishing I had known about "Black Rain" at that time. "Black Rain" would have been the ideal book to read immediately after finishing Rhodes' book.

Although this is historical fiction and not a strictly historical account, the impact of this book clearly comes from Mr. Ibuse's primary research and interviewing of bomb survivors. The image that I will never forget was that of the toddler attempting to suckle from her dead mother; but other scenes in the book hold power as well.

Not only does "Black Rain" examine the impact of "Little Boy" on people of Hiroshima, but it also provides glimpses of the day-to-day hardships (such as starvation rations) and mistreatment that Japanese militarism brought its own civilians leading up to the bombing to the uncertainty that the survivors would have to carry with them for the rest of their lives regarding the long term health effects of their exposure.

At times, it reads as a very matter-of-fact account; but, at others, it provides a window on the thoughts, and emotions of the ordinary people of Hiroshima. Included are the feelings of resentments towards the Japanese Imperial Military (especially those that dared not be spoken during the war) to the understandable pondering of those effected by the bomb who wonder why it had to happen.

I can't say that there are not other books that would add to one's understanding of the history of this event, but The Making of the Atomic Bomb paired with "Black Rain" provide as clear an understanding as any two books could, at least for someone born over 20 years after the End of World War II.

Relentless.......2007-05-06

Masuji Ibuse's "Black Rain" is rightly considered a classic in Japanese literature, and perhaps "the" classic of literature about the atomic bombs dropped on Japan.

Shigematsu and his wife, Shigeko, arranged for a relative, Yasuko, to move to Hiroshima in order to avoid the draft for the war effort. Shigematsu worked for the government and could arrange things. After the bombing, persistent rumours about Yasuko suffering from radiation sickness made it impossible to find her a suitor for marriage. This problem prompted Shigematsu to write his own account of August the 6th, 1945, to show that Yasuko was exceptionally healthy. His logic was that he had been exposed to much more and his own life was relatively normal. He is a man of pride and dignity, as well as one with a keen sense of his own obligations to others around him.

Shigematsu's account is a catalogue of a plethora of horrors that people suffered during and immediately after the bombing. The injuries, the sights and Shigematsu's descriptions of them left this reader feeling less than pleasant. Shigematsu does not hold back on the details, nor does he attempt to overwell the reader with cheap shock tactics.

Shigematsu neither asks for nor expects the reader's sympathy. It is almost as if the bomb has to fit within his life and everyday routine. In the midst of the horror, for example, Shigematsu has business to attend to, and sees that he has done it to the extent possible. He comes across as a forthright and straight up person with a deep sense of trying to maintain some air of normality in the midst of terrible circumstances.

Ibuse based his novel on accounts written by survivors who were there and saw what happened. Ibuse neither justifies the bombing nor blames anyone for it, but focuses on the tragedy itself from a very human viewpoint. His relentless journey through the aftermath of the bomb is indeed a statement for life and dignity. Shigematsu and those around him somehow maintain a deep sense of value and dignity for human life and experience, which especially shine through in the days after the bombing itself.

This is not a pleasant book to read, but it is a great book and should be counted with the greats of literature from around the world. This book is a touching and penetrating journey into a Japanese family's experiences of the Hiroshima bombing. I absolutely recommend it to all.

A masterpiece of all times.......2007-05-01

Ibuse is one of the few masters of historical novels in the world. This is considered by many the summit of his career. Be as it may, having been written after many other historical works (by the time he wote this he had been 40 years at the metier), it is technically very well accomplished.

In this book, Ibuse controls very ably the flow of time and events, going back and forth betweena bitter present from which the disenchanted narrator sees the absurdity of the events which led to the atrocity of the bomb and the mad times where the facts took place. This construction does in fact add perspective and depth to the book. More important, it is performed flawlessly, so that the reader follows along with interest and doesn't loose track.

Lastly, the vividness and proximity with which it conveys an incredible extent of human suffering is just unbelievable. If only for this, this book is a must read for anyone interested in literature.

But of course, there is more to this book than just literature. It offers a cold and neutral stare on the madness of totalitarian goverments, on the stupidity of human beings when acting collectively and a subjective point of view on what probably is the worst war crime of all times. More people might have died at consecutive incendiary raids in different Japanes cities during the war, but the brutality of the tool used here is something to behold.

A Must Read.......2006-04-18

I waited six months to get my hands on a copy of this book, eager to read it because it is supposed to be one of the best in the genre. The anticipation made me a little hesitant when beginning it, putting it off for another few weeks because I had high hopes- hopes that were fulfilled.
Ibuse bases his story on interviews and diaries of survivors, using real many authentic incidents. But this is also the partially fictional tale of Yasuko and her family as they struggle with life and acceptance following the bombing of Hiroshima. Though not in the direct line of the bomb and suffering no noticeable injury or illness but having been caught in the `black rain' that fell after, Yasuko has to worry about the future of not only herself but any children that she may have. This is one of the reasons that though of marrying age she has as of yet succeeded in securing a husband and the cause for both her and her Uncle Shizuma to begin copying their diaries from the day of the bombing and the days following. The novel goes backwards and forwards in time, giving the reader a sense of what it is like for the people who lived through the atrocity, as well as horror that was the bombing itself and the aftermath.
It's all matter of fact, never shying away from the gory detail to appease the reader, never adding drama where it isn't needed but still manages to convey the suffering.
As an Australian reading this some fifty years plus after Hiroshima you could assume that it would be difficult to understand many of the emotions and customs that come up in the book (as I did with On The Beach, feeling as though the characters were cold and lacking certain emotions or attachments, but realizing that this was because of the generational gap), but Ibuse still managed to convey an image that crosses generations and cultures.
You become involved with Shizuma's and any other's plight, the predicament that Yasuko finds herself and the desperate fight for survival during wartime. You want it to turn out to the best for them, knowing full well the horror that is nuclear warfare. It's impossible not to see how indiscriminate it is and wonder why anyone would ever use such horrific force then, and especially now when we know how awful the truth is.
It is such a superb book that should be on anyone's must read list (and sent to every leader who has nuclear capabilities).

Average customer rating:

Excellent Stuff - Patton shakes it up!!!!!
Jim Patton rocks
Highly Recommended
A Good Read
The underbelly is exposed...

The Shake: A Novel of Crime
Jim Patton
Manufacturer: Carroll & Graf Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Hard-Boiled | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Big money, greed, drugs, and blackmail set off an insidious chain of events in this hard-hitting novel that takes its game off the court and into the belly of the professional basketball scene in Portland, Oregon. High on cocaine and power at a private bash, the Portland team's notorious forward, LaPrince Wheatley, misuses both to bed an underage groupie, a sixteen-year-old white girl known among the players as Little Bang. What LaPrince doesn't know is that he and Little Bang are being videotaped by the host. Throw into play Tommy Mason, the seedy reporter who discovers the illicit tape, and you have the makings of a bad situation that page by fast-paced page gets successively worse. If Mason as a blackmailer gets in over his head, he's not alone. Swept into the action, too, are LaPrince's dubious agent, his resentful half brother who's fresh out of the joint, a scary homeboy named Titan, the girl, her racist father, and Mason's estranged wife. The fouls are flagrant, and even the DA Max Travis and his loyal investigator find themselves breaking a few laws. By the time the uncompromising, bleeding-heart public defender, Paige Prescott, solves the murder at the heart of this increasingly shocking case, this impressive debut novel delivers plenty of punch, suspense, and surprise.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Stuff - Patton shakes it up!!!!!.......2003-12-02

Excellent prose! Witty, thrilling, fast, non-fiction?! I like Patton's style, it's like your at the parties, at the meetings, in the story. A must reading for our current Portland Plunder!

Jim Patton rocks.......2000-07-29

The Shake is a wonderful read. I loved the behind-the-scenes sports stuff. I read it in two sittings last week and I'm still smiling and shaking my head over some of his characters. Some were so despicable, I hope Patton follows them in future books.

Highly Recommended.......2000-07-27

This is the third novel by Patton that I have read and it hits the mark! Patton's blend of professional athletes, media, law, hero worship, and dysfunctional, irresponsible human behavior produce a truely unique and exciting tale. Patton has smoothly transitioned from sportswriter to crime novelist. I can't wait to see what he has up his sleeve for the next one.

-KC

A Good Read.......2000-07-21

It was a good book that I had trouble putting down. I enjoyed the DA trying to wrestle with what was legal and what was right. The ending is not altogether expected. Take the time to read it; it's worth your time.

The underbelly is exposed..........2000-07-20

This book reveals the real world of professional basketball, the seamy side that the NBA's publicists and all the players' agents hope you never find out about. Patton really got under the skin here. Plus, as a crime mystery, this book is a real page-turner.

In a Far Country: The True Story of a Mission, a Marriage, a Murder,and the Remarkable Reindeer Rescue of 1898

Average customer rating:

Life in Alaska in the late nineteenth century was frought with constant danger and unimaginable challenges.
Excellent adventure
Life on the Edge of Civilization
epic adventure
Unsung Heroes

In a Far Country: The True Story of a Mission, a Marriage, a Murder,and the Remarkable Reindeer Rescue of 1898
John Taliaferro
Manufacturer: PublicAffairs
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Adventurers & Explorers | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 1586482211

Book Description

In the fall of 1897, eight whaling ships became trapped in the ice on Alaska's northern coast. Without relief, two hundred whalers would starve to death by winter's end. Mercifully, an extraordinary missionary, Tom Lopp, and seven Eskimo herders embarked on a harrowing journey to save the whalers, driving four hundred reindeer more than seven hundred untracked miles.

At the heart of the rescue expedition lies another, in some ways more compelling, journey. In a Far Country is the personal odyssey of Tom and his wife Ellen Lopp-their commitment to the natives and the rugged but happy life they built for themselves amid a treeless tundra at the top of the world. The Lopps pulled through on grit and wits, on humility and humor, on trust and love, and by the grace of God. Their accomplishment would surely have received broader acclaim had it not been eclipsed by two simultaneous events: the Spanish- American War and the Alaska gold rush. The United States and its territories were transformed abruptly and irrevocably by these fits of expansionist fever, and despite the thoughtful, determined guidance of the Lopps, the natives of the North were soon overwhelmed by a force mightier than the fiercest Arctic winter: the twentieth century.

Customer Reviews:

Life in Alaska in the late nineteenth century was frought with constant danger and unimaginable challenges........2007-06-17

They certainly were a hardy lot. Those who chose to come Alaska in the latter part of the nineteenth century faced obstacles and hardships that most of us simply cannot comprehend. So why did they come? Despite the fact that the industry was in decline, fleets of whaling ships from such distant ports as New Bedford, Mass. and San Francisco, CA still made the trek to the Bering Sea each year in an effort to eke out a living. Those in the business of saving souls viewed Alaska as fertile territory to spread the Good News. And as the nineteeth century drew to a close there was yet another important reason why thousands would risk life and limb to come to the Alaskan wilderness. The Great Alaskan Gold Rush was on! "In A Far Country" is author John Taliaferro's remarkable account of the events that were unfolding in Alaska during these years.
Tom and Ellen Lopp were missionaries who came to Alaska in the early 1890's. Tom was a Presbyterian from Indiana while Ellen was a Congregationalist who hailed from Minnesota. Both were assigned to a mission at Cape Prince of Wales on the western tip of the Seward Peninsula. Only a month after meeting in July 1892 Tom and Ellen were married. As things turned out Tom and Ellen would start a family and spend the next dozen years ministering to the Eskimos at Cape Prince of Wales. The work was dirty, difficult and exhausting but proved to be extremely rewarding nonetheless. During their years at Cape Prince of Wales the Lopps opened a mission school and assisted in the effort to establish a herd of reindeer in the area. The man who had attracted both Tom and Ellen to Alaska through an advertisment in "American Missionary" magazine was one Sheldon Jackson. Jackson, who was at the time the general agent for education for the new U.S. Territory of Alaska was absolutely convinced that bringing reindeer to Alaska was the key to the regions economic future. Reindeer were indigenous to neighboring Siberia and had been used there for centuries as both a source of food and for transportation. Jackson envisioned teams of reindeer driven sleds moving people, commodities and even the mail throughout the Alaskan territory. At the same time Sheldon Jackson argued that the reindeer could replace the dwindling numbers of caribou as the primary source of food for the native Eskimo population. "In A Far Country" details how large herds of reindeer would eventually be established in several areas of the Alaskan wilderness. Finally, John Taliaferro spends a great deal of time chronicling what became known as the Overland Relief Expedition. At the end of the summer of 1898 a total of 8 whaling ships who were operating in the Chukchi Sea off the northwest coast of Alaska became trapped in the ice and were unable to leave the area. It was feared that unless help arrived in time more than 200 sailors would eventually starve to death. The Overland Relief Expedition was organized and Tom Lopp was tapped to lead the final leg of this Herculian rescue effort. What an incredible adventure!
I found "In A Far Country" to be quite compelling reading indeed. The publishers quite wisely furnished a detailed map of the region at the beginning of the book and I found myself referring to it again and again. I find that inclusion of maps like this often greatly enhances my understanding of the events being discussed in the text. All in all this is a nicely written book about important history that has been largely forgotten. Recommended!

Excellent adventure .......2007-03-24

This is a little known adventure story of missionary people, personalities, government polititians, native Americans, & foreigners. It has graphic illustrations of problems and errors made when dealing with different cultures in unknown and adverse climates. I enjoyed reading it and would recommend it.

Life on the Edge of Civilization.......2007-03-09

It must have taken individuals of rare inner strength to even have the desire to go establish a Christian mission at Cape Prince of Whales, 55 miles across the Bering Strait to Russia and only 70 miles south of the Arctic Circle. Even more surprising to me was the number of women, single or married to missionaries, who went as well. Tom and Ellen Lopp were both single, that is until six weeks after they met.

This is a story of the mission at Cape Prince of Wales, the Lopp's and of a dramatic rescue where Tom and seven Eskimo herders drove a heard of reindeer some 700 miles to rescue stranded sailors whose ships had become frozen in the ice. This was a trip to rival the other famous trip in the cold, but up until now has been little known.

All in all, a most interesting book about life on the very edge of civilization.

epic adventure.......2007-02-06

This book rightly takes its place among the other tales of heroic arctic travel. It is well researched, the writing is sprightly, and the characterizations both compassionate and vivid.

Unsung Heroes.......2007-02-06

This was a fascinating book. It takes an honest look at subjects as diverse as; culture clashes, mission work, family struggles, man verses nature, government inner workings, and humanity's dual nature (good and evil). A whole cast of unsung heroes finally get their day. Unfortunately, it comes about 100 years too late. Although the author resides in our current day of political correctness, his characters do not. Frankly, I find them refreshing.

The Alaskan frontier is shown as the mishmash that it must have been. Competing groups vied for their own goals and dreams. They inevitably mixed and influenced each other resulting in the lines that formerly demarcated distinct people groups being erased and blurred. The outcomes of this amalgamation ranged from laudable triumphs to scandalous tragedies.

For some reason (maybe growing up in the hot South), I have always enjoyed books about Polar Regions. The first book I ever read was Jack London's Call of the Wild. I read In a Far Country in less than a week because the story kept my interest. It is one of the few books that I really hated to complete. I did not want to leave the characters.

Average customer rating:

WOW, Excellent!
Excellent, Excellent ,Excellent!!!

True to the Game
Teri Woods
Manufacturer: Grand Central Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

United States | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Spy Stories & Tales of Intrigue | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0446581607

Book Description

It's the late 1980s, and Gena, a young girl from the projects, meets Quadir, a millionaire drug dealer, and falls madly in love. Quadir builds a massive empire while fighting his rivals and enemies. Gena faces the challenges of holding onto her man, her house, her car, and the cash. Both of them find themselves caught up in a vicious yet seductive world, and learn that success in this game is no easy win. Gena and Quadir also learnthat once you're in, there's no way out, 'cause everyone stays in forever....True.

Customer Reviews:

WOW, Excellent!.......2007-09-04

Action packed from the go!!! I just couldn't put it down, can't wait for the sequel!!

Excellent, Excellent ,Excellent!!!.......2007-06-04

I loved this book. It was my first Teri Woods book and It will not be my last. This book was action packed from the beginning to the end. I can't wait intil part two comes out!

Average customer rating:

CHE IS BACK AND VICTORIA'S GOT HIM
Heroes? ... Let Go!
Identity revealed
Gary Hart is John Blackthorn---oh, this is too rich!!!!
A great premise that falls flat on its face

I, Che Guevara: A Novel
John Blackthorn
Manufacturer: William Morrow & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Political | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Suspense | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life

ASIN: 0688167608

Book Description

Sometime during the summer of 1999 a mysterious elderly stranger appears in rural towns around Cuba, quietly advocating a new kind of politics he calls "the true republic." Old-timers begin to suspect that the stranger, who calls himself Ernesto Blanco, may actually be the martyr Ernesto "Che" Guevara. Shortly thereafter, Fidel Castro steps down from power in exchange for a commitment from the United States to recognize Cuba and lift the embargo. Diplomatic recognition, in turn, is conditioned upon free elections.

Two traditional parties are formed: One is a successor to the Communist Party and the other is composed of U.S./Mafia-backed Cuban exiles. As the True Republic movement spreads like wildfire throughout Cuba, each faction devises a plot to get rid of Ernesto Blanco-by assassination if necessary.

I, Che Guevara culminates in a frantic last-minute run up to the election in which assassins from both sides play key roles. Within the context of this revolutionary adventure, Cuba becomes a metaphor for the struggle of people throughout the world to evolve a new kind of politics, a politics with a human face.

Customer Reviews:

CHE IS BACK AND VICTORIA'S GOT HIM.......2004-07-03

For those of you too young to understand the not so subtle reference made in my title, here's the background for it. Shortly after the end of World War II, probably in 1946 or 1947, Clark Gable returned to Hollywood from his stint in the military service. His co-star in one of his firsr post-WWII movies was Greer Garson. The headline in several of the ads for this movie was "Gable's Back and Garson's Got Him." In this novel, Che Guevara has returned from his assumed death 32 years earlier, and Victoria Savidge, almost has-been news anchor for a minor TV network is his (platonic) love interest. Hence my title.

The plot outline follows along these lines: Fidel Castro decides that it is time for him to retire, but wants to get something out of his retirement for the people of Cuba. He believes that this can be accomplished is by taking some action that will get "Tio Sam's" sanctions removed along with their acceptance of certain other caveats to be set by him. He, in turn is willing to make some promises of his own. The caveats are that the U.S., in addition to removing the sanctions, exchange ambassadors, and provide computers for all Cuban students. The promises are for truly free elections for the first time in Cuban history. These elections will be open to monitoring by outsiders such as Jimmy Carter's minions.

The U.S. accepts his offer, removes the sanctions, and gives Cuba official recognition by setting up an Embassy.

As might be expected, the old line power structure sets up a political party aimed at keeping the themselves in power. The Miami exiles, paired with Casino interests who want to make Cuba into the kind of gambling haven it was before Castro, form a second party. The stakes are big, and these two parties run campaigns that take the worst of U.S. campaigning, and run high powered negative campaigns.

As things are getting under way, an asthmatic old man starts entering small mountain villages and, over cups of coffee engages the villagers in conversations in which he tells them that, if they wanted to, they could become the backbone of a new kind of government. This government could be a sort of bottom-up rather than top down government in which each small town would be essentially self governing and self supporting. (The old Town Meeting type of government) There could be low interest loans with long payout periods so the farmers could own their own land, etc. There also would need to be a small centralized government that needn't so much rule as to provide assistance where needed. It seems that in his 32 years of exile, this charismatic old man had been reading works by Plato, and the U.S.'s own T. Jefferson, as he called him.

Over a few months, there is a groundswell of support for the old man's ideas. Eventually people begin to realize that he is Che Guevara, and that he didn't die in Bolivia. He never tells anyone he is Che, but goes by the name of Ernesto Blanco. And he makes it plain that he wants no power or position of leadership for himself, but just wants to help the people help themselves.

Eventually this groundswell of support becomes so great that both of the major parties, fearing this movement more than they feared one another, hire assassins to stop him before it is too late.

Now for Victoria. She starts out as a TV anchorwoman on a last chance assignment to Cuba. Either she breaks a big story or her career is over. When we first meet her, she is a shallow person with no convictions and no idealism, only thinking of herself and her career. After several weeks in the mountains with Che and his small core group, she succumbs to the influence of Che's humble, pure personality and his idealism and exchanges her shallow self-centered perspective for a more honest one.

To summarize the action of the book as described in more detail above: Two political parties determined to win at any costs; A movement backing a people oriented concept introduced by Che; A nearly has been reporter who evolves from shallow reporter to insightful idealist; Two assassins determined to stop Che before he does too much damage; And three other key members of Che's inner circle who help him out in dozens of small, but important, ways. The suspense is provided by the uncertainty of the outcome of this most important election, and by the possibilities of success or failure of the assassination attempts.

It doesn't say so in __I, CHE GUEVARA__, but in other places the pseudonomynous author has been identified as ex-Senator Gary Hart. Hart has made the heart of his novel, not the action, but Che's ideas and idealism. Every few pages, Hart interrupts the flow of the action with one of Che's interior monologues in which he reveals his ideas, and how and why he grew from the type of revolutionary he once was to someone espousing a revolution of ideas. These passages, I believe, are the real reason Hart wrote the book.

While I question whether, in real life, there could be such a massive growth of support in such a short time for these new (old) ideas, or if they even could gain such support in the small peasant communities where Che gained his first few adherents, I admire the idealism and the concepts of Jeffersonian/Platonian Democracy he was espousing.

One other observarion before I quit. This book was published in 1998, long before our current political season. In it, a college professor in Montana (I think it is Montana) latches on to Che's ideas for a people-power government, and declares for the Senate. Putting to work Che's principles of government by and for individuals, he sets up a web site in which he asks for supporters and donees for his campaign based on these principles. He limits individual donations to $20.00 or less, and he gets several hundred thousand supporters who donate an average of almost $18.00 each. Is it possible that this is where a recent internet based campaign got its idea for a political campaign along almost exactly these same lines? It's certainly possible.

Heroes? ... Let Go!.......2003-12-09

John Blackthorn does an admirable job in taking two traditionally condemned ideas, Revolution and Anarchism, and applying them to his story in a way that makes us identify them for the positive things that they really are. We read as the venom of revolution to society is seeped out of the word and we are redirected to a new definition to the word. After reading the book revolution ceases to be the series of bloody encounters that it is associated with and becomes a concept of change, of reformation through thoughts. Similarly in his discussion of the revolutionary theme where he implants the concept of anarchism in the readers mind the author does an equally commendable job of painting a positive concept of anarchism. As opposed to the image of disorder that the word creates in people's imagination, blackthorn makes anarchism a mark of order and contentment. He presents it in a positive light, as it being the basis of 'our need not to need'. Hence I liked John Blackthorn's book, I Che Guavera, for this strong trait it holds.

The author shows a paradoxical writing in his work as he reveals traces of a non dictator in Fidel as opposed to the image of the tyrant he seeks to portray. Although the author's reference to the 'considerable anger' [of party members upon hearing about his decision to step down] that went 'unexpressed' (p.39) suggests fear in the party and therefore a dictatorship by Castro, the existence of a party by itself contradicts his implication. It draws our attention to the uncharacteristic nature of Cuba's dictatorship, if we call it so. The traditional trend of dictatorship, which includes disposing of the party, seems to be missing in this particular dictatorship. Hitler's Nazi party was only a medium through which he administered massive espionage and control over the people. Stalin communist party was the framework of the ladder he used to climb into power with and got cleaned up in the purges only a decade after his rise to power, whereas Mussolini's was a weapon that was used to create a picture of that so can an individual who retains a party for half a century, sits in a meeting where the same party discusses 'the future of Cuba in a way that didn't include him' (p.41) be really called a dictator? Hence I believe Blackthorn shows a strong weakness in painting a picture of a dictator that Fidel is supposed to be if his book is to have any weight in world politics.

Another flaw in the author's work is in his treatment of the communist party where he shows bias. By 'telling' us through the mouth of one of the party members about how the party was 'getting everybody to vote for it' (p.39) the author tries draw a picture of the state of the communist party in Cuba. However I found it hard to picture politicians sitting around in party meetings and openly 'laugh' about how they manipulate the public to get votes. I felt author's narration was biased in his own favor to create an atmosphere of simple mindedness that could not handle democracy, therefore strengthening his plot. These are people who managed to stay in power for close to 5 decades and according to historian Alan Bullock's theory power is only retained for so long by people with well structured intentions or intentionalists and not these simple minded individuals who gather in an office to disagree on party names and not ideologies. Furthermore as the theory goes when you carry a lie for so long you would forget that it is indeed a lie and hence I see the reality being one where these politicians no longer acknowledge their deceit after so long a time. So I find Blackthorn's use of chapter 7 to be a 'cheap' way of uncovering the truth about Castro's party.

Romanticism is another idea that I recognized in the book. The myth of Che that the Cuban people hold as of the only man who could save them is a demonstration of the romantic thinking that precedes the concept of hero's and heroic actions. Hence when Che makes an observation on the Cuban people and how they are 'longing for a hero'... 'they pray for someone to save them' we recognize elements of romanticism in the society. Ironically enough this observation by the author can also be made on the author. The fact that he had to resurrect a dead hero to help him his theme highlights his romanticism. As he chose to communicate his message through a dead man we realize that, most of the time, it is the messenger that matters and not the message. This is also exhibited in the way that the communist party in chapter 7 dwells on the name of the party for the reality is, due to romanticism, society idolizes the concept of heroes and institutions and the kind more than what they are really about.

Hatred for church is another concept that I recognized in the book and is another source of discussion in class. Powerful rival to the state, Che's expressed hatred of church (p.14) has a clear resemblance to that of 20th century dictators like Stalin and Lenin who openly disowned the Orthodox church and tried to replace it with their cult of personality, Hitler who moved the bible from the altar in the church and replace it with Mein Kampf and Mussolini who entered a concordat with the church to keep it out of his business. Hence in reading about Che's attitude towards the church we read about the forming of another dictator if ever he had wanted to assume formal power.

Gary Hart, alias John Blackthorn, makes a significant contribution to the world for his book is not merely an assessment of history but is a promoter of reflective thinking to any reader. It invites us to examine our stand in the world of the 'visionary' versus the 'practical', for if you are not a revolutionary you are a practical person. While reading his book I was able to examine my inner self and found that I am one who is often satisfied by the state of things, rarely advocating change and generally at the height of contentment. Gary Hart makes me an enemy of the Revolution, a reader who admires his book immensely but fails to identify herself with the Che's of the world. Yet!

Identity revealed.......2003-05-09

The mysterious, "internationally known," author of this novel is none other than Gary "Monkey Business" Hart, former Senator from Colorado. His warm regard for Che Guevara is typical of the fuzzy-minded generation which always thought that "Dr. Castro's" bloody tyranny would turn out well.

Gary Hart is John Blackthorn---oh, this is too rich!!!!.......2002-02-07

I, Che Guevara

First off, in order to read this book you have to know who Che was and what he was about. So I think you should get Che by Jon Anderson, a biography of the revolutionary. It's what I did and with the marked irony of the covers, it also serves as a primer on the focus of the novel.

Then accept whole-heartedly that these are two entirely different books/perspectives/realities.

That said. I, Che is a good novel but if you know anything about Che it slowly degenerates strictly around his character. The premise is simple: Che ain't dead, there was a switch but Che has decided that his former way isn't working and he starts a socialist movement, eventually getting a democratic election in Cuba going after Fidel steps down.

This book is a Washington Establishment wet dream. Kind of like watching Rambo so that you can feel that you really did win in Vietnam. It further helps that the chief architect, Che turns against his former ideals and overthrows the country he helped to overthrow. From that perspective it comes off rather weak. But from the light of progressing Che as a person who changes his ideology to suit the world rather than demand that the world fit into his former ideology of socialism-Communism, the book works. But more than anything this book is about the power of the media in elections. Cuba becomes a petrie dish of socialism versus democracy and a hybrid of the two wins out. The book at its heart is idealistic on one hand and a blatant sucking up on the other. Che and Fidel never meet in the book, never have the fateful conversation that we're all waiting for so Che, this new Che remains the figure of glaring spotlight. The constant shuffling game of whether or not this is the real Che is silly after awhile and though this new Che tries to explain his evasiveness, it never quite goes over.

Now in comparison to the real Che. Merde. I hope the man is dead because if not Mr. Blackthorn better watch out, this book is a mockery of who and what Che (rightfully or wrongly) stood for. It goes against his character of rigid discipline and fanatical zeal for changing the world. It is a clever What if..? but it kind of borders on the taste level of ---"What if grandma had become a prostitute instead of marrying grandpa?" because in the end there is the taste that the new Che has prostituted himself in a slow, subversive way to the true ideals of the Republic from the writings of Thomas Jefferson. One of Che's adamant feelings was on slavery, neo or otherwise. This is an attempt to integrate Che into democracy through a man that Che would've seen as a bourgeois Yanqui. Che was all for killing the bourgeois Yanquis and there were quite a few public executions after the Cuban revolution where Che ordered or carried out the order to cleanse.

Nah, he wouldn't have gone to the other side so easily, so anonymously.
However this book is for an American audience, an audience that won't sit down with a great scholarly, biography in one hand and the fictionalized what if in the other. That would require shutting off the TV and having a thought or two. So I, Che finds its' way into bestseller-dom through American ignorance. Now that, both Che's would agree with.

Go get Che by Jon Anderson, a better, more gripping, visceral read. You won't always like the real Che but you will understand who he was.
Three stars.

A great premise that falls flat on its face.......2001-08-15

Blackthorn has managed to take a great concept for a novel with unique potential and turn into unreadable drivel. The idea that Guevera didn't die and that Castro ultimately gives up power and all the consequences following is quite tantalizing. But it's just too far fetched to be taken seriously, especially when the narration focuses on the thoughts and musings of Guevara. Che is warped into some type of soap opera character coming out of hiding to reclaim Cuba, and the story also fails in large part because of the awful dialogue. Every time Che appears in the story and you are forced to read the dreadful dialogue you almost become angry at the author. The writer seems to have done some good research and has some great imagination, but just can't put it all together and write it. I had great expectations for this book and was more dissapointed than I had been in a long while.

The Amazing True Story of a Teenage Single Mom

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The Heroism of Solidarity
great story in comic
Surprisingly powerful
Life is hard, but you can somebody if you don't give up.
Follow Your Dreams

The Amazing True Story of a Teenage Single Mom
Katherine Arnoldi
Manufacturer: Hyperion
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Motherhood | Family Relationships | Parenting & Families | Subjects | Books

Teenagers | Parenting | Parenting & Families | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0786864206

Customer Reviews:

The Heroism of Solidarity.......2007-05-12

Arnoldi's graphic-novel about a single mother is great. It is not only a direct and clear critique of the problems facing young single-mothers today (an increasingly large demographic in the U.S.), but it is also a hopeful and inspiring story about the way out of those problems -- a way out created by young single mothers cooperating as they find solidarity with one another. Although the story is simply told and very easy to read, it is not a simple story, and she weaves together issues of sexuality, family, and labor union politics.

great story in comic.......2006-10-13

I'm not a teen mother (or any sort of mother), but after reading a story about her struggles and her decision to put it in a comic form, I was intrigued. Her drawings describe her transition from being neglected by her mother and having no other place to go, other than to live with her sister and abusive brother-in-law. She was raped by a stranger in a car, after she left her sisters house and was again rejected from her mother, which left her to wonder the streets. She had the child from the rape, and she dreampt of leaving the town and attending college. When she was fired from her factory job after exposing hazardous working environments, she took off with her new boyfriend to Arizona. When her boyfriend began beating her, she left him, even camping out in the desert under the stars. Eventually she met up with a positive peer group, and began attending college. Great story, helps analyze the variety of circumstances that can happen to teenage mothers, particulaly alot of the negative social backlash that affects them.

Surprisingly powerful.......2006-06-17

I don't have a lot of experience with graphic novels, but this one is really powerful. It almost moved me to tears in several places. I love the illustrations in which she imagines what's going on in her daughter's brain. A great book to share with teen moms or any young mom who needs some encouragement about pursuing a college degree. Accessible even for those who aren't big readers.

Life is hard, but you can somebody if you don't give up........2000-12-24

This is the true poignant story of a young woman and her struggles to make dreams come true. Katherine Arnoldi, raped and left with a baby at 17, was forced, out of necessity, to take a dead-end, hazardous factory job. Her dysfunctional family tried to crush her and her dreams; her boyfriend turns on her and beats her. Yet through all of her pain and despair she does not give up. Arnoldi shows, in her comic book form, that if you hold on and pursue your dreams that you can overcome the ugliest past. This book is a treasure. It is simply great. And because it is so good you will want to pass it on. This is a book that can speak to the broken hearts of hundreds, if not thousands, of struggling teenagers, single moms or not. Her enduring love for her child, her courage to change her circumstances, a little luck, and a few kind people, transforms what could be a disheartening story into an inspiration.

Follow Your Dreams.......2000-12-01

This is a great book that will inspire teens to realize that there is no situation that cannot be overcome. If they are young mothers, they will realize that they can be a great parent, as well as succeeding as individuals. Arnoldi teaches young girls to strive towards their dreams, and as teen moms to fight for equality in the educational system. She even includes the step by step procedure of getting financial aid, and enrolling yourself in college. A very inspiring book for people of all ages.

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Dull
Not quite what I expected
"I finally understand why some Jews didn't leave Berlin after Kristallnacht"---Art Spiegelman
Go Shopping and Be Afraid
Deeply moving, but ill-informed

In the Shadow of No Towers
Art Spiegelman
Manufacturer: Viking
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0670915416

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Catastrophic, world-altering events like the September 11 attacks on the United States place the millions of us who experience them on the "fault line where World History and Personal History collide." Most of us, however, cannot document that intersection with the force, compression, and poignancy expressed in Art Spiegelman's In the Shadow of No Towers. As in his Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus, cartoonist Spiegelman presents a highly personalized, political, and confessional diary of his experience of September 11 and its aftermath. In 10 large-scale pages of original, hard hitting material (composed from September 11, 2001 to August 31, 2003), two essays, and 10 old comic strip reproductions from the early 20th century, Spiegelman expresses his feelings of dislocation, grief, anxiety, and outrage over the horror of the attacks---and the subsequent "hijacking" of the event by the Bush administration to serve what he believes is a misguided and immoral political agenda. Readers who agree with Spiegelman's point of view will marvel at the brilliance of his images and the wit and accuracy of his commentary. Others, no doubt, will be jolted by his candor and, perhaps, be challenged to reexamine their position.

The central image in the sequence of original broadsides, which returns as a leitmotif in each strip, is Spiegelman's Impressionistic "vision of disintegration," of the North Tower, its "glowing bones...just before it vaporized." (As downtown New Yorkers, Spiegelman and his family experienced the event firsthand.) But the images and styles in the book are as fragmentary and ever-shifting as Spiegelman's reflections and reactions. The author's closing comment that "The towers have come to loom far larger than life...but they seem to get smaller every day" reflects a larger and more chilling irony that permeates In the Shadow of No Towers. Despite the ephemeral nature of the comic strip form, the old comics at the back of the book have outlasted the seemingly indestructible towers. In the same way, Spiegelman's heartfelt impressions have immortalized the towers that, imponderably, have now vanished. --Silvana Tropea

Customer Reviews:

Dull.......2007-03-09

In a small series of comic strips originally designed to be printed as large, two-page newspaper spreads, Spiegelman illustrates his personal experiences of the attack on the World Trade Center. He focuses mainly upon four themes: his concern over the safety of his daughter who was attending a school right near the towers, his growing paranoia over the government, the funny but disturbing display of blind patriotism that arose amongst the US population and media following the tragedy, and, lastly, how slow he is at producing comic strips.

Given the emotions still surrounding 9/11, it would take extraordinarily bad writing to fail to get any reaction from a reader, and perhaps that is why Spiegelman is so lazy and sloppy here. I'm sure he felt emotions while he was writing this, and he DOES do a good job of making the reader feel some of his anxiety over his daughter's safety, and some of his anecdotes are interesting (his never-used TV interview about how "American" 9/11 made him feel -- it didn't -- is quite humourous). But overall the writing lacks direction, is amateurish and hackneyed, and surprisingly ineffective at eliciting a strong emotional reaction from the reader given the subject matter. It usually wasn't so much Spiegelman's writing that made me feel emotions, but the memories it drew from inside of me (like the images of people falling from the towers). Without those memories, it was just history.

The problem may in part be due to the format of his stories. In each spread we tend to get a glimpse of a storyline, then we get to the next strip and we see basically the same glimpse of a storyline with much repetition and little progression, rendering his storytelling completely choppy. It reminded me of newscasts where they keep repeating the same "coming up" message over and over again, and when they finally get to the story itself, it winds up being even shorter and less informative than any of the multiple previews you sat through. And sometimes he doesn't even go that far. To illustrate, Spiegelman repeatedly tells you how paranoid he felt. But he does not get his feeling of paranoia across. He doesn't make the reader feel any of his paranoia or really show its effects on his life (other than some lost sleep). And it comes across as completely matter-of-fact. He might as well be telling us that he ate a salami sandwich for lunch yesterday without even describing its taste, his hunger, etc.

Some of his artwork is interesting as he draws upon classic strips from the early 20th century for inspiration, but this technique rarely adds any depth to the story's content. It is interesting style, but that's all it is -- style. It makes for pretty pictures, but fails to redeem the text.

Overall, Spiegelman has nothing new to say on the subject of 9/11. It has all been done far more competently and compellingly elsewhere by numbers too great to count. Ultimately lightweight, Shadow is printed on nice, thick boards to create the illusion that it is far more substantial than it is. It includes reprints of several interesting vintage comic strips which are included both to allow the reader less versed in comics to see where Spiegelman drew stylistic inspiration, and to pad out the books extremely small page count.

Not quite what I expected.......2006-04-02

I thought this would be more of a story of the artist's personal experience & less political. I don't disagree with his politics, but it was still somewhat of a disappointment. Spiegelman's artwork is always amazing, often moving & thought provoking. I was really moved by his quote: "I finally understand why some Jews didn't leave Berlin right after Kristallnacht!" I also enjoyed the section on old political cartoons

"I finally understand why some Jews didn't leave Berlin after Kristallnacht"---Art Spiegelman.......2006-02-17

Before this book, I had never picked up a book on 9/11, being that I assumed they are all so politically biased (be it one extreme or another). There are also so many of them, some released very soon after the attack. It is frustrating to look at the "new books" section of the local library and see ½ the shelves filled with 9/11 books. I couldn't help myself with this curio, however. I am a fan of history and comics. Browsing through the large, thick, colorful cardboard panels of "In the Shadow of No Towers", I saw a vintage newspaper page on the shooting of President McKinley (the author doesn't elaborate on why this was used, must be the terrorism theme, in this case anarchism) and what looked like on first glance a vintage comic on the Titanic (it turned out to be an even older comic). I knew this book was right up my alley. Having never read Maus, I wasn't sure what to expect but looked forward to checking it out.

It didn't take long to find the politically-biased stuff I dreaded.. On the very first plate: "In those first few days after 9/11 I got lost constructing conspiracy theories about my government's complicity in what had happened that would have done a Frenchman proud. (My susceptibility for conspiracy goes back a long ways but had reached its previous peak after the 2000 elections)." In fact, in his "...No Towers" comics that make up the first 10 panels of the 18-plate book, the author reveals a preoccupation with the 2000 elections. At one point he calls George W. Bush that "creature in the White House" (7). This book came out before the 2004 elections, so one can only wonder if the author has yet to let 2000 go. On panel 7, he has a red/blue zone look at the 2000 elections "the one that put the loser in office," with what I'm guessing is the percentage of the popular vote showing Gore the winner (of course, it is not the popular vote that determines the winner).

The "...No Towers" strips are very aesthetically interesting with computer images mixed with colorful comic artwork. The author relives his experiences during the tragedy, getting his daughter from the UN school near the towers, a run-in with a predictable crazy lady living on the street, etc. He then goes into his own internal struggles with what had transpired and the aftermath. My favorite line is "sometimes complaining is the only solace" (9). The vintage comics section I found to be the most intriguing as I enjoy (though I don't often understand) that early 20th century humor. Spiegelman chose is 8 comics, it seems, based on themes of buildings and American patriotism. I am grateful he includes an explanation of them, especially the Krazy Kat comic, as I would probably not understand the connection he drew between them and 9/11 otherwise. Actually, I was a little disappointed in the vintage comics used. I thought they'd deal with how comic writers dealt with other tragedies. My favorite vintage comic is the first one used in plate 1 "Etymological Vaudeville" where Happy Hooligan gets ready for bed and takes off one of his shoes that goes "Klomp!" Not wanting to wake his family, he quietly takes off the other shoe and goes to bed only to be awakened by his family cussing and yelling, "Drop the other @*g! shoe so we can go to sleep!".

What strikes me the most is the reoccurring theme that the end of the world is upon us. I think that probably people from every generation felt this away about the tragic events of their time, be it war, famine, plague, etc. Spiegelman makes statements like "I worry whether New York City or I will still be around" (7). I think we all are guilty of taking our time on earth too seriously. We like to think that we witnessed the worst thing to ever happen in the history of man. Horror is all relative of course, but in the scheme of history, as horrible as 9/11 was, it was not the worst thing to happen on earth. Worse things have happened in the past and will happen in the future. Spiegelman himself hints at this at the end of his introduction: "I still believe the world is ending, but I concede that it seems to be ending more slowly than I once thought" (i).

Go Shopping and Be Afraid.......2006-02-04

There's no way this project could be as tremendous as Spiegelman's life's work, "Maus," but it's tough not to make comparisons. This book consists of just ten large-scale comic strips that Spiegelman created to explore his feelings about 9/11 and its aftermath. Spiegelman's personal experience of the disaster – his family lives and works literally next to the World Trade Center – gives his accounts a direct poignancy, with more strength and emotion than the jingoism you get from pundits who weren't there. And as always, Spiegelman's artwork is outstandingly expressive, with his gifts for artistic allegory and surrealism in full eye-popping display. However, things go asunder when Spiegelman extends his comic strips to the political aftermath of 9/11. I don't disagree with the idea that the Bush administration has used the disaster to consolidate votes and bully a fearful public into backing their political agenda, and I won't accuse Spiegelman of conspiracy theorizing as others have. However, Spiegelman's social and political philosophy is rather undeveloped and sketchy, and frankly too weak to stand next to his outstanding artwork. Meanwhile, the second half of this very meager book consists of reprints of old comic strips from the early 1900's, which Spiegelman says have influenced his artwork and his opinions on the post-9/11 American political landscape. These strips are certainly interesting from a historical standpoint, but I'm not really buying Spiegelman's claims of a direct connection to the rest of the book. [~doomsdayer520~]

Deeply moving, but ill-informed.......2005-12-26

With Maus, Spiegelman showed how well he could tug at our emotions and portray a sense of struggling and grasping in the most hopeless scenarios. Here, however Spiegelman tries to weave the same effect based on conspiracies and propaganda, and the result is to cheapen Maus and Spiegelman alike. Readers of Maus are advised to steer clear of this book, as it will destroy the power of Spiegelman's narration by destroying the credibility and the sense of a frank and honest witness to the events.

Wilkie Collins's The Dead Alive: The Novel, the Case, and Wrongful Convictions

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Wilkie Collins's The Dead Alive: The Novel, the Case, and Wrongful Convictions
Wilkie Collins
Manufacturer: Northwestern University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Police Procedurals | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

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Murder & Mayhem | True Accounts | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

True Crime | True Accounts | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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$A Rogue\'s Life$ A Rogue\'s Life

ASIN: 0810122944

Book Description

On the evidence of The Dead Alive, Scott Turow writes in his foreword that Wilkie Collins might well be the first author of a legal thriller. Here is the lawyer out of sorts with his profession; the legal process gone awry; even a touch of romance to soften the rigors of the law. And here, too, recast as fiction, is the United States' first documented wrongful conviction case. Side by side with the novel, this book presents the real-life legal thriller Collins used as his model-the story of two brothers, Jesse and Stephen Boorn, sentenced to death in Vermont in 1819 for the murder of their brother-in-law, and belatedly exonerated when their "victim" showed up alive and well in New Jersey in 1820.

Rob Warden, one of the nation's most eloquent and effective advocates for the wrongly convicted, reconsiders the facts of the Boorn case for what they can tell us about the systemic flaws that produced this first known miscarriage of justice-flaws that continue to riddle our system of justice today. A tale of false confessions and jailhouse snitches, of evidence overlooked, and justice more blinkered than blind, the Boorns' story reminds us of the perennial nature of the errors at the heart of American jurisprudence-and of the need to question and correct a system that regularly condemns the innocent.

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For my part, I did the little I could to make myself useful. With the silent sanction of Mr. Meadowcroft and his daughter, I went to Narrabee, and secured the best legal assistance for the defense which the town could place at my disposal. This done, there was no choice but to wait for news of Ambrose, and for the examination before the magistrate which was to follow. I shall pass over the misery in the house during the interval of expectation; no useful purpose could be served by describing it now. Let me only say that Naomi's conduct strengthened me in the conviction that she possessed a noble nature.

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This was published????!
Not really a surprise...
changed my reading life
Truth or Dare?

The True Story of the Novel
Margaret Anne Doody
Manufacturer: Rutgers University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

ASIN: 0813524539

Amazon.com

A 1996 National Book Critics Circle Award finalist, The True Story of the Novel disputes the British claim to the invention of the novel, calling it "one of the most successful literary lies." Margaret Anne Doody claims that the conventional separation of Romance and Novel was 18th-century England's approach to restricting the literary canon from anything "foreign" to their Empire. Not only did this distinction exclude the great novels of the Roman Empire--including Africa, Asia, and Europe--but it forced the novel, and therefore literature as well, into a narrowed definition of necessary "realism" that altered the way we interpret history. In redefining the Novel as a multicultural construct, Doody opens the relationship of literature and history to new connections.

Book Description

A 1996 Choice Outstanding Academic Book. A 1996 National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. "One of the most successful literary lies," declares Margaret Anne Doody, "is the English claim to have invented the novel. . . . One of the best-kept literary secrets is the existence of novels in antiquity." In fact, as Doody goes on to demonstrate, the novel of the Roman Empire is the product of African, Western Asian, and European influences. It is with this argument that The True Story of the Novel overturns and alters widely held views of the history of the novel. "An erudite, intelligent and imaginative work of literary scholarship. With vivacity, grace, and wit, Doody traces the history from the ancient novels of Apuleius and Heliodorus through the Renaissance fictions of Boccaccio, Cervantes, and Rabelais to the 'official' birth of the novel in 18th-century England. . . . More than a work of brilliant and inventive scholarship, this is an invitation to the great adventure of novel reading."--Boston Globe "Written with verve and wit . . . by any standard an extraordinary and idiosyncratic achievement."--Frank Kermode, The London Review of Books "Big, passionate . . . a bold and contrary statement."--Chronicle of Higher Education "Offers a corrective to those who find the origins of the novel in the 16th or 17th century. . . . Her treatment is thorough and sophisticated but accessible to the general reader. It is also ambitious and one of the few works that can truly claim to look at world literature."--Library Journal

Customer Reviews:

This was published????!.......2006-09-27

This is one of the most presumptious and arrogant works I have ever had to read. Doody's arguments are poorly presented, and the reader gets lost in her difficult, convoluted, circular explanations. The grammar and usage mistakes (fragments, run-on sentences and comma splices) detract from the overall message of the book. The topic is interesting, until you try to follow Doody through her presentation. Questions are posed, and if the reader expects an answer one is DISAPPOINTED. The explanation of the tropes of a novel make several unbending assumptions, and overreach the evidence. Not worth the money...and if it required reading for a class I am very sorry.

Not really a surprise..........2004-04-14

Actually, this is new only to some sectors of the English-speaking canon, and its popularization in English-speaking countries. The rest of the world has clearly always known that: a)Greek ("Byzantine") novels, as well as the works of Lucian and Apuleius hold the seeds of the modern novel; b) the Italian novella established some of its canonic structural characteristics, and c) Cervantes and the Spanish picaresque did the same thing as Richardson, Defoe, Sterne, and Fielding, only 100 years before them.

changed my reading life.......2001-11-21

This book was an education for me. I had been taught that the novel started with Richardson or if you must Defoe. Doody argues for a much earlier genesis, in the Greek romance. Whether you buy this argument or not depends on whether you define romance as part of the novel. But in the process I learned about the ancient Greek and Roman romances, and I went off and found the books she cited (Collected Ancient Greek Novels and separately the Roman romances), and read most of the romances. It doesn't take long, since they're short and there aren't that many. In particular I loved Petronius, Chariton, and Apuleius. Doody goes on to trace the transmission of the romance through the Renaissance, Boccaccio being the hero here. Printing played a key role in dissemination at this stage. Later on my own I was surprised to find images in Shakespeare that must have come right out of some of these ancient romances. And so on into our own time. Perhaps everybody knows this history, but I didn't. The title is a play on words having to do with the title of one of the old romances.

Truth or Dare?.......1999-09-25

Do you dare to attempt a link of the novel to one distinct period or do you dare to call it an English invention? True that many stories, novels, and literature we know today comes from Europe and the English language, but what if the scope was much larger, much longer, and much too involving that the novel as we know it today is really just a small branch of an incredibly large network of writing and influence?

Doody raises these questions and provides wonderful detail and examples to prove her assertion that the novel's origins dates back farther and is influenced by much more than a common understanding would offer. This ambitious work spans many centuries and reaches many parts of the world in attempt to capture the influences of the novel we take for granted today.

Not only does this offer an insightful read, but it also treats the readers in a friendly way by presenting itself as a sort of an idiot's guide to literature's past. Doody avoids the literary form of complexities and allusions that may alienate the reader and make him or her feel like a dolt. This "True Story" is geared towards the "read" fans of novels. If only other literary critics could write as simple and beautifully as Doody there would be many more literary students.

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