Things Fall Apart: A Novel

Amazon.com

One of Chinua Achebe's many achievements in his acclaimed first novel, Things Fall Apart, is his relentlessly unsentimental rendering of Nigerian tribal life before and after the coming of colonialism. First published in 1958, just two years before Nigeria declared independence from Great Britain, the book eschews the obvious temptation of depicting pre-colonial life as a kind of Eden. Instead, Achebe sketches a world in which violence, war, and suffering exist, but are balanced by a strong sense of tradition, ritual, and social coherence. His Ibo protagonist, Okonkwo, is a self-made man. The son of a charming ne'er-do-well, he has worked all his life to overcome his father's weakness and has arrived, finally, at great prosperity and even greater reputation among his fellows in the village of Umuofia. Okonkwo is a champion wrestler, a prosperous farmer, husband to three wives and father to several children. He is also a man who exhibits flaws well-known in Greek tragedy:

Okonkwo ruled his household with a heavy hand. His wives, especially the youngest, lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper, and so did his little children. Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness. It was deeper and more intimate than the fear of evil and capricious gods and of magic, the fear of the forest, and of the forces of nature, malevolent, red in tooth and claw. Okonkwo's fear was greater than these. It was not external but lay deep within himself. It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father.

And yet Achebe manages to make this cruel man deeply sympathetic. He is fond of his eldest daughter, and also of Ikemefuna, a young boy sent from another village as compensation for the wrongful death of a young woman from Umuofia. He even begins to feel pride in his eldest son, in whom he has too often seen his own father. Unfortunately, a series of tragic events tests the mettle of this strong man, and it is his fear of weakness that ultimately undoes him.

Achebe does not introduce the theme of colonialism until the last 50 pages or so. By then, Okonkwo has lost everything and been driven into exile. And yet, within the traditions of his culture, he still has hope of redemption. The arrival of missionaries in Umuofia, however, followed by representatives of the colonial government, completely disrupts Ibo culture, and in the chasm between old ways and new, Okonkwo is lost forever. Deceptively simple in its prose, Things Fall Apart packs a powerful punch as Achebe holds up the ruin of one proud man to stand for the destruction of an entire culture. --Alix Wilber

Book Description

This is Chinua Achebe's classic novel, with more than two million copies sold since its first U.S. publication in 1969. Combining a richly African story with the author's keen awareness of the qualities common to all humanity, Achebe here shows that he is "gloriously gifted, with the magic of an ebullient, generous, great talent." -- Nadine Gordimer

Customer Reviews:

True to it's title.......2007-09-22

It is amazing how a novel first published in 1959 about a Nigerian village, pre-colonization, still has relevance today. Talk about transcending time as well as cultures! Chinua Achebe is a magnificent story teller. I love authors who have the ability to transport me to worlds that seem so different from my own.

Okonkwo was a man that was obsessed with masculinity and the "power" of being masculine. Although I could see how harsh, abusive, and unyielding Okonkwo was towards his family, oddly I felt sympathy for the man. He was the product of his environment and culture. Apparently his callousness was worsened because of his fear that he should become like his father ----- a man with no title, in his culture, the equivalent of being a woman.

How many of us struggle to balance the new with the old? And how often do we question or all out resist changing times.... be it attitudes or ideas, advancements in technology, religion, policies, music, etc. Most of us reach a certain age where we would prefer our traditions be left alone. In some instances there should be no room for compromise, but in other instances perhaps there truly is improvement/advancement to be gained.

Okonkwo's struggle is exactly that. He strives to leave behind a proud legacy. However, he makes bad decisions along the way. The more he tries to make things right the more it seems that misfortune comes his way. He's angered and confused about the changes that come upon his village but that combined with his pigheaded demeanor make for a disastrous result. It's a good book to take up beyond school required reading. Achebee gives his readers a great deal to consider.

Things Fall apart audio.......2007-09-11

My son had a senior project to do over the summer, he had to read this entire book and the first day back to school, he had a test on it, my son does not do well on reading, he can read great, but he has trouble remembering what he read, so I thought if he listened to it being read to him, he could follow along better, well he did, and he done well on his test and essay, I would recommend this product to anyone with similiar problems as my son has with reading.......

Things Fall Apart.......2007-09-10

My son needed this book for school and we received in time for school. Great service!

All you never wanted to know about yams... and other such things........2007-08-08

I had to read this for my high school advanced English class. I regret ever having picked it up. I feel very lucky that my brain was not fried after reading The-book-that-should-not-be-named. In short, if you want to read a bizarre book about African people and yams, then read this book. If not, go read something else.

It Drags.......2007-08-07

While the story itself is useful in giving a student the right mindset for African studies, the story itself lacks much of the marvel of other historically-based books. While the book is pointed towards lower-classmen in high school, the true audience should be college, where adults can completely analyze and idnetify the key points and emotions of the story.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being: A Novel (Perennial Classics)

Average customer rating:

Oh how it made my heart ache
Bring a pencil
In life, everything matters.
Unbearable Infidelity
Weights and measures.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being: A Novel (Perennial Classics)
Milan Kundera
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0060932139

Book Description

A young woman in love with a man torn between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing; one of his mistresses and her humbly faithful lover -- these are the two couples whose story is told in this masterful novel. In a world in which lives are shaped by irrevocable choices and by fortuitous events, a world in which everything occurs but once, existence seems to lose its substance, its weight. Hence, we feel "the unbearable lightness of being" not only as the consequence of our pristine actions but also in the public sphere, and the two inevitably intertwine.

Customer Reviews:

Oh how it made my heart ache.......2007-09-27

I read this book with a heavy heart and loved every moment of it. I love when a book can affect me so deeply. I felt the pain of the woman in the story and understood her completely. So tragic, yet so good. Thanks Kundera!

Bring a pencil.......2007-09-26

I finished reading this book about a week ago and still haven't been able to put together a review for it. The book is just too difficult to describe in a short review. There are so many philosophical points that Kundera is trying to make, and he never really gets around to answering the difficult questions that he brings up.

At the root of the philosophical inquiry is the question of whether lightness is good and heaviness is bad or vice versa. It's difficult to explain the problem, and that's probably why I can't find the right words to put together a good review for the book.

If you do intend to read it, I recommend having a pencil nearby to keep track of your own ideas and opinions of the problem, not to mention tracking Kundera's own usage of the characters (including the various government systems in which the human characters live) and how the philosophical question is answered for each of them.

I enjoyed the book immensely, but felt that I needed more time (and perhaps a study guide) to really get all the depth of the book.

In life, everything matters........2007-09-17

Milan Kundera (1929) is best known for The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984), The Book of Laughter and Forgetting (1979) and The Joke (1967). Because Kundera is more interested in the themes his characters represent rather than their physical appearance, his philosophical novels tend to challenge the reader, though always in a worthwhile way. He believes the reader's imagination completes the writer's vision by filling in the missing details The Art of the Novel.

Set in 1968 Prague, The Unbearable Lightness of Being tells the story of a womanizing surgeon, Tomas, who loses his employment because he is critical of Czech Communism (he compared the Soviets to Oedipus Rex). He has had more than 200 lovers in his lifetime, and is determined to live his life unfettered by things like commitment. "Kundera's Quartet" of characters also includes Tomas's wife, Tereza (a photographer), his mistress, Sabina (a painter), and her lover, Franz (a university professor). The title of Kundera's novel refers to the idea that because each of us has only one life to live, life is ultimately insignificant, and our decisions do not matter. Because our decisions do not matter, existence seems to lose its substance or weight, making our being unbearable. Tomas represents this philosophy in the novel. He feels that nothing matters, that his life has the lightness of mortality. Conversely, enigmatic Tereza carries with her the weight of the world and is heavily impacted by life. She does not judge Tomas for his infidelities, because she knows that although he sleeps with many women, he loves only her. She is fond of animals, particularly her dog, Karenin, and a pig named Mefisto. Her relationship with Tomas is the center of Kundera's novel. After meeting her by chance, Tomas gradually begins to understand through his love for Tereza that, because we only live once, everything matters. The inscription of his grave reads, "He wanted the Kingdom of God on Earth." Sabina lives her life in opposition to "kitsch" in any form, whether it is domesticity, unoriginality, mediocrity, or untruth. Her lover, Franz is a Geneva professor who seeks lightness of being through books and academia, which Sabina also considers kitsch. The Unbearable Lightness of Being is a profound novel, and among my top ten favorite novels of the last 25 years. I also recommend the currently out-of-print film adaptation of the novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Two-Disc Special Edition).

G. Merritt

Unbearable Infidelity.......2007-09-05

This book is filled with erotica and infidelity. That just totally distracted me from the message. I could not relate at all. The author seduced me with his introduction about Nietzsche's Eternal Recurrence. Infinitely many times? Nay, this life only occurs once and perhaps should be as nonce. Heaviness? NO! It is unbearably light! FORTUITOUS EVENTS! Anyway, random philosophical bits were interspersed throughout. I suppose I just rather read what people consider straight boring philosophy books.
Oh, wait just a minute. You are saying I did not read? Well, maybe I did not read deep enough, but I did read this book. Where is my girl that I can sleep with(not sexual relations)? I felt bad for the commie idealist Franz who married a wicked deceptive woman he never wanted to be with. Thanks alot for giving more propaganda for vegetarian fundamentalists. And those dogs, those slavish beings who people like so much just because people can pretty do what they want to the dog. Oh don't we wish all people were so pure and easy to manipulate to obey our every call!

Weights and measures........2007-07-09

Whatever I'll write won't do this book justice. It's a classic, plain and simple.
A great Jewish teacher -- Rabbeinu Avraham ben Ha GRA (youngest son of the saintly Vilna Gaon, or "Genius from Vilnius") -- once wrote of he and his forebears -- "We wrote tersely in order to provoke deep thought (in our readers)." Milan Kundera has done that in "The Unbearable Lightness of Being."
Flashes of mental and spiritual wrestling illuminate every page. Religion is judged to be merely a consolation. So says Dr. Tomas in discussing his son's embrace of Roman-style Christianity --
"He was down and out. The Catholics took him in and, before he knew it, he had faith. So it was gratitude that decided the issue, most likely. Human decisions are terribly simple."
But the results of human action are not so simple, as the book demonstrates. Each choice makes a ripple -- picture a stone being tossed into placid water in light of Kundera's arrangement of chapter headings. The headings appear to fan out from "Words Misunderstood" (Chapter 3).
"Lightness and Weight" (the headings for chapters 1 and 4) is a recurring theme. Yet the discussion goes beyond usual freedom-vs.-responsibilities notions. Concepts present in the lives and work of Parmenides and Beethoven are really what's being weighed.
Kundera brings us back several times to the idea that events only happen singly and incline a person toward "lightness" or "heaviness." Kundera seems to favor "heaviness" judging by the book's title and the author's implicit approval of Tomas's "descent" to "heaviness" late in the book.
"Lightness" is a consequence of our lack of knowledge for decision-making due to the fact that presumably we've never lived before and won't live again (meaning we have only "one life to live." By the way, there's an ABC soap opera with that name.)
But is that really all there is to it? Kundera doesn't probe the Jewish idea of the resusitation of the dead, in which souls from "heaven" will be reunited with their bodies and reconstituted mankind will live on a higher plane. The author doesn't hold by the reincarnation of souls -- a different idea that Judaism doesn't rule out but is more prevalent in some other religions.
Perhaps Kundera didn't explore these ideas because they are outside his own and his characters' experiences. Admittedly, the ideas are difficult to get in touch with through physical sense experience. The Communist milieu lived in by Kundera, his characters, and all of us between 1917 and 1989 (and still around to an extent) ruled out everything except that kind of experience. And, when convenient, the Communists even voided that.
An interesting idea for our gifted author and others to take up is "Does reincarnation mean that past lives and lessons learned are imprinted on the soul even if the mind isn't acutely aware of them? What are the implications of this, if any, for our current lives?"

Average customer rating:

Astounding
So many pages, so little plot
Wow.
Cause with effects that are wide-ranging
Probably the best book I've ever read.

Atonement: A Novel
Ian McEwan
Manufacturer: Anchor
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 038572179X
Release Date: 2003-02-25

Amazon.com

Ian McEwan's Booker Prize-nominated Atonement is his first novel since Amsterdam took home the prize in 1998. But while Amsterdam was a slim, sleek piece, Atonement is a more sturdy, more ambitious work, allowing McEwan more room to play, think, and experiment.

We meet 13-year-old Briony Tallis in the summer of 1935, as she attempts to stage a production of her new drama "The Trials of Arabella" to welcome home her older, idolized brother Leon. But she soon discovers that her cousins, the glamorous Lola and the twin boys Jackson and Pierrot, aren't up to the task, and directorial ambitions are abandoned as more interesting prospects of preoccupation come onto the scene. The charlady's son, Robbie Turner, appears to be forcing Briony's sister Cecilia to strip in the fountain and sends her obscene letters; Leon has brought home a dim chocolate magnate keen for a war to promote his new "Army Ammo" chocolate bar; and upstairs, Briony's migraine-stricken mother Emily keeps tabs on the house from her bed. Soon, secrets emerge that change the lives of everyone present....

The interwar, upper-middle-class setting of the book's long, masterfully sustained opening section might recall Virginia Woolf or Henry Green, but as we move forward--eventually to the turn of the 21st century--the novel's central concerns emerge, and McEwan's voice becomes clear, even personal. For at heart, Atonement is about the pleasures, pains, and dangers of writing, and perhaps even more, about the challenge of controlling what readers make of your writing. McEwan shouldn't have any doubts about readers of Atonement: this is a thoughtful, provocative, and at times moving book that will have readers applauding. --Alan Stewart, Amazon.co.uk

Book Description

Ian McEwan’s symphonic novel of love and war, childhood and class, guilt and forgiveness provides all the satisfaction of a brilliant narrative and the provocation we have come to expect from this master of English prose.

On a hot summer day in 1935, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis witnesses a moment’s flirtation between her older sister, Cecilia, and Robbie Turner, the son of a servant and Cecilia’s childhood friend. But Briony’s incomplete grasp of adult motives–together with her precocious literary gifts–brings about a crime that will change all their lives. As it follows that crime’s repercussions through the chaos and carnage of World War II and into the close of the twentieth century, Atonement engages the reader on every conceivable level, with an ease and authority that mark it as a genuine masterpiece.

Customer Reviews:

Astounding.......2007-10-05

Many reviews of praise have previously been entered for this book. I agree with them all. Quite simply, this book may be one of the best I've ever read. And what makes it even better is that it's great literature that is also very, very readable.

McEwan devotes about the first 100 pages to character development. Conceivably, that might become quite mundane to read, but I found myself drawn in, interested enough to keep reading, wanting to know more. I was richly rewarded by a wonderful, astounding story. The characters became so real to me I genuinely cared about them. I found myself relating to them personnally, feeling their frustrations and anguish as events spiraled out of control. As 13 year old Briony's crime was beginning to develop, caused by youthful naievete, ignorance, and immaturity, I found myself wanting to just reach into the pages and strangle the girl to stop her from carrying out a great, irreparable injustice against innocence.

The stories within the story are told largely through the presentation of the psychology of the characters, through introspection and self reflection, presentation of their thoughts, hopes, dreams and despair. Anyone expecting to find large amounts of dialogue between the characters will be disappointed. It's simply amazing how McEwan's writing was able to absorb me into the mind of each character and how he presented the reality of their worlds and environments so eloquently. There is an incredible depth to it all.

In the end there is a twist of irony, somewhat shocking to me when I read it, even disappointing; however, upon reflection it all made sense and was quite appropriate.

I give Atonement my highest recommendations.

So many pages, so little plot.......2007-10-02

Atonement is a novel about... well, nothing. This book isn't all that thick, but reading it feels like an eternity. This is supposed to be a tale of love, a tale of two characters who are brought apart by horrible circumstances. So why is it that I never actually did find a semblance of love in this story? Or a semblance of plot for that matter? The characters are always interrogating themselves, to the point of being very annoying.

The book starts with an incredible chapter where a young girl is tryin to stage a play for her brother who she hasn't seen in ages. But that afternoon, Briony sees her older sister Cecilia swim naked in front of their neighbour and hired hand Robbie. That event changes her life forever.

And after that? Well, the book falls into an oblivion of tired cliches. A young girl is attacked and Briony falsely accuses Robbie of the crime. Of course, every one believes her even though everyone knows this young girl is a dreamer and has a tendency to lie. Worse, we never actually do feel the love between Cecilia and Robbie. They are supposed to be lovers, and yet Cecilia only discovers her feelings for the boy on that very doomed day? They spend seconds alone together and that makes them lovers?

The book then brings us through a series of cliched war events. Robbie, after a jail stint, is brought to fight for London. Cecilia becomes a nurse. Soon enough, Briony follows in her footsteps. Nothing new is offered here. I'd seen it all before, and much better written. Pages after pages of meaningless battles, of nursing dying patients... in these parts, it's almost as if the first half of the books if forgotten and put aside simply to incoroporate these war events in the story.

There is a very interesting chapter in this novel where Briony has sent a story to a magazine and receives the notes from the editor. The editor tells her that the story was nicely written, but to not 'dwell for quite so long on the perceptions of each of the these figures. Simply put, you need a backbone of a story. Our attention would have been held even more effectively had there been an underlying pull of simple narrative. Development is required.' I wish McEwan would have read his own notes, because this represents the book's problem. This is all talk, all thoughts, and no action. No real plot. No real narrative.

I love literary novels, but I still need an ounce of narrative to make me care about it all. No matter how great the writing it, without a plot, you story means nothing. Strip away all the introspection from this story and you are left with a few pages of plot. That's simply not enough to sustain a novel that is nearly 400 pages long. Atonement has some good ideas, but they are lost in a rambling, repetitive and meaningless narrative.

Wow........2007-09-21

Literate, literary story of mistakes and their consequences that reverberate through the years. Not as gory as McEwan can be sometimes. The horror is more psychological than actual, unlike other books of his. A beautiful, moving and compelling work of fiction. Very, very good.

Cause with effects that are wide-ranging.......2007-09-21

Children can be capricious. This novel illustrates what can happen when one child's actions set in motion a chain of events that will momentously change the lives of many of those around her. The changes are not for the better. Many people suffer and the nature of the suffering differs between them, as does its duration.

Thirteen year old Briony is the catalyst for the life-changing events that happen in 1935 at her family's country house in England. In part one of the book I vacillated between understanding Briony's behaviour and wanting to castigate her for her willfulness. In the following parts we move forward in time and see the repercussions of Briony's actions and how her regret and guilt grows into a need for forgiveness, and a determination lasting reparation for her offense. The novel finishes in 1999 with devastating revelations.

McEwan's characterization and evocation of the various eras that the story spans are wonderful. The story has a powerful impact because of the care taken in its writing; believable characters & plotting and vivid period details. It makes you pause to reflect on how your actions today may bring grief for many years to come. It also shows how distance in time from one's actions doesn't necessarily assuage guilt, it may compound it with heightened empathy for those wronged. It is a gripping story and a definite must-read.

Probably the best book I've ever read. .......2007-09-19

And I read a LOT of books.

At turns I found myself audibly gasping, laughing, and crying.

This is an amazing read full of deeply realized characters whose internal dialogue captures what it is to be a human being.

Yep. I've just decided: "Atonement" is definately the best book I've ever read.

Average customer rating:

The Handmaid's Tale, a Unique Book
Disturbing but a great read
captivating, didn't care for or feel satisfied by the ending...
A Future All To Close...
Liked it.

The Handmaid's Tale: A Novel
Margaret Atwood
Manufacturer: Anchor
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 038549081X
Release Date: 1998-03-16

Book Description

In the world of the near future, who will control women's bodies?

Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets whose signs are now pictures instead of words because women are no longer allowed to read. She must lie on her back once a month and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, because in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are only valued if their ovaries are viable.

Offred can remember the days before, when she lived and made love with her husband Luke; when she played with and protected her daughter; when she had a job, money of her own, and access to knowledge. But all of that is gone now....

Funny, unexpected, horrifying, and altogether convincing, The Handmaid's Tale is at once scathing satire, dire warning, and tour de force.

Customer Reviews:

The Handmaid's Tale, a Unique Book.......2007-10-08

The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood, is a unique book. Even though it was written over thirty years ago, the politics come through to me as very similar to some of the world's current governments. It is a hugely realistic fantasy book, one that has parts I can see coming true very soon. Margart Atwood's descriptions gave me a detailed picture of the hard, limited, and completely controlled world in which Offred lived in. The way she told her story made me think that she had so much spirit in her life before she became a handmaid, and to read the descriptions of her life made me think, "Oh yeah, I do that." Or, "I dress like that all the time." Things that we take for granted were things of the past in this book. The descriptions of places, however ordinary, were rich and detailed. I loved how towards the end of the book, the reader gets more of her story, and the whole thing gets involved and complicated, at least compared to Offred's life earlier in the book.
I would recommend this book to people who like almost disturbingly real novels, suspense, or science fiction. This would also be a good book for people who enjoyed The Giver, but The Handmaid's Tale is much more advanced, and is probably not suitable for people under 12.

Disturbing but a great read.......2007-09-23

Chilling and upsetting, this book shook me up but it was a great read. Very well-written, very powerful. I had to take a break from reading after finishing this. Loved it.

captivating, didn't care for or feel satisfied by the ending..........2007-09-22

heavy at times, but I love Atwoods books. I would recommend this book.
I did not care for the way the book ended, but I did learn a lot from it. It is eerie how close to the edge Atwood's stories go and yet as we peer into the future still believable. Atwoods dark imagination keeps me reading more and more of her books.
My favorite to date: The Blind Assassin
Least favorite to date: Cat's Eye or the Edible Woman

A Future All To Close..........2007-09-14

i may not be a graceful reviewer, but if you somehow stumble on this book the way i did...you will love it and want more. I love how strange this world was and how corrupt. Society and life has been altered...You feel like its the past only to discover that was our country in the future...
LIKE CHILDREN OF MEN!

Liked it........2007-09-05

But I didn't love it. The ending drove me nuts (but I won't blurt it out, for those who aren't there yet). Overall, it was well written, if a little trite.

Average customer rating:

I'd Rather Have a Root Canal
Yes, Zadie Smith IS that good!
Simply Superb
Great
90% Brilliant...

White Teeth: A Novel
Zadie Smith
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0375703861
Release Date: 2001-06-12

Amazon.com

Epic in scale and intimate in approach, White Teeth is a formidably ambitious debut. First novelist Zadie Smith takes on race, sex, class, history, and the minefield of gender politics, and such is her wit and inventiveness that these weighty subjects seem effortlessly light. She also has an impressive geographical range, guiding the reader from Jamaica to Turkey to Bangladesh and back again.

Still, the book's home base is a scrubby North London borough, where we encounter Smith's unlikely heroes: prevaricating Archie Jones and intemperate Samad Iqbal, who served together in the so-called Buggered Battalion during World War II. In the ensuing decades, both have gone forth and multiplied: Archie marries beautiful, bucktoothed Clara--who's on the run from her Jehovah's Witness mother--and fathers a daughter. Samad marries stroppy Alsana, who gives birth to twin sons. Here is multiculturalism in its most elemental form: "Children with first and last names on a direct collision course. Names that secrete within them mass exodus, cramped boats and planes, cold arrivals, medical checks."

Big questions demand boldly drawn characters. Zadie Smith's aren't heroic, just real: warm, funny, misguided, and entirely familiar. Reading their conversations is like eavesdropping. Even a simple exchange between Alsana and Clara about their pregnancies has a comical ring of truth: "A woman has to have the private things--a husband needn't be involved in body business, in a lady's... parts." And the men, of course, have their own involvement in bodily functions:

The deal was this: on January 1, 1980, like a New Year dieter who gives up cheese on the condition that he can have chocolate, Samad gave up masturbation so that he might drink. It was a deal, a business proposition, that he had made with God: Samad being the party of the first part, God being the sleeping partner. And since that day Samad had enjoyed relative spiritual peace and many a frothy Guinness with Archibald Jones; he had even developed the habit of taking his last gulp looking up at the sky like a Christian, thinking: I'm basically a good man.

Not all of White Teeth is so amusingly carnal. The mixed blessings of assimilation, for example, are an ongoing torture for Samad as he watches his sons grow up. "They have both lost their way," he grumbles. "Strayed so far from what I had intended for them. No doubt they will both marry white women called Sheila and put me in an early grave." These classic immigrant fears--of dilution and disappearance--are no laughing matter. But in the end, they're exactly what gives White Teeth its lasting power and undeniable bite. --Eithne Farry

Book Description

Zadie Smith’s dazzling debut caught critics grasping for comparisons and deciding on everyone from Charles Dickens to Salman Rushdie to John Irving and Martin Amis. But the truth is that Zadie Smith’s voice is remarkably, fluently, and altogether wonderfully her own.

At the center of this invigorating novel are two unlikely friends, Archie Jones and Samad Iqbal. Hapless veterans of World War II, Archie and Samad and their families become agents of England’s irrevocable transformation. A second marriage to Clara Bowden, a beautiful, albeit tooth-challenged, Jamaican half his age, quite literally gives Archie a second lease on life, and produces Irie, a knowing child whose personality doesn’t quite match her name (Jamaican for “no problem”). Samad’s late-in-life arranged marriage (he had to wait for his bride to be born), produces twin sons whose separate paths confound Iqbal’s every effort to direct them, and a renewed, if selective, submission to his Islamic faith. Set against London’s racial and cultural tapestry, venturing across the former empire and into the past as it barrels toward the future, White Teeth revels in the ecstatic hodgepodge of modern life, flirting with disaster, confounding expectations, and embracing the comedy of daily existence.

Download Description

Zadie Smith's dazzling debut caught critics grasping for comparisons and deciding on everyone from Charles Dickens to Salman Rushdie to John Irving and Martin Amis. But the truth is that Zadie Smith's voice is remarkably, fluently, and altogether wonderfully her own.

At the center of this invigorating novel are two unlikely friends, Archie Jones and Samad Iqbal. Hapless veterans of World War II, Archie and Samad and their families become agents of England's irrevocable transformation. A second marriage to Clara Bowden, a beautiful, albeit tooth-challenged, Jamaican half his age, quite literally gives Archie a second lease on life, and produces Irie, a knowing child whose personality doesn't quite match her name (Jamaican for "no problem"). Samad's late-in-life arranged marriage (he had to wait for his bride to be born), produces twin sons whose separate paths confound Iqbal's every effort to direct them, and a renewed, if selective, submission to his Islamic faith.

Set against London's racial and cultural tapestry, venturing across the former empire and into the past as it barrels toward the future, White Teeth revels in the ecstatic hodgepodge of modern life, flirting with disaster, confounding expectations, and embracing the comedy of daily existence.

Customer Reviews:

I'd Rather Have a Root Canal.......2007-09-26

I think I might have liked this book a lot more if I hadn't listened to this audiobook version. 22 hours of stereotyped Indian and Jamaican accents was enough to drive me up the wall. I'll have to wait a while and read the actual book without the distraction of grinding my teeth at the bad accents.

In the meantime, someone in a writer's group suggested this book should get the Nobel Prize--I wouldn't go nearly that far. I know what I'm supposed to say about how it's a wonderful portrait of the immigrant's dilemma of assimilation versus maintaining tradition and the second generation immigrant's confusion about his/her roots. And how it illustrates modernity versus antiquity with the whole FutureMouse debacle. And I should say how relevant the conflict between Muslims like Samad and Millat and Christians/atheists is in the post-9/11 world. Finally, I'm supposed to say how magnificent it is that the author wrote this magnificent book at the tender age of 23.

Having mentioned all that, I still didn't like this book--and not solely because of the problem I mentioned at the beginning. I think what was missing here was that most basic, primal need: to actually LIKE someone in this book. Simply put, I wouldn't want to know any of the characters in this book. Samad, Alsana, and Millat are loud, pushy, and often obnoxious while Maggad is stuffy and dull. Archie and Iree are timid and weak, with Iree being especially whiny to boot. Clara is practically nonexistent after the first couple chapters. As a reader, was there one person I could latch onto and root for? Not a one.

That was the most grievous problem, but not the only one. The constant authorial intrusions into the narrative became quite irritating, interrupting the flow of scenes with snide comments and sidebar discussions. The lengthy histories of just about every minor character and organization also became tedious, also making for too many characters, none of whom I could care less about. Then of course one of those minor characters makes a sudden reappearance at the end, which really didn't make much sense and seemed like a clumsy attempt at unleashing a surprise plot twist. I was also confused at the rather abrupt way in which Iree rapes one of Samad's sons. Again, this is probably another clumsy attempt at a plot twist. It certainly made me lose whatever sympathy I had left for Iree.

For the obligatory plot summary, this is the story of two families. Samad is a Bengali who immigrated to London and eventually was arranged to be married to the much-younger Alsana, who gave birth to twin boys. Samad is torn between his Muslim beliefs and the temptations of the non-Muslim world, especially a music teacher. This transgression leads to guilt that he partially alleviates by sending one of his boys back to Bangladesh, while keeping the other at home. One boy turns out to be a secular atheist and the other a fundamentalist Muslim who joins a group known as KEVIN, sort of a poor man's Nation of Islam, not to be confused with terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda. Meanwhile, Archie Jones was left by his wife and determined to kill himself until Fate intervenes and he winds up at a New Year's Eve party where he meets the young Jamaican woman named Clara, whom he marries and they have a chubby daughter named Iree, who loves one of Samad's boys but feels ashamed by her weight and half-Jamaican heritage. Eventually a third family is drawn into this with the father of that family genetically engineering a mouse called the FutureMouse that is opposed by Samad and one of his sons and supported by the other. And that leads to a final epic showdown of sorts settled by the aforementioned secondary character appearing out of left field to wreak havoc.

So as should be obvious, I really didn't like this book. Maybe if I read it again I'll feel differently--that's happened before. In the meantime, I'd recommend another stunning book by a 23-year-old woman: "The Heart is A Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers. Also, if you want a better book on Muslims around the Indian subcontinent I'd recommend "Midnight's Children" by Salman Rushdie.

That is all.

Yes, Zadie Smith IS that good!.......2007-09-24

I loved this book so much, I wanted to beg all my friends to read it so I would have someone to discuss it with!

Zadie Smith is a superb talent.

Simply Superb.......2007-08-26

"White Teeth" came highly recommended by a trusted reader and I've finally gotten around to reading it. The story revolves around three families, three cultures, three religions (Chalfenism among them) and three histories. Is it good things or bad things that come in threes? Set in London yet rooted in Jamaica and Bangladesh, "White Teeth" is a convergence of class, history, and culture. The Jones' are an interracial English/Jamaican couple brought together by their individual need to flee. Archibal fleeing the chaos of a marriage seized by mental illness; Clara escaping the grip of the Jehovah Witness religion that threatens to permeate all aspects of her life. The Iqbals' are an arranged marriage, brought together by cultural and religious history. Samad conflicted by a history he fears will be erased by the present; Alsana, strong and willful, yet unable to absorb aspects of western culture that are foreign to her religious beliefs. The Chalfens are an agnostic English couple brought together by the desire to further a tradition of intellectual and liberal empire. Marcus, a scientist from a long line of intellectuals, is engaged in research that could alter the genetic makeup of humanity in ways that could eliminate the randomness of genetic mishaps and malfunctions (the very randomness that is seen by some as the will of God); Joyce a horticulturalist and essayist with an overbearing need to nurture and cultivate everything and everyone around her.

Although the interactions of the parental units creatively and humorously explore the historical affects of colonization on the colonized and the colonizer, it is the lives of the next generation of Iqbals, Jones and Chalfens that allow the author to explore issues of cultural, religious and class differences between the western and eastern hemisphere. Irie, the biracial daughter of the Jones', is burdened not only with the trials of adolescence within the pop culture of a modernized England but also with the history of colonized Jamaica and the salvation sought by her grandmother through the doctrine of the Jehovah Witness faith. Millat and Magid, the Cain and Able offspring of the Iqbals' are challenged with questions of identify in the face of an Islamic tradition that seems at constant odds with the more liberal communities within which they live. Joshua, the Chalfens' progeny is also trying to navigate the choppy waters of puberty as he realizes that the lineage he's inherited may be at stark contrast to the person he's becoming.

"White Teeth" is a spectacular debut novel. Smith has unleashed a level of creativity typically found in seasoned writers. She has created memorable, lively characters each with a unique voice that highlights the diversity of London while simultaneously calling attention to the commonality of experience inherent in the legacy of oppression. I particularly enjoyed the cleaver way in which Smith uses teeth as a metaphor throughout the novel. For certainly history is deeply rooted in who we are as individuals, a people, a nation. While there are times when we must extract ourselves from our history to forge a path that allows us to live up to our full potential, our history will always be the pulp at the center of who we are and invariably impacts our future. This is great text for group discussion. Highly Recommended!

Great.......2007-08-23

Paid for expedited service & I received that & more. Would definitely recommend for purchases. Fast & efficient service.

90% Brilliant... .......2007-07-24

Zadie Smith is very, very funny and extremely imaginative. This book has many moments of genius. Most seasoned writers do not have a quarter of her talent.

The terrific characters are laced with sorrow, irony and pettiness. She creates worlds within worlds and shattered dreams within dreams. Almost perfect, and then the last 50 pages or so go off track. I suspect the author was just plain exhausted and couldn't fathom how to tie everything together. Why couldn't an editor tell her to go back and fix it? Such joy and then such sorrow.

Average customer rating:

Good writing. Unbelievable insight.
It was OK
Loved It!!
Courtesy of Teens Read Too
a little too dark

The Nanny Diaries: A Novel
Emma Mclaughlin , and Nicola Kraus
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0312291639
Release Date: 2003-03-18

Amazon.com

The Nanny Diaries is an absolutely addictive peek into the utterly weird world of child rearing in the upper reaches of Manhattan's social strata. Cowritten by two former nannies, Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, the novel follows the adventures of the aptly named Nan as she negotiates the Byzantine byways of working for Mrs. X, a Park Avenue mommy. Nan's 4-year-old charge, the hilariously named Grayer (his pals include Josephina, Christabelle, Brandford, and Darwin) is a genuinely good sort. He can't help it if his mom has scheduled him for every activity known to the Upper East Side, including ice skating, French lessons, and a Mommy and Me group largely attended by nannies. What makes the book so impossible to put down is the suspense of finding out what the unbelievably inconsiderate Mrs. X will demand of Nan next. One pictures the two authors having the last hearty laugh on their former employers. --Claire Dederer

Book Description

The Nanny Diaries has become an international phenomenon. Reviewed, featured, mentioned, or dissected in every major newspaper, magazine, and on every national and local television show, The Nanny Diaries has struck a chord with readers everywhere. With more than 650,000 copies currently in print and atop bestseller lists nationwide, Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus' biting satire of the glamorous life on Manhattan's Upper East Side offers both an insider's view and a great read. 'Addicting,'* 'delicious,'** and 'diabolically funny'***, The Nanny Diaries is sure to be the must-read paperback of 2003. Struggling to graduate from New York University and afford her microscopic studio apartment, Nanny takes a job caring for the only son of the wealthy X family. She rapidly learns the insane amount of juggling involved in ensuring that a Park Avenue wife who doesn't work, cook, clean, or raise her own child has a smooth day. A poignant satire, The Nanny Diaries punctures the glamour of Manhattan's upper class to reveal the truth behind the Park Avenue veneer.

Customer Reviews:

Good writing. Unbelievable insight........2007-10-07

Wow. This book touched me because I know it's based on reality. The two authors experienced the surreal world of rich, non-feeling mothers serving as the inspiration for the book.

*spoilers to follow*

I was floored when Mrs. X became pregnant again. Completely self-centered and trying to hang on to the last thread of her marriage to her obviously cheating husband.

How she couldn't stand to be alone with her son.

How she couldn't even begin to understand the bond her young son had with Nanny. And it was more important to punish her for not respecting her authority than the devastating impact it might have on her child. (How dare her want to attend her own college graduation??)

The best laugh out loud moment for me was when Nanny was completely trapped in Nantucket for over a week I believe ... and took advantage of Mrs. X's "post-coital glow" and actually asked permission to leave early. I think it was the only time in the book Mr. X paid any attention to Mrs. X so of course, the answer was "yes." Too much.

I thank the authors for the insight into this interesting / sad world.

As a deep-feeling, very involved mother, I'm floored that there are mothers out there like Mrs. X. You can have your Park Ave. apartments and unlimited bank accounts and french "lavender water." I'll keep my coupons, Walmart and beautiful babies' hugs and kisses. :) :) :)

It was OK.......2007-10-03

Wasn't thrilled with the book. I had heard wonderful things - people raving about this book & with the movie coming out, I couldn't wait to read it. But it wasn't as great as I had antisipated, nor as great as people had let me to believe. It was OK - took me a while to get into it. Then I thought it kind of ended abrubtly. But it was OK. Amusing at times to see what Nan had to put up with, but not alot in it to keep me coming back for me. It actually took me a while to finish.

Loved It!!.......2007-10-01

I absolutely loved this book! I couldn't put it down! It's a must read for anyone who works with children and enjoys it like I do!

Courtesy of Teens Read Too.......2007-09-27

Nanny is going to NYU to get her degree in child care, but first she must deal with the X's.

The X's are a typical rich New York family: Dad is a workaholic; Mom doesn't have a job but is too busy shopping and running her social life to raise her child; Grayer (nicknamed Grover/Grov) is the four-year-old who wants nothing more than his parents' attention.

Nanny becomes very attached to Grayer, who is absolutely adorable and really likes Nanny because she is the one raising him. Nanny and Grayer go on many adventures together and Nanny must deal with the crazy Mrs. X, who doesn't come home when she says she will, doesn't pay within a normal time frame, and is just downright mean to Nanny -- and to her own child.

This is a great story of love and affection, and also the lack of it. I really liked reading this book because Nanny has a life outside of her job, like falling in love with H.H.-Harvard Hottie. Nanny and Grayer are realistic and the parents are the crazy people in the book, which makes this a great view for teens.

I had a lot of fun reading THE NANNY DIARIES, and will recommend it to all of my friends who have ever babysat for crazy parents!

Reviewed by: Taylor Rector

a little too dark .......2007-09-27

I read this book expecting to get a good laugh, but instead found a very dark tale about a girl who discovers the struggles of being a nanny for New York high society. While the novel is very well written and quickly grabs one's interest, I didn't find the book at all funny. If you're looking for an amusing story, you're not going to find it here.

Average customer rating:

Shimmering novel of war and discontent.
One of our best young writers
This book and all the publicity around it is a SHAM
A lovely metal odysse, but ultimately, a little disappointing
Breathtaking

The Piano Tuner: A Novel
Daniel Mason
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1400030382
Release Date: 2003-08-19

Amazon.com

Daniel Mason's debut novel, The Piano Tuner, is the mesmerizing story of Edgar Drake, commissioned by the British War Office in 1886 to travel to hostile Burma to repair a rare Erard grand piano vital to the Crown's strategic interests. Eccentric Surgeon-Major Anthony Carroll has brokered peace with local warlords primarily through music, a free medical clinic, and the "powers" of common scientific instruments, much to the dismay of warmongering officers suspect of such unorthodox methods. Drake is an introspective, well-mannered soul who, once there, falls in love with Burma and stays long past the piano-fixing to aid Carroll's political agenda. Drake's arduous journey to reach the outpost, however, takes far too long (nearly half the book) and the plotting is rather heavy-handed at times (one night, Drake learns of a mysterious "Man with One Story" who rarely speaks, and the very next morning the Man tells all to Drake). The story is ambitious, the language florid and sure to please, but the dialogue and melodrama are sometimes tedious. While out on the town with Carroll's love interest, Khin Myo (who enchants Drake), Mason offers the townspersons' view of Drake:

It is only natural that a guest be treated with hospitality, the quiet man who has come to mend the singing elephant is shy, and walks with the posture of one who is unsure of the world, we too would keep him company to make him feel welcome, but we do not speak English.... They say he is one of the kind of men who has dreams, but tells no one.

Drake's complexity is thin; perhaps the beauty of Burma takes over any real need for introspection. Despite these quibbles, The Piano Tuner is a memorable achievement. --Michael Ferch

Book Description

In 1886 a shy, middle-aged piano tuner named Edgar Drake receives an unusual commission from the British War Office: to travel to the remote jungles of northeast Burma and there repair a rare piano belonging to an eccentric army surgeon who has proven mysteriously indispensable to the imperial design. From this irresistible beginning, The Piano Tuner launches its protagonist into a world of seductive loveliness and nightmarish intrigue. And as he follows Drake’s journey, Mason dazzles readers with his erudition, moves them with his vibrantly rendered characters, and enmeshes them in the unbreakable spell of his storytelling.

Customer Reviews:

Shimmering novel of war and discontent........2007-10-10

Another book I've thoroughly enjoyed, eschewing other books and opportunities to read it in only two days.

Edgar Drake, a British piano tuner, is commissioned by the War Office to travel into the heart of India's jungle in order to repair an eclectic Surgeon's piano.

_
That was my original review of this novel. It doesn't even begin to cover what I want to say, so I'm expounding on my original thoughts.

True, Edgar Drake is a thin man commissioned by the London military for service in the heart of India. He chooses to leave his wife for the duration of one year in order to make a fair sum of money doing what he does best, repairing and tuning an Erard piano, in which he specializes.

The brilliance and nuances of Daniel Mason's book come through in each passage. He describles the cultures in India, the towns, the way the British react to the Indian people and vice versa. I can't even tell you how simply and movingly he captures the inner workings of the main characters, their thoughts and longings, their cunning and secrets. So many levels wrap themselves around you as you read this novel. You are in a different world as you move through it and as it moves through you. You will be changed at the end. If you aren't, I wonder who you were that cannot be touched by this story.

Personally, I was most moved by Drake's description of how he tuned the Erard. You'll forgive the pun, I hope, but it did strike a chord in me that relates to my own life and directions and choices.

However, it is not an easy story to read. You want to discover a clear hero and there is none. You want an obvious villian. Again, not going to find it. It is a complex story, rich with life and history of another country.

Do read it. And then share it with as many people as you can find.

One of our best young writers.......2007-07-19

I loved Daniel Mason's A FAR COUNTRY, and due to several recommendations from Amazon reviewers I thought I'd try THE PIANO TUNER, his first novel.

I was most impressed with the author's curiosity as a person and his intelligence. He spent a year studying malaria on the Thai-Myanmar border while at the same time working on this book. Mason imbues Edgar Drake, the protagonist, with much of what he learned. For instance, the native Shan people believed in divinations: "omens from the sky, the omens of flying birds, the omens of feeding fowl, and the movements of four-footed beasts . . . . one must look for augury in the eggs of hens, in the swarming of bees, and not only if but also where a lizard, rat, or spider drops on one's body."

When Drake arrives in Mandalay he is exposed to Burmese street theater known as "pwe." He is especially impressed by "yokthe pwe," or puppet theater. Some of the "pwes" tell stories of the Buddha's lives, one of which has Nemi, one of the Buddha's incarnations, visit heaven and hell.

The main story involves Drake's commission to tune Surgeon-Major Anthony Carroll's Erard grand piano. Carroll is integral in British negotiations with the Shan peoples. Carroll is a complex man who uses music in his efforts to placate the Shan. Drake falls in love with the place and finds himself reluctant to leave. There is also a romance of sorts with Carroll's female assistant.

Once again Mason shows his impressive craftsmanship, working piano tuning into the narrative. Drake is very attuned to his senses. He hears music in everything, including swarms of mosquitoes. Mason also uses an actual historical incident when the British were trying to subjugate the Burmese people. The Limbin Confederacy of Burmese princes fought back, as did brigand Twet Nga Lu. As you will see in the denouement, it's not clear on whose side Surgeon-Major Carroll really was.

I cannot recommend Daniel Mason highly enough. The man is one of our most skilled young writers. Here he describes the music in the laughter of children playing in the water: "I feel both a tremendous sadness and a joy, a wanting, a welling from within me, something
ecstatic . . . .it rises in my chest like water from a well, and I swallow and my eyes brim with tears as if I will overflow."

I don't think I've ever read a writer with so much profound respect for other cultures.

This book and all the publicity around it is a SHAM.......2007-05-24

I just finished THE PIANO TUNER and honestly, I wish I could have that time back. Oh that I had spent it with a book worthy of reading! I kept plugging away because of all the good publicity around it, but really, this book is a cheap copy of HEART OF DARKNESS with thin cardboard characters, a love story that doesn't work, and a premise ripped off from a famous book that pretty much everyone who would read this book has already read. Don't waste your time with this sham of a novel.

A lovely metal odysse, but ultimately, a little disappointing.......2007-02-07

I agree with other reviewers that the book paints a wonderful visual/conceptual image of travel across India and SE Asia in the late 1800s. I found the situations somewhat, and delightfully mysterious - a military man in the jungles of Burma putting the British army over a barrel for the sake of his own musical indulgence, first by insisting on the delivery of a piano, and then the delivery of a man to fix and tune it.

The action kept my interest, and there was what seemed like a good bit of symbolism, but either much of the symbolism was lost on me, or it was never explained. For example, the curious question of the little temple at which the mysterious Khin Myo stops on route to the fort from Rangoon. Since the point was made in the book, I thought certainly that it would be explained or expanded on later in the story, but it never really was. The curious "man with one story" was the biggest mystery for me. I kept thinking that the one story would have a large bearing on the tale, and actually thought it did - allegorically representing the piano tuner's own later experience - until late in the book, when Doctor Carroll comments on the veracity of the story - throwing its meaning into greater obscurity for me.

The book is a very enjoyable armchair journey through time and across geography. I enjoyed the characters - the interplay between them and events surrounding them held my interest throughout the book, always driving me to the next page. But ultimately, I didn't find the book satisfying, because I felt like I just didn't understand so much of what really had happened (perhaps the same predicament of the piano tuner himself).

I suppose that a good book should leave meaning and interpretation to the reader. But like others, I found the ending a chaotic rush of new questions that were not subsequently fleshed out enough for me to come to my own conclusions about what happened to the piano tuner, or exactly what it meant.

Except that taking a chance, and embarking on an unplanned journey to the unknown might awaken passions that could change your life, and maybe even your understanding of the meaning of life.

In that respect, maybe I liked it a lot.

Breathtaking.......2007-02-02

This original and simple story is one of the most beautiful and engaging books I've ever read. Not only is the plot line different, the subject of British colonies in Burma is not one often touched upon. After reading the first chapter I was hooked simply by the strangeness of it.
It starts with a simple piano tuner from late 19th century London, Edgar Drake, who receives a strange commission to travel to the jungles of Burma to repair a priceless Erard piano. Through beautiful description, David Mason takes us on the boats and trains and has us meet strangers with their own compelling stories through the middle aged man, Edgar Drake. We are allowed a look into the British colonies in Burma and the lives of the natives. We meeet the eccentric and indespensible army surgeon, Anthony Carrol, who is the owner of the piano. The novel takes many twists and turns, though the story is quite simple. David Mason's description allowed me to perfectly picture the jungles and people of Burma in 1886. When I think now of the novel, I feel as if I watched a movie instead of reading a book because the images are so clear in my head.
The curious ending of the novel also leaves its mark in your mind as you continue to wonder, even months after completing the book, what actually happened to Mr. Edgar Drake the piano tuner.
One of my favorite books of all time, I recommend it to anyone and everyone. Especially to those who enjoy history, drama, moving stories, beautiful writing, and exceptional characters.

Average customer rating:

interesting history
Interesting take on the legend, but has some flaws
Not What I Was Looking For
Great writer
Riveting!

Pope Joan: A Novel
Donna Cross
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0345416260
Release Date: 1997-08-19

Amazon.com

One of the most controversial women of history is brought to brilliant life in Donn Woolfolk Cross's tale of Pope Joan, a girl whose origins should have kept her in squalid domesticity. Instead, through her intelligence, indomitability and courage, she ascended to the throne of Rome as Pope John Anglicus.

The time is 814, the place is Ingelheim, a Frankland village. It is the harshest winter in living memory when Joan is born to an English father and a Saxon mother. Her father is a canon, filled with holy zeal and capable of unconscionable cruelty. His piety does not extend to his family members, especially the females. His wife, Gudrun, is a young beauty to whom he was attracted beyond his will--and he hates her for showing him his weakness. Gudrun teaches Joan about her gods, and is repeatedly punished for it by the canon. Joan grows to young womanhood with the combined knowledge of the warlike Saxon gods and the teachings of the Church as her heritage. Both realities inform her life forever.

When her brother John, not a scholarly type, is sent away to school, Joan, who was supposed to be the one sent to school, runs away and joins him in Dorstadt, at Villaris, the home of Gerold, who is central to Joan's story. She falls in love with Gerold and their lives interesect repeatedly even through her Papacy. She is looked upon by all who know that she is a woman as a "lusus naturae," a freak of nature. "She was... male in intellect, female in body, she fit in nowhere; it was as if she belonged to a third amorphous sex." Cross makes the case over and over again that the status of women in the Dark Ages was little better than cattle. They were judged inferior in every way, and necessary evils in the bargain.

After John is killed in a Viking attack, Joan sees her opportunity to escape the fate of all her gender. She cuts her hair, dons her dead brother's clothes and goes into the world as a young boy. Gerold is away from Villaris at the time of the attack and comes home to find his home in ruins, his family killed and Joan among the missing. After the attack, Joan goes to a Benedictine monastery, is accepted as a young man of great learning, and eventually makes her way to Rome.

The author is at pains to tell the reader in an Epilogue that she has written the story as fiction because it is impossible to document Joan's accesion to the Papacy. The Catholic Church has done everything possible to deny this embarrassment. Whether or not one believes in Joan as Pope, this is a compelling story, filled with all kinds of lore: the brutishness of the Dark Ages, Vatican intrigue, politics and favoritism and most of all, the place of women in the Church and in the world. --Valerie Ryan

Book Description

"Engaging . . . Pope Joan has all the elements: love, sex, violence, duplicity, and long-buried secrets."
--Los Angeles Times Book Review

For a thousand years men have denied her existence--Pope Joan, the woman who disguised herself as a man and rose to rule Christianity for two years. Now this compelling novel animates the legend with a portrait of an unforgettable woman who struggles against restrictions her soul cannot accept.

When her older brother dies in a Viking attack, the brilliant young Joan assumes his identity and enters a Benedictine monastery where, as Brother John Anglicus, she distinguishes herself as a scholar and healer. Eventually drawn to Rome, she soon becomes enmeshed in a dangerous mix of powerful passion and explosive politics that threatens her life even as it elevates her to the highest throne in the Western world.

"Brings the savage ninth century vividly to life in all its alien richness. An enthralling, scholarly historical novel."
--Rebecca Fraser, Author of The Brontës

Customer Reviews:

interesting history.......2007-10-06

Interesting bit of history told in a compelling fashion. Although it took sometime to get into the book I enjoyed it once I finished. I would recommend for someone who likes historical fiction.

Interesting take on the legend, but has some flaws.......2007-10-05

I think I'm going to be another one in the minority here. I found the idea of a woman disguised as a man seated on the papal throne to be an interesting legend and the author did a decent job with it. I appreciated the research the author took on the period and customs of the times, which is not an easy task as so much is unknown about the dark ages.

The problem I had is the incredible coincidences throughout the book where Joan is just saved in the nick of time in true soap opera fashion (think Days of Our Lives -- no better yet the Perils of Pauline) from disaster upon disaster to chance upon chance of being discovered as a woman, to the near escape from the Viking raid and more ad infinitum. It never stopped until the very end, there were so many times where you just want to roll your eyes and say give me a break!

All in all a light pleasant read, but not one I'm apt to write home to friends and family about nor one I will want to pick up and read again. I'd recommend getting it from the library first, and then buy it if you love it. JMHO.

Not What I Was Looking For.......2007-09-26

If you're looking for a book about the real Pope Joan, this isn't it. Though fairly well written, this is a novel and it reads like a standard romance novel. Lots of rules being bent or broken to accommodate the characters and plenty of drama.

The author clearly did a great deal of research on life in the middle ages and incorporated as much reality as possible into the story, but if you're looking for information on the real Pope Joan or how a woman could have become Pope in that era, this won't be what you're looking for.

Great writer.......2007-09-12

The author writes a very believable story. Her description of the times and the impact on women at that time is extraordinary. An excellent read.

Riveting! .......2007-08-31

I just finished this book and cant wait to pass it on. It is definitely one of my top 10. If you liked "Girl w/a Pearl Earring", "Birth of Venus", you will love this story. It is beautifully written, I couldnt put it down. Pope Joan has a strength and wisdom to be admired. This is a story of oppression, a heartbreaking love affair and another scandal in the catholic church. I will be the first in line when the movie comes out!!!

Average customer rating:

Racist
Totally disappointing. Barely indepth about the camps at all.
Fantastic!
Seems to be a lot like another book- to much so
sansei1

When the Emperor Was Divine
Julie Otsuka
Manufacturer: Anchor
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0385721811
Release Date: 2003-10-14

Amazon.com

A precise, understated gem of a first novel, Julie Otsuka's When the Emperor Was Divine tells one Japanese American family's story of internment in a Utah enemy alien camp during World War II. We never learn the names of the young boy and girl who were forced to leave their Berkeley home in 1942 and spend over three years in a dusty, barren desert camp with their mother. Occasional, heavily censored letters arrive from their father, who had been taken from their house in his slippers by the FBI one night and was being held in New Mexico, his fate uncertain. But even after the war, when they have been reunited and are putting their stripped, vandalized house back together, the family can never regain its pre-war happiness. Broken by circumstance and prejudice, they will continue to pay, in large and small ways, for the shape of their eyes. When the Emperor Was Divine is written in deceptively tranquil prose, a distillation of injustice, anger, and poetry; a notable debut. --Regina Marler

Book Description

Julie Otsuka’s commanding debut novel paints a portrait of the Japanese internment camps unlike any we have ever seen. With crystalline intensity and precision, Otsuka uses a single family to evoke the deracination—both physical and emotional—of a generation of Japanese Americans. In five chapters, each flawlessly executed from a different point of view—the mother receiving the order to evacuate; the daughter on the long train ride to the camp; the son in the desert encampment; the family’s return to their home; and the bitter release of the father after more than four years in captivity—she has created a small tour de force, a novel of unrelenting economy and suppressed emotion. Spare, intimate, arrestingly understated, When the Emperor Was Divine is a haunting evocation of a family in wartime and an unmistakably resonant lesson for our times. It heralds the arrival of a singularly gifted new novelist.

From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews:

Racist.......2007-10-05

This book can be insulting. For example, the author talks about the Chinese like they are animals, and talks about how poor the Chinese are. This book is SOOO boring. The author stretches out information that was not needed to make the book longer, and that just made this book so useless. There is no point in reading this book.

Totally disappointing. Barely indepth about the camps at all........2007-07-18

I have a deep interest in WWII internment camps, have visited one on a pilgrimage and also visited a Japantown museum. Although a work of fiction, I was very interested in reading this to gain another perspective. Especially as the author is Japanese American, it could be a truly credible story. However, this book was a total disappointment.

I noticed a deliberate lack of details. For example, I've seen pictures of many evacuees gathered near the trains, preparing to depart for their unknown destination and unknown future. Standing next to their 1 suitcase of belongings and whatever else they could carry with them. They had to sell/leave behind their lives, jobs, business, homes, belongings, friends, school, etc. Racism, injustice, sadness, confusion, anger, anxiety... I can only imagine such overwhelming emotions.

This dramatic scene sets the stage for the beginning of the camps but is written in JUST 2 sentences. Basically: the girl & mother woke up, went to the meeting area, put on their ID #'s, grabbed their suitcase, boarded the bus to go. The train moved slowly. Where are the details and emotions??? Where are the thousands of other people? It sounded as if the family was by themselves and they were magically transported to the moving train.

A search of the author reveals her deliberate lack of details is to "universalize" the "ethnic" experience. Why??? Would you universalize the experience of Jewish concentration camps or Muslims in post 9/11? By doing so, you mislead the readers about actual events and downplay the harsh reality of their inhumane experiences. That's really offending to those who were interned. Almost as bad Michelle Malkin denying the camps ever happened.

I was appalled when she described the boy's first impression of camp life, p49. "For it was true, they all looked alike. Black hair. Slanted eyes. High cheekbones. Thick glasses. Thin lips...The little yellow man." Even if this is a fiction book from a boy's point of view in the 1940's, I would never expect a JA to write like that, about her own ethnicity even. Nothing could be further from the truth. Would you say that a room full of blonde-haired, blue-eyed, big-nosed, bushy-browed, pale-skinned Caucasians all look the same? Sadly, she only emphasizes false stereotypes.

Ironically, she wastes WAY too much efforts describing details of non-important things. E.g. p41, she spends nearly a whole page detailing how the boy and girl draw a picture of the father.

Curiously, the back of the book credits only 5 books. An interview mentioned she read oral history collections & secondary source books. How about interviewing living internees? How about visiting actual camp ruins? How about visiting the last 3 Japantowns in the U.S., which have museums and tons of JA camp resources? Oh wait, she doesn't need to do any indepth pointless research because she omits all details anyways.

I felt as if this book only made it very apparent about her lack of knowledge about the camps and her own ethnic Japanese background.

I really don't understand her purpose in writing this book. She would have been MUCH better off writing a book about a minority family in the 1950's and which has nothing to do with WWII JA camps. Why write this kind of historical novel, just to leave out all the important details? Do not read this book if you are expecting any understanding of the camps.

Fantastic!.......2007-05-09

I really enjoyed this book. She writes the book in 3rd person and it really adds to the sense of invisibility of the family. The book is reflective in nature in that we are told what happens and how it feels to the characters as opposed to experiencing them as they happen. I found this book very thought provoking and timely.

Seems to be a lot like another book- to much so.......2007-03-18

As an elementary school teacher I read a book entitled, "Journey to Topaz". It was a fabulous book. As I began to read "The Emperor was Divine" I got the strange feeling I'd read it before. I am almost certain the author of "The Emperor was Divine" has too. There are way to many similiarities. I suppose it is entirely possible that they lived an almost identical life as it's a big world. Based on copywrite "Journey to Topaz" was written first. I enjoyed it more-perhaps because the characters were far better developed and the storyline was original. It makes me wonder?

sansei1.......2006-09-18

I had mixed feelings about this book before I read it. The title is NOT how most JA immigrants felt about the emperor of Japan. There was generally no love lost. Most, like my grandparents, left because of poverty, conscription, alienation, and to look for better oportunites in America, lika a lot of other immigrants. While reading the book, I give her kudos for her ability to describe events visually well. BUT...there are many problems with this book. There is this sterility in the manner in which she describes events.She can manage to paint a visually stunning picture with her words but there is no substance. Her characters seem as if she studied them from a textbook. A Nisei (second generation) young girl would NEVER talk in the manner in which she writes, to an elder!!! Its almost like she had Dakota Fanning in mind for this character. And the father character, an Issei (first generation)....Issei's used to swallow their pain. The Issei are known for their stoic strength and "gaman", quiet strength amidst adversity. I felt isulted by his mental confession in the book. I went to see the author at a local library and she did confess she NEVER interviewed ANY living internees. My god...they are dying off and she doesn't interview them? She said she wanted a more "pure" viewpoint. She said she did study books for her historical references. Indeed, there are some references in the book which I'm not quite sure if it is plagiarism, like in the description of the flies bothering her characters and then when they put up screens, it gets better. See Mine Okubo's book Citizen 13660, which Otsuka does reference. That scene is in there. I can see where the sterility feeling I got came from---if she only studied books and didn't get a feel for the emotional aspect that is buried in a lot of interness...she only did her homework half-baked.There are SO many heartbreaking stories that are dying and being buried with the internees. She confessed she didn't really listen when her parents and grandparents talked about it and they would shut up when she'd come around. But she said she didn't really ask them either, only marginally later. What IS her interest here? A book bestseller to be touted among the Asian community? I didn't really get from her interviewed she cared deeply for what happened, it was just a good base for her story. My parents told me everything and I am grateful. I am insulted by this book. It is like looking at a painting of a pretty scene but the artist who created didn't really care about anything but rendering a pretty scene. I was fairly disgusted by the time I left the interview from the library.
She's a grad of Columbia? She needs to study more. This is a great book if you think Snow Falling on Cedars is wonderful.

The Bell Jar: A Novel (Perennial Classics)

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Twisting and Turning
Very Impressive
Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
It's her
The Ultimare Depressed Girl Classic

The Bell Jar: A Novel (Perennial Classics)
Sylvia Plath
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0060930187

Amazon.com

Plath was an excellent poet but is known to many for this largely autobiographical novel. The Bell Jar tells the story of a gifted young woman's mental breakdown beginning during a summer internship as a junior editor at a magazine in New York City in the early 1950s. The real Plath committed suicide in 1963 and left behind this scathingly sad, honest and perfectly-written book, which remains one of the best-told tales of a woman's descent into insanity.

Book Description

The Bell Jar chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful, but slowly going under--maybe for the last time. Sylvia Plath masterfully draws the reader into Esther's breakdown with such intensity that Esther's insanity becomes completely real and even rational, as probable and accessible an experiece as going to the movies. Such deep penetration into the dark and harrowing corners of the psyche is an extraordinary accomplishment and has made The Bell Jar a haunting American classic.

Download Description

This first-person narrative of a young woman with an existential mental problem struggling toward adulthood is often seen as Ms. Plath'sautobiography.

The Bell Jar is a delicate plunge into the mind of someone losing sanity.

Customer Reviews:

Twisting and Turning.......2007-10-06

I picked up The Bell Jar by chance, I was looking through Barnes and Noble, I saw it, and asked my mother what she thought of it.
"Oh it's about someone like you and your sisters, crazy."
Instantly I bought it (I picked the one with the fabulous cover of course!)
I read it in 1.5 hours.
It is a delicious read. You can really taste the words and the madness inside of the character. It amplifies madness and beauty. It sits on a place of honor, on my shelf of favorites.
Buy it and read it. The story will sweep you off your feet and drag you into the realms of madness.
Taste and see.

Very Impressive.......2007-10-04

Living with bipolar disorder myself, she captures some of the nuances of depression and describes them very well. The nonchalant approach to ending one's own life, like doing the laundry or cutting the grass comes across accurately. (from experience) The emotional struggles, most who have suffered with major depression will find something deeply connecting with this book. Read and comprehend this book the way it was meant to be, you will find another world that does exist in some of us.

I have found her writing so captivating, the descriptions, simple but effective. She saw a different world, as most of us do, but to write the way she does takes talent. This book led me to read her unabridged journals. An amazing, intelligent but damaged woman.

Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.......2007-10-03

Insanity is a weird thing - most people are `insane' to some degree or the other - while a minority succumb to the polarities of the disease and swing back and forth much like a pendulum.

Sylvia Plath fell into the latter category, and while the positive end of her spectrum meant that she created some shockingly good work, the negative end ensured that she would meet a tragic and self-inflicted end. Her suicide I think, remains the most mechanical, yet most poetic death of all the great writers, and it's a pity that shes often remembered as `that woman poet who stuck her head in an oven' when in fact she was well spoken, eloquent woman whose command over the English language was much vaster and encompassing than yours or mine.

"The Bell Jar", her only full length fictional prose work, is almost autobiographical in patches. The publishers make it clear that this is not Plaths' own story, but you cannot help but identify the lead character as Plath herself. The way I see it is this - Sylvia created a fictional character, but gave it her mind and thoughts, leading to one of the most fascinating fictional characters in modern prose. To me, this was the literary equivalent of a convergence of both David Lynch's masterpieces "Inland Empire" and "Mulholland Drive". The same "a woman in trouble, yet she doesn't know it yet" theme permeates the entire novel, and by the time it reaches its (somewhat obvious) conclusion, you're left wondering how Plath didn't invest more of her time in churning out full fledged prose novels.

Simply put, this novel chronicles the descent of a womans' mind, but its so much more than that. It speaks of mental disease with a frankness that the author probably didn't quite comprehend at the time. Maybe she did, but either way, I think what she was doing her was to capture the state of her own mind frame by frame until that fateful day in real life when she so notoriously took her own life. "The Bell Jar" has its moment of adolescent wandering and naivete, which I found quite endearing considering the age of the author when she wrote this. Perhaps she wasn't mature enough to deal with life as she grew older, or maybe she was too caught up in her own web of literary wonder to crawl out of it. I think all the great poets were afflicted to some degree with this disease, and Plath is no exception.

If you're interested in a semi-autobiographical (though the blurb won't admit it!) book by a great poet, this is the book for you. Its never boring, and is quite an easy read as Sylvia trades in her famous double entendre poetic metaphors for more easily accessible and simply written language. Short crisp sentences. Clear dialogue. And yet, the sentences get shorter, and thoughts get more fragmented as we plummet with the author into the very depths of insanity. An unforgettable, and somewhat scary experience - but as a book lover, one you should definitely experience.

Five Stars.

It's her.......2007-09-05

A review??? It's Sylvia Plath, need we say more...Master of work..Master of poem, totally the greatest...

The Ultimare Depressed Girl Classic.......2007-08-10

This is one of my all time fave books. It's in my collection, along with GO ASK ALICE, CUT, CONFESSIONS OF A CATHOLIC SCHOOLGIRL. Books about troubled girls are just so fascinating. Make me feel less screwed up, I guess.

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