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Nicole Krauss's The History of Love is a hauntingly beautiful novel about two characters whose lives are woven together in such complex ways that even after the last page is turned, the reader is left to wonder what really happened. In the hands of a less gifted writer, unraveling this tangled web could easily give way to complete chaos. However, under Krauss's watchful eye, these twists and turns only strengthen the impact of this enchanting book.
The History of Love spans of period of over 60 years and takes readers from Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe to present day Brighton Beach. At the center of each main character's psyche is the issue of loneliness, and the need to fill a void left empty by lost love. Leo Gursky is a retired locksmith who immigrates to New York after escaping SS officers in his native Poland, only to spend the last stage of his life terrified that no one will notice when he dies. ("I try to make a point of being seen. Sometimes when I'm out, I'll buy a juice even though I'm not thirsty.") Fourteen-year-old Alma Singer vacillates between wanting to memorialize her dead father and finding a way to lift her mother's veil of depression. At the same time, she's trying to save her brother Bird, who is convinced he may be the Messiah, from becoming a 10-year-old social pariah. As the connection between Leo and Alma is slowly unmasked, the desperation, along with the potential for salvation, of this unique pair is also revealed.
The poetry of her prose, along with an uncanny ability to embody two completely original characters, is what makes Krauss an expert at her craft. But in the end, it's the absolute belief in the uninteruption of love that makes this novel a pleasure, and a wonder to behold. --Gisele Toueg
Book Description
The illuminating national bestseller: "Vertiginously exciting…vibrantly imagined….[Krauss is] a prodigious talent."—Janet Maslin, New York Times
A long-lost book reappears, mysteriously connecting an old man searching for his son and a girl seeking a cure for her widowed mother's loneliness.
Leo Gursky is just about surviving, tapping his radiator each evening to let his upstairs neighbor know he's still alive. But life wasn't always like this: sixty years ago, in the Polish village where he was born, Leo fell in love and wrote a book. And though Leo doesn't know it, that book survived, inspiring fabulous circumstances, even love. Fourteen-year-old Alma was named after a character in that very book. And although she has her hands full—keeping track of her brother, Bird (who thinks he might be the Messiah), and taking copious notes on How to Survive in the Wild—she undertakes an adventure to find her namesake and save her family. With consummate, spellbinding skill, Nicole Krauss gradually draws together their stories.
This extraordinary book was inspired by the author's four grandparents and by a pantheon of authors whose work is haunted by loss—Bruno Schulz, Franz Kafka, Isaac Babel, and more. It is truly a history of love: a tale brimming with laughter, irony, passion, and soaring imaginative power.
Customer Reviews:
When will it end? Where will it end?.......2007-09-29
This book was so well reviewed by the majority of readers that I feel I have to weigh in since my thoughts on the book are not as appeciative. Krauss can turn a phrase deftly and beautifully at times and there were some passages in the book worth writing down and saving but the story, essentially one of plagiarism, ill-fated love and missed opportunities becomes a slog. In fact, whenever the narration leaves Leo's first person and switches to Alma, or Bird near the end (why Bird!?), it loses strength. The story, convoluted as it is, doesn't sustain itself and in the end you just want it all to get wrapped up. It does but in a sketchy kind of way that still leaves lots of questions (but not in an interesting literary kind of way; more a "Oh please get on with it" kind of way). I started not to care about any of the characters except Leo who I just wanted to win one at last. Even his second book is-- unwittingly-- plagiarized by being pubished under his dead son's name. The fixation on Alma is obviously an Alma of the past because the Alma Leo meets once he arrives in America basically sends him on his way. Leo's story is the most compelling and the whole book, as far as I'm concerned, could have been about him and then might have been a great book. The book suffers from the hype of being fashionable but I don't think will stand the test of time.
A Unique Read.......2007-09-24
This book about the history of a book called the History of Love was a joy to read. Intelligently written, unique characters, and out and out funny at times. Wish there were more of these out there.
Read it twice to love it.......2007-09-23
This is a book you will love or hate. It takes time and rereading to understand it. If you put in the love and the time, just as in life, it will bring you understanding.
Lovely book.......2007-09-08
"History of Love" is compelling story, told in a non-linear fashion, so the experience of reading the book resembles the experience of being in love. This author is quite wise for someone her age -- she depicts an old man, young teenage girl, and other characters with depth and interest.
Involved but touching at places.......2007-09-05
Leo Gursky, a Polish Jew, loves a girl and, unknowingly, gets her pregnant. She goes off to the U.S., expecting him to join her there. He fails to and the War intervenes. She gives birth to Isaac and finding her boss's son treating the baby sweetly, and finding that Leo had not come over, marries the boss's son and gives him a son. Meanwhile Leo having written, in Yiddish, "The History of Love", gives the manuscript to Litvinoff to be kept till they meet again. Litvinoff takes it to Chile and after some time publishes it in Spanish as if it were his own work.Years pass. Isaac, now a renowned author, comes across the "History of Love" and sends it to Alma's mother to be translated into English. Alma, eager to see that her mother, a widow, finds a man, tries to trace Isac and ends up with finding Leo.That briefly is the story. Leo met his girl friend in New York after escaping the horrors of the Holocaust and the War, and askd her to come away with him. She refuses, being the wife of another and again a mother of their child. Leo remains single. This would have made for a very moving story by itself.Krauss does not develop this aspect. Leo attends incognito the funeral service held for his son, Isaac,and is taken to his house by Bernard, Isac's step-brother, where he sees the photo of his girl friend. He is unable to reveal to Bernard his relationship to Isaac. This is another part of the story which, if developed, would have been emotionally fulfilling. Leo had written another book titled, "Words for Everythig" and sent it to Isaac. This book gets published after Isaac's death as though it had been written by Isaac. Leo muses that Isaac should have read it and understood Leo was his father. Another aspect fit for development. Here also Krauss has failed. Instead there is the involved use of a girl, Alma, whose role does not jive well with the main part of the story. But there are gems of observations such as, "There is nothing to match God's silence", "the role of a father is to teach his son how to live without the father", "when a Jew prays, he is asking God a question that has no end". Also where Krauss writes about Leo thinking in retospect of all whom he had lost during his life, it is touching. The book is a good read but cannot be rated as high as it seems to have been. Sampath
Average customer rating:
- A beautifully crafted novel
- A sedate samurai
- Beautiful
- Read this book when feeling calm
- Gorgeous Prose
|
The Samurai's Garden: A Novel
Gail Tsukiyama
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
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ASIN: 0312144075 |
Book Description
The daughter of a Chinese mother and a Japanese father, Tsukiyama uses the Japanese invasion of China during the late 1930s as a somber backdrop for her unusual story about a 20-year-old Chinese painter named Stephen who is sent to his family's summer home in a Japanese coastal village to recover from a bout with tuberculosis. Here he is cared for by Matsu, a reticent housekeeper and a master gardener. Over the course of a remarkable year, Stephen learns Matsu's secret and gains not only physical strength, but also profound spiritual insight. Matsu is a samurai of the soul, a man devoted to doing good and finding beauty in a cruel and arbitrary world, and Stephen is a noble student, learning to appreciate Matsu's generous and nurturing way of life and to love Matsu's soulmate, gentle Sachi, a woman afflicted with leprosy.
Customer Reviews:
A beautifully crafted novel.......2007-08-26
This story was simplistic and wonderful. I read it in two days and was mesmerized by the rich culture. The best book I've read in a long time
A sedate samurai.......2007-08-20
The plot of this book makes a terrific outline: A young Chinese man recuperating in Japan from tuberculosis while Japanese troops are slaughtering his Chinese contemporaries in the pre-World War Two invasion; a quiet but strong and wise caretaker who lives to rescue victims of leprosy, including a woman spurned by his best friend; a marriage crisis for the Chinese man's parents; a Romeo/Juliet type love story between the Chinese man and a young Japanese woman. Should be socko.
Instead, it's sedating. Whether it's the passive nature of Stephen, the young Chinese man, or the very pedestrian writing style of the author, I found this book consistently tepid. She shows off her new knowledge about Japanese culture, giving detailed descriptions of every meal and every kimono.
She tells the story through Stephen when the caretaker, Matsu, is the central character. Because Matsu is strong and silent, we don't get inside his character development.
Nevertheless, it's an interesting look at Japan before WWII: religion, relationship and customs.
Beautiful.......2007-08-15
A delightful story of a chinese teen, sent to japan on the eve of WW2 to recuperate after getting tuberculosis. He meets his father's servant who he gets to know and the locals, finding them friendly and welcoming even with the war. He finds the simple way of life, instead of being boring, fills his days and he is bereft when the war forces him to leave.
A wonderful piece of prose, this haunting story of the simple people and their tragic lives is a page turner.
Read this book when feeling calm.......2007-05-21
Reviews of the Samurai's Garden seem to fall into two camps. The "Oh my God, I loved it-best book evers" and the "Are you kidding me? This book stunk category!"
My problem with those in the latter category is that (with a few exceptions) readers who did not like this book tend to mount some moral literary high horse. They relish insulting other reviewers, as in "Anyone with any discerning taste and one scintilla of brain cells would NEVER like this book, ergo if you do you, I hate to break this to you, but you are a stupid, simple, idiot." Listen to yourselves! I wonder what it must feel like to these people to know everything?
Anyway. I did not particularly love this book, but I really can see how many did. The case can definitely be made that there were many layers of beautiful, intertwining lessons in this seemingly simple, yet really more-complex-than-it-looks book. In that sense, it kind of reminds me of the polarizing effect of the Ladies' Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith.
My biggest problem with this book was that I don't think I was in the mood for it. I read it at a time when I had a lot going on, and couldn't sufficiently savor it. This is a book to be savored in peace. For most of my read of it, I wasn't in a peaceful frame of mind as a reader. My personal restlessness wanted more action, less bean cake eating. A few times, however, despite myself, I was caught flat-footed with awe by something in the story. The one thing I took away was to never forget that everyone has a story that helps define them. You just have to be still and listen.
Gorgeous Prose.......2007-02-12
Languish for a while in the Tsukiyama's Japanese garden and you may never want to leave. The serenity created in Matsu's little haven is contradicted by the military domination of the Japanese over the Chinese and the reclusive leper colony struggling for a peaceful existence in a realm beyond that of war. It is to this environment that a young Chinese boy enters into in search of healthier air and soothing salt of the sea . As his body begins healing, his emotions are delicately fractured by all that he learns of war, leprosy, first love, his family secrets, and the servant Matsu - who is truly a master of wisdom, honor, and faith. I wanted to walk through this garden again and again.
Book Description
lder teens and adult readers can't get enough of Gossip Girl, the anonymous narrator who made her catty debut in the bestselling Gossip Girl and titillated readers in the juicy sequel, You Know You Love Me. Now in All I Want Is Everything, readers will love her even more as Gossip Girl dishes up dose after hefty dose of dirt on all her friends-New York's wealthiest private school teens. Sharp wit, intriguing characters, and high-stakes melodrama drive the action of this wildly popular new series.
Customer Reviews:
B, N S, D & J are back and up to no good!.......2007-07-17
In the second installment of the Gossip Girl series our favorite spoiled brats are back and at it again, and this time they are trying to get into college. As if the stress of college applications and interviews wasn't enough for Blair, she now also has to deal with the wedding of the year...her mother's (complete with cute but annoying step-brother and all) and the gnawing feeling something between her and Nate just isn't right. Poor Blair.
Serena on the other hand is just as happy go lucky as ever, however, her newfound relationship with Dan appears to be on the rocks already...ah well; there are more fish in the sea!
Lastly there seems to be a new girl catching Nate's eye and you will never guess who it is! You'll have to read to find out.
While I found the first Gossip Girl book to be mildly entertaining, `YOU KNOW YOU LOVE ME' hooked me! I will definitely spend my summer trying to play catch up before the Gossip Girl series airs on the CW this fall! Fun read for teen's and adult's (who like a little scandal) alike!
Great 2nd novel!.......2007-07-05
Cecily von Ziegesar impresses her audience again with the second installment in the Gossip Girl series. In this one, Blairs mother announces that she is going to get married to Cyrus Rose, a stubby, annoying rich man, and only after a 2-month relationship. Blair has to deal with a new family, which includes Cyrus' son, Aaron, who is a vegan, hippie, who smokes herbal cigarettes. She is still mad at Serena, who slept with Blairs boyfriend, Nate, who is "in love" with a freshman named Jenny "Jennifer" Humphrey. Blair and Serena both screw up their interviews for college. Dan Humphrey also gets on Serena's nerves and later falls in love with Vanessa Abrams. In the end Blair and Serena become friends again, when Serena comforts Blair after everything she's done to her. Cecily wrote another great book for this series, which is addicting. This book was really fun to read, and a great summer read!
GREAT.......2007-03-24
I love this book. It is written soo well and so funny. i couldnt stop reading it.
You know you love me........2006-12-15
I think that this book is really good i thought the way that the charaters interact with eachother are really descriptive. And the book is very well written also. I recommend this book to teenagers because it has alot of drama in it and it has to do with some of the situtaions that teens are put under today such as friends, prepressure and family. So there is this girl named Blair and her boyfriend is Nate and she caught Nate cheating on her with her best friend at that time her best friends name was Serena. Once she found out that her boyfriend cheated on her with her bestfriend she is not friends with Serena and she really doesnt like her and never wants to talk to her ever again. Blair goes up to have an interview for her college and her moms fiance takes her to Yale for her interview and on the way up there she realzes he is actually cute and developes a crush on him. So for months now Blair and Serena have not talked so on Blairs moms wedding day they both bump into eachother in the bathroom and they make peace. They planned a new years party and Nate showed up and he had a girlfriend her name was Jenny and at that party she walks in on her boyfriend Nate and Blair kissing.
The gossip keeps on entertaining.......2006-09-03
Book two in the gossip girl series finds Blair Waldorf getting ready to lose her virginity to her boyfriend Nate. This is the second time the couple has planned a romantic evening for such a momentous occasion, and soon becomes the second time that they are interrupted. To Blair's shock and horror, they are interrupted by her mother who informs them that she is getting remarried to a man Blair loathes and the wedding will be in 3 weeks - on Blair's birthday!! For Blair this is the icing on an already rotten cake as she is suspicious of Nate's loyalty and worried about college applications.
Serena is also back in this episode and still suffering socially because Blair has shut her out. Her friendship with Dan is growing, but it doesn't seem to be going where Dan would like it to go. Serena is also extremely concerned about getting into college and knows that she will have to win the school film festival to have a shot at her college applications being taken seriously by reputable schools.
Once again, these snotty, self-absorbed, rich kids are back with their trips to Barney's, Manolo Blahniks, and everything trendy. But that's what makes these books such a guilty pleasure. The reader is SUPPOSED to hate them. At the same time, it is a look into the world of the perfect and reminds us that no one is perfect, no matter where they get their milk pedicures and facials. Not great literature, but a quick and enjoyable read.
Average customer rating:
- Looking forward to reading again
- Eh-
- Lyrical, small history
- It ain't easy
- Let's Switch Focus
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Cold Mountain: A Novel
Charles Frazier
Manufacturer: Vintage
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0375700757
Release Date: 1998-08-12 |
Amazon.com
This unabridged audio version of Cold Mountain, read by author Charles Frazier, deserves at least as much acclaim as the bestselling print edition, which won the National Book Award. The tale chronicles a Confederate army deserter's search for home and love in the last days of the Civil War.
Much has been made of the story's homage to The Odyssey, the origins of which are found in an oral tradition. One can't help but hear echoes of Homer when listening to Frazier's soft, deliberate voice give life to his lyrical writing and to his understated, yet convincing rendering of the overwhelming events of war. Both Frazier's prose and reading are leisurely, recalling a slow foot pace. His delivery is uniquely suited to Innman's arduous, adventure-filled walk toward home and to the possibility of a reunion with Ada, the woman he loves. The author's reading does equal justice to Ada, who is being transformed by her struggle for survival on her father's farm. There is precious little dialogue, and Frazier makes no effort at acting out the characters.
One small irritation in the production is a beeping noise at the end of each side. Another minor complaint is that the tapes don't have individual boxes, which was perhaps an attempt to make the overall package appear more booklike. The recording does, however, make deft use of two brief musical interludes. In a subtle twist, the fiddle music that opens the first cassette, when repeated as an accompaniment to the epilogue, carries a bittersweet and unexpected resonance. By all means, forgive Random House Audio the tiny glitches, pass over that slender abridged version, and take home the real thing. This audiocassette is a journey that will leave few listeners unchanged by the experience. (Running time: 14.5 hours, 12 cassettes) --Naomi J. Cohn
Book Description
NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE
One of the most acclaimed novels in recent memory, Charles Frazier's
Cold Mountain is a masterpiece that is at once an enthralling adventure, a stirring love story, and a luminous evocation of a vanished American in all its savagery, solitude, and splendor.
Sorely wounded and fatally disillusioned in the fighting at Petersburg, Inman, a Confederate soldier, decides to walk back to his home in the Blue Ridge Mountains and to Ada, the woman he loved there years before. His trek across the disintegrating South brings him into intimate and sometimes lethal converse with slaves and marauders, bounty hunters and witches, both helpful and malign. At the same time, Ada is trying to revive her father's derelict farm and learn to survive in a world where the old certainties have been swept away. As it interweaves their stories,
Cold Mountain asserts itself as an authentic American
Odyssey--hugely powerful, majestically lovely, and keenly moving.
Customer Reviews:
Looking forward to reading again.......2007-09-12
This award winning story takes us back to the waning years of the Civil War in the lands east of Tennessee. The story uses two action fronts to relate the struggle of one ex-confederate soldier, Inman, to reach his beloved Ada. Both are struggling just to survive. He must cross hundreds of miles of rugged terrain on foot while simultaneously avoiding those who would kill him for desertion while Ada must learn how to survive on the farm she inherited from her recently deceased father. The vocabulary and descriptions in Cold Mountain are so very rich and full of colorful imagery that it is sometimes easy to mistake the prose for poetry. And though recently published, I'm sure that this passionate novel will constitute a welcome addition to the canon of American literature. Highest recommendations.
If you saw the movie, disregard it. Doesn't even compare to this work of literature.
Eh-.......2007-09-08
I just read a review from another reader that said that they threw this book in the trash when they were about 100 pages from the end. I am at that point, and while I won't throw it away, I am struggling to get through it. It's not that I feel it's written poorly or the characters lack depth, it's just boring. A whole page devoted to the task of yard work. I don't enjoy yard work so why would I want to read page after page about doing it? I know there there are other things going on but the detailed descriptions of corn cribs and bedspreads do not entice me to turn the page. It's not the worst book I've ever read, but I wouldn't recommend spending full price on it. Do go near it if you have ADD.
Lyrical, small history.......2007-09-05
I am realy coming to appreciate the modern trend to approach historical fiction from the standpoint of the small, personal history rather than the large, sweeping saga. Cold Mountain takes you down to the grassroots of the Civil War, a view you won't find in Gone with the Wind. (no offense intended - I enjoy those epic novels as well!) Frazier's language draws clear pictures that draw you into his protaganist's journey. I actually had no desire to see the movie, as the book had been so well brought to life in my mind by Frazier's words.
It ain't easy.......2007-08-26
Wow, just finished it. I had seen the movie, and knew that I liked it, but had forgotten the ending by the time I got to the book. My first impression was that it was not going to be something that I was just going to breeze through. The pictures that Frazier paints are so in depth, but rather than become cumbersome, it drew me in even more. The character development was unlike anything that I've ever read. It made me long for simpler times and the day when I can get out of the rat race and settle onto a farm myself. Highly recommended.
Let's Switch Focus .......2007-07-02
'Cold Mountian' was a book of great character development, but contained little else. When we first decided to read this book, both Kyle and I noticed that we could find many copies of it at the used bookstores that we frequented. This is usually a bad sign that we did not notice. Most of the story is occupied by the adventures of Inman on his odyssey home as he turns-tail from the fighting during the Civil War. He meets many interesting characters that always seem to cause problems for his journey following his overcome of the last troublesome situation. While the story of Inman hogs the book, the side account of Ada and her pursuit to revive the family farm gives us a glimpse of how 'Cold Mountain' might be a National Award Winner. The character development of Ada and her helping-hand, Ruby, is much more elaborate and enticing to the reader. I would feel better about seeing that gold sticker on the front cover of this book had I been able to focus my attention on Ada and Ruby instead of the overwhelming conflicts of Inman.
Book Description
A triumphant new novel from award-winner Kate Atkinson: a breathtaking story of families divided, love lost and found, and the mysteries of fate.
Case One: Olivia Land, youngest and most beloved of the Land girls, goes missing in the night and is never seen again. Thirty years later, two of her surviving sisters unearth a shocking clue to Olivias disappearance among the clutter of their childhood home. . .
Case Two: Theo delights in his daughter Lauras wit, effortless beauty, and selfless love. But her first day as an associate in his law firm is also the day when Theos world turns upside down. . .
Case Three: Michelle looks around one day and finds herself trapped in a hell of her own making. A very needy baby and a very demanding husband make her every waking moment a reminder that somewhere, somehow, shed made a grave mistake and would spend the rest of her life paying for it--until a fit of rage creates a grisly, bloody escape.
As Private Detective Jackson Brodie investigates all three cases, startling connections and discoveries emerge. Inextricably caught up in his clients grief, joy, and desire, Jackson finds their unshakable need for resolution very much like his own.
Kate Atkinsons celebrated talent makes for a novel that positively sparkles with surprise, comedy, tragedy, and constant, page-turning delight.
Customer Reviews:
I'm being generous........2007-10-08
How this book is getting five stars is beyond me. I mean, it's not an AWFUL book as it does have some redeeming language and a somewhat coherent plotline, but it so just so boring. Getting into this book took forever, and once I did become even remotely interested, the focus would switch and I would forget what I had already read. The characters are uninteresting and there are far too many names to keep track of. I just simply didn't care about them. I'm not sure that enough time was given to each "case", and that resulted in the lack of depth of the characters. I don't know, I just wasn't convinced... they didn't seem real to me. This book could have been an interesting read, but it was just too sloppy and underdeveloped.
Though I wouldn't give this one star, three might be pushing it. Like I said, some of the language used in this book was very beautiful and I'm a sucker for a good quote, but more often than not the dialogue (both internal and external) was just bland. Not to mention Atkinson's ridiculously excessive sexual language. I didn't notice it so much at first, but by the second half of the book EVERYTHING centered around sex. Everything. Maybe that was intentional, maybe a major theme was sexual depravity and the pains brought by it, but to me it was just unnecessary. It's not the sexual language itself that bothered me; if it had fit or enhanced the writing in any way I would support it. But alas, Atkinson failed to deliver on that one. She could have developed some really great characters by giving them ANY other redeemable quality, but she didn't, and thus they fall flat.
My last great qualm that I have to voice, and forgive me for being nit-picky, is the author's excessive use of parenthesis. I found them extremely distracting. If you have to voice a character's "true thoughts" in parenthesis, then you haven't developed him well enough! I should be able to KNOW what Jackson is thinking without having the simple things spelled out for me. Come on, give your readers some credit.
Not the worst book you could read, but far from the top of my list.
Good beginnings, but then...........2007-10-07
The story begins at once, and it is exciting. The reader is presented with three different case-files of un-solved mysteries: the case of the little girl Olivia, the case about Michelle and her daughter Tanya and the case about Laura. All cases are years old, and after the presentation, we move forward to the present day, where the ex-cop and ex-soldier Jackson Brodie enters the stage as some kind of a private eye, hired to solve the three old cases. Jackson is a philosofical dreamer, and he is chronically worrited about his 8 year old daughter. In his quest of finding answers, not just to the old cases but to life in general, he manages to crack open the three old cases again and get small glimpses of what happened back then.
Unfortunately, what promises to be a great story, a great mystery, fade out pretty fast. Jackson seems too philosofical and yet cynic, the disappeared Olivia's three, now grown, sisters seem too cartoon-ish and it is hard to find the rhythm in the story. We also find out the Jackson's cynisims has grounds in his own childhood and upbringing and recent divorce, and it makes the story all the more annoying in this reader's opinion.
The story is set in Cambridge in England, and I would have liked a little more atmosphere of the town. The story is not very tight, and what could have been a great book and a great mystery seems lost. All in all, this was a 2* plus book, and I ahve decided to give it 3* here.
so overrated.......2007-10-01
Please do not believe the hype with this book. (I should preface this by saying that I finished reading a Cormac McCarthy novel last week, so perhaps my palette is scarred.) The characters wallow about with too much lame dialogue and expected idiosyncrasies. The plot starts out at 80 mph, only to sputter to a geriatric standstill by the 5th chapter. I kept turning pages hoping it would get better, be written better, and seem like less of a Lifetime channel movie you watch on sick days. Sadly, dear potential reader, it never did. When I finished the last page I immediately walked outside and left it on the curb, saddened that it ever occupied a place on my bookshelf. If you want to read it, you can find it outside on the sidewalk and save yourself the shipping charges.
modest mystery and plot, interesting threads.......2007-09-28
The resolution of the murder mysteries takes a distant back seat to the odd collection of characters, some interesting and some not so much. There's hardly a normal person to be seen, with perhaps the most normal person the detective who integrates the threads, or maybe the victims. Ms. Atkinson has delivered an entertaining story somewhat light on action, when compared to the detective novel genre, but it's clear she was aiming for something else. The characters are the real focus, and she tells about them in a casual, conversational style that goes down easily.
Alright?.......2007-09-09
I enjoyed this intricate, character-centered narrative (although the deus-ex-machina fantasy endings mar it, unless their very unreality is the point. And why, in so many current novels, are the characters with same-sex desires also often the most unappealing?)
But my main comment is a nit-picky pedantic one. When did it become all right to spell "all right" as "alright"? I hate this trend. I can adapt to inevitable linguistic change (hey, I no longer rant about "impact" as a verb [I even see now that it makes logical sense], and half the time, I can even hear "proactive" without shuddering), but "alright" seems sloppy and unnecessarily imprecise. And while I'm at it, I'll point out another problem: a character is said "not to waiver" after making a decision. What, to change your mind nowadays, you have to submit a waiver? (joke -- that's a joke.) Get better editors. All right?
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The Historical Romance (Popular Fictions Series)
Helen Hughes
Manufacturer: Routledge
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Binding: Library Binding
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ASIN: 0415058120 |
Book Description
b /b b i The Historical Romance /i /b explores the ways in which romance authors have sought to represent our fantasies of love since the first "cloak and dagger" tales captured the popular fiction market in the 1930s. The book explores how, with the social upheavals of war, these swashbucklers gave way to the female-oriented romances of Georgette Heyer and her successors, their qualities of fantasy and credibility and exaggerated romantic motifs representing the symbolic expression of women's concerns. br br Hughes' study leads to the present day by exploring how authors as diverse as Conan Doyle and Barbara Cartland treat the question of female independence and how established attitudes about love, marriage, and women's sexuality have both been challenged and reaffirmed by more recent texts. Other themes include the abducted heroine and the disguised wounded hero; the romantic treatment of popular and revolutionary movements; and "Englishness," national identity and the First World War. The author also charts the ways in which the marketing of romance has developed since the beginning of the century, culminating in the explosion of the mass market. b /b b i The Historical Romance /i /b unravels the formulaic and mythical nature of historical romance to provide a fascinating study of a highly popular genre.
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- 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
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I, Che Guevara: A Novel
John Blackthorn
Manufacturer: William Morrow & Company
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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.
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- Illustrious
- July 31, 2201
- A vividly dramatic tale of forbidden romance
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Ruskin's Rose: A Venetian Love Story
Mimma Balia , and
Michelle Lovric
Manufacturer: Artisan
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The Savage Garden
ASIN: 1579651372 |
Book Description
Venice can be a dangerous place for a man's emotions--particularly at Christmas, particularly if he's the grief-stricken art historian John Ruskin. In 1876, a year after the death of his clandestine love, Rose La Touche, Ruskin arrived in the city of canals and arched bridges. The author of such acclaimed books as Modern Painters and The Stones of Venice, Ruskin suddenly found himself adrift without his Rose. He'd seen his own youthful marriage scandalously annulled; he had lost his faith, his love, his fortune. It was time to heal.
Ruskin's Rose tells the unforgettable story of Ruskin's relationship and of his time in Venice, when he rediscovered art through the paintings of fifteenth-century artist Vittore Carpaccio. Gorgeously illustrated with photographs of letters, maps, flowers, lockets, and other artifacts, this tale will stir the heart of every reader.
Customer Reviews:
Illustrious.......2004-06-16
You do not need to be neither an art expert nor historian to appreciate this find book. Like the above reviewer has already mentioned, this is not even a book: it is in fact a living artifact to be treated in league with the works of arts it treats as subject matter. A work of art unto itself. Style-wise it reminds this reader of one of Nick Bantocks' books, and in fact, Mr.Bantock had written a book called 'The Venetians Wife'. But if you are not totally and delightfully suprised and charmed by the books maps, illustrations and photos then it wil be the story itself that leads you around by the lapels. Indeed, the author weaves a warm spell; draws you in and one gains the impression from just the very first few pages that it is a story that deserves to be settled in for and is at once illustrious and intriguing, beguiling and irresistably seductive all in one. By the way, makes a great gift and in fact like me, you may find your self buying not just one...but two. Let this book earn a special place on your book shelf mantle and your heart as well. One gets the impression that this is exactly what it was meant for. Enjoy!
July 31, 2201.......2001-08-01
Well, it is indeed a pretty obect, but it's hardly a "book". It has to take me longer than a half an hour to read in order to dignify a piece of writing as a "book". As an illustrated historical essay, i give it FIVE stars. Publishing a hard cover around an fine essay and filling it with illustrations, is a little too "twee" for my taste, but i have to admit it was an experince to read and i will not forget the sensitive insight into my favorite Victorian. Hey, on this date, it's about the right price, Dave... go for it.
A vividly dramatic tale of forbidden romance.......2001-03-13
Ruskin's Rose provides a Venetian love story of an art historian who fell in love with Irish girl Rose in 1858. Using material from the letters between the two, the authors reconstruct a tale of forbidden romance every bit as vivdly dramatic as Shakespeare, with color illustrations by Ann Field peppering the account.
Amazon.com
Enemy Women, the outstanding first novel by poet Paulette Jiles, leads us into new terrain, both geographic and historical, in the war between the states. Set in the Missouri Ozarks during the Civil War, Jiles's story focuses on the trying times of 18-year-old heroine Adair Colley. When a group of renegade Union militiamen attacks the Colley home, stealing family possessions, burning everything down, and taking away her father--an apolitical judge--Adair gathers the remnants of her clothes and mounts a rescue effort. Unfortunately, she is falsely accused of being a Confederate spy, a charge that lands her in a squalid women's prison run by a decent commandant embarrassed by his post. After he helps her escape, the two agree to seek out one another after the war; their separate, harrowing journeys and the evolution of each character throughout make for breathtaking action and powerful writing. Each chapter of Enemy Women begins with excerpts from historical testimony about this terrible period in the Civil War, when marauding soldiers pillaged and murdered whole families and communities at will. These documents add depth and resonance to Jiles's remarkable narrative. --Tom Keogh
Book Description
From critically acclaimed, award-winning poet and memoirist Paulette Jiles comes a debut novel of startling power and savage beauty -- an extraordinary story of survival and love in the midst of a torn nation's bitter agony.
For the Colleys of southeastern Missouri, the War Between the States is a plague that threatens devastation despite the family's avowed neutrality. For eighteen-year-old Adair Colley, it is a nightmare seen at its most terrible on the day the Union Militia arrives to set her house on fire, driving her brother into hiding and dragging her widowed father away, beaten and bloodied. Left to care for two young sisters, Adair sees no road but the one that leads away, as they start out on foot into the winter mountains in search of a safe haven.
Even the least of hopes is doomed, however, in a world forever changed, as the treachery of a fellow traveler brings about Adair's arrest on charges of “enemy collaboration.” Torn from her terrified sisters, the girl suddenly finds herself consigned to a living hell, caged with the criminal and the deranged in a filthy women's prison in St. Louis.
But young Adair is sustained by a strong heart, and love can live even in a place of horror and despair. Her interrogator, a Union major, falls in love with her and she finds herself returning her feelings despite herself. The major vows to return for her when the fighting is over, and before he returns to war, he leaves her with a last precious gift: freedom.
Weakened in body but not in spirit, Adair must now travel alone through dangerous, unknown territory -- an escaped “enemy woman” surrounded by perils and misery on all sides.She makes her harrowing way south buoyed by a promise, seeking a home and a family that may be nothing more than a memory.
Based on a little known chapter in America's bloodiest epoch, Paulette Jiles's poignant, powerful, and exquisitely rendered novel about war's collateral victims is masterful work, captivating and authentic -- a lyrical, memorable tale of endurance and sacrifice that will stand alongside Cold Mountain and other classic Civil War era-set literature for decades to come.
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PerfectBound e-book extra: A Reading Group Guide to Enemy Women. From critically acclaimed, award-winning poet and memoirist Paulette Jiles comes a debut novel of startling power and savage beauty - an extraordinary story of survival and love in the midst of a torn nation's bitter agony.
Customer Reviews:
A far cry from Gone with the Wind.......2007-09-05
Images of the Civil War have been burned into our collective mind since childhood history classes - either young boys fighting, brother against brother, or else gallant gentlemen paying court to hoop skirted gentile ladies as war pounds on in the background. This novel is not a story of those wars. The war on the frontier was a very different beast, and it's a story not often told. Jiles tells a captivating story of the dregs of the officer corps, sent to subdue states forced to fight in causes largely irrelevant to them (entire states in the frontier south held fewer slaves than single plantations in the coastal south). The "enemy women" in these frontier states did not face the chivalry of a gentlemanly officer corps. The men sent to guard them were barely officers and certainly not gentlemen. This book is a good story just as a work of fiction, but add to that how well it rounds out an incomplete image of the realities of our Civil War and it becomes a must read for any American History buff. Like Cold Mountain, this new generation of historical fiction that tells the small stories rather than aiming for the sweeping saga, really can place the reader in the footsteps of history.
The horror of war.......2007-08-31
I have been researching my family history and running into a dead end with the family of my Missouri great-grandfather. He ran a boarding house with his wife and their many children. After the war, he was living all alone as a boarder in that same boardinghouse, and some years later, remarried. My aunt's genealogy chart reads, "I never knew what happened to Absalom's first family," and that lost wife and those children continue to haunt me. I feel like this book is an answer to my quest to know about the many paths down which that family may have disappeared in the maelstrom of the guerrilla warfare in Missouri. Thank to Paulette Jiles for her scrupulous research and the telling images and dialogue that bring it all to life. A time of horror in our nation's past, that still is not fully healed.
It Should Have Won the Pulitzer Prize.......2007-06-13
Reading Enemy Women was a revelation on how a book should be crafted. From the depth of the characters (both major and minor), to the plot, to the wonderful description, to the pace... this book is truly wonderful. More than a love story (which it is), Enemy Women tells, for most, a forgotten history of the cruelty of war, when it seemed men and women killed, imprisoned, and brutalized because they had the power to do so. Against this backdrop is the story of one brave woman, who escapses from prison and makes her way back home against odds that would be honestly found in a war torn land. Nothing is over dramatized for effect. The story is told with a straightfoward, honest narrative. At first, it took some getting used to the fact that the author chose not to use quotation marks. But after the first twenty or so pages, I did not even notice they were missing. This is a brilliantly written book and that sense of wonder never leaves. It only grows as the story is unfolded by a truly remarkable and masterful story teller.
Softball Rox @ LSMS.......2007-05-23
Enemy Women is one of those books that I wouldn't have just picked off the shelf and read, but I had to read it for school, so I did. There are a few things that didn't go with me in this book: 1.) there were no quotation marks , so I often had to reread a passage to understand what was happening, 2.) the story can often be slow and have long, boring passages between the interesting ones, mainly at the beginning, and 3.) I wasn't so big on the ambiguous ending. You don't really know what happens at the end! All in all, though, it was a book I reasonably enjoyed once I got to about chapter 10 or so. Then it began to get interesting. Even though it's not the greatest book ever, it's still something I recommend reading if you ever have spare time.
Collect Rocks @ LSMS.......2007-04-27
Enemy Women is very like a romance novel. Two people fall in love, they are separated by war, etc. etc. But it really tells a lot about what it was like during the Civil War, espacially in Missouri and the MidWest, with families being separated and their men going off to battle. It taught me what prisons were like for women during the war, and how hard it could be to survive in one. It is a very educational book, and if you ever get a chance to read it, you should.
Book Description
Against a Crimson Sky tells the stories of four characters who are irrevocably linked in the aftermath of Polands violent dissolution in 1794, a break culminating in the doomed 1812 winter march into Russia. Countess Anna Maria Berezowska has finally married her true love, Jan Stelnicki, but life is anything but ideal. Shortly after their union, Jan takes to the battlefield in the hopes of ensuring a sovereign Poland for his children. Meanwhile, his best friend on the front lines continues to pine for Annas cousin, Zofia, but she has her sights set on Emperor Napoleon. Against a Crimson Sky interweaves these tales of intrigue, love, and betrayal as one proud nation and one strong family struggle for unity.
Customer Reviews:
Against a Crimson Sky.......2007-09-30
If you enjoyed "Push not the River", you will undoubtedly also enjoy its sequel. In "Against a Crimson Sky", James Martin delves more deeply into the lives of his characters, always working against the fascinating backdrop of Polish history and culture. He has done a superb job of incorporating what happened in the first book into the second novel. You do not have to have read "Push not the River" (or remember it perfectly) in order to enjoy the sequel. The women characters in particular seem to grow and come alive. And Martin continues to make good use of the wonderful Polish proverbs that he used to introduce each section of his first novel.
Excellent sequel to Push Not the River.......2007-09-24
Against a Crimson Sky continues the saga of Anna and Jan Stelnicki and Anna's enigmatic cousin Zofia, against the background of the Napoleonic Wars. The book is rich in historical detail, from the final partitioning of Poland and the exile of the last Polish king, through the reign of Napoleon and the vital part the Polish army played in his military conquests in hopes that he would regain independence for Poland. Although their faith in Napoleon proved to be unfounded, their bravery and steadfastness cannot be questioned. The actual historical characters, including General Jozef Poniatowski and Napoleon's Polish mistress Maria Walewska, come alive in this exciting, beautifully written novel.
Disappointing change from "Push Not the River".......2007-07-09
I had such high hopes after being enthralled with "Push Not the River" that I couldn't wait for this to show up after I ordered it. But I am thoroughly disappointed after reading "Crimson Sky." I'm surprised it's gotten such good reviews. This book drags on and on, mostly without plot, and jumps forward decades at a time. In fact, it reads more like a history lesson on war in Poland and the surrounding countries than an intriguing story of an admirable woman (like Push Not the River), and per the author's note it is NOT based on actual diaries as was the first book: it is the authors "prediction" of what may have happened in Anna's life after the diaries ended.
I actually stopped caring about what happened to the characters about half-way through, and was disgusted with myself because I loved them so much in the first book. I did manage to read the complete novel, but it was an effort toward the end. Unless you are a glutton for historical detail with no immediate need for a plot, save your time - read "Push Not the River" and skip this one. Try "The Tea Rose" by Jennifer Donnelly instead.
A Collegue's Review.......2007-05-15
It was my pleasure to receive a signed copy of Jim Martin's second book as a gift from the author. I had read "Push not the River" several years ago and hoped for a sequel. When I read the first few lines, I was immediately entranced. The writing is beautiful, the characters are clearly drawn and the plot is engaging. I could not put the book down, as Mr. Martin takes us through the years of the French Revolution from the viewpoint of the Polish involvement. One must read the book carefully to find the characters moving "Against a Crimson Sky." I eagerly await the continuation of this series.
Great Historical Fiction.......2007-03-13
"Against a Crimson Sky" left me longing for a trilogy as much as its predecessor "Push Not the River" left me longing for this sequel. This book brings history during the Napoleon era to life. If you like historical fiction such as Leon Uris's "Trinity" or "Exodus" you will love these novels too. "Against a Crimson Sky" is a captivating story with exceptionally well written historical connections. I wish I could see the movie!
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