A House Divided (Good Earth Trilogy, Vol 3)

Book Description

A House Divided, the third volume of the trilogy that began with The Good Earth and Sons, is a powerful portrayal of China in the midst of revolution. Wang Yuan is caught between the opposing ideas of different generations. After 6 years abroad, Yuan returns to China in the middle of a peasant uprising. His counsin is a captain in the revolutionary army, his sister has scandalized the family by her premarital pregnancy, and his warlord father continues to cling to his traditional ideals. It is through Yuan's efforts that a kind of peace is restored to the family.

Customer Reviews:

Least favorite of the trilogoy.......2006-06-18

The final book in the House of Earth trilogy was my least favorite and most disconnected of the three. She jumps into the third generation and third book with not a whole lot of background or character development (except for Yuan), so I cared the least about the characters, their situations and trials. The story was interesting, but I found that I could not relate as well to the characters or understand their plight. But I think she did a marvelous job at showing the differences between the generations and how exposure to new ideas, cultures and technology can quickly change the traditions of a culture; sometimes the change is good and beneficial, sometimes it's detrimental. I also like how she juxtiposed Yuan, who tries to hold on to his tradition and country and resists change, to other family members who embraced the change with all their hearts. I think that The Good Earth is a brillant read, but if you missed the next two in the trilogy it wouldn't be a tragedy.

Caught Between Two Worlds.......2005-05-28

A HOUSE DIVIDED is the final book of Pearl S. Buck's trilogy about the family of Wang Lung, the protagonist of THE GOOD EARTH. This book finds his grandson, Wang Yuan, son of the warlord Wang the Tiger, graduating from the war college at the beginning of the first Chinese Cultural Revolution. Yuan, a serious, thoughtful, but willful boy does not want to follow in his father's footsteps, but instead feels an affinity with the earth and growing things as his grandfather Wang Lung did.

Yuan defies his father and runs away to live in his grandfather's old mud farmhouse. This begins a chain of events which take Yuan across the world. He ends up in the coastal city where his half-sister and her mother live, as well as his uncle, Wang the Landlord, along with his spoiled family. Yuan gets exposed to, but never really embraces, the westernized party lifestyle of his half-sister and the revolutionary activities of his cousins Sheng and Meng.

After Yuan is arrested as a revolutionary, his family ransoms him and sends him to study in America, where he spends six years attaining an advanced degree in horticulture. Being a foreigner in a strange land causes Yuan to examine all his feelings, beliefs and prejudices. He is doubly introspective when he returns to China and sees his country anew through foreign eyes. Yuan is caught in a trap by his education, neither belonging wholly to either the old China or the new, his heart as divided as his family - half live in the modern coastal city and half live back in the country.

I thought this was the best of the trilogy because Yuan's introspection makes him the most well-developed and conflicted character in this multi-generational tale. However, Buck's plodding, biblical style is not for everyone and I will admit that every page seemed like as two or three (or more!) It took me several weeks to complete this novel.

a house divided.......2005-01-24

It looks like it has some really old stuff in it that's why i think that i will like it.

An insightful adventure..........2003-04-10

I would say that this book could certainly stand alone simply because there was so much happening in this turbulent setting of the revolution. In many ways "A House Divided" was my favorite of the "House of Earth" trilogy, (still, The Good Earth was beautiful!) because it was an adventure that spanned the globe. Yet there was no lack in telling how the main character evolved emotionally and intellectually from the first page to the last.

Many times throughout the book, Pearl Buck successfully showed how Yuan's world was filled with black and white; no grey. For example, a person was expected to be 100% revolutionary, or a 100% traditionalist. Or one had to be 100% Chinese, or 100% foreign. Yuan was a very conflicted man from the start and struggled with these issues pretty much until the end. To me that was the most intriguing part.

I was fascinated with Yuan's six-year stay in America. He experienced racism first-hand, the confusion of living in another country, trying to assimilate, seeing and appreciating the beauty of the country and the friendliness and openness of some of its people, the freedom to pursue one's happiness and potential, but clearly his own traditions and culture prevented him from fully accepting the foreigners into his heart.

I think the author gave some real insight into the minds of people living during the revolution. Many people, like Yuan's cousin, Meng, were fevently passionate about it. It was clear that it took a certain kind of person, with a linear, unwavering focus in order to hasten a violent change. In this case, that meant one had to be filled with anger and hatred.

Also through Yuan, we were exposed to the hypocrisy of the revolution as well. While the ideology spoke for the common people, the revolutionists were frustrated and repulsed by the common people's ways of life, such as they were for centuries. Eventually, many gave up on the older generation, and focused on the youth of the poor, because they were more easily influenced. Of course, it touched on the fact that no one was permitted to question this new state. Those who followed the cause were expected to accept it blindly.

In keeping with his torn mental state, Yuan's hesitation to decide where he stood in terms of the cause was understandable. His experience gave him first-hand knowledge of how frustrating it was to live under the old filial rules, yet he'd also witnessed the softer moments with his father, and others who represented the old world. He at least was mature enough to realize that people were deeply complicated, which made it impossible for him to truly believe that "rich people are evil, poor people are good." At the same time, as much as he loved the land, and found peace of mind working among the common people, he was at times, disgusted by their surroundings, their "odor" permeating his space no matter where he went.

Pearl Buck eloquently described the same black and white issues of the heart in Yuan. Time and time again, he wished to be emotionally open, yet didn't dare. Yuan was repulsed by the display of free behavior of the new generation of China and the young Americans. Again, his reaction to the American women who danced with his cousin Sheng was an interesting glimpse into his perception of himself. Although Yuan hated the white women who ignored or rejected Sheng because he was Chinese, he had no respect for the white women who did dance with Sheng. And he felt ashamed for Sheng for "lowering his standards" to such women.

Yes, perhaps the end was unrealistic, but as a hopeless romantic American, I can appreciate it. However, one can see the huge circle this book fills out with the trilogy. Yuan is ultimately the one who understands and respects his grandfather's efforts with the land, back in the first novel. Yuan is the one who finally repairs the ties to his father and ends the cycle of broken relationships. The trilogy ends as his father, the Tiger, spends his final days in the earthen house where he was born.

When I read certain books, I sometimes imagine what they would be like on film, and I think it would be fantastic to see it done with the entire "House of Earth" trilogy. But then again, is it even possible to make a film that would do this epic justice?

Relevant Today.......2001-09-01

This third book in The Good Earth series was somewhat a slower read the the previous two. However, the story was wonderful, and despite the ending, which some might find unrealistic, I enjoyed it. I was so pleased that Yuan found happiness, acceptance and love.

I found the themes of the book relevant today in that our culture, ideas, lifestyles, and the influence and relationships with our children, effect their lives and influence future choices.

Yaun was deeply loved by the Tiger, however, was not free to grow into an individual. This somewhat stunted Yuan emotionally, and he found himself in constant conflict over the ideas of his father and the new China. His time in America began to mature Yuan. It allowed him to return home to begin his journey into manhood and make choices about his future. However, although he now had choices, he was still duty bound to his family by a debt incurred by the Tiger.

Customer Reviews:

Great historical fiction.......2006-10-12

I love to read historical fiction so that I can be entertained while I learn. This book helped me accomplish just that! Although the writing didn't absolutely captivate me, I was able to put it down and forget to pick it up again until the next day, I did enjoy it. I think I felt this way because it is packed with so much historical information that the characters aren't as well developed as I like. Towards the end of the book though, the writting really picked up and I became hooked! As I read the last page of the book, I noticed that I might be at the end and found myself saying, "Please don't be over, please don't be over!" Unfortunately, when I turned the page, I found it was the end of the book. I immediately went online to order Volumn 2!

Excellent Historical Fiction.......2004-01-21

This book chronicles the lives of the Birmingham Family on the eve of the Civil War. The family is split with one brother and his family living in Boston and the other brother and his family living in South Carolina. The southern family has a son who is decidedly abolitionist and has been disowned by his parents.

This book is an easy read, but has many characters and subplots going at one time. The author includes actual historical figures in the book to help recreate the atmosphere in the United States during this difficult period. I recommend this book for anyone with an interest in American History with the caution to remember that this is still just fiction.

you've got to check this one out.......2002-01-31

This book was very well researched and written. I started reading it three days ago and could not put it down. After finishing it in 3 days I find myself very eager for Volume 2.
I strongly recomend this book to anyone with any remote interest in the civil war.

Divided Houses: Gender and the Civil War

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Gender Wartime Crisis in a Historical Perspective

Divided Houses: Gender and the Civil War

Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0195080343

Book Description

No American needs to be told that the Civil War brought the United States to a critical juncture in its history. The war changed forever the face of the nation, the nature of American politics, the status of African-Americans, and the daily lives of millions of people. Yet few of us understand how the war transformed gender roles and attitudes toward sexuality among American citizens. Divided Houses is the first book to address this sorely neglected topic, showing how the themes of gender, class, race, and sexuality interacted to forge the beginnings of a new society. In this unique volume, historians Catherine Clinton and Nina Silber bring together a wide spectrum of critical viewpoints--all written by eminent scholars--to show how gender became a prism through which the political tensions of antebellum America were filtered and focused. For example, Divided Houses demonstrates that the abolitionist movement was strongly allied with nineteenth-century feminism, and shows how the ensuing debates over sectionalism and, eventually, secession, were often couched in terms of gender. Northerners and Southerners alike frequently ridiculed each other as "effeminate": slaveowners were characterized by Yankees as idle and useless aristocrats, enfeebled by their "peculiar institution"; northerners were belittled as money-grubbers who lacked the masculine courage of their southern counterparts. Through the course of the book, many fascinating subjects are explored, such as the new "manly" responsibilities both black and white men had thrust upon them as soldiers; the effect of the war on Southern women's daily actions on the homefront; the essential part Northern women played as nurses and spies; the war's impact on marriage and divorce; women's roles in the guerilla fighting; even the wartime dialogue on interracial sex. There is also a rare look at how gender affected the experience of freedom for African-American children, a discussion of how Harriet Beecher Stowe attempted to distract both her readers and herself from the ravages of war through the writing of romantic fiction, and a consideration of the changing relations between black men and a white society which, during the war, at last forced to confront their manhood. In addition, an incisive introduction by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian James McPherson helps place these various subjects in an overall historical context. Nowhere else are such topics considered in a single, accessible volume. Divided Houses sheds new light on the entire Civil War experience--from its causes to its legacy--and shows how gender shaped both the actions and attitudes of those who participated in this watershed event in the history of America.

Customer Reviews:

Gender Wartime Crisis in a Historical Perspective.......2001-03-06

Divided Houses: Gender and the Civil War is a collection of essays pertaining to the crisis in gender relations that accompanied the Civil War in America. As a collection, the essays present a narrative that chronicles the various impacts on gender that affected men and women, the North and the South, as well as slaves and non-slaves. What emerges is a cohesive body of text that is informative, illuminating, and instructive. The themes most explored in this volume are those of empowerment through abolitionism. In The Civil War as a Crisis in Gender Relations by Leann Whites, the two groups most perceptive of the gender crisis were Northern feminists and black abolitionists. During the Civil War, the public status of motherhood increased. This leads to another theme that will later be explored in following essays, that of the State as family. In this first essay, Leann Whites argues that the Civil War created circumstances for gender equality, both diminishing white Southern male masculinity and increasing black manhood. Ideas of manhood during the Civil War are further investigated in Part II and in Reid Mitchell's Soldiering, Manhood, and Coming of Age: A Northern Volunteer. The journey from civilian to soldier was mirrored in the transition from boyhood to manhood, and the constitution of manhood evolved as a delicate balance of masculinity and manly restraint. During the Civil War, the body politic as well as the army assumed familial ties to facilitate solidarity. Despite the changes in notions of manhood, for the black male population the "empowerment" was not always beneficial. Jim Cullen's Gender and African-American Men details how conceptions of black manhood changed during the Civil War, with the mastery over one's own body leading to mastery in warfare. Despite being placed on some of the most dangerous fronts, black soldiers endured low pay and high disease in exchange for their mastery over their bodies. In Part III of Divided Houses: Gender and the Civil War, the themes move from issues of manhood to those relating to women. In Arranging a Doll's House: Refined Women as Union Nurses author Kristie Ross writes about female volunteers on hospital transports, and she draws from the familial theme by presenting the hospital transport as the rearrangement of a doll's house to appear domestic. Ross also reveals a sense of agency for women volunteers, claiming that many felt "...an eagerness to seize an occasion to escape the routine pattern of their lives and a familiarity with genteel standards of household organization." (101) Lyde Cullen Sizer's Acting Her Part: Narratives of Union Women Spies also deals with the issue of female agency during the Civil War, but Sizer further examines the repercussions women felt depending on whether they were white or black. For white women spies, their efforts were more dramatic than substantial, whereas for black abolitionists like Harriet Tubman the cause and consequences of being a spy were much more realistic. Sizer's essay is also an attempt to place female spy narratives in a literary context from which they have been excluded. Of all the essays in Divided Houses, none is more colorful and titillating than Michael Fellman's Women and Guerrilla Warfare. Through his dramatic prose, Fellman explores how peacetime morality was subverted through guerrilla warfare, with male guerrilla fighters attacking traditional values while physically attacking women. Fellman, doubtless, is presenting a form of psychological history by claiming "there was also an additional element here of bad boys acting out against a nagging, smothering mother." (151) For many Kansas guerrilla regiments during the Civil War, the "freeing" of slaves was an act of defiance rather than a moralistic pursuit. Guerrilla warfare finally reinforced the need for love, security, and family. The fourth part of Divided Houses closely examines dynamics on the Southern homefront. Peter Bardaglio's The Children of Jubilee: African-American Childhood in Wartime explains how prior to the Civil War, slave children were age-segregated but not gender-segregated. With freedom as a concept first emerging for many slaves during the Civil War, play activities among children became more gendered. Martha Hodes's Wartime Dialogues on Illicit Sex: White Women and Black Men further draws on the theme of black male power as a political issue emerging during the Civil War, which consequently led to sexuality itself becoming a political issue. With most yeoman farmers at war, the homefront became a location for "illicit" sex as well as the performative stage for class discord. The Southern states were not the only ones to feel the impact on gender relations that the Civil War created: Part V examines gender issues on the Northern homefront with Patricia R. Hill's Writing Out the War: Harriet Beecher Stowe's Averted Gaze. In Part VI, essays examine how the politics of Reconstruction became gendered, with Northern women beginning to campaign for the vote and new labor opportunities for African-American men and women. In spite of these advances, however, the ruling classes in the South still attempted to exert authority and black women were still subjected to southern white male violence, as evidenced in Catherine Clinton's concluding essay, Reconstructing Freedwomen. Divided Houses: Gender and the Civil War is a combination of various historiographical methodologies; cultural, social, psychological, intellectual and political, which simultaneously present a coherent and evocative study of wartime's affect on gender relations. In addition to mapping themes in gender relations during war, narratives of women's undertaking of professional and managerial duties while men were fighting in the Civil War provides a historical anchoring of the themes of female labor that were to arise again during the First, and especially Second, World War.

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A House Divided: Argentina, 1880-1980
Eduardo Crawley
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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A good historical novel
Best Civil War Novel Ever
A Wonderful Civil War Epic Novel
much better than Gone With the Wind
The best account of the civil war I have read

House Divided
Ben Ames Williams
Manufacturer: Chicago Review Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1556526199

Book Description

First published in 1947, this bestselling historical novel is cherished and remembered as one of the finest retellings of the Civil War saga—America's own War and Peace. In the first hard pinch of the Civil War, five siblings of an established Confederate Virginia family learn that their father is the grandfather of Abraham Lincoln. The family's story, and the story of their descendants, is presented in this tale that includes both soldiers and civilians—complete with their boasting, ambition, and arrogance, but also their patience, valor, and shrewdness. The grandnephew of General James Longstreet, the author brings to life one of the most extraordinary periods in history, and details war as it really is—a disease from which, win or lose, no nation ever completely recovers.

Customer Reviews:

A good historical novel.......2006-03-26

This book had been sitting on my bookshelf for a couple of years, passed along to me by my mother. I just learned Williams is the grandnephew of General James Longstreet, which makes the story even more interesting.
The title is apt since the story deals with the bitterness of my country split in two for four agonizing years.
Williams toggles back and forth between the Currain family matters in Virginia and North Carolina and the lead up and their involvement in the Civil War. Each chapter is given a time period so the reader can read outside sources of these time periods.
When the five Currain siblings learn their long-dead father is the grandfather of Abraham Lincoln, all are affected in different ways. Williams does a good job with the psychological aspect of each sibling's response and subsequent actions to this unfathomable news. Williams does an admirable job in his character profiles.
What is most interesting about this story are the elaborately detailed battle scenes. The author described these so well I was able to see the planning and execution of the "work" (battle)--north and south--in my mind's eye.
General James Longstreet plays prominently in the story and was a Currain family friend before the War. "Jeems" and his wife Louisa are a house undivided, as they give the reader a picture of what unity can accomplish.
The jubilation and angst Longstreet feels as he bears the responsiblility for the work he is given is palpable. His highs are quite high and his lows are very low. As he goes into the last work of the War and assists General Lee with preparations for surrender, we grieve with Longstreet. I wasn't expecting to cry when the surrender was made known to the barefoot and bone-weary southern soldiers.
A good long read. The author captures the easy elegance of the minority Southern wealthy and their journey to a new South four years later.
A postscript: Williams' sequel to this is "The Unconquered" which gives a greatly detailed picture of the Reconstruction, mainly in Louisiana and set in New Orleans. Another good read.

Best Civil War Novel Ever.......2001-11-22

I first read this book in College 20+ years ago and have re-read it several times since. Before the internet made it easier to find copies of the book, everytime I came across a copy in a used bookstore I would buy it and give it to a friend because I didn't want the book to languish on a bookshelf unappreciated. It is a fantastic novel the follows a complex southern family throughout the entire Civil War. Be sure to also read the continuation (sequel) to the novel - "Unconquered," which follows some of the family through the reconstruction period.

A Wonderful Civil War Epic Novel.......2000-03-21

This is the best book I have ever read. It has so much history of the Civil War and the reader will learn so much about this important time in our history. The characters are the pivot points for the telling of the South's history. Mr. Williams is really a genius in his technique. He includes political commentaries of the South from the perspective of the poor on up to the slave owners but done out of the mouths of the characters. He very concisely states the "reasons" for the war in a single paragraph stated several times and in different perspectives. He very exactly depicts the scenes and you truly can believe you are there viewing from afar and experiencing in reality the way life must have been for all the characters.

much better than Gone With the Wind.......1999-10-22

I fell in love with this book and thought that I should read Goned With the Wind afterwards. GWTW was not nearly as good. The detail and story telling was amazing. I would love to own a copy of this book.

The best account of the civil war I have read.......1999-09-09

This book which I picked up after reading "Come Spring" is riveting. His detail mirrors that of Kenneth Roberts whose stories of the American Revolution are also in the same category. Living in Southern Maine, K.R. is must reading. I now add B.A.W. to that category. His book has made me more interested than ever in the Civil War and the results of politicians follies which are being duplicated today with the same amount of stupidity as in the past. I highly recommend this book,

A House Divided: The Antebellum Slavery Debates in America, 1776-1865

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A House Divided: The Antebellum Slavery Debates in America, 1776-1865

Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Social History | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

Slavery & Emancipation | World | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0691002282

Book Description

This anthology brings together under one cover the most important abolitionist and--unique to this volume--proslavery documents written in the United States between the American Revolution and the Civil War. It makes accessible to students, scholars, and general readers the breadth of the slavery debate. Including many previously inaccessible documents, A House Divided is a critical and welcome contribution to a literature that includes only a few volumes of antislavery writings and no volumes of proslavery documents in print.

Mason Lowance's introduction is an excellent overview of the antebellum slavery debate and its key issues and participants. Lowance also introduces each selection, locating it historically, culturally, and thematically as well as linking it to other writings. The documents represent the full scope of the varied debates over slavery. They include examples of race theory, Bible-based arguments for and against slavery, constitutional analyses, writings by former slaves and women's rights activists, economic defenses and critiques of slavery, and writings on slavery by such major writers as William Lloyd Garrison, John Greenleaf Whittier, Walt Whitman, Henry David Thoreau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Together they give readers a real sense of the complexity and heat of the vexed conversation that increasingly dominated American discourse as the country moved from early nationhood into its greatest trial.

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Excellent Description of the Civil War
Death of a nation . . .
Sour Grapes - I was doubly duped :-(
Great Read for Fast Understanding of Lebanon
A House Divided

Lebanon: A House Divided
Sandra Mackey
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Middle East | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0393328430

Book Description

With a new introduction by the author, a seminal study of Lebanon's past, present, and future.

With the West's economic and security interests increasingly at stake in the Middle East, it is impossible to ignore Lebanon—a nation in all ways divided and tormented by the interplay between the West and the Arab world. Sandra Mackey delineates the multifarious culture that is Lebanon; carefully stripping away the complex stigmas of Lebanese politics, she brings each component into focus, priming readers on the conflicts between Sunni and Shia, Maronites and Druze, Christian and Muslim, Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization, Lebanon and Palestine, and Syria and Lebanon.

Covering Lebanon's history through the civil war of 1975-89, and with a new introduction on recent developments, Mackey lays the groundwork needed to comprehend this often ill-understood country—offering insight into its role as the gateway between West and East, and bringing clarity of focus to the schisms that serve to divide and define Lebanon.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Description of the Civil War.......2007-08-27

This book does a great job completely describing Lebanon before the civil war and everything leading up the war. I didn't know very much at all about the folks living there but Sandra does a great job describing the background of the people (The Muslim and Christian factions). I also had no idea about the involvment of Israel and Palestine.

I won't lie though, parts of the book are dry and probably go into too much detail. While I did enjoy reading the majority of the book, I actually did fall asleep while reading it once. Still, I would recommend this book

Death of a nation . . ........2007-08-18

This is a compellingly readable book about an immensely complex subject. As history, it provides a vivid picture of the almost countless competing political and social interests that have brought about the "death" of Lebanon. Existing until 1975 as a kind of mirage on the shores of the eastern Mediterranean, Lebanon fell into a years-long civil war played out most dramatically in the international media as heavily armed militia blew apart the city of Beirut and then, later, as one westerner after another was taken hostage by clandestine insurgent groups. Mackey's argument is that Lebanon has never existed in any real way as a nation, its affairs managed by various Christian and Muslim mafia-like families, a precarious arrangement that functioned in the absence of an actual government and for good or ill falling within the spheres of influence of other countries.

The resulting social inequities permitted great wealth to exist side-by-side with conditions of abject poverty, and all may have continued indefinitely except for the mass displacement of Palestinian refugees by a militant Israel after 1948 and the rise of militant Shiism that came with the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979. When scattered skirmishes among armed groups exploded into full-scale civil war, the author argues, there was nothing to stop the collapse of all order. Intervention by Israel and Syria, the UN and the US merely confounded the tangled objectives of the combatants, while escalating their brutality and further polarizing those caught without mercy in the crossfire.

Reading this book is like watching a train wreck in slow motion. Calamity follows upon calamity with the inevitability of Greek tragedy. While it ends in 1988, when it was first published, the author's account of the rise of Islamist-inspired Hizbollah points directly to events that fill the news 20 years later. This is an excellent primer for readers who want to understand the continual bloodshed in this tiny country - once called the Switzerland of the Middle East. Mackey writes fluidly and coherently, enlivening her historian's distance with a journalist's on-the-ground observations of key moments, public figures, and the miseries and sufferings of unnamed noncombatants. There are extensive notes, a lengthy bibliography, and a helpful index.

Sour Grapes - I was doubly duped :-(.......2007-03-04

Because Lebanon-Death of a Nation and Lebanon-House divided are the same books.
The reader is deceived into thinking that House divided is a continuation of Death of a Nation. Unfortunately, after purchasing both books (because of different titles), we found out that they are exactly identical. The claim of "with new introduction" is nothing but a measly page and a half write-up that adds no value to the overall read, but certainly puts more money in Sandra's pocket.

Getting over this disappointment, Sandra's book about the war in Lebanon during the 1975-1989 period is a great read. Without judgment or prejudice, she sheds lights on the politics of the "Zuama" their alliances and re-alliances during that period of Lebanon and how all Lebanese have suffered because of them.

It will be interesting to see if she will write a true-continuation about the period 1989--2003 and the similarities of those situations with the past.

Great Read for Fast Understanding of Lebanon.......2006-11-03

This was a great book. I was looking for a relatively short read that would bring me up to speed on Lebanon and all the factions fighting within the country. The author did a wonderful job of showing the interelationship of all the parties and how things started. I would strongly recommend it.

A House Divided.......2006-08-17

Mackey's book is an interesting read, she uses a different style than most other authors in the genre. She spends some time discribing how mountains look when pulling into port and the like. It gives the book a different tempo, which could be good or bad depending upon your personal tastes.

For the good aspects of the book, I suggest reading the Editorial Reviews on this page. They'll do a better job than I explaining the good.

There are several things I don't like. This is a re-print, and as such it advertises a "new introduction". It really isn't an introduction, as it only explains why she decided to re-print the book and that she is going to be releasing a second volume on the subject.

The second problem is, in my opinion, rather large. She only includes a four page selected bibliography. I give her the benifit of the doubt that she isn't making up the contents of the book, but I still want to know where she got her sources. If I want to further my reading on the subject, or if I need to come up with additional sources for a paper on Lebanon, or if I decide that I want to check her sources the bibliography offered makes that largely impossible.

The 15 pages of notes don't help either. The authors quoted there appear in the selected bibliography. The rest of the notes read somewhat like a glossary. For example, on page 268 you can read her definition of Imam: "Regarding the Twelve Imams of Shiism, an imam is a divinely inspired successor to the Prophet. In general terms, an imam can also be simply the spiritual leader of the community, not unlike the village priest in Catholicism." To somebody with a basic knowledge of the Middle East or Islam, the definition isn't needed. To someone who has little to no knowlege, they would be better served by having this definition as a footnote on the page this occurs rather than forcing them to break the flow of reading to search in the back of the book.

I'm aware my concerns may not be shared by others who are just looking for a good read on Lebanon. This is a good read. However, notes and bibliographies give a good base for further reading and research. To students (or at least to me), these things can be more important that the book they are in.

Hopefully in her second volume these things will be complete and intact. I eagerly await its publication.

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A Perfect Ghost Story
Deborah LeBlanc is a great writer.
Excellent characterization
A house divided...literally
Great Book

A House Divided
Deborah Leblanc
Manufacturer: Leisure
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0843957301

Customer Reviews:

A Perfect Ghost Story.......2007-09-28

This book had it all, humor, mystery, suspense, and plenty of creepy events to please everyone.
Matt Daigle buys a house and turns it into a cafe where the locals flock to eat home-cooked meals. He and his young son, Seth, live on the second floor of the cafe. Laura and Tawana purchase a house, 2 houses down from the cafe and turn it into a beauty shop. They both live on the second floor, along with Tawana's special-needs cousin, Angelica, whom they call Moweez. Moweez doesn't speak much and when she does, it's short simple words, but she has a special gift of "sight" and a talent for drawing what she "sees", and what she sees always comes true. When horrifying events start taking place in these two houses, Matt, Laura and Tawana discover that the two houses have a history together, a horrible, frightenly violent history. They will have to fight for their very lives and depend on Moweez to draw their future.

I can't say enough about this book. One page would have me laughing and the next put goose bumps on my arms and caused my heart to beat a little faster. If you love ghost stories that leave you on the edge of your seat, then this is the book for you.

Deborah LeBlanc is a great writer........2007-08-09

This is a very scary book. Well written and entertaining. LeBlanc does an even better job with her 3rd novel. Be sure to catch her other books.

Excellent characterization.......2007-06-16

LeBlanc's main strengths are her people and the tension and fear she inflicts in them--and that she conveys to the reader. Her understanding of human relationships drives her work and makes the supernatural all the more real. In her books, the willing suspension of disbelief is not a leap, it's an easy and joyful step.

A house divided...literally.......2007-02-21

Trying to facilitate a bigger deal, real estate developer Keith Lafleur buys the dilapidated Devillier Mansion and moves it from Crowley, Mississippi to Windham, Louisiana, some forty miles away. To make the move easier, he actually splits the home in half, renovating each section and selling the pieces to two different buyers. Although Lafleur thought that was the end of the deal, he was sadly mistaken, thanks to a spider bite he receives while touring the home, and because the house is haunted. Lafleur deals with the grisly effects of the spider bite on his own; the spirits which inhabit both sections of the house become the problem of the new owners, café owner Matt Daigle and hair salon owner Laura Toups. As Lafleur descends into madness, Matt and Laura probe the sad story of their properties, discovering that the tragic history of the house conceals even deeper, darker secrets.

In this, her third novel (following 2004's Family Inheritance and 2005's Grave Intent), LeBlanc once again delivers the goods, showing an uncommonly deft touch in fleshing out her characters, and in evoking small town America. A House Divided taps into the subconscious fear of everyone who owns a home--namely, that there's something wrong with it, something that will interfere with the owner's quiet enjoyment of the property, or hinder his or her ability to sell it once that time comes. Imaginative and chilling, the novel creates an atmosphere of terror and dread which is only dissipated by its electrifying climax.

Great Book.......2007-01-17

This is my first Deborah Leblanc book, and I'm ready to read another of hers. I think I'll try Grave Intent next.
Like her way of telling a story. She starts out each chapter with a hook and then ends each chapter with the same. She keeps the reader wanting more . . . wanting to turn the page to see what happens next.

I thoroughly enjoyed this read. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants an easy read that is full of interesting layers.

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House Divided
Ben Ames Williams
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000AQGPEE

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